20 CATegories! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Maine

The Maine Coon is Maine's official State Cat and is native to the state itself. No one quite knows the breed's origins, though it is widely thought that the cats have descended from the long-haired cats that travelled with the Vikings - Norwegian Forest Cats are also thought to have descended from the Vikings' cats and indeed they strongly resemble Maine Coons.

Answer: Puma

As well as a genus of big cats, puma is an alternative name for the cougar, a species within the Puma genus. Although a "big cat" is usually one that can roar, sometimes the definition is expanded to include pumas, which do not have specialized enough larynges for roaring. Pumas are generalist predators, which mean they will eat any animal that they catch.

Answer: Catherine Zeta-Jones

Catherine Zeta-Jones was born in 1969 in Wales, UK. Zeta is actually her middle name, but early on in her career, the US press styled her surname as Zeta-Jones, so now she does too. Her role in "Traffic" was her breakthrough and earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She married actor Michael Douglas in 2000 and shares a 25th September birthday with him.

Answer: True

Catwoman, or Selina Kyle, first appeared in the first issue of the Batman comic as a romantic interest of Batman's. She is frequently portrayed as an antihero rather than a murderous villain. It was in the 62nd issue of the Batman comic that it was revealed she worked as a flight attendant prior to her life of crime and during a plane crash, she was hit on the head and suffered from amnesia.

Answer: Crookshanks

Crookshanks belongs to Hermione Granger and is half-Kneazle, which is a highly intelligent cat-like creature. He recognizes immediately that Ron Weasley's pet rat Scabbers is not a rat at all but a man, Peter Pettigrew, in rat form. Crookshanks befriends Sirius Black, who can turn into a dog.

Answer: Polish

Katarzyna is pronounced "kah-tah-ZHI-nah" and has various diminutive forms, including Kasia and Kasienka. Famous people with the name include actress and TV host Katarzyna Cichopek, painter Kasia Domanska, and Olympic Paralympian Katarzyna Rogowiec. There are also several places in Poland with the name.

German forms of Catherine include Katrin and Katherina; the French form is also spelled Catherine but pronounced "Ka-te-REEN"; the usual Russian form is Ekaterina, sometimes transliterated as Yekaterina or Jekaterina.

Answer: Allegheny Plateau

The Allegheny Plateau stretches across various states: New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Beyond this, it extends as the Cumberland Plateau into the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The plateau is divided into a northern glaciated region and a southern unglaciated region.

The Catskill Mountains are an eastward extension of the plateau and the highest point of it. Slide Mountain is the highest peak of the Catskills and is situated in Ulster County, New York - its height is usually given as 4180 ft (1270 m), although it has never been officially determined.

Answer: Catalina Island

Catalina Island is also known as Santa Catalina Island, or just Catalina, and is located about 22 miles off the coast of California. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, although Portuguese, was sailing for Spain, and claimed the island for Spain in 1542, naming it San Salvador after his ship.

In 1602, the island was rediscovered by a Spaniard, Sebastian Vizcaino, on the eve of St. Catherine's Day, so he named the island Catalina after her.

Answer: Catsup

The exact etymology of "ketchup" is not known - the name is thought to have come from the Chinese "koechiap", meaning "brine of fish", as ketchup was originally a pickled fish sauce with spices. The sauce reached Malaysia and Singapore by the 18th century, where it was called "kechap".

The tomato versions of the sauce came around in approximately the 19th century. There was an attempt to Anglicize the name first to "catchup" and then "catsup", but most countries still call it "ketchup" or "tomato sauce".

Answer: Bastet

Bastet is sometimes called Bast or Ubasti. The "et" in her name is a feminine ending to the word meaning "ointment jar" - she was connected to perfumes stored in such jars, and was sometimes known as the "perfumed protector". She was also regarded by some as the mother or wife of Anubis, god of embalming. Bastet's position in the pantheon became less emphasised as the goddess Sekhmet became more dominant - Sekhmet is depicted with the head of a lioness.

When one of Bastet's temples was excavated, more than 300,000 mummified cats were found!

Answer: Winston Churchill

"Pet Sematary" tells the story of the Creed family, who move from Chicago to a small town in the state of Maine when the father, Louis, gets a job at the university hospital. When the family cat, Winston Churchill, most often called Church for short, is killed by a passing truck, the Creeds' elderly neighbour tells Louis about a burial ground used by Micmac Indians, and they bury the cat there, only for it to come back to life - however, the new Church smells very bad and is no longer a happy, vibrant cat. Louis calls him "a little dead". Shortly after, the Creeds' young son, Gage, is also hit by a truck and killed, prompting Louis to bury him too in the burial ground - with disastrous consequences.

Answer: Pinocchio

"Pinocchio" was released in 1940, Disney's second animated feature. It told the story of a wooden puppet named Pinocchio, who was carved by an elderly woodcarver named Geppetto. Geppetto wishes upon a star that Pinocchio could become a real boy - a fairy grants life to Pinocchio, but he is still a wooden puppet. To become a real boy, he must prove he has several virtues and is guided on this task by Jiminy Cricket, who acts as his conscience.

Answer: Katherine Jenkins

Katherine Jenkins was born in 1980 in Neath, Wales. She has been a member of various choirs and attended the Royal Academy of Music in London on a scholarship. Her six-album record deal with Universal was worth a reported £1 million, the highest in the history of UK classical recording contracts.

Answer: Peter III

Catherine II was born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg (phew!) in 1729 in Prussia. She married her second cousin, Peter, when she was 16. Their marriage was not a happy one and both spouses took numerous lovers. Six months into his reign, in 1762, Peter was overthrown in a coup d'etat and when he was assassinated 8 days later, Catherine succeeded him, becoming Empress of Russia.

Some say that she assisted in the conspiracy that overthrew her husband. She in turn was succeeded by her son, Paul I.

Answer: Unction

The seven sacraments of Catholicism are the following: Baptism, Confirmation (also called Chrismation), Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Holy Matrimony. Penance is the first sacrament of healing, while Anointing of the Sick is the second. Unction is an older term, meaning to anoint someone with oil - the Church has expressed a preference for the term "Anointing of the Sick" instead of Unction.

It is associated with bodily healing as well as the forgiveness of sins, and must be carried out only by ordained priests.

Answer: Enzyme

For a chemical reaction to occur, the reactants must reach an energy level known as "activation energy". A catalyst decreases this energy requirement by interacting with one or more of the reactants to form an intermediate molecule, which can then react of its own accord or with a remaining reactant.

In the body, this role is carried out by enzymes, which are proteins with "active sites" specific to one reactant. This means that for every catalyzed reaction, the body must have a different enzyme with a different active site.

Answer: First Aboriginal Commonwealth Games Gold medalist

Cathy Freeman was born in 1973 in Queensland, Australia, and specialized in the 400 meters. She competed in the 1990 Commonwealth Games as a member of the 4x100 m relay team and this is where she won her gold medal - at sixteen, this also made her one of the youngest Commonwealth gold medalists.

She became an Olympic Champion in the 400 m at the 2000 Games in Sydney - only one other Aboriginal Australian had become an Olympic Champion at this time, Nova Peris-Kneebone.

Answer: Salem

"Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" was an American sitcom that ran from 1996 to 2003 and was about, unsurprisingly, a teenage witch! Sabrina Spellman lived with her aunts and only found out she was a witch on her 16th birthday - her father was a warlock and her mother was a mortal human. Salem Saberhagen was actually a warlock who was turned into a cat as punishment for trying to take over the world.

His cat form can talk and he often delivers one-line jokes. He continued to plot to take over the world and also to become human again.

Answer: Final Fantasy

The "Final Fantasy" franchise began in 1987 with the release of the first game of the same name. The games are RPGs (role-playing games) and often include a group of protagonists taking part in a rebellion against antagonists. The characters usually encounter random battles with enemies as they explore the game world and can use magic as well as weapons.

The Mithra appeared as one of five playable races in "Final Fantasy XI" (2002), although only the females were playable, as the males are more rare.

They prefer the life of mercenaries as they have very free-willed personalities.

Answer: Kaese

"Kaese" (also spelled "Käse") is the German for "cheese". "Katze" is also German and of course means "cat"; "kissa" is Finnish; "Hauskaz" is Luxembourgish. Other European words for "cat" include "gatto" (Italian), "cath" (Welsh), and "köttur" (Icelandic).