Major Pager Trivia Quiz

Answer: dread red

Dread is a feeling of fear or apprehension of something that is coming, e.g. 'I'm dreading the match tonight, I think we're going to lose'. In the past, to dread something was also to regard it with great awe.

Red is one of the three primary colours, along with yellow and blue. When mixed with blue, it makes purple, and when mixed with yellow, it makes orange. It is associated with emotions such as love and anger, and is considered a lucky colour in China.

Answer: stash cash

A stash and a cache are both collections of things that are hidden away somewhere, such as a drug stash or a weapons stash. In computing, a cache is an auxiliary memory where data is stored. Cache comes from the French verb 'cacher', 'to hide'.

Cash is money in its physical form - notes or coins - rather than cheques or cards, as in 'cold hard cash'. It comes from the French 'caisse', or 'money box'.

Answer: think pink

'Think pink' is the motto of the Pink Panther in the DePatie-Freleng cartoon of the same name. He originally appeared in the introduction of the 'Pink Panther' detective films, before becoming a character in his own right. (The Pink Panther in the films was actually a diamond with a panther-shaped flaw.)

Pink is a secondary colour created by mixing red and white. Pastel pink is a pale shade of pink, often used in clothes for baby girls. A pink (Dianthus plumarius) is also a flower in the Caryophyllaceae family, related to the carnation.

Answer: loud crowd

As well as being a synonym of 'noisy', Loud was also the name of a middle-class family who appeared in the reality TV show 'An American Family'. Bill and Pat Loud had five children, Lance, Kevin, Grant, Delilah and Michelle. During the course of the show, Bill and Pat divorced and Lance came out as gay. Lance, a musician and journalist, later died of AIDS in 2001.

As well as a large gathering of people, 'crowd' can also mean a peer group or group of friends. Fear of crowds, which I have, is called enochlophobia. (It can make going to gigs and football matches very difficult.)

Answer: mute flute

A mute can either be a person who is incapable of speech, or a device used to alter the sound of an instrument. String instruments, saxophones and brass instruments can have mutes; a string instrument's mute is placed on the bridge, the wooden part that holds the strings, while a brass instrument's mute is placed in its bell. Jazz musicians often use mutes, such as harmon/wa-wa mutes, which trumpeters use to make a distinctive sound.

A flute, however, does not require a mute. It is in the woodwind family of the orchestra, as it was originally made of wood, but most flutes nowadays are made of metal. Unlike other woodwind instruments, concert flutes do not have reeds and the flautist has to blow across the mouthpiece instead. (I used to play the flute in the school orchestra and my shoulder always hurt after concerts.)

Answer: Plain Jane

A 'plain Jane' is a woman who is considered to be drab and uninteresting. In L. M. Montgomery's 'Anne of Green Gables' and subsequent books, Jane Andrews is a literal 'plain Jane'. She is matter-of-fact and ordinary-looking, with little imagination.

In 'Tarzan of the Apes' by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jane Porter is the daughter of the American Professor Archimedes Q. Porter. She meets Tarzan when her party is marooned, and she is the first white woman he has ever met. She later marries Tarzan and they have a son, Jack aka Korak.

Answer: main lane

A main character is the 'star' of a story, such as Rand al'Thor in Robert Jordan's 'The Wheel of Time' series, Simba in 'The Lion King' or Hamlet in the Shakespeare play of the same name. A main course is the largest course in a multi-course meal, and is traditionally a meat dish, though fish and vegetarian alternatives can be offered.

A lane can either be a path, a narrow country road, sometimes without pavements, a small street (such as the Lanes in Brighton, a shopping area composed of such streets) or a segment of a highway for a single line of traffic. In the latter case, lanes in the UK are separated by white markings.

Answer: less mess

'Less' is the opposite of 'more', and a mathematical sign that represents an open triangle, with the bottom pointing to the larger number, is used to denote that the number on the left is less than the one on the right. One for the country fans on here: Linda Gail Lewis, sister of Jerry Lee Lewis, has a fun song on her 1999 album 'The Lost Sire Album' called 'Moore or Les', with the line 'I'm taking less from Moore and getting more from Les'.

As well as 'untidiness', a mess (as in 'the officers' mess') is also a place where military personnel, police officers or firefighters eat and socialise (and live in some cases). The naval equivalent is a mess deck on a ship.

Answer: glum chum

'Why so glum, chum?' is a cliched saying thought to have emerged some time in the mid-20th century, asking someone why they are upset. Fans of the 'Narnia' series may recall Puddleglum, the Marshwiggle in 'The Silver Chair', aptly named because of his dour demeanour, although his fellow Marshwiggles considered him a cheerful fellow. One wonders what the rest of them were like.

'Chum' is not just old-fashioned slang for a friend, often found in Girls' Own or Enid Blyton books; it is also a type of bait thrown into water to attract sharks and other game fish, in a practice called 'chumming'. It usually consists of fresh meat from fish, mixed in with blood and bone.

Answer: flat mat

If something is flat, it is all one level, with no slopes, bumps, depressions and so on. In geographical terms, a flat is a relatively even surface within a more uneven region, such as mountains. A salt flat or salt pan is a flat piece of land covered in salts and other minerals; the largest salt flat in the world is the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, created as the result of various saline lakes evaporating. The surface of the Salar de Uyuni is covered in hexagonal formations.

A mat is a piece of material placed on a flat surface, that can be used as a seat, to cover something or provide padding (such as a mouse mat). Doormats are mats made of rough material, for people entering a house to wipe their shoes on. Place mats are used to protect tables from burn or water marks left by dishes; Judy Chicago's feminist artwork 'The Dinner Party' features multiple place mats, each with a plate designed to represent a famous woman in history, from the English warrior queen Boudicca and the Pharaoh Hatshepsut to St Marcella and poet Emily Dickinson.