The LitNet Forum Game Quiz o' the Week

[papayahed]

Allllllll Riiiiigghhhtttt I forgot how much fun these quizes were even though I only got 5 correct. (The bonus question saved me)

[Virgil]

Oh I had missed the quiz on the road. I got nine correct there (1,3,4,6,9,10,11,12,13)

On the October surprise I got only got seven (4,5,6,9,11,12,13).

Thanks for these Aunty. I always enjoy them.

[AuntShecky]

A final question: What does Goodbye, Columbus have to do with October? (Obviously, I haven't read it.)

Some parts of the western hemisphere celebrate --or used to commemorate --Columbus Day on October 12.

[Jazz_]

Thanks Aunt Shecky - I only got 6 right, but still enjoyed taking the quiz

[AuntShecky]

Here's a little quiz to get your glucose pumping against the autumn chill. The questions aren't all that difficult, but what's really baffling is why the sportswriters awarded an MLB Gold Glove to. . .Derek Jeter? In any event, like a fallen oak leaves in the wind, let's skip over to the
quiz which we like to call

November? No Kidding!

1. Who wrote the following lines:
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds!--
November!(a) Emily Dickinson (b) Gerard Manley Hopkins (c) Wordsworth (d) Thomas Hood

2. In the United States, the first Tuesday of November is often designated as Election Day. Which one of the fifty states produced more American Presidents than any other?
(a) Virginia (b) New York (c) Pennsylvania (d) Massachusetts

3. Speaking of states, one of them was the site of the historic "First Flight" by the Wright Brothers. Even though that event occurred in December (of 1903), November is nevertheless National Aviation Month. Not only that, this state entered the Union in the month of November
(of 1789.) What was it?
(a) South Carolina (b) North Carolina (c) Delaware (d) Ohio

4. "November's sky is chill and drear,
November's leaf is red and sear."Who wrote that? (a)Robert Burns (b) Helen Hunt Jackson
(c) Sir Walter Scott (d) Tennyson

5. Bonfires are set each November 5 on Guy Fawkes Day, a reference to the Gunpowder Plot, a failed attempt to destroy which English ruler?
(a) James I (b) Charles I (c) Charles II (d) James II

6. In what year was Thanksgiving permanently established as a National Holiday, officially to occur each year on the fourth Thursday in November? (a) 1621
(b) 1863 (c) 1941 (d) 1956

7. Name the significant American novel in which the opening paragraph includes the line: "Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul. . ."
(a) O Pioneers! (b) Moby Dick
(c) The Sound and the Fury(d)An American Tragedy

8. The Major League Baseball season is already long, and in recent years the expanded postseason has made it even longer. Not that I'm complaining, but if this keeps up, the groundskeepers are going to have to add another piece of equipment to the lawn tractors and tarps-- a snowplow! Even so, North America still can have pleasant weather throughout the autumn. Of the following major sporting events, which one usually takes place in November?
(a) Masters Tournament (b) Indianapolis 500 (c) Boston Marathon (d) Breeders' Cup

9. Because their year began in March, the ancient Romans considered November to be the ninth month. The Saxons in Britain called it "Wind-monath" because this was the month in which they did what?
(a) put up wooden shutters on their windows (b) pulled in their fishing boats until the following spring (c) finished their wine-making for the season (d) swept their chimneys and checked them for down-drafts.

10. Today, November 10, 2010 is the 235th birthday for which branch of the U.S. military?
(a) Army (b) Navy (c) Marine Corps (d) Coast Guard

11. November 11 has been designated as Veterans' Day in both Canada and the United States, but the it has not always gone by that name in the U.S. Between 1946 and 1954, it was called Remembrance Day" in order to honor those who had given their lives in the Second World War. By what name was this important day called between 1918 and 1946?

12. Match the following Memorials in Washington, D.C. with the dates of their dedication and/or official public openings.
(1) Vietnam Memorial (2) Korean War Memorial (3) World War I Memorial and (4) World War II Memorial
Dates: (a) 1931 (b) 1993 (c) 1995 (d) 2004

13. And finally, a major figure of American Literature was born on November 30, 1835, the same year that Halley's Comet made its rare appearance. The author correctly predicted that his death would come when the comet returned again. Who was he?



Answers:
1. d
2. a
3. b
4. c
5. a
6. c
7. b
8. d
9. b
10. c
11. Armistice Day
12. 1B, 2C, 3A, 4D
13. Mark Twain

[DickZ]

Thanks, Auntie, for another very entertaining quiz. I was able to get a few of them right - namely, numbers 2, 3, 6, 8 (only because a filly with an amazing record participated in this year's event), 10, 11 (only because I'm old enough to have lived through the other names), 12, and 13.

Please keep these coming. I can appreciate how difficult it is to produce them, having tried a couple of times without much success.

[Wilde woman]

Thanks for the quiz, Auntie! I enjoyed it, though I always feel humbled by your seemingly infinite store of knowledge. I got 6/13...2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9. I just realized none of those were literary, but historical. That's actually quite depressing....I'm supposed to be a student of literature.

8 (only because a filly with an amazing record participated in this year's event)

Are you as depressed about Zenyatta's loss as I am?

[qimissung]

Fair to Middlin'-I got them all correct! Hooray for me! Hopefully I'll get to your newer ones tomorrow, Aunty.

[AuntShecky]

Yay, Q! You got them all right! By the bye, love the quotes in your signature. Did you know that somebody took Rumsfeld's tortured syntax and published it as a collection of "found poems." (A critic said they were like bad Wallace Stevens.) Frankl, by contrast, is a great writer,
whom more of us should read.

[AuntShecky]

Well here we are again, watching the year getting ready to pack up and take off for parts unknown, and "good riddance to ye," we say! Meanwhile here is the final quiz of 2010, whose content consists of random bits of material culled from previous quizzes. All right, call them "repeats" if you will, but that's no different from what the TV and cable networks do. Hey, I love It's a Wonderful Life as much as the next gal, but that movie seems to have more lives than a vampire's pet cat. With that, I bid adieu until 2011-- when we do hope more LitNutters will participate in this thread and post quizzes of their own devising - and without further ado, here's a little thing we like to call

The Super Duper, Lolapalooza, Suretomakeyousnooza Lit Net Forum Games 2010 Final 'Zam

1. Which novel opens with a scene about a down-at-the heels farmhand getting so stinkin’ drunk at a fair that he literally sells his wife and baby?

(a) The Mayor of Casterbridge.
(b) The Vicar of Wakefield
( c ) The Mill on the Floss
(d) Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

2. Which author wrote “The Hunger Artist,” about a man who, like a sideshow freak, starves himself for the entertainment of audiences?

(a) Dostoevsky
(b) Kafka
(c) Ray Bradbury
(d) Tolstoy

3. According to conventional wisdom, the Road to Hell is paved with what?

(a.) gold
(b.) the sins of the fathers
(c.) good intentions
(d.) municipal bonds.

4. “He had been for eight years upon a project for extracting sun-beams out of cucumbers which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers” is a satiric bit from of an extraordinarily famous work, whose “Voyage to Laputa” has been modernized and will be released as a “Major Motion Picture” in the U.S. on Christmas Day under the original title, what was it, and who was its author?

5. Shakespeare wrote all of the following lines EXCEPT:
(a) “I am too much in the sun”
(b) “. . .nothing like the sun”
( c ) “Out of heaven’s benediction comest to the warm sun”
(d) “The sun also rises”

6. “Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road./Healthy, free, the world before me” are the opening lines of “Song of the Open Road.” Who wrote them?

(a.) Walt Whitman
(b.) William Wordsworth
(c.)William Carlos Williams
(d.) Walt Jocketty.

7. In the following works, all by Mark Twain, which one is about a commoner switching roles with a royal figure switches roles with a member of royalty?

(a) Puddin’head Wilson
(b) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
(c )The Prince and the Pauper
(d) The Mysterious Stranger

8. Name the two heroes of antiquity so devoted to each other that one was willing to substitute his own life when the other was about to be executed by a tyrant.

(a) Scylla and Charybdis
(b) Achilles and Hector
( c ) Tigris and Euphrates
(d) Damon and Pythias

9. Of the following which name is not the title character of a novel?

(a) Silas Marner
(b) Adam Bede
(c) Daniel Deronda
(d) George Eliot

10. What is the literary term for repetition of the same sound, such as the beginning consonants in a cluster of words?
(a) anachrony
(b) alliteration
(c) asyndeton
(d) epistrophe

11. Who wrote the play, Candida, about a young man infatuated with a much older woman?
(a) Oscar Wilde
(b) Voltaire
(c ) Plautus
(d) George Bernard Shaw

12. Which poet wrote the following lines?:
“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.”

(a) Burns
( b ) Tennyson
( c ) Eliot
(d ) Auden






Answers


1. A 2. B 3. C 4. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift 5. D 6. A 7. C 8. D 9. D 10. B 11. D 12. B

[DickZ]

Thanks for another enjoyable quiz, Auntie. I got 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year, and thanks so much for making this a fun place to be.

[Wilde woman]

Hallelujah, I got them all right!! By no means did I know all the answers, but took educated guesses on about half of them and got them all! What luck! I should go buy a lottery ticket now.

I love that the Hunger Artist came up. It's probably my favorite of Kafka's short stories. And I swear I could recognize Tennyson's verse anywhere. His poetry reads so simply, but has a really timeless quality.

By the way, I'm fascinated by this Candida play. I need to go check it out, especially since one of my New Year's resolutions will be to finally read some Shaw.

[Pendragon]

All but 2 and 12. Not bad

[AuntShecky]

Help! Call the cops, call out the National Guard, call Dr. Clayton Forrester! My television has been invaded –not by intergalactic aliens but by boiling battalions of competing chefs. In the past, dignified gourmet cooks like Julia Child and James Beard brought a soupcon of class to the TV schedule, but now every time I turn on the idiot box, all I see are toque-wearing hot-heads foaming at the mouth and wielding steak knifes like Samurai swords. If it’s not temperamental cooks on the screen, it’s food. I don't mean just the commercials. Never did I dream that I'd be paying the cable company for the privilege of watching a thirty-minute show about barbecue sauce. The programmers are just reflecting the desires of their audience whose eyes are way, way smaller than their stomachs. If you don't believe Americans are obsessed with food, just take a look at the long lines in front of local restaurants on “All You Can Eat Nights.”

Well, if you can't beat ‘em, feed ‘em. Hence the topic this time is all things comestible. It’s high in calories, low in taste, but there’s no danger of growing a Walmart shopper’s waistline. Just get your rotten vegetables ready to throw at the current quiz fare which we like to call

Food for Naught

1. The ancient Greek Gods punished a king for spilling the beans about their secrets by forcing him to stand up to his chin in a river of Hades with a bunch of delectable fruit hanging above his head. Every time the king tried to drink or eat, the waters would recede and the fruit would remain just out of reach. This myth directly links to which
modern English word?

(a) tantalize (b) tempting ( c ) stymie
(d) frustration


2. “The world’s no blot for us/ nor blank; it means intensely, and means good:/ to find its meaning is my meat and drink.” Which British poet composed those lines?

(a) Byron (b) Browning ( c ) Burns (d) Betjeman


3. Aside from a title of a novel by H.G. Wells, what is “The Food of the Gods?”

(a) angel food cake (b) peach Melba ( c ) ambrosia
(d) free salad bar


4. A major figure in America’s cultural heritage, he gave The Atlantic Monthly its name and contributed a series of fiction, verse, and essays to a series called “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.” Who was this physician/professor/poet?

(a) James Russell Lowell (b) Ralph Waldo Emerson
( c ) William James (d) Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

5. According to a character created by British novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) what is the “gravest sin” a gentlewoman can commit before lunch?

(a) gluttony (b) make dinner plans
(c) read a novel (d) invite William S. Burroughs over

6. In the Satyricon by Petronius Trimalchio, is the ancient Roman counterpart of a billionaire flaunting his wealth in extravagant ways, such as throwing an over-the-top orgy, er–dinner party. Trimalchio’s Banquet was the original title of an early 20th century American classic which was changed to what?

(a) The Great Gatsby (b) Greed ( c ) A Moveable Feast(d) Dinner at Eight

7. Who was the inspiration for a character or characters in Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham?

(a) the respective owners of the bakery and pub in the author’s Canterbury neighborhood
(b) Thomas Hardy ( c ) Paul Gauguin
(d) Miss Sadie Thompson


8. Which of the following dessert items whetted the narrator’s memory in Proust’s magnum opus?

(a) meringue (b) croissant ( c ) Napoleon
(d) madeleine

9. What is the title story of one of the short story collections by Sherwood Anderson?

(a) “The Egg and I” (b) “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
( c ) “A Dill Pickle” (d) “The Triumph of the Egg”

10. In a famous literary work of the 19th century, who are the pitchmen who recite the spiel which begins: “Come buy, come buy/Apples and quinces/Lemons and oranges/Plump unpack’d cherries/Melons and raspberries/Bloom-down cheek’d peaches. . .”

(a) street vendors in Oliver Twist (b) the Duke and Dauphin in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
( c ) witches (d) goblins

11. Who wrote the well-known short poem essentially consisting of a thank you note to his wife for leaving a dish of plums for him in the refrigerator?

(a) William Carlos Williams (b) Kenneth Koch
( c ) Kenneth Rexroth (d) Kenneth Patchen

12. Which time-honored metaphor or -- if you prefer – cliché refers to keeping the populace contented (and thus not contentious) with free food and entertainment?

(a) soup to nuts (b) bread and circuses
( c ) bread and cheese
(d) a loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou

and finally–

13. Which 1977 dubious use of celluloid can be found on lists of the worst movies ever made– maybe, since it’s a parody of horror flicks, intentionally so?

(a) "The Eggplant that Ate Chicago "
(b) Banana Splitz
( c ) Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!
(d) Dinner for Schmucks





Answers
1. a 2. b 3. c 4. d 5. c 6. a 7. b 8. d 9. d 10. d 11. a 12. b 13. c

[DickZ]

Thanks, Auntie. I got 1, 3, 4, 7, 12, and 13.

As history always repeats itself, bread and circuses are rearing their ugly heads again. Or as Littlechap promised all who would vote for him when he decided to run for public office in the musical Stop the World – I Want to Get Off: “Free false teeth for all!!!”