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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.2 | Chapter 9.3.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Mencken list as dominant the English alternative for the word "mail"?
(a) Letters.
(b) Postals.
(c) Shipping.
(d) Post.

2. How many pages in "The King's English" are dedicated to explaining the distinction between "will" and "shall"?
(a) 0.
(b) 20.
(c) 30.
(d) 15.

3. What is the longest list of spelling changes from English to American that Mencken gives in Chapter 8.1?
(a) The change of diphthongs into plain words.
(b) The omission of a redundant -e.
(c) The -or/-our distinction.
(d) Miscellaneous differences.

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

5. Which organization produced a prospectus in 1913 that warned against extreme English conservatism in the spelling of foreign loan-words?
(a) Simplified Spelling Board.
(b) National Education Association.
(c) British Literary Association.
(d) Society for Pure English.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many classifications of Americanisms does Bartlett postulate in his 1859 dictionary?

2. According to Mencken, the English opposition to American spelling transcends the academic and takes on the character of what?

3. What word does Mencken find Dr. John Dewey using in place of the word "opium?"

4. What language did "ambassador," "ancestor," and "bachelor" come into English from?

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

(see the answer key)

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