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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who protested the adoption of the broad "a" in an 1857 work entitled "The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table"?
(a) Richard Meade Bache.
(b) Noah Webster.
(c) Oliver Wendell Holmes.
(d) Frank H. Vizetelly.

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

3. What does John S. Farmer describe the Western vernacular as being?
(a) Racy and pungent.
(b) Dry and prolonged.
(c) Irreverent and irrelevant.
(d) Flippant and pointless.

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

5. 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?
(a) Latino/Hispanic.
(b) Jew/Hebrew.
(c) Black/African American.
(d) White/Caucasian.

6. According to Mencken, democratic government is essentially government by whom?
(a) Businessmen.
(b) Amateurs.
(c) The working class.
(d) Politicians.

7. What language does Mencken quote Sidney Low as saying is not taught to English youth?
(a) Russian.
(b) Latin.
(c) Greek.
(d) American.

8. According to Mencken, how do the Americans consider the precise English use of the indefinite pronoun ("one")?
(a) Respectfully.
(b) Disdainfully.
(c) Ambiguously.
(d) Apathetically.

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

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

11. 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>Illustrated London News</i>.
(c) The <i>Daily Herald</i>.
(d) The <i>Daily News</i>.

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

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

14. What sound did Webster object to inserting in words such as "gradual" and "nature," before the "u"?
(a) T.
(b) Dh.
(c) Ch.
(d) Y.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What word did Webster argue should have its vowel sound changed to "ee" instead of "eh"?

2. What "great humorist" does Mencken cite in Chapter 1.3 as "celebrating 'the vigorous new vernacular of the occidental plains and mountains'"?

3. How many pages in "The King's English" are dedicated to explaining the distinction between "will" and "shall"?

4. What does Mencken state is neglected by those who are professional trained to investigate it?

5. What word best describes the English attitude towards the adoption of foreign loan-words, in contrast to the American attitude?

(see the answer keys)

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