An Orderly Word Ladder II Trivia Quiz

Price decreases, reductions, sales, bargains or whatever you want to call them, chasing down items that are priced less today than they were previously is a global phenomenon. In the United Kingdom, price reductions on goods in supermarkets are often advertised to the public through the use of yellow stickers that contain the new barcode and reduced price. Bargain hunters often get to know what times certain stores make their reductions and many a comedy sketch has focussed on the scrums in the aisles as shoppers compete for the biggest savings.

Starting Word: REDUCTIONS

The concept of the nation state has been around for millennia and the borders used to define each nation state or country have been a source of conflict and contention for just as long. Borders can be established, amongst other methods, by natural features such as rivers (Nicaragua / Costa Rica), arbitrary lines (India / Pakistan) or intricate networks of defined exclaves (part of the Belgium / Netherlands land border).

Anagram (REDUCTIONS - D) = COUNTRIES

Wiktionary provides two short definitions for the word 'construe' with the first being "a translation" and the second being "an interpretation". As is so often the case, the origin of the word can be traced back to Latin (construo, "to relate grammatically").

Anagram (COUNTRIES - I) = CONSTRUE

The cornet is a brass instrument closely related to the trumpet. Louis Armstrong is famously associated with the trumpet but he got his break in the 1920s as a cornetist in King Oliver's Jazz Creole Band, operating out of Chicago, Illinois.

Anagram (CONSTRUE - U) = CORNETS

A corset is a tightly-fitting undergarment that tends to be associated with women but has also been worn by men at various points in history. There is a scene in the 1997 film 'Titanic' in which Rose (played by Kate Winslet) sought to negotiate with her mother (Frances Fisher) how tightly pulled her corset should be. Naturally, Rose desired a looser-fitting undergarment but her mother was having none of it!

Anagram (CORNETS - N) = CORSET

The use of the word 'score' so as to represent the number twenty can be traced back to the droving tradition; when drovers undertook tollgate counts of the animals in their possession they would make a mark or score for every twenty animals processed.

Perhaps the most famous use of 'score' to mean twenty was in Abraham Lincoln's concise 'Gettysburg Address' which commences, "Four score and seven years ago..."

Anagram (CORSET - T) = SCORE

There are a number of gods and goddesses that are associated with the various aspects of love. The Greek god Eros has strong associations with the erotic and is the counterpart of Cupid from Roman mythology.

Just as is the case for Cupid, Eros is linked to the symbolism of the bow and arrow.

Anagram (SCORE - C) = EROS

Roe is often seen as a luxury product, particularly the eggs produced by the fish of the sturgeon family (caviar). You do not have to shell out a small fortune to sample a tiny taste of roe however, as variants such as salmon roe and flying fish roe (tobiko) are commonly used as a sushi ingredient.

Anagram (EROS - S) = ROE

Logic gates are commonly used components in the field of electronics and they are devices that control the flow of current based on logical statements (Boolean values) such as "and", "or" and "nor". In the case of an "or" gate receiving two inputs, if one or more of the binary inputs is equal to one then the output will also equal one.

Anagram (ROE - E) = OR

There are a number of different blood-typing systems but the most well known is the ABO system along with its interaction with the Rhesus factor (positive or negative). An example blood type under this combination of systems is AB+, a rare typing that is known as the "universal recipient". Those with the AB+ blood type can receive blood donations from any other group but AB+ donations cannot be accepted by any group other than AB+ itself.

On the other hand, O- is the "universal donor".

OR - R = O