128
IELTS
reading exercises
Compiled by
Ulugbek Yusupov
Created by
Proper English School
+998 90 770-99-77
Page 6
Exercise 9
IELTS Reading: choose the title
Read the following passage and choose the best title.
The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an
upper- and lower-case form. It originated around the 7th century from the Latin script.
English is the only major modern European language that requires no diacritics for native
words. Diacritic marks mainly appear in loanwords s
uch as naïve and façade. Informal
English writing tends to omit diacritics because of their absence from the keyboard, while
professional copywriters and typesetters tend to include them.
As loanwords become naturalised in English, there is a tendency to drop the diacritics, as
has happened with many older borrowings from French, such as hôtel. Words that are still
perceived as foreign tend to retain them; for example, the only spelling of soupçon found in
English dictionaries uses the diacritic. However, diacritics are likely to be retained even in
naturalised words where they would otherwise be confused with a common native English
word e.g. résumé rather than resume. Rarely, they may even be added to a loanword for
this reason, as in maté, from the Spanish yerba mate but with the é to distinguish from the
English word 'mate'.
Choose the best title from the list below.
A)
The English alphabet
B)
The use of diacritics in written English
C)
Disappearing diacritics in the English language
D)
How loanwords have entered the English language
Exercise 10
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