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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 does Mencken believe is the proper focus of psychology?
(a) The origins of lying.
(b) The study of psychological differences between people from various trades or types.
(c) The study of physical deformity (such as injury) on the mind.
(d) The study of mob mentality.

2. What is Mencken's view of chiropractors?
(a) They are quack doctors.
(b) He must study the subject further to render an opinion.
(c) They are the newest members of a respected doctor aristocracy.
(d) He depends on them for his numerous back problems.

3. Mencken sees authors as divided into which two classes?
(a) Sly and Overt.
(b) Dramatic and Comedic.
(c) English and Continental.
(d) American and Foreign.

4. What BEST characterizes Mencken's view of the townspeople involved in the Scopes Monkey Trial?
(a) Simple but endearing.
(b) Intelligent and probing.
(c) Backwoods hicks.
(d) Secularists.

5. What action taken by Anthony Comstock does Mencken take issue with?
(a) Spreading a new strain of Methodist religion.
(b) Too quickly embracing new technology like the telephone.
(c) Trying to censor book material.
(d) Editing his articles overmuch at the Baltimore Sun.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Mencken call "the national ideal of a literary character"?

2. Mencken begins Chapter 25 with a philosophical discussion of what phenomenon?

3. Mencken reports on a boxing with which famed boxer?

4. Which author does Mencken believe is for "lunch-table idealists"?

5. Why does Mencken praise doctors in Chapter 16?

Short Essay Questions

1. Summarize Mencken's account of a Jack Dempsey boxing match.

2. What insight does Mencken provide about physical disease/illness?

3. Summarize Mencken's view of Ludwig van Beethoven.

4. What memorable position does Mencken take on opera?

5. What does Mencken believe about chiropractors?

6. What is Mencken's belief about American millionaires?

7. In an editorial dated October, 1928, Mencken discusses schoolboys. Summarize this article. What suggestions does Mencken have for improving education?

8. What is Mencken's opinion of Prohibition? What was its effect on society?

9. In Chapter 24, Mencken discusses art and literary criticism. How do critics influence artists? And what makes for the best kind of literary critics?

10. Why does Mencken criticize the American Medical Association? What is his opinion of doctors as a professional class?

(see the answer keys)

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