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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. From what newspaper does Mencken derive the story with which he opens Chapter 11.2?
(a) The Boston Herald.
(b) The Los Angeles Times.
(c) The New York Tribune.
(d) The Baltimore Sun.

2. Who is apparently the first literary critic to point out the "enormous gap between the literate and unliterate American"?
(a) Francis Hackett.
(b) Allen Tate.
(c) Rene Wellek.
(d) I.A. Richards.

3. According to Mencken, the word "none" is a degenerate composition of what two words?
(a) Not on.
(b) No tone.
(c) Not one.
(d) No one.

4. According to Mencken, which of the following does "one American professor of English" predict will become a spelling form of the future?
(a) Socks.
(b) Fotograf.
(c) Tyre.
(d) Cigar.

5. What was the common, popular American slang word used for Germans during the First World War, according to Mencken?
(a) Hun.
(b) Kraut.
(c) Boche.
(d) Jerry.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the movement towards the general vowel neutralization promise to do in the future, according to Mencken?

2. In what year did Noah Webster die?

3. Which of the following is one of the three great causes of change in language according to Sayce, as reported in Chapter 9.3?

4. According to Mencken, the English opposition to American spelling transcends the academic and takes on the character of what?

5. Which still-popular German given name survives today, with a slight change in spelling, as Mencken reports in Chapter 10.2?

(see the answer keys)

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