View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Robert McCrum was Editor-in-Chief of what publishing house from 1979-1996?
(a) Faber and Faber.
(b) Simon and Schuster.
(c) Penguin.
(d) Fitzgerald and Fitzgerald.

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

3. What committee was formed to make decisions regarding standard English pronunciation for broadcasting in England?
(a) NACP.
(b) NCAA.
(c) ACSE.
(d) ACCE.

4. 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?
(a) China.
(b) Israel.
(c) Germany.
(d) Korea.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following words is attributed to Shakespeare's origination?

2. Who published the Dictionary of the English Language in 1755?

3. Where was Shakespeare born and raised?

4. Who is the author of Ivanhoe?

5. What is the name of the dialect generally associated with the British working class?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What time frame is embodied by the Elizabethan period? What advances took place in English during this time?

3. What is the difficulty of explaining sounds of language, according to the authors? What resources can help the reader in grasping dialect?

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

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

6. How do we know how the English language sounded hundreds of years ago? What do the authors relate about grammatical shifts in the Introduction?

7. Who was William Shakespeare and what impact did he have on the English language?

8. What is notable about the standardization of English throughout history? What examples do the authors give in Chapter 1, An English-Speaking World?

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

10. Who spread the English language to the west initially? Who are their descendants?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 811 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample