Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Quiz Week 18

We're turning 18!

This is the simplest set so far.

ANSWERS AT THE END OF THE POST

1) There is this Finnish epic called Kalevala (pretty small compared to Ramayana and about the same size as the Odyssey). These were sung and each line had a specific tune and were in a local Finnish dialect. They were passed down from generation to generation but the lineage of the original story tellers came to a halt. But due to the efforts of few other Finnish experts many parts of the original still remain. Among the few people fascinated by these stories was X.
X was also fascinated by 13th century Norse legend called Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks. In these stories, Odin (Thor's dad) disguises himself as Gestumblindi, a powerful man who had angered King Heidrek by refusing to pay him tribute.
Upon meeting the king, he challenges him to a battle of wits in the form of riddles. Heidrek eventually figures out it's Odin posing the question and moves to attack him. Odin quickly turns into a hawk and flies away, but not before Heidrek's sword cuts off a piece of the bird's tail. And that, according to Norse legend, is why the hawk has a stubby tail today.

Both these had a pronounced effect on X's works. X please. 



2) What was the main reason for her being awarded the Nobel prize?




3)The English alphabet once consisted of 27 alphabets : a,b,...,y,z and __________ . The symbol for this letter came from a certain roman-latin cursive style writing of the letters e and t. When school children recited the alphabet, they would add a phrase along with the last word to avoid confusion. So , what was that letter and how was it recited in schools?

4) Charles Wreford-Brown was one of Association football’s early heroes. Brown was fond of a slang fad called an Oxford-er (like a vintage version of today’s “izzle” craze.) It works like this: you shorten a word and add “-er” on the end. Breakfast becomes “brekker.” Rugby is “rugger.” So football must have been called 'footer' (and it is called so, but that is very uncommon). But he didn't, he called it something else...what? and why?


5) What comes in place of the blank?

New Zealand:
  • Christian: 58.9%
  • No religion: 29.6%
  • Object to answering: 6.9%
  • _____: 1.5%
  • Hindu: 1.2%
  • Buddhism: 1.2%
The UK
  • Christian: 70.0%
  • No religion: 14.7%
  • Chose not to respond: 7.8%
  • Muslim: 3.1%
  • Hindu: 2.1%
  • _____: 0.7%
Australia: about 70,000 (0.37%)
Scotland: about 14,000 people (0.277 %)
Canada: about 21,000 people

and btw if you think that 70,000 people is a huge number, let me tell you that the population of TNagar alone is above 100000  :P


6) "cooperation" ...there . Now what would have happened if I had typed this word and used spell check in some old Word processer?
A few other words / phrases faced a similar consequences...what happened to these 2?
Voldemort
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (a Pakisthani political party)  


7) Jacques "Jakie" Fehr was a tiny (4'8") irascible Swiss-born shopkeeper in the village of Occidental, California. One summer day in 1908, Fisher, a member of San Francisco's Bohemian Club, was riding the North Pacific Coast narrow-gauge railway passenger train northbound to the Bohemian Grove, the club's summer campsite. During a stop in Occidental, Bud Fisher got off the train to stretch his legs and observed the diminutive walrus-moustached Fehr in heated altercation with the tall and lanky "candy butcher," who sold refreshments on the train and also distributed newspapers to shops in towns along the train route.
So what was this an inspiration for?


8) Apasmara is a disorder described in the ayurveda and is a very close equivalent of epilepsy.
Apasmara also known as Muyalaka was also a demon who represented ignorance. I'm pretty sure you must have seen Apasmara. Where ?

And with this I take a break for a few weeks.

Answers:

1) JRR Tolkien, inspiration for LOTR

2) Nobel peace prize for helping set up the Nobel peace prize

3) & . Students read it as and per se and which became ampersand.

4) Association - remove A and tion, and add the er to get soccer.

5) Jedi

6) Cupertino effect , voldemort became voltmeter etc

7) Mutt and Jeff comic strip

8) The demon-dwarf on whom Nataraja dances.








8 answers:

Harish,
I dont really think that is the easiest set at all

you're probably right...but statements like that usually make the reader go through the entire post.
And dei, do you think that this blog takes too much time to download? It takes quite some time in this whatever this device is...splashtop or something.

Dei this translation thingy is super awesome....प्रश्नोत्तरी रसातल !
very nice.

dei anon...you really think that can ever happen? that jee is jinxed.

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