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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the art discussed in "The Comedian"?
(a) Stage acting.
(b) Street musicianship.
(c) Pantomime.
(d) Television situational comedy.

2. How did Mencken describe the music of Puccini?
(a) "Two embalmers at work upon a minor poet."
(b) "A dozen wind chimes in a hurricane."
(c) "Two intertwined dogs yapping at each other."
(d) "Silver macaroni, exquisitely tangled."

3. Which of the following was NOT an attribute of an artist, as Mencken describes in "The Artist"?
(a) The artist is more sensitive to his environment than normal people.
(b) The artist turns against his country and countrymen.
(c) The artist is patriotic.
(d) The artist is more easily wounded.

4. What was the result of Mencken's attempt to trace the lineage of the Anglo-Saxon race?
(a) Mencken claimed, sarcastically, that he himself represents the apex of the race.
(b) He pointed out that the race was never the same after a battle in 1066.
(c) He traced it to a tribe in Western Africa.
(d) It was too complicated, and he gave up.

5. What was the subject of "A Good Man Gone Wrong"?
(a) A man who heckled an animal at the zoo, and got arrested.
(b) A man who was jailed for protesting World War I.
(c) A man who murdered at the request of another man's wife.
(d) A man who robbed in order to feed his family.

6. What was Mencken's attitude toward Grover Cleveland?
(a) Great admiration.
(b) Contempt for his policies.
(c) Smug pity.
(d) Enjoyment at his suffering.

7. What was "lamentable" about the North beating the South in the Civil War, according to Mencken?
(a) The slaves were freed.
(b) The quality of tobacco was never the same.
(c) The South's aristocracy was destroyed.
(d) Technological innovation was delayed by 25 years.

8. What was Mencken's current opinion of the American South, as revealed in "The Calamity of Appomattox"?
(a) It was a lightning-rod of controversy.
(b) It was a culturally superior place.
(c) It was a culturally inferior place.
(d) It was an economic powerhouse.

9. What theoretical scenario did Mencken pose in "The Calamity of Appomattox"?
(a) Mencken imagines if Europe had never recovered from World War I, and was a smoldering ruin.
(b) Mencken imagines if the North had surrendered in the Civil War instead of the South.
(c) Mencken imagines if the Civil War had never taken place, and the South had slaves to this day.
(d) Mencken imagines a world in which the deli counter always got his sandwich order right.

10. What problem did Mencken have with Justice Holmes' final court case?
(a) Holmes delivered an hour-long, and completely unnecessary, speech when rendering his verdict.
(b) The case was a clear violation of freedom from double jeopardy.
(c) The case involved a tainted jury pool.
(d) The case violated the writ of Habeus Corpus.

11. What was the point of the section, "Sententiae"?
(a) It was a personal letter from Mencken to his wife, in order to show Mencken's softer side.
(b) Mencken attempted to get a judge thrown off a case.
(c) Mencken railed against the European royal class.
(d) It was a collection of humorous and witty Mencken sayings.

12. What did Mencken call for in "Mencken's Last Stand"?
(a) For president Harry S. Truman to resign.
(b) A more intelligent approach to chiropractic.
(c) An end to segregation.
(d) For the world to leave him alone.

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

14. Why was early Christianity superior to modern Christianity, per "Holy Writ"?
(a) Services took place in cold places, to ensure better concentration.
(b) It featured a lot less sermonizing.
(c) It featured more moral instructions.
(d) Early Christianity had a less strict interpretation of Biblical stories.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who did Mencken NOT count among the "crackpots" present in "The Wallace Paranoia"?

2. What did Mencken attribute to the fall of the "good man" in "A Good Man Gone Wrong"?

3. What was the subject of Mencken's final published article?

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

5. How would Mencken respond to the notion that William Jennings Bryan was an earnest man?

(see the answer keys)

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