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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to the report of Beverley, what did a group of soldiers turn into after eating some Jimson Weed?
(a) Corpses.
(b) Zombies.
(c) Somnambulists.
(d) Fools.

2. According to Dr. Louise Pound, what do Latin plurals tend to become in colloquial American?
(a) Adjectival modifiers.
(b) Adverbs.
(c) Singular nouns.
(d) Infinitive verbs.

3. To what country does the English correspondent in Chapter 4.5 ascribe many American expletives?
(a) France.
(b) Germany.
(c) Sweden.
(d) Ireland.

4. Whose clarity of prevision does Mencken praise in the opening of Chapter 1.1?
(a) Madison.
(b) Waldo.
(c) Jefferson.
(d) Franklin.

5. What class of Americans is most influenced by Briticisms, according to Mencken in Chapter 5.2?
(a) The poor.
(b) The vulgar.
(c) The fashionable.
(d) The middle-class.

Short Answer Questions

1. What sound did Webster object to inserting in words such as "gradual" and "nature," before the "u"?

2. What is the name of the professor who advocates the assimilation and alteration of the spelling and accentuation of foreign words?

3. Which country does Mencken state has a fondness for using surnames as given names?

4. Who is the author of "Travels in North America," published in 1827?

5. To what continent does Mencken attribute the acknowledgment of the differences between American and British English?

(see the answer key)

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