Earning that diploma

[Enzo]

We were talking recently about how ignorant recent graduates of the school systems have turned out to be. A sort of "Jay Walking" filter applied to our youth. So at the post office yesterday I got a large plain white envelope from my insurance company and thought, "This needs to have writing all over it." So I thought of a few things it seems to me anyone ought to know after completing a public education. Or a private one for that matter. I don't think these are unfair. Waddaya think?



1. Name three of the Great Lakes.

2. What sort of creature is a vertebrate?

3. What is the capital of Nebraska?

4. What is Ebola?

5. Where is the "Bill of Rights?"

6. Where is Buenos Aires?

7. Who was Robert E. Lee?

8. What does the number represented by "Pi" represent?

9. What are the three branches of the US government?

10. What is the Venus de Milo?

11. For how long did dinosaurs and Neanderthals live at the same time?

12. What are Hindi, Urdu, and Farsi?

13. What is a recessive gene?

14. If you start at the north pole and walk 1 mile south, 1 mile east, and then 1 mile north, where would you wind up?

15. What are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoko, and Kyushu?

15A. Special bonus question: What are Hiryu, Soryu, Kaga, and Akagi?


[spoiler]

1. Pick three: SUperior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario.

2. Anything with a backbone.

3. Lincoln

4. A deadly virus. A medical problem in Africa mainly.

5. It is part of the US COnstitution. I also will accept its location in the US Archives.

6. Argentina.

7. A COnfederate general in the US civil war.

8. It describes the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.

9. Legislative, Executive, Judicial.

10. An ancient Greek statue of a woman, aka Aphrodite of Melos, it's arms are missing.

11. They never existed at the same time. They missed each other by millions of years.

12. Languages, mainly spoken in India, Pakistan, and Iran.

13. A recessive gene is one that is expressed only when inherited from BOTH parents.

14. Back at the north pole where you started.

15. Main islands of Japan. Wanna bet the Japanese kids can't tell you what Texas, California, Florida, and New York are?

15A. Four Japanese aircraft carriers of world war 2. No I don't expect them to know that.

[/spoiler]

[hippietrekx]

Hmm... Most of that's really easy and people my age should know it.

I didn't know 12 (I suspected they were languages, I just didn't know where they came from) or 15 (I thought they were Japanese citites, maybe).

I knew half of 15A. I saw the Kaga and Akagi carriers for a few seconds on the History channel a few weeks ago. The names stuck, but I just thought the answer was something like "Japanese ships". They are, kinda, but not really.

--hippie

[Enzo]

For someone your age to even come up with ships is surprising. If you ever watch Tora Tora Tora, you can watch them sink. And most any movie about Pearl Harbor lets you see what they did.

They should know this stuff, but they don't. I'd bet my lunch money that the majority of your class mates would not do as well as you did.

[Мастер]

I didn't know 15A.

[hippietrekx]

For someone your age to even come up with ships is surprising. If you ever watch Tora Tora Tora, you can watch them sink. And most any movie about Pearl Harbor lets you see what they did.

They should know this stuff, but they don't. I'd bet my lunch money that the majority of your class mates would not do as well as you did.

Hee. Tora! Tora! Tora! is one of my all-time favorite movies. Right up there with Star Wars. I made mom buy it for me on DVD. :D

I bet none of my classmates would do as well as I did. Ebola, The Meaning of Pi, and Venus de Milo would crush their brains.

One time, in Pre-Calc class, I made up the game Ebola-Tag. The joke was, I had a cold and everyone said I was "incurable" and "infectious." So, I randomly selected Ebola as a terrible disease and silly diagnosis, and touched someone. "I have Ebola, and now you do to! No Ebolas back!" I said. The tag spread through the entire class, before I realised they had no idea what Ebola was, because they couldn't figure out why Mr. Brown looked at me like I was the most morbid kid ever.

I explained Ebola. They didn't talk to me for the rest of the class.

--hippie, the educator

[Dragon Star]

:( I didn't know 4, but I guess thats not THAT bad...

[Мастер]

You should add a question about what Nikita Khrushchev used to make a point in the UN general assembly in October 1960.

[Lance]

I didn't know 4

Which 4 didn't you know?

The wording of #5 threw me, though I know full well what it is and can quote most of it, and I wasn't sure about #6. I got #15A though, and all the rest.

[Dragon Star]

I didn't know 4

Which 4 didn't you know?

The wording of #5 threw me

Me too, I was trying to think of the buildings name it is in.

I missed

#3(which I'm not too proud of )
#5
#10
#15

[Мастер]

Another question that should be added is whether 0.999~ is equal to one.

[Dragon Star]

I hate you. :)

[umop ap!sdn]

I was unsure about #6, and (embarrassingly) didn't get #10 other than knowing that it's a statue.

I also flunked #9 and #15A. But I think if you include #15A, you should also require the correct answer for #12 to mention that:

[spoiler]they are all members of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages.[/spoiler]
8)

[Enzo]

12. Hell I'd be happy as a clam that they even knew what one of them was, let alone that they are involved in some of the most contentious spots on earth right now or that they were related.

5. I could have made it a better question, but even if clearer, I bet I'd get a lot of wrong answers.

I didn't really expect 15A to get a lot of answers other than from WW2 buffs... or Tora Tora Tora fans. When I thought of the question, the four Japanese words just made me think of the other four Japanese words that are connected together in my mind.

Wanna bet someone doesn't ident Venus De Milo as some sort of show biz personality?

One thing about Khrushchev's "statement" is that it definitely came from the sole.

There was a time when I could name all the countries in Africa, but no longer. South AMerica is no problem except I keep confusing which is which among the three little nations on the northern edge.

[Мастер]

There was a time when I could name all the countries in Africa, but no longer.

Egypt
Libya
Tunisia
Algeria
Morocco
Mauritania
Mali
Niger
Chad
Sudan
Ethiopia
Somalia
Eritia
Djibouti
Kenya
Tanzania
Uganda
Rwanda
Burundi
Mozambique
Mali
South Africa
Swaziland
Lesotho
Botswana
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Namibia
Angola
Zaire (probably a name change recently - capital is Kinshasa)
Congo (capital is Brazzville or something like that)
Gabon
Equatorial Guinea
Cameroon
Nigeria
Togo
Benin
Ivory Coast (except they use the French name now)
Ghana
Sierra Leone
Liberia
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Senegal
Gambia
Burkina Faso
Central African Republic
Madagascar
Seychelles
Comorros
Mauritius
Cape Verde
Sao Tome and Principe

How did I do?

South AMerica is no problem except I keep confusing which is which among the three little nations on the northern edge.

Well, one of them is not a nation, it is a part of France.

[Doe, John]

So on #5 would Library of Congress be considered correct?

On #11, could you consider birds as dinosaurs? They're about as closely related as we are to Neandertal man.

[Halcyon Dayz, FCD]

I'll up Umops and claim that Urdu and Hindi are the same language.

The Bill of Rights can be found in school text books. :D

In Africa there are now two Congos,
(The Republic of) Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) &
(The Democratic Republic of) Congo (Congo-Kinshasa).
Eritia should be Eritrea.
You missed Malawi.
There are several European dependencies and territories,
And there is Western Sahara which claims independence as the Sahrawi
Arab Democratic Republic, but is occupied by Morocco.

In South-America you have:
(Former British) Guyana, (former Dutch) Suriname, and (the still French) French Guiana (a Région d'outre-mer).

[Мастер]

You missed Malawi.

$^&#^&#$ I called it Mali (which appears on my list twice) :(

[Enzo]

KOS if you did that without looking at something, I am considerably impressed. I know Burkina Faso used to be Upper VOlta anyway.

Though they may have eveolved from one, I doubt the genetic makeup of a robin is as close to a T-rex as we are to Neanderthals. Well I'd be real surprised anyway.

Nonetheless, I would not accept that answer as it is more pedantic than accurate. No one refers to birds as dinosaurs unless they are trying to be cute or make some evolutionary point. No diploma for you.

And no the library of Congress would not be right, it is across the mall in the National Archives. Unless they recently moved it without telling me. Bastids.

[umop ap!sdn]

No one refers to birds as dinosaurs unless they are trying to be cute or make some evolutionary point.

The Tree of Life does, because they consider the Dinosauria to be monophyletic.

[Мастер]

KOS if you did that without looking at something, I am considerably impressed.

Heehee, if I used an external reference, I probably wouldn't have listed Mali twice and Malawi not at all. . .

I know Burkina Faso used to be Upper VOlta anyway.

Land of the honest people!