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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the "altruist" motivated by?

2. What is Mencken's belief about the concept of sin?

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

4. What does democracy ruin, according to Mencken?

5. What is Mencken's opinion of the belief that man has a soul, according to Chapter 1?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is democracy's fundamental flaw? What aspect of human nature motivates democracy?

2. 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?

3. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of Abraham Lincoln.

4. What is the degree of women's "civility" according to Mencken? How does emotion factor in to civility?

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

6. What is Mencken's view of monogamy/marriage?

7. In Chapter 1, what comparison does Mencken make between man and animal? Who is "superior"?

8. What does Mencken see as a popular misconception about death? What is his opinion of suicide?

9. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of William Jennings Bryan. How is Mencken's opinion related to the Scopes Monkey Trial?

10. What does Mencken feel about the relationship between science and religion?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Summarize Mencken's views on women. Discuss each of the following topics:

a) Women's level of intelligence

b) Women's level of civility

c) The institution of marriage, and how it affects men and women

d) The role of beauty in man-woman relationships

e) The role of romantic love in man-woman relationships

Essay Topic 2

Describe in-depth Mencken's views of the following people (and specific works, if applicable):

1) Ludwig van Beethoven

2) Richard Strauss

3) Johann Strauss

4) Johannes Brahms

5) Richard Wagner

6) Franz Schubert

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the Chapter 29 "buffoonery" in which Mencken portrays a dialogue involving Pharoah Cheops.

1) Summarize the "plot" and premise of the story.

2) Discuss how the story relates to contemporary concerns.

3) Speculate as to why Mencken may have used Pharaoh Cheops and his world to comment on contemporary issues. What does Mencken accomplish by commentary designed in this fashion?

(see the answer keys)

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