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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 did Mencken attribute to the fall of the "good man" in "A Good Man Gone Wrong"?
(a) A Presbyterian upbringing.
(b) A nagging housewife.
(c) A runaway automobile.
(d) An "unspeakable force in the universe."

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

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

4. What was Mencken's opinion of Gothic architecture?
(a) Completely out of style.
(b) Joyless and dreary.
(c) Valuable and useful.
(d) Hideous.

5. In "The Hills of Zion," why did a woman warn against the reading of books?
(a) Reading would require too much effort.
(b) She believed that books are full of snakes and corn cobs.
(c) She asked, What knowledge could exist outside of the Bible?
(d) Only a congregation's preacher should take on the responsibility of reading.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Mencken curse those who translated the Bible into English?

2. What was "lamentable" about the North beating the South in the Civil War, according to Mencken?

3. What happened when Mencken sent a junior reporter to get him liquor during the Republican National Convention?

4. What was the subject of "The Noble Experiment"?

5. Complete the following aphorism found in "Sententiae": "Adultery is..."

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Mencken take issue with Oliver Wendell Holmes' final court case?

2. What opinion was rendered about William Jennings Bryan in "In Memoriam: W.J.B."?

3. How was FDR able to win the Democratic National Convention of 1932?

4. What were the general features of Anglo-Saxons, according to Mencken in "The Anglo-Saxon"?

5. Describe the religious service Mencken witnessed in "The Hills of Zion."

6. What examples did Mencken provide to support his judgment of Anglo-Saxons?

7. What was Mencken's opinion of stage acting?

8. What type of people attended the Progressive Party convention of 1948?

9. How did Mencken--with tongue firmly in cheek--try to justify a man's murdering of his wife in "A Good Man Gone Wrong"?

10. What did Mencken feel were the true and most damaging consequences of the Civil War, according to "The Calamity of Appomattox"?

(see the answer keys)

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