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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3.5 | Chapter 4.1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which is the first factor that Mencken identifies as an immediate impediment to the growth of the American language in Chapter 3.1?
(a) Lack of a national literature.
(b) Territorial expansiveness.
(c) Regional diversity.
(d) Political disharmony.

2. According to the tale spread by William Gifford, what language was supposed to be substituted for English during the Revolutionary War?
(a) Spanish.
(b) French.
(c) Hebrew.
(d) Latin.

3. What American writer does Mencken claim likely inspired envy in British writers?
(a) Fowler.
(b) Poe.
(c) Griswold.
(d) Irving.

4. According to the report of Beverley, what did a group of soldiers turn into after eating some Jimson Weed?
(a) Somnambulists.
(b) Zombies.
(c) Corpses.
(d) Fools.

5. Which Founding Father is said to have sought to establish a new American alphabet?
(a) Benjamin Franklin.
(b) George Washington.
(c) Thomas Jefferson.
(d) John Hancock.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word did Webster argue should have its vowel sound changed to "ee" instead of "eh"?

2. Which of the early presidents does Mencken identify as archetypal of the new American?

3. From what language does the English word "moose" come?

4. What term did John Witherspoon coin, framing it within the context of vulgarity?

5. Who protested the adoption of the broad "a" in an 1857 work entitled "The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table"?

(see the answer key)

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