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

2. The first Dictionary of the English Language contained over how many definitions?
(a) 25,000.
(b) 40,000.
(c) 10,000.
(d) 50,000.

3. For what newspaper is Robert McCrum listed as Literary Editor in the Introduction?
(a) The New York Times.
(b) The London Times.
(c) The Observer.
(d) The San Francisco Chronicle.

4. Who is the author of the novel Oscar and Lucinda?
(a) Mark Twain.
(b) Jonathan Swift.
(c) Peter Carey.
(d) Danielle Steele.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is Scotland's most celebrated poet?

2. Who welcomed St. Augustine in England?

3. What is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims?

4. The Story of English was created alongside a nine-part television series for what network?

5. Old English has barely how many Celtic words?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the authors assert is the common ancestry of all languages? What happened to most of them?

2. When did Julius Caesar invade the Celts? What was the result?

3. What did James I do to reduce the rule of Celtic chiefs in Ulster?

4. What myths relating to the English language do the authors hope to dispel, according to the Introduction?

5. What do the authors write of the New World and its influence on English in Chapter 2, The Mother Tongue?

6. What do the authors of The Story of English rely upon to relate the history of the English language?

7. When was the Scottish tongue at its peak? What caused its downfall?

8. What do the authors preface regarding the style of the text in their Introduction?

9. What impact did the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons have on the Celtic language? Why?

10. How many definitions were in the original Johnson's dictionary? What was it drawn from?

(see the answer keys)

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