'B' Fore and After Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bread

The picture clues show the colour brown and a bin, giving 'brown bread' and 'bread bin'.

Brown bread is the term used for loaves which, somewhat unsurprisingly, are light-brown in colour due to having been made with whole grain flour. It is generally considered to have more nutritional value than white bread, whose flour is likely to have had the bran and wheatgerm removed.

A bread bin can be found in many kitchens and is the container in which you would store your bread (brown or otherwise).

Answer: Boy

The picture clues show a ball and a band, giving 'ball boy' and 'boy band'.

Ball boys (and girls) are employed in a number of different sports to speed up the game by running around to fetch stray balls and pass them back to the players. The most prominent ball boys and girls are probably those who are stationed around a tennis court to retrieve the ball at the end of each point and move the balls around the court to ensure the player has a choice of balls available for their next serve. They also have other duties, such as passing players their towels.

A boy band is a pop group consisting of young male singers and musicians, usually in their teens or early twenties. Famous examples include *NSYNC, Take That and Boyzone - although if the group survives for long enough then a new description might be needed once the members are no longer young enough for the term 'boy' to be appropriate.

Answer: Bug

The pictures show a bed and a bear, giving 'bedbug' and 'bugbear'.

A bed bug is a type of insect that infests bedding and other materials. They feed on human blood and tend to emerge in the middle of the night to bite the unsuspecting occupant of an affected bed, usually resulting in itchy bite marks and skin rashes (plus minor blood loss!). For some reason these insects also inspired the traditional bedtime phrase "good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite" - quite how a child should be expected to prevent said attacks isn't clear.

A bugbear is also slightly unpleasant, but refers to a problem, issue or irritant rather than an actual creepy-crawly.

Answer: Belly

The picture clues show some beer and a button, giving 'beer belly' and 'belly button'.

Drinking too many of the pints of beer shown in the picture clue is likely to give you a beer belly - a build up of fat around the stomach region resulting in a distinct paunch. While the term is generally associated with male beer drinkers, other types of food and drink are equally capable of producing the effect.

Belly button is an informal term for the navel, the point where the umbilical cord is attached while a baby is in the womb.

Answer: Baby

The picture clues show a bush and a representation of a 'boom', giving 'bush baby' and 'baby boom'.

Bush baby is another term for the large-eyed and pointy-eared nocturnal animal more formally known as a galago. They are small arboreal primates found across sub-Saharan Africa and are closely related to lorises, with both being members of the Lorisoidea superfamily. One explanation for the name 'bush baby' is their loud baby-like cries that they use for both communication and territorial claims.

A baby boom is a period of time where birth rates significantly exceed usual expected levels. These often follow major world events; for example many countries experienced a baby boom in the years following the end of the Second World War.

Answer: Back

The pictures show a brush and a rasher of bacon, giving 'brush back' and 'back bacon'.

A brushback is a baseball term that refers to a pitch which comes so close to the batter's body that they have to move back to avoid being hit (or "brushed") by it. While use of this type of pitch is legal, a pitcher who deliberately aims to strike the batter runs the risk of being removed from the game by the umpire.

Back bacon refers to the bacon slices that come from the meat on the back of a pig that is also used for pork loin. It has the advantage of being leaner than other types of cuts and is also known as Irish or Canadian bacon.

Answer: Bill

The pictures show a buffalo and a board, giving 'Buffalo Bill' and 'billboard'.

Buffalo Bill, aka William F. Cody, was a real-life legendary figure of the American Wild West. Born in 1846, he served in the American Civil War and later as a cavalry scout (earning the Medal of Honor), worked as a hunter (of buffalo, hence the nickname) and eventually set up the 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West' travelling show that performed across the US and Europe in the late 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century. He died in 1917 at the age of 70.

A billboard is a large advertising hoarding usually placed alongside roads or other transport routes. It is also the name of a US magazine responsible for producing charts such as the Billboard Hot 100 for the US music industry.

Answer: Brain

The pictures show a bird and a box, giving 'birdbrain' and 'brain box'.

Both of the two terms given here are informal and relate to a person's perceived level of intelligence, however they have completely opposite meanings. If someone calls you a "birdbrain" then they are essentially implying that you are stupid, with the implication being that the size of your brain is comparable to that of a small bird. By contrast, being called a "brain box" suggests that someone thinks that you are very clever.

Answer: Bath

The pictures show some blood and a bomb, giving 'bloodbath' and 'bath bomb'.

A bloodbath is a particularly violent or disastrous event. It could mean literal violence that results in massive loss of life or serious injury, or be used more figuratively to suggest an event where things have gone badly wrong and generated significant criticism.

A bath bomb is a toiletry product usually consisting of a compacted mix of bath salts, fragrances and oils. The name comes from the fact that it is designed to fizz when it is added to bath water.

Answer: Book

The picture clues show some a (piggy) bank and a binder, giving 'bankbook' and 'bookbinder'.

A bankbook is kept by the account holder and is a paper record of the contents of a bank account and the transactions that are made against it. It is also often known as a 'passbook'. The idea was first introduced in the 18th century, but they have become increasingly rare in a world now dominated by online banking.

A bookbinder is a person skilled in the process of binding books - connecting all the pages together and attaching them to the cover. While most books are now mass-produced and bound by machines, some artisan bookbinders are still employed for binding one-off special products, as well as for the repair and restoration of historic volumes.