Q 01/05

In the fable of the tortoise and the hare, what does the hare do midway through the race?

A) Stops to eat

B) Takes a nap

C) Runs the wrong way

D) Helps the tortoise

Answer · why

B) Takes a nap

In classical times the point was the hare's foolish over-confidence rather than the tortoise's pluck.

Q 02/05

What English idiom comes from the fable of the shepherd boy who kept raising false alarms?

A) To count sheep

B) To cry wolf

C) To bell the cat

D) To sour the grapes

Answer · why

B) To cry wolf

Later English poetic versions have the wolf eat the boy as well as the sheep.

Q 03/05

The expression 'sour grapes' comes from the fable about which animal?

A) A wolf

B) A fox

C) A crow

D) A goat

Answer · why

B) A fox

In Scandinavian tellings the animal complains about rowanberries instead, since grapes are scarce that far north.

Q 04/05

In the original Greek version of The Ant and the Grasshopper, the idle singing insect was actually what?

A) A cricket

B) A cicada

C) A butterfly

D) A bee

Answer · why

B) A cicada

Latin and Romance-language translations kept the cicada; the grasshopper is a later northern substitution.

Q 05/05

How does the mouse repay the lion that spared its life?

A) Leads it to a hidden spring

B) Gnaws through the hunters' ropes

C) Warns it about a pit trap

D) Fetches the other animals to help

Answer · why

B) Gnaws through the hunters' ropes

When Buddhist monks carried the story to China, the rescued animal became a tiger.