Q 01/05

'Prom' is short for what kind of dance?

A) Promotion

B) Promissory

C) Prominence

D) Promenade

Answer · why

D) Promenade

Prom is short for Promenade: a promenade was the ceremonial walk or parade of guests at a formal ball, and the word comes from the French promener, 't...

Q 02/05

An 1894 journal describes an Amherst student invited to an early prom at which women's college?

A) Vassar

B) Smith

C) Wellesley

D) Mount Holyoke

Answer · why

B) Smith

Smith College, the women's college near Amherst, is the destination in an 1894 Amherst student's journal describing an early prom; proms began at coll...

Q 03/05

What form did the typical high school prom take in the early 20th century?

A) A costume ball

B) A tea dance in Sunday best

C) A moonlit hayride

D) A formal banquet in a hotel

Answer · why

B) A tea dance in Sunday best

A tea dance in Sunday best was the early 20th-century high school prom: seniors wore their church clothes to an afternoon dance; by the 1920s and 30s ...

Q 04/05

Which First Daughter held her senior prom in the East Room of the White House in 1975?

A) Amy Carter

B) Tricia Nixon

C) Susan Ford

D) Chelsea Clinton

Answer · why

C) Susan Ford

Susan Ford, daughter of President Gerald Ford, held her Holton-Arms School senior prom in the East Room of the White House on May 31, 1975.

Q 05/05

What is the small bouquet a date traditionally gives a girl to wear on her dress or wrist?

A) A boutonnière

B) A nosegay

C) A posy

D) A corsage

Answer · why

D) A corsage

The word comes from the French bouquet de corsage, a bouquet worn on the bodice; the boy gets a matching flower for his lapel.