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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3.5 | Chapter 4.1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to the report of Beverley, what did a group of soldiers turn into after eating some Jimson Weed?
(a) Corpses.
(b) Fools.
(c) Zombies.
(d) Somnambulists.

2. According to Mencken at the beginning of Chapter 1.3, what do the novelists and newspapermen on either side of the Atlantic ocean delight in?
(a) Intercommunication.
(b) Localisms.
(c) Publishing.
(d) Travel.

3. Which London newspaper lamented the "menace" that American movies offer to the purity of the English language?
(a) The <i>Times</i>.
(b) The <i>Illustrated London News</i>.
(c) The <i>Daily Herald</i>.
(d) The <i>Daily News</i>.

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

5. Which term do English dictionaries all describe as an Americanism from the comparative list in Chapter 4.1, despite the English version being frequently used in America?
(a) Freight.
(b) Railroad.
(c) Rooster.
(d) Hog-pen.

Short Answer Questions

1. What term did John Witherspoon coin, framing it within the context of vulgarity?

2. To what continent does Mencken attribute the acknowledgment of the differences between American and British English?

3. Which is the first factor that Mencken identifies as an immediate impediment to the growth of the American language in Chapter 3.1?

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

5. Where was the broad "a" principally established prior to the Civil War?

(see the answer key)

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