The European Day of Languages

A Multiple Choice Test

(9 -- 11th forms)

Worked out by L. V. Katsura

The teacher-methodologist

Gymnasium 9

Simferopol

2010


The European day of Languages Quiz (50 points)

1. The European Day of languages is observed since

a) 2005;

b) 2001;

c) 2000.

2. The main aims of the European Day of Languages are

a) to encourage people to learn more languages;

b) to strengthen friendship;

c) to encourage lifelong language learning and to alert the public to the importance of language learning.

3. There are between ______languages in the world.

a) 6000 and 7000;

b) 5000 and 6000;

c) 6500 and 7000

4. There are about ______indigenous languages in Europe.

a) 300;

b)230;

c) 225

5. Many languages have

a) 30, 000 words or more;

b) 50,000 words or more;

c) 60,000 words or more.

6. In everyday conversation people use ______hundred words.

a) ten;

b) the same few;

c) six

7. English has borrowed words from over ______languages.

a) 400;

b) 320;

c) 350

8. European languages are now borrowing many words from

a) French;

b) German;

c) English.

9. Bilinguism brings many benefits:

a) it makes a learning of additional language easier;

b) promotes peace and friendship;

c) entails scientific advantages.

10. Most European languages belong to ______language groups.

a) the four;

b) the three;

c) the five

11. The Germanic family of languages includes:

a) Danish, Swedish, German and French;

b) Danish, Swedish, German and Yiddish;

c) Danish, Dutch, English and Portuguese.

12. The Romans language include

a) Italian, French, Spanish and Romanian ;

b) Italian, French, Portuguese and English;

c) Italian, French, Spanish and Serbian.

13. The Slavic languages include

a) Russian, Ukrainian, Czech and Romanian;

b) Belorussian, Polish, Serbian and Macedonian;

c) Groatin, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Icelandic.

14. Most European languages use

a) the Cyrillic alphabet;

b) the Latin alphabet;

c) have their own alphabet.

15. The mother tongues spoken by most people in Europe are ______in that order.

a) German, English, French, Italian, Russian;

b) Italian, French, German, English, Russian;

c) Russian, English, German, French, Italian

16. The non-European languages most widely used on European territory are

a) Japanese, Arabic and Farsi;

b) Arabic, Chinese and Hindi;

c) Arabic, Maori and Pushtu.

17. Russia has by far the highest number of languages spoken on its territory: from

a) 140 to200;

b) 130 to 200;

c) 160 to 200

18. Within the Celtic family there are

a) Irish, Scots, Gaelic;

b) Welsh, English, Irish;

c) Irish, Scots, Gaelic, Welsh and Breton.

19. The five languages spoken by most people in Europe are

a) Russian, German, English, French and Italian;

b) Russian, Ukrainian, English, French, Italian;

c) Russian, Frisian, Spanish, French, Italian.

20. Separate families with only one member are

a) Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian;

b) Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian;

c) Greek, Albanian and Armenian.

21. The 49 states parties to the European Cultural Convention have ______official or national languages.

a) 41;

b) 42;

c) 43

22) Some regional and minority languages have obtained official status

a) Welsh, Cornish and many in France;

b) Basque, Catalan and Galician in Spain;

c) Frisian, Sami in Netherlands.

23. Language is

a) a system of sounds and words;

b) an arbitrary system of sounds and symbols;

c) a system of words.

24. Europe has become largely multilingual: in London ______languages are spoken.

a) some 300;

b) some 400;

c) some 50

25. The European Year of Languages was organized by

a) the Council of Europe;

b) the European Center for modern languages;

c) the Council of Europe and the European Union.