FunTrivia Humanities Mix: Vol 2 Quiz

Answer: Sheriff

The shire reeve was the chief executive officer of local government working under the control of the king. Groups of 10 families or "tithings" were grouped into "hundreds". These "hundreds" were supervised by a constable, and groups of "hundreds" would combine to make a shire.

The reeve would also visit each community once a year to receive an oath of loyalty to the king from all males aged 12 years and over.

Question by player jondalah

Answer: Buttress

Used to support and reinforce walls, buttresses were commonly used in castle construction during the Middle Ages, although earlier examples have been found among the ancient ruins in Mesopotamia. A flying buttress would begin at the top of the building near the groin vaults and carry the weight of the roof down a stone column to the ground.

A clasping buttress was "L"-shaped and enclosed the corner of a building, while an angled buttress consisted of two buttresses that met at the corner of the building.

Question by player ponycargirl

Answer: pretty

"Has" is the verb. Both "flowers" and "grandmother" are nouns, and "pretty" is the adjective. It describes the flowers.

Question by player Trufflesss

Answer: Give you a severe beating

This interesting phrase is sometimes rendered as "wale the tar out of you." Both "whale" and "wale" when used as verbs can mean to strike repeatedly. The expression is an old one, but there is little agreement about its exact origin, although most sources agree it originated with sailors.

The explanation that makes the most sense to me is that sailors were often called upon to pick apart old ropes to create oakum; sailors disliked this task, and it was often used as a punishment. The ropes were frequently covered with tar, which had to be removed or broken up by striking the rope against a hard object before it could be unraveled.

Question by player daver852

Answer: Peter Paul Rubens

Of the answer choices, Rubens is actually the only Belgian listed; Kandinsky was a Russian abstract painter, and Rembrandt and Vermeer were Dutch Masters. Rubens was so famous for his nudes that the word "Rubenesque" was coined to describe a full-figured woman. Examples of such paintings include "The Three Graces" (1635), as well as several paintings titled "The Judgement of Paris" (1636-1639).

Question by player Lalenya

Answer: Gilbert and Sullivan

Dick Deadeye appeared in 'HMS Pinafore' just one of the fourteen comic operas created in the late nineteenth century by W S Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. Among their other operettas are 'Iolanthe', 'The Pirates of Penzance' and 'The Mikado'. Lerner and Loewe brought us 'My Fair Lady' and 'Brigadoon' while Rodgers and Hart wrote numerous songs, including 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered' for 'Pal Joey'.

Morecambe and Wise are best known for their popular television shows. The duos' names in the incorrect answers all date from the twentieth century.

Question by player rossian

Answer: something easy to do

The term had its origins in baseball, where it meant a pop fly that's easy to catch, hence something that's no trouble. Another food-related phrase that means the same thing is "a piece of cake." Some language scholars say it may have originated before self-serve supermarkets from a method store clerks would retrieve merchandise from a high shelf.

Question by player debodun

Answer: Wear it

A pelisse is a coat-dress with long sleeves, which opens down the front, and is worn over a longer dress. It was popular in the early nineteenth century.

Question by player Kaye19

Answer: redaction

When an existing document is revised or changed so it can be published, that editing is called redaction. This word is most often used when referring to government editing of documents for release to the public.

Question by player suzi_greer

Answer: Was it the cat I saw?

A palindrome is a sentence, phrase, word, or number word that reads the same backwards, such as "Otto" or "2002". One early palindrome dates to 79CE and was found in Herculaneum. It is arranged as a box, with five words stacked on top of each other, from top to bottom, "sator arepo tenet opera rotas" ("The sower Arepo holds with effort the wheels"). If you write out the box, you will discover that the first letter of each word forms the first word, the second letters the second word, and so forth.

The sentence can be read four ways: horizontal; vertical; top left to bottom right; bottom right to top left.

Question by player lowtechmaster