View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.10.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What purpose does Miss Wittmann say is served by the shortening of word forms?
(a) None.
(b) Color.
(c) Convenience.
(d) Creativity.

2. How many classifications of Americanisms does Bartlett postulate in his 1859 dictionary?
(a) Three.
(b) Four.
(c) Forty-two.
(d) Nine.

3. According to Mencken at the beginning of Chapter 1.3, what do the novelists and newspapermen on either side of the Atlantic ocean delight in?
(a) Localisms.
(b) Publishing.
(c) Intercommunication.
(d) Travel.

4. The prudish reluctance to name what sort of diseases hindered proper preventative information?
(a) Venereal.
(b) Cancerous.
(c) Psychological.
(d) Gastro-intestinal.

5. In what language does Mencken state the double negative was once "quite respectable?"
(a) Russian.
(b) Spanish.
(c) French.
(d) Anglo-Saxon.

Short Answer Questions

1. What spelling change is made from English to American in words such as "connection"?

2. According to the tale spread by William Gifford, what language was supposed to be substituted for English during the Revolutionary War?

3. According to Mencken, how do the Americans consider the precise English use of the indefinite pronoun ("one")?

4. To what does Mencken ascribe the inflection of English adjectives?

5. What country's works dominated the reading habits of the American colonists in the latter 18th century?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 200 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample