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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. In "The Hills of Zion," why did a woman warn against the reading of books?
(a) Reading would require too much effort.
(b) Only a congregation's preacher should take on the responsibility of reading.
(c) She believed that books are full of snakes and corn cobs.
(d) She asked, What knowledge could exist outside of the Bible?

3. What aspect of old-time education did Mencken miss most in modern education?
(a) The tolling of the dinner triangle.
(b) The charm of the one-room schoolhouse.
(c) Corporal punishment.
(d) The insistence on only male teachers.

4. According to Mencken, the intellectual tradition of Whitman and Emerson had been transferred to which man?
(a) William Jennings Bryan.
(b) Theodore Dreiser.
(c) Van Wyck Brooks.
(d) Jose Miguel Gomez.

5. What was unique to the American psyche according to Mencken in "Libido for the Ugly"?
(a) An obsession with staying thin.
(b) A tendency to be rude and loud during movie screenings.
(c) A queer fascination with ugliness.
(d) Sexual arousal when viewing art objects.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was FDR's chief opponent in the Democratic Convention of 1932?

2. What aspect of death did Mencken find most interesting?

3. What dominated Puritanism, according to Mencken in "The National Letters"?

4. In "Star-Spangled Man," Mencken argued that who, besides soldiers, should get medals?

5. What point did Mencken make when referring to the picture of a French soldier who was deformed with multiple amputations in war?

(see the answer key)

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