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History of English test 2023

Total questions: 50

Worksheet time: 2hrs 40mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

Which Old English verb class combined the paradigm of both strong and weak verbs?

a)

Suppletive

b)

Irregular

c)

Anomalous

d)

Preterite-Present

2.

Which Old English adjective had suppletive forms for positive, comparative, and superlative degrees?

a)

lang

b)

smæl

c)

feorr

d)

miċel

3.

What is the present participle ending for nearly all Old English verbs?

a)

-inde

b)

-ande

c)

-iende

d)

-ende

4.

What is the estimated size of the Common Germanic vocabulary?

a)

Roughly 15,000 words

b)

Roughly 26,000 word forms documented

c)

Roughly 3,000 words

d)

Roughly 7,000 words

5.

Who introduced the printing press in England and became the first book retailer?

a)

William Caxton

b)

Thomas Wyatt

c)

Christopher Marlowe

d)

John Milton

6.

Which event lasted for 18 months and ravaged a quarter of London's population in 1665?

a)

The Restoration

b)

The Great Fire of London

c)

The Great Plague

d)

The Civil War

7.

What was the effect of the printing press on English during the Early Modern English period?

a)

Decreased literacy and spread of knowledge

b)

Standardization of spelling and punctuation

c)

Development of popular literature

d)

Decreased popularity of literature

8.

Which vowel distinction appeared in Early Modern English, for example, in words like 'cut' and 'put'?

a)

/ɪ/ and /iː/

b)

/ʌ/ and /ʊ/

c)

/ɛ/ and /æ/

d)

/ɑ/ and /ɔ/

9.

Which vowel sound evolved from /zj/ in Early Modern English, for example, in words like 'measure'?

a)

/ʓ/

b)

/ʊ/

c)

/ɛ/

d)

/ɪ/

10.

Which one of these Old English inflections survived into Middle English?

a)

-ian

b)

-eth

c)

-um

d)

-an

11.

Which was the official language of the Church in the Middle English period?

a)

English

b)

Latin

c)

French

d)

Spanish

12.

Which French spelling became a noticeable feature of English words?

a)

cw

b)

qu

c)

kw

d)

cu

13.

What preceding sound does a final 'e' come to show in Middle English period?

a)

A voiceless consonant

b)

A nasal consonant

c)

A long vowel

d)

A short vowel

14.

Which language is the source of the pronouns they and them?

a)

Old English

b)

Old Norse

c)

Old Saxon

d)

French

15.

What form of the verb develops during the Middle English period?

a)

Continuous

b)

Infinitive

c)

Past tense

d)

Subjunctive

16.

What word class became important when inflections were lost?

a)

Conjunction

b)

Auxiliary verb

c)

Preposition

d)

Pronoun

17.

Which vowels were affected by the Great Vowels Shift?

a)

Short vowels

b)

Long vowels

c)

Diphthongs

d)

Triphthongs

18.

Which one of these words would most closely resemble the way time was pronounced before the Great Vowel Shift?

a)

Teem

b)

Tim

c)

Tame

d)

Tem

19.

What are the four main dialects of old English?

a)

Southern

Kentish

East Midlands

West Midlands

b)

Northern

Northumbrian

Kentish

West Midlands

c)

Mercian

Northumbrian

Kentish

West Saxon

d)

Northumbrian

West Saxon

Mercian

East Midlands

20.

In what year was the transition from Old English to Middle English started?

a)

In the 1606

b)

In the 1066

c)

In the 1600

d)

In the 1660

21.
The words Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are derived from the names of 
a)
Celtic gods
b)
Anglo-saxon gods
c)
Roman gods
d)
legendary kings
22.

What is the term used to describe what is happening when Shakespeare uses grace as a verb?

a)

Conversion

b)

Transfer

c)

Metaphor

d)

Simile

23.

Which area of language did Shakespeare most influence?

a)

Grammar

b)

Vocabulary

c)

Spelling

d)

Pronunciation

24.

In Middle English, two consecutive vowels show what?

a)

that the vowel is long

b)

that the vowel is short

c)

that the vowel is mute

25.

Which of these words are derived from French?

a)

cow

b)

pig

c)

pork

d)

beef

26.

The Great Vowel Shift happened during ___ period.

a)

Old English

b)

Middle English

c)

Early Modern English

27.

Old English metaphorical, compound-word descriptions used to replace a noun is a ___ .

a)

Kenning

b)

Alliteration

c)

Assonance

d)

Consonance

28.

In "The droghte of March hath perced to the roote"

What is the linguistic relevance of the underlined phrase?

a)

the verbal category of the 3rd person appears in the ME period

b)

the analytical forms start appearing in the ME period

c)

French loanwords start to be used as auxiliaries

d)

the loss of "" (thorn) rune has led phonetic change in pronunciation from /s/ to /th/

29.

In "And smale foweles maken melodye"

the underlined word is a:

a)

weak singular adjective

b)

strong plural adjective

c)

comparative adjective

d)

present participle

30.

In "That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke"

the undelined word is:

a)

an infinitive

b)

a past participle

c)

past plural

d)

plural noun

31.

In "And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes" and "The hooly blisful martir for to seke" the underlined phrases:

a)

contain infinitives formed from strong and weak verbs

b)

reflect variants of the same grammatical form

c)

show that Middle English had singular and plural forms of infinitive

d)

show coincidental forms of an infinitival particle and preposition of direction

32.

In the following line "hath perced to the roote,"

The underlined word is pronounced (in IPA):

a)

/roːtə/

b)

/ruːtə/

c)

/rʊt/

d)

/ruːt/

33.

Which describes the form of the underlined word:


hē swā feor norþ swā þā hwælhuntan firrest faraþ

a)

comparative degree

b)

2nd person singular verb

c)

plural noun

d)

superlative degree

34.

Which describes the nature of the underlined phrase:

"O, that I were a glove upon that hand, "

a)

past simple plural

b)

past simple singular

c)

subjunctive

d)

imperative

35.

What accounts for the difference in pronunciation of the underlined word in Chaucer's "whan that they were seeke", and Shakespeare's "Who is already sick and pale with grief"

a)

Great Vowel Shift

b)

Germanic umlaut

c)

Indo-European ablaut

d)

Grimm's law

36.

What explains that equivalents to the word 'þrīe' in other Indo-European languages have 'T' as the first sound (три, tres, trois) ?

a)

Great Vowel Shift

b)

Norman Conquest

c)

Grimm's law

d)

Ablaut

37.

In "O, swear not by the moon" and "Do not swear at all" the underlined phrases:

a)

contain negatives from present and future

b)

reflect variants of the same grammatical form

c)

come from different periods of English language

d)

contain an emphatic and a non-emphatic form

38.

In Shakespeare's English the underlined words in lines

"were he not Romeo call'd" and "You are looked for and called for"

a)

were pronounced the same

b)

were pronounced differently

c)

were different grammatical forms

d)

had the same number of syllables

39.

In the following line "A knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,"

The underlined word is pronounced (in IPA):

a)

/naɪt/

b)

/knaɪt/

c)

/knixt/

d)

/nixt/

40.

Which feature of Old English poetic language is represented in the underlined words:

Grendel gongan, godes yrre bær

a)

kennings

b)

alliteration

c)

repetition

d)

subjunctive

41.

In "Bifil that in that seson on a day'

what is the linguistic significance of the underlined portion:

a)

Middle English past participles normally preceded auxiliaries in analytical forms

b)

Inversion appeared in Middle English as a result of development of analytical forms

c)

Middle English preferred VSO over SVO word order

d)

Middle English allowed for the verb to precede the subject with no change in emphasis

42.

What is the name of the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet?

a)

Futhorc

b)

Elder Futhark

c)

Beowulf

d)

Wessex

43.

What phonological process is behind singular mūs becoming plural mȳs?

a)

Ablaut

b)

Umlaut

c)

Grimm's law

d)

Verner's law

44.

Which classes of Old English verb formed past through a dental suffix?

a)

weak

b)

strong

c)

preterite-present

d)

suppletive

45.

Which of the following are etymological doublets?

a)

skirt / shirt

b)

right / wrong

c)

brother / friar

d)

wish / desire

46.

Which of the following is an example of metathesis?

a)

wæps to wasp

b)

þunor to thonder

c)

hnecca to nekka

d)

fēolaga to felawe

47.

In "So priketh hem Nature in hir corages"

the underlined word is:

a)

a French loanword

b)

a native English 3rd person singular pronoun

c)

of Scandinavian origin

d)

a native English 3rd person plural pronoun

48.

In "Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne"

the underlined word:

a)

has a perfective prefix

b)

is a weak verb

c)

is a borrowing from German

d)

has Germanic umlaut

49.

Which describes the nature of the underlined phrase:

If they do see thee, they will murder thee.

a)

future tense

b)

emphatic form

c)

non-emphatic present

d)

imperative

50.

Identify the correct transformations from Old English to Middle English.

a)

fisc > fish

b)

naut> note

c)

stan> ston

d)

nama > name