That is the best feeling, isn’t it? You can just imagine yourself in that position, and because you knew that, you would have gotten that $1000 slot…
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I have another one.
“What animal is a froghopper?”
The contestant said spider, and I was like HEMIPTERAN!!! ITS A HEMIPTERAN!!!
The correct answer was insect. I mean you are correct… but that could mean so much… a beetle, a lepidopteran… also spiders are an order while insects are a class…
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You might be surprised. I remember one Jeopardy! episode where the category was World Capitals. The clue was the city criscrossed with “peace walls” separating its Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. Obviously Belfast, right?
All three contestants had bet their entire bank, and all three wrote “Dublin.”
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oh that is annoyingly nonspecific, it’s literally the equivalent of the animal being a squirrel and the answer being mammal if you know anything about non-mammals lol
From Brain of Britain 13 Oct 2024:
The name of which gull-like seabird derives from the old Norse meaning “foul gull” in testament to its habit of spraying a smelly oily regurgitation at those who get too close?
Contestant A: the skua
Contestant B: albatross
Contestant C: gannet
Contestant D: cormorant
Just as bovine means to do with cattle and canine to do with dogs, what type of creature does the adjective anserine refer to?
Contestant A: horses
Contestant B: birds
Contestant C: llamas
Contestant D: camels
I think the second one is quite difficult for a general knowledge quiz. I doubt many non-ornithologists know the generic names of geese.
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British quizzes (the ones I have seen) seem generally quite hard.
I saw one quiz once which had a classical music category and required the contestants to name pieces that were played with title and composer. I thought it would be the typical “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” by Mozart, Vivaldi’s Summer, and Boccherini’s Minuet, but no…
I have been playing violin for 15 years and have listened to classical music all my life and some of the composers I have never heard of
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I worked in the US for a couple of years. When I worked in Virginia (a US state), I mentioned that my next gig was in Wyoming (another US state), and a person asked me if Wyoming was in China . . . it does sound like a Chinese name, when you think about it.
I view this less as a comment about the IQ of average Americans, and more of a comment about the funding of public education, as well as the insular luxuries of empire.
So the punchline is, you can stump (at least some) Americans by asking them questions about the geography of their own country.
(I hope this comment is viewed as an amusing anecdote on the topic of quizzes, rather than an attack on any nationality. I spend a lot of time and effort on building community and empathy, and it is not my wish to make anyone feel bad.)
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See, I would probably get hung up on this one because anseriformes are specifically waterfowl, not just any birds. I think the more correct term to match with birds in general would be ‘avian’, which I feel like a lot more people would know. Maybe an example of quiz shows stretching a little too far just to make the questions harder.
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As a rare American that knows geography, can confirm this is true. In actuality, average knowledge on various subject varies by state, depending on how well that state funds its schools.
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Remember being at a trivia quiz a few years back. The Q was “Which African animal kills the most people in any given year?”
The answer they were looking for was Hippopotamus.
I still think my answer was more accurate though, I said Malaria Mosquito.
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Birds wasn’t accepted as the correct answer. They wanted geese.
It is hard to think of a situation where you would use the word. If it is like a goose, it is probably a goose.
To be fair to Brain of Britain contestants, there was another natural history question that week:
Which small but highly nutritious seed is a product of an annual herbaceous plant of the mint family and has a name that means Strength in the Mayan language?
And the first contestant got that one no problem.
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Well, sometimes one might want an adjective instead of a noun (say, to compare anserine, ciconine, and gruine flight patterns – though admittedly a genitive construction would probably serve the purpose just as well in most cases)
I imagine the main use is in non-biological contexts, though:
https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wl/the-serpentine-path-of-animal-adjectives/
You could worry all your friends and family by telling them you have contracted “anserine bumps” which sounds far more serious than the more common alternative.
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How about “Anserine swelling”?
Oops, I misread that. I saw A, B, C, D and thought those were multiple choice options.
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You’ve been diagnosed with Benign Cutaneous Anserine Myocontractions (BCAM)
I don’t mean to alarm you, but make sure your affairs are in order
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Is that quinoa?
OMIG Have I been infected with this? The very thought gives me goosebumps. (Wait a minute)…
Chia was the answer that won her the point.
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