CultureQuest®,
originally a totally volunteer effort by Mensa members, is like
a breeze that blows away the mushroom cloud that seems to descend on
the brains of those who work in wage-slave jobs. In 1989, Becky O'Neal
and The Joyce Lundeen of Central Oklahoma Mensa (COM) took E.D. Hirsch
Jr.'s concept of cultural literacy, turned it into a contest for members
of their local group, then spread it regionally, and ended up giving
Mensa a legendary, annual national event rather than some of Mensa's
more trivial pursuits.
This year's CultureQuest (CQ) will be
held on April 10th. Those who are already on a team will
find the following good practice; those who are not might be persuaded
by the following to join a team next year. Remember that if the words
"Calvin and Hobbes" bring to immediate mind only a
boy and his tiger, you might be bordering on cultural illiteracy.
For your enjoyment, Going Forward
offers selected questions from the very first, unnumbered CQ that only
members of COM have seen before now. How many can you answer
correctly?
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- The natural environment forced early New Englanders to turn to all
of the following except
- fishing
- fur trading
- gold mining
- trade and commerce
- A declining stock market is referred to as a ______ market.
- Name the four time zones of the lower 48 states.
- An animal that feeds entirely or mainly on plant materials is called
what?
- What is the legend associated with the albatross?
- Name the artist who painted "Guernica."
- A cappella is a specific type of music. What is the meaning
of a cappella?
- According to the poet Carl Sandburg, what came in on little cat feet?
- Match the author to his work:
A. A Doll's House |
a. Kant |
B. Candide |
b. Machiavelli |
C. Critique of Pure
Reason |
c. Ibsen
d. Voltaire |
D. Faust |
e. John Stuart Mill |
E. The Prince |
f. Solzhenitsyn |
F. Utilitarianism |
g. Dante |
G. Being and
Nothingness |
h. James Baldwin
i. Goethe |
H. Gulag Archipelago |
j. Sartre |
I. Go Tell It On The
Mountain |
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- During the 17th century in the United States, the chief
source of labor supply came from
- slaves
- indentured servants
- Indians
- prisoners of war
- Germany
- How many Zodiac signs are there? Name half of them.
- The legend of King Arthur is so famous you should have no trouble
naming:
- his sword
- the location of his court
- his wizard
- his archenemy
- the object of his quest
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- The order of the development of transportation facilities
in the U.S. was:
- roads, canals, railroads
- railroads, roads, canals
- canals, roads, railroads
- roads, railroads, canals
- Put the following events in ascending chronological order, oldest
first:
- solar water distillation
- Binet intelligence test
- mass production
- wheelbarrow
- gas stove
- potter's wheel
- printing press
- airplane
- Name the item described in each selection below. The word "iron"
should appear in each answer. We leave it to you to iron out the rest.
- Prussian military decoration
- archaeological term for a cultural phase of civilization
- barrier of secrecy created by Russia
- mysterious state prisoner during the reign of Louis XIV
- Margaret Thatcher
- Name eight of the eleven states that seceded from the Union.
- Renaissance, Rococo, and Romanesque are art styles. Put them in chronological
order of their appearance, oldest first.
- In each of the groups below, name the narrowest common denominator.
- O'Keefe,Sargent, Frankenthaler
- ibex, aurochs, petrel
- Ernest Bloch, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland
- John Smyth, King Henry VIII, George Fox
- Auguste Comte, George Berkeley, Jeremy Bentham
- John Tyler, Franklin Pierce, Martin van Buren
- During the 1840s, the U.S.A. explained its right to expand by a two-word
phrase. Name it.
Becky
O'Neal
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