A Single Man Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Elton had previously performed concerts in both Moscow and Leningrad which were well received. This was all the encouragement he needed to release an album in the country. There were two singles released from the album; "Song For Guy" - an instrumental track dedicated to his record label's messenger boy, Guy Burchett, who'd been killed in a motorcycle accident, and "Part Time Love". Elton was forced to remove the latter track, along with another song "Big Dipper", from his Russian release as the authorities there felt the lyrics promoted loose morals. "A Single Man" was also the first time that John did not collaborate with his longtime friend and writing partner, Bernie Taupin. All the lyrics on this album were penned by Gary Osborne.

Answer: Never trust a friend who deserts you in a pinch

When the fellows in the fable are confronted by the bear, one jumps into a tree to hide leaving no room for his friend. The second fellow seeing no escape falls flat to the ground and plays dead. The bear nuzzles the man's ear, sniffs, growls and walks away thinking that it's dead meat.

When the first fellow jumps down from the tree and jokingly asks what the bear had whispered in his ear, the moral is revealed. There are a large number of fables that have been credited to Aesop who was a slave and story teller that lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560BC.

Modern scholars are of the opinion that not all of them were created by Aesop but over time they have either been attributed or associated to him. For the record, the other morals can be found in the following fables: "The Hare and the Tortoise" (Slow but steady wins the race), "The Fox and the Goat" (Look before you leap) and "The Boy and the Nettles" (Whatever you do, do with all your might).

Answer: Vietnam War

The statue was designed by American sculptor Frederick Hart. Great attention was given to the detail of the soldier's combat gear, such as vest armour and munitions. This was deliberate so that the three men could be specifically identified as US Army or US Marine Corps.

In addition, the three soldiers are easily identifiable as young men, one as Caucasian, one an African-American and the other Hispanic.

Answer: Isaiah

In the first song (Isaiah 42: 1-9), God calls his servant who is considered to be an agent of justice. The second song (Isaiah 49: 10-13) is then told from the servant's point of view where he sees himself as the prophet sent to restore the nations. The servant moves forward to become both the teacher and the student during the third song (Isaiah 50: 4-9) until the final song (Isaiah 53) heralds both the death and, in the process, the vindication of the servant.

Answer: Bud Spencer

The film "Five Man Army" centres on a band of rebels, led by Peter Graves, who seek to rob half a million dollars in gold from a heavily guarded train to help finance the Mexican revolution. Bud Spencer, who plays the strongman, Mesito, in the group, formed a lucrative partnership with Terence Hill that saw the two men pair up in eighteen movies between 1959 and 1994.

The comedy spaghetti western "They Call Me Trinity" (1970) made them international stars. The sequel, "Trinity Is Still My Name" (1971) was an even bigger success and served to consolidate their position. One bit of trivia you might find surprising is that Bud Spencer was the first Italian to swim the 100 metres freestyle in under one minute and represented Italy at the 1952 Olympic Games.

Answer: Grand Funk Railroad

The Soul Brothers Six endured a number of line-up changes but achieved little success during a career that ran from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s. "Some Kind of Wonderful" was the best-performing song, peaking at number 91 on US Billboard's Hot 100.

Grand Funk Railroad, who'd previously reached number one on Billboard's Hot 100 with two songs, "We're An American Band" (1973) and a cover of Little Eva's hit "The Locomotion", took "Some Kind of Wonderful" to number three on the same charts. Their version differed to The Soul Brother's tune in that they gave it more of a gospel feel.

Answer: Dwarves

In "The Silmarillion", Tolkien indicates that Aule of the Valar created the dwarves. They were then placed around the world but in a state of sleep because Eru, the Supreme Being, wanted the Elves to be the firstborn race. Durin was placed in Mount Gundabad.

He was the only one of the dwarves to be placed at a site alone and he was the first to awaken. The other dwarves formed the races of the Broadbeams, the Firebeards, the Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks and the Stonefoots. Some conjecture exists that the term 'laid alone' indicates that Durin was placed without a female companion (rather than paired with one of the other six) and that it is for this reason that his line of dwarves, the Longbeards, was formed from mixed pairings from the other six lines.

Answer: Mikhail Gorbachev

The group consisted of members from the Soviet government, the KGB and the Communist Party. Among them were the country's Vice President, Gennardy Yanayev; the Prime Minister, Valentin Pavlov; and the head of the KGB, Vladimir Kryuchkov. The men were Communist Party hard-liners who were in strong disagreement with Gorbachev's reform package.

Whilst the coup lasted only two days, many have felt that its effects lasted much longer. It is put forward as one of the reasons for the destabilisation of Gorbachev's rule, which ultimately led to the collapse of the Communist Party.

Answer: The Knights Templar

The Knights Templar formed some twenty years after the capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade as a means of protecting pilgrims from bandits outside of the city. They survived for almost 200 years before disappearing abruptly. This served to generate numerous legends about their purpose and their continued secret existence.

The full name of the order is The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. To highlight their poverty, they adopted the symbol of two knights riding on one horse.

Answer: False

There were fifteen men. The chorus, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, was incorporated into the novel "Treasure Island" (1883) and reads as follows:

"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum".

Stevenson found the words 'dead man's chest' in a book by Charles Kingsley. These inspired the song which, in turn, inspired the novel. Young E. Allison, in 1891, would take the chorus further by adding verses to it with her poem "Derelict". Over time there have been many versions printed that are merely additions to Stevenson's original.