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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 of a house's pursestrings.
(c) The power over her children.
(d) The power to torture a man through love.

2. What organization did Mencken's father force him to join at age fourteen?
(a) The Baptist Church.
(b) The Boy Scouts of America.
(c) The Junior Achievement League.
(d) Y.M.C.A.

3. What did Mencken think about Woodrow Wilson's biography of George Washington?
(a) "Woodrow Wilson couldn't shine George Washington's shoes."
(b) It was poorly written and factually inaccurate.
(c) He was relieved that someone finally showed George Washington for who he really was.
(d) The biography had such a small print run as to be insignificant.

4. What quotation did Mencken borrow from Theodore Dreiser in "Cavia Cobaya"?
(a) Does the temperate, invulnerable man ever give in to the sins of alcohol?
(b) Does the average strong, successful man confine himself to one woman?
(c) Does a woman of considerable means ever want for a man of inconsiderable means?
(d) Does a man of moderate means never aspire to great wealth?

5. What famous speech did Ralph Waldo Emerson deliver in 1837?
(a) The Merits of Monogamy.
(b) The Pride of European Intellectualism.
(c) The American Scholar.
(d) The Awfulness of War.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Mencken disagree with contemporary assessments of Abraham Lincoln?

2. Which of the following describes an Anglo-Saxon soldier, according to Mencken?

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

4. In "Travail," how did the boys going to school in the morning seem to Mencken?

5. Which decade, according to the author, was Mencken at his best?

(see the answer key)

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