Quizology.Online

“There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.”

— Bertrand Russell

Tag: literature

  • Remote Sensing — Answers

    Here are the answers to today’s questions.

    Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
    Image Marine Oceans

    Today’s questions follow a theme, but I don’t have the remotest intention of mentioning it.

    One

    The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station sits on the Antarctic ice at the South Pole. At approximately what elevation above sea level is this base? (The answer can be either feet or metres.)

    Answer: 9,301 feet or 2,835 metres.

    The station, which supports scientific exploration, is isolated in a polar desert with extreme cold with the annual average temperature is −49°C (−56°F), though winter conditions can push readings below −80°C (−112°F). Opened in 1956, named after explorers Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott, it was rebuilt in 1975 and expanded in the 1990s. Completed in 2008, it includes 47 buildings, housing offices, laboratories, observatories, accommodation, dining, recreation and medical facilities. The station accommodates up to 150 people a week in the summer but this drops to 42 in the winter.

    Two

    An Antarctic Mystery was a two-volume novel written in 1897 which is a continuation of a novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, written in 1838 by another author. Who were the authors of these novels? 

    Answers: Jules Verne (wrote the 1897 work); Edgar Allan Poe (wrote the 1838 novel).

    Jules Verne’s 1897 two-volume novel An Antarctic Mystery continues Edgar Allan Poe’s 1838 work, following the narrator’s voyage from the Kerguelen Islands aboard Halbrane. 

    Three

    The Kerguelen Islands, which are a World Heritage Site, part of the French Southern and Austral Lands and Seas, lie in what ocean?

    Answer: Indian Ocean.

    The Kerguelen Islands, also known as the Desolation Islands, are a remote sub-Antarctic archipelago administered by France. The islands, part of the Kerguelen Plateau, have a harsh climate and are home to a permanent French presence of 45 to 100 people.

    Four

    A part of a U.K. overseas territory holds the title of the world’s most remote human settlement. What is this settlement and where it’s located?

    Answers: Tristan da Cunha; South Atlantic Ocean.

    The remotest inhabited island in the world is Tristan da Cunha, discovered in the South Atlantic by Tristao da Cunha, a Portuguese admiral, in March 1506. It has an area of 98km² (38 miles²). After evacuation in 1961 (due to volcanic activity), 198 islanders returned in November 1963. The nearest inhabited land to the group is the island of St Helena, 2,435 km (1,315 nautical miles) to the north-east.

    In The Guardian, 8 August 2005: “Tristan Da Cunha, an overseas territory of the UK which takes six days to reach by boat from Cape Town, was assigned the postcode TDCU 1ZZ when the 276 inhabitants asked the UK’s Royal Mail for help after being unable to shop online without a postcode.”

    — Guinness World Records

    Five

    In 1726, an Anglo-Irish clergyman and writer wrote a satirical novel which contains the word ‘remote’ in its original title. By what title is the novel commonly known today?

    Answer: Gulliver’s Travels.

    The original title of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is:
    Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships.

    Remote Sensing

    The theme was simply remoteness.

  • Remote Sensing

    Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
    Image Marine Oceans

    Today’s questions follow a theme, but I don’t have the remotest intention of mentioning it.

    One

    The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station sits on the Antarctic ice at the South Pole. At approximately what elevation above sea level is this base? (The answer can be either feet or metres.)

    Two

    An Antarctic Mystery was a two-volume novel written in 1897 which is a continuation of a novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, written in 1838 by another author. Who were the authors of these novels? 

    Three

    The Kerguelen Islands, which are a World Heritage Site, part of the French Southern and Austral Lands and Seas, lie in what ocean?

    Four

    A part of a U.K. overseas territory holds the title of the world’s most remote human settlement. What is this settlement and where it’s located?

    Five

    In 1726, an Anglo-Irish clergyman and writer wrote a satirical novel which contains the word ‘remote’ in its original title. By what title is the novel commonly known today?

    Good luck! I’ll post the answers later.

  • Poetic Justice — Answers

    Here are today’s answers.

    Of Mice and Men.
    Image Wikimedia Commons

    Today’s questions all have a poetry connection.

    One

    What four word phrase links Scottish poet Robert Burns and the American writer John Steinbeck?

    Answer: Of Mice and Men.

    Steinbeck’s 1937 novella Of Mice and Men took its title from the second last verse of Burns’ 1785 To a Mouse.

    To a Mouse

    On turning her up in her nest with the plough, November 1785

    But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
    In proving foresight may be vain:
    The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men,
    Gang aft a-gley,
    An’ lea’e us nought but grief and pain,
    For promis’d joy.
    — Robert Burns.

    The full poem can be found at Project Gutenberg

    Two

    In 1939, Ernest Hemingway drew inspiration for the title of his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls from a poem by what 17th-century English poet.

    Answer: John Donne.

    Donne’s Meditation XVII of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions was the source. In his epigraph to the novel Hemingway quotes part of this meditation

    No man is an Island, intire of it selfe; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

    Three

    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first volume of a seven-volume autobiography by an American writer and poet. The title is taken from the work of African-American poet Laurence Dunbar. Who is this writer and poet?

    Answer: Maya Angelou.

    Sympathy

    I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
    When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,
    When he beats his bars and would be free;
    It is not a carol of joy or glee,
    But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
    But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
    I know why the caged bird sings.
    — Laurence Dunbar

    Four

    The 2005 book No Country for Old Men and its Coen Brothers film are titled after the first line of the poem Sailing to Byzantium by an Irish poet (1865-1939). Who was this poet?

    Answer: William Butler Yeats.

    The title is taken from the opening line of William Butler Yeats’ poem Sailing to Byzantium.

    Sailing to Byzantium
    That is no country for old men. The young
    In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
    – Those dying generations – at their song,
    The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
    Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
    Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
    Caught in that sensual music all neglect
    Monuments of unageing intellect.
    — W.B. Yeats

    Five

    Aldous Huxley took the title for his 1932 novel Brave New World from the works of William Shakespeare. What work provided the title?

    Answer: The Tempest.

    The title Brave New World derives from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, Miranda’s speech.

    O wonder!
    How many goodly creatures are there here!
    How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
    That has such people in ‘t.
    — William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll. 203–206

  • Poetic Justice

    Of Mice and Men.
    Image Wikimedia Commons

    Today’s questions all have a poetry connection.

    One

    What four word phrase links Scottish poet Robert Burns and the American writer John Steinbeck?

    Two

    In 1939, Ernest Hemingway drew inspiration for the title of his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls from a poem by what 17th-century English poet.

    Three

    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first volume of a seven-volume autobiography by an American writer and poet. The title is taken from the work of African-American poet Laurence Dunbar. Who is this writer and poet?

    Four

    The 2005 book No Country for Old Men and its Coen Brothers film are titled after the first line of the poem Sailing to Byzantium by an Irish poet (1865-1939). Who was this poet?

    Five

    Aldous Huxley took the title for his 1932 novel Brave New World from the works of William Shakespeare. What work provided the title?

    Good luck! I’ll post the answers later.

  • Can I have a ‘P’ please, Bob?

    Jaws film poster, 1975 (cropped).
    See question one.
    Image Wikimedia Commons

    Today’s questions are not date-related but the answers are consistant with the title.

    One

    Who wrote the book Jaws, which gave great white sharks such a bad reputation?

    Two

    In the human body, what is produced from the sudoriferous (or sudoriparous) glands?

    Three

    According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, 70% of a species of big cat live in Amazonia. This cat’s binomial name fits into today’s theme: what is that binomial name and what is its normal English name?

    Four

    Erle Stanley Gardner wrote more than 80 novels based on what character?

    Five

    Who was ‘the Gardener’s Daughter’ on Elvis Presley’s album Frankie and Johnny?

    Good luck! I’ll post the answers later.

  • The Prancing Pony — Answers

    The Prancing Pony, Bree.
    Image LOTR Fandom

    Five random questions today, neither date-related nor themed.

    One

    In the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien, who are said to be the inhabitants of Bree?

    Answer: Big Folk and Hobbits.

    Bree, east of the Shire, is the only Hobbit and Man settlement in Bree-land, inspired by the English village of Brill and Tolkien’s linguistics. The Prancing Pony in Bree is where Frodo’s use of the ring brings him to the attention of Aragorn and the Black Riders. 

    Two

    What is the world’s longest snake?

    Answer: Reticulated Python.

    The reticulated python is the only snake with verified human consumption, prompting a 2015 US import ban later partially rescinded. Documented fatalities and consumption of humans are recorded from 1638 to 2026, these are mainly in Indonesia.

    Three

    What is the nearest star to our Sun? 

    Answer: Proxima Centauri.

    Proxima Centauri, discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes, is the nearest star to Earth after the Sun, located 4.25 light-years away in Centaurus. A red dwarf which will remain a main-sequence star for four trillion years. Proxima Centauri has two confirmed exoplanets: Proxima Centauri b and Proxima Centauri d.

    Four

    In Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, Wednesday is revealed to be an incarnation of what God?

    Answer: Odin.

    Neil Gaiman’s 2001 fantasy novel American Gods centres on Shadow and won Hugo and Nebula awards. A 2011 expanded edition, audio versions and a 2017 Folio Society edition followed. It was adapted for television in 2017 with Gaiman as executive producer.

    Five

    Which character from television’s Friends is also a moon of the planet Saturn? 

    Answer: Phoebe.

    Phoebe Buffay is a main character in Friends, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and played by Lisa Kudrow. Phoebe, Saturn’s largest irregular satellite, was discovered photographically by William Henry Pickering in 1899. Cassini’s 2004 flyby enabled detailed study. Its retrograde orbit places it in the Norse group.

  • The Prancing Pony

    The Prancing Pony, Bree.
    Image LOTR Fandom

    Five random questions today, neither date-related nor themed.

    One

    In the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien, who are said to be the inhabitants of Bree?

    Two

    What is the world’s longest snake?

    Three

    What is the nearest star to our Sun? 

    Four

    In Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, Wednesday is revealed to be an incarnation of what God?

    Five

    Which character from television’s Friends is also a moon of the planet Saturn? 

    Good luck! I’ll post the answers later.

  • Everywhere to Anywhere — Answers

    Here are today’s answers.

    Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
    See question three.
    Image Lucasfilm

    Today’s answers are all fictional places

    One

    In the 2000 film, in what fictional town did Billy Elliot live?

    Answer: Everington.

    In 1984, 11-year-old Billy Elliot from the fictional town of Everington in County Durham secretly pursues ballet despite his father’s disapproval. With support from his dance teacher and community, Billy auditions for the Royal Ballet School. Accepted in 1985, he later performs Swan Lake, watched proudly by his family.

    Two

    Where is home to all of these fictional characters Magrat Garlick, Corporal Buggy Swires and Professor A.A. Dinwiddie?

    Answer: Discworld.

    The witch Magrat Garlick was the original Maiden in the Lancre coven with Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. She is a gentle parody of New Age pagans, believing in crystals and folk wisdom. Corporal Buggy Swires, a gnome with a tough personality, leads the Ankh-Morpork City Watch’s Airborne Section. He uses birds for reconnaissance and messaging. Professor Dinwiddie, a quiet and reserved individual, became the Unseen University’s Bursar due to his affinity for numbers and less competition for the role. 

    Three

    At the start of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana meets singer Willie Scott in a nightclub which is named after a character from another Harrison Ford franchise, although not his character. What is its name?

    Answer: Club Obi Wan.

    Club Obi Wan, a Shanghai hideaway for the wealthy, was a nightclub, brothel, and gaming establishment. It featured fine furnishings, decorations, and entertainment and was the headquarters of Lao Che’s criminal enterprises. It was named after Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi.

    Four

    In Tolkien’s Middle-Earth Ered Luin, also known as Ered Lindon or Mountains of Lune, became the new home for Durin’s Folk who were exiled by Smaug the Dragon. What two-word term, which includes a primary colour, is Ered Luin known as in English?

    Answer: Blue Mountains.

    After the Two Lamps fell, the Blue Mountains formed Arda’s western wall. Dwarven Fathers founded Nogrod and Belegost under Mount Dolmed. In the First Age, they separated Eriador from Beleriand. Ruined in the War of Wrath, the mountains split, forming the Gulf of Lune. Dwarves later settled in the east. Exiled from Erebor by Smaug, Durin’s Folk found refuge under the Blue Mountains. King Thráin II established a throne there, succeeded by his son Thorin. Prosperous during Thorin’s reign, many Longbeards joined. Erebor was retaken in T.A. 2941, likely prompting most of Durin’s Folk to return.

    Five

    What is the fictional prison in the Harry Potter films and where is it located?

    Answer: Azkeban; (somewhere in the) North Sea.

    In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Azkaban is located ‘somewhere in the North Sea’. It serves as a prison for British and Irish wizarding criminals, guarded by Dementors who cause inmates to lose happiness and often starve. Sirius Black was the first person to escape. After Voldemort, Kingsley Shacklebolt abolishes the Dementors at Azkaban. 

    Everywhere to Anywhere

    The post title was a bit of a hint to the answers going from Everywhere (E) to Anywhere (A) — the first five letters of the alphabet in reverse: E, D, C, B and A.

  • Everywhere to Anywhere

    Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
    See question three.
    Image Lucasfilm

    Today’s answers are all fictional places

    One

    In the 2000 film, in what fictional town did Billy Elliot live?

    Two

    Where is home to all of these fictional characters Magrat Garlick, Corporal Buggy Swires and Professor A.A. Dinwiddie?

    Three

    At the start of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana meets singer Willie Scott in a nightclub which is named after a character from another Harrison Ford franchise, although not his character. What is its name?

    Four

    In Tolkien’s Middle-Earth Ered Luin, also known as Ered Lindon or Mountains of Lune, became the new home for Durin’s Folk who were exiled by Smaug the Dragon. What two-word term, which includes a primary colour, is Ered Luin known as in English?

    Five

    What is the fictional prison in the Harry Potter films and where is it located?

    Good luck! I’ll post the answers later.

  • A Life on the Ocean Wave — Answers

    Here are the answers to my earlier questions.

    Napoleon.
    Image Wikimedia Commons

    The first question concerns today’s date, 15 July. The others are unrelated to the date but share a nautical theme.

    One

    On 15 July 1815, almost a month after his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon surrendered to the captain of a British warship. Named after a son of Poseidon and Eurynome from Greek mythology, what was the warship’s name?

    Answer: HMS Bellerophon.

    Following his defeat at Waterloo in July 1815, Napoleon sought refuge aboard the British warship HMS Bellerophon, surrendering to Captain Maitland. This marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.  Transported to England on Bellerophon, he was kept isolated from the public though word of his presence eventually leaked out attracting sightseers. After two weeks in Plymouth harbour, Napoleon learned of his exile to Saint Helena and was transferred to HMS Northumberlandfor the journey.

    Two

    Which warship was scuttled in Montevideo harbour on the 17th December 1939 after the Battle of the River Plate?

    Answer: Admiral Graf Spee.

    Admiral Graf Spee, a Deutschland-class Panzerschiff of Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine during World War II, was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee. Exceeding the Treaty of Versailles’ size limit, she sank nine vessels in 1939 before the Battle of the River Plate. Convinced by false British reports suggesting superiority in gathering British numbers, she was ultimately scuttled in Montevideo.

    Three

    Cher’s use of a ship for the 1989 music video caused offence. Which song was it for and which ship was it filmed on?

    Answer: If I Could Turn Back Time; USS Missouri.

    The If I Could Turn Back Time video, directed by Marty Callner, features Cher performing on the USS Missouri with her band and son. Filmed in 1989, it faced controversy over Cher’s revealing outfit, leading to network bans. The Navy supported the shoot for recruitment, despite criticism from WWII veterans. No Navy officials faced discipline for supporting the video, despite the Secretary of the Navy considering firing the USS Missouri captain. However, other Navy sections praised the event.

    Four

    The third published novel in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia features a ship’s name in its title. What is that ship’s name?

    Answer: Dawn Treader.

    The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a 1952 novel by C. S. Lewis, is the third published in The Chronicles of Narnia. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes, it follows Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace as they join King Caspian X on a quest to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia.

    Five

    After being appointed in 1768 to lead a joint Royal Society and Admiralty expedition, Captain James Cook circumnavigated the world aboard HMS Endeavour. What size was the ship Endeavour approximately:

    • 98 feet (30 m) and 368 tons
    • 175 feet (53 m) and 1,954 tons 
    • 248 feet (75 m) and 2,998 tons

    Answer: 98 feet (30 m) and 368 tons.

    In 1768, the Royal Society and Admiralty appointed James Cook, aged 40, to lead a Pacific expedition. He commanded HMS Endeavour, a sturdy Whitby bark, to Tahiti for observing Venus’s transit and to find Terra Australis. Scientists included Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, with Cook as an astronomer. James Cook’s Endeavour charted New Zealand and discovered Australia’s east coast, navigating the Great Barrier Reef. Despite grounding and repairs, Cook returned to England, avoiding scurvy by ensuring cleanliness, ventilation, and a nutritious diet. Tragically, 30 crew members died of fever and dysentery in Batavia.