Quizzes & Puzzles 1

For many, many years in the past, I was a “Puzzlist” - that is to say, I was constructing and compiling various sorts of logical puzzles, some very complex, some less so. I also created quizzes for different uses. It was never my main occupation, but I have always done many parallel things; to do so is part of my general approach to life.

Since things like these amuse a lot of people - after all, it is a playful way to learn (not at least from the answers), and it's quite fun to produce as well - I decided to test a new series here: “Quizzes & Puzzles”. Then if the response is good, the series will continue until further notice, with a new issue now and then (never more often than once a week though). The main part will be quizzes, but occasional puzzles will turn up. That is to say, that this is what I have in mind now, but I know from experience that reader feedback can bring things in entirely new directions.

In the internet age, it's sometimes too easy to answer quizzes by using Google, although it's more fun not to do so. For that reason, I will not offer any prizes for correct answers. Let's do this for fun, and in order to exercise the brain or to learn something in a playful way, but feel free to post answers and solutions in the comment section.

What will the quizzes be about and what sort of logical puzzles will I include?

Almost anything can turn up as a quiz; I will try to reach some variation in my choice of subjects, but of course, topics from my articles will be there: history, (in the broadest sense), literature & art, science, language, etc. However, I might go beyond even these borders to less intellectual realms. We will see where this leads us.

As for puzzles, I have not really decided that yet. We will see.

Quiz 1:1

This is a question about geography and words. I ask for two capitals. Names refer to how they are written in English.

a) If you reverse the syllables in the name of this (present day) capital, you get the name of the previous capital in the same country. Which capital am I referring to?

b) I assume that everyone is familiar with the distinction between vowels and consonants. The name of the second capital whose name I seek, consists of 11 letters, and as many as 8 of them are vowels. Which is the capital?

Quiz 1:2

Most people know that saffron is the most expensive spice, but which is the next most expensive?

Quiz 1:3

A member of the plant kingdom contains a substance being 50 times sweeter than ordinary sugar. The root is used to produce medicines and sweets. But beware, only a small overconsumption can make the blood pressure rise dramatically. What is this plant called?

Quiz 1:4

Who wrote this and from which Victorian novel is it taken?

"It was spacious, and I dare say it had once been handsome, but every discernible thing in it was covered with dust and mould, and dropping to pieces. The most prominent object was a long table with a tablecloth spread on it, as if a feast had been in preparation when the house and the clocks all stopped together. An epergne, or centerpiece of some kind was in the middle of this cloth; it was so heavily overhung with cobwebs that its form was quite undistinguishable; and, as I looked along the yellow expanse out of which I remember its seeming to grow, like a black fungus, I saw speckled legged spiders with blotchy bodies running home to it, and running out from it, as if some circumstance of the greatest public importance had just transpired in the spider community.

I heard the mice too, rattling behind the panels, as if the same occurrence were important to their interests. But the blackbeetles took no notice of the agitation, and groped about the hearth in a ponderous elderly way, as if they were short-sighted and hard of hearing, and not on terms with one another."

Answers will be provided in “Quizzes & Puzzles 2”, along with new chances to test your knowledge.

Read also the series, ”Suggested Reading”, which is a compilation of articles by other authors on this platform; and “Retrospection”, which presents some of my own old articles in a topic related way, quite different from the chronological order in my profile.

In my INDEX, you can find all my writings on Read.Cash, sorted by topic.

Copyright © 2022 Meleonymica/Mictorrani. All Rights Reserved.

(Image by Christian Dorn/Pixabay, CC0/Public Domain.)

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