Author Topic: U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title  (Read 610 times)

Trauma-san

U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« on: July 17, 2003, 11:36:45 PM »
U.S. bests Germany, France for world geography title
Thursday, July 17, 2003 Posted: 11:13 AM EDT (1513 GMT)

TAMPA, Florida (AP) -- Who says Americans are lousy at geography?

Three U.S. teenagers won the gold medal Wednesday in the National Geographic World Championship, beating teams from Germany and France to successfully defend the U.S. title in a contest held every two years.

The teenagers beat Germany in the finals by identifying Bahrain from a series of clues about the oil-producing nation and then naming Crete as the island where oranges, grapes and olives are grown and is associated with the worship of Zeus.

"It's kind of nerve wracking," said U.S. team member John Rice, 15, who is home schooled at his family's Maddock, North Dakota, wheat farm. "We took it one question at a time."

Dallas Simons, 13, of Nashville, Tennessee, and Alexander Smith, 15, of Burlington, North Carolina, were the other U.S. competitors. It's the fourth time the United States has won the competition since it was first held in 1993.

Eighteen countries from as far away as Singapore and Nigeria sent three-student teams to the two-day tournament at Busch Gardens. The United States, Germany and France advanced to the finals after beating the other countries in an elaborate, geography-based scavenger hunt through the amusement park Tuesday.

No formula for success
U.S. students become candidates for the team through a series of local, regional and national geography bees sponsored by National Geographic. Top finishers in the U.S. national championship are selected based on an essay.

Wednesday's questions, created by a team of National Geographic writers and teachers, were heavily based on the geography of Africa, southeast Asia and Pacific island nations. The competition specifically excluded questions about the finalists' home countries.

The students were asked to name cities marked on a map devoid of any names and locators, and find which lakes, rivers and islands were misplaced on other maps. In one round, animals including an African wildcat and a small boa constrictor were brought on stage and the competitors had to answer questions about the animals' natural habitat.

The U.S. team said there was no formula for preparing for the contest. They studied world almanacs, Internet geography sites and newspapers to boost their knowledge of places, people and events.

"If you're interested in it, you remember it," Simons said.


 

Don Seer

Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2003, 01:54:42 AM »
not a fair representation, they were groomed. :P

i'm assuming this is in response to past facetious rejoinders (lol) about americans being ridiculed on several tv programs for not knowing america wasnt the biggest land mass on the planet like pointing to europe/russia/china because 'thats the biggest one so it must be us' hehe
 

Don Jacob

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Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2003, 02:34:07 AM »
not a fair representation, they were groomed. :P

i'm assuming this is in response to past facetious rejoinders (lol) about americans being ridiculed on several tv programs for not knowing america wasnt the biggest land mass on the planet like pointing to europe/russia/china because 'thats the biggest one so it must be us' hehe

other than probably lil 3 year olds who don't know any better, i have never seen an american think Eurasia was america  ::)


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mauzip

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Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2003, 07:11:46 AM »
this can not be a representative contest. there is no way the average american is better in this :-\
 

Don Seer

Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2003, 07:14:06 AM »
not a fair representation, they were groomed. :P

i'm assuming this is in response to past facetious rejoinders (lol) about americans being ridiculed on several tv programs for not knowing america wasnt the biggest land mass on the planet like pointing to europe/russia/china because 'thats the biggest one so it must be us' hehe

other than probably lil 3 year olds who don't know any better, i have never seen an american think Eurasia was america  ::)

well it was on TV here.. they went out in the street and pulled random people over.. of course they could have pulled over 1000 people and say 5 that fucked up got shown.. haha
 

Trauma-san

Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2003, 09:30:03 AM »
Just stating the facts, gentlemen.  Can we put the stupid american posts behind us now?  Because I've got a million of these.  I'll keep em coming if you like...
 

Don Seer

Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2003, 09:36:14 AM »
oh please yes, we'd love to know how clever america really is!  ;D

i believe.. with a country so large you're bound to have a large amount of brainy people, so it would seem easier to find a person of a certain skill.. but.. the same also works in reverse.. you have a large number of stupid ones too.. and they make more noise ;)
 

Trauma-san

Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2003, 09:39:45 AM »
^^ EXXXXACTLY.  I'm glad you realize it.  Other people just go "oh, look how stupid this guy is that lives in america!!!" and assume it's representative of the entire country.  
 

pappy

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Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2003, 12:44:56 PM »
what about europeans,  some of which post on this board actually believed the jerry springer show was really.  an actually thought that is how americans really are.  yet every1 in america knows that show is staged with actors.  is it fair to say than europeans are stupid an guilible.
 

pappy

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Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2003, 12:46:09 PM »
*in anti-american mode*  those kids cheated some how they are on steroids.  drug test them now.  they had performance enhancing drugs like steroids
 

Maestro Minded

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Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #10 on: July 20, 2003, 01:12:31 AM »
^^ EXXXXACTLY.  I'm glad you realize it.  Other people just go "oh, look how stupid this guy is that lives in america!!!" and assume it's representative of the entire country.  
isnt it the way you're looking at islam?? ::)

a hypocrite is what you are
 

Maestro Minded

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Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #11 on: July 20, 2003, 01:16:03 AM »
*in anti-american mode*  those kids cheated some how they are on steroids.  drug test them now.  they had performance enhancing drugs like steroids

steroids dont affects the brain capacity, neither the intelligence or ability to collect and store information
 

Maestro Minded

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Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #12 on: July 20, 2003, 01:17:51 AM »
what about europeans,  some of which post on this board actually believed the jerry springer show was really.  an actually thought that is how americans really are.  yet every1 in america knows that show is staged with actors.  is it fair to say than europeans are stupid an guilible.

99% of the americans used to belive that wrestling was real
 

Don Jacob

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Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #13 on: July 20, 2003, 02:11:01 AM »
Quote
99% of the americans used to belive that wrestling was real

and 100% of the rest of the world thought it was real


Quote
steroids dont affects the brain capacity, neither the intelligence or ability to collect and store information

it's pretty obvious this dude was joking and mocking people like you, lol , only you would take such BS seriously

Quote
isnt it the way you're looking at islam??

a hypocrite is what you are


funny i havn't seen Trauma bash islam once in t his thread. also i havn't seen him bash islam OUTSIDE of this thread......you're the hypo here Ru-bash-a-lot paul.


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Don Jacob

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Re:U.S. Beats Germany, France, In World Geography Title
« Reply #14 on: July 20, 2003, 02:15:46 AM »
not a fair representation, they were groomed. :P

i'm assuming this is in response to past facetious rejoinders (lol) about americans being ridiculed on several tv programs for not knowing america wasnt the biggest land mass on the planet like pointing to europe/russia/china because 'thats the biggest one so it must be us' hehe

other than probably lil 3 year olds who don't know any better, i have never seen an american think Eurasia was america  ::)

well it was on TV here.. they went out in the street and pulled random people over.. of course they could have pulled over 1000 people and say 5 that fucked up got shown.. haha


yeah we have a game show like that here in the US called "street smarts" where they interview random people and test their knowledge of easy stuff. they went to europe once and had the theme of "since the rest of the world thinks we're dumb let's show how dumb the rest of the world is". they did a good job making the rest of the world look dumb, but like you said, they probably  interviewed a shit load of people before they came across an idiot.....and only the idiot made it on film. that's what i believe happened in both cases.


R.I.P.  To my Queen and Princess 07-05-09