View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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.

2. Which was NOT a source of loud noise in the Baltimore of the 1880s, according to Mencken?
(a) Penny candy vendors hawking their candy.
(b) Iron tires hitting hard cobblestone streets.
(c) Children singing and yelling in the streets.
(d) Barking dogs.

3. How did Gene the magistrate handle an overzealous Methodist clergyman?
(a) Gene ruled that religion was essential to the functioning of a democracy.
(b) Gene created trumped-up charges to render him no longer a problem.
(c) Gene had policemen follow the clergyman wherever he went.
(d) Gene ruled that the clergyman was within his rights to practice in the Jewish ghetto.

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

5. What was Mencken's phrase for religious fundamentalism?
(a) "The Fluff of the Flock."
(b) "That Old-Time Religion."
(c) "Ye Olde Honest Truth."
(d) "The Shepherd's Porridge."

Short Answer Questions

1. What city was featured in "The Libido for the Ugly"?

2. How was Theodore Dreiser like Joseph Conrad, according to Mencken?

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

4. What, according to Mencken, is "The Incomparable Buzz-Saw"?

5. What did Mencken feel about "American thinking"?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 356 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample