The mask before the man

What was the pseudonym of the famous British writer Eric Arthur Blair?

A) E.M. Forster
B) George Orwell
C) Graham Greene
D) Saki

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Time for music

Note durations in musical notation can be named according to the North American system (whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, etc.) or the older British system (semibreves, minims, crotchets, etc.). What is the equivalent British name for the North American thirty-second note?

A) Quaver
B) Semiquaver
C) Demisemiquaver
D) Hemidemisemiquaver

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Whose horse was it?

Which great military leader rode a horse named Bucephalus?

A) Alexander the Great
B) Charlemagne
C) Julius Caesar
D) Richard the Lionheart

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Past disaster

Which major disaster occurred in London, England in 1666?

A) A devastating outbreak of the bubonic plague began
B) An earthquake caused severe damage to Buckingham Palace
C) A fire destroyed most of the city
D) A French agent assassinated the prime minister

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We’ve just released our new Threesomes Quiz, in which each of the ten questions concerns a group of three similar or allied things from myth, science, history or the arts. A high score in this wide-ranging quiz indicates good breadth of knowledge. If you’re pressed for time, turn instead to the quick version, with all the questions on one page (but less supplementary information). As a bit of a teaser, here’s the first question:

What are Doomstead, Skinfaxi and Sleipnir?

A) Horses in Scandinavian mythology
B) Infectious diseases in the Middle Ages
C) The last three books of the seer Nostradamus
D) Small flowers that grow on mountainsides

Anatomically speaking

Where is the corpus callosum located?

A) Behind the heart, but only after death
B) In one’s head
C) On one’s hands and feet
D) Within each cell of the body

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The road to Brobdingnag

Where would you find the kingdom of Brobdingnag?

A) In Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
B) In the Bible
C) In Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
D) In medieval Germany

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Qui était-il?

The 18th-century French intellectual François-Marie Arouet is better known by another name. He was:

A) King Louis XIV
B) Diderot, the encyclopedist
C) Laplace, the physicist and mathematician
D) Voltaire, the philosophe

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According to Hoyle

The expression “according to Hoyle” means “according to the official rules”. Who or what was Hoyle?

A) The Hoyle Sports Club in London, England
B) A renowned poker expert in the American wild west
C) A pseudonym used by Britain’s King George IV when gambling
D) An 18th-century writer on games

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Consul extraordinary

In ancient Rome there were at any time two consuls, or chief magistrates. These very important officials were elected annually. The consul Incitatus, who served under the emperor Caligula, was unusual in that he was:

A) A child of six
B) A figment of Caligula’s imagination
C) A horse
D) A Saxon prince

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