An English Quiz

Edit, the morning after, mainly to include link to answers. Changes are in italics.

My kids’ school has an International Night on Thursday (March 12). I was asked to represent England. I will do so in three main ways: staff England table; provide English food; set English quiz. The food will include Apple Crumble, using the recipe from the BBC site, made with the help of my daughter, and accompanied by custard.

If you are interested in quizzes or in England, please take a look at my English Quiz. Most of the questions are for elementary school (grades K-5, so up to age 11) kids; that doesn’t mean that they are all easy. Anyway, give them a try before you look at the answers.

Then there are five questions aimed at parents, or kids of any age. Some of the parent questions are stated as if the victim quiz-taker is able to talk to me in person. Here are alternate forms of some of those questions for you, my online friends.

  • PQ2 (Parent Question 2), addition to the question: what will I be wearing? Hint: I was wearing a long scarf with horizontal stripes.
  • PQ4: if you tell me you’re singing and/or dancing, I’ll believe you. Hint: The song is actually more associated with Philadelphia than with anywhere in England.
  • PQ5: this question is difficult, unfair, and over-specialized. If you can’t cope with that, I recommend you avoid modern life. I included hints for this question among the answers.

I’ll post answers over the weekend after the International Night. I’ll do so in the comments below. In the meantime, please feel free to post your own comments.

Britain, (In)exactly

I was born (at an early age) in Scotland, which is part of Britain.

But what is Britain? That question recently occurred to Justin – on a rainy day, appropriately enough. He found this Euler diagram at the Wikipedia page Terminology of the British Isles.

14britainsBut what shape is Britain? One way of answering that question is to photograph maps and overlay the shapes of Britain. That is indeed the method chosen by Ben the graphic designer. Ben’s fuzzy Britain prompts musings about the disconnect between map and territory at my favorite cartography blog.

In case you were wondering where in Britain I was born, the answer is: Inverness. Perhaps I should try to mark it on these maps…