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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. In what year did Jamaica become an English, and later a British, colony, known as "Jamaica"?
(a) 1752.
(b) 1802.
(c) 1492.
(d) 1655.

2. What author noted that Southern women often sounded like their black slaves?
(a) Charles Dickens.
(b) Samuel Clemens.
(c) Andrew Johnson.
(d) Mark Twain.

3. What term refers to a member of the dark-skinned people who were the earliest inhabitants of Australia?
(a) Nintoona.
(b) Aborigine.
(c) Indians.
(d) Acatuna.

4. What dialect is associated with the lower classes in England?
(a) Queen's English.
(b) RP.
(c) Estuary.
(d) Cockney.

5. Slave ships that went to the Caribbean with the first slaves changed the language of the area entirely creating what variant?
(a) Cajun English.
(b) French Creole.
(c) West Aftican Creole.
(d) Caribbean Creole.

Short Answer Questions

1. When was Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated?

2. Which variant was most likely the first pidgin English?

3. The English conquered and warred with the Irish for over how many years?

4. What American-originated word means to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate?

5. The denial of Afrikaans in South Africa sparked an explosive riot in what year?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where was the slave trade centered in England? How did blacks and whites communicate?

2. What effect did Webster have on differentiating British and American English standardization?

3. What impact did the slave ships in the Caribbean have on the spread of the English language?

4. When and how did Australian English develop?

5. What effect did World War II have on the Cockney language? What other world events affected it?

6. What impact did Black English have on whites in the American South?

7. When did black pidgin languages first originate and why?

8. When was Webster's Dictionary first published? How many copies were sold in his lifetime?

9. What is the source of inspiration for Irish literature? When did Irish culture rise to its high point?

10. What do the authors attribute to Ireland's unique inflections and word stresses in dialect?

(see the answer keys)

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