Changes in the Wind Trivia Quiz

Answer: Wine

The word 'wind' is a general term used for noticeable movements of air across the earth and the movements can range from slow and gentle to fast and furious. More specific terms can be used for different types of wind, for instance 'light breeze' for a slight wind.

Wine is a usually alcoholic drink made from the fermented juice of grapes or other fruits. A number of songs have been written with the word 'wine' in their title, for instance 'Red Red Wine' by Neil Diamond. This song was a minor hit for him in the US in 1968 while a reggae version by the group UB40 was a number one hit in the UK in 1983 and in the US in 1988.

Answer: Mine

Not only coal but other minerals and geological materials are extracted from the earth in underground or open cast/open pit excavations known as mines. Some well-known examples are the diamond mines of Russia, the copper mines of Chile and the silver mines of Mexico.

The title of the much-acclaimed video game 'Minecraft' was apparently chosen as an amalgam of the words 'mine' and 'craft' because it involves finding and extracting/mining blocks of material and then crafting them into different items, such as tools. It is a sandbox game where players can build their own world and was designed by Markus Persson and then worked on by Jens Bergensten. The game was first published in 2011 by Mojang Studios, which was taken over by Microsoft in 2014.

Answer: Mint

A country's coins are manufactured under the control of the country's government in establishments known as mints and there may be one or more such establishment in a country. For example, while the UK has one mint in Llantrisant in Wales, the US has four with one each in Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point.

The word 'mint' is also the name of plants in the mentha genus of the family Lamiaceae whose leaves are used to flavour foods, sweets and drinks. Among the drinks is mint julep, a mixed alcoholic drink generally associated with southern American states. A song about this drink, 'One Mint Julep', was written by Rudy Toombs and recorded by a number of artists, with the best-known version by Ray Charles reaching number one in the R & B chart and number eight in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1961.

Answer: Mist

Both a mist and a fog are made up of very small droplets of water either floating or falling in the air near the ground and both reduce visibility. Mist is less dense than fog though and an internationally agreed dividing line is that a fog exists where visibility is less than a kilometre.

Mists are not uncommon in the rain forests of Rwanda, where the 1988 movie 'Gorillas in the Mist' is set. Starring Sigourney Weaver, it is based on the life of naturalist Dian Fossey, who for years studied mountain gorillas and worked to try and stop the poaching and killing of them.

Answer: Most

The word 'most' is a superlative adjective and adverb and 'more' is its comparative form. Thus 'more' is used to indicate who or what is/has the greater quantity or number while 'most' indicates who or what is/has the greatest.

The superlative word has been used in song to indicate that a singer believes someone is the best in the world in some way. For instance, Prince released a song entitled 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World' in 1994 and in 1973 Charlie Rich sang the same phrase but in a different song named 'The Most Beautiful Girl'.

Answer: Post

To post or mail physical letters and packages to someone involves sending them through a postal system to a recipient who can either be in the same country or in a different one. The first nationwide postal system is believed to have originated in Egypt in about 2400 BC when Pharaohs began to use official couriers to carry their decrees throughout the country.

The post or mail deliverer has featured in the titles of a number of songs and movies over the years. For example, in the 1961 song 'Please Mr Postman' the Marvelettes were asking him to look for a missive from their boyfriend while Kevin Costner directed, co-produced and starred in the 1997 post-apocalyptic movie 'The Postman'.

Answer: Pose

A model is said to sit or pose for a picture by an artist or photographer, and this involves remaining in a particular position for possibly quite long periods of time. Lisa Gherardini was a famous sitter, whose portrait was commissioned by her husband, Francesco del Giocondo, from the artist Leonardo da Vinci. The resulting painting came to be known as the 'Mona Lisa'.

The phrase 'pose as' can mean to pretend to be someone else and the 2002 movie 'Catch Me if You Can' was based on the autobiography of former conman Frank Abagnale. He wrote about having pretended to be several other people, such as an airline pilot and a doctor, to obtain money fraudulently. Leonardo DiCaprio played the role of Frank Abagnale in the movie while Tom Hanks played the FBI agent who tried to capture him.

Answer: Pole

Someone who comes from Poland is described as Polish or as a Pole. Poland's full name is the Republic of Poland and the country is situated in the more northerly part of central Europe. Its capital city is Warsaw and it has a northern coastline on the Baltic Sea while Lithuania and a part of Russia are to its northeast. The Ukraine and Belarus border the country to the east, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are on its southern border and it has Germany to its west.

The North Pole and the South Pole are are situated at the most northerly and southerly parts of the Earth respectively. For a 1992 BBC eight-part television series entitled 'Pole to Pole' its narrator Michael Palin undertook a five and a half month journey from the geographic North Pole to the South one.

Answer: Pale

Someone described as pale usually has a very light complexion with relatively little colour. This paleness can be either permanent or temporary due to experiencing an emotion such as fear - hence the expressions 'pale with fear' and 'pale with shock'.

The book of Revelation in the Bible talks about the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, who each rode a horse of a different colour - white, red, black and pale. Death rode the pale horse and was accompanied by Hades (Revelation 6: 7-8). The title of the 1985 movie 'Pale Rider' is a reference to the Biblical horsemen and the lead character is a ghost who rides a pale horse. Clint Eastwood not only played the lead but also directed and produced the movie.

Answer: Gale

On the Beaufort Wind Scale a gale is defined as a strong wind and lies in between a strong breeze and a storm. Numbers on the Scale range from 0 to 12 and a gale is classed as number 8 or 9, depending on its force. The Scale was originally devised by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort in 1805 to help sailors estimate wind strength and has since come to be used more generally.

A well-known fictional gale is Dorothy Gale, the heroine of L. Frank Baum's 1900 book 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz', who was transported by a cyclone from Kansas to the land of Oz where she had several adventures. The actress July Garland played Dorothy in the 1939 film 'The Wizard of Oz', which was based on the book.