| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters. 2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications. 3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph. 4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of do, lie, lay and run. 5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case. 6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation. 7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours) 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. per bu., deducting 1050 lbs. for tare? 4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per m? 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per are, the distance around which is 640 rods? 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt. U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes) 1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided. 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus. 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States. 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas. 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of theRebellion. 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe? 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607 1620 1800 1849 1865 Orthography (Time, one hour) 1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication? 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified? 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals? 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'. 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e'. Name two exceptions under each rule. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono,super. 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Card, ball, mercy, sir, odd,cell, rise, blood, fare, last. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane,fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced andindicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication. Geography (Time, one hour) 1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is theocean? 4. Describe the mountains of North America. 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba,Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco. 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. 7. Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth. |
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It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS and reprinted by the Salina Journal. |
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GRAMMAR (not that it's important, but anyway) 1. Give the nine rules for the use of Capital Letters. one: Always capitalize the first letter in a sentence or sentence fragment. Unless you're on the Internet, where anything goes. two: Always capitalize the first letter in a direct quotation. three: Always capitalize the first letter in a direct question within a sentence. four: Always capitalize the first letter in a line of poetry, that is, if you recognize it as poetry. uh, five: Always capitalize the first letter of proper nouns, including registered trademarks, names of treaties, geological eras, planets, courts of law, the days of the week, and genera in zoology and botany. six: Always capitalize the first letter in titles of books, magazines, newspapers, movies, works of art, and music, except for conjunctions, prepositions, and articles (Rise of the Machines) unless the original title wasn't capitalized or you're confused. seven: Always capitalize the first letter in the names of ships, aircraft, and spacecraft, although they didn't have spacecraft in 1895. eight: Always capitalize the first letter in peoples' names (e.g. John Smith), unless their name is an unpronounceable symbol. nine: Always capitalize the first letter in a title preceding a person's name (e.g., Mr. Coffee) bonus: Always capitalize the first letter in words designating a Deity. If you feel like it. bonus: Always capitalize the pronoun "I." Unless you're a freak and you want to show it. 2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications. Noun: A word used in a sentence as a subject or object of a very or a preposition. Broadly: person, place, thing. Pronoun: A word used as a substitute for a noun and which refers to a person or thing. Adjectives: A word that modifies a noun. Verb: A word that expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being. Adverb: A word that modifies a verb or adjective. 3. Define these terms: Verse: A line of metric writing. Metric = having meter. Stanza: A series of lines within a poem or rap that are arranged together, often involving a recurring pattern of meter and rhyme, even in really lame crap. Paragraph: A subdivision of a written composition. If organized and coherent, a paragraph may consist of one or more sentences dealing with one point or giving the words of one speaker. 4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Transitive, intransitive, past, present, future, conditional, subjunctive. 4a. Give the principal parts of do, lie, lay, and run. Did, do, doing, shall do. Lied, lie, lying, shall lie. Lay, lay, laying, shall lay. Ran, run, running, shall run. Like, duh, man! 5. Define Case. A change in the form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective indicating its grammatical relation to other words. Also a handy container for safekeeping or transporting objects. Also: an instance. Also: oh, never mind. That's enough. Illustrate each case. Near, nearer, nearest Nicely Briefcase, suitcase, nut case 6. What is Punctuation? Dividing a written matter with punctuation marks. Give rules for principal marks of punctuation. Comma: Separates main clauses joined by a conjunction; separates words in a series; sets off an adverbial clause. If your name is R.C., you may prefer slashes. If you are J, you might prefer to plug these in for apostrophes. Semicolon: Links main clauses not joined by conjunctions. Or something like that. Colon: Introduces a clause that explains or amplifies what has gone on before or indicates dialogue. Period: Terminates a sentence. Sometimes Hyphen: Used in some compound words. Question mark: Terminates a direct question. For some people. Exclamation point: Terminates an emphatic phrase or sentence. Often used in multiples. Rilly!!! Apostrophe: Indicates the possessive case or omissions in contracted words. Or, substitutes for commas. Oh, what the hell does it matter. Just leave 'em out. Parentheses: Sets off supplementary material. Also very useful in emoticons. Quotation marks: Enclose direct quotations. Also used for emphasis on hand-made cardboard signs, particularly at lunch counters and on menus in the Southern US (but nationwide). 7-10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. I did that last night. Ha Ha Ha. Arithmetic (Time, one hour) 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. Arithmetic: the branch of mathematics that deals with real numbers. Addition: Combining numbers to obtain an equivalent quantity. Subtraction: Deducting one number from another. Division: Dividing one number by another. Is that redundant? Multiplication: Adding an integer a specified number of times. 2. A wagon box is 2 feet deep, 10 feet long, and 3 feet wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 48. You're talking to a wheat farmer, dude! 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 pounds, what is it worth at 50 cts. per bu., deducting 1050 lbs. for tare? The net weight of the wheat is 2,892 pounds. A bushel of wheat weighs about 60 pounds. It's worth $24.10. This is a terrible price. Times are tough all over. 4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 1.3%. They'll never go for it. Whatever. You can't buy dirt for $104. Incidentals are going to have to go. 5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton. $20.16. You're talking to an ex-mine foreman, bud. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. $26. You're talking to an ex-banker, junior. And I socked a hell of a lot away before they caught on. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at 20 cents per sq. foot? $128. I think. I got fired from the lumber yard on my third day for kicking some pansy's ass. Guy was drinking chocolate milk. 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10%. Any banker knows that the discount is subtracted from the principal before the borrower receives the money. A person who borrows $300 at a discount rate of 10% for 90 days would receive only $260. Mwa-ha-ha. We've got to make margin somehow. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods? An acre is 160 square rods. The answer is $60. But a square farm? What the hell? 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt. Oh, right. And make them out to you, I suppose. Let's see some drinks and dinner first, hotshot. U.S. History (Time, 45 Minutes) 1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided. The Colonial Era The Revolutionary Era The Critical Period The Early National Era The Jeffersonian Era The Antebellum Era The Civil War Era The Gilded Age Later periods of American History include: The Progressive Era World War I The Interwar Era World War II The Postwar Era The Commie Bastards Take Over Our Youth and Suddenly There's Dope All Over The Place That 70's Show The Postmodern Era Personal Computing Monica Makes It Big! The Y2K Bug Oh, Nothing Happened Let's Roll! 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus. In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Two, some imperialst bastard sailed the Ocean Blue. Oops..wrong script. OK, the Italian-born fast talker captained three wee ships westward ho, seeking a water route to the Spice Islands, where all the big investors had their bets. After three months, he bumped up on the Caribbean and thought he was in Asia, sentencing US sports teams to years of controversy over their mascots and names. 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. The Man (George) was keeping us down, brother! Taxation without representation, troop occupation, trade and manufacturing restrictions (what the?), and infringement of the colonists' perceived legal rights and liberties. Some consequences of the Revolution: emancipation of slaves in many northern states and the adoption of graduate emancipation schemes in other states in the North, the disestablishment of churches in most states (for a while, anyway), the adoption of new state constitutions, rapid westward expansion, and many bitchin' videos featuring American girls. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States. We swindled France out of the Louisiana Territory, annexed (took) Texas (DON'T MESS WITH IT), hoodwinked the Pacific Northwest out of Britain, picked up some oil reserves in the Great White North and some retirement communities in the Southwest, and took over the lovely and gentle island nation of Hawaii. 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas. Ye Gods. You've got to be kidding. 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion. The First Battle of Bull Run: The first full-scale battle of the Civil War, which took place in Northern Virginia just outside the Metro lines, destroyed Union thoughts for a cruise to victory. Antietam: The bloodiest day of the Civil War, which halted a Confederate offensive into the North and led President Lincoln to issue his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which nobody remembers any longer. This happened just off the interstate in Western Maryland. Nothing much has happened there since, but they're getting a Wal*Mart! Gettysburg: The big m*%@$#%in' battle in the history of the Western Hemisphere ended the Confederacy's ability to wage an offensive war in the North and removed the threat of foreign intervention in the conflict when BadA** Abe stepped to with his light saber. Whoa! Is that right? 7. Who were the following: Morse: Sam F.B. was a prominent artist dude who invented the telegraph, a tapping machine. Whitney: Eli, the inventor of the cotton gin also helped popularize the American System of standardized parts and mass production. Also got into making big boxes of candy. No, wait. That's some other guy. Fulton: Big Bob demonstrated the practicality of steam-powered navigation, also was a guy you like behind you in a bar fight. Never failed to pick up a tab when a bud was short a few coins. Bell: Alex, my man! Super teacher of the deaf who invented the telephone. He is thought to have predicted the rise of gangsta rap videos prominently featuring his products. Lincoln: The man behind the sweeeeeetest SUV, the Navigator, yo. Also, the guy who invented the $5 bill. Not sure why he bothered with that chump change, though. Later ran for, and won, the 16th Presidency of the United States, led the Union during the Civil War, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which transformed the conflict into a war to liberate the slaves, and got capped by some Baltimore punka** bit** in a theatre. Penn: This Quaker dude walked into the woods and founded of Pennsylvania colony. Pretty cool guy, but Sam Adams makes a better brew. Howe: An inventor of the sewing machine. That Singer guy gets all the credit, though. 8. Name the events connected with the following dates: 1607: The founding of Jamestown, Virginia, Britain's first enduring tobacco farm. 1620: The landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, which is smaller than you think it is. 1800: The beginning of the 19th Century! The election of Thomas Jefferson as the third president the first transfer of power from one political party to another. 1849: The discovery of gold in California the previous year led some 80,000 '49ers to migrate into the territory. I don't know how they had all those dudes on the roster at once, man. There must have been fifty thousand guys trying out for halfback if it was anything like my high school team. 1865: The defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Also, the assassination of Big Abe. Orthography (Time, one hour) 1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet: A set of letters or characters with which some languages are written. Phonetic: Representing the sounds of speech, even very screwed-up speech. Orthography: The representation of a language by written letters or symbols. Etymology: The history of a word. Stick an "n" in there and it's bugs or something. Syllabication: Multiple personality disorder. No, wait! The division of words into syllables. 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified? The elementary sounds are the basic sounds of speech. Baby talk! 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph: a cluster of three successive letters. Subvocals: The occurrence in the mind of words without vocal articulation. Diphthong: A sound (such as the last sound in the word "toy") that starts at the position of one vowel and moves toward another. Divas Love Dipthongs! Cognate: Words related by descent from the same ancestral language. Frequently confused by the public at large. Linguals: Sounds or pleasurable sensations produced by the tongue. 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' ie (view) ew (blew) oo (food) ou (through) Unknown to Axl Rose. 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule. A single long vowel followed by a consonant (other than w or y) is often followed by a final 'e.' (example: crude or prove; exception: love or above). Two consonants followed by a long 'e' at the end of a word often include two "e"'s. (example: free or tree; exceptions: brie or monkey). I know, "brie" is lame because it's French, but I'm getting fried here, people. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. Pneumonia, knight, gnash, fnord. Just kidding about the fnord! 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi: two, bisexual. Dis: opposite or deprive of, disrespect. Mis: badly, unfavorable, or not; mistrust, misappropriate. Pre: earlier or prior to; prehistoric. Semi: half or partly; semi-circle, semiliterate. Post: after or subsequent; posthumous. Non: not or reverse of: nonpaying. Inter: between or occurring among: intersection. Mono: alone, single, or containing one: monotheism. Super: above or over; superscript, Super Big K. 8. Mark diacritically and divided into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Ball 'bol Mercy 'm&r-sE Sir 's&r Cell 'sel Rise 'rIz Blood 'bl&d Fare 'far Last 'last That doesn't look right in this box. A glossary of pronunciation terms: Accent marks: a mark used to indicate stress or pitch. Diaeresis: Two dots placed side-by-side over a vowel to indicate that a vowel is considered a separate vowel, even though it would normally be considered part of a diphthong. Confused yet? Ah, don't worry about it. Digraph: A series of two letters that constitute a single sound not predicted by combining the two letters. Diphthong: A sound that start at the position for one vowel and moves toward the position of another. Divas Love Dipthongs! Long and short vowels: Vowel-containing sounds that are long or short in duration. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite: Cite a fair and balanced source. Site: The crash site was downtown. Sight: It is a beautiful sight. Fane: (temple or church) To the east is a fane. Fain: (happy or inclined) He was fain to go to the party. Feign: (to give a false impression) He unconvincingly feigned interest. Vane: (an object showing the direction of the wind) There was a weather vane on the roof. Vain: You are so vain. You probably think this song is about you. Don't you? Vein: Cocaine flows through her veins. Raze: The community razed the barn in order to build a new house. Raise: She raised a million bucks! Rays: He loves the sun's rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication. No more of that diacritical crap on a text keyboard, son. Sorry. When I finally get the tablet PC, I'll send it right over. Geography (Time, one hour) 1. What is climate? The condition of the weather at a particular place. Upon what does climate depend? On the season, the temperature, wind velocity, the degree of cloud cover, precipitation, and forces from space. 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas? What's with the Kansas questions? OK. It's because of that hick state's physical location. Cold air from the north moves easily across the Kansas plains during the winter, and hot winds blow from the south in the summer. Right there in tornado alley. 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? Rivers offer a source of drinking water, water power, and transportation routes. The ocean also provides a transportation route and many most excellent party locations where GIRLS GO WILD. Rivers and oceans are also part of the earth's aquasystem, which may or may not be well used for flush toilets. 4. Describe the mountains of North America. You got your dinky little Appalachians, your majestic Rocky Mountains, your rugged Sierra Nevadas, and your sublime Cascades. 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia: The capital of Liberia. Odessa: City and port in southern Ukraine on the Black Sea. Really tough town, known for its brutal mob rule. Denver: The capital of Rocky Mountain High, Colorado. Also the place where the Broncos and their "rabid sh**head fans" (as described on sorabji.com) rock the house. Manitoba: One of the fine Canadian provinces. Hecla: A volcano in southwest Iceland, I'm told. Yukon: Another bitchin' SUV. Supposedly also a territory in northwest Canada between Alaska and British Columbia. St. Helena: An island in the South Atlantic. You thought I was going to say "volcano," didn't you? Admit it. Juan Fernandez: A group of three islands in the southeast Pacific west of Chile. You thought I was going to say "coffee," didn't you? Admit it. Aspinwall: A neighborhood in western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh suburb. How the hell did it make this list? Orinoco: A river flowing from the Brazilian border to the Columbian border and into the Atlantic. Inspired some Irish babe to burst into song in some language. Don't ask me. I don't get it either. 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.A. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Brownsville, Boston, Helena, Chapel Hill, Garden State Parkway, I-5, PCH, Target, Wal*Mart Supercenters, Kmart (sort of), Mall of America, Florida. 7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capitals of each. All the republics? What are you smoking? They change, like, every week. OK, OK. I'll give you a few. Britain (London) Finland (Helsinki) France (Paris) Germany (Berlin) Italy (Rome) Netherlands (Hague) Sweden (Stockholm) Monaco (Casino) Amsterdam (Holland) Wait, is that right? I don't remember Amsterdam too well. Ah, hell. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? Because of the routes of the ocean currents. Colder water in the Atlantic. Like, duh. 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. Through evaporation and precipitation. According to profs. spunky and patty. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth. The earth spins on its axis once a day. It spins around the sun once a year. The earth's inclination is 23.45 degrees. IF YOU BELIEVE THE MASSIVE EARTHLING CONSPIRACY So do I win the horseless carriage, or what? |
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Girth Brooks? |
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Besides, most of it should be easy to answer except for the "Orthography" section. |
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Why even ask? |
Oops wait. Trace said something. Must accuse him of repeating the mantra rush limbaugh told him to chant, and accuse him of not thinking for himself. |
Is there really a question of how bad the educational system is? |
Why even ask?" Did you look at my link? did you see ANY commentary on the link about anything? or just a text of the test? |
The test is currently making the rounds in spam email and on mb posts. It was in the news recently. Here is another article, from 2002, explaining the problems with the test in great detail. Look: ******** Critics of public ed have cited the test as clear proof that teachers, parents, and children were more resolute, more disciplined, and just mentally tougher before the modern public education system was put in place and the fundamental principles were lost.The only problem is that the questions in the 1895 exam may not have been intended for eighth graders, but for teaching candidates seeking certification. And although the exam was indeed difficult, it's difficulty was not typical. One thing is known. Most eighth-graders couldn't pass the test back then, either. ************* It goes on from there to say: *********** Assuming enrollment stayed relatively constant, then somewhere between 50 and 80 percent fewer Saline County eighth-graders passed their graduation exam in 1895 than in 1894. Perhaps there was a huge drop-off in school attendance following 1894, but more likely the low graduation rate was due to the difficulty of the graduation exam introduced by superintendent Armstrong in 1895.Nine years later, the failure rate wasn't much improved, according to Lilly's research: ".... In 1904, the superintendent began to separate the graduates who passed the test from those who failed it. There were 82 `failures' that year. By this time (and probably before) students seemed to automatically take the test twice within a month's time. In 1905, after taking the examination twice, 34 passed and 92 failed." Testimony to the difficulty of the 1895 exam: even after taking it twice, most students still couldn't score well enough to graduate. ************* So, to sum up, that test was hard in 1895 and is hard in 2003. |
***** SOURCE: The following document was transcribed from the original document in the collection of the Smoky Valley Genealogy Society, Salina, Kansas. This test is the original eighth-grade final exam for 1895 from Salina, KS. An interesting note is the fact that the county students taking this test were allowed to take the test in the 7th grade, and if they did not pass the test at that time, they were allowed to re-take it again in the 8th grade. ******** ...and *my* link says that that's incorrect -- it was a teaching certification examination. |
I saw an example of a cert test, but not anything that said that the particular exam in question was a teacher's exam? I just thought that since this test was on the Kansas Historical Society website, then maybe they knew what this actually was... But hey, either way I could not enough of the questions to pass the test anyway... |
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