A Taxing or Painless Mixture Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thucydides

In the 5th century BC, there was a war between two Greek city-states, Sparta (Peloponnesians) and Athens (Athenians). Thucydides, an Athenian, lived through most of this war, but he died before it ended. He wrote a series of classic and influential books about the war which eventually became known as "The History of the Peloponnesian War".

Answer: Ammonia

Ammonia has the chemical formula NH3, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen. It is used not only for fertilising crops, necessary for food production, but also in the production of plastics and fibres, and as a refrigerant gas. Ammonia has a pungent smell. It occurs naturally in animal wastes.

Answer: Sheffield Steelers

The Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) has become the highest level ice hockey competition in the UK in 2003. The league consists of ten teams, including the successful Sheffield Steelers. The Steelers finished in first place in the years 2004, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2016.

Between the years 1991 and 2003, they competed in a number of different leagues including the Ice Hockey Superleague. Even if you don't know anything about professional ice hockey, a knowledge of geography probably helped you to get the right answer.

Answer: 1485

This battle marked the end of the War of the Roses. This war was a civil war, a series of intermittent battles and rebellions that took place between 1455 and 1487. The dynasties of York and Lancaster were represented by a white rose and a red rose respectively.

The Battle of Bosworth in 1485 led to the death of Richard III. Henry Tudor became King Henry VII, but the civil war didn't end until Yorkist invaders were defeated at Stoke in 1487.

Answer: California and Mexico

There is a boundary in the Earth's crust between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate which is about 800 miles long. This is the San Andreas Fault. It is well-known for causing the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.

Answer: The Office

The original "The Office" was a UK sitcom, first shown in 2001. It ran for two seasons.

The US version was a successful comedy that ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2013. The actors were expected to be able to improvise to make the show seem more natural. What kept the show running for as long as it did was the interest of young people viewing it on iTunes.

Answer: James Caird

Sir Ernest Shackleton planned an expedition to Antarctica, sailing on a ship called Endurance with a crew of 27 men. Endurance sailed from Plymouth in August 1914. Unfortunately, in January 1915, the ship became compacted by ice in the Weddell Sea.

The crew struggled to free Endurance even right up to October of the same year. They were forced to abandon the ship and camp on the ice. In April 1916, they set off by using the three ships' boats to get to Elephant Island.

Shackleton and five others set sail using just one of those boats, the one called James Caird. They headed for South Georgia from where a rescue mission to Elephant Island could be mounted.

Answer: Rugby Union

There are two try lines, one at each end of the field. The rugby posts are H-shaped and lined up with the try line. To score a try (also called a touchdown) in rugby union, a player has to go over, or onto, the opposing team's try line and then ground the ball by pressing it down onto the ground. The player carrying the ball must not go beyond the dead ball line at the far end of the field, or beyond either of the touchlines at the side.

After scoring a try (worth 5 points), a player is appointed to attempt a conversion. A successful conversion scores 2 points. The ball must go over the crossbar and between the two posts.

Answer: Giuseppe Garibaldi

As a young man, Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), started as a merchant navy captain. He later joined a secret political movement called Young Italy and then a revolutionary association called Carbonari.

To escape a death sentence, he sailed to South America where he become involved in independence movements in Brazil and Uruguay. He fought using guerrilla warfare. He got his nickname "Hero of Two Worlds" because of his military involvement in both Europe and South America.

When Garibaldi returned to Italy, he became involved in the revolutions of 1848. He was the leader of a left-wing political party called the Action Party. They had a paramilitary wing called the Redshirts. This was just the start of a long military history leading to the eventual unification of Italy.

Answer: Troy

The 2004 film "Troy" is based mainly and loosely on Homer's epic poem "The Iliad". Troy was an ancient city located in what is now western Turkey. It was the site of the Trojan War in Greek mythology.

Helen (Diane Kruger), the wife of Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), is smuggled out of Sparta and taken to Troy by Paris (Orlando Bloom). For King Agamemnon, it is an opportunity to capture Troy and seize control of the Aegean Sea. The ensuing war includes the story of the giant wooden Trojan Horse used as a weapon of deception by the Greeks.

The film won three awards and was nominated for many others. One of those three wins was a Teen Choice Award, voted for by viewers aged 13 and over in the United States. This was the Choice Movie Actor: Action Award won by Brad Pitt. He played the part of the Greek warrior Achilles.