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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 2.3 | Chapter 2.4.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to the tale spread by William Gifford, what language was supposed to be substituted for English during the Revolutionary War?
(a) Latin.
(b) Spanish.
(c) French.
(d) Hebrew.

2. What event does Mencken credit with strengthening the obfuscation of distinction between American and British English?
(a) The advent of the transatlantic telephone line.
(b) The bombing of London.
(c) The First World War.
(d) The French Revolution.

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

4. What term did John Witherspoon coin, framing it within the context of vulgarity?
(a) Anglophile.
(b) Scientist.
(c) Briticism.
(d) Americanism.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose clarity of prevision does Mencken praise in the opening of Chapter 1.1?

2. According to Mencken, what did the first generations born in the New World value as a virtue over enterprise and resourcefulness?

3. What word in American is used for the English word "shoe?"

4. Mencken claims that Noah Webster contains less of the scientific inquirer and more of what?

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

(see the answer key)

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