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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. English is the official language of how many countries?
2. The first Dictionary of the English Language contained over how many definitions?
3. Who were among the first English-speaking migrants to the west and their descendants live in Cornwall, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Brittany?
4. Robert McCrum describes the modulation of British RP to what in the Introduction?
5. For what newspaper is Robert McCrum listed as Literary Editor in the Introduction?
Short Essay Questions
1. What do the authors of The Story of English rely upon to relate the history of the English language?
2. When did Julius Caesar invade the Celts? What was the result?
3. Which group of Scots first spoke English? Where did it arrive from?
4. What myths do the authors dispel about the English language in Chapter 1, An English-Speaking World?
5. When did the Scottish dialect fall into decline? What led to its standardization?
6. What managed to diminish the number of dialects in Great Britain?
7. What do the authors write regarding the fluidity of accents and culture in Chapter 1, An English-Speaking World?
8. What do the authors write of the advances from broadcasting on English in Chapter 1, An English-Speaking World?
9. How do we know how the English language sounded hundreds of years ago? What do the authors relate about grammatical shifts in the Introduction?
10. What do the authors write of the Puritans in Chapter 2, The Mother Tongue? Where were they located?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
When did St. Augustine arrive in Britain? What impact did he have there on the English language? How?
Essay Topic 2
How can we know how the English language sounded hundreds of years ago? What resources do we have today to examine and analyze dialects? What changes have made this possible?
Essay Topic 3
Describe the origins of the English language. When do linguists believe the first traces of what we know as English today appear in history? Where?
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This section contains 867 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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