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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 6.1 | Chapter 6.2.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What use of storage was added to the American meaning of the word "barn?"
(a) Horses.
(b) Crops.
(c) Chickens.
(d) Cattle.

2. According to Benjamin Franklin, what was roughly the population of the colonies in 1751?
(a) 50,000,000
(b) 1,000,000
(c) 500,000
(d) 10,000,000

3. Whom does Mencken use to exemplify the flouting of linguistic purity in Chapter 6.1?
(a) Famers.
(b) Working men.
(c) Professors.
(d) Politicians.

4. What does Mencken list as dominant the English alternative for the word "mail"?
(a) Shipping.
(b) Post.
(c) Letters.
(d) Postals.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What event does Mencken credit with strengthening the obfuscation of distinction between American and British English?

3. What does the English "secondary school" correspond to in American?

4. In what language did the American derivative "coyote" originate?

5. Which Founding Father is said to have sought to establish a new American alphabet?

(see the answer key)

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