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     Volume 4 Issue 58 | August 12 , 2005 |


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Trivia


Death Inescapable

 

1.One of Willa Cather's most famous works is 'Death Comes for the ____________'.
Answer: (One Word)
2.In some legends, Death (the Grim Reaper) plays a fiddle with how many strings?
*2 *7
*5 *1
3.According to the Buddhist tradition, deceased people who have followed the Eightfold Path will be freed from the cycle of reincarnation and gain what state of total peace?
Answer: (One Word)
4.According to the King James version of the Twenty-Third Psalm, 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no ___________'.
Answer: (One Word)
5.In the history of the United States of America, only four U.S. presidents have been assassinated. Who was the SECOND such president?
*William McKinley
*Abraham Lincoln
*James Garfield
*Zachary Taylor
6.In Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra,' and perhaps in history as well, with what did Cleopatra kill herself?
*Antony's sword
*a poisonous snake
*carbon monoxide
*a noose
7.Shah Jahan of India built what famously beautiful building as a memorial to his favourite wife?
*Great Stupa at Sanchi
*temple at Khajuraho
*Red Fort
*Taj Mahal
8.The Celtic queen, Boudicca (Boadicea), allegedly took poison to prevent torture by the Romans after they defeated her rebel forces in battle. Where is she thought to be buried?
*Westminster Abbey
*King's Cross Station
*Castel Angelo
*Trevi Fountain in Rome
9.Another Celtic leader -- who united Gaul under his command and came very close to defeating Julius Caesar -- did fall into Roman hands. He was brought back to Rome and executed by being dragged apart by wild horses. What was the name of this first French national hero?
*Vercingetorix
*Charles de Gaulle
*Asterix
*Clovis
10.She had the great misfortune of living in Paris during the Reign of Terror, and she was forced to make death masks of the people who had been guillotined. Later she moved to Britain, and these death masks became the basis of a famous wax museum. She was Madame _________.
Answer: (One Word)
11.Robert Frost, perhaps best known among schoolchildren as the author of 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,' also wrote a poem describing 'The Death of the ______________'.
Answer: (Two Words)
12.In Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women', which March sister dies?
*Beth
*Meg
*Laurie
*Amy
13.The European Middle Ages -- a time of war and plague -- was defined by death. One frequent artistic motif, representing death, depicted the Grim Reaper leading people away in the ______________.
*Elysian fields
*Danse Macabre
*Heavenly Kingdom
*Road to Hell
14.Joan of Arc, maid of Orleans, was burned as a witch and a heretic by the English in what other French city during the Hundred Years' War?
*Rouen
*Marseilles
*Rheims
*Paris
15.What ancient Egyptian god, father of Horus, was murdered by his brother Seth and then became king of the Underworld?
Answer: (One Word)

Answers
1. Archbishop
2. 1

Arnold Boecklin did a painting illustrating this in the 1880s -- 'Self-Portrait with Death as the Fiddler.' It's a good painting. I recommend it.
3. Nirvana
4. evil

The newer translations just can't measure up.
5. James Garfield
There is a theory that Zachary Taylor died from being poisoned, probably with arsenic in a bowl of cherries, but several years ago his body was exhumed and no trace of arsenic (which is relatively stable and would have remained in his bones) was discovered.
6. a poisonous snake
Apparently, it was an asp.
7. Taj Mahal
Shah Jahan emptied his treasuries to build the Taj Mahal, enabling one of his sons to seize power. He (the father) spent the last several years of his life imprisoned across from the Taj Mahal, gazing out at it from a narrow window.
8. King's Cross Station.
Many archaeologists pin it down even further, saying that she is buried underneath Platform No. 9.
9. Vercingetorix
Vercingetorix was a Celt, not a Frenchman in any modern sense, but the French claim him as a French hero, all the same.
10. Tussaud
11. hired man
12. Beth

Laurie isn't a March sister. He's their neighbour.
13. Danse Macabre
14. Rouen

The charges were trumped up - she was canonised as a saint in 1920!
15. Osiris
When Egyptian pharoahs died, they were said to have become Osiris -- kings of the underworld, in their turn.

 

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