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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In what part of the country did the Irish attain to a "truly impressive political power before the first native-born generation of them had grown up" as Mencken states in Chapter 10.1?
(a) The Midwest.
(b) The Southeast.
(c) The Eastern cities.
(d) The Western cities.

2. According to Mencken, the English opposition to American spelling transcends the academic and takes on the character of what?
(a) The patriotic.
(b) The ethical.
(c) The religious.
(d) The political.

3. How many classifications of Americanisms does Gilbert M. Tucker provide in 1921?
(a) Two.
(b) Twelve.
(c) Thirteen.
(d) Twenty.

4. Which double negative word is primarily found in Shakespeare?
(a) No.
(b) Not.
(c) Never.
(d) Nor.

5. What word did the editor of the Westminster Gazette substitute for the incomprehensible dash in the mangled Americanism of Rupert Brooke?
(a) Boots.
(b) Brains.
(c) Jugs.
(d) Bottom.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the English equivalent of the American Main Street?

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

3. Who was the author of the couplet that Mencken quotes: "For thou art a girl as much brighter than her / As he was a poet sublimer than me"?

4. Which phrase did Oliver Wendell Holmes use to describe the state of the person who makes use of slang?

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

(see the answer key)

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