1

General
Knowledge
&
QUIZ
BOOK
by
 2

Copyright

The author asserts his moral right over the ownership of this book. No part of
the book may be printed, copied, Xeroxed, quoted, or otherwise reproduced
without the express written permission of the author.

“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural
curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.”
~ Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)

This book is for

 3

My Timeless Muse
Enigmatic…Enchanting…Eternal

“In everyone's life, at some time, our

inner fire goes out. It is then burst into
flame by an encounter with another human
being. We should all be thankful for those
people who rekindle the inner spirit.”

-Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (1875-1965)

CONTENTS
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PREFACE
WARM-UP ROUND
FREE FOR ALL
THE ADVENTURER’S QUIZ
THE RANDOM QUIZ
FOLLOW THAT DREAM!
THE CONNOISEUR’S QUIZ – PART 1
THE CONNOISEUR’S QUIZ – PART 1I

AMAZING FACTS
Facts concerning Just about Anything at All
Facts about Art and Architecture
Facts about Books and Literature
Facts about Geography
Facts about Space & the Universe
Facts about Cuisine & Chocolate ~ Chocolate Timeline
Facts about Bananas…and why they are good for you!

Facts about Coffee

Facts about Entertainment

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Facts about The English language & Word Origins

Facts about Minerals and Science

Facts about Plants and Biology
Facts about History and Historical Events
Facts about The Human Body
Facts about Products, Advertising, and Inventions
Facts about Animals

Facts about Cuisine: Food, food origins, beverages, and recipes

Facts about Postage Stamps

Facts about Trees

PREFACE

This General Knowledge and Quiz Book conforms to the current

global trend of quiz and GK questions. The old system of structured
 6

presentation, and focus on highly predictable topics such as Indian

government, geography, prizes and awards, United Nations, the state
of Indian sports and medal-winning athletes, is on its way out. Fast
replacing it is a far more heterogeneous mix that seeks to gauge the
extent of knowledge that an examinee has accumulated over the
entire span of his educational career.

In fact, the new trend tests the depth and breadth of an examinee’s
personal knowledge bank. It challenges him to draw upon the entire
hoard of information, syllabus-based or stemming from general
reading, that he has saved…and gauges how much of it he has
understood and retained. The trend-setting 2007 - 2008 UPSC GK
paper was of just such a nature…a clear indication as to which way the
breeze is blowing. The ‘new’ trend rewards general reading. Anything
which involves memorizing ‘solved papers’ or ‘mugging’ standard
guide books on the subject, is now a recipe for disaster.

Thus, the mix of questions that an examinee can now expect is

unpredictable. But lurking within this uncertainty is the assurance that
if a student widens his mental horizons – if he consciously pursues
topics that were earlier thought to be off the beaten path – he is likely
to score higher marks in GK examinations. Long ago, there was a
brigand called Procrustes who waylaid his victims and bore them off to
his lair, where he bound them to a bedstead. If a man was too short to
fit it neatly, he stretched him with the help of a rack. For those who
were too tall to fit, Procrustes simply trimmed the captive’s legs. Either
way, the poor man was out of luck.

Happily, this book is not a Procrustean instrument of torture, being

far removed from the common herd of General Knowledge books with
their tiresome stress on current events, political systems and winners
of national or international awards. It is a bouquet whose fragrance will
inspire the reader to reach out to knowledge under every category.

Plundered at random from the limitless array of gems that life has
on offer, the contents of this book can challenge you to leave your
comfort zone ― always a good way to access the high road to
achievement.

— Subroto Mukerji

WARM-UP ROUND
This is a warm-up round, to give you a chance to limber up for the trials (and tribulations)
ahead! As the gladiators said in the arena, before combat, morituri salutamus …
 7

1. Which country is the oldest surviving republic in the world?

A) France
B) Greece
C) San Marino
D) Switzerland

2. Which of the following nations is the largest in terms of area?

A) Canada
B) China
C) Russia
D) The USA

3. How many bytes are there in a kilobyte?

A) 1,000
B) 1,024
C) 1,080
D) It depends on your computer's operating system

4. What is the southernmost U.S. state?

A) Florida
B) Hawaii
C) Puerto Rico
D) Texas

5. When was Canada founded?

A) 1783
B) 1812
C) 1867
D) 1918

6. In which ocean is the island of St. Helena, site of Napoleon's final imprisonment?
A) Arctic
B) Atlantic
C) Indian
D) Pacific

7. Which of the following is true of all animals?

A) They eat other living things
B) They are less intelligent than humans
C) They are mobile
D) All of the above

8. Many countries have eccentric leaders, but the president of North Korea is probably
the strangest of all. Oddly enough, he:
A) Is dead
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B) Believes he is a parrot
C) Owns a herd of specially bred pygmy elephants
D) Is a chimpanzee

9. Which of the following is an official language of at least one modern nation?

A) Basque
B) Latin
C) Navajo
D) Taiwanese

10. Which of the following is most closely related evolutionarily to the primitive "living
fossil" fish known as the coelacanth?
A) Hagfish
B) Shark
C) Tuna
D) You

11. If your geographical position was 0° latitude, 0° longitude, where on earth would you
be?
A) At the Greenwich Observatory in England
B) In the Atlantic Ocean
C) In the West African country of Ghana
D) At the center of the Earth

12. The four Marx brothers, Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo, made a legendary series
of movie comedies from 1929 to 1950. What was Groucho's real first name?
A) Arthur
B) Herbert
C) Julius
D) Leonard

13. In which of the following pairs of words can both words refer to the same object?
A) Boot, trunk
B) Clog, drain
C) Shoe, thimble
D) Slipper, pencil

14. Alekhine, Capablanca and Tal are:

A) Past world chess champions
B) Resort towns on the Black Sea
C) Brands of Russian chewing gum
D) Spanish nature poets, known as "The Triumvirate"

15. The Roman general Publius Quinctilius Varus (d. 9 AD) served during the reign of
the emperor Augustus Caesar. His main claim to fame was:
A) Establishing the first Roman settlement in Britain
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B) Imposing order upon the quarrelsome tribes of Gaul

C) Suffering a catastrophic defeat in the forests of Germany
D) Marching against Rome in an attempted revolt

16. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman achieved "fifteen minutes of fame" in 1989 for:
A) A political scandal
B) A military fiasco
C) A business failure
D) A scientific error

17. Dot TV: Every country in the world has been assigned a two-letter Internet domain
name such as ".uk" for the United Kingdom, “.in” for India and ".ch" for Switzerland.
Which lucky country has the domain name ".tv"?
A) Liechtenstein
B) Terra Verde
C) The Vatican
D) Tuvalu

18. Whose was "the face that launched a thousand ships"?

A) Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt
B) Helen of Troy
C) Joan of Arc
D) Queen Elizabeth I of England

19. The "fo'csle" on a square-rigged sailing ship was:

A) A small lever for focusing the ship's telescope
B) The "forecourse sail" - a large sail on the foremast
C) The "forecastle" - a raised deck near the bow
D) The "forward console" - a piloting station at the bow, used in fog

20. Each year, southern France is buffeted by a strong wind called the mistral. The
mistral is:
A) A cold wind from the north
B) A hot wind from the south
C) A dry wind from the east
D) A moist wind from the west

21. Which of the following was Anne Hathaway?

A) The daughter of Sir Walter Raleigh
B) The mother of Oliver Cromwell
C) The sister of Sir Isaac Newton
D) The wife of William Shakespeare

22. The sounds we hear are transmitted from the outer to the inner ear by three small,
distinctively-shaped bones called the malleus, the incus and the stapes. In English, these
are:
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A) The bell, the horn and the lyre

B) The ring, the shield and the spoon
C) The hammer, the anvil and the stirrup
D) The hook, the fish and the snail

23. If the symbol of your profession is a "caduceus", you are a:

A) Dentist
B) Detective
C) Doctor
D) Dog trainer

24. The 18th century French intellectual Jean François-Marie Arouet is better known by
his assumed name, which was:
A) King Louis XIV
B) Diderot, the encyclopedist
C) Laplace, the physicist and mathematician
D) Voltaire, the philosophe

25. Who was Edwin Drood?

A) The title character of an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens
B) The hero of H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines
C) The author of such eerie tales as The Monkey's Paw
D) The real-life person on whom Sherlock Holmes was based

26. Of the 206 bones in the human body, how many are in the hands and feet (wrists and
ankles included)?
A) 40
B) 62
C) 84
D) 106

27. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's celebrated long poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
begins with the words, "It is an Ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three". Three
what?
A) Doctors hastening to a medical emergency
B) Guests on their way to a nearby wedding
C) Noblemen going to the House of Lords
D) Young sailors returning to their ship

28. If antimony isn’t the antithesis of matrimony, then what is it?

A) A contradiction between two conclusions, each reasonable on its own
B) Ill-feeling or quarrelsomeness
C) The belief that all wealth should be eliminated
D) A brittle silvery-white metal
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29. What are fardels? In the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's
Hamlet, the suicidally depressed Hamlet asks himself, "Who would fardels bear?" What
on earth are fardels?
A) Bundles or burdens
B) Children
C) Insults, mockery
D) Arms and armour

30. In case you like horses, where would you hope to find Mare Imbrium?
A) In the Pacific Ocean
B) On the Moon
C) In a stable in Austria
D) In C.S. Lewis' imaginary land of Narnia

31. Four of a kind or four of a hind? The atabal, the bocu, the darabuka and the rebolo
are all types of:
A) Antelope
B) Bean
C) Ceremonial head-dress
D) Drum

32. The year 1685 was unusually productive of great composers. Which of the following
luminaries was not born in that year?
A) Johann Sebastian Bach
B) George Frederick Handel
C) Domenico Scarlatti
D) Georg Philipp Telemann

33. Augustus Caesar, the first of the Roman emperors, was born in September in 63 B.C.,
and died in August (which was named for him) in 14 A.D. How old was he?
A) 75
B) 76
C) 77
D) Impossible to say

34. What is a killdeer? Is the Deerslayer back?

A) A bird of the Americas
B) A jacket worn by deer hunters
C) A rock used as a boat anchor
D) A theatrical critic

35. Melody d’amour it isn’t. What exactly is a threnody, then?

A) Majestic, like a march
B) Merry, like a jig
C) Monotonous, like a chant
D) Mournful, like a dirge
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36. All that jazz…which great jazz musician had the nickname "Satchmo"?
A) Art Tatum
B) Django Reinhardt
C) Louis Armstrong
D) Miles Davis

37. Without any Rhyme or reason. The words "Hickory, dickory, dock" from the well-
known nursery rhyme are probably:
A) Amusing nonsense words chosen to fit the song
B) Derived from Celtic words meaning "eight, nine, ten"
C) A reference to Henry Dickers, an Elizabethan church official
D) From the Latin "Hic dictat dux" (roughly, "The boss speaks here")

38. The same old faces (sigh). A "regular convex polyhedron" is a solid shape in which
all the faces are identical regular polygons such as a square or an equilateral triangle. The
most familiar example is a cube, which has six identical square faces. The number of
possible different shapes is limited; in fact, there are exactly:
A) 2
B) 5
C) 12
D) 360

39. How high is your dudgeon? If you are "in high dudgeon", you are:
A) Chained up high on a cliff-side
B) Convinced of your moral superiority
C) Extremely angry
D) Full of good cheer

40. Writing a wrong? In this list of satirical novels and their authors, one entry is
incorrect. Which one?
A) Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
B) The Loved One, by Auberon Waugh
C) Animal Farm, by George Orwell
D) Giles Goat-Boy, by John Barth

41. Giants of yesteryear. Possibly the largest land mammal that ever lived,
Indricotherium, is most closely related to which of these mammals of today?
A) The elephant
B) The hippopotamus
C) The moose
D) The rhinoceros

42. Speed of light. The "Mach numbers" that are often used to measure aircraft speeds are
based on the speed of sound. Mach 2 is double the speed of sound, Mach 3 is treble the
speed of sound, and so on. At about what Mach number does light travel?
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A) Mach 90
B) Mach 9,000
C) Mach 900,000
D) Mach 90,000,000

43. Sphere of influence…in 1959, physicist Freeman Dyson described a concept that
came to be known as a "Dyson Sphere". A Dyson Sphere is:
A) The minimum volume needed to contain all living things
B) A personal vehicle for interstellar travel
C) The region of influence of an interstellar empire
D) A rigid hollow sphere completely enclosing a star

44. But…but…what is a sackbut?

A) A barrel of wine
B) A medieval musical instrument
C) A non-aggression pact between neighboring cities
D) A slothful person

45. Numbered among the greats of literature, Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in
Wonderland, was actually the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an Oxford University
lecturer…in what field?
A) Mathematics
B) The psychology of dreams
C) Religious studies
D) Theoretical physics

46. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was the author of masterpieces like Lord Jim, Nostromo
and Heart of Darkness. Surprisingly, Conrad:
A) Could only write fluently while at sea
B) Dedicated all his works to his mother
C) Had 12 children, of whom 10 were successful writers
D) Knew no English before the age of 21

47. Three of a kind…a dromond, a xebec and a proa are all types of:
A) Headgear
B) Cattle dog
C) Sea-going vessel
D) Wind instrument

48. Just a bunch of words...which of the following is NOT a valid English word:
A) Skat
B) Skaw
C) Skeg
D) Skep

49. Which is the third largest planet in the Solar System?

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A) Jupiter
B) Neptune
C) Saturn
D) Uranus

50. Knights and ladies

In the days of chivalry, when a knight referred to his "destrier" and a lady to her
"palfrey", they were both talking about their:
A) Dog
B) Hawk
C) Horse
D) Uncle or aunt

51. The Sound of Music. Note durations in musical notation can be named according to
the North American system (whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, etc.) or the older
British system (semibreves, minims, crotchets, etc.). What is the equivalent British name
for the North American thirty-second note?
A) Quaver
B) Semiquaver
C) Demisemiquaver
D) Hemidemisemiquaver

52. Biology, anyone? William Harvey, a 17th century English scientist, made an important
contribution to biology with his:
A) Explanation of the circulatory system
B) Invention of the microscope
C) Research on vaccination to immunize against disease
D) Study of the electrical nature of nerve impulses

53. Where the river is winding, big nuggets they’re finding…Whitehorse, the capital of
Canada's Yukon Territory, was founded late in the 19th century. The town derives its
name from:
A) A brand of whisky
B) A native legend
C) A railroad engineer's favourite stallion
D) The white foam of the rapids in the Yukon River

54. Monumental discovery…the 19th century French archeologist Jean-François

Champollion (1790-1832) is most famous for his discovery of:
A) The answer to the "riddle of the Sphinx"
B) How to decipher ancient Egyptian inscriptions – hieroglyphics
C) The techniques used to prepare mummies
D) The tomb of Tutankhamen

55. Three novel characters in search of a book? Which classic adventure book includes
among its characters Ben Gunn, Israel Hands and Dr. Livesey?
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A) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

B) Prester John by John Buchan
C) She by Sir Henry Rider Haggard
D) Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

56. Voice from beyond…starting in the late 1880s, European representatives of Thomas
Alva Edison recorded the voices of famous people to publicize the newly invented
phonograph. Not long after, one of the people recorded on Edison's machine became the
first person ever whose voice was heard after his death. He was:
A) Johannes Brahms, composer
B) Robert Browning, poet
C) Sir Arthur Sullivan, composer
D) Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet

57. What manner of dragon was this? In Arthurian legend, who was Uther Pendragon?
A) The father of King Arthur
B) A giant slain by Sir Gawain
C) The guardian of the Holy Grail
D) The husband of Morgana le Fay

58. Instant imagery? In Polaroid photography, which was introduced in the early 1960s, a
photograph is processed into a finished print almost immediately after the picture is
taken. The inventor of Polaroid photography was:
A) Francis Crick
B) George Eastman
C) Dr. Edwin Land
D) Walter Polarius

59. What do they study? A zoologist studies animal life in general, but a cryptozoologist
focuses on:
A) Animals that have been extinct for at least one million years
B) Animals that inhabit graveyards
C) Animals whose behavior is exceptionally puzzling
D) Animals whose existence has not been scientifically verified

60. Is it a game at all? The Irish play an ancient team sport, somewhat similar to field
hockey, called:
A) Field polo
B) Hurling
C) Lacrosse
D) Pelota

61. Whose steed was it? Which great military leader rode a horse named Bucephalus?
A) Alexander the Great
B) Charlemagne
C) Julius Caesar
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D) Richard the Lionhearted

62. Three of a kind, the bongo, the nyala and the sitatunga are all types of:
A) Antelope
B) Grass hut
C) Hand-drum
D) Sumo wrestling hold

63. One more sin? One sin on the traditional list of "seven deadly sins" is known in Latin
as accidia, from which we have the old-fashioned English word accidie. Today, the
deadly sin of accidie is more usually known as:
A) Envy
B) Gluttony
C) Pride
D) Sloth

64. Consult the consul…In ancient Rome there were at any time two consuls, or chief
magistrates. These very important officials were elected annually. The consul Incitatus,
who served under the emperor Caligula, was unusual in that he was:
A) A child of six
B) A figment of Caligula's imagination
C) A horse
D) A Saxon prince

65. Food for worms? Most commercial silk fibre is produced by silkworms, a kind of
caterpillar native to China. The silkworm is a fussy eater; in fact, it dines on nothing but:
A) Bamboo shoots
B) Eucalyptus bark
C) Mulberry leaves
D) Orchid nectar

66. Early Man…er…Woman: In recent decades, scientists working in eastern Africa

have made numerous discoveries. One important site is Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania,
where scientists Louis and Mary Leakey found:
A) The first complete pterodactyl skeleton
B) Stone implements similar to those used by North American natives
C) Proto-human fossils, the oldest being that of a female they named ‘Lucy’.
D) A buried city, almost perfectly preserved

67. Written and illustrated by...which of the following famous children's books was
illustrated by the author?
A) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
B) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
C) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
D) Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
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68. What a disaster! Which major disaster occurred in London, England in 1666?
A) A devastating outbreak of the bubonic plague began
B) An earthquake caused severe damage to Buckingham Palace
C) A fire destroyed most of the city
D) A French agent assassinated the prime minister

69. Theoretically speaking, Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828), a German physician, became
famous for devising a highly influential theory, although it has few followers today. He
believed:
A) That one's health is controlled by four fluids called "humors"
B) That personality and abilities are revealed by the shape of one's head
C) That wealthy people are in most cases innately superior to poor people
D) That most diseases could be cured by expertly applied electric shocks

70. In search of the absolute? What temperature is ‘Absolute Zero’, on the centigrade
scale?
A) Minus (–) 273 degrees C
B) There is no such thing as ‘Absolute zero’
C) It is 220 degrees below the freezing point of water
D) 333 degrees below the temperature when frost becomes visible

71. Long in the tooth? In 1991, a fossilized tooth belonging to a prehistoric relative of the
platypus was discovered in the region known as Patagonia. Just where is Patagonia?
A) Between Borneo and New Guinea
B) In Australia's Northern Territory
C) In New Zealand
D) In South America

72. Who were they?

Who were Gargantua and Pantagruel?
A) The children of Odin in Norse mythology
B) Greyhounds belonging to Queen Elizabeth I
C) Characters in a classic French novel
D) A husband and wife team of circus performers

73. Boyle, Goyle, Hoyle and Gargoyle? The expression "according to Hoyle" means
"according to the official rules". Who or what was Hoyle?
A) The Hoyle Sports Club in London, England
B) A renowned poker expert in the American wild west
C) A pseudonym used by Britain's King George IV when gambling
D) An 18th century writer on games

74. It’s that word ‘argent’ again…You know it means ‘silver’, don’t you? The world's
leading producer of silver is a country in the Americas. Which one?
A) Argentina
B) Canada
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C) Mexico
D) Peru

75. Find the schwa (by the way, what is a schwa?). Only one of the following words has
the sound called a schwa. Which is it?
A) Boiling
B) Sandwich
C) Scented
D) Vacuum

76. Who were the Mughals? Nowadays we often use the term mogul to mean an
important person – particularly in business, and perhaps above all in Hollywood, famous
for its movie moguls. But the original Mughals were:
A) Emperors of India
B) Fictional kings in the Tales of Baron von Munchausen
C) Barbarian marauders from Central Asia
D) Wealthy land-owners of Babylon and Ur

77. The ultimate nag? Where would you find the kingdom of Brobdingnag?
A) In Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
B) In the Bible
C) In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
D) In medieval Germany

78. Where is the corpus callosum located?

A) Behind the heart, but visible only after death
B) In one's head
C) On one's hands and feet
D) Within each cell of the body

79. Any relation of Tony’s? What was the pseudonym of the famous British writer Eric
Arthur Blair?
A) E.M. Forster
B) George Orwell
C) Graham Greene
D) Saki

80. The original heel? In the famous Greek epic The Iliad, by Homer, the otherwise
invulnerable Achilles was killed during the Trojan War by an arrow that struck him in the
heel….the only spot where he was vulnerable. Who loosed the fatal shaft?
A) Hector
B) Paris
C) Patroclus
D) Priam
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81. Going to any lengths? Which of the following statements about traditional units of
length - not of all of them necessarily in current use - is false?
A) A cubit is less than a pace, which is less than a perch
B) An ell is less than a yard, which is less than a fathom
C) A hand is less than a span, which is less than a foot
D) A rod is less than a chain, which is less than a furlong

82. Perhaps it’s just as well…The great English composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
wrote only one opera, Dido and Aeneas. The work was performed only once during
Purcell's lifetime, and that performance took place not at a theatre but:
A) At a girls' boarding school
B) On a barge anchored on the Thames
C) In a debtors' prison
D) At the coronation of King James II

83. Who wrote them? More importantly, who read them? Who was the author of the
novels Pnin, Ada and the The Real Life of Sebastian Knight?
A) Edgar Rice Burroughs
B) Vladimir Nabokov
C) Ayn Rand
D) James Updike

84. Why David? The U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David has often been the scene of
international summit meetings, such as those between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
After whom was Camp David named?
A) The statue of David by Michelangelo
B) Private Lester B. David, a gunner in World War II
C) American frontier hero Davy Crockett
D) President Dwight Eisenhower's grandson

85. W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan collaborated fourteen times in creating their famous
series of comic operas. Their first and last works were:
A) H.M.S. Pinafore and The Yeomen of the Guard
B) The Sorcerer and The Gondoliers
C) Thespis and The Grand Duke
D) Trial By Jury and Utopia Limited

86. Which of these words means "meekness" or "gentleness"?

A) Consuetude
B) Desuetude
C) Hebetude
D) Mansuetude

87. Like most other constellations, Boötes, which contains the bright star Arcturus, is
named after a character in Greek mythology. The mythical Boötes was acclaimed as:
A) The first man to make wine by fermenting grapes
 20

B) A friend of Odysseus, killed by the cyclops Polyphemus

C) The inventor of the plough
D) A rejected lover of the huntress-goddess Artemis

88. What are Doomstead, Skinfaxi and Sleipnir?

A) Horses in Scandinavian mythology
B) Infectious diseases in the Middle Ages
C) The last three books of the seer Nostradamus
D) Small flowers that grow on mountainsides

89. Ace fighter pilot…Douglas Bader, a World War II RAF fighter pilot, had a
remarkable and distinguished flying career despite a serious physical injury during his
early pilot’s training. His biography, written by Paul Brickhill, is titled Reach for the Sky.
Specifically, Bader’s injuries comprised:
A) amputation of both legs
B) blindness in one eye
C) near total deafness
D) loss of all the fingers of his left hand

90. English physicist Sir Joseph John Thomson is best known for an important discovery
that he announced in 1896. It was:
A) The "big bang" that gave rise to our present universe
B) The existence of the electron
C) The measurement of the speed of light in a vacuum
D) The unusual behavior of liquid helium

91. The midwinter festival in ancient Rome was called the Saturnalia. Originally
celebrated on December 19, it was extended over time to a full week. During the
Saturnalia:
A) Horses and pets were given wine instead of water
B) Marriages could be annulled at the request of either party
C) No one could appear in public before sunset
D) Slaves were temporarily set free

92. What is "Galvayne's groove"?

A) A popular dance rhythm of the 1940s and 1950s
B) A pattern of wear often seen in generator turbines
C) A groove in the teeth of horses
D) A shallow valley on the near side of the moon

93. Pax Britannica? Cotopaxi is to be found in Ecuador. What is it?

A) A shrine that cures arthritis miraculously
B) In terms of altitude, the highest active volcano in the world
C) An annual celebration featuring a "dance of peace"
D) A river whose temperature reaches 122ºF (50ºC)
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94. What is the meaning of the word Excalibur, the name of King Arthur's sword?
A) Death to enemies
B) "I defend the land"
C) Justice
D) Taken from a stone

95. After big game? British microbe hunter Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) is chiefly
known for what achievement?
A) Authoring a novel about the Crusades
B) Developing a simple test for tuberculosis
C) Discovering penicillin
D) Improving hospital hygiene standards

96. Tasty snack? Which group of islands was formerly known as the Sandwich Islands?
A) The Hawaiian Islands
B) The Philippines
C) The Society Islands
D) The Solomon Islands

97. What was Wat? Wat Tyler, a 14th century Englishman, is remembered for what?
A) Inventing a new method of book-keeping
B) Leading a peasant revolt that captured the Tower of London
C) Running 50 miles with news of a French invasion
D) Saving the life of King Richard II during a battle

98. In H.G. Wells' first science fiction tale, The Time Machine, a 19th century Englishman
travels forward in time to find that humanity has split into two groups, the Eloi and the
Morlocks. A major difference between them is that:
A) The Eloi live above ground, and the Morlocks below
B) The Eloi are ruled by women, the Morlocks by men
C) The Eloi are scientists, but the Morlocks prefer art and philosophy
D) The Eloi are spacefaring, while the Morlocks are earthbound

99. The opera Treemonisha was poorly received when first performed in 1915, much to
the disappointment of its composer, whose name was:
A) Aleksandr Glazunov
B) Scott Joplin
C) Erik Satie
D) Jean Sibelius

100. Strange relations? Hyraxes are small furry mammals of Africa and South Asia,
whose diet consists of plants and fruit. Oddly enough, the nearest relatives of the hyrax
among other mammals are the:
A) Bears
B) Elephants
C) Giraffes
 22

D) Lions and tigers

101. Why "draconian"? A "draconian" law is one for which the penalty is excessively
severe. The word "draconian" comes from:
A) Drac, a medieval Romanian prince who tyrannized his people
B) A French phrase, "de racon", meaning "to be reckoned with"
C) Draco, an Athenian who wanted to punish even minor crimes with death
D) Draken, the Latin word for "dragon"

102. You won't feel a thing! U.S. physician Crawford Long (1815-1878) pioneered the
use of ether in surgery. He discovered the anesthetic properties of ether by observing its
effect on:
A) A professor of chemistry
B) An injured horse
C) Guinea pigs
D) Students

103. Instrumentally speaking…the cor anglais, or English horn, is an orchestral

instrument that is actually most closely related to the:
A) Clarinet
B) French horn
C) Oboe
D) Trombone

104. What are the kina, the kuna, the kwacha and the kyat? Kurrency? Koins? Or…
A) Kick-boxing techniques
B) Levels of voodoo priesthood
C) Parrots
D) Units of currency

105. Who or what were Scylla and Charybdis?

A) Deadly dangers faced by the Greek hero Odysseus
B) Gallic chieftains vanquished by Julius Caesar
C) Two of King Solomon’s wives
D) The guardians of the gates to Asgard in Norse mythology

106. A porbeagle is a type of...

A) Sailboat
B) Servant
C) Shark
D) Sheep-dog

107. Who was Sancho Panza ?

A) The 1966 men's Wimbledon champion
B) The servant of Don Quixote
 23

C) The first Spaniard to found a settlement in the Americas

D) A composer specializing in works for the classical guitar

108. Axe the gerrymander? Around 480 B.C., a Greek philosopher advanced scientific
knowledge by working out the true cause of astronomical eclipses. His name was:
A) Anaxagoras
B) Anaximander
C) Anaximenes of Lampsacus
D) Anaximenes of Miletus

109. Three men in the same boat? Who were Elman, Heifetz and Milstein?
A) Famous classical violinists
B) The law firm that represented Richard Nixon during Watergate
C) The producer, director and writer of the film Casablanca
D) The winners of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Physics

110. What did he discover? Today's computer systems take advantage of a discovery
made by Sir Thomas Young in 1801. Sir Thomas showed that:
A) Electric currents can be controlled by combining silicon with other materials
B) Mathematical equations can be solved by combining simple logical operations
C) Most colours can be represented as combinations of red, green and blue
D) Numbers can be represented as combinations of the digits zero and one

111. Who fits the shoes? Of these traditional craftsmen, which one was the shoemaker?
A) The broderer
B) The cordwainer
C) The loriner
D) The farrier

112. In the famous Warner Brothers cartoon series, a fast-moving bird called ‘Beep
Beep’ – a "road runner" – makes life difficult for a not-so-wily coyote. The real road
runner is actually a type of:
A) Cuckoo
B) Pheasant
C) Stork
D) Turkey

113. The word lagan (also spelled ligan) is associated with which two other English
words?
A) Assault and battery
B) Beryllium and iron
C) Flotsam and jetsam
D) Legend and saga
 24

114. Playing as you learn? A 1997 study of music tuition in the United States found that
the most popular instruments to study were the piano and the guitar. The third most
popular was the:
A) Clarinet
B) Drums
C) Flute
D) Violin

115. What is "Daltonism"?

A) A system of character analysis based on physical measurements
B) The belief that matter is composed of indivisible atoms
C) The deliberate avoidance of unpleasant realities
D) The inability to distinguish red from green

116. I’ll be Bach…John Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel were born only
130 km (80 miles) and one month apart, but never met, in part because Handel lived and
worked abroad for much of his life. There was, however, an interesting connection
between the two men, namely:
A) Both were awarded gold medals by the British parliament
B) Both were married to daughters of famous sculptors
C) Both were operated on by the same surgeon
D) Both were plagued by nightmares of drowning

117. Like anteaters, all four of the following animals have long snouts and long sticky
tongues for eating insects such as ants and termites. However, only one is actually a
member of the anteater family. Which is it?
A) The aardvark
B) The numbat
C) The pangolin
D) The tamandua

118. Who or what are Atropos, Clotho and Lachesis?

A) Brothers, who fatally quarreled after glimpsing the goddess Aphrodite
B) Herbs with medicinal and/or poisonous properties
C) The three Fates who control the span of mortal lives
D) The wives of King Midas, whom he accidentally turns to gold

119. In the 14th century, a warlord created a vast empire by conquering much of Asia and
Eastern Europe. His name was:
A) Attila the Hun
B) Babur
C) Genghis Khan
D) Tamerlane
 25

120. Gummy glitch? Hiawatha, the hero of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's eponymous
poem, was raised "by the shores of Gitche Gumee". Most of us know “Gitche Gumee” by
which other name?
A) Georgian Bay
B) Lake Superior
C) The Atlantic Ocean
D) The Mississippi River
 26

FREE FOR ALL

This dizzy round shakes you up and turns you inside out …

1. The galaxy we live in is called the Milky Way. It is shaped approximately like:
A) A round ball
B) A doughnut
C) A pretzel
D) A flat spiral

2. Unlike most other fish, sharks have no

A) Bones
B) Teeth
C) Gills
D) Liver

3. The metal mercury:

A) Is the hardest known metal
B) Is a liquid at room temperature
C) Is highly radioactive
D) Is extensively used in aircraft construction

4. If you were to take a lump of coal and squeeze it in some contrivance that exerted
titanic pressure on it for a long time at very high temperatures, you would end up with:
A) Graphite
B) Volcanic glass, also known as obsidian
C) A smaller lump of coal
D) A diamond

5. It is now believed that dinosaurs became extinct because of:

A) Viral diseases
B) Hunting by early humans
C) A worldwide period of climatic cooling
D) A meteorite impact

6. Kinetic energy is:

A) Life energy, possessed only by living organisms
B) Only important at subatomic distances
C) Energy inherent in movement
D) A rare form of energy sometimes observed in deep space

7. Charles Darwin began developing his theory of evolution while voyaging on a ship
named:
A) The Enterprise
B) The Beagle
 27

C) The Santa Maria

D) The Endeavour

8. An android is any robot that:

A) Has more than one basic function
B) Has the ability to make decisions and formulate plans
C) Is built by other robots
D) Looks and acts like a human

9. What is so special about Sirius, the Dog Star?

A) It is the only star first observed by Albert Einstein
B) It is the brightest star in the sky
C) It always lies directly above the North Pole
D) It emits staccato barking sounds which radio telescopes can detect

10. The platypus and the echidna are the only mammals that:
A) Lay eggs
B) Have green blood
C) Live in Antarctica
D) Eat eucalyptus leaves

11. Dry ice is:

A) Frozen carbon dioxide
B) Ordinary ice from which all moisture has been chemically removed
C) A term applied to industrial diamonds
D) A movie prop used to simulate ice at room temperature

12. The exploration of caves is called:

A) Plutonation
B) Spelunking
C) Karsting
D) Undermining

13. The main defensive weapon of the dinosaur called Iguanodon was probably:
A) Its teeth
B) Its horns
C) Its tail
D) Its thumbs

14. Newton's third law of motion can be roughly stated as:

A) The bigger they are, the harder they fall
B) What goes up must come down
C) If you shove me, I'll shove you back
D) Nature abhors a vacuum
 28

15. Sir Isaac Newton, as a boy, began his serious academic studies after:
A) Meeting Galileo Galilei
B) Beating up a bully
C) Having a vision
D) Falling out of a tree

16. The first man-made object to move faster than the speed of sound, or ‘break the sound
barrier’ was:
A) A bullet
B) An airplane
C) A whip
D) A discus

17. A supernova is a star that is:

A) More than 10 million kilometres across
B) Violet in colour
C) In the process of exploding
D) Revolving around another star

18. In the human body, blood is transported in veins and arteries. The difference between
the two is that:
A) Veins are much wider than arteries
B) Veins carry only red blood cells, while arteries carry only white blood cells
C) Arteries are permanent, but veins are constantly being broken down and replaced
D) Arteries carry blood away from the heart, while veins carry it to the heart

19. Acetic acid:

A) Can easily dissolve quartz
B) Can be extracted from several species of fungus
C) Is often used in cooking
D) Catches fire when exposed to air

20. During the time of the dinosaurs, the number of continents on the Earth's surface was:
A) One
B) Three
C) Seven
D) Sixteen

21. One early type of bird, Archaeopteryx, lived in the Jurassic Period, more than 130
million years ago. Unlike modern birds, Archaeopteryx:
A) Had no feathers
B) Did not lay eggs
C) Could probably talk
D) Had teeth
 29

22. The speed of sound:

A) Is the same as the speed of light
B) Depends on what medium the sound is traveling through
C) Is greater for loud sounds than soft sounds
D) Is always about 1190 kilometers (740 miles) per hour

23. The sixteenth century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was a very unusual man.
Among other things, he:
A) Had an artificial nose
B) Never went outdoors on Fridays
C) Lived in a cave
D) Was a champion wrestler

24. The inventor of chewing gum, William Semple, intended it mainly as:
A) A household adhesive
B) A means of exercising the jaws
C) Bait for animal traps
D) A flavourful treat

25. On the planet Venus:

A) Surface temperatures are cold enough to freeze nitrogen
B) The only life forms are bacteria living in the soil
C) A powerful earthquake occurs somewhere every seventy minutes or so
D) A Venusian day is longer than a Earth year, astronomically speaking

26. According to Darwin, the best way to achieve a high level of "evolutionary fitness"
(i.e., fitness to not only survive but actually thrive as a species) is by:
A) Exercising regularly
B) Eating healthy foods
C) Having lots of children
D) Attacking other animals

27. Helium, neon, argon, xenon, radon and krypton form a group of elements known as:
A) Series H
B) The noble gases
C) The alkali earths
D) The X factors

28. The Earth's magnetic field:

A) Sometimes flips over, so that the North Pole becomes the South Pole
B) Came into being about 30 million years ago
C) Is stronger, at the Earth's surface, than the most powerful man-made magnets
D)Attracted a huge iron meteorite to the Earth, resulting in the extinction of the dinosaurs
 30

29. When paleontologists mention the "Cambrian Explosion", they are referring to:
A) A meteorite impact
B) A huge volcanic eruption
C) A sudden burst of evolutionary activity
D) An early parasite whose toxic secretions occasionally caused its hosts to explode

30. The half-life of a radioactive substance is:

A) About 35 to 40 years
B) The number of genetic mutations it can cause within half an hour
C) The full length of time required for half of it to decay
D) Half the length of time required for all of it to decay

31. Every day until his death at age ninety-six, the noted chemist Robert Chesebrough
was careful to take a spoonful of:
A) Rat poison
B) Seawater
C) Powdered sulphur
D) Vaseline

32. Arthur Pedrick, a British inventor, patented numerous inventions, including

A) A device to tow icebergs into desert areas, in order to green them
B) A device for steering a golf ball while in flight
C) A car that can be driven from the back seat
D) An amphibious bicycle

33. In the Wild West, ‘drygulcher’ was the term used to describe a
A) A person who shot at other people from a point of concealment
B) A device for draining water from an overflowing gully
C) A car that can be driven through the roughest of terrains
D) A name given to a type of frog that lives in dry watercourses

34. Samuel Colt is generally considered to have perfected a simple, relatively inexpensive
device for killing. Paradoxically, while his invention had a host of names including ‘the
Peacemaker’ and ‘the Equaliser’, both of which had no association with extermination
whatsoever, in actual fact his device was just that. It is responsible for a death every a
minute of the day, somewhere or the other on the planet. It was, in actual fact, a
A) device to eradicate mice
B) device for killing flies by means of electric shock
C) filterless cigarette
D) revolver

35. The feast of Epiphany, celebrating the event of the Magi having a glimpse of the
Christ Child, is also called the Twelfth Day or Twelfth Night. Today, an epiphany has
come to mean
A) A revelation
B) A glimpse of something supernatural
 31

C) An impossible feat
D) An elevation to high office

36. It is observed that people are generally described as being non compos mentis at
certain times or occasions, such as the yearly event in Spain during which the men of
Pamplona allow bulls to chase them through the town’s narrow, winding streets…or in
Brazil, during the annual extravaganza they call Carnival. In actual fact, it is a term that
A) describes an elevated state of mind
B) denotes an attitude of ‘wait and watch’
C) stands for a mind-set based on pagan rites originating in Ancient Greece
D) is synonymous with a state of temporary insanity

37. The men of Laconia, an autonomous province comprising a part of the Greek empire,
were renowned for their economy of speech. For example, when Xerxes, King of Persia,
sent them a message to surrender their arms, Leonidas their king ‘laconically’ replied
A) “No dice!”
B) “Come and take them.”
C) “They’re all yours.”
D) “Whatever for?”

38. The Spartans were famous for a way of life that added a very special word to the
English lexicon: ‘Spartan’, of course! What do you think it means?
A) A belligerent attitude towards others
B) Isolationism and suspicion of other races and cultures
C) A code of righteous conduct that left little room for compromise
D) A rigorous, minimalist way of life that shunned luxuries

39. In the first half of the 19th century, there was a Texan ranch owner called Samuel A.
Maverick who was not bothered about branding his cattle—an otherwise universal
practice. This habit of his introduced a new word to the English lexicon: maverick. What
do you think it means?
A) A foolhardy attitude towards life; one who lives in such a way
B) Supreme confidence in the honesty of his fellow men
C) Eccentric unconventionality
D) Confidence in his ability to regain anything that was rightfully his

40. Love is a powerful emotion that can transform, torture, humiliate, elevate, crush,
inspire or plunge a man into the very depths of misery and despair. Tennyson’s star-
crossed love for his cousin Amy made him write what is one of the greatest, most
rhythmically-worded and incredibly prescient poems in the English language. It is called:
A) In Memoriam
B) The Lady of Shallot
C) Locksley Hall
D) The Charge of the Light Brigade
 32

THE ADVENTURER’S QUIZ

1. It is good to have a keel on a sea-going vessel because:

A) It helps to fend off sharks
B) It will warn you of shallow water
C) It keeps the vessel from being blown sideways
D) It strengthens the hull

2. Which of the following instruments is NOT used for navigation?

A) Sextant
B) Nocturnal
C) Theodolite
D) Astrolabe

3. According to legend, St. Brendan and a group of monks sailed from Ireland to the
northlands in the sixth century. The boat they used would have been of the type called a:
A) Knorr
B) Canoe
C) Galley
D) Coracle

4. Ferdinand Magellan is generally known as the first person to circumnavigate (go all
the way around) the world. However, he:
A) Was beaten to it by ninth-century Vikings
B) Probably never really made the voyage at all
C) Abandoned the voyage when he reached Tahiti
D) Took two separate voyages to do it

5. The first European to reach Australia was probably:

A) Sir Francis Drake, an English explorer
B) William Jansz, a Dutch navigator
C) Daniel Defoe, author of "Robinson Crusoe"
D) William Dampier, a pirating adventurer

6. The earliest known European settlement in the Americas is:

A) Navidad, Hispaniola (now Haiti)
B) L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland
C) Machu Pichu, Peru
D) Los Angeles, California

7. In the 980s, the Norseman Erik the Red discovered rich fertile land in Greenland, and
persuaded settlers to come from Iceland. The colony flourished, partly because:
A) The weather was unusually warm at that time
B) They found rich mineral deposits
C) The friendly natives helped the settlers
 33

D) The forests provided good building material

8. In 1947, famous Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl invented a new type of

exploration when he sailed his raft Kon-Tiki to Polynesia. Heyerdahl was trying to prove
that ancient peoples could have crossed the ocean to Polynesia from:
A) Australia
B) Hawaii
C) Egypt
D) South America

9. One early explorer's journeys would not have been so well known to us if he had not
been imprisoned a few years after his travels. His name was:
A) Marco Polo
B) Sir John Mandeville
C) Christopher Columbus
D) Erik the Red

10. Before Europeans explored the Indian Ocean and the coasts of Africa, the Chinese
had explored the east coast of Africa and perhaps even rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
However, China's period of exploration ended abruptly when:
A) An oracle counseled against it
B) Ming emperors prohibited foreign trade
C) They lost a series of battles to the Portuguese
D) A huge storm sank most of their ships

11. In the 1400s, Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to sail down the west
coast of Africa. Before they could do this, they had to overcome:
A) A medieval prohibition against ship building
B) The war-like African coastal peoples
C) A French naval blockade of their ports
D) Their fear of a region of fire and boiling seas

12. In 1487-1488, the Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz led the first European
expedition to sail around the tip of Africa, which he named:
A) Cabo Tormentoso
B) Port Elizabeth
C) Cabo da Boa Esperança
D) Rio do Cobre

13. When Vasco Da Gama set sail from Portugal to open a sea route to India, his
equipment was the finest available, except for:
A) The ships themselves
B) His guns, swords and armour
C) His instruments of navigation and maps
D) The goods he brought to distribute as gifts
 34

14. Although John Cabot did not find the riches of the Orient when he reached North
America, he did report finding something of great value. This was:
A) Tobacco
B) Cod
C) Beaver furs
D) Pearls

15. Juan Ponce de León set out from Puerto Rico to search for the fabled land of "Bimini"
where he expected to find:
A) Abundant gold and jewels
B) Easy fishing
C) A fountain of youth
D) Horses of superb strength and speed

16. The French explorer Jacques Cartier was the first European to sail up the St.
Lawrence River. The natives told him he had reached "Canada", and Cartier thought that
name applied to the whole region. In fact, "Canada" simply means:
A) Village
B) Shining waters
C) The shore
D) Forest

17. Samuel Baker is credited with the discovery of Lake Albert Nyanza and the
Murchison Falls in Africa. His wife Florence was a partner in these explorations. He met
her:
A) In a slave market
B) When he rescued her from a crocodile
C) At the house next door to his in England
D) During his stay in Ceylon

18. In 1513, a Spaniard, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, became the first European to view the
Pacific. Balboa had settled in Hispaniola, but left for Columbia:
A) To find the “Great Empire of the South”
B) With orders from the King to conquer Panama
C) With a band of natives who had befriended him
D) Hiding in a barrel to escape his creditors

19. In 1924, Alexandra David-Neel became the first western woman to enter the Tibetan
city of Lhasa, in a land which cartographers of the time designated simply as "unknown".
Lhasa was known till the last century as the ‘Forbidden City’. She accomplished this feat
by:
A) Marrying the mayor
B) Disguising herself as a beggar
C) Approaching on the back of an elephant
D) Impressing the gate-keepers with her wit
 35

20. The highest tides in the world are found in:

A) The Great Australian Bight
B) The Gulf of Finland
C) The Bay of Fundy, Canada
D) Tierra del Fuego, South America

21. The term "Roaring Forties" refers to:

A) The 1840s, a time of much perilous exploration
B) The tendency of older seamen to roar
C) Forty windswept islands off the African coast
D) Southern latitudes between 40 and 50 degrees

22. "What's the good of Mercator's North Poles and Equators, Tropics, Zones and
Meridian Lines?" asked the bellman in Lewis Carroll's whimsically nonsensical poem
The Hunting of the Snark. Meridian lines are:
A) Lines dividing the oceans in two
B) Lines used by sailors to set the sails
C) Mnemonics used in learning navigation
D) Lines of longitude

23. Which is the world's smallest ocean?

A) Arctic
B) Indian
C) Antarctic
D) Atlantic

24. John Franklin was an accomplished British seaman who joined the Royal Navy at the
age of fourteen and fought in the Napoleonic Wars. Franklin sailed on many expeditions
and survived many dangers, but lost his life when:
A) He was shipwrecked on a coral reef
B) Attempting to find the Northwest Passage
C) He fought a duel with a senior officer
D) He caught a cold at home in England

25. By the late 1800s, no one (apart from Santa!) had yet reached the North Pole. A
Norwegian explorer, Fridtjof Nansen, thought the best way of reaching the pole was to:
A) Parachute down from a Zeppelin airship
B) Use an ice-sailing ship equipped with runners
C) Allow his ship to be frozen in the pack ice
D) Use nitroglycerine to blast a passage

26. In the 1590s, Dutch explorer Willem Barents made three expeditions to find a
"Northeast Passage" to China. He and his men were the first to:
A) Play golf in the Arctic
B) Cross the Bering Strait
 36

C) Sail what is now called the Barents Sea

D) Develop trade in furs with Russia

27. Charles Darwin was taken aboard the Beagle as an unpaid naturalist; it was an
expedition to chart the coast of South America. Darwin did not like Brazil because:
A) He was bitten by a lizard
B) It was carnival season
C) It was a country where there were slaves
D) The specimens were disappointing

28. Thomas Jefferson cited many reasons for sending Lewis and Clarke on the now-
famous expedition named after them, including:
A) His personal dislike of Clarke
B) The hope of finding living mammoths
C) A shortage of furs in the east
D) The quest for the headwaters of the Mississippi

29. The well-known poem, Cargoes by John Masefield begins with the words
"Quinquireme of Nineveh from golden Ophir". What is a quinquireme (or
"quinquereme")?
A) A mixture of five pungent spices
B) A galley with five banks of oars
C) A sailing vessel with five masts
D) A tree valued for its fine grain

30. A bathyscaphe is:

A) A map of the ocean bottom
B) A small bathtub used on sailing ships
C) A deep-diving submersible craft
D) What early explorers called the Baleen Whale

31. Can you name the one person who has donned England’s national colours in both
football as well as cricket?
A) Colin Milburn
B) Dennis Compton
C) Bobby Moore
D) Ian Botham

32. An outstanding novel by James Hilton (who also wrote Lost Horizon and Random
Harvest), it is a sentimental tale about an old school headmaster who comes out of
retirement to keep the school functional through the war years and ends up as a legend.
Can you name this eponymous book?
A) For Heaven’s Sake
B) Through All Eternity
C) Till Hell Freezes Over
D) Goodbye, Mr. Chips
 37

33. Can you name two prominent US physicians who have written books on past lives /
past life regression?
A) Dr. Denton Cooley and Dr. Christiaan Barnard
B) Dr. Henry Moore and Dr. Archie Moore
C) Dr. Raymond Moody and Dr. Brian Weiss
D) Dr. David Boone and Dr. Richard Boone

34. Kautilya’s Athashastra mentions an official called a Himsrikah. What was this
official supposed to do?
(A) Supervise the royal library
(B) Ensure that the army had the best weaponry and victuals while on active duty
(C) Drive off pirate ships and enemy vessels as soon as they were sighted
(D) Ensure that no one was unfairly taxed

35. The Yuktikalpataru (Wishing-tree of Artifice) composed by king Bhoja of Dhara (11 th
century AD) gives a detailed account of boats and ships and classifies boats according to
length and the position of the cabins. The Yuktikalpataru specifies certain ships as
agarmandira. What was the significance of this term?
(A) Only fit for the king’s use
(B) A freight ship
(C) A troopship
(D) A ship capable of undertaking long sea voyages

36. The Pallava king Narasimhava Varman II (680–720 AD) engaged in naval warfare
and conquered a neighbouring region with the help of his fleet of ships. Which region?
(A) Bali, in Indonesia
(B) Thailand
(C) The Lakshwadeep Islands
(D) Sri Lanka

37. St. Brendan ‘the Navigator’ has left an account of his 6 th century voyage across the
Atlantic Ocean. Some scholars consider it as proof of the earliest recorded voyage to?
(A) Ireland
(B) The Mediterranean
(C) America
(D) The Polar regions

38. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal, sailing down the Atlantic along Africa’s west
coast was blown before a terrible gale, to discover something of momentous consequence
to the future of east-west interaction. What did he discover?
(A) He discovered the working of the Trade Winds
(B) He was blown around the Cape of Good Hope (the southernmost tip of Africa)
(C ) He found the Humboldt Current
(D) Driven aground in what is modern Ghana, he discovered vast riches of timber and
ivory.
 38

39. When Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition was stranded in the severe cold of the
Antarctic with supplies ebbing away, a brave expedition member gave up his life by
walking out of the tent into the freezing cold, never to return. What was the name of this
gallant Englishman, and what were his last words?
(A) Titus Oates; “I am going out, and may be some time.”
(B) Rodney McClenahan; “Curse this perishing blizzard.”
(C) Edwin David; “It’s warmer than I thought!”
(D) Ian Atkinson; “It’d be heavenly if it wasn’t so cold.”

40. In his youth, Natty Bumpo, the frontiersman hero of the novels of James Fennimore
Cooper’s novels such as The Pioneers and The Deerslayer was given a respectful
nickname by the native American tribes he encountered. What was it?
(A) The Deerslayer
(B) Hawkeye
(C) The Pathfinder
(D) The One Who Never Sleeps
 39

THE RANDOM QUIZ

This section is a smorgasbord of twenty random delights meant to give you some respite
to catch your breath. Though this hastily assembled pot pourri may test, titillate, try or
torment you, the opportunities are all there, just as they are in 20 : 20 cricket.

1. Carmagnole

A. A lively song often accompanied by street dancing, popular during the French
Revolution.

B. A disease of the liver that is in many cases terminal.

C. A type of derby that was worn in the late nineteenth century and originated in
England.

2. Spatung

A. A sea urchin.

B. A snow crab.

C. A shrewish woman.

3. Nautch

A. A waterproof watch that is safe at great depths undersea.

B. A type of ancient hut.

C. A traditional form of dance, popular in rural India. The word itself is the anglicized
version of the Hindustani word for ‘dance’—‘naatch’.

4. Mantelet

A. A small shelf above a fireplace.

B. A bulletproof screen.

C. A Norwegian soldier.

5. Sardoodledum

A. A gadfly

B. A type of radish
 40

C. A melodrama

6. Mahout

A. A metal boomerang with extremely sharp edges.

B. A prehistoric reptile with pointed tusks.

C. An elephant driver.

7. Camisole

A. A container used to carry water or wine over long distances.

B. A short sleeveless garment for women.

C. A boastful, swaggering person.

8. Lagan

A. Short, thin, diagonally cut tubular pasta.

B. A special gift or donation.

C. Goods thrown into the sea with a buoy attached so that they may be found again.

9. Cymatium

A. A crowning moulding in classic architecture.

B. The angle between an aircraft supporting surface (as a wing) and a horizontal
transverse line.

C. A small chamber or cavity especially in a plant or animal body.

10. Hoplite

A. A circle dance of Romania and Israel.

B. A heavily armed infantry soldier of ancient Greece.

C. A spittoon.
 41

11. Preterist

A. An architectural housing model.

B. An appetizer.

C. A person who enjoys reliving past memories.

12. Pignus

A. The waning light from a flickering flame.

B. Someone who enjoys language games.

C. Property held as collateral against a debt.

13. Nictitate

A. A very wealthy man.

B. Medical treatment using aloe and other healing herbs.

C. To flirt by winking the eye.

14. Thesicle

A. A type of one-horse sleigh.

B. A small thesis or proposition.

C. A variety of Asian buzzard.

15. Gawf

A. A shiny red apple.

B. A laugh that is accompanied by coughing.

C. A slow burning fuse that is used in underground explosions.

16. Schesis

A. A variety of skunk.

B. That which sometimes follows Synthesis in a Hegelian model.

 42

C. To make fun of people's accents and mannerisms.

17. Kinnikinnik

A. A gambling game played with three small cups and a ball.

B. A young palm tree.

C. Indian smoking substance made from tree bark.

18. Sindon

A. The tissue between the front and back legs of a flying squirrel that aids in flight.

B. A poisonous weed.

C. A book cover made of linen.

19. Yashmak

A. An Indian biscuit.

B. An intense argument.

C. A face-veil worn by women of Moslem countries.

20. Kilhig

A. Dysentery.

B. In logging, a short pole used to direct the way a tree will fall.

C. As sharp as nails.
 43

FOLLOW THAT DREAM!

This section deals with people who had faith in themselves, and shrugged off negative comments.
The world is full of people who’ll tell you it can’t be done. So take heart from these true success
stories and create your own future! But first identify the dramatis personae in the vignettes given
below!

1. She was often exhorted to find work as a servant or seamstress by her family, but
refused. She went on to write the children’s classics Little Men and Little Women.
2. Often called the father of the Theory of Evolution, he gave up a medical
career and was told by his father, “You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat
catching.” In his autobiography, he wrote, “I was considered by my father a very
ordinary boy, rather below the common standard in intellect.”
3. He was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. He also went
bankrupt several times before he became the world’s foremost cartoonist and built an
amusement park.
4. His teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything or achieve anything
in life. He became one of the world’s greatest inventors. His founded General
Electric.
5. He did not begin to speak until he was four years old. He didn’t learn to
read until he was seven. His teacher described him as “mentally slow, unsociable and
adrift forever in his foolish dreams.” He was expelled and refused admittance to
Zurich Polytechnic School. He later wrote that since his brain was better developed
by the time he encountered concepts such as space and time, he did not take them at
face value and did not put them aside as known. Instead, he kept thinking about them
long after his fellow students had taken them for granted. This finally led to his
writing his thesis on the General Theory of Relativity, when he was working as a
lowly clerk in a Swiss assay office.
6. He was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies, and ranked 15 out
of 22 in chemistry. But he found a way to prevent milk from curdling that is named
after him.
 44

7. He did very poorly in grade school. But he propounded the Laws of

Motion, inventing calculus along the way. Who was this man who transformed
Physics?
8. This sculptor’s father said, “I have an idiot for a son.” Described as the
worst pupil in the school, he failed three times to secure admittance to a School of
Art. His uncle called him uneducable. As we all know, he left us The Thinker,
probably one of the world’s greatest sculptures.
9. This legendary playwright was infuriated when his play, Me, Vasha was
not chosen in a class competition at Washington University where he was enrolled in
English XVI. The teacher recalled that he castigated the judges for their inept choices
and questioned their intelligence.
10. This iconic carmaker failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded.
11. Named the ‘Man of the Century’, he failed sixth grade. He did not become
Prime Minister of England until he was 62, and then only after a lifetime of defeats
and setbacks. His greatest contributions came when he was a “senior citizen.”
12. There was once a drifter who had been a lumberjack, long haul truck
driver, bar-room bouncer and ranch hand. Then he applied for his dream job, as an
extra in a Western that a relatively unknown producer called Sergio Leone was
planning to shoot on a shoestring budget in Italy ~ a ‘spaghetti’ Western, as it was
disparagingly called. But Leone took one look at the 6’ 4”, hard-muscled frame of the
handsome man with the chilling grey eyes, and cast him as ‘The Man with No Name’.
Fistful of Dollars went on to make cinematic history, and the quintessential High
Plains Drifter became a household name … a cinematic legend in his own lifetime.
13. Using only a hand-held 35 mm movie camera, this versatile genius made a
film that captivated the world, catapulted him to Oscar-winning fame and put India
firmly on the global film-making map. Who was this literally towering genius, whose
charismatic personality and plethora of talents made him a household name?
14. Eighteen publishers turned down his little book Jonathan Livingston
Seagull, before Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975, it had sold more
than seven million copies in the U.S. alone, and made him world famous.
 45

15. He worked for seven years on his humorous war novel, M*A*S*H, only to
have it rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It became a
runaway bestseller, leading to a blockbusting movie and highly successful television
series.
16. Arguably the greatest novelist to ever come out of Russia, the man who
wrote War and Peace failed his college examinations. He was suspected of suffering
from a learning disorder. His teachers described him as being “both unable and
unwilling to learn.”
17. His parents said he would be a successful engineer. His teachers said he
had no voice at all and could not sing. He proved them all wrong by becoming the
greatest tenor who ever lived; it is said that he could sing to a wine glass and shatter
it.
18. They told him at an audition, “Son, you can’t sing. Go back to driving
trucks.” He proved them wrong by becoming the biggest name in Pop music and
Rock ’n Roll.
19. After his first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM,
dated 1933, said, “Can’t act! Slightly Bald! Can dance a little!” In later years, he
displayed that memo gleefully over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills mansion.
20. When he was in the fourth grade, he got used to his teacher, Mrs. Phillips,
constantly telling him, “You’re no good. You’re never going to amount to anything.”
He was totally illiterate until he was 26. A friend stayed up with him all night and
read him a copy of Think and Grow Rich. Now he owns the street corners he used to
fight on and recently published his latest book: Mrs. Phillips, You Were Wrong.
21. He handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own
compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a
composer.
22. His employers at the dry goods store said he had not enough sense to wait
upon customers. He went on to set up one of the world’s greatest retail chains.
23. Over thirty years ago, he skied down Mount Everest – a feat that has never
been emulated by any other human. Now over 73, he wants to make yet another
 46

Everest attempt—to become the oldest human to scale the world’s loftiest peak. Who
is he?
24. The medical fraternity laughed when he said he would climb Everest
without oxygen; they said the human body could never ingest enough oxygen at 8848
metres to stay alive. Even Sir Edmund Hillary expressed his strong reservations about
such an attempt. But this greatest of all mountaineers did the impossible. He scaled
Everest not once but twice without oxygen. Name him.
25. After the Goodwood crash, they said he was finished. But he overcame
severe injuries to briefly resurrect his career as a Formula1 driver. Who is he?

THE CONNOISSEUR’S QUIZ

Things are getting serious now. It’s time for you to take the plunge!

PART - I

1. He founded the environmental group Green Cross International in 1993, to which he

donated his royalties from narrating an introduction and epilogue to a Russian National
Symphony performance of Peter and the Wolf with his often-mocked southern Russian
accent. "Because of him, we have things like Pizza Hut!", according to a commercial in
which he appeared to raise money for the Perestroika Library and Archives. Name this
final leader of the now-defunct Soviet Union.

2. They are the only surviving members of the Anapsid clan, distinguished from all other
amniotic vertebrates by their lack of a temporal opening in the skull. In the course of the
evolution of their most distinctive feature, their pectoral and pelvic girdles moved inside
their rib cages. They are the only other group of vertebrates besides birds to have teeth
replaced with horny beaks. This order of reptiles includes the Matamata, the Leatherback,
and the Galapagos tortoise. Can you name it?

3. When asked why he only wrote "one book full of candour and human warmth," this
author replied, "Because I've only lived one life." That life included a stint as a spy in
Russia during the Bolshevik revolution. In one novel, the protagonist sees his best friend
and fellow World War I pilot die, prompting him to embark on a spiritual quest. In
another, the protagonist dies of leprosy after painting the walls of his hut on Tahiti. Those
protagonists are Larry Darrell and Charles Strickland, the latter character being based on
painter Paul Gauguin. Name the man who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel, Of
Human Bondage.
 47

4. Works in this musical key include J. S. Bach's passacaglia for organ, BWV 582;
Dvorak's First Symphony (which he thought lost); Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8, or
"Pathetique"; Mahler's Resurrection Symphony; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2;
the second prelude/fugue pair in Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier; and Beethoven's Fifth
Symphony. What is this minor key signature with three flats, the relative minor of Eb
major and the parallel minor to the simplest major key?

5. When asked why it was needed, the man who convened it opened a window and said,
"I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people
can see in." It asserted that the Jews as a people are not to blame for killing Christ.
Closed under Pope Paul VI, it established guidelines to govern the revision of the liturgy
and reduced Pentecost and Epiphany to one-day celebrations. Name this church council
which opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962, and allowed Mass to be practiced in
vernacular languages. What are we referring to?

6. A colonel in the Mexican War, he fought at Buena Vista all day with a bullet in his
foot. As a US Senator he took an active role in opposing the compromise measures
brought forth by Henry Clay and demanded that Congress protect slavery. He served as
Secretary of War during the Pierce administration, where he improved and enlarged the
Army. When Lincoln became President, he resigned from the Senate in hopes of
becoming the head of the Army of the Confederate States. Name this person who served
as president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.

7. Who is this painter whose style is so starkly reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s and
whose famous painting, The Scream was stolen in 2003 and recovered in 2006?

8. This chemist's theories were not at first readily accepted and challenged with an
alternate model by C. W. Blomstrand called "Chain theory". The dispute was finally
resolved when the chemist was able to demonstrate that exactly two geometrical isomers
of tetra-amine-di-chloro-cobalt (III) cation exist, one purple and one green. This proved
that ligands directly bond to the metal ion in fixed geometries. Name this "founder of
coordination chemistry".

9. It included most of Eriador, with the Brandywine, Greyflood, and the Great Road
forming its southern border. The chief PalantIr of the north was located at its Great
Watch-tower of Amon-Sl on Weathertop hill. In year 1975 of the Third Age, it was
destroyed by the Witch-lord of Angmar, and the line of its kings survived in exile as
Chieftains of the Dunedain. At the peak of its power it stretched from the Blue Mountains
in the west to the Misty Mountains in the East. Name this fictional Middle-Earth
kingdom, founded by the Numenorians as a sister-kingdom to its southern counterpart,
Gondor.

10. In the context of the infamous Vietnam War, this action invalidated Ambassador
Ellsworth Bunker's description of "steady, continual progress", and the "light at the end
of the tunnel" boast of William Westmoreland. Nearly three thousand civilians were
killed by the attackers during the fighting for the citadel in Hue, while American shelling
 48

of the village of Ben Tre led to the remark that "it became necessary to destroy the town
to save it." The Vietnamese Lunar New Year signalled the opening of this 1968 Vietcong
offensive.

11. Inspired by reports of Romanes and Morgan that described the way cats and dogs
opened gate latches, he designed a puzzle box apparatus for studying animal behaviour.
His studies led him to develop his Theory of Connectionism, a model of behaviour based
on the formation of neural networks through perceived stimuli. He found that any
response made in a particular situation becomes associated with that situation, and that
rewarding a response strengthens the response association. Name this man who
influenced the behaviourists with his laws of exercise and effect.

12. The family members of failed coup leader Mohamed Oufkir were among the political
prisoners detained for decades in this country's secret Tazmamart prison. In 1999, its new
king pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 50,000 prisoners, a marked break
from the autocratic 38-year rule of Mohammed VI's father, Hassan II. Name this
northwest African kingdom located across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain.

13. The bronze sculpture Reclining Nude II and the painting Young Sailor II were among
the works by this artist donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York
in the 1990s. Lilacs, The Chapel of St. Anne, portraits of his daughter Marguerite, and a
study for the mural Dance are among the almost 50 more that will go to it as part of the
collection of the artist's son, a prominent modern art dealer named Pierre. Which
longtime rival of Picasso as the last century's greatest visual artist created Joie de Vivre
and led the Fauvists?

14. He was popularly known (behind his back) as ‘Scarface’. Despite his illegal activities,
he opened soup kitchens to feed the poor, and even lobbied for dates to be stamped on
milk bottle labels, to ensure the safety of children. By the late 1920s, he ran an
underworld empire valued at over $60 million, and was prepared to engage in outright
war with his rival, George "Bugs" Moran. He spent 4½ years in Alcatraz on charges of
tax evasion. Name this big-time Chicago gangster who masterminded the St. Valentine
Day's Massacre.

15. The Fomalont-Kopeikin experiment claimed to measure the speed of this

phenomenon, and showed that it was approximately equal to the speed of light. Some
attempts to quantise it include Smolin and Rovelli's loop quantum theory and Penrose's
Twistor theory. The boson carrying it is hypothesized to have Spin 2, although it has
never been directly observed, and LIGO is the most sensitive experiment established to
look for waves caused by this force. What is this fundamental force, the center of
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and most famously discovered by Isaac Newton?

16. Characters from this author's works include the merchant Petunikoff and Captain
Aristid from his story Creatures That Once Were Men. The girl Tanya – and a group of
poor bakers who revile her – comprise the title characters of Twenty-six Men and a Girl.
His novel Mother was adapted in Brecht's play The Mother, but he is better-known for his
 49

own play which shows a group of derelicts in a cave-like cellar. Name this bitter Russian
author of The Lower Depths.

17. Author David Dodge sold the movie rights of his thriller To Catch a Thief before the
book itself had been published (1952). Set against the glittering backdrop of the French
Riviera, it tells the story of John Robie, a one-time jewel thief who’s forced out of
retirement to try and nab a copycat burglar whose identical style sets the police on
Robie’s trail. Starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, it was this enigmatic film director’s
first and last attempt at action romance. The tight editing, racing twists and turns in the
plot, and the fact that one of the world’s most celebrated film directors extracted an
Oscar-winning performance from what is arguably the best-known screen pair of all time,
make this film a classic. Can you name the director of this unforgettable motion picture?

18. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this novel by science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke
was made into a movie set in what was then the distant future. It established a standard
for film direction in this genre that – even thirty years down the road – has yet to be
surpassed in many respects. TIME Magazine paid homage to it by calling it ‘the most
fantastic visual happening in the history of motion picture’. Perhaps no film ever made
has so comprehensively encompassed mankind’s humble origins or foretold its future
with such chilling prescience. Can you recall its name?

19. Clint Eastwood as Detective Inspector Harry Callahan in (and as) Dirty Harry uses
this potent weapon to stop a getaway car after a bank heist. This episode was taken from
a real-life incident where a police officer fired a single round from this weapon at a car
carrying bank robbers. The bullet went through the back of the car, through the driver’s
back (killing him), went into the steering column (fracturing it) and ricocheted into the
gearbox (smashing it), causing the car to lurch out of control, hit a lamp-post and
overturn. Can you name the fearsome handgun that caused such carnage?

20. It was a small, isolated outpost that was ‘little more than a stockade’. In 1836, it was
attacked by an army of over 4,000 men led by Mexican General Santa Anna. The 300-
odd men in the stockade included legendary frontier heroes Davy Crockett and Jim
Bowie. Although the entire garrison was wiped out, barring women and children, the
massacre was later fully avenged. The name of the site became a rousing battle cry that
played a decisive role in routing Santa Anna’s forces and in the formation of the state of
Texas. It is now a place of pilgrimage—a shrine to the hardy breed of pioneers who
helped carve out what we today call the United States of America. Do you remember the
name of this blood-soaked piece of hallowed ground?

21. This Thracian warrior was captured and enslaved by Roman forces that trained him as
a gladiator, for amusing the crowds in the arena. In the training school, he met Varinia, a
fellow slave whom he would later marry. The famous Revolt of the Gladiators that he led
in 68 A.D. smashed one Roman army after another that was sent against him, but his
army was finally trapped on the seashore while trying to escape by ship. There is no
evidence of this gladiator’s death, though legend says that he died fighting in the final
conflict. 6,000 of the former slaves were captured and executed. A film on his life was
 50

made 50 years ago, with Kirk Douglas (the father of movie star Michael Douglas) in the
title role. Can you recall the name of this valiant gladiator who stood up against tyranny
and showed the world that the Roman armies were not invincible?

22. This famous Scottish author was a doctor who so despaired of selling his first novel
after it was turned down by several publishers that he dumped the manuscript in a park’s
garbage bin. But a kindly gardener persuaded him to retrieve it and try again, which he
did…successfully this time. That first novel, Hatter’s Castle, set this doctor firmly on the
road to fame, with major successes like The Citadel, The Stars Look Down, The Judas
Tree and The Northern Light. Can you name him?

23. For fifteen years, this lady kept her manuscript safe from prying eyes in a trunk under
her bed. It came to light only when a friend who was nursing her through an illness
happened to read it and persuaded her to try and get it published. It was the only novel
this author ever wrote, but it captured the imagination of generations of readers, became
an indelible part of publishing history and metamorphosed into an all-time cinematic
success starring Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable. Name this timeless classic and its author.

24. When this book was broadcast as a radio play directed by Orson Welles, it unleashed
panic among listeners in the British Isles. Its presentation of a story of a Martian invasion
was so realistic that people actually started evacuating London. Can you furnish the title
of this book, and the name of its author?

25. The Sunbird is a novel set in South Africa in the last century. The plot revolves
around three people who discover a long-lost civilization whose Punic script reveals its
origins as an offshoot of the House of Hannibal Barca—a Carthaginian cultural transplant
whose one-time presence in the Dark Continent was hitherto only conjectured but never
decisively proved by means of irrefutable archaeological evidence. But in the process of
unravelling the mystery, the trio stumble across an even more chilling discovery—
shadowy evidence of having played a major role in the final years of this drama before its
dramatic close…all of twenty centuries ago, in their previous incarnations. Can you
furnish the name of its well-known South African author?

26. This celebrated novel tells the story of the Jewish merchant prince who was falsely
charged of conspiring against Rome and sent to the galleys as a slave. But he saves the
life of the Roman fleet commander Quintas Arias (superbly portrayed by veteran actor
Jack Hawkins, clipped British accent and all) who promptly adopts him and makes him
his heir. Armed with this patrician Roman’s seal, he settles scores with his boyhood
friend, the Roman Centurion Messala, traces his mother and sister, witnesses the
Crucifixion and the miracles that follow, and regains his proud old heritage. Can you (a)
name this extraordinary man and the eponymous novel on which the blockbuster
Hollywood motion picture is based? (b) Name the author of this book? (c) Remember the
name of the amazingly versatile actor who stars in the lead role?
 51

27. The Art of War is a treatise on military tactics written by Sun Tzu, a famous Chinese
General of ancient China. Today, it has become a celebrated guide in an entirely different
(though perhaps fundamentally similar) discipline. Which discipline?

28. She wrote only one major novel about the injustice meted out to an African
American in the mid-20th century that is an all-time classic. To Kill a Mockingbird went
on to achieve worldwide success, but its celebrated author retreated into silence and
chose to live the life of a recluse. Can you recall her name?

29. He was an Englishman who migrated to America and created a fantasy literary world
full of eccentric earls in castles who own pigs with wings, a world full of the most
unlikely yet the most memorable characters with names like Catsmeat Potter Pirbright
and Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge; irreverent nephews, a brainy butler,
scatterbrained young men in spats, uncles in the springtime, and aunts that bellow to one
another ‘like mastodons across primeval swamps’. “He will continue to relieve future
generations from a thraldom that may be even more irksome than our own. A world to
live in and delight in,” said Evelyn Waugh of this famous author. Who are we talking
about?

30. Erich Segal wrote one of the greatest love stories of the 20 th century. Set in the
affluent East Coast, it is about a rich Harvard boy who falls in love with a girl from
Vassar who claims to be ‘smart and poor’ and who defies a disapproving millionaire
father to marry her…only to lose her. The book and motion picture adaptation broke
publishing and box office records respectively, to turn the pair of young unknown actors
into overnight celebrities. Which book/motion picture are we talking about, and who
were the actors in question (who never again repeated their early success)?

31. What do we know of the ancient epic known as the Epic of Gilgamesh?

32. William Boldwood, Gabriel Oak, Bathsheba Everdeen and Sergeant Troy are the four
main characters in which unforgettable novel? Who wrote it?

33. Who Moved My Cheese is a little book that has acquired a big following. What is it
about, and who wrote it?

34. Saki was the nom de guerre or pen name of this famous writer of short stories. What
was Saki’s real name?

35. Fahrenheit 451 is a landmark science fiction book. Who wrote it, and what is the
chilling significance of the title?

36. Who is the famous author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Which equally
famous Hollywood actor plays the lead role in the smash-hit motion picture version?
 52

37. Name the photogenic lady whose book titled Crystal outsold all the 2007 Booker
Prize nominees put together. Married to Peter Andre, she is a mother of two and is better
known by her nickname, Jordan.

38. Both were English, both were authors in middle life, both had been Intelligence
agents in World War II, both wrote a series of best sellers and both were eerily similar in
physical appearance. Can you name the writers in question?

39. Johnny Fontane and Nino Valenti are childhood friends who grow up to become
singers, in a world-famous novel about the U.S. mafia. Who wrote the book, and which
two real-life Hollywood celebrities are these fictional crooners rumoured to represent?

40. He wrote a creepy crawly book about a cannibal named Hannibal that became a best
seller and was made into a hugely profitable motion picture, as was its sequel. Name (a)
the author in question, (a) the villain’s full moniker (c) the two books that turn your
stomach. If you skip this one, I forgive you.

41. They were both legendary fictional detectives; both had obscure brothers, both were
extremely good observers, both are credited with a famous utterance, both were
extremely meticulous and methodical…and both – for a short while at least – were killed
off by their respective authors. Can you name these pairs of brothers, and their creators?
42. Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, God’s Little Acre…the titles of which celebrated
author’s books are we rattling off here?

43. He was called Ivanhoe, but what his full name? And who were the two ladies who
were so smitten by the charms of this handsome and gallant knight? Who created these
unforgettable characters?

44. In his play The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare saves Antonio’s life by having
Portia come up with a brilliant legal loophole that has Shylock on the ropes. What was
this legal loophole?

45. Can you remember the name of the big man who knocked Robin Hood off the log
with a quarterstaff...and went on to become one of his most trusted lieutenants?

46. The plot of one of Rudyard Kipling’s more popular books deals with what was then
known as ‘The Great Game’. Do you remember what this game was all about, and the
name of the book?

47. A Nigerian writes a stirring book about the havoc that colonialism causes in his
country and stirs the conscience of the modern world. Can you recall the name of both
the book and its author?

48. Sir Henry Rider Haggard created a giant Zulu chieftain who wielded a fearsome
battle-axe. What his name? And what is his famous axe known as? Wilbur Smith created
 53

a similar character, a formidable hunchbacked warrior who wielded a similar axe. Can
you name him and his battle-axe…and the book in which they feature?

49. He was a veterinarian who wrote four deeply moving, intensely humane and
incredibly funny books about animals. Even more unusual was the fact that the title of
each book came from the four lines of a stanza from a famous hymn. Do you recall this
veterinarian-author’s name…and the lines of the stanza in question?

50. As a boy, he spent his summer vacations with his family on the idyllic island of
Corfu, where his love for animals became the cause of much consternation for a family
traumatised by the often lethal insects, reptiles, rodents or mammals he’d bring home
every now and then. As a man, his obsession bloomed to the point where he became a
world famous naturalist who earned vast public acclaim (and money to finance his many
expeditions to remote and practically unexplored regions in search of rare creatures). His
books, including classics such as My Family and Other Animals, Beasts in the Belfry,
The Bafut Beagles and The Drunken Forest, have entertained generations of readers. Can
you recall his name? His older brother Larry went on to become a famous novelist. Can
you make the connection? Who are we referring to?

THE CONNOISEUR’S QUIZ

PART -II

1. Answer the following questions about the Calvin cycle (the Calvin cycle accomplishes
fixation of this element into organic compounds):
(a) This seldom-remembered Berkeley professor was a co-discoverer of the cycle along
with Melvin Calvin.
(b) This enzyme, the most common protein on Earth, catalyzes atmospheric carbon
fixation.

2. Name these starfighters from the Star Wars films from descriptions furnished below:
(a) In the battle against the first Death Star, the Red Squadron was composed of this type
of starfighter. Luke and Wedge Antilles flew this type throughout the three original films.
(b) An older type of starfighter, this type composed the Gold Squadron in the battle
against the first Death Star, and these fighters made the first attempt at the trench run.
(c) A new design, the fastest fighter in either Alliance or Empire fleets, a fighter of this
type crashed into the bridge Imperial Super Star Destroyer Executor during the battle
against the second Death Star.

3. The Middle East is a hotspot indeed:

(a) It is said that this man survived more assassination attempts next to Charles de Gaulle
and served as the chairman of the PLO.
 54

(b) He became Prime Minister of Israel in 1977 and signed the Camp David Accords
along with Anwar el-Sadat of Eygpt.
(c) Israel's Prime Minister during the Six-Day War and a former director of the ministries
of defence and finance, he favoured Israeli cooperation with Arab states to develop the
Middle East.

4. Name these operas that were altered by the Soviets:

(a) This Glinka opera was renamed for its peasant hero Ivan Susanin. In the Soviet
version, Susanin saves a patriotic official rather than Mikhail Romanov.
(b) The massacred title group of this 1836 Meyerbeer grand opera was replaced by the
anti-Czarist Decembrists.
(c) In The Struggle for the Commune, this work's Soviet counterpart, the mildly pro-
Carbonari Cavaradossi becomes a revolutionary, and his painting of the Madonna
becomes a depiction of the Red Army.

5. Name these Nobel Prize-winning writers from clues furnished below:

(a) He wrote of a mysterious epidemic which causes the breakdown of society in his
novel Blindness. This Portuguese author and Nobel Prize winner also wrote The Stone
Raft.
(b) Her works include Tala, and Ternura, or Tenderness. This Chilean poet wrote
Sonnets of Death, and Desolación.

6. Answer the following about a body in orbit around a much larger body under the
influence of an inverse square force such as gravity: (a) Kepler's Second Law, of equal
areas, is merely a restatement of what principle? (b) In motion under an inverse square
law, another conserved quantity is this vector, whose magnitude is the eccentricity of the
orbit and which points towards the perihelion.

7. Name the following about modern art exhibitions in New York:

(a) Though this 1913 exhibition organized by Arthur Davies included works by Ingres
and Delacroix, the more controversial works among the 1600 it showed were by Matisse,
Brancusi, and especially Duchamp. Which exhibition are we referring to?
(b) This movement, which studied effects such as the illusion of movement through
placement of adjacent color fields, first gained prominence with the 1965 MOMA show
“the Responsive Eye,” including works by Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley.
(c) This New York museum of American art, located on Madison Avenue since 1966,
holds perhaps the most important regular exhibition of modern American art, known as
the ``Biennial.''

8. (a) He was conceived after a freak storm forced his antagonistic parents to actually
sleep together: Name this absolutist monarch who exclaimed, "L'état, c'est moi!"
(b) He revoked the Edict of Nantes with this 1685 edict.
(c) In his youth, he suffered through this uprising against Cardinal Mazarin.

9. Name these characters from the Old Testament:

 55

(a) Conceived by Abraham and Sara when they were elderly, God ordered Abraham to
sacrifice this child, God spared him and ordered Abraham to sacrifice a ram instead.
(b) One of Isaac's two sons, he tricked Abraham into stripping Esau of his birthright and
later changed his name to "Israel". His twelve sons form the basis for the twelve tribes of
Israel.
(c) The sons of this son of Isaac had exclusive right to the priesthood. When Moses led
the Hebrews out of Egypt, the descendants of this son formed the only tribe that didn't
worship the Golden Calf.

10. Name these entrepreneurs who started young:

(a) From his University of Texas dormitory room he started his computer empire, and
finally incorporated his namesake company that sells computers directly to customers by
the time he finished his freshmen year.
(b) He was looking for work in restaurants as early as age 11. A millionaire by age 35, he
named his restaurant chain with over 5,000 locations after his third daughter.
(c) A former motel owner, he and three others crafted Long Distance Discount Service
during a meal at a Sizzler. He is currently in prison serving out a twenty-five year
sentence after the downfall of WorldCom, of which he was the CEO.

11. Name these types of reproductive barriers:

(a) There is either no sexual attraction between males and females of different species, or
the mating rituals are different, and thus the two do not understand each other. An
example is the blinking pattern of each species of firefly.
(b) Structural differences in sex organs prevent fertilization. An example is a flower
whose structure allows it to be pollinated by only 'its own' species of insect.
(c) The two species have healthy offspring that are incapable of forming offspring with
either parent species or with each other. An example of this is the mule.

12. Answer these questions on an Italian medieval poet,

(a) He wrote La Vita Nuova.
(b) La Vita Nuova tells of his first sight of this woman when he was nine and she was
eight. Love for her inspired much of his work.
(c) He was a member of this political party, which was defeated and exiled after a coup in
the city of Florence in November 1301, a struggle that is referred to in The Divine
Comedy.

13. Answer the following questions on Argentina:

(a) This term denotes the victims of Argentina's "Dirty War" in the late 1970s,
imprisoned without trial, tortured and killed.
(b) Argentina engaged in a war with Great Britain over these islands that lie 310 miles
east of the Straight of Magellan.
(c) She became the first woman president in the Western Hemisphere.

14. Answer these questions on bridges:

 56

(a) The twenty longest bridges in the world are this type of bridge, in which long cables
linked to long vertical towers hold up the roadbed. Examples include the George
Washington and the Golden Gate bridges.
(b) The longest such bridge in the world is this bridge, built in 1998 in Japan and
spanning roughly one and one-quarter miles.
(c) This particular bridge collapsed in November 1940, when high winds caused the
bridge to vibrate at its natural frequency.

15. Identify these CPUs from a short description:

(a) This Intel CPU, part of a long and distinguished microprocessor line, was the last to
bear a numerical designation before Intel switched to "Pentium."
(b) This Motorola CPU, named for the approximate number of transistors it had, powered
the first Macintoshes and continued to appear in Macs until it was replaced by the
PowerPC.
(c) This Digital processor, developed as a successor to the VAX line, was the world's
fastest processor when it debuted in 1992.

16. “Off with her head!” said the Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland by Lewis
Carroll): but can you name…?
(a) This queen was beheaded on the orders of her cousin, Elizabeth I, in 1587.
(b) She first married this French dauphin when she was only 15. This dauphin's reign
lasted less than a year in which the long, bitter rivalry between the noble houses of Guise
and Bourbon began.
(c) She later married this cousin, a weak and worthless husband, who died when an
explosion was set off in his home.

17. Answer these questions on an arrogant old man: a professor at Yale and NYU:
(a) This literary critic has been an ardent opponent of the politicization of literature and
places ascetic value over social agendas, writing works such as A Map of Misreading and
The Anxiety of Influence.
(b) Among his works is this book, in which he argues for the autonomy of asceticism and
provides a list of books he feels are the most influential ones in western literature.

18. Identify these types of elasticity in demand.

(a) This elasticity for two goods is positive if they are substitutes, and negative if they are
complements.
(b) For inferior goods, this quantity is negative; for normal goods, it is positive.
(c) This elasticity is obtained by measuring the elasticity of an isoquant.

19. The Ruhr Valley has always been the lair of Germany’s major armaments
manufacturers (including Krupps), given the abundant electricity generated by its dams,
and its vast deposits of coal and iron ore. During World War II, the Ruhr was also where
Germany’s sensitive lubricant oil refineries were established. To slow down the Nazi
juggernaut, it had become imperative for the Allies to cripple the Ruhr Valley…but how?
Its steep sides made it impregnable to conventional air attack, and high-altitude bombers
were decimated by heavy anti-aircraft fire and vigilant Me-109s. This book describes
 57

how a way was found to get in and bomb the dams and hamstring the industries on which
the Nazi war machine depended heavily. Can you:
(a) Name the book (and the eponymous film) that describes this stirring episode of the
war. Who wrote it?
(b) Name the inventor of the revolutionary ‘bouncing bomb’ that skipped along the
surface of the water, spinning backwards rapidly, bounced off the dam walls, sank deep
below the surface and exploded.
(c) What was the name of the gallant RAF pilot who led the near-suicidal bombing
mission?

20. This fictional crime-fighter – outwardly a wealthy, handsome and debonair

gentleman-at-large – was actually an implacable foe of criminals, an experienced street-
fighter who gave no quarter. He is considered by many to have been a literary progenitor
of Ian Fleming’s intrepid secret agent James Bond. In fact, Roger Moore actually
portrayed both characters at different periods of his career. Can you name:
(a) The author who created this unique character?
(b) The weapons that he carried concealed on his person. What had he named them?
(c) His (fictitious) expensive, luxurious and extremely fast car.
(d) The character himself.
(e) His genial, simple-minded and devoted ally?

21. This particle physicist, enquiring into the ultimate nature of matter and the unseen,
mysterious world of elementary particles, plunged deeper into the paradoxes of ultimate
reality than he’d bargained for when he encountered – and studied – eastern mysticism.
From the startling revelations that ensued and which forever changed his world-view was
born a best-seller that has, for over thirty years, deeply influenced the way we look at
reality as perceived by our five senses. Can you name:
(a) The author.
(b) The discipline that represents the western (scientific) portion of this mind-expanding
exposition.
(c) The book in question.

22. This foundling – the sole surviving heir to a princely title and vast wealth – is brought
up by the Great Apes of Africa and grows into a jungle man of surpassing strength and
mental acuity. Can you name:
(a) The author who created him?
(b) The name of the she-ape who suckled him and brought him up?
(c) His fictional name and noble title?

23. When a long-dormant volcano called Vesuvius suddenly erupted in northern Italy in
AD 79, the lava and ash that burst from its crater buried two Roman cities, perfectly
preserving their artifacts and way of life through the centuries…for modern men to
marvel at after the ruins were excavated. Can you guess:
(a) When this great archaeological discovery was made, and spotlighted by which
archaeologist?
(b) The names of these two cities whose ruins were excavated?
 58

(c) The name of the volcano (also in Italy) whose fictional eruption enabled the survivors
in Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth to reach the surface of the Earth
once again?

24. This legendary machine-pistol designed by Heinrich Vollmer was developed from its
MP-36 and MP-38/40 forerunners. By 1940, it was standard issue to the SS and other
crack German infantry regiments. About a million versions of this highly admired small-
arm were manufactured, the MP-40 being mass-produced by incorporating a majority of
pressed-steel components, unlike its predecessors that had machined steel parts. Though
it tended to jam on account of its twin-feed system of ammunition flow that narrowed
down to single file at the mouth of the breech, it was much sought after. Secret caches of
this still-highly-regarded weapon are said to surface even now, at irregular intervals. Can
you:
(a) Name it?
(b) Why is the misnomer likely to have occurred?
(c) Which Allied submachine-guns were inspired by it, one produced by the U.S. and the
other by the British?

25. The L-O-N-G-E-S-T Day is a near-eyewitness account of the Normandy landings—D-

Day, 5th June, 1944. With General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Supreme Commander of
the Allied Forces, over ten thousand vessels of every description – the largest armada
ever to set sail in human history – descended on the coast of Normandy, northern France
in the early hours of 6th June 1945. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is said to have
remarked to his aide the previous evening: “I tell you, Lang, the next twenty-four hours
will be decisive. The fate of Germany hangs on the outcome. For the Allies, as well as for
Germany, it will be the longest day.” Do you know:
(a) Who wrote the book?
(b) Almost every Hollywood actor, from John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Richard Burton
to Sal Mineo, Paul Anka and Jeffrey Hunter vied for – and got – a role in this all-time-
classic cinematic production. It remains a time capsule that has recorded their visages and
voices for posterity. It was recently selected as the best war movie even made. Who
produced the movie?
(c) The code names of the four beaches on which the invading armies landed and
established beach-heads?
(d) What were the code words broadcast by the BBC informing the French Resistance
that the long-awaited emancipation of occupied France was definitely going to happen…
and
(e) What were the words that signalled that the armada was on its way?

26. Old Norse legends (and some unverified accounts from the days of sail) relate to
encounters with a sea-monster that threatened to engulf their craft. Peter Benchley wrote
a thriller about this beast, and James Bond once happened to escape from the clutches of
a hungry specimen eager to dine off him. Decomposed remains of this giant of the deep
are sometimes washed ashore. A ‘small’ specimen was filmed by a Japanese crew using a
remote-controlled camera at a depth of 900 metres quite recently. Can you
(a) Come up with the name the Norsemen gave to this fearsome creature?
 59

(b) Furnish its scientific name?

(c) Come up with the name of the chemical substance it smells powerfully of?

27. At the height of the Great Depression of the 1930’s in the USA, a then unknown pair
of comic strip writers created a comic book character who was to capture the imagination
of a beleaguered nation and infuse new hope and courage into their flagging vision of a
viable future. Can you recall…
(a) The name this character? (b) The names of his creators? (c) The amount they sold the
rights for? (d) The names of his foster parents (e) The names of his real parents? (f) What
was his home planet?

28. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. The protagonist of the book was an
old, weather-beaten, down-and-out but undefeated sailor – modeled on a friend of this
rough-hewn author – whose tales may have worked their way into the book. The two men
spent many pleasant hours aboard the author’s 34-foot boat that had a range of 500 miles.
Can you:
(a) Recall the name of this prize-winning book?
(b) Give the name of the boat?
(c) Name the friend who was the inspiration for the protagonist of the book?
(d) The author’s name, and how he met his end?

29. When this breed of domestic goat is startled, its muscles lock, causing it to topple
over on its side…a hilarious genetic peculiarity caused by myotonia congenital. It was
introduced into the USA by an unknown goatherd and was later bred to preserve the
breed. Guess what this unusual animal is called?

30. In the world of classical Western ballet in the 20th century, the name of legendary
Russian ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev is forever linked to that of his dazzlingly
beautiful, ethereally graceful female counterpart. Name her.

30. He was the first mountaineer to not only assert that Mount Everest could be climbed
without oxygen but actually performed this ‘impossible’ feat—not once but twice, the
second time alone. Name him.

31. He is jocularly known as the hyphen in Rolls-Royce, but his success in persuading a
reluctant Charles Stewart Rolls to meet Henry Royce led to the birth of an enduring
legend. Can you name him, besides identifying the man whose personal name for his
silver-painted machine blossomed into the most famous model in Rolls-Royce’s long and
illustrious history?

32. Connoisseurs of fine engineering liken the Supermarine Spitfire – the fighter airplane
that saved England in the Battle of Britain (along with its redoubtable counterpart, the
Hawker Hurricane) – to the E-type Jaguar sports car, both machines being prime
examples of delectable design and supreme functionality. Can you name (a) The type of
plane from which it was hurriedly developed to serve the urgent wartime need for a fast,
highly manoeuvrable and devastatingly effective fighter plane? (b) The highly coveted
 60

trophy it annexed just prior to the war? (c) The legendary engine that powered it? (d) The
name of the engine that powered later variants of this plane?

33. World Heavy-weight Boxing Champion Jack Dempsey sent challenger Gene Tunney
to the canvas with a savage right hook in the eighth round of their 1938 bout. But instead
of proceeding immediately to a neutral corner as per rules, Dempsey hovered over his
fallen opponent as the referee went ahead with the mandatory countdown. Noticing
Dempsey out of position, he ordered him into a corner before beginning his countdown
afresh, losing vital seconds. Just before he could be declared the loser by a knock out, a
groggy Tunney staggered to his feet…and went on to win the bout. It is said to be the
most controversial decision in boxing history. What is it called?

34. This Booker Prize winner shares a similar set of experiential and emotional data, and
even writes in the same house as her more famous mother, who was thrice nominated for
the Booker but never won it. Can you name (a) The mother? (b) Her 35-year-old
daughter, the 2006 Booker Prize winner? (c) Her prize-winning book?

35. In an attempt to stem the tide of the White Man’s invasion of the tribal lands, this
Indian chief developed an alphabet for his people’s spoken tongue. Almost overnight, an
entire nation became literate; even newspapers were printed in the new language. Though
he did not succeed in halting the marginalization of the Indian tribes, or their gradual
extinction or absorption by the White Man, his name lives on forever. (a) What was his
Indian name? (b) What is his lasting monument?

36. Given below are the names of four works, the word ‘four’ being common to all of
them. However, two of them are not books but movies. Can you spot the two that are not
books?
(a) The Four Just Men (b) Four for Texas (c) The Sign of Four (d) The Four Riders of the
Apocalypse.

37. The world is getting ‘curiouser and curiouser’. It has come to light that some of the
most venerated universities in the world are asking admission-seekers to answer
questions concerning events or phenomena of such earth-shaking importance as: (a)
‘What percentage of the world’s water is contained in a cow?’ (b) ‘Are you cool?’ (c) ‘At
what point is a person dead?’, and (d) ‘Put a monetary value on this teapot’. Which
hallowed institutions are we referring to?

38. This celebrated (and controversial) British model came under a cloud in 2005 after
being arraigned for allegedly being addicted to cocaine, and many of her highly lucrative
contracts were hastily cancelled. But it appears to have been only a small cloud that
passed rapidly overhead, and it obviously had a broad silver lining because she has since
been inundated with even more lucrative offers, one of which relates to a premier brand
of ladies innerwear for which she is making a series of ground-breaking promotional
films. Can you name:
(a) The model (b) The brand in question, promoted in The Dreams of Miss X as featured
on the brand’s corporate website.
 61

39. A portion of the movie called The Mighty Heart was filmed at Pune, India, involving
two of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Can you recall (a) The names of these two celebrities
who went all the way to Africa to have their baby? (b) Their media nickname? (c) Whose
life and death is the movie about?

40. After a gap of many years, a new species of mammal has been discovered in
Europe…just when scientists were convinced that they had catalogued all the mammals
in that developed part of the world. Do you (a) Know what sort of animal was found? (b)
Where it was found? (c) Know its name?

41. That the Earth is in the throes of climate change is something that is very much in the
news these days. The effects of this change are now so plainly visible all over the planet
that an ‘ostrich-with-its-head-in-the-sand’ approach will hasten doomsday. We need to
get our collective act together if we are to stem the rot. In their latest warning,
environmentalists have predicted a catastrophe: Africa’s two highest mountains will lose
their ice cover within the next 25 to 50 years. Can you name these two mountain massifs?

42. Between 1950 and 2005, Alaska experienced longer growing seasons, increased
thawing of permafrost, and greater water loss from evaporation of open waters. But these
changes are overshadowed by a trend that has ominous portents. (a) Can you guess what
that is? (b) What are the numbers involved?

43. It was a gift from the people of France for America’s inspiration, a moral force that
partially energized the French Revolution in 1789. A shattered remnant of it may be seen
in the last few frames of a Hollywood film starring Charlton Heston. Can you hazard a
guess as to
(a) The name of the artifact referred to above?
(b) The name of the said Hollywood blockbuster?

44. A lady of Indian origin is the Global Chief Executive of Pepsi Inc. (a) Can you name
her? (b) Can you name two other powerful corporate women who are playing prominent
roles in Indian industry and commerce?

45. This blond heiress to a hotel empire is frequently in the news, often for all the wrong
reasons. Living life in the fast lane, she is the darling of the paparazzi, who follow her
wherever she goes…which means all over the affluent part of the globe. She recently cut
an album that was panned by many critics but staunchly defended by some crooners, who
claimed she has talent. Can you name this tempestuous rebel?

46. This descendant of early settlers who could trace his lineage to the 1600s was brought
up on tales of the old frontier days, which he assiduously reinforced by extensive reading.
A rare breed of adventurer who combined erudition with a raw ‘blood-and-guts’, action-
oriented lifestyle, he was – at different times in his life – sailor, professional boxer,
journalist and teacher – a ‘western’ writer whose output can never be equaled in either
quantity or authenticity. In 1983, he became the first novelist to be awarded the
 62

Congressional Gold Medal in honour of his life’s work. He was also awarded the Medal
of Freedom by then US President Ronald Reagan. Can you name this famous author of
Last of the Breed, Jubal Sackett, The Haunted Mesa and Shalako (which last he dedicated
to his grandfather Truman Dearborn)?
47. A runaway bestseller about a bird, a first book written by an unknown pilot engaged
in flying old bi-planes across the American mid-west. It made publishing history, and its
author became an overnight celebrity. Which book are we talking about? Who wrote it?

48. How did the term "bug" become part of computing jargon?

49. Who created marmalade?

50. According to the Bible, Christ was born in March. Then why do we celebrate
Christmas – Christ’s birthday – in late December?

51. What do haloes around the heads of saints in medieval paintings signify?
52. What was Hadrian’s Wall? Why was it built?
53. What is the difference between a coffin and a sarcophagus?

54. What is the origin of the word ‘assassin’, meaning ‘hired killer’?

55. What is a ‘Stockholm syndrome relationship’?

AMAZING FACTS…
Facts concerning Just about anything at All

• Shaitan is the Islamic root of an English word . . . Satan.

• The literal Latin meaning of the name Lucifer – which is another name for Satan
– is bringer of light or The Illuminator. ‘Lucifer matches were the precursor of
safety matches. They had a high sulphur content in order to facilitate their ability
to ignite when scraped across any rough surface…the resultant friction bringing
the match-head to flashpoint.

• The Big Bang (from which the universe arose) was first postulated by a Catholic
monk, Georges Lemaître in 1927, and not by Harvard astronomer Edwin Hubble,
as is commonly believed. Hubble published in 1929, two years after Lemaître.
Hubble confirmed it, by gathering hard evidence proving scientifically that the
Big Bang took place…about 14.5 billion years ago. Scientists claimed it was
ludicrous. Matter, science said, could not be created out of nothing. Hubble
shocked the world by scientifically proving the Big Bang really happened.
 63

Background radiation – the aftermath of the Big Bang – is still detectable today
by means of sensitive instruments.

• The world’s largest art collection is in the Vatican Museum, spread over 1,407
rooms. It houses over 60,000 testaments to man’s creative genius, including
masterpieces by geniuses such as Michelangelo, da Vinci, Bernini and Botticelli.

• A Möbius Strip is a twisted ring of paper that technically possesses only one side.
It is often seen in the work of artist M. C. Escher.

• The Latin words Novus Ordo Seculorum inscribed on a U.S dollar bill mean ‘New
Secular Order.’ Curiously, it is in apparent contradiction of the words inscribed
alongside: “In God We Trust.”

• Only one-eighth of New York City is actually on the North American mainland;
the rest is situated on islands.

• Blue disappearing ink can be made by dissolving a pill of phenolphthalein

alcohol. After the ink dries, exposure to air makes the blue disappear. The carbon
dioxide in the air turns the ink acidic, neutralizing the colour.

• The word ‘berserk’ comes from Icelandic accounts of 12th century Norse warriors
who were so fierce in battle they fought without armour and raged like wolves.
They were called ‘Berserksgangr’.

• Pretoria has been renamed Tshwane, which is the name of a famous chief and
happens to mean ‘we are all the same’.

• Casimir Force is the name for the force that, at the nano level, causes particles to
stick together by quantum force. First discovered in 1948 and measured in 1997,
it can be seen in a gecko’s ability to stick to a ceiling with just one toe. It is the
ultimate cause of friction in the nanoworld. Scientists are trying to find a way of
reversing this force, which would render nano machines practically frictionless.

• A new exoplanet (a planet outside the solar system) named TrES-4, is the largest
such planet found so far. Fittingly located in the constellation of Hercules, it is
1,435 light years away from earth and is 70% bigger than Jupiter. A year on this
planet is shorter than a week on earth.

• Microbes that had been locked in Antarctica ice, frozen for 100,000 years, came
to life when thawed out in a laboratory and resumed growing, as reported by
Rutgers University researchers in August 2007.
 64

Facts about Art and Architecture

• Although construction of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg started in 1015,
it was not until 1439 that the spire was completed.
• Ancient Chinese artists would never paint pictures of women's feet.
• At the age of 26, Michelangelo began sculpting his monumental statue of David.
He finished it seventeen months later, in January 1504.
• Currently the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai Tower in Dubai has crossed
1822 feet in height, and is still shooting up.
• During a severe windstorm or rainstorm, the Empire State Building may sway
several feet to either side.
• England's Stonehenge is 1500 years older than Rome's Colosseum.
• Evard Ericksen sculpted "The Little Mermaid" statue which is located in
Copenhagen harbor.
• Frederic-August Bartholdi sculpted the Statue of Liberty. The statue arrived in
New York City in 1885 aboard the French ship "Isere." The Statue of Liberty
weighs 225 tons. There are 403 steps from the foundation to the top of the torch in
the Statue of Liberty.
• Mt. Rushmore was carved by Gutzon Borglum. If any one of the heads on Mt.
Rushmore had a body, it would stand nearly 500 feet tall. Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt are the four US presidents whose faces are carved
on Mt. Rushmore.
• In 1925, the first motel – the "Motel Inn" – opened in San Luis Obispo, California.
 65

• Jayne Mansfield decorated her "Pink Palace" by writing to 1,500 furniture and
building suppliers and asking for free samples. She told the donors they could
then brag that their goods were in her outlandish mansion. The pitch worked, and
Jayne received over $150,000 worth of free merchandise.
• On July 28th, 1945, a US Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York's
Empire State Building, killing 14 people.
• Pablo Picasso's career lasted seventy-eight years, from 1895 until his death in
1973.
• The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair. It is 984 feet high, and
receives a fresh coat of 300 tons of reddish-green paint every seven years.
• There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
• The estimated weight of the Great Pyramid of Egypt is 6,648,000 tons.
• The extended right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42 feet long.
• The first footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theater (now Mann's Chinese Theater),
were made by Norma Talmadge in 1927. Legend has it that she accidentally
stepped in wet concrete outside the building. Since then, over 180 stars have been
immortalized, along with their hands and feet and even noses (Jimmy Durante).
• The great Gothic cathedral of Milan was started in 1386, and wasn't completed
until 1805.
• The Hoover Dam in USA was built to last 2,000 years. The concrete in it will not
be fully cured for another 500 years.
• The largest movie theater in the world, Radio City Music Hall in New York City,
opened in December, 1932. It originally had 5,945 seats
• The largest stained-glass window in the world is at Kennedy International Airport
in New York City. It can be seen on the American Airlines terminal building and
measures 300 feet long by 23 feet high
• The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo daVinci, is very small – only 2'6" by 1'9".
• The Museum of Modern Art in New York City hung Matisse's 'Le Bateau' upside-
down for 47 days before an art student noticed the error.
• The official name of the St. Louis Gateway Arch is "The Jefferson National
Expansion Monument." The Gateway Arch looks taller than it is wider, but it is
exactly 630 feet by 630 feet.
• The only one of his sculptures that Michelangelo signed was the La Pieta,
completed in 1500.
• The painting, "American Gothic" depicts the sister and the dentist of American
artist Grant Wood as rural farm folk.
• The Taj Mahal was commissioned in 1630 by Shah Jahan to honour his wife
Mumtaz, who died in childbirth.
• The three primary colors are red, yellow and blue. The three secondary colors are
green, orange and purple.
• The world's largest art gallery is the Winter Palace and Hermitage in St.
Petersburg, Russia. Visitors would have to walk 15 miles to see the 322 galleries
which house nearly 3 million works of art.
• The world's largest Gothic cathedral is in New York City. It is the Cathedral of St.
John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue and 112th Street. The cathedral measures
 66

601 feet long, 146 feet wide, and has a transept measuring 320 feet from end to
end.
• There are 132 rooms in the US White House.
• Until the time of Michelangelo, many sculptors colored their statues, and most
from ancient Greece and Rome at one time had been painted or "polychromed."
Over the course of years, rain washed the colors off the marble.
• Work on St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, began in 1506. Construction took over a
century, reaching completion in 1612.
• X-ray technology has shown there are 3 different versions of the Mona Lisa under
the visible one.

Facts about Books and Literature

• "The Mouse Trap," by Agatha Christie is the longest running play in history.
• All of the roles in Shakespeare's plays were originally acted by men and boys. In
England at that time, it wasn't proper for females to appear on stage.
• All the proceeds earned from James M. Barrie's book Peter Pan were bequeathed
to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for the Sick Children in London.
• Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the
bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog" in history.
• Barbara Cartland is the world's top-selling author with over 500 million copies
sold.
• Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in
the 1600s by a translator. It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at
the stairway, when the prince tried to follow her.
• Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham after his editor dared him to write a book
using fewer than 50 different words.
• Edgar Allan Poe introduced mystery fiction's first fictional detective, Auguste C.
Dupin, in his 1841 story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
• Frank Baum named "Oz" after a file cabinet in his office. One cabinet was labeled
"A to N," and the second was labeled "O to Z."
• Ghosts appear in four Shakespearian plays: Julius Caesar, Richard III, Hamlet and
Macbeth.
 67

• Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published March 20, 1852. It
was the first American novel to sell one million copies.
• John Milton used 8,000 different words in his poem, Paradise Lost.
• Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind between 1926 and 1929. In her early
drafts, the main character was named "Pansy O'Hara" and the O'Hara plantation
we know as Tara was called "Fountenoy Hall."
• Of the 2200 persons quoted in the current edition of Bartlett's Familiar
Quotations, only 164 are women.
• Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant detective, arrived on the
mystery scene in the late nineteenth century in "A Study in Scarlet" (1887).
• Professor Moriarty was Sherlock Holmes' arch-enemy.
• Sherlock Holmes never said 'Elementary, my dear Watson.'
• The occupations of the three men in a tub were butcher, baker, and candlestick
maker. (The reference is to Jerome K. Jerome’s book Three Men in a Tub).
• The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, 'Aladdin was a little
Chinese boy.'
• The Three Musketeers’ names are Porthos, Athos, and Aramis (D'Artagnan joins
them later).

Facts about Geography

• A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a
cathedral.
• About one-tenth of the earth's surface is permanently covered with ice.
• According to National Geographic, Mt. Everest grows about 4 millimeters a year:
the two tectonic plates of Asia and India, which collided 50 million years ago to
form the Himalayas, continue to press against each other, causing the Himalayan
peaks to grow slightly each year
• Alaska and California, with 8 each, are the US states with the most national park
sites.
• All gondolas in Venice, Italy must be painted black, unless they belong to a high
official.
• As of Dec. 31, 2000, the number of climbers summiting Mt. Everest reached
1314, and the number of deaths on the mountain reached 167.
• At 840,000 square miles, Greenland is the largest island in the world. It is three
times the size of Texas. By comparison, Iceland is only 39,800 square miles.
• Australia is the only country that is also a continent.
• Canada is an Indian word meaning 'Big Village'.
• Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was
founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.
 68

• Devon is the only county in Great Britain to have two coasts.

• Disney World in Orlando, Florida covers 30,500 acres (46 square miles), which
makes it twice the size of the island of Manhattan, New York.
• Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
• Europe has no deserts—it is the only continent without one.
• Forty-six percent of the world's water is in the Pacific Ocean; that's around 6
sextillion gallons of water. The Atlantic has 23.9 percent; the Indian, 20.3; the
Arctic, 3.7 percent.
• French was the official language of England for over 600 years.
• Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first city in the US to add fluoride to its piped
water.
• Hawaii is the only US state that grows coffee. Hawaii officially became apart of
the US on June 14, 1900.
• If Monaco's ruling house of Grimaldi should ever be without an heir (male or
female), the country will cease to be a sovereign state.
• In 1771 the kingdom of Poland was larger in are than any other European country
except Russia and had a bigger population than any other European country
except France.
• In the Great Seal of the US, the eagle grasps 13 arrows and an olive branch.
• It is forbidden for aircraft to fly over the Taj Mahal.
• Japan is the world's leading importer of iron ore.
• Wenchuan, China is the highest city in the world, at 16,730 feet about sea level.
This city is part of Sichuan Province, southwest China. (La Paz, Bolivia, at
11,900 feet above sea-level, is the second-highest large city in the world).
• Lake Pontchartrain Causeway at New Orleans, Louisiana, is the world's largest
bridge. It is almost 24 miles (about 38 kilometers) long.
• Maine is the only state in the United States whose name has one syllable.
• Mexico City is the oldest capital city in the Americas. It is sinking at a rate of 6 to
8 inches a year because it's built on top of an underground reservoir. Wells are
drawing out more and more water for the city's growing population of more than
15 million people.
• More water flows over Niagara Falls every year than over any other falls on earth.
• Most landfilled trash retains its original weight, volume, and form for 40 years.
• New Jersey is the US state with the greatest number of hazardous waste sites: 96
so far.
• Quito in Ecuador, South America, is said to have the most pleasant climate in the
world. It is called the 'Land of Eternal Spring.' The temperature rarely drops
below 46 degrees Fahrenheit during the night, or exceeds 72 degrees Fahrenheit
during the day.
• St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest city in the US.
• Talking on a cellular phone while driving is against the law in Israel as also India.
• The first US zoo was built in Philadelphia, PA, in 1876.
• The abbreviation 'ORD' for Chicago's O'Hare airport comes from the old name
'Orchard Field.'
 69

• The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's oceans. It is mostly
covered by solid ice, ice floes, and icebergs
• The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.
• The border between Canada and the U.S. is the world's longest frontier. It
stretches 3,987 miles (6,416 km).
• The city of St. Petersburg, Russia, was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, hence
the name, St. Petersburg. But it wasn't always that simple. In 1914, at the
beginning of World War I, Russian leaders felt that Petersburg was too German-
sounding. So they changed the name of the city to Petrograd, to make it more
Russian-sounding. Then, in 1924, the country's Soviet Communist leaders wanted
to honour the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir I. Lenin. The city of
Petrograd became Leningrad and was known as Leningrad until 1991 when the
new Russian legislators – no longer Soviet Communists – wanted the city to
reflect their change of government. The city was then renamed St. Petersburg.
• The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133
B.C. London, England reached the mark in 1810 and New York, USA made it in
1875. Today, there are over 300 cities in the world that boast a population in
excess of 1 million.
• The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during
times of peace or war. A portion of the flag is blue, while the other is red. The
blue portion is flown on top in time of peace and the red portion is flown in war
time.
• The five Great Lakes are Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Erie
and Lake Ontario.
• The Great Lakes are the most important inland waterway in North America. All
the lakes, except Lake Michigan, which lies entirely in the United States, are
shared by the United States and Canada and form part of the border between these
countries.
• The Great Lakes contain 6 quadrillion gallons of fresh water, one-fifth of the
world's fresh surface water. The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater
lakes in the world.
• The Great Lakes have a combined area of 94,230 square miles - larger than the
states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and
Vermont combined.
• The Hollywood sign was first erected in 1923. Conceived as a real estate ad, it
originally read Hollywoodland. The sign stands 50 feet tall, stretches 450 feet
across, and weighs 450,000 pounds.
• The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.
• The Jordanian city of Amman was once called Philadelphia.
• The largest body of fresh water in terms of area is Lake Superior. In terms of
volume, it is Lake Baikal, in Siberia.
• The largest desert in the world, the Sahara, is 3,500,000 square miles.
• The largest US city in area is Juneau, Alaska, which covers 3,108 square miles.
Los Angeles covers only 458.2 square miles.
• The Ohio River forms at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela.
 70

• The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.

• The original name of Los Angeles was El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de
los Angeles del rio Porciuncula, translating into: The Village of our Lady the
Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River.
• The Pantheon is the largest building from ancient Rome that survives intact.
• The river Danube empties into the Black Sea.
• The San Diego Zoo in California has the largest collection of animals in the
world.
• The Seven Hills of Rome are the Palatine (on which the original city was built),
the Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, and Aventine.
• The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn’s Island (of Mutiny on the
Bounty fame), in Polynesia, at just 1.75 square miles.
• The tallest monument built in the US, the Gateway Arch, in St. Louis, Missouri, is
630 feet tall.
• The US city with the highest murder rate is Detroit, with 45.3 homicides per
100,000 people.
• The Vatican's Swiss Guard still wears a uniform designed by Michelangelo in the
early 16th century.
• The water in the Great Salt Lake of Utah is more than four times as salty as any
ocean.
• The wettest spot in the world is located on the island of Kauai. Mt. Waialeale
consistently records rainfall at the rate of nearly 500 inches per year.
• The world's smallest independent state is the Vatican City, with a population of
about 1,000 - and a zero birthrate.
• The world's highest railway used to be in Peru. The Central Railway climbs to
15,694 feet in the Galera tunnel, 108 miles from Lima. Tourists take it to get to
the ruins of Machu Picchu. Today, it is the one linking the Tibetan capital Lhasa
with Golmud in Qinghai, China. The first trains were flagged off on 1 July 2006.
At the Tangula Pass, its highest point, the line reaches an altitude of 5072 metres.
Passengers can use on-board piped oxygen to breathe if they feel dizzy.
• The longest railway in the world is the Trans-Siberian Railway or Trans-Siberian
Railroad. Built between 1891 and 1916, this network of railways connects
European Russia with Russian Far East provinces. It is 9,288.2 kilometres (5,787
miles) long and spans 8 time zones.
• The world's longest suspension bridge opened to traffic on April 5, 1998. The
3,911-meter (12,831-feet) Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is 580 meters (1,900 feet) longer
than the Humber Bridge in England, the previous record holder.
 71

Facts about Space & the Universe

• All the moons of the Solar System are named after Greek and Roman mythology,
except the five biggest moons of Uranus, which are named after Shakespearean
characters: Oberon, Titania, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel. Other moons are named
after characters from the works of Alexander Pope.
• Astronauts brought back about 800 pounds of lunar rock to Earth. Most of it has
not been analyzed.
• In 1959, the Soviet space probe "Luna Two" became the first manmade object to
reach the moon when it crashed on the lunar surface.
• In 1968, "Apollo Seven," the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with
astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.
• Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, and is larger
than Mercury.
• Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest volcano in our solar system.
• On a clear night in the Northern Hemisphere, the naked eye can discern some
5000 stars.
• On February 7, 1969 a meteorite weighing over a ton fell in Chihuahua, Mexico.
• Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
• Robert Goddard, a scientist and holder of 214 patents, fired the first rocket using
liquid propellant in 1926.
 72

• Sunday, July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon,
Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin was the second. They were members of Apollo 11, and
landed in the Sea of Tranquility. The Lunar Excursion Module was named the
"Eagle." Astronaut Michael Collins stayed onboard the mother ship, "Columbia."
• The Apollo 11 plaque left on the Moon says, "Here men from the planet Earth
first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. / WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL
MANKIND."
• The first American satellite in orbit, Explorer I, was launched February 1, 1958.
• The first man-made object to circle the earth was Sputnik I, launched in 1957.
• The International Space Station weighs about 500 tons and is the same size as a
football field.
• The three most recently discovered planets were Uranus in 1781, Neptune in
1846, and Pluto (now reclassified as a dwarf planet) in 1930.
• Uranus is the only planet that rotates on its side.
• What we call the sky is merely the limit of our vision into the atmosphere. The
sky, like the horizon, is always as far away as one can see.

Facts about Cuisine & Chocolate

• The botanical name of the chocolate plant is Theobramba cacao, which means
"Food of the Gods."
• No wonder you love it. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural
substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in
love.
• The daughter of confectioner Leo Hirschfield is commemorated in the name of
the sweet he invented: Although his daughter's real name was Clara, she went by
the nickname Tootsie, and in her honour, her doting father named his chewy
chocolate logs Tootsie Rolls.
• The earliest cocoa plantations were established in 600 AD, in the Yucatan, by the
Mayans.
• The fruit of the Cacao tree grow directly from the trunk. They look like small
melons, and the pulp inside contains 20 to 50 seeds or beans. It takes about 400
beans to make a pound of chocolate.
• The Imperial torte, a square chocolate cake with five thin layers of almond paste,
was created by a master pastry chef at the court of Emperor Franz Joseph (1830 -
1916).
 73

• The melting point of cocoa butter is just below the human body temperature,
which is why it literally melts in your mouth.
• The Swiss consume more chocolate per capita than any other nation on earth.
That's 22 pounds each compared to 11 pounds per person in the United States.
• The term "white chocolate" is a misnomer. Under U.S. Federal Standards of
Identity, real chocolate must contain chocolate liquor. "White" chocolate contains
no chocolate liquor.
• A 1.5 oz. milk chocolate bar has only 220 calories.
• A 1.75 oz. serving of potato chips has 230 calories.
• A recent study indicates when men crave food, they tend to crave fat and salt.
When women crave food, they tend to desire chocolate.
• American and Russian space flights have always included chocolate.
• American chocolate manufacturers use about 1.5 billion pounds of milk — a
consumption surpassed only by the cheese and ice cream industries.
• Americans consumed over 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate in 2001, which is
almost half of the total world's production.
• Aztec emperor Montezuma drank 50 golden goblets of hot chocolate every day. It
was thick, dyed red and flavoured with chili peppers.
• Bittersweet chocolate is what is usually called for in baking. It contains more
chocolate liquor (at least 35%) and less sugar than sweet chocolate. Semisweet
chocolate contains 15% - 35% chocolate liquor.
• Cocoa butter is the natural fat of the cocoa bean. It has a delicate chocolate aroma,
but is very bitter tasting. It is used to give body, smoothness, and flavour to eating
chocolate.
• Cole Porter, the legendary American composer and song-writer, doted on fudge.
He had nine pounds of it shipped to him each month from his hometown.
• Cacao trees can only be cultivated in tropical climates, 20 degrees north or south
of the equator. Principal growing areas include West Africa, Brazil, Ecuador and
the Indies. Generally, it takes five years before trees begin bearing fruit in the
form of pods. Each pod contains an average of 20 to 40 cream-colored cocoa
beans. Nearly 400 beans are required to make a pound of chocolate liquor, the
semi-liquid mass produced by grinding the beans. A non-alcoholic substance,
chocolate liquor is the basis of all chocolate and cocoa products.
• Hawaii is the only US state that grows cacao beans to produce chocolate.
• In Hershey, Pennsylvania, the streetlights along "Chocolate Avenue" are in the
shape of Hershey Kisses.
• In the United States, approximately seven billion pounds of chocolate and candy
are manufactured each year.
• It's a common myth that chocolate aggravates acne. Experiments conducted at the
University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Naval Academy found that consumption
of chocolate – even frequent daily dietary intake – had no effect on the incidence
of acne. Professional dermatologists today do not link acne with diet.
• One plain milk chocolate candy bar has more protein than a banana.
• Per capita, the Irish eat more chocolate than Americans, Swedes, Danes, French,
and Italians.
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• Chocolate kills parrots! Pet parrots can eat virtually any common "people-food"
except for chocolate and avocados. Both of these are highly toxic to the parrot and
can be fatal.
• Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and 20
percent of the world's peanuts.
• Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in
Alfred Hitchcock's movie, Psycho, which actually took 7 days to shoot.
• Ten percent of U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of iron is found in one ounce
of baking chocolate or cocoa. Chocolate also contains Vitamins A1, B1, B2, C, D
and E as well as calcium, potassium, sodium and iron.
• The American Heart Association recommends that daily cholesterol intake not
exceed 300 mg. A chocolate bar is actually low in cholesterol. A 1.65 oz. bar
contains only 12 mg! A one oz piece of cheddar cheese contains 30 mg of
cholesterol - more than double the amount found in a chocolate bar.
• The theobromine in chocolate that stimulates the cardiac and nervous systems is
too much for dogs, especially smaller pups. A chocolate bar is poisonous to dogs
and can even be lethal.
• There were 1,040 US manufacturing establishments producing chocolate and
cocoa products in 2001. These establishments employed 45,913 people and
shipped $12 billion worth of goods that year. California led the nation in the
number of chocolate and cocoa manufacturing establishments (with 116) followed
by Pennsylvania (with 107).
* US Census Bureau, October, 2003

CAFFEINE CONTENT OF CHOCOLATE…

White chocolate 3ounce bar or 1 cup chips
Caffeine 0.0 mg

Theobromine 0.0 mg

Baking chocolate, unsweetened 1 ounce

Caffeine 57.120 mg

Theobromine 346.360 mg

Semisweet chocolate 1 ounce (chocolate chips)

Caffeine 17.577 mg

Theobromine 137.781 mg

Milk Chocolate 1.55 ounce bar

Caffeine 11.440 mg

Theobromine 74.360 mg
 75

Cocoa mix 1 envelope/3 heaping tsp

Caffeine 5.040 mg

Theobromine 169.680 mg

Cocoa powder, unsweetened 1 tbsp

Caffeine 12.420 mg
Theobromine 111.078 mg

• There are 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of brewed

coffee, 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa, 5 to 10 milligrams in one
ounce of bittersweet chocolate, and 5 milligrams in one ounce of milk chocolate.

Chocolate Timeline:

• Columbus brought cacao (chocolate) beans back to Spain on his fourth voyage in
1502.
• Chocolate was introduced into the United States in 1765 when cocoa beans were
brought from the West Indies to Dorchester, Massachusetts.
• 1824: John Cadbury, an English Quaker, begins roasting and grinding chocolate
beans to sell in his tea and coffee shop.
• The world's first chocolate candy was produced in 1828 by Dutch chocolate-
maker Conrad J. Van Houten. He pressed the fat from roasted cacao beans to
produce cocoa butter, to which he added cocoa powder and sugar.
• In 1842, Cadbury's Chocolate Company in England creates the first chocolate bar.
• German chocolate cake did not originate in Germany. In 1852, Sam German
developed a sweet baking bar for Baker's Chocolate Co. The product was named
in his honour—Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate.
• 1875: A Swiss chocolate maker, Daniel Peter, mixes Henri Nestle's condensed
milk with chocolate and the two men found a company to manufacture the first
milk chocolate.
• 1894: Milton Hershey adds a line of chocolate to his caramel manufacturing
business. Soon he invents the Hershey Bar by experimenting with milk chocolate.
Hershey's Cocoa appears next.
• 1896: Leonard Hirschfield invents the Tootsie Roll, named after his daughter.
1897: Brownies are first mentioned in print, listed for sale in the Sears, Roebuck
and Co. catalogue.
• In 1900, Queen Victoria sent her New Year's greetings to the British troops
stationed in South Africa during the Boer War in the form of a specially moulded
chocolate bar.
• About 1900: A machine called the enrober is invented to replace the task of hand-
dipping chocolate.
• 1930: Franklin Mars invents the Snickers Bar.
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• 1939: Nestle introduces semisweet chocolate morsels.

• 1940: The Mars Company invents M&M's for soldiers going to World War II.

Facts about Bananas…

Want to go bananas, like Herbie? These facts about bananas just might do that!

• The phrase 'going bananas' was first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary,
and is linked to the fruit's 'comic' associations with monkeys.
• The word 'banan' is Arabic for ‘finger’.
• The origin of bananas is traced back to the Malaysian jungles of Southeast Asia,
where there are so many varieties and names for the banana.
 77

• Some horticulturists suspect that the banana was the earth's first fruit. Banana
plants have been in cultivation long before recorded history began.
• One of the first records of bananas dates back to Alexander the Great's conquest
of India, where he first discovered bananas in 327 B.C.
• India is by far the largest world producer of bananas, growing 16.5 million tonnes
in 2002, followed by Brazil which produced 6.5 million tonnes of bananas in
2002. To the Indians, the flower from the banana tree is sacred. During religious
and important ceremonies such as weddings, banana flowers are tied around the
head, for they believe this will bring good luck.
• 3 medium size bananas weigh approximately 1 pound.
• A cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10 to 20 bananas, which are
known as fingers.
• As bananas ripen, the starch in the fruit turns to sugar. Therefore, the riper the
banana the sweeter it will taste.
• Banana plants are the largest plants on earth without a woody stem. They are
actually giant herbs of the same family as lilies, orchids and palms.
• Bananas are a good source of vitamin C, potassium and dietary fiber.
• Bananas are America's #1 fruit.
• Bananas are available all the year round; they are harvested every day of the year.
• Bananas are great for athletic and fitness activity because they replenish necessary
carbohydrates, glycogen and body fluids burned during exercise.
• In 1516, Friar Tomas sailed to the Caribbean bringing banana roots with him; and
planted bananas in the rich, fertile soil of the tropics, thus beginning the banana's
future in American life.
• Bananas were officially introduced to the American public at the 1876
Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Each banana was wrapped in foil and sold for
10 cents. Before that time, bananas came to America on the decks of sailing ships
as sailors took a few stems home after traveling in the Caribbean.
• Bananas are not grown commercially in the continental United States. They are
grown in Latin and South America. They originally came from countries like
Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, Panama and Guatemala.
• Bananas are one of the few fruits that ripen best off the plant. If left on the plant,
the fruit splits open and the pulp has a "cottony" texture and flavour. Even in
tropical growing areas, bananas for domestic consumption are cut green and
stored in moist shady places to ripen slowly.
• The banana plant does not grow from a seed but rather from a rhizome or bulb.
Each fleshy bulb will sprout new shoots year after year.
• Bananas have no fat, cholesterol or sodium.
• Each banana plant bears only one stem of fruit. To produce a new stem, only two
shoots - known as the daughter and the granddaughter - are allowed to grow and
be cultivated from the main plant.
• In 2001, there were more than 300 banana-related accidents in Britain, most of
them involving people slipping on banana skins.
• In Eastern Africa, you can buy banana beer. This beer is brewed from bananas.
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• In some lands, bananas were considered the principal food. Early travelers and
settlers would carry the roots of the plant as they migrated to the Middle East and
Africa. From there Portuguese traders carried banana roots to the Canary Islands,
where bananas are still grown commercially.
• In South East Asia, the banana leaf is used to wrap food (in the place of plastic
bags and cling wraps), providing a unique flavour and aroma to nasi lemak and
the Indian banana leaf rice.
• Over 96% of American households purchase bananas at least once each month.
• The average American consumes over 28 pounds of bananas each year.
• The banana market is controlled by five large corporations - Chiquita (25%), Dole
(25%), Del Monte (15%), Noboa (11%) and Fyffes (8%). Most bananas are
grown on huge plantations, controlled by these corporate giants. The remaining
banana production for export comes from small banana producers.
• The banana plant reaches its full height of 15 to 30 feet in about one year. The
trunk of a banana plant is made of sheaths of overlapping leaves, tightly wrapped
around each other like celery stalks.
• There are more than 500 varieties of banana in the world: The most common
kinds are Dwarf Cavendish, Valery, and Williams Hybrid bananas. Other types of
bananas include Apple and a small red banana called the Red Jamaica. A large
type of banana called the plantain is hard and starchy and is almost eaten as a
cooked vegetable. The Cavendish is the most common variety of bananas now
imported to the United States. The Cavendish is a shorter, stubbier plant than
earlier varieties. It was developed to resist plant diseases, insects and windstorms
better than its predecessors. The Cavendish fruit is of medium size, has a
creamier, smooth texture, and a thinner peel than earlier varieties.
• There is no such thing as a banana tree. Bananas grow on plants.
• Today's commercial bananas are scientifically classified into the genus Musa of
the Musaceae family.

…and why they are good for you!

• Instant energy: Containing three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose
combined with fiber, a banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of
energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a
strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with
the world's leading athletes.
• Providing energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help
overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a
must to add to our daily diet.
• Depression: According to a recent survey amongst people suffering from
depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas
contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known
to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.
 79

• PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood
glucose levels, which can affect your mood.
• Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the
blood and so helps in cases of anemia.
• Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low
in salt, making it the perfect way to beat high blood pressure. So much so, the US
Food and Drug Administration allow the banana industry to make official claims
for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.
• Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped
through their exams by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to
boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can
assist learning by making pupils more alert.
• Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal
bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.
• Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana
milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the
help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes
and re-hydrates your system.
• Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer
from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.
• Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar
levels up and avoid morning sickness.
• Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected
area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at
reducing swelling and irritation.
• Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.
• Overweight and at work…? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria
found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps.
Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more
likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-
induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on
high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.
• Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because
of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without
distress in over-chronicler cases.
• Acidity: It neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of
the stomach.
• Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit t hat
can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In
Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born
with a cool temperature.
• Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because
they contain the natural mood enhancer, tryptophan.
 80

• Smoking: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12
they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the
body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.
• Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends
oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are
stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These
can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.
• Strokes: According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine," eating
bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as
40%!
• Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart,
take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out.
Carefully hold the skin in place with a bit of plaster or surgical tape!

So, the humble banana really is a natural remedy for many ills!

• Compared to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three
times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other
vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value
foods around.
• So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, "A banana a
day keeps the doctor away!"

Facts about Coffee

Can’t do without your morning cup of steaming java? Here are 111 facts that’ll keep the
hot stuff coming…
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• "Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love" - Turkish
Proverb
• 52% of Americans drink coffee.
• A acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That
amounts to approximately 2000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.
• A scientific report from the University of California found that the steam rising from
a cup of coffee contains the same amounts of antioxidants as three oranges. The
antioxidants are heterocyclic compounds which prevents cancer and heart disease. It's
good for you!
• Adding sugar to coffee is believed to have started in 1715, in the court of King Louis
XIV, the French monarch known as the ‘Sun King’.
• Advertisements for coffee in London in 1657 claimed that the beverage was a cure for
scurvy, gout and other ills.
• After the decaffeinating process, processing companies no longer throw the caffeine
away; they sell it to pharmaceutical companies.
• After they are roasted, and when the coffee beans begin to cool, they release about
700 chemical substances that make up the vaporizing aromas.
• An arabica coffee tree can produce up to 12 pounds of coffee a year, depending on
soil and climate.
• Australians consume 60% more coffee than tea, a six-fold increase since 1940.
• Beethoven, who was a coffee lover, was so particular about his coffee that he always
counted out 60 beans for each cup when he prepared his brew.
• Before roasting, some green coffee beans are stored for years, and experts believe that
certain beans improve with age, when stored properly.
• Before the first French cafe in the late 1700's, coffee was sold by street vendors in
Europe, in the Arab fashion. The Arabs were the forerunners of the sidewalk espresso
carts of today.
• Brazil accounts for almost ⅓rd of the world's coffee production, producing over 3⅓rd
billion pounds of coffee each year.
• By 1850, the manual coffee grinder found its way to most upper middle class kitchens
of the U.S.
• Caffeine is on the International Olympic Committee list of prohibited substances.
Athletes who test positive for more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of
urine may be banned from the Olympic Games. This level may be reached after
drinking about 5 cups of coffee.
• Citrus has been added to coffee for several hundred years.
• Coffee as a medicine reached its highest and lowest point in the 1600's in England.
Wildly imaginative concoctions included a mixture of coffee and an assortment of
heated butter, honey, and oil as medicines administered to the sick. Tea soon replaced
coffee as the national beverage.
• Coffee beans are similar to grapes that produce wine in that they are affected by the
temperature, soil conditions, altitude, rainfall, drainage and degree of ripeness when
picked.
• Coffee is generally roasted between 400F and 425F. The longer it is roasted, the
darker the roast. Roasting time is usually from ten to twenty minutes.
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• Coffee is graded according to 3 criteria: Bean quality (Altitude and Species) Quality
of preparation Size of bean
• Coffee is grown commercially in over forty-five countries throughout the world.
• Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed
each year.
• Coffee lends its popularity to the fact that just about all flavours mix well with it.
• Coffee Recipe from: 'Kitchen Directory and American Housewife' (1844)
"Use a tablespoonful ground to a pint of boiling water [less than a quarter of what we
would use today]. Boil in tin pot twenty to twenty-five minutes. If boiled longer, it
will not taste fresh and lively. Let stand four or five minutes to settle, pour off
grounds into a coffee pot or urn. Put fish skin or isinglass size of a nine-pence in pot
when put on to boil or else the white and shell of half an egg to a couple of quarts of
coffee."
• Coffee represents 75% of all the caffeine consumed in the United States.
• Coffee sacks are usually made of hemp and weigh approximately 132 pounds when
they are full of green coffee beans. It takes over 600,000 beans to fill a coffee sack.
• Coffee trees are evergreen and grow to heights above 15 feet but are normally pruned
to around 8 feet in order to facilitate harvesting.
• Coffee trees are self-pollinating
• Coffee trees produce highly aromatic, short-lived flowers producing a scent between
jasmine and orange. These blossoms produce cranberry-sized coffee cherries. It takes
four to five years to yield a commercial harvest.
• Coffee was first known in Europe as Arabian Wine.
• Coffee, along with beer and peanut butter, is one of the "ten most recognizable
odours."
• Coffee, as a world commodity, is second only to oil.
• Commercially flavoured coffee beans are flavoured after they are roasted and
partially cooled to around 100 degrees. Then the flavours applied, when the coffee
beans' pores are open and therefore more receptive to flavour absorption.
• Dark roasted coffees actually have LESS caffeine than medium roasts. The longer a
coffee is roasted, the more caffeine burns off during the process.
• During the American Civil War, the Union soldiers were issued eight pounds of
ground roasted coffee as part of their personal ration of one hundred pounds of food.
And they had another choice: ten pounds of green coffee beans.
• During World War II, the U.S. government used 260 million pounds of instant coffee.
• Finely grinding coffee beans and boiling them in water is still known as "Turkish
Coffee." It is still made this way today in Turkey and Greece or anywhere else
Turkish Coffee is served.
• Flavoured coffees are created after the roasting process by applying flavoured oils
specially created to use on coffee beans.
• Frederick the Great had his coffee made with champagne and a bit of mustard.
• Hard Bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet.
• Hawaii is the only state of the United States in which coffee is commercially grown.
Hawaii features an annual Kona Festival, coffee picking contest. Each year the
 83

winner becomes a state celebrity. In Hawaii coffee is harvested between November

and April.
• Hills Brothers Ground Vacuum Packed Coffee was first introduced in 1900.
• Iced coffee in a can has been popular in Japan since 1945.
• If you like your espresso coffee sweet, you should use granulated sugar, which
dissolves more quickly, rather than sugar cubes; white sugar rather than brown sugar
or candy; and real sugar rather than sweeteners which alter the taste of the coffee.
• In 1670, Dorothy Jones of Boston was granted a license to sell coffee, and so became
the first American coffee trader.
• In 1727, as a result of seedlings smuggled from Paris, coffee plants first were
cultivated in Brazil. Brazil is presently by far the world's largest producer of coffee.
• In 1900, coffee was often delivered door-to-door in the United States, by horse-pulled
wagons.
• In 1990, over 4 billion dollars of coffee was imported into the United States.
• In early America, coffee was usually taken between meals and after dinner.
• In Italy, espresso is considered so essential to daily life that the price is regulated by
the government.
• In Japan, coffee shops are called Kissaten.
• In Sumatra, workers on coffee plantations gather the world's most expensive coffee
by following a gourmet marsupial who consumes only the choicest coffee beans. By
picking through what he excretes, they obtain the world's most expensive coffee
-'Kopi Luwak', which sells for over $100 per pound.
• In the 14th century, the Arabs started to cultivate coffee plants. The first commercially
grown and harvested coffee originated in the Arabian Peninsula near the port of
Mocha.
• In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to
keep his family's pot filled with coffee.
• In the last three centuries, 90% of all people living in the Western world have
switched from tea to coffee.
• In the year 1763, there were over 200 coffee shops in Venice.
• In the year 1790, there were two firsts in the United States; the first wholesale coffee
roasting company, and the first newspaper advertisement featuring coffee.
• Irish cream and Hazelnut are the most popular whole bean coffee flavourings.
• It was during the 1600's that the first coffee mill made its debut in London.
• Italians do not drink espresso during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and
is given its own time.
• Italy now has over 200,000 coffee bars, and still growing.
• Jamaica Blue Mountain is often regarded as the best coffee in the world.
• Japan ranks Number 3 in the world for coffee consumption.
• Large doses of coffee can be lethal. Ten grams, or 100 cups over 4 hours, can kill the
average human.
• Latte is the Italian word for milk. So if you request a ‘latte' in Italy, you'll be served a
glass of milk.
• Lloyds of London began as Edward Lloyd's Coffeehouse.
 84

• Milk as an additive to coffee became popular in the 1680's, when a French physician
recommended that cafe au lait be used for medicinal purposes.
• Modern coffee brewing methods use approximately 200° water.
• October 1st is the official Coffee Day in Japan.
• Only about 20% of harvested coffee beans are considered to be a premium bean of
the highest quality.
• Over 10,000 coffee cafes plus several thousand vending machines with both hot and
cold coffee serve the needs of Tokyo alone.
• Over 5 million people in Brazil are employed by the coffee trade. Most of those are
involved with the cultivation and harvesting of more than 3 billion coffee plants.
• Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator
between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
• Over-roasted coffee beans are very flammable during the roasting process.
• Raw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in many parts of
Africa.
• Regular coffee drinkers have about one-third less asthma symptoms than those non-
coffee drinkers. So says a Harvard researcher who studied 20,000 people.
• Retail espresso vendors report an increase in decaffeinated sales in the month of
January due to New Year's resolutions to decrease caffeine intake.
• Roasted coffee beans start to lose small amounts of flavour within two weeks. Ground
coffee begins to lose its flavour in one hour. Brewed coffee and espresso begins to
lose flavour within minutes.
• Scandinavia has the world's highest per capita annual coffee consumption, 26.4
pounds. Italy has an annual consumption per capita of only 10 pounds.
• Special studies conducted about the human body revealed it will usually absorb up to
about 300 milligrams of caffeine at a given time. About 4 normal cups. Additional
amounts are just cast off, providing no further stimulation. Also, the human body
dissipates 20% of the caffeine in the system each hour.
• The 2,000 Arabica coffee cherries it takes to make a roasted pound of coffee are
normally picked by hand as they ripen. Since each cherry contains two beans, it takes
about 4,000 Arabica beans to make a pound of roasted coffee.
• The Arabica is the original coffee plant. It still grows wild in Ethiopia. The arabica
coffee tree is an evergreen and in the wild will grow to a height between 14 and 20
feet.
• The Arabs are generally believed to be the first to brew coffee.
• The aroma and flavour derived from coffee is a result of the little beads of the oily
substance called coffee essence, coffeol, or coffee oil. This is not really an oil, since it
dissolves in water.
• The average age of an Italian barista is 48 years old. A barista is a respected job title
in Italy.
• The average annual coffee consumption of the American adult is 26.7 gallons, or over
400 cups.
• The average cup of coffee contains more than 1000 different chemical components,
none of which is tasted in isolation but only as part of the overall flavour.
 85

• The Civil War in the United States elevated the popularity of coffee to new heights.
Soldiers went to war with coffee beans as a primary ration.
• The coffee filter was invented in 1908 by a German homemaker, Melitta Benz, when
she lined a tin cup with blotter paper to filter the coffee grinds.
• The coffee tree produces its first full crop when it is about 5 years old. Thereafter it
produces consistently for 15 or 20 years.
• The drip pot was invented by a Frenchman around 1800.
• The Europeans first added chocolate to their coffee in the 1600's.
• The first coffee drinkers, the Arabs, flavoured their coffee with spices during the
brewing process.
• The first commercial espresso machine was manufactured in Italy in 1906.
• The first Parisian cafe opened in 1689 to serve coffee.
• The French philosopher, Voltaire, reportedly drank fifty cups of coffee a day.
• The heavy tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773, which caused the "Boston Tea
Party," resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. Drinking coffee was an
expression of freedom.
• The largest coffee importer center in the U.S. is located in the city of New Orleans,
LA.
• The most widely accepted legend associated to the discovery of coffee is of the
goatherder named Kaldi of Ethiopia. Around the year 800-850 A.D., Kaldi was
amazed as he noticed his goats behaving in a frisky manner after eating the leaves and
berries of a coffee shrub. And, of course, he had to try them!
• The United States is the world's largest consumer of coffee, importing 16 to 20
million bags annually (2.5 million pounds), representing one-third of all coffee
exported. More than half of the United States population consumes coffee. The
typical coffee drinker has 3.4 cups of coffee per day. That translates into more than
450,000,000 cups of coffee daily.
• The vast majority of coffee brands available to consumers are blends of different
beans.
• The word "tip" dates back to the old London coffeehouses. Conspicuously placed
brass boxes etched with the inscription, "To Insure Promptness," encouraged
customers to pay for efficient service. The resulting acronym, TIP, has become a
byword.
• The word 'cappuccino' is the result of several derivations, the original of which began
in 16th century. The Capuchin order of friars, established after 1525, played an
important role in bringing Catholicism back to Reformation Europe. Its Italian name
came from the long, pointed cowl, or cappuccino, derived from cappuccino, "hood,"
that was worn as part of the order's habit. The French version of cappuccino was
capuchin, from which came English Capuchin. In Italian cappuccino went on to
describe espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream, so called
because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin friar.
The first use of cappuccino in English is recorded in 1948 in a work about San
Francisco. There is also the story line that says that the term comes from the fact that
the coffee is dark, like the monk's robe, and the cap is likened to the color of the
monk's head.
 86

• There are about 30 milligrams of caffeine in the average chocolate bar, while a cup of
coffee contains around 100 to 150 milligrams.
• Those British are sophisticated people, in almost everything except their choice of
coffee. They still drink instant ten-to-one over fresh brewed.
• Turkey began to roast and grind the coffee bean in the 13 th Century, and some 300
years later, in the 1500's, the country had become the chief distributor of coffee, with
markets established in Egypt, Syria, Persia, and Venice, Italy.
• Until the 18th century, coffee was almost always boiled.
• Until the late 1800's, people roasted their coffee at home. Popcorn poppers and stove-
top frying pans were favoured.
• When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield consumable fruit.
• William Penn purchased a pound of coffee in New York in 1683 for $4.68.

Facts about entertainment:

Film, TV, cartoons, magazines, music & dance
 87

Here are 99 facts that will make you let go of the remote for a while…
1. Adjusting for inflation, Cleopatra (1963) is the most expensive movie ever made
to date. Its budget of $44 million is equivalent to 400 million 2007 dollars.
2. After six months at the off-Broadway New York Shakespeare Festival Theater,
Hair opened at the Biltmore Theater in New York, in 1968. It was the first rock-
musical to play on the Great White Way.
3. Although identified with Scotland, bagpipes are actually a very ancient
instrument, introduced into the British Isles by the Romans.
4. Meet the Press holds the record for the longest running weekly first-run
syndicated show in the history of television (NBC TV network). It has launched
on November 6, 1947 and still continues).
5. Because of TV censorship, actress Mariette Hartley was not allowed to show her
belly button on Gene Roddenberry's STAR TREK [episode #78 "All Our
Yesterdays" in 1969] but later Roddenberry got even when he gave Hartley "two"
belly buttons in the sci-fi movie Genesis II (1973).
6. Bette Midler, Barry Manilow and many other famous vocalists got their start in a
New York City club called The Continental Baths.
7. Between 1931 and 1969 Walt Disney collected thirty-five Oscars.
8. "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson was the first video to air on MTV by a black
artist.
9. By the time an American child finishes elementary school, she will have
witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on television.
10. C3P0 is the first character to speak in the motion picture Star Wars.
11. Captain Jean-Luc Picard's fish was named Livingston.
12. Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr.
Scott."
13. Carnegie Hall in New York City opened in 1891 with Tchaikovsky as guest
conductor.
14. Comedian/actor Billy Crystal portrayed Jodie Dallas, the first openly gay main
character on network television on ABC's Soap, which aired from 1977 to 1981.
15. Disneyland opened in 1955.
16. Donald Duck lives at 1313 Webfoot Walk, Duckburg, Calisota.
17. Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.
18. Elvis Presley made his first appearance on national television in 1956. He sang
Blue Suede Shoes and Heartbreak Hotel on "The Dorsey Brothers Show."
19. Even though they broke up 25 years ago, the Beatles continue to sell more records
each year than the Rolling Stones.
20. Gaetano Albert "Guy" Lombardo did the first New Year's Eve broadcast of "Auld
Lang Syne," from the Roosevelt Grill in New York City in 1929/1930.
21. George Harrison, with "My Sweet Lord," was the first Beatle to have a Number 1
hit single following the group's breakup.
22. Gunsmoke debuted on CBS-TV in 1955, and went on to become the longest-
running (20 years) series on television.
 88

23. "Happy Birthday" was the first song to be performed in outer space, sung by the
Apollo IX astronauts on March 8, 1969.
24. In 1920, 57% of Hollywood movies billed the female star above the leading man.
In 1990, only 18% had the leading lady given top billing.
25. In 1938 Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel sold all rights to the comic-strip character
Superman to their publishers for $130.
26. In 1962, the Mashed Potato, the Loco-Motion, the Frug, the Monkey, and the
Funky Chicken were popular dances.
27. In 1969, Midnight Cowboy became the first and only X-rated production to win
the Academy Award for Best Picture. (Its rating has since been changed to R.)
28. In 1987, Playtex premiered the first US TV commercials with real lingerie models
displaying their bras and underwear on national television.
29. In Disney's Fantasia, the Sorcerer's name is Yensid, which is Disney spelled
backward.
30. In October 1959, Elizabeth Taylor became the first Hollywood star to receive $1
million for a single picture. (For Cleopatra)
31. In the movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said. He said: "You played it
for her, you can play it for me. Play it!" Ilsa says "Play it, Sam. Play `As Time
Goes By’. "
32. In the US, federal law states that children's TV shows may contain only 10
minutes of advertising per hour and on weekends the limit is 10 and one-half
minutes.
33. In The Wizard of Oz the Scarecrow was looking for a brain, the Cowardly Lion
was looking for courage, and the Tin Man was looking for a heart.
34. Jethro Tull is not the name of the rock singer responsible for such songs as
"Aqualung" and "Thick as a Brick." Jethro Tull is the name of the band. The
singer is Ian Anderson. The original Jethro Tull was an English horticulturalist
who invented the seed drill.
35. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison were all 27 years old when they
died.
36. Little Jackie Paper was the name of Puff the Magic Dragon's human friend.
37. Mickey Mouse is known as 'Topolino' in Italy.
38. Movie detective Dirty Harry's badge number is 2211.
39. MTV (Music Television) made its debut at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981 The first
music-video shown on the rock-video cable channel was, appropriately, "Video
Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. MTV's original five veejays were Martha
Quinn, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, J.J. Jackson and Alan Hunter.
40. Napoleon Bonaparte is the historical figure most often portrayed in movies. He
has been featured in 194 movies, Jesus Christ in 152, and Abraham Lincoln in
137.
41. On February 9, 1993, "Dateline NBC" was forced to publicly apologize, and NBC
president Michael Gartner resigned for a scandal caused by "Dateline" rigging a
GM truck with explosives to simulate a "scientific" crash-test demo.
42. Penny Marshall was the first woman film director to have a film take in more than
$100 million at the box office - she accomplished this with the 1988 movie Big.
43. Pierce Brosnan's first appearance as James Bond was in Golden Eye (1995).
 89

44. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939, in Chicago, for the
Montgomery Ward department stores for a Christmas promotion. The lyrics were
written as a poem by Robert May, but weren't set to music until 1947. Gene Autry
recorded the hit song in 1949.
45. Santa's reindeer are: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and
Blitzen.
46. The "Miss America" pageant made its network TV debut on ABC (American
Broadcasting Corporation) in 1954. Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was
crowned the winner.
47. The "Twelve Days of Christmas" gifts: A partridge in a pear tree, two turtledoves,
three French hens, four calling birds, five gold rings, six geese laying, seven
swans swimming, eight maids milking, nine ladies dancing, ten lords leaping,
eleven pipers piping, and twelve drummers drumming. (There are 364 gifts
altogether)
48. The first Academy Awards ceremony to be telecast was the 25th, in 1953.
49. The first Academy Awards were presented in 1927.
50. The first annual Grammy Awards were awarded in 1959. The Record of the Year
was "Volare" by Domenico Modugno, the Album of the Year was "Peter Gunn"
by Henry Mancini and the winner of the best R&B performance was "Tequila" by
Champs.
51. The first CMA (Country Music Association) Awards, hosted by Sonny James and
Bobbie Gentry, were presented at an awards banquet and show in 1967.
52. The first comic strip was "The Yellow Kid," in the New York World in 1896. The
cartoonist was Richard Felton Outcault.
53. The first feature-length animated film, released by Disney Studios in 1937, was
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
54. The first inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 were Jimmie
Rodgers, Fred Rose and Hank Williams were.
55. The first interracial kiss on TV took place Nov. 22, 1968 between Captain James
T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt.Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) on an episode of "Star
Trek."
56. The first kiss in a movie was between May Irwin and John Rice in "The Widow
Jones," in 1896.
57. The first live televised murder was in 1963, when Jack Ruby killed JFK's alleged
assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald while millions of viewers watched.
58. The first performance of Handel's "Messiah" was on April 13, 1742 at the New
Music rooms in Fishamble St., Dublin. Because of the demand for space, the men
were asked not to wear their swords and the ladies not to wear hooped skirts.
59. The first presidential news conference filmed for TV was in 1955. Eisenhower
was the president.
60. The first televised presidential debate was September 26, 1960, between Nixon
and Kennedy.
61. The first time the "f-word" was spoken in a movie was by Marianne Faithfull in
the 1968 film, "I'll Never Forget Whatshisname." In Brian De Palma's 1984
movie, "Scarface," the word is spoken 206 times - an average of once every 29
seconds.
 90

62. The first winner of the Academy Award for best picture, and the only silent film
to achieve that honour, was the 1927 film, "Wings."
63. The Seven Dwarfs are Happy, Grumpy, Dopey (the beardless one), Doc, Bashful,
Sneezy, Sleepy. They were miners.
64. The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep.
65. The Beatles' first song to hit the UK charts was 'Love me do' on 11th October
1962.
66. The Beatles were depicted in wax at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London,
in 1964, the first pop album stars to be so honoured.
67. The Beatles were George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo
Starr. But there were also two lesser known, previous members of the band: Pete
Best and Stu Sutcliffe.
68. The Black Hole, 1979, was Disney's first PG-rated movie.
69. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop
and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It’s a Wonderful Life."
70. The characters of Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie were given the same first
names as Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening's real-life father, mother, and two
sisters.
71. The first CD pressed in the US - for commercial release - was Bruce Springsteen's
'Born in the USA'.
72. The first film granted permission by the Chinese government to be filmed in the
Forbidden City was The Last Emperor, in 1987.
73. The first issue of People Magazine, in 1974, cost 35 cents and featured actress
Mia Farrow on the cover.
74. The four principal characters from the cartoon series "The Chipmunks" are Alvin,
Simon, Theodore, and Dave.
75. The Jazz Singer, 1927, was the first movie with audible dialogue.
76. The Lone Ranger's "real" name is John Reid.
77. The longest Oscar acceptance speech was made by Greer Garson for 1924's "Mrs.
Miniver." It took an hour.
78. The Looney Tunes song is actually called "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down."
79. The Mills Brothers have recorded the most songs of any artist: about 2,250.
80. The Monty Python movie "The Life of Brian" was banned in Scotland.
81. The official state song of Georgia since 1922 has been "Georgia on My Mind".
82. The Oscar statuette was designed by MGM's art director, Cedric Gibbons, in
1928. The design has remained unchanged, except for getting a higher pedestal in
the 1940's.
83. The Professor on "Gilligan's Island" was named Roy Hinckley. The Skipper was
named Jonas Grumby. Both names were used only once in the entire series, on the
first episode.
84. The rock music video channel MTV made its debut in 1981.
85. The Russian Imperial Necklace has been loaned out by Joseff Jewelers of
Hollywood for 1,215 different feature films.
86. The science-fiction series "Lost in Space" (set in the year 1997) premiered on
CBS in 1965.
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87. The song "Happy Birthday to You" was originally written by sisters Mildred and
Patty Hill as "Good Morning to You." The words were changed and it was
published in 1935.
88. The song "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" was written by George Graff, who was
German, and was never in Ireland in his life.
89. The term ‘karaoke’ means ‘empty orchestra’ in Japanese, and the karaoke
machine was designed originally to provide backing tracks for solo cabaret
performers.
90. The title role of Dirty Harry, 1971, was originally intended for Frank Sinatra.
After he refused, it was offered to John Wayne, and then Paul Newman, finally
being accepted by Clint Eastwood. The rest, as they say, is history.
91. The Wizard of Oz was a Broadway musical 37 years before the MGM movie
version was made. It had 293 performances and then went on a tour that lasted 9
years.
92. There are 11 points on the collar around Kermit the Frog's neck.
93. There have been about 30 films made at or about Alcatraz, the now-closed federal
prison island in San Francisco Bay, including The Rock (1996), Birdman of
Alcatraz (1962), and Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
94. Time magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1938 was Adolf Hitler.
95. Walt Disney's first cartoon character was called Oswald the Rabbit.
96. Walter Huston and his son John become the first father-and-son team to win
Oscars as director of and an actor in "Treasure of Sierra Madre" in 1949.
97. When Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1935, he was called Happy Rabbit.

Facts about the English language and Word Origins

1. A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month (it is rarely blue).
 92

2. A bibliophile is a collector of rare books; also a book lover. A bibliopole is a

seller of rare books.
3. A ghost writer is one who pens books in the name of others, in lieu of cash.
4. A magic potion or charm thought to arouse sexual love, especially toward a
specific person, is known as a "philtre."
5. A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium.
6. A speleologist studies caves.
7. Anagrams amused the ancient Greeks, Romans and Hebrews, and were popular
during the Middle Ages.
8. "Aromatherapy" is a term coined by French chemist René Maurice Gattefossé in
the 1920's to describe the practice of using essential oils taken from plants,
flowers, roots, seeds, etc., in healing.
9. Ballistics is the science that deals with the motion of projectiles.
10. Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.
11. DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid.
12. In the 19th century, craftsmen who made hats were known to be excitable and
irrational, as well as to tremble with palsy and mix up their words. Such behavior
gave rise to the familiar expression "mad as a hatter". The disorder, called
‘hatter's shake’, was caused by chronic mercury poisoning from the solution used
to treat the felt. Attacking the central nervous system, the toxin led to behavioural
symptoms.
13. In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who
their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one
week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other
people to know how you are feeling.
14. "Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.
15. "Long in the tooth," meaning "old," was originally used to describe horses. As
horses age, their gums recede, giving the impression that their teeth are growing.
The longer the teeth look, the older the horse.
16. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
17. Oddly, no term existed for "homosexuality" in ancient Greece - there were only a
variety of expressions referring to specific homosexual roles. Experts find this
baffling, as the old Greek culture regarded male/male love in the highest regard.
According to several linguists, the word "homosexual" was not coined until 1869
by the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert.
18. "Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence
contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the
streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.
19. Poor whites in Florida and Georgia are called "crackers." They got the name from
their principal staple food, cracked corn. Another theory states that the name
comes from the days when they would drive cattle southward using the "crack" of
their bullwhips to keep the animals in line and moving.
20. "Rhythms" is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u.
21. "Second string," meaning "replacement or backup," comes from the Middle Ages.
An archer always carried a second string in case the one on his bow snapped.
22. The "O" when used as a prefix in Irish surnames means "descendant of."
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23. The "y" in signs reading "ye olde…" is properly pronounced with a "th" sound,
not "y". The "th" sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied
(present day) England used the rune "thorn" to represent "th" sounds. With the
advent of the printing press, the character from the Roman alphabet which closest
resembled thorn was the lower case "y".
24. The ancient Romans built such an excellent system of roads that the saying arose
"all roads lead to Rome," that is, no matter which road one starts a journey on, he
will finally reach Rome if he keeps on traveling. The popular saying came to
mean that all ways or methods of doing something end in the same result, no
method being better than another.
25. The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is: "and
the rest of the day to yourself."
26. The expletive, "Holy Toledo," refers to Toledo, Spain, which became an
outstanding Christian cultural center in 1085.
27. The idiom "pillar of salt" means: to have a stroke, or to become paralyzed or dead.
It comes from the Old Testament, i.e., biblical account of the fate suffered by
Lot’s wife when she disregarded the angels’ instructions and looked back at the
destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and was so transformed.
28. The last thing to happen is the ultimate. The next-to-last is the penultimate, and
the second-to-last is the antepenultimate.
29. The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th century England. During
heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and
their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the
streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and
dogs" and led to the current expression.
30. The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven
through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to
tighten the rope.
31. The phrase "rule of thumb" is said to be derived from an old English law which
stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
Actually, that's a piece of folk etymology. The phrase actually refers to the use of
rough and ready practical experience rather than formal procedures in getting
something done. It's most likely that the saying comes from carpenters using the
length of the first joint of the thumb, which is about an inch long, to measure
things. So "rule" refers to a ruler in the sense of measurement, not of despotism or
male chauvinism. Other parts of the body were used as a ruler, too. A foot was
determined by a pace, the distance from the tip of the nose to the outstretched
fingers is roughly a yard, and horse heights are still measured by hands—the
width of the palm and closed thumb is about four inches.
32. The plastic things on the ends of shoelaces are called aglets.
33. The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding or milling.
34. The right side of a boat was called the starboard side due to the fact that the
astronavigators used to stand out on the plank (which was on the right side) to get
an unobstructed view of the stars. The left side was called the port side because
that was the side that you put in on at the port.
35. The side of a hammer is a cheek.
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36. The study of insects is called entomology.

37. The study of word origins is called etymology.
38. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.
39. The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic Church. When
deciding if someone should be sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to
give an alternative view.
40. The term "dog days" has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times,
when it was believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun
from July3 to August 11, creating exceptionally high temperatures. The Romans
called the period dies caniculares, or "days of the dog."
41. The term "honeymoon" is derived from the Babylonians who declared mead, a
honey-flavoured wine, the official wedding drink, stipulating that the bride's
parents be required to keep the groom supplied with the drink for the month
following the wedding.
42. The term "throw one's hat in the ring" comes from boxing, where throwing a hat
into the ring once signified a challenge. Today it nearly always signifies political
candidacy.
43. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South
Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun
ammunition belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage.
If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."
44. The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient
Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging."
Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified was to poke
someone's eye out.
45. The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as
the philtrum.
46. The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.
47. The term "the key to the city" applies to an actual ceremonial key often presented
to high dignitaries visiting certain European towns—a practice still observed
today. This ceremonial gesture derives from the Middle Ages, when fortifications
had come up around towns to keep out marauders. Honoured and trusted visitors
were given a key to the gates, so that they could bypass embarrassing questioning
by sentries, and come and go as they pleased.
48. The word "honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and
first came into usage in the English language during the American occupation of
Japan following World War II.
49. The word "set" has the highest number of separate definitions in the English
Language (192 definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary.)
50. The word "assassination" was invented by Shakespeare.
51. The word "coach" is derived from the village of Kocs, Hungary, where coaches
were invented and first used.
52. The word "karate" means "empty hand." (Kara = Empty; Te = Hand)
53. The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."
54. The word gargoyle comes down from the Old French gargouille, meaning throat
or gullet. This is also the origin of the word ‘gargle’. The word describes the
 95

sound produced as water passes the throat and mixes with air. In early
architecture, gargoyles were decorative creatures on the drains of cathedrals.
55. The word 'news' did not come about because it was the plural of 'new.' It came
from the first letters of the words North, East, West and South that early
newsletters displayed on their mastheads. This directional indication was meant to
convey that the information contained therein had been gathered from the four
points of the compass. In time, only the first letters of the four words remained,
forming a new word — ‘News’.
56. The word ‘quisling’ comes from the name of Major Vidkun Quisling, a
Norwegian who collaborated with the Germans during their occupation of
Norway. The word now means "traitor."
57. The world's largest alphabet is Cambodian, with 74 letters.
58. The ZIP in Zip-code stands for "Zoning Improvement Plan."
59. Theodore Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to deliver an inaugural address
without using the word "I". Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight
D. Eisenhower tied for second place, using "I" only once in their inaugural
addresses.
60. There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about
2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most widely
spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 900,000,000 people
in China that speak that language.
61. Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest sentences in the French
language - 823 words without a period!

Of all languages, English has the largest vocabulary - perhaps as many as two million
words - and of course it has one of the largest bodies of literature. But let's face it—
English is a crazy language!

1. For example, there is no egg in eggplant - nor will you find neither pine nor apple
in a pineapple.
2. Hamburgers are not made from ham, English muffins were not
invented in England, and French Fries were not invented in France.
3. Sweetmeats are confectionary, while sweetbreads which are not sweet, are meat.
4. We take English for granted. But when we explore its paradoxes, we
find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, Public Bathrooms
have no baths…and a guinea pig is neither a pig nor is it from Guinea.
5. And why is it that a writer writes, but fingers do not fing, humdingers
do not hum, and hammers don't ham. If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn't the
plural of booth be beeth?
6. One goose, two geese, so one moose, two meese? One index, two
indices, one Kleenex, two Kleenices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make
amends - but you don't make just one amend, we comb through the annals of
history—but not just one annal?
7. And if you have a bunch of odds and ends - and you get rid of all but
one - what do you call it? So tell me, if the teacher taught - why isn't it that the
preacher praught?
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8. If a horsehair mat is made from the hair of horses and a camel hair
coat from the hair of camels - what is the name of the animal that gives us
mohair?
9. If a vegetarian eats vegetables - what does a humanitarian eat?
10. And if you wrote a letter - perhaps you also bite your tongue?
11. Sometimes it makes you wonder if all English speakers should be
committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what other language do people
drive on a parkway - and park on a driveway?
12. Then we recite at a play - and play at a recital? We ship by truck and
send cargo by ship?
13. And have you noticed that we have noses that run and feet that smell?
14. How can a fat chance and a slim chance be the same thing?
15. How are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?
16. How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and
quite a few are alike?
17. How can weather be as hot as hell one day - and as cold as hell the
next?

Sometimes, we only talk about certain things when they are absent… 

18. No doubt you have seen a horseless carriage - but have you ever
wondered what a "horseful carriage" would look like?
19. And have you ever seen a "strapful gown", or met a "sung hero", or
experienced "requited love?"
20. And have you ever run into someone who “bent” to accommodate
someone’s request, or anyone who was a "patriate", or was "gruntled," "ruly," or
"peccable"?
21. And where are the people who "are spring chickens," or who would
actually "hurt a fly"?
22. You have to marvel at the inimitable (but lovable) lunacy of a
language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a
form by filling it out and in which your alarm clock goes off by going on.
23. English was invented by people, not by computers, and it reflects the
creativity of the human race (which, of course, is not really a race at all).
Then why is life referred to as a rat race?
24. And why, for crying out loud (which of course, we don’t do on when
confronted by the idiosyncrasies of the language), when stars are out they are
visible, but when the lights are out they are invisible.
25. And why, when I wind up my watch I start it, but when I wind up this
book, I end it?
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Facts about Minerals and Science

1. A diamond will not dissolve in acid. The only thing that can destroy it is intense
heat.
2. A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size
of a tennis court.
3. Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be moulded with the hands.
4. An ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire 50 miles long.
5. Colored diamonds are caused by impurities such as nitrogen (yellow), boron
(blue), with red diamonds being due to deformities in the structure of the stone,
and green ones being the result of irradiation.
6. Diamond is the hardest naturally occurring substance, and is also one of the most
valuable natural substances. Diamonds are crystals formed almost entirely of
carbon. Because of its hardness, the diamond is the most enduring of all
gemstones. They are among the most costly jewels in the world, partly because
they are rare. Only four important diamond fields have been found—in Africa,
South America, India, and the Soviet Union.
7. In 1957, the Shipping port Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first
nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, went on line. (It was
taken out of service in 1982.)
8. In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah
Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired
dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.
9. Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.
10. Mineral deposits in caves: The ones growing upward are stalagmites, while the
ones growing downward are stalactites.
11. Natural gas has no odour. The smell is added artificially so that leaks can be
detected.
12. Prussic acid, in a crystalline powder called Zyklon B, was used to kill in
Germany's gas chambers. The gas would paralyze the victim's lungs, causing
them to suffocate.
13. Seawater, loaded with mineral salts, weighs about a pound and a half more per
cubit foot than fresh water at the same temperature.
14. Ten per cent of the salt mined in the world each year is used to de-ice the roads in
America.
15. The air we breathe is 78% nitrogen, 21.5% oxygen, .5% argon and other gases.
16. The Chinese were using aluminium to make things as early as 300 AD. Western
civilization didn't discover aluminium until 1827.
17. The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered. Found
in 1905, the original 3,100 carats were cut to make jewels for the British Crown
Jewels and the British Royal family's collection.
18. The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 lbs., 13 oz.
19. The largest hailstone ever recorded was 17.5 inches in diameter—bigger than a
basketball!
20. The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust is aluminium.
 98

21. The only rock that floats in water is pumice.

22. The three most common elements in the universe are 1) hydrogen; 2) helium; 3)
oxygen.
23. The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the US Military
Academy at West Point, NY.
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Facts about Plants and Biology

1. 84% of a raw apple is water.
2. 99% of the pumpkins sold in the US end up as jack-o-lanterns.
3. A cucumber is 96% water.
4. A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows.
5. A pineapple is a berry.
6. Absinthe is another name for the herb wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and the
name of a licorice-anise flavoured green liqueur that was created at the end of the
18th century, and manufactured by Henry-Louis Pernod. Called the 'green Muse'
it became very popular in the 19th century, but was eventually banned in most
countries beginning in 1908. The reason is the presence of the toxic oil 'thujone' in
wormwood, which was one of the main ingredients of Absinthe. Absinthe seemed
to cause brain lesions, convulsions, hallucinations and severe mental problems.
Thujone was the culprit, along with the fact that Absinthe was manufactured with
an alcohol content of 66% or 132 proof.
7. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the single-seeded fruit of the
giant fan palm, or Lodoicea maldivica, can weigh 44 lbs. Commonly known as
the double coconut or coco de mer, it is found wild only in the Seychelles in the
Indian Ocean.
8. Advertisements for coffee in London in 1657 claimed that the beverage was a
cure for scurvy, gout and other ills.
9. Almonds are the oldest, most widely cultivated and extensively used nuts in the
world.
10. Americans eat more bananas than any other fruit: a total of 11 billion a year.
11. An average ear of corn has 800 kernels, arranged in 16 rows.
12. Arrowroot, an antidote for poisoned arrows, is used as a thickener in cooking.
13. Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.
14. Banana oil doesn’t come from bananas; it's made from petroleum.
15. Bananas are actually herbs. Bananas die after fruiting, like all herbs do.
16. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis sativa (marijuana)
on their plantations.
17. Cranberries are one of just 3 major fruits native to North America. Blueberries
and Concord grapes are the other two.
18. Dr. Joel Poinsett, the first US ambassador to Mexico, brought the poinsettia to US
in 1828. The plant, called "flower of the blessed night" in Mexico was renamed in
Poinsett's honour.
19. Eggplant is a member of the thistle family.
20. From 70 to 80 percent of all ripe olives are grown in California's approximately
35,000 acres. In the 1700s, Franciscan monks brought olives to Mexico and then
into California by way of the missions. The first cuttings were planted in 1769 at
the San Diego Mission. Commercial cultivation of California olives began in the
late 1800s. Today, anywhere from 80,000 to 160,000 tons of olives are produced
in California each year.
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21. From the 1500's to the 1700's, tobacco was prescribed by doctors to treat a variety
of ailments including headaches, toothaches, arthritis and bad breath.
22. Ginger has been clinically demonstrated to work twice as well as Dramamine for
fighting motion sickness, with no side effects.
23. Hydroponics is the technique by which plants are grown in water without soil.
24. In 1865, opium was grown in the state of Virginia and a product was distilled
from it that yielded 4 percent morphine. In 1867, it was grown in Tennessee: six
years later it was cultivated in Kentucky. During these years opium, marijuana
and cocaine could be purchased legally over the counter from any druggist.
25. In 1924, Pope Urban VIII threatened to excommunicate snuff users.
26. In 1932, James Markham obtained the first patent issued for a tree. The patent
was for a peach tree.
27. In Siberia, in 1994, a container full of marijuana was discovered in the 2,000-
year-old grave of a Scythian princess and priestess, among the many other articles
buried with her.
28. In the Netherlands, in 1634, a collector paid 1,000 pounds of cheese, four oxen,
eight pigs, 12 sheep, a bed, and a suit of clothes for a single bulb of the Viceroy
tulip.
29. Morphine was given its name in 1803 by the discoverer, a 20-year-old German
pharmacist named Friedrich Saturner. He named it after Morpheus, the Greek god
of dreams.
30. No species of wild plant produces a flower or blossom that is absolutely black,
and so far, none has been developed artificially.
31. Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
32. Oak trees do not have acorns until they are fifty years old or older.
33. One pound of tea can make 300 cups of the beverage.
34. One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen.
35. Oranges, lemons, watermelons, and tomatoes are berries.
36. Orchids have the smallest seeds. It takes more than 1.25 million seeds to weigh 1
gram.
37. Peanuts are beans.
38. Plants that need to attract moths for pollination are generally white or pale yellow,
to be better seen when the light is dim. Plants that depend on butterflies, such as
the poppy or the hibiscus, have more colorful flowers.
39. Quinine, one of the most important drugs known to man, is obtained from the
dried bark of an evergreen tree native to South America called the cinchona.
40. Rice paper isn't made from rice but from a small tree which grows in Taiwan.
41. Tea was so expensive when it was first brought to Europe in the early 17th century
that it was kept in locked wooden boxes known as tea chests.
42. The California redwoods - coast redwood and giant sequoia - are the tallest and
largest living organisms in the world.
43. The first American advertisement for tobacco was published in 1789. It showed a
picture of an Indian smoking a long clay pipe.
44. The fragrance of flowers is due to the essences of oil which they produce.
45. The largest single flower is the Rafflesia or "corpse flower". They are generally 3
feet in diameter with the record being 42 inches.
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46. A man called Jonathan Chapman was better known as Johnny Appleseed because
he used to collect the apple seeds from the discarded pulp of East Coast cider
mills and plant them in the uncharted wilderness of the west, in North America.
When the settlers struck out west, they were amazed to see apple trees laden with
the delicious fruit…a welcome supplement to their dull diet. In time, Johnny
Appleseed became a legend, and as enduring a folklore icon as Paul Bunyan.
47. The pineapple was a symbol of welcome in the 1700-1800's. That is why in New
England you will see so many pineapples on door knockers. An arch in
Providence RI leading into the Federal Hill neighbourhood has a pineapple on it
for that very reason. Pineapples were brought home by seafarers as gifts.
48. The plant life in the oceans makes up about 85 percent of all the greenery on the
Earth.
49. The popular name for the giant sequoia tree is Redwood.
50. The rose family of plants, in addition to flowers, gives us apples, pears, plums,
cherries, almonds, peaches and apricots.
51. The world's tallest grass, which has sometimes grown 130 feet or more, is
bamboo.
52. There are more than 700 species of plants that grow in the United States that have
been identified as dangerous if eaten. Among them are some that are commonly
favoured by gardeners: buttercups, daffodils, lily of the valley, sweet peas,
oleander, azalea, bleeding heart, delphinium, and rhododendron.
53. Wheat is the world's most widely cultivated plant; grown on every continent
except Antarctica.
54. When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield consumable fruit.
55. Willow bark, which provides the salicylic acid from which aspirin was originally
synthesized, has been used as a pain remedy ever since the Greeks discovered its
therapeutic power nearly 2,500 years ago.
56. Wine grapes, oranges, figs and olives were first planted in North America by
Father Junipero Sera in 1769.

When you give someone roses, the color can have a meaning. The meaning
of rose colours are:
Red = Love and respect
Deep pink = Gratitude, appreciation
Light pink = Admiration, sympathy
White = Reverence, humility
Yellow = Joy, gladness
Orange = Enthusiasm, desire
Red & yellow blend = Gaiety, joviality
Pale blended tones = Sociability, friendship
 102

Facts about History and Historical Events

First of all…

1. According to tradition, the first engineer to build a bridge across the Tiber in
Ancient Rome was given the name Pontifex, meaning "bridge builder." The
Pontifex was seen as someone who "connects" people, and that symbolism was so
powerful that Roman high priests and dignitaries (including Julius Caesar) later
adopted the title Pontifex Maximus. During the Roman Imperial age, the emperor
was always the Pontifex Maximus. The title eventually passed from Roman
emperors to the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Today, the Pope still
carries the title Pontifex Maximus, or ‘pontiff’. The word’ pontificate’, derived
from ‘pontiff, means to sermonize.
2. Acupuncture was first used as a medical treatment in 2700 BC by Chinese
emperor Shen-Nung.
3. Captain Cook discovered breadfruit growing in the Sandwich Islands (now called
Hawaii), and took a few samples back to England. It was an expensive
proposition to feed the slave labour on which the economy of the sugarcane
plantations in the West Indies was based, and breadfruit were thought to be the
ideal solution. But although the trees flourished in the West Indies, the African
slave population on the sugarcane plantations refused to eat the fruit, so the
experiment came to nothing.
4. Captain Cook lost 41 of his 98 crew to scurvy (a lack of vitamin C) on his first
voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. By 1795, the importance of eating citrus was
realized, and lemon juice was issued on all British Navy ships. They also lime
kept aboard, hence the British were called ‘Limeys’…as they still are.
5. Armoured knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past
their king. This custom has evolved into the modern military salute.
6. At the height of its power, in 400 BC, the Greek city of Sparta had 25,000 citizens
and 500,000 slaves.
7. ‘Bock's Car’ was the name of the B-29 Bomber that dropped the Atom Bomb on
Nagasaki. The one that dropped the Hiroshima bomb was named ‘Enola Gay’.
8. Britain's present royal family was originally named Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The
name was changed in 1917, during WW1 because of its German connotations.
The name Windsor was suggested by one of the staff. At the same time, the
Battenberg family name of the cousins to the Windsors was changed to
Mountbatten.
9. Canada declared national beauty contests cancelled as of 1992, claiming they
were degrading to women.
10. Chicago's Lincoln Park was created in 1864. The original 120 acre cemetery had
most of its graves removed and was expanded to more than 1000 acres for
recreational use.
11. Christmas became a national holiday in the US in 1890.
12. During the US Civil war, 200,000 African-Americans served in the Union Army;
38,000 gave their lives, while 22 won the Congressional Medal of Honour.
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13. From its completion in 125 A.D. until 1958, the Pantheon's domed ceiling was the
largest unsupported concrete span in the world. It was surpassed only with the
construction of the CNIT building in Paris.
14. Emperor Trajan, who ruled from 98 to 117 A.D., was celebrated as the greatest of
Roman emperors. In fact, for the rest of Roman history, new emperors were
honoured by the Roman senate with the prayer ‘felicior Augusto, melior Traiano’,
meaning "may he be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan." In
Dante's Divine Comedy, Trajan is the only emperor allowed into heaven.
15. Everyone in the Middle Ages believed – as Aristotle had – that the heart was the
seat of intelligence. Curiously enough, there are many thinkers today who agree.
16. Emperor Nero's lust for excess was most evident in his elaborate parties.
According to the ancient writer Seutonius, Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea had a
circular main dining room with a roof that revolved day and night, in sync with
the sky. In what remains of the palace today, there is a large octagonal room with
a domed ceiling that some believe is this dining room. The octagonal room has a
large dome with an oculus in the middle. It predates the Pantheon—and was
probably the inspiration for it. The architects of the Domus Aurea developed an
innovative mechanism cranked by slaves, which made the ceiling underneath this
dome revolve like the heavens. While the ceiling revolved, perfume was sprayed
from the ceiling and rose petals were dropped on the diners. Legend has it there
were so many rose petals falling at one dinner that one of the guests was
asphyxiated.
17. For decades after Emperor Nero's death, people all over the Roman Empire
claimed to have spotted him. Several men even claimed to be him, and started
popular movements to be reinstated as emperor. Because of his notoriety and the
questionable circumstances under which he died (he purportedly stabbed himself
to death in hiding outside of Rome), Nero was the Elvis Presley of ancient Rome.
18. Former President Grover Cleveland defeated incumbent Benjamin Harrison in
1892, becoming the first (and, to date, only) chief executive to win non-
consecutive terms to the White House. That makes Stephen Grover Cleveland
(March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908), as the 22nd (1885–1889) and 24th (1893–
1897) President of the United States, the only President to serve two non-
consecutive terms. He was the only Democrat elected to the Presidency in the era
of Republican political domination between 1860 and 1912, and was the first
Democrat to be elected after the Civil War. His admirers praise him for his
bedrock honesty, independence, integrity and commitment to the principles of
classical liberalism
19. Fourteenth century physicians didn't know what caused the plague, but they knew
it was contagious. As a result, they wore an early kind of bioprotective suit that
included a large beaked headpiece. The beak of the headpiece, which made them
look like large birds, was filled with vinegar, sweet oils and other strong smelling
compounds to counteract the stench of the dead and dying plague victims.
20. From the Middle Ages up until the end of the 19th century, barbers performed a
number of medical duties including bloodletting, wound treatment, dentistry,
minor operations and bone-setting. The barber's striped red pole originated in the
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Middle Ages, when it was a staff the patient would grip while the barber bled the
patient.
21. Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first US city to fluoridate its water in 1945.
22. In 1810, the US population was 7,239,881. At 1,377,808, the non-white
population was 19% of the total. In 1969, the US population reached 200 million.
23. In 1865, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a ‘private social club’
in Pulaski, Tennessee, called the Ku Klux Klan.
24. In 1892, Italy raised the minimum age for marriage for girls to… 12!
25. In 1947, Toys for Tots started making the holidays a little happier for children by
organizing its first Christmas toy drive for needy youngsters.
26. In 1965, Congress authorized the Secret Service to protect former presidents and
their spouses for their lifetime, unless they decline the protection. Recently,
Congress limited the protection of former presidents and their spouses (elected
after January 1, 1997) to 10 years after leaving office. President Clinton, who was
elected in 1996, will be the last president to receive lifelong protection from the
Secret Service.
27. In England and the American colonies, the year 1752 only had 354 days. In that
year, the type of calendar was changed, and 11 days were lost.
28. In the Holocaust, between 5.1 and 6 million of Europe's 10 million Jews were
killed. An additional 6 million 'unwanted' people were also executed, including
more than half of Poland's educated populace.
29. Many of Rome's most ambitious emperors idolised Alexander the Great. When
Julius Caesar was a 33 year-old general in Spain, he wept when he saw a statue of
Alexander, lamenting that he had accomplished nothing, while Alexander had
conquered the whole world by his age. The schizophrenic emperor Caligula built
a bridge of wooden boats across the Bay of Naples and rode back and forth across
it on a horse, wearing armour he stole from Alexander's tomb. Emperor Caracalla
set out to conquer the same eastern lands Alexander had conquered, and made a
great show of visiting his grave in Alexandria, Egypt.
30. Martha Washington in the only woman whose portrait has ever appeared on a US
currency note. Her portrait was on the face of the $1 silver certificate issues of
1886 and 1891, and on the back of the $1 silver certificate of 1896. Sacagawea
and Susan B. Anthony are the only women pictured on a US coin. Both were
honoured on a dollar coin.
31. Members of the Nazi SS had their blood type tattooed on their armpits.
32. More than 20,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing in action in the Battle of
Antietam, September 17, 1862. This was the bloodiest one-day fight during the
Civil War.
33. Napoleon took 14,000 French decrees and simplified them into a unified set of 7
laws. This was the first time in modern history that a nation's laws applied equally
to all citizens. Napoleon's 7 laws are so impressive that by 1960 more than 70
governments had patterned their own laws after them or used them verbatim.
34. Nevada was the first state to sanction the use of the gas chamber, and the first
execution by lethal gas took place in February, 1924.
35. New Orleans' first Mardi Gras celebration was held in February, 1826.
36. New York's first St. Patrick's Day parade was held on March 17, 1762.
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37. Of the 262 men who have held the title of pope, 33 have died by violence.
38. On April 12, 1938, the state of New York passed a law requiring medical tests for
marriage license applicants, the first state to do so.
39. On August sixth, 1945, during World War Two, the United States dropped an
atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 140,000 people in the first
use of a nuclear weapon in warfare.
40. On Dec. 10th 1901 the first Nobel prizes were awarded. Literature - Rene Sully-
Prudhomme; Physiology - Emil von Behring; Chemistry - Jacobus van't Hoff;
Physics - Wilhelm Roentgen; Peace - Jean
Henri Dunant Frederic Passy.
41. About two years later, the Wright Brothers
made the first powered flight in a heavier-
than-air machine (December 17, 1903, at
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina), but they
never got the Nobel Prize for an invention
that transformed man’s worldview and his
ability to get around.
42. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the
Union.
43. On June 26th, 1945, the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries
in San Francisco. (The text of the charter was in five languages: Chinese, English,
French, Russian and Spanish.)
44. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th—John
Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last
signature wasn't added until five years later.
45. President George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart in 1782. It's a
decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and non-commissioned officers.
46. President Lincoln proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day in 1863.
47. Richard Nixon was the first US president to visit China… in February, 1972.
48. Roman coins have been dug up in America, suggesting that perhaps the Vikings
or Columbus weren't the first Europeans to visit the New World. The coins were
found in locations as far afield as Texas, Venezuela and Maine. One stash was
found buried in a mound in Round Rock, Texas. The mound is dated to
approximately 800 A.D. In the town of Heavener, Okla., a bronze tetradrachm
bearing the profile of Emperor Nero was found in 1976. The coin was originally
struck in Antioch, Syria, in 63 A.D.
49. Seven of the eight US Presidents who have died in office – either through illness
or assassination – were elected at precisely 20-year intervals.
50. The "Spruce Goose" was the largest aircraft ever built. The 140-ton eight-engine
seaplane, made of birch, has a wingspan of 320 feet. On November 2, 1947, it
flew for one mile, at a maximum altitude of 70 feet. It was built by Howard
Hughes as a prototype troop transport. Rejected by the Pentagon, Hughes put the
plane into storage, never to be flown again.
51. The first 20 African slaves were brought to the US in 1619 (to the colony of
Virginia) by a Dutch ship.
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52. The first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, commissioned by the United
States Navy in 1954, made her maiden voyage on Jan. 17, 1955.
53. The first US federal holiday honouring Martin Luther King, Jr. was in 1986.
54. The first US federal legislation prohibiting narcotics (opium) was enacted in 1909.
55. The first US federal penitentiary building was completed at Leavenworth, Kansas
in 1906.
56. The first US Minimum Wage Law was instituted in 1938. The minimum wage
was 25 cents per hour.
57. The ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone.
58. The Black Death reduced the population of Europe by one third in the period from
1347 to 1351.
59. The Colosseum has long been known as a site of Christian martyrdom. It was
converted into a shrine as early as the sixth century and still serves as the venue
for the Vatican's Good Friday services. However, there is no evidence that
Christian persecutions ever took place in the Colosseum.
60. The dollar was established as the official currency of the US in 1785.
61. The Emperor Caracalla – a tyrant remembered for slaying his brother and building
the extravagant Baths of Caracalla – was murdered by his own guards while he
was relieving himself. That may be where the phrase "caught with your pants
down" comes from.
62. The first coin minted in the United States was a silver dollar. It was issued on
October 15, 1794.
63. The first country to abolish capital punishment was Austria, in 1787.
64. The first losing candidate in a US presidential election was Thomas Jefferson. He
lost to John Adams. George Washington had been unopposed.
65. The first modern Olympiad was held in Athens in 1896. 484 contestants from 13
nations participated.
66. The first US Marines wore high leather collars to protect their necks from sabre
strokes, hence the name "leathernecks."
67. The first-known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000
BC.
68. The House of Lancaster, symbolized by the red rose, won England's 'War of the
Roses.'
69. The Hundred Years War actually lasted 116 years (1337 to 1453).
70. The influence of ancient Rome on architecture is all around us. The Jefferson
Memorial in Washington, D.C., is almost a dead-ringer for the Pantheon. And the
original Penn Station in New York was modeled on the Baths of Caracalla.
71. The longest reigning monarch in history was Pepi II, who ruled Egypt for 90
years; 2566 to 2476 BC. The second longest was France's Louis XIV, who ruled
for 72 years, 1643 to 1715.
72. The Miss America Contest was created in Atlantic City in 1921 with the purpose
of extending the tourist season beyond Labor Day.
73. The name of the first airplane flown at Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers, on
December 17, 1903, was Bird of Prey.
74. The only repealed amendment to the US Constitution deals with the prohibition of
alcohol.
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75. The Peace Symbol was created in 1958 as a nuclear disarmament symbol by the
Direct Action Committee, and was first shown that year at peace marches in
England. The symbol is a composite of the semaphore signals N and D,
representing nuclear disarmament.
76. The quarries where the Romans extracted travertine for the Colosseum and other
great structures are still being mined today.
77. The Republic of Israel was established on April 23, 1948.
78. The seven wonders of the ancient world were: ... 1. Egyptian Pyramids at Giza ...
2. Hanging Gardens of Babylon ... 3. Statue of Zeus at Olympia ... 4. Colossus of
Rhodes - a huge bronze statue near the Harbor of Rhodes that honoured the sun
god Helios ... 5. Temple of Artemis at Ephesus ... 6. Mausoleum at
Halicarnassus ... 7. Lighthouse at Alexandria.
79. The shortest war on record was fought between Zanzibar and England in 1896.
Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
80. The standard U.S. railroad width (4 feet, 8.5 inches) is directly derived from the
width of Roman war chariots. This is because the English expatriates who
designed the U.S. railroad system based their measurements on the pre-railroad
tramways built in England. Those tramways were built using the same tools used
to build wagons, which were also that width. The reason wagons were built to that
width is because otherwise, they would break during long treks across the old
English roads. Those roads – built by the Romans –were full of ruts carved out by
Roman war chariots. All Roman chariots were built to a standard width of 4 feet,
8.5 inches, and so English wagons were built so that their wheels would fit into
those ruts.
81. The supersonic Concorde jet made its first trial flight on January 1, 1969.
82. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal. It was adopted as the
international signal for distress in 1912, and the Titanic struck the iceberg in April
of that year.
83. The total number of Americans killed in the Civil War is greater than the
combined total of Americans killed in all other wars.
84. The Union ironclad, Monitor, was the first U.S. ship to have a flush toilet.
85. The US federal income tax was first enacted in 1862 to support the Union's Civil
War effort. It was eliminated in 1872, revived in 1894 then declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court the following year. In 1913, the 16 th
Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the
US tax system.
86. The USSR set off the largest nuclear explosion in history, detonating a 50
megaton bomb (2600 times the Hiroshima bomb) in an atmospheric test over the
Novaya Zemlya Islands, October 30, 1961.
87. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed
the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
88. The White House, in Washington DC, was originally gray, the color of the
sandstone it was built out of. After the War of 1812, during which it had been
burned by Canadian troops, the outside walls were painted white to hide the
smoke stains.
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89. The worldwide "Spanish Flu" epidemic which broke out in 1918 killed more than
30 million people in less than a year's time.
90. There are more statues of Sacagawea, Lewis & Clark's female Indian guide, in the
United States than any other person.
91. To raise public revenue, Emperor Vespasian – who built the Colosseum – was the
first to introduce pay toilets in the city of Rome. When his son and successor
Titus protested that the toilets were raising a stink with the poor, Vespasian held a
coin up to his nose and said, "Money doesn't stink." Today, Romans still refer to
public toilets as vespasiano.
92. Until Sunday, September 3rd, 1967, driving was done on the left-hand side on
roads in Sweden. The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekend at 5 p.m.
All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to
prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been
too sleepy to realize 'this' was the day of the changeover.
93. Vermont, admitted as the 14th state in 1791, was the first addition to the original
13 colonies.
94. Wyoming was the first state to allow women to vote.
95. Yellowstone is the world's first national park. It was dedicated in 1872.
96. Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, South Dakota, is a United
States Presidential Memorial that represents the first 150 years of the history of
the United States of America with the 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of former U.S.
Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and
Abraham Lincoln. The entire memorial covers 1,278 acres (5.17 km²), and is
5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level. It is managed by the National Park Service,
a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The memorial attracts
around 2 million people annually.
97. The mountain known to the Lakota Sioux as Six Grandfathers was renamed after
Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, in 1885. The project of
carving Mount Rushmore originally started with the purpose of increasing tourism
in the Black Hills region of South Dakota (the area notorious for the gold rush
into the area that angered the Sioux, who regarded this as an invasion of their
sacred grounds, and led to the hostilities which General George Custer was sent in
to quell…only to meet his death at the Battle of Little Big Horn). After long
negotiations involving a Congressional delegation and President Calvin Coolidge,
the project received Congressional approval. The carving started in 1927 and
ended in 1941, and though there were a few injuries, no deaths occurred.
98. Gutzon Borglum and a team of dedicated South Dakotan workers built the
national monument at Mount Rushmore. They toiled for fourteen years, but in the
end they created a shrine of democracy
—a massive sculpture unlike any
other. Millions of people make the
pilgrimage to Rushmore each year.
Carved for the ages from towering mountain ramparts, Washington,
Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln stand eternal guard over their country.
In the six-and-a-half years of work that
occurred on and off between 1927 and 1941,
Borglum employed almost 400 local workers.
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Some built roads, ran the hoist house, generated power or sharpened thousands of bits for
the pneumatic drills. Others set dynamite charges or completed delicate finishing work on
the sculpture.
Among the most highly skilled workers were those using dynamite. Using techniques he
had developed at Stone Mountain and relying on skills his crew had acquired in mining,
Borglum used the explosive in an innovative way that helped to remove large amounts of
rock quickly and relatively inexpensively. His powdermen became so skilled that they
could blast to within four inches of the finished surface and grade the contours of the lips,
nose, cheeks, neck and brow. In fact, 90 percent of the 450,000 tons of granite removed
from the mountain were taken out with dynamite.
 110

Facts about the Human Body

Here are 70 facts, the number of heartbeats per minute of the average
woman (if women are at all average…!)

1. A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph.

2. A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph.
3. A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.
4. A fingernail or toenail takes about 6 months to grow from base to tip.
5. A human being loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a day.
6. A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will
occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks.
7. According to German researchers, the risk of heart attack is higher on Monday
than any other day of the week.
8. After spending hours working at a computer display, look at a blank piece of
white paper. It will probably appear pink.
9. An average human drinks about 16, 000 gallons of water in a lifetime.
10. An average human scalp has 100,000 hairs.
11. An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.
12. An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the
body.
13. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.
14. Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never
trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.
15. Blondes have more hair than dark-haired people.
16. Blood sucking hookworms inhabit 700 million people worldwide.
17. By age sixty, most people have lost half of their taste buds.
18. By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion
times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.)
19. Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.
20. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
21. Every person has a unique tongue print.
22. Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.
23. Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10th of a calorie.
24. Fingernails grow faster than toenails.
25. Fingerprints – the patterns of whorls on the soft pads of our fingers – serve a
function: they provide traction for the fingers to grasp things.
26. Humans have 46 chromosomes, peas have 14 and crayfish have 200.
27. Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour - about 1.5 pounds a
year. By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin.
28. Humans shed and re-grow outer skin cells about every 27 days—almost 1,000
new skins in a lifetime.
29. If it were removed from a body, the small intestine could stretch to about 22 feet.
At an average length of 20 feet, it is the body's largest internal organ.
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30. If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide
poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.
31. If you go blind in one eye, you'll only lose about one-fifth of your vision (but all
your depth perception.)
32. In a lifetime, the average US resident eats more than 50 tons of food and drinks
more than 65,000 litres of liquids.
33. In the late 19th century, millions of human mummies were used as fuel for
locomotives in Egypt, where wood and coal were scarce but mummies were
plentiful.
34. It takes 17 muscles to smile — 43 to frown.
35. Jaw muscles can provide about 200 pounds of force to bring the back teeth
together for chewing.
36. Lab tests can detect traces of alcohol in urine six to 12 hours after a person has
stopped drinking.
37. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system.
Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100
times a day.
38. On an average, women say 7,000 words per day. Men manage just over 2000.
39. One in every 2000 babies is born with a tooth.
40. Pregnancy in humans lasts on average about 270 days (from conception to birth).
41. The ashes of the average cremated person weigh nine pounds.
42. The average human body contains enough: iron to make a 3 inch nail, sulphur to
kill all fleas on an average dog, carbon to make 900 pencils, potassium to fire a
toy cannon, fat to make 7 bars of soap, phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads,
and water to fill a ten-gallon tank.
43. The average human produces enough saliva in a lifetime to fill two swimming
pools.
44. The average person releases nearly a pint of intestinal gas by flatulence every day.
Most is due to swallowed air. The rest is from fermentation of undigested food.
45. The feet account for one quarter of all the human body’s bones.
46. The human body has over 600 muscles, accounting for 40% of the body's weight.
47. The human brain is about 85% water.
48. The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about
1/180th of an inch in diameter. The smallest cell in the human body is the male
sperm. It takes about 175,000 sperm cells to weigh as much as a single egg cell.
49. The largest human organ is the skin, with a surface area of about 25 square feet.
50. The left lung is smaller than the right lung to make room for the heart.
51. The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is
called a tragus.
52. The longest muscle in the human body is the sartorius. This narrow muscle of the
thigh passes obliquely across the front of the thigh and helps rotate the leg to the
position assumed in sitting cross-legged. Its name is a derivation of the adjective
"sartorial," a reference to what was the traditional cross-legged position of tailors
(or "sartors") at work.
53. The most common blood type in the world is Type O. The rarest, Type A-H, has
been found in less than a dozen people since the type was discovered.
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54. The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than the one most modern humans have.
55. The only bone in the human body not connected to another is the hyoid, a V-
shaped bone located at the base of the tongue between the mandible and the voice
box. Its function is to support the tongue and its muscles.
56. The only time the human population declined on the planet was in the years
following 1347, the start of the epidemic of the plague 'Black Death' in Europe.
57. The permanent teeth that erupt to replace their primary predecessors (baby teeth)
are called succedaneous teeth.
58. The sound of a snore (up to 69 decibels) can be almost as loud as the noise of a
pneumatic drill.
59. The tips of fingers and the soles of feet are covered by a thick, tough layer of skin
called the stratum corneum.
60. The smallest bone is the stapes or stirrup, in the middle ear.
61. There are 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being.
62. There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.
63. There are four main Blood types: A, B, AB and O and each Blood type is either
Rh positive or negative. Blood types in the US - Type O positive 38.4%, O
negative 7.7%, A positive 32.3%, A negative 6.5%, B positive 9.4%, B negative
1.7%, AB positive 3.2%, AB negative 0.7%
64. Three hundred million cells die in the human body every minute.
65. Women burn fat slower than men, by a rate of about 50 calories a day.
66. Women's hearts beat faster than men's.
 113

Facts about Products, Advertising, and Inventions

1. 67 million pounds of pesticides and about 3 million tons of fertiliser are used
annually on lawns in the US.
2. A single share of Coca-Cola stock, purchased in 1919, when the company went
public, would have been worth $192,500 in 2007.
3. Coca-Cola was so named back in 1885 for its two 'medicinal' ingredients: extract
of coca leaves and kola nuts. As for how much cocaine was originally in the
formulation, it's hard to know.
4. Cocaine was sold to cure sore throat, neuralgia, nervousness, headache, colds and
sleeplessness in the 1880s.
5. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger bought the first Hummer manufactured for civilian
use in 1992. The vehicle weighed in at 6,300 lbs and was 7 feet wide.
6. Americans consume 29 billion, or 58 percent, of the 50 billion aspirin tablets
which are taken worldwide each year.
7. Americans spend more than $5 billion a year on cosmetics, toiletries, beauty
parlours and barber shops.
8. Bayer was advertising cough medicine containing heroin in 1898. (Heroin was
legal then, and available over the counter).
9. Britain's first escalator was installed in Harrods in 1878.
10. Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all
invented by women.
11. BVD stands for the organizers of the company: Bradley, Voorhies, and Day.
12. Carbonated soda water was invented in 1767 by Joseph Priestley, the discoverer
of oxygen.
13. Cheerios cereal was originally called Cheerioats.
14. Chewing gum was patented in 1869 by William Semple.
15. Colgate claims "Tooth Fairy" as a registered trademark.
16. During the Prohibition, at least 1,565 Americans died from drinking bad liquor,
hundreds were blinded, and many were killed in bootlegger wars. Federal Agents
and the Coast Guard made 75,000 arrests per year.
17. False eyelashes were invented by film director D.W. Griffith while he was
making the 1916 epic, "Intolerance." He wanted actress Seena Owen to have
lashes that brushed her cheeks.
18. G.I. Joe was introduced at the annual American International Toy Fair in New
York on Feb. 9, 1964.
19. Hungarian brothers George and Laszlo Biro invented the ball point pen in 1938.
20. IBM's motto is 'T-H-I-N-K.' IBM is nicknamed ‘big Blue’, after its big blue logo.
21. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and
sinking to the bottom.
22. In 1889, the first coin-operated telephone, patented by Hartford, Connecticut
inventor William Gray, was installed in the Hartford Bank. Local calls using a
coin-operated phone in the U.S. cost only 5 cents everywhere until 1951.
23. In 1964, General Mills began marketing Lucky Charms cereal with pink hearts,
yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers. The marshmallow bits (technically
referred to as marbits) were invented in 1963 by John Holahan. The cereal is
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marketed using a leprechaun character named Lucky (L.C. Leprechaun is his full
name) that touts his cereal as being "Magically Delicious." Over the years, the
various shapes and colors of the marshmallow bits in the cereal have undergone
many changes.
24. In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson enacted a law requiring cigarette
manufacturers to put health warnings on their packages.
25. In 1984, a Canadian farmer began renting advertising space on his cows.
26. In 1991 Procter & Gamble won a $75,000 lawsuit against James & Linda Newton
who were found responsible for spreading rumors that the company supported the
Church of Satan. The two were distributors of Amway Products, a competitor of
Procter & Gamble.
27. In 4000 BC Egypt, men and women wore glitter eye shadow made from the
crushed shells of beetles.
28. In M&M candies, the letters stand for Mars and Murrie, the developers of the
candy in 1941.
29. In the 1700s, European women achieved a pale complexion by eating "Arsenic
Complexion Wafers" actually made with the poison.
30. Insulin was discovered in 1922 by Sir Frederick Banting and Dr. Charles Best.
31. It was the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, CT, whose name – and lightweight
pie tins – gave birth to the modern Frisbee.
32. Kikkoman soy sauce was originated in 1630 in Japan.
33. Kotex was first manufactured as bandages, during W.W.I.
34. Laser stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation."
Developed 1950s - 1960s.
35. Levi Strauss blue jeans with copper rivets were priced at $13.50 per dozen in
1874.
36. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of linen.
37. Most American car horns honk in the key of F.
38. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
39. Penicillin was first produced synthetically in a laboratory in 1946.
40. Perfume contains ethyl alcohol and 25% fragrant oils. Cologne is cheaper to
produce and to purchase because the oil content in cologne is only 3%. Cologne
was named for the German city in which it was first produced. The original
formula combined alcohol, lemon spirits, orange bitters and mint oil.
41. The first personal computer, the Apple II, went on sale in 1977.
42. The first unattended, 24-hour self-service laundromat in the United States was
opened by Nelson Puett in 1949 on North Loop in Austin, Texas
43. The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby
daughter, Ruth.
44. The Brownie box camera, introduced by Eastman Kodak, sold for $1.00 in 1900.
The camera's 6-exposure film sold for 15 cents.
45. The Butterfinger candy bar was first produced by Chicago's Curtiss Candy Co. in
1923. As an advertising ploy, candy bars were dropped from an airplane on cities
in 40 states.
46. The condom - made originally of linen - was invented in the early 1500's.
 115

47. The electric chair was invented by Dr. Alphonse Rockwell and was first used on
William Kemmler on August 6, 1890.
48. The first brand of Wrigley's chewing gum was called "Vassar", after the New
England woman's college. Next were "Lotta" and "Sweet Sixteen Orange."
49. The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. in 1953.
That early 'Vette sold for $3,250.
50. The first credit card, issued in 1950, was Diner's Club. Frank X. McNamara
started the company with 200 card holders.
51. The first product to have a UPC bar code on its packaging was Wrigley's gum.
52. The first safety feature for an automobile was invented in 1908 by John O'Leary.
He patented a large net, to be installed on the front fender, to scoop pedestrians
out of the way before they could be run over.
53. The first seeing-eye dog was presented to a blind person on April 25, 1938.
54. The first suburban shopping mall was opened in 1922 by National Department
Stores in Saint Louis.
55. The first toothbrush with bristles was developed in China in 1498. Bristles were
taken from hogs at first, later from horses. The nylon bristles were developed in
1938 by DuPont.
56. The first toy product ever advertised on television was Mr. Potato Head®. It was
introduced in 1952.
57. The first US consumer product sold in the Soviet Union was Pepsi-Cola.
58. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
59. The original name of the 3M Company was Minnesota Mining and Metals. It is
perhaps best known today for its Post-it semi-sticky notes that are used for
everything from reminders to temporary labels. Post-it was a product of ‘out of
the box’ lateral thinking when a glue developed by the firm didn’t quite stick. It
was saved from the trash can when an employee got the brainwave to make the
ubiquitous little yellow note pads we depend on so much in our everyday lives.
60. The Prudential Life Insurance Company in USA stopped using their slogan "Own
A Piece of the Rock" after Rock Hudson died of AIDS and many jokes were
made about him and the slogan.
61. The revolving door was invented August 7, 1888, by Theophilus Van Kannel, of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
62. The safety pin was patented in 1849 by Walter Hunt. He sold the patent rights for
$400.
63. The sewing machine was patented on August 12, 1851, by Isaac Merritt Singer of
Pittstown, New York.
64. The soldiers of World War I were the first people to use the modern flushing
toilet. The inventor, Thomas Crapper, invented the automatic shut-off mechanism
used in the modern toilet.
65. "Flushable" toilets were in use in ancient Rome.
66. The United States minted a 1787 copper coin with the motto 'Mind Your
Business.'
67. The word vaccine comes from the Latin word "vacca," which means cow. This
name was chosen because the first vaccination was derived from cowpox which
was given to a boy.
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68. The world's first adhesive postage stamp went on sale in England in 1840. It was
the Penny Black, portraying Queen Victoria.
69. The world's first singing commercial aired on the radio on Christmas Eve, 1926
was for Wheaties cereal. The four male singers, eventually known as the Wheaties
Quartet, sang the jingle.
70. The yo-yo was introduced in 1929 by Donald F. Duncan. The toy was based on a
weapon used by 16th century Filipino hunters.
71. There are about 30 milligrams of caffeine in the average chocolate bar, while a
cup of coffee contains around 100 to 150 milligrams.
72. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
73. Townsend Speakman of Philadelphia mixed fruit flavour with soda water in 1807,
creating the first flavoured soda pop, he called it Nephite Julep.
74. Two in every three car buyers pays the sticker price without arguing.
75. VHS stands for Video Home System.
76. When Scott Paper Co. first started manufacturing toilet paper, they did not put
their name on the product because of embarrassment.
77. Wrigley's promoted their new spearmint-flavoured chewing gum in 1915 by
mailing four sample sticks to each of the 1.5 million names listed in US telephone
books.

Your product’s not doing too well, eh? Cheer up! Here are some dismal
first-year sales of famous products:

1. VW Beetle (U.S.)—sold 330 in the first year.

2. Liquid Paper—sold 1,200 bottles in the first year
3. Cuisinart—sold 200 in the first year.
4. Remington typewriter—sold 8 in the first year.
5. Scrabble—sold 532 in the first year.
6. Coca-Cola—sold 25 bottles in the first year. (For a total of $50; supplies and
advertising ran to $70).
 117

Facts about Animals

• A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times its own weight each year.
• A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.
• A capon is a castrated rooster.
• A chameleon can move its eyes in two different directions at the same time.
• A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body.
• A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.
• A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that
weighs no more than 2 pounds.
• A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
• A father Emperor penguin withstands the Antarctic cold for 60 days or more to
protect his eggs, which he keeps on his feet, covered with a feathered flap. During
this entire time, he doesn't eat a thing. Most father penguins lose about 25 pounds
while they wait for their babies to hatch. Afterward, they feed the chicks a special
liquid from their throats. When the mother penguins return to care for the young, the
fathers go to sea to eat and rest.
• A father sea catfish keeps the eggs of his young in his mouth until they are ready to
hatch. He will not eat until his young are born, which may take several weeks.
• A female mackerel lays about 500,000 eggs at one time.
• A Holstein cow's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly
the same pattern of spots.
• A leech is a worm that feeds on blood. It will pierce its victim's skin, fill itself with
three to four times its own body weight in blood and drop off. It will not feed again
for weeks. Leeches were once used by doctors to drain "bad blood" from sick
patients.
• A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length.
• A normal cow's stomach has four compartments: the rumen, the reticulum (storage
area), the omasum (where water is absorbed), and the abomasum (the only
compartment with digestive juices).
• A polecat is not a cat. It is a nocturnal European weasel.
• A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872.
• A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.
• A single little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquitoes-sized insects in just one hour.
• A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.
• A zebra is white with black stripes.
• After mating, the male Surinam Toad affixes the female's eggs to her back, where her
spongy flesh will swell and envelop them. When the froglets hatch, they leave behind
holes in their mother's flesh that they will remain sheltered in until large enough to
fend for themselves.
• All clams start out as males; some decide to become females at some point in their
lives.
• All pet hamsters are descended from a single female wild golden hamster found with
a litter of 12 young in Syria in 1930.
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• An adult lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away, and warns off intruders or
reunites scattered members of the pride.
• An albatross can sleep while it flies. It apparently dozes while cruising at 25 mph.
• An electric eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts.
• An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
• An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
• Ancient Egyptians believed that "Bast" was the mother of all cats on Earth. They also
believed that cats were sacred animals.
• Animal gestation periods: the shortest is the American opossum, which bears its
young 12 to 13 days after conception; the longest is the Asiatic elephant, taking 608
days, or just over 20 months.
• At the end of the Beatles' song "A Day in the Life", an ultrasonic whistle, audible
only to dogs, was recorded by Paul McCartney for his Shetland sheepdog.
• Beaver teeth are so sharp that Native Americans once used them as knife blades.
• Bird eggs come in a wide variety of sizes. The largest egg from a living bird belongs
to the ostrich. It is more than 2,000 times larger than the smallest bird egg, which is
produced by the hummingbird. Ostrich eggs are about 7.1 inches long, 5.5 inches
wide and typically weigh 2.7 pounds. Hummingbird eggs are half an inch long, a
third of an inch wide and weigh half a gram, or less than a fifth of an ounce.
• Brown eggs come from hens with red feathers and red lobes; white eggs come from
hens with white feathers and white lobes. Shell color is determined by the breed of
hen and has no effect on its quality, nutrients or flavour.
• By feeding hens certain dyes, they can be made to lay eggs with varicolored yolks.
• Camel milk does not curdle.
• Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
• Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been struck by lightning.
• Cat scratch disease, a benign but sometimes painful disease of short duration, is
caused by a bacillus. Despite its name, the disease can be transmitted by many kinds
of scratches besides those of cats.
• Catfish have 100,000 taste buds.
• Catnip is a herb that can affect lions and tigers as well as house cats. It excites them
because it contains a chemical that resembles an excretion of the dominant female's
urine.
• Certain frogs can be frozen solid, then thawed and continue living.
• Chameleons can reel in food from a distance as far away as more than two and a half
times their body lengths.
• Cheetahs make a chirping sound that is much like a bird's chirp or a dog's yelp. The
sound is so an intense, it can be heard a mile away.
• Cojo, the first gorilla born in captivity, was born at the Columbus Zoo, in Ohio, in
1956 and weighed 3 ¼ pounds.
• Despite its reputation for being finicky, the average cat consumes about 127,750
calories a year, nearly 28 times its own weight in food and the same amount again in
liquids. In case you were wondering, cats cannot survive on a vegetarian diet.
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• Developed in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, the greyhound breed was known before
the ninth century in England, where it was bred by aristocrats to hunt such small
game as hares.
• Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of the water. They frequently rise to the
surface for air.
• Domesticated turkeys (farm raised) cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short
distances at up to 55 miles per hour. Wild turkeys are also fast on the ground, running
at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.
• Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.
• Elephant tusks grow throughout an elephant's life and can weigh more than 200
pounds. Among Asian elephants, only the males have tusks. Both sexes of African
elephants have tusks.
• Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range:
between 14 and 35 hertz.
• Every year, $1.5 billion is spent on pet food. This is four times the amount spent on
baby food.
• Felix the Cat is the first cartoon character to ever have been made into a balloon for a
parade.
• Female chickens, or hens, need about 24 to 26 hours to produce one egg. Thirty
minutes later they start the process all over again. In addition to the half-hour rests,
some hens rest every three to five days and others rest every 10 days.
• George Washington's favourite horse was named Lexington. Napoleon's favourite
was Marengo. U.S. Grant had three favourite horses: Egypt, Cincinnati, and Jeff
Davis.
• German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.
• Goldfish lose their color if they are kept in dim light or are placed in a body of
running water, such as a stream.
• Hippos have killed more people in Africa than any other wild animal.
• Howler monkeys are the noisiest land animals. Their calls can be heard over 2 miles
away.
• Human tapeworms can grow up to 22.9m.
• Hummingbirds are the smallest birds. So tiny are they that one of the enemies of the
Bee Hummingbird – the world’s smallest bird – is an insect: the praying mantis.
• In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.
• Infant beavers are called kittens.
• It takes 35 to 65 minks to produce the average mink coat. The numbers for other
types of fur coats are: beaver - 15; fox - 15 to 25; ermine - 150; chinchilla - 60 to 100.
• It takes a lobster approximately seven years to grow to be one pound.
• It takes forty minutes to hard boil an ostrich egg.
• Korea's poshintang – dog meat soup – is a popular item on summertime menus,
despite outcry from other nations. The soup is believed to cure summer heat ailments,
improve male virility, and improve women's complexions.
• Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump.
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• Lassie was played by several male dogs, despite the female name, because male
collies were thought to look better on camera. The main "actor" was named Pal.
• Lassie, the TV collie, first appeared in a 1930s short novel titled Lassie Come Home
written by Eric Mowbray Knight. The dog in the novel was based on Knight's real life
collie, Toots.
• Lions are the only truly social cat species, and usually every female in a pride,
ranging from 5 to 30 individuals, is closely related.
• Lovebirds are small parakeets that live in pairs. Male and female lovebirds look alike,
but most other male birds have brighter colors than the females.
• Macaroni, Gentoo, Chinstrap and Emperor are types of penguins.
• Mockingbirds can imitate any sound from a squeaking door to a cat meowing.
• Molerats are the only eusocial vertebrates known to man. This means that these
mammals live in colonies similar to those of ants and termites, with a single fertile
queen giving birth to non-reproductive workers and soldiers. Molerats are also
famous for their incredibly powerful jaws, the muscles of which constitute 25% of
their body mass. Baby molerats are raised on a diet of their older sibling's fecal
pellets, emitting a special cry when hungry to summon a worker.
• Moles are able to tunnel through 300 feet of earth in a day.
• Of all known forms of animal life ever to inhabit the Earth, only about 10 percent still
exist today.
• On average, pigs live for about 15 years.
• Owls have eyeballs that are tubular in shape, because of this, they cannot move their
eyes.
• Parrots, most famous of all talking birds, rarely acquire a vocabulary of more than
twenty words. However, Tymhoney Greys and African Greys have been known to
carry vocabularies in excess of 100 words.
• Pet parrots can eat virtually any common "people-food" except for chocolate and
avocados. Both of these are highly toxic to the parrot and can be fatal.
• Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.
• Prairie dogs are not dogs. A prairie dog is a kind of rodent.
• Rats are omnivorous, eating nearly any type of food, including dead and dying
members of their own species.
• Rats can't throw up.
• Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they
are immune to every known disease including cancer.
• Snails produce a colorless, sticky discharge that forms a protective carpet under them
as they travel along. The discharge is so effective that they can crawl along the edge
of a razor without cutting themselves.
• Snakes are immune to their own poison.
• Some baby giraffes are more than six feet tall at birth.
• Tapeworms range in size from about 0.04 inch to more than 50 feet in length.
• The "caduceus" the classical medical symbol of two serpents wrapped around a staff -
comes from an ancient Greek legend in which snakes revealed the practice of
medicine to human beings.
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• The first buffalo ever born in captivity was born at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in
1884.
• The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed in
1866.
• The anaconda, one of the world's largest snakes, gives birth to its young instead of
laying eggs.
• The average adult male ostrich, the world's largest living bird, weighs up to 345
pounds.
• The biggest members of the cat family are Siberian and Bengal tigers, which can
reach over 600 pounds.
• The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters
is blue.
• The bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American
court.
• The Blue Whale is the loudest animal on Earth. The call of the Blue Whale reaches
levels up to 188 decibels. This extraordinarily loud whistle can be heard for hundreds
of miles underwater. The second-loudest animal on Earth is the Howler Monkey.
• The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.
• The calories burned daily by the sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race
average 10,000. The 1,149-mile race commemorates the 1925 "Race for Life" when
20 volunteer mushers relayed medicine from Anchorage to Nome to battle a
children's diphtheria epidemic.
• The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after
a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae - "Island of Dogs."
• The cat lover is an ailurophile, while a cat hater is an ailurophobe.
• The catgut formerly used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments does not
come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses.
• The chameleon has several cell layers beneath its transparent skin. These layers are
the source of the chameleon's color change. Some of the layers contain pigments,
while others just reflect light to create new colors. Several factors contribute to the
color change. A popular misconception is that chameleons change color to match
their environment. This isn't true. Light, temperature, and emotional state commonly
bring about a chameleon's change in color. The chameleon will most often change
between green, brown and gray, which coincidently, often matches the background
colors of their habitat.
• The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can't retract its claws.
• The Chinese, during the reign of Kublai Khan, used lions on hunting expeditions.
They trained the big cats to pursue and drag down massive animals - from wild bulls
to bears - and to stay with the kill until the hunter arrived.
• The elephant, as a symbol of the US Republican Party, was originated by cartoonist
Thomas Nast and first presented in 1874.
• The English Romantic poet Lord Byron was so devastated upon the death of his
beloved Newfoundland, whose name was Boatswain, that he had inscribed upon the
dog's gravestone the following: "Beauty without vanity, strength without insolence,
courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of man without his vices."
 122

• The expression "three dog night" originated with the Eskimos and means a very cold
night — so cold that you have to bed down with three dogs to keep warm.
• The fastest bird is the Spine-tailed swift, clocked at speeds of up to 220 miles per
hour.
• The fastest-moving land snail, the common garden snail, has a speed of 0.0313 mph.
• The first house rats recorded in America appeared in Boston in 1775.
• The giant squid (architeuthis dux) is the largest creature without a backbone. It
weighs up to 2.5 tons and grows up to 55 feet long. Each eye is a foot or more in
diameter.
• The harmless Whale Shark holds the title of ‘largest fish’, with the record being a 59
footer captured in Thailand in 1919.
• The hummingbird is the only bird that can hover and fly straight up, down, or
backward!
• The hummingbird, the loon, the swift, the kingfisher, and the grebe are all birds that
cannot walk.
• The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is
almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more
than 70 million years.
• The largest animal ever seen alive was a 113.5 foot, 170-ton female Blue Whale.
• The largest bird egg in the world today is that of the ostrich. Ostrich eggs are from 6
to 8 inches long. Because of their size and the thickness of their shells, they take 40
minutes to hard-boil.
• The largest Great White Shark ever caught measured 37 feet and weighed 24,000
pounds. It was found in a herring weir in New Brunswick in 1930.
• The largest pig on record was a Poland-China hog named Big Bill, who weighed
2,552 lbs.
• The last member of the famous Bonaparte family, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, died
in 1945, of injuries sustained from tripping over his dog's leash.
• The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
• The name of the dog from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is Max.
• The name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo.
• The only dog to ever appear in a Shakespearean play was Crab in The Two
Gentlemen of Verona.
• The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.
• The Pacific Giant Octopus, the largest octopus in the world, grows from the size of
pea to a 150 pound behemoth potentially 30 feet across in only two years, its entire
life-span.
• The penalty for killing a cat, 4,000 years ago in Egypt, was death.
• The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th century England. During heavy
downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their
bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets. The
situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the
current expression.
• The pigmy shrew - a relative of the mole - is the smallest mammal in North America.
It weighs 1/14 ounce - less than a dime.
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• The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.
• The poisonous copperhead snake smells like fresh cut cucumbers.
• The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History houses the world's largest shell
collection, some 15 million specimens. A smaller museum in Sanibel, Florida owns a
mere 2 million shells and claims to be the world’s only museum devoted solely to
mollusks.
• The term "dog days" has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times, when
it was believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun from July3 to
August 11, creating exceptionally high temperatures. The Romans called the period
dies caniculares, or "days of the dog."
• The turbot fish lays approximately 14 million eggs during its lifetime.
• The turkey was named for what was wrongly thought to be its country of origin.
• Turkeys originated in North and Central America, and evidence indicates that they
have been around for over 10 million years.
• The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a
year with new growth.
• The viscera of Japanese abalone can harbour a poisonous substance which causes a
burning, stinging, prickling and itching over the entire body. It does not manifest
itself until exposure to sunlight - if eaten outdoors in sunlight, symptoms occur
quickly and suddenly.
• The world record frog jump is 33 feet 5.5 inches over the course of 3 consecutive
leaps, achieved in May 1977 by a South African sharp-nosed frog called Santjie.
• The world's largest mammal, the Blue Whale, weighs 50 tons at birth. Fully grown, it
weighs as much as 150 tons.
• The world's largest rodent is the Capybara. An Amazon water hog that looks like a
guinea pig, it can weigh more than 100 pounds.
• The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a
penny.
• There are around 2,600 different species of frogs. They live on every continent except
Antarctica.
• There are more than 100 million dogs and cats in the United States. Americans spend
more than 5.4 billion dollars on their pets each year.
• There is no single cat called the panther. The name is commonly applied to the
leopard, but it is also used to refer to the puma and the jaguar. A black panther is
really a black leopard.
• Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
• Unlike most fish, electric eels cannot get enough oxygen from water. Approximately
every five minutes, they must surface to breathe, or they will drown. Unlike most
fish, they can swim both backwards and forwards.
• When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when
a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.
• When the Black Death swept across England one theory was that cats caused the
plague. Thousands were slaughtered. Ironically, those that kept their cats were less
affected, because they kept their houses clear of the real culprits, rats.
 124

• By being able to thrive even in slightly polluted water, oysters provide an invaluable
ecological service; a single adult oyster can filter 50 gal. (189 liters) of water a day.
• When Jamestown's founder John Smith first sailed into the pristine Chesapeake Bay
400 years ago, he had to navigate around oyster reefs 20 ft. high and miles long,
which were effectively filtering the entire estuary — the country's largest — every
few days, according to Rowan Jacobsen, author of the recent book A Geography of
Oysters: The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North America. "If we can get
oysters [back] to historic levels they can make a huge difference," he says, but his
dream of a return to oyster's golden age — in the late 19 th century when 100 million
lbs. (more than 45,000 metric tons) of oysters were harvested from the Chesapeake
every year, versus today's 250,000 lbs. (113 metric ton) haul — is a long ways off.
 125

Facts about Cuisine: Food, food origins, beverages, and recipes

1. A honey bee must tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey.
2. A typical American eats 28 pigs in his/her lifetime.
3. Americans spend approximately $25 billion each year on beer.
4. Americans spent an estimated $267 billion dining out in 1993.
5. An etiquette writer of the 1840's advised, "Ladies may wipe their lips on the
tablecloth, but not blow their noses on it."
6. Astronaut John Glenn ate the first meal in space when he ate pureed
applesauce squeezed from a tube aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.
7. Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented in 1889, was the first ready-mix food to
be sold commercially.
8. Caffeine: there are 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of
brewed coffee, 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa, 5 to 10 milligrams
in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, and 5 milligrams in one ounce of milk
chocolate.
9. California's Frank Epperson invented the Popsicle in 1905 when he was 11
years old.
10. Capsaicin, which makes hot peppers "hot" to the human mouth, is best
neutralized by casein, the main protein found in milk.
11. China's Beijing Duck Restaurant can seat 9,000 people at one time.
12. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is
reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love.
13. Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and
20 percent of the world's peanuts.
14. During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were
practically worth their weight in gold. Potatoes were so valued for their
vitamin C content that miners traded gold for potatoes.
15. During World War II, bakers in the United States were ordered to stop selling
sliced bread for the duration of the war on January 18, 1943. Only whole
loaves were made available to the public. It was never explained how this
action helped the war effort.
16. Fortune cookies were invented in 1916 by George Jung, a Los Angeles noodle
maker.
17. Fried chicken is the most popular meal ordered in sit-down restaurants in the
US. The next in popularity are: roast beef, spaghetti, turkey, baked ham, and
fried shrimp.
18. Goulash, a beef soup, originated in Hungary in the 9th century AD.
19. Haggis, the national dish of Scotland: take the heart, liver, lungs, and small
intestine of a calf or sheep, boil them in the stomach of the animal, season
with salt, pepper and onions, add suet and oatmeal. Enjoy!
20. Hostess Twinkies were invented in 1931 by James Dewar, manager of
Continental Bakeries' Chicago factory. He envisioned the product as a way of
using the company's thousands of shortcake pans which were otherwise
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employed only during the strawberry season. Originally called Little

Shortcake Fingers, they were renamed Twinkie Fingers, and finally
"Twinkies."
21. In 1860, 'Godey's Lady's Book' advised US women to cook tomatoes for at
least 3 hours.
22. In 1926, when a Los Angeles restaurant owner with the all-American name of
Bob Cobb was looking for a way to use up leftovers, he threw together some
avocado, celery, tomato, chives, watercress, hard-boiled eggs, chicken, bacon,
and Roquefort cheese, and named it after himself: Cobb salad.
23. In 1976, the first eight Jelly Belly® flavours were launched: Orange, Green
Apple, Root Beer, Very Cherry, Lemon, Cream Soda, Grape, and Licorice.
24. In 1990, Bill Carson, of Arrington, Tennessee, grew the largest watermelon at
262 pounds that is still on the record books according to the 1998 edition of
the Guinness Book of World Records.
25. In 1995, KFC sold 11 pieces of chicken for every man, woman and child in
the US.
26. Americans consumed over 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate in 2001, which is
almost half of the total world's production.
27. In an authentic Chinese meal, the last course is soup because it allows the
roast duck entree to "swim" toward digestion.
28. In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more
than a pound of potatoes.
29. Large doses of coffee can be lethal. Ten grams, or 100 cups over 4 hours, can
kill the average human.
30. Laws forbidding the sale of sodas on Sunday prompted William Garwood to
invent the ice cream sundae in Evanston, IL, in 1875.
31. Mayonnaise is said to be the invention of the French chef of the Duke de
Richelieu in 1756. While the Duke was defeating the British at Port Mahon,
his chef was creating a victory feast that included a sauce made of cream and
eggs. When the chef realized that there was no cream in the kitchen, he
improvised, substituting olive oil for the cream. A new culinary masterpiece
was born, and the chef named it "Mahonnaise" in honour of the Duke's
victory.
32. McDonald's "Big Mac" slogan, introduced in 1975, is: "Two all beef patties,
special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun."
33. McDonald’s and Burger King sugar-coat their fries so they will turn golden-
brown.
34. Mushrooms have no chlorophyll so they don't need sunshine to grow and
thrive. Some of the earliest commercial mushroom farms were set up in caves
in France during the reign of King Louis XIV (1638-1715).
35. Nabisco's "Oreo's" are the world's best-selling brand of cookie at a rate of 6
billion sold each year. The first Oreo was sold in 1912.
36. Per capita, the Irish eat more chocolate than Americans, Swedes, Danes,
French, and Italians.
37. Persians first began using colored eggs to celebrate spring in 3,000 B.C. 13th
century Macedonians were the first Christians on record to use colored eggs in
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Easter celebrations. Crusaders returning from the Middle East spread the
custom of coloring eggs, and Europeans began to use them to celebrate Easter
and other warm weather holidays.
38. Pine, spruce, or other evergreen wood should never be used in barbecues.
These woods, when burning or smoking, can add harmful tar and resins to the
food. Only hardwoods should be used for smoking and grilling, such as oak,
pecan, hickory, maple, cherry, alder, apple, or mesquite, depending on the
type of meat being cooked.
39. Potato chips are American's favourite snack food. They are devoured at a rate
of 1.2 billion pounds a year.
40. Potato chips were invented in Saratoga Springs in 1853 by chef George Crum.
They were a mocking response to a patron who complained that his French
fries were too thick.
41. Refried beans aren't really what they seem. Although their name seems like a
reasonable translation of Spanish frijoles refritos, the fact is that these beans
aren't fried twice. In Spanish, refritos literally means "well-fried," not "re-
fried."
42. Research shows that only 43% of homemade dinners served in the US include
vegetables.
43. Rice is the staple food of more than one-half of the world's population.
44. Saffron, made from the dried stamens of cultivated crocus flowers, is the most
expensive cooking spice.
45. Since Hindus don't eat beef, McDonald's outlets in India serve mutton burgers.
46. Sliced bread was introduced under the Wonder Bread label in 1930.
47. Swiss Steak, Chop Suey, Russian Dressing, and Hamburgers—all originated
in the US.
48. Tequila is made from the root of the blue agave cactus.
49. The Agen plum, which would become the basis of the US prune industry, was
first planted in California in 1856.
50. The bubbles in Guinness beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top as
in other beers.
51. The California grape and wine industries were started by Count Agoston
Haraszthy de Moksa, who planted Tokay, Zinfandel, and Shiras varieties from
his native Hungary in Buena Vista in 1857.
52. The color of a chili is no indication of its spiciness, but size usually is—the
smaller the pepper, the hotter it is.
53. The daughter of confectioner Leo Hirschfield is commemorated in the name
of the sweet he invented: Although his daughter's real name was Clara, she
went by the nickname Tootsie, and in her honour, her doting father named his
chewy chocolate logs Tootsie Rolls.
54. The difference between apple juice and apple cider is that the juice is
pasteurized and the cider is not.
55. The dye used to stamp the grade on meat is edible. It's made from grape skins.
56. The English word "soup" comes from the Middle Ages word "sop," which
means a slice of bread over which roast drippings were poured. The first
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archaeological evidence of soup being consumed dates back to 6000 B.C.,

with the main ingredient being Hippopotamus bones!
57. The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more
rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter.
58. The first ring donuts were produced in 1847 by a 15 year old baker's
apprentice, Hanson Gregory, who knocked the soggy center out of a fried
doughnut.
59. Truffles, or mushrooms that grow below the ground, are one of the world's
most expensive foods. One variety, Tuber melanosporum, can cost between
$800 and $1,500 a pound. Truffles are sniffed out by female pigs, which
detect a compound that is in the saliva of male pigs as well. The same
chemical is found in the sweat of human males.
60. The hamburger was invented in 1900 by Louis Lassen. He ground beef,
broiled it, and served it between two pieces of toast.
61. The herring is the most widely eaten fish in the world. Nutritionally, its fuel
value is equal to that of a beefsteak.
62. The hottest chili in the world is the habanero.
63. The ice cream soda was invented in 1874 by Robert Green. He was serving a
mixture of syrup, sweet cream and carbonated water at a celebration in
Philadelphia. He ran out of cream and substituted ice cream.
64. The largest item on any menu in the world is probably the roast camel,
sometimes served at Bedouin wedding feasts. The camel is stuffed with a
sheep's carcass, which is stuffed with chickens, which are stuffed with fish,
which are stuffed with eggs.
65. The largest living organism ever found is a honey mushroom, Armillaria
ostoyae. It covers 3.4 square miles of land in the Blue Mountains of eastern
Oregon, and it's still growing
66. The Pillsbury Bake-off has been held every year since 1948.
67. The pound cake got its name from the pound of butter it contained.
68. The sandwich is named for the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-92), for whom
sandwiches were made so that he could stay at the gambling table without
interruptions for meals.
69. The vintage date on a bottle of wine indicates the year the grapes were picked,
not the year of bottling.
70. The white part of an egg is the albumen.
71. The white potato originated in the Andes Mountains and was probably
brought to Britain by Sir Francis Drake about 1586.
72. The world's first chocolate candy was produced in 1828 by Dutch chocolate-
maker Conrad J. Van Houten. He pressed the fat from roasted cacao beans to
produce cocoa butter, to which he added cocoa powder and sugar.
73. The world's costliest coffee, at $130 a pound, is called Kopi Luwak. It is in
the droppings of a type of marsupial that eats only the very best coffee beans.
Plantation workers track them and scoop their precious poop.
74. The world's deadliest mushroom is the Amanita phalloides, the Death Cap
mushroom. The five different poisons in the mushroom cause diarrhoea and
vomiting within 6 to 12 hours of ingestion. This is followed by damage to the
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liver, kidneys, and central nervous system and – in the majority of cases –
coma and death.
75. To determine the percentage of alcohol in a bottle of liquor, divide the proof
by two.
76. Van Camp's Pork and Beans were a staple food for Union soldiers in the Civil
War.
77. Vanilla is the extract of fermented and dried pods of several species of
orchids.
78. Watermelon is grown in over 96 countries worldwide. Over 1,200 varieties of
watermelon are grown worldwide.
79. Watermelon, considered one of man’s favourite fruits, is really a vegetable
(Citrullus lanatus). Cousin to the cucumber and kin to the gourd, watermelons
can range in size from 7 to 100 pounds.
80. When Catherine de Medici married Henry II of France (1533) she brought
forks with her, as well as several master Florentine cooks. Foods never before
seen in France were soon being served using utensils instead of fingers or
daggers. She is said to have introduced spinach (which "à la Florentine"
usually means) as well as aspics, sweetbreads, artichoke hearts, truffles, liver
crépinettes, quenelles of poultry, macaroons, ice cream, and zabagliones.
81. When honey is swallowed, it enters the blood stream within a period of 20
minutes.
82. When potatoes first appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century, it was
thought that they were disgusting, and they were blamed for starting outbreaks
of leprosy and syphilis. As late as 1720 in America, eating potatoes was
believed to shorten a person's life.
83. When Swiss cheese ferments, a bacterial action generates gas. As the gas is
liberated, it bubbles through the cheese leaving holes. Cheese-makers call
them "eyes."
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Facts about Postage Stamps

Finally, here are some fascinating facts about famous, rare, valuable and odd stamps…

1. In 1973, Bhutan issued a stamp that looked like a record. Put it on a record player
and it would actually play the Bhutanese national anthem!
2. The United Kingdom is the only country that doesn't have its name on its stamps.
(Usually they have the monarch's head.)
3. The Pacific island of Tonga once issued a stamp shaped like a banana.
4. The smallest-ever stamp - 9.5 x 8mm - was issued in 1863 by the Columbian state
of Bolivar.
5. Australia has issued several stamps which look just like gems. Special technology
was used to create the look of real opals on stamps issued in 1995 and a real
diamond in 1996.
6. The first stamp to be issued, in England on 6 May 1840, was the Penny Black. It's
called the Penny Black because it cost a penny, and it was black. The face on the
stamp is that of Queen Victoria, who was Queen at that time. Just because a stamp
is old doesn't necessarily make it valuable. The Penny Black is not rare - 68
million of them were printed - but if you had one in mint condition it could be
worth $1000 or more.
7. In Australia's early days, stamps were issued by individual colonies. The first
stamp issued in Australia came from New South Wales in 1850. The one penny
stamp which showed the seal of the colony is worth around $5000 in mint
condition. The Kangaroo and Map series, first issued in 1913, were the first real
Australian stamps. A whole range of stamps bearing this design was issued,
valued from half a penny to £2 (about $4 in today's money). A mint copy of the
£2 Kangaroo and Map could be worth as much as $4000 today.
8. Before stamps were invented, the person who received the letter was charged by
the number of pages, and also by the distance the letter had travelled. An
Englishman called Rowland Hill came up with the idea of pre-paying for postage
with 'postage stamps'. Today stamps just seem like common sense, but the
Postmaster General at the time complained, 'Of all the wild schemes I have ever
heard of, this is the most extraordinary.'! However, Hill's idea was adopted and
other countries soon started to issue stamps. Here’s another sidelight:
9. Stamps started out as purely practical objects and it is not generally known that
Australia was a pioneer in their development. In November, 1838, the Colonial
Postmaster-General in Sydney introduced a system of pre-payment for letters
which used a form of postage stamp. This was probably a world’s first. For,
although an Englishman, Roland Hill, thought up the idea of the postage stamp,
pre-paid postage in New South Wales pre-dated the famous British 'Penny Blacks'
(the first adhesive stamps) by about two years.
10. About one billion (or 1000 million) stamps are produced in Australia every year
and about 1.3 million Australians collect them.
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11. Cats were used for a mail service in Liege, Belgium, in 1879. In all, 37 cats were
employed to carry bundles of letters to villages within a 30km radius of the city
centre. The experiment was short-lived as the cats proved to be thoroughly
undisciplined.
12. The first stamps from the Australian continent were issued from New South
Wales on 1st January 1850 (although embossed letter sheets had been used by the
colony since 1838).
13. It was not until January 1913 that the first Commonwealth of Australia stamps
appeared…twelve years after the various Australian states were federated by the
Commonwealth of Australia Act on 1 January 1901.
14. The first Commonwealth Country to issue a stamp specifically for postage on
Christmas greetings cards was Australia in 1957. The first stamps issued
specifically for postage on Christmas greeting cards appeared in Austria in
December 1937.
15. In 1932, a gang of three men operating a racket in bogus sweepstake tickets
forged quantities of the 2d George V red and 2d Sydney Harbour Bridge stamps,
using the former to mail out circulars. An Adelaide philatelist detected the forgery
and notified police, who arrested all three men and seized 60,000 forged stamps.
16. The Australian Commonwealth issued ‘postage due’ stamps in July 1902, eleven
years before it issued ordinary stamps. Britain did not adopt postage due stamps
until 20 April 1914. (The first in the British Commonwealth were issued in
Victoria in 1890 and New South Wales in 1891). Since 1935, Canadian stamps
have had the date of their production concealed in tiny numerals in the design.
17. The first Australian miniature sheet was issued on 29 October 1928. It featured
four 3d stamps with a Kookaburra on a branch of a gum tree. The miniature sheet
commemorated the Fourth Australian Philatelic Exhibition held in Melbourne.
18. The first airmail stationery, consisting of postcards and letter sheets, was
produced in Paris for carriage by balloon in 1870.
19. In 1849, the French Government introduced a law making it an offence to wash or
otherwise clean used French postage stamps. This was to combat the practice of
using the same stamps over and over again. In one six-year period, almost 15,000
persons (including genuine stamp collectors) were charged under this law.
20. The world's rarest, and most valuable, stamp is the 1c British Guiana of 1856. It
was acquired in 1873 by an English schoolboy who later sold it for 6/- to a fellow
collector. The stamp is now valued at more than $10 million.
21. The numbering of houses for postal purposes began in Paris in 1463-4; the Pont
Notre Dame district being the first so numbered.
22. Germany was the first country to adopt postcodes, introducing a two-digit system
in 1942. Australia introduced postcodes on 1 July 1967.
23. The first person other than a head of state (living or dead) to appear on a stamp
was Benjamin Franklin, whose portrait featured on the 10c stamp issued by the
United States of America in July 1847.
24. The first person other than royalty to appear on a British stamp was William
Shakespeare, in 1964.
25. Potato starch, wheat starch and acacia gum were the ingredients of the gum used
on the back of the Penny Black. The Post Office called it cement and early stamps
 132

bore instructions printed on the sheet margins - 'In Wetting the Back be careful
not to remove the Cement'. This created a panic that the gum was injurious to
health and led to a Select Committee on Postage Label Stamps being convened in
1852 to enquire into its composition.
26. The first self-adhesive stamps were issued by Sierra Leone on 10 February 1964.
27. The earliest adhesive stamps were issued imperforate and had to be torn apart or
cut with scissors, although the printers, Perkins Bacon, actually had a small
perforating machine in 1840 to perforate cheque book counterfoils. They regarded
the perforation of sheets of stamps as impracticable owing to the closeness of the
stamps and unevenness of the layout caused by paper shrinkage after printing.
28. The NSW Stamp Council issued Australia's first maximum card set of three for
Christmas in 1978.
29. The first Australian stamp pack featured the 50th Anniversary of the First
UK/Australian Flight. It was issued in November 1969.
30. China issued the largest stamps ever - 210 x 65 mm. They were issued in the early
1900s and used on express letters.
31. The earliest postal markings date back to about 3000 B.C. They were used by
Egyptian court officials and read: 'In the name of the living king, speed!'
32. The first stamp collector was John Bourke, Receiver-General of Stamp Duties in
Ireland. He formed a collection of fiscal stamps in an album in 1774.
 133

Facts about Trees

1. More than 23,000 different species of trees can be found on Earth.

2. For every 10,000 acorns that an Oak tree produces, only one will become
a tree!
3. The most recently discovered tree species is the Wollemi Pine,
{Wollemia nobilis}. It was discovered in August 1994, in Wollemi National Park,
Australia.
4. The lightest and softest wood in the world is Balsa. Its average specific
gravity averages 0.16.
5. The heaviest and the hardest wood in the world is Snakewood. Its specific
gravity averages 1.30.
6. The trees with the largest leaves are Teak. The leaves can be 10 inches -
20 inches long and 7 inches - 14 inches wide.
7. Empress trees produce 3 to 4 times more oxygen than any other known
tree.
8. The whitest wood in the world is Holly.
9. The blackest wood in the world is Gabon Ebony.
10. Not all species of wood float in water. In order to sink in water, the
specific gravity of the wood has to be 1.00 or more. The folllowing 17 sink…
a. African Blackwood,
b. African Ebony,
c. Black Ironwood,
d. Brazilwood,
e. CocoBolo,
f. East Indian Satinwood,
g. Ekki,
h. Greenheart,
i. IPE,
j. Kingwood,
k. Lignum Vitae,
l. Macassar Ebony,
m. Marblewood,
n. Satine {Bloodwood},
o. Snakewood,
p. Sucupira
q. White Topped Box.
11. Bamboo, although often tree-like, is actually not a species of tree. It is a
grass!
12. Not all wood that comes from hardwood {flowering} broadleaf trees is
hard and wood that comes from softwood {conifers} cone-bearing trees is soft.
There are exceptions to this. For instance Balsa and Basswood are hardwoods
 134

even though they are extremely soft. The southern pines are softwoods but are
moderately hard and much harder than Balsa or Basswood.
13. The name Ironwood is actually a slang term given to the hardest wood of
an area, region or country. There are over 80 species of wood in the world,
referred to or having the word Ironwood in them.
14. The world's tallest living Christmas tree (275 feet) is in the Styx Valley, a
tract of ancient forest in Tasmania, Australia.
15. The only species of wood that can be used for holding liquids {other than
acids} is White Oak. This is because the pores are filled with tyloses. This
substance does not allow liquids to penetrate it.
16. Lignin is the substance found in wood that helps determine how hard the
wood will be. The more Lignin present, the harder the wood and vice versa—the
less present, the softer the wood.
17. Up until a few years ago, the world's oldest living tree, a Bristlecone Pine,
named the Methuselah was in California. It is approximately 4,600 years old.
Now there may be at least two trees that are older.
18. With John White's refined measurement techniques of today, The Lime
tree in the Silkwood at Westonbirt Arboretum (Near Tetbury, Gloucester, U.K.) is
probably around 6000 years old.
19. The Fortingall Yew Tree in Glen Lyon, Perthshire, Scotland, might be as
much as 9000 years old. The usual way of calculating a trees age by counting the
annual rings in the trunk or by carbon dating, are not accurate when it comes to
Yews because a Yews trunk tends to hollow with age, while it continues to grow
by rooting its branches and wrapping them around itself. There is even
documentation of the formation of aerial roots growing inside the hollow trunk.
Another reason is that Yews have been known to stop growing for long periods of
time, {documented 325 years}, thus having no growth rings for that period.
20. The world's tallest living standing tree, a Redwood, is in Humboldt State
Redwood Park California. It is 368 feet {almost 37 stories} tall.
21. In 1872, William Ferguson, reported a fallen Eucalyptus regnans that was
18 feet in diameter and 435 feet tall, thus making it the tallest (or rather, longest!)
dead tree ever found.
22. The world's widest tree is the Santa Maria del Tule, an Ahuehuete
Cypress, in Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico. The town is named after the
tree. It is approximately 178 feet in circumference or approximately 56 feet 8
inches wide. It is over 2000 years old.
23. The world's slowest growing tree is a White Cedar located in Canada.
After 155 years, it grew to a height of 4 inches and weighed only 6/10 th of an
ounce. The tree can be found on a cliff side in the Canadian Great Lakes area.
24. The world's largest forest is in northern Russia. It is located between 55
degrees North Latitude and the Arctic Circle (Siberia). It is a coniferous forest. It
covers a total area of 2.7 billion acres.
25. The world's fastest growing tree is the Empress tree. This tree can grow up
to 20 feet the first year and some have been documented growing 12 inches in 21
days!
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26. The tree with the world's largest canopy/crown {spread of its branches}, is
the great Banyan tree in the Indian Botanical Garden, Calcutta, India. It has over
1,700 prop supporting roots and dates back to 1787. The canopy/crown has a
circumference of 1,350 foot, approximately 430 foot wide, almost 1½ football
fields.
27. The world's largest living tree – and this is because of its volume – is the
General Sherman Giant Sequoia, located in Sequoia National Park, in California.
It weighs a little over 2.7 million pounds. Its largest branch is 6 foot 9 ½ inches in
diameter. It is estimated that it contains 600,000 board foot of lumber. Its
champion tree score is 1321 points.
28. A trees score is determined by adding 3 measurements together,
circumference in inches, measured at 4.5 feet above ground level (1 point for each
inch), height in feet (1 point for each foot in height), and one-fourth of the crown
spread. Add together the widest crown spread (nearest foot), and the narrowest
crown spread (nearest foot), then divide by two to get the average ground spread,
then divide by 4.
29. The town of Flagstaff, Arizona was named when, on July 4 th 1876,
lumberjacks stripped the limbs from the tallest Ponderosa Pine and then flew the
American flag from it.
30. The tree that has traveled the farthest distance to be transplanted to date is
a London Plane Tree, nicknamed Plane Ace. It was moved from Belgium and was
replanted in the United Kingdom in January 2001. At the time, it was
approximately 60 years old and almost 58 feet tall.
31. The tallest tree to date to be transplanted, is the 30 year old, Betula
Pendula {Silver Birch), which was moved from William Garfit's nursery in
Cambridge and was replanted at a lifestyle housing development in the south
London suburb of Deptford. At the time, it was almost 64 feet tall.
32. The Copaiba Langsdorfii, a tree that grows in the Amazon, has sap that is
so much like diesel fuel that it can be used as fuel for diesel engines.
33. If you burn Ceylon Satinwood, the fumes will put humans to sleep and kill
canaries.
34. Purpleheart wood can be made to become a darker shade of purple in two
ways. One, by placing it in direct sunlight; and this will only darken the color
superficially. It can be sanded off very easily. Two, by heating it, at say 325
degrees Fahrenheit for 8 - 12 minutes. This will darken the color, not only on the
surface but also throughout the whole piece.
35. A Balsa tree will start rotting after 7 years, if it is not cut down.
36. The world's most massive tree trunk size ever recorded was the Lindsey
Creek Coast Redwood tree in California. It was blown down in a storm in 1905. It
had a total trunk volume of 90,000 cubic foot and a total mass weight of 3,248
tons, a little short of 6.5 million pounds.
37. Since the early 1940's, the United States has been planting more trees than
it harvests and today, has far more trees than in the 1920's.
38. The wood species that has the most offensive odour {like rotten cabbage}
after it is worked in any way, is Essia.
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39. Some African Baobab trees can store more than 25,000 gallons {in weight,
approximately 100 tons} of water in their trunks. Also, some with age have
become hollow and have been used as homes. One was even used as a bus stop
and could shelter up to 30 people.
40. Cork trees are stripped of their bark every 10 years or so and will continue
to grow for 150 years or more.
41. The world's sweetest tree is native to West Africa. It is the Serendipity
Berry. It is 3000 times sweeter than sucrose.
42. Rubber trees on the average yield about 4-5 pounds of rubber per year.
43. The softest American wood is the Corkbark. Its specific gravity averages .
28. It is native to Arizona and New Mexico.
44. The hardest American wood is Black Ironwood. Its specific gravity
averages 1.04. It is native to southern Florida.
45. The world's shortest specie of tree is the Weeping Mulberry. Their height
rarely exceeds 4 feet.
46. The Longleaf Pine, native to the southern part of the United States, does
not have heartwood until it is 18 or so years old.
47. It is often said that Pink Ivorywood is rarer than diamonds.
48. Water has a specific gravity, or relative density, of 1. To sink in water, a
substance must have a specific gravity greater than 1. Leadwood has a specific
gravity between 1.34 and 1.42, making it the densest wood in the United States.
49. The world's most dense wood is black ironwood (Olea laurifolia), also
called South African ironwood. Found in the West Indies, it has a specific gravity
of 1.49 and weighs up to 93 pounds (42.18 kilograms) per foot.
50. The lightest wood is Aeschynomene hispida, found in Cuba. It has a
specific gravity of 0.044 and a weight of 2.5 pounds (1.13 kilograms) per foot.
 137

ANSWERS
WARM-UP ROUND
1. (C) According to local lore, San Marino was founded, as a republic, in the fourth
century AD, and while this has not been proved, it is certainly ancient. It is the
last of the old Italian independent states, having remained unconquered when
Garibaldi unified the rest. The nation today is a minuscule enclave completely
surrounded by Italy, but its inhabitants retain a strong national pride.
2. (C) Russia, even without the other Soviet republics, is still by far the biggest
country in the world—almost twice the size of Canada, its nearest competitor.
China comes in third, closely followed by the United States, Brazil, and Australia,
in that order.
3. (B) The prefix "kilo" usually means one thousand: a kilogram is exactly 1,000
grams. For technical reasons, however, computer memories are organized around
numbers that are powers of two (numbers that they can be obtained by repeatedly
multiplying two by itself). 1,024 is such a number (2 raised to the 10th power).
The term "kilobyte" is merely a convenient approximation. Similarly, a megabyte
is 1,048,576 (1024 times 1024) bytes, rather than exactly one million as the
"mega" prefix would suggest.
4. (B) Although Florida is the former holder of this title, Hawaii overtook it a few
years ago because of volcanic activity, which continually enlarges the
southernmost of the Hawaiian Islands. Puerto Rico would take the crown if it
were to become a state of the U.S.
5. (C) Canada was formed in 1867 as a confederation of the former British North
American colonies, which split from the United States because of their loyalty to
the British monarchy. Canada still considers the Queen of England its formal
"head of state", although the queen has very little real influence in government.
6. (B) After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, he was shipped off to this tiny flyspeck
in the Atlantic by his victorious enemies. He lived out the rest of his life there,
before dying in 1821 of uncertain causes. There is some speculation that he died
of arsenic poisoning, though later research attributes this fact to the inordinate
amounts of this toxic substance in the wallpaper, which was activated by the
damp sea breezes that blew through the house.
7. (C) Not all animals are mobile: Sponges and a few other creatures stay rooted to
one spot for their entire adult lives. Most animals are less intelligent than humans,
but all known animals subsist on some form or other of life— plants, animals,
fungi, or microorganisms.
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8. (A) The isolationist communist dictatorship of North Korea is still officially led
by Kim Il-Sung, its founder, who died in 1994. A few years after his death, he
was proclaimed the nation's "eternal president" by his son, Kim Jong-Il, who
effectively rules the nation.
9. (B) Latin is – with Italian – one of the official languages of Vatican City, the
smallest country in the world, which comprises less than a square mile of territory
in the middle of Rome and is ruled over by the Pope and his subordinates.
Taiwan's official language is Mandarin Chinese.
10. (D) Scientists lump together the coelacanth with lungfish, reptiles, amphibians,
birds, and mammals (including yourself and all other humans) into the class
Sarcopterygii. This unlikely group exists because it is believed that all these
diverse creatures are descended from a single species which lived hundreds of
millions of years ago, while tuna, hagfish, and sharks come from different
evolutionary lines.
11. (B) If your latitude is 0°, you must be somewhere on the equator, the line
separating the northern and southern hemispheres. If your longitude is 0°, you are
standing on a line that connects the North and South Poles, and passes through
Greenwich, England. The two lines meet in the Atlantic Ocean (!), a few hundred
kilometres south of Ghana and west of Gabon.
12. (C). Harpo's name was Arthur, Chico was Leonard, and Zeppo was Herbert.
Zeppo retired from the team after they made the classic 1933 movie Duck Soup.
13. (A). It all depends on which side of the Atlantic you’re on! In Canada and the
USA, the storage compartment in a car is known as the "trunk"; in other English-
speaking countries it is called the "boot".
14. (A). The son of a noble Russian family, Dr. Alexander Alekhine was one of the
most colourful characters in the history of chess. He became champion in 1927 by
beating José Capablanca, the Cuban prodigy who had achieved the championship
in 1921 despite never having formally studied chess openings or tactics. The
Russian Mikhail Tal won the title in 1960 to become, at 23, the youngest chess
champion in history.
15. The defeat of Varus and his three legions at the hands of the Germanic tribes was
a stunning humiliation for the so far invincible Roman army. Varus took his own
life after the battle, and Rome never again attempted to expand the empire east of
the Rhine.
16. (D). Pons and Fleischman were the scientists who created a brief sensation by
announcing the discovery of a process for achieving "cold fusion", a technology
with the potential for solving many of the problems that plague our energy-hungry
modern world. Unfortunately, attempts to duplicate the effect failed, and their
claims were rejected by most of the scientific community.
17. The tiny, impoverished South Pacific nation of Tuvalu garnered an incredible
windfall from the sale of the rights to its Internet domain in April, 2000. The
selling price of $50,000,000 U.S., spread over 12 years, will give Tuvalu's
population of less than 11 thousand one of the highest per capita incomes on the
planet. As for the other three choices: Liechtenstein's domain is ".li"; the Vatican
City State's is ".va". There is no country by the name of Terra Verde.
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18. (B). Helen was the wife of Menelaus, the brother of King Agamemnon of
Mycenae. She eloped with the Trojan prince Paris around 1200 BC. Agamemnon
and an alliance of Greek kings sailed to Troy, a walled city in Asia Minor also
known as Ilium, and thus began the decade-long siege called the Trojan War,
described in Homer’s Iliad. The famous "thousand ships" line is from Christopher
Marlowe's play Faustus:
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
19. (C). In modern sailing vessels, the term fo'csle refers to the crew's quarters at the
front of the vessel. It is an abbreviation of the word ‘forecastle’.
20. (A). The mistral blows down from the Central Plateau of France onto the
northwest Mediterranean, usually during the winter months. Wind speeds up to
150 km/h (90 mph) have been recorded.
21. (D). Anne Hathaway was eight years older than Shakespeare, whom she married
in 1582 when he was just 18. Although they had three children together, the
couple spent most of their married life apart, she remaining at home in Stratford
while her husband occupied himself with pursuing a theatrical career in London
and becoming the greatest playwright in history.
22. (C). These tiny bones, called "ossicles", are the smallest in the human body. The
hammer is in contact with the eardrum, and transmits its vibrations via the anvil to
the stirrup, which passes them on to the inner ear.
23. This familiar symbol of the medical profession – a staff wrapped by a pair of
entwined serpents – dates back to ancient times. It was once the symbol of
Hermes, messenger of the gods. The staff represented oratory, while the entwined
serpents stood for reconciliation.
24. Voltaire (1694-1778) was a brilliant writer, satirist and thinker. He was an enemy
of tyrants, and the leading genius of the Enlightenment. Often in trouble with
French authorities, he spent much of his life in exile. His best known work is
Candide.
25. (A) Not only was The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished when Dickens died,
but the author's notes did not say how the story was to be completed, or give the
solution to its central mystery: who killed Edwin Drood? As for the other choices:
The hero of King Solomon's Mines was Allan Quatermain; the author of The
Monkey's Paw was W.W. Jacobs; and the real-life model for Sherlock Holmes
was Dr. Joseph Bell. Incidentally, there is no flat number 221B on Baker Street,
London—Holmes’ address as per the Sherlock Holmes books and stories.
26. The bones of the hand are in three groups: the carpus (wrist) with 8 bones,
the metacarpus (palm) with 5, and the phalanges (fingers and thumb) with 14, for
a total of 27 bones in each hand. The foot is similarly divided into tarsus (7),
metatarsus (5) and phalanges (14), for a total of 26.
27. (B) The guest button-holed by the Mariner is impatient to get to the
wedding. He replies, "By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore
stopp'st thou me?" Transfixed by the stranger's hypnotic gaze, though, he finds
himself unable to resist lending an ear to the rest of the poem's nearly 700 lines.
28. Antimony is element 51, which brackets it with arsenic and bismuth. Its
chemical symbol is Sb. It should not be confused with antinomy (a contradiction
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between two individually reasonable conclusions; a paradox) or acrimony (bitter

animosity) or even autotomy (voluntary shedding of a limb or tail by a lizard to
elude a predator).
29. (A). Fardels are bundles or burdens! To continue the passage:

...Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?

30. Mare Imbrium (the ‘Sea of Rains’, or ‘Sea of Showers’) is the largest of
the dark plains – misnamed seas by early observers but of course having no
moisture at all – on the near side of the Moon. Its diameter is 1123 km (about 700
miles).
31. (D) These are four of the many types of ethnic drums that, like other folk
instruments, are increasingly being used by musicians around the world. The
atabal is of Basque origin; the bocu is Cuban; the darabuka is from North Africa
and the Middle East; and the rebolo is Brazilian.
32. Telemann was a little senior to his three contemporaries, and he also
outlived them. His dates are 1681-1767.
33. (A) Augustus died a month short of his 76th birthday. Had there been a
year zero, the year of his death would have been 13 A.D.
34. (A) The killdeer, named in imitation of its call rather than for any risk it
poses to deer, is the largest of the ringed plovers—a bird of the shoreline. Several
species of plovers range throughout the U.S. and the West Indies, extending into
British Columbia and northern South America. Incidentally, a heavy rock used as
an anchor is called a "killick".
35. (D) A threnody is a song of lamentation, or mourning for the dead. It
derives from the Greek word for "wailing".
36. (C) The trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) is considered
by many to have been the greatest musician in the first half-century of jazz. From
childhood he had many nicknames, including some that were based on his
unusually wide mouth. One of these, "satchel-mouth", was eventually contracted
to "Satchmo", a nickname that, with Armstrong himself, became a part of jazz
history. He is well remembered for his celebrated vocal rendition of the song
Hello, Dolly!
37. (B) Till quite recently, shepherds in Lancashire would count their sheep
using a traditional counting system, thought to be of Celtic origin, which used
these words for the numbers from one to ten: yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp,
sethera, lethera, hovera, covera, dik.
38. (B) It’s five! The five possible regular convex polyhedra, or "Platonic
solids", are the tetrahedron (a pyramid with four triangular faces), the cube, the
octahedron (eight triangular faces), the dodecahedron (12 pentagonal faces) and
the icosahedron (20 triangular faces).
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39. (C) The curious word "dudgeon" is listed in some dictionaries as being of
unknown origin; others claim it is derived from an Anglo-French phrase, en
digeon, meaning "with one's hand on the hilt of one's dagger". For some odd
reason, dudgeon is virtually always high. High tea, anyone?
40. (B) The Loved One, which lampoons American funeral practices, was
actually written by Auberon Waugh's father Evelyn (1903-1966) whose other
works include Vile Bodies, Brideshead Revisited and The Sword of Honour.
Auberon Waugh is also a novelist, as was Evelyn's brother Alec. The other three
titles are all works of science (or ‘speculative’) fiction.
41. (D) Indricotherium (formerly known as Baluchitherium), inhabited central
and western Asia during the Oligocene epoch, 35 million to 23 million years ago.
The creature stood 5.5 m (about 18 feet) at the shoulder, and was three times as
heavy the largest modern mammal, the African elephant. Although it was a direct
ancestor of the rhinoceros, Indricotherium had no horns. It's also worth noting
that even Indricotherium was puny compared to either the largest dinosaurs or the
largest modern whales.
42. (C) If you selected Mach 900,000, you got it right! The speed of light in
air is about 300 million metres per second. At sea level in moderate temperatures,
sound travels at some 333 metres per second, about 900 thousand times slower
than light.
43. (D When considering the long-term consequences of continually
increasing energy consumption, Dyson foresaw that in the distant future,
humanity would require energy in amounts that now seem almost incalculably
vast. He proposed a correspondingly vast solution: a shell with a radius of one
earth orbit, completely enclosing the sun, which would capture all the sun's
energy for human use.
44. (B) The sackbut is the ancestor of the modern trombone, from which it
differed only in detail. Professional musicians in the 15th century would entertain
on the sackbut, bombard and shawm (both double-reed instruments), while
amateurs preferred flutes and pipes.
45. (A). Dodgson's main mathematical interest was symbolic logic, a topic
that complemented his knack for the kind of zany illogic for which the Alice
books are rightfully famous.
46. (D). Conrad knew no English before the age of 21. A master craftsman of
seafaring tales, Conrad was born Teodor Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski to Polish
parents. An orphan by the age of 11, he went to sea at 17 from the time he came
to England, after which he worked as a sailor for 20 years. His first published
work appeared when he was in his thirties.
47. (C). A dromond is a large medieval ship used for trade or war. A xebec is
a small Mediterranean vessel with both square and triangular sails. A proa is a
Malayan sailing boat with a canoe-like outrigger.
48. (B) The three real words in the group were skat, a three-handed card
game; skeg, the fin on a surfboard; and skep, a basket of wood or wicker.
49. (D) With a diameter 3.98 times that of the Earth, Uranus is slightly larger
than Neptune (3.81 Earth diameters), and much smaller than either Jupiter (11.21)
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or Saturn (9.45). The Earth is the fifth largest planet, followed in order by Venus,
Mars, Mercury and Pluto (which has now been declared a ‘dwarf’ planet).
50. (C) A destrier is a war-horse; a palfrey is a light horse for riding,
especially by women.
51. (C) The longest duration normally used in modern music is the whole
note, or semibreve, equivalent to 32 demisemiquavers.
52. (A). Harvey established the role of arteries and veins in the circulation of
the blood, and the true relationship between the pulse and the action of the heart.
The first microscope useful for biological study was invented by Anton von
Leeuwenhoeck (1632-1723).
Edward Jenner (1749-1823) came up with immunization through vaccination.
The first experiments relating electric currents to nerve impulses were carried out
by Luigi Galvani (1737-1798).
53. The rapids at Whitehorse were a formidable challenge to the "Stampeders"
who headed north for the Klondike gold fields. Many died attempting to negotiate
them.
54. (B) Champollion's greatest achievement was the use of the Rosetta Stone –
an ancient priestly inscription in three different writing systems – as the key to
deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. The work occupied most of his adult life.
Curiously enough, the Rosetta Stone was found by Napoleon Bonaparte during an
expedition to Egypt, reaching France in due course.
55. (D) Stevenson's classic story, Treasure Island, tells of a young boy named
Jim Hawkins who finds himself enmeshed in a web of piratical intrigue. A
favourite with children ever since it was published, it is arguably Stevenson’s
most widely-read work.
56. (B) Robert Browning's recording was played back in 1890, at a gathering
in Venice on the anniversary of his death. Brahms, Sullivan and Tennyson all did
make recordings for Edison, along with such other notables as nursing pioneer
Florence Nightingale – the famed ‘Lady of the Lamp’ – and British Prime
Minister William Gladstone.
57. (A). Although King Uther was Arthur's father, the boy was raised by his
stepfather, King Lot of Orkney. It was not until Arthur reached adulthood, and
drew the sword from the stone, as urged by Merlin the Magician, that he was
made aware of his true parentage.
58. (C) In Polaroid photography, the processing of each photograph to
produce a print is carried out by chemicals packaged with the film itself. The idea
was suggested to Dr. Land by his daughter's impatience with the long processing
times required for the family's vacation photos. The ‘Land’ camera was an instant
hit with American vacationers but – for obvious reasons – the photo-processing
trade hated it like poison till it was found to be ideal for instant passport
photographs!
59. (D) The best-known targets of cryptozoological research are the various
(mythical?) forms of "ape-man", such as the Himalayan Yeti and the North
American Sasquatch or ‘Bigfoot’…and the sea and the lake "monsters", such as
Scotland's fabled Nessie—the Loch Ness monster.
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60. (B) Hurling is played on a large field by two teams of 15 players wielding
sticks called hurleys. The ball is passed from player to player either along the
ground or through the air. Points are scored by shooting the ball through the
opponent's goal either above the crossbar (one point) or below it (three points).
61. (A). The name ‘Bucephalus’ means "bull-headed". Alexander bought his
famed charger for the princely sum of 13 talents.
62. (A). All three animals are native to Africa, and all are "bovine" antelopes,
closely related to oxen, buffalo and bison. The sitatunga is semi-aquatic.
63. (D). The other six sins on the list are superbia (pride), invidia (envy), ira
(wrath), avaritia (covetousness), gula (gluttony) and luxuria (lust).
64. (C) Incitatus was the mad emperor Caligula's own horse, and lived nearly
as well as his master: he ate from an ivory manger, and drank wine from a golden
goblet. It is said that Winston Churchill, as a schoolboy, once wrote a one-line
essay on Caligula that earned him pass marks. It read: “The less said of Caligula,
the better.”
65. (C) The silkworm uses the silk it produces for constructing a cocoon, into
which it then retreats for a month or so to emerge as a chrysalis, which in turn
develops into the adult moth. Up to 900m (3000ft) of thread may be used in the
construction of a single cocoon. Traditionally, cocoons are put into boiling water
to kill the pupae before the silk thread is unravelled.
66. (C) Much of the work at Olduvai Gorge in modern Tanzania was carried
out by expeditions led by the American scientist Louis Leakey and his wife Mary,
whose discoveries there in the early 1960s included Homo habilis, a tool-user
dating back nearly two million years. They named their oldest find ‘Lucy’.
67. (B) Tolkein himself illustrated ‘The Hobbit’. The original illustrator of
Alice in Wonderland was John Tenniel. Winnie the Pooh and one well-known
edition of The Wind in the Willows were illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard.
68. (C) The Great Fire of London broke out at a time when the city was just
beginning to emerge from the worst of a plague outbreak that had at one time
claimed 7,000 lives in a single day. The fire began on Pudding Lane, near – or
possibly in – the house of the King's baker. The fire has been best chronicled in
the diary left by Samuel Pepys (pronounced ‘Peeps’), an MP.
69. (B) Gall was the founder of phrenology, which was based on the belief
that differences in ability and temperament were reflected by differences in
development of particular areas of the brain; and that the detailed shape of the
skull reveals the amount of development of each area. The theory was taken
seriously for some time, but was later discredited.
70. (A) –273 degrees centigrade. This theoretical barrier has almost been
reached in some research experiments in cryogenics, or low-temperature physics.
71. (D) Patagonia is the mostly-desert region at the southern tip of South
America, including the islands of Tierra del Fuego. Combined with other
discoveries, the platypus tooth suggests that Antarctica, Australia and South
America belonged to a single land mass as recently as 40 million years ago.
72. (C) François Rabelais wrote the comic tale of Gargantua and Pantagruel
in four volumes, which appeared between 1532 and 1552 (a fifth volume
appeared after Rabelais' death, and may not be authentic). The title characters are
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giants, father and son. Their search for the meaning of life gave the author wide
scope for satirical comment on contemporary society.
73. (D) Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769) was an English expert on card and board
games. His books on whist and other games established his name as an authority,
and many subsequent books of rules, especially for card games, have long borne
his name.
74. (C) Mexico produces more than 100 million ounces of silver annually,
making it the highest producer by a considerable margin over its nearest rival,
Peru. The U.S., Canada, Chile and Australia are other large producers. Despite its
‘silvery’ (‘Argent’ means ‘silver’) name, Argentina is not currently among the top
silver producing countries, though it is a prominent producer of copper and gold.
75. (C) A schwa is an indistinct vowel in an unstressed position, like the
second e in scented. The word schwa itself is German, and derives from a Hebrew
word meaning "emptiness".
76. (C) Barbarian marauders from Central Asia, the Mongols. The word
‘Mughal’ is a corruption of ‘Mongol’, from whom Babur was descended (he
claimed descent from Tamerlane as well as Chenghiz Khan). The Mogul (or
Mughal) empire originated with the invasion of India from Afghanistan by Babur,
Prince of Ferghana and son of Umar Shaikh, in 1526. The empire continued - not
counting an early interregnum when Sher Shah Suri ousted Humayun, son of
Babur - until 1857, when the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was
deposed by the British and exiled to Burma (now Myanmar). Architecturally at
least, the high point of Mughal rule was the reign of Shah Jahan from 1628 to
1658, during which the Taj Mahal and many other great monuments were
constructed.
77. Brobdingnag is the kingdom where the wandering Gulliver finds that the
inhabitants are as large in relation to him as those in Lilliput were small. The
phrase "of Brobdingnagian size [or scale, or proportion]" means "much larger
than usual". The Earth is very large in relation to us, but of only middling size for
a planet, and so - unlike Jupiter perhaps - doesn't qualify as Brobdingnagian.
78. (B) The corpus callosum is the bundle of nerve fibres that connects the left
and right halves of the brain. Because the brain hemispheres are to some extent
specialized for different tasks, a person whose corpus callosum has been
surgically severed may have unusual responses when only one hemisphere is
receiving sensory input (if one eye is covered, for example). Intuitive and rational
responses - from right and left halves respectively - are generally not coordinated
or balanced enough to enable successful decision making.
79. (B) Blair/Orwell (1903-1950) is best known for the novels 1984 and
Animal Farm. Among his other works are Homage to Catalonia, which describes
his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, the novel The Road to Wigan Pier, and
several volumes of essays.
80. (B) The Trojan prince Paris (son of King Priam) who was responsible for
eloping with Helen of Troy (see Q. 57) was aided in his marksmanship by the god
Apollo, to avenge Hector’s death at Achilles’ hands. Hector was a Trojan hero
whom Achilles slew in order to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus. After the
deed, he dragged the body behind his chariot to rub home his victory. But Hector
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lives on in the English language; quite unjustifiably, ‘hector’ is a synonym for

‘bully’.
81. (B) An ell (3.75 feet) is longer than a yard (3 feet). The other
measurements mentioned in the question are: hand (4 inches), span (9 inches),
cubit (1.5 feet), pace (2.5 feet), fathom (2 yards), perch (5.5 yards), chain (22
yards) and furlong (220 yards).
82. (A) The performance of Purcell's short (one hour) opera took place at
Josiah Priest's boarding school at Chelsea in 1689. Although many of the roles in
the opera would have been performed by the "young gentlewomen" of the school,
there are parts for male voice that would have required outside performers. Opera
did not become popular in England until somewhat later - Dido and Aeneas was
not performed in a theatre until 1700.
83. (B) Nabokov (1899-1977) was a native of Russia who became a U.S.
citizen in 1945. His most famous novel is Lolita.
84. (D) The first president to use Camp David was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Until Eisenhower, the facility was called Shangri-La.
85. (C) Although the libretto for Thespis still exists, the score has been lost,
except one song that was recycled for The Pirates of Penzance. HMS Pinafore is
enacted to this day. The first successful work was Trial by Jury. Their final
collaborations, Utopia Limited and The Grand Duke, were comparative failures,
and brought the often troubled partnership to an end.
86. (D) Consuetude means "a custom" (to which the Concise Oxford
Dictionary adds, "especially one having legal force in Scotland"); desuetude
means "a state of disuse"; and hebetude means "dullness".
87. (C) Ascending to the heavens after his death along with his plough and
two oxen, Boötes was the primordial ‘ox-driver’ or ‘herdsman’. The constellation
can be seen just beyond the handle end of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), which is
why it is also known as the ‘bear-driver’.
88. (A) According to E. Cobham Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
Doomstead was the horse of the Norns (Fates); Skinfaxi ("shining mane") was the
steed that pulled the car of day; and Sleipnir was Odin’s eight-legged gray horse,
which represented the wind that blows from eight directions over land and sea.
89. Bader lost his legs (one above and one below the knee) performing a
ground-level flying stunt that ended in a crash when he was a young trainee pilot.
Following a near-death episode, an arduous convalescence, and extensive training
to use his newly-developed lightweight artificial legs, he was eventually allowed
to rejoin the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot.
The remarkable story of his rehabilitation and subsequent flying achievements is
told in the book Reach for the Sky by Paul Brickhill, which was made into a film
in 1956 with Kenneth More in the title role. The only other legless pilot of the war
was one ‘Tin legs’ Hodgkinson, who had stuffed his metal legs with ping-pong
balls. He was paranoid about being shot down over water and being pulled under
by the weight of the metal legs; the ping-pong balls, he felt, would give him the
buoyancy to keep him afloat. However, they burst at the low pressures they were
exposed to when Hodgkinson took his plane to high altitudes.
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90. Thomson was the first physicist to demonstrate that the atom, previously
thought to be indivisible, had component particles. He was awarded the 1906
Nobel Prize in Physics for this work.
91. (D) During this festival, dedicated to the harvest god Saturn, feasts were
held, presents were exchanged, and all ordinary business was suspended. Schools
and offices were closed, and executions and military operations were forbidden.
Slaves were not only exempt from work, but also dined with and were even
waited on by their masters.
92. (C) Galvayne's groove appears in a horse's upper corner incisors near the
gum-line when the horse is about ten years old. Five years later it extends half-
way down the tooth. When the horse is twenty, the groove run the whole length of
the tooth, whereafter it gradually recedes over the following ten years. This is also
the origin of the term ‘long in the tooth’.
A prospective buyer can – by examining a horse’s teeth carefully – estimate its
age fairly accurately before bidding for it. This practice perhaps also gave birth to
the term ‘to look a gift horse in the mouth’, meaning to openly (and often
critically) assess the value of a gift—an act of extreme rudeness since a gift
(which is, by its very nature, something acquired without any financial sacrifice)
hardly warrants assessment.
93. (B). Cotopaxi is a 19,347 feet high (nearly 5900m) dormant volcano, and
is part of the Andes mountain range. It last erupted in 1942.
94. (D) The word is derived from a Latin phrase, Ex calce liberatus, literally
meaning "freed from the stone". The name recalls the action of Merlin the wizard,
of having magically placed the sword in a stone so that only its hilt protruded.
Arthur, as the rightful king of England, was the only person who could withdraw
the sword, and so claim the throne.
95. (C) Fleming's discovery of penicillin in 1928 was more or less accidental,
and didn't immediately lead to its use as a drug. The method for extracting
penicillin on a larger scale, which led to a revolution in the treatment of bacterial
disease, was developed by Howard Florey and E.B. Chain from 1934 to 1944.
The three scientists shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
96. (A) The islands, now known as the Hawaiian Islands, were named by
Captain James Cook in honour of John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich
(1718-1792). He was the first lord of the admiralty (the highest post in the British
Navy) from 1771 to 1782. The Encyclopædia Britannica remarks that "for
corruption and incapacity, Sandwich's administration is unique in the history of
the British navy". Captain Cook was killed by natives while visiting the Sandwich
Islands during his third great voyage.
97. (B) In the years following the Black Death, the massive outbreak of
plague in the mid-1300s, the English peasantry were burdened with higher taxes
and restrictive legislation that led to a seething undercurrent of rebellion. In 1381,
Tyler led an insurrection by thousands of peasants, who marched on London and
eventually seized the tower. Tyler had two meetings with Richard II. In the first,
he demanded the abolition of serfdom, to which Richard agreed. During the
second, he was assassinated, and the rebellion he led was thereafter brutally
suppressed.
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98. (A) The time traveler is at first delighted by the peaceful Eloi, but learns
that their childlike simplicity goes much too far: their lives are empty, and without
initiative or accomplishment. The brutal subterranean Morlocks work to maintain
the Eloi's way of life, but only in order to eat them.
99. (B) Joplin, who had achieved fame if not fortune as "the king of ragtime
composers", had long dreamed of creating a large, serious work in the ragtime
idiom. He was unable to secure adequate financing for the production of
Treemonisha, however, and was forced to accompany the single performance of
the work on the piano, for lack of funds to hire an orchestra. The opera was not
revived until a performance in Atlanta in 1972. In 1975, it was successfully staged
on Broadway.
100. (B) Elephants! There are two species of rock hyrax and six of tree hyrax. The
latter are also known as "dassies".
101. (C) Draco created his infamous legal code in 621 BC. It was repealed less than 30
years later by Solon, who retained the death penalty only for murder.
102. (D) Long attended, and sometimes even hosted, parties called "ether frolics",
during which the participants - generally medical students - took ether as an
intoxicant. When Long noticed that although the drugged students had a tendency
to bruise themselves on the walls and the furniture, they were literally feeling no
pain, he began experimenting with the use of ether in surgery.
103. (C) The Oboe. Neither English nor a horn, as is often said, the cor anglais is a
double-reed woodwind like the oboe and bassoon, and falls between them in
pitch. It has the same relationship to the oboe as the viola does to the violin.
104. (D) The kina is the currency of Papua New Guinea; the kuna that of Croatia; the
kwacha that of Malawi and Zambia; and the kyat that of Burma.
105. (A) Scylla was a six-headed sea monster, while Charybdis was a whirlpool. The
two were separated by a passage so narrow that Odysseus and his crew were
endangered from both sides as they passed between them. Read about them in
Homer’s Odyssey.
106. (C) Porbeagles are medium-sized sharks, about three metres (10 feet) in length.
They are found most frequently in warm water, but range well into the north
Atlantic. Although their pointed snouts are well equipped with sharp teeth, they
are not considered dangerous to humans.
107. (B) Sancho was the servant or squire of Don Quixote in the great Spanish novel
by Miguel Cervantes. Sancho is practical and level-headed—quite the opposite of
his eccentric master, whose idiosyncrasies live on in the word ’quixotic’ in the
English language. Incidentally, Don Quixote has been declared the most
outstanding novel of the millennium.
108. (A) Anaxagoras believed that there is an infinite number of elements, and that all
things include the essence of all other things. This was in contrast to
Anaximander, who had concluded a century earlier that there was only one
indeterminate primordial substance from which all things were derived.
Anaximander is believed to have been the first person to attempt mapping the
entire world, which he thought of as a stubby cylinder.
Anaximenes of Lampsacus (c.380-320 B.C.) was a writer and historian who
accompanied Alexander the Great on his Persian campaigns.
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Anaximenes of Miletus, a contemporary of Anaximander, taught that all things

ultimately consisted of air at various densities.
109. Russians Mischa Elman (1891-1967) and Nathan Milstein (1904-1992), and
Lithuanian Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) were all in the first rank of violin soloists.
The name of Heifetz in particular was practically synonymous with virtuoso
violin playing.
110. (C). The fact that most colours can be created by adding red, green and blue light
in various mixtures was first applied to colour photography. Computer monitors
use the same principle in representing virtually any colour by mixing 256 levels
(typically) of each of the three primaries.
111. (B) The cordwainer derived his name from Cordova, in Spain, a source of fine
shoe leather. The broderer was an embroiderer; the farrier shod horses; and the
loriner (also lorimer) made bits for horses, and other metal pieces for their
harness.
112. (A) There are two species of road runner, both native to Central America. They
are poor flyers, but - as the name suggests - good runners, attaining sprint speeds
of up to 25 kph (15 mph). Although they are cuckoos, road runners do not lay
eggs in other birds' nests as do their more infamous brethren.
113. (C) All three words are legal terms for goods lost (or jettisoned) at sea. Goods
found floating are flotsam, while those that sink are either lagan or jetsam
depending on whether they have or have not been marked with a buoy to indicate
ownership.
114. (C) The study, carried out by the Gallup polling organization, found the piano to
be the choice of 33% of music students, while 18% preferred the guitar and 6%
chose the flute. The list of also-rans included the drums (5%), clarinet (5%),
trumpet (4%), saxophone (4%), organ (3%) and violin (3%).
115. (D) John Dalton (1766-1844), the English physicist regarded as the founder of
modern atomic theory, was also the first person to scientifically describe colour
blindness. Red-green colour blindness, from which Dalton himself suffered, is the
commonest form.
116. (C) Bach and Handel both suffered from blindness in later life, and both sought
the help of a surgeon named John Taylor. Not only did he fail to help either
composer, but Taylor - though he had managed to have himself appointed eye
doctor to George II - was a notorious quack, described by Samuel Johnson as "an
instance of how far impudence will carry ignorance."
117. (D) The African aardvark, the Asian and African pangolin, the Australian echidna
and numbat, and the South American anteaters (including the tamandua) provide a
striking example of "evolutionary convergence"—the existence of a similar set of
adaptations in unrelated creatures.
118. (C) Clotho spins the thread of life; Lachesis casts lots as to its length; and Atropos
cuts it at the indicated point, bringing death. Atropos is the eldest; her name
(meaning "the unalterable" or "the inflexible") gives us the words atrophy –
meaning to wither – and atropine, the toxic substance in the deadly nightshade
plant whose extract finds use in dilating the pupils of the eyes for purposes of
clinical examination.
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119. (D). Tamerlane (or Taimur i Leng—Timur the Lame) lived almost a thousand
years after Attila, two centuries after Genghis Khan, and a century before Babur,
founder of the Mogul Empire. Tamerlane claimed descent from Genghis,
probably falsely, but like him had a large appetite for conquest, leading brutal
invasions of Russia, Turkey, Persia, Syria and India. He died, aged about 70, in
the midst of planning an invasion of China. His empire swiftly collapsed.
120. (B) "Gitche Gumee" is an Ojibwa phrase meaning "great sacred waters".
Longfellow's poem, written in 1854 and 1855, was based on legends of an
Iroquois chieftain of the 15th century. According to the legends, Hiawatha united
the Five Nations of the Iroquois, and taught them medicine, agriculture and
navigation. After his mother’s death, Hiawatha was raised by Nokomis, his
grandmother:
By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.

FREE FOR ALL

1. (D) The Milky Way has spiral arms radiating out from a central cluster of stars
or "nucleus". Our solar system revolves around a rather insignificant little yellow
sun located on one of the spiral arms, quite far from the incandescent, densely
packed galactic core with its hundreds of millions of stars and a Black Hole.
2. (A) A shark's skeleton is made of cartilage, a material softer and more flexible
than bone. The Whale Shark is the largest known fish, often reaching fifty feet in
length.
3. (B) Mercury is a liquid at room temperature. It is also known as Quicksilver, and
happens to be a deadly poison.
4. (D) This process, occurring in the Earth's crust, produces natural diamonds. The
Japanese have found a way of making artificial diamonds; they cost less than
real ones and are used for a variety of horological and decorative purposes.
5. (D) A large meteorite is thought to have collided with the earth at the end of the
Cretaceous period, some 65 million years ago, striking the Earth with
tremendous impact near Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. The extinctions were
probably caused by a host of consequences including drastic climatic changes
resulting from the vast clouds of dust that obscured the sun after the impact.
6. (C) Anything that moves has kinetic energy. In a collision between objects,
kinetic energy is transferred from one object to the other.
7. (B) Darwin was particularly intrigued by the many unusual plants, birds and
animals he observed in the Galapagos Islands, such as the giant Galapagos
turtles and more than a dozen species of finches that filled different food niches.
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8. (D) Previously, androids existed only in science fiction; but now, Japanese
engineers have built a robot that comes disturbingly near human appearance and
behaviour.
9. (B) Sirius belongs to the constellation Canis Major (the Big Dog).
10. (A) These animals, called monotremes, are true mammals, but have some
reptile-like features.
11. A) Carbon dioxide freezes at a much lower temperature (-78 degrees Celsius)
than water. As it warms up, it goes straight back from the solid to the gaseous
state – a process called ‘sublimation’ – bypassing the liquid state altogether
(which explains why ice-cream carts are cool and dry, and don’t drip water).
12. (B) Caves contain many mineral formations of interest to geologists, such as
stalactites (mineral spires hanging from the ceiling) and stalagmites (which come
up from the cave floor). An easy way of remembering which is which is to note
that the word ‘stalactite’ has a ‘c’ which could be used to denote ‘ceiling’, while
‘stalagmite’ has a ‘g’ that could be used to represent ‘ground’. The two usually
go together, i.e., stalactites and stalagmites are a pair!
13. (D) An Iguanodon's thumbs were sharp bony spikes, suitable for fighting off
predators.
14. (C) In other words: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If
you exert a force on something, it will exert an equal force on you.
15. (B) Newton was uninterested in his school work until the fight, which the bully
started by kicking Newton in the stomach as he walked to school. After winning,
he decided to complete his revenge by proving himself a better student than the
other boy…and was soon at the top of his class!
16. (C) The crack of a whip occurs when the end of the whip travels faster than the
sound waves produced by its own motion (whiplash), creating a shock wave.
17. (A) Only very large stars become supernovas; others simply collapse, becoming
very small and dense. One supernova was recorded by the Chinese in 1054; the
exploding star was clearly visible in the daytime, and provided enough light to
read by at night.
18. (D) Veins and arteries are connected by much smaller blood vessels called
"capillaries", in which substances are exchanged between the blood and the
body's tissues.
19. (C) Acetic acid, diluted with water, is the main component of ordinary vinegar.
20. (A) All seven continents existing today – Europe, Asia, Africa, Antarctica,
Australia, North America and South America – were at that time welded
together into a single land mass known as Pangaea.
21. (D) Archaeopteryx may have been an intermediate form between modern birds
and the small carnivorous dinosaurs from which they probably evolved. Besides
teeth, Archaeopteryx had small claws on its wings, and solid bones (the bones of
modern birds are hollow…nature’s ingenious way of reducing bodyweight).
22. (B) Sound travels five times faster in water than in air (at sea level), and will not
travel through a vacuum at all.
23. (A) Brahe's nose was cut off in a duel, fought against a man who boasted of
being a better mathematician. Brahe was often seen carrying a box of glue, to
reattach the artificial nose when it fell off.
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24. (B) William Semple was a dentist. His original chewing gum was essentially
weakly flavoured rubber, and wasn't too popular.
25. (D) A day on Venus lasts about 243 Earth days, while a year lasts about 225
Earth days. This is because, of course, it’s slow rate of rotation about its axis.
Venus' day is the longest of any planet in the solar system, while its year is the
second shortest (behind Mercury's).
26. (C) In Darwin's theory of evolution, "fitness" is measured by number of
offspring, since an organism with many offspring signifies it is flourishing in its
evolutionary niche, and more offspring means that it will have a better chance of
passing on its traits to future generations. By this reckoning, the western
countries are regressing evolutionarily, while Asia, with higher population
growth is evolutionarily progressive.
27. (B) The noble gases are highly inert - that is, they rarely react with other
substances.
28. (A) The magnetic field flips at irregular intervals, once every few million years.
Each reversal takes several thousand years to complete.
29. (C) During the Cambrian period, about 530 million years ago, many new
creatures arose – a veritable evolutionary "explosion".
30. (D) Each radioactive substance has a characteristic half-life period during which
half of its radioactivity will be expended. The science of radio-carbon dating
uses this half-life as a measure.
31. (D) Vaseline was one of Chesebrough's own discoveries, patented in 1878. He
was sure it had medical benefits, and tested it extensively on himself by cutting,
scratching and burning his own hands and applying it to the wounds.
32. (A) One of Pedrick's more fanciful ideas was a scheme for supplying water to
the world's deserts - by shooting icebergs at them from machines resembling
giant peashooters. Needless to say, no such contraption ever saw the light of day.
33. (A) A drygulcher was an assassin, a person who shot at unsuspecting victims
from behind cover, such as a dry gulch, which was easy to hide in and which
afforded ample opportunity to track the intended target. Another word meaning
the same thing is ‘bushwhacker, a ‘hitman’ who fired from behind a bush or
some such form of natural vegetative outcropping. Today, of course, all these
words are known to be synonymous with ‘sniper’—a word derived from modern
warfare. At the Battle of Trafalgar, Lord Nelson was killed by a single shot fired
by a sniper from a nearby enemy (French) vessel, who was perched high in the
rigging of his ship—extraordinary marksmanship indeed.
34. Colt’s revolver overturned the concept of individual physical superiority
by enabling any man to kill another man at the mere squeeze of the trigger.
Perhaps to stress the equality of all men before a bullet speeding to the heart,
many were the euphemisms applied to this deadly device, including’ The
Peacemaker, Judge Colt, and The Equaliser.
Yet it cannot be denied that it was also a source of protection, and there was no
longer any excuse to move about unarmed in hostile terrain. Incidentally, the
Colt handgun – in a series of avatars – is still very much alive and flourishing in
America, the land of its birth, and innumerable variants arose in every part of
the world that spawned yet more versions. The basic design is still valid.
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35. The glimpse of the Christ Child was a rare privilege afforded to the Magi
who had devotedly followed the fabled Star of Bethlehem. To these ‘wise men
from the East’, it was an event that foreshadowed the deliverance of Man from
sin. Today, the word ‘epiphany’ is applied to anything that serves as an eye-
opener that opens new vistas of thought and expression. A word not to be used
lightly, it signifies a turning point in one’s spiritual evolution and the genesis of
new values based on sudden insights.
36. (D) This Latin term for not being in full possession of one’s mental
faculties, or a temporary suspension of the normal rules of orderly living, is
thought to originate in pagan times when the heavy consumption of intoxicants
led to the temporary suspension of ethical and moral codes, which occasioned
what would normally be regarded as wild and irresponsible conduct—hardly
surprising when the mind was not composed in a state of equanimity.
37. (B) Their sprit of independence, warlike qualities and brevity of speech
didn’t exactly endear the men of Laconia to peoples of other regions, but today,
brevity is regarded as the soul of wit.
38. Their warlike qualities and fiercely independent spirit often led the
Spartans to clash with hostile neighbours. Their truculence probably led to the
historic engagement at the Pass of Thermopylae, where a thousand Spartans
held an army of thirty thousand Persians, preferring to die rather yield.
Simonides wrote an epitaph for the Spartans who perished at Thermopylae that
was quoted by Herodotus in his Histories:

“Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passeth by:

Carrying out their orders, here we lie”.

39. Today, the word ‘maverick’ is used to describe one who flies in the face
of convention or established practice—a person who swims against the tide of
popular opinion, one who defies the norms of society, or who rebels against
accepted norms.
40. (C) Shuttling between deep despair and towering optimism, Locksley
Hall is a towering, soul stirring poem soaring to the very outer limits of poesy,
imagination and inspired construction. It contains some of the most incredible
prophecies ever written…all of which have come true.

THE ADVENTURER’S QUIZ

1. (C) A keel reduces side-slip and makes the boat easier to steer. Small
sailboats often have a centerboard instead, which can be retracted so the boat
can sail in shallow water.
2. (C) A theodolite is an instrument used by surveyors. The nocturnal was
used in the Renaissance to tell the time at night from the North Star, while the
astrolabe and sextant helped determine latitude by measuring the altitude of
heavenly bodies.
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3. (D) Coracles (or “currachs”) are rowing boats made of wood or wicker
with a waterproof covering. The knorr was a Norse voyaging ship, while canoes
(usually made from Birch bark) were used by North American natives. A galley
was a Greek or Roman vessel, usually rowed by slaves or criminals—biremes,
triremes, quadremes or even quinqueremes…“…quinquereme of Ninevah from
golden Ophir…” (from the poem Cargoes by John Masefield).
4. (D) Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships and a
crew of over 200 men. He was killed in the South Pacific, but by then had
passed the point he had reached from the west on a previous voyage. Only one
ship and 18 men returned.
5. (B) Jansz, in his ship Duyfken, or "Little Dove", landed in the Gulf of
Carpentaria on the northern coast of Australia in 1605. A Spanish expedition
also sighted the northern coast a few months later.
6. (B) Norse sagas record the discovery of Vinland, and its settlement by
Leif Eriksson in the 990s. Later settlers named the site L'Anse aux Meadows,
which means Jellyfish Creek.
7. (A) Luckily for the settlers, they came at the beginning of the “Little
Climatic Optimum”, so until about 1200 the coast was ice-free, pastures were
rich, and animal life was plentiful. The colony eventually failed after the
weather turned colder again.
8. (D) Kon-Tiki was a balsa-and-rope raft, constructed by traditional
methods long used on the coast of Peru. A small open cabin of bamboo and
banana leaves was built at the stern, and a square sail mounted in the middle. It
took ninety-seven days to reach a Polynesian island.
9. (A) Marco Polo traveled in Asia from 1271 to 1295, and for 17 years was
a personal emissary of the Khan. He told stories of his travels to friends, but
wrote nothing down. In 1298 Venice and Genoa fought, and Marco was
captured and put in prison in Genoa, where he dictated his adventures to a
fellow-prisoner, a writer named Rustichello of Pisa.
10. (B) From 1405 to 1433, the great Chinese admiral Cheng Ho explored the Indian
ocean, bringing back tribute and exotic treasures to the Chinese court. He is
even said to have brought back a giraffe from Africa. Cheng Ho's 'treasure
ships' were Chinese junks, five times the size of Portuguese caravels.
11. (D) Philosophers once thought that the world was encircled by five zones.
Europeans lived in the North Temperate Zone, between the Northern Frigid
Zone and the Torrid Zone. Many people believed that ships would come to a
fiery end if they ventured into the Torrid Zone.
12. (A) King John of Portugal thought the name ‘Cabo Tormentoso’ or "Cape of
Storms" would not encourage exploration, so changed it to "Cape of Good
Hope" (Cabo da Boa Esperança). Ironically, Diaz was drowned in a storm there
on a later expedition.
13. (D) Da Gama's mission was to establish good relations with local rulers in
Western Africa and India. Such worthless trinkets as bells, bracelets and red
caps were scorned by the wealthy nobles, who were used to trading in rich
cloth, spices and pearls.
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14. (B) Cabot said the fish were so numerous they could be caught by simply
lowering baskets into the water. English, Breton, Basque and Portuguese fishing
boats flocked to the area around Newfoundland known as the Grand Banks. In
fact, much of the exploration of this area was done by fishermen.
15. (C) An Indian legend spoke of a fountain with waters of marvelous curative
powers. Ponce de León reached land on Easter Sunday and so named it Florida
(in Spanish, "Pascua Florida" means Easter). Unfortunately, he never found the
fountain of youth.
16. (A) The Hurons gave Cartier a grand reception when he arrived at their stockaded
village of Hochelaga. He was entertained by the chief, Donnaconna, who
Cartier referred to as "the Seigneur of Canada". Cartier soon repaid the Hurons'
hospitality by kidnapping Donnaconna.
17. (A) Florence was a Hungarian refugee up for sale at a slave market in what is now
Bulgaria. She contributed greatly to the success of Baker’s expeditions in
Africa, keeping porters from rebelling and securing help from traders.
18. (D) Balboa had been part of a merchant's expedition from Spain that became
stranded in Hispaniola with unseaworthy ships. He tried his hand at farming for
several years, but apparently did not do well at it. He went on to lead the first
Spanish expedition to the Pacific Ocean.
19. (B) The British Resident in Tibet had ordered David-Neel out of the country, but
instead she disguised herself and walked more than two thousand miles to get to
Lhasa. Not only did David-Neel gain entry to Lhasa, but she became the only
western woman to become an honourary Buddhist lama.
20. (C) In 1604, Samuel de Champlain explored the Bay of Fundy. The Sieur de
Monts, who sailed with him, founded the colony of Port Royal there, the first
French settlement in North America. The eastern end of the bay has tides of
over 50 feet.
21. (D) In those latitudes, where the only land is the tip of South America, the west
winds blow unchecked, and are so strong that they produce huge waves. These
steady winds help sailors make a fast if uncomfortable trip from the Cape of
Good Hope to Australia.
22. (D) If you draw a great circle around the earth from pole to pole, you have drawn
a meridian line. Why are meridians useful? Longitude is one of the two
quantities that tell sailors their position on the surface of the earth. (The other is
latitude.) In the early days of sailing, longitude could only be estimated. Modern
instruments help us to measure one's exact longitude without calculation.
23. (A) The Arctic Ocean is about five million square miles in area. The next smallest
is the Indian Ocean at about 28 million square miles. There is no Antarctic
Ocean.
24. (B) Since 1744, the British navy had offered a large reward for opening up the
Northwest Passage. Despite Franklin's experience in Arctic exploration, his
whole party perished. Franklin's widow financed expeditions to find her
husband, but they only found a cairn with a message giving news of his death.
25. (C) Nansen's ship, Fram, was designed to lift up as the ice froze around it so it
would not be crushed. Many ridiculed the idea, but in fact it worked very well.
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Though Nansen did not actually reach the Pole, he counted the expedition a
success because of the scientific data he was able to collect.
26. (A) Barents discovered Bear Island and Spitsbergen and gave his name to the
Barents Sea. In August, Barents' ship froze into the ice, so they made a hut of
driftwood and spent a miserable winter. In April, they played golf "thereby to
stretch our joints".
27. (C) Darwin greatly angered Fitzroy, captain of the Beagle, with his arguments
against slavery, and was nearly kicked off the ship. As for the specimens, they
sent Darwin into "transports of pleasure" such as he had never known!
28. (B) Like many naturalists of his day, Jefferson had trouble with the notion that a
whole species could become extinct. Of course, no mammoths were found.
Lewis and Clarke traveled from St. Louis to the Pacific coast and back again—a
round trip of over 7000 miles.
29. (B) The poem contrasts the elegant goods carried by quinquiremes and Spanish
galleons with the "road-rails, pig-lead, firewood, iron-ware and cheap tin trays"
carried by a "dirty British coaster". Masefield, who in his youth served before
the mast at sea, went on to become Poet Laureate of England.
30. (C) The first bathyscaphe was created in 1953, when Swiss physicist Auguste
Piccard hung a round diving chamber called a bathysphere from a submersible
balloon. More people have gone to the moon than have reached a depth of
10,000 feet, and the ocean depths are still largely unexplored. ALVIN II at
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, is currently the world’s
most modern bathyscape, capable of submerging to a depth of two and a half
miles below the surface, where hull pressures exceed 2 tons per square inch!
31. (B) Sports coaches have long believed that playing football is good for cricketers
because it strengthens their legs, abdominal muscles and backs and tends to
make them fitter and more resistant to injuries. Dennis Compton actually
excelled in both these sports…and took it to its logical conclusion by
representing England in both—a feat yet to be emulated by anyone except
Chuni Goswami, who did the same for India.
32. (D) A low-key but deeply moving novel, replete with wry British humour and
understatement typical of Hilton, Goodbye, Mr. Chips is the story of a self-
effacing, mediocre widower of a schoolmaster who sticks with his old school
even though it’s apparent that he lacks the drive and accomplishments to
become Headmaster. But his years of selfless service have put him on the slow
and gentle road to the schoolmaster’s equivalent of canonization as he makes a
spirited comeback to steer Brookfield through the most precarious period in its
long history. Robert Donat starred in the title role in the first (1939) movie
version, followed three decades later by no less a thespian than Peter O’Toole.
For James Hilton fans, this book – published in 1934 – is definitely his magnum
opus.
33. (C) Only in recent times have practicing physicians of some eminence in the US
begun writing books about their paranormal experiences, detailing their
experiments in this nascent field. Dr. Moody’s book Life after Life was one of
the earliest ventures into this hitherto (for ‘scientific’ medical men) taboo genre.
Dr. Brian Weiss’s book Many Lives, Many Masters was followed by three more
 156

on the theme. This is not to forget prominent motivational writer Dr. Wayne
Dyer’s several books that explore the shadowy no-man’s land of extra-normal
phenomena, as does Dr. Melvin Morse’s absorbing Where God Lives.
34. (C) His duties included superintending of boats and ships engaged in trade
activities and collecting taxes from ships sailing in the sea and moving along the
rivers. The text further mentions that pirate ships were to be pursued and
destroyed whenever they were found. The same applied to the vessels of enemy
countries when they were sighted in territorial waters.
35. (D) With the cabin towards the prow, these types of boats were used for long
voyages and were equally suitable for naval warfare.
36. (C) The Lakshadweep Islands.
37. (C) and (D) Some scholars consider the Navigatio as proof of the earliest
recorded voyage to America—400 years before Leif Ericsson and almost 1,000
years before Christopher Columbus. Their travels probably took the saint and
his crew to Iceland, Greenland, and even to the American mainland, though they
had no idea where they had gone. When St. Brendan returned to Ireland seven
years later, he had many fascinating stories to tell, including encountering
“mountains in the sea spouting fire,” floating crystal palaces, monsters with cat-
like heads and horns growing from their mouths, and “little furry men.”
Scholars see in this account the earliest descriptions of Iceland's volcanoes,
icebergs, walruses, and Eskimos.
38. (B) By being driven around the Cape, he accidentally found the long-sought-after
sea route to the orient. His discovery revived Portugal’s colonial ambitions and
led to a race between European countries eager to exploit the rich (but weak)
countries in the east, including India.
39. (A) Titus Oates walked away without giving the slightest hint that he did not
intend to return. Scott recorded in his diary that it was an unselfish act typical of
an “English gentleman, and a hero.”
40. (B) As he is rowing his canoe upstream, an Indian – who had concealed himself in
his blankets and other gear in the stern of the canoe – stealthily creeps up on his
unprotected back to stab him. But sensing the intruder, Bumpo whirls around,
snatches up his loaded rifle and shoots the would-be assassin. The dying Indian
whispers, “You mighty fighter…call you Hawkeye…Hawkeye…”

THE RANDOM QUIZ

1. (A). A lively song often accompanied by street dancing, popular during the French
Revolution.

2. (A). A sea urchin.

3. (C) A traditional form of dance, popular in rural India.

4. (B). A bulletproof screen.

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5. (C). A melodrama

6. (C). An elephant driver.

7. (B). A short sleeveless garment for women.

8. (C). Goods thrown into the sea with a buoy attached so that they may be found
again; flotsam so marked.
9. (A). A crowning moulding in classic architecture.

10. (B). A heavily armed infantry soldier of ancient Greece.

11. (C). A person who enjoys reliving past memories.

12. (C). Property held as collateral against a debt.

13. (C). To flirt by winking the eye.

14. (B). A small thesis or proposition.

15. (A). A shiny red apple.

16. (C). To make fun of people's accents and mannerisms

17. (C). American Indian smoking substance made from tree bark.

18. (C). A book cover made of linen.

19. (C). A face-veil worn by women of Moslem countries.

20. (B). In logging, a short pole used to direct the way a tree will fall.
…………………………………………………………………………………..
FOLLOW THAT DREAM!
1. Louisa May Alcott
2. Charles Darwin
3. Walt Disney
4. Thomas Alva Edison
5. Albert Einstein
6. Louis Pasteur
7. Isaac Newton
8. August Rodin
9. Tennessee Williams
10. Henry Ford I
11. Winston Churchill
12. Clint Eastwood
13. Satyajit Ray; Pather Panchali (the first film of the ‘Apu’ trilogy)
14. Richard Bach
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15. Richard Hooker

16. Leo Tolstoy
17. Enrico Caruso
18. Elvis Presley
19. Fred Astaire
20. Peter J. Daniel
21. Ludwig van Beethoven
22. F. W. Woolworth (of Woolworth’s, the path-breaking retail chain)
23. Yuichiro Miura
24. Reinhold Messner
25. Stirling Moss
THE CONNOISSEUR’S QUIZ – PART - I
1. Mikhail Gorbachev.
2. Chelonia or Testudines Turtles (not Tortoises or Terrapins).
3. William Somerset Maugham.
4. C minor.
5. Second Vatican Council or Vatican II.
6. Jefferson Davis.
7. Edvard Munch.
8. Alfred Werner.
9. Arnor.
10. The Tet Offensive.
11. Edward Lee Thorndike.
12. The kingdom of Morocco.
13. Henri Matisse.
14. Al Capone.
15. Gravity.
16. Maxim Gorky, a.k.a. Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov.
17. Alfred Hitchcock.
18. 2001: A Space Odyssey.
19. The awesome .44 magnum revolver from Smith & Wesson.
20. The Alamo.
21. Spartacus.
22. A. J. Cronin.
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23. Gone With the Wind; Margaret Mitchell.

24. The War of the Worlds; Herbert George Wells.
25. Wilbur Smith.
26. (a) Ben Hur (b) Lew Wallace (c) Charlton Heston.
27. Management science.
28. Harper Lee.
29. P.G. Wodehouse.
30. Love Story; Ryan O’Neil and Ali McGraw.
31. The Gilgamesh Epic is the most notable literary product of Babylonia as yet
discovered in the mounds of Mesopotamia. It recounts the exploits and adventures of
a favourite hero, and in its final form covers twelve tablets, each tablet consisting of
six columns (three on the obverse and three on the reverse) of about 50 lines for each
column, or a total of about 3600 lines. Of this total, however, barely more than one-
half has been found among the remains of the great collection of cuneiform tablets
gathered by King Ashurbanipal (668–626 B.C.) in his palace at Nineveh, and
discovered by Layard in 1854 in the course of his excavations of the mound
Kouyunjik (opposite Mosul). The fragments of the epic, painfully gathered—chiefly
by George Smith—from the circa 30,000 tablets and bits of tablets brought to the
British Museum—were published in model form by Professor Paul Haupt; and that
edition still remains the primary source for study of the Epic.
A definite indication that the Gilgamesh Epic reverts to a period earlier than
Hammurabi (or Hammurawi), i.e., beyond 2000 B.C., was furnished by the
publication of a text clearly belonging to the first Babylonian dynasty (of which
Hammurabi was the sixth member); which text Zimmern recognized as a part of the
tale of Atra-ḫasis, one of the names given to the survivor of the deluge, recounted on
the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic.
Dr. Bruno Meissner in 1902 published a tablet, dating, as the writing and the internal
evidence showed, from the Hammurabi period, which undoubtedly is a portion of
what by way of distinction we may call an old Babylonian version. The tablet consists
of four columns (two on the obverse and two on the reverse) and deals with the hero’s
wanderings in search of a cure from disease with which he has been smitten after the
death of his companion Enkidu. The hero fears that the disease will be fatal and longs
to escape death. It corresponds to a portion of Tablet X of the Assyrian version.
Its chief value, apart from its furnishing a proof for the existence of the Epic as early
as 2000 B. C., lies in the remarkable address of the maiden Sabitum, dwelling at the
seaside, to whom Gilgamesh comes in the course of his wanderings. From the
Assyrian version we know that the hero tells the maiden of his grief for his lost
companion, and of his longing to escape the dire fate of Enkidu. In the old
Babylonian fragment the answer of Sabitum is given in full, and the sad note that it
strikes, showing how hopeless it is for man to try to escape death which is in store for
all mankind, is as remarkable as is the philosophy of “eat, drink and be merry” which
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Sabitum imparts. The address indicates how early the tendency arose to attach to
ancient tales the current religious teachings.
We now have further evidence both of the extreme antiquity of the literary form of
the Gilgamesh Epic and also of the disposition to make the Epic the medium of
illustrating aspects of life and the destiny of mankind. The discovery by Dr. Arno
Poebel of a Sumerian form of the tale of the descent of Ishtar to the lower world and
her release—apparently a nature myth to illustrate the change of season from summer
to winter and back again to spring—enables us to pass beyond the Akkadian (or
Semitic) form of tales current in the Euphrates Valley to the Sumerian form.
32. Thomas Hardy; Far From the Madding Crowd.
33. It emphasis the value of exploration, optimism and adaptability as opposed to
inertia, conventional behaviour and boldness. It was written by Spencer Johnson.
34. H.H. Munro.
35. 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns. The title is
significant inasmuch as the story concerns a totalitarian society where the State
destroys books because they may put revolutionary ideas into men’s heads. Ray
Bradbury wrote this book.
36. Roald Dahl; Johnny Depp.
37. Katie Price.
38. W. Somerset Maugham created Ashenden, while Ian Fleming created James Bond.
39. Mario Puzo’s The Godfather; Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
40. Thomas Harris; Dr. Hannibal Lector; The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal.
41. Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle); Hercule and Achille
Poirot (Dame Agatha Christie).
42. John Steinbeck.
43. Wilfred of Ivanhoe; Rebecca and Lady Rowena; Sir Walter Scott.
44. Shylock could have a pound of flesh from Antonio’s haunches…but there was no
mention of any blood. Since it was impossible to carve out a pound of flesh without
taking even a drop of blood along with it, Shylock had to admit defeat.
45. Little John.
46. The role of espionage in Britain’s struggle to contain Russian influence in
Afghanistan. The book’s name is Kim, after the little hero of the book. His real name
– as he discovers later – is Kimball O’Hara, the lost son of a British army officer.
47. Chinua Achebe; Things Fall Apart.
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48. Umslopogaas, holder of the iron Chieftainess, the axe known as the Groan-maker.
Wilbur Smith’s character is called Huy Ben Amon, and his axe is known as the
Vulture Axe (because of the vulture motif engraved on it)…in The Sunbird.
49. James Herriot, All things bright and beautiful / All creatures great and small / All
things wise and wonderful / The Lord God made them all.
50. Gerald Durrell; Laurence Durrell.

THE CONNOISSEUR’S QUIZ – PART II

1. Carbon. (a) Andrew Adam Benson (b) RubisCO or ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate
carboxylase or RuBP carboxylase.
2. (a) Incom T-65 X-Wing (b) Koensayr BTL-S3 Y-Wing (c ) Alliance RZ-1 A-
Wing.
3. (a) Yasser Arafat (b) Menachem Begin (c) Levi Eshkol.
4. (a) A Life for the Czar (b) Les Huguenots (c) Tosca.
5. (a) José Saramago (b) Gabriela Mistral, aka Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro
Godoy Alcayaga.
6. (a) Law of conservation of angular momentum (b) Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector.
7. (a) Armoury Show or International Exhibition of Modern Art (b) Op Art (c)
Whitney Museum of American Art.
8. (a) Louis XIV (b) Edict of Fontainebleau (c) Fronde.
9. (a) Isaac (b) Jacob (c ) Levi.
10. (a) Michael Dell (b) Dave Thomas (c) Bernie Ebbers (now in prison).
11. (a) Behavioural isolation (b) Mechanical isolation (c ) Reduced hybrid fertility or
hybrid infertility / hybrid sterility.
12. (a) Dante Alighieri (b) Beatrice Portinari (c) White Guelfs.
13. (a) Los desaparecidos, the ‘disappeared ones’.(b) The Falkland Islands (Islas
Malvinas) (c ) Isabel Peron.
14. (a) Suspension bridges (b) Akashi-Kaikyo bridge (c) Tacoma-Narrows Bridge.
15. (a) 80486 (b) 68000 or 68K (c) Alpha AXP.
16. (a) Mary Queen of Scots (b) Francis II (c ) Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
 162

17. (a) Harold Bloom (b) The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages.
18. (a) Cross elasticity of demand (b) Income elasticity of demand (c) Elasticity of
substitution.
19. (a) The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill (b) Sir Barnes Wallis (c) Wing
Commander Guy Gibson.
20. (a) Leslie Charteris (b) A pair of ivory-handled throwing knives named Anna and
Maria (c ) A Hirondel (d) Simon Templar, also known as The Saint, as immortalised
by his trademark—a haloed matchstick figure trademark he left at the scene of every
crime he solved (e) Hoppy Uniatz.
21. (a) Fritjof Capra (b) Quantum Mechanics (c) The Tao of Physics.
22. (a) Edgar Rice Burroughs (b) Kala, the she-ape (c) Tarzan; Lord Greystoke.
23. (a) 1748; Johann Joachim Winckelmann (b) Pompeii and Herculaneum (c)
Stromboli.
24. (a) The Schmeisser (Maschinenpistole 40) (b) Possibly because the name
Schmeisser (after the supplier of the magazines, Hugo Schmeisser) was engraved on
the magazine (c) The U.S.-made Thompson submachine-gun chambered for .45
calibre ammunition (aka the ‘Tommy Gun’) with its distinctive round drum
magazine, it was a hot favourite with gangsters like ‘Scarface’ Al Capone and ‘Bugs’
Moran; the British-made Sten machine-carbine.
25. (a) Cornelius S. Ryan (b) Darryl F. Zanuck (c) Sword, Juno, Omaha, Gold (d)
‘The long sobs of the violins of autumn wound my heart with a monotonous languor’
(e) ‘Jack has a long moustache’.
26. (a) The fabled Giant Squid, the Kraken. (b) Architeuthis dux (c) Ammonia.
27. (a) Superman (b) Schuster and Siegel (c) In 1938 Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel
sold all rights to the comic-strip character Superman to their publishers for $130. (d)
Jonathan and Martha Kent (e) Jor-el and Lara (f) Krypton.
28. (a) The Old Man and the Sea (b) The Pilar (c) Gregorio Fuentes (d) Ernest
Hemingway; he committed suicide in July 2, 1961.
29. Not surprisingly, it’s known as the ‘Fainting Goat’.
30. Dame Margot Fonteyn. The perfect foil for the genius of Rudolph Nureyev,
Fonteyn went to achieve equal if not greater standing as the all-time great female
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exponent of this operatic dance form. Her unforgettable performance in Swan Lake
still remains the benchmark for those who would follow in her footsteps.
30. Reinhold Messner. After conquering Europe’s most difficult peaks including the
Matterhorn, Eigerwand and Gasherbrum, he declared his intention of climbing
Everest without oxygen—and was promptly dismissed as mad. Against medical
advice that the attempt would be fatal, he did the impossible along with his climbing
companion Peter Habeler. He was the first climber to prove that Mount Everest could
be climbed without oxygen, performing this ‘impossible’ feat twice, once in 1978 and
again 1980, when he did it alone.
31. (a) Henry Edmunds (b) Claude Johnson, who called his own car The Silver Ghost.
32. (a) A seaplane, complete with pontoons! (b) The Schneider Trophy (c) The Rolls-
Royce Merlin engine (d) The Rolls-Royce Griffon engine. The last words that many a
Mercedes engine-powered German Messerschmitt 109 fighter pilot uttered were
“Himmel! Schpitfeur!! ” before going down in flames.
33. The Long Count.
34. (a) Anita Desai (b) Kiran Desai (c ) The Inheritance of Loss.
35. (a) Sequoia (b) The Giant Redwood Trees of California were renamed as
Sequoias in his memory.
36. They are (b) Four for Texas and (d) The Four Riders of the Apocalypse. Edgar
Wallace wrote The Four Just Men and the author of The Sign of Four is Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle.
37. Oxford and Cambridge, UK. Question (b) was asked by Oxford during interviews
for its coveted PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) course, (c) was asked of
interviewees by Cambridge for its undergraduate course in Medicine, and (d) fell to
the lot of aspirants for the PPE course offered by Cambridge. For the sake of
mankind’s future, we hope the answers threw fresh light on these weighty issues.
38. (a) Kate Moss (b) Agent Provocateur.
39. (a) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (b) Brangelina (c) Journalist Daniel Pearl.
40. (a) A big grey mouse. It has a larger head, bigger teeth and a longer tail than Mus
musculus—the common house mouse (b) On the island of Crete (c) Mus cypriacus.
(d) It was accidentally discovered during research into feeding habits of barn owls.
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41. Mount Kilimanjaro (19,335 feet) and Mount Kenya, respectively. Kilimanjaro has
already lost 82% of the ice cover it had eighty years ago. Mount Kenya – famous for
being so near the equator – has fared even worse, having lost 92% of its permanent
glaciers over the last 100 years. The nearly 5,000 acres in its vicinity has several
major rivers and forest cover that is valuable for preserving the ecological balance,
and as a catchment area for rainfall that runs dams and produces electric power. This
has been depleted. Further deterioration will severely affect the entire region. Besides,
this vast forest belt soaks up pollution originating in the West. With its passing, yet
another cushion against pollution will have vanished.
42. It’s incredible but it’s true: Alaska’s famous lakes are vanishing. 10,000 of them
have either dried up or shrunk in size over the last fifty-odd years, probably due to
lowering of the water table in the region. Obviously, environmental change of a
magnitude that can only be speculated upon right now is under way.
43. (a) The Statue of Liberty (b) Planet of the Apes.
44. (a) Indra Nooyi (b) Kiran Shaw Mazumdar and Naina Lal Kidwai.
45. Paris Hilton.
46. Louis L’Amour.
47. Jonathan Livingston Seagull; Richard Bach.
48. It came from the world's first computer—the Mark 1—a room-size electro-
mechanical computing machine built in a lab at Harvard University in 1944. When
the computer developed a fault one day, no one could locate the cause. A lab assistant
named Grace Hopper finally spotted the problem: a moth had landed on one of the
computer's circuit boards and shorted it out. The ‘bug’ was removed, necessary
repairs were made, and the computer revived. From that moment on, computer
glitches have been called ‘bugs’.
49. The Seville Cathedral is the birthplace of marmalade. A small patio on the side
called Jardin de los Naranjos was famous in Seville for its twenty blossoming orange
trees. This was the birthplace of English marmalade. An eighteenth-century English
trader had purchased a large quantity of oranges from the Seville church and taken
them back to London, only to find that the fruit was incredibly bitter. He tried to
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make jam from the skins of the oranges by adding a lot of sugar to make the
concoction palatable. Orange marmalade was the happy outcome.
50. Conquering religions often adopt existing holidays to make conversion an easier
transition. It’s called transmutation and helps people acclimatize to the new faith.
Worshippers keep the same holy dates, pray in the same sacred locations, and use a
similar symbology. December twenty-fifth is the ancient holiday of sol invictus—
Unconquered Sun—coinciding with the winter solstice. It is the time of year when the
sun returns, and the days start getting longer and warmer, making it perfect for a
holiday and merry-making.
51. Haloes were borrowed from the ancient Egyptian religion of sun worship. The
haloes or ‘sun discs’ represented the Sun…helios. The term ‘halo’ is derived from the
ancient Greek word for ‘sun’. Sun worship is an ancient religion found in almost all
ancient cultures, including that of the Hindus, Incas, Mayas, Aryans, Egyptians, etc.
52. Hadrian was a Roman emperor who built the wall to keep out marauders.
53. Strictly speaking, a burial takes place when a body is placed in a pit dug in the
ground and then covered with earth. In time, bodies came to be placed in coffins in
order to make the transition less painful and more acceptable to the mourners and pall
bearers.
A sarcophagus, on the other hand, is a raised box carved out of stone with a heavy,
tight-fitting stone lid. The body is laid to rest directly in it, wrapped in burial shrouds
or normal clothing, often accompanied by the dead person’s favourite personal
belongings, such as weapons or jewellery. The word ‘Sarcophagus’ comes from the
Greek ‘sarx’ meaning ‘flesh,’ and ‘phagein’ meaning ‘to eat’. In other words,
sarcophagus literally means a box designed to ‘eat flesh’. Though the two methods of
disposing of human mortal remains are essentially the same, the basic differences are
obvious.
54. When the crusaders went to the Holy Land, a small of resistance fighters formed
to oppose them. This army emerged as skilled executioners who wandered the
countryside slaughtering any of the enemy they could find. They were renowned for
celebrating their slayings by plunging themselves into drug-induced stupors. Their
drug of choice was a potent intoxicant they called hashish, which is why these lethal
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men became known by a single word—Hassassin—literally “the followers of

hashish.” The name Hassassin became synonymous with death in almost every
language on earth and is still used today as assassin, the word from which
‘assassination’ is derived.
55. It is the name given to the condition where hostages change their orientation and,
switching loyalties, form close bonds with – and even develop affection and love for
– their kidnappers, often speaking up in their favour. This term was coined after a
sensational hostage crime in Stockholm, Sweden, where the victim, a girl, actually
sided with – and spoke up in defence of – the men who held her hostage.
***