AI            SEMINAR 1 -- Answer Key

                                      Language

   

   Task 2 (in millions)

   1. CHINESE (MANDARIN) --- 885

   2. SPANISH --- 332

   3. ENGLISH --- 322

   4. Bengali -- 189

   5. Hindi -- 182

   6. Portuguese -- 170

   7. Russian -- 170

   8. Japanese -- 125

   9. German (standard) --  98

   10. Chinese (Wu) -- 77

   73. Czech -- 12

   

   Task 3

   a) (They planted the tree.) Creole -- a language based on two or more languages (Spanish,
   French, English) that serves as the native language of its speakers, especially in the
   Caribbean, southern US, South America.

   b) Bad English (Correct - I can't even tell you how bad a mood I'm in.)

   c) Correct

   d) Bad English (It said in the newspaper that the cinema was closed.)

   e) correct

   f) (One man comes; six men come.) pidgin -- simplified speech used for communication between
   people with different languages; Pidgin English -- an English based on pidgin, especially in
   parts of the Orient. 

   

   Task 5

   APPARENT          - not clear or certain (For now, he is the apparent winner of the contest.)

                   - obvious (The solution to the problem was apparent to all.)

   CONSULT           - ask for advice

   - give advice

   DUST                    - remove fine particles,  remove dust (as in cleaning furniture)

   - add fine particles, to apply dust (as in fingerprinting)

   OVERLOOK        - to pay attention to, to inspect, to be in charge of 

   -  to ignore, to miss

   QUITE                                  - rather, completely   

   - not completely (quite empty means totally empty, while quite full means not completely full)

   VITAL                    - lively

   - deadly (?) of very serious importance

   

   Task 6

   DRIVE    see

   CUT       hit

   WRITE  see

   THROW see

   LET        hit

   SPLIT    hit

   How many inflections do the majority of verbs have?  (4 - play, plays, played, playing)

   How many inflections does the verb BE have? (8 -- am, are, be, been, being, is, was, were)

   

   Task 7

   According to any textbook, the present tense of the verb drive is drive. Every secondary
   school pupil knows that. Yet if we say, "I used to drive to work but now I don't", we are
   clearly using the present tense drive in the past tense sense. Equally if we say, "I will
   drive you to work tomorrow", we are using it in a future sense. And if we say, "I would drive
   if I could afford to", we are using it in a conditional sense. In fact, almost the only form
   of sentence in which we cannot use the present tense form for drive is, yes, the present
   sense. When we need to indicate an action going on right now, we must use the participial form
   driving. We don't say, "I drive the car now", but rather, "I'm driving the car now". Not to
   put too fine a point on it, the labels are largely meaningless.

   

   Task 8

   Confusion, photograph, acceptance, expected, encourage, disgraceful, spelling, this, written,
   There, trouble, difficulties, everyone, easy, Europe. 

   

   Task 9

   Pronunciation in English is very inconsistent, but there are a few rules (not from the poem)
   that apply, such as:

   tion = shun,  kn -- silent k (e.g. know),  ps -- silent p (e.g. psychology), ph = f (e.g.
   philosophy)

   

   Task 10

   1. He speaks English well enough to get by in an English speaking country.

   2. Have you ever been to the U.S.A?

   3. Let's discuss this issue over lunch. (no preposition)

   4. If you don't understand the word, look it up in the dictionary.

   5. I'd like to introduce Mr Maiden to you.

   6. We met at a conference two years ago.

   7. She translates from Czech into English.

   8. I need to take a course to brush up my German.

   9. Excuse me, would you by any chance be Mr Atkinson?

   10. I study Spanish and Portuguese at Masaryk University.