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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 was the subject of the Scopes monkey trial?
(a) The teaching of evolution.
(b) The assault of a zoo heckler by a gorilla.
(c) A treasonous plot to help a Central American country.
(d) The kidnapping of a chimpanzee.

2. To what degree has "new architecture" impacted America?
(a) It hasn't reached American shores yet, and Mencken pleads with Europe to let America "borrow" it.
(b) It has come to dominate America, much to Mencken's delight.
(c) It has not had much of an impact.
(d) It has come to dominate America, much to Mencken's chagrin.

3. What aspect of death did Mencken find most interesting?
(a) How so often people die not gloriously or with grace, but ridiculously.
(b) The physiological and chemical processes involved in death.
(c) What the great poets have said about death.
(d) How people are able to find God so quickly on their death bed.

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

5. What would best describe Mencken's attitude toward Oliver Wendell Holmes?
(a) He was a quack chiropractor.
(b) He was a fantastic advocate of progressive causes.
(c) He was a Liberal hero in name only.
(d) His rulings were thoroughly corrupt.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is a trait of the Anglo-Saxon race, per "The Anglo-Saxon"?

2. What was Mencken's opinion of Gothic architecture?

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

4. What theoretical scenario did Mencken pose in "The Calamity of Appomattox"?

5. What was Mencken's attitude toward Grover Cleveland?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to "The Author at Work," why do writers write?

2. What was Mencken's opinion of chiropractic?

3. What was the content of "Sententiae"?

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

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

6. For what reasons did Mencken admire Grover Cleveland?

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

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

9. What opinions did Mencken render in "Masters of Tone"?

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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