Tests in “History of the English language

1.How many grammatical categories had OE noun?

A) 5

B) 7

D) 3

2.The weak verbs were subdivided into:

A) 3 classes

B) 10 classes

C) 7 classes

D) 5 classes

E) 4 classes

3. What was an old way of building the degrees of comparison?

A) vowel interchange

B) suppletion

C) suffixation, relation

D) Vowel gradation+ suffixation, suppletion, suffixation

E) Ablaut, declension

4.Dental suffix –d/-t was the marker of:

A) Participle II

B) Past tense form

C) Indefinite adjective

D) Participle I

E) Infinitive

5. What layer does the oldest part of the OE vocabulary constitute?

A) Common Germanic words, Latin borrowings

B) Specially OE words, Polish words

C) Common Indo-European words, French, American words

D) Common Germanic and Common Indo-European words and native words

E) Scandinavian borrowings, Russian terms

6.Which of the following words were English by origin:

A) king, queen

B) scholar, master

C) beef, mutton

D) opera-house, violin

E) kangaroo,boomerang

7.What way of word-formation did OE employ?

A) word stress, derivation, vowel interchange

B) prefixation, suffixation, word composition

C) derivation, word composition

D) conversion, suppletion

E) inverting, affixation

8. Prefixes were widely used in forming:

A) verbs

B) nouns

D) numerals

E) pronouns

10What does the “quantitative” vowel change mean?

A) changing of monophthongs into diphthongs

B) changing of short vowels into long ones and reverse process

C) changing of long vowels into diphthongs

D) change of one vowel into another in word forms

E) assimilation of sounds

11.What does the “qualitative” vowel change mean?

A) changing of short vowels into long ones and reverse process

B) changing of monophthongs into diphthongs and the reverse process

C) changing of long vowels into diphthongs

D) neutral sounds in unstressed position

E) change of the vowel into another one in word forms

12.. English belongs to the …

A) Turkic linguistic family

B) Teutonic linguistic family

C) Indo-European linguistic family

D) Caucasian linguistic family

E) Finno-Ugrian linguistic family

13.Who made a classification of Germanic tribes?

A) Chaucer

B) Caxton

C) Morton

D) Pliny the Elder

E) Plutarkh

14.The Proto Germanic language broke into branches towards the beginning of our era:

A) West Germanic, South Germanic

B) West Germanic, North Germanic, South Germanic

C) East Germanic, North Germanic, West Germanic

D) South Germanic, Old Saxon, New Icelandic

E) Gothic, Vindillian, High Germanic

15.Vocalisation of the consonants is

A) the Great vowel shift

B) monophthongs changed into diphthongs

C) the introduction of new consonants

D) the disappearance of consonants influencing the preceeding vowel

E) the disappearance of vowels at the end of the words

16.All long vowels are shortened in Middle English if they are found

A) before two consonants

B) before combinations of consonants such as mb, nd,ld

C) in an open syllable

D) before diphthongs

E) in such words as sprecan, cild, sceal etc.

17.All OE vowel phonemes can be traced back to

A) Indian language vowel phonemes

B) Latin language vowel phonemes

C) French language vowel phonemes

D) German language vowel phonemes

E) Common Germanic language vowel phonemes

18.What grammatical category of noun was the most stable one?

A) gender

B) case

D) genitive case

E) feminine gender

19.Common case is fusion of:

A) Nom., Gen., and Acc;

B) Nom., Acc., and Dat.;

C) Gen., Acc., and Dat.;

D) Gen., Vocative, Instrumental

E) Nom., Dat., prepositional

20.In ME and Early NE the word order was:

A) less free than in OE

B) inverted

C) direct and inverted

D) fixed

21.Which one of the following features of OE syntax was preserved in ME?

A) free word order

B) omission of some parts of the sentence

C) multiple negation

D) intensive development of complex sentences

E) the simplification of declension of pronouns

22.atelier, millionaire, technique, restaurant are words borrowed from

A) French in the XX c

B) Italian in the XX c

C) French in the XVI c

D) Latin in the VII c

E) Russian in the XX c

23.One of inner means of enriching vocabulary in New English period was

A) borrowing

B) extension

C) conversion

D) appearance of some words denoting some particular reality

E) lexicalization

24.What strata do English native words form?

A) The Scandinavian and the Indian strata

B) The American stratum and the African stratum

C) The Germanic and the Teutonic ones

D) The Icelandic and the Latin stratum

E) The Common Indo-European stratum and the Common Germanic stratum

25Who was the first book-printer in England?

A) Joan Gutenberg

B) William Caxton

C)Sir Thomas Eliot

D) Henry Sweet

E) Otto Jesperson

26.National language was based on:

A) Anglo-Norman dialect

B) Midland dialect

C) London dialect

D) High German

E) Mercian

27.The period of literary florescence in Late Middle English is known as:

A) the “age of Shakespeare”

B) the “age of Chaucer”

C) the “age of Renaissance”

D) the “age of war between White and Red roses”

E) the “age of Colonalisation”

28.Word stress was fixed in:

A) OE

B) ME

D) in words denoting objects

E) in Italian borrowings

29.How many parts of speech were there in OE noun?

A) 2

B) 5

D) 8

30.Etymological doublets are:

A) words the elements of which are of different origin

B) words developing from the same word or root, but which entered the language at different times of through different channels

C) words concerning science, medicine

D) words inherited from Common Germanic

E) words borrowed during a direct interchange and trade relations with people of the Roman Empire

31.In English a fixed word order was established in:

A) NE period

B) OE

D) the VII-VIII centuries

E) the 11^th century

32.because, salt seller, troublesome, recall, aimless are:

A) Etymological doublets

B) Scandinavian borrowing

C) Word-hybrids

D) Latin borrowings

E)Celtic words
33.Kentish is …

A) a subdivision of dialects spoken by Angles

B) the dialect spoken by Jutes

C) the dialect spoken by Saxons

D) the dialect spoken by Angles

E) the dialect spoken by Celtic-speaking peoples

34.Pidgin English was developed as a means of communication between

A) French and English learners

B) Russian and English cosmonauts

C) Chinese and English traders

D) Australian and English astrologists

E) Hawaii and Celtic tribes

35.Future Tense originated from combinations of

A) haben+ notional verb in NE period

B) duran/ witan+ Infinitive

C) cullan/ magan+ Infinitive at the end of ME

D) ben+ Infinitive at the beginning of OE period

E) sculan/willan + Infinitive at the end of OE period

1. What grammatical categories had OE verb?

A) tense, mood, person

B) tense, mood, person, number

C) tense, mood

D) voice, aspect, order

E) time- correlation, voice

2.The definite article developed form:

A) demonstrative pronoun

B) a numeral

C) indefinite pronoun

D) aspective verb

E) defining pronoun

3.What can you say about suffixes –ost/-est?

A) They were added to the noun to form plural.

B) They were added to the adjective to form the comparative degree.

C) They were added to the adjective to form the superlative degree.

D) They were added to the adjective to show the definiteness and indefiniteness

E) They were added to the adjective to express the number

4.Strong verbs form their preterite and participle II

A) by change of the root - vowel

B) by addition of a dental suffix –d/-t

C) by means of affixation

D) by loss of plosion

E) by addition of suffix –n/-en

5.Among Common Germanic words we find

A) names of some natural phenomena, plants and animals, agricultural terms

B) compound words consisting of two roots

C) words connected with nature, with sea and everyday life

D) words denoting medical appliances

E) bookish words

6.OE borrowings come from

A) Latin, French, Celtic

B) Celtic and Latin

C) Latin, Greek, French

D) American, Russian, Indian

E) Icelandic, Burgundian, Chinese

7.According to their morphological structure OE words fell into ________ main types:

A) 5

B) 3

D) 4

9When did the Great Vowel Shift happen?

A) 15-17 c

B) 14-17/18 c

C) 12-13/14 c

D) 20 th c

E) 7- 9/10 c

10How many short vowels in unstressed position were in ME?

A) 5

B) 3

D) 7

11.What is the subject of the history of English?

A) the history of its phonetic structure

B) the evolution of its grammatical system

C) the history of its phonetic structure, spelling, grammatical system, vocabulary.

D) the history of the people of the British Isles

E) the culture, geography, climate of the English speaking countries

12.One of the aims of the history of English is…

A) to show the difference between English and Latin

B) to provide a student with a knowledge of linguistic history of borrowings

C) to explain the fundamentals of structure of language with the latest developments in linguistics

D) to study the latest events in the history of the English people

E) to introduce the most important problems of the linguistics

13.The history of the Germanic group of languages begins with the …

A) Primitive Teutonic

B) Frisian

C) Northumbrian

D) Celtic

E) Iberian

14.How many signs were there in the runic alphabet?

A) 24

B) 33

D) 42

15.What is the date of introduction of printing?

A) 1066

B) 1708

D) 1066

16.Diphthongization means:

A) changing of the middle vowels into high ones, low once into middle

B) changing of back vowels into front ones

C) combination of neutral sound with front vowels

D) sounds more close

E) splitting of long vowels into two different sounds

17.When did the phonemes [ ], [dz], [f] appear in English?

A) in OE

B) in ME

D) in the 7^th c

E) In the middle of the 11^th c

18.Which part of speech gained more grammatical categories than other during ME and NE?

A) adjective

B) verb

D) pronoun

E) adverb

19.What was the source of the gerund?

A) verbal noun

B) Participle I

C) verbal noun, Participle

D) Infinitive

E) declinable nouns

20.East Germanic group of dialects spoken in Central Europe are

A) Norwegian, Slavonic, Swedish

B) Saxon, Frisian, West Gothic

C) English, Kentish, Holland

D) Old Gothic, Old Burgundian, old Vandalic

E) Icelandic, Old High Germanic, New Icelandic

21.In Old English there existed long consonants which are termed as

A) brokens

B) affricates

C) geminates

D) fricatives

E) intervocals

22.Old English adjectives could have two types of declining

A) definite and indefinite

B) strong, fixed

C) long and positive

D) superlative, comparative

E) positive and weak

23. “Frank’s casket” and “Ruthwell cross” are the first records witten

A) In Kentish dialect

B) by Chaucer in London dialect

C) By Alfred the Great

D) First OE inscriptions written in runic alphabet

E) OE records written in the so called “insular “alphabet

24.Inner history of the language is

A) the events of the people speaking the language affecting the language

B) the history of the people reflected in their language

C) the events of the group of people living on the British Isles

D) the description of the changes in the language itself, its grammar, phonetics, spelling, vocabulary

E) the description of the word-stock of the English language

25.In ME the use of ____ in verb patterns grew.

A) prepositions

B) modal verbs

C) auxiliary verbs

D) interjections

E) modal words

26.What is the date of Norman Conquest?

A) 1574

B) 1066

D)1755

27.How many language existed on the territory of England after the Norman Conquest?

A) 2 French and German

B) 1 English

C) 3 English, French and Latin

D) 4 French , Latin, Celtic, Iberian

E) 5 French , Dutch, Indo-European, Swedish, Latin

28.Diphthongization means:

A) changing of the middle vowels into high ones, low ones into middle

B) changing of back vowels into front ones

C) combination of neutral sound with front vowels

D) two sounds affecting the place of obstruction

E) the assimilated sounds retaining its major articulatory features

29.What is mutation?

A) It is the change of one vowel to another through the influence of a vowel in the succeeding syllable

B) The front vowels changed into diphthongs with a back glide when they stood before [h],[l],[ll],[r]

C) Short and long vowels were fronted and they split into several sounds.

D) Articulatory tendency typical of every language

E) voiceless consonants

30.What major dialects are recognized in Old English?

A) Frisian, Saxon, Humbrian

B) Sussex, South Saxon, Northumbrian

C) Jutes, English, London, Anglo-Saxon

D) East Anglia, Frisian, Germanic

E) Northumbrian, Mercian, Wessex, Kentish

31.What are the main historical events of the ME period?

A)Settlement of first Germanic tribes on the British Isles; establishment of the literary norm, Roman Conquest of Britain

B) Introduction of printing, geographical expansion of English, development of the system of stress

C) England conquered Canada, the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain

D) Scandinavian Invasion, Norman Conquest, Formation of the England national language

E) Emigration of English people to America, establishment of English as “a world language”

32The ancient population of the British Isles are called …

A) Iberians

B) Normans

C) Jutes

D) Angles

E) Frisians

33.Late Modern English dates from about

A) 1100

B) 1450

D) AD 449

E) 1660

34.… is a change in the articulation of vowels with respect to the positions assumed by the tongue and the lips.

B) Umlaut

C) Qualitative change

D) The Great Vowel Shift

E) Assimilation

35.OE Infinitive had the suffixes

A) –an, -enne

B ) –inde, and

C) –e –ed

D) – de,-len

E) – ira, -ist
Tests in” Theoretical grammar”

Test 1 Morphology

1The theoretical grammar is a science because it:

A). Explains fundamentals of structure of language in accordance with the latest developments in linguistics

B). Has its own object of investigation, aims and approaches of investigation

C). Introduces the most important problems of the grammatical structure of language

D). Studies the importance of grammatical structure

E). Initiates the students into the most important problems of the grammatical structure of language

A). To present a systematic study of the grammatical structure of Modern English and to introduce different views of language

B). To prescribe a set of normative rules based on the so-called standard English

C). To investigate different methods of teaching English

D). To help the students to learn as many words and phrases as possible

E). To help the learners of English language

A). to introduce different views of language

B). to develop the students ability to digest scientific information

C). to present a systematic study of the grammatical structure of language

D). to present the knowledge of the grammatical structure of language in terms of rules that should be obeyed

E). to teach the students the difference between the functional and notional parts of speech

A). Phonemic

B). Lexemic

C). Phrasemic

D). Prosemic

E). Proposemic

A). the manifestation of the system of language in the process of intercourse

B). a system of means of expression

C). a nominative unit of language

D). a context for itself

E). the hierarchy of language levels

A). the pre-normative grammar

B). the normative grammar

C). the prescriptive grammar

D). the classical scientific grammar

E). the textual linguistics

A). G.O.Curmc

B). M.A.K.Halliday

C). H.Sweet

D). J.Nesfield

E). W.Bullokar

A). It is the smallest meaningful segmental component of the word

B). It is a nominative unit of language

C). It is the form of the word which expresses the grammatical meaning

D). It is a class of lexemes characterized by some specific features

E). It is a class of words which have their variants of own

E). A phrase

9.What are the main characteristics of the notional parts of speech?

A). They unite words of complete nominating meaning and are unchangeable

B). They unite words of incomplete nominating meaning and are unchangeable

C). They unite words of complete nominating meaning, they are changeable, they play independent functions in the sentence

D). They are changeable, unite words of incomplete nominating meaning, play independent function in the sentence.

E). They are immediate parts of phrases

B). a significance of a certain relation expressed by a dependent part of a word

C). A system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of

paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms

D). a grammatical category

E). a grammatical construction

A). 4 classes and 15 groups

B). Animate and inanimate

C). Perfect and non-perfect

D). Passive and active

E ).Continuous and non-continuous

A). Meaning, form and semantic

B). Meaning, form and function

C). Grammatical meaning, grammatical form and grammatical category

D). Exchangeability, combinability and nominating meaning

E). Independence of the other grammatical categories

A). It shows if the action is associated with one doer or with many

B). It reflects the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from (lie

speaker's point of view

C). It presents an action as associated by the speaking person with himself or

persons addressed or others

D). It shows if the action is taken in its progress, or it's simply stated, its nature

being unspecified.

E) whether the action is done once or more times

14.English is...

A). mainly an analytical language

B). a synthetic language

C). an agglutinative language

D). an asyndeton language

E)$ 21A. an Asian language

A). morphology and phrase

B). morphology and sentence

C). Morpheme and word

D). Morphology and syntax "

E). Syntax and text

A). It is the smallest segmental component of the word

B). It is a nominative unit of language

C). It is the form of the word which expresses the grammatical meaning

D). It is a class of lexemes characterized by some specific features

E). It is a type of word form derivation

A). play -plays-playing

B). give-gave-given

C). be-was-were-been

D). have been working

E). was going

A). A root morpheme and a suffix

B). A root morpheme and an overt

C). A root morpheme and derivational morphemes

D). Inner inflexion and outer inflexion

E). A root morpheme and a bound one

A). are used to derive new words

B). are unchangeable

C). convey the fundamental lexical meaning of the word

D). are self-dependent

E). are inconvenient

A). It is a combination of some words and parts of speech

B). It is the smallest part of the morpheme

C). It is a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms

D). It is the significance of a certain relation expressed by a dependent part of a word

E). It is the meaning of the correlated words

A). A grammatical form

B). A grammatical meaning

C). A grammatical category

D). A sentence

E). A coexistence of words and morphemes

A). A grammatical form

B). A grammatical meaning

C). A grammatical category

D). A sentence