Spelling System Reform Reading Answers

The Academic passage, Spelling System Reform Reading Answers, is a reading passage that consists of 14 questions.

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The question types found in this passage are:

• True/False/Not Given (Q. 14-20)
• Sentence Completion (Q. 21-23)
• Matching Features (Q. 24-27)

Reading Passage 2

Spelling System Reform 

A Our children are being beaten up by a crazy spelling system that appears to be loved by millions. They are being beaten up because they are constantly bombarded by unpredictable silent letters, double consonants that defy explanation, endless varieties of vowel combinations, and rules that are notoriously unreliable. They are forced to attempt to learn a system that is illogical, inconsistent, and — system that is illogical, inconsistent, and — worst of all — needlessly complicated. Not only are they physically beaten up, but many of them do end up with well-concealed scars on their psyches. At least one study has shown that using a system as irrational as ours may arrest the development of logical thinking. That’s not just being beating up; it’s child abuse exactly.

B There’s a social stigma attached to being a poor speller, although the only thing being a good speller makes one better at is spelling. It doesn’t make one a better writer, a better poet, a more creative person with words. It doesn’t make him understand the essence of the language better. Shakespeare would have been the exact same creative genius he was whether he was a good or bad speller. He was just lucky enough to have lived in a day when he was judged by the meaning of his words, rather than the placement of the letters within those words. In Shakespeare’s day, most people’s spelling was erratic; therefore, when he spelled words many different ways no one even noticed.

C During the last 30 years or so, literacy in the English-speaking world has been declining at an alarming rate. It’s not hard to guess why. During the rapid development of electronics in the past 40 years, speech for the first time in the entire years, speech, for the first time in the entire course of history, has become a mass medium. The people, having discovered those electronic channels through which they can receive information in their own language, are now circumventing the outdated writing system which has been the bottleneck in mass communication. And having alienated themselves from it, they have become less able and less willing to cope with its irrational complexities. In an attempt to correct this situation, the Federal Government of the United States initiated its “Decade of the ’70’s” program. During that ten-year period, both State and Federal governments have poured massive sums into programs designed to eradicate illiteracy not by re designing the outdated writing system, but by attempting to shape the minds of human beings into conformity with the system. This extravagant program achieved nothing. The drift to illiteracy continues as before, except that it now has reached the proportions of a crisis. For example, the United States Navy now complains that from 40% to 50% of today’s recruits can’t read the instruction manuals. The Navy is plainly worried about the future. And they are not alone.

D The problem in the English-speaking world is that the writing system has been shaped a bit, here and there. In the direction of Modern English, but the fact is that its spelling is based primarily on another language. Middle English, which hasn’t been spoken in at least 400 years, and is no longer understood. From the point of view of a technician, this problem is easily solved. All one needs to do is to design a writing system specifically for Modern English, so that all three elements in the chain of communication can function in harmony. The proposal is that we systematically and definitively wipe out all the anomalous spellings in English so that anyone looking at a word in print will immediately know how to pronounce it — and, conversely, anyone attempting to write English will be able to get every single spelling right the first time. In other words, proponents of English spelling reform want us to adopt a mostly phonetic orthography. Indeed, a certain amount of reform has happened all by itself over the years, as previously alternative spellings have worked their way into the dictionary as standard forms. Think of the word “catalog” , which was formerly spelled “catalogue” , or “draft”, formerly spelled “draught”.

E On a relatively small scale, sensible spellings do sometimes replace less sensible ones. But the design of a new writing system is only a partial solution. The major obstacle that confronts the orthographic reformer is the existing system itself, which, with all its scandalous lack of utility, happens to be an Investiture that seems to defy displacement. The first question that arises is how far such a reform would go. We could make a good start by simply removing letters that are never pronounced. Though could become tho, guard could become gard, foreign could become forin, doubt could become dout, Christmas could become Chrismas, and so on. We could also, perhaps, reduce the number of ways to write any particular sound — so the “ee” sound in street, for example, might always be written “ee”, never “ea”, “ie” , “ei” , “i” , “e”, or whatever. Although these changes would help, however, they would save only a subset of the problems — and the more extensive the changes are, the more difficult they would be for the public to accept.

F Since we’ve already programmed our brains to work under the current, flawed system simplified spellings would be at least initially — much harder for all the hundreds of millions of English readers to read. There’s also that little matter of what to do with the billions of books, magazines, web sites, and other documents that already use the “old” spelling. Then there are those who point out that a word’s spelling gives important clues to its etymology, meaning, and relationship to other words. So even though the “a” in the word real is not pronounced, it serves the important function of showing the word’s connection to the word “ reality” , in which the ” a ” is pronounced. Lose that letter, and the words no longer appear to have anything to do with each other. Thus, at least some of the peculiarities of English spelling exist for entirely legitimate, and still useful, historical reasons.

G Sir Winston Churchill opposed a spelling reform bill in British parliament in 1949. He felt that changing the appearance of words would “mess up the language of Shakespeare”. If Mr. Churchill had understood the detrimental effect that needlessly complex spelling has on literacy, he would have realized that unreformed spelling ruins the language of Shakespeare because it prevents an extra 10% of the population from being literate enough to read it. That may be too high a price to pay.

Questions 14-20

14 The presence of unpronounced letters sometimes serves to connect meanings of words.

15 Some people already used new spelling systems to write books and magazines.

16 The problem lies not with the system of spelling but with the method of teaching.

17 Simplified spelling would not be immediately successful because we have grown accustomed to the flawed system.

18 The current spelling system may hinder children from developing logical thinking.

19 The program initiated by the Federal Government aimed at eliminating illiteracy.

20 Shakespeare was both a good writer and speller.

Questions 21-23

21 Spelling reform is based on an essentially ………………. orthography.

22 The spelling system we use today has a ……………….. effect on people’s literacy.

23 Churchill feared that a spelling reform bill would ………………. the language of Shakespeare.

Questions 24-27

A self-change over time

B limited way to write

C unpronounced letter

D unpronounced letter works

24 real

25 Christmas

26 catalogue

27 street

Answer Key

Explanation 

14 Answer: True

Question type: True/False/Not Given

Answer location: Paragraph F, line 4 – line 5

Answer explanation: In the mentioned lines, it is given “So even though the “a” in the word real is not pronounced, it serves the important function of showing the word’s connection to the word “ reality” , in which the ” a ” is pronounced. Lose that letter, and the words no longer appear to have anything to do with each other.”. This reference proves that sometimes the presence of unpronounced letters sometimes serves to connect meanings of words, like the ‘a’ in the word ‘real’. Hence, the answer is True.

15 Answer: Not Given

Question type: True/False/Not Given

Answer location: N.A.

Answer explanation: Since there is no direct reference to the fact that some people already used new spelling systems to write books and magazines or not, the answer is Not Given.