::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

Trivia

Trivial MCQ

1. When did the the 3rd millenium A.D. begin?
Midnight, January 1 2001
Midnight, December 31, 2000
Midnight, January 1 2000
Midnight, December 31, 1999
2. Of the following countries, which tourist board last had a registered tourist in 1990?
Rwanda
Afghanistan
Somalia
Iraq
3. He invented the AR-15/M16 series rifle.
Andrew Roberts
John Browning
Eugene Stoner
Mikhail Kalashnikov
4. Who was elected Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia in the 9 October 2004 federal election?
John Howard
Margaret Thatcher
Paul Martin
Paul Keating
5. Which is not a bird?
Dugong
Hen
Emu
Quail
6. Which of the following mythical creatures does not have a human component?
Centaur
Minotaur
Mermaid
Griffin
7. Which of the following would you expect to hatch out of an egg?
A platypus
A carnation
A calf
A piglet
8. Which of the following pairs are not (and have never been) musical instruments?
A xylophone and a saxaphone
A shoozaphone and a hoozaphone
A lute and a flute
A guitar and a sitar
9. Which of the following bird names does not have another common meaning?
Emu
Swallow
Duck
Hawk
10. Which is not an accepted name for a swimming stroke?
The Australian crawl
The Frug
Breast stroke
Butterfly stroke

Answers
1. Midnight, January 1, 2001
'A.D.' is the abbreviation for the Latin phrase 'Anno Domini' -- in the year of our Lord. The birth year of Jesus Christ, having been (incorrectly) calculated by a Catholic monk, was thus A.D. 1, which began after the end of 1 B.C.: there was no year 'zero.' The day, of course, begins at midnight.
2. Somalia
Somalia's official government controls only part of the capital of Mogadishu; the rest is controlled by rival warlords and effectively autonomous governments.
3. Eugene Stoner
The U.S. Army was looking for a lightweight, small-calibre rifle to replace the M1 Garand, M14 and other weapons, which were not well-suited to the jungles of Vietnam. Despite early problems with jamming caused by use of improper powder in ammunition, the AR-15/M16 and derived weapons have become hugely popular in both civilian and military circles.
Browning was the brains behind many a weapon -- the Browning Hi-Power, Colt M1911, BAR, M2 .50BMG HMG, and M1917 among others -- but not this particular tool. Kalashnikov of course put together the wildly successful AK-47, which spawned hundreds of successive weapons. There is no Andrew Roberts (AR stands for 'Armalite', the company for which Stoner worked).
4. John Howard
John Howard defeated Mark Latham of the Australian Labor Party.
5. Dugong
A dugong is like a manatee - an aquatic mammal. The others are all birds.
6. Griffin
The griffin (or gryphon) was made up of lion and eagle pieces. A mermaid had a human torso and a fish tail, a centaur had a human torso and horse body and a minotaur had a bull's head and a human body.
7. Platypus
Calves and piglets are born in the usual mammalian fashion, and carnations grow from seed. A platypus is one of two mammals that really does hatch out of an egg. The echidna is the other one. The platypus and echidna are very primitive mammals known collectively as monotremes.
8. A shoozaphone and hoozaphone
A xylophone and a saxaphone are both musical instruments. One is struck with hammers, the other is a brass instrument. A lute is an old-fashioned stringed instrument a bit like a guitar and a flute is a wind instrument. A guitar is strummed and a sitar is an Indian instrument plucked or twanged.
9. Emu
Duck is not only a bird, but an action (to duck is to avoid by bobbing down) and also a cricket term. Swallow means to move food or liquid from the mouth to the stomach and to hawk something is to sell it door to door or to hunt using a hawk.
10. The Frug
The Frug was a 1960s dance. The others are all swimming strokes. Sidestroke, backstroke and freestyle are also accepted as legitimate stroke names, as is dogpaddle!

Source: www.ukwebstart.com