Encyclopedia S Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sirocco and Simoom

Huge sandstorms of the Sahara and Arabian deserts come from the hot dry simoom. The Italian sirocco can be either of two different winds. One is damp, and the dry type brings dust from the Sahara. Schirra was an astronaut, and salvia is a flower. Sallust was a Roman historian, Sakhalin is a Siberian island, scammony is a plant, and Scandium is a metallic element.

Answer: Baranof Island

The Russian trader Alexander Baranof founded Sitka in 1799. It was the center of the Russian-American Company's fur business. Alaska's oldest school, Sheldon Jackson College, is in Sitka. Situated near the southern tip of Alaska, its climate is similar to that of Seattle, Washington - plenty of rain. The other three islands are also off the Alaskan coast.

Answer: Parasite

A saprophyte feeds off dead things, while a parasite feeds off living things. The fungus family, including mushrooms and mildew, provides the best examples of saprophytes. Microphyte is a microscopic plant. Pseudomorph is a deceptive form, willemite is a form of zinc.

Answer: hydrogen and oxygen

Oil of vitriol was the name alchemists called sulfuric acid . Combining sulfur trioxide with water produces sulfuric acid, H2SO4. Sulfuric acid is one of the environmentally destructive ingredients of acid rain. Nitrogen and potassium combine to make saltpeter which, along with carbon and sulfur, is used to make gunpowder. Sodium thiosulfate (sulfur and sodium) is used to fix photographic images.

A sulfate of calcium, gypsum, becomes plaster of paris when it is burned and ground up.

Answer: dugong and manatee

The name sirenia comes from the word siren, a sea nymph in Greek mythology. At one time the animals of the sirenia order were believed to be sirens or mermaids. The dugong and manatee are found in tropical waters and eat aquatic plants. The largest sirenia, Stellar's Sea Cow, was able to live in cold water. It lived in the Bering Sea but became extinct by 1768.

Answer: American football

Known as "Football's Grand Old Man", Stagg retired after 41 seasons at the University of Chicago. Then 70 years old, he continued coaching at the College of the Pacific and then Susquehanna University until 1952. He developed the tackling dummy as well as other football training devices.

Answer: Peru

100 centavos make a sol which is named after the sun that is on it. Benin uses the franc. Fiji originally used the British system of pence and shillings but with independence in 1970 switched to the dollar system. Its coins range from 1 cent up to 250 dollars.

In Nicaragua 100 centavos make a cordoba. - (From the 22nd edition of the Standard Catalog of World Coins by Chester Krause and Clifford Mishler.)

Answer: Sea onion

Squill is another name for the Scilla plants, part of the lily family. One of these is the sea onion from the Mediterranean area. The bulbs weigh up to 4 pounds and have medicinal uses: as a heart stimulant, as an expectorant or diuretic, and to treat chronic bronchitis.

Answer: Adolphe Sax

Invented around 1840 the saxophone is a combination of ideas from both the cornet and clarinet. There are soprano, alto, and contrabass sizes and a tenor as well. Satchmo (Louis Armstrong) played a trumpet, not a sax, and invented some glorious music but no instruments. Alexander Graham Bell, a teacher of the deaf, invented the telephone. Getting saxophone out of his name is stretching.

Answer: Rock breaker

OK, coming up with wrong answers is tough sometimes but I thought fragmented sex was pretty good. This plant does grow between mountain rocks in the northern hemisphere. The white flowering early saxifrage can be found from Georgia into Canada and east of the Missippippi River.