Statements: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. This British Prime Minister was a bit mistaken when he came down the airplane steps in 1938 waiving a piece of paper and talking about peace in our time. It turned out to be a bit of an overstatement. Hitler subsequently went on to invade Poland and kick-start the Second World War. Who was the appeaser?

Answer: Neville Chamberlain

The focus of Chamberlain's negotiations with Hitler was on avoiding another war in Europe after the loss of life and destruction caused by the First World War. Hitler on the other hand was buying time in order to build up his armed forces. Chamberlain's policy of appeasement was therefore doomed to fail.

This policy saw Austria become the German province of Ostmark and Czechoslovakia broken up with Germany taking the German-speaking Sudentenland while expelling all Czechs from there. Other parts of Czechoslovakia were taken by Hungary and Poland.

2. His schemes are popping up everywhere these days. Bernie Madoff was one disciple, managing to con billions from investors before the plug was pulled. Who gave his name to the system?

Answer: Charles Ponzi

Charles Ponzi was an Italian-born con artist who operated in USA and Canada from 1903. A Ponzi scheme is where the initial investors in the scheme have their promised returns paid for out of the capital of new recruits. Money is fraudulently syphoned off by the person setting up the scheme. A Ponzi scheme differs from a pyramid scheme which typically has recruits recruiting more people.

Ponzi had already spent time in jail for fraud before using this scheme. He was not the first to use such a scheme but the success of his 'get rich quick' scheme and his sudden wealth drew attention. In one scheme he promised investors a 50% return in 45 days. When it all unwound, it brought down six banks as well. After several more jail terms he was eventually deported to Italy before ending up in Brazil where he died in poverty.

3. An escalation of American involvement in this war was triggered by exaggerated reporting of a sea engagement in the Gulf of Tonkin. Which war was this?

Answer: Vietnam War

The Gulf Of Tonkin incident in 1964 actually involved two incidents with the USS Maddox. The first was real with three North Vietnamese torpedo boats being repulsed. The second at best involved radar ghosts. These were portrayed by President Lyndon Johnson as unprovoked attacks by the North Vietnamese and led to Congress passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

This allowed President Johnson to pursue war without declaring it as such.

4. Anna Anderson claimed to have been the sole survivor of the Romanov family who were assassinated during 1918 in Russia. Who did she claim to be?

Answer: Anastasia

She was perhaps the best known of several people claiming to have survived the assassination. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, DNA testing was able to disprove her claim. DNA testing tends to confirm that she was Franziska Schanzkowska born in modern-day Poland and who had a history of mental illness. She spent her last years in USA.

5. The Big Lie is a propaganda technique involving the telling of a big lie often enough that people can't believe it is not true. Who coined the term?

Answer: Adolf Hitler

The source for this is Hitler's 1925 book "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle") where he blamed the Jewish people for Germany's loss of the First World War. The others all used the term in one form or another. Joseph Goebbels as Hitler's Minister for Propaganda for 12 years, applied the technique. It is still used today.

6. In the advertising world, this one ranks pretty highly in the category of 'most misleading statement'. In 1992 a promotion promised two return flights to Europe (later extended to USA) if you bought a �100 vacuum cleaner. Which company placed the advert?

Answer: Hoover

The company did not expect people to buy their products just for the flight tickets, however they did. The value of the flights was significantly more than �100. The company proved reluctant to make good on its promise. Court action ensued and in the end it cost �50 million and resulted in three sacked directors and the sale of the company to Candy of Italy.

7. President Clinton had an indiscretion with an intern, which led to his saying that he "did not have sexual relations with that woman". The statement was soon followed by impeachment proceedings that were in time dismissed. Perhaps it was all semantics, perhaps not. Who was the diligent prosecutor who pursued Clinton for his perceived lie?

Answer: Ken Starr

Ken Starr started off as a lawyer then a judge before becoming United States Solicitor General for the four years up to 1993. Starr's involvement with the Clintons started in 1994 with the Whitewater investigation.

Ken Starr started off several Clinton investigations. Starr replaced Robert Fiske in the Whitewater investigation. Jaworski was the second Watergate special prosecutor and Oliver North was the Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel who became the focus for the Iran-Contra weapon selling scandal.

8. At the beginning of April each year there tends to be a rash of news stories of questionable accuracy appearing in British newspapers. Which 'keeper' of news standards is credited with starting off the trend in 1977 with an in-depth story on the Republic of San Serriff, a semi-colon shaped set of islands in the Indian Ocean?

Answer: The Guardian

April Fool's Day, which is on April 1st, is celebrated in many countries with pranks and hoaxes. The Guardian's story included a map of the islands with the names used all being printing terms. One of the more famous April Fool's stories was the 1957 BBC "Panorama" story showing spaghetti being harvested from trees in Switzerland.

As you will know, spaghetti grows in the spaghetti squash ... okay, perhaps not, however there really is a spaghetti squash ... honest!

9. Charles Dawson produced a skull in 1912 as evidence of the 'missing link' between apes and humans. What was the name given to this forgery?

Answer: Piltdown Man

The name comes from the gravel pit where the bones were uncovered. Although considered suspicious at the time, the forgery was not conclusively revealed until 1953. It turns out to have been a combination of an orangutan and modern human skull. The others were 2,000-year-old peatbog men, possibly ritually killed and placed in peatbogs.

10. WARNING! Look away now if you still are a child at heart... what does the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) do for children on Christmas Eve?

Answer: Tracks Santa delivering presents

Back in 1955, a Sears store in the US placed an advert encouraging children to call in order to speak to Santa Claus. The wrong number was printed. Instead they reached a Continental Air Defense (CONAD) Command Center. However, the officer in charge told his staff to provide information on the current whereabouts of Santa doing his deliveries.

And so the tradition was born. NORAD replaced CONAD in 1958 and volunteers make it work. You can find the website by searching for "NORAD Tracks Santa". An overstatement? It is more of a white lie although that depends on your perspective.

Source: Author suomy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Snowman before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Statements: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Quiz

Here are a selection of statements from people or organisations that people place their trust in. You need to find the most relevant answer from those supplied.

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