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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Which of the early presidents does Mencken identify as archetypal of the new American?
(a) George Washington.
(b) James Monroe.
(c) Thomas Jefferson.
(d) Andrew Jackson.

3. 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>Daily News</i>.
(c) The <i>Times</i>.
(d) The <i>Daily Herald</i>.

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

5. What word did the editor of the Westminster Gazette substitute for the incomprehensible dash in the mangled Americanism of Rupert Brooke?
(a) Bottom.
(b) Jugs.
(c) Boots.
(d) Brains.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following groups of foreign immigrants does Mencken not attribute influence over American English in Chapter 6.4?

2. How is the "portmanteau-word" formed?

3. What word was "coatee" used as a diminutive for?

4. According to Benjamin Franklin, what was roughly the population of the colonies in 1751?

5. Which word do Americans use for "angry" that was once an English provincialism considered base?

Short Essay Questions

1. What characterizes the divergences of language usage that are cataloged in Chapter 4.2?

2. In general, what is the relationship between foreign names for locations and American pronunciations?

3. In Chapter 1.2, whom does Mencken identify as chiefly responsible for the inhibiting of an American dialect?

4. How does the severity and conventional loyalty of grammarians influence those they attempt to educate?

5. In what way did the early political disunity of the United States hamper the growth of a national language, according to Mencken in Chapter 3.1?

6. Under what situation does language undergo great changes and renew its vitality, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.1?

7. What does Mencken evidently find confusing and absurd about the "-our" endings in English?

8. From what tradition do names such as Faith, Hope, and Charity come, and what is significant about the continued use of these names?

9. How is the advance of American spelling characterized in Chapter 8.3?

10. To what does Mencken ascribe the withdrawal of the National Education Association from the simplified spelling campaign?

(see the answer keys)

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