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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is frequently omitted in phrases indicated desire or intent, as indicated in Chapter 9.9?
(a) Verbs of action.
(b) Adjectival modifiers.
(c) The subject noun(s).
(d) Adverbial modifiers.

2. What name is the Italian "Giuseppe" transformed into?
(a) Jonathon.
(b) Gregory.
(c) Joseph.
(d) George.

3. What is the longest list of spelling changes from English to American that Mencken gives in Chapter 8.1?
(a) Miscellaneous differences.
(b) The change of diphthongs into plain words.
(c) The -or/-our distinction.
(d) The omission of a redundant -e.

4. Which case of the noun in English yet has an inflection at the time of Mencken's writing?
(a) The genitive.
(b) The ablative.
(c) The accusative.
(d) The dative.

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

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

7. What was the common, popular American slang word used for Germans during the First World War, according to Mencken?
(a) Jerry.
(b) Hun.
(c) Kraut.
(d) Boche.

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

9. Which nationality does Mencken claim is most eager to Americanize the names of their children?
(a) The Germans.
(b) The Jews.
(c) The Italians.
(d) The Irish.

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

11. How does Mencken characterize the vulgar American habitual use of the double negative?
(a) With "periodic intensity."
(b) With "unconscious loathing."
(c) With "sturdy fidelity."
(d) With "happy fecundity."

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

13. Who published a work in 1768 entitled "Scheme for a New Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling, with Remarks and Examples Concerning the Same, and an Enquiry into its Uses"?
(a) Noah Webster.
(b) Benjamin Franklin.
(c) Samuel Johnson.
(d) Thomas Jefferson.

14. In what does the American pronoun not necessarily agree with its noun?
(a) Subject.
(b) Case.
(c) Number.
(d) Tense.

15. Which of the following does Mencken not list as a once-slang word turned into one commonly accepted?
(a) Awful.
(b) Proposition.
(c) Frugal.
(d) Nice.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Mencken say that a proper understanding of words and their meanings will enable their speaker to do, in Chapter 11.1?

2. Which organization produced a prospectus in 1913 that warned against extreme English conservatism in the spelling of foreign loan-words?

3. Which of the following is often used in England to designate a thoroughfare?

4. What language does the formalism of English grammarians come from?

5. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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