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Quiz 1: "Atol"

All answers are twelve letters long.

1. Can you guess what order the answers to this quiz are in?

2. What do we call the evening of the fifth day of the eleventh month?

3. What foodstuffs were eaten by an arachnophobic Nursery Rhyme character?

4. In English it’s a full-stop. In Art it’s a dot. What is it in Mathematics?

5. Tests sat by pupils or carried out by doctors…?

6. Which man-made monster, named after its inventor, has bolts in its neck?

7. What is the collective name for Wales, Scotland and England?

8. Name the popular American cartoon character who works as a Safety Inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

9. Where did Alice find the Cheshire Cat and the March Hare?

10. Who invaded Britain in 55 BC?

11. The dictionary describes it as “a toy consisting of a tube containing mirrors and pieces of coloured glass or paper”. What is it?

12. By what name is a female School Crossing Patrol Officer usually known?

Answers

Alphabetical

Bonfire Night

Curds and whey

Decimal point

Examinations

Frankenstein

Great Britain

Homer Simpson

In Wonderland

Julius Caesar

Kaleidoscope

Lollipop lady

Quiz 2: Sports and Games

1. What will end in London on the 12th of August 2012?

2. In which sport is the reserve player called Twelfth Man?

3. Hannah is playing Monopoly. Her piece (the hat) is on Old Kent Road. She throws a 12, followed by a 2, followed by another 12. On which square does she end up?

4. It took Tim Henman almost four hours to defeat Paul Haarhuis at Wimbledon in 1997. In the fifth and final set, his opponent won 12 games. How many did Tim win?

5. Which sporting division of 12 teams includes Motherwell, Kilmarnock and Falkirk?

6. In snooker, the red ball is worth 1, the yellow 2, green 3… and so on. Black and which colour add up to 12?

7. Identify this sport. Twelve players take part, in two teams of six. A ball is hit by players’ hands over a net suspended above the centre of the court. Terms associated with the sport include ‘dig’, ‘block’ and ‘spike’.

8. Imogen goes first and puts down BEAR, for which she scores 12 points. What game is she playing?

9. Padraig is standing on the 12th tee at Carnoustie. How many more holes will he play before completing his round?

10. Which football team finished in 12th place in the Premiership at the end of 2006-07 football season? Was it a) Middlesbrough b) Everton c) Reading?

11. Identify this game. Two players each have 12 pieces. It is played on a board of 64 squares. On July 19th this year Chinook, a computer programme, finished calculating all 500 billion billion possible moves in the game, making it unbeatable.

12. On a traditional dart-board, which two numbers are either side of number 12? (A very hard question. If you don’t know, take a guess!)

Answers

Olympic Games

Cricket

Jail

14

Scottish Premier League

Blue

Volleyball

Scrabble

7

a) Middlesbrough

Draughts

9 and 5

Quiz 3: Animals

All answers are twelve letters long.

1. Which breed of rescue dog is often portrayed, especially in comics and cartoons, with a barrel of brandy attached to its collar?

2. Identify this prehistoric animal. First discovered in 1879, it had a long neck, could grow to over 80 feet in length and weighed about 35 tons. Its name comes from the Greek words for ‘thunder’ and ‘lizard’.

3. Fill in the blanks. “The _______ _____ butterfly is a common sight in Europe from July to September. Males have a single black spot on the forewings, females have two.”

4. Name the large African mammal with a hairless body and stubby legs that spends the day bathing in rivers or wallowing in mud.

5. What are we said to have when we look down on something from above?

6. Fill in the blanks. “The _____-______ tiger is an extinct species with a short tail, powerful legs and a large head. Its jaws could open 120 degrees.”

7. Which breed of small horse is closely associated with the most northern part of the United Kingdom, from which it takes its name?

8. Identify this animal. It often has more than one drey (nest). It buries stocks of nuts for the winter, but doesn’t actually hibernate. In the UK it outnumbers its smaller red cousin by 66 to one.

9. Which Beatrix Potter character lived in a little damp house amongst the buttercups at the edge of a pond?

10. Fill in the blanks. “The ____-billed ______ is a strange looking mammal with webbed feet and a large rubbery snout. It has often been adopted as a mascot in its native Australia.

11. Of which disease was there an outbreak on a Surrey farm in early August 2007?

12. Name the 1993 film that has a Tyrannosaurus attacking a car and a couple of velociraptors in the kitchen.

Answers

Saint Bernard

Brontosaurus

Cabbage White

Hippopotamus

Bird’s Eye View

Sabre-toothed

Shetland Pony

Grey Squirrel

Jeremy Fisher

Duck; platypus

Foot and Mouth

Jurassic Park

Quiz 4: On This Day

1. Who started his job as manager of the England football team on 12th January 2001?

2. Who was born in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky on 12th February 1809? He later became President of the United States and brought in laws to abolish slavery.

3. Her name appears on a wide range of frozen vegetarian foods. She married one of the Beatles on 12th March 1969. Who?

4. What did the Russian pilot Yuri Gagarin become on 12th April 1961?

5. Which competition did the Serbian singer Marija Šerifović win in Helsinki on 12th May 2007?

6. On 12th June 1942, her father Otto gave her a blank notebook as a birthday present. She used it as a diary, writing about her family’s life in hiding in Amsterdam. Who was she?

7. Who married his sixth and final wife at Hampton Court Palace on 12th July 1543?

8. Name the ruler of Egypt who died of a snake-bite on 12th August in the year 30 BC.

9. The actor Ian Holm was born on 12th September 1931. His film career includes appearances as Pod in The Borrowers and Napoleon Bonaparte in Time Bandits. What part did he play in Lord of the Rings?

10. On 12th October 1492 he landed in The Bahamas, having sailed from Spain on a ship called Santa Maria. He later claimed to have ‘discovered’ the New World. Who was he?

11. Identify this swimmer. She (or he) was photographed for the very first time on 12th November 1933, though people have been saying they’ve seen her for centuries. Another video of her appeared on BBC Scotland earlier this year.

12. Identify this African country which became a republic on 12th December 1963. The national language is Swahili and the capital city Nairobi. One of the country’s top athletes is marathon runner Paul Tergat, who is also an Ambassador Against Hunger for the UN World Food Programme.

Answers

Sven-Göran Eriksson

Abraham Lincoln

Linda McCartney

First human in space

Eurovision Song Contest

Anne Frank

Henry VIII

Cleopatra

Bilbo Baggins

Christopher Columbus

Loch Ness Monster

Kenya

Quiz 5: Children's Fiction and Entertainment

All answers are twelve letters long.

1. What lucky find links Charlie, Violet, Augustus, Mike and Veruca?

2. “As dirty a juvenile as one would wish to see; but he had about him all the airs and manners of a man.” In the musical version, he sings the duet Consider Yourself with the main character. What is this pickpocket’s nickname?

3. Which television programme has been running since 1969 and includes such characters as Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Grover?

4. What had Alice gone through when she came across the poem Jabberwocky?

5. Which Teacher of Potions becomes Headmaster in the final book?

6. Where do the children Mary, Dickon and Colin spend time in the company of Ben Weatherstaff?

7. Who illustrated Roald Dahl’s books, wrote Mister Magnolia, and was made the first Children’s Laureate in 1999?

8. Darrell Rivers, Betty Hill and Alicia Johns are pupils. Miss Potts, Mam’zelle Rougier and Mr Sutton are teachers. Name the boarding school.

9. He has been a sailor, bus driver, policeman and boxer, but is best known as the author of the Redwall books. His new book, Eulalia, will be published in October 2007. Who is he?

10. Which puppet show traditionally includes a crocodile, a string of sausages, and the catch-phrase “That’s the way to do it!”?

11. Name the television series that follows the adventures of the International Rescue organisation and includes such characters as Jeff Tracy, Brains, Lady Penelope and Aloysius “Nosey” Parker.

12. Complete this character’s full name: Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter ______________.

Answers

Golden Ticket

Artful Dodger

Sesame Street

Looking Glass

Severus Snape

Secret Garden

Quentin Blake

Malory Towers

Brian Jacques

Punch And Judy

Thunderbirds

Longstocking

Quiz 6: Half and Half

Half the answers begin with the first three letters of a certain six-letter word. The other half end with the last three letters of the same word.

Identify these twelve words.

1. Small pincers.

2. To rotate.

3. Bird song.

4. To put aside or place on a ledge.

5. To pull, twist or make minor adjustments.

6. A device that regulates flow.

7. Rough woollen fabric, closely associated with Scotland.

8. To dig or research.

9. Score.

10. Divide in two.

11. Either of the twins who agreed to have a battle.

12. Work out the answers to a puzzle – or quiz!

Answers

Tweezers

Revolve

Tweet

Shelve

Tweak

Valve

Tweed

Delve

Twenty

Halve

Tweedledum or Tweedledee

Solve

Quiz 7: “MY” Questions

This quiz is of a similar format to Quiz 1: “Atol”. All answers are twelve letters long.

1. Its Tibetan name is Chomolungma: Goddess Mother of the Earth. The Nepalese call it Sagarmatha, meaning ‘Forehead of the Sky’. Reach the summit and you would be on top of the world. What is it?

2. Which type of poetry includes these phrases: ‘pulled out a plum’; ‘counting out his money’; ‘bells and cockleshells’?

3. Name the thoroughfare, famous for its shops, that runs from Marble Arch to Centre Point in London.

4. What kitchen implement is used for removing the outer layer of vegetables?

5. ?

6. They were invented in the 18th century. All the performers wear them in the musical Starlight Express. A hard rubber brake is usually attached to the heel of the frame. Identify the footwear.

7. What name is given to the line of bones which extends from the base of the neck to the small of the back?

8. Which container keeps hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold?

9. When an actor is ill, the play often still goes ahead, with another performer taking the part. What do we call those actors who are ready to take over – like substitutes in team games – when these occasions arise?

10. Which plant can catch flies?

11. Tuesday 16th October 2007…?

12. Marcus went to Staincliffe Primary School in the town of Batley, where he was born. Batley is near Leeds, in an area known as the West Riding. What does this make him – in addition to being English, British and European?

Answers

Mount Everest

Nursery Rhyme

Oxford Street

Potato Peeler

Question Mark

Roller Skates (or Blades)

Spinal Column

Thermos Flask

Understudies

Venus Fly Trap

World Food Day

Yorkshireman

Quiz 8: Geography

All answers are twelve letters long.

1. In which continent would you be if you were visiting Ecuador, Columbia or Bolivia?

2. Name the large ‘new’ town in Buckinghamshire, roughly half way between London and Birmingham, that is well-known for its countless roundabouts.

3. Which popular tourist attraction straddles the border between Canada and the USA? The acrobat Blondin first walked across it on a tightrope, 335 metres long, in 1859. His later crossings featured a number of variations: blindfold, pushing a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man on his back, and sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelet.

4. Which is the largest city in South Africa?

5. Where would you go to see the White House, Grand Canyon or Super Bowl?

6. What rises in the Cuilcagh Mountains and flows into the Atlantic Ocean close to the Irish city of Limerick?

7. Name the large island, off the coast of North America, that is situated at the mouth of the St Lawrence River. When the Italian explorer Cabot landed there in 1497, he called it Terra Nova.

8. In which area of northern England, popular with walkers and climbers, did William Wordsworth write his famous poem, The Daffodils? Tourist attractions include Scafell Pike, Ullswater and Grasmere.

9. Which large city in Brazil has a Portuguese name that translates into English as ‘River of January’?

10. Stratford-upon-Avon, Leamington Spa and Rugby are all in which English county?

11. Which city in California is famous for its cable cars and Golden Gate Bridge? Some 300,000 people were left homeless as a result of an earthquake there in April 1906.

12. What is approximately 63,800,000 square miles in area and covers almost one third of the surface of the planet?

Answers

South America

Milton Keynes

Niagara Falls

Johannesburg

United States

River Shannon

Newfoundland

Lake District

Rio de Janeiro

Warwickshire

San Francisco

Pacific Ocean

Quiz 9: All About Numbers

1. What is the 12th odd number?

2. How many days are there in the 12th month of the year?

3. How much will 12 bananas cost if each banana costs 12p?

4. Ben goes to bed at 21.00. What time is this in the 12 hour clock?

5. Lola has twice as many grapes as Ruth. Ahmed has 12 grapes. Ruth has five grapes fewer than Ahmed. How many grapes does Lola have?

6. There are 12 inches in a foot and 2.5 centimetres in an inch. How many centimetres are there in a foot?

7. A group of 12 people win £6,000 in the lottery. They share the money equally. How much does each person get?

8. The hens on Manor Farm lay three dozen eggs a week. How many eggs is this?

9. How many minutes are there in a twelfth of an hour?

10. How did the Romans write the number 12?

11. The Prime Minister earns about £15,000 a month. How much is this a year?

12. What is the 12th number in this sequence: 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, ………….?

Answers

23

31

£1.44

9pm

14

30

£500

36

5

XII

£180,000

78

Quiz 10: Transport, Flight and Space

All answers are twelve letters long.

1. What do we call the process of going faster and faster?

2. Which human-powered machine has wide tyres and is designed for riding over rough ground? The first models were produced only thirty years ago. One of the most popular brand names is Muddy Fox.

3. What name is often given to a public transport vehicle that can carry up to 80 passengers? Tourists might travel on one without a roof when wishing to see the sights of London.

4. All modern cars have them. They are switched on to warn other motorists of a breakdown or possible obstruction. What are they?

5. On many roads the speed limit is 70. In residential areas it is usually 30. But 70 or 30…what?

6. Introduced in 1875, this mark takes its name from the British Member of Parliament who was determined to improve safety standards on ships. It indicates the maximum load level on a cargo vessel. What is it?

7. Which airport building, with a view of the runways and direct radio contact to pilots, houses skilled personnel who monitor and direct take-off and landing procedures?

8. What was ‘broken’ by test pilot Charles “Chuck” Yeager in a Bell X-1 aeroplane on 14th October 1947? To do this, he needed to travel at a speed greater than 1,128 feet per second.

9. Which craft can take astronauts in and out of the Earth’s atmosphere, often carrying satellites to be placed in orbit?

10. What is it called when the Sun, Earth and Moon are lined up in such a way that the Earth’s shadow passes across the Moon? This happens at least twice every year, the most recent occasion being on 28th August 2007.

11. Named after an English astronomer, it appears in our night sky once every 75-76 years. Although the peanut-shaped nucleus is only 15 kilometres long, its ‘coma’ (tail) extends for millions of kilometres into space. What is it?

12. What name is often given to any strange, disc-shaped object seen in the sky? One of the oldest recorded sightings was over Byland Abbey in Yorkshire in 1290. The name also appears in science fiction stories about aliens arriving on Earth from outer space.

Answers

Acceleration

Mountain Bike

Double Decker

Hazard Lights

Miles Per Hour

Plimsoll Line

Control Tower

Sound Barrier

Space Shuttle

Lunar Eclipse

Halley’s Comet

Flying Saucer

Quiz 11: Food and Drink

All answers are twelve letters long.

Identify the following:

1. A baked savoury pastry case traditionally filled with diced meat, sliced potato and onion.

2. A traditional British dish containing stewed fruit and topped with a mixture of fat, flour and sugar. It is baked in an oven and often served with custard or cream.

3. Natural liquid from springs or bore holes, usually sold in plastic bottles.

4. A paste made from the fruit of the plant Arachis hypogaea. A popular spread in sandwiches. Americans buy about 90,000,000 jars a year.

5. Yellow maize, boiled or barbecued, eaten in the fingers or on skewers.

6. A dairy product, similar in texture to yoghurt, often with a fruit flavour. Its name is French for ‘fresh cheese’.

7. A fruit-based, sweet-tasting syrup, to which water must be added before drinking. The fruit and its colour have the same name.

8. Often served on toast, it is made by whisking yolk and white together and heating in a frying-pan.

9. A traditional English dish consisting of minced meat (usually lamb) and chopped onion, optional vegetables, covered with mashed potato and baked in an oven.

10. A drink made by adding heated milk to powdered cocoa beans.

11. A snack traditionally made by grating cheese, mixed with a little beer or milk and butter, seasoned with mustard and heated on toast. Popular in the country from which it takes its name.

12. A tasty treat, often covered in icing sugar, baked in celebration of an anniversary. We’re expected to be able to blow all out the candles in one go!

Answers

Cornish Pasty

Apple Crumble

Mineral Water

Peanut Butter

Corn on the Cob

Fromage Frais

Orange Squash

Scrambled Egg

Shepherd’s Pie

Hot Chocolate

Welsh Rarebit

Birthday Cake

Quiz 12: Bits and Pieces

1. Which is the 12th letter of the alphabet?

2. What name is given to the twelve followers of Jesus Christ?

3. How tall is a pony that is twelve 'hands' high? Is it:

a) 24 inches

b) 36 inches

c) 48 inches

d) 12 feet ?

4. In Greek mythology, who was given twelve labours to complete? The tasks included capturing a bull, stealing a girdle, and cleaning the Augean stables.

5. Aries, Capricorn and Libra all belong to which group of twelve?

6. Twelve is also known as a dozen. But what name is given to twelve twelves?

7. The Beaufort Scale – which goes from 0 to 12 – measures the force of the wind. Each point on the scale has a word or phrase describing the conditions; for example ‘strong breeze’ (point 6), ‘gale’ (8) and ‘violent storm’ (11). What name is given to a wind of force 12?

8. What is the collective name for the twelve people who reach a verdict in a court case?

9. Only twelve people (all men) have walked there. The first to do so was Neil Armstrong on 21st July 1969, when he described his first step as “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Where?

10. What short phrase actually means one more than the number it refers to? The expression dates back to the 13th century, when the sale of bread and beer was strictly regulated. Breadmakers therefore always made an extra loaf, in case one was eaten, lost or burnt.

11. What did my true love give to me on the 12th day of Christmas?

12. What is the total number of gifts handed over in the same Christmas song?

Answers

L

Disciples (or Apostles)

c. 48 inches

Heracles (or Hercules)

Signs of the Zodiac

Gross

Hurricane

Jury

The Moon

Baker’s Dozen

12 drummers drumming

364