The English spoken across the Atlantic nevertheless began to receive

Question

The English spoken across the Atlantic nevertheless began to receive admiring commentaries from British visitors. William Eddis, who toured the colonies in 1770, was surprised to find that 'the language of the immediate descendants of such a promiscuous ancestry is perfectly uniform, and unadulterated; nor has it borrowed any provincial, or national accent, from its British or foreign parentage.

A few years later, another visitor noted; 'It is a curious fact that there is perhaps no one portion of the British empire, in which two or three millions of persons speak their mother-tongue with greater purity, or a truer pronunciation, than the white inhabitants of the United States. And even John Witherspoon noted that 'the vulgar in America speak much better than the vulgar in England.’

L. Dillard has suggested that the colonists created a koine language-a kind of standardized dialect that often emerges among a group of emigrants speaking various dialects of one basic language. When the colonists came to North America, they left behind their old social order, including the social rankings of dialects. They came in contact with a wide range of other languages: the foreign tongues of the maritime trade, the Creoles of slaves, the languages of the Indians. These influences accelerated the breakdown of the colonists' English regional dialects and resulted in the formation of a naturally standardized American speech pattern, which British visitors later discovered and praised.

English opinions of American speech, of course, were of relatively little interest to the colonists, who quite impolitely proceeded to separate themselves from the empire. In the aftermath of the Revolution, there was understandably even less of an urge to subscribe to English authority, in matters of language or anything else, and the Americans embarked on a period of furious growth, industry and, occasionally, romanticism.    1 
 1. The author of this passage points out that favorable appraisals by the English of the qualities of American speech:

A. were encouraging to American colonists, who accelerated the breakdown of English dialects
B. were of little interest to American colonists, who energetically promoted the formation of a standard speech
C. were increasingly sensitive to the dialectal divergence of the colonists' speech patterns from the standard language
D. reflected the admiration of English visitors for the uniformity and purity of the Americans' language
E. derived from the English visitors' comparison of the language of the mercantile classes and the language of the vulgar in America

2 
 2. The author provides information that would answer which of the following questions?

A. Which expressions of English authority in matters of language did the colonists ignore in their creation of American English?
B. Which circumstances induced the colonists to create a standardized speech with remarkable pronunciation and purity of usage?
C. Which factors-geographic or linguistic-contributed most definitively to the colonists' creation of a new speech pattern?
D. Which opinions of Americans concerning English speech were reflected in the vernacular?
E. Which factors predisposed American speakers to vulgarity in speech?

3 
 3. A promiscuous ancestry is one that is:

A. vulgar
B. mixed
C. licentious
D. homogeneous
E. differentiated according to social rank

4 
 4. The approving commentary of English visitors to the American colonies on the quality of the language spoken by the colonists reflects:

A. gratification
B. provincial bias
C. mystified surprise
D. fulfilled expectation
E. self-congratulatory class prejudice

RC Butler 2022  -  Practice Two RC Passages Everyday.   
Passage # 240 Date: 15-Jun-2022
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paragamrutkar · Answer

1. The author of this passage points out that favorable appraisals by the English of the qualities of American speech:

A. were encouraging to American colonists, who accelerated the breakdown of English dialects - English opinions of American speech were of relatively little interest to the colonists.
B. were of little interest to American colonists, who energetically promoted the formation of a standard speech - The first part of this option is correct. However, there is no mention of the promotion of a standard speech by the colonists. 
C. were increasingly sensitive to the dialectal divergence of the colonists' speech patterns from the standard language - Colonists admired the standardized language. 
D. reflected the admiration of English visitors for the uniformity and purity of the Americans' language - CORRECT -  William Eddis, who toured the colonies in 1770, was surprised to find that 'the language of the immediate descendants of such a promiscuous ancestry is perfectly uniform and unadulterated.  ✅
E. derived from the English visitors' comparison of the language of the mercantile classes and the language of the vulgar in America - No such comparison is stated in the passage.

2. The author provides information that would answer which of the following questions?

A. Which expressions of English authority in matters of language did the colonists ignore in their creation of American English?
B. Which circumstances induced the colonists to create a standardized speech with remarkable pronunciation and purity of usage? - CORRECT -   The third paragraph mentions the circumstances that led to the creation of a koine language.   ✅
C. Which factors-geographic or linguistic-contributed most definitively to the colonists' creation of a new speech pattern?
D. Which opinions of Americans concerning English speech were reflected in the vernacular?
E. Which factors predisposed American speakers to vulgarity in speech?

3. A promiscuous ancestry is one that is:

A. vulgar
B. mixed - CORRECT -  Promiscuous means consisting of a wide range of different things/dialects.  ✅
C. licentious
D. homogeneous
E. differentiated according to social rank

4. The approving commentary of English visitors to the American colonies on the quality of the language spoken by the colonists reflects:

A. gratification
B. provincial bias
C. mystified surprise - CORRECT -  "William Eddis  was surprised  to find ......"   ✅
D. fulfilled expectation
E. self-congratulatory class prejudice

The English spoken across the Atlantic nevertheless began to receive

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The English spoken across the Atlantic nevertheless began to receive

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