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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3.1 | Chapter 3.2.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is the author of "Travels in North America," published in 1827?
(a) Henry Alford.
(b) Louis Untermeyer.
(c) Basil Hall.
(d) Charles Astor Bristed.

2. Which is the second factor that Mencken identifies as an impediment to the growth of the American language in Chapter 3.1?
(a) Territorial expansiveness.
(b) Lack of a national literature.
(c) Regional diversity.
(d) Political disharmony.

3. What term did John Witherspoon coin, framing it within the context of vulgarity?
(a) Briticism.
(b) Scientist.
(c) Anglophile.
(d) Americanism.

4. Which European language has exerted the most influence on the American language?
(a) Italian.
(b) German.
(c) Spanish.
(d) French.

5. How many dialects dominate American English, according to Chapter 1.5?
(a) Ten.
(b) None.
(c) Two.
(d) Four.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Mencken state is neglected by those who are professional trained to investigate it?

2. What use of storage was added to the American meaning of the word "barn?"

3. What "great humorist" does Mencken cite in Chapter 1.3 as "celebrating 'the vigorous new vernacular of the occidental plains and mountains'"?

4. Whose clarity of prevision does Mencken praise in the opening of Chapter 1.1?

5. To what phrase did Benjamin Franklin, Noah Webster, and Robert Southey object as a base Americanism, as discussed in Chapter 2.3?

(see the answer key)

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