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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 Mencken at the beginning of Chapter 1.3, what do the novelists and newspapermen on either side of the Atlantic ocean delight in?
(a) Intercommunication.
(b) Localisms.
(c) Travel.
(d) Publishing.

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

3. What notable author was the first Englishman to carry Americanisms successfully back to his home?
(a) G.K. Chesterton.
(b) Charles Dickens.
(c) Joseph Conrad.
(d) Cleveland Coxe.

4. How many pages in "The King's English" are dedicated to explaining the distinction between "will" and "shall"?
(a) 30.
(b) 15.
(c) 0.
(d) 20.

5. What does Mencken state is neglected by those who are professional trained to investigate it?
(a) The vulgate.
(b) Philological anomalies.
(c) Formal grammar.
(d) Idiosyncrasies.

Short Answer Questions

1. What term did John Witherspoon coin, framing it within the context of vulgarity?

2. What class of Americans is most influenced by Briticisms, according to Mencken in Chapter 5.2?

3. Mencken claims that Noah Webster contains less of the scientific inquirer and more of what?

4. What event does Mencken credit with strengthening the obfuscation of distinction between American and British English?

5. What word in common honorifics did Edwin S. Gould protest against omitting in 1867?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were some of the reasons that many immigrants changed their names upon arriving in America?

2. What was the predominant attitude of philologists towards the study of American slang, at the time of Mencken's writing?

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

4. How does Mencken describe the attempts of British authors to give voice to American characters?

5. In general, how did Noah Webster influence American pronunciation?

6. What is significant about the divergent styles of naming of streets in America and England?

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

8. What is revealed by the attitudes of the English conservatives in Australia towards American spelling?

9. What is Mencken's evident attitude towards the "wearing down" of vowel and consonant sounds in the vulgar American pronunciation?

10. What is the relationship between the mean and nasty labor done in the United States and the desire of immigrants to change their names?

(see the answer keys)

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