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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through 45-49.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What dominated Puritanism, according to Mencken in "The National Letters"?
(a) Free-thinking men of purpose.
(b) Religious tomfoolery.
(c) Fear, and the suspicion of art.
(d) The simple necessities of food, clothing, and shelter.

2. Why do "handsome men" deserve suspicion?
(a) They are always self-serving and vain.
(b) The human body is inherently ugly.
(c) They are terrible conversationalists.
(d) They are "ugly" inside.

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

4. What might Mencken say was Grover Cleveland's defining trait?
(a) Intelligence.
(b) A lust for life.
(c) Stubbornness.
(d) Political acumen.

5. What memorable simile did Mencken use for Grover Cleveland?
(a) Cleveland was like a newborn babe gazing at the stars for the first time.
(b) Cleveland was like a fragile butterfly with wings of dynamite.
(c) Cleveland was like a steel ship loaded with monoliths of granite.
(d) Cleveland was like a crocodile waiting to snap his jaws around the American public.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the flaw of FDR's opponent in the Democratic National Convention of 1932?

2. What famous speech did Ralph Waldo Emerson deliver in 1837?

3. According to "Exeunt Omnes," Mencken was disappointed with the amount of books dedicated to which subject?

4. How did Mencken appraise Valentino in their dinner meeting?

5. According to the editor, why were the 1930s Mencken's "downfall"?

(see the answer key)

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