Conjunction Function Trivia Quiz

Answer: brigand

A "brig" may refer to a specific sailing ship with two masts and square rigging, or it may refer to a holding area on board a ship for troublesome or mutinous sailors or anyone else suspected of criminal behavior.

A "brigand" is a bandit, particularly one who ambushes individuals traveling roads through foresty or mountainous areas. The term "brigand" is derived from the Old French "brigand", which is itself a derivative of the Italian "brigante" or "partisan soldier".

Answer: fortress

A tress is most often associated with a long lock of a female's unbound hair. It is the cutting of a tress of Belinda's hair in Alexander Pope's satirical "Rape of the Lock" that is the source of great conflict in that poem.

The idea of a fortress has been used for great symbolic effect in a number of songs, particularly Christian hymns. However, Sting's early solo hit "Fortress around Your Heart" was not inspired by anything religious; the song and its lyrics were the result of his divorce from actress Frances Tomelty.

Answer: sackbut

Interestingly, the word "sack" may also refer to a woman's loose-fitting dress or a short, loose-fitting coat for a child or woman. It may also refer to a bed or a hammock--as in the expression "hit the sack".

A sackbut is a type of trombone from the late medieval and Renaissance time periods. It evolved from the slide trumpet and relied on a double slide rather than a single one. However, it did not predate the trombone as records indicate trombones were in use before the sackbut.

Answer: solace

While lace was once made of finers materials--such as silk, silver, or gold thread--it is just as often made nowadays with linen, cotton, or synthetic materials. Thus, lace does not really refer to a fabric made of specific kind of material but rather to the kinds of patterns that are used--knotted, knitted, or looped threads with plenty of open spaces left within the fabric.

The 2008 film "Quantum of Solace" is the twenty-second film in the James Bond franchise and represents the second film to star Daniel Craig as James Bond. The movie is loosely based on Ian Fleming's short story "Quantum of Solace" from his short story collection "For Your Eyes Only", which was published in 1960.

Answer: stablest

To "stab" is to plunge or jab something, such as a pointed weapon or knife, into something else. The word is an evolution of the Middle English "stabbe", which dates back to at least the 1400s.

"Lest" is a subordinating conjunction meaning "to avoid the risk of" or "because of the possibility of something unfortunate happening". Consider its use in this example: "I am leaving my credit cards at home lest I am tempted to use them to buy things that I don't need".

"Stablest" is a superlative form of "stable", as is "most stable".

Answer: orchard

The chard is primarily cultivated for its leaves and its stalks rather than its roots and is referred to by a variety of names: Swiss chard, leaf beet, beet spinach, seakale beet, perpetual spinach, and silver beet, to name a few.

According to America's Travel Channel, the top five apple orchards in the United States are Stribling Orchard in Virginia, Sky Top Orchard in North Carolina, Applewood Orchards in New York, Weston's Antique Apple Orchard in Wisconsin, and Johnson Orchards in Washington.

Answer: digestif

"Reader's Digest", published ten times a year, was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace.

Popular BELIEF is that drinking a digestif after dinner aids in digestion, although some digestifs are drunk before a meal. The liquor is usually drunk straight, and popular ones include brandies (such as Cognac, Armagnac, and Schnapps), fortified wines (such as sherries, vermouths, and ports), and other liqueurs (such as Grand Marnier, Jägermeister, and Kahlua).

Answer: aspirate

While a pirate is an individual who attacks and robs ships at sea, the verb "pirate" is to steal the use of something for the purpose of making a profit. For example, when one sells a recording of a movie or a song without permission from the owner, one is pirating.

Aspirated consonants are the sounds we make when the pronunciation of that consonant occurs with a puff of air from our mouths. "H" and "P" are examples, such as when speaking the words "hand" or "pie".

Answer: meanwhile

"Mean" is a synonym for "cruel", but it has many other uses. It can also describe something that is of inferior quality or someone who is selfish or stingy. As a verb, it can refer to "intending for a particular purpose" or "having in mind as one's intention". As a noun, it can refer to a quantity with a value between the values of other quantities; in other words, it can be synonymous with a mathematical average.

"Mean" comes from the Old English "maenan", and "while", from the Old English "hwil". The words compounded together began to occur in the late 1300s with the literal meaning of "middle time" to refer to something that is occurring during an intervening time or during the middle of something. Of course, we now also use the word to refer to something occurs simultaneously.

Answer: untilled

Many incorrectly spell the past tense of "lead" also as "lead" when the correct spelling is "led". "Lead" pronounced as "led" refers to the metal designated as Pb and numbered 82 on the periodic table or to the graphite within a pencil.

Untilled land is land that has not been plowed, harrowed, hoed, or broken up in any other manner for agricultural purposes. About 349 million acres out of 2.3 billion acres of land in the United States are used for growing crops.