TIME TO TEST your general knowledge skill against that of primary students. Do you know when the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed? What does the 'h' in 'http' stand for? How many cuts will divide a cake into eight pieces? Too hard? Perhaps you should read more or think harder. These are some of the questions that appeared in a contest for primary students - the 1st Hongkong Inter-schools Real Time Quiz on Net - which was jointly organised by the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, Hong Kong Education City, Hong Kong Primary Education Research Association and the Joint School Information Technology Association. The competition was run in 'real time', meaning participants had to access the Internet simultaneously to answer questions on a range of topics which included Chinese, English, mathematics, science, geography, and logic. With 93 schools taking part, the contest not only aimed to test students' abilities in language, information technology and common knowledge, but also encouraged students to use the Internet for self study. The final round of the competition - held earlier this week at the Hong Kong Science Museum - differed in that the 32 finalists used remote controls to choose their answers from a big screen instead of competing in cyberspace. Mathew Liu Pak-hong of S.K.H. Yuen Chen Maun Chen Primary School helped his team to the championship by beating St. Edward's Catholic Primary School in an elimination series. They held their breath when they drew for several rounds until they came across a question on English. 'Thanks to my dad for forgetting to return his book to the library, which reminded me of the answer to the last question - 'return' [instead of keep or take] the book on time,' Mathew said. 'It was an exciting game,' team members Willi Chan Cheuk-pan, Vivian Cheng Wan-sze and Jeff Chan Ho-yuen said. 'Questions involving computer knowledge are the hardest,' Amis Lau Chung-yi said. 'Maybe because we only have a 30-minute computer lesson every week.' To review the questions, visit www.jsit.net or www.smallcampus.net
