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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. New England owes much of its history to what group of people?
(a) Delaware Indians.
(b) The Founding Fathers.
(c) Manhattan Indians.
(d) Anti-Puritans.

4. What is Mencken's assessment of Abraham Lincoln?
(a) He was a bumbler and not fit for office.
(b) He was a hard-living chauvinist dinosaur.
(c) He was a practical politician of great talent and rhetoric.
(d) He was an out-and-out racist.

5. What is Man's one unique characteristic, per Chapter 1?
(a) Imagination.
(b) Romantic feeling.
(c) The ability to betray.
(d) Optimism.

6. What was the goal of early democratists?
(a) Concrete material gains.
(b) The overthrow of the wealthy.
(c) Definitions of concepts like truth and beauty.
(d) Philosophical frameworks to support democracy.

7. Which is NOT one of the qualities Mencken ascribes to William Jennings Bryan?
(a) Lack of dignity.
(b) Preference to keep in the company of intellectuals.
(c) Charlatanism.
(d) Insanity.

8. What kind of promises do politicians make?
(a) Ones they cannot deliver.
(b) Ones they can fulfill.
(c) Ones they have polled voters about.
(d) Ones they have no intention of fulfilling.

9. What does the "believer" type of person inevitably do?
(a) Betrays friends as well as lovers.
(b) Thinks they are better than everyone.
(c) Maintains a faith in the improbable.
(d) Annoys the company he or she is with.

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

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

12. 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.

13. 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 pray on a daily basis.
(c) That person must make offerings to his or her God.
(d) That person must be prepared to suffer eternal damnation for believing in the wrong god.

14. 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) Voting is usually rigged.
(c) There are too many bureaucracies and it is impossible to determine who to punish.
(d) Punishing the government will lead to revenge tactics.

15. What does Mencken believe about the universality of morality?
(a) Morality is universal, and differences between moral systems are small.
(b) Morality depends upon the language one speaks.
(c) Morality is specific to a particular individual.
(d) Morality is specific to regions of the world.

Short Answer Questions

1. Mencken sees that too often any discussion of suicide is rooted in what incorrect notion?

2. What is the relationship between free will and morality?

3. In Chapter 7, Mencken notes that there are too few books written about what subject?

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

5. Privately, politicians are what kind of people?

(see the answer keys)

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