To: WPHS Students
From: Les Roby---“The Coach”
Re: Academic Team TryoutsSeptember 11, 2014
Best activity in the history of WPHS!!
1307-321-2 record over 25 year span; placed 2nd nationally in our first year, top 15 in six other years, including a #4 ranking nationally in June of 2004, #3 in June of 2006, #5
in June of 2008 & #5 again in June of 2010! We have traveled to San Antonio, Washington DC, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago, Dallas and Malibu, Orlando---this year? maybe Chicago? who knows!!
If you know who Ken Jennings is (or better yet, Brad Rutter), if you love Jeopardy! and have lots of extra knowledge floating about in your noggin---this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Tryouts are a two-day affair at lunch in room B-222, Tuesday Sept. 16 and Wednesday Sept.17.
On the flip side are some sample questions from a meet. If you know 20% of this stuff you can be a star. Come and tryout.
Warm-Up Round
1. 5Variations exist among the individuals of a species. Charles Darwin said that in the struggle for existence, what happens to those organisms expressing variations best suited to a given environment?
Ans. They survive.
2. 10Directly above every spot on the earth, an imaginary curved line, called the celestial meridian, passes through the sky. The sun crosses every celestial meridian once each day. What do we call the period of time between the time the sun crosses the celestial meridian one day, until it crosses the same meridian the next day?
Ans. Solar day
3. 10Find the length of the diameter of a circle whose area is 25 pi meters squared.
Ans. 10 meters
4. 5In February 1945, Stalin promised President Roosevelt that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan exactly three months after the formal surrender of Germany -- and he kept that promise to the day. At what Allied conference was that promise made?
Ans. Yalta
5. 10“Into the fatal snare / The White Chief with yellow hair / And his three hundred men / Dashed headlong, sword in hand; / But of that gallant band / Not one returned again.” These lines are from Longfellow's poem “The Revenge of Rain-In-The-Face.” It refers to what Lieutenant Colonel of the Seventh Cavalry?
Ans. George Armstrong Custer
6. 10The sum of three numbers is 90, and their ratio is 2:3:5. What is the smallest of the three numbers?
Ans. 18
7. 5Native Americans call this valley “Tomesha,” meaning “the land where the ground is on fire.” Name this place in California.
Ans. Death Valley
8. 10On this team, Johnny Grabowski and Pat Collins split time at catcher, Mark Koenig was the shortstop, Joe Dugan was the third baseman, Bob Meusal and Earle Combs were outfielders, Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock were starting pitchers, and Tony Lazzeri was the second baseman. Including the year, name this team, whose “Murderers' Row” also featured Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.
Ans. The 1927 New York Yankees
9. 5Which African country is dependent on a supply of migrant workers from neighboring Lesotho and Mozambique to work the mines in the Witwatersrand district?
Ans. South Africa
10. 5In modern times, it originated as a way to teach geography -- kids put together cut-up maps. What are we talking about?
Ans. Jigsaw puzzles
11. 10Which term is used to refer to the legislative passage of a bill that the executive has vetoed?
Ans. Override
To: ______
If you have time, I would greatly appreciate your
Distribution to your ______classes of ______.
Thanks.
Les Roby