If you’re looking for thrills with a slightly cerebral edge, don’t miss our brand-new Technology Quiz. It brings you ten questions from the history of that quintessentially human endeavor, technology, which offers a solution for every problem and a problem for every solution. If you’re in a hurry, we ourselves have the technology to help: try the quick version instead; it has all the questions on one page, but less supplementary information. Here’s the first question:

To whom was the first patent for a technical invention awarded?

A) Christiaan Huygens, mathematician and engineer
B) Filippo Brunelleschi, architect and engineer
C) Leonardo da Vinci, artist and inventor
D) Sir Christopher Wren, architect and scientist

Who were the Moguls?

Nowadays we often use the term mogul to mean an important person — particularly in business, and perhaps above all in Hollywood — but the original Moguls were:

A) Emperors of India
B) Fictional kings in the Tales of Baron von Munchausen
C) Princes of Persia
D) Wealthy land-owners of Babylon and Ur

Click here to check your answer on our site.

Find the schwa

Only one of the following words has the sound called a schwa. Which is it?

A) Boiling
B) Sandwich
C) Scented
D) Vacuum

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A couple of weeks back we posted an Antiquity Quiz, but forgot to take note of it on this page. The ten questions in the quiz introduce us to some of the people and peoples of the ancient world, human beings very like ourselves — but with a couple of millennia less of history upon their heads. If you’re in a hurry, try the quick version instead; it has all the questions on one page, but less supplementary information. As usual, here’s the first question:

The ancient Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest works of literature still extant. One important episode features a man named Utnapishtim, who:

A) Attacked and slew a three-headed dog at the gate of hell
B) Built an ark to save himself from a flood sent to destroy humanity
C) Caused disaster by misusing his ability to turn all things to gold
D) Drove the sun-god’s chariot across the sky

Who’s got the silver?

The world’s leading producer of silver is a country in the Americas. Which one?

A) Argentina
B) Canada
C) Mexico
D) Peru

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