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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 23, Souvenirs of a Journalist, Chapter 24, Criticism.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Mencken define government?
(a) A dozen men who can't do anything right.
(b) A war on the poor.
(c) A collection of the looniest among us.
(d) A conspiracy against superior men.

2. Why does Mencken criticize the American Medical Association?
(a) For making it too difficult to become a doctor.
(b) For supporting a bunch of quack science.
(c) For making it too easy to become a doctor.
(d) For turning down his membership application.

3. Who was the attorney on the side of the prosecution in the Scopes Monkey Trial?
(a) Clarence Darrow.
(b) William Jennings Bryan.
(c) Andrew Still.
(d) Theodore Veblen.

4. What kind of promises do politicians make?
(a) Ones they have no intention of fulfilling.
(b) Ones they cannot deliver.
(c) Ones they can fulfill.
(d) Ones they have polled voters about.

5. Which is NOT one of the negative effects Mencken mentions in regards to Prohibition?
(a) More expensive alcohol.
(b) Undermining of state revenues.
(c) Proliferation of bootleggers.
(d) Only the poor have access to alcohol.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Mencken praise doctors in Chapter 16?

2. What is "one of the most valuable human possessions" according to Mencken in Chapter 16?

3. What is the "average man's" opinion of government?

4. Why might "reflective and skeptical men" refrain from suicide?

5. In Chapter 15, Mencken expresses surprise that no one has violated the tomb of which man?

(see the answer key)

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