Academic/General Training Module by Adam Smith First Published in 2015

 IELTS
 JOURNAL 
 
165 
Questions 26-32
Below is a summary of part of Reading Passage 3,"The Origins of Indo-European 
Languages". 
Read the summary and then select the best word or phrase from the box below to fill 
each gap. according to the information in the Reading Passage. Write the 
corresponding letters (A-L) in boxes 26-32 on your answer sheet. 
N.B.
There are more words and phrases than you will need to fill the gaps. You may 
use a word or phrase more than once if you wish. 
 
Summary-Models of Language Change
Answer 
Example
There are four main models of language .... 
K
..... 
The first is the process of initial colonization where an uninhabited territory 
becomes populated: the language spoken will therefore be that of the .....(26)..... 
Processes of .....(27)..... occur where different dialects, and then languages, 
develop from a common .....(28)..... Many of the original characteristics of this 
common ancestor can be reconstructed from what we know of the 
present separate .....(29)..... 
Processes of linguistic .....(30)..... occur when languages which were initially 
different become more similar through contact. The wave model, formulated by 
Schmidt in the 1870s, is an example. 
The final model is that of linguistic .....(31)..... In this model, a new language 
replaces the language spoken by the .....(32).....
A
colonizers 
G
languages 
B
invaders
H
waves 
C
proto-language
I
replacement 
D
indigenous people
J
convergence 
E
linguists
K
development 
F
model
L
divergence 

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