Test For "Know It Alls"

[bowtieguy]

got this email that it for supposed "know it alls." the thing is, i got all but 2 correct. not tooting my own horn, just would like to see if this test is really for humility purposes or just an easy one for informed/educated persons. anywho here it is... A quiz for people who know everything

There are only nine questions.

This is a quiz for people who know everything! I found out in a hurry that I didn't.

These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers.

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving
backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters 'dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter 'S.'









Answers To Quiz:

1... The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends: Boxing.

2. North American landmark constantly moving backward: Niagara Falls . (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons: Asparagus and rhubarb.

4.. The fruit with its seeds on the outside: Strawberry.

5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside the bottle. The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.

6. Three English words beginning with dw: Dwarf, dwell and dwindle...

7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar: Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe,question mark, exclamation point, quotation mark, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh: Lettuce.

9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with 'S':

Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.

[bowtieguy]

#3 and #8 were the only ones i missed, but here's why...i don't use/consume/buy lettuce. it has almost no nutritional value, and i prefer spinach--on a sandwich, as a salad, whatever. and i don't eat rhubarb or asparagus.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Very good! I couldn't think of any of them...although after reading the answers, I counted eight or nine "doh!s"...(and I've gotten 6-7 of the punctuation marks into this response).

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Oh, on # 6...they forgot "dweeb". I'm familiar with that word...I've been called that more than once...

[theholycow]

I think it's more about where your interests are than about education. I missed many of them, but I didn't sit there and think about any of them for more than a few seconds.

I don't care about sports so I didn't get the boxing one (also, I'm pretty sure they do keep track of score when you watch it on tv nowadays, don't they?). I don't care much about fruits/vegetables (yes, I'm that stereotype) so I didn't get the fruit/vegetable questions (I did know the pear/bottle one though).

The punctuation one made me say "D'oh". I do care about that stuff and should have done better. I rattled off 6 in a few seconds and then moved on; it was difficult not to look at my keyboard for hints.

Also, I don't think they listed 14 different pieces of English grammar punctuation, nor do I think they provided a complete list. What is the difference between a dash and a hyphen? Are brackets, braces, and parentheses ALL English grammar? I can't think of where braces are used outside of computer programming. Why did they skip the slash and backslash? I would understand if they only listed one but I'm pretty sure the slash is part of English grammar. How about the pound sign and ampersand?

If I had some time I'd look it up.

[ben98gs]

Originally Posted by theholycow

I think it's more about where your interests are than about education. I missed many of them, but I didn't sit there and think about any of them for more than a few seconds.

I have to basically agree, but do believe these things are more in fun than a "test" of your intelligence. I find them interesting because you sometimes "know" the answer, you just cannot come up with it.

I have to agree with theholycow on the boxing one. They do keep score and you do know who is in the lead... The ONLY exception is when the match is called on a knock out. That is when the winner could be the person with the lower score and no one saw it coming. But if it goes through the full number of rounds, I believe they look at the score and still name a winner. I could be wrong though as I do not watch sports (would rather be playing and boxing is not one I "play"... lol) and would suppose it might still be "true" because maybe the score is not "revealed" to anyone until the end... Just a poorly thought out question/answer in my opinion.

That said, I got 4 of the 9... (4, 5, 7, & 9) I "knew" 2, 6, & 8 from previous "riddles" but were not important enough for me to want to remember. Learned something new with 3 and disagree with 1.

[bowtieguy]

Originally Posted by theholycow

I think it's more about where your interests are than about education. I missed many of them, but I didn't sit there and think about any of them for more than a few seconds.

as i think about it more, you could be right about education, but i would lean more towards experience over interests maybe. i'm always preaching the value of experience in the political threads.

[LarryJ]

Is a bass tournament not a sport?

[Nrggeek]

I had a few different answers:
Armwrestling for the sport.
The U.S. National Debt Clock for the landmark. (a negative number that keeps growing - going backward)
I also think lettuce doesn't qualify, since it is processed by shredding it up and sold as pre-made salad.

[FrugalFloyd]

The subject test is for fun, not to test either intelligence or experience. There are more problems than the ones listed. My sport, for instance, was pigeon racing. My perennial vegetables were asparagus and artichokes, but there are a wealth of others, including bamboo shoots, garlic, radicchio, kale, collard greens, ginger, sorrel, sunchokes, and more.

My national landmark was Bryce Canyon, but the Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, and Arches National Parks are also examples of erosion-created national landmarks.

My fruit with seeds on the outside was the blackberry - just as accurate an answer as strawberries. And so it goes, when a test is poorly designed and written.

My idea of a test for know-it-alls goes like this:

Question: How many undiscovered ruins are there in the park (Chaco Culture National Historic Park)?

Question: Why didn't the Chacoans build their Great Houses closer to the (modern) road?

Question: At what elevation do deer turn into Elk?