Q 01/05

Which major US city takes its name from a Native American word for a wild relative of the onion?

A) Milwaukee

B) Detroit

C) Chicago

D) Minneapolis

Answer · why

C) Chicago

Chicago comes from šikaakwa, a pungent woodland plant that the French explorer Henri Joutel found growing thickly in the area in the 1680s.

Q 02/05

Which Atlantic island exported so many onions in the 1800s that its people are still nicknamed Onions?

A) Bermuda

B) Madeira

C) Barbados

D) Tenerife

Answer · why

A) Bermuda

Bermuda earned the nickname the onion patch, and Mark Twain called the crop the island's pride and joy; exports ended in 1946 once American growers ha...

Q 03/05

Which chemical element is at the heart of the gas that makes a freshly cut onion sting the eyes?

A) Chlorine

B) Sulfur

C) Nitrogen

D) Phosphorus

Answer · why

B) Sulfur

Sulfur taken up from the soil is stored inside the onion, and slicing frees enzymes that turn those compounds into a vapour that drifts up to the eyes...

Q 04/05

Which ancient people saw the onion's rings as a symbol of eternal life and buried bulbs with their dead?

A) Sumerians

B) Persians

C) Phoenicians

D) Egyptians

Answer · why

D) Egyptians

Egyptians revered the bulb so much that traces of onion were found in the eye sockets of the mummy of Ramesses IV.

Q 05/05

Onions are toxic to dogs and cats because compounds in them destroy what in the animal's body?

A) Red blood cells

B) White blood cells

C) Liver tissue

D) Stomach lining

Answer · why

A) Red blood cells

Red blood cells rupture after oxidising compounds in onion damage them, so a dog can turn anaemic days later; raw, cooked and powdered onion all carry...