These questions cover all the usual fields of academic knowledge and are taken from a book entitled A Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know. From time to time, I will add additional similar quizzes to the website. The best way to do this is to write your answers on a piece of paper and when you are through answering the quiz items, check the answers from the link at the bottom of this page.

1. What does a physicist call the emission of electrons from a metal when light shines on it?

2. What is the more common name for a coronary thrombosis?

3. Crick and Watson discovered a famous substance which looks like a double helix. Name that substance.

4. What is a tectonic plate?

5. What is the English name of the constellation known formally by its Latin name Ursa Major?

6. On what New York City street does one find the New York Stock Exchange?

7. What does a person suffering from xenophobia hate or fear?

8. Name the U.S. state bordered by Montana to the north, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, and Utah and Colorado to the south.

9. When this African country was called Rhodesia, its capital city was called Salisbury. What are the names of the country and city today?

10. What does the political science term "women's suffrage" refer to?

11. What is the common nickname for political conservatives in England?

12. During the 1930's and 1940's many sidewalks, bridges, public buildings, roads and so forth were built all over the U.S. by a government agency known as the WPA. What do those initials stand for?

13. Explain the main difference in the achievements of Noah Webster and Daniel Webster.

14. Name the Protestant English king and queen who came to the throne after the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 forced Catholic King James the Second from the throne.

15. What's the common name of the leader of the Norman French army which invaded England in 1066?

16. Which of the following is not a double-reed instrument? Oboe, English Horn, Alto Clarinet, and Bassoon.

17. What grammatical term is used to describe the degree of such adjectives as "most charming," "prettiest," and "best"?

18. Name the American playwright who wrote such plays as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie.

19. Name the 19th Century American religious leader who took over leadership of the Mormons after the death of their founder, Joseph Smith.

20. If you "cry uncle," have you been awarded a prize, been defeated, recognized an unfamiliar relative, or been given Roman citizenship?

21. Ronald Reagan is sometimes called "the Gipper." Why?

22. What did the Greeks call the goddess whom the Romans called Venus?

23. Name the book of the Old Testament which begins: "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!"

24. What is the term for the sudden increase in air resistance when an aircraft approaches the speed of sound?

25. When a human being is standing up straight, which of the following organs is closest to the ground? the cerebral cortex, the urethra, the bladder, the kidney.