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Life Skills

Music

  1. In what order would you most likely learn how to play the following piano pieces:
    1. Ellmenreich's Spinning Song
    2. Bach's Goldberg Variations
    3. Khachaturian's Toccata
    4. Beethoven's Fur Elise
    5. Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag

  2. If you want to play a blues scale based on C, what notes would you play?

  3. What is the function of the rightmost pedal on a piano?

  4. What is a more common name for the pitch C4?

  5. When tuning a piano, to what pitch should A3 be tuned?

  6. How many strings are there on a violin, and what are their names?

  7. Draw a C-clef

Misc

  1. What is a roux, how do you make it, and where did it come from?

  2. Explain how you can take a fingerprint from a plate of glass using a pencil, Scotch tape, a brush, and an index card.

  3. A male thug, standing perpendicular to your right, is pointing a gun at your head. Explain how best to stun him and get away

  4. disarm him

  5. Describe a first-position plie.

  6. Not taking into account drunk driving or felony-level speeding, what driving infraction causes the most points on driving records in most states?

  7. You're driving down Route 2 from NY towards Florida MA one Friday morning. Explain what time(s) is the absolute worst to pass through Williamstown.

  8. You're driving down a largely empty, icy highway at a high speed, and hit a patch of black ice, causing you to skid across lanes. What do you do?

  9. Describe the grips for the following pitches: two-seam fastball

  10. slider

  11. three-finger change-up

  12. A C battery is how many volts?

Cooking

  1. How should you never, ever, defrost meats?

  2. How do you whip cream?

  3. How do you Knead Dough (and how to tell when it's done)

    Give the verbs used to describe the following processes-

  4. To brown meat quickly in fat and then cook in a covered pan for a long time with little liquid

  5. To cook by putting directly over heat, grill

  6. To cook by simmering for a short time in liquid

  7. To cook by dry heat, bake

  8. Cook or brown in a little fat over a hot fire

  9. Place quickly in boiling water, followed by ice cold water

  10. Cut almost all the way through, fan out sides and lay flat

  11. Melt sugars

  12. Combine 2 non-soluble ingredients by whisking quickly

  13. Cut into narrow long strips

  14. Cut repeatedly into tiny pieces

  15. Boil liquid until the volume is decreased by evaporation

House and Home

  1. How do you refinish a piece of furniture (using a polyurethane or other varnish)?

  2. How do you fill cracks in plaster?

  3. There's a white tape you might use when putting on a new showerhead, or in general when you're afraid pipes are going to leak. What is it called, and what is it made of?

  4. Once upon a time, lawns were mowed using old-fashioned power- muscle. What other major design difference made these lawnmowers cut lawns more nicely, on the whole, than most modern home lawnmowers?

  5. The lights in your front hall always burn out faster than any other lights; they tend to last for a month instead of a year. What should you do?

  6. What traditional type of fireplace is rather shallow, but very heat-efficient, and always has a draft?

UNIX

  1. OK, you want to become the superuser. Out of curiosity, what's the name of this superuser?

  2. How can you execute a single command as the superuser?

  3. How can you permanently become the superuser (that is, until you logout)?

  4. How can you do the same as 3, but start a clean session (i.e. no lingering environmental variables)?

  5. You want to edit the file, so you open an editor... oh no! You've accidentally entered vi! Quick, how do you get out?

  6. Phew, back at the console. Open emacs by typing, you guessed it, "emacs." What does emacs mean, anyhow?

  7. Give the emacs keybinding to open a file.

  8. Once you've typed a few lines, you'd like to see some color. What command will give your script syntax highlighting?

  9. Eh, this script stuff isn't all it's cracked up to be. Let's play some tetris.

  10. This tetris game sucks. How do you kill the tetris buffer?

  11. Exit emacs.

  12. Find out what shell you're using.

  13. Say you're using bash, and you accidentally type ":(){ :|:};:" (not including quotation marks). Why is this a Very Bad Idea - what does this command do, specifically?

  14. Say you've typed that command, and for some reason your computer is still accepting input. What command might you type to observe the current processes?

  15. Someone's created a file called "-rf" in your root directory. What is the right way to remove it? What is the wrong way to remove it, and what happens if you remove it the wrong way?

  16. OK, we're done with Unix for today. But you don't want to just type "logout" - you want to type "hihosilver" for a more personal touch. What bash feature allows you to do this?

Auto Mechanics

  1. Let's say you buy a car from 2001, that's just off-lease. You take it to a mechanic that's been recommended to you for the model, and they tell you you need a new Carburator. What's almost definitely wrong with this picture?

  2. What are the four-cycles in a four cycle engine?

  3. In a car engine, what creates the high-voltage electricity that's needed by the spark plug?

  4. What mechanical device selects which spark plug gets that jolt?

  5. List at least two things you can do wrong with jumper cables. At least one should be related to auto mechanics.

  6. You're in an old truck and can't find the brights on the dash. Where are they likely to be?

  7. John Delorian had a very unsuccessful company. Eventually, the solution was presented to him: drug running. This was a set-up, and he was busted. What corporate giant was rumored to be the architect of this plot?

  8. What does a blinking green traffic light mean in Ontario?

Camping

  1. You're camping, and have a supply of food you wish to keep away from bears. Conveniently, there is a large tree nearby. Describe how to keep the food safe.

  2. You're in the woods, and from another campsite you hear a whistle blown loudly three times. What does this mean?

  3. You're making a fire. The wind is blowing from the southwest. Which way should you theoretically be facing while making the fire?

  4. You're camping in the winter. What should you do with your boots before you go to sleep?

  5. On the Swiss Champ pocketknife, what is inside the corkscrew?

  6. Describe how you tie a bowline, using metaphors. If you mention rabbits, trees, or rabbit holes, you will lose points.

  7. Q: When you have a camping pack strapped correctly to your body, on what body part should most of the weight be supported?

  8. What do you put on if your feet are cold (besides boots)?

  9. You run into a black bear; what do you do?

  10. You run into a grizzly bear; what do you do?

  11. What should you do with your fuel on a cold winter night?

  12. Where and upon what should one urinate?

  13. Where is the best place to be in a lightning storm?

  14. According to the Wilderness Survival merit badge pamphlet, what, in order, are the seven priorities for wilderness survival?

  15. Why do you never set tents up in a row?

  16. Why do you never bring cotton into the backcountry?

  17. Why are wide-mouthed Nalgenes best for winter camping?

  18. What is unique about cooking at high altitudes?

  19. Where is the weight supposed to be concentrated in an external frame pack? Where is it supposed to be concentrated in an internal frame pack?

  20. Why do some hikers wear bells?

  21. What do the white, blue and yellow blazes seen in the Purple Valley indicate?