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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 6.1 | Chapter 6.2.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Whom does Mencken use to exemplify the flouting of linguistic purity in Chapter 6.1?
(a) Professors.
(b) Politicians.
(c) Famers.
(d) Working men.

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

3. Mencken describes the American language as having a "democratic enmity" to all what, in the beginning of Chapter 6.1?
(a) Authority.
(b) Regulation.
(c) Individualism.
(d) Grammatical rules.

4. What notable author was the first Englishman to carry Americanisms successfully back to his home?
(a) G.K. Chesterton.
(b) Charles Dickens.
(c) Cleveland Coxe.
(d) Joseph Conrad.

5. What Anglo-Saxon word does Mencken report the colonists refused to replace with an Old Norse word of similar meaning?
(a) Hale.
(b) Sick.
(c) Vapid.
(d) Ill.

Short Answer Questions

1. What "great humorist" does Mencken cite in Chapter 1.3 as "celebrating 'the vigorous new vernacular of the occidental plains and mountains'"?

2. What English word does the author of "Men and Manners" lament about the American re-signification?

3. What does Mencken list as dominant the English alternative for the word "mail"?

4. What ethnicity of people, through the influence of the mercantile class, is referred to by a different name in the United States than in England?

5. In terms of politics, an American candidate "runs" for office. What does an English candidate do?

(see the answer key)

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