Quiz #12 - Do you know your Kiwi?
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Q 1 How may hearts does an octopus have?
A 3
They also have blue blood and nine brains.
Q 2 What is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust?
A Aluminium
Aluminium in ore form (not pure) makes up about 8 percent of the crust.
If we take Earth's core into account, iron would be the most common metal.
Q 3 Which playwright created the name Jessica?
A William Shakespeare
The name appeared with its current spelling in the play The Merchant of Venice, published in 1600. Jessica is the daughter of Shylock, a money lender from Venice.
Marlowe was a contemporary of Shakespeare's and his story is well worth reading. So is Bergerac's for that matter.
Q 4 When was the nursery rhyme 'Ring a Ring o' Roses' first published?
It first appeared in print in 1881, although had been sung for at least 100 years prior.
Peter and Iona Opie investigated the origins of the rhyme and found the claims of great antiquity to be unfounded.
Q 5 Which of the following is NOT a botanical berry?
A Strawberry
Botanically speaking, a berry is "a fleshy fruit without a stone produced from a single flower containing one ovary" (Wikipedia).
Fruits excluded by the botanical definition include blackberries, raspberries and strawberries - these are all aggregate fruits.
Q 6 How many species of Kiwi are there?
A 5
The five species are:
Brown kiwi. With a population of about 25,000 the brown kiwi lives only in the North Island. There are four sub-species.
Great spotted kiwi (roroa). Living in the top half of the South Island, the roroa is the largest kiwi.
Little spotted kiwi. This, the smallest kiwi, is now extinct on the mainland even though it was once once the most common. There are around 1400 on the Kapiti Island sanctuary.
Rowi. This critically endangered species resides in South Westland. Only about 450 remain.
Tokoeka. Like the rowi, the Tokoeka is also critically endangered. There are three sub-species in Haast, Fiordland, and Stewart Island.
The DOC website has an excellent section on kiwi.
Q 7 What does P.S. at the end of a letter stand for?
A Postscript
It comes from the latin post scriptum, or 'after writing'.
When letter writing was common, and delivery was infrequent, it was quite common for people to write letters over many days, recounting various events and happenings. Letters were hand-written, so the writer could only add to the letter.
Postscripts have become an anachronism because nowadays most written communication is composed electronically, and can be edited. What a shame.
The art of letter writing is explored on the site Letters Of Note.
Q 8 Who was Caesar Salad named after?
A Caesar Cardini
The base of the salad is romaine lettuce and croutons. These are generally dressed with a raw egg, worcestershire sauce, garlic, parmesan cheese, olive oil and black pepper.
We will not be entering in any correspondence in regard to the 'true' recipe.
Q 9 What is a Lichtenberg figure?
A A high voltage arc pattern
The figures were first documented by German physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in 1777.
They have a tree-like form, and in some case resemble fractals. This is the internet, so here is a whole page of photos and facts to read. Get to it!
Q 10 What was the original colour of The Hulk?
A Grey
But problems with the printing press turned him green. And yes, there is a web page for that too.
