Q 01/05

How many raised dots make up a full braille cell?

A) Six

B) Eight

C) Nine

D) Twelve

Answer · why

A) Six

That gives 64 possible combinations, counting the empty cell used as a word space.

Q 02/05

How old was Louis Braille when he first presented his tactile reading code in 1824?

A) 20

B) 25

C) 30

D) 15

Answer · why

D) 15

He had been blinded at three by an accident with an awl in his father's harness workshop.

Q 03/05

Braille's code was an improvement on 'night writing', a tactile system invented by whom?

A) Valentin Haüy

B) Denis Diderot

C) Charles Barbier

D) Sébastien Guillié

Answer · why

C) Charles Barbier

The system got its name when it was considered as a way for soldiers to communicate silently in the dark.

Q 04/05

What term did Émile Javal coin for the short, rapid jumps the eyes make while reading?

A) Fixations

B) Saccades

C) Regressions

D) Glissades

Answer · why

B) Saccades

He discovered them in 1879 with a mirror placed beside the page, disproving the idea that eyes glide smoothly along a line.

Q 05/05

In his Confessions, Saint Augustine remarks on which bishop's then-unusual habit of reading silently?

A) Jerome

B) Ambrose

C) Gregory

D) Benedict

Answer · why

B) Ambrose

Reading aloud was the norm in antiquity, and silent reading stayed remarkable until spaces between words came back in the late Middle Ages.