Tuesday 7 August 2012

Wednesday Quiz (iii.iii): The Olympics

Let us continue with our long delayed quiz season with this everybody's favourite topic, the Olympics! Like a good shotgun, each of the following five questions is double-barreled, so watch out for that second blast that you just weren't expecting or you may just lose your head. 

1. At the time of writing, the team from Kazakhstan have six gold medals in the London 2012 games. Which metal are olympic gold medals predominately made of and which of Kazahkstan's neighbours has won the most this year?

2. Someone from Cyprus (of hideous map-related flag fame) has won a medal in the sailing. What would you call someone from Cyprus, and what other countries represent their geography on their flag?

3. This dashing figure on the left is Bacchus, youngest and most irresponsible of the original Olympians, by which name was he known to the Greeks, and who is the sculptor?

4. My home nation of Australia held great hopes of securing our first ever medal in the gymnastics overnight. Gymnastics medals at the olympics are awarded for rhythmic, trampoline, rings, vault, floor, parallel bars, horizontal bars, uneven bars, beam and which other event? What does the greek word gymnos, from which gymnastics originates, mean?

5. And finally, which other years has London held the Olympic games? (Hint: It's more than once)

3 comments:

John said...

Ooh, some tricky ones here. Let's see how I fare.

1a) I'm going to go with the obvious trap answer and say gold. I have googled it since and probably ought to have guessed, but an answer made is an answer made.

1b) Let's play the odds and say China.

2a) A Cypriot!

2b)

3a) He was Dionysus to the Greeks (and also neither particularly young nor irresponsible in their pantheon, at least when compared to Ares)

3b) I'm not going to even guess this one, it's way outside the realm of my knowledge.

4a) No clue for this one, sadly.

4b) I think I'm going to go with "agility" or an analogue, given that it's probably also the source of that word.

5a) 1900 or 1904 (hedging is totally okay!)

5b) 1952 will be my guess on this one.

John said...

(2b was also an "I give up" answer. You're good at making these quizzes hard!)

Michael5000 said...

Oh, HELLO!

1. Gold medals are mostly silver, and Russia has probably carted the most away of K-stan's neighbors. I am... 85% sure that K-stan doesn't make it eastward to the PRC.

2. A Cypriot. Gambia is said to represent its geography on its flag, but the claim is tenuous. One of the Micronesian countries has a spread of stars that is an island map, and another one places itself south of the Equator. Hmm. I think the B&H flag is a kind of cartogram.... Couple others.

3. I'm thinking Dionysus, and Michelangelo.

4. That one where they hang from the loops? And, like, "school"?

5. Well, 1948. And perhaps 1908?

Good to see the WQ...