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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through 40-44.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Mencken describe the music of Chopin?
(a) "Two embalmers at work upon a minor poet."
(b) "Genesis I, I"
(c) A dozen wind chimes in a hurricane."
(d) "Silver macaroni, exquisitely tangled."

2. What was the "last straw" that forced Mencken to quit the organization in #16?
(a) The relentless shouting of his gym teacher.
(b) An evangelical teen in the reading room.
(c) The fact that the running track was rectangular.
(d) A painful accident with the horizontal bar.

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

4. What was the subject of "The Noble Experiment"?
(a) Drinking during Prohibition.
(b) A scientific breakthrough Mencken reported on.
(c) The Cuban revolution.
(d) Voting during World War I.

5. Why did Mencken call democracy a "self-limiting disease"?
(a) Democracy achieves equality, and once equality is achieved, democracy has nothing to accomplish.
(b) Democracy does damage, but the damage it can do is limited.
(c) Democracy is able to place limits on the power of politicians.
(d) Members of the Democratic Party inflict damage on themselves through numerous scandals.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which was NOT a reason Mencken used in his assessment that houses are ugly in "The Libido for the Ugly"?

2. Which was one of Mencken's criticisms for Woodrow Wilson?

3. Who were the two attorneys in the Scopes monkey trial?

4. In what way did Mencken mock General John Pershing?

5. In "The National Letters," what was the cause of all the "diseases" which afflict America?

(see the answer key)

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