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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 10.1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What language does Mencken quote Sidney Low as saying is not taught to English youth?
(a) Russian.
(b) Latin.
(c) American.
(d) Greek.

2. Mencken reports hearing of a German named "Knoche," who to avoid being called "Nokky," changed his name to what?
(a) Knowles.
(b) Nock.
(c) Nixon.
(d) Knox.

3. Which of the following is a term used by philologists to indicate the "instinctive search, etymologically unsound, for short roots in long words"?
(a) Etymanalyzing.
(b) Deconstructing.
(c) Formative de-synthesizing.
(d) Back-formation.

4. To what continent does Mencken attribute the acknowledgment of the differences between American and British English?
(a) North America.
(b) Asia.
(c) South America.
(d) Europe.

5. What word did Webster argue should have its vowel sound changed to "ee" instead of "eh"?
(a) Beer.
(b) Deaf.
(c) Heft.
(d) Beef.

Short Answer Questions

1. How is the "portmanteau-word" formed?

2. According to Mencken, what did the first generations born in the New World value as a virtue over enterprise and resourcefulness?

3. Into what was the French surname "Beauchamp" translated in America?

4. In what parts of language does Mencken say the "chief grammatical peculiarities" of spoken English are found?

5. For what word does Mencken say "incidence" is commonly mistaken to be a synonym?

(see the answer key)

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