Taiwan to Three Trivia Quiz

Answer: Taiwan

The island was colonised by the Dutch in the Seventeenth Century and given the name Formosa. 'Ilha Formosa' means 'beautiful island'. The mainland Chinese threw the Dutch out in 1662. The Japanese then had it from 1895 to 1945 when China took over again. Following the civil war in mainland China, the losing side Kuomintang (led by Chiang Kai-shek) retreated to Taiwan and set up a one-party state.

Answer: Thermopylae

The story goes that an alliance of Greeks, led by King Leonidas I of Sparta and 300 of his men, met a vastly superior invading force of Persians under King Xerxes at the Pass of Thermopylae. They fought the Persians off for two days. They were then betrayed by a local shepherd who showed the Persians a track outflanking the Greeks. Realising this, Leonidis sent away most of his force on the third day, staying with his Spartans and some others to fight to the death.

The films "The 300 Spartans" (1962) and "300" (2007) are based on this battle.

Answer: Tata

Although you can find them in small numbers on most continents, rickshaws in their various forms are mostly found in Asia and Africa. Bajaj Auto is an Indian manufacturer of rickshaws based in Pune, Maharashtra. Mumbai, also in Maharashtra, is where you will find the headquarters of Tata Motors. Tata is a big player in the motor vehicle world and now owns Daewoo of South Korea, Hispano of Spain, and Jaguar Land Rover of the UK.

Tesla Motors is an American electric vehicle manufacturer and Tatra makes vehicles in the Czech Republic. Toyota, the Japanese vehicle multinational, has a joint venture manufacturing facilities in India, although these are in Karnataka.

Answer: Tarantella

The tarantula wolf spider is found in southern Italy near the city of Taranto. The American (typically hairy) tarantulas come from a different family. The tarantella refers to various Italian folk dances. There used to be a belief that a frenzied dance was necessary to avoid death from the tarantula's bite. Although toxic to its insect prey, the bite is more like a bee-sting in effect to humans.

The tango is South American in origin. The troika and tropak are respectively Russian and Ukrainian folk dances. One of the best known dances in Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" ballet is called the Trepak, a version of the tropak.

Answer: Tamarin

Tamarins form part of one of the five families of New World monkeys with marmosets being the other family member. There are at least seventeen species of tamarin which are found in South and Central America. They are described as squirrel-sized and many have mustache-like facial hair.

The takin (also known as the cattle chamois or gnu goat) is a goat-antelope from the Himalaya. The thylacine was known as the Tasmanian tiger or wolf and is now believed extinct. The teledu is also known a skunk badger or stink badger and is found in south-east Asia.

Answer: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky

As well as "Romeo and Juliet", he is perhaps best known these days for his "1812 Overture" and ballets ("The Nutcracker", "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty"). He produced numerous works covering areas such as opera, ballet, concertos, symphonies, chamber music and choral music. Patronage for 17 years from Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy widow, helped him to be the first full-time Russian composer.

Answer: The Thirty-Nine Steps

The title to John Buchan's "The Thirty-Nine Steps" came from his daughter's count of the number of steps leading to a beach from the nursing home where he was recuperating. He wrote a further four books featuring the lead character Richard Hannay. There have been several films based on the book.

"Thieves Like Us" by Edward Anderson became the 1948 film "They Live By Night". The 1974 film "Thieves Like Us" was also based on the book. Graham Greene wrote the screenplay for a 1949 film "The Third Man" based on his novella of the same name, and 1979 film "The Tin Drum" was based on the 1959 novel by Günter Grass.

Answer: Tewkesbury

This was a power struggle between Lancastrian and Yorkist dynasties, both part of the royal House of Plantagenet. The house of York won most of the pitched battles including Tewkesbury however it was arguably the Lancastrian Henry VII who saw the end of the wars. Shakespeare wrote at least eight plays (or two tetralogies) covering this period. Strangely perhaps, the second tetralogy comes before the first in historical order.

The Lancastrian rose is red, the Yorkist one is white.

Answer: Thimphu

Thimphu became the capital of Bhutan in 1961 and is of relatively modest size with a 2005 population of under 80,000. It lies in the western central part of Bhutan, which is bordered by India on the south and the region known as Tibet in the north. Darts and archery are the national sports. In this version of darts (called Khuru) the darts are bigger, the target is smaller than the regulation dartboard and is placed 20 metres away.

Tashkent is capital of Uzbekistan, Tblisi of Georgia, and Tegucigalpa of Honduras.

Answer: Tantalum

The myth is the source of the word 'tantalise'. The metal itself is highly corrosion resistant and chemically relatively inert. These properties are partly why this name was chosen. Niobium, an element later discovered in the mineral tantalite, takes its name from Niobe, daughter of Tantalus.