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General Knowledge True False #2

Try to guess whether these random statements are true or false.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: January 22, 2021
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First submittedOctober 13, 2020
Times taken30,074
Average score77.8%
Rating4.43
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1. According to Buddhism, once a person reaches "nirvana" their body vanishes and their soul ascends to heaven
True
False
2. Caramel is made by heating sugar
True
False
3. The pop singer Madonna was born in England
True
False
She was born in Michigan
4. Mandarin and Cantonese are mutually intelligible
True
False
5. On a clear day, it is possible to see England from France
True
False
6. Mount Everest is a volcano
True
False
7. Malaria is spread by mosquitoes
True
False
8. The United States emits more carbon dioxide than any other country
True
False
China emits more than twice as much
9. Pork consumption is forbidden by Islamic dietary laws
True
False
10. Greece's flag has two colors: blue and white
True
False
11. Elephants are good swimmers
True
False
Elephants have been recorded swimming for 6 hours straight, covering a distance of 48 kilometers. They use their trunks as snorkels!
12. Enya is a heavy metal band
True
False
Enya is a Celtic / New Age singer
13. Computer chips are generally made of silicon
True
False
14. It is possible to manufacture synthetic diamond gemstones
True
False
Sythetic diamond gemstones are widely available
15. The Spanish word for hat is "sombrero"
True
False
16. Turkeys are capable of flying for short bursts, such as onto a roof
True
False
17. If you roll a pair of dice, every possible outcome from 2 to 12 is equally likely
True
False
18. The average man has a lower body fat percentage than the average woman
True
False
+8
Level 88
Oct 14, 2020
Fun quiz! I got them all right, but guessed on a couple. I also had to stop myself from overthinking the definition of "good swimmer" and "THE Spanish word for hat." Very enjoyable, and a welcome five points! ;)
+1
Level 20
Jan 23, 2021
Same! I kept thinking over myself xD, BUT, I stuck to my gut and got 14:(
+1
Level 84
Oct 14, 2020
Fun quiz! Unusual for me, in that 1) I got them all on the first try, and 2) I had to guess on more than usual.. :-)
+3
Level 68
Oct 15, 2020
For the 14% of people who thought Madonna was born in England, were you taken in by that ridiculous accent she inexplicably adopted in the 00s when married to Guy "Mockney" Ritchie?
+1
Level 78
Oct 15, 2020
I always thought she was from Detroit.
+1
Level 70
Jan 21, 2021
She's from one of the suburbs to the north of Detroit, although I've forgotten which one.
+19
Level 75
Oct 15, 2020
I don't know anything abt Madonna so I didn't know where she was born lol
+3
Level 65
Jan 22, 2021
She could have been born in England, moved to the US as a baby and still have a fully American accent.
+2
Level 48
Oct 15, 2020
I don't understand Q17 If you roll a pair of dice, every possible outcome from 2 to 12 is equally likely. If the "outcome" means a sum of values, how can be the correct answer "false"?
+26
Level 77
Oct 15, 2020
No, because if the 2 dice were equal, here are the probabilities of getting each sum:

2 = 1/36 = 2.777%

3 = 2/36 (or 1/18) = 5.555%

4 = 3/36 (or 1/12) = 8.333%

5 = 4/36 (or 1/9) = 11.111%

6 = 5/36 = 13.888%

7 = 6/36 (or 1/6) = 16.666%

8 = 5/36 = 13.888%

9 = 4/36 (or 1/9) = 11.111%

10 = 3/36 (or 1/12) = 8.333%

11 = 2/36 (or 1/18) = 5.555%

12 = 1/36 = 2.777%

+3
Level 48
Oct 15, 2020
Thanks!
+18
Level 63
Oct 15, 2020
I feel this is just more specific in saying the outcomes are not equal not why they are not equal. There's only one way to get 2, roll snake eyes. There's only one way to get 12, roll box cars. There's six ways to get 7: rolling 3 and 4, 5 and 2, or 6 and 1 (and their inverses).
+2
Level 68
Nov 9, 2020
@mteagle128 thank you for your explanation. Really simplified!!!
+1
Level 85
Jan 15, 2021
If you keep this in mind, playing Monopoly becomes a little easier.
+1
Level 72
Oct 15, 2020
2 or 12 both have a 1/36 chance of appearing. In contrast, 7 has a 6/36 chance of appearing. The results are not all equally likely.
+7
Level 34
Oct 15, 2020
listen here,

Ectoplasm is a thing. Update the quiz or ELSE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ectoplasm_(cell_biology)

:)

+1
Level ∞
Jan 22, 2021
This question has been replaced.
+1
Level 77
Sep 18, 2023
Fun fact, the late 1800s and early 1900s were awash with scummy scammers who pretended to have psychical energies and talk with ghosts and such. One of the common tricks was to allow people to inspect the hands and mouth and such, and then produce psychical ectoplasm. It looked suspiciously like cheese cloth that someone snorted all the way to their sinuses, and then sucked out into the back of a fake psychic’s throat, but apparently people fell for this scam. Rest assured, as stupid as you think people are today, they were definitely more stupid 100 years ago!
+1
Level 79
Jan 21, 2021
I only got the nirvana, diamond and sombrero questions wrong
+4
Level 76
Jan 21, 2021
can the question about mandarin/cantonese be phrased a bit more clearly? i surely can’t be the only one who misunderstood what mutually intelligible means (i thought it meant you could tell the difference between them, and so got the opposite of the correct answer). i know what you have is correct, but perhaps it could be in layman’s terms - a speaker of one can understand the other and vice versa.
+1
Level 68
Jan 21, 2021
Mutually intelligible means both can understand the other. It's a common misconception, because the different languages of China are sometimes referred to as "Chinese", when they are completely different languages (not dialects). Contrarily, American English, British English, and Australian English may use different words, phrases, and spellings, but the speakers can all understand each other.
+4
Level 76
Jan 21, 2021
"but the speakers can all understand each other"

Debatable.

+1
Level 82
Jan 21, 2021
I remember meeting a bloke from Alabama in a pub in Seoul and not understanding a single word he said. It was like he'd just abandoned consonants altogether.
+5
Level 72
Sep 18, 2023
A Cantonese speaker can, as a rule, understand Standard Chinese written by a Mandarin speaker. In that sense the two languages are mutually intelligible. (Of course it's not that simple in practice--things rarely are.)

While this doesn't mean the statement is wrong--the two languages are not mutually intelligible when spoken or heard by monolingual speakers--the ambiguity is reason enough to either rephrase or replace this item.

+2
Level 69
Jan 22, 2021
As a cook and baker, I definitely take issue with the "caramel" question. Yes, sugar is part of it, and yes, it involves heat, but more goes into making caramel than just sugar and heat. Simply heating sugar is not going to create caramel - you need some sort of liquid to dissolve the sugar in and to add body to it so that it reaches the stage of "caramel". You can use water and sugar, butter and sugar, or milk/cream and sugar.
+1
Level ∞
Jan 22, 2021
Here's where I got my information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramel

"Caramel (/ˈkærəmɛl/ or /ˈkɑːrməl/[1][2]) is a medium to dark-orange confectionery product made by heating a variety of sugars."

"The process of caramelization consists of heating sugar slowly to around 170 °C (340 °F)."

+4
Level 21
Jan 26, 2021
so you agree that caramel is made from heating sugar. What exactly is your issue?
+1
Level 66
May 17, 2023
Apparently you can make rocket fuel by melting sugar. And adding an oxidizer (potassium) + catalyst (iron oxide). Plenty of youtube videos about it. I thought it was interesting to see the dry ingredients all melt together in a hot pan. Just .02 for anyone curious
+2
Level 68
Sep 20, 2023
Are you sure you're a baker? Because you definitely can make caramel just by heating sugar.
+5
Level 27
Feb 12, 2021
I am a Cantonese speaker and I think that Cantonese and Mandarin are mutually intelligible, at least to a certain degree...
+3
Level ∞
Jun 5, 2023
What do you mean by this? Everything I've read says that this is 100% NOT the case unless you have specifically studied Mandarin.
+1
Level 53
Sep 18, 2023
There are definitely enough similarities for speakers to get through a basic conversation with some level of understanding. Think of it like the difference between speaking Portuguese in Portugal vs speaking it in Brazil. A lot of it just comes down to accent and cadence.
+1
Level 74
Sep 19, 2023
Source??
+2
Level 69
Sep 19, 2023
Does mutual intelligibility pertain to spoken language only?

I know that Mandarin and Cantonese when spoken sound very different, but don't they largely use the same characters? Would a Mandarin and Cantonese speaker not be able to read the same simplified (or traditional?) Chinese?

+1
Level 81
Dec 28, 2023
Perhaps an italics explanation for #1 would be in order given how low the score is - unless it's obvious once you realize it's wrong.