Read the following text. Copy out the international words. State to what sphere of human activity they belong.

British Dramatists

In the past 20 years there has been a considerable increase in the number of new playwrights in Britain and this has been encouraged by the growth of new theatre companies. In 1956 the English Stage Compa­ny began productions with the object of bringing new writers into the theatre and providing training facili­ties for young actors, directors and designers; a large number of new dramatists emerged as a result of the company productions. Regional repertory theatres, too have helped contemporary dramatists by includ­ing new plays in their programmes. Among the drama­tists whose work was first produced by the English Stage Company are John Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Ed­ward Bonds, John Arden and David Storey. Television has been an important factor in the emergence of other dramatists who write primarily for it; both the BBC and IBA transmit a large number of single plays each year as well as drama series and serials.

(From The Promotion of the Arts in Britain)

 

III) Affixation. Prefixes.

Additional material

Prefixes are often used to give adjectives a negative or an opposite meaning. For example, comfortable/uncomfortable, convenient/inconvenient and similar/dissimilar are opposites. Other examples are 'unjust', 'inedible', 'disloyal'. Unfortunately, there is no easy way of knowing which prefix any adjective will use to form its opposite.

• in- becomes im- before a root beginning with 'm' or 'p', e.g. immature, impatient,impartial, improbable. Similarly in- becomes ir- before a word beginning with ‘r’, and il- before a word beginning with ‘l’, e.g. irreplaceable, irreversible, illegal, illegible, illiterate.

• The prefix in- (and its variations) does not always have a negative meaning - often it gives the idea of inside or into, e.g. internal, import, insert, income.

• The prefixes un- and dis- can also form the opposites of verbs, e.g. tie/untie, appear/disappear. These prefixes are used to reverse the action of the verb. Here are some more examples: disagree, disapprove, disbelieve, disconnect, discredit, dislike, dismount, disprove, disqualify, unbend, undo, undress, unfold, unload, unlock, unveil, unwrap, unzip.

 

Here are examples of other prefixes in English. Some of these words are used with a hyphen. Check in a dictionary if you're not sure.

prefix	meaning	examples
anti auto bi ex ex micro mis mono multi over post pre pro pseudo re semi sub under	against of or by oneself two, twice former out of small badly/wrongly one/single many too much after before in favour of false again or back half under not enough	anti-war, antisocial, antibiotic autograph, auto-pilot, autobiography bicycle, bilateral, biannual, bilingual ex-wife, ex-smoker, ex-boss extract, exhale, excommunicate micro-cassette, microwave, microscopic misunderstand, mistranslate, misinform monotonous, monologue, monogamous multi-national, multi-purpose, multi-media overdo, overtired, oversleep, overeat postwar, postgraduate, post-impressionist preconceived, pre-war, pre-judge pro-government, pro-revolutionary pseudo-scientific, pseudo-intellectual retype, reread, replace, rewind semicircular, semi-final, semi-detached subway, submarine, subdivision underworked, underused, undercooked

 

Exercises

 

1. Write the opposites of the words underlined. Not all the words you need are in the additional material above.

 

Example: He's a very honest man. dishonest

 

 

1 I'm sure she's discreet. 6 He's very efficient.

2 I always find him very sensitive. 7 I always find her responsible.

3 It's a convincing argument. 8 He seems grateful for our help.

4 That's a very relevant point. 9 I'm sure she's loyal to the firm.

5 She's always obedient. 10 He's a tolerant person.

 

2. Which negative adjective fits each of the following definitions?

 

1 …….................. means not having a husband or wife.

2 …….................. means impossible to eat.

3 …….................. means unable to read or write.

4 …….................. means not having a job.

5 …….................. means fair in giving judgement, not favouring one side.

6 …….................. means unable to be replaced.