Three Words in One Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mine

A mine is an explosive weapon buried underground (or perhaps sunk partway into the sea), triggered by pressure or proximity. Landmines are horrific weapons, lingering in the land long after a conflict is over, inflicting terrible damage on ordinary people simply trying to get to school or till farmland. The 1997 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and to Jody Williams for their efforts to eliminate mines as a tool of war.

More peacefully, a mine is also a place where mineral resources (such as coal, copper, precious gems, or ore) are extracted from the earth. Often mines must be dug quite deep in order to access the desired mineral deposits, but strip mines or pit mines are closer to the surface and scar the landscape.

"Mine" is also a possessive first-person pronoun, referring to anything over which the speaker claims ownership. Particularly greedy speakers might employ the idiom: "What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine." If they say it often enough, they might find themselves without any friends to say it to.

Answer: Jam

Jam is a sweet spread made from fruit, mashed or chopped or crushed to have a thick consistency. It's often made to gel a bit (but not as much as jelly does), and it usually has some fruity pulp in it (but not as much as preserves do).

A traffic jam is a situation with a large number of cars and a small amount of movement (despite the drivers' best efforts). The jam might result from a temporary situation: a bad accident that blocks a few highway lanes might still be causing traffic backups hours after it's cleared. Or, it might be the predictable result of all the downtown office workers leaving at 5 pm, in their own cars, to pick up their kids from day care in the suburbs.

You can also try to squeeze or pack something (or many somethings!) into a space that's really not large enough for comfort. A dozen people might jam into a small elevator, for example, and sardines are jam-packed into their tins even though no jam is technically involved.

Answer: Pool

A pool of water is usually deeper than a puddle and is usually filled with fresh water -- with tide pools, watery-filled depressions left behind as the sea recedes from a beach, as the notable exception to both rules. A swimming pool is simply a pool constructed and maintained on purpose.

The pool in a game of chance (or a betting event, like a race) represents the sum total of all of the money staked on the event. The larger the pool, the bigger the potential payout, depending on the number of winners and the specific rules.

The game of pool is played on a felted table with six pockets. Players use long sticks, called cues, to strike a white "cue ball", using that impact to send their designated balls into the pockets. Pool sharks are people who hang around pool halls, attempting to win money using their skill at the game.

Answer: Bark

A woody plant, such as a tree, has multiple layers in the stems and roots, and the outermost tissue is known as "bark". Inner or outer bark has been used for many purposes -- corking wine bottles, extracting resin, shingling roofs, or even inducing hallucinations.

A dog's loud vocalizations are often referred to as "barking"; when people are trying to describe the sound still more precisely they often use the onomatopoeia "woof" or "arf". Despite the arboreal reference, "barking up the wrong tree" is a reference to a dog (presumably chasing a squirrel with poor precision), not to tree bark.

Drill sergeants are famous for gruff, brusque commands: they "bark" out orders. The etymology here is clearly related to a dog's barks, but the drill sergeant's statements actually contain words and content.

Answer: Bolt

A bolt is a heavy screw, a threaded metal rod with one end that's a larger "head". While a screw is usually inserted into a tapped hole (that is, a hole with matching threads), a bolt is typically passed through a clearance hole and secured with a nut on the other side.

A bolt is also a unit of measurement for cloth, stored in rolls. A full bolt of fabric is almost always 100 yards (91.4 m) long, but the width of a bolt can vary significantly, and different types of fabric often obey different conventions. My advice is to measure twice and cut once.

To bolt is to suddenly sprint away. A horse might bolt when startled, with potentially dire consequences for the rider. People can bolt, too, usually when faced with mortal or financial peril.

Answer: Draft

A draft is a flow of air. Sometimes this is the result of careful planning: when you build a fire indoors, it's important to open the flue and establish a draft up the chimney. Sometimes it's an expensive nuisance, as when cold air flowing around the edges of a window frame means higher heating bills in winter.

A draft is also a version of a piece of writing. The "rough" or "first" draft is the very earliest version, and perhaps none of the words will make it into the final copy -- but any writer can tell you that it's critical to get words onto the page. The second draft is usually easier.

To draft someone is also to conscript them into mandatory service, usually in a country's military. In times of war, young men in a certain age range are often subject to an official (or unofficial) draft.

Answer: Squash

Although it's played with rackets on a court, in singles or in doubles, squash is not much like tennis. The court is surrounded by walls on all sides, and the ball is a hollow sphere of rubber. The opponents take turns hitting the ball with a racket to send it into the play area on one of the walls. Woe betide the player who lets the ball hit the ground before it hits the wall!

A squash is also a gourd, a fruit with a thick rind that grows on vines. Pumpkins, butternut squash, and zucchini are famous squashes.

Finally, to squash something is to crush it or squeeze it, often beyond repair; think of a car squashing an orange under its tire, or a child squashing an ant under a shoe, and you'll get the general idea.

Answer: Bank

A river bank is the land on the river's edge, sloped up from the water either gently or steeply. The cliff's edges of the Grand Canyon started out as the banks of the Colorado River, long ago, and now define an extreme of the form.

As an airplane makes a turn in its flight, it banks, tilting one wing down in the inside direction of the turn (and, necessarily, the opposite wing up). This helps stabilize its flight. The same effect is used by highway engineers; in tight turns, the roadway isn't flat, but inclined.

A bank is also an institution that takes depositors' money in exchange for guarantees of access. Banks may also pay the depositors interest for the privilege of holding onto their money. The bank's guarantees are supposed to make the money safer than it would be in a wallet or a mattress, where it might be stolen or lost, but of course there are famous historical bank failures that show this is not always the case.

Answer: Run

A run in a stocking is a long tear, up and down the leg, in which a column of stitches has come undone. A run spreads under stress (including wearing the stocking) but can be stabilized with nail polish.

A person campaigning for political office is running for office. A campaign of any length is at least as exhausting as a marathon, of course, but both are races (at least, if the politician has an opponent).

A farmer might use fencing to enclose an area where small animals can enjoy free movement. Depending on the animal, this might be a chicken run or a rabbit run, but it usually isn't both.

Answer: Fluke

A fluke is an extremely unlikely event -- perhaps a fair coin coming up heads a hundred times in a row, or an unqualified individual being named to a high office. "It's just a fluke" is an argument that the event is pure luck: there is no underlying bias or unfairness in the system.

A whale's tail has a distinctive Y shape, with the tail branching out into two side fins, or flukes.

Flukes are parasitic flatworms. Usually, part of the fluke life cycle involves parasitism in a mollusk (such as a snail), in which the fluke reproduces asexually. The offspring from this stage infect another type of host, in which they reproduce sexually; eggs, excreted in the second host's feces, eventually infect mollusks and repeat the cycle. Some types of flukes infect people, inflicting terrible pain and damage. After researching this question, I strongly advise you not to do an image search if you've recently eaten!

Answer: Bow

The various parts of a ship have specialized names that separate sailors from landlubbers. The front of a ship, usually pointed in order to cut the waves, is the bow; the rear is the stern. Left is port, right is starboard, and this is a family site so I won't go into detail about the head.

The English folk hero Robin Hood was famous for his skill with a bow and arrow. The arrow is a pointed projectile weapon, with feathers on its shaft in order to stabilize its flight. The bow is the launcher for the arrow, a curved piece of wood strung with a sinew or cord. As the archer draws the bow and releases the arrow, the tension in the wood becomes kinetic energy for the arrow's motion.

A bow is also a way of tying a knot, resulting in two loops and two dangling ends. On a package, a bow can be quite decorative; on a shoe, it's far more functional.

Answer: Date

A date is a pitted fruit that grows on the date palm. The fruit is quite sweet and delicious, dry or fresh, and is an excellent source of potassium.

The date also refers to a particular day of a particular month and a particular year: a box on a calendar. December 31, 1999 was a date that lived in party history. Today's date, meanwhile, is a moveable feast.

A date can also refer to a romantic outing -- perhaps a first date between two people who would like to get to know each other better, or a date night enjoyed by a couple with children who are trying to keep the magic alive. Movies, restaurants, and moonlit beaches are all popular date locations.

Answer: Bear

To bear a child is to carry it in one's womb and eventually give birth. A person of childbearing age is more likely to accomplish this, although with modern medicine the age range has expanded.

To bear a burden is to carry it, supporting its weight. Some loads are heavy enough to cause real trouble in the bearing. That's where Bill Withers' 1972 song "Lean on Me" comes in: "If there is a load you have to bear / That you can't carry / I'm right up the road / I'll share your load / If you just call me."

A bear is also a slang term for a stock investor who is making investments in anticipation that the market will fall and prices will drop. The bear's opposite is a bull, who charges after rising prices.

Answer: Block

A city block is an area that is occupied by buildings and lots and that is not crossed by streets. In a typical grid-like street pattern, the streets are the lines of the grid and the blocks are the squares in between. The word "block" is also sometimes used as shorthand for a single side of the block. For example, if I were giving you directions to my house, I might advise you to turn onto my street and then travel three blocks east.

Blocks are also children's toys, used to build tall towers or sprawling houses. Traditionally, blocks are made of wood, although plastic Lego blocks offer some serious engineering advantages. Although they're typically used for construction, the creative opportunities of blocks are endless. My own three-year-old daughter, for example, frequently uses Lego blocks as bus passengers, transporting them to imaginary destinations as varied as work, school, and the beach.

To block someone's path is to obstruct it, partially or totally. Blockage can be metaphorical as well as literal. Someone having trouble deciding what kind of quiz to write is suffering from a mental block.

Answer: Well

"Well" indicates surprise ("Well, I never!") or acknowledges a fact. ("Well, I thought we could have ice cream anyway ...")

When something is done well, it's done in a good way: completely, thoroughly, satisfactorily. (There are some strange boundary cases, of course: my grandfather always liked his steak well done -- very completely cooked! -- which many people do not find satisfactory at all.)

Finally, when someone is well, they are healthy -- not ill, not sick, not injured. "I'm well" is thus a positive response to "How are you?"