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Have dropdown menus use value of previous dropdown

I have a "master dropdown menu" that contains four options (English, Spanish, Russian, Other) as the question asks their primary language.
Below this master dropdown menu contains other questions that asks similar questions and contain the same options (English, Spanish, Russian, Other).
I am wondering if it's possible to have the other dropdown menu options have the same value selected based on the 'master dropdown menu' option. So if John Smith chooses English in the master dropdown menu, the other questions will automatically have English selected in the other dropdown menus, while also allowing John to change an Answer - he may choose Spanish for question 3. I'm hoping the solution uses JavaScript or jQuery, as PHP won't be an option.
<label>What is your primary language?</label>
<select name="question1">
<option></option>
<option value="english">English</option>
<option value="spanish">Spanish</option>
<option value="russian">Russian</option>
<option value="other">Other</option>
</select>
<label>Language your spouse speaks?</label>
<select name="question2">
<option></option>
<option value="english">English</option>
<option value="spanish">Spanish</option>
<option value="russian">Russian</option>
<option value="other">Other</option>
</select>
<label>Language your children speak?</label>
<select name="question3">
<option></option>
<option value="english">English</option>
<option value="spanish">Spanish</option>
<option value="russian">Russian</option>
<option value="other">Other</option>
</select>

When selecting the value in the master dropdown menu you can set the value to the other dropdowns via JavaScript.
document.querySelector('select[name="question1"]').addEventListener('change', function(event) {
document.querySelector('select[name="question2"]').value = event.target.value;
document.querySelector('select[name="question3"]').value = event.target.value;
});
really simple solution but should work
JSFiddle

You can do this in jQuery as follows, using nextAll() to populate the other select items:
$('select').on('change', function() {
$(this).nextAll('select').val($(this).val());
});
(Note that you probably want to add a class to your selects as the above will operate on ALL select elements on the page).

Below you are adding an EventListener to to trigger when the first item is changed and assigning its value to rest of the selectors. Please update var firstDD and reminingDD valriables based on your requirement. Or better use specific IDs for each seletor so that it would be easy to understand.
$( document ).ready(function() {
var firstDD = $("select:first-child");
var reminingDD = $("select:not(:first-child)");
console.log(reminingDD);
firstDD.change(function () {
$(reminingDD).val($(firstDD).val());
});
});

Angular - Need to add multiple place-holders to a select drop-down

Although this may not be the best UI implementation, I have a drop-down list with several elements that must be grouped using multiple placeholders (e.g. ----- group 1 -----). I'd like to make the place-holders un-selectable.
I found a solution for a single placeholder here:
How do I add an unselectable and customizable placeholder to a select box
but it doesn't seem to be extendable to multiple place-holders.
Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Not angular specific, but can you use select option groups?
<select>
<optgroup label="Swedish Cars">
<option value="volvo">Volvo</option>
<option value="saab">Saab</option>
</optgroup>
<optgroup label="German Cars">
<option value="mercedes">Mercedes</option>
<option value="audi">Audi</option>
</optgroup>
</select>
Check out http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_optgroup.asp and their demo at
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_optgroup

jQuery: find the <optgroup> for a selected value in a <select> element

I have a dropdown menu with different option groups. If someone selects an option, how can I check which optgroup it belongs to? For example if 'ferrari' were selected, how would you determine which optgroup it belongs to?
Feel free to use jQuery or raw javascript.
<select name="testSelect">
<optgroup label="fruits">
<option value="apples">Apples</option>
<option value="oranges">Oranges</option>
<option value="pears">Pears</option>
</optgroup>
<optgroup label="cars">
<option value="ford">ford</option>
<option value="toyota">toyota</option>
<option value="ferrari">ferrari</option>
</optgroup>
</select>

You can do this using jQuery:
$('select').change(function() {
var selected = $(':selected', this);
alert(selected.closest('optgroup').attr('label'));
});​
See a live example here: http://jsfiddle.net/jkeyes/zjLCp/1/
Update: Yes you could use parent http://jsfiddle.net/jkeyes/zjLCp/2/
alert(selected.parent().attr('label'));

Well, in pure js:
this.options[this.selectedIndex].parentNode.label
Not a single function call and less code to boot. :-)

Get the value of select jquery

<select id="my-select">
<option value="1">This is one</option>
<option value="2" selected>This is two</option>
...
</select>
Is there a way to get the text value of the selected option?
$('#my-select').val();
gives me 2, i want to get This is Two instead.
How?

What you want is
Get the selector for finding the selected option in the select box
Use .text() on the selector.
$('#my-select option:selected').text();
See a working demo

jQuery val() on HTML Select Text takes precedence over Value

Take the below HTML select for an example:
<select name="selValues" id="selValues">
<option value="1">One</option>
<option value="2">Two</option>
<option value="3">5</option>
<option value="4">3</option>
</select>
If we write the following jQuery statement:
$('#selValues').val('2'); // Two will get selected
$('#selValues').val('3'); // 3 will get selected instead of 5??
Why is it like that?

Use
$("#selValues option[value='3']").attr('selected', 'selected');
Also a good article on
jQuery - Select elements - tips and tricks

The val() method gets or sets the selected text. You may want to use selectedIndex instead:
$('#selValues').get(0).selectedIndex=2;

When selecting options jQuery looks first at the value then at the text of an option. It also goes through options in order. So, $('#selValues').val('3') selects options 3 first, but right after that changes selection to option 4 (as it has the text "3"). Use a multiple select to see that in fact both options are selected
<select name="selValues" id="selValues" multiple="multiple">
<option value="1">One</option>
<option value="2">Two</option>
<option value="3">5</option>
<option value="4">3</option>
</select>

As of JQuery 1.4 this has now been made unambiguous. It will now select by value, not by text value http://jquery14.com/day-01#backwards
If you do need to still select by value then a suggested method is here