Find the Vowels III Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pride and Prejudice

'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen was first published in 1813. In 2013, The Telegraph calculated the adjusted income of some of Austen's characters, and found that 'Pride and Prejudice''s Mr. Darcy would have an annual income of £619,100, but was pipped by Mr. Rushworth (from 'Mansfield Park'), who would rake in £742,920 a year.

Answer: Ulysses

'Ulysses' follows Leopold Bloom through an apparently normal day. 'Ulysses', which was written by that famous Dubliner James Joyce, is held by many as a classic, but not by Virginia Woolf, who called it a "memorable catastrophe". The Russian author Vladimir Nabokov gave Joyce a more mixed review, saying it was "brilliant", but that 'Finnegans Wake', a later work by Joyce, was "horrible".

Answer: The Trial

'The Trial' by Franz Kafka tells the story of Josef K., who is arrested for an unknown offence. It was published in 1925, the year following Kafka's death. We are lucky to have 'The Trial' with us today, as Kafka ordered his friend Max Brod to destroy his unfinished works (which included 'The Trial') upon his death. Brod ignored this request.

Answer: One Hundred Years of Solitude

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel García Márquez was originally published in 1967 and undoubtedly contributed to the Nobel Prize in Literature that he was awarded in 1982. As well as the impact García Márquez made on the literary world, he also wrote numerous screenplays for films.

His own works have also been the subjects of film adaptations, including 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold' and, perhaps most famously, 'Love in the Time of Cholera'.

Answer: Sly like a fox

The reputation of the fox as a sly trickster probably first came about through Aesop's fable, 'The Fox and the Crow'. This was perpetuated by a series of medieval stories in England, France, Germany and the Netherlands featuring a crafty fox-like character called Reynard.

Answer: Brave as a lion

The image of a lion as noble and brave is strong in English history. It is the symbol of England, and King Richard I of England was known as Richard the Lionheart for his reputation on the battlefield, having led the Christians in the Third Crusade.

However, male lions spend most of the day sleeping, while his pride of lionesses do the lion's share of the hunting. Numerous video clips abound on the internet of lions being scared off by the relatively tiny honey badger, somewhat damaging their reputation as brave.

Answer: Clean as a whistle

Like so many sayings, the origin of this simile is unclear, though it seems likely that it refers to the need for a whistle to be clean from obstruction in order to function properly.

Answer: Sleep like a log

Meaning to sleep well, one can also use the phrase "slept like a baby" or "slept like a top", the latter referring to the apparent stillness of a spinning top.

Answer: Pendulum

Several countries now use a type of train known as 'pendolino' (meaning 'little pendulum' in Italian), which can tilt, allowing them to travel around bends more quickly and more smoothly.

Answer: Baseball bat

A baseball bat can reach speeds of between 70 and 80 miles per hour just before it hits the ball. If the bat hits the ball just right (on what is called the ball's 'sweet spot'), around 50% of the energy from the swinging bat will be transferred to the ball, which can reach speeds of over 110 miles per hour.

Answer: Mood

Although often used as a throw-away comment for how a person's mood can quickly change, severe mood swings can be indicative of psychological disorders, such as bipolar depression.

Answer: Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman, or the 'King of Swing', was an important figure in jazz, and of using jazz as a tool for racial integration. In 1936, he and Gene Krupa (another white man) formed the Benny Goodman Quartet with Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton (two black men).

Answer: Picasso and Cubism

The Cubist movement was prominent in the early 20th century and major proponents included Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The name refers to the cube-like appearance of the works, which result from the idea of looking at a subject from several different perspectives and then reconstructing them.

Answer: Seurat and Pointillism

Film director John Hughes compared the style of pointillism to making a film, saying "You don't have any idea what you've made until you step back from it". Hughes featured Seurat's 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte' in a scene from his classic film 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'.

Answer: Warhol and Pop Art

Eduardo Paolozzi and Jasper Johns were two of the earliest proponents of Pop Art, which emerged in the 1950s. Pop Art is characterised by usage of images that are in the public eye, such as consumer items or celebrities. Andy Warhol is arguably the best-known Pop Artist, and his works include 'Campbell's Soup Cans' and the 'Marilyn Diptych', the latter of which depicts several images of the face of Marilyn Monroe on a silk screen.

Answer: Gropius and Bauhaus

The Bauhaus movement was born from the idea that art had lost purpose, and that manufactured products in every day life had no character. This movement re-popularised the idea that works of architecture should also be works of art, rather than purely functional entities.

Among the buildings designed by Walter Gropius are those on the University of Baghdad, which was founded in 1957.

Answer: The Silence of the Lambs

'The Silence of the Lambs' is one of only a few films to win all 'Big Five' Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins, who spent only 24 minutes and 52 seconds on screen (though in some versions he was on screen for an even shorter amount of time).

However, this accomplishment is trumped by Judi Dench, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for only eight minutes on screen as Queen Elizabeth I in 'Shakespeare in Love'.

Answer: Embrace of the Serpent

'Embrace of the Serpent' is a Colombian film that was released in 2015. It is light on dialogue but carries weighty meaning. One interesting aspect of the film is the Chullachaqi, a human-like figure that has no life, no memories and no soul. The lone Amazon warrior, Karamakate, explains that each person has a Chullachaqi. During the film, Karamakate encounters two white explorers separately, the first of which takes his picture with a camera.

When the warrior sees the photo, he believes at first that it is his Chullachaqi, but later begins to think that it is him that is the Chullachaqi.

As such, Karamakate begins to lose his connection with his tribe, and of any memories of his tribe - his cultural identity. The loss of tribal cultural identity here is an obvious analogy of the loss that has really taken place, particularly in the Amazon.

The film is almost unique in showing the story largely from the perspective of the indigenous person, instead of the white explorer(s). An encouraging later note of the film sees Karamakate begin to remember his cultural identity as he realises that it his responsibility to impart his wisdom onto the white explorers too, and not just the other way round.

Answer: The Mighty Ducks

'The Mighty Ducks' follows the efforts of Gordon Bombay (played by Emilio Estevez) who coaches a children's ice hockey team in Minnesota. In a scene where Bombay kisses a character played by Heidi Kling, the cold weather caused the actor's lips to become stuck together, and the film crew had to pour warm water over the pair to free them.

Answer: Ratatouille

The head chef in 'Ratatouille', chef Skinner, was named in reference to the psychologist B. F. Skinner. B. F. Skinner did pioneering work on animal behaviour, often using rats. He created the operant conditioning chamber (or Skinner Box) which allows an animal such as a rat to press a lever in response to a stimulus with the knowledge that it will be rewarded with food.