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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 11.1.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. Mencken claims that Noah Webster contains less of the scientific inquirer and more of what?
(a) The teacher.
(b) The philological traditionalist.
(c) The father.
(d) The erudite fool.

4. What American writer does Mencken claim likely inspired envy in British writers?
(a) Griswold.
(b) Irving.
(c) Fowler.
(d) Poe.

5. What word best describes the English attitude towards the adoption of foreign loan-words, in contrast to the American attitude?
(a) Tolerating.
(b) Conservative.
(c) Liberal.
(d) Accepting.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was responsible for the endowment to the Simplified Spelling Board?

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

3. Which adjectival prefix does Mencken state is confined to the more sophisticated classes?

4. What is the longest list of spelling changes from English to American that Mencken gives in Chapter 8.1?

5. To what do English writers usually ascribe the American custom of numbering and lettering streets?

(see the answer key)

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