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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 kind of test does Mencken believe teachers should have to pass prior to teaching?
2. In Chapter 15, Mencken expresses surprise that no one has violated the tomb of which man?
3. What unusual stance does Mencken take in regards to disease?
4. What American book does Mencken call one of history's great masterpieces?
5. What was "unusual" about Mr. Gray?
Short Essay Questions
1. 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?
2. Why does Mencken criticize the American Medical Association? What is his opinion of doctors as a professional class?
3. How does Mencken compare socialism to capitalism? Include the Bolshevik Revolution in your response.
4. What does Mencken feel is the contemporary state of psychology? How does he feel about Freudianism?
5. Summarize Mencken's account of a Jack Dempsey boxing match.
6. Describe the following under the category of what Mencken calls "'The Lesser Arts": a) oil painting, b) drama.
7. In Chapter 24, Mencken discusses art and literary criticism. How do critics influence artists? And what makes for the best kind of literary critics?
8. In an editorial dated October, 1928, Mencken discusses schoolboys. Summarize this article. What suggestions does Mencken have for improving education?
9. Summarize Mencken's views on William Dean Howells.
10. What insight does Mencken provide about physical disease/illness?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Chapter 17 is titled "Pedagogy".
1) Summarize Mencken's view of the teaching profession.
2) How does Mencken compare and contrast the teaching methods of yesteryear with contemporary methods?
3) What is the contemporary state of schoolboys? Why do they suffer?
4) What suggestions does Mencken have for improving education?
Essay Topic 2
1) Discuss Mencken's historical involvement in the Scopes Monkey Trial.
2) Summarize Mencken's own account of his attendance of the trial.
3) What was Mencken's impression of the townspeople? Of Clarence Darrow? Of William Jennings Bryan?
4) How does the conflict at the heart of the trial reflect upon Mencken's own values and convictions? Why was the trial so important to Mencken?
Essay Topic 3
Summarize Mencken's views on government, especially the democratic form of government. Include:
a) The average man's conception of government
b) The history and evolution of democracy as Mencken sees it
c) Why democracy is inherently flawed
d) The effects of democracy -- what it harms, what kind of people it produces
e) Mencken's prescription for an ideal form of government/leadership for the United States
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This section contains 1,061 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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