New Scaratings

15 Questions, 1000 Points each, Points decrease rapidly from 4 to 20 seconds after appearance of Question & 5 Choices, and with 3 Clues:

1. Where would you most likely find a capstan?______________________
[Choices: In a flower bud, In a refrigerator, On a trombone, On a ship, Under a rock ]

2. A North American geography expert would know that Agawa Bay is on the shore of:_____________________.
[Choices: Lake Superior, The Bay of Fundy, Long Island Sound, Great Salt Lake, The Gulf of California ]

3. Axiology is a theory you would study if taking a class in:_____________________.
[Choices: Astronomy, Western philosophy, Psychology, Genetics, Quantum mechanics ]

4. Prince Myshkin is the protagonist of this novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky:_____________________.
[Choices: War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenina, The Idiot ]

5. Which scientist shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics with Marie and Pierre Curie?____________________
[Choices: Enrico Fermi, Sir Ernest Rutherford, J.D. van der Waals, Antoine Henri Becquerel, Niels Bohr ]

6. In Homer's "Odyssey", what is Nepenthe?_____________________
[Choices: Greek flagship, Mountainous island, Drug, Mythical heaven, Helen's beloved cat ]

7. Papain is an enzyme found in ___________________ that is used to tenderize meat.
[Choices: Papayas, Porcupines, Paprika, Paper, Pineapples ]

8. In Latin America, people often gather at a "Zocalo", which is a:_______________________.
[Choices: Cockfight ring, Central marketplace, Town square, Cathedral, Local bordello ]

9. Who was the French Premier at the close of World War I?___________________
[Choices: Georges Clemenceau, Jean-Paul Sartre, Charles de Gaulle, Francois Mitterand, Valery Giscard d'Estaing ]

10. This city is located where the Nile River empties into the Mediterranean Sea:____________________.
[Choices: Tunis, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Alexandria, Algiers ]

11. Because of its superior hearing, it is called the "hearing-aid" fish:___________________.
[Choices: Shark, Tuna, Eel, Minnow, Sturgeon ]

12. A hybrid language, often used for commerce, made up of bits from various tongues is a:____________________.
[Choices: Lingua franca, Pax nihilo, Pro bono, Trans fideles, Taedium vitae ]

13. Thalamus, Medulla and Pons varolii are all:___________________.
[Choices: Body parts, Mediterranean islands, Roman ruins, Courts of law, Carnivorous plants ]

14. This Italian city's oldest university was established in 1088:_____________________.
[Choices: Milan, Turin, Bologna, Ravenna, Venice ]

15. In 1894, it became the first noble gas to be discovered on Earth:____________________.
[Choices: Helium, Argon, Krypton, Radon, Neon ]






Answers:

1. On a ship [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capstan_(nautical) ]

2. Lake Superior [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Supe ... ncial_Park ]

3. Western philosophy [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiology ]

4. The Idiot [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Idiot ]

5. Becquerel [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Becquerel ]

6. Drug [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepenthe ]

7. Papaya [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papain ]

8. Town square [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zocalo ]

9. Clemenceau [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Clemenceau . The other Choices were way wrong. Note: Clemenceau's title was Prime Minister, not Premier (Raymond Poincare was the President of the Third Republic). For the distinction between Prime Minister and President, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_France . In Canada, the leader of a provincial government is called the Premier, whereas Prime Minister is the leader of the federal (national) government; in meetings they are collectively called First Ministers. ]

10. Alexandria [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria ]

11. Minnow [see https://dosits.org/animals/sound-recept ... fish-hear/ ; OTOH, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_sytems_in_fish , sharks may have excellent hearing .]

12. Lingua franca [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca ]

13. Body parts [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalamus , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medulla_oblongata , and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pons ]

14. Bologna [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Bologna ]

15. Argon [see the section "History" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argon (discovered on Earth in 1894). I knew that helium had been discovered much earlier in the spectrum of the Sun (1868); see the section "History" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium , but discovered much later on the Earth, so I guessed that the answer was Helium. It was isolated by Ramsay in 1895 (i.e. first discovered on the Earth in 1895, and proved to give the same yellow spectral line as seen in the spectrum of the Sun - see http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... spect.html ). In 1907, Rutherford and Royds showed that alpha particles emitted in radioactivity are the nuclei of helium atoms by collecting the particles (which gain 2 electrons and become electrically neutral helium atoms) in an evacuated glass tube, and then observing the spectrum when high-voltage electricity is passed through the gas. ]

The second link in the Answer for Q11 should have read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_systems_in_fish (see the section "Hearing" for carp and sharks).

On of the Mall Crawlers at my table had been to a zocalo somewhere in Mexico, where (on that particular day at least) it served as an open-air market. We were not able to draw the crucial distinction, and I doubt we were the only ones who failed. Usually first-hand experience is sufficient.

To GONE D: Yes, we guessed open-air market as well (usually in a city square?), but we are not strong on Spanish, so we didn't question the Buzztime answer.

I'm afraid that I am the one who prevented our team from getting a perfect score on that question. BOTAN precalled "Central Town Square" even before the choices came up; and when choice #1 appeared as "Central Marketplace," on the strength of seeing the word "central," I shouted out "It's 1!" before people read down the list to #5, which was where "Town Square" was for us, and people began correcting to it. It's one thing to lose points for your team by calling out a guess that is wrong. It's another thing to drag your team off the correct answer by a bad call. It's a good thing my teammates are the forgiving type.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Heartwarming to see this expression of gratitude on the 227th anniversary of the first execution by guillotine (April 25. 1792).

Having witnessed any number of lynchings over the twenty-odd years I've been playing these quizzes, I can attest that it's not the 921's that'll get you killed, it's the 192's. By which I intend no disparagement of the Fellowship, capable of rough justice as any of the rest of us, but perhaps more discriminating in the application.

Oh, we've had a few of the 192s, as well as a (thankfully) few complete craters on the last Showdown question due to an unfortunate call. One of the things I admire most about The Fellowship is that while they have top-notch memories when it comes to almost all branches of knowledge, they have remarkably short memories when it comes to individual mistakes. I suspect this is one of the reasons why--even after 15 years--people continue to come and play every week.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."