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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 attitude toward Grover Cleveland?
(a) Contempt for his policies.
(b) Enjoyment at his suffering.
(c) Smug pity.
(d) Great admiration.

2. What might Mencken say about a writer's sense of beauty?
(a) The writer has a very poor sense of beauty.
(b) The writer has a profound sense of beauty.
(c) Beauty is irrelevant to the writer, who must deal with cold, hard facts.
(d) The writer has an average sense of beauty.

3. Which was one of the architectural styles Mencken mentioned as part of the "new architecture"?
(a) Victorian.
(b) American colonial.
(c) Cubism.
(d) Modernism.

4. How would Mencken respond to the notion that William Jennings Bryan was an earnest man?
(a) He was earnest to the public, but in private he was a swindler and schemer.
(b) He was not earnest; he was inherently two-faced.
(c) He might have been earnest, but that was about his only admirable quality.
(d) Earnest or no, he did the right thing in the Scopes monkey trial.

5. What was the flaw of FDR's opponent in the Democratic National Convention of 1932?
(a) He was blinded by his hatred for FDR.
(b) He was a complete political rookie.
(c) He was too old, and he looked like a mummy next to FDR.
(d) He was ruined by a scandal involving adultery.

6. How had Wallace behaved in "The Wallace Paranoia"?
(a) He was convinced there are Communist space aliens.
(b) He was flirting with "most every thing in a dress."
(c) He had been a bumbler and an "ass."
(d) He had managed difficult times with great elegance.

7. Which was NOT a reason Mencken used in his assessment that houses are ugly in "The Libido for the Ugly"?
(a) The houses had awkward, skinny chimneys.
(b) The houses were painted yellow.
(c) The houses were structurally misshapen.
(d) The houses were shabby and dilapidated.

8. Which of the following was true in regard to statements made by Mencken about chiropractic?
(a) Chiropractic sprang from a perversion of brain science.
(b) The deaths of chiropractic patients was welcome, as it would mean less stupid people in the world.
(c) Chiropractors were made up of intellectual heavyweights and aristocrats.
(d) There was no, and would never be, any beneficial effect of chiropractic.

9. Why did Mencken curse those who translated the Bible into English?
(a) They made many factual errors.
(b) They made the prose overly flowery and beautiful.
(c) They made a host of grammatical errors.
(d) They misinterpreted the principles of Jesus Christ.

10. Which of the following was NOT a name applied to William Jennings Bryan by Mencken?
(a) Fly-catcher.
(b) Charlatan.
(c) Mountebank.
(d) Yellow-bellied sapsucker.

11. Who was FDR's chief opponent in the Democratic Convention of 1932?
(a) Henry Cabot Lodge.
(b) William Randolph Hearst.
(c) Al Smith.
(d) Woodrow Wilson.

12. Who started chiropractic, according to Mencken?
(a) Dr. William Bayle Howard.
(b) William Jennings Bryan.
(c) Andrew Still.
(d) Alistair Cooke.

13. Per "Mr. Justice Holmes," which of the following might Mencken say about the legislature as a state organization?
(a) It is subject to special interests and blackmail.
(b) Despite its flaws, it always acts in the interest of the people.
(c) It is run by the aristocracy.
(d) It is immune to corruption.

14. In "The Wallace Paranoia," who was Mencken referring to with the phrase "raisins in the bread."
(a) Extremists and the mentally unstable.
(b) Bible-belt evangelists.
(c) Honorable, career politicians.
(d) Sweet, young ladies amid a bunch of old men.

15. What was the subject of Mencken's final published article?
(a) A horse robbery.
(b) A court case tinged with racism.
(c) The "newest quackery" of household appliances.
(d) The murder of an adulterous housewife.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Mencken call democracy a "self-limiting disease"?

2. Which of the following was NOT an attribute of an artist, as Mencken describes in "The Artist"?

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

4. What was the general atmosphere of the Democratic National Convention of 1932, as reported by Mencken?

5. Which of the following did NOT happen during "The Hills of Zion"?

(see the answer keys)

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