What are the four basic types of shortening? Briefly explain the

What are the four basic types of shortening? Briefly explain them.
【正确答案】：There are four basic types of shortening: back clipping, front clipping (also called fore-clipping), front and back clipping and middle clipping.
Back clipping is the most common and the easiest type of clipping, in which the beginning, mostly the first syllable of a word is retained. Examples are: auto (automobile), mini (miniskirt), exam (examination) .
In front clipping, the first part of a word is cut off and the last part of it is kept. Examples are: net (Internet), phone (telephone), bus (omnibus).
In front and back clipping, the middle of a word is kept. That is, the word is shortened both at the beginning and at the end, which relatively rarely occurs. Examples are: script (prescription),shrink (headshrinker), jam (pajamas).
Middle clipping refers to a process where the middle part of a word is clipped. Examples are: dept (department), binocs (binoculars) ,maths (mathematics).