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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. Which of the following might Mencken say about Calvin Coolidge?
(a) Coolidge was as energetic a man as ever graced the White House.
(b) Coolidge was a practical agnostic.
(c) Coolidge pulled himself up from the most meager of upbringings.
(d) Coolidge was deeply flawed, precisely because of his Presbyterian upbringing.

2. According to "The New Architecture," when will Man have "built his own prison"?
(a) When new architecture is replaced by neoclassical architecture.
(b) When Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is not heralded as a champion of new design.
(c) When people build houses using the style of English Eighteenth Century.
(d) When he replaces Gothic architecture with Modernist architecture.

3. What was Mencken's phrase for religious fundamentalism?
(a) "The Fluff of the Flock."
(b) "That Old-Time Religion."
(c) "The Shepherd's Porridge."
(d) "Ye Olde Honest Truth."

4. What memorable simile did Mencken use for Grover Cleveland?
(a) Cleveland was like a newborn babe gazing at the stars for the first time.
(b) Cleveland was like a fragile butterfly with wings of dynamite.
(c) Cleveland was like a crocodile waiting to snap his jaws around the American public.
(d) Cleveland was like a steel ship loaded with monoliths of granite.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following did NOT happen during "The Hills of Zion"?

2. What was unique to the American psyche according to Mencken in "Libido for the Ugly"?

3. According to "Exeunt Omnes," Mencken was disappointed with the amount of books dedicated to which subject?

4. How was plutocracy created, according to Mencken?

5. Who did Mencken NOT count among the "crackpots" present in "The Wallace Paranoia"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. 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?

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

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

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

7. What opinion did Mencken have about the English translation of the Bible?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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