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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 25, Literature, Chapter 26, Literati.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Before democracy came to be, what did people believe this system of government to be?
(a) A wretched form of government that should not come to pass.
(b) They believed democracy was just another form of dictatorship.
(c) It was such a foreign concept, no one could really imagine it.
(d) A heavenly form of government.

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

3. What is Mencken's hope for democracy?
(a) It is a self-limiting disease.
(b) Mencken has absolutely no hope for democracy.
(c) It may lead to monarchy someday.
(d) It will finally deliver much-needed assistance to the poor.

4. What is the consequence of someone believing in God, according to Mencken in Chapter 1?
(a) That person must be prepared to suffer eternal damnation for believing in the wrong god.
(b) That person must make offerings to his or her God.
(c) That person must pray on a daily basis.
(d) That person must ascribe all of Man's faults to God as well.

5. What does Mencken see as the problem with contemporary Protestantism?
(a) There are few, sensible, centrist Protestants left.
(b) Protestants suffer from a Jewish weakness for poetry.
(c) All modern Protestants are wishy-washy centrists.
(d) Protestants have forgotten the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Mencken praise doctors in Chapter 16?

2. Who was the father of the American short story?

3. What is Mencken's belief about the concept of sin?

4. What is NOT one of the qualities of being a teacher according to Mencken?

5. Which contemporary author does Mencken compare to Edgar Allan Poe because of his taste for the macabre?

(see the answer key)

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