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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 11, The South, Chapter 12, History.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the most damning effect of the Civil War, in regard to the South?
(a) It replaced religious values with secular ones.
(b) It introduced technology into an innocent and primitive society.
(c) It created the Southern aristocracy.
(d) It destroyed the Southern aristocracy.

2. How does Mencken feel about the overall capacity for virtue in the human race?
(a) Most people are virtuous, but a few people spoil it for everyone.
(b) Very few men are virtuous.
(c) Everyone is virtuous, it's just a matter of uncovering it.
(d) Virtue is a nonsense term, because everything is relative.

3. What subject does Mencken begin his volume with?
(a) The horrors of the carnival.
(b) The mysteries of women.
(c) The nature of man.
(d) The automobile.

4. What does Mencken believe about the concept of evil?
(a) Evil is just another word for good; it's all relative.
(b) Evil is real, and exists all around us.
(c) Evil is the reason why children are born.
(d) Evil is a made-up term, and does not really exist.

5. Why is Mencken unable to embrace democratic political theory, as he himself states it in Chapter 9?
(a) He is incapable of being envious of others.
(b) He is simply too cultured and sophisticated.
(c) He is morally superior to democrats.
(d) He is not poor, and so cannot see democracy's benefits.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What is the "altruist" motivated by?

3. What is the purpose of monogamy, according to Mencken?

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

5. What "call" does Mencken make to America's poets in Chapter 7?

(see the answer key)

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