Borrowed Words

C2 Proficiency · Open Cloze · Cambridge Ready original exercise

For questions 1–8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning.

No language exists in isolation, and English is (0) ___ exception. Over the centuries it has helped itself (1) ___ words from almost every language its speakers have come into contact with. Many of these borrowings have been so thoroughly absorbed that most speakers would be hard (2) ___ to identify them as foreign. Others have kept their original spelling and pronunciation, and are worn, so to (3) ___ , as a badge of sophistication. Purists have long objected to such imports, warning that the language is being diluted. Their protests, however, have largely fallen (4) ___ deaf ears. Borrowing is generally a sign of vitality rather (5) ___ decline, supplying names for concepts (6) ___ which there was previously no native term and adding shades of meaning that a single vocabulary could not provide. Nor is the traffic all one way. English is now exporting words (7) ___ an unprecedented scale, and they turn up in the everyday speech of people who may never have spoken a full sentence of English. Whether this enriches other languages or threatens them is a question that continues to divide linguists, and one to (8) ___ there is no simple answer.

Borrowed Words

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