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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 4.4 | Chapter 4.5.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Mencken, what did the first generations born in the New World value as a virtue over enterprise and resourcefulness?
(a) Ingenuity.
(b) Temperance.
(c) Niceness.
(d) Courage.

2. Which is the second factor that Mencken identifies as an impediment to the growth of the American language in Chapter 3.1?
(a) Lack of a national literature.
(b) Regional diversity.
(c) Territorial expansiveness.
(d) Political disharmony.

3. What country's works dominated the reading habits of the American colonists in the latter 18th century?
(a) France.
(b) England.
(c) Germany.
(d) Denmark.

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

5. Who is the author of "Travels in North America," published in 1827?
(a) Charles Astor Bristed.
(b) Louis Untermeyer.
(c) Basil Hall.
(d) Henry Alford.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Mencken, which title is subject to the greatest divergence in usage?

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

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

4. What Anglo-Saxon word does Mencken report the colonists refused to replace with an Old Norse word of similar meaning?

5. What "Anglomaniac affectation" did Noah Webster sneer at in 1789?

(see the answer key)

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