Saturday, 20 September 2008

Colourful words

When I was at my parent's home two weeks back, I came across an old Reader's Digest book belonging to my father. It's called How To Increase Your Word Power. Since the book was just gathering dust, I decided to take it home with me.

The book is a wonderful guide on how to improve our English by teaching us proper pronunciation and spelling, giving us aids to grammar and punctuation, and showing us how to master and build up a better vocabulary. It also contains some useful word games and quick quizzes.

Here's the second interlude for this month, a simple quiz taken from the book. The book actually uses American spelling but I've converted it to our more familiar British style :

Colours

How good is your colour vocabulary? Can you match the colour in the first paragraph with its description in the second? Answers to follow.

1. cerulean
2. indigo

3. ochre

4. azure

5. cerise

6. ecru

7. chartreuse

8. fuchsia
9. sorrel

10. mauve


(a) pale yellowish green
(b) light yellowish brown
(c) vivid blue
(d) purplish rose
(e) dark yellow
(f) deep violet blue
(g) cherry red
(h) reddish or yellowish brown
(i) bright bluish red
(j) clear sky blue

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ANSWERS (posted on 22.09.08) :

1. cerulean - (c) vivid blue
2. indigo - (f) deep violet blue
3. ochre - (e) dark yellow
4. azure - (j) clear sky blue
5. cerise - (g) cherry red
6. ecru - (b) light yellowish brown
7. chartreuse - (a) pale yellowish green
8. fuchsia - (i) bright bluish red
9. sorrel - (h) reddish or yellowish brown
10. mauve - (d) purplish rose

6 comments:

Pat said...

Hi,

This old english teacher doesn't know no.5 and no.7 Hahahahah! And that's why I told my students I wasn't a dictionary!

Pat

ps

I left a comment on your 'fasting' post - tell me if you don't get it, k - cos my connection is wonky :(

Fadhil said...

Hi Pat,

8 out of 10 is good maa... I only know 5!

Nope, didn't get your comment on the `fasting' post. Maybe lost out there in cyberspace :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Oldstock

They say confession is good for the soul...haha! I did not know 5,7 and 9.

I have this book....My dad bought it for me when I was in school and indeed, it is an excellent one. Mine is still in mint condition cos it is one of the gems in my collection ;)

Take care and Selamat Berpuasa!

Fadhil said...

Hi masterwordsmith,

I believe Reader's Digest regularly issue new and updated versions of this book.

The one that I have was published in 1975.

Fauziah Ismail said...

Salam Oldstock
I find that the Readers Digest magazine itself is an excellent aid to learning English.
I grew up reading them because my late father subscribed to it.
The language used is simple and easy to understand especially for beginners.

Fadhil said...

Salam Fauziah,

When I was young, I had a neighbour who was kind enough to loan me some of her Reader's Digest magazines. My two favourite sections are Laughter Is The Best Medicine and Life's Like That.

I could only afford to subscribe to RD after I started working. After some time, I stopped subscribing because RD kept sending me these ridiculous contest forms. I hated the condescending language they used to get you to join the contests.