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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 29, Buffooneries, Chapter 30, Sententiae, Chapter 31, Appendix.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which is NOT one of the reasons Mencken praises George Washington?
(a) He scorned foreign entanglements.
(b) He enjoyed whiskey.
(c) He ignored the private morals of his neighbors.
(d) He was a pious man.

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

3. Why is the "pretty man" hated?
(a) The pretty man reminds us of all of our own faults.
(b) Women are jealous of pretty men.
(c) Women care less for beauty than men do.
(d) The pretty man is almost universally also very dumb.

4. What "call" does Mencken make to America's poets in Chapter 7?
(a) He wishes them to rewrite Ode to a Grecian Urn.
(b) He wishes them to speak upon the beauty of the female figure.
(c) He wishes them to write a funeral service for the damned.
(d) He wishes them to burn all of their poems and drown themselves.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. The first text in Chapter 29 is a play with what kind of people?

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

3. How intelligent are women according to Mencken?

4. What is Mencken's opinion of the telephone?

5. Before democracy came to be, what did people believe this system of government to be?

(see the answer key)

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