CPE

TEST 1

You are going to read an excerpt from a book about oral culture in Britain in the 1600s. For questions
31-36, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

The Confusions of Communication in Early Modern England

In early modern England, there were so many dialects that it was almost impossible to speak of a national
language. The use of language clearly labelled its speaker, serving both to unite communities and to exclude
outsiders.

Given the often highly-localised nature of spoken English in the myriad speech communities which made up
England in the 1600s, it is hardly surprising that communication between them could be very difficult. To those
from outside a district or region, the vocabulary and pronunciation of locals could be as opaque as any other
foreign language. Unsurprisingly, given the devices which characterise speech (i.e. inflection and intonation,
rapid speed of delivery and collo-quialisrhs), the practical business of comprehension did not so much rear its
head on paper; it revealed itself in oral culture. As Daniel Defoe acknowledged when he tried to portray the
dialect of Somerset, 'it is not possible to explain this fully by writing, because the difference is not so much in
the spelling of words, as in the tone, and diction'.

The confusions of communication in early modern England go some way towards explaining the patterns of
migration in the 17th century. Although a society in which people were highly mobile, the great majority of
movement and resettlement tended to be over relatively short distances. Youngsters who travelled in search of
service or apprenticeship, for example, usually ventured no further than the nearest large town, often a distance
of less than a dozen miles. They rarely journeyed, in other words, outside their 'country, or speech community.
As for those individuals who were driven to seek subsistence or opportunity further afield, there is some
evidence to suggest that they gravitated towards the neighbourhoods of towns or cities where other of their
'countrymen' were already settled. D - it was easy for locals to make their speech incomprehensible and to feign
misunderstanding of an unwitting outsider.

Interestingly, dialects varied not only between regions but also between particular trades and groups of workers.
Occupational speech patterns were thus superimposed upon an already complex configuration of geographically
determined ones, and individuals often belonged simultaneously to a number of separate linguistic
communities. Most specialised trades and crafts had their own words for their particular tools and practices and
in many cases different professions used different terms to describe the same object. When Samuel Johnson
came to compile his famous English dictionary, he was compelled to omit the bewildering terminology of 'art
and manufacture' owing to its sheer size.

All of these many and varied vocabularies of region and community, of occupation and manufacture, point to
the highly variegated nature of popular culture in this period. Each of these linguistic systems was the signifier
of mentalities and world views which were often quite specific to particular places or groups of people. That
communication could be difficult between localities and trades reflects the fact that early modern England was
less a unified nation and more a constellation of communities which, while they may have shared some
common cultural features, stubbornly clung to chauvinistic and exclusive ways of acting, perceiving, and
speaking. There is no more graphic reflection of this than the lack of a national market economy at this time,
due, among other masons, to the fact that many agricultural 'countries' had their own weights and measures and
used different words to describe them. Much quantifying was done simply by rule-of-thumb. In Essex, John
Ray noted that his neighbours spoke of a 'yaspen' or 'yeepsen', which meant as much of something 'as can be
taken up in both hands joined together'.

Bushels, strikes and pecks all varied, not only from town to town but also according to the commodity in
question. Wheat and corn, peas and potatoes, apples and pears, all had their own standards and all were
contingent on place: a strike could be anything from half a bushel to four bushels. Equally, in the case of land,
measures depended on the region, as well as both the type of soil and the nature of the crops grown in it.
This lack of standardisation is also evident in the many dialect words used to denote animals and plants. There
were, for example, over 120 different names nationwide to describe the smallest of a litter of pigs. Such names
given to animals and plants often betrayed the popular beliefs held about the animal or the uses to which they
were put, and the same applies to much of the prolific dialect vocabulary. In this now obsolete local
terminology can be found evidence of everyday practices and habits, of social customs and modes of thought,
which might otherwise have remained obscure or forgotten were it not for the words which denoted them.

31What can be inferred from Daniel Defoe's quote in paragraph 1?

A that we can never fully know how dialects were spoken in Britain in the 1600's.

B that there was widespread illiteracy in Britain in the 1600's.

C that regional accents in Britain were much stronger than they are today.

D that Defoe abandoned his attempt to record the dialect of Somerset.

32What was a characteristic of migration in 17th century Britain?

A Most people migrated because of the need to find work.

B Most people viewed migration as a last resort.

C Migrants only moved within their speech community

D Migrants were not looked upon favourably.

33The writer implies that occupational linguistic communities

A were much harder to penetrate than geographic linguistic communities.

B had a larger vocabulary size than geographic linguistic communities.

C were an additional means by which to pigeonhole people.

D made learning a trade a very difficult task.

34The writer suggests that a fundamental reason why Britain was not a unified nation in the 1600's was

A there was virtually no trading of goods between communities.

B communities had no desire to lose their individuality.

C people in general could not communicate with each other.

D there was an excess of regional dialects in the country.

35What can you deduce about bushels, strikes and pecks?

A They were types of vegetable.

B They were measures of weight.

C They were measures of land.

D They were trading commodities.

36The writer concludes by saying the study of Britain's 17th century dialects
A has revealed Britons were a superstitious lot.

B at times brings confusion to the study of social history.

C has informed current farming practices.

D has brought to light many things about the mentality of the time.

TEST 2

You are going to read an extract from an article about traffic congestion. For questions 45

— 50, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.