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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. When did James I die?
(a) 1700.
(b) 1650.
(c) 1440.
(d) 1625.

3. The number of books in England did what after the invention of the printing press?
(a) Quadrupled.
(b) Tripled.
(c) Halved.
(d) Doubled.

4. Who remain the most direct descendants of the Celts?
(a) The Norwiegens.
(b) The Irish.
(c) The Scottish.
(d) The Welsh.

5. Who is the author of Ivanhoe?
(a) Andrew Webster.
(b) Samuel Johnson.
(c) Sir Walter Scott.
(d) Robert Burns.

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

7. Where was the Archduke Ferdinand assassinated?
(a) Paris.
(b) London.
(c) New York.
(d) Sarajevo.

8. Who is listed as the Executive Producer of the television series The Story of English?
(a) William Cran.
(b) Robert McCrum.
(c) Anderson Williams.
(d) Robert MacNeil.

9. What was the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America?
(a) Jamestown.
(b) Washington D.C.
(c) New York.
(d) Cooperstown.

10. By what year were nearly half of the English literate, according to Chapter 3, A Muse of Fire?
(a) 1600.
(b) 1500.
(c) 1400.
(d) 1550.

11. What threatened Britain's Celtic chiefs after the withdrawal of the Romans?
(a) Germanic tribes.
(b) Greek tribes.
(c) Islamic tribes.
(d) Christian warriors.

12. Robert McCrum writes in the Introduction, "Language, we know, is in ceaseless ____."
(a) Flow.
(b) Flux.
(c) Motion.
(d) Love.

13. Global English is either British or what?
(a) Colonialized.
(b) Western.
(c) Eastern.
(d) American.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. When was the Education Act passed in the United Kingdom?

2. What style of music was the invention of the Scots-Irish?

3. Johnson took on the established dictionaries of European language and decisively exceeded them through how many years of work?

4. What is the first of the five points of Calvinism?

5. Who wrote The American Language?

(see the answer keys)

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