View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the original name of Brooklyn?
(a) Brook Lynne.
(b) Breukwohl.
(c) Breuckelen.
(d) Brookeville.

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

3. Who does Mencken state are the true makers of grammar in Chapter 9.1?
(a) The authors of fiction.
(b) The learned.
(c) The grammarians.
(d) The masses.

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

5. Which 1914 English dictionary made many important concessions to American spellings?
(a) The Concise Oxford Dictionary.
(b) The Cambridge Fleet Edition.
(c) The London Pocket Dictionary.
(d) The New English Dictionary.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following does names, used for a settlement, Mencken not list as bespattering the land?

2. Over how many post offices does Mencken state bear the adjective "New"?

3. Which phrase did Oliver Wendell Holmes use to describe the state of the person who makes use of slang?

4. For what word does Mencken say "incidence" is commonly mistaken to be a synonym?

5. What purpose does the double negative primarily serve?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 221 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample