Are You Smarter Than a 60-Year-Old?

Tom Sightings

If you think you're smarter than your parents, go ahead, take this quiz. If you score nine or better, consider yourself smarter than the typical 60-year-old. If you don't know the answers to at least eight of the questions, perhaps you can still learn a few things from your elders.

1. A dirigible is:

a) a lighter than air aircraft

b) Australian kangaroo

c) name for the first atom bomb

d) archaic name for a golf club

2. Who ran against Harry Truman for president in 1948?

a) Nelson Rockefeller

b) Dwight Eisenhower

c) George Romney

d) Thomas Dewey

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3. George C. Scott played what famous World War II general?

a) George Patton

b) Erwin Rommel

c) Dwight Eisenhower

d) Omar Bradley

4. When did America abandon the gold standard of $35 to the ounce?

a) 1933

b) 1957

c) 1971

d) 1987

5. Who was the first James Bond in film?

a) Roger Moore

b) Pierce Brosnan

c) Sean Connery

d) Richard Burton

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6. The first U. S. man-in-space program was called:

a) Apollo

b) Mercury

c) Hal

d) Gemini

7. Chet Huntley and ______ Brinkley.

a) Bill

b) David

c) Christie

d) Alan

8. When did Saigon fall?

a) 1968

b) 1972

c) 1975

d) 1977

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9. What is a slide rule?

a) a mechanical tool to solve mathematical problems

b) the 11th commandment from the apocryphal Bible

c) a code of playground ethics from the 1950s

d) a short-cut for carrying over numbers in long division

10. Which of the following is not spam?

a) an unsolicited bulk email message

b) the subject of a famous Monty Python skit

c) a canned precooked pork product

d) the former name of Thailand

Answers: a, d, a, c, c, b, b, c, a, d

Tom Sightings is a former publishing executive who was eased into early retirement in his mid-50s. He lives in the New York area and blogs at Sightings at 60, where he covers health, finance, retirement, and other concerns of baby boomers who realize that somehow they have grown up.