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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through 35-39.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What would best describe how Mencken felt about stage acting?
(a) It is completely unworthy of the price of admission.
(b) It stabs at the soul with genuine feeling.
(c) Like portrait painting, stage acting provides a window into the truth.
(d) It gladdens the heart with falsity.

2. In "Travail," how did the boys going to school in the morning seem to Mencken?
(a) Upbeat and joyous.
(b) Energetic and hopeful.
(c) Like they might someday conquer the world.
(d) Tired and sad.

3. What aspect of old-time education did Mencken miss most in modern education?
(a) The tolling of the dinner triangle.
(b) Corporal punishment.
(c) The insistence on only male teachers.
(d) The charm of the one-room schoolhouse.

4. In "Star-Spangled Man," Mencken argued that who, besides soldiers, should get medals?
(a) Dock workers and tugboat captains.
(b) Anyone hostile to the United States.
(c) Murderers, thieves, and rapists.
(d) Writers and intellectuals.

5. What is democracy's "aim," according to Mencken?
(a) To protect the children of a society.
(b) To ensure great wealth for all.
(c) To pull everyone down to the same level.
(d) To indoctrinate everyone in religious "poppycock."

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Mencken, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, feel about the tradition of giving medals in the military?

2. What was unique to the American psyche according to Mencken in "Libido for the Ugly"?

3. Which of the following could NOT be used to describe Mencken's tone in "Star-Spangled Man"?

4. What did Mencken conclude in his examination of rulings in "Mr. Justice Holmes"?

5. What profession should the truth-teller NOT aspire to, according to Mencken?

(see the answer key)

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