Q 01/05

Which free online learning site grew out of maths lessons one man gave a cousin over the internet from 2004?

A) Khan Academy

B) Coursera

C) Udacity

D) Duolingo

Answer · why

A) Khan Academy

Khan Academy began in 2004 with Salman Khan tutoring a cousin in mathematics through Yahoo! Doodle Images, years before its videos reached millions.

Q 02/05

Which Soviet launch of 1957 spurred the US National Defense Education Act's push for science teaching?

A) Vostok 1

B) Luna 2

C) Sputnik

D) Explorer 1

Answer · why

C) Sputnik

Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, so alarmed Washington that Congress passed the act within a year, in 1958, to catch up in science and maths.

Q 03/05

Who became the youngest Nobel laureate in history at 17 in 2014, after campaigning for girls' schooling in Pakistan?

A) Nadia Murad

B) Kailash Satyarthi

C) Tawakkol Karman

D) Malala Yousafzai

Answer · why

D) Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai shared the 2014 Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi and became the first Pashtun to receive a Nobel.

Q 04/05

The English word 'school' descends from the Greek word scholē, which originally meant what?

A) Discipline

B) Leisure

C) Wisdom

D) Youth

Answer · why

B) Leisure

Leisure was the original sense of scholē: free time that Greeks spent on discussion and lectures, which later gave the word its schoolroom meaning.

Q 05/05

What does the 'Ph' in PhD stand for, even when the doctorate is in chemistry or economics?

A) Physics

B) Philology

C) Philosophy

D) Physiology

Answer · why

C) Philosophy

Philosophy here keeps its original Greek sense of 'love of wisdom', once covering every field outside theology, law and medicine.