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

2. Writers "who cannot write" write in what style?
(a) Prose.
(b) Dialogues.
(c) Song lyrics.
(d) Poetry.

3. What device does Mencken call a "boon to bores"?
(a) Radio.
(b) Telephone.
(c) Elevator.
(d) Thermostat.

4. Who does Mencken call "the national ideal of a literary character"?
(a) William Dean Howells.
(b) Joseph Conrad.
(c) Ring Lardner.
(d) Ambrose Bierce.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the second-worst job in the world, according to Chapter 17?

2. What does Mencken believe about Freudianism?

3. What was "unusual" about Mr. Gray?

4. In the boxing match Mencken reports on in Chapter 23, why do most want the favorite boxer to lose?

5. How do rich people "buy public esteem" according to Mencken?

Short Essay Questions

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

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. Describe the following under the category of what Mencken calls "'The Lesser Arts": a) oil painting, b) drama.

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

5. Summarize Mencken's view of Ludwig van Beethoven.

6. What is Mencken's own philosophy of psychology? What does he feel forms the basis of human psychology?

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

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

9. What does Mencken believe about chiropractors?

10. Summarize Mencken's views on William Dean Howells.

(see the answer keys)

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