1. Analyze the synonyms given and find the difference between them. Consult a dictionary. Give examples of your own:

to leave – to depart, to rise – to ascend, fearful – awful, job – work, anaesthetic – painkiller, adolescence – childhood, traumatic – upsetting, inconsiderate – tactless, consequences – results, associated – connected, to demystify – to clarify, treatable – curable, to translate – to interpret, to know – to fathom, clean – hygienic.

2. Classify the synonyms into stylistic, ideographic and semantico-stylistic ones.

1. 1) to begin – to commence – to start;

2. 2) to eat – to partake – to peck – to wolf;

3. 3) to tell – to narrate;

4. 4) father – daddy;

5. 5) to gaze – to stare – to glance – to look – to glare – to peep – to peer;

6. 6) swift – fast – quick – speedy;

7) enemy – foe – opponent – adversary;

7. 8) intelligent – smart – clever – ingenious – wise – quick-witted;

8. 9) to wish – to desire – to yearn – to long;

9. 10) to ask – to inquire – to interrogate.

3. Use the following words to make up paradigms of synonyms. Point to the dominant synonyms. Pay attention to the polysemy of some words.

To obtain, to plunge, to speak, to increase, to get, to deal in, to drop, to say, to sell, to acquire, to gain, to chat, to export, to utter, to fall, to plummet, to tumble, to converse, to come down, to rise, to ascend, to flog, to climb, to shoot up, to peddle, to soar, to go up, to tell, to talk, to trade.

4. Within the following synonymic sets single out words with:

a) emotive connotation:

smile, grin, beam, smirk; last, take, continue, go on for, drag on, run; fashionable, cool, hot, trendy, stylish, chic, cult, in, hip;

b) evaluative connotation:

clique, elite, in-crowd, group; hope, expectation, anticipation; resolute, determined, obstinate; slender, skinny, thin, slim, lean;

c) expressive connotation:

dislike, hate, can’t stand, detest, loathe, despise, abhor; boring, dull, monotonous, tedious, banal, mundane, repetitive, uninspiring, humdrum; splendid, superb, fantastic, beastly, nice.

d) stylistic (pragmatic) connotation:

expensive, exclusive, luxurious, fancy, posh, upmarket, classy, plush; to see – to behold; to help – to aid – to assist; courage – valour – dauntlessness – grit – guts; beautiful – beauteous; to understand – to comprehend; to stop – to cease; horse – steed; motherly – maternal; to put off – to postpone;

5. Make all necessary diagnostic tests and decide if these words are synonyms:

1) unique, sole, only, alone;

2) outcome, impact, result, effect;

3) habit, tradition, custom, practice;

4) put out, extinguish, quench, blow out;

5) moreover, furthermore , else, besides;

6) nevertheless, however, but, nonetheless;

7) accordingly, thus, hence, consequently;

8) branch, division, wing, limb;

9) bloom, prosper, flourish, thrive;

10) occasional, sometime, incidental, irregular.

6.* Analyze the following antonyms into contraries and contradictories:

1) happy – unhappy; 2) good – bad; 3) big – small; 4) asleep – awake; 5) light – heavy; 6) poetry – prose; 7) open – shut; 8) to live – to die; 9) tremendous – tiny; 10) arid – awash; 11) beginning – end; 12) to love – to hate; 13) single – married.

7.* Classify the antonymous pairs into conversives and vectorial antonyms:

1) to buy – to sell; 2) to up – to down; 3) clockwise – anticlockwise; 4) to lend – to borrow; 5) to marry – to divorce; 6) question – answer; 7) teacher – pupil; 8) slave – master; 9) to praise – to scold; 10) before – after; 11) victory – defeat.

8. Give derivational antonyms to the following words:

interesting, convenient, honest, practical, legitimate, rational, mature, responsible, respectful, patient, underestimate, bilateral, forethought, convergence, franchisor, combed, uphill, exclude, fasten, cheerful, trustor, pro-American, repute.

9. Define the type of the italisized antonymic pairs. Prove your opinion.

1) False friends are worse than open enemies. 2) Neither here nor there. 3) Speech is silver, silence in gold. 4) A good husband makes a good wife. 5) Keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. 5) What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals.

10. Find contextual antonyms in the following sentences:

a) There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, That it hardly becomes any of us To talk about the rest of us (Hock).

b) Rabbit scratched his whiskers thoughtfully and pointed out that … some lived in trees and some lived underground (A. Miln).

c) "A saint abroad, and a devil at home." (Bunyan)

d) "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." (Milton)

11.* Find 10 pairs of antonyms:

disrespectful, likely, deny, sink, spacious, lazy, improbable, ineptitude, subtle, deferential, cramped, victory, gloomy, bright, float, admit, ability, elaborate, simple, obvious, zealous, defeat.

12.* Match each sentence and the meaning of the contronym realized in it:

That was a bad move. He’s a real bad singer. ‘Shall a man cleave unto his wife?’ Genesis 2. You can cleave the log in two with an axe. Blessed are the meek. I’m blessed if I will! He’s one of the fastest runners in the world. A fast colour does not run. The aircraft dusted the fields. Have you dusted this room? Dark glasses screened his eyes from the sun. The match will be screened live on TV. The mean annual rainfall was 852 mm. He’s a mean tennis player. Farmers seeded a field. Add one lime, seeded and sliced.

to spray with powder to show very good to split apart sanctified to remove seeds damned moving quickly to add seeds not moving at all not good remove dust from to hide average to stick together excellent