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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. What kind of sense of right and wrong do children have?
(a) Children are born without a sense of right and wrong, and society imposes this sense upon them.
(b) Children are born with a sense of right and wrong, and they carry this into adulthood.
(c) Children are born without a sense of right and wrong, but they develop it without society's interference.
(d) Children are born with a sense of right and wrong, which is then corrupted by society.

2. In "Utopian Flights," how does Mencken believe legislators should be chosen?
(a) By a simple popular vote.
(b) By a committee of intellectuals.
(c) By the elected president.
(d) At random, not unlike jurors.

3. According to Chapter 16, which political system is responsible for the majority of civilization as we know it?
(a) Socialism.
(b) Capitalism.
(c) Dictatorship.
(d) Oligarchy.

4. What was "unusual" about Mr. Gray?
(a) He could not remember faces.
(b) He was electrocuted to death.
(c) He was a victim of leprosy.
(d) He refused to give his real name to Mencken.

5. What comparison does Mencken make between man and animal in Chapter 1?
(a) Man in every way has faculties that are superior to animals.
(b) Many animals have superior faculties to man.
(c) The only thing man cannot do that animal can is fly.
(d) The faculties of animal and man precisely balance when taken as a whole.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Mencken praise doctors in Chapter 16?

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

3. Who did the Black Plague mostly kill off, according to Mencken?

4. How do rich people "buy public esteem" according to Mencken?

5. What was the most damning effect of the Civil War, in regard to the South?

(see the answer key)

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