Q 01/05

Which planet, the hottest in the solar system, has a day that lasts longer than its year?

A) Mercury

B) Venus

C) Mars

D) Jupiter

Answer · why

B) Venus

Venus is the hottest planet because its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat, holding the surface near 464 °C. One spin takes 243 Earth days, bu...

Q 02/05

Which Japanese video game company began in 1889 as a maker of handmade playing cards?

A) Nintendo

B) Konami

C) Capcom

D) Bandai Namco

Answer · why

A) Nintendo

Nintendo was founded in Kyoto by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi to sell hanafuda, or flower cards. Its arcade hit Donkey Kong did not arrive until 1981.

Q 03/05

Which reading system of raised dots was developed in 1824 by a blind French fifteen-year-old?

A) Moon type

B) Morse code

C) Braille

D) Shorthand

Answer · why

C) Braille

Braille grew out of a twelve-dot code by Charles Barbier, which Louis Braille cut down to six dots. He had been blinded as a small child by an acciden...

Q 04/05

Which Himalayan country flies the only national flag in the world that is not rectangular?

A) Bhutan

B) India

C) Pakistan

D) Nepal

Answer · why

D) Nepal

Nepal's crimson flag joins two pennants, one showing a crescent moon and the other a sun. It is also the only national flag that is taller than it is ...

Q 05/05

Which egg-laying Australian mammal has a duck-like bill and a venomous spur on the male's hind foot?

A) Echidna

B) Wombat

C) Platypus

D) Bandicoot

Answer · why

C) Platypus

The platypus looked so strange that the first scientists to examine one in 1799 judged it a fake sewn together from several animals. It finds prey und...