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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who rules American culture, according to Chapter 10?
(a) Psychologists and doctors.
(b) The learned aristocracy.
(c) The uncivilized mob.
(d) Quacks such as chiropractors.

2. What aspect of President Grant does Mencken admire?
(a) His oratorical prowess.
(b) His hard-living, genuine lifestyle.
(c) His military prowess.
(d) His reputation for a clean, corruption-free administration.

3. What kind of people are most often forgotten by historical records, per Chapter 12?
(a) The commoners.
(b) Respectful and intelligent men.
(c) Great warriors.
(d) Courageous women.

4. Why does Mencken admire John D. Rockefeller?
(a) For his business prowess.
(b) For his political acumen.
(c) For his research foundations.
(d) For his larger-than-life lifestyle.

5. How does Mencken characterize a woman's level of civility?
(a) Women do not submit to civilization and must be coerced.
(b) Women are relatively uncivilized.
(c) Women have created their own civilization quite distinct from men.
(d) Women are much more civilized than men.

6. 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) The only thing man cannot do that animal can is fly.
(c) Many animals have superior faculties to man.
(d) The faculties of animal and man precisely balance when taken as a whole.

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

8. What does the "romantic" type of person inevitably do?
(a) Exaggerates.
(b) Befriends everyone they meet.
(c) Makes light of serious situations.
(d) Betrays.

9. What group of people has been "overestimated" throughout the course of human history?
(a) Egyptians.
(b) Greeks.
(c) Barbarians.
(d) Russians.

10. How would George Washington fare in today's political climate?
(a) He would be arrested for corruption.
(b) He would be bewildered by modern methods and unable to perform his duties.
(c) He would have no chance of winning any political office.
(d) He would easily be elected president.

11. What aspect of human nature fuels the democratic system of government?
(a) Grace.
(b) Murderous violence.
(c) Envy.
(d) Charity.

12. What do most women think of their husbands according to Mencken?
(a) Women pity their husbands and consider them asses.
(b) Women love and respect their husbands.
(c) Women are indifferent to their husbands and use them as mere tools.
(d) Women fear and loathe their husbands.

13. What is Mencken's belief about morality?
(a) Morality is unnecessary.
(b) Morality is reserved only for the aristocracy.
(c) Morality is a made-up concept that doesn't exist.
(d) Morality is necessary.

14. Who is the "ideal citizen of Christendom" according to Chapter 3?
(a) Young men drained of passion.
(b) Young men full of passion.
(c) An emotionally cold woman.
(d) The hapless hero of a female novel.

15. 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 destroyed the Southern aristocracy.
(d) It created the Southern aristocracy.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is the culture of the United States deficient, according to Chapter 10?

2. What is the relationship between Anglo-Saxons and civilization?

3. What is the fundamental flaw of the democratic style of government?

4. How has Mencken organized his book?

5. Which politician does Mencken refer to as "a good man in a bad trade"?

(see the answer keys)

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