Nature Themed Trivia

1. 'The Land of Little Rain' by Mary Hunter Austin details human and non-human life in the American Southwest between Death Valley and the High Sierras. What is its format?

From Quiz Scorch and Dry

Answer: A collection of short stories

'The Land of Little Rain' was first published in 1903. It is a collection of short stories and essays about the inhabitants and the landscape of the American Southwest. Throughout the interconnected stories, Austin describes the inhospitable desert landscape, man's struggles to eke out a living there, the search for water by the wildlife, and also the beauty that can be found in such a harsh environment. Themes of conservation and the supremacy of nature recur in each story. This question was eked out by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

From Quiz Readers of the Swarm

Answer: Sherlock Holmes

In Arthur Conan Doyle's "His Last Bow", Holmes shows Watson a book he refers to as "the magnum opus of my latter years." It bears the unwieldy title of "Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen." Naturally his retirement was interrupted by a case. (credit to Dagny1)

From Quiz Into the Fire

Answer: Smaug

Smaug was the great dragon from "The Hobbit", a beloved book written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Erebor was the name of dwarf kingdom under the Lonely Mountain. Dale was the human town not far from Erebor. Falkor was a Luckdragon from "The Neverending Story", Draco was the dragon from the movie "Dragonheart", and Grigori was the dragon from the fantasy game called "Dragon's Dogma".

From Quiz Old Man River

Answer: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The novel, despite it being a favourite classic for many generations, has not been without controversy. It has been denounced for its racist theme by moralists even though at the time it was written such things, while repugnant, prevailed.

From Quiz Water Water Everywhere

Answer: For the Term of His Natural Life

Set in the early to mid 1800s, "For the Term of His Natural Life" was written by Marcus Clarke and published in Australia in the 1870s. The prologue describes the circumstances under which the central character, Rufus Dawes, is wrongfully accused and convicted of murder and is transported to Van Diemen's Land. Book I, "The Sea" deals with the journey to Van Diemen's Land. Books II, III and IV deal respectively with his experiences as a convict at Macquarie Harbour, Port Arthur and Norfolk Island.

From Quiz Literature in Colour

Answer: A Clockwork Orange

First published in 1962, "A Clockwork Orange" tells the story of Alex, a dysfunctional and troubled youth with twin obsessions of classical music and ultra-violence. The novel satirises contemporary psychological therapy and explores ideas of free will, rehabilitation, redemption and maturity. Nadsat was a form of teen-speak that Burgess invented for the novel. An amalgam of English and Russian terms with a few words anglicised from other languages thrown in, the name of the language came from a Russian term for "teen". Moloko was the drink served at the Korova Milk Bar, moloko being the Russian word for milk. The milk that Alex and his droogs (friends) drank was laced with drugs that set them up for their night-time escapades.

From Quiz Writers of the Purple Page

Answer: Aslan

Edmund Pevensie is one of the four English children who appear in Narnia in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"; on their next Narnian adventure, "Prince Caspian", the Pevensie children help the title character claim the Narnian throne. Shasta, a mistreated child, is the main character in "The Horse and His Boy". Aslan stands apart from all of them: a great lion, worshipped and feared in Narnia, he guides and drives the action in all seven Narnia books. He often refers to his father, the Emperor-beyond-the-sea, who made both the Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time and the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time. The "Narnia" books are Christian allegory, and the relationship between Aslan and the Emperor is meant to evoke that of Jesus Christ and God the Father.

From Quiz And Dark was the Night

Answer: He is transformed into a large insect

"The Metamorphosis" is a famous novella detailing Gregor Samsa's transformation into a giant, monster-like insect and his attempts to adapt to his new situation. The term "Kafkaesque" refers to writing like Kafka's, complex and often surreal.

From Quiz Old Man River

Answer: The Wind in the Willows

Upon retirement from the Bank of England, Kenneth Grahame moved to Berkshire where he spent a good deal of time on and by the River Thames, much like his characters, Ratty and Mole. His fertile imagination brought the characters to life in the form of bedtime stories for his son. The stories eventually became the book we know and love today.

From Quiz Water Water Everywhere

Answer: Mississippi

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) was published in 1884 as a sequel to "Tom Sawyer". Huck and Jim take a journey down the Mississippi; Huck to escape civilised society and Jim to escape slavery. This work is considered to be a classic of American Literature and deals with a range of complex themes including racism and slavery and what constitutes "civilised society".

From Quiz Literature in Colour

Answer: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Wilde's novel tells the tale of the Faustian pact struck by the title character to ensure that he remains young and beautiful looking throughout his life, as he is convinced that beauty is the only true value in life. His agreement with the devil means that a portrait of him painted by artist Basil Hallward ages instead of him. As Gray's hedonism affects those around him, his portrait becomes disfigured in his stead and Gray is inspired to explore and cherish every vice he can commit.

From Quiz Scorch and Dry

Answer: Clive Cussler

In this story Pitt is in Egypt searching for the fabled 'Treasure of the Nile'. In the process, Pitt crosses the blazing, shifting sands of the mighty Sahara desert, and thwarts an assassination attempt on a renowned scientist searching for the cause of a giant algae bloom that is a massive threat to the globe and takes on a billionaire French industrialist as well as a bloodthirsty West African tyrant. As if this isn't enough, as the temperature rises, so does Pitt's heroism. He uncovers a gold mine being manned by slaves, discovers a long lost US Civil War ironclad that was linked to the assassination of President Lincoln and solves the mystery of an Australian female pilot who'd disappeared some sixty years before during an attempt to fly across the globe. This scorching question was delivered by Phoenix Rising's sandman pollucci19.

From Quiz Readers of the Swarm

Answer: Aleksandr Pushkin

The full name of the original poem written by Pushkin in 1831 is, "The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan". It is a poem of jealousy, attempted murder and retribution. The youngest of three sisters is chosen as a wife by Tsar Saltan. The remaining sisters are ordered to work as his cook and weaver respectively. Once the young bride gives birth, the sisters conspire to kill her, sealing her and the young prince in a barrel and casting them into the ocean. They are cast onto the shores of an island and in time the prince rescues an enchanted swan. The young prince is turned into a mosquito, fly and bumblebee by the swan and the prince stings his aunts and grandmother in the eye and nose in his various forms. The swan then reveals herself to be a princess and marries the prince. (credit to Lavendria)

From Quiz Old Man River

Answer: Death on the Nile

"Death on the Nile" was one of 34 books featuring Poirot. Christie eventually became tired of him, even going so far as to describe him as a "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep" despite his popularity with her fans. She didn't kill him off for quite some time, citing her duty to give the public what they liked.

From Quiz Literature in Colour

Answer: Toni Morrison

The title of "The Bluest Eye" refers to the desire of the central character, a young black girl called Pecola, to be a white-skinned, blue-eyed girl. She sees blue eyes as the representation of beauty and desirability in depression-era Midwest America. Without blue eyes she believes it is impossible for her to be loved and only love can make her into the person she wishes to be. Morrison, whose other novels include "Beloved", "Jazz" and "Song of Solomon", was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.

From Quiz Into the Fire

Answer: Carrietta White

Carrietta White, more commonly known as Carrie, was the main character from Steven King's famous horror novel "Carrie". In the book, the fire began because of the electrical wires Carrie knocked down. Noticing this, she kept them locked in the gym to die. Thanks to Hollywood, her image will always be a girl in a dress, covered in pig's blood, surrounded by massive flames. Carrie Stevens was a model. Carrie Fisher was the actress who played Princess Leia in "Star Wars". I made Carrietta Cook up.

From Quiz Old Man River

Answer: Deliverance

"Deliverance", published in 1970, became an immediate critical success. The story of four men heading into the wilderness, encountering hostility and aggression from the locals, and their eventual deliverance from that particular brand of evil, was riveting. The book was so popular that it was adapted for film a year after its release. Dickey had enjoyed many hours in his canoe on the rivers of northern Georgia which provided him with the basis for the novel.

From Quiz Water Water Everywhere

Answer: Charles Kingsley

"The Water Babies. A fairy tale for a land-baby" by the Reverend Charles Kingsley was published in 1863. Whilst essentially a fable on christain redemption, through Tom's transformation into a water-baby, the novel also deals with issues of child labour. The book also reflects some of the prejudices of the time with disparaging references to Americans, Jews, Negroes and Catholics, and for these reasons, is not much read these days.

From Quiz Literature in Colour

Answer: Othello

"O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on" Thus spake Iago in "Othello", warning the title character not to fall victim to his fears over losing his wife, Desdemona, to another man. Iago is, of course, complicit in the events that lead Othello to jealous rage, the irony being that his actions are driven by envy of Othello's position and that of the other man, Cassio, who has been promoted above him by his master. Though Portia, in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" (1600) speaks of "green-eyed jealousy", the phrase "green-eyed monster" is coined in the later published "Othello" (c.1603).

From Quiz Scorch and Dry

Answer: Fright

Both Cook's book (published 1961) and the subsequent film, starring Donald Pleasance (1971), have become cult classics. John Grant has just completed the first year of his two year sentence as the schoolmaster of Tiboonda. It is the Christmas break and he heads off to Sydney and civilisation. Things don't go as planned and he finds himself stranded, drunk and broke in a rough mining town. He continues to descend into a frenzy of hangovers, self loathing, and an ill advised attempt to cross the desert to reach Sydney, and, finally, attempts suicide. This pot boiler of a question was introduced by Phoenix Rising's bogeyman pollucci19.

From Quiz Readers of the Swarm

Answer: Lily

This wonderful book won the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards and was a New York Times bestseller, too. "The Secret Life of Bees" was Kidd's fourth book, the previous three being spiritually themed. In the book, Lily only has an unclear memory of how her mother died. She eventually finds out that, during a violent fight with her father T. Ray, her mother had a firearm which fell to the ground. On picking up the firearm, Lily accidentally shot her mother. The book was adapted into a film in 2008, starring Dakota Fanning as the main character. The movie was produced by actor Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. (credit to Lavendria)

From Quiz It's Full of Stars

Answer: George Gordon, Lord Byron

Byron's untitled poem referred to as "She walks in beauty" was published in 1815. He wrote the poem the morning after he met a cousin-in-law who had been wearing a black mourning gown glittering with spangles. Byron lived for a year in an unhappy marriage filled with discord, and during his separation from his wife, he became acquainted with his half-sister Augusta Leigh, basically a stranger to him as they had lived apart their entire lives. Byron seemed always compelled to participate in forbidden activity, but his English contemporaries were not accepting of his incestuous relationship. He eventually left England and moved to Italy and then Greece, where he died assisting the Greeks in their war for independence from the Turks. He is considered a national hero of Greece to this day.

From Quiz Water Water Everywhere

Answer: Pacific Ocean

The encounter with the albatross occurs after the ship has been driven off course by a storm towards the South Pole, in an area which probably today equates with the Southern Ocean and/or Antarctic Ocean. The albatross leads the ship out of these dangerous waters but is killed by the "Ancient Mariner". When they reach the Pacific Ocean and cross the line (the equator), the ship is becalmed, which is seen as a curse by the other sailors for the killing of the albatross. All the crew except for the "Ancient Mariner" die of thirst, but he is saved by recognising the beauties of God's creatures, which breaks the spell that becalms the ship.

From Quiz Literature in Colour

Answer: The Chronicles of Narnia

"The Silver Chair" was the fourth book of the series to be published, though it comes sixth in the chronology of the chronicles. The book begins with two schoolchildren accidentally entering Aslan's country after asking for his help in defending them from bullies. Aslan sets them the task of finding Prince Rilian, the son of King Caspian and transports them to Narnia to complete it. As reward for completing the task, Aslan crosses over into the real world with the children and the newly rejuvenated Caspian, to scare off the bullies.

From Quiz Writers of the Purple Page

Answer: The Elflands

Maia is, more accurately, the half-goblin emperor: youngest son of the elf Emperor, born to a despised goblin wife whom the Emperor had married for political reasons. The Emperor had several older sons, born to earlier marriages to other elves, and never expected Maia to succeed him. Just before the book opens, though, a catastrophe wipes out the rest of the line of succession - and Maia emerges from exile to rule at a court he has never known. There isn't a lot of action or swordplay in this steampunk fantasy, although Maia does contend with some very intricate intrigues at court. The story is gripping, even so. Maia is a decent young man who is both ignorant of the court and very sensitive to all the privileges that high-born elves enjoy over everyone else in the Empire. Can Maia keep the throne without changing utterly? How much power does one man, even the Emperor, truly have to reform an unjust society? These questions kept me turning the pages.

From Quiz Old Man River

Answer: A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

"A River Runs Through It", set on and near the Blackfoot River in western Montana, depicts the lives of a religious family, their passion for fly-fishing, and the downfall of the brother who strayed and became a hardened streetfighter. The material is based on Maclean's own experiences. He was deeply affected by his brother's death and was moved to write the book because of it.

From Quiz Water Water Everywhere

Answer: Seaman

Joseph Conrad, born Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski, held a Master Mariner's certificate. His career at sea commenced in 1874 aboard a French ship and he gained his Master Mariner's certificate in 1884. He retired from the sea in 1894. The sea, and his own seafaring experiences, provided the setting for the majority of his novels and short-stories.

From Quiz Literature in Colour

Answer: Marilyn Monroe

"Blonde" is a fictionalised version of the life of Marilyn Monroe told from Marilyn's perspective. Mixing fact and fiction, the novel began life as a novella and expanded as Oates got "caught up in [Monroe's] world". The book ends with the controversial suggestion that Marilyn was assassinated by a sharpshooter commanded by a figure who is only given the initials "R.F.", leading to speculation that this is intended to refer to Robert Kennedy. "Blonde" was nominated for the National Book Award for best work of fiction, the sixth time Oates had been nominated for the award.

From Quiz Readers of the Swarm

Answer: Mary Russell

Published in 1994, "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" is the first book in Laurie R. King's historical mystery series. Nominated for the Agatha Award for best novel, it relates the initial meeting in Sussex between Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes. Its full title reads as "The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Or On the Segregation of the Queen" and in 2015 the series consisted of fourteen books. (credit to Dagny1)

From Quiz And Dark was the Night

Answer: Mr. Jones

"Animal Farm" is a famous political allegory for Soviet communism. Old Major, Moses, and Benjamin are other animal characters in this novel (a boar, a raven, and a donkey, respectively).

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