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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is the author of "Travels in North America," published in 1827?
(a) Charles Astor Bristed.
(b) Louis Untermeyer.
(c) Henry Alford.
(d) Basil Hall.

2. Which word do Americans use for "angry" that was once an English provincialism considered base?
(a) Irritated.
(b) Furious.
(c) Mad.
(d) Pissed.

3. Which term do English dictionaries all describe as an Americanism from the comparative list in Chapter 4.1, despite the English version being frequently used in America?
(a) Rooster.
(b) Freight.
(c) Railroad.
(d) Hog-pen.

4. How many pages in "The King's English" are dedicated to explaining the distinction between "will" and "shall"?
(a) 30.
(b) 20.
(c) 0.
(d) 15.

5. What is the second characteristic that Mencken attributes to American English in Chapter 1.5?
(a) Translatability to British English.
(b) Disunity of regional dialects.
(c) Resistance to neologisms.
(d) Disregard of rule and precedent.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the English meaning of the phrase "to carry on"?

2. The prudish reluctance to name what sort of diseases hindered proper preventative information?

3. According to Mencken, which title is subject to the greatest divergence in usage?

4. Mencken claims that Noah Webster contains less of the scientific inquirer and more of what?

5. What is the English word for a collection of colleges?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what does Mencken evidently delight concerning the speech of American, in Chapter 1.5?

2. What characterizes the favorite slang phrases of the American soldier in World War I, according to Mencken?

3. How does the severity and conventional loyalty of grammarians influence those they attempt to educate?

4. Upon what does Mencken claim the art of American prose is based, in Chapter 9.2?

5. What is the relationship that Mencken identifies between French pronunciation and the pronunciation of Southerners?

6. What effect did the exploration of new territory have on the language of the American settlers, as described in Chapter 2.3?

7. In Chapter 1.2, whom does Mencken identify as chiefly responsible for the inhibiting of an American dialect?

8. How does Mencken describe the distinction between colloquialisms and idiomatic expressions that are generally accepted and those that are not? What example does he use to explain this distinction?

9. What typically causes the difficulties of the American when hearing the Englishman or vice versa, as explained in Chapter 7.1?

10. What is Mencken's evident attitude towards the "wearing down" of vowel and consonant sounds in the vulgar American pronunciation?

(see the answer keys)

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