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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many quotations were in the original Dictionary of the English Language?
(a) 120,000.
(b) 114,000.
(c) 100,000.
(d) 300,000.

2. What is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island?
(a) Jamestown.
(b) Northumbria.
(c) Ulster.
(d) Essex.

3. What does "RP" stand for?
(a) Recieved Phonetics.
(b) Received Pronunciation.
(c) Royal Phonetics.
(d) Royal Pronunciation.

4. When did the Romans withdraw from Britain?
(a) 520 A.D.
(b) 210 A.D.
(c) 410 A.D.
(d) 110 A.D.

5. The establishment of what was an important moment for English as word choices had to be made for standard broadcasting?
(a) PBS.
(b) NBC.
(c) BBC.
(d) CBS.

6. RP was spoken by how much of the British population at the origination of BBC?
(a) 10%.
(b) 1%.
(c) 3%.
(d) 20%.

7. What is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common?
(a) Simple.
(b) Common.
(c) Pidgin.
(d) Average.

8. In Chapter 2, The Mother Tongue, the authors claim that the horse and the what spread the English language and caused its divergence?
(a) Poetry.
(b) Wheel.
(c) Fire.
(d) Money.

9. Which of the early Germanic tribes had speech that was Germanic and they lived Denmark?
(a) Celti.
(b) Anglii.
(c) Buchi.
(d) Frisii.

10. Whose followers are known as Lollards, a somewhat rebellious movement, which preached anticlerical and biblically-centered reforms?
(a) John Wycliffe's.
(b) Samuel Johnson's.
(c) James Calvin's.
(d) Daniel Webster's.

11. When was the Education Act passed in the United Kingdom?
(a) 1833.
(b) 1789.
(c) 1923.
(d) 1655.

12. What is considered the highest level of standardization of English, according to the authors in Chapter 1, An English-Speaking World?
(a) Jamaican English.
(b) Cockney English.
(c) Queen's English.
(d) Estuary English.

13. When was William Shakespeare born?
(a) 1555.
(b) 1572.
(c) 1603.
(d) 1564.

14. Linguists know that languages spoken by around how much of humanity came from a common Indo-European source?
(a) One fifth.
(b) One half.
(c) One fourth.
(d) One third.

15. Approximately how many people speak English as their first language today?
(a) 230 million.
(b) 800 million.
(c) 375 million.
(d) 654 million.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is another word for Old English?

2. Which name prefix did the Scots originate?

3. The people of what country have recently developed a fanatical desire to learn English, and English is vital in many developing countries, according to the author?

4. Northern Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands produced their own language tree that divided into what and German?

5. The English language was formed through how many invasions?

(see the answer keys)

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