The Cultural Butterfly Multiple Choice Quiz | Thematic Animals

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In 1966, Bob Lind wrote a song that was a big hit for him and has since been recorded by many artists. In the song he used "nets of wonder to chase the bright ________ butterfly of love." What other adjective did he use to describe the flying beauty?

Answer: Elusive

Lind was 23 years old when the song about the "elusive butterfly of love" made the top 10 and it was the only big hit for the record label, World Pacific Records. He toured for a while but the recording companies were slow to publish him and he suffered from drug abuse.

He continued to write songs though no one would work with him. Eventually he set himself straight and toured making a modest career for himself doing something he loves.

2. "Butterflies Are Free" was a successful Broadway show that starred Blythe Danner as a free-spirited hippie that appalled the mother of her blind boyfriend. In 1972 it was successfully adapted into a movie. Who played the part in the film?

Answer: Goldie Hawn

"Butterflies Are Free" was Goldie's third movie. She became popular on the TV show "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" as a giddy blonde but proved she had acting talent when her first movie, "The Cactus Flower" earned her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1970.

3. Which boxer claimed he could "float like a butterfly"?

Answer: Muhammad Ali

The entire quote by Muhammad Ali is "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Your hands can't hit what your eyes can't see." Young Ali was very impressed with his fighting style and wasn't afraid to share his opinion. He had enormous talent as a boxer and garnered legions of fans.

4. What Elton John song contained the lyrics: "You're a butterfly. And butterflies are free to fly. Fly away, high away, bye bye".

Answer: Someone Saved My Love Tonight

"Someone Saved My Love Tonight" is from Elton's 1975 album "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy." The song evolved from an episode where he was about to marry his girlfriend, Linda Woodrow. He had such serious doubts about the marriage, he attempted suicide. Friends convinced him to abandon the nuptials and concentrate on his music.

The song expresses how trapped he felt until "Sweet freedom whispered in my ear, you're a butterfly. And butterflies are free to fly. Fly away. High away, bye bye."

5. "Madame Butterfly" is a Puccini opera about a young Japanese geisha who marries an American on a tour of duty in her country. Their love was not meant to be and ends tragically for her. Where in Japan did the story take place?

Answer: Nagasaki

The story unfolds in Nagasaki. According to American scholar, Arthur Groos, the story is based on actual events dating to the early 1890s.
Butterfly believes his commitment to her is real but he knows his contract is not binding and leaves her, returns to America and marries another. When she eventually learns of his betrayal, she promises to turn over their child to his new wife (he being too cowardly to face her), says goodbye to the child, and kills herself.

6. Mariah Carey released an album entitled "Butterfly" in 1997. How many songs from this album, when released as singles, went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

Answer: two

"Honey" and "My All" garnered this achievement. "Honey" was the sixth single to go directly to number one, the third one of Carey's to do so. This album won her the BMI award "Songwriter of the Year" and for these two singles and another single, "Butterfly", she won the "Songwriter" award in 1998. In all, six songs from this album were released as singles.
In an interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine she claimed it was one of her closest albums because it was the first to truly express her personality.

7. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle is a very popular book for young children. It follows a caterpillar as it goes page by page eating enormous amounts of food until it pupates and ends up a butterfly. What food listed is NOT one of the things he eats in the story?

Answer: spaghetti

The story has 225 words for youngsters learning to read and large illustrations. It covers the life cycle of the butterfly, counting from one to five, different types of food and the days of the week.

8. For years, fathers have danced with their daughters at weddings to the song "Daddy's Little Girl". In 1997, Bob Carlisle wrote a song in tribute to his daughter that updated the tune brides chose for this special dance. What is the title of this emotional song?

Answer: Butterfly Kisses

The song "Butterfly Kisses" made it to number one on the Adult Contemporary Chart, won a "Dove Award" for Song of the Year, and a Grammy for Best Country Song. The Raybon Brothers and Jeff Carson also recorded the song in 1997.

9. Butterfly McQueen was an actress best remembered for her role as Prissy in "Gone With the Wind" and the line "I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies!" She hated her real name, Thelma, and had her name legally changed. How did she earn the nickname, Butterfly?

Answer: Dancing the "Butterfly Ballet" from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Thelma was born in 1911 and raised as a Christian but as she grew she had serious doubts about organized religion. She gave up a nursing career to try acting and dance. In 1935, McQueen danced in a production of the "Butterfly Ballet" for a Harlem theater group. This earned her the moniker she came to adopt as her own name.

10. The concept of the 'butterfly effect' has made its way into popular cultural situations. The idea is that minor changes in circumstances cause large changes in future outcomes. This effect is seen in a movie where an angel shows George Bailey how the world would be if he had never been born as snow is falling in one version of his reality but not in the other. What holiday favorite movie features George Bailey's story?

Answer: "It's A Wonderful Life"

"It's A Wonderful Life" stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey.

The butterfly effect is described as the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. More simply put, the actions of a butterfly could have far-reaching ripple effects in subsequent historical events. The term was popularized by Edward Lorenz who noticed that when he ran a computer program to rerun a weather predication and used a shorter version of a decimal number, he got a whole different prediction. Upon publishing his findings, a meteorologist commented that one flap of a seagull's wings could change the course of weather forever. Lorenz changed the seagull to a butterfly in his future papers and speeches. The phrase then refers to the simple fluttering of a butterfly's wings which might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings at that moment, everything would have turned out differently. The butterfly does not cause the tornado, rather just changes the conditions. The snow falling and not falling in "It's A Wonderful Life" is considered one of the first examples of the butterfly effect in films.

Source: Author takrom

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Exit10 before going online.
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The Cultural Butterfly Trivia Quiz

Butterflies are admired by many for their beautiful colors and ability to move with fluid grace. They also undergo tremendous transformation to become these airy beings. Come visit some of the ways the butterfly theme has crossed into modern culture.

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