9 For 10 Back in High School Trivia Quiz

Answer: Executive

The simple way of describing the three branches of US government is that the Legislative branch makes the laws, the Executive branch enforces the laws, and the Judicial branch interprets the laws.

The legislature is filled with people who make up new laws or repeal old ones. They debate and modify, and eventually sign new bills into law.

The executive branch makes sure people are following the laws, and then enforces punishments for those who break the law.

The judiciary branch is where the courts and judges work. When laws seem to contradict each other, it's their job to come up with solutions.

Answer: DNA

In the 1940s and early 1950s, we still did not know much about how our own cells worked. Many scientists were focusing on proteins, which were obviously important and exciting. Not many were looking at DNA. They knew it existed in the cell, but it did not have any obvious function. Some scientists decided to focus on these more obscure molecules, which ended up being a lot more important than anyone realized. In the early 1950s, Francis Crick and James Watson, with help from Rosalind Franklin, pieced together the structure of DNA, and also realized that it was perfect for storing coded information. The secret of cell regulation and reproduction had finally been unlocked.

The discovery of the function of DNA energized the field of genetics, reinforced the theory of evolution, and opened entire new fields of study in biology and chemistry.

Answer: Understudy

Recorded media only ever shows the audience a single, best take of a performance. Theatre, on the other hand, has to be performed night after night. Any number of complications can arise between shows, and the theatre has to be prepared. Most major roles in stage performances have backups in case the main performer cannot go on stage. These are the understudies, who learn all the lines and choreography of the lead roles, but who only get to use their training in emergencies.

Most theatre performers start as understudies for more prominent actors. This way they can practice the lead roles in a professional setting, while the production can use the more experienced actors for the performance.

Answer: Calculus

Calculus deals with the rates of change. Math teachers like to teach in the abstract, but it has many practical uses. How much money you make per hour is a rate of change, and so is how much your hourly rate increases over time with raises. Using calculus is how you would combine these two rates to figure out how much money you will make over a long period of time.

Geometry is about studying shapes (this is where trigonometry lives). Most people think statistics is just probability, but it's actually about analysing data. Algebra is one of the largest and most difficult to define branches of mathematics. Most people think of algebra as "solving equations".

Answer: Aller

Learning how to properly conjugate verbs for all the pronouns is a big part of French (and many other languages). It becomes more complicated when learning all the different verb tenses. French does have rules for conjugation and tense, but it breaks those rules almost as often as following them.

The word "aller" (Ah-Lay) in French means "to go". Some pronouns use the normal endings, like "nous allons" (we go), but other forms don't anything like what you would expect, like "je vais" (I go).

Etre (Et-Truh) means "to be". Manger (Mon-Jay) means "to eat". Lire (Leer) means "to read".

Answer: Trombone

Wind instruments change their notes by changing the length of the tube that air vibrates in. Some instruments, like clarinets, use keys to close or open holes to change the length. Other instruments, like trumpets, use valves to add extra bits of pipe.

The trombone has the most beautifully simplistic solution: just have a big long sliding part to change the length of the tube.

In the music world, there are many jokes about trombones being too loud (often couched in truth). There is a reason why an orchestra may have lots of violins, violas, and cellos, but only two trombones. Two is usually more than enough.

Answer: Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton made many contributions to math and physics in the 1600s. He codified the three laws of motion, which changed the way we understand how the world works. His second law is associated with the famous F = ma equation, which is possibly the most famous physics equation after Einstein's E = mc^2.

Newton was so prolific and influential that in 1948 his name was adopted as the official unit of force. There is a fake story about Newton deriving inspiration for his work when an apple fell off a tree and hit him on the head. Coincidentally, an apple weighs about one Newton.

Answer: Othello

"Othello" is one of Shakespeare's famous tragedies. Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear were also tragedies. In Othello, like other tragedies, many characters acted on assumed conclusions in unfortunate ways, and most ended up sad, dead, or both.

Even hundreds of years later, the name Iago is still a synonym for traitor and schemer.

Answer: New Deal

Isolationism was a mindset in the United States that it should not intervene in foreign affairs (like world conflicts). Despite the sentiment, the US rarely kept to interests only within her borders, and often intervened in world politics. Most notable were the two world wars.

The New Deal was Franklin D Roosevelt's solution to the Great Depression (actually passed by Congress). It was a series of economic programs to create jobs, provide relief money, and to regulate banks and corporations to prevent the reckless behavior that led to the depression in the first place. The effectiveness of the New Deal's programs are still debated and controversial.

The Marshall Plan was an aid program set up after the Second World War to rebuild Europe. Instead of making the defeated nations suffer, as happened after the First World War, the victors instead decided to help rebuild the devastated nations of Europe, with new friendly governments. The plan was also used to curb the spread of Communism from the USSR.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a movement to end sanctioned discrimination by the US government. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law.

Answer: Education

There is debate about the exact role of the education system, and its effectiveness. Many people forget most of what they learned in high school, and never use it in their daily lives. On the other hand, we have records of times and places in which school was not compulsory, and can see the differences between the modern world and old one. At the very least, school teaches us how to communicate and think rationally. It provides a shared social experience that people of all age groups can remember and empathize with.

Ultimately, it seems an educated citizenry yields more successful societies, and this is why we all still get an education.