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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What central critique does Mencken have for teachers of his day?
(a) They simply teach, and leave it to students to figure out the lesson.
(b) They are given entirely too much respect in society.
(c) They are overpaid and underworked.
(d) They too often making learning an automatic process.

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

5. What word might Mencken use to characterize Mary Baker G. Eddy?
(a) Saint.
(b) Fraud.
(c) Intellectual.
(d) Necessary.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What point does Mencken make in his discussion of Darwinian evolution?

3. How do bad artists hide their shortcomings?

4. What is Mencken's central critique for socialism?

5. Which author does Mencken believe is for "lunch-table idealists"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Summarize Mencken's views on Mark Twain.

2. What is Mencken's opinion of the teaching profession? How does he compare and contrast teaching styles of his schoolboy days to today?

3. What opinion does Mencken render about a) Mary Baker G. Eddy and Christian Science, and b) the doctrine of theosophy?

4. Summarize Mencken's account of a Jack Dempsey boxing match.

5. In "Utopian Flights," how does Mencken suggest that legislators be chosen? What benefits would this method have, in his opinion?

6. Why does Mencken make mention of Charles Joseph Bonaparte? Who was Bonaparte, and what was Mencken's opinion of him?

7. What opinion does Mencken render about the Black Plague that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages?

8. What is Mencken's opinion of Prohibition? What was its effect on society?

9. What does Mencken believe about contemporary new inventions? Mention the telephone as well as the thermostat in your response.

10. What is Mencken's opinion of the music of Johann Strauss? Why wasn't Strauss' music more well-received in America?

(see the answer keys)

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