Q 01/05

The Sholes and Glidden typewriter could type only what?

A) Lowercase letters

B) Capital letters

C) Numbers

D) Italics

Answer · why

B) Capital letters

Capital letters: a sewing-machine department built it, so the machine looked much like a sewing machine.

Q 02/05

What did Soviet bugs inside US embassy typewriters in Moscow capture?

A) Room conversations

B) Phone calls

C) Keystrokes

D) Photos of pages

Answer · why

C) Keystrokes

Keystrokes: the bugs sensed the typing mechanism's movements, radioed the text out in short bursts and went unnoticed for about eight years.

Q 03/05

In the best-known version of the 'infinite monkey' idea, typing monkeys would eventually produce the works of whom?

A) Cervantes

B) Dostoevsky

C) Hemingway

D) Shakespeare

Answer · why

D) Shakespeare

Shakespeare: when a computer was left with six zoo macaques, they typed mostly the letter S and battered the machine.

Q 04/05

Which Bradbury book was drafted on a rented library typewriter?

A) The Martian Chronicles

B) Fahrenheit 451

C) Dandelion Wine

D) The Illustrated Man

Answer · why

B) Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451: feeding the UCLA library's typewriter a dime per half hour, Bradbury finished a draft in just nine days.

Q 05/05

Pellegrino Turri is credited with building an early typewriter for a friend who had what condition?

A) Blindness

B) Deafness

C) Paralysis

D) Arthritis

Answer · why

A) Blindness

Blindness: little is known about the machine itself, yet letters his friend, a countess, wrote on it survive.