Q 01/05

Which Roman goddess of grain crops shares her name with the largest object in the asteroid belt?

A) Vesta

B) Ceres

C) Juno

D) Flora

Answer · why

B) Ceres

Ceres also gave English the word cereal, through her Latin adjective cerealis, meaning of grain.

Q 02/05

Which everyday British measurement still rises in barleycorns, an old English unit equal to a third of an inch?

A) Hat sizes

B) Ring sizes

C) Shoe sizes

D) Collar sizes

Answer · why

C) Shoe sizes

Shoe sizes in the UK climb one barleycorn at a time, a unit medieval law fixed at three dry, round grains of barley to the inch.

Q 03/05

Which breakfast cereal, launched by C. W. Post in 1897, contains neither of the two foods in its name?

A) Raisin Bran

B) Grape-Nuts

C) Apple Jacks

D) Honey Smacks

Answer · why

B) Grape-Nuts

Grape-Nuts is baked from wheat and barley flour, and one story says Post believed the baking produced what he called grape sugar.

Q 04/05

Which Japanese dish, defined by its vinegared rice, has a name that literally means sour-tasting?

A) Sushi

B) Sashimi

C) Onigiri

D) Donburi

Answer · why

A) Sushi

Sushi is defined by its seasoned rice, so slices of raw fish served with no rice at all are a different dish, sashimi.

Q 05/05

Which seed, from a relative of rhubarb and sorrel, is ground into flour for Japanese soba noodles?

A) Barley

B) Chestnut

C) Chickpeas

D) Buckwheat

Answer · why

D) Buckwheat

Buckwheat is no wheat at all: the name comes from its seeds, which look like small versions of those of the beech tree.