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. In the expression "the King's English," a specific King of England is being referred to.
Which king?
2. What is the name of the Jewish festival in December which overlaps with the Christian festival
of Christmas?
3. Name the 19th Century English woman who wrote the novel Frankenstein.
4. Consider the following sentence: "Swinging his broadsword furiously, Sir Galahad dealt the
giant a fatal blow." In that sentence "the giant" is which of the following -- the subject? the verb?
the direct object? or the indirect object?
5. For what art, craft, profession, or trade was Salvador Dali best known?
6. Name the leader of the Norman army which invaded England in 1066.
7. What was the name of the Emperor of Japan during World War Two?
8. In which state was the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg fought?
9. In 1984 Geraldine Ferraro became famous for being the first woman to do which of the
following -- command a U.S. Navy submarine? be nominated by the Democrats to run for
Vice-President of the U.S.? be appointed president of Notre Dame University? or win the Boston
Marathon?
10. In what city and country does one find a collection of national government buildings called the
Kremlin?
11. Which Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees that we have the right to hold public
meetings without government interference?
12. Name the largest city in India.
13. Name the capital city of Connecticut.
14. What problem does a kleptomaniac have?
15. What does the acronym OPEC stand for?
16. When a physicist describes a wave, what term does he or she use for the height of a wave's
crest or the depth of its trough?
17. What kind of angle is greater than zero degrees but less than 90 degrees?
18. What term does a geologist use to refer to the type of weathering in which surface soil and
rock are worn away through the action of glaciers, water and wind?
19. What is the name of the stringy, fibrous substance that forms the main material in the cell
walls of plants?
20. Paramedics often use the acronym CPR. What does the acronym stand for?
21. What famous event happened in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina?
22. To whom are Catholics referring when they speak of the Vicar of Christ?
23. In classical mythology, how did Icarus, the son of Daedalus, die?
24. Jimminy Cricket advised us all "to wish upon a star." Who advised us all to "hitch our
wagon to a star"?
25. According to an old legend, what ancient conqueror cut the famous Gordian knot?