COMPREHENSION TEST
                              PASSAGE-I                                 (2) a form of Creole which is furthest from the
     Pidgins are languages that are not, acquired as mother                 standard language.
tongues and that are used for a restricted set of                       (3) a form of creole which has an extended vocabulary.
communicative functions. They are formed from a mixture                 (4) a form of creole which is very close to the standard
of languages and have a limited vocabulary and a simplified                 language.
grammar. Pidgins serve as a means of communication              430. Find out a word in the passage which is opposite in
between speakers of mutually unintelligible languages and               meaning to the word - Simplified
may become essential, in multilingual areas. A Creole                   (1) Complex                 (2) Expansion
develops from a pidgin when the pidgin becomes the mother
                                                                        (3) Restricted              (4) Consequent
tongue of the community. To cope with the consequent
expansion of communicative functions the vocabulary is                                       PASSAGE-II
increased and the grammar becomes more complex. Where                 There were four of us – George, and William Samuel
a Creole and the standard variety of English coexist, as in     Harris, and myself, and Montmorency. We were sitting in
the Carribbean, there is a continuum from the most extreme      my room, smoking and talking about “how bad we were -
form of Creole to the form that is closest to the standard      bad from a medical point of view I mean, of course.
language. Linguists mark off the relative positions on the            We were all feeling seedy, and we were getting quite
Creole continuum as the ‘basilect’ (the furthest from the       nervous about it. Harris said he felt such extraordinary fits
standard language), the ‘mesolect’, and the ‘acrolet’. In such  of giddiness come over him at times, that he hardly knew
situations, most Creole speakers can vary their speech along    what he was doing; and then George said that he had fits
the continuum and many are also competent in the standard       of giddiness too, and hardly knew what he was doing. With
English of their country.                                       me, it was my liver that was out of order. I knew it was my
                                                                liver that was out of order, because I had just been reading
                  SOME IMPORTANT WORDS                          a patent liver-pill circular, in which were detailed the various
 pidgins        :  simple form of languages, especially en-     symptoms by which a man could tell when his liver was out
                   glish, Portuguese or Dutch, with a limit-    of order. I had them all.
                   ed number of words, that are used to-              It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a
                   gether with words from a local language.     patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to
                   It is used when people who do not speak      the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease
                   the same language need to talk to one        therein dealt with in its most virulent form. The diagnosis
                   another.                                     seems in every case to correspond exactly with all the
 continuum : a series of similar items is which each is         sensations that I have ever felt.
                   almost the same as the one next to it but
                   the last is very different from the first.                      SOME IMPORTANT WORDS
                                                                  feeling seedy : feeling dirty and unpleasant because of
426. A pidgin develops in a situation when                                             immoral or illegal activities.
      (1) different and mutually unintelligible languages exist   impelled           : forced.
          side by side.                                           virulent           : extremely dangerous or harmful; show-
      (2) a Creole becomes the mother tongue of a linguistic                           ing strong negative and bitter feelings
          community.                                              vertigo             : the feeling of dizziness and fear, and
      (3) a language with restricted vocabulary undergoes                                of losing your balance.
          an expansion in grammar and vocabulary.
                                                                  garrulity           :   talkativeness : ckrwuhiu
      (4) two similar languages are mixed to create a new
                                                                  tribulation         :   great trouble or suffering.
          language.
427. According to the given passage a pidgin becomes a            frailty             :   weakness and poor health
      Creole when                                               431. The four felt down and out because
      (1) it ceases to be a means of communication                      (1) the room was too smoky
      (2) it becomes the mother tongue for a new generation
                                                                        (2) they coul d never read a patent medi cine
          of speakers
                                                                            advertisement.
      (3) its vocabulary undergoes some kind of change
                                                                        (3) they thought they were ill.
      (4) two or more languages are mixed with an existing
                                                                        (4) they had experienced a most extraordinary thing.
          pidgin
                                                                432. Whenever the speaker read a liver pill circular
428. According to the passage, a Creole continuum is
      (1) a linguistic term for the mixture of more than two            (1) he suffered from an extraordinary surge of
          languages.                                                        giddiness.
      (2) a scale which measures the linguistic competence              (2) he felt sure that he had a liver disorder.
          of the speaker.                                               (3) he felt the urge to smoke.
      (3) a scale in which the proximity of the Creole to the           (4) All of the above.
          standard language is measured.                        433. The author of the above passage seems to be suffering
      (4) a record of the continuous history of a Creole.               from
429. According to the passage basilect means                            (1) fits of morbid depression without real cause.
      (1) an impure form of a Creole.                                   (2) an abnormal anxiety about his health.
                                                            SEE–948