Choose the most appropriate alternative to answer the questions below. Sometimes more than one alternative is possible.
УСР
1. Genetically, English belongs to the... group of languages.
a) Teutonic;
b) German;
c) Germanic;
d) British.
2. Historically, this group of languages goes back to the parent language variously called. a) West Germanic;
b) Common Germanic;
c) Primitive Teutonic;
d) Proto-Germanic.
3. This parent language later split into… groups of languages.
a) 2;
b) 3;
c) 4;
d) 5.
4. Modern languages of this group comprise such subgroups as... ..
a) North Germanic;
b) East Germanic;
c) West Germanic;
d) South Germanic.
5. English belongs to the... subgroup.
a) North Germanic;
b) East Germanic;
c) West Germanic;
d) South Germanic.
6. Henry Sweet suggested that the history of English should be divided into... periods.
a) 2;
b) 3;
c) 4;
d) 5.
7. However, modern scholars suggest... periods.
a) from 2 to 4;
b) from 3 to 4;
c) from 3 to 6;
d) from 3 to 7.
8. What factors are normally taken into consideration with the view to dividing English into periods?
a) linguistic only;
b) extralinguistic only;
c) linguistic and extralinguistic;
d) internal and external.
9. According to H. Sweet, the first period is referred to as the... (1), the second period as the... (2), and the third as the... (3).
a) period of pre-written English;
b) period of leveled endings;
c) period of lost endings;
d) period of full endings.
10. Typologically, OE was a (an)... (1) language while modern English is a(an)... (2) language.
a) morphological;
b) analytical;
c) syntactical;
d) synthetic.
11. What types of languages do Russian and Belarusian belong to?
a) morphological;
b) analytical;
c) syntactical;
d) synthetic.
12. OE vowel system included:.., both short and long.
a) front vowels;
b) back vowels;
c) diphthongs;
d) triphthongs.
13. Word stress in OE was normally... .
a) on the prefix;
b) fixed;
c) free;
d) on the suffix.
14. What law explains the following correspondences in the consonants? плот – OE flota, горе - OE care, ты - OE Þü.
a) Newton’s Law;
b) Grimm’s Law;
c) Verner’s Law;
d) The Great Vowel Shift.
15. What law illustrates these changes in modern consonants? death – dead,raise - rear,wife – wives.
a) Newton’s Law;
b) Grimm’s Law;
c) Verner’s Law;
d) The Great Vowel Shift.
16. What phonetic change is illustrated by these examples? werm – wearm, aehta - eahta, melcan – meolcan.
a) mutation;
b) gradation;
c) palatalization;
d) fracture.
17. What phonetic change is illustrated by these examples? rïsan – räs, faran – for, bëad - budon.
a) mutation;
b) gradation;
c) palatalization;
d) fracture.
18. What is this phonetic phenomenon called? sandian – sendan, namnian – nemnan, salian - sellan.
a) u-mutation;
b) i-mutation;
c) a-mutation;
d) o-mutation.
19. Which of these examples illustrate?
1) rhotacism;
2) velar mutation;
3) palatalization;
4) contraction.
a) slahan– sle:an;
b) efan- iefan;
c) hefon – heofon;
d) raise – rear.
20. What phonetic phenomenon do they reflect? sunu– sone, writon– written.
a) shortening of vowels;
b) the Great Vowel Shift;
c) leveling of unstressed vowels;
d) monophthongization of OE diphthongs.
21. How did English consonants differ from the vowels diachronically?
a) they proved more subjected to change;
b) they proved more stable;
c) they remained the same;
d) they changed little.
22. The development of which affricates is illustrated by these examples? ece, bryce, scëap, plea’sure, vi`soun.
a) [C];
b) [S];
c) [d];
d) [].
23. Whereas in OE fricatives were treated as 1) ..., in ME and early ModE they become 2) ... .
a) phonologized;
b) allophones;
c) independent phonemes;
d) positional variants.
24. In OE the opposition between geminated and short consonants was at the phonological level which means that ... .
a) the former depended on the environment;
b) the former did not depend on the environment;
c) the former were independent phonemes;
d) the former were allophones.
25. At the morphological level, the principal OE form-building means were... .
a) sound interchanges;
b) prefixes;
c) suppletive forms;
d) inflections.
26. OE nouns, adjectives and verbs consisted of such basic elements as ... .
a) the root;
b) the stem;
c) the stem-building affix;
d) the inflection.
27. Which parts of speech had the following grammatical categories?
1) number and case;
2) number, person, mood, tense;
3) number, case, gender, comparison;
4) persons, 3 numbers, gender.
a) personal pronouns;
b) nouns;
c) adjectives;
d) verb.
28. Which parts of speech during the OE period do they characterize?
1) vocalic stems, n-stems, s/r-stems, root stems;
2) strong, weak, preterite-present;
3) adjectival-pronominal;
4) definiteness –indefiniteness.
a) verbs
b) adjectives
c) nouns
d) the definite article.
29. Which parts of speech were thus affected by the reduction of endings during the ME period?
1) the distinction between strong and weak declension was lost; 2 endings were proved stable: -es, as;
2) a rise of analytical forms, perhaps, from double comparative and double superlative;
3) a rise of analytical formations as a continuation of the OE pattern ‘habban/beon, wesan + second participle”;
4) this part of speech is believed to have originated from the numeral and indefinite pronoun än.
a) nouns;
b) adjectives;
c) verbs;
d) the indefinite article.
30. The rise of which analytical forms do they illustrate?
1) He is on huntinge.
2) And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering?
3) Then hate me when thou wilt (desire).
4) For sefenn winnterr hafde he ben in Egypte.
a) perfect forms;
b) gerund;
c) simple future;
d) continuous forms.
31. Explain the origin of the components of this place-name:
STRATFORD-UPON –AVON
1) strat;
2) ford;
3) avon.
a) Celtic;
b) Latin;
c) OE;
d) Scandinavian.
32.What is theactual meaning of the word Oxford?
a) shallow water;
b) a stretch of shallow water on the river;
c) a stretch of shallow water for oxen to cross;
d) a stretch of broad shallow water for oxen to cross.
33. Since English, as a living language, is constantly changing, which changes take place faster than others? Arrange them from most to least fastest.
1) ... ;
2) ... ;
3) ... ;
4) ... .
a) phonetic;
b) phonemic;
c) lexical;
d) grammatical.
34.Choose the wrong member of the following series.
a) Yiddish;
b) Afrikaans;
c) Faroese;
d) Dutch;
e) Gothic.
35.This Germanic language is not spoken anymore.
a) Frankish;
b) Faroese;
c) Frisian;
d) Flemish.
36. TheGermanic language which has borrowed a lot of words from Hebrew and Slavic languages is... .
a) Frisian;
b) Flemish;
c) Yiddish;
d) Gothic.
37. The word SAGA deals with... folklore.
a) German;
b) English;
c) Gothic;
d) Scandinavian.
38. Account for the ancestor(s) of the Mercian dialect of OE.
a) Anglian;
b) Saxon;
c) Jutish;
d) Frisian.
39. Account for the successor(s) of the Northumbrian dialect in ME.
a) Scottish;
b) Northern;
c) Central;
d) East Midland.
40. Choose two features that correspond to the OE verb.
a) there was homonymy in the conjugation;
b) there were three tenses: Past, Present, Future;
c) only endings were employed in the paradigm of strong verbs;
d) weak verbs were the most numerous class of verbs.
41. Choose three statements that correspond to the common features of the Germanic languages.
a) strong and weak declension of the adjective;
b) changes in sounds formulated by Grimm’s Law;
c) changes in sounds due to breaking;
d) there are a number of words which occur only inside the Germanic group;
e) a bulk of verbs fall into regular and irregular.
42. Choose three phonetic processes that were typical of NE.
a) breaking;
b) qualitative change of the diphthongs [au] and [ai];
c) lengthening before the cluster “a sonorant and a plosive”;
d) development of diphthong due to the vocalization of [r];
e) loss of the fricatives [x] and [c].
43.Account for three processes typical of the development of the demonstrative pronoun.
a) simplification of the declension system;
b) reduction in the number of the grammatical categories;
c) reduction in the number of types of declension;
d) rise of a new part of speech;
e) development of analytical features.
44. Account for the time of the acquisition of the negative and interrogative forms of the Present and Past Simple Tense within the English verbal system.
a) Early ME;
b) Late ME;
c) Early NE;
d) Age of Correctness;
e) Age of Normalisation.
45. Account for the source of the acquisition of the Passive form within the English verbal system.
a) OE syntactical construction of the anomalous verb beon and participle II;
b) ME syntactical construction of the anomalous verb be and participle II;
c) OE syntactical construction of the anomalous verb weoðan and participle II;
d) ME syntactical construction of the anomalous verb werthen and Participle II;
e) OE syntactical construction with Mediopassive.
46. Account for the language that provided English with the largest number of loans.
a) French;
b) Scandinavian;
c) Latin;
d) Celtic;
e) Greek.
47. Account for the OE stem the following NE plural form of the noun oxen can be traced back to.
a) s-stem noun;
b) u-stem noun;
с) i-stem noun;
d) n-stem noun;
e) a-stem noun.
48.Decide which statement(s) is/are true.
a) in OE subordination was preferable to coordination;
b) repetition of connectives at the head of each clause was common in compound sentences in OE;
c) in ME correlation fell into disuse;
d) ME means of connecting clauses were less diverse than OE ones;
e) in NE the number of conjunctions grew and their use was normalized.
49.This Germanic language has no historical ties with the Netherlands.
a) Dutch;
b) Gothic;
c) Afrikaans;
d) Flemish.
50.The language that borrowed half of its vocabulary from French is... .
a) German;
b) English;
c) Dutch;
d) Yiddish.
51. This language has two main variants called High... and Low... .
a) Frisian;
b) Dutch;
c) German;
d) Swedish.
52.This European country was named after one of the Germanic tribes.
a) France;
b) Italy;
c) Spain;
d) Portugal.
53.Runic alphabet avoided... .
a) straight lines;
b) curved lines;
c) short lines;
d) long lines.
54. This historic event marked the transition from Old English to Middle English.
a) the departure of the Romans;
b) the Norman conquest;
c) Reformation;
d) Restoration.
55.There were... Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in Britain.
a) 3;
b) 5;
c) 7;
d) 9.
56.The variant of English which is believed to be the closest to the English language of the 17th- beginning of the 18 century is... .
a) Australian;
b) British;
c) American;
d) South African.
57.The variant of English spoken in the former British colonies in the Pacific and South- eastern Asia is called... .
a) Basic English;
b) Plain English;
c) Pidgin English;
d) Colonial English.
58. The classical translation of the Bible into the English language is called... .
a) King George’s Bible;
b) King Henry’s Bible;
c) King James’ Bible;
d) Queen Elisabeth’s Bible.
59. American English was first proclaimed to be an independent language by... .
a) William Caxton;
b) Noah Webster;
c) Geoffrey Chaucer;
d) George Washington.
60. The variant of English characterized by a very strong sound [r] is... .
a) American;
b) Australian;
c) Canadian;
d) Scottish.
61. Alfred the Great is normally given credit for... Cross out the skill he didn’t possess.
a) military skills;
b) diplomatic skills;
c) literary activities;
d) singing ability.
62.The Normans were originally from... .
a) France;
b) Scandinavia;
c) Northern Ireland;
d) Iberian peninsula.
63.According to its vocabulary English is partly a Germanic and partly a... language.
a) Celtic;
b) Romanic;
c) Slavonic;
d) Semitic.
64.The word which seems odd in the following list is... .
a) pig;
b) beef;
c) ram;
d) swine.
65. The greatest author of the Middle English period is... .
a) W. Shakespeare;
b) G. Chaucer;
c) E. Dickinson;
d) B. Dylan.
66. Whan that Aprille with his shores sote... is the beginning of... .
a) Romeo and Juliet;
b) Canterbury Tales;
c) Utopia;
d) Catch 22.
67.Among 3 main dialect groups in the English language of the 14th century there was no such group as... .
a) Northern;
b) Western;
c) Southern;
d) Midland.
68.English was first used in the English Parliament in... .
a) 11th century;
b) 12th century;
c) 13th century;
d) 14 th century.
69.The history of Middle English started at the battle of... .
a) Marne;
b) Gettysburg;
c) Hastings;
d) Stalingrad.
70. The phonetic phenomenon which happened during the Middle English period and made the English system of spelling differ a lot from the real pronunciation is called... .
a) The Great Vowel Shift;
b) Grimm’s Law;
c) Verner’s Law;
d) leveling of the endings.
71.English 3d person plural personal pronoun "they" is a... borrowing.
a) French;
b) Scandinavian;
c) Celtic;
d) Russian.
72. The first book printed in English was... .
a) the Bible;
b) Beowulf ;
c) Canterbury Tales;
d) Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.
73. The Midle English wordichcorresponds to the modern... .
a) ice;
b) inch;
c) I;
d) ache.
74. William Tyndaleis famous for his... .
a) poetry;
b) dictionary;
c) translation of the Bible;
d) English grammar.
75. The following sound first appeared in Middle English.
a) [g];
b) [f];
c) [dg];
d) [s].
76. The ways of expressing syntactical relations in Old English were... .
a) agreement;
b) government;
c) connection;
d) joining.
77. What secondary parts were not frequently found in OE texts?
a) parenthesis;
b) attribute;
c) apposition;
d) object.
78.The evolution of syntax was closely connected with... .
a) word order;
b) fixing of noun patterns;
c) decline of the inflectional system;
d) extensive use of prepositions.
79.Noun patterns became more fixed in... .
a) Shakespeare’s time;
b) Chaucer’s time;
c) Byron’s time;
d) Austin’s time.
80. The full extent of the OE vocabulary is... .
a) 30000 words;
b) 100000 words;
c) not known;
d) 600 words.
81. The 3 main layers of the native OE words were.
a) common IE words;
b) common Germanic words;
c) specifically OE words;
d) specifically Scandinavian words.
82. "Hlaford" is... .
a) a specific OE word;
b) a Scandinavian word;
c) a Celtic word;
d) a Latin word.
83. The word "Myln" is of... origin.
a) Latin;
b) French;
c) Scandinavian;
d) Celtic.
84. "R"was a typical... ending.
a) OE;
b) Celtic;
c) Scandinavian;
d) Roman.
85.The main language of philosophy and science in the 16th and 17th centuries was... .
a) Anglo-Norman;
b) Anglo-Saxon;
c) Greek;
d) Latin.
86. The word "intelligentsia" is of... origin.
a) Latin;
b) Russian;
c) Dutch;
d) Polish.
87.The word "tomato" is of... origin.
a) Spanish;
b) Russian;
c) Italian;
d) Belarusian.
88. What was double comparative used for?
a) emphasis;
b) periphrasis;
c) it didn’t exist;
d) comparison.
89.OE adjective didn’t have... ?
a) gender;
b) case;
c) number;
d) person.
90. Which category was not verbal?
a) tense;
b) mood;
c) number;
d) definiteness.
91. What happened to the stem-building suffix in OE?
a) it merged with case ending;
b) was lost;
c) nothing changed.
92. The reduction of declension began in... .
a) OE;
b) ME;
c) NW;
d) after 2000.
93. The ending –es was used in... .
a) dative sg and pl;
b) genitive sg and pl;
c) nominative sg and pl;
d) accusative sg and pl.
94.Identify the literary source: Fyrst forþ ewat: flota wæs on ÿðum… .
a) Beowulf;
b) Orosius’s Universal history;
c) Ecclesiastical History;
d) The Story of Isaac’s Deceit.
95. Identify the literary source: H cwð þt h bude on þm lande norþweardum… .
a) Beowulf;
b) Orosius’s Universal history;
c) Ecclesiastical History;
d) The Story of Isaac’s Deceit.
96.Identify the literary source: ‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy; - Thou art thyself though, not a Montague.
a) Romeo and Juliet;
b) The Merchant of Venice;
c) Hamlet;
d) The Tempest.
97. Identify the literary source: Will he tell vs what this shew meanes? I, or any shew you’le shew him. Be not afeard to shew, hee’le not be afeard to tell... .
a) Romeo and Juliet;
b) The Merchant of Venice;
c) Hamlet;
d) The Tempest.
98. ME [i:] was pronounced as [ei], [e:] as [i:], [a:] as [e:].This is the characteristics of... language.
a) Chaucer’s;
b) Shakespearean;
c) Caxton’s;
d) Marlowe’s.
99.The Scandinavian pronoun "þeir" superceded the OE pronoun "he" and became modern... .
a) their;
b) though;
c) the;
d) he.
100.Such words as lagu – law; wrang – wrong, husbonda –husband were borrowed from... .
a) Saxon;
b) Scottish;
c) Norman;
d) Scandinavian.
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