Bach and Handel

J.S. Bach and George Frederick Handel were born only 130 km (80 miles) and one month apart, but never met, in part because Handel lived and worked abroad for much of his life. There was, however, an interesting connection between the two men, namely:

A) Both were awarded gold medals by the British parliament
B) Both were married to daughters of famous sculptors
C) Both were operated on by the same surgeon
D) Both were plagued by nightmares of drowning

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What is it?

What is “Daltonism”?

A) A system of character analysis based on physical measurements
B) The belief that matter is composed of indivisible atoms
C) The deliberate avoidance of unpleasant realities
D) The inability to distinguish red from green

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Playing as you learn

A 1997 study of music tuition in the United States found that the most popular instruments to study were the piano and the guitar. The third most popular was the:

A) Clarinet
B) Drums
C) Flute
D) Violin

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Road runner

In the famous Warner Brothers cartoons, a fast-moving bird called a “road runner” makes life difficult for a not-so-wily coyote. The real road runner is actually a type of:

A) Cuckoo
B) Pheasant
C) Stork
D) Turkey

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Who made the shoes?

Of these traditional craftsmen, which one was the shoemaker?

A) The broderer
B) The cordwainer
C) The farrier
D) The loriner

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What did he discover?

Today’s computer systems take advantage of a discovery made by Sir Thomas Young in 1801. Sir Thomas showed that:

A) Electric currents can be controlled by combining silicon with other materials
B) Mathematical equations can be solved by combining simple logical operations
C) Most colors can be represented as combinations of red, green and blue
D) Numbers can be represented as combinations of the digits zero and one

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An ax to grind?

Around 480 B.C., a Greek philosopher advanced scientific knowledge by working out the true cause of astronomical eclipses. His name was:

A) Anaxagoras
B) Anaximander
C) Anaximenes of Lampsacus
D) Anaximenes of Miletus

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Scylla and Charybdis

Who or what were Scylla and Charybdis?

A) Deadly dangers faced by the Greek hero Odysseus
B) Gallic chieftains vanquished by Julius Caesar
C) The eldest wives of King Solomon
D) The guardians of the gates to Asgard in Norse myth

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Who was he?

Who was Sancho Panza?

A) The 1965 men’s Wimbledon champion
B) The servant of Don Quixote
C) The first Spaniard to found a settlement in the Americas
D) A composer specializing in works for the classical guitar

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Porbeagle

A porbeagle is a type of…

A) Sailboat
B) Servant
C) Shark
D) Sheep-dog

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