Trivia Question of the Day

Trivia Question of the Day Part 1

1) Life in the imperial court at Heian was described in what Japanese novel?

A) Tale of Genji
B) Ashikage Analects
C) Essential of Salvation
D) Romance of the Rose
E) Mirror of Lady Murasaki

Answer: A

2) Which author is not noted for writing science fiction?

A) Frank Herbert
B) Eudora Welty
C) Robert Heinlein
D) Ray Bradbury
E) Isaac Asimov

Answer: B

Eudora Welty’s stories are about the American South.

3) What unlikely country sent 149 convicts to Australia in 1839?

Answer: Canada

4) What is a painting’s craquelure?

A) Its monetary value for insurance purposes
B) The network of cracks that appear with age
C) The patina that comes from repeated handling

Answer: B

5) Between which two rivers are the Jura mountains?

Answer: Rhine and Rhone

6) In advertising, which paper towel brand calls itself “the quicker picker-upper”?

Answer: Bounty

7) Who assassinated Robert Kennedy?

Answer: Sirhan Sirhan

8) A dowager is the widow of a peer or a baronet.

A) True
B) False

Answer: A

9) What is the largest living animal on land or in the sea?

Answer: The blue whale, which is eighty to ninety feet long, and has an average weight of 280,000 pounds! Its tongue alone weighs one ton! Not only is it the largest animal on earth, it is the loudest. Blue whales emit loud, low frequency rumbling sounds that register louder than ajet engine or a heavy metal rock band.

10) What do you call a grouping of frogs?

Answer: An army or colony of frogs

11) Which is the smallest breed of dog?

Answer: Chihuahua

12) Who was the only president married in the White House?

Answer: Grover Cleveland

13) This term is loosely applied to limestone or dolomite which can be polished:

A) Marble
B) Obsidian
C) Jade
D) Quartz
E) Basalt

Answer: A

The discovery of marble quarries in Italy helped give rise to an ancient architectural tradition.

14) 19th century Englishman Sir Robert Peel is remembered for his reorganization of:

A) The colonies
B) Parliament
C) The national theatre
D) London’s police force
E) Northern Ireland

Answer: D

London police officers are called “bobbies” in honor of the man who reorganized the force.

15) ten highest mountains in the U.S. are in what western state?

Answer: Alaska

Trivia Question of the Day Part 2

16) What capital city is home to Aegean Hellas beer?

Answer: Athens

17) Where is Liberia located?

A) Australia
B) West Africa
C) South America
D) East Africa

Answer: B

18) This English scientist was the first to describe the fundamental optical principles of the telescope. Can you name the scientist?

A) Edwin Hubble
B) Roger Bacon
C) Charles Darwin

Answer: B

Thirteenth-century English philosopher and scientist Roger Bacon first described the basic optical principles of the telescope. Bacon wrote an encyclopedia of all science, Opus Majus, in the late 1260s.

19) How many different compartments or chambers does an elk’s stomach have?

Answer: An elk is a true ruminant with each chamber used to assist in the digestive process. Other ruminants include cattle, sheep, goats, deer, yaks, bison and antelopes.

20) Is what year did the United States celebrate its centennial?

Answer: 1876

21) Who was the author of the book Pippi Longstocking?

Answer: Astrid Lindgren

22) Which man never won the U.S. Tennis Open?

A) Bjorn Borg
B) Ilie Năstase
C) Guillermo Vilas
D) Arthur Ashe
E) Mats Wilander

Answer: A

All of Borg’s Grand Slam titles came at the French Open or Wimbledon.

23) Tourism is the primary industry of all of the following countries except?

A) Guyana
B) Greece
C) The Gambia
D) Grenada

Answer: A

24) What Vietnam prisoner of war was a Republican presidential candidate in 2000?

Answer: John McCain

25) The celestial body with the greatest influence on our tides is the:

A) Moon
B) Sun
C) Nearest planet

Answer: A

26) According to a popular phrase, a person leading a lifestyle of self-indulgence is heading “down the” what?

A) Primrose path
B) Lovers’ lane
C) Rocky road
D) Freedom trail

Answer: A

27) Malaria kills over ___________ people throughout the world each year.

A) 2 million
B) 200 million
C) 2 billion

Answer: B

28) The Coriolis force mainly affects:

A) Agriculture
B) Air flow
C) Tides
D) Continental drift
E) Volcanic eruptions

Answer: B

The Coriolis effect causes objects going from north to south to veer west.

29) The density of petrol in g/mL is about:

A) 0.7
B) 1
C) 3

Answer: A

30) In which novel would you read about the ship “Hispaniola”?

A) Robinson Crusoe
B) Gulliver’s Travels
C) Treasure Island
D) The Blue Lagoon
E) Swiss Family Robinson

Answer: C

Robert Louis Stevenson tells the tale of Jim Hawkins’ search for buried treasure.

Trivia Question of the Day Part 3

31) Are electrons the heavy particles in atoms?

A) yes
B) No

Answer: B

32) What is the architectural link that secures the apex of an arch or a vaulted ceiling?

Answer: Keystone

33) The medical name for the upper leg bone is the:

A) Humerus
B) Femur
C) Tibia

Answer: B

34) What was the name given to the day of the Stock Market Crash on October 29, 1929?

Answer: Black Tuesday

The 1929 disaster took several days to unfold, but most believe the date of the actual crash to be October 29th, now known as “Black Tuesday.” The panic had actually started on the previous Thursday, October 24th.

35) What is the name for the annual summer series of concerts held at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in which the audience originally walked about?

Answer: The promenade concerts

36) What two-letter abbreviation for a medical prescription is short for the Latin word meaning “recipe”?

Answer: Rx

37) What is the difference between rowing and sculling?

Answer: Sculling has two oars per person whereas in rowing there is one per person.

38) Find the Famous First Words

“I am a sick man … I am a spiteful man.”

A) Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
B) Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
C) The Misanthrope, Moliere
D) Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Answer: D

The nameless narrator of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel Notes from Underground (1864) begins his tale by confessing, “I am a sick man … I am a spiteful man.” Published five years after Dostoyevsky’s release from political imprisonment in Siberia, the novel is a penetrating exploration into themes of alienation, free will, and morality.

39) Because of his barbarian-like tactics, the infamous King and General, Attila the Hun came to be called what?

A) The Antichrist
B) The Devil’s Alli
C) The Scourge of God
D) The Beast of Wickedness

Answer: C

Attila was defeated in 451 by the combined forces of the Romans and the Visigoths.

40) The dybbuk is a creature in _______ folklore.

A) Chinese
B) Jewish
C) Celtic
D) Viking
E) Hindu

Answer: B

A type of migrating soul, it enters the body of the living.

41) What did Lawrence Hargrave use to power his model airplanes?

Answer: Rubber bands

42) What type of drawings were Isaac and George Cruikshank most famous for?

A) Caricatures
B) Still life
C) Portraits

Answer: A

43) On which island is Sarawak?

Answer: Borneo

44) Named for a Swiss doctor, which psychological test is based on interpretations of a series of standard inkblots?

Answer: Rorschach test

45) Wyoming is on the Canadian border of the USA.

A) True
B) False

Answer: B

46) Which British monarch was the last Emperor of India?

Answer: King George VI

47) What do you call a grouping of geese?

Answer: A flock, gaggle or skein (in flight) of geese

48) How large were mammoths?

Answer: The prehistoric proboscideans known as mammoths were ten to fourteen feet tall, and could weigh up to 20,000 pounds. The mammoth had a shaggy coat, a long trunk, slender tusks, and lived in grasslands. Frozen, preserved mammoths have been found, organs intact, in the Siberian permafrost.

49) Who were the presidents to be elected after having previously lost a bid for the presidency?

Answer: Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, William H. Harrison, and Richard Milhous Nixon

50) What is the name for a triangle with two sides and two angles the same?

Answer: Isosceles