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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many soldiers' names were presented to the House by Mr. Mondell in 1919?
(a) 43.
(b) 27.
(c) 182.
(d) 102.

2. Which double negative word is primarily found in Shakespeare?
(a) Never.
(b) No.
(c) Not.
(d) Nor.

3. In what location does Mencken say both the American and English orthographies flourish side by side?
(a) Canada.
(b) New England.
(c) Australia.
(d) Hong Kong.

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

5. For what word does Mencken say "incidence" is commonly mistaken to be a synonym?
(a) Number.
(b) Similarity.
(c) Happening.
(d) Story.

6. What is frequently omitted in phrases indicated desire or intent, as indicated in Chapter 9.9?
(a) Adverbial modifiers.
(b) Verbs of action.
(c) The subject noun(s).
(d) Adjectival modifiers.

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

8. What language does the formalism of English grammarians come from?
(a) French.
(b) Spanish.
(c) German.
(d) Latin.

9. From what language is "gob" reputed to be derived in Chapter 11.2?
(a) Persian.
(b) Chinese.
(c) Japanese.
(d) Spanish.

10. Which Americanized foreign loan-word in the common speech means, in its vulgar loaned form, "to prance or to walk consciously"?
(a) Proteege.
(b) Sashay.
(c) Minoot.
(d) Habichoo.

11. To what does Mencken ascribe the inflection of English adjectives?
(a) Comparison.
(b) Emphasis.
(c) Frivolity.
(d) Convention.

12. Which nationality does Mencken claim is most eager to Americanize the names of their children?
(a) The Italians.
(b) The Irish.
(c) The Jews.
(d) The Germans.

13. What sort of distinction frequently occurs between an adverb and its primary adjective?
(a) Numerical.
(b) Lexical.
(c) Pronunciation.
(d) Syntactical.

14. According to Chapter 8.4, what is the first impulse behind American imitation of English orthography?
(a) Anti-colonialism.
(b) Compromise for cheaper printing.
(c) Convenience.
(d) Affectation.

15. Which phrase did Oliver Wendell Holmes use to describe the state of the person who makes use of slang?
(a) Intellectual alacrity.
(b) Creative genius.
(c) Mental atrophy.
(d) Bumbling idiocy.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is not one of the minor differences Mencken lists in Chapter 8.7?

2. What was the common, popular American slang word used for Germans during the First World War, according to Mencken?

3. Which case of the noun in English yet has an inflection at the time of Mencken's writing?

4. In what parts of language does Mencken say the "chief grammatical peculiarities" of spoken English are found?

5. Who is apparently the first literary critic to point out the "enormous gap between the literate and unliterate American"?

(see the answer keys)

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