Hanoi National University of Education

FACULTY OF ENGLISH
Pragmatics Pretest
Time: 45 minutes
This test only aims at finding out whether learners have pragmatic awareness in language use.
The result will not be used for course assessment.

Name & group: ____________________

Direction
Look at the utterances in bold face. With your understanding of English so far,
a. say whether these utterances are MEANINGFUL or NOT. If it is meaningful, say Yes; if
it is not meaningful, say No.
b. with MEANINGFUL utterances, explain their meanings in your way of understanding.
c. say whether the answers from (1) to (5) are Direct or Indirect speech. Give each one a
separate answer.

(1) A: Is Tom a good philosopher?

B: He is always punctual and speaks good English.
a -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) A: Smith doesn’t seem to have a girlfriend these days.
B: He has been paying a lot of visits to New York lately.
a -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(3) A: I am out of petrol.
B: There is a garage round the corner.
a -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) A: What time is it?
B: The milkman has come
a -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(5) A: ‘Mrs Black is an old broomstick.’
B: ‘I think it is going to rain.’
a -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(6) ‘Queen Victoria was made of iron.’
a -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-End of the test-