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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. Who was Mencken with at a Bach concert in Pennsylvania when he decided to get some liquor?
(a) Henry Cabot Lodge.
(b) Alfred Knopf.
(c) Woodrow Wilson.
(d) Gene the magistrate.

2. What did Mencken conclude in his examination of rulings in "Mr. Justice Holmes"?
(a) Mencken slyly suggests Holmes should tuck chickens under his arms because of his chicken-like cowardice.
(b) Justice Holmes ruled too often for rabble-rousers, and not often enough for the aristocracy.
(c) Justice Holmes rendered fantastically bizarre rulings, and should be impeached.
(d) Justice Holmes ruled too often in favor of the powers that be, rather than the people.

3. Which of the following is NOT a trait of the writer, according to Mencken in "The Author at Work"?
(a) The writer is in it for the money.
(b) The writer is starved for attention.
(c) The writer is a social creature.
(d) The writer is a hypochondriac.

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

5. What aspect of old-time education did Mencken miss most in modern education?
(a) Corporal punishment.
(b) The insistence on only male teachers.
(c) The tolling of the dinner triangle.
(d) The charm of the one-room schoolhouse.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was Mencken referring to with the title, "A Good Man in a Bad Trade"?

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

3. Which of the following might Mencken say about Calvin Coolidge?

4. Why might the Anglo-Saxon race have entered into the Spanish-American war, according to Mencken?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. For what reasons did Mencken admire Grover Cleveland?

2. What aspect of death interested Mencken the most?

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

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

5. What was the content of "Sententiae"?

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

7. Why are artists "anti-patriotic," according to Mencken in "The Artist"?

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

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

10. According to Mencken in "The Calamity of Appomattox," what would have happened if the Civil War had never happened?

(see the answer keys)

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