Cumulative PM-based History Quiz III
- Thread starter Taliesin
- Start date
...and should he succeed, he won't get off the hook so easilyHey! You haven't won yet!
I've looked through the Quiz, but I don't know if i'll be able to submit answers in time. Several of the questions are of the sort that I feel I have a very good chance at guessing the correct answer, given enough time 
As my answers stand now, I'll certainly not get more than a couple of points
As my answers stand now, I'll certainly not get more than a couple of points
Well, it has been a week and the questions # 1.3, 15, 16 and 18 are still unanswered, so as promised I'll add some hints for these - and also for #17, which has been answered only by red_elk. As he probably won't be competing for overall victory, I hope he won't object.
So: for 1.3:
"... the Barbarians showed us the place where the sun goes to rest. And it was the case that in these parts the nights were very short, in some places two, in others three hours long, so that the sun rose again a short time after it had set."
For 15:
...come on, I am really surprised nobody got this. If you have ever been to theater or cinema, you've seen this in action!
For 16:
One of those Kings has left an impression in popular memory with his dislike for nervous people, whom he frequently threatened to "execute on the spot".
For 17:
Now march.'' And calmly, not yet seeking
to aim, at steady, even pace
the foes, cold-blooded and unspeaking,
each took four steps across the space,
four fateful stairs. Then, without slowing
the level tenor of his going,
___ quietly began
to lift his pistol up. A span
of five more steps they went, slow-gaited,
and ___, left eye closing, aimed --
but just then ___'s pistol flamed...
The clock of doom had struck as fated;
and the poet, without a sound,
let fall his pistol on the ground.
...
He lay quite still, and strange as dreaming
was that calm brow of one who swooned.
Shot through below the chest -- and streaming
the blood came smoking from the wound.
A moment earlier, inspiration
had filled this heart, and detestation
and hope and passion; life had glowed
and blood had bubbled as it flowed;
but now the mansion is forsaken;
shutters are up, and all is pale
and still within, behind the veil
of chalk the window-panes have taken.
The lady of the house has fled.
Where to, God knows. The trail is dead.
Finally, the clue for #18 is another picture.
So, rack 'em brains. Also, just for clarification I assert that I am willing to accept several submissions from one person - if you guessed wrong, you can guess again.
So: for 1.3:
"... the Barbarians showed us the place where the sun goes to rest. And it was the case that in these parts the nights were very short, in some places two, in others three hours long, so that the sun rose again a short time after it had set."
For 15:
...come on, I am really surprised nobody got this. If you have ever been to theater or cinema, you've seen this in action!
For 16:
One of those Kings has left an impression in popular memory with his dislike for nervous people, whom he frequently threatened to "execute on the spot".
For 17:
Now march.'' And calmly, not yet seeking
to aim, at steady, even pace
the foes, cold-blooded and unspeaking,
each took four steps across the space,
four fateful stairs. Then, without slowing
the level tenor of his going,
___ quietly began
to lift his pistol up. A span
of five more steps they went, slow-gaited,
and ___, left eye closing, aimed --
but just then ___'s pistol flamed...
The clock of doom had struck as fated;
and the poet, without a sound,
let fall his pistol on the ground.
...
He lay quite still, and strange as dreaming
was that calm brow of one who swooned.
Shot through below the chest -- and streaming
the blood came smoking from the wound.
A moment earlier, inspiration
had filled this heart, and detestation
and hope and passion; life had glowed
and blood had bubbled as it flowed;
but now the mansion is forsaken;
shutters are up, and all is pale
and still within, behind the veil
of chalk the window-panes have taken.
The lady of the house has fled.
Where to, God knows. The trail is dead.
Finally, the clue for #18 is another picture.
So, rack 'em brains.
Also, just for clarification I assert that I am willing to accept several submissions from one person - if you guessed wrong, you can guess again.Attachments
I'v juste realized there is a 4th page in the PDF with the questions!!
I stopped at question 13... I will see tomorrow if I can answer questions 14 to 17, but I don't have time at the moment to read them in details.
I stopped at question 13... I will see tomorrow if I can answer questions 14 to 17, but I don't have time at the moment to read them in details.
civ_king has improved his score by another +3,5 points and has thus taken second place with 12,5 points in total.
Competition in the top is getting close. I hope he is not purposefully withholding some of his knowledge
@Steph :
EDIT: Already 13,5 points to civ_king: he also cracked #16.
EDIT: And red_elk is the first to crack #15!
Competition in the top is getting close. I hope he is not purposefully withholding some of his knowledge
Spoiler :
@Steph :
EDIT: Already 13,5 points to civ_king: he also cracked #16.
EDIT: And red_elk is the first to crack #15!
Sorry, too busy today to look at it again, will try tomorrow
civ_king has improved his score by another +3,5 points and has thus taken second place with 12,5 points in total.
Competition in the top is getting close. I hope he is not purposefully withholding some of his knowledge
Spoiler :
@Steph :
EDIT: Already 13,5 points to civ_king: he also cracked #16.
EDIT: And red_elk is the first to crack #15!
Updated scoreboard:
Steph - 14,5+3 = 17,5 points
civ_king - 2+7+3,5+1 = 13,5 points
sydhe - 9,5+1+1 = 11,5 points
Dragonlord - 10 points
Tabster - 8 points
innonimatu - 5 points
Atticus - 5 points
red_elk - 1+1 points
Steph - 14,5+3 = 17,5 points
civ_king - 2+7+3,5+1 = 13,5 points
sydhe - 9,5+1+1 = 11,5 points
Dragonlord - 10 points
Tabster - 8 points
innonimatu - 5 points
Atticus - 5 points
red_elk - 1+1 points
Final day for submissions!
Vogtmurr ties with sydhe for third place and Tabster improves his score just enough to narrowly squeeze past Dragonlord onto fourth.
I hope Steph has started to think of some questions already, unless someone shall come and surprise us. I would still hope for Richard, but he made the last one, so has privilege of submitting for laurels only.
Steph - 17,5 points
civ_king - 13,5 points
sydhe - 11,5 points
vogtmurr - 11,5 points
Tabster - 10,2 points
Dragonlord - 10 points
innonimatu - 5 points
Atticus - 5 points
red_elk - 2 points
Vogtmurr ties with sydhe for third place and Tabster improves his score just enough to narrowly squeeze past Dragonlord onto fourth.
I hope Steph has started to think of some questions already, unless someone shall come and surprise us. I would still hope for Richard, but he made the last one, so has privilege of submitting for laurels only.
Steph - 17,5 points
civ_king - 13,5 points
sydhe - 11,5 points
vogtmurr - 11,5 points
Tabster - 10,2 points
Dragonlord - 10 points
innonimatu - 5 points
Atticus - 5 points
red_elk - 2 points
Well, time for answers. Final results first -and Steph is the winner this time! 
Steph - 17,5 points
civ_king - 13,5 points
vogtmurr - 13,5 points
sydhe - 11,5 points
Tabster - 10,2 points
Dragonlord - 10 points
innonimatu - 5 points
Atticus - 5 points
red_elk - 2 points
And now answers:
1. Pytheas of Massilia and Thule. 1.3 was quite certainly the hardest question in the quiz - so don't be ashamed nobody got this - though vogtmurr got closest with "island in the Baltic".
The lake on the photograph is actually a meteorite crater on the island of Saaremaa (Ösel), off west coast of Estonia.
2. The movement - Victual Brothers. The man - Klaus Störtebeker
4. "Thalia", a book written by Arius.
5. Tecumseh, killed in the Battle of the Thames during War of 1812 by Richard M. Johnson, later the ninth Vice President of US. The man who shared his name was naturally William Tecumseh Sherman.
6. The substance was porcelain, (re)invented by Johann Friedrich Böttger
7. "Misericordia" -a thin-bladed dagger; so called, in the Middle Ages, because used to give the death wound or 'mercy' stroke to a fallen adversary.
8. Excerpt taken from Cyrus cylinder, issued by Cyrus the Great.
9. I originally had Ireland in mind, but it appeared that Portugal and Spain were correct answers as well.
10. That is how US citizens who disliked the purchase of Alaska used to call it.
11. Magellan's slave Enrique might have actually completed the full circumnavigation first.
12. Henry, in his chronic shortage of money, faked currency, issuing copper coins just coated with silver. However, silver used to wear off from higher parts of the coin...like Henry's nose on his portrait.
13. The seeds were used as weights to weigh precious stones. That's where the word "carat" comes from.
14. All these wars ended with "Treaty of Paris".
15. Why the hell was everyone offering stage curtain to me?
Guys, I hoped better from you. red_elk was the only one to crack this - quite possibly every theater or cinema in the world today is using the Cartesian coordinate system to mark its seats.
16. Full quote sounds like this: "The whole world is in revolt. Soon there will be only five Kings left - the King of England, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, the King of Hearts and the King of Diamonds." And I am disappointed that my brilliant reference to the King of Hearts fell on deaf ears on an English-speaking forum.
17. The man was Georges d'Anthes, famous for being the person who killed Aleksandr Pushkin on a duel. And my clue was an excerpt from one of Pushkin's greatest works, Evgeny Onegin.
18. How do you people crack nuts if you don't recognize a simple kitchen utensil? However, the right answer would have been castration clamps, used to staunch the flow of blood. Turns out there is an entire God damn article about the thingies here: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1948685. Also, the picture I gave as clue depicted castration of Kronos - but vogtmurr was the only one to deduce right answer from there.
Steph - 17,5 points
civ_king - 13,5 points
vogtmurr - 13,5 points
sydhe - 11,5 points
Tabster - 10,2 points
Dragonlord - 10 points
innonimatu - 5 points
Atticus - 5 points
red_elk - 2 points
And now answers:
1. Pytheas of Massilia and Thule. 1.3 was quite certainly the hardest question in the quiz - so don't be ashamed nobody got this - though vogtmurr got closest with "island in the Baltic".
The lake on the photograph is actually a meteorite crater on the island of Saaremaa (Ösel), off west coast of Estonia.
This might have been the place shown to Pytheas where "the Sun went to sleep".
2. The movement - Victual Brothers. The man - Klaus Störtebeker
3. The story behind the superstition is allegedly as follows: during the Boer War, whenever an Englishman would draw a match to lit his pipe, a number of Scots would gather around him to share the match, thus providing an easy target for Boer sharpshooters....
4. "Thalia", a book written by Arius.
5. Tecumseh, killed in the Battle of the Thames during War of 1812 by Richard M. Johnson, later the ninth Vice President of US. The man who shared his name was naturally William Tecumseh Sherman.
6. The substance was porcelain, (re)invented by Johann Friedrich Böttger
7. "Misericordia" -a thin-bladed dagger; so called, in the Middle Ages, because used to give the death wound or 'mercy' stroke to a fallen adversary.
8. Excerpt taken from Cyrus cylinder, issued by Cyrus the Great.
9. I originally had Ireland in mind, but it appeared that Portugal and Spain were correct answers as well.
10. That is how US citizens who disliked the purchase of Alaska used to call it.
11. Magellan's slave Enrique might have actually completed the full circumnavigation first.
12. Henry, in his chronic shortage of money, faked currency, issuing copper coins just coated with silver. However, silver used to wear off from higher parts of the coin...like Henry's nose on his portrait.
13. The seeds were used as weights to weigh precious stones. That's where the word "carat" comes from.
14. All these wars ended with "Treaty of Paris".
15. Why the hell was everyone offering stage curtain to me?
Guys, I hoped better from you. red_elk was the only one to crack this - quite possibly every theater or cinema in the world today is using the Cartesian coordinate system to mark its seats. 16. Full quote sounds like this: "The whole world is in revolt. Soon there will be only five Kings left - the King of England, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, the King of Hearts and the King of Diamonds." And I am disappointed that my brilliant reference to the King of Hearts fell on deaf ears on an English-speaking forum.
17. The man was Georges d'Anthes, famous for being the person who killed Aleksandr Pushkin on a duel. And my clue was an excerpt from one of Pushkin's greatest works, Evgeny Onegin.
18. How do you people crack nuts if you don't recognize a simple kitchen utensil?
However, the right answer would have been castration clamps, used to staunch the flow of blood. Turns out there is an entire God damn article about the thingies here: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1948685. Also, the picture I gave as clue depicted castration of Kronos - but vogtmurr was the only one to deduce right answer from there.
I will need some time to prepare a quizz, as I'm attending a wedding this week end and will be busy.
Dragonlord
Fantasy Warlord
Re #18 - I'm kind of glad I didn't "recognize" the thing then! *shudder*
But thanks for a great quiz - lot's of fun, not to mention educational!
But thanks for a great quiz - lot's of fun, not to mention educational!
Well ... 
... for a change it is now the quizmaster who has to make an awkward confession...
Looks like I had fallen victim to Iranian propaganda hoax. And naturally I only discovered it now.
Text given in question # 8 was, apparently, a hoax, though well-spread one:
http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrus_I/cyrus_cylinder.html
Full translation of the cylinder can be found here:
http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrus_I/cyrus_cylinder2.html
And innonimatu, Steph, civ_king and Tabster all fell for it too... with vogtmurr being the only one to suggest it might be an attempt at black humor.
Me be ashamed in me corner now, trying to repair me BS sensors...
EDIT: Actually, Shah Mohammad Reza Palavi would most likely have been the correct answer... but nobody said that.
... for a change it is now the quizmaster who has to make an awkward confession...Looks like I had fallen victim to Iranian propaganda hoax. And naturally I only discovered it now.
Text given in question # 8 was, apparently, a hoax, though well-spread one:
http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrus_I/cyrus_cylinder.html
Full translation of the cylinder can be found here:
http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrus_I/cyrus_cylinder2.html
And innonimatu, Steph, civ_king and Tabster all fell for it too... with vogtmurr being the only one to suggest it might be an attempt at black humor.
Me be ashamed in me corner now, trying to repair me BS sensors...
EDIT: Actually, Shah Mohammad Reza Palavi would most likely have been the correct answer... but nobody said that.
innonimatu
the resident Cassandra
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2006
- Messages
- 15,374
Interesting. The real translation does sound much more like what an ancient kind would have had written - straightforward self-promotion and no abstract promises - a king is not obliged to its subjects!
I still could fall for Asoka having had something like that written. But Cyrus never really turned his back on conquest so "Each is free to accept it, and if any one of them rejects it, I shall never resolve on war to reign" - really bad guess.
... and you also did get your point for it, fair and square....?HEY!!! I got 1) correct, I said THULEI shall go cry now
sydhe
King of Kongs
There's also a theory that the Three on a Match thing was made up by Ivan Krueger, the Match King, but Wikipedia says otherwise. It did supply a theme for a well-known pre-Code movie.
Oh, and I'm mad I didn't get the Descartes question.
Oh, and I'm mad I didn't get the Descartes question.
made any progress on the quiz?Similar threads
