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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 11.1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How is "Des Moines" pronounced in American, according to Mencken?
(a) "Dee-moyns."
(b) "Dai-moins."
(c) "Dess-moyn."
(d) "Dei-moyns."

2. In what parts of language does Mencken say the "chief grammatical peculiarities" of spoken English are found?
(a) Verbs and pronouns.
(b) Nouns and prepositions.
(c) Nouns and participles.
(d) Adverbs and adjectives.

3. Which of the following does names, used for a settlement, Mencken not list as bespattering the land?
(a) Madison.
(b) Washington.
(c) Lafayette.
(d) Jefferson.

4. According to Dr. Louise Pound, what do Latin plurals tend to become in colloquial American?
(a) Infinitive verbs.
(b) Adjectival modifiers.
(c) Adverbs.
(d) Singular nouns.

5. Who is the author of "A Doll's House," who puts bad grammar into Nora Helmar's mouth?
(a) Chesterton.
(b) Shaw.
(c) Ibsen.
(d) Mencken.

Short Answer Questions

1. What spelling change is made from English to American in words such as "connection"?

2. In what part of the country did the Irish attain to a "truly impressive political power before the first native-born generation of them had grown up" as Mencken states in Chapter 10.1?

3. Which adjectival prefix does Mencken state is confined to the more sophisticated classes?

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

5. Which Americanized foreign loan-word in the common speech means, in its vulgar loaned form, "to prance or to walk consciously"?

(see the answer key)

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