We've been seeing more and more of this in the afternoon. Try this one on for size:
Q: FERNANDO HENRIQUE CARDOSO WAS PRESIDENT OF WHICH SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRY FROM 1995-2002?
I was sitting in a group of 5-6 orphans when this question, or something very similar, came up. None of us ventured a pre-call.
If you were deep enough in South American history to know that Rousseff was preceded by da Silva, and da Silva by Cardoso, well, then, you can confidently pre-call "Brazil."
If you were not so versed, but knew that as a general rule the name Henry is typically Henrique in Portuguese and Enrique in Spanish, you have a plausible conjecture, and might pre-call "Brazil?" (This general rule doesn't prevent anyone named Fujimori from becoming President of Peru, so the general rule needs to be treated with a certain caution.)
If the drop-down box consists of Nicaragua, Guinea, Brazil, Spain and Rhode Island: Nicaragua is not in South, but Central America; Guinea should not be confused with any portion of Guiana; and so the question is resolved without resort to history or lexicography. Would the drop down box have been improved had Spain been dropped in favor of Spanish Guyana, which is a part of Venezuela? Or would such a minor alteration be pointless? How about Suriname? If the drop-down box had consisted of four South American countries and Rhode Island, would answering this question from a four-item drop-down box have significantly cheapened it? (SIX players don't seem much bothered by drop-down boxes shorter than five items.)
Just an example for your critical consideration. I applaud LILJOL for raising the question.
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