It's common to mix up accept/except and affect/effect. Other word pairs that do that: ensure/insure, prophesy/prophecy, cache/cachet.
I got 25/25, but I had to think hard about the miles-to-meters conversion, and I nearly psyched myself out over the relative land mass question because I got to wondering whether the apparent size of Australia is an artifact of projection. Then I visualized the countries on a globe instead: a much simpler solution.
The question about the farmer with 17 cows was very cute. I'll bet it catches lots of skim-readers.
Have you ever taken The Alchemist's Challenge (http://www.mindworkshop.com/cgi-bin/quiz)? It's beyond tough, but it's the only quiz I know that's worth reading for its own sake. I fell in love with it on the first question, which has a beautiful set of wrong answers. The words defined by the wrong answers only differ from the right answer by a letter or two. I've put them in brackets at the end of the definitions.
1. Dido is:
A machine used to cut ornate moldings in wood. [dado]
An extinct flightless bird once living on the island of Mauritius. [dodo]
A sex toy. [dildo]
The queen of Carthage and the spurned lover of Aeneas. [Dido]
A group of early twentieth-century artists who used accidental and incongruous elements in their work. [Dada]
An accomplished female classical singer. [diva]
Not all the questions have answers like that. In most cases, the wrong answers are merely learned, plausible, and witty. Question #14, though, has its own notable gimmick:
14. Aside from reputedly being the longest word in the English language, antidisestablishmentarianism refers to:
Opposition to the withdrawal of state support from an established church.
Withdrawal of opposition to state support for an established church.
Opposition to the establishment of a state supported church.
Withdrawal of the state's involvement in the establishment of a church.
Opposition to the support of a church which seeks to withdraw from the state.
Support for the withdrawal of the involvement of a state in an opposition church.
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try studying spelling and grammar, then write a quiz to see if people are dumb.
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Find out how smart you are.
I think I got the effect/affect question wrong.
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Gah! I overthought the affect/effect question.
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I got 25/25, but I had to think hard about the miles-to-meters conversion, and I nearly psyched myself out over the relative land mass question because I got to wondering whether the apparent size of Australia is an artifact of projection. Then I visualized the countries on a globe instead: a much simpler solution.
The question about the farmer with 17 cows was very cute. I'll bet it catches lots of skim-readers.
Have you ever taken The Alchemist's Challenge (http://www.mindworkshop.com/cgi-bin/quiz)? It's beyond tough, but it's the only quiz I know that's worth reading for its own sake. I fell in love with it on the first question, which has a beautiful set of wrong answers. The words defined by the wrong answers only differ from the right answer by a letter or two. I've put them in brackets at the end of the definitions.
Not all the questions have answers like that. In most cases, the wrong answers are merely learned, plausible, and witty. Question #14, though, has its own notable gimmick:
It's a work of art.