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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was Mencken's criticism for Lincoln's Gettysburg Address?
(a) It was a slap in the face to Southern Democrats.
(b) It was full of racist remarks and innuendo.
(c) It was more poetry than logic.
(d) It was more about logistics and policy than stirring rhetoric.

2. Which decade, according to the author, was Mencken at his best?
(a) The 1930s.
(b) The 1920s.
(c) The 1910s.
(d) The 1940s.

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

4. What does Mencken state about the literary influence(s) of Theodore Dreiser?
(a) Dreiser was the product of Emile Zola.
(b) No one author can be pointed to as an influence.
(c) Dreiser was the product of Frank Norris.
(d) Dreiser draws upon the literary tradition of Germany.

5. What was the subject of the first Mencken-written article that was ever published?
(a) A horse robbery.
(b) The gold standard.
(c) A high-society party.
(d) Political discontent in Europe.

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

7. Which is one of the stated reasons the editor put the volume together?
(a) To sell books for profit.
(b) To expose the corrupt policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
(c) To introduce the works of H. L. Mencken to a new generation.
(d) To fight charges that Mencken was racist.

8. What was the name of H. L. Mencken's brother?
(a) Bud.
(b) Charlie.
(c) Mitch.
(d) Jesse.

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

10. Which was described as Mencken's earliest memory?
(a) Watching a carnival of the Order of Orioles.
(b) Attending a speech of William Jennings Bryan.
(c) Getting bitten by a snake.
(d) Swatting flies with his brother in the kitchen.

11. What part of Mencken's work is NOT included in the volume?
(a) Mencken's work on language and grammar.
(b) Mencken's nostalgic musings on Baltimore.
(c) Mencken's political discourse of the 1920s.
(d) Mencken's esoteric views on art and art history.

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

13. What did Gene the magistrate do with respect to an old man in his court accused of wife beating?
(a) Gene put him in jail for two years.
(b) Gene threatened the man with made-up punishments to get him to reform.
(c) Gene applauded the man for keeping his wife well-behaved.
(d) Gene had the court bailiff beat the man, just as he had beat his wife.

14. What does Mencken call a man who resists the charms of women?
(a) A most rare beast indeed.
(b) A most distinguished gentleman.
(c) A most disgusting cad.
(d) An exceedingly wise stone statue.

15. What was the subject of Walt Whitman's "Democratic Vistas"?
(a) Whitman's faith in the common man to rule himself.
(b) Whitman's argument that republicanism is much preferred to democracy.
(c) The awe-inspiring beauty of several places in America.
(d) Whitman's desire that a class of intellectuals would rise up to rule America.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which war was General John Pershing most famously involved in?

2. In "The Baltimore of the Eighties," why does Mencken's mother lament about a trip to the market?

3. Who presided over the Republican Convention of 1920?

4. What did Mencken think about monogamy, as revealed in "Cavia Cobaya"?

5. Which book was Mencken's touchstone into literature?

(see the answer keys)

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