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About This Quiz
If you've been away from school for a while, things have changed! High school juniors and seniors are learning college content and are urged to take AP courses to earn AP credit before they leave home. This scholarly pursuit has created a trickle-down effect that is working through all the grade levels.Â
In addition, moving from the bottom up there have been changes as well. For instance, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 requires assessments of children in public schools. That means kindergartners are expected to be able to read, write, and do simple math before being allowed to move to the first grade. And if that's not enough, technology has entered the classroom in a big way. It's more likely today you would see whiteboards or even iPads instead of neat rows of desks facing the chalkboard.Â
If you think the educational system has gone too far, that's not true. The most recent cross-national test, the Programme for International Student Assessment, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. And this is with elementary school students learning proper grammar, key concepts in science, the capitals of China, Afghanistan and India and more.Â
Many students even know the coefficient of restitution and the number of degrees of tilt of the Earth's axis. But you'll do better than a second-grader on this quiz, right? There's only one way to find out. Start the quiz now.Â
Which of these is correct?
Dear Mom,
"Dear Mom," is the right way to start off a letter to your mom. Mom is a name and thus should be capitalized, and a comma goes at the end of the line.
Dear mom,
Dear Mom.
Dear Officer Bacon.
What is it called when light moves from one medium to another and becomes a rainbow?
Refraction
Through the process of refraction, white light is broken into its constituent wavelengths, perceived by the human eye as different colors.
Laser
Reflection
Refocus
Which of these is correct, at the end of a letter?
Love,%0DSam
When signing a letter, the valediction begins with a word or words (for example "Sincerely" or "Kindest Regards") then a comma, then a carriage return, then the name of the sender of the letter.
Love%0DSam
Love, Sam
Love Sam
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Which of these is incorrect?
Just between you and me, I do not enjoy cashews.
Just between you and I, this movie is not very good.
Just between you and me, a lot of people say "you and I" because they think it sounds clever. It does not.
Listen to the wind.
Fishing is illegal here.
Which of these says the opposite of what it is meant to mean?
I could care less.
"I could care less" is used to mean "I do not care". If you could care less, you must care at least a tiny amount, which is the opposite of what the saying is trying to express.
That's just the way the cookie crumbles.
There is no sense in crying over spilled milk.
I make a good living.
Which of these is incorrect?
It's wings were so large, they could encompass the whole nest.
"It's" is often confused with "Its". "Its" is possessive. "It's" is a contraction of "It is".
It's finally time for dinner.
It's not up to you.
It's going to be dark soon.
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Which of these should not be capitalized?
Easter Holiday
Christmas Holiday
Thanksgiving Holiday
National Holiday
The names of holidays are always capitalized, however, if not connected to the proper name of a holiday, the word holiday is not capitalized. To say a national holiday is coming up does not require capitalization unless the name of that holiday is "National Holiday".
What is the coefficient of restitution?
The measure of the bounciness of an object
The coefficient of restitution is specifically "the ratio of the final velocity to the initial velocity between two objects after their collision." It can be determined using something called the Leeb rebound hardness test.
It's an object's inertia when dropped from a great height
The measure of the cohesion of an object's constituent particles when electrocuted
The measure of a buoyancy of an object.
Which of these sentences uses "couldn't" improperly?
Couldn't you just do as I say?
Even on the weekend I just couldn't.
"Even on the weekend I couldn't bring myself to do the laundry" would be a complete sentence.
I couldn't bring myself to laugh.
You couldn't even do this one simple thing.
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The man is fat. He played speed chess. Which of these sentences combines these into a single sentence?
The man played chess.
The quick man played fat chess.
Chess was played by a man.
The fat man played speed chess.
"The fat man played speed chess" explains what sort of man and what sort of chess are in this narrative.
Which of these places is not a real place?
Bhutan
Tibet
Brunei
Madripoor
Madripoor is a fictional island from the Marvel universe.
What is the capital of China?
Beijing
The capital of China is Beijing. All of the cities listed above are major Chinese cities, but only Beijing is the capital.
Shenzhen
Hong Kong
Shanghai
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What is the capital of Afghanistan?
Kabul
While Kabul is the capital of the legitimate government of Afghanistan, all these cities are located within Afghanistan's borders.
Kandahar
Jalalabad
Herat
What is the capital of India?
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital of India, however all the cities listed here are major Indian cities. New Delhi and Mumbai have both changed their names over the years, but both are ancient cities going back thousands of years.
Mumbai
Calcutta
Bangalore
Which of these cities has been renamed to something else?
New Amsterdam
Bombay
Constantinople
Nicosia
Nicosia is the capital of Cyprus, and currently exists under that name. All the other cities have changed their names.
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What is a batholith?
A mythical beast that can turn you to stone
A type of large igneous rock intrusion.
A batholith is a kind of rocky outcropping comprised of igneous rock that extends downward to an unknown depth.
An Italian sports car from the 1960s
A line that joins all parts
What is a contour line?
A line on a map that joins points of equal height.
A contour line is a line on a map joining points of equal height above or below sea level. Maps that use contour lines are typically topographical maps.
A line on a map that describes the slope of a hill by tracing its downward projection.
A line on a map that describes the height or depth of underwater topography
A line on a map that illustrates the route of a tour group made up of criminals.
What is the Prime Meridian?
0° Longitude
The Prime Meridian marks 0° Longitude, and is determined by the location of the Greenwich Observatory in Greenwhich, Engand, established in 1851.
0° Latitude
0° Attitude
0° Wrongitude
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How many degrees is the tilt of the Earth's axis?
23.5°
The Earth's axis is 23.5°. Because of this, the equator is not always the bit of the Earth that faces the Sun. To mark out these hotter areas, the tropics were established, their positions a reflection of the 23.5° axis.
22.2°
20°
25°
What is the Equator?
0° Latitude
The Equator is 0° Latitude, determined by the axis of the spin of the Earth. The tropics are at 23.5°N Latitude and 23.5°S Latitude, reflecting their relation to the tilt of the axis.
23.5° Latitude
An area of the Sahara also called "Death's Highway"
The longest river in the world
Which word should always be capitalized?
christmas
Holidays are always capitalized. These other nouns should not.
hand
foot
eye
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What is the difference between the North Pole and the Magnetic North Pole?
The North Pole is the northernmost point on the Earth. The Magnetic North Pole is just an area near the North Pole where the Earth's iron core has a natural magnetic pole.
The Magnetic North Pole is located at 86.5°N 172.6°W. North Pole, Alaska, is a town located at 64.7511°N, 147.3494°W. The North Pole is at 90°N, where Longitude makes no difference.
The North Pole is located at 64.7511°N, 147.3494°W, and the Magnetic North Pole is located at 86.5°N 172.6°W.
The North Pole is located at 0°N, and the Magnetic North Pole changes by the season.
The North Pole is at 90°N, and the Magnetic North Pole is also at 90°N.
Who came up with the theory of gravitation?
Newton
Sir Isaac Newton came up with the theory of gravitation. While further work has been done to understand the source of gravity, his genius still stands.
Pythagoras
Einstein
Hawking
What is the long side of a right angle triangle called?
Hypotenuse
The hypotenuse is calculated through the Pythagorean theorem: A squared + B squared = C squared, in which C is the hypotenuse.
Adjacent
Opposite
Base
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Which of these is not a kind of triangle?
Equilateral
Isosceles
Scalene
Parallelogram
A parallelogram is a kind of quadrilateral, not a triangle; it has four sides.
Which of the following is not a quadrilateral?
Parallelogram
Rhombus
Trapezium
Kreis
Kreis is the German word for circle. Rhombuses, trapeziums and parallelograms are all quadrilaterals, meaning shapes with four sides.
Which of the following paint is not water soluble?
Watercolor paint
Acrylic paint
Oil paint
Oil paint is not water soluble, requiring mineral spirits to thin out or remove. Acrylic paints were invented as a water-soluble replacement for oils in the 1970s. Thin-film waterborne intumescent paint is a water-soluble paint formulated to expand when exposed to heat.
Thin-film waterborne intumescent paint
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Which times table is this progression from? 16, 24, 32
8
The 8 times table begins thus: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40
6
7
9
What kind of numbers cannot have a square root?
Prime numbers
Negative numbers
Any positive number has a square root, even if that number isn't a round number. Negative numbers cannot have a square root because a negative multiplied by a negative is always a positive.
Odd numbers
Even numbers
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What is the correct term for your grandmother's second cousin?
Second cousin, twice removed
"Removed" refers to generation, and then a degree of cousin is closeness of relation within a generation.
Third cousin, once removed
Third cousin
Fourth cousin
What do you call four children born as part of a multiple pregnancy?
Quadruplets
Quadruplets are four children born from one pregnancy, like twins (2), triplets (3), sextuplets (6), etc.
Quintuplets
Sextuplets
Septuplets
What is the name for a shape with twelve sides?
Dodecagon
Dodecagon is a shortening of "duo-decagon". A dodecagon is a twelve-sided shape, and can be represented by the Schläfli symbol {12}.
Fabrigon
Quantagon
Tachygon
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What is the name for a pyramid with only four sides?
Tetrahedron
A regular pyramid has five sides: the four triangular sides, and one square side.
Textrahedron
Sextrahedron
Dodecahedron
You Got:
/35
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