View a FREE sample

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

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) Niceness.
(b) Courage.
(c) Ingenuity.
(d) Temperance.

2. What is the second characteristic that Mencken attributes to American English in Chapter 1.5?
(a) Translatability to British English.
(b) Disunity of regional dialects.
(c) Disregard of rule and precedent.
(d) Resistance to neologisms.

3. What word does Mencken find Dr. John Dewey using in place of the word "opium?"
(a) Poppy.
(b) Crack.
(c) Skag.
(d) Dope.

4. What is the name of the professor who advocates the assimilation and alteration of the spelling and accentuation of foreign words?
(a) Edmund Gosse.
(b) Nora Helmar.
(c) Brander Matthews.
(d) Louise Pound.

5. Who was responsible for the endowment to the Simplified Spelling Board?
(a) Horace Hart.
(b) Andrew Carnegie.
(c) Noah Webster.
(d) Adrian Knox.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Mencken, which of the following does "one American professor of English" predict will become a spelling form of the future?

2. Which London newspaper lamented the "menace" that American movies offer to the purity of the English language?

3. What word did Webster argue should have its vowel sound changed to "ee" instead of "eh"?

4. What is the universal substitute for the word "ye" as described in Chapter 6.2?

5. According to Mencken, democratic government is essentially government by whom?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 237 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample