Vocabulary quiz thing

[altivo]

Vocabulary Vixen! Congratulations! You got 17 correct answers!

You sexy thing! You probably own a book or two. You can communicate in complete thoughts and your knuckles don't drag while walking down the street. Now promise me you will use your word power for good not for evil.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 62% on wordpoints

Link: The BIG WORDS ARE SEXY Test written by MissMariah on Ok Cupid

Comments

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

Wow, you own a book or two!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Maybe more like a thousand or two. ;)

[cats-haven.livejournal.com]

Looks like there's two of us that know how to spell. *wink*

[bariki.livejournal.com]

It might have just been me, but weren't all of those words rather.. well, easy? Surely we've all been in a quandary at some point, or noted the day of the summer solstice? :P

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

Indeed - the introduction noted that the words were taken from "100 Words Every High School Freshman Should Know". (A high school freshman in America is generally 14 or 15 years old.)

I would have been more impressed if they had used some actual difficult words - "marmoreal" springs to mind.

[bariki.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. Or rather, I didn't see since I skipped the intro.

"Marmoreal" is a wonderful word.. always reminds me of Marmite, even though it is certainly not marble-like. >;)

I like the word "demotic", although seldom do I get to use it in everyday speech. Still, my use of that word is generally antiphrastic. :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a demotic sort of test in a way. I went back and took it again, lying about my age just to see the percentile. Unfortunately, OK Cupid won't score anyone under age 18. But 82% of 18-year-olds who have taken the test got less than perfect scores.

I agree that the words were only moderately difficult, but this quiz shows why Americans no longer rate as literate or well-educated.

Marmoreal? Isn't that a black and orange bird that comes to feeders baited with marmalade? ;)

[bariki.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought when I realised it didn't say Marmite.. but apparantly it isn't. :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The matutinal arboreal captures the lambent draconic. ;)

[bariki.livejournal.com]

Er.. yeah!

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

I was familiar with all the words, I'll stand by my score, and blame my carelessness.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, a vocabulary test with bad grammar in the test itself ...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice any bad grammar, but it did have the usual careless spelling errors. Spelling has become a lost art in this country.

[smrgol-t-kirin.livejournal.com]

17 correct?

There were only 16 words though ...

I'm puzzled. Did they grade the last question too?
("How many of thse words did you look up?")

Strange ...

[calydor.livejournal.com]

Got 11 right of the 16 words (not 17, the last one is a trick question). The rest I remembered seeing, but without context I was unsure of their precise meaning.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

For someone who isn't a native speaker, that's not at all bad. These are not difficult or obsolete words, though. We should get you reading a New York or London newspaper regularly and your score on this type of vocabulary will shoot right up.

Now Bariki's suggestions of 'marmoreal' and 'demotic' (both fairly exotic and uncommon these days but easily recognizable to literate people of a century ago) would prove much tougher for most Americans.