Sand Trivia Quiz

Answer: Animals

The several species of shorebirds known as sandpipers are members of the family Scolopacidae, which also includes woodcocks, curlews and snipes. Found all over the world except for Antarctica and the driest of deserts, sandpipers typically are small birds, six to twelve inches (15.24 to 30.48 centimeters) in length), with long body and legs and narrow wings.

Their plumage is dun with what is described as a dead grass pattern. For the most part they are ground feeders, eating small invertebrates. Since sandpipers are birds, they can be found in the Animals category.

Answer: Celebrities

Born September 9 1966 in Brooklyn, New York, Adam Sandler is a standup comedian and film actor. As such, he belongs in the Celebrities category.

Answer: Entertainment

Created by Science Fiction and Fantasy author Neil Gaiman with comics artist and writer Sam Kieth and comics artist Mike Dringenberg, "The Sandman" is a dark fantasy, supernatural horror, superhero comic book series whose first issue came out in January 1989.

The franchise has expanded over the years to include trade paperback and hardcover editions, audio book adaptations and a television series. Both critically acclaimed and popular with readers, "The Sandman" has appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list as well as several best reads lists. Having started as a comic book, "The Sandman" fits neatly in the Entertainment category.

Answer: For Children

A sandcastle is, as the name suggests, a structure or fortification built of sand, typically at the beach. The sandcastle finds its home in the For Children category.

Answer: Geography

Also known as the Canning Desert and the Western Desert, Australia's Great Sandy Desert is an arid wasteland of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions and extending from the Indian Ocean eastward into the Northern Territory. The region encompasses an area of one hundred ten thousand, thirty-six square miles (two hundred eighty-four thousand, nine hundred ninety-three square kilometres). The Gibson Desert lies to the south and the Tanami Desert to the east.

Australia's second largest desert after the Great Victoria Desert, the Great Sandy encompasses a vast expanse of salt marshes and Spinefix grasslands, rocky outcrops, plains and sand dunes, roughly coinciding with the Canning Basin. As in many of Australia's deserts, precipitation is high in the Great Sandy by desert standards. Yet, summer daytime temperatures, especially in the south, are some of the highest in Australia, averaging 100 to 108 °F (38 to 42°C), except when monsoonal cloud cover is active. Winters are short and warm, with temperatures ranging from 77 to 86 °F (25 to 30 °C).

Spinefix grasslands dominate, but diverse vegetation also abounds with silver cassia bushes, corkwood trees, acacias, and desert oaks. And there is great diversity of animal life. Reptiles include goannas (such as the large perentie), thorny devils, and bearded dragons, desert cave geckos, desert death adders and blue-tongued skinks. There are mammals, both native and introduced, such as bilbies, mulgara, marsupial moles, rufous hare-wallabies, and red kangaroos, feral camels and pigs and dingoes. And birds, too, live in the Great Sandy, birds such as the rare Alexandra's parrot, the mulga parrot and the scarlet-chested parrot.

The region is sparsely populated, the main populations consisting of Aboriginal communities, for whom Indigenous art is a major economic staple, and mining centers. The most important of these are Telfer gold mine, one of the largest gold mines in Australia, and Nifty copper mine. Cattle stations are found in the far west.

Answer: History

Originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, the U.S. Army facility Located in southern New Mexico became the White Sands Proving Ground on July 9, 1945. Seven days later the first atomic bomb (code named Trinity) was test detonated at Trinity Site near the northern boundary of the range.

Now the White Sands missile Range and the largest military installation in the United States, it covers almost three thousand, two hundred square miles (eight thousand, three hundred square kilometers) of mostly mountainous terrain encompassing parts of Doña Ana, Otero, Socorro, Sierra, and Lincoln counties; namely, the San Andres Mountains, the Oscura Mountains, the San Augustin Mountains, the Tularosa Basin, and the Chupadera Mesa.

Still an active Army garrison and testing cite, White Sands will forever be infamous for the July 9, 1945 nuclear bomb explosion. As such, it finds a home in the History category.

Answer: Hobbies

The ubiquitous and versatile sandwich takes its name from John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich. The story goes that, in 1762, the earl was too busy at the gaming table to dine. So, he asked his valet to bring him slices of roast beef between two slices of toasted bread. History does not record whether his lordship asked for mayonnaise or horseradish.

However, it is known that many centuries earlier Romans ate "panis quadratus" (squared bread), sliced cheese, bitter herbs, and butter between two slices of toasted bread. Earlier still, the rou jia mo (meat sandwich) is said to have originated in the Shaanxi province of northwestern China sometime during the Zhou dynasty, China's longest lasting dynasty, which reigned from ca. 1046 BC to 256 BC.

So, the next time you're chowing down on a BB&J, enjoying an Italian sub or dining on a delicious Croque Monsieur, reflect upon the storied past of the sandwich which, as a food item, belongs in the Hobbies category.

Answer: Literature

While indebted to Victorian adventure tales such as those of H. Rider Haggard, Erskine Childers' 1903 novel "The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service" is a pioneering work in the genre of espionage fiction, laying the foundations for later practitioners such as John Buchan, Ian Fleming and John le Carré.

But besides being a spy novel, "The Riddle of the Sands" is also a sea story and account of remarkable seamanship, a travel log, a tale of friendship and even a love story. This enthralling novel, that richly rewards repeated readings, is shelved in the Literature category.

Answer: Music

Belgian Tony Sandler (born August 18, 1933) was a European stage and television star before moving to America in 1963. There he met and teamed up with New Yorker Ralph Young (July 1, 1918 - August 22, 2008), who was also an actor and singer. From 1965 through 1983, Sandler & Young were staples at Las Vegas showrooms and other concert venues in the U.S. and Canada as well as on North American television.

They made twenty-two albums together, often singing in French, Italian, German and Tony's native Flemish as well as English. Ralph retired in 1983, though the duo occasionally reunited for special occasions.

The last of these was a 2003 all-star concert in Palm Springs, "Let Freedom Ring", that honored the victims of the September Eleventh attacks. Note Sandler & Young in the Music category.

Answer: World

Texas native Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (March 26, 1930 to December 1, 2023) was the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. She served from 1981 to her retirement in 2006. Matters pertaining to government, including Supreme Court justices, sit in the World category.