# If a man or woman did well on this short general knowledge test what would it tell you about them? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618 "2012-04-22T19:41:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/21 "2012-04-22T21:48:09Z")
> [@](#): > > There is 1 Gap in Your Knowledge > > Where you have gaps in your knowledge: > Philosophy Well, thanks to Monty Python’s University of Woolamaloo drinking song, I got the other philosophy question right. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/22 "2012-04-22T21:48:55Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > If someone does well on this test I would assume they managed to stay awake during grade school. And has a decent memory. Most people forget a lot of what they learn. ---
**Author:** ![Jake\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/23 "2012-04-22T21:48:56Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Arrrgh! It won’t tell me which one I got wrong?! Diediediediedie… As I mentioned already, a gap indicates two wrong answers in a category. For anyone interested, here is the answer key. I missed the closest planet question and the Oscar question and I wasn’t too confident of my answer for American poets, but I guessed right between the two choices I narrowed it down to. 1. Who was Plato’s teacher? Aristotle Athena Euripides \*\* Socrates\*\* 2. Which branch of philosophy deals with the nature of reality, being, and the world? Logic Religion Epistemology \*\* Metaphysics\*\* 3. Who said “Je pense donc je suis”… meaning, “I think therefore I am”? Michel Foucault \*\* René Descartes\*\* Friedrich Nietzsche Ayn Rand 4. Which of the following religions does not talk about Moses? Judaism Islam **Buddhism** Christianity 5. What do you call a religion that believes in multiple deities? Monotheistic **Polytheistic** Polyamorous Godful 6. What Christian denomination is known for resisting modern conveniences? The Mormons **The Amish** The Methodists The Jehovah’s Witnesses 7. When more people demand a product with limited supply, what will happen to the price? It will stay the same It will be set by the government **It will go up** It will go down 8. When prices are mostly going down, this is known as: Inflation Holiday blues Stagflation **Deflation** 9. When there is only one producer or seller of a product, it is called a: Non-profit Business sector **Monopoly** Oligopoly 10. Who wrote “A Christmas Carol”? Jim Henson Mark Twain William Shakespeare **Charles Dickens** 11. Which of Shakespeare’s plays listed below is not a tragedy? **A Midsummer Night’s Dream** Hamlet Macbeth Romeo and Juliet 12. Of these poets, who was not American Walt Whitman **Thomas Hardy** ee cummings Robert Frost 13. Who was not alive during the Renaissance? Martin Luther **Napoleon Bonaparte** Leonardo da Vinci Ferdinand Magellan 14. From the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century, what empire was India a part of? The Byzantine empire The Catholic empire **The British empire** The Ottoman empire 15. What country did the US drop the atomic bomb on? Germany Russia China **Japan** 16. How many legs does an insect have? 2 8 4 **6** 17. Which planet is the closest to earth? Saturn **Venus** Mercury Mars 18. Which of the following is not a chemical element? Oxygen Sodium Iron **Water** 19. Who painted the Mona Lisa? Andy Warhol **Leonardo da Vinci** Claude Monet Vincent van Gogh 20. Which of the following composers performed and composed even after he was almost completely deaf? **Ludwig van Beethoven** Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Johann Sebastian Bach Johannes Brahms 21. Which of the following films did not win an Oscar for best picture? **Citizen Kane** Casablanca Forrest Gump Rocky ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/24 "2012-04-22T21:51:14Z")
Throw me on the “got 'em all right” pile… ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/25 "2012-04-22T22:03:13Z")
> [@Jake\_Jones](#): > > As I mentioned already, a gap indicates two wrong answers in a category. For anyone interested, here is the answer key. I missed the closest planet question and the Oscar question and I wasn’t too confident of my answer for American poets, but I guessed right between the two choices I narrowed it down to. Aha! I also had 0 gaps but missed four. ETA: Removed confusion about the wording of one of the questions. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/26 "2012-04-22T22:28:02Z")
Yep, got them all right. But I really wasn’t sure about 20 and 21… it was a “best guess” answer on both. The others, though, I had no doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/27 "2012-04-22T22:53:42Z")
That’s weird, I missed 3 and got 2 gaps. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/28 "2012-04-22T22:54:52Z")
Yeah, the Mars/Venus one I suspect they mark “Venus” as the correct answer but that seems a weird question to be on a test like that since it has a variable answer. Hell, I believe even Mercury is sometimes the closest planet to earth. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/29 "2012-04-22T23:16:57Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I didn’t miss a question, and I have _huge_ gaps in my bank of knowledge. Ditto. As an example, I just found out that Thomas Hardy was a poet. 😃 What can I say, I hated Tess and Jude enough that I never sought out any more of his work. Checking the answer key, I got them all right, although Citizen Kane was definitely a guess with approximately 86% confidence. I am, as I think I’ve mentioned before, working with a GED and a give 'em hell attitude. If someone does well on this test, it tells me nothing more than that they’ve paid some minimal amount of attention to their elementary and secondary education. If they do badly, it tells me that their elementary and secondary education were woefully inadequate, or that they just Do. Not. Give a shit. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/30 "2012-04-22T23:24:41Z")
A person’s reaction to their score is more meaningful to me than the score they make. Like those internet IQ tests. If a person believes those things are anything like a real IQ test and actually brags about their score, that tells me that I probably do not want to talk to them. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/31 "2012-04-22T23:30:39Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Ditto. As an example, I just found out that Thomas Hardy was a poet. 😃 What can I say, I hated Tess and Jude enough that I never sought out any more of his work. [hijack] [My favorite Hardy Poem.](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175582) [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/32 "2012-04-22T23:31:01Z")
> [@astro](#): > > …If someone did well on on the test does that tell you anything about them?.. Yes, it tells you we all like to stroke our own egos by taking knowledge tests and bragging on how well we did. ---
**Author:** ![Jake\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/33 "2012-04-22T23:37:23Z")
> [@Kasper1014](#): > > That’s weird, I missed 3 and got 2 gaps. I played around with the answers for a bit, and I don’t think that’s possible. Try the test again and report back if you get the same results. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/34 "2012-04-22T23:53:55Z")
0 Gaps and got two questions wrong-the one about the insects (yes, yes its pretty obvious but its been years since I’ve been taught that-we didn’t dwell on it on Biologly last year) and the Oscars one. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/35 "2012-04-22T23:55:47Z")
No gaps. Haven’t checked my answers yet. Even allowing for one wrong in each category it shows a basic education, good test taking ability, good recollection of facts. Doesn’t point out any specialized knowledge. I think there are a lot of intelligent, well educated people who could do poorly on the test, without reflecting on their abilities. It’s just a matter of whether you have the background information or not. For instance, I knew Citizen Kane didn’t win Best Picture, but it’s just trivial information that I wouldn’t expect most people to know. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/36 "2012-04-23T16:11:34Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > [hijack] > [My favorite Hardy Poem.](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175582) [/hijack] Thanks. I still don’t like it, but I think it’s very useful as distilled essence of Hardy. Read this, and there’s really no reason to slog through the rest of it. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/37 "2012-04-23T17:17:28Z")
21 of 21, but I guessed (educated guess) lucky on 2. I don’t think that they were particularly hard questions, but they were the sort that you sort of had to pay attention in school to get right. Or just have a slightly better than averge memory. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/38 "2012-04-23T17:25:29Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > [hijack] > [My favorite Hardy Poem.](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175582) [/hijack] More absinthe, Tom? ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/39 "2012-04-23T19:41:00Z")
Zero gaps in my knowledge. Thank God for this test, I can finally stop learning crap. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/40 "2012-04-23T20:12:42Z")
3 wrong (according to post #23), 1 gap. Don’t think it means much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618.md?page=3)