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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 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 reporter stole liquor from an aristocrat's secret stash.
(c) The junior reporter was arrested and spends the night in jail.
(d) The convention organizers caught Mencken and toss him out.

2. In "The Wallace Paranoia," who was Mencken referring to with the phrase "raisins in the bread."
(a) Extremists and the mentally unstable.
(b) Bible-belt evangelists.
(c) Sweet, young ladies amid a bunch of old men.
(d) Honorable, career politicians.

3. What is wrong, in Mencken's opinion, with most artists' depictions of death?
(a) They never show women dying, only men.
(b) They show death to be dramatic and heroic, which is false.
(c) They are obsessed with death in battle, when death usually happens in the bathtub.
(d) They show death to be pathetic and ridiculous, which is false.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the flaw of FDR's opponent in the Democratic National Convention of 1932?

2. What did Mencken call for in "Mencken's Last Stand"?

3. Which is the best style of architecture, according to Mencken?

4. According to Mencken, why was Samuel Johnson unique as an artist?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Did Mencken's aesthetics conform to the ideals of the "new architecture"? Explain.

2. What was the content of "Sententiae"?

3. For what reasons did Mencken admire Grover Cleveland?

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

5. What stance did Mencken take in "Mencken's Last Stand"?

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

7. What caused Mencken to question the American psyche in "The Libido for the Ugly"?

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

9. In "Exeunt Omnes," Mencken described his second book on death, which has collected sayings and thoughts on death. What did Mencken maintain was the main idea of the book?

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

(see the answer keys)

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