TEST YOUR SKILLS
Read the passages given below and answer the questions that follow them:
1. Take a look at Shakespeare’s enormous vocabulary. He employed 9,36,433 words in his writings, out of which 27,780 are different words. The average person uses less than 1,000 words in writing, a little more than that in speech and has a recognition vocabulary of about 5,000 words. Some of the greatest writers may have twice this capability.
2. Today, English has a total vocabulary of two million words followed by German as a pathetic second with 1,86,000 words, Russian with 1,36,000 words, and French with 1,26,000 words. Thus Shakespeare in the 16th century used five times the number of words in modern German!
3. Shakespeare was the most quoted writer in history. His plays have been translated into 50 languages. In the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations containing about 20,000 quotations, Shakespeare alone monopolises a staggering 60 pages (10 per cent). He coined 1700 new words. Many of the phrases and terms created by him are in daily use. Some of them have been used as titles for books and movies.
4. The vastness of vocabulary and the ability to see the relationship between words is one of the major factors in measuring genius. Shakespeare excelled any other human being in this aspect. His encyclopaedic knowledge of science, history, mathematics, classical literature, sociology, psychology, law, Latin, French, politics, music and art acquired by studying books relating to almost every mental discipline and observing the habits and style of life of various sections of people all around him enabled him to draw ideas generously from all those sources for being used in his plays.
1. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer any four of the following questions in about 30-40 words each:
(i) What kind of vocabulary did Shakespeare have?
(ii) How many words did he employ in his writings?
(iii) How many words does an average person use in writing?
(iv) How many words does English have in its vocabulary?
(v) Compare English’s total vocabulary with that of Russian, French and German.
2. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer any four of the following:
(i) In writing, a good writer uses nearly …………
(a) 1,000 words (b) 15000 words (c) 5,000 words (d) 10,000 words
(ii) In the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations containing 20,000 quotations, Shakespeare included nearly …………….
(a) 500 words (b) 1000 words (c) 2,000 words (d) 3000 words
(iii) In para1,………… means ‘huge’.
(a) average (b) greatest (c) enormous (d) capability
(iv) Inpara 4, the synonym of …………..
(a) vastness (b) ability is ‘brilliance'(c) genius (d) habits
(v) The vastness of vocabulary is the scale to measure one’s ……..
(a) factors (b) habits (c) intelligence (d) discipline
Download the above Passage Worksheet in PDF (Printable)
More Comprehension Passages:-
Passage No. 151 Villages Fairs (520 Words Subjective/Objective Solved)
Passage No.152 A Sleepy Little Town (530 Words Subjective Solved)
Passage No.153 Greatest Olympic Prize (570 Words Subjective Unsolved)
Passage No.154 A Wrong Man In Workers’ Paradise (660 Words Subjective Unsolved)
Passage No.155 Gulliver In Lilliput (550 Words Subjective Solved)
Passage No.156 OF BULLET TRAINS AND JAPANESE MANNERS (505 words Subjective Solved)
This passage is all about bullet trains facts. It focuses on bullet trains in Japan and additionally it covers up bullet trains Japan speed and some bullet trains Japan facts.
Passage No.158 TITAN AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE (558 words Subjective Solved)
Passage No.159 HABITS (600 Words Subjective/Objective Solved)
This passage is all about habits meaning. There are habits good and bad but we are discussing the habits of successful people.
Passage No. 160 ACHIEVEMENT (700 Words Subjective Solved)
This passage is an achievement essay including some achievement examples. This achievement definition can act as achievement speech also.
