The LitNet Forum Game Quiz o' the Week

[Virgil]

Oh, fantastic quiz Aunty. You did it, combined Shakespeare and baseball. I got nine correct. Not bad, but I should have gotten Much Ado About Nothing. I got correct numbers 1,2,3,5,6,10,11,12,13.

[Wilde woman]

Aunty! I love your quizzes!

I got 9/13 correct - all the Shakespeare and #2 and #13 of the baseball. Can't wait for next week's!

[AuntShecky]

Thank you Niamh and Virgil for taking the quiz, and Wilde woman:

Can't wait for next week's!

Maybe you or one of our stunningly perspicacious LitNutters could post the next quiz!

[Niamh]

I'm moving next week but if i get a chance i'll try do one but i cant garuntee.

[Pendragon]

1,3,5,7,8,11,12,13 No too shabby

[Nikhar]

I guess I out to be really ashamed if I say that I got zero correct answers. But then my reading has been quite limited.

And well, the only Shakespeare's I have read were 'The Tempest', 'The Merchant of Venice' and just one act from 'Julius Caesar' (The one where Antonio gives his speech). And we had to read all these as there were in our literature course.

I read tempest wayyy long back...when I was just about 11.. I didn't even understand it I guess then.


Though I am quite familiar with Merchant of Venice. We enacted the court room scene for school drama. And I played Shylock (could you have guess that after looking at my avy ).

[DickZ]

Thanks again, Auntie. I've been away from my computer for a while, and this was a very welcome treat upon my return.

I got numbers 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13, but I have to admit that I wouldn't have gotten number 8 without your generous hint.

[AuntShecky]

Thanks Pen, Nikhar, and DickZ for taking our little quiz.

[qimissung]

I only missed 6, 7, 8 an 11! Yeah, yeah, technically I still struck out, but it feels like a win to me!

By the way, Auntie, I di the previous quiz, too...

[AuntShecky]

Before the ink is dry on their spanking new diplomas, great multitudes of undergraduates will almost instantly find a change in the character of their junk mail -– so long solicitations for student credit cards, hello requests for donations to the alumni association. Such a milestone is marked by a highly traditional, formal ceremony in which the soon-to-be-former students have the once in a lifetime opportunity to dress up like an Oxford don. (By the bye, how is old Don lately? Is he still wearing those dorky oxfords?)

Many grads look upon the commencement ironically, but their proud parents take the custom seriously. It’s easy to spot parents in the crowd; they’re the ones frantically clicking photos before hocking their digital cameras for the scratch to make that final tuition payment. The convocations usually feature a commencement speaker (who may also be the recipient of an honorary degree on that day.) The speech is often delivered by a prestigious newsmaker or national celebrity, or at least a prominent member of the local community. The speaker usually is someone who already has a job. For a humorous(?) take on this topic, click here:

http://www.online-literature.com/for...289#post896289

Meanwhile, let’s graduate to this week’s quiz, which we like to call

As You Go Forth

1. What is the title of the 1967 Academy Award winning film directed by Mike Nichols?

2. Book learning isn’t the highest priority among everyone. For instance, “Gie me ae spark o’ Nature’s fire/That’s a’ the learning I desire” and “Leeze me on drink! It gi’es us mair/Than either school or college.” Name the poet (1759-1796) who wrote those lines.

3. John Barth’s satirical novel, Giles Goat-Boy, features a topsy-turvy educational system, but the noun referring to an item bestowed at college commencements actually derives from a Vulgar Latin word meaning “to step down.” What is this item called?

4. Close friends of E.B. White, the brilliant New Yorker essayist and children’s book author, always called him “Andy.” The nickname became attached to him because the president of the college he attended at the time was also named “White,” but with the first name of Andrew, not Elwyn. What was the name of E. B. White’s alma mater, one of the eight Ivy League colleges?

5. Which word associated with an undergraduate commencement comes from the Medieval Latin word for a squire, a young knight in service to an older, more experienced knight?

6. John Maynard Keynes (1886-1946) was arguably the most influential theorist of the twentieth century. Yet he was skeptical about education, defining it as “the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.” Nevertheless Keynes was a leading
mind in which particular discipline of knowledge?

7. The music at most college convocations is predictable. Occasionally it is the medieval song, “Gaudeamus Igitur,” featured prominently in the Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms. But which British composer created “Pomp and Circumstances,” the most famous piece of music played at graduation ceremonies?

8. What are the initials for the equivalent of the Ph.D. at law schools?

9. In 1963, the American reading public made the spicy novel, The Group, an explosive best seller. Its Vassar-educated author nevertheless was a prominent literary figure, known for her revealing autobiography, critical studies, theatrical reviews, and her tempestuous marriage to Edmund Wilson. Among her novels is The Groves of Academe, a brilliant satire of institutions of higher learning. Who was she?

10. Name the great British poet (1688-1744) who warned, “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” (The operative word is “little,” because he wasn’t referring to an all-night kegger at the frat house when he advised people to “drink deep.”)

11. Along with the usual suspects found in commencement speeches – “follow your bliss,” “give back” to the community, etc. – graduates also hear the words, “carpe diem,” which originated with the classical poet Horace. For his brilliant 1956 novella, Saul Bellow used the English translation of the phrase, which is what?

12. These days only ones who wear this kind of headgear are graduates and cartoon owls. Yet ancient kings of France supposedly wore this flat, square cap, named for the construction implement to carry a substance used by bricklayers or plasterers. What is it called?

13. And finally, name the literary giant (1835-1910) who wrote: “Training is everything. A cauliflower ain’t nothing but a cabbage with a college education.”


Congratulations and best of luck to all of our fine graduates out there!


Answers*

1. The Graduate
2. Robert Burns
3. degree
4. Cornell
5. Baccalaureate (or “bachelor,” since a squire was most likely unmarried.)
6. Economics
7. Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
8. J.D. (Jurum Doctor, “Doctor of Laws.”)
9. Mary McCarthy (1912-1989)
10. Alexander Pope
11. Seize the day
12. Mortarboard
13. Mark Twain


*NOTE: See Reply # 58 below for 3 questions that didn't make the cut.

ALSO--DON'T FORGET -- All LitNutters are welcome to write their own original, themed quizzes and post them in this thread any time!

[Niamh]

pathetic attempt by me! 2,5,7...

[DickZ]

Thanks, Auntie, for another creative quiz. I didn’t get that many right, so I’ll go over each of my correct answers - or the ones I’m claiming to be correct.

I got number 1 right off the bat, and told myself this was going to be easy. I quickly found out just how wrong I was when I missed numbers 2, 3, and 4. Now I probably would have gotten number 3, but our Latin teacher back then in the olden days wouldn’t let us even think about exploring Vulgar Latin because he figured he would have a hard time convincing us filthy-minded teenagers that it didn’t really mean pornographic.

I was able to get number 5, but just between you and me and the lamp-post, it was a total guess. I missed number 6, and just knew the Elgar part of number 7, so I’m taking full credit for the composer of Pomp and Circumstance.

I missed number 8, but I’m going to give myself 80% credit for saying Mary McGrory on number 9 on account of that’s very close to Mary McCarthy and they were probably from the same home town in addition to having the same initials.

I knew number 10 because I have lots of other Alexander Pope quotes that I like besides the one you cited. Other favorites of mine include: Hope springs eternal in the human breast, Man never is, but always to be blest, AND Fools rush in where angels fear to tread AND To err is human, to forgive divine.

I knew number 11 because I remembered it from Latin AND because I saw the movie Dead Poets’ Society.

I knew number 12, but I didn’t know number 13.

[AuntShecky]

Thanks Niamh and Dick for playing our quiz. Couple of"outtakes"--mainly because I forgot 'em!:

1. What is the three-word phrase for the adversarial conflict between regular folks and academics in a municipality that hosts a college or university?

2. In a metaphor for a person who is so obsessed with scholarship that he or she is out of touch with the real world, we say that "He's living in a ----" (what?)

3. A famous 60s era folk trio that had a big hit
with a novelty song that included the lines:
"It's not as bad as it appears
He's got rhythm and a Ph.D."

Name the group and the song.







1. Town and Gown
2. Ivory tower
3. "I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog" by Peter, Paul, and Mary.

[Wilde woman]

Hi Aunty! Love the theme this week. I got 9/13 on the quiz, though - admittedly - Alexander Pope was a wild guess for me. Got lucky! I'm kicking myself for missing #5 because I'm trying to revive my Latin. In the outtakes, I only got #2. But now I've learned the phrase "town and gown", which definitely applies to some grad programs (which shall remain nameless ) that I recently visited.

[Pendragon]

Only got four, #2, #11,#12, #13 Oh Well!