View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What kind of sense of right and wrong do children have?
(a) Children are born without a sense of right and wrong, but they develop it without society's interference.
(b) Children are born with a sense of right and wrong, which is then corrupted by society.
(c) Children are born with a sense of right and wrong, and they carry this into adulthood.
(d) Children are born without a sense of right and wrong, and society imposes this sense upon them.

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

3. Why is the culture of the United States deficient, according to Chapter 10?
(a) The U.S. lacks a civilized aristocracy.
(b) The U.S. lacks a sound monetary policy.
(c) The U.S. lacks a healthy skepticism for so-called artists.
(d) The U.S. lacks social programs for the poor.

4. Which Southern state does Mencken particularly mourn in his obituary on the American South?
(a) Louisiana.
(b) Texas.
(c) Virginia.
(d) Georgia.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Mencken compares Theodore Roosevelt's political ideas to which other politician's?

2. What kind of men does a democracy produce?

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

4. New England owes much of its history to what group of people?

5. In "female novels," how are males portrayed according to Mencken?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Mencken believe about the nature of man and God? What is the consequence for believing in God? What about the soul?

2. Who is Professor Thorstein Veblen, and what is Mencken's opinion of him and his work?

3. In Chapter 1, how does Mencken's view of humanity coincide with that of the modern scientist?

4. Is morality necessary in Mencken's view? How many people are moral people? Is there a good and evil, or is that a human-created concept?

5. What is the origin of morality according to Mencken?

6. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of Abraham Lincoln.

7. What does Mencken have to say about politicians? What kind of people are they? How do they operate?

8. Describe Mencken's thought experiment, in which he imagines if the Confederacy had won the Civil War.

9. What is Mencken's view of romantic love?

10. What is Mencken's opinion of government? What is the role of government? Is one system of government preferable to another?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,005 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample