美刊列美国人十大无知:太阳绕着地球转

　　According to the Newsweek of August 26, Americans (mistakenly) believe 10 things as follows:

　　Obama and Muslim

　　Recently Pew poll found that nearly one fifth of Americans (mistakenly) believe that President Obama is a Muslim. The portion of poll respondents who believe Obama is a Muslim has risen recently。

　　Evolution

　　To mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, Gallup thought it might be a good idea to poll Americans on their beliefs of the British naturalist's theory. But the results must have had Darwin spinning in his grave, since only 39 percent of Americans believed in the theory. The good news: only a quarter said they didn't believe it; the remaining portion either didn't have an opinion or didn't answer。

　　Witchcraft

　　It turns out that 21 percent of Americans believe there are real sorcerors, conjurers, and warlocks out there。

　　Death panels

　　On Facebook, Sarah Palin wrote in August 2009 that Obama would institute a "death panel" as part of health-care reform. Soon pundits and politicians were demagoguing the issue into common currency. Even in August 2010, one year after the initial burst and five months after health reform was signed into law, four in 10 Americans mistakenly believe it。

　　Saddam's WMDs

　　Even years after claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction or had links to the September 11 attacks had been debunked, not all Americans were convinced. In a June 2007 Newsweek poll, four years after the invasion of Iraq, 41 percent believed Saddam was involved in 9/11.

　　Heliocentrism

　　Didn't we clear this one up in the 16th century? Copernicus be damned, 20 percent of Americans were still sure in 1999 that the sun revolved around the Earth。

　　History of religion

　　If mutual understanding is the key to tolerance, we're in trouble. According to Newsweek's 2007 What You Need to Know poll, barely half of Americans were correctly able to state that Judaism was older than both Christianity and Islam。

　　Supreme Court vs. Seven Dwarfs

　　In a 2006 poll, more than three quarters of Americans could name at least two of the seven dwarfs, while not quite a quarter could name two members of the Supreme Court。

　　World geography

　　Lost? Don't ask an American. Sixty-three percent of young Americans can't find Iraq on a map, despite the ongoing U.S involvement there. Nine out of 10 can't find Afghanistan - even if you give them the advantage of a map limited to Asia。

　　Three Stooges vs. Three Branches

　　According to Zogby, the majority of Americans - three in four - can correctly identify Larry, Curly, and Moe as the Three Stooges. Only two out of five respondents, however, can correctly identify the executive, legislative, and judicial branches as the three wings of government。