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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What was Theodore Dreiser's national and ethnic background?
(a) German.
(b) French.
(c) Swedish.
(d) American.

3. According to Mencken, what was the Union fighting for in the Civil War?
(a) Profit.
(b) Self-governance.
(c) Against the notion of self-determinism.
(d) Freedom.

4. What does Mencken make synonymous with democracy in "A Blind Spot"?
(a) Hedonism.
(b) Totalitarianism.
(c) Agnosticism.
(d) Puritanism.

5. 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 didn't know the theory of their arts, but nonetheless they produce valuable work.
(c) Dreiser and Schubert exhibited an uncommon and sometimes perverse imagination.
(d) Dreiser and Schubert both created work that is "lighter than air."

Short Answer Questions

1. Which was NOT a source of terrible smell in the Baltimore of the 1880s, according to Mencken?

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

3. What cheeky nickname did Mencken give Theodore Dreiser?

4. In "The Good Man," what general statement did Mencken make about mankind?

5. What part of Mencken's work is NOT included in the volume?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Mencken's ideal form of government?

2. Instead of military generals, who did Mencken wish to award medals to in "Star-Spangled Man"?

3. Why did Mencken criticize Woodrow Wilson?

4. What was Mencken's opinion of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The American Scholar"?

5. What criticisms did Mencken level at General John Pershing?

6. According to Mencken, why do so many people lie?

7. What questions did Mencken raise about the contemporary understanding of Abraham Lincoln?

8. How did Mencken answer the question of whether successful men should have mistresses?

9. In "A Blind Spot," why was Mencken impervious to the ills of democracy?

10. What was Gene the magistrate's approach to law and justice in "Recollections of Notable Cops"?

(see the answer keys)

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