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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.2 | Chapter 9.3.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which Founding Father coined the term "to belittle"?
(a) James Madison.
(b) Alexander Hamilton.
(c) Thomas Jefferson.
(d) Benjamin Franklin.

2. According to Mencken, the English opposition to American spelling transcends the academic and takes on the character of what?
(a) The patriotic.
(b) The ethical.
(c) The religious.
(d) The political.

3. Who is apparently the first literary critic to point out the "enormous gap between the literate and unliterate American"?
(a) Allen Tate.
(b) Francis Hackett.
(c) I.A. Richards.
(d) Rene Wellek.

4. The prudish reluctance to name what sort of diseases hindered proper preventative information?
(a) Venereal.
(b) Cancerous.
(c) Psychological.
(d) Gastro-intestinal.

5. What word in American is used for the English word "shoe?"
(a) Footing.
(b) Slipper.
(c) Sandal.
(d) Boot.

Short Answer Questions

1. What moniker of currency has persisted in America despite having no currency properly of that name?

2. Lounsbury is reported as saying that, "The history of language, when looked at from the purely grammatical point of view, is little else than the history of" what?

3. Which London newspaper lamented the "menace" that American movies offer to the purity of the English language?

4. What American writer does Mencken claim likely inspired envy in British writers?

5. What does Sayce say that language is composed of in 1879?

(see the answer key)

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