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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. According to the report of Beverley, what did a group of soldiers turn into after eating some Jimson Weed?
(a) Zombies.
(b) Corpses.
(c) Fools.
(d) Somnambulists.

2. Which letter of the alphabet do Americans differ in pronunciation from other English-speaking countries?
(a) W.
(b) J.
(c) X.
(d) Z.

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

4. What letter, when preceding a consonant, greatly irritated Henry James like a "morose grinding of the back teeth?"
(a) E.
(b) R.
(c) G.
(d) T.

5. How many dialects dominate American English, according to Chapter 1.5?
(a) None.
(b) Two.
(c) Four.
(d) Ten.

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

2. Which of the following did the African slaves NOT introduce to American English?

3. In terms of politics, an American candidate "runs" for office. What does an English candidate do?

4. What word in American is used for the English word "shoe?"

5. Who is the author of "Travels in North America," published in 1827?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what ways is the noun principally abused in vulgar American?

2. How does a word move from legitimate vocabulary to slang vocabulary, according to Mencken?

3. Why does Mencken find the double negative an appreciable linguistic deviation?

4. Describe H.L. Mencken's attitude towards the American tendencies in the formation of new words.

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

6. What is the most common incorrect usage of the adjective in vulgar American?

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

8. What does Mencken intimate by the assertion that the "inner spirit of English" has inclined steadily towards saying "I have go" for a thousand years?

9. What is the character of the argument presented by the Society for Pure English in the quoted caveat?

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

(see the answer keys)

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