Thinkathon

 

            Today's treat: set out bowls of green and red seedless grapes. You can have green grapes if you can answer a question, and red grapes if you're stumped.

 

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Here's a trivia quiz you can do alone or with a partner, to build your vocabulary and thinking skills . . . plus have fun, and that's NEVER trivial!

 

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

 

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

 

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

 

4. Name the only sport in which the ball is always in possession of the team on defense, and the offensive team can score without touching the ball?

 

5. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

 

6. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

 

7. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters "dw" and they are all common words. Name two of them.

 

8. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

 

9. Where are the lakes that are referred to in the Los Angeles Lakers?

 

10. There are 7 ways a baseball player can legally reach first base without getting a hit. Taking a base on balls (a walk) is one way. Name the other 6.

 

11. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

 

12. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "s."

Answers To Quiz:

1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends . . . boxing

 

2. North American landmark constantly moving backward . . . Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

 

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons . . . asparagus and rhubarb.

 

4. The only sport in which the ball is always in possession of the team on defense, and the offensive team can score without touching the ball . . . baseball.

 

5. The fruit with its seeds on the outside . . . strawberry.

 

6. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? . . . It grew inside the bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.)

 

7. Three English words beginning with dw . . . dwarf, dwell, and dwindle.

 

8. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar . . .  period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

 

9. The original lakes referred to in Lakers . . . in Minnesota. (The team was originally known as the Minneapolis Lakers, and kept the name when they moved west.)

 

10. Seven ways a baseball player can legally reach first base without getting a hit . . . taking a base on balls (a walk), batter hit by a pitch, passed ball, catcher interference, catcher drops third strike, fielder's choice, and being designated as a pinch-runner.

 

11. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh . . . lettuce.

 

12. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with "s" . . .  shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.