Could you pass this 8th Grade test from 1895? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

sfloriII · #1 02-13-2004, 07:38 PM

I received this via email today. Looks like public education actually was worth something.... long ago.

Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents
stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well,
check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th
grade in 1895? (LOOK CLOSELY... THAT'S EIGHTEEN NINETY
FIVE!)

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in
Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original
document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical
Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the
Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS -1895
********************************
Grammar (Time, one hour)
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 "lie," "play,"' 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 50cts/bushel, 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 the 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 metre?
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 acre,
the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a
Receipt.

********************************************
US. 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 the
Rebellion.
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) (WHAT IS THIS ANYHOW?)
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.' (HUH?)

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, sup.
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 and
indicate 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 wha! t use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa,
Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan
Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.

6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the
U.S.

7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the
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 the
inclination of the earth.

**********************************************

Notice that the exam took SIX HOURS to complete. Gives
the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole
new meaning, doesn't it?!

Botnst · #2 02-13-2004, 07:41 PM

Is that a European swallow or an african swallow?

dtf · #3 02-13-2004, 08:08 PM

WOW. I know #9 under geography!

jpb5151 · #4 02-13-2004, 08:24 PM

OK, I'd probably have to study for that one. But then again, they'd probably have to study for ours.

MS Fowler · #5 02-13-2004, 10:03 PM

It kind of gives some perspective when the educators tell us what a great job they are doing.
My dad "had only an eighth grade education." He worked as a construction superintendent, ofter doing his own surveying. He did the trig in his head. Surveyors today need knoe no more than which buttons to push on the data units. Yeah, dad only had a 8th grade education.

GRCBoca · #6 02-13-2004, 11:00 PM

Another perspective:

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.htm

mzsmbs · #7 02-14-2004, 12:34 AM

Quote:

5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.'
Name two exceptions under each rule.

Potatoe - except when talking to the children, in front of national media.

Wes Bender · #8 02-14-2004, 06:42 PM

If it takes a constipated mouse with rheumatism four days to walk around a tank thirty-seven and a half feet in diameter, how long will it take a spider with a cork leg to kick the seeds out of a dill pickle?

Hatterasguy · #9 02-14-2004, 08:21 PM

Simple, execpt for the english part, and Orthography what is that? It's like a sick form of english! School hasn't changed they still teach you a lot of crap. Is it just me or does number 9 in geography not make sense?

GRCBoca · #10 02-15-2004, 12:32 AM

Hatterasguy

Quote:

Simple, execpt for the english part, and Orthography what is that? It's like a sick form of english! School hasn't changed they still teach you a lot of crap. Is it just me or does number 9 in geography not make sense?

It's just you, but you're just a product of the modern education system! And if you own a Hatteras you are forgiven!

From "Water Science Basics web site from USGS" :

Follow a drip through the water cycle
You may be familiar with how water is always cycling around, through, and above the Earth, continually changing from liquid water to water vapor to ice. One way to envision the water cycle is to follow a drip of water around as it moves on its way. I could really begin this story anywhere along the cycle, but I think the ocean is the best place to start, since that is where most of Earth's water is.

If the drip wanted to stay in the ocean then it shouldn't have been sunbathing on the surface of the sea. The heat from the sun found the drip, warmed it, and evaporated it into water vapor. It rose (as tiny "dripettes") into the air and continued rising until strong winds aloft grabbed it and took it hundreds of miles until it was over land. There, warm updrafts coming from the heated land surface took the dripettes (now water vapor) up even higher, where the air is quite cold.

When the vapor got cold it changed back into it a liquid (the process is condensation). If it was cold enough, it would have turned into tiny ice crystals, such as those that make up cirrus clouds. The vapor condenses on tiny particles of dust, smoke, and salt crystals to become part of a cloud.

After a while our drip combined with other drips to form a bigger drop and fell to the earth as precipitation. Earth's gravity helped to pull it down to the surface. Once it starts falling there are many places for water drops to go. Maybe it would land on a leaf in a tree, in which case it would probably evaporate and begin its process of heading for the clouds again. If it misses a leaf there are still plenty of places to go.

The drop could land on a patch of dry dirt in a flat field. In this case it might sink into the ground to begin its journey down into an underground aquifer as ground water. The drop will continue moving (mainly downhill) as ground water, but the journey might end up taking tens of thousands of years until it finds its way back out of the ground . Then again, the drop could be pumped out of the ground via a water well and be sprayed on crops (where it will either evaporate, flow along the ground into a stream, or go back down into the ground). Or the well water containing the drop could end up in a baby's drinking bottle or be sent to wash a car or a dog. From these places, it is back again either into the air, down sewers into rivers and eventually into the ocean, or back into the ground.

But our drop may be a land-lover. Plenty of precipitation ends up staying on the earth's surface to become a component of surface water. If the drop lands in an urban area it might hit your house's roof, go down the gutter and your driveway to the curb. If a dog or squirrel doesn't lap it up it will run down the curb into a storm sewer and end up in a small creek. It is likely the creek will flow into a larger river and the drop will begin its journey back towards the ocean.

If no one interferes, the trip will be fast (speaking in "drip time") back to the ocean, or at least to a lake where evaporation could again take over. But, with 250+ million people here needing water for most everything, there is a good chance that our drop will get picked up and used before it gets back to the sea.

A lot of surface water is used for irrigation. Even more is used by power-production facilities to cool their electrical equipment. From there it might go into the cooling tower to be evaporated. Talk about a quick trip back into the atmosphere as water vapor -- this is it. But maybe a town pumped the drop out of the river and into a water tank. From here the drop could go on to help wash your dishes, fight a fire, water the tomatoes, or (shudder) flush your toilet. Maybe the local steel mill will grab the drop, or it might end up at a fancy restaurant mopping the floor. The possibilities are endless -- but it doesn't matter to the drip, because eventually it will get back into the environment. From there it will again continue its cycle into and then out of the clouds, this time maybe to end up in the water glass of the President of the United States.