Q 01/05

Which of the four suits in a deck of cards has the most ornate ace, a relic of an English tax?

A) Hearts

B) Spades

C) Clubs

D) Diamonds

Answer · why

B) Spades

Spades got the fancy ace because English law once required that card to carry the printing house's insignia, and makers kept the flourish long after t...

Q 02/05

Which of the four chambers of the human heart pumps oxygen-rich blood through the aorta to the whole body?

A) Left ventricle

B) Right ventricle

C) Left atrium

D) Right atrium

Answer · why

A) Left ventricle

The left ventricle has thicker walls than its right-hand twin, because it must push blood around most of the body while the other only has to reach th...

Q 03/05

Which of the four Beatles was the last to join, replacing drummer Pete Best in the summer of 1962?

A) John Lennon

B) Paul McCartney

C) Ringo Starr

D) George Harrison

Answer · why

C) Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr was poached from another Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and first played as a Beatle at a horticultural society dance.

Q 04/05

Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, a set of violin concertos published in 1725, opens with which season?

A) Spring

B) Summer

C) Autumn

D) Winter

Answer · why

A) Spring

Spring comes first, and Vivaldi labelled what the music paints: its second movement carries the instruction that one part is a barking dog.

Q 05/05

Which of the four presidents carved on Mount Rushmore is the only one who served in the 20th century?

A) Washington

B) Jefferson

C) Roosevelt

D) Lincoln

Answer · why

C) Roosevelt

Roosevelt, the Theodore who took office in 1901, was chosen to stand for the nation's development; the other three faces stand for its foundation, exp...