From: sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog)
Newsgroups: rec.games.trivia
Subject: Answers and results to The Second Summer General Quiz
Date: 10 Jan 93 16:49:36 GMT
Organization: Enea Data AB

Here are the result and answers of the quiz I posted about a month
ago. The response was not fantastic, nine persons entered. (Actually,
ten but one person seemed to be sending me answers piece by piece,
so I asked him to come back when he was ready with it all. Maybe I was
rude and jumped to conclusion, because he never came back.) But given
the level of the quiz, and I had discouraged you to use sources, the
reponse was fairly as expected. And in the light of these circumstances,
the answers were quite good. No question was a complete stumper.

The quiz had a heavy European slant, and not the least towards the Baltics
and Balkan, and consequently the top duo who were miles ahead of anyone else,
are from Finland and Croatia. Here is the score:

      H  Erkki Lehtim{ki     55     ("{" = dotted "a")
      G  Sven Hauptfeld      53
      D  Stewart Clamen      23
      A  Ola Rinta-Koski     21.5
      E  Mark Brader         20
      F  Ben Wiles           15.5
      I  Doug Mraz           11
      C  New Wave Dave        7
      B  Greg Trotter         0

Thanks to question 10 the max is somewhat difficult to determine, but you
could at least 95 points.

Here follows the answers, with comments and indvidual scores:


>1)  What do the following states have in common: Azerbaijan, Belgium,
>    Italy, Russia, Spain and the USA?
>    (5 points)

The most difficult of them all. New Wave Dave was the only one to be
awarded (2 points), but I had several creative proposals:

   - Each has a president.
     Works for four of six, but Belgium and Spain are monarchies.
   - Two-chamber parliament.
     OK for the US, Italy and Russia (if you stretch it a bit). I don't
     know about Spain and Belgium, but certainly not Azerbaijan.
   - They all have peninsulas.
     A clever answer. They're all coastal states, and say which coast
     which does not have a peninsula. Well, there is almost one: The Belgian.
     Belgium's coast is completely regular on most maps. But on my European
     road atlas I found a small peninsula sticking out close to Zeebrugge,
     to save 2 points for New Wave Dave.

But the answer I was looking for is this one:

    They are all countries in two pieces.

That is, there are parts of the countries which are separated by land
of some other country. USA has Alaska. Russia has the Kaliningrad oblast.
Azerbaijan has Nakhichevan which is separated from the rest of Azerbaijan
by Armenia. And Belgium, Spain and Italy all has small isolated islands
on the territory of The Netherlands, France and Switzerland respectively.

The company is fairly exlusive, but the given set is by no means complete.
Lithuania and Croatia are two more, but in their cases there are short
(< 10km) sea ways to connect the two parts. As for isolated islands like 
above, I'd suppose there are more of them.


>2)  Is any part of the border between the West and East Roman empires
>    that was drawn in 395, a border bewteen two international recognized
>    countries today? In such case which countries?
>    (5 points)

Yes. The Drina river between Bosnia-Hercegovina and rump Yugoslavia. Not
only the border has survived to today, its creation is still root of a
conflict in the 20th century.

D2 G5 H5

I also got the proposal Croatia and rump Yugoslavia, and while I would
like to accept the answer I have not been able to verify it, but the
maps I have at hand falsify it. The border followed the Drina river tp
where flows into Sava, today border river between Croatia and B-H. But
this was also the end of the united Roman empire. The land between
Donau and Tisa which is most of present-day Vojvodina does not seem
to have been Roman. So I could not fully award this answer, but since
it grabs the sentiment behind the question, I gave it a partial credit.

The term "international recognized" caused some confusion, since rump
Yugoslavia does not really qualify here. I put in the expression, since
in practice there is maybe not much difference, but then again there is
war on one side and not on the other. In hindsight, I should have skipped 
it, and just said "countries".


>3)  Under which names are the following cities known in present-day
>    English?
>    a) Tsaritsyn
>    b) Signidunum
>    c) Gorkiy
>    d) Kristiania
>    e) Solun
>    (3 points each)

a) Volgograd                   G3 H3
b) Belgrade                    G3
c) Nizhny Novgorod             G3
d) Olso                  E3 F3 G3 H3
e) Thessaloniki or Salonica    G3

Tsaritsyn became Stalingrad which became Volgograd. Signidunum was
originally a Celtic settlement in Roman times. Belgrade is Slavic,
meaning "White fortress." Gorky was an old communist fart, Nizhy
Novgorod is the old pre-USSR name. I misspelled Gorky, which might
have tricked some people. My apologies if so. Olso was borned Olso,
but was called Kristiania in 1624-1924 after the Danish king
Kristian IV. Solun is the present-day name for Thessaloniki in
Bulgarian and Macedonian. Use it in a discussion with a Greek person 
at your own risk.

Sven knew all of them, good work!


>4a)  Which was the last European country to abandon pagan faith?
>     (3 points)

Lithuania. Lithuania remained pagan until 1386 when they entered a
personal union with Poland. There was a Lithuanian king around 1260
who took Christain faith, but abandoned it later, all for political
reasons. Remember that Lithuania in 1386 was a great power, extending
from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Speculate in what could have
happened if they had not entered this union.

D3 H3

>4b)  Name one living language which belongs to the same family as
>     the now extinct Prussian language did.
>     (3 points)

Lithuanian and Latvian. Together with Prussian they are the Baltic
languages.

H3

>4c)  Today Stockholm is the biggest city in Sweden, but was it so
>     also in 1660? If not, which city held this position then?
>     (3 points)

Riga which was Swedish from 1629 to 1721.

H3

>4d)  Which European capital has a name of which the etymology is
>     "Denmark's town" or "The Danish town?"
>     (3 points)

Taani linn or Tallinn. Insanely difficult for everyone except the
Finnish contestants. A creative proposal was Gdansk. ("Danish" in
Danish is "dansk".)

A3 G3 H3

Now, we see why these question were grouped together. The questions were
unrelated, but not the answers.


>5)  The six persons listed below are all presidents, but in which countries?
>    a) Milan Kucan
>    b) Alberto Fujimori
>    c) Daniel arap Moi
>    d) Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
>    e) Fidel Ramos
>    f) Rene' Felber (e' = accented e)
>    (3 points each)

a) Slovenia                 G3 H3
b) Peru                     D3 E3 G3 H3 I3
c) Kenya                    A3 H3
d) Italy                    E3 F3 I3
f) The Philippines          A3 I3
g) Switzerland (see below)  A3

Milan Kucan was frequent in the press at the time of Slovenia's secession,
but has drifted into obscurity since then, although he was re-elected
shortly before I posted the quiz. I had two guess for Czechoslovakia,
what a shame! Vaclav Havel left the office this summer and was succeeded
by no one, since there was no agreement on a successor.
  Fujimori should be easy, given the events in Peru. One contestant placed
him in Japan, and yes he is of Japanese origin, but for crying out loud:
Japan is an empire, not a republic!
  Moi's been in business for a while, and was re-elected under not entirely
satisfactionary conditions at the very end of 1992. Noticeable that the
two Finnish contestants spotted him but no one else. Maybe that is because
Kenya has been more noticed in Scandinavia than elsewhere.
  Scalfaro was elected in 1992, but under great attention since the Italian
president plays a representaive role, so has to count as difficult.
  Ramos was also elected in 1992, but he was known before as he played an 
important role in ousting Marcos in favour of Corazon Acquino. People forget 
it seems.
  And Rene Felber isn't president anywhere, as he was suceeded by Adolf Ogi
with the turn of the year. (But I didn't know this when I posted the quiz.)
Hadn't his name appeared in the news paper in conjcution with the EEA 
referendum in Switzerland, I would have been as clueless as anyone.


>6)  Who were the Bogomils, and who are supposedly their descenders
>    today?
>    (5 points)

Bogomil was a Bulgarian bishop in the 10th century who founded a
sect/party built on ideas that were in several ways radically
different from the regular church. Bogomilism spred and gained
popularity, not only on the Balkan but as far away as in France.
Everywhere they were procecuted, execpt in the Bosnia where they
found refuge in the mountains. In the Bosnian state which arose
in the 14th century, the Bogomils were the leading group. When
Balkan fell to the Turks, the Bogomils converted to Islam which
helped them to keep their leading position. Probably the teological
step was easier for them than for Catholics and Orthodox too. And so
we see again how events long ago is a root behind the conflict on the
Balkan today. The Roman split gave us Catholics and Orthodox (Croats 
and Serbs), and the Bogomils gave us the Muslims.

Note: not all parts in the Balkan conflict would accept the above (and
it is indeed simplified). It is popular to claim that the Muslims are 
either converted Croats or Serbs depending on where you stand.

G5


>7)  The majority of the population in France are descenders of the
>    Gauls who lived there in Caesar's times, but how approxamitely
>    many words, proper names excluded, has survived from the now
>    extinct Gaul language to present-day French?
>    (5 points)

Around 70. Few of the words are common words. Most noticeable is maybe
"change". I got two guesses on 100, which I rewarded fully, since they
clearly catches the spirit in the question. The exclusion of proper
names is important as many French cities have names of Gallic origin.

The number of words in English borrowed by the Anglo-Saxons from the
Celtic locals is a similar small number, by the way.

D5 E5


>8) Two sports questions, at 5 points each:
>   a) Make this sextet complete: Uruguay, Italy, Brazil, England, Argentina
>      and ?

(Western) Germany. All are World Champions in football.

D5 F5 H5 G5

>   b) Is the sextet composed of Canada, USA, Sweden, United Kingdom,
>      Czechoslovakia and USSR complete in some way, or should a country
>      be retracted or added? In such case, which one? Motivate your
>      answer.

This was fun! Many had the motivation right, but the answer wrong!

Yes, the set is complete. They are all World Champions in ice hockey.
Almost everyone wanted to remove the UK, but they won a gold way back 
in 1936.

I also had the proposal "Olympic gold in ice hockey - remove Sweden".
Close, but no cigar. Neither did Czechoslovakia get any Olympic hockey
gold.

A2 D1 F2 G2 H5


>9a) Which European countries has a woman as the head of state? What are
>    the names of these women?
>    (5 points for the exact set of states. There is a penalty if mention
>     states which do not belong. 1 point for each correct name.)

Ireland          (president Mary Robertson)
Iceland          (president Vigdis Finnbogadottir)
The Netherlands  (Queen Beatrix)
Denmark          (Queen Margareta II)
United Kingdom   (Queen Elizabeth II)

I gave one point for each correct countries, and -0.5 for inappropriate ones,
with a floor on zero.

A3.5  D2  E4  F0.5  G6  H6


>9b) And which European countries has female prime ministers? What are
>    their names?
>    (Same system as for 9a.)

Norway (Gro Harlem Bruntland)
Poland (Hanna Suchowska)

No one got Poland. Those who got Norway got three points. Reduction -0.5
here as well.

A4 D3 G2 H4 I2

Note: recent female prime ministers in Europe are:
Edith Cresson       (France)
Kazimiera Pruskinie (Lithuania)
Margaret Thatcher   (UK)

But none of them were in office during the quiz.


10) Rome was the capital in the Roman Empire and is today the capital
    in Italy. Name other European cities with this property of having
    been the capital in two non-related states (That is, Berlin in
    Prussia/Germany does not count for instance.) Also name the states
    for each city. (Since you might come up with places the quizmaster
    have not thought of, it helps if you include some time information.)
    (2 points for each triplet of city-country-country. No penalty
    for incorrect answers.)

D4 E2 F2 G4

The question was vague, but as I tried to clarify I was ruling out cases
when a country became another in a continuous transition. In most cases
mean that the city must have had the status of capital at separate
occassions, but there is one execption. Still there are of course question-
able cases, as "country" has not always been a well-defined term.

The ones at least some one of you spotted:
Athens   - ancient city state and mordern Greece
Istanbul - East Roman/Byzatine Empire and Ottoman Empire/Turkey to 1926
           (The exception.)
Kiev     - Kievan Rus' in the 10th century and present-day Ukraine.
Prague   - Mediaeval Bohemia and present-day Czechoslovakia/Czechia.
           A difficult case, since Bohemia formally was part of the
           Holy Roman Empire, but on the other hand enjoyed great
           freedom within the empire. Also, some of the Bohemian kings 
           were elected emperors of the empire. Whether mediaeval Bohemia
           and modern Czechia are related or not, is not trivial to say. 
           The borders were fairly much the same, but the former was a 
           German-Czech state, while the latter a purely Czech one. I felt 
           that I had to accept it anyway.

Those you proposed, but I rejected:
Prague   - Czechoslovakia and Czechia. Obviously related.
Vienna   - Holy Roman Empire - Austria-Hungary - modern Austria. A 
           continuous development if anything.
Belgrade - Serbia - Yugoslavia. A countinuous development where Serbia
           merged with parts from the Austrian-Hungarian empire.

The ones you definitely missed:
Bratislava - Hungary 1526-1699(?) when Budapest was in Ottoman hands and
             present-day Slovakia.
Skopje     - Mediaeval Serbia and present-day Macedonia. Since the city
             is very old, it might also have been a captial for a Dardanian
             kingdom, if there ever was one. (Way back in 300-400 BC.)
             (Hey, even Sven missed this one!)

The ones you could qualify, but I'm not certain about:
Minsk    - Thought I had seen somewhere that Minsk was capital in mediaeval
           Lithuania, but I can't find it now. Probably something I have
           extrapolated from the fact that the administration langauge in 
           old Lithuania was Whiterussian.
Riga     - If Riga held the status as capital in the Livionian Order state,
           the it is indeed qualified.
Tallinn  - Same here, there were two Order states.
Florence - Duchy of Toscana and Italy in the 1860s. I'm glad I didn't have
           to decided wheter Toscana and Italy were related or not.

-- 
Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - sommar@enea.se
Newsgroups: rec.games.trivia