Test on “A Muse of Fire”

 

1. The title of this chapter is a quotation. What from? _________________________________

2. How many new words, according to the text, were added to English during the Renaissance?
___________________________________________________________________

3. What was then -  and is still – the language from which most scientific words are formed
___________________________________________________________________

4. What source language do the following words come from:

            a. portico ___________________________________________________________

            b. embargo __________________________________________________________

            c. detail _____________________________________________________________

5. What is meant by the expressions “inkhorn terms” and “plainnesse”

            ______________________________________________________________________

6. The text says: “Almost any word could be used in almost any part of speech”
give three examples:     a __________________________________________________

                                               b __________________________________________________

                                               c __________________________________________________

7. What is meant by “The Lost Colony”? __________________________________________

8. Finish the following sentence from the text:

            if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are ….”

            ______________________________________________________________________

9. What proof is there that Shakespeare’s works were not written – as some people suggest – by Christopher Marlowe? _______________________________________________________________________

            _______________________________________________________________________

10. How large was Shakespeare’s vocabulary? __________________________________________

11. What has Shakespeare’s English got to do with modern-day American English?

            _______________________________________________________________________