The LitNet Forum Game Quiz o' the Week

[AuntShecky]

Next time you long on to Online Literature Network, look at the left hand side of the opening screen. There you will find an entire forum devoted to numerous quizzes about individual authors and/or individual works. About a year and a half ago, the Forum Games featured a continuous thread titled “Auntie’s Quiz of the Week,” a less serious brain-teaser in which the quizzes were comprised of several seemingly divergent works and authors, all connected – often tenuously!– by a common characteristic. Here’s a link to one of those previous quizzes:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...398#post811398

This “new” thread hopes to continue where “Auntie’s Quiz of the Week” left off, only this time, LitNet participants have the opportunity not only to take a stab at the questions but also write and post quizzes themselves. In other words, I hope that the Forum Games quiz would become more of a community rather than an individual effort.

If you want some suggestions on how to compose a quiz, here are some suggestions to get you started:
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/blog.php?b=9641

Meanwhile, here’s the initial quiz offering for 2010, the first of which I hope will be many more. (That’s up to you, LitNetters!) All of the questions and/or answers have something to do with some form of the words “first,” “begin,” “new,” or “start.” So, let’s get started with this little ditty we like to call:

First, A New Beginning

1. What is the term used to describe the fortunate results when a person succeeds brilliantly the very first time he or she attempts a new endeavor?

2. Which British poet (1809-1892) wrote the monumental elegy, In Memoriam, in which the following lines appear:
“Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.”

3. Name the ancient Roman god with 2 faces –one facing forward and the other looking backward, who presided over the beginning of the year. It forms the root of the word for one of our calendar months.

4. A legal term concerns who gets the first and usually biggest share of a family inheritance, and/or the rule of succession to the throne in medieval Europe. What is this word which literally means “first born?”

5. Initially appearing in 1623, what two-word term refers to the earliest collection of Shakespeare’s plays published just 7 years after his death? In more modern times two facsimile editions were published, one in 1902 by Oxford University Press and the other by Yale University Press in 1954.

6. Who was the American composer and lyricist (1893-1964) who wrote “Begin the Beguine?”

7. W. E. Hickson isn't as well known as his oft-quoted advice. What’s the line which precedes “Try, try again,” the first three words of which legendary infielder Keith Hernandez found to be a perfect title for his autobiography?

8. What was the term for the loosely-knit group of French filmmakers of the 1950s including “auteurs” such as Rohmer, Truffaut, Renais, and Godard who brought a individually artistic yet autocratic control over the complete production of their works?

9. It’s a no-no-- or used to be-- in objective, straight news stories, but this type of narration is highly effective in numerous literary works, as diverse as Tristram Shandy, David Copperfield, andThe Catcher in the Rye. When a narrator recounts his own experiences and observations throughout the entire work, we say that the novel is written in the what?

10. Appropriately enough, it opens with the words, “In the beginning. . .” What is the first book of the Bible as well as the Old Testament ?

11. What is the literary term for a written line containing two or more words repeating the sound of the initial letter, such as the “f” in Milton’s line, “Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,” or the “c” in the simile “cool as a cucumber” or the “s” in the tongue-twister “She sells seashells by the seashore?”

12. Who was the American-born British poet (1888-1965) who included the line, “In my beginning is my end” in “East Coker,” one of his Four Quartets?

13. And finally, name the comedian, musician, author of 54 published books, pioneer of late-night television, actor, and song lyricist (1921-2000) who wrote the jazz standard, “This Could Be the Start of Something.”



Answers
1. Beginner’s luck
2. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
3. Janus
4. Primogeniture
5. The First Folio
6. Cole Porter
7. “If, at first, you don’t succeed” (Mr. Hickson didn't offer Plan B, or what to do if at Try #7734 you still haven't succeeded.”)
8. The New Wave Cinema
9. Written in the first person.
10. Genesis
11. Alliteration
12. T. S. Eliot
13. Steve Allen

Sources:
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by Ivor R. Evans, New York: Harper & Row, 1981.
Benét’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Third Edition
and (for question #11) The Oxford Companion to the English Language.

[DickZ]

It's nice to see the return of your quiz, Auntie, as I've missed them over the holidays. I got numbers 1, 3, 7, 10, 11, and 12 on this one, and I'll be looking forward to next week's.

[AuntShecky]

Thanks, DickZ. Let's hope a LitNetter posts a second quiz
next week.

[DickZ]

Thanks, DickZ. Let's hope a LitNetter posts a second quiz next week.

Well, Auntie, I will post one on Wednesday, to conform with your previous schedule, but I feel it will pale in comparison to the quizzes you put out. I'm sure this new approach will make us appreciate your quizzes more, rather taking them for granted.

[DickZ]

Here is my attempt at a quiz for the week, and I hope it won’t make everyone mutter to themselves that this idea of rotating responsibilities for the weekly quiz won’t work as well as when Auntie handled everything all by herself.

1. In Les Misérables, what alias did Jean Valjean use when he was released following nineteen years in the galleys?

2. In Les Misérables, what was the name of Jean Valjean’s ward?

3. In Les Misérables, what ‘vehicle’ did Jean Valjean use to escape from the convent where he had been hiding?

4. In A Tale of Two Cities, what did Madame Defarge do while watching the guillotine do its work?

5. In A Tale of Two Cities, who killed Madame Defarge?

6. In A Tale of Two Cities, who said “It’s a far, far better thing that I do now than I have ever done?”

7. In The Count of Monte Cristo, what was the name of Edmond Dantès’s fellow prisoner, with whom he secretly communicated for many years?

8. In The Count of Monte Cristo, what alias taken from The Arabian Nights did Edmond Dantès use?

9. In The Count of Monte Cristo, who was the woman Edmond Dantès planned to marry before he was carted off to prison?

10. In Great Expectations, what sort of outfit did Miss Havisham always wear?

11. In Great Expectations, who was the girl that Miss Havisham matched up with Pip?

12. In Great Expectations, who was the source of Pip’s great expectations?


ANSWERS
1. Monsieur Madeleine
2. Cosette
3. coffin
4. knitted
5. Miss Pross
6. Sidney Carton
7. Abbé Faria
8. Sinbad the Sailor
9. Mercedes
10. wedding dress
11. Estella
12. Abel Magwitch

[AuntShecky]

Thanks for keepin' the ball rollin', DickZ!

[Virgil]

I got seven correct in Aunty's quiz: 2,3,5,9,10,11,12.

In Dick's quiz, I had only read Great Expectations out of the novels being quized, and I got all three of those.

[qimissung]

In Aunty's quiz I got 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12 correct.

I took Dick's quiz but have only read Les Miserables and A Tale of Two Cities years (and years) ago and I only got four questions correct.

A good first effort, Dick, but I do you suppose that you could ask about a variety of things, like Aunty? I might try one eventually, but it would probably be in the summer. They look immensely time-consuming...

[DickZ]

....A good first effort, Dick, but do you suppose that you could ask about a variety of things, like Aunty? I might try one eventually, but it would probably be in the summer. They look immensely time-consuming...

Thanks for taking the time to try the quiz, qimissung, and for saying something about it. We don't seem to have too many people here who offer comments, so it's a rare treat to hear anybody say something - anything. With your avatar, I will figure that three of the four questions you answered were on Les Misérables.

I'll be looking forward to your quiz this summer, and I hope that someone else will step up and create another between this one of mine and the one you will put out this summer.

Yes, it's time consuming, and either Auntie is brilliant or has lots of time on her hands, because writing quizzes like hers isn't as easy as it seems. You have to actually try it to get an appreciation for what she does.

As I said in an earlier post, we all take her and her material for granted.

[DickZ]

Since nobody else has come forward with a quiz, I'll post one more.

1. In The House of Seven Gables, what was the name of the spinster who was the current resident of the house and who played a major role in the story?

2. In The House of Seven Gables, what was the name of the lodger living in the house?

3. In The House of Seven Gables, what was the name of the man who had to be forced off the land before the house could then be built?

4. In Frankenstein, what was Frankenstein’s first name?

5. In Frankenstein, what was the full name of Frankenstein’s best friend?

6. In Frankenstein, what was the most important thing the monster wanted Frankenstein to do – something that Frankenstein started, but didn’t finish?

7. In The Three Musketeers, what was the motto of the musketeers?

8. In The Three Musketeers, what are the names of the three musketeers?

9. In The Three Musketeers, what is the name of the cardinal who plays a major role?

10. In Gulliver’s Travels, what is the name of the land Gulliver visits which has tiny people?

11. In Gulliver’s Travels, what is the name of the land Gulliver visits which has huge people?

12. In Gulliver’s Travels, what is the name given to the horses who rule the land where his final voyage of the book takes him?







ANSWERS
1. Hepzibah Pyncheon
2. Holgrave
3. Matthew Maule
4. Victor
5. Henry Clerval
6. create a female companion for the monster
7. “All for one, and one for all.”
8. Athos, Porthos, Aramis
9. Cardinal Richelieu
10. Lilliput
11. Brobdingnag
12. Houyhnhnms

[AuntShecky]

Please stay tuned at the end of the quiz for an important announcement.

Back in the days before texting, folks actually talked to each other face-to-face. They even used real words with vowels in them. This particular type of human interaction was called “the art of conversation” in which a quick-witted invitee would occasionally relate an amusing anecdote or drop a pleasant – or a barbed– bon mot. During the inevitable lag in the dinner party when all the guests seem to have run out of things to say, an apropos quotation just might fill that awkward silence. There is an endless choice of wisdom to cite –from Shakespeare, Shaw, Casey Stengel –a veritable fountain of repartee.

Of course, you have to be reasonably sure that the quotation is accurate. As Yogi Berra may have said, “I really didn’t say half the things I said.” In order to make sense, you should also include all the significant parts of the statement, as Robert Benchley realized in his Maxims from the Chinese: “It is rather to be chosen than great riches, unless I have omitted something from the quotation.”

So by now you know this week’s topic is quotations. Unless otherwise specified, all you have to do is identify the source in this little quiz we like to call:

Quote “Quotable Quotations We Like To Quote” Unquote

1. Name the American poet who originated the line: “Quoth the raven ‘Nevermore.’ “

2. When you come to see this one, you’ll conquer this question. Who said “Veni, Vidi, Vici?”

3. One of his poems is about a supermarket in California, but this line comes from“America,” composed in 1956. Identify the literary legend who wrote: “When can I go into a supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?”

4. This British author and political leader couldn’t have been thinking of the LitNutters when he said “ It’s a good thing for an uneducated man to read a book of quotations.” Who was he?

5. And certainly this next line does not apply to any of the aspiring authors in the Lit Net community. Name the brash but highly successful college basketball coach who said, “All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things.”

6. When the “pop”ular artist first made his observation, he meant it in a totally upbeat, joyous way, but in these celebrity-obsessed times, the quote is almost always used scornfully. Name who first predicted “In the future everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes.”

7. Which nineteenth century British poet thought up the inspiring thought “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp/Or, what’s a heaven for?”

8. He could excel in so-called “legitimate” roles such as that of Mr. Micawber, but he was best known playing himself reciting scripts he wrote under various pseudonyms. For instance, when a character accused him of being drunk, he famously replied, “And you’re crazy. But I’ll be sober tomorrow and you’ll be crazy the rest of your life.” Who was he?

9. A backhanded compliment is embedded in the following rejection notice: “Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.” Who was the British author and lexicographer (1709-1784) who first made that assessment?

10. Name the inspirational writer who espoused living the simple life with advice such as “Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.”

11. Identify the baseball legend who slyly asked, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?”

12. A phrase that really “caught on” in the American language was derived from the title of a novel about a convoluted military regulation “which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask, and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions . . .” What was the title of this novel by Joseph Heller?

13. “Hindsight is always 20/20" has been quoted so much that it’s almost a cliché, but few people realize that the line originated with movie director and screenwriter Billy Wilder. Name Billy’s 1959 comic masterpiece which stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis and ends with the line, “Nobody’s perfect.”


Answers:
1. Edgar Allen Poe
2. Julius Caesar
3. Allen Ginsberg
4. Winston Churchill
5. Bobby Knight
6. Andy Warhol
7. Robert Browning
8. W. C. Fields
9. Dr. Samuel Johnson
10. Henry David Thoreau
11. Satchel Paige
12. Catch-22
13. Some Like It Hot


Hey, LitNutters! Why not contribute your very own quiz to this thread? You'll be glad you did. You're already Brilliant so you don't need help, but just in case you want to check out some quiz-making suggestions, try this:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/blog.php?b=9641

[Virgil]

Ooh, I got nine correct: 1,2,3,4,6,9,11,12,13. I should have got Browning, but I went with Tennyson. And i think I've seen that Thoreau quote but missed it. Hey i'll try to write a quiz over the weekend, my dear Aunty.

[DickZ]

I got 1, 2, 4, 11, 12, and 13.

[qimissung]

OK, DickZ, I took your quiz first, and, yep, you guessed it, got7, 8, 9, and 10 correct, an improvement of sorts over the last one. Obviously I should have gotten 11 and 12 but they would not come to mind.

Aunty, I took yours next. I got 1, 2, 4 6, 7, 12, and 13. Just a little over half right, as usual.

Dick, I'm glad you appreciated the comments. I worried that I hurt your feelings. Thank you for making the quiz. I do not take AuntShecky for granted, though. I am in awe. I know it only looks easy. I appreciate her, and you.

[Virgil]

Man, it's freezing here today. It was 15F (-9C) this morning when I took the dog out for her weekend morning play of fetch the tennis ball. The cold doesn't seem to bother her at all, but I frankly hate it. And I'm sure New York City is not the coldest place in the northern hemisphere right now.

It's cold enough for me and so I decided to whip up a quiz for our dear Aunt Shecky on the subject of winter and/or cold. My quizes are purely literary, so you better know your novels, short story, poetry, and even plays. Let us know how you did.



1. What is the name of the leading character in Tolstoy’s War and Peace who while imprisoned by the French after attempting to assassinate Napoleon suffers through the harsh Russian winter? (I’ll take just a first name)

2. Buck is the main character in which of Jack London’s novels, in which a domesticated dog is separated from civilization, becomes wild, and ultimately a sled dog in Alaska’s Yukon?

3. In which part of the US is Edith Wharton’s novel Ethane Frome set, in which the characters endure a harsh winter, where they sled down the rolling icy hills?

4. What was the name of the short story by Stephan Crane where a nervous and drunk Swede and a boy fight in the cold Nebraska winter setting?

5. In Lord of the Rings, the Frodo and his hobbit friends depart in winter to take the ring away from the Shire and encounter a human named Strider who assists and protects them. Strider turns out to have a noble heritage and a different name. What is that name?

6. Who is the author of the wonderful classic poem, titled “The Snowman,” where the junipers are “shagged with ice” and the snowman beholds “the nothing that is”?

7. In Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale,” what is the name of the virtuous and beautiful Queen of Sicilia who is falsely accused of infidelity?

8. In which circle of hell does Dante reserve for traitors where they are frozen in a lake of ice?

9. In Henry David Thoreau’s Walden or a Life in the Woods, where Thoreau lives in a cabin in near isolation by a pond, the author recounts how one winter a 100 men invade the area to take back something and ship it to the Carolinas. What was it the 100 men took?

10. Robert Frost’s famous “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” the central character stops between the woods and this element of nature.

11. In which James Joyce short story does the entire island of Ireland get blanketed by a cover of snow?

12. Who is the author of this fabulous opening sentence, “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice"?



















1. Count Pyotr "Pierre" Kirillovich Bezukhov
2. The Call of the Wild
3. New England (Massachsettes)
4. "The Blue Hotel"
5. Aragorn
6. Wallace Stevens
7. Hermione
8. The Ninth Circle
9. Ice from the frozen pond
10. The frozen lake
11. “The Dead”
12. Gabriel García Márquez, from One Hundred Years of Solitude