After years of hanging around with the palookas I grew up with in New York, going off to college in the DC area was a culture shock. My new classmates were well-read and aware. They even watched the news. Their upbringings made mine look positively Amish.I was convinced the New York public school education wasn’t worth a plug nickel – until yesterday, when I found out it may be worth a quarter of a million bucks.
I got a call yesterday from the casting director for “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”, who said there was some concern at the show that I did too well on my audition a couple weeks ago. They like a range of contestants, and wanted to double-check my skills with a second test right then over the phone.
I actually found it to be much easier than the first. Here are the questions, and my answers:
- The vowels in the English language and A, E, I, O, U and sometimes what? Y (CORRECT)
- Who was the sixth President of the United States? John Quincy Adams (CORRECT)
- How many verses are there in a haiku? Three (CORRECT)
- True or false: water vapor is a gas turned into a liquid? False (CORRECT)
- What is the minimum age required to become President? 35 (CORRECT)
- What do you call two lines that never intersect? Parallel (CORRECT)
- How many moons does the planet Mercury have. I guessed two (INCORRECT – the correct answer is “none”)
- What do you call an animal that eats both plants and meat? Omnivore (CORRECT)
- The twin cities are Minneapolis and what? St. Paul (CORRECT)
