Pardon, What Was That Again 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: An ambulance officer

Now referred to as paramedics, ambulance officers was the general term for these invaluable medical personnel for years - or, as referred to in Australia, Ambos. A great percentage of the work carried out by these healthcare professionals falls into the emergency category.

They're the ones that rush to the scene of any accident or national disaster, often putting their own lives on the line while saving the life of hundreds of others on a yearly basis. They're true champions.

Answer: Had a go at doing a difficult job

Giving it a burl in Australia means to attempt to do a usually difficult or challenging task. This could be anything at all, but something that has never been attempted before. Trying to produce a new cake from a challenging recipe, for example, when you're a hopeless cook.

How we arrived at this saying is anybody's guess because a burl is actually a round growth or large malignant knot on a tree. This usually attacks the roots of a tree first and by the time it's discovered, the damage has already been done. "Burl" could also be related to the word "birl" or "birle" which is used to describe the process of rolling logs that are floating in water while standing on them - so the connection with the Australian term of giving something a burl is possibly linked to this.

Answer: Broken or useless

This Australian slang is also applied, rather unsympathetically, to someone who has died. He or she is cactus. However, it usually refers to a piece of machinery that has failed, such as a motor vehicle that won't start, or some thing the same lines as that.

A cactus is a kind of plant that comprises more than 1,750 species. These plants, quite the ugliest I've ever seen, adapt perfectly to dry and arid soils where little rainfall occurs. They have an impressive ability to retain water in their offshoots, and are used by man as a food, as a drug, as a flower even, as animal fodder, a dye, living fences, and even in the construction industry.

Answer: Fed up to the back teeth

Cheese, of course, is a food product made from the milk of various animals, but if you're "cheesed off" in Australia, you've had enough of whatever or whomever has been irritating you, and are not going to take it any more. You're just plain fed up.

Answer: Chewing gum

Australians are notorious for either giving nicknames to just about everything under the sun, or abbreviating the quite sensible names of various objects to something that seldom makes sense at all to overseas visitors. Chocolate, for example, is often referred to as "choccie", chewing gum to "chewie", breakfast to "brekkie", someone with a surname Jones becomes "Jonesy" and so on. Sometimes, too, the nicknames are the exact opposite of what they suggest.

A red-headed man if often called "Blue", or a tall person is nicknamed "Shorty", a man with the surname of "Starr" is invariably called "Twinkle" - and on it goes.

Answer: Lost his temper big time

If you have "chucked a wobbly" in this country, you have well and truly lost your temper (usually over some insignificant thing) and thrown a giant tantrum. An associated expression used here is that someone has "spat the dummy", as in the manner of a disgruntled baby who has done this and then proceeded to holler on top note.

Answer: Fallen over and hurt yourself

You've also had a "buster" if you've "come a cropper" in Australia, gone "head over turkey" or "kissed the cement". All these terms, and more, means you have actually hurt yourself in some way following an accident, or that you have failed at something at which you were expected to succeed.

Answer: Drunk or completely exhausted

Anyone described as a "cot case" down here, is experiencing one of several conditions. All are equally applicable. That person is either so intoxicated that he is incapable of coherent or logical thought, or has passed out. He could also be so exhausted after some strenuous activity or sport that he can hardly move. Or he has become mentally ill.

The first one of these conditions receives no sympathy at all from fellow Australians, but jeers and derisive laughter instead.

Answer: Get started on something right away or leave right now

As in the previous question, "get cracking" has a couple of meanings. You have been given the choice of leaving the premises right away, and, depending on the tone of voice used, this can be a serious threat - or you've been told, or have decided, to start work immediately of some project on hand.

Answer: Absolutely the opposite point of view

If an Australian is totally opposed to whatever is being discussed or proposed then he is "dead set against it". Trying to persuade him to a different point of view, should he give you that response, is a complete waste of time. If he is ambivalent, on the other hand, he'll say something like, "Ah I dunno. I'll think about it" or "Maybe later" instead. Just for the record, both responses usually mean he's against it anyhow.