Did you guys read about this? Twenty-five hundred randomly selected Americans took a 33-question quiz on U.S. history, government and basic economics. The average grade was 49 percent. Those in that group who identified themselves as elected government officials did even worse, with an average score of 44 percent.
I certainly have no special knowledge of civics, but I took the quiz and got 29 out of 33 correct. I did guess on a couple, but there were so many gimmes that it is flabbergasting to think so many people still got less than half right.
By gimmes I mean questions like these:
What are the three branches of government?
A. executive, legislative, judicial
B. executive, legislative, military
C. bureaucratic, military, industry
D. federal, state, local
The United States Electoral College:
A. trains those aspiring for higher political office
B. was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates
C. is otherwise known as the U.S. Congress
D. is a constitutionally mandated assembly that elects the president
E. was ruled undemocratic by the Supreme Court
Name two countries that were our enemies during World War II.
A. Canada and Mexico
B. Germany and Japan
C. England and Spain
D. China and Russia
In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
A. argued for the abolition of slavery
B. advocated black separatism
C. morally defended affirmative action
D. expressed his hopes for racial justice and brotherhood
E. proposed that several of America’s founding ideas were discriminatory
Want to feel smart and kill a few minutes? Click here to take the quiz yourself. I bet some of you will score 100.
4 comments:
All that did was make me wonder how I graduated.
I am ashamed to say that I got only 23 out of 33 correct, but it's still 69% right, so I'm still smarter than someone taking the quiz!
We know we're in trouble when the creators of the quiz can't even get it right. :) Number seven contained the quote, “Government of the people, for the people, by the people”? -- but I'm fairly certain Lincoln originally uttered those last two phrases in the reverse order.
I have to admit, that's one of the ones I missed (I thought it was from the Declaration of Independence), but if you're right that is funny!
I got 28 correct and had to guess on several. Fun quiz...and unfortunately I'm not surprised that so many people miss more than half.
Post a Comment