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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. What was "unusual" about Mr. Gray?
(a) He was a victim of leprosy.
(b) He could not remember faces.
(c) He was electrocuted to death.
(d) He refused to give his real name to Mencken.

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

3. 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.

4. A man's taste in poetry is a reflection of what?
(a) His intelligence.
(b) His inner cravings.
(c) His love of life.
(d) His sense of romance.

5. What kind of test does Mencken believe teachers should have to pass prior to teaching?
(a) An IQ test.
(b) An SAT test.
(c) A test of general world knowledge.
(d) A speech test.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Mencken call the most romantic American author of the nineteenth century?

2. Mencken reports on a boxing with which famed boxer?

3. How does Mencken react to a religious ceremony inside a basilica, as he recounts in Chapter 15?

4. Who does Mencken consider the greatest classical composer?

5. Which is NOT one of the benefits Mencken sees should America put into place his ideas in "Utopian Flights"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What insight does Mencken provide about physical disease/illness?

2. What does Mencken feel is the contemporary state of psychology? How does he feel about Freudianism?

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

4. What should poetry ideally be, according to Mencken? What makes for a good poem? And how does taste in poetry reflect upon a person's qualities?

5. Summarize Mencken's views on inspiration, as recounted in Chapter 25.

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

7. Why does Mencken make mention of Sister Aimee? Who was Sister Aimee, and what was Mencken's opinion of her?

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

9. What memorable position does Mencken take on opera?

10. How does Mencken compare socialism to capitalism? Include the Bolshevik Revolution in your response.

(see the answer keys)

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