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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 7, Death, Chapter 8, Government.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Punishment for crime is too often what, according to Mencken?
(a) Cruel and unusual.
(b) Effective, which results in the murder of the human spirit.
(c) The product of poor people exerting influence over the rich.
(d) Hypocritical and dishonest.

3. What is Man's one unique characteristic, per Chapter 1?
(a) Optimism.
(b) Imagination.
(c) The ability to betray.
(d) Romantic feeling.

4. What does Mencken believe about the universality of morality?
(a) Morality is specific to a particular individual.
(b) Morality depends upon the language one speaks.
(c) Morality is specific to regions of the world.
(d) Morality is universal, and differences between moral systems are small.

5. What is the "average man's" opinion of government?
(a) The government is made up of people like him.
(b) The government is deceitful and contrary to his interests.
(c) The government is an unknown phenomenon the average man knows nothing about.
(d) The government is a source of great good.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the "metaphysical" type of person inevitably do?

2. What kind of sense of right and wrong do children have?

3. What subject does Mencken begin his volume with?

4. What is the proper function of punishment for crimes?

5. What does the "romantic" type of person inevitably do?

(see the answer key)

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