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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. What "great humorist" does Mencken cite in Chapter 1.3 as "celebrating 'the vigorous new vernacular of the occidental plains and mountains'"?
(a) Mark Twain.
(b) John Fiske.
(c) William Dean Howells.
(d) Samuel Elridge.

2. 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>Daily Herald</i>.
(c) The <i>Illustrated London News</i>.
(d) The <i>Daily News</i>.

3. Which of the following did the African slaves NOT introduce to American English?
(a) Goober.
(b) Banjo.
(c) Voodoo.
(d) Gumbo.

4. 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) Publishing.
(b) Travel.
(c) Intercommunication.
(d) Localisms.

5. What "Anglomaniac affectation" did Noah Webster sneer at in 1789?
(a) Clinging to the silent "u" as in "honour."
(b) The recalcitrance to neologisms.
(c) The literature of Fowler.
(d) The broad "a."

Short Answer Questions

1. To what phrase did Benjamin Franklin, Noah Webster, and Robert Southey object as a base Americanism, as discussed in Chapter 2.3?

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

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

4. According to the tale spread by William Gifford, what language was supposed to be substituted for English during the Revolutionary War?

5. Who proposed a generally accepted nomenclature for currency in 1785?

(see the answer key)

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