These are the questions from the Wednesday, January 9th, Jeopardy! online test.  Anybody can take this test to try out for the TV show.   It is offered early each year, typically with 3 different versions on 3 consecutive nights… Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Although the powers-that-be at Jeopardy do not divulge much information about what the criteria are for selecting people to go on to the next stage of the competition, the common theory is that one must get at least 35 correct responses.  ( you have 15 seconds to type in each response; you do not have to answer in the form of a question, as opposed to the show itself; minor misspellings do not count against you)

I believe I got 39 correct — worst case only 37 (answers are given in the second half of this post).  There were a couple questions that caused some hot debate on the Jeopardy board as to what the correct answer would be.  So I think I did well enough to potentially get a call to the next step… keeping my fingers crossed!   I put Kansas City down as my choice of audition city… so I hope to be making a trip back there sometime in the next few months!

UPDATE as of APRIL 2013…    I put my ‘audition’ city down as Kansas City.  And on the Jeopardy! board there have been people saying that they  ‘got the call’ for the KC auditions.  And I have not received one .. so it’s looking like I’m going to have to try again next year!

1. U.S. PRESIDENTS

He preceded FDR as president
2. BOOKS IN THE NEWS
“All In” by Paula Broadwell is subtitled “The Education of” this man

3. WOMEN’S FIRSTS
In 1970 Antonia Novello got her M.D. from the U of Puerto Rico; in 1990 she became the first woman in this job

4. COUNTRY SINGERS
In 2012 this CMA co-host and hubby of Kimberly Williams had a hit with “Southern Comfort Zone”

5. ON THE MAP
It’s the biggest of the three countries on the Horn of Africa

6. IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
God told him to sacrifice his son Isaac

7. ZOOLOGY
This order includes gorillas, lemurs, and, oh yes, humans

8. POETRY
In “The Waste Land”, Eliot calls this “the cruellest month”

9. ARCHITECTURE
Balcony sections include the loge and this, from the Latin for “middle”

10. THE AGES OF MAN
In the prehistory of Europe, this “Age” known for its tools followed Stone and preceded Iron

11. ZODIAC RHYME TIME
A bullish group of singers

12. U.S. STATES
Administratively, this state uses parishes instead of counties

13. CABLE TV
Several families fight for control of Westeros on this HBO series

14. NEWSPAPERS
Now online-only, this Boston paper still runs one religious article each day

15. U.S. MUSEUMS
Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” is a highlight of the Art Institute of this city

16. BESTSELLING AUTHORS
“1st to Die” kicked off the “Women’s Murder Club” series by this man who rules the bestseller lists

17. THE ELEMENTS
Neon and other gases got this collective name because it was believed they could not form compounds

18. FOOD
Named for a German region, it’s a rich chocolate cake with a cream filling and cherries

19. 19TH CENTURY AMERICA
This service began operating between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California in 1860

20. BROADWAY MUSICALS
The logo for this show is its name with a a green witch on a broomstick over the “I”

21. SHAKESPEARE
She’s the wife of “Othello”

22. STATE SYMBOLS
This tree appears in the center of South Carolina’s flag

23. LET’S HAVE A “BALL”
To prevent someone from joining a group by voting against him

24. JAPAN
Though many U.S. military installations still remain, this prefecture was returned to Japan in 1972

25. PHILOSOPHY
In the “Ethics”, Spinoza wrote that “nature abhors” one of these

26. BEFORE & AFTER
Classic candy bar that became the second female Supreme Court justice

27. FOREIGN HOLIDAYS
It’s the palindromic name for the Vietnamese New Year

28. ART STYLES
This ornate style in 18th century art and design was a reaction against the weightier Baroque era

29. CHILDREN’S BOOKS
This 1947 Margaret Wise Brown book was among USA Today’s 100 top sellers of 2011

30. MEDICINE
A goiter is an enlargement of this gland

31. CELEBRITIES
In 2012 this “Hunger Games” star won new acclaim for her role in “Silver Linings Playbook”

32. 8-LETTER WORDS
Adjective for animals who live in trees

33. ON THE PHONE
It’s the “Store” you’d visit to get GarageBand or Keynote for your Apple iPhone

34. AUTHORESS! AUTHORESS!
2003’s “Blood Canticle” was another of her vampire novels

35. BRITISH KINGS
The eighth king of this name gave up his throne in 1936

36. THE LAW
It’s the formal charge issued by a grand jury saying there’s enough evidence to have a trial

37. NOT A STATE CAPITAL
It’s the seat of the University of Arizona

38. COMPOSERS
“The Emperor” and “Viennese Blood” are two of his 19th century waltzes

39. TRILOGIES
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is part of this timely trilogy

40. WINTER ACTIVITIES
Dude, I’m usually goofy footed but I went fakie & grabbed big air off the half-pipe in this sport invented in the ’60s

41. SKYWATCHERS
In the 1500s, this Polish astronomer came up with the idea that the earth moves

42. DOUBLE “E” WORDS
This adjective means polite & refined

43. SCIENCE FICTION
23 publishers rejected his book “Dune” before it became a bestseller

44. FOOTWEAR
Four-letter word for a low cut women’s shoe with a high heel

45. RECENT FILMS
The title of this film refers to James Bond’s family estate in Scotland

46. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
In 1781 he took command of the naval ship America

47. EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
This Balkan country’s name literally means “black mountain”

48. STOCK SYMBOLS
It makes perfect sense that these three letters are the stock symbol of the world’s largest package delivery company

49. THE EARTH AROUND US
Compressed, partially decomposed vegetation with about a 50% carbon content

50. ESSAYS
Her essay “A Room of One’s Own” argues that intellectual freedom requires financial freedom

 

 

ANSWERS  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  ANSWERS

1 Herbert Hoover
2 General David Petraeus
3 Surgeon General                    (my answer: president)
4 Brad Paisley                             (my answer: Clint Black)
5 possibly Somalia or Ethiopia, not sure   (my answer: Somalia  — Ethiopia is larger, and Wikipedia lists it as a Horn of Africa country — but so are Eritrea and Djibouti — so this is debatable)
6 Abraham
7 Primates
8 April
9 mezzanine
10 Bronze Age
11 taurus chorus
12 Louisiana
13 Game of Thrones                   (my answer:  Boardwalk Empire)
14 Christian Science Monitor
15 Chicago
16 James Patterson                      (my answer: John Grisham)
17 inert gases (not sure if noble gases is acceptable as well)     (my answer: inert.  I think they should accept either as correct)
18 black forest cake                       (my answer: Bavarian cream)
19 Pony Express
20 Wicked
21 Desdemona                                  (my answer: Miranda)
22 palmetto
23 blackball
24 Okinawa                                       (my answer:  Iwo Jima)
25 a vacuum
26 Baby Ruth Bader Ginsburg     (didn’t give an answer — kept thinking of Sandra Day O’Connor)
27 Tet
28 rococo
29 Goodnight Moon                           (didn’t give an answer –  didn’t have a guess)
30 thyroid
31 Jennifer Lawrence
32 arboreal
33 App Store
34 Anne Rice
35 Edward
36 indictment
37 Tucson
38 Johann Strauss
39 Millennium Trilogy                          (didn’t give an answer — I’ve read the first 2 books, but did not  remember the name of the trilogy… and now, seeing the answer, vaguely remember it, but don’t understand why it is called ‘millennium’)
40 snowboarding
41 Copernicus
42 genteel                                                        (my answer: discreet)
43 Frank Herbert
44 pump
45 Skyfall
46 John Paul Jones
47 Montenegro
48 UPS
49 peat
50 Virginia Woolf