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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Why was the centenary of the Viennese Waltz not celebrated in America, according to Mencken?
(a) It is too slow for Americans with short attention spans.
(b) No one dances the waltz in America.
(c) It is a joyous waltz, and joy was banned with Prohibition.
(d) Its melody is too sophisticated for Americans.

3. Mencken reports on a boxing with which famed boxer?
(a) Gunboat Smith.
(b) Fireman Jim Flynn.
(c) Gene Tunney.
(d) Jack Dempsey.

4. Who wrote Parsifal?
(a) Schubert.
(b) Beethoven.
(c) Strauss.
(d) Wagner.

5. Who wrote the Viennese Waltz?
(a) Beethoven.
(b) Brahms.
(c) Schubert.
(d) Strauss.

6. Who does Mencken identify as the father of chiropractic?
(a) Andrew Still.
(b) John Ayres.
(c) William Carlos Williams.
(d) Charles Joseph Bonaparte.

7. What quality makes for the best literary critic, according to Chapter 24?
(a) The goal to create a work of art.
(b) Advancing a personal agenda or doctrine.
(c) Accuracy and a need to refute error.
(d) Adhering to a specific philosophical system.

8. What is the worst job in the world, according to Chapter 17?
(a) Teacher.
(b) Chiropractor.
(c) Plumber.
(d) Writer.

9. What is Mencken's view of contemporary psychological science?
(a) The field is poorly funded, and suffers because of it.
(b) The field is complete quackery.
(c) The field is surprisingly neat and orderly, with little disagreement between schools..
(d) The field is in chaos, with widely conflicting views.

10. Which contemporary author does Mencken compare to Edgar Allan Poe because of his taste for the macabre?
(a) Ring Lardner.
(b) Hamlin Garland.
(c) James Huneker.
(d) Ambrose Bierce.

11. What does Mencken believe about Freudianism?
(a) It goes further to explain the human mind than anything before it.
(b) It is complete quackery.
(c) It it in no way truly reflects the brilliance of Sigmund Freud.
(d) It makes several valid points.

12. Which president did Charles Joseph Bonaparte work for?
(a) Warren G. Harding.
(b) Theodore Roosevelt.
(c) Grover Cleveland.
(d) Woodrow Wilson.

13. Mencken sees authors as divided into which two classes?
(a) Sly and Overt.
(b) English and Continental.
(c) Dramatic and Comedic.
(d) American and Foreign.

14. Who wrote Sextet for Strings, Opus 18, which Mencken greatly praises?
(a) Brahms.
(b) Strauss.
(c) Wagner.
(d) Beethoven.

15. In the boxing match Mencken reports on in Chapter 23, why do most want the favorite boxer to lose?
(a) He had beaten his wife up the night before.
(b) He had been accused of taking steroids.
(c) He was drunk and hollering at the crowd.
(d) He had evaded service in World War I.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Mencken say about the nature of scientific hypotheses?

2. According to Chapter 16, which political system is responsible for the majority of civilization as we know it?

3. What point does Mencken make by bringing up an 84-year-old man he knew in Chapter 21?

4. Which is NOT one of the negative effects Mencken mentions in regards to Prohibition?

5. What is the BEST term to use for Mencken's characterization of American millionaires?

(see the answer keys)

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