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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through 10-14.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Mencken, what kind of books did Theodore Dreiser produce?
(a) Books more important as museum pieces than texts that should be read.
(b) Breezy, summer-day reading.
(c) Wheezing, moralizing diatribes.
(d) Weighty, substantial tomes that one must concentrate on for a long time.

2. According to "The Incomparable Buzz-Saw," what is a woman's only power?
(a) The power to ruin a man's life with divorce.
(b) The power to torture a man through love.
(c) The power of a house's pursestrings.
(d) The power over her children.

3. Who is the editor of this volume?
(a) Alistair Cooke.
(b) H. L. Mencken.
(c) William Jennings Bryan.
(d) Alfred Knopf.

4. In "Pater Patriae," which was NOT one of the reasons Mencken admired George Washington?
(a) He put his trust and authority in intellectuals and lawyers.
(b) He was not convinced of the wisdom of common people.
(c) He could cuss up a storm.
(d) He was tough-living, and whiskey-drinking.

5. What did Mencken satirize in "Quid Est Veritas"?
(a) Those who insisted Latin was not a dead language.
(b) Country doctors.
(c) Organized religion.
(d) Aristocrats.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "The Baltimore of the Eighties," why does Mencken's mother lament about a trip to the market?

2. What was the subject of the first Mencken-written article that was ever published?

3. According to "Quid Est Veritas?," what kind of religion professes to know God exactly and completely?

4. What human flaw does democracy depend upon, according to Mencken?

5. What was the name of H. L. Mencken's brother?

(see the answer key)

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