Aristotle's Elements - 1: Earth Quiz

Answer: Oxygen

Those listed are the four most common elements in the earth's crust, with iron in fourth place (5%), aluminium (aluminum to those in the USA) in third (8.1%), silicon in second (27.7%) and oxygen well out in front at 46.6%. Given the reliance of living things on oxygen, perhaps it is just as well.

Answer: Earth, Wind and Fire

Earth, Wind and Fire have a remarkable history spanning five decades. They have embraced a wide range of musical genres from R&B to Latin to jazz to Afro pop and it is a measure of their achievement that by 2020 they have won six Grammy Awards as well as a wide range of other awards recognising their versatility and contribution to the music scene.

Answer: Rare Earth Metals

The rare earth metals comprise Scandium, Yttrium and the fifteen Lanthanides. The Lanthanides form their own group in the Periodic table and the other two are listed along with them because they display similar properties. They are used widely in modern technological devices, and especially in cell phones.

Answer: Iceland

A product of Verne's astonishing imagination, "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" was published originally in 1864. It tells of a group of adventurers led by the eccentric Professor Otto Lidenbrock, who believes they can follow volcanic tubes into the heart of the earth. After entering an inactive volcano in Iceland they encounter many adventures including contact with prehistoric beasts still living deep below the earth's surface. Finally they are carried on a raft through a raging underground sea until they are hurled out of a volcanic chimney to find themselves on the volcanic island of Stromboli, off the coast of Italy.

The book has inspired many film makers with versions of the story appearing in, for instance, 1959 with the odd pairing of James Mason and Pat Boone, and in 2008 with Brendan Fraser and Anita Briem. There have also been radio and television adaptations and it is the basis of a ride at the Tokyo DisneySea theme park.

Answer: Belinda Carlisle

Taken from Ms Carlisle's second studio album, this song not only topped the charts in the UK and the USA but also in at least ten other countries. No less a personality than Diane Keaton directed the video that accompanied the song's release.

Answer: The Greatest Show on Earth

The title comes from the advertising slogan of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's Circus following the merger of the two circus companies in 1919. The rival trapeze artistes were played by Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde, with the supporting cast including James Stewart and Dorothy Lamour. Actual performers from the circus company also took part.

The film gained two Academy Awards including the prized Best Picture Category.

Answer: Gustav Mahler

Composed following sad moments in his life, including the death of his daughter and his own diagnosis with a serious heart condition, this piece, written in 1908-1909, was based on the German translation of a series of Chinese poems which described both the beauty and the brevity of life.

There are six movements ending with a lengthy movement called "The Farewell" which is almost half the length of the whole composition. There is a relentless feeling of doom, reflecting Mahler's sense that he did not have long to live. The first performance in 1911 took place six months after Mahler's death.

Answer: April

Earth Day is held on 22 April each year. The concept was proposed at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco in 1969 and the name arose during the planning of a national environmental event for the USA on 22 April 1970.

Since then it has expanded to be a worldwide event now under the leadership of the Earth Day Network (www.earthday.org) which organises action across the areas of Climate Action, Science and Education, People and Communities, Conservation and Restoration and Plastics and Pollution. This makes it possibly one of the most important organisations in the campaign to preserve the physical heritage of the planet.

Answer: Aardvark

The aardvark, sometimes referred to as the "ant bear" is a native of southern Africa, including South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. It has a long snout to smell for its food, mostly ants and termites, and it makes its home in burrows dug using its long claws.

Answer: Pearl S. Buck

Pearl Buck's parents were missionaries in China, where she spent most of her life until the age of 42. This gave her a deep understanding of and insight into the lives of the Chinese villagers among whom her family lived.

"The Good Earth", the first book in a trilogy, showed that she had great empathy with the farmers who were the focus of her book. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1932 and may have influenced many Americans' views of Chinese people. She was a prodigious writer, publishing many novels, short stories and other works and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.