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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. According to "The Incomparable Buzz-Saw," what is a woman's only power?
(a) The power to torture a man through love.
(b) The power of a house's pursestrings.
(c) The power over her children.
(d) The power to ruin a man's life with divorce.

2. What did Mencken think about monogamy, as revealed in "Cavia Cobaya"?
(a) Monogamy was the laughable product of democracy.
(b) Monogamy stifled the natural urgings of a man.
(c) Functionally, monogamy was the same as polygamy, because everyone cheats.
(d) Great men aspired to and achieved it.

3. Why does the typical man have a poor conception of beauty?
(a) Even a man's enemy will tell him his wife is pretty.
(b) Even mirrors are manufactured to lie about a woman's beauty.
(c) The entire world, with very few exceptions, is hideously ugly.
(d) Make-up is made with a chemical that confuses the brain.

4. What do saints have in common with scientists?
(a) Both manipulate public opinion to advance their own position.
(b) Both simply seek the truth.
(c) Both unselfishly serve mankind.
(d) Both corrupt the truth to suit their best interests.

5. What did Mencken wonder about Henry Cabot Lodge?
(a) Why he did not pick a more noble profession.
(b) Why he felt he must belittle everyone around him.
(c) Why he thought he was so superior to everyone.
(d) Why he did not run for president.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a man's usual response to beauty?

2. In "Star-Spangled Man," Mencken argued that who, besides soldiers, should get medals?

3. What was the "last straw" that forced Mencken to quit the organization in #16?

4. Who was the president of Cuba when Mencken visited the country in "Gore in the Caribees"?

5. What cheeky nickname did Mencken give Theodore Dreiser?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Alistair Cooke feel that Mencken experienced a "downfall" in the 1930s?

2. What criticisms did Mencken have for Theodore Dreiser?

3. What was Mencken's ideal form of government?

4. Instead of military generals, who did Mencken wish to award medals to in "Star-Spangled Man"?

5. What was Mencken's opinion about Henry Cabot Lodge?

6. What is democracy's aim, in "A Blind Spot"? What is a crime in the eyes of democracy?

7. In "Gore in the Caribees," what becames of the rebel leader, Jose Miguel Gomez?

8. How must men react to a woman's allure?

9. Why are "handsome men" suspicious, according to "The Lure of Beauty"?

10. According to Mencken, why would a Christian man not cheat on his wife, according to "The Libertine"?

(see the answer keys)

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