General Knowledge Quiz #158

Can you answer these random trivia questions?
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Last updated: June 16, 2021
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First submittedOctober 23, 2016
Times taken74,961
Average score50.0%
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Question
Answer
What two countries have an X in their name?
Luxembourg
Mexico
What is the biggest species of marsupial?
Red kangaroo
What does the French word "gâteau" mean in English?
Cake
What word, originating in Britain, is an abbreviation of "association football"?
Soccer
What movie featured the "Imperial March", composed by John Williams?
The Empire Strikes Back
What is the name of this typographical character: ¶
Pilcrow
What part of the body is swollen if one suffers from encephalitis?
Brain
What movie featured the songs "Born to Hand Jive" and "Beauty School Dropout"?
Grease
What group of islands was conquered by Kamehameha the Great and his armada of war canoes?
Hawaii
According to Bible verse Matthew 5:5, who shall inherit the Earth?
The meek
What is a sommelier's area of expertise?
Wine
What are the two major cities in the Canadian province of Alberta?
Calgary
Edmonton
What royal dynasty did Louis XIV come from?
Bourbon
What was the subject of the Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth"?
Global warming
What U.S. island has a population of more than 1.5 million in an area of just 59.1 square kilometers?
Manhattan
What is the largest animal that was originally domesticated in South America?
Llama
What singer was "Born in the U.S.A." and also "Born to Run"?
Bruce Springsteen
What saint's bones did Venetians steal from Alexandria and bring to their most famous church?
St. Mark's
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42 Comments
+2
Level 75
Oct 23, 2016
Greenhouse effect for global warming? It's the cause of global warming..
+7
Level 99
Apr 12, 2018
_A_ cause, not _the_ cause
+13
Level 77
Oct 24, 2016
Disappointed that "an abbreviation of "association football"" was not a**ball.
+6
Level 78
Oct 24, 2016
I love this. I also love that this question was included. Every time a quiz is about football on this site, the British folks on here all comment "oh...THAT kind of football," and other stupid stuff about how their football is better than our football, and why do we call it soccer when the rest of the world calls it football. As it so happens, the term soccer was coined by the British themselves, and only started using football when the term soccer caught on in the United States. So see there...we TRIED to call it what you call it.
+4
Level 89
Nov 1, 2016
Yes! Exactly this, and I explain this regularly as an American immigrant to NZ. Here the term soccer has also traditionally been used but in the last 10 years they have tried to change it to football specifically because the term soccer is seen as being American and there's a strong current of anti-Americanism. The same is true in Australia despite their team being called the Socceroos.
+4
Level 79
Nov 15, 2016
The term "soccer" was created by the British, yes, but it was only ever used by upper class public schoolboy types who also called "rugby" "rugger". By the time "soccer" caught on among the working classes, they called it "football".

There's a pretty big class divide in the UK even today, and that divide was even bigger in the past. It's understandable why nobody here wants to call it "soccer" nowadays, even if the original reasons have been forgotten.

+3
Level 55
Aug 31, 2025
Many years later, but the word soccer was not used just by the upper class public schoolboy types: I'm old enough to remember it being used fairly frequently, in writing and spoken. Loads of footballers used the word soccer in their writings (or ghost writings) whether it was in newspaper columns, annuals, or autobiographies. The Sun newspaper (a paper for the working classes mostly) used to have an annual called The Sun Soccer Annual every year from at least the 70s until the early 90s, as did players like Keegan and George Best (aimed at children). Any glances of old matchday programmes also gives you examples of the use of the word.

Soccer was never the predominate word, or an official word, but it was a common synonym for the name of the sport: it's just fallen out of use since the 90s and the British have forgotten how they used to use it.

+2
Level 74
Sep 2, 2025
There's a lot of terms like this, actually, where Brits have decided that British coinings are "Americanisms" and have therefore stopped using it. Bill Bryson has documented a number of them ("normalcy" and "soccer" among them).

I think it's a fascinating subject; I believe similar mechanisms of schismogenesis to be one of the driving forces of history.

Still, I wish more British people understood linguistic evolution and the fact that American and British English descend from a common ancestor; one is not "more original" or "more correct" than the other.

+2
Level 37
Jan 2, 2017
Dude there might be a slight recoil from the pervasion of American culture but not much. In Australia, we tend to just eat a lot of American junk up. But we like to remain refined and British of occasion. Incidentally, we still definitely call soccer soccer, coz football is distinctly something else.

Don't go drawing us in with your mob mr kiwiland; whole country of enigmas across the tasman. Hehe

I like to (affectionately) accuse kiwis of being spies and that there sneaking in unawares and taking over. There are a lot of them here.

We think Australia and new Zealand will merge...nah - the kiwis are gonna rule the Australasian Empire, god help us!

+7
Level 79
Jan 2, 2017
There is nothing at all "refined" about Britishness, or unrefined about Americanness.
+6
Level 71
Jan 6, 2017
I was super disappointed when “assfoot” just wouldn't work.
+1
Level 55
Aug 4, 2020
That was my first guess
+2
Level 74
Oct 24, 2016
Also amazed so many people knew Pilcrow. That is literally the first time I have ever heard of it.
+12
Level 92
Oct 24, 2016
I haven't heard of Pilcrow either but I'm sure I'm not the only one who got it correct by typing "paragraph" - which is an accepted answer.
+1
Level 73
Jan 2, 2017
+1
+1
Level 70
Nov 25, 2017
+1
+1
Level 55
Aug 4, 2020
Ya thanks for that QM
+1
Level 67
Sep 6, 2021
Aww, I knew that's what it was for, but never thought it would be an accepted answer! What could have been...
+2
Level 87
Nov 29, 2016
How exactly is soccer an abbreviation of "association football"? An abbreviation is "a shortened form of a word or phrase". I see the "soc" in "asSOCiation football", but where's the "er"? Is there another word somewhere that also got shortened? Maybe it's short for "asSOCiation football is bettER (than American football)"?
+1
Level 33
Jan 2, 2017
"Soccer" was created to similar to "Rugger" which was shortened from "rugby football" and somebody decided to twist "association football" into a similar form.
+1
Level 56
Jan 2, 2017
If properly shortened, Americans would now be playing Assoer - or maybe they wouldn't!
+4
Level 70
Nov 25, 2017
I feel as though you're confusing Abbreviation with Portmanteau. Only portmanteaux require both (or all) words to be used. For example, in Australia, we often abbreviate 'service station' to 'servo' and 'Salvation Army' to 'Salvos' - only one of the two words are used and it is still considered an abbreviation.
+4
Level 74
Jan 2, 2017
Can you use the term "climate change"? "Global warming" confuses those with lesser reasoning capabilities. ;)
+5
Level 73
Jan 2, 2017
I prefer the term "global weirding". ;)
+1
Level 49
Jan 2, 2017
Sorry but that soccer question is ridiculous and completely incorrect. An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word. Soccer is not short for anything and certainly not short for association football.
+20
Level 68
Jan 2, 2017
The question isn't ridiculous nor is it incorrect. You don't know everything. You can learn things on jetpunk
+14
Level 79
Jan 2, 2017
Are you saying that "soccer" is not shorter than "association football?"
+14
Level 80
Jan 3, 2017
If only there were a way to look these things up!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football

+2
Level 43
Jan 3, 2017
I thought that kingdom ruled by Kamehameha was Japan. It just looked like something a character from Dragon Ball Z would say.
+1
Level 72
Jan 3, 2017
Please accept Saint Marco. I thought I was wrong when it didn't accept it.
+5
Level 86
Feb 20, 2017
It's San Marco, if you want to use the Italian words. But the quiz is in English.
+1
Level 59
Jan 3, 2017
i know the internet took it and ran but even if you don't have a twitter or whatever you should know who/what harambe was because that dominated news as far as im concerned in America for a period of time this past year
+3
Level 86
Feb 20, 2017
Just a short news story this side of the ocean. I've heard much more about Knut the polar bear.
+4
Level 58
Jan 4, 2017
How did I forget about Mexico?!
+1
Level 86
Jan 29, 2018
Was struggling to guess the Kamehameha question, and found myself entering 'South Park' and 'Kyle's Mum' in case there were funny type-ins. There weren't.
+1
Level 41
Apr 30, 2020
Sorry I don't like to do this but can you accept "environment" for the Gore doc?
+3
Level 59
Feb 2, 2021
Or Manbearpig
+1
Level 79
Sep 6, 2021
Matt and Trey eventually acknowledged that they were wrong about Manbearpig and that he does exist and is a serious threat.
+3
Level 59
Feb 2, 2021
Oh, it's the meek! Blessed are the meek! I'm glad they're getting something 'cause they've had a hell of a time.
+1
Level 80
Jan 29, 2025
Did he say "Blessed are the Greek?"
+2
Level 66
Dec 21, 2021
You know you have been on this site too long when you spell Grease as Greece. Good thing it was accepted as a type-in anyway, LOL.
+1
Level 99
Aug 22, 2023
uhhh I did't