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CEFR READING PART PRACTICE – MATCHING HEADINGS
Read the text and put headings from the statements A-H.
There is
one
TASK 12
HEADINGS:
A) New method of research
B) Non-verbal content
C) The first study of spoken language
D) Traditional lexicographical methods
E) New phrases enter dictionary
F) A cooperative research project
G) Accurate word frequency counts
H) Alternative expressions provided
1. The compiling of dictionaries has been historically the provenance of studious professorial types - usually
bespectacled - who love to pore over weighty tomes and make pronouncements on the finer nuances of meaning.
They were probably good at crosswords and definitely knew a lot of words, but the image was always rather dry and
dusty. The latest technology is revolutionising the content of dictionaries and the way they are put together.
2. For the first time, dictionary publishers are incorporating real, spoken English into their data. It gives
lexicographers (people who write dictionaries) access to a more vibrant, up-to-date language which has never really
been studied before. In one project, 150 volunteers each agreed to tie a Walkman recorder to their waist and leave it
running for anything up two weeks. Every conversation they had was recorded. When the data was collected, the
length of tapes was 35 times the depth of the Atlantic Ocean. Teams of audio typists transcribed the tapes to
produce a computerized database of ten million words.
3. This has been the basis - along with an existing written corpus - for the Language Activator dictionary, described
by lexicographer Professor Randolph Quirk as “the book of world has been waiting for.” It shows advanced foreign
learners of English how the language is really used. In the dictionary, key words such as ‘eat’ are followed by
related phrases such as ‘wolf down’ or ‘be a picky eater’, allowing the student to choose the appropriate phrase.
4. “This kind of research would be impossible without computers,” said Delia Summers, a director of dictionaries.
“It has transformed the way lexicographers work. If you look at the word ‘like’, you may intuitively think that the
first and most frequent meaning is the verb, as in ‘I like swimming’. It is not. It is the preposition, as in ‘she walked
like a duck.” Just because a word or phrase is used doesn’t mean it ends up in a dictionary. The sifting out process is
as vital as ever. But the database does allow lexicographers to search for a word and find out how frequently it is
used - something that could only be guessed at intuitively before.
5. Researchers have found that written English works in a very different way to spoken English. The phrase ‘say
what you like’ literally means ‘feel free to say anything you want’, but in reality it is used, evidence shows, by
someone to prevent the other person voicing disagreement. The phrase ‘it’ is a question of crops up on database
over and over again. It has nothing to do with enquiry, but it’s one of the most frequent English phrases which has
never been in a language learner’s dictionary before: it is now.
6. The spoken Corpus computer shows how inventive and humorous people are when they are using language by
twisting familiar phrases for effect. It also reveals the power of the pauses and noises we use to play for time,
convey emotion, doubt and irony.
7. For the moment, those benefiting most from the Spoken Corpus are foreign learners. “Computers allow
lexicographers to search quickly through more examples of real English,” said Professor Geoffrey Leech of
Lancaster University. “They allow dictionaries to be more accurate and give a feel for how language is being used.”
The spoken Corpus is part of the larger British National Corpus, an initiative carried out by several groups involved
in the production of language learning materials: publishers, universities and the British Library.
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