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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 2, The Mother Tongue.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the name of the dialect generally associated with the British working class?
(a) Cockney.
(b) Queen's English.
(c) Estuary.
(d) RP.

2. When did Robert MacNeil retire, according to his bio in the Introduction?
(a) 1990.
(b) 1995.
(c) 1992.
(d) 1998.

3. Who welcomed St. Augustine in England?
(a) King Charles.
(b) King Skaronn.
(c) King Ferdinand.
(d) King Aethelbert.

4. Who brought the English language to Britain, according to Chapter 2, The Mother Tongue?
(a) Celts.
(b) Asian tribes.
(c) Germanic tribes.
(d) Roman tribes.

5. Approximately how many words are in the English language?
(a) 200,000.
(b) 1,000,000.
(c) 500,000.
(d) 100,000.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many people spoke English in Shakespeare's time?

2. Approximately how many people speak English as their first language today?

3. Linguists know that languages spoken by around how much of humanity came from a common Indo-European source?

4. What NASA space probe was launched during the original writing of The Story of English (Edition One)?

5. The establishment of what was an important moment for English as word choices had to be made for standard broadcasting?

(see the answer key)

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