Q 01/05

The English word 'ghost' comes from an Old English word meaning what?

A) Breath or spirit

B) Grave or tomb

C) Shadow or shade

D) Fear or dread

Answer · why

A) Breath or spirit

Breath or spirit: Old English 'gast' meant the soul or the breath of life, the sense preserved in 'Holy Ghost' and in 'giving up the ghost' for dying.

Q 02/05

According to a 2005 Gallup poll, roughly what share of Americans said they believe in ghosts?

A) About 8 percent

B) About 80 percent

C) About 32 percent

D) About 55 percent

Answer · why

C) About 32 percent

About 32 percent of Americans told Gallup in June 2005 that they believed in ghosts, while 37 percent said houses could be haunted; three in four held...

Q 03/05

Which Roman writer recorded the haunted-house story of the philosopher Athenodorus in Athens?

A) Ovid the poet

B) Pliny the Younger

C) Suetonius the biographer

D) Tacitus the historian

Answer · why

B) Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger told it in a letter to Sura: a chained ghost led Athenodorus to a spot in the garden where a shackled skeleton was dug up and given ...

Q 04/05

In Macbeth, whose ghost appears at the banquet, visible only to Macbeth?

A) Banquo

B) Duncan

C) Macduff

D) Malcolm

Answer · why

A) Banquo

Banquo, murdered on Macbeth's orders, takes the king's seat at the feast in Act 3; only Macbeth sees him, and Lady Macbeth hurries the guests out.

Q 05/05

What does the German word poltergeist literally mean?

A) House ghost

B) Child ghost

C) Noisy or rumbling ghost

D) Angry ghost

Answer · why

C) Noisy or rumbling ghost

Noisy or rumbling ghost: German 'poltern' means to rumble or clatter and 'Geist' means spirit, fitting the tradition of knocks, thrown objects and mov...