I thought it might be fun to introduce this class through a game. You may not do so well, at the moment, but in a few months, though, you will l be able to comfortably answer all these questions. Here are the rules. Class is divided into groups of 4-6 people and each group is given a number. Members of each group introduce themselves. Each group has 20 minutes to discuss the questions below. We then ask Group 1 to answer question #1. If their answer is perfect and no one can add anything meaningful to it, they get 10 points. If Group 2 can add to that answer, Group 1 must share some of the 10 points with Group 1. Group 3 then gets a chance to add information and earn points too, and so on. We then move to the next topic and ask Group 2 to answer it and so on until we complete all topics or run out of time. Once your group has been selected, the answer must be given right away by any member(s) of the group, without additional preparation. Disputes are resolved with an encyclopedia. Only referee is class instructor.

1. What is your address in the universe?
2. What is the southern-most point of Earth? Where is it?
3. Name the world’s continents.
4. Name the continent(s) in which the following are located: Canada, Nicaragua, Sweden, Venezuela, Russia, China, India, Argentina, Nepal, Mexico, Australia, Chad, Italy, Nigeria, North Pole, Hawaii.
5. Explain what sunset is.
6. Why do we have four seasons?
7. Name and explain two key factors which determine the climate of a given area.
8. Why is the earth not as cold as the moon?
9. If I find myself in Ecuador or northern Brazil, and go west and west, in a straight line, where will I end up? Approximately how many kilometers (or miles) will I have traveled from my point of departure to point of arrival?
10. If I could go straight down into the earth, go through its center, and keep going, what distance will I need to cover to see sun and stars again? How can this distance be figured out, if you don’t know it off hand? Where will I end up?
11. What language(s) do they speak in Mexico? India? Brazil? New Zealand? Cuba? Canada? Switzerland? Egypt? Belgium?
12. What’s the highest point on Earth? Lowest point on Earth’s land surface?
13. Which body(s) of water lap(s) the shores of San Francisco? Buenos Aires? Athens? Hawaii? Michigan? Jerusalem?
14. What separates Asia from Europe? Africa from Asia? Africa from Europe?
15. Where are the Alps?
16. Great Britain is made up of which four ethnically distinct regions?
17. Name at least three Canadian provinces.
18. Officially, who is the Canadian head of state?
19. Where is German spoken?
20. Name three Slavic languages.
21. Rank the following languages in terms of their relatedness to Spanish: English, Chinese, Russian, French, Hindi.
22. Rank the following in terms of their relatedness to German: English, Swedish, Dutch, Arabic, Swahili.
23. Christianity to Judaism is like —— to Hinduism? Explain your answer.
24. For most of their existence, human beings were ——. What do we mean by this term? This was followed by ——, then by ——, and now we have the —— age.
25. How old is the solar system?
26. How do we call the type of climate that prevails in most of Brazil and Congo?
27. How do we call the type of climate Michigan has?
28. Why do astronauts in a spaceship float?
29. When and how did the USA become the richest and strongest country in the world?
30. How much bigger is the sun than the earth?
31. Where do you get temperatures of –2000 ° C (-3658 ° F)? +2000 ° C (+3632 ° F) or more?
32. The Mississippi to the USA is what the —— is to Brazil, the —— to Egypt, the —— to India, the —— to England.
33. Roughly 1 in 5 people on Earth lives in what country? 1 of 20?

Source:  Moti Nissani.  Permission for the free use and publication of this material is hereby granted.