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 Anglo-Saxon word does Mencken report the colonists refused to replace with an Old Norse word of similar meaning?
(a) Vapid.
(b) Hale.
(c) Ill.
(d) Sick.

2. What English word does the author of "Men and Manners" lament about the American re-signification?
(a) Missionary.
(b) Buttock.
(c) Clever.
(d) College.

3. What is the universal substitute for the word "ye" as described in Chapter 6.2?
(a) Thou.
(b) The.
(c) Thee.
(d) You.

4. What language does Mencken quote Sidney Low as saying is not taught to English youth?
(a) American.
(b) Latin.
(c) Russian.
(d) Greek.

5. In terms of politics, an American candidate "runs" for office. What does an English candidate do?
(a) Stands.
(b) Jumps.
(c) Sits.
(d) Sprints.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is not one of the minor differences Mencken lists in Chapter 8.7?

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

3. What letter, when preceding a consonant, greatly irritated Henry James like a "morose grinding of the back teeth?"

4. According to Chapter 2.6, what regional pronunciation is erroneously thought by some to have superior authority regarding English pronunciation?

5. Which of the early presidents does Mencken identify as archetypal of the new American?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 213 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample