A few posts ago, if you regular subscribers remember, I discussed the topic of cognates. Cognates are very helpful to Gringos with no language experience. I personally know a couple of people like that and can verify how helpful they find cognates. Let me first give you an official cognate definition.
kog-neyt
adjective:
1. related by birth; of the same parentage, decent etc.
2.
Linguistics. Descended from the same language or form. Such cognate languages as French and Spanish.
3. Allied or similar in nature or quality.
Armed with that little bit of information, if you will grab a pencil and paper, we will begin the test. I will give you a hint once in awhile if you need help. Number your paper from 1 to 17.
Your job is to look at the picture and answer the question in the caption. Don't panic, but we are going to start with some medical topics. (We have spent a little time with the medical community lately)
Here is your first one.
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| No. 1 What main activity takes place in this part of the clinic? |
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| No. 2 What can I learn about if I turn right? |
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| No 3. Name one service I can receive if I go downstairs. |
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| No. 4 Why would I come to this location in the clinic? |
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| No. 5 What am I politely asked to do? (sorry ladies) |
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| No. 6 Why might I need to remember this direction? |
How did you do with all that technical medical terminology? Let's cruise around town and find a few more signs to test your knowledge.
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| No. 7 What might my wife be looking for at this store? (Again) |
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| No. 8 (Ignore the sign material) What car service is performed here? |
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| No. 9 Which direction would I go if I had a question and could speak the language? |
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| This is a clue to help you with the next question. No side by side, single file only. |
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| No. 10 On this two lane road with lots of slow traffic, what can I now do? |
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| No. 11 With a curve ahead what advice does this sign give? |
How are you doing? If you need to, stand up and take a little break. Difficult tests can be very stressful. We will continue when you get back.
Let's finish this up. (You can probably tell I am struggling to find something interesting to post on our blog. Thanks for you patience.)
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| No. 12 I want a closer look. Can I go see what all those little white things are? |
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| No. 13 The road ahead is surprisingly clear. Is this a good time to go zoom, zoom? |
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| No. 14 Should I have brought my camera? |
One question you need to answer that is not part of the test. Have you ever been real hungry and needed something to tie you over till you can get to some good food. Or maybe you went to the cafeteria at the new St. George airport. What was the name of the machine that you got your snack from?
This one may be a little tough to see so I'll give you two of the same sign.
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| No. 15 Why would this guy put that sign in his truck window? |
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| No. 16 A different focus than the last one, but the same interest. What does this sign tell you? |
Well you have made it to the last one. As the sun sets in the west, we will close with this picture. A little story once you've answered the question.
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| No. 17 Why might I pull my car off the road and enter this business? |
This location gave me great hope just after we arrived in Chile. We drive past this spot each time we go to town. I had originally thought I had found some survival food. How lucky can I be? Chile has Twizzlers or Red Vines! But this Mormon was very disappointed when he discovered that the center item advertised needed a 'q' instead of a 'c.'
I will be interested to hear your test scores.