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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What stance can Mencken be said to have taken in "Star-Spangled Man"?
(a) Anti-war.
(b) Pro-life.
(c) Pro-gun.
(d) Anti-establishment.

2. Why was Theodore Dreiser compared to Franz Schubert by Mencken?
(a) Dreiser and Schubert used whimsy, irony, and a sense of silliness.
(b) Dreiser and Schubert exhibited an uncommon and sometimes perverse imagination.
(c) Dreiser and Schubert didn't know the theory of their arts, but nonetheless they produce valuable work.
(d) Dreiser and Schubert both created work that is "lighter than air."

3. What did Mencken wonder about Henry Cabot Lodge?
(a) Why he did not run for president.
(b) Why he thought he was so superior to everyone.
(c) Why he did not pick a more noble profession.
(d) Why he felt he must belittle everyone around him.

4. What did Mencken, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, feel about the tradition of giving medals in the military?
(a) Medals should be given on a daily basis, because every day soldiers sacrifice.
(b) Medals should be given only at the conclusion of career service.
(c) Medals should be given to common soldiers, and not just generals.
(d) Medals should be reserved just for generals, as the "idea men" of the military.

5. What was Mencken's nickname for Chesapeake Bay?
(a) Crab central.
(b) The protein factory.
(c) Home of the yummy lobsters.
(d) The big blue.

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

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

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

9. Which was NOT a feature of the ideal aristocracy, according to Mencken?
(a) The presence of a complex set of protocols and accepted behaviors.
(b) The ability to produce excellent art.
(c) The presence of bold, free-thinking men.
(d) Intellectual superiority.

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

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

12. What did Mencken satirize in "Quid Est Veritas"?
(a) Aristocrats.
(b) Organized religion.
(c) Those who insisted Latin was not a dead language.
(d) Country doctors.

13. What criticism did Mencken have for the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation?
(a) It freed all slaves, when to preserve peace it should have freed only some.
(b) It directly led to the Battle of Shiloh.
(c) It only freed specific slaves, and not all slaves.
(d) It freed slaves all at once, when it should have done it in a gradual way.

14. What moral choice faced Mencken and a cop on New Year's Day, in "Recollections of Notable Cops"?
(a) A man clearly beat his wife, but could not be technically arrested.
(b) A prostitute bribed the policeman.
(c) They learned about a corrupt policeman, and had to decide whether to turn the man in.
(d) A dead man was found with a large sum of money in his pocket.

15. What must modern religions do to "escape absurdity"?
(a) They should encourage a much more relaxed church service.
(b) They must allow gay marriage.
(c) They must disband immediately.
(d) They should accept a small element of agnosticism.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does the typical man have a poor conception of beauty?

2. Charlie the policeman was charged with which task, in "Recollections of Notable Cops"?

3. What criticism did Dr. William Bayard Hale have for Woodrow Wilson?

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

5. In what way did Mencken mock General John Pershing?

(see the answer keys)

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