A Bloodthirsty Quiz

Answer: Stone

The idiom 'you can't get blood from a stone' refers to something which is impossible or, at least, very difficult to achieve. It is often used to describe the difficulty of extracting money from some people. In America you are more likely to hear the same expression referring to a turnip rather than a stone.

Some sources say that the expression originated in Italy and was translated into English in the 1640s. It appeared in written English in the 1780s.

Answer: Toil

The speech was made to the UK's Parliament on 13 May 1940, only a few days after Churchill had replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister. He was asking for the support of the House of Commons at a time when Germany was on the offensive in the early stages of the Second World War.

The phrase he used was 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat' and further on he said that the government's policy was 'to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might'. Some of the phrases he had used previously, and were reminiscent of those spoken by others, but Churchill's eloquence carried the nation with him.

Answer: Clot

A thrombus is commonly referred to as a blood clot and is the body's natural reaction to an injury causing loss of blood. It is a combination of red and white blood cells, platelets and fibrin which coagulate to seal a wound.

The process works well - we've probably all formed scabs after minor injuries, particularly in childhood. Danger lies, though, when blood clots form inside the body when there is a risk that they could block veins or arteries leading to serious issues such as a heart attack or brain damage.

Answer: Hound

The bloodhound is a breed of dog with a keen sense of smell, even better than that of other dogs which can all discern far more scents than humans. Bloodhounds are believed to have originated in France and have been used to hunt wild animals.

Their use to track people too is long-established and records exist from the Middle Ages. Bloodhounds are able to find scents which are days old and are regularly used by the police to track criminals and lost humans. Bloodhounds are classed as 'scent hounds' due to this ability.

Answer: Brothers

Willy Russell wrote this musical play in 1981, originally as a school play for young people to perform. The title of 'Blood Brothers' refers to a pair of male twins who are raised separately from birth, one in a rich family and the other in a poor one. They eventually reconnect but the story ends tragically.

Russell expanded the story, added music, and staged it at Liverpool's Playhouse in 1983. Singer Barbara Dickson played the mother of the boys and actors of the calibre of George Costigan appeared in the cast. Since those early days, the play has continued to be performed regularly and around the world.

Answer: Bath

A bloodbath refers to the killing of a large number of people at one time, sometimes in battle but often in massacres involving innocent civilians. It is used to describe excessive savagery akin to slaughter. The expression was first used in the 1860s.

As well as in the literal sense, the term can be used figuratively - mass redundancies can be described as a bloodbath, for example. Synonyms include carnage, slaying and butchery.

Answer: Wire

Val McDermid is a prolific author of crime novels, usually in series featuring the same group of characters. 'The Wire in the Blood' was published in 1997, the second in a series featuring a detective named Carol Jordan and a criminal profiler called Tony Hill. As you'd expect from this type of novel, the relationship between the two is far from easy.

The books were adapted for television, with Hermione Norris and Robson Green playing the lead characters. The show ran for six seasons between 2002 and 2008 under the umbrella title of 'Wire in the Blood'.

Answer: Rum

Nelson's blood is a nickname sometimes used for the spirit, rum, which is commonly associated with the Royal Navy. Nelson died during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 with his body being brought back to England in a cask. Some sources say rum was used to preserve the body, although the majority favour brandy. It is agreed that whatever the spirit used, Nelson's body was in a good condition before being buried properly.

The nickname for rum stuck, though, especially as sailors were regularly provided with a drink of rum every day. The practice continued until 1970 when it was officially abolished.

Answer: Tracks

Bob Dylan released the album 'Blood on the Tracks' in 1975, making it his fifteenth studio album. The songs on it, all written by Dylan, were created at a time when the singer and his wife of the time were going through a difficult time. The couple divorced two years later and even their own son acknowledges that the songs reflect the state of his parents' relationship, although Dylan himself denies this.

In the view of many music critics, the album is the best of Dylan's output. Songs on it include 'Tangled Up in Blue' and 'Shelter from the Storm'. Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 with the citation saying 'for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition'.

Answer: Letting

The practice of bloodletting dates back to the early beliefs that the body was composed of four humours - yellow bile, black bile, phlegm and blood - which may have originated with Hippocrates. Physicians had few tools at their disposal and bloodletting was the one they used, in the belief that it would rid the body of harmful imbalances. Sometimes the procedure involved the use of leeches.

By the nineteenth century, medicine had moved on although bloodletting was still in use. It was becoming recognised that it often caused more harm than good and in modern times it is reserved only for very specific diseases such as over production of blood cells or excessive iron in the blood.