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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 23, Souvenirs of a Journalist, Chapter 24, Criticism.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Mencken react to a religious ceremony inside a basilica, as he recounts in Chapter 15?
(a) With disgust.
(b) With indifference.
(c) With joy.
(d) With intellectual curiosity.

2. In the boxing match Mencken reports on in Chapter 23, why do most want the favorite boxer to lose?
(a) He had been accused of taking steroids.
(b) He had evaded service in World War I.
(c) He had beaten his wife up the night before.
(d) He was drunk and hollering at the crowd.

3. What "call" does Mencken make to America's poets in Chapter 7?
(a) He wishes them to speak upon the beauty of the female figure.
(b) He wishes them to write a funeral service for the damned.
(c) He wishes them to rewrite Ode to a Grecian Urn.
(d) He wishes them to burn all of their poems and drown themselves.

4. What is "one of the most valuable human possessions" according to Mencken in Chapter 16?
(a) Dignity.
(b) The reputation of being rich.
(c) Spatial awareness.
(d) The ability to do simple math.

5. What was Mencken's opinion of New Deal programs?
(a) They were disastrous in practice.
(b) They were great boons to mankind.
(c) They were theoretically dubious, but worked okay in practice.
(d) They imbued average Americans with a rugged individual spirit.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Roosevelt's team of political advisers popularly called?

2. What is Mencken's central critique for socialism?

3. What is the "average man's" opinion of government?

4. What is the subject of Chapter 7?

5. What was "unusual" about Mr. Gray?

(see the answer key)

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