The Bathtub: Emily's Trivia Quiz: Don't Know Much About the French I Took

Happy Black Friday! I will not be shopping today, because that's silly. I usually go, but for some reason I'm not really pressed this year. Instead, I'm spending the night of Thanksgiving posting this blog. Which will probably not be very good, because I'm full and tired from a long dinner and a lot of yelling about politics. (We have a really really political Thanksgiving. It's great.) Regardless, I'm here to talk about high school, and instead of fun fun trivia, I'm going to give you questions from high school exams and the SAT to see if you are as smart as you think you are. Because, frankly, I thought high school was harder than college.

First, chemistry from the New York State Regents Exam:
1. Which of the following is a binary compound?
a. Hydrogen sulfide
b. Hydrogen sulfate
c. Elephant
d. Jimmy Hoffa

a. Hydrogen sulfide. Here's an explanation: "Only two different kinds of atoms make up a binary compound. Hydrogen sulfate has 3 kinds of atoms (H, S, O). Ammonium sulfate has 3 kinds (N, H, S). Ammonium sulfate has 4 kinds (N, H, S, O)."
(Courtesy of the Regents Prep website)

And now a math question from the SAT:
2. A special lottery is to be held to select the student who will live in the only deluxe room in a dormitory. There are 100 seniors, 150 juniors, and 200 sophomores who applied. Each senior's name is placed in the lottery 3 times; each junior's name, 2 times; and each sophomore's name, 1 time. What is the probability that a senior's name will be chosen?
a. .46
b. 2348/342229
c. Elephant
d. 3/8

d. 3/8 Explanation: "To determine the probability that a senior's name will be chosen, you must determine the total number of seniors' names that are in the lottery and divide this number by the total number of names in the lottery. Since each senior's name is placed in the lottery 3 times, there are 3 × 100 = 300 seniors' names. Likewise, there are 2 × 150 = 300 juniors' names and 1 × 200 = 200 sophomores' names in the lottery."
(Courtesy of the College Board)

And a "critical reading" question from the SAT:
3. Hoping to __________ the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be _______to both labor and management.
a. Poop..elephant
b. Resolve..acceptable
c. Start..silly
d. [Expletive]...[Expletive]

b. Resolve..acceptable. I'm not making this too hard, am I?

From the Accuplacer test (and no, I have no idea what it is):
4. Select the best version of the underlined part of the sentence. The first choice is the same as the original sentence. If you think the original is sentence is best, choose the first answer.

Ms. Rose planning to teach a course in biology next summer.
a. Planning
b. Elephant
c. Plans
d. Encyclopedia

c. Plans. And don't take it, I hear Ms. Rose is a tough teacher.

AP Bio:
5. A similarity between the nervous system and the endocrine system in humans is that they both...
a. Giggle
b. Elephant
c. Maintain homeostasis
d. 3/28

c. They both maintain homeostasis. "Homeostasis is an extremely important concept in biology. It is the maintenance of the status quo and is an integral theme in biology. Much of the energy that organisms use is to maintain their homeostasis. Many "fail-safe" systems, like fainting, are homeostatic mechanisms. Even temperature maintenance is homeostatic."
(Courtesy of Peterson's)

AP European History:
6. Joseph Stalin's five-year plans were designed to...
a. Erase capitalist countries from the map
b. Turn Russia into an industrial power
c. Win at Risk
d. Elephant

b. Turn Russia into an industrial power. (Question courtesy of Peterson's)

AP U.S. History:

7. All of the following were true of the Declaration of Independence EXCEPT...
a. All references to George III's part in the slave trade were deleted in the final version
b. The Declaration was based on the philosophy of the Enlightenment
c. It was about elephants
d. By declaring independence the new nation established that the rules of war had to be observed and thus protected its soldiers

c. The Declaration of Independence was not about elephants. (The other answers are courtesy of Peterson's)

AP World History:
8. The Delhi Sultanate and the Aztecs had which of the following methods of governing in common?
a. A tribute system
b. They both prayed to elephants for good governance
c. Human sacrifice
d. Silliness