Why does the speaker mention the word parquear?
Listen to an Oral Presentation · ELPAC Grades 11–12 listening. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.
A presentation on an academic topic, followed by three or four questions.
Listen to the student presentation. Then answer the questions.
Borrowed Words
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Today I want to talk about where words come from, and in particular about words that one language borrows from another.
English is an enormous borrower. A large share of its vocabulary came from French and Latin, but closer to home, the English spoken in California and the Southwest picked up hundreds of words from Spanish. Canyon, patio, rodeo and mesa all arrived this way, and most people who use them every day have no idea they were ever borrowed.
Linguists point out that borrowing usually happens for one of two reasons. The first is need. Speakers meet something new and take its name from the people who already had one. English speakers who came west found landforms and ranching practices their language had no words for, so they took the Spanish ones.
The second reason is prestige. Speakers sometimes borrow a word even when they already have one, because the other language is linked with wealth, power or fashion. That is part of why English has both the everyday word ask and the more formal word inquire, which came from French.
Borrowed words rarely stay the same. Their sounds shift to fit the new language, and their meanings often narrow. In Spanish, rodeo can mean a cattle roundup, or simply going the long way around. In English it usually names one kind of public competition.
And borrowing flows in both directions. Spanish speakers in the United States use words like parquear, meaning to park a car, which came from English. Some people treat words like that as mistakes. Linguists see them as evidence of something every living language does whenever its speakers come into contact with another.
The question
Choose the best answer.
Why does the speaker mention the word parquear?
- To show that borrowing goes in both directions and is a normal part of language contact.Correct answer
- To give an example of a mistake that Spanish speakers often make.
- To show that Spanish has borrowed more words than English.
- To explain where the English word park came from.
Why “To show that borrowing goes in both directions and is a normal part of language contact.” is correct
This tests understanding why a speaker includes an example. Parquear comes in the final section, introduced by 'borrowing flows in both directions', and the speaker sets the view that such words are mistakes against the linguists' view that they are normal. The question rewards hearing that the speaker sides with the linguists.
Why the other answers are wrong
- To give an example of a mistake that Spanish speakers often make. — The speaker reports that some people call such words mistakes and then disagrees with them.
- To show that Spanish has borrowed more words than English. — No comparison of how many words each language has borrowed is made.
- To explain where the English word park came from. — Parquear came from English, not the other way around, so it says nothing about the origin of park.
Practice more of this
More listening practice for Grades 11–12, or see the ELPAC practice test for grades 11–12. For other grades, see free ELPAC practice tests by grade.
This is an independent study resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the California Department of Education or the official ELPAC program. All questions here are original practice material written to match the published task formats.