BTW most American’s, including Virginians, believe the Monitor fought the Merrimac. As it turns out the U.S.S. Merrimack, named after some Yankee river in Massachusetts, was a decommissioned Union ship that had been burned to the waterline by the Union when they retreated from Portsmouth. The burned derelict hull was raised, turned into an steam powered iron ram commissioned the C.S.S.Virginia. Folks around these parts are still pretty steamed about the whole affair. The C.S.S. Merrimac was a British built steamer side-wheeler captured by the U.S.S. Iroquois in a completely unrelated naval conflict years after the Monitor fought the Merrimac.
For some odd reason, my spell-check did not catch whales capitalized and tell me it should be Wales. How did the C.S.S.Virginia go up against one of these
in the first place? Of course people got steamed; they were steam ships.
Some of them loves the water.
Ironically, we Spragues tend to be dyslexic, so I had a devil of a time learning to spell my own last name. It is amazing how many ways I have heard it pronounced. When I was in high school, the computer printed class roster names in all capital letters and could not print Arabic numbers in the names. In order for the computer to print out my full name it printed IV RODERICK SPRAGUE, IV for the 4th. I had a substitute teacher who’s first language was French. She inevitably would read it out loud as “Eyev Roadrick Sproag” and get an embarrassed look on her face when she realized what she had done. She never lived that down.
I only managed 11/15. The embarassing error I did was the GB question - I thought UK I guess.
The biggest problem were those prime ministers, I’ve no idea which one was around when the NHS was established - to me it’s a strange question anyway, I doubt more than one in ten thousand of my own countrymen would know the answer to the equivalent question for my own country. And that’s probably too optimistic.
The non-minister questions were easier.. although the reason I knew the answer to some of them was because some years ago I read Neil Stephenson’s “Baroque Cycle”, and what I didn’t learn from the non-fictional part of that series I learned later - the books got me interested in everything about the period. So I feel familiar with everything that happened around Cromwell, Charles I etc.
-Tor
I got 11/15. Failed on when the English imposed English rule on Wales, who Cromwell defeated, which bunch of wrokers didn’t come here, and how many were killed in The Black Death. All of the others I was solidly sure of, so I’m not feeling too bad.
The thing about Great Britain - it’s easy to remember if you just remember that all it refers to is the geographical description. It’s the big island bit of The British Isles. That is all it means.
We’re nearly complementary.. I knew all of those, except the one about the workers. 
The thing about Great Britain - it’s easy to remember if you just remember that all it refers to is the geographical description. It’s the big island bit of The British Isles. That is all it means.
Exactly. But somehow my mind replaced what I saw with “UK”.. I’m trying to find ways to blame&punish my mind without blaming&punishing myself at the same time..
-Tor
Ah gwan! Take your punishment like a man!
[ Hi Mike: Even with your thoughtful spoiler alert, it’s still difficult for people not to see what you wrote and/or sort the spoilers from the rest. Your discussion of the questions is interesting. But since I’d like people to be able to take the quiz a while longer, I’ve expurgated your post for the moment. When this thread seems to have run its course, we can always put your unexpurgated original back. Thanks for understanding! - MTGuru/Mod ]
I got 11/15. Like many others I missed the English laws in Wales question. In fact, I’m still confused about that one. Without the multiple choices I would have said […]. If you can hang, draw and quarter a member of the Welsh Royal Family […] I think you have pretty well established your legal authority there. […] I think it could have been worded better.
As far as the percentage of people in the UK killed by the Black Plague, I think the figures are pretty imprecise.
[…]
All in all I feel a little like Apu from “The Simpsons” when he took his U.S. citizen’s test (apologies if I didn’t remember this verbatim).
Examiner: “What was the cause of the Civil War?”
Apu: “There were many causes. Some were economic. Some had to do with westward expansion into newly acquired territories. There were also issues of state’s rights…”
Examiner: “Just say ‘slavery’.”
Apu: “OK, slavery it is!”
I scored 9/15, but then again I don’t want to be a UK citizen. Half the questions were relevant mainly to England, I don’t believe your average person here in Scotland would be that well versed on our neighbours history.
12/15. And one of the ones I missed was a wrong click (I knew which King was defeated by Oliver Cromwell, drat it!). Amusing, since most of my knowledge of British history is from casual reading.
But I think it’s more that not everyone is interested in history. I find it interesting, so I pick things up. But when visiting Britain I was alternately surprised by the depth of some people’s knowledge of their local history . . . and the total lack of knowledge others cheerfully admitted. I always suspected the latter were playing fool-the-Yank, though.