Fill 'Er Up Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kerosene

If you've played enough games on Fun Trivia, you will be aware that North Americans use the term gasoline, often shortened to gas, to refer to the hydrocarbon mixture that is elsewhere usually called petrol, and is the most common fuel used in cars. Liquefied petroleum gas, usually shortened to LP gas or LPG, is also referred to as propane or butane, since most LPG mixtures are primarily made of one of these two hydrocarbons.

Kerosene is another flammable hydrocarbon mixture, but it is less flammable than gasoline, and is not usually used in cars, although it is used as a jet engine fuel. It is also occasionally used in engines on heavy machinery that start on gasoline, then switch to run on kerosene when operating temperature has been reached.

Answer: Germany

The name, containing as it does the epithet 'Jerry' used during WWII to refer to Germany and Germans, is a clue as to the German origin of this container which was originally called a "Wehrmacht-Einheitskanister". It was originally a 20-liter container made of pressed steel lined with plastic, designed to carry spare fuel for military purposes.

Its durability and ease of use have made its use widespread in armed forces around the world. Today the term is used for a range of containers, sometimes made of plastic and colored to designate the liquid it should contain.

Answer: Glassware

It is usually impossible to find a box that fits your contents perfectly, but filling the empty spaces with old newspaper that has been crumpled to form a cushioning effect is usually sufficient for durable items, and much less expensive than purchasing the foam beads called peanuts. Bubble wrap, a plastic that has bubbles of trapped air, can also be used, but, for hollow items such as glassware, peanuts that can go inside as well as around them are probably worth the expense, if you really want them to arrive intact.

Answer: Beaker

The term beaker can be used for some containers for various drinks, and is applied to different containers in different parts of the world. I connect the term with laboratory glassware used to hold fluids, with a spout for easy pouring. In some places it is applied to the kind of metal or plastic 'glass' you might pack on a picnic, or a child's cup with a fitted lid through which they can drink the liquid with reduced risk of spillage.

A highball glass would be used to serve some cocktails, a shot glass can be used to serve straight distilled liquor, and a stein is used for beer.

Answer: Coffee

The bottomless cup of coffee is quite an attraction at breakfast time, especially when you are enjoying a long breakfast with friends. Of course, you don't usually get this offer in conjunction with a menu offering a wide range of styles of coffee to purchase, but it's a good deal if you just want a plain cup of coffee, with or without sugar and/or milk or cream. Whiskey, water and orange juice are not usually served in cups, although it is quite common in some places (not here, sadly) for a free glass of water to be supplied with your meal and refilled at regular intervals during the meal.

Answer: Vacuum flask

The Thermos brand of vacuum flask has become so well known that, in the United States, they are often referred to simply as thermoses. They are constructed by placing one flask (often made of glass) inside another (usually made of steel), joining them at the top, and removing most of the air from the space between them, creating a partial vacuum. This makes them capable of keeping their contents either warmer or colder than the surrounding air. They were originally invented by the Scottish scientist Sir James Dewar, and in some regions are often called Dewar flasks in recognition of this.

A bota bag, of Spanish origin, is a stoppered leather flask for carrying wine. A hot water bottle, as its name suggests, is usually filled with hot water and used to apply heat to sore body parts or to warm a bed. A hip flask is suitable for carrying around small amounts of liquid, usually alcoholic, and fits into your hip pocket, if you have one.

Answer: Canteen

Modern canteens are usually made of plastic, but back then it was metal. We were shown a special drinking technique that involved placing the bottom of the canteen opening under your lower lip before tipping it up to drink - this meant it didn't contact our mouths, and made it slightly more hygienic to share canteens with each other. Often, one canteen sufficed for two or three hikers, especially when we were in areas near streams which offered regular refills, and those without canteens could carry other useful items.

A carboy is a large glass bottle, usually holding something like twenty to fifty litres, used for storing fluids, and much too large and heavy for hiking. A magnum is a large wine bottle, holding the equivalent of two standard bottles of wine, while a Melchizedek holds 30 litres, equivalent to forty standard bottles. Being glass, neither of these would be a good idea for a hiking trip.

Answer: Strawberries

The punnet is a small container used to hold small fruits, usually berries such as strawberries or blueberries. They used to be baskets woven from split wood, but now are more commonly made of plastic or cardboard. The word used to imply a specific size of container, about 400 cubic centimeters in volume, which holds about 250 g of berries, but is occasionally more widely applied to any container used for a smallish amount of berries.

Answer: Bushel basket

The bushel was originally used to measure grains, and a bushel basket held 8 dry gallons. This means it had a volume of about 35 or 36 litres, depending on how big your gallon is. It has since come to be used to describe weights, with the weight being described depending on the commodity being measured, rather than actually measuring the volume. A bushel of apples will be about 20 kg, but that value is not fixed. Grains that are measured in bushels have defined weights that correspond to a bushel. A bushel of oats, for example, is about 15 kg, while a bushel of wheat is about 27 kg.

A peck is equal to two gallons, and a coomb is equal to four bushels.

Answer: Stockings

Christmas stockings are a tradition in many parts of the world, but there are places, especially in Europe, where children put out shoes. That tradition has its origins in pre-Christian Norse mythology. Originally, the shoes contained treats for Odin's horse, in exchange for which the god would leave them with candy or other human treats. This tradition merged with Christmas practices, and still continues. In other places, children left out their stocking, ready for the arrival of goodies or, if you had been bad, a lump of coal. Modern stockings are usually highly decorated, and very large, bearing little resemblance to something a child might actually wear.

Looking up the exact wording to the poem referred to in this question led me to the fascinating information that it is no longer believed that Clement C. Moore wrote "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", published in 1823. Don Foster published "Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous", in which he showed that Moore could not have written it, and he suggested that it was probably actually written by Major Henry Livingston Jr. Moore is still widely credited with the authorship, but many literary critics now believe the attribution is incorrect.