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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does the English "secondary school" correspond to in American?
(a) Middle school.
(b) High school.
(c) College.
(d) Elementary school.

3. From what language does the English word "moose" come?
(a) Cherokee.
(b) Algonquin.
(c) English.
(d) Italian.

4. Which of the following was not used as a substitute for the once indecent term, for highly refined ears, "bull"?
(a) Male-cow.
(b) Gentleman-cow.
(c) Cow-creature.
(d) Standing-cow.

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

6. Which is the first factor that Mencken identifies as an immediate impediment to the growth of the American language in Chapter 3.1?
(a) Lack of a national literature.
(b) Regional diversity.
(c) Territorial expansiveness.
(d) Political disharmony.

7. What event does Mencken credit with strengthening the obfuscation of distinction between American and British English?
(a) The French Revolution.
(b) The advent of the transatlantic telephone line.
(c) The First World War.
(d) The bombing of London.

8. What is the principal reason Mencken states that the English language has not greatly diverged since the foundation of the United States of America?
(a) American neo-classical tastes.
(b) Transatlantic communication.
(c) Solidarity of higher education.
(d) Transatlantic travel.

9. What country's works dominated the reading habits of the American colonists in the latter 18th century?
(a) England.
(b) France.
(c) Germany.
(d) Denmark.

10. Whom does Mencken use to exemplify the flouting of linguistic purity in Chapter 6.1?
(a) Famers.
(b) Working men.
(c) Professors.
(d) Politicians.

11. What does Sayce say that language is composed of in 1879?
(a) Sounds.
(b) Words.
(c) Meanings.
(d) Letters.

12. What is the English meaning of the phrase "to carry on"?
(a) To be on the job.
(b) To talk endlessly.
(c) To shoulder one's pack.
(d) To raise hell.

13. Which Founding Father is said to have sought to establish a new American alphabet?
(a) Benjamin Franklin.
(b) George Washington.
(c) John Hancock.
(d) Thomas Jefferson.

14. Which European language has exerted the most influence on the American language?
(a) German.
(b) Spanish.
(c) Italian.
(d) French.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Mencken, which title is subject to the greatest divergence in usage?

2. Whose clarity of prevision does Mencken praise in the opening of Chapter 1.1?

3. According to Mencken, democratic government is essentially government by whom?

4. Which term do English dictionaries all describe as an Americanism from the comparative list in Chapter 4.1, despite the English version being frequently used in America?

5. What word did the editor of the Westminster Gazette substitute for the incomprehensible dash in the mangled Americanism of Rupert Brooke?

(see the answer keys)

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