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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Whom does Mencken quote as saying, at the beginning of Chapter 10.4, "Such a locality as 'the <i>corner of Avenue H and Twenty-third street,</I> is about as distinctly American as Algonquin and Iroquois names like <i>Mississippi</i> and <i>Saratoga</i>"?
(a) Charles Astor Bristed.
(b) Noah Webster.
(c) W.W. Crane.
(d) George Phillip Krapp.

2. In what century did Americans begin to rebel against the capitalization trends dominant in England?
(a) The twentieth.
(b) The eighteenth.
(c) The nineteenth.
(d) The seventeenth.

3. How many works does Mencken claim to have discovered covering the topic of American slang?
(a) One.
(b) Hundreds.
(c) Three.
(d) Twelve.

4. Mencken states that the "Meyers" are the "Smiths" of what country?
(a) Austria.
(b) Poland.
(c) Slovenia.
(d) Lichtenstein.

5. 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) Tyre.
(c) Cigar.
(d) Fotograf.

Short Answer Questions

1. What name is the Italian "Giuseppe" transformed into?

2. Who published a work in 1768 entitled "Scheme for a New Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling, with Remarks and Examples Concerning the Same, and an Enquiry into its Uses"?

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

4. To how many in number does the comparative adjective relate?

5. How is "Des Moines" pronounced in American, according to Mencken?

(see the answer keys)

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