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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 10.1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What leads most of the studies of the sounds of the American common speech astray, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.10?
(a) A lack of scope.
(b) English conventionalism.
(c) Individualistic interpretation.
(d) Laziness.

2. Which reporter first brings colloquial Americanisms to the written word, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.2?
(a) Ring W. Lardner.
(b) Josh Billings.
(c) George Ade.
(d) J.C. Neal.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What word did the editor of the Westminster Gazette substitute for the incomprehensible dash in the mangled Americanism of Rupert Brooke?

2. What letter, when preceding a consonant, greatly irritated Henry James like a "morose grinding of the back teeth?"

3. What is the English meaning of the phrase "to carry on"?

4. What notable author was the first Englishman to carry Americanisms successfully back to his home?

5. Which of the following is not one of the minor differences Mencken lists in Chapter 8.7?

(see the answer key)

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