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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who tries to organize information about how people speak?
(a) Speech therapists
(b) Linguists
(c) Historians
(d) Professors

2. What combines with vowels to make pronunciation rules difficult to define?
(a) Cultural dialects
(b) Too many consonants
(c) Complex spelling rules
(d) Punctuation

3. How can English be particularly complex for non-native English speakers?
(a) Many words can be used in different ways
(b) The vowel sounds are fixed
(c) There are many grammar rules
(d) The alphabet is long

4. The author tends to think that English is special because of ___________________________.
(a) its inherent ease of learning
(b) its verb use
(c) its lyrical sound
(d) its flexibility of use

5. Who invades England in 1066?
(a) The Normans
(b) The French
(c) The Norwegians
(d) The Romans

Short Answer Questions

1. Language has the ability to do what?

2. Which country has been successful in protecting its language?

3. English in the United Kingdom is more _____________ than it is in the United States.

4. What is an important benefit of the Asian pictograph languages?

5. When does modern English begin to emerge?

Short Essay Questions

1. What event prompted the usage of standardized spelling in England?

2. Explain the impact of the Viking invasion of England?

3. Explain the theories that languages are based in sound.

4. Explain the impact of the invasion of the Normans in England.

5. Explain the impact that slurring of speech has on English pronunciation?

6. What is another method of explaining where words come from?

7. What was the Great Vowel Shift?

8. Explain how the language of one people can can change over time.

9. What is the result of attempting to draw demarcations of accents throughout the U.S.?

10. What is the proof of the power of the English language in the modern world?

(see the answer keys)

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