Are You a Genius? IV Trivia Quiz

Answer: America

Martin Waldseemüller published a map in 1507 that contained the word 'America', the first one known to have contained the term named after the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

Answer: Neptune

Winds of up to 1,250 miles per hour were recorded on Neptune by Voyager II. They occurred near the gigantic storm on Neptune called the 'Great Dark Spot'. Winds on Earth, even in the largest hurricanes, would never exceed the 300s in MPH.

Answer: Parrhasius

Zeuxis was famous for having painted a still life with grapes so real in appearance that even birds were fooled by them. Zeuxis entered his painting of grapes and felt almost assured of victory, only awaiting the unveiling of the curtains before his rival Parrhasius' painting. Suddenly, Parrhasius revealed that the 'curtains' Zeuxis had requested to be drawn back were in fact a part of the painting itself! Zeuxis conceded victory. Zeuxis had indeed fooled the birds, but Parrhasius had done him one better...he had fooled the great Zeuxis himself! Another fun Zeuxis anecdote...Zeuxis painted a picture of an old woman that he thought was so amusing, he died from laughing at his own painting...or so the legend says...

Answer: Dorothea Lange 'The Steerage'

The most famous photograph by Dorothea Lange is perhaps her 'Migrant Mother', though others in her series of photos taken of migrant workers during the Great Depression have also captured the attention of photo aficionados. 'The Steerage' was the work of Alfred Stieglitz, one of the most memorable photos of all time.

The others mentioned include Capa's 'Death of a Loyalist Soldier', which captured the moment when a soldier in the loyalist army was shot during the Spanish Civil War, Ut's moving photo of children running (one young girl without clothing) after a napalm attack in Vietnam and Rosenthal's photo of soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima, now forever memorialized in Washington D.C.

Answer: Harney Peak

Harney Peak, the tallest point in South Dakota, is 7,242 feet high. This edges out Mt. Mitchell of North Carolina, which comes in at 6,684 feet high. These may not seem like great heights but when one considers that they rise virtually from sea level, these mountains are still quite imposing! (Most of the mountains in the Rockies rise from points already a mile or more in altitude.)

Answer: Cloaca

Not only do birds and amphibians have cloacae, but also reptiles, some fish and many invertebrate creatures. The term 'cloaca' comes from the Latin word for a sewer.

Answer: Anhungry

The full list: Aggry (bead), ahungry, angry, anhungry, begry, conyngry, gry, higry pigry, hungry, iggry, meagry, menagry, mawgry, nangry, overangry, podagry, puggry, skugry, and unangry. Of course, none of these words are common words, but all have been used at some point within the English language. Please let me know if I have missed one!

Answer: St. Issa

Several sources describe Jesus' sojourn to the East where he studied the tenets of Buddhism and Hinduism, and even came into contact with Confucianism. This is a partial explanation for the synergy of ideas among the various world religions. Of course, there's no proof that Jesus went East during his lifetime, but many love to speculate on this sort of thing!

Answer: Mayan

The Mayans were a people of southern Mexico and Guatemala that have left an extraordinary legacy in terms of their cosmology, history and archaeological accomplishments. The Popol Vuh has been maintained by the Quiche, descendants of the Mayans now living in southern Mexico.

Answer: Mistletoe

The European common mistletoe has the scientific name 'viscum album', while the varieties found in the U.S. are 'phoradendron spp' and 'arceuthobium spp'. They feed on their host plants, but also gain nutrients through the process of photosynthesis. I hope you have enjoyed this quiz as much as I enjoyed putting it together...thanks for playing!