The Joy of Knowledge 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thrush

The robin usually has a red breast and belongs to the thrush family. Both the sexes are identical and a male will use aggressive behaviour, not knowing if an intruder is male or female. It is up to the female to persist in her approach until a bond is made between the two birds. Young robins lack the distinctive red breast and tend to have a more mottled appearance.

Answer: Sir Roger Bannister

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister was born on 23 March 1929 in Harrow, Northwest Greater London, England. He had been a finalist at the 1952 Olympic Games, held in Helsinki, where he finished a disappointing fourth in the 1,500 metre final. On 6 May 1954, as a medical student, he attended an athletics meeting at Iffley Road Track in Oxford, on a cold, windy day, where he became the first to run a sub-four-minute mile in a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds with the help of pacemakers.

He studied at Oxford but completed his medical training at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in 1954 where he received his medical degree.

He was knighted in 1975 and his autobiography 'The First Four Minutes', published in 1955, has now been republished as 'Four Minute Mile'.

He retired in 1954 from athletics to persue a career as a distinguished neurologist.

Answer: Christmas Day

Sir Charles Chaplin died in 1977 on Christmas Day. American actor, William Claude Dukenfield (WC Fields) died on Christmas Day in 1946. One of his many famous quotes was 'Any man who hates small dogs and children can't be all bad'. Dean Martin (Dino Paul Crocetti) followed his idol, Bing Crosby, by becoming a singer after being a prize-fighter and card-shark.

He died on Christmas Day in 1995.

Answer: Eric Idle

'One Foot in the Grave' was a comedy which ran on BBC1 between 1990 to 1997. It featured old-age pensioner Richard Wilson who played Victor Meldrew who could not comprehend the illogical behaviour of household appliances and the general behaviour of everybody else. Annette Crosbie played Margaret, his long-suffering wife. On the new housing estate in Bournemouth, their next door neighbours were Patrick (Angus Deayton) and Pippa (Janine Duvitski). Patrick took great delight in winding Victor up as he found him such an irritable, miserable, old sod whereas his wife Pippa was always trying to make the peace between the two of them.

Although a morbid show at times, I found David Renwick's comedy hilarious and anyone who watched an episode and said they didn't laugh, I would use Victor's catch phrase of 'I don't believe it'!

Answer: Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa means 'new flower' in Amharic. It is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia and was founded by Emperor Menelik II in 1887. It has a population of about four million people and is Africa's diplomatic capital having the headquarters of the Organization of African Unity located here.

Answer: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born on 30 July 1947. He had an older brother called Meinhard who he use to compete with at sports in his schooldays but he died in a car accident in his early 20s. On 26 April 1986, he married Maria Shriver, a television journalist, in Hyannis, Massachusetts. American entertainer, Phyllis Diller, once said of Arnold Schwarzenegger: "He has so many muscles that he has to make an appointment to move his fingers." She is also quoted as saying: "I admit, I have a tremendous sex drive. My boyfriend lives forty miles away."

Answer: 26

Bed and breakfast is a score of 26 in darts. This is achieved by scoring a single 20, a single 1 and a single 5. The 1 and 5 sections are either side of the 20. Allegedly the term is based on the typical price of a bed-and-breakfast of two shillings and sixpence, two and six, which predates decimal currency.

The score is far better than one called a 'bucket of nails' where all three darts land in the 1s.

Answer: Bob Hoskins

Bob Hoskins was born on 26 October 1942 and at fifteen of age dropped out of school to find a meaningful job. He even worked as a fruit picker on an Israeli Kibbutz. After training as an accountant, which he thoroughly hated, he applied for a theatre post with no previous training. With his distinctive Cockney voice, he made a name for himself in the British gangster film 'The Long Good Friday' (1980) but avoided being type-cast as vicious types by appearing in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'(1988) where he acquired a convincing American accent.

His performance in 'Mona Lisa' (1986) earned this burly actor a Best Actor Academy Award nomination.

Answer: Westminster Abbey

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist who was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire in Southern England. His writing career began as a parliamentary reporter for the Morning Chronicle followed by satirical pieces appearing in the press.

He lived most of his childhood in London and Kent and these places featured in his novels. In 1824 his father was imprisoned for debt so Charles was to support himself by working in a shoe-polish factory which he found very degrading work. In 1836 he married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of his friend George, who bore him ten children.

In 1858 he separated from his wife due to domestic unhappiness and became involved with a young actress called Ellen Ternan. On 9 June 1870, Charles suffered a fatal stroke and was buried in Westminster Abbey, five days later.

Answer: Robert Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) was born on 6 March 1806 in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, Northeast England. She became an invalid in 1821 when she seriously injured her spine. This tragedy did not prevent her from publishing her first poems at nineteen.

In 1845 she met Robert Browning with whom she eloped and married in 1846. 'Sonnets from the Portuguese' was her best known work with 'Portuguese' being Robert's pet name for her. They settled in Florence, Italy and she bore a son, Robert Barrett Browning, who became a sculptor. Elizabeth died on 30 June 1861 in Florence and after the death of his wife, Robert settled in London where he was said to have wrote his masterpiece 'The Ring and the Book' (1869) which influenced later poets of Ezra Pound and T S Eliot.

Answer: Goldeneye

All the given Bond movies consist of one-word titles 'Goldfinger'(1964), 'Thunderball' (1965), 'Moonraker'(1979) and 'Octopussy'(1983) so 'Goldeneye'(1995) is the answer. 'Meteor'(1979) did feature Sean Connery but is not a Bond movie.

Answer: Bat

Allegedly the wife of the company's founder suggested that each bottle of bacardi should be instantly recognised by its logo because many of their Cuban customers were illiterate in the nineteenth century. A colony of fruit bats did actually live in the rafters of the original distillery which may have influenced the choice of this logo.

Answer: Salman Rushdie

The phrase 'Naughty but Nice' was coined by Salman Rushdie (author of the Satanic Verses) when he worked as a humble advertising copywriter in the 1970s. He also coined the phrase 'Irresistabubble' for Aero chocolate bars. Fay Weldon, author of 'The Life and Loves of a She-Devil', coined the 1960s catchphrase of 'go to work on an egg' and she promoted the Egg Marketing Board with this slogan.

Answer: Having your eyes tested

The Snellen chart, designed in 1862, was based on the work of Dutch ophthalmologist, Dr Hermann Snellen (1834-1908), who tested the eye's ability to distinguish between detail and shapes known as visible acuity. A person with normal 20/20 vision could clearly read a one-inch high letter at a distance of twenty feet. (The phrase 20/20 is an American term.

In the UK opticians have a 0-6 scale and say 6/6).

Answer: Halloween

Michael Myers is the psychotic murderer who struck on Halloween as a child and returns to his fictional hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween, for more carnage. Director John Carpenter succeeds in scaring his audience with this low-budget chiller. Jamie Lee Curtis plays the character of Laurie Strode, Donald Pleasence as Dr Sam Loomis and Nick Castle as murderer Michael Myers. Hope you enjoyed the quiz and learnt something new.