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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What principle of spelling was behind much of Webster's theory concerning the simplification of spelling?
(a) Vowel accentuation.
(b) Phonetics.
(c) Flexibility.
(d) Convention.

2. What religious affiliation, commonly held in both countries, has had a larger influence on names in America than in England?
(a) Catholicism.
(b) Presbyterianism.
(c) Anglicanism.
(d) Puritanism.

3. Who is apparently the first literary critic to point out the "enormous gap between the literate and unliterate American"?
(a) Rene Wellek.
(b) Francis Hackett.
(c) I.A. Richards.
(d) Allen Tate.

4. Which of the following nations does Mencken not list as having more interesting war slang than the Americans during the Great War?
(a) France.
(b) Russia.
(c) Germany.
(d) England.

5. In what dialect of English is "slick" used synonymously with "sleek" according to Chapter 9.10?
(a) American.
(b) Australian.
(c) South African.
(d) English.

6. Mencken reports hearing of a German named "Knoche," who to avoid being called "Nokky," changed his name to what?
(a) Nixon.
(b) Knowles.
(c) Nock.
(d) Knox.

7. What leads most of the studies of the sounds of the American common speech astray, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.10?
(a) Laziness.
(b) A lack of scope.
(c) English conventionalism.
(d) Individualistic interpretation.

8. How many works does Mencken claim to have discovered covering the topic of American slang?
(a) Twelve.
(b) One.
(c) Three.
(d) Hundreds.

9. From what language is "gob" reputed to be derived in Chapter 11.2?
(a) Japanese.
(b) Chinese.
(c) Persian.
(d) Spanish.

10. Into what was the French surname "Beauchamp" translated in America?
(a) Smith.
(b) Fairfield.
(c) Taylor.
(d) Gardner.

11. Which word do the English always place prior to the proper noun whereas Americans place it after, as Mencken reports at the end of Chapter 10.3?
(a) Lake.
(b) County.
(c) River.
(d) Street.

12. In what sort of languages are double negatives "perfectly allowable"?
(a) Asiatic.
(b) Teutonic.
(c) Semitic.
(d) Romance.

13. What sort of distinction frequently occurs between an adverb and its primary adjective?
(a) Syntactical.
(b) Lexical.
(c) Numerical.
(d) Pronunciation.

14. What does Mencken say that a proper understanding of words and their meanings will enable their speaker to do, in Chapter 11.1?
(a) Speak without ever using slang.
(b) Mingle slang and proper speech effortlessly.
(c) Alter the course of language.
(d) Create new slang all the time.

15. From what newspaper does Mencken derive the story with which he opens Chapter 11.2?
(a) The Los Angeles Times.
(b) The Baltimore Sun.
(c) The Boston Herald.
(d) The New York Tribune.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. According to the study of E.J. Hills, how many descriptive adjectives are possessed by the average child of two?

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. In what language does Mencken state the double negative was once "quite respectable?"

5. Which of the following is not one of the minor differences Mencken lists in Chapter 8.7?

(see the answer keys)

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