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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. What happens when a particular phonology is applied to adopted words?
(a) They become more rhythmic
(b) They become almost unrecognizable in their original language
(c) They become easier to understand
(d) They become more lyrical

2. What helps a listener and speaker to use the correct word when in doubt?
(a) Context
(b) A dictionary
(c) Trial and error
(d) A friend

3. What is phonology?
(a) A fraud detector
(b) A sound system for a language
(c) A phonograph history
(d) Telephone operator skills

4. Why could the Neanderthals not keep up with the Cro-Magnons?
(a) They could not run as fast
(b) Their brains were not as big
(c) They did not have fire
(d) They couldn't communicate with the same complexity

5. What about the English language gives users greater range of expression?
(a) Past and future tenses
(b) More letters of the alphabet
(c) More vowel sounds
(d) Active and passive voices

Short Answer Questions

1. What is common to most English speakers?

2. What else impacts the pronunciation of some words?

3. What is DARE?

4. It is an interesting ____________ that Americans attempt to imitate the British by using words and pronunciations that are not British at all or are no longer used.

5. The Celts are strongly influenced by which culture?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the merits of using the English language?

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

3. What does the author say is the reason some English words are created?

4. How did the English language evolve in the British Isles or what is now known as the United Kingdom?

5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of pictographic languages?

6. How does the author account for the changing pronunciation of English over time?

7. Finally, what is the fourth method of explaining where words come from?

8. In what way does the author think varieties of English are influenced by social reasons?

9. What is so interesting about the way human speech has spread around the world?

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

(see the answer keys)

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