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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through 15-18.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to the editor, why were the 1930s Mencken's "downfall"?
(a) Mencken spent most of the decade in Europe.
(b) Mencken's severe illness limited his output.
(c) The hardships in the country changed popular sentiment.
(d) President FDR waged a battle of personal attacks against Mencken.

2. What moral choice faced Mencken and a cop on New Year's Day, in "Recollections of Notable Cops"?
(a) A man clearly beat his wife, but could not be technically arrested.
(b) A prostitute bribed the policeman.
(c) They learned about a corrupt policeman, and had to decide whether to turn the man in.
(d) A dead man was found with a large sum of money in his pocket.

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

4. Which was NOT a source of terrible smell in the Baltimore of the 1880s, according to Mencken?
(a) The St. Helen's insane asylum.
(b) The glue factory.
(c) Wilkins Hair Factory.
(d) The Back Basin.

5. In "Recollections of Notable Cops," why does Mencken find the idea of a police academy remarkable?
(a) Mencken regards policemen as corrupt, vicious brutes.
(b) Academies usually teach useless skills; police academies teach useful skills.
(c) Cops in Mencken's younger days were not educated.
(d) Mencken states that police academies are contrary to the ideals of democracy.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is democracy's "aim," according to Mencken?

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

3. What was the subject of Walt Whitman's "Democratic Vistas"?

4. What did Mencken satirize in "Quid Est Veritas"?

5. What does Mencken call a man who resists the charms of women?

(see the answer key)

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