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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is frequently omitted in phrases indicated desire or intent, as indicated in Chapter 9.9?
(a) Verbs of action.
(b) Adjectival modifiers.
(c) Adverbial modifiers.
(d) The subject noun(s).

2. According to Chapter 8.4, what is the first impulse behind American imitation of English orthography?
(a) Anti-colonialism.
(b) Compromise for cheaper printing.
(c) Affectation.
(d) Convenience.

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

4. Which of the early presidents does Mencken identify as archetypal of the new American?
(a) James Monroe.
(b) George Washington.
(c) Andrew Jackson.
(d) Thomas Jefferson.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What leads most of the studies of the sounds of the American common speech astray, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.10?

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

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

4. What is the second characteristic that Mencken attributes to American English in Chapter 1.5?

5. Which organization produced a prospectus in 1913 that warned against extreme English conservatism in the spelling of foreign loan-words?

(see the answer key)

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