View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What is the English meaning of the phrase "to carry on"?
(a) To shoulder one's pack.
(b) To be on the job.
(c) To raise hell.
(d) To talk endlessly.

4. Which European language has exerted the most influence on the American language?
(a) Italian.
(b) French.
(c) Spanish.
(d) German.

5. Which of the following groups of foreign immigrants does Mencken not attribute influence over American English in Chapter 6.4?
(a) Italians.
(b) Russian Jews.
(c) Slavic peoples.
(d) South-Pacific Asian Islanders.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which reporter first brings colloquial Americanisms to the written word, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.2?

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

3. Which 1914 English dictionary made many important concessions to American spellings?

4. For which voiceless consonant is the voiced "d" substituting with growing regularity, according to Mearns?

5. Who "tries" a legal case in England?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 234 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample