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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Mencken compares Theodore Roosevelt's political ideas to which other politician's?
(a) A Japanese feudal lord.
(b) The United State's William Jennings Bryan.
(c) England's Queen.
(d) Germany's Kaiser.

2. What is the problem with trying to punishment a government for not working well?
(a) The government itself is in control of the means of punishment.
(b) There are too many bureaucracies and it is impossible to determine who to punish.
(c) Punishing the government will lead to revenge tactics.
(d) Voting is usually rigged.

3. Which politician does Mencken refer to as "a good man in a bad trade"?
(a) George Washington.
(b) Grover Cleveland.
(c) Abraham Lincoln.
(d) William Jennings Bryan.

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

5. What kind of men does a democracy produce?
(a) Energetic men with too much time on their hands.
(b) Depressing men full of nostalgia.
(c) Noble, confident men who do not envy others.
(d) Stupid men who can barely master the multiplication tables.

6. What is the chief problem with political theorists?
(a) They are too antagonistic to the current political system.
(b) They hate politics in general.
(c) They attempt to dignify the political order of their day.
(d) They have little sense of history.

7. What is Mencken's belief about crime?
(a) Crime is primarily a product of capitalist society.
(b) Crime is primarily a legal invention.
(c) Crime is impossible in aristocratic circles.
(d) Crime is primarily a social invention.

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

9. Which is NOT one of the features Mencken imagines for the Confederacy, had it survived the Civil War?
(a) It would be a wealthier place.
(b) It would never have abolished slavery.
(c) It would have a strong aristocracy in place.
(d) It would be a more cultured place.

10. 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.

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

12. What kind of men has history been written by, to date?
(a) Third-rate, inferior men.
(b) Noble men of purpose.
(c) The most intelligent men, and this is why history cannot be understood by most.
(d) Men more interested in power than factual accuracy.

13. What is the relationship between free will and morality?
(a) Free will is the cause as well as the effect of morality.
(b) Free will has no relationship to morality.
(c) Free will creates several difficulties for morality.
(d) Free will and morality work hand in hand in a positive way.

14. What is the relationship between Anglo-Saxons and civilization?
(a) Anglo-Saxons created civilization, and are its last bastion of hope.
(b) Anglo-Saxons are the least civilized of all white people.
(c) Anglo-Saxons are the most civilized of all white people.
(d) Anglo-Saxons choose to live outside civilization because they are morally superior.

15. 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.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Who is the "ideal citizen of Christendom" according to Chapter 3?

3. What kind of people are most often forgotten by historical records, per Chapter 12?

4. What effect has intermarriage had on the American South?

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

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