TALLER DE MATEMÁTICAS

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CHAPTER 4: Spelling 51

Develop a personal program for improving your spelling. Think of your own private

“devils”—the words that you must look up every time. Everyone has such words. Make a list of these words, correctly spelled. Keep adding to the list right up to exam day, including those words that you miss on the practice exercises. Each day that you have extra study time, type through the list three times. By typing your troublesome words correctly, your hands and fingers will get used to the “feel” of the correct spelling, and your eye will become accustomed to seeing the words correctly spelled. Frequent repetition will embed the correct spellings in your mind.

COMMON SPELLING QUESTIONS

The following exercises illustrate the three most common types of spelling questions found on civil service exams. By studying these examples, you can easily tackle the spelling questions on the actual exam.

One common variety of spelling question looks like this:

Directions: In each group of four words, one word is misspelled. Find the misspelled word and mark its letter on your answer sheet.

1. (A) business (B) manufacturer (C) possibly (D) recieved

In this case, you would mark (D) on your answer sheet because recieved is spelled incorrectly. Refer back to rule 1 in the previous section if you are unsure why (D) is incorrect.

A second common spelling question looks like this:

Directions: In each group of three words, one word may be misspelled. If you find one word that is incorrectly spelled, mark its letter on your answer sheet.

If all the words are spelled correctly, mark (D).

1. (A) foreign (B) acreage (C) occurred

In this case, all three words are spelled correctly, so the answer is (D). If you thought one of these words was spelled incorrectly, refer back to spelling rule 1, the exceptions to rule 4, and rule 8 in the previous section.

Or you might run into spelling questions with somewhat more complicated instructions, like this:

Directions: Each question consists of three words, any or all of which may be spelled incorrectly. On your answer sheet:

Mark (A) if ONLY ONE word is misspelled.

Mark (B) if TWO WORDS are misspelled.

Mark (C) if ALL THREE words are misspelled.

Mark (D) if NO WORDS are misspelled.

1. offerred hopefull usable

For this question, you would mark (B), because two words are misspelled—the first two. The correct spellings are offered (see rule 9) and hopeful (see rule 10). If you are unsure why usable is correct, refer back to rule 4.

Try another question:

2. acquire welcome per-cent

For this question, you should mark (A) as your answer, because only one word, percent, is misspelled (see rule 13). Look back at rules 14 and 15 to learn why the other two words are spelled correctly. If you find this third type of spelling question on your exam, you must be very careful to mark the letters of your answers as indicated in the directions. Refer to the directions frequently to refresh your memory on which letter goes with which answer.

The following spelling exercises will give you practice spotting words that are spelled incorrectly. The three most common types of spelling questions are included—one in each set of practice exercises. You will find the correct answer in the “Answer Key”

section following the practice exercises. Sometimes it helps to answer spelling questions by looking away from the given choices and writing the word on the margin of your question booklet or on your scratch paper. Then, check to see if the spelling you believe is correct is given as one of the choices.

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CHAPTER 4: Spelling 53

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EXERCISE 1

Directions: In each group of four words, one is misspelled. Mark the letter of the misspelled word.

17. (A) historical (B) dustey (C) kindly (D) humbug 18. (A) current

(B) comunity (C) cement (D) calves

19. (A) changeing (B) explained (C) diameter (D) consent 20. (A) sword

(B) reckord (C) signed (D) taste

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CHAPTER 4: Spelling 55

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EXERCISE 2

Directions: In each question, one of the words may be spelled incorrectly, or all three may be spelled correctly. If one of the words is spelled incorrectly, mark the letter of this word. If all three words are spelled correctly, mark (D).

1. (A) gratful (B) census (C) analysis (D) none of these 2. (A) installment

(B) retreive (C) concede (D) none of these 3. (A) dismissal

(B) conscientious (C) indelible (D) none of these 4. (A) percieve

(B) anticipate (C) acquire (D) none of these 5. (A) facility

(B) reimburse (C) assortment (D) none of these 6. (A) plentifull

(B) advantageous (C) similar (D) none of these 7. (A) guarantee

(B) repel (C) ommission (D) none of these 8. (A) maintenance

(B) liable

(C) announcement (D) none of these

9. (A) exaggerate (B) seize (C) condenm (D) none of these 10. (A) pospone

(B) altogether (C) grievance (D) none of these 11. (A) argument

(B) reciept (C) complain (D) none of these 12. (A) sufficient

(B) declaim (C) visible (D) none of these 13. (A) expirience

(B) dissatisfy (C) alternate (D) none of these 14. (A) occurred

(B) noticable (C) appendix (D) none of these 15. (A) anxious

(B) guarantee (C) calender (D) none of these 16. (A) fundamental

(B) dissapear (C) accidentally (D) none of these

17. (A) guidance (B) across (C) carreer (D) none of these 18. (A) pamphlet

(B) always (C) commit (D) none of these

19. (A) excessive (B) permited (C) appointment (D) none of these 20. (A) personnel

(B) resource (C) colledge (D) none of these

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CHAPTER 4: Spelling 57

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EXERCISE 3

Directions: Each question consists of three words, any or all of which may be spelled incorrectly. Beside each question:

Mark (A) if ONLY ONE word is misspelled.

Mark (B) if TWO WORDS are misspelled.

Mark (C) if ALL THREE words are misspelled.

Mark (D) if NO WORDS are misspelled.

1. professor satisfactorally weight

2. sabbatical accomplishment occasionally

3. associate bookeeping carefuly

4. dictater beforhand deceit

5. accidently supervisor efficiently

6. bureau manifest scheduling

7. auxilary machinary distorsion

8. synthesis harrassment exemplify

9. receiveable bankrupcy chronological

10. facsimile requisition liability

11. proxey pollish courtesy

12. negotiable acknowledgment notarary

13. confidential typograpfical memmoranda

14. pertainent codify ellimination

15. corrective performence clogging