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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How do rich people "buy public esteem" according to Mencken?
(a) They are especially generous to panhandlers.
(b) They donate to charities and to the arts.
(c) They make generous contributions to political campaigns.
(d) They buy newspaper ads praising themselves.

2. Mencken has what criticism for "new poets"?
(a) They are too musical.
(b) They are too cerebral and scientific.
(c) They are too romantic and instinctive.
(d) They are too clever for their own good.

3. What do men become once they accumulate wealth?
(a) Nicer.
(b) More amorous.
(c) Stupider.
(d) Stingier.

4. Who was the attorney on the side of the prosecution in the Scopes Monkey Trial?
(a) Clarence Darrow.
(b) Andrew Still.
(c) Theodore Veblen.
(d) William Jennings Bryan.

5. What is the BEST term to use for Mencken's characterization of American millionaires?
(a) Aristocrats.
(b) Idiots.
(c) Saints.
(d) Exciting.

6. How does Mencken characterize the emotional state of most schoolboys?
(a) They are happy.
(b) They are murderously violent.
(c) They are eager to learn and curious.
(d) They are very sad.

7. What does Mencken say about the nature of scientific hypotheses?
(a) Hypotheses are almost always wrong, as men are poor at guesswork.
(b) We need more of them, and they are valuable.
(c) He believes they should be lesser in number, and less fanciful.
(d) He is highly skeptical of their value.

8. What two types of poetry does Mencken believe are the only viable ones?
(a) Musical poetry and poetry of false ideas.
(b) Poetry of false ideas and poetry that tells a story.
(c) Musical poetry and poetry that rhymes.
(d) Poetry that tells a story and poetry that reveals essential truths.

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

10. What action taken by Anthony Comstock does Mencken take issue with?
(a) Editing his articles overmuch at the Baltimore Sun.
(b) Trying to censor book material.
(c) Too quickly embracing new technology like the telephone.
(d) Spreading a new strain of Methodist religion.

11. Why does the topic of "disease" give pathologists pause?
(a) It is very hard to define.
(b) Pathologists are extremely underfunded.
(c) It is difficult to deal with terminal cases.
(d) Medicine largely does not know how to combat disease.

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

13. Who was the father of the American short story?
(a) Ralph Waldo Emerson.
(b) Theodore Dreiser.
(c) Hamlin Garland.
(d) Edgar Allan Poe.

14. Who was the attorney on the side of the defense in the Scopes Monkey Trial?
(a) Clarence Darrow.
(b) Anthony Still.
(c) Theodore Veblen.
(d) William Jennings Bryan.

15. Where did the Scopes Monkey Trial take place?
(a) Dayton, Tennessee.
(b) Mexico, Missouri.
(c) Frankfurt, Kentucky.
(d) Chicago, Illinois.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which classical composer could not "write for the mob"?

2. What is the crux of Mr. Ayres' philosophical argument that Mencken criticizes?

3. Which is NOT one of the features of the typical school day, as envisioned by Mencken?

4. What quality makes for the best literary critic, according to Chapter 24?

5. Mencken sees authors as divided into which two classes?

(see the answer keys)

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