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H. L. Mencken

The American Language Quiz

H. L. Mencken
This Study Guide consists of approximately 123 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The American Language.

The American Language Quiz

Students: Take our free The American Language quiz below, with 25 multiple choice questions that help you test your knowledge. Determine which chapters, themes and styles you already know and what you need to study for your upcoming essay, midterm, or final exam. Take the free quiz now!

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1)

Which of the following was not used as a substitute for the once indecent term, for highly refined ears, "bull"? (from Chapter 4.4 | Chapter 4.5)

Gentleman-cow.
Male-cow.
Cow-creature.
Standing-cow.
2)

Which of the following does Mencken not list as a once-slang word turned into one commonly accepted? (from Chapter 11.1)

Nice.
Frugal.
Proposition.
Awful.
3)

Mencken describes the American language as having a "democratic enmity" to all what, in the beginning of Chapter 6.1? (from Chapter 6.1 | Chapter 6.2)

Authority.
Regulation.
Grammatical rules.
Individualism.
4)

What is the English meaning of the phrase "to carry on"? (from Chapter 5.1 | Chapter 5.2)

To talk endlessly.
To raise hell.
To shoulder one's pack.
To be on the job.
5)

What word best describes the English attitude towards the adoption of foreign loan-words, in contrast to the American attitude? (from Chapter 6.3 | Chapter 6.4)

Tolerating.
Accepting.
Conservative.
Liberal.
6)

Which 1914 English dictionary made many important concessions to American spellings? (from Chapter 8.3 | Chapter 8.4)

The New English Dictionary.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary.
The Cambridge Fleet Edition.
The London Pocket Dictionary.
7)

Which phrase did Oliver Wendell Holmes use to describe the state of the person who makes use of slang? (from Chapter 11.1)

Intellectual alacrity.
Bumbling idiocy.
Creative genius.
Mental atrophy.
8)

From what newspaper does Mencken derive the story with which he opens Chapter 11.2? (from Chapter 11.2)

The Baltimore Sun.
The Los Angeles Times.
The New York Tribune.
The Boston Herald.
9)

In what year did Noah Webster die? (from Chapter 8.1 | Chapter 8.2)

1898.
1799.
1912.
1843.
10)

According to Mencken, democratic government is essentially government by whom? (from Chapter 6.1 | Chapter 6.2)

The working class.
Businessmen.
Amateurs.
Politicians.
11)

In what sort of languages are double negatives "perfectly allowable"? (from Chapter 9.8 | Chapter 9.9)

Teutonic.
Semitic.
Asiatic.
Romance.
12)

According to Mencken, which of the following does "one American professor of English" predict will become a spelling form of the future? (from Chapter 8.5 | Chapter 8.6)

Fotograf.
Cigar.
Tyre.
Socks.
13)

What purpose does Miss Wittmann say is served by the shortening of word forms? (from Chapter 6.3 | Chapter 6.4)

Color.
Convenience.
None.
Creativity.
14)

Which country does Mencken state has a fondness for using surnames as given names? (from Chapter 10.2)

America.
England.
Mexico.
Canada.
15)

What class of Americans is most influenced by Briticisms, according to Mencken in Chapter 5.2? (from Chapter 5.1 | Chapter 5.2)

The middle-class.
The poor.
The vulgar.
The fashionable.
16)

Which adjectival prefix does Mencken state is confined to the more sophisticated classes? (from Chapter 9.6 | Chapter 9.7)

Super-.
Pen-.
Ante-.
Ultra-.
17)

Which two letters did the American ethnologist McGee insist were his first name and should not be followed by periods? (from Chapter 10.2)

WJ.
AD.
EL.
TJ.
18)

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? (from Chapter 9.2 | Chapter 9.3)

Aberrations.
Regulations.
Corruptions.
Innovations.
19)

Which of the following is often used in England to designate a thoroughfare? (from Chapter 10.4)

Boulevard.
Lane.
Avenue.
Drive.
20)

What was the common, popular American slang word used for Germans during the First World War, according to Mencken? (from Chapter 11.2)

Kraut.
Jerry.
Boche.
Hun.
21)

What principle of spelling was behind much of Webster's theory concerning the simplification of spelling? (from Chapter 8.1 | Chapter 8.2)

Vowel accentuation.
Flexibility.
Convention.
Phonetics.
22)

What sort of distinction frequently occurs between an adverb and its primary adjective? (from Chapter 9.4 | Chapter 9.5)

Lexical.
Syntactical.
Pronunciation.
Numerical.
23)

Who was responsible for the endowment to the Simplified Spelling Board? (from Chapter 8.5 | Chapter 8.6)

Adrian Knox.
Horace Hart.
Andrew Carnegie.
Noah Webster.
24)

According to the study of E.J. Hills, how many descriptive adjectives are possessed by the average child of two? (from Chapter 9.6 | Chapter 9.7)

173.
59.
23.
72.
25)

Which Founding Father coined the term "to belittle"? (from Chapter 5.1 | Chapter 5.2)

Thomas Jefferson.
Benjamin Franklin.
James Madison.
Alexander Hamilton.
Copyrights
The American Language from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.
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