Read this article from What's Behind the Word to learn the history of some words. Answer the questions that follow.
Every word has a kind of hidden story behind it. Sometimes it's easy to figure out how a word came to be. The word breakfast, for example, is made up of the two smaller words, break and fast. When someone is said to fast, it means he doesn't eat. Most people fast from the time they go to bed until they get up in the morning. They break their fast when they eat breakfast.
Sometimes the search for the hidden story in a word is harder. The word paper comes from the name of a plant called papyrus. Papyrus grows in hot climates along the Nile River. In ancient times, in the land of Egypt, men learned how to make papyrus into thin sheets. They cut strips from the stem of the papyrus plant, wove them together, soaked them in the Nile, and let them dry. They used these papyrus sheets to write on. That's why today the word paper is used for sheets we write on - even though our paper is not made of papyrus at all.
Umbrella comes from the Latin word umbra, which mean shade. The Italians used the word to make the word umbrella, which mean a little shade. In their hot sunny land, they needed an umbrella to shade them a little from the sun. The English word was borrowed from the Italians, but its meaning changed. We use an umbrella when it rains, not when the sun is shining!
You can see how words sometimes stay the same even when their meanings change.
"Every Word Has a History", from WHAT'S BEHIND THE WORD? by Harold S. Longman, copyright © 1968 by Harold Longman.
A. in a dictionary
B. in a magazine
C. in a road map
D. in a book of myths
A. together
B. umbrella
C. breakfast
D. that's
A. breakfast
B. papyrus
C. umbra
D. umbrella
A. all day.
B. when they sleep.
C. all the time.
D. when they are sick.
A. shade.
B. river plants.
C. umbrellas.
D. thin sheets.