Americans Get No Gold Stars for Current Events Answers

The test did not seem difficult. Anyone who keeps up with the news ought to know that Boris N. Yeltsin is president of Russia and Boutros Boutros-Ghali is secretary general of the United Nations, right?

But Americans failed badly, faring far worse than their neighbors and West European allies in a survey of eight countries released Tuesday by the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press.

As part of its survey of how the world regards newspaper and television news coverage, the center asked five current events questions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Britain, France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

The Germans did best. But the results offer a bleak picture of American knowledge of current events, as the center reported that an astounding 37% of Americans polled answered all five questions incorrectly.

Here are how some of the groups fared:

* 94% of Germans correctly named Yeltsin as Russia’s president. The right answer was given by 76% of Italians, 65% of Spaniards, 63% of British, 61% of the French, 59% of the Canadians, 50% of the Americans and 42% of the Mexicans.

* 58% of the Germans knew Boutros-Ghali is U.N. secretary general. The question was answered correctly by 43% of the Italians, 32% of the French, 26% of the Canadians, 22% of the British, 15% of the Spaniards, 14% of the Mexicans and 13% of the Americans.

* 79% of Germans knew that the Palestinians are the people with whom the Israelis recently reached a peace accord. The question was answered correctly by 60% of the French, 59% of the British, 56% of the Italians, 51% of the Canadians, 40% of the Americans, 29% of the Spaniards and 21% of the Mexicans.