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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Over how many post offices does Mencken state bear the adjective "New"?
(a) 600.
(b) 525.
(c) 820.
(d) 350.

2. Which of the following does names, used for a settlement, Mencken not list as bespattering the land?
(a) Madison.
(b) Jefferson.
(c) Washington.
(d) Lafayette.

3. Who does Mencken quote as saying, "There is no part of the world where nomenclature is so rich, poetical, humorous and picturesque as in the United States of America"?
(a) Walt Whitman.
(b) G.K. Chesterton.
(c) Robert Louis Stevenson.
(d) Benjamin Franklin.

4. To how many in number does the comparative adjective relate?
(a) Two.
(b) Three or more.
(c) Four or less.
(d) Five or more.

5. Which of the following does Wilcox not list as a negative treatment of the English language by grammarians?
(a) Excessive classification.
(b) Excessive inflection.
(c) Excessive revision.
(d) Multiplication of terms for a single conception.

Short Answer Questions

1. What purpose does the double negative primarily serve?

2. In what parts of language does Mencken say the "chief grammatical peculiarities" of spoken English are found?

3. In what century did Americans begin to rebel against the capitalization trends dominant in England?

4. Who is the author of "A Doll's House," who puts bad grammar into Nora Helmar's mouth?

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

(see the answer keys)

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