Test Your Knowledge

Shane participated in the National Geographic State Bee last Friday. There were 104 students competing for a trip to Washington, DC for the National Bee on May 20. He did a great job, but did not advance to the final round of the top ten students. The participants are divided up into five groups for the preliminary round where each one answers eight questions. The scores are tallied and the top ten (out of the total) go on to the finals. In the past, there have been five or six kids with perfect scores and a handful with one miss. The “one missers” have gone to a separate tie breaker round to fill in the extra seats. Well, this year there were twenty kids with perfect scores in the preliminary round and they all went to the tie breaker. Shane had one miss.

Here are the questions he had to answer. Take the test and tell me how you did. (I didn’t write down entire questions—couldn’t keep up—but you get enough information to answer the questions.) Answers are below.

1) US Geography: The Arkansas River passes through which Great Plains State? Kansas or North Dakota

2) Invasive Species of the US: Biologists removed.......lake trout from Yellowstone Lake in which state? New Mexico or Wyoming

3) Country Comparisons: Which country has a higher adult literacy rate? Lesotho or Poland

4) Physical Geography: Which is one of the main reasons that farmers during the depression left the Dust Bowl? Polluted ground water or Drought

5) Which country does not border the South China Sea? Bruneii, Saudi Arabia, Philippines

6) World Cities: In what country can you find Tripoli which is (cultural details I didn’t get written down)?

7) Cultural: Something about Brahamputra and “sons of soil” and a country that borders the Straight of Malacca and the South China Sea.

8) News: In December 2007 after eight years of exile Benizer Bhutto, her country's first female prime minister, returned to what country and was assassinated?



Shane missed question number 4. I guess we need to brush up on US History.

The answers are:
1) Kansas
2) Wyoming
3) Poland
4) Drought
5) Saudi Arabia
6) Libya
7) Malaysia
8) Pakistan