Learning Languages
Name some varieties of English.
Australian, British, American, Canadian
What is the official name of the country?
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nothern Ireland
What happened in 1066?
The Normans came, William Duke of Normandy (the Conqueror) defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings
What are the synonyms to popular and quality papers.
tabloid, broadsheet
Which of the following authors belongs to the Lake Poets:
a) Lord G. G. Byron
b) Walter Scott
c) S. T. Coleridge
d) John Donne
c) S. T. Coleridge
Pride and Prejudice was written by
a) Mary Shelley
b) Jane Austen
c) Charlotte Bronte
d) Emily Bronte
b) Jane Austen
What are the main 4 differences between different varieties of English?
pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, grammar
Name the city of the Beatles and a famous football team.
Liverpool
Who was the Prime Minister during WW2?
Sir Winston Churchill
Give examples of 2 popular papers in the UK.
The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, The Sun, The Daily Mail
Who wrote Robinson Crusoe?
Daniel Defoe
Name at least three books written by Charles Dickens.
Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, The Pickwick Papers, A Christmas Carol
Which author helped establish Middle English in the 14th century?
Geoffrey Chaucer
What is the oldest British university?
Oxford university
Who was called “Iron Lady”?
Margaret Thatcher
Give examples of 2 quality papers in the USA.
The New York Times, The Washington Post
Name a long epic poem of conquest and bravery.
Beowulf
Name at least two books written by George Orwell?
Animal Farm, 1984, Down and Out in Paris and London
Provide American equivalents:
pavement, lift, colour, trousers, chips
sidewalk, elevator, color, pants, French fries
What is the name of the Roman fortification built in AD 122 to protect England’s northern boundary?
Hadrian's Wall
Who defeated Napoleon at Trafalgar in 1805?
Admiral Horatio Nelson
What does BBC mean?
British Broadcasting Corporation
Name an author who belongs to the literatry period of Revolution and Restoration?
John Milton
Name at least two British playwrights?
Oscar Wilde, G. B. Shaw, Samuel Beckett
What is “Cockney”?
Cockney is a dialect of English traditionally associated with working-class Londoners, characterized by distinctive pronunciation, vocabulary, and rhyming slang.
What is the highest peak in the UK? Where can you find it?
Ben Nevis, Scotland
Which nations invaded Britain before 1066? Name them in the right order.
(the Celts), the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings
What does CNN mean?
Cable News Network
Gulliver's Travels is mainly:
a) a fairy tale for children
b) a savage satire
c) romantic novel
d) adventure story
b) a savage satire
Who wrote Wuthering Heights?
Emily Brontë
Which language family and group does English belong to?
Indo-European language family, Germanic group
Which countries does the UK consist of? What are their capitals?
England: London
Wales: Cardiff
Scotland: Edinburgh
Nothern Ireland: Belfast
What happened during the reign of John the Lackland?
Magna Carta was signed in 1215
What was the world's first network called (in 1969).
ARPANET
What is an unfinished collection of comic and moral stories told by pilgrims while travelling to the grave of Thomas Becket in Canterbury called? Who is its author?
Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
Name an author using stream of consciousness technique and his/her work.
James Joyce (Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), Virginia Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse)
English was originally a flexible language but now it is a/an ______________ language. What does it mean?
flexible language: using conjugations and derivations
analytical language: using words without inner flexion but with a fixed word order
Name the seat of Archbishop, the place where Thomas Becket was murdered.
Canterbury
Who was the head of republican Britain after the Civil War?
Oliver Cromwell
Name the famous street connected with journalism in London.
Fleet Street
When and where was Willam Shakespeare born?
in April 1564 in Stradford-upon-Avon
Name at least two male authors of fantasy genre from the 20th century.
J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis
What are the origins of the following words:
geography, jungle, tea
Ancient Greek, Indian, Chinese
What is the longest river in the UK?
the Severn
Who is connected with the beginning of the Parliament?
Edward I of England
When was the first website and the first internet browser? (Tim Berners-Lee)
1990
How many plays did William Shakespeare write?
37
Who is the founder of science fiction and what did he write?
Herbert George Wells, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds