Can You Pass This General Knowledge Quiz While Being Distracted by Adorable Puppies?

By: Beth Hendricks
Image: Fenne / E+ / Getty Images

About This Quiz

How much do you know about extreme weather, famous works of literature or popular culture? Now, how much do you think you'd remember if you were staring at pictures of snuggly, cuddly puppies? Don't you want to just kiss their squishy little faces? Wouldn't you love to just stash a little teacup Pomeranian in your pocket and take it everywhere you go?

Wait, sorry, where was I? Don't you think the popular game show "Jeopardy!," essentially a trivia contest, would be more challenging if the contestants had to pet a picture-perfect puppy while they were answering? (We do.) There's no question that man's best friend can be the world's cutest distraction — when you're cooking, when you're watching TV, even when you're trying to get ready for work! But, have you ever tried to concentrate on something important with "puppy dog eyes" pulling your attention away? It's tricky!

That's the premise of this quiz. We're presenting a series of general knowledge factoids to you here, while also challenging your attention span with some cute critters. Do you think you have what it takes to power through the cuteness and focus on the facts at hand? It's a battle between the "wits" and the "wags" in this quiz of random knowledge and rat terriers!

The 16th U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln, was credited with ending federal state-sanctioned slavery. His signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 deemed that all slaves "shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Of course, the reality of sharecropping, forced labor, Jim Crow laws and racist policing meant that de facto slavery and racist institutions continued, and many of those institutions remain in place today.

France gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States in recognition of the friendship between the two countries. Specifically, it celebrated the alliance the two countries enjoyed during the Revolutionary War.

Tennis features some interesting terms such as "ace," "deuce" and "love." An ace occurs when a ball served inside the field of play is untouched by an opponent. "Deuce" and "love" are terms used to explain the score.

The giraffe earns recognition as the world's tallest animal, with the record holder being more than 19 feet tall. Their height is useful both for snacking on tall trees and for seeing predators from a good distance away.

Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a project that took roughly four years. The "Creation of Adam" is the hallmark of the project, portraying God reaching out his hand to give life to Adam.

Every year, July 4 serves as a remembrance and celebration of the United States' independence — thus, July 4's designation as Independence Day. July 4, 1776, marks the day that the Declaration of Independence was accepted by the 13 colonies.

Superman is known for being super strong, but get this fictional material around him and Superman's powers are rendered useless. In the comics, the radiation that emanates from the green crystal causes weakness in the superhero.

A standard deck of cards has 52 individual cards, including four suits of 13 cards apiece. This includes an ace, numbered cards from 2 to 10, and four "royal" cards including a jack, queen and king.

Short on green paint? Mixing shades of blue and yellow will produce green. Both blue and yellow are primary colors. Mixed together, they can create the secondary color we known as green.

The pollination process that honey bees engage in is the reason we have foods such as apples, cucumbers and melons. A rapid decline in the bee population worldwide recently has many scientists concerned.

They may seem delicate, but the diamond is considered to be one of the hardest substances on the planet. This is caused by the close proximity of a diamond's molecules that form a rigid bond.

In his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy uttered the famous phrase used in this quiz. The famous quote came near the end of his brief speech, delivered the day he took office in January 1961.

H2O is the chemical formula that we more commonly know as water. Each molecule of water is made up of two hydrogen atoms (H2) and one oxygen atom, which is represented by the O in the equation.

The Bible begins with the Book of Genesis and its first verse, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The Bible frequently makes all-time "most read" and "most purchased" book lists.

Prince delivered the song "Purple Rain," on his 1984 album of the same name. It was Prince's sixth studio album, but the first to feature his band named "The Revolution." One month after its released, the movie "Purple Rain" hit theaters.

The word "Aloha" fills many needs in Hawaiian culture, being used as a term for both a greeting and a departure. Locals say the meaning of the word goes beyond "hello" and "goodbye" and actually means "love and peace."

The 10 Amendments of the Bill of Rights protects a variety of U.S. citizens' rights, with the First Amendment protecting freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition the government.

Florida earned its nickname as "The Sunshine State" for good reason. Its humid subtropical climate and roughly 700 miles of beaches make it a dream for those seeking out warm, sunny weather.

Renowned physicist Albert Einstein coined E=mc2, an equation to explain the interchangeability of energy and matter in the universe. This equation laid the groundwork for things such as nuclear power.

The Richter scale is used to measure the size of an earthquake. Ranging from one to 10, the scale was used to measure the largest earthquake ever recorded — a 9.5 — that occurred in Chile in 1960.

The study of weather and weather systems is known as the branch of science called meteorology. This is why people who deliver the weather on news broadcasts are called meteorologists.

"May the Force be with you" comes from the Star Wars movie series. It was first spoken in the film, "A New Hope," by General Dodonna, and has been used throughout the popular series ever since to indicate a wish of good luck.

The chief figure in mythology, Zeus is known as the "god of thunder" and is also considered the "king of the gods." Zeus is frequently depicted as throwing lightning bolts around to demonstrate his power.

Harper Lee is best known for her work, "To Kill A Mockingbird," which follows youngsters Scout and Jem during the Great Depression in the South. Lee's book "Go Set a Watchman" was published after her death.

There doesn't seem to be anything special about the phrase, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," but that's not the case. It is known as a pangram, a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet.

After her house falls on the Wicked Witch of the West in Munchkinland, Dorothy must navigate to the Emerald City, making friends along the way, to get help returning home to Kansas.

At the end of the 1997 blockbuster, "Titanic," the aging Rose tossed a necklace, dubbed "The Heart of the Ocean" into the sea. The 56-carat necklace bore a striking resemblance to the real Hope Diamond, valued at between $200 and $350 million.

The acronym "HOMES" is a great way to remember the five Great Lakes, the largest freshwater supply on the planet. HOMES stands for the lakes named Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.

The Cinderella Castle stands as the focal point of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and is used in the brand's overall marketing. Appropriately, the castle is surrounded by a moat and boasts 16 million exterior lights.

Our eyeballs are as large as they will ever get on the day we are born into this world. Though the rest of our body changes and grows, our eyeballs remain the same size throughout our lives.

Sunscreen contains SPF, or Sun Protection Factor, to safeguard your skin from the sun's ultraviolet rays when you're outdoors. SPFs in these products can range from next to nothing to well over 100.

Water, water everywhere! The Earth is a wet place overall, with roughly 71% of it covered by water. The United States Geological Survey asserts that nearly 97% of that water exists in our oceans.

A typical elephant's pregnancy lasts up to 22 months, producing a newborn that can tip the scale at 200 pounds and three feet tall. The largest land animals on Earth "go big" where anything is concerned!

New York City is home to the baseball team known as the Yankees, frequently nicknamed "The Pinstripers" or "The Bronx Bombers." They are the owners of 27 World Series titles from 1923 to 2009.

If kept sealed and stored under normal conditions, honey will never go bad. The acidity of the product combined with its lack of water and the presence of carbon dioxide make this product a seemingly eternal shelf survivor.

It's true that the standard playing field is 100 yards long from goal line to goal line, but with each end zone accounting for an additional 10 yards, that brings the length of the entire field to 120 yards.

A traditional Japanese haiku always follows the same structure: Three lines of content that follow a 5-7-5 format. The first and third lines have five syllables, while the second line has seven. Together, they have 17 total syllables.

Mark Twain's work, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," is believed to be the first novel written on a typewriter. Published in 1876, the book tells the story of a young boy growing up in a small town.

Only 10 percent of the world's population is believed to be left-handed, which makes them a rarity indeed. There's still plenty of support for them, however, with Left Handers Clubs and their own Left Handers Day in August.

The most commonly spoken language in the world is Chinese, likely due to China's designation as the most populated country in the world. Experts believe there are roughly 1.2 billion native speakers of the language.

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