Directions :After reading the following
passage, you will find 5 questions or unfinished statements, numbered 36 to 40.
For each question or statement there are 4 choices marked. You should make the
correct choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a
single line through the center. How man first learnt to invent
words is unknown; in other words, the origin of language is a mystery. All we
really know is that man, unlike animals, somehow invented certain sounds to
express thoughts and feelings, actions and things, so that they could
communicate with each other; and that later they agreed upon certain signs,
called letters, which could be combined to stand for those sounds and which
could be written down. Those sounds, whether spoken or written in letters, we
call words. The power of words, then lies in their association
with the things they bring up before our minds. Words became filled with meaning
for us by experience ; and the longer we live, the more certain words recall to
us the glad and sad events of our past ; and the more we read and learn, the
more the number of words that mean something to us increases.
Great writers are those who not only have great thoughts but also express these
thoughts in words which appeal powerfully to our minds and emotions. We should
therefore learn to choose our words carefully and use them exactly, or they will
make our speech silly and impolite. One of the reasons why men invented certain sounds to express thoughts
and actions was that they could______.
A. agree to certain signs
B. write down their feelings
C. make themselves understood each other
D. combine letters into words