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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following is often used in England to designate a thoroughfare?
(a) Lane.
(b) Boulevard.
(c) Avenue.
(d) Drive.

2. Who was responsible for the endowment to the Simplified Spelling Board?
(a) Andrew Carnegie.
(b) Horace Hart.
(c) Adrian Knox.
(d) Noah Webster.

3. Mencken reports hearing of a German named "Knoche," who to avoid being called "Nokky," changed his name to what?
(a) Knox.
(b) Nixon.
(c) Knowles.
(d) Nock.

4. Which word do the English always place prior to the proper noun whereas Americans place it after, as Mencken reports at the end of Chapter 10.3?
(a) River.
(b) County.
(c) Street.
(d) Lake.

5. What military slang term refers to the sunburned necks of the Marines?
(a) Toughneck.
(b) Leatherneck.
(c) Roughneck.
(d) Rawhide.

Short Answer Questions

1. What leads most of the studies of the sounds of the American common speech astray, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.10?

2. According to the "Vocabulary of the A.E.F.," what percentage of the American military vocabulary was at least somewhat indecent?

3. In which city are the French names of streets reported by Mencken to be beautiful but so barbarously pronounced as to be unrecognizable by a Frenchman?

4. From what language is "gob" reputed to be derived in Chapter 11.2?

5. From what newspaper does Mencken derive the story with which he opens Chapter 11.2?

(see the answer keys)

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