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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 the principal reason Mencken states that the English language has not greatly diverged since the foundation of the United States of America?
(a) Transatlantic communication.
(b) Solidarity of higher education.
(c) American neo-classical tastes.
(d) Transatlantic travel.

2. Who is apparently the first literary critic to point out the "enormous gap between the literate and unliterate American"?
(a) I.A. Richards.
(b) Rene Wellek.
(c) Allen Tate.
(d) Francis Hackett.

3. In what century did Americans begin to rebel against the capitalization trends dominant in England?
(a) The nineteenth.
(b) The eighteenth.
(c) The seventeenth.
(d) The twentieth.

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

5. Which of the following was not used as a substitute for the once indecent term, for highly refined ears, "bull"?
(a) Male-cow.
(b) Gentleman-cow.
(c) Standing-cow.
(d) Cow-creature.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What is the English word for a collection of colleges?

3. Which case of the noun in English yet has an inflection at the time of Mencken's writing?

4. What is the American substitute for the English word "tin"?

5. From which of the following have the English changed their spelling?

(see the answer key)

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