The Word 'Bogus' - Test 4

C2 Proficiency · Word Formation · Proficiency Testbuilder, 4th Edition, Mark Harrison, Macmillan

For questions 1–8, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line.

FORGE

GO

LEAD

LANGUAGE

EMERGE

ADOPT

INTEREST

CORRUPT

For years 'bogus' was a word the British read in newspaper (0) ___ but tended not to say. Its popularity among the teenagers of America changed that, although they didn't use it with its original meaning. It came from the Wild West. Its first appearance in print, in 1827, was in the Telegraph of Painesville, Ohio, where it meant a machine for making (17) ___ of coins. Soon, those 'boguses' were turning out 'bogus money' and the word had (18) ___ a change from noun to adjective. By the end of the 19th century, it was well-established in Britain, applied to anything false, spurious or intentionally (19) ___ . But the computer scientists of 1960s America, to whom we owe so much (20) ___ innovation, redefined it to mean 'non-functional', 'useless', or 'unbelievable', especially in relation to calculations and engineering ideas. This was followed by its (21) ___ among Princeton and Yale graduates in the East Coast computer community. But it was the (22) ___ of the word by American teenagers generally, who used it to mean simply 'bad', that led to it being widely used by their counterparts in Britain. (23) ___ , 'bogus' is one of only about 1,300 English words for which no sensible origin has emerged. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a connection with a New England word, 'tantrobogus', meaning the devil. A rival US account sees it as a (24) ___ of the name of a forger, called Borghese or Borges.

The Word 'Bogus'

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