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 answer this quiz 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. Who founded the religious order known as the Franciscans?
2. Who wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
3. Who wrote the famous poem entitled "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?
4. The expression e. g. comes from Latin words meaning "for example." What are
those two Latin words?
5. Name the range of male singing voice which is lower than a tenor but higher than a bass.
6. Name both of the Roman rulers with whom the Egyptian queen Cleopatra had love affairs.
7. What problem were the World War Two era Nazis trying to solve with their so-called "Final
Solution"?
8. What did 19th Century American Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison seek to
abolish?
9. Name the leader of the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
10. Name the U.S. president who held the presidency immediately before Calvin Coolidge.
11. Suppose a criminal from Alabama is arrested by the New Jersey State police. What is the
name of the legal process by which the authorities in Alabama request the authorities in New
Jersey to send the prisoner back to Alabama for trial?
12. What is the name of the crime committed by someone who sets fire to another's buildings or
property?
13. What is the name of the capital and largest city in Colombia?
14. Name the capital and largest city in Iowa.
15. What is the motto of the Boy Scouts of America?
16. Economists often use the acronym GNP. What does it stand for?
17. A number which is evenly divisible only by itself and by 1 is called what?
18. The study of ancient life forms, especially as they are seen in fossils, is called what?
19. What is the technical term for the change that occurs when a caterpillar is transformed into a
butterfly?
20. Jet lag causes a person's basic 24-hour rhythm to be disturbed. What is the technical name
for that daily rhythm of human life?
21. Because they were formed through the decay of ancient plants and animals that were buried
underground in an earlier period of Earth's history, such fuels as coal, petroleum, and natural gas
are usually called what?
22. What Jewish holy day were Jesus and his followers celebrating at the Last Supper?
23. In classical mythology, a fellow named Jason and his followers went off hunting for a Golden
Fleece. Tell me either the name of the ship in which they sailed or the name by which Jason's
followers were known.
24. According to the famous proverb, imitation is the sincerest form of what?
25. Consider the following sentence: "Professor Jones' lecture was so dry and uninteresting
that many members of his class went off to the land of Nod." In plain English, explain what
happened.