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Obscure Trivia #11

Select the correct answer from the choices provided … if you dare.

Some questions may be in this format:

A : B :: C : ?

This is known as an analogy. It is read as “A is to B as C is to what? So, the answer to the analogy “dog : canine :: cat : ?” is “feline.” Canine has the same relationship to dog as feline has to cat.

This is a challenging quiz, but I can almost guarantee you will learn something from it.

Constructive criticism is welcome. Please rate this quiz. Subscribe to get a notification when I release a new quiz.
Quiz by arjaygee
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Last updated: April 19, 2024
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First submittedNovember 5, 2023
Times taken30
Average score40.0%
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1. How many countries use at least one time zone with an offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) that contains a fraction of an hour (e.g., UTC +3:30)?
6
10
4
0
Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, France (French Polynesia, Marquesas Islands), India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Sri Lanka. (Source: timeanddate.com)
2. The ghost town of Nothing is located in which U.S. state?
Nevada
Arizona
Oklahoma
Kansas
(Source: Wikipedia)
3. What is the smallest mammal in the world?
Pygmy jerboa
Mouse lemur
Etruscan shrew
Bumblebee bat
The bumblebee bat weighs 2 grams and measures 1 to 1.3 inches. It lives in western Thailand and southeast Myanmar, in limestone caves along rivers. (Sources: Live Science, Wikipedia)
4. A group of swine is called …
A banquet
A siren
An excitement
A sounder
(Source: almanac.com)
5. What is the earth’s largest desert called?
Arabian
Antarctica
Gobi
Sahara
The Antarctic Polar Desert has a surface area of 5.5 million square miles. (Source: science.howstuffworks.com)
6. At one time, Scottish girls believed they would see the face of their future husband if they hung this in front of the fire on Halloween.
Undergarments
Wet sheets
Nightclothes
A bouquet of dried gorse and broom
(Source: University of Wisconsin Marathon County Library Restroom Reader, vol. 6, No. 3)
7. Which U.S. President prevented football from being banned?
Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Grover Cleveland
William McKinley
Football was in danger of being banned after 18 fatalities in the 1904 season alone. In 1905, there were 19 fatalities and 135 injuries. Amid the public outcry for a ban, Roosevelt worked with the coaches of premier colleges to reform the game. An intercollegiate conference approved the proposed changes, resulting in a significant decrease in fatalities and injuries for the 1906 season. After a spike in deaths in 1909, a second round of reforms was put in place, laying the foundation for the modern game. (Source: Library of Congress Blogs)
8. When was a fingerprint first used to solve a crime?
300 BCE
1902
702
1892
Police in Buenos Aires used a bloody thumbprint in 1892 to prove that Francisca Rojas murdered her two children. Systematic use of fingerprints in law enforcement began in the U.S. ten years later, but there is evidence they had been used for personal identification in China (300 BCE) and Japan (702 CE). (Source: Office of Justice Programs)
9. An 80-year-old’s heart has beaten about how many times?
500 million
3 billion
1 billion
5 billion
(Sources: Open Oregon Educational Resources, University of Houston)
10. How many bones does a typical shark have in its body?
200-400
0
185
206
A shark’s skeleton is made of cartilage, not bone. (Source: The Natural History Museum, London)
11. Traditional mozzarella is made from the milk of …
Sheep
Cows
Goats
Water buffalo
American mozzarella is made almost exclusively from cow’s milk, and would be sold in Italy as fior di latte, not as mozzarella. Water buffalo may have been introduced to Italy by Arabs or Goths. (Sources: 6ABC, naplesldm.com, Wikipedia)
12. What is arachibutyrophobia a fear of?
Ingesting a spider or other critter while sleeping
Paralyzation
Getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of the mouth
Not being able to digest food
(Source: Medscape)
13. Kinshasa : Leopoldville :: Ho Chi Minh City : ?
Peking
Hanoi
Saigon
Bangkok
Following a disastrous conflict (1955-1975) the nations of North Vietnam (capital at Hanoi) and South Vietnam (capital at Saigon) merged. In 1976, Saigon was renamed to honor a former communist leader of North Vietnam. (Sources: worldatlas.com, Wikipedia)
14. The United States is called “Usono” in what language?
Esperanto
Malay
Korean
Indonesian
Proposed in 1905. (Sources: Google Translate, Wiktionary)
15. In which country is the world’s largest active volcano located?
United States
Japan
Indonesia
Iceland
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa is the largest. (Source: USGS)
16. Food prepared en croûte has been …
Encrusted with nuts
Cooked over charcoal
Mixed with croutons
Baked in a pastry crust
(Source: Oxford Languages)
17. How many bottles of Heinz Tomato Ketchup are sold in a year?
650 million
1 billion
900 thousand
300 million
Sales in more than 140 countries total more than $1.5 billion. (Source: hpsauce.co.uk)
18. In which state can you receive a fine and imprisonment if you substitute margarine for butter in a restaurant without the customer’s knowledge?
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Idaho
(Source: Wis. Stat. § 97.18)
19. Which U.S. state’s cities have hosted the Olympic Games the most times?
California
Utah
Georgia
New York
Los Angeles (1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics) and Squaw Valley (1960 Winter Olympics). Missouri (summer 1904), New York (winter 1932 and 1980), Georgia (summer 1986), and Utah (winter 2002) have also hosted. (Source: architectureofthegames.net)
20. According to Apollo astronauts, what does lunar dust smell like?
Burnt steak
Spent gunpowder
Hardboiled eggs
Cotton candy
Apollo astronauts reported that lunar dust found inside their landers smelled like burnt gunpowder. (Source: BBC Science Focus)
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