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I got the result: Итак, ваш запас: Весьма похвальный результат, указывающий на вполне приличное владение языком.

So, a language question: Is yours or mine better?! Or are they the same? (Is it because of my lacking Russian that I don't get it?)

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arashi-opera.livejournal.com

"Очень хороший" is better than "весьма похвальный". Like A and B+.

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okej :-(
;-)

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but it still gave my confidence a boost....

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dzhynsky.livejournal.com

Yours is better than mine from the following view point: you are putting effort into learning Russian but I just speak it since my very childhood (although I don't consider Russian as my native language).

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"вполне приличное владение языком" is better than "словарный запас значительно выше среднего"

I guess that "приличный запас" must be more desirable than "выше среднего"

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akherousia.livejournal.com

+1

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ex-roumor.livejournal.com

>>Yours is better than mine from the following view point: you are Putin
fixed

o_O omg very hard test

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crimeanelf.livejournal.com

It's a strange test.

Репрессия means repression, i.e., подавление, but the variants author offers are the following: кара, расстрел, унижение, убийство.

Неглиже used to mean a morning pijama or robe in noble society. Novadays is used by many people as a synonym of nudity. The offered variants are голый, полуодетый.

In the comments to this test you could find more of this remarks...

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Репрессия also means гонение. It's normal. Something like унижение.

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crimeanelf.livejournal.com

Гонение (persecution), yes, but унижение (humiliation), I would say, is very far from it.

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Maybe you're right, but "кара", "расстрел" and "убийство" - are exatly not right answers))

I can use "унижение" instead of "репрессия" in my everyday speech and it will not be wrong. But the test is really amusing =)

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crimeanelf.livejournal.com

Унижение is a serious offence, meant to lower one's dignity. For example, "унизиться до лжи".

Репрессия is a punishment done specifically by government to specifically political enemies, usually proscription (изгнание). For example, "mass repressions of Jews". Note, that English term psychological repression is translated into Russian as вытеснение. In Russian репрессия is nothing but a political action.

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zespri.livejournal.com

Agreed. Some more:
Ортодоксальный:
нелогичный
непреклонный
удивительный
ошибочный

I think niether of this is correct but the test creators probably meant непреклонный. Orthodox is derived from orthos correct + doxa belief. And the best synonym I can come up with is 'conforming'.

Апробировать:
испытывать
проверять
изучать
официально утвердить

In this case I think both испытывать and официально утвердить are correct. I think I've seen both usages.

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Yeah, I thougth that was strange... in sweden it isd a womens night gown. so I just choose polugolyj, but that is not a dress... it might be what a puritan think you are in a negligé!

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Итак, ваш запас: Тоже очень хороший результат. Ваш словарный запас значительно выше среднего
And tell me, why is this a russian language test?
Аутопсия, Диффамация, Интоксикация, Волонтёр etc.... give me a break there. All it is, is just bunch of foreign words spelled using Cyrillic.

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In our everyday life we use quite a lot of foreign words as well.
Those you listed are terms from different branches of science, and not just a bunch of words in Cyrillic. ;--)

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I'm not arguing this point. Indeed, I'm quite in favor of using foreign words when scientists talk about "different branches of science". In that case it would be quite silly of me to insist on using words such as карпускула. But the test in question doesn't claim to evaluate your knowledge of science lingvo, but rather general purpose Russian. I've never seen a single forensic pathologist in Russia who would, in a conversation, refer to вскрытие as аутопсия, and, believe me, I have known a few of them.
But anyhow, even if we assume that your "it's all about science" argument is valid here, we would still have a problem. Only the first and the third words in my example are actually science related. Диффамация is a law term, which has a perfectly valid and widely understood equivalent in Russian - клевета.
Now Волонтёр is a complete nonsense. It reminds me of the way some Russian immigrants talk to each other: "Иди сделай шоппинг, возьми слайс чиза, вотермелун и выкинь по дороге гарбедж"

Дисклаймер: :)
Everything I've said above is very much IMHO. :)

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Волонтер is widely used in Russian language nowadays. You see, language is a living organism and it absorbs words from foreign cultures. And not just now - it was happening all the time since the beginning of civilization.

Your examples of "слайс чиза", "вотермелун" are not to be compared with волонтер or диффамация. There is an obvious difference between them. Don't make me explain it. =)

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>>You see, language is a living organism and it absorbs words from foreign cultures.
Well, it's hard to argue with something so obvious and especially so unrelated to the very thing I am talking about. :)
Absorption is good! Actually let me rephrase it, absorption is awesome.:)
Картофель, галстук and other such words were absorbed into the Russian language, and I have no problems with that.
But when I hear волонтёр, менеджер that's when I feel the urge to smack the speaker with something heavy, preferably with the both volumes of Galperin's English-Russian dictionary (those who'd seen it would know exactly why it is my first choice) :)
So what's the difference you ask? No, it's not the time of absorbtion. The difference is that the words from the first group came to the Russian culture roughly at the same time as the very things they are describing. Before that time there were no other similar words in active use, hence the absorbtion effectively increased the number of things that the language was capable of expressing.
Second group represents a very shameful tendency to make Russian sound like English and apparently prove to somebody that we are also smart, civilized, important and worthy enough to be called a modern European Country.
The absorbtion of the second group did not nearly had the same impact as the absorbtion of the first one. For ages we had ways of saying those things and I see absolutely no reason why we needed other synonyms and especially why those synonyms had to replace the original Russian words.
If this replacing absorbtion continues at the current pace, "слайс чиза" and "вотермелун" will be absorbed just the same way as волонтер or диффамация once were.

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They won't be absorbed. Language is moving into the direction of shortening cause life is becoming faster. Мanager is shorter than управляющий, арбуз is shorter than ватермелун. These reasons are often much more important than anything else.

The word saves time - it's widely used. The word is long - it's harder for it to hold competition against shorter version. You can see it all over.

"Картофель, галстук and other such words were absorbed into the Russian language, and I have no problems with that.
But when I hear волонтёр, менеджер that's when I feel the urge to smack the speaker with something heavy"

If you study history of the language you'll see that people of the past wanted to hit someone on the head for the words that we consider absolutely normal now. So it's all a matter of time, you see. Our speech would sound totally non-russian for some 17-th century monk.

"А.С. Шишков, известный ревнитель чистоты русского языка, с возмущением писал: «Слово мокроступы очень хорошо могло бы выразить понятие, выражаемое совершенно бессмысленным для нас словом галоши;"

http://www.rostmuseum.ru/publication/srm/013/sazonova01.html

Anyway, coming back to this test. It's not really a test for learners of Russian. It's a test for Russian speakers who wanna see if they know foreign words well. That answers your question "why is this a Russian language test?" This test just has very little to do with this community. =)

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So you do agree that this test does not test the knowledge of Russian per se.
As for the rest, I realize that the topic of modernizing Russian language is way outside the scope of this community. I just like to point out that it makes me very sad to see that language is moving into the direction of shortening, and yet still I do not believe that to be the main reason for adopting English-sounding words.

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Agree with some things you say. But true - it's kinda off-topic discussion here. =)

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It's a test for Russian speakers who wanna see if they know foreign words well.
I completely agree :)

"Интоксикация" and "волонтёр" were two of the easiest words there :)
They became a norm now, like some other foreign words. But I was surprised seing "диффамация" и "аутопсия" =)

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volonter has actually a slightly different meaning in swedish than i russian. In swedish "volontör" usually means that you go to som poor foreign country. if we talk abliut sweden, we usually use the original swedish word "frivillig".

some russians actually use the word volonter in a very braod meaning, just reffering to members of an organsiation that take part in or organize activities, but are not employed. I wonder if it is even correct in russian to use it in such a broad sence? That is really strange for a swedsh ear, for us it alway mean that you sacrifice your time for somebody who is in great need, and do rather unqualified work.

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dzhynsky.livejournal.com

Well, Russians use this word in all the possible meanings. Recently very many English words came into use in Russian language. This caused a great mix of "old" meanings (used for ages before USSR ceased to exist) with "new" those. So, don't be surprised if you see different use/misuse of words that exist in English as well.

By the way, for me волонтёр means one who does ugly work for charity or for needy people. Also, the one who does unqualified public works unsolicited for free.

Just accept :-)

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http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80

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oryx_and_crake

Диффамация is a perfectly valid Russian word, even if rarely used.
Which does not help the test in general, it is still pretty lame.

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