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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. Robert McCrum writes in the Introduction, "Language, we know, is in ceaseless ____."

2. Which of the early Germanic tribes had speech that was Germanic and they lived Denmark?

3. Who is Scotland's most celebrated poet?

4. The English language was formed through how many invasions?

5. What is the Church of Scotland's more common name?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Which group of Scots first spoke English? Where did it arrive from?

10. What examples do the authors give in Chapter 1, An English-Speaking World for the history of success of the English language?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the influences of Germanic, French, and Romance languages on the development of English. What words today are rooted in these cultures and their interactions with the English?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the history of Ireland's struggles with England. When did the domination of Ireland begin? What were the consequences? How was language affected?

Essay Topic 3

What was notable about the first edition of The Story of English? What was it published alongside? What was the public reaction to the linguists' assertions?

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