History of English Language and Civilization ‘’LAN 447’’exam for sixth level students

Choose the correct answer:

1.Middle English is known as a transitional period in the development of the English language. Which of the following terms best describes the language at that time:

a. It is known as the period of lost inflections.

b. It is known as the period of inflected language.

c. It is known as the period of leveled inflections.

d. None of the above

2.During this period, English was a language spoken only by the lower classes. French was the native language of the aristocracy.

a.1200-1300

b.1300-1500

c.1066-1022

d.1600-1700

3.Which of the following languages is not a Germanic Language?

a. Danish

b. English

c. Dutch

d. Finnish

4.Which of the following languages is not found in Europe?

a. Celtic

b. Germanic

c. Greek

d. Tocharian

5.Theultimateorigins of the English language lie in whichlanguage family?
a. Indo-European
b. Latin
c. North American

d. South American

6.What is another name forOld English?


a. Middle English
b. Anglo-Saxon
c. Celtic

d. Old Norse

7.Which one of the following texts was composed during the Old English period?


a. The Canterbury Tales
b .Beowulf
c. Inferno

d. Wuthering Heights

8.Comparative linguists propose a common ancestor language for English, Latin, Greek, Persian, Celtic, Russian, Sanskrit, and some other European and Asian languages called


a. Swahili
b.Indo-European
c. Germanic
d. Old Teutonic

9. During the latter half of the fourteenth century, Chaucer wroteThe Canterbury Tales

a. inOld English
b. inMiddle English
c. in Present Day English
d. in IPA symbols

10.Which of the following cannot be said about Normandy and the Danelaw?

a. They were settled by Norsemen.

b. At first, they were content to plunder than settle.

c. Their settlement ultimately shaped the development of English language.

d. They retained their language for centuries after invasions.

11.Which of the following languages is not an Indo-European language?

a. Turkish

b. Sanskrit

c. Irish

d. Polish

12. Umlaut can be seen as a kind of ……………..

a. Assimilation

b. Linking

c. deletion

d. Voiceless consonants

13.Which of the following is not a descendant branch of the Italic branch of the Indo-European family?

a. Roman

b. Portuguese

c. Romany

d. Spanish

14.Which of the following is considered as an asset of English for non-native speakers?

a. Its orthography

b. Its idiomatic expressions

c. Its phonology

d. Its cosmopolitan vocabulary

15.When did Middle English become Modern English?

a. 1500

b. 1600

c. 1700

d. 1400

16. From which language do the English words duke ,state and army derive?

a. Anglo-Saxon

b. Norman French

c. Celtic

d. Greek

17.The Anglo-Saxons began their invasion of Britain during the ……….century.

a. 5th

b. 8th

c. 6th

d.7th

18.Which of the following languages is a West Indo-European language?

a. Russian

b. Finnish

c. Hungarian

d. Turkish

19.The period of Christianizing of Britain

a.5th-8th century

b.6th-9th century

c.4th-7th century

d.7th-10th century

20.From which language do the English words husband, law and bank derive ?

a. Greek

b. Scandinavian

c. Italic

d. Norwegian

21.West Germanic is the ancestor of the following languages except

a. Flemish

b. Dutch

c. Afrikaans

d. Frisian

22. Which of the Middle English dialects became the basis of the Modern English standard?

a. London dialect

b. American dialect

c. Australian dialect

d. Welsh dialect

23……………. served to separate Modern English and Old English.

a. Advent of printing press

b. Great vowel shift

c. Consonant changes

d . a and b

24. The Norman invasion of England brought ………….into England.

a. French

b. Spanish

c. Russian

d. Basque

25.At the battle of Hastings in 1066, William the conqueror defeated king………………….and became king of England.

a. Edward

b. Harold

c. Henry

d. Stephen

26.The Vikings usually referred to as

a. Danes and Norsemen

b. Anglo-Saxons

c. Non Indo-European Scots

d. B and C

27.The only written East Germanic language that survives is

a. Gothic

b. Portuguese

c. Persian

d. Armenian

28.Finnish which is related to ………………. is not an Indo-European language.

a. Estonian

b. Armenian

c. Tocharian

d. Dutch

29.Heptarchy is a term used to refer to

a. Old English kingdoms

b. Old languages

c. Scandinavians

d. Jutes

30.What language provides the largest numbers of loanwords to English in the Middle English period?

a. French

b. Celtic

c. Icelandic

d. Swedish

31.Many French words were adopted for…….

a. Military and naval terms

b. Legal terms

c. Religious terms

d. Governmental and administrative terms

32.Which of the following parts of speech tended to be most readily adopted into English from Norman French?

a. nouns

b. verbs

c. adjectives

d. all of these were readily adopted into English

33. During this period, French has become an artificial language. English once again is the native tongue of commoner and aristocrats alike.

a.1300-1500

b.1006-1200

c.1200-1300

d. 1066-1500

34.Which of the following was not a language spoken in England before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons.

a. Gothic

b. Latin

c. Gaelic

d. Brittonic

35.The history of English language covers a period of approximately how many years:

a. 500 years

b. 1000 years

c. 2000 years

d. 1500 years

36.Which of the following forces influence the number and spread of a language's speakers , the meaning of its words , its spoken accents ,and even its grammatical structure:

a. cultural forces

b. social forces

c. political forces

d. all of the above

37. you may classify a language as dead when:

a. Its pronunciation changes

b. Its ceases to change

c. Its grammar changes

d. It begins to lose words

38.During which decade did the number of speakers of English as a second language exceed the number of native speakers for the first time?

a. 1920s

b. 1950s

c. 1990s

d. 1970s

39. Published in 1604, the first monolingual Englishdictionarywas


a. Nathaniel Bailey'sUniversal Etymological Dictionary of the English Language

b. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language

c. Robert Cawdery's Table Alphabetical

d. Webster's Dictionary

40. Which Anglo-Irish writer proposed the creation of an English Academy to regulate Englishusageand "ascertain" the language?

a. Jonathan Swift

b. Samuel Johnson
c. Oliver Goldsmith

d. John Webster

41.Who published the bookDissertations on the English Language(1789), which advocated an American standard of usage?

a. Noah Webster

b. John Webster

c. Daniel Webster

d. Samuel Johnson

42.Which country contains the largest English-speaking population in the world?


a. England

b. the United States

c. China

d. India

43. Which of the following is true:

a. The pronunciation of Modern English vowels is practically the same as pronunciation of Old English.

b. Old English relies on word order and prepositional phrases to determine meaning in a sentence.

c. There is a considerable difference in vocabulary and grammar between Old and Modern English

d. Although there were many Old English dialects, West Saxon became the literary language of England during the Middle English period

44. Which of the following is not a modern descendant of the Italic branch of the Indo-European family:

a. Romanian

b. Portuguese

c. Romany

d. Spanish

45. Which of the following does not represent a branch of the Germanic family of Indo-European:

a. Western Germanic

b. Southern Germanic

c. Eastern Germanic

d. Northern Germanic

46. Although lacking the lexicon of acquired Latin and French words, in particular, Old English is considered a resourceful language but NOT for which one of the following reasons:

a. Its tendency to create new words out of the blue where none existed previously.

b. Its tendency to create new words by adding prefixes and suffixes to a root word already being used.

c. Its tendency to create new words by combining words that already existed in a process known as "compounding."

47. Which late-19th century novel introduced acolloquialprose style that significantly influenced the writing of fiction in the U.S.?

a. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

b. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

c. Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave by Aphra Behn
d. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

48. By the time of Shakespeare's writings(1592-1916) ,the language had become clearly recognizable as

a. Late Middle English

b. Middle English

c. Modern English

d. Old English

49.The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is

a. grammar

b. vocabulary

c. spelling

d. pronunciation

50. ………………….establishes the first English Printing Press.

a. Samuel Johnson

b. Jonathan Swift

c. Thomas Jefferson

d. William Caxton

51. The Vikings, being Scandinavians ,spoke

a. Old Norse

b. Frisian

c. Gothic

d. Swedish

52. When is the first British Broadcasting Corporation founded?

a. 1916

b. 1922

c. 1928

d. 1936