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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 derives several advantages from marriage?
(a) Men only.
(b) Only the state.
(c) Women only.
(d) Men and women equally.

2. What aspect of human nature fuels the democratic system of government?
(a) Charity.
(b) Murderous violence.
(c) Envy.
(d) Grace.

3. What is the purpose of monogamy, according to Mencken?
(a) Marriage serves to enhance and legitimize passion.
(b) Marriage serves to kill and restrain passion.
(c) Marriage serves to emphasize romantic love.
(d) Marriage serves to protect society from itself.

4. In Chapter 7, Mencken notes that there are too few books written about what subject?
(a) Death.
(b) Taxes.
(c) True crime.
(d) Women.

5. 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 rewrite Ode to a Grecian Urn.
(c) He wishes them to burn all of their poems and drown themselves.
(d) He wishes them to write a funeral service for the damned.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Mencken feel about the overall capacity for virtue in the human race?

2. How does Mencken characterize a woman's level of civility?

3. What do most women think of their husbands according to Mencken?

4. Who does Mencken dub "The Lady of Joy"?

5. What is Mencken's belief about crime?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Mencken see as a popular misconception about death? What is his opinion of suicide?

2. Is morality necessary in Mencken's view? How many people are moral people? Is there a good and evil, or is that a human-created concept?

3. What does Mencken believe about the nature of man and God? What is the consequence for believing in God? What about the soul?

4. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of William Jennings Bryan. How is Mencken's opinion related to the Scopes Monkey Trial?

5. Describe Mencken's contention that democracy is a "self-limiting disease." What does he mean by that? Is there any good aspects to democracy?

6. In Chapter 1, what comparison does Mencken make between man and animal? Who is "superior"?

7. What is the degree of women's "civility" according to Mencken? How does emotion factor in to civility?

8. Describe Mencken's conception of the Anglo-Saxon American. What are this person's flaws?

9. In Chapter 1, how does Mencken's view of humanity coincide with that of the modern scientist?

10. What effect did the Civil War have on the American South, and why was this conflict so disastrous to Mencken from a cultural standpoint?

(see the answer keys)

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