Worksheet: Riddles

1. What looks green, is red when you eat it, and black when you spit?

2. What needs to be fed, but will die if you give it a drink?

3. What is as light as air, but even the strongest man in the world can’t hold it for long?

4. There was a man who was born before his father, killed his mother, and married his sister. But
all of this was fine. Why?​ ​3 part answer: 1/2pt for 2, 1pt for 3

5. Marking a mortal privation when firmly in place. An enduring summation inscribed on my face.
What am I?

6. What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has
a mouth but never eats?

7. I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation, and I
surround every place.

8. My life can be measured in hours. I serve by being devoured. Thin, I am quick. Fat, I am slow.
Wind is my foe.

9. What does man love more than life, Fear more than death or mortal strife. What the poor have,
the rich require, and what contented men desire. What the miser spends and the spendthrift
saves, And all men carry to their graves?

10. Three lives have I. Gentle enough to soothe the skin, Light enough to caress the sky, Hard
enough to crack rocks.
 Total possible points: 55
Worksheet: Riddles ​(10 points)

11. What looks green, is red when you eat it, and black when you spit?​ (watermelon)
12. What needs to be fed, but will die if you give it a drink?​ (fire)
13. What is as light as air, but even the strongest man in the world can’t hold it for long?​ (breath)
14. There was a man who was born before his father, killed his mother, and married his sister. But
all of this was fine. Why?​ (The father was present at the birth of the child, he was born before his
father. The mother died in childbirth, and he killed his mother. The baby grew up to be a pastor, and he
married his sister at her ceremony)
15. Marking a mortal privation when firmly in place. An enduring summation inscribed on my face.
What am I?​ ( a tombstone)
16. What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has
a mouth but never eats? ​(a river)
17. I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation, and I
surround every place. ​(the letter “E”)
18. My life can be measured in hours. I serve by being devoured. Thin, I am quick. Fat, I am slow.
Wind is my foe. ​(a candle)
19. What does man love more than life, Fear more than death or mortal strife. What the poor have,
the rich require, and what contented men desire. What the miser spends and the spendthrift
saves, And all men carry to their graves? ​(nothing)
20. Three lives have I. Gentle enough to soothe the skin, Light enough to caress the sky, Hard
enough to crack rocks. ​(water)

Obscure Words in English​ (10 points)

1. What is a “plunge line” on a knife?​ (where the grind starts on a knife)

2. Brachium is Latin for “arm”. What does it mean to brachiate? ​(using the arms to swing from branch
to branch) ​(hint: it describes an animal movement; Brachium is Latin for “arm”)
3. Who coined the word ”chortle“? ​(Lewis Carrol) (hint: ​“to sing or chant exultantly.”​)​ (​“chortle,” which is
probably a combination of “chuckle” and “snort,” though Merriam-Webster’s first definition seems more
appropriate for the context in Jabberwocky:​ ​“to sing or chant exultantly.”​)
4. What is the meaning of “Schadenfreude”?​ (a word adopted into English from German. Pleasure
derived by someone from another person's misfortune.)
5. Where does the term “draconian” come from (1/2pt for person and 1/2pt for place)?​ (derives from
Draco​, an Athenian law scribe under whom small offenses had heavy punishments ​(hint: Draconian
laws)
6. What is an “opsimath”?​ (a person who begins to learn or study late in life) ​[hint: related to “polymath”]
scoring: ½ point for “learner”
7. Before being known as a car, what was a “corvette” known to be?​ (a small warship, It is
traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or "rated") warship. )
8. What is the name for a 12-sided die? ​(dodecahedron)
9. What is the name given to a person who was once an advocate of a cause, usually a religion,
but later renounces the same cause, not to be confused with a heretic, which is a person who
 has believes contrary to the fundamental tenets of a religion to which he claims to belong?
(cause/religion) (Apostate)
10. In the Vietnam War, there were the ARVN, the NVA, Viet Cong and the MACV. What does MACV
stand for? ​(Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (replaces MAAG) they commanded all US forces in
South Vietnam (not North i.e. bombing)) ​(hint: allies of the ARVN and the enemy of Viet Cong/NVA)

First of its kind ​(12 points)

1. When did the first plastic surgery happen? (​The first plastic surgery happened in 1917.) ​[Walter
Yeo: W​ alter sustained terrible facial injuries including the loss of upper and lower eyelids while manning the
guns aboard HMS Warspite in 1916. In 1917 he was treated by Sir Harold Gillies - the first man to use skin
grafts from undamaged areas on the body - and know as 'the father of plastic surgery.’]
2. When was the first space dive? ​(1959 - ​Joseph Kittenger)
3. Who created the album that holds the record for most singles in the top 10 simultaneously?
(Drake: Scorpion, 2018) ​(Hint: this album recently surpassed an album of the Beatles)
4. What was the first Walt Disney feature film? [bonus ½ pt. for year] ​(Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs, December 21, 1937) ​1.5pts total
5. What country won the first world cup? Bonus ½ pt. For year. ​(Uruguay in 1930) ​1.5pts total
6. Who were the founding members of the Marvel Avengers? ½ pt for 3, full for 5 ​(Thor, Ant-Man,
Wasp, Hulk/Captain America, Iron Man)
7. What are the ​Four Great Ancient Capitals of China? ½ pt for 3, full for 4 (​Beijing, Nanjing, Luoyang
and Xi'an)
8. Who was the first woman in space? Bonus 1/2 pt for year ​(​Soviet ​cosmonaut Valentina
Tereshkova​ became the first woman to fly to space when she launched on the Vostok 6
mission June 16, 1963.) ​1.5pts total
9. Until 2012-2013, the Eoraptor was considered the first dinosaur. Now it is the Nyasasaurus. How
long ago did it live? ​(answer: 231 million years ago)
https://www.nature.com/news/earliest-known-dino-relative-found-1.11959
10. First defined ​as the mass of a litre (cubic decimetre) of water at its freezing point, what was the
definition of a kilogram changed to? Bonus ½ pt for name ​(a platinum bar, International Prototype of the
​ .5pts total
Kilogram (IPK, also known as "Le Grand K" or "Big K")) ​(now it is a platinum-iridium bar) 1

Taboo Dinner topics​ (11 points)

1. According to the Bible, God has many angels, and there are many kinds of angels. The
Cherubim are often mistaken as little flying babies, these are called Putto or Putti, not to be
confused with the Cherubim who are said to have 4 faces. What are these 4 faces? ½ for 2, full
for 4​ (Lion, Ox, Eagle, Man, Ezekiel 1:10) ​[hint: they are all part of the animal kingdom]
2. What is the name of the book written by Laozi (老子)?​ (Tao Te Ching) ​[hint: the oldest book of
Taoism]
3. Which New World country received the most African slaves and how many slaves (closest)? ½
for each ​(answer: Brazil, around 5 million)
4. Upon what animal’s back do the Iroquois (North American aboriginals) place the foundations of
the earth in their culture’s creation myth?​ (Giant Sea Turtle)
[https://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_12.html]
5. What country has the largest Muslim population? ​(Indonesia: ​The largest Muslim population in a
country is in Indonesia, a nation home to 12.7% of the world's Muslims, followed by Pakistan (11.0%),
and India (10.9%). About 20% of Muslims live in Arab countries.)
6. Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung were famous friends, for a time. They disagreed on many
things, most importantly was perhaps whether or not sexuality is a key motivating behavioural
force. Freud and Jung are both very influential even today, but distinct. What are the names of
Freud and Jung’s psychotherapeutic techniques?​ ​½ for each ​(Freud: Psychoanalysis, Jung:
Analytical Psychology) wikipedia
7. What is the title of a person who argues for a controversial case, commonly known to argue for
the case for Jesus Christ?​ (Apologist)
8. In what language was the bible originally written? What was the first language it was translated
into? ½ for each ​(Hebrew; Greek)
9. Which US Presidents hold the records for highest and lơest Gallup Poll Approval ratings (data
goes back to FDR) ½ for each and bonus ½ point for correct years, must be exact?​ (George W.
Bush: approval 90 (9/21/01); Truman approval ​22​ (​ 11/16/51, 02/14/52)​) wikipedia
10. A transvestite is a person who enjoys Transvestic Fetishism. What is Transvestic Fetishism?
[hint:​ ​Fetishism is a form of sexual behavior in which gratification is linked to an abnormal degree to a
particular object, activity, part of the body, etc.]​ (Arousal to opposite-sex garments touching the skin,
e.g. cross-dressing)

General Knowledge​ (12 points)

1. What planet rotates opposite to Earth and what planet rotates nearly perpendicular to its orbit?
½ for each ​(Venus's axial tilt is 177 degrees, which means it is spinning almost exactly in the opposite
direction to its orbit. Uranus has an axial tilt of 97.77 degrees, so its axis of rotation is approximately
parallel with the plane of the Solar System.)
2. What​ is the largest earthquake ever recorded? Country and closest date. ½ for each ​(The 1960
Valdivia Chile earthquake; 9.5 on Moment Magnitude Scale [succeeded Richter Scale])
3. Who wa​s the narrator of Moby Dick?​ (Ishmael)
4. What was the name of Achilles’ companion? ​(Patroclus) friend and lover? ​Ancient Greek did not
have separate words for hetero and homosexual
5. What is the​ full name of Darwin’s most famous work? 1 point for 3-5 words, bonus 1 point for
the long-form name ​(​On the Origin of Species (or more completely, On the Origin of Species by
Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life), published
on 24 November 1859) ​2 points
6. What commonly eaten nut (seed, really) can be highly toxic in the wild? ​(almond, contains
(hydrogen) cyanide)
7. What ​was the name of the Count of Monte Cristo? ​(Edmond Dantes) ​Bonus ½ point: What was
the name of the Italian priest and sage who was imprisoned in the Château d'If with the future
Count of Monte Cristo? ​(Abbe Faria) ​1.5 pts
8. What country gained its sovereignty from Rome in 301 BCE, and is often considered the oldest
city in the world? ​(San Marino)
9. What is the source of the most oxygen on Earth? To be clear, it cannot include animals.
(phytoplankton or algae. Phytoplankton are free floating, photosynthetic microorganisms found in lakes,
streams, oceans. They include algae, cyanobacteria, protists, diatoms.)
10. The Leclerc Expedition was an attempt to suppress the first truly successful revolt of its kind.
What was the revolt?​ ​1 pt for country and ½ pt for a name(s) of the revolt or French leadership
on-location, besides Leclerc ​ (Haiti; L
​ eaders​: Vicomte de Rochambeau, Toussaint Louverture, André
Rigaud, Alexandre Pétion, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Vincent Ogé) ​1.5
points