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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the English meaning of the Hawaiian word "lanai"?
(a) Balcony.
(b) Bathroom.
(c) Porch.
(d) Garage.

2. Who "tries" a legal case in England?
(a) The jury.
(b) The barrister.
(c) The judge.
(d) The solicitor.

3. Which of the following groups of foreign immigrants does Mencken not attribute influence over American English in Chapter 6.4?
(a) Italians.
(b) South-Pacific Asian Islanders.
(c) Slavic peoples.
(d) Russian Jews.

4. What difference in pronunciation does Mencken state most sharply distinguishes the two dialects?
(a) The normative "a."
(b) The normative "o."
(c) The normative "ch."
(d) The normative "-ary" suffix.

5. What is the English word for a collection of colleges?
(a) A Collegiate.
(b) A Maltin.
(c) A University.
(d) A Cardinal.

6. According to Benjamin Franklin, what was roughly the population of the colonies in 1751?
(a) 50,000,000
(b) 10,000,000
(c) 500,000
(d) 1,000,000

7. What vowel sound was dominant in 18th century New England pronunciation, despite common protests to the contrary?
(a) Flat e.
(b) Broad a.
(c) Broad o.
(d) Flat a.

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

9. Who proposed a generally accepted nomenclature for currency in 1785?
(a) Gouverneur Morris.
(b) Thomas Jefferson.
(c) Noah Webster.
(d) Richard Grant White.

10. Which London newspaper lamented the "menace" that American movies offer to the purity of the English language?
(a) The <i>Times</i>.
(b) The <i>Daily News</i>.
(c) The <i>Illustrated London News</i>.
(d) The <i>Daily Herald</i>.

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

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

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

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

15. 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 ethnicity of people, through the influence of the mercantile class, is referred to by a different name in the United States than in England?

2. Which Founding Father coined the term "to belittle"?

3. What language does Mencken quote Sidney Low as saying is not taught to English youth?

4. What American writer does Mencken claim likely inspired envy in British writers?

5. Which of the following groups of immigrants does Mencken claim have a profound effect on not only the American vocabulary, but also its pronunciation and idiom?

(see the answer keys)

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