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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.10.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What class of Americans is most influenced by Briticisms, according to Mencken in Chapter 5.2?
(a) The vulgar.
(b) The middle-class.
(c) The fashionable.
(d) The poor.

2. According to Mencken, how do the English pronounce "been?"
(a) Bean.
(b) Bain.
(c) Bin.
(d) Bein.

3. According to the tale spread by William Gifford, what language was supposed to be substituted for English during the Revolutionary War?
(a) French.
(b) Spanish.
(c) Hebrew.
(d) Latin.

4. What event does Mencken credit with strengthening the obfuscation of distinction between American and British English?
(a) The advent of the transatlantic telephone line.
(b) The First World War.
(c) The bombing of London.
(d) The French Revolution.

5. What is the physical basis to which the nasal twang of Americans is ascribed?
(a) The dry climate.
(b) The moist climate.
(c) Genetic diversity.
(d) Colder air.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word in American is used for the English word "shoe?"

2. What is the American substitute for the English word "tin"?

3. Which of the following was not used as a substitute for the once indecent term, for highly refined ears, "bull"?

4. What is the name of the professor who advocates the assimilation and alteration of the spelling and accentuation of foreign words?

5. According to Dr. Louise Pound, what do Latin plurals tend to become in colloquial American?

(see the answer key)

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