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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 event did Mencken cover in "The Wallace Paranoia"?
(a) A socialite's ball.
(b) The marriage of a governor.
(c) The New York World's Fair.
(d) The Progressive Party convention.

2. Which of the following did NOT happen during "The Hills of Zion"?
(a) A young woman went into convulsions.
(b) The preacher began to speak in tongues.
(c) A preacher appeared to strangle a woman to death before he miraculously "cures" her.
(d) A woman warned against reading books.

3. What would best describe how Mencken felt about stage acting?
(a) Like portrait painting, stage acting provides a window into the truth.
(b) It stabs at the soul with genuine feeling.
(c) It is completely unworthy of the price of admission.
(d) It gladdens the heart with falsity.

4. What happened when Mencken sent a junior reporter to get him liquor during the Republican National Convention?
(a) The reporter encountered drunken goons, and failed to get any liquor.
(b) The convention organizers caught Mencken and toss him out.
(c) The reporter stole liquor from an aristocrat's secret stash.
(d) The junior reporter was arrested and spends the night in jail.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Which of the following is NOT something that exists as a result of the Anglo-Saxon race, according to Mencken?

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

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

5. Why was early Christianity superior to modern Christianity, per "Holy Writ"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Mencken miss corporal punishment in schools in "Travail"?

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

3. What was the nature of film actor Valentino's problem, as related in "Valentino"?

4. How did Mencken distinguish between plutocracy and aristocracy in "A Glance Ahead"?

5. In "The Noble Experiment," what story did Mencken relate about acquiring alcohol at the Republican National Convention?

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

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

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

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

10. According to "The Wallace Paranoia," what did candidate Henry Wallace do during the convention of the Progressive Party?

(see the answer keys)

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