Reading Quiz: "The Hills of Zion," by H. L. Mencken

H. L. Mencken's essays and newspaper articles are at times outrageously comic and at other times quite serious. As you read "The Hills of Zion," consider how you would characterize Mencken's tone: is he simply poking fun at everyone, or--by the end of the essay--is he making a serious point?

After you have read the essay (which appears in our collection of Classic British and American Essays), take this brief quiz, and then compare your responses with the answers at the bottom of the page.

Reading Quiz on "The Hills of Zion" by H. L. Mencken

1. In the opening paragraph of "The Hills of Zion," Mencken asserts that, despite the hot weather, he visited Dayton, Tennessee "very willingly." What does he say that he was "eager to see"?
   (A) pretty girls come tripping down the main street
   (B) the Cumberland Range
   (C) the Dayton illuminati
   (D) evangelical Christianity as a going concern
   (E) the amorous enterprises of movie actors


2. "They were all hot for Genesis," writes Mencken in paragraph one, "but their faces were far too florid to belong to teetotalers." Florid is an adjective meaning
   (A) tinged with red; marked by emotional fervor
   (B) stern, unyielding
   (C) soft and flexible
   (D) stylish or glamorous
   (E) being light, soft, and airy


3. In paragraph two, a reporter from Chattanooga informs Mencken that a country pastor had cautioned a young woman not to indulge in which "Hell-sent narcotic"?
   (A) marijuana
   (B) cocaine
   (C) tobacco
   (D) Butterfinger candy bars
   (E) Coca-Cola


4. In paragraph three, the reporter takes Mencken to the edge of a cornfield just "a mile or two" beyond what tiny village?
   (A) Dayton
   (B) Morgantown
   (C) Chattanooga
   (D) Sodom
   (E) Cincinnati


5. The first person whom Mencken and the reporter hear speaking (or, more precisely, yelling) is
   (A) a young mother
   (B) a baby
   (C) a preacher dressed in blue jeans
   (D) Caliph Omar
   (E) a young girl


6. The second speaker overheard by Mencken and the reporter is a woman who denounces
   (A) the drinking of coffee and tea
   (B) the reading of books
   (C) the writing of letters
   (D) the eating of meat from unclean animals
   (E) the trial in Dayton


7. Speaking of the preacher in paragraph six, Mencken writes, "Words spouted out of his lips like bullets from a machine-gun." This figure of speech is called a(n)
   (A) simile
   (B) rhetorical question
   (C) anaphora
   (D) anticlimax
   (E) oxymoron


8. During the "orgy" that lasted for over an hour, who or what does Mencken observe sleeping on "the bed just outside the light"?
   (A) the pastor and a young woman
   (B) a couple, looking sheepish
   (C) a half-dozen babies
   (D) two or three scrawny dogs
   (E) the reporter from Chattanooga


9. What time is it when Mencken gets back to Dayton?
   (A) almost sunrise
   (B) lunchtime
   (C) nearly eleven o'clock at night
   (D) almost sundown
   (E) nearly eleven o'clock in the morning


10. At the end of the essay, Mencken concludes that the "real religion" is not present in Dayton. Where instead can it be found?
    (A) inside a church
    (B) at the counter in Robinson's drugstore
    (C) Blue Mountain, Mississippi
    (D) in the lobby of the Aqua Hotel
    (E) at the bridge over the town creek, where the road makes off for the hills

Answers:
1. D; 2. A; 3. E; 4. B; 5. C; 6. B; 7. A; 8. C; 9. C; 10. E.