Q 01/05

In the novel Frankenstein, which character carries the surname Frankenstein, a name popularly misapplied to another?

A) The creature itself

B) The creature's maker

C) The Arctic sea captain

D) The maker's loyal friend

Answer · why

B) The creature's maker

The creature's maker, Victor Frankenstein, owns the name; his creation has none, and when a London play billed the part as a row of dashes, Mary Shell...

Q 02/05

What was the real name of Mark Twain, whose pen name is a riverboat leadsman's cry for two fathoms of water?

A) Eric Blair

B) Charles Dodgson

C) Samuel Clemens

D) William Porter

Answer · why

C) Samuel Clemens

Samuel Clemens piloted Mississippi steamboats, where 'mark twain' meant twelve feet of safe water; he said he took the signature over from an old rive...

Q 03/05

In Romeo and Juliet, which character boasts of knowing Juliet's age 'unto an hour'?

A) Lady Capulet

B) The Nurse

C) Friar Laurence

D) Lord Capulet

Answer · why

B) The Nurse

The Nurse, once Juliet's wet nurse, works out that she is 13, about two weeks short of fourteen; her father's reply to her suitor Paris is to wait two...

Q 04/05

Juliet's 'Wherefore art thou Romeo?' is often misread as asking where he is; what does 'wherefore' mean?

A) How

B) Why

C) When

D) Whether

Answer · why

B) Why

Why is the meaning: Juliet is lamenting that Romeo is a Montague, so her next line begs him to 'deny thy father and refuse thy name'.

Q 05/05

In Poe's The Raven, which single word is the bird's reply to every question the grieving speaker asks?

A) Nevermore

B) Evermore

C) Lenore

D) Forever

Answer · why

A) Nevermore

Nevermore is the raven's 'only stock and store', yet the speaker keeps asking questions he knows it will answer the same way, a self-torture Poe built...