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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 2.3 | Chapter 2.4.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What use of storage was added to the American meaning of the word "barn?"
(a) Crops.
(b) Chickens.
(c) Cattle.
(d) Horses.

2. What word does Mencken find Dr. John Dewey using in place of the word "opium?"
(a) Poppy.
(b) Skag.
(c) Dope.
(d) Crack.

3. According to Mencken at the beginning of Chapter 1.3, what do the novelists and newspapermen on either side of the Atlantic ocean delight in?
(a) Travel.
(b) Publishing.
(c) Intercommunication.
(d) Localisms.

4. What does Mencken state is neglected by those who are professional trained to investigate it?
(a) Formal grammar.
(b) The vulgate.
(c) Idiosyncrasies.
(d) Philological anomalies.

5. Which European language has exerted the most influence on the American language?
(a) Italian.
(b) German.
(c) Spanish.
(d) French.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many classifications of Americanisms does Gilbert M. Tucker provide in 1921?

2. Whose clarity of prevision does Mencken praise in the opening of Chapter 1.1?

3. Which London newspaper lamented the "menace" that American movies offer to the purity of the English language?

4. Which defender of Americanisms cited by Mencken in Chapter 1.3 states that "Language is made by the people"?

5. Which Founding Father is said to have sought to establish a new American alphabet?

(see the answer key)

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