Quizzes & Puzzles 38

Some new problems with which to exercise the brain. But first a look at answers and solutions to Quizzes & Puzzles 37. New problems below the image (cartoon).

Answer to Quiz 37:1

What were the currencies of these countries called before the adoption of the Euro?

• France

• Germany

• Austria

• Lithuania

• Slovakia

• The Netherlands

• Italy

• France - franc

• Germany - Deutschemark

• Austria - schilling

• Lithuania - litas

• Slovakia - koruna

• The Netherlands - guilder

• Italy - lira

Answer to Quiz 37:2

Which number is known as the number of the beast, and where is it first mentioned?

The number of the beast is 666, and its first mention is in “Revelation”, the last book of the Christian Bible. Some old manuscripts give 616 as the number of the beast. In The Number 666 & The Essence of the Beast, I explain this difference and present a plausible interpretation (a sort of puzzle solving) of what the number of the beast really refers to.

In order to do that one has to play with numbers, letters and the history of the time and place where this text was written. So, the above-mentioned article can also be seen as an example of puzzle solving.

Answer to Quiz 37:3

Who painted this, and what was the name of his wife (who is portrayed here)?

The painter is Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), commonly known only as “Rembrandt”. He shares with the great Italian Renaissance painters, that he is known by only his forename - a sign of his greatness! Rembrandt, however, was a Dutch Baroque artist.

His wife was named “Saskia”. She is known from many portraits. (The original of the one above can be found at Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Germany.)

Answer to Quiz 37:4

Adolf Hitler, Jean Cocteau, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Charlie Chaplin had something in common – what?

What they had in common was the same year of birth; they were all born in 1889. Apart from that, I doubt that they had very much in common.

Answer to Quiz 37:5

What is the opposite of acidic; that is, what is something when its pH is high?

If the pH of something is low, it is acidic - if the pH of something is high, it is alkaline. So, right answer is alkaline.

Answer to Quiz 37:6

When Egyptian god Osiris was murdered, he was cut up into a number of pieces; how many pieces?

He was cut into 14 pieces. I related the story in Egyptian Mummies & Mummification:

“Osiris, who was king, was killed by his envious (half-)brother Set. Osiris' spouse and sister, Isis, found his body and restored him to life long enough to conceive a child: Horus, the avenger. Set later found Osiris' body and cut it into 14 parts. Isis collected the parts and bound them together, thus the bandage. As a matter of fact, she found only 13 parts, the 14th, Osiris' phallus, she had made in gold. With proper ritual, Osiris was resurrected, able to get a proper funeral so he could reach afterlife. He became the god of the underworld, of the dead.

Osiris' bandaged body is the first Egyptian mummy, with the typical wrapping. And on Osiris and Horus, Pharaonic legitimacy was based.”

And now some new exercises for brain & memory...

Quiz 38:1

According to tradition, Buddha Gautama reached enlightenment sitting beneath a tree – what sort of tree was that?

Quiz 38:2

Bronze is a metal alloy, consisting mainly of two metals – which two metals?

Quiz 38:3

Alyosha, Ivan, Dimitri, and Smerdyakov – four brothers whose family name gave name to a novel, a world classic. What is the name of this famous novel, and who is the author?

Quiz 38:4

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of coffee, but which country is the next largest exporter? (This might be a little of a surprise.)

Quiz 38:5

Who is this, and who made the painting?

Quiz 38:6

According to official Olympic history, when were the first modern Olympic Games held?

Quiz 38:7

In French history, one can find the title “Dauphin”, which has been held by a number of people (although never more than one at the same time). But who would become “le Dauphin”, what did this title mean?

@FashTioluwa ! A special thanks to you for your recent, nice words, and the consistent interest you take in these quizzes. I hope you'll soon find something for you too.

You'll find answers and solutions in the next “Quizzes & Puzzles”.

Quizzes & Puzzles has its own label in my Index, where all issues of the series can be found.

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

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

(All the images are in the Public Domain.)