English Language Quiz #3

[Qaqaq]

Entries received from Dave10000, Eykir, and Logain. (34 entries total now.)

[This message has been edited by Qaqaq (edited 08-02-2003 10:32 AM).]

[dethwing]

Wow, stiff competition.

[Courk]

Sent.

[DMTsurel]

sent

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One day the zookeeper noticed that the orangutan was reading two books - the Bible and Darwin's Origin of Species.
In surprise he asked the ape, "Why are you reading both those books?"
"Well," said the orangutan, "I just wanted to know if I was my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother."

[Qaqaq]

Courk and DMTsurel's entries received.

Deadline is this Sunday.

[This message has been edited by Qaqaq (edited 08-04-2003 10:46 AM).]

[Qaqaq]

Three days to the deadline.

[Qaqaq]

Entry received from Kevinatilusa, which brings us to 37 entries so far.

Two days to the deadline, and this will probably be the final reminder, since I'll be away from the computer all weekend.

[One Skunk Todd]

*Bump*
~Anxiously awaits results~

[Qaqaq]

38 entries were received from: Antrax, Beartalon, ButterflyBabe, Chuck, Courk, Dave10000, Dethwing, Dragon Phoenix, DSTsurel, Duke Gnome, Duphrates, Eykir, Groza528, Hitchhiker, Jadesmar, Jamezu, Kevinatilusa, Lepton, Logain, MatthewV, Mercury, Mikegoo, One Skunk Todd, Philana, Qball, Quailman, RequiemEternam, Sami, Saxifrage, Skellum, Sparticus, Sweetwater, Taflinel, Tahnan, T McAy, UnheardVoice, Vinny, and Werebear. (I have no idea if 38 entrants is a GL record of any sort, but I must say that such a turnout is very gratifying. Also, thanks to everyone for having screen names that have unique initial trigrams -- makes doing this report much easier.)

1. Name a 3-letter word that begins with the letter W.
1 POINT: WAG (mat), WEN (qua), WET (swe), WHO (sam), WIG (sax), WIN (dup), WON (tmc), WYE (phi). 2 POINTS: WAR (dra duk), WED (dav ske), WEE (hit jam), WIT (det qba), WOE (spa unh), WOO (chu vin). 3 POINTS: WAS (ant cou lep), WAX (gro log wer), WRY (dst eyk req). 4 POINTS: WAN (bea but mik one), WHY (jad mer taf tah).
INCORRECT ANSWER (10 POINTS): WAT (kev).

Of course, there are plenty of common words that weren't chosen at all, among them WAD, WAY, WEB, and WOW.

2. Name a 1-syllable word that rhymes with the word ZAP.
1 POINT: CHAP (kev), JAP (tah), KNAP (qua), LAP (det), MAP (qba), NAP (sam), NAPPE (phi), RAP (vin), TAP (dav), YAP (bea). 2 POINTS: CAP (req tmc), CLAP (ant mer), CRAP (dra wer), GAP (eyk mat), PAP (dup jam), SCRAP (one spa), SLAP (gro taf), WRAP (but cou). 3 POINTS: FLAP (lep mik sax) SAP (dst duk ske), STRAP (chu jad log), TRAP (hit swe unh).

Enough different possibilities that no one scored too high.

3. Name a prefix that includes the letter B. (Punctuation rule is waived.)
1 POINT: BARO- (jam), BATHY- (one), BORO- (eyk), BRACHI- (qua), PHLEBO- (dav), UBER- (phi). 2 POINTS: AB- (bea mik). 3 POINTS: AMBI- (dst gro tah), OB- (mer qba spa). 4 POINTS: BIO- (dra jad sax wer). 5 POINTS: BE- (chu hit lep sam tmc), SUB- (duk dup log req ske). 8 POINTS: BI- (ant but cou det swe taf unh vin).
INCORRECT ANSWERS (10 POINTS): BUT- (kev), ORB- (mat).

If I gave style points, PHLEBO- would get one.

4. Name a 5-letter entry that consists of these 5 letters in any order: AEPRS.
1 POINT: APERS (chu), AS PER (log). 3 POINTS: PARES (mer mik phi), PEARS (dup ske vin). 5 POINTS: PARSE (bea dav dst qua taf). 6 POINTS: REAPS (duk eyk mat sax spa tmc), SPARE (but dra hit lep one unh), SPEAR (gro jad qba sam swe wer). 7 POINTS: RAPES (ant cou det jam kev req tah).

No one chose PRASE. APRES is also an entry but contains an accent mark. Questions 2 and 4 were the only questions that everyone answered correctly. Congratulations to Logain for being the only person to notice that I said "entry" rather than "word" in the question and coming up with the two-word entry phrase AS PER.

5. Name an entry that contains exactly six letters and at least one apostrophe.
1 POINT: S'MORES (eyk), THERE'D (bea). 3 POINTS: FO'C'SLE (hit lep sax), HAVEN'T (gro jam vin), MUSTN'T (log phi sam), O'CLOCK (dav taf tah), THEY'RE (det dup jad). THEY'VE (duk mat qua). 5 POINTS: WEREN'T (kev mik qba spa tmc). 8 POINTS: DOESN'T (ant but dst mer one ske swe wer).
INCORRECT ANSWERS (10 POINTS): CAN'T'VE (chu), DENNY'S (unh), HAWAI'I (req), ROLLIN' (dra), 'TWASN'T (cou).

The dictionary includes 'TWAS but not 'TWASN'T ... go figure. HAWAII is only in the Geographical section and would be disallowed anyway, but surprisingly isn't even listed with the HAWAI'I variant.

6. Name a 5-letter word that contains 2 K’s.
1 POINT: KICKY (dav), KNACK (sam), KOPEK (mer). 2 POINTS: KAPOK (hit swe), KHAKI (chu sax), KINKY (unh vin), KNOCK (duk taf), KOOKY (jad mik), SKINK (qua tmc), SKUNK (kev req). 3 POINTS: KIOSK (bea qba spa), SKULK (log phi ske). 5 POINTS: KICKS (cou det dup mat one). 7 POINTS: KAYAK (dra dst eyk gro jam lep wer).
INCORRECT ANSWERS (10 POINTS): KIAKS (ant), KLICK (tah), KNICK (but).

7. One page of the dictionary runs from MUCK to MUJAHIDEEN. Name any entry on that page that is unrelated to both of those words.
1 POINT: MUCOSAL (req), MUDSKIPPER (tmc), MUDSLINGING (kev), MUG (gro), MUGGY (jam), MUG SHOT (chu), MUGWORT (jad). 2 POINTS: MUCOUS (log ske), MUD (ant mat), MUDDLE (but swe), MUENSTER (bea sam), MUFF (dup sax), MUFFIN (cou det), MUFFLE (mik spa), MUFTI (hit phi), MUGWUMP (dav qua). 3 POINTS: MUFFLER (duk qba wer), MUGGER (dra mer vin). 5 POINTS: MUCUS (dst eyk one taf tah).
INCORRECT ANSWERS (10 POINTS): MUHAMMAD (unh), MULE (lep).

Yes, MUCUS, MUCOUS, and MUCOSAL are all separately defined entries. MUHAMMAD is only in the Biographical section; however, MUHAMMADAN would have worked. Among the unchosen words that would have been correct are MUD DAUBER, MUDDY, MUESLI, MUEZZIN, and MUFFULETTA.

8. Name any entry whose etymology includes the word “Swedish”.
1 POINT: F*CK (jam), MARKKA (phi), TUNGSTEN (eyk). 2 POINTS: KRONA (qua swe). 9 POINTS: SMORGASBORD (dav dup gro kev mer sam sax tah tmc).
INCORRECT ANSWERS (10 POINTS): CLOG (log), FJORD (lep req wer), FONDUE (mik), HELLO (cou), HEMP (qba), HURRAH (bea), KEY (dst), MATCHSTICK (dra), MEATBALL (one), NUN (ant), OLD SWEDISH (taf), PEPPER (hit), REINDEER (jad), SAUNA (ske), SWEDISH (but), SWEDISH MEATBALLS (det), SWISS (vin), TROLL (duk), WHIPLASHES (mat), ZENITH (unh), [no answer] (chu).

The first of several killer questions in a row. No, I didn't realize that Jamezu's response was one of the legitimate answers when I wrote the question. Among the possible other correct answers are some you might expect (AQUAVIT, FINN, GRAVLAX, LAPP, RUTABAGA, SIEVERT, etc.) and many you might not (BOULDER, DAHLIA, GIVE, GUESS, HALOGEN, MOPED, NICKEL, ORIENTEERING, SQUABBLE, WICKER, etc.). The dominant showing of SMORGASBORD was the least surprising result of the competition for me. Although no correct quiz answer got 10+ submissions, this was one of two to get 9.

9. There are over 30 entries beginning with the letter H that include an illustration with the entry. Name any one of them.
1 POINT: HACKSAW (mik), HEART (ant), HERRINGBONE (phi), HUMMINGBIRD (req). 2 POINTS: HARP (dav qua). 7 POINTS: HORSE (gro mat mer sax swe taf tah).
INCORRECT ANSWERS (10 POINTS): HAND (eyk), HARE (but), HARMONICA (unh), HARNESS (hit), HARPOON (jad), HAT (dst one wer), HEDGEHOG (ske), HEEL (lep), HEXAGON (bea chu log), HEXAGRAM (tmc), HORNED TOAD (det), HUMERUS (spa), HUNGARY (kev), HYACINTH (cou sam), HYDROGEN (duk qba vin), HYENA (dra dup jam).

There are some great, logical guesses that simply didn't work. I felt a little worried about including a question that relied so much on lucky guessing; on the other hand, I figured there were at least two entries that were totally safe guesses (HEART and HORSE), so people who didn't want to chance it could pick one of those. Among the many illustrations that could have worked are HAIR, HANG GLIDER, HEADDRESS, HIEROGLYPHIC, HINGE, HOOF, and HYPERBOLA.

10. Name any entry that has a definition that includes the word SEPTEMBER.
1 POINT: DOG DAYS (phi), MICHAELMAS (dup), SUMMER (tmc). 6 POINTS: LABOR DAY (cou dav det dst gro taf). 7 POINTS: AUTUMN (dra duk mat mer one req ske). 9 POINTS: EQUINOX (bea eyk log qua req sam sax swe tah).
INCORRECT ANSWERS (10 POINTS): AUTUMNAL EQUINOX (spa), FALL (wer), IDES (hit), 9/11 (unh), ROSH HASHANAH (qba), SEPT (lep), TERRORIST (ant), VIRGO (but chu kev mik vin), WORLD WAR II (jad).

A lot of near-misses here. IDES mentions four specific months, but not September. ROSH HASHANAH includes "Tishri", not "September". VIRGO refers readers to the entry for "Zodiac". The word SEPT does not include "September" in its definitions; SEPT. does, but is marked as an abbreviation. Had Sparticus said EQUINOX rather than the non-entry AUTUMNAL EQUINOX, the extra 5-point penalty for wrong answers would have kicked in, which would have changed the results a bit. The only other possible correct responses were ACADEMIC YEAR, EMBER DAY, and HARVEST MOON; I would also have allowed ZODIAC, even though "September" appears in a table rather than a definition per se.

Tiebreaker: The main body of this dictionary runs from page 1 to page 1459. On what page would you find the word TIEBREAKER?

TIEBREAKER appears on page 1307. Amazingly, only one person overshot it. The order of contestants for tiebreaking purposes is (contestant, followed by guess and difference from 1307):

1. jam (1300; -7)
2. mer, phi (1298; -9)
4. unh (1294; -13)
5. cou (1291; -16)
6. tmc (1280; -27)
7. tah (1278; -29)
8. taf (1275; -32)
9. wer (1351; +44)
10. sam (1260; -47)
11. dst (1257; -50)
12. mat (1255; -52)
13. ske (1251; -56)
14. jad, mik (1250; -57)
16. dra (1242; -65)
17. log (1225; -82)
18. qua (1221; -86)
19. sax (1218; -89)
20. qba (1212; -95)
21. gro (1205; -102)
22. swe (1204; -103)
23. lep (1201; -106)
24. kev (1196; -111)
25. eyk (1195; -112)
26. dav (1194; -113)
27. but (1169; -138)
28. req (1157; -150)
29. spa (1150; -157)
30. ant (1124; -183)
31. chu (1111; -196)
32. dup (1101; -206)
33. duk (1072; -235)
34. hit (1032; -275)
35. bea (1000; -307)
36. vin (949; -358)
37. det (838; -469)
38. one (no answer)

FINAL RESULTS:

1. PHILANA (17 POINTS)
2. Quailman (28)
3. Dave10000 (32)
4. Jamezu (41)
5. Duphrates (41)
6. T McAy (42)
7. Mikegoo (42)
8. Eykir (45)
9. Saxifrage (46)
10. Mercury (47)

11. Sami (47)
12. Groza528 (47)
13. Beartalon (47)
14. Sweetwater (48)
15. Logain (49)
16. RequiemEternam (50)
17. Duke Gnome (51)
18. Taflinel (52)
19. Vinny (52)
20. MatthewV (53)

21. Skellum (53)
22. Jadesmar (53)
23. Qball (53)
24. Sparticus (53)
25. Hitchhiker (53)
26. Chuck (54)
27. Dethwing (54)
28. Tahnan (58)
29. One Skunk Todd (58)
30. DSTsurel (60)

31. Dragon Phoenix (61)
32. Antrax (61)
33. Courk (63)
34. Werebear (63)
35. Kevinatilusa (65)
36. Lepton (67)
37. ButterflyBabe (70)
38. UnheardVoice (71)

A few points. (1) I checked everything at least twice, but if you think you see a scoring error, point it out and I'll edit the results if I agree. (2) Remarkable parity in the majority of the scores. I think this is mainly due to so many 7- to 9-point correct answers, which meant the 10-point incorrect answers didn't put those respondents quite so far behind the others. (3) Related to that, it was possible to make errors and still place quite well. At least one respondent made no errors and placed out of the top 10, while people as high as fourth place made at least one error. (4) Philana ROCKS. She has now won ELQs 1 and 3 and didn't lose 2 by much.

I think everyone did very well, in particular the non-native-English speakers. Thanks to everyone for entering, and congratulations again to our returning champion Philana!



[This message has been edited by Qaqaq (edited 08-12-2003 11:23 AM).]

[jadesmar]

Thanks Qaqaq, that was fun.

[Lepton]

Good quiz, chap!

[Antrax]

I'm fairly proud of only giving two incorrect answers and ending up in the middle of the pack next to many English speakers. Also, I beat Tahnan. W00t!
Antrax

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Bah, I don't believe in anything

[Saxifrage]

Good quiz! I'm excited to make the top ten in competition this stiff.

Congrats, Philana! Once again, you both amaze and frighten me.

[Eykir]

Well run, Qaqaq.
I am surprised at how often some of the items were chosen. I never would have guessed that many people taking Kayak or Mucus or Reaps.

That was fun, though. Congrats to everyone

[Tahnan]

If only KLICK were in the dictionary the way it should be, I would've pulled off 14th, edging out Logain on the tiebreaker. Congrats to everyone, and man Philana scares me.

[Dragon Phoenix]

Congrats to Philana, a big thanks to Qaqaq, and a 'hah! eat my socks!' to Courk and Werebear.

[MatthewV]

I believe that on question nine I had horse listed (I dont see my name anywhere there!)

Ya! good job modding...Good job to all the people above me who didn't ch34tz0r

[Dragon Phoenix]

[MatthewV]

Wow on the tiebreaker- in my dictionary (tenth addition instead of 11th) TIEBREAKER is listed on page 1229 (glad nobody said that!) So at this point, your dictionary alread is over 70 pages longer!

[Quailman]

Wow! 38 responses??? Thanks for compiling this, Qaqaq. With that many replies, I'd have been tempted to claim a hard drive crash, and then closed my e-mail account.

I think my favorite answer was HERRINGBONE. That obviously would need an illustration to fully communicate the definition.

I am proud to have done so well (been so lucky) among such brilliant minds - and I couldn't help noticing that I matched Dave alone on two answers. I don't know what that means, though.

[Sami]

Thanks, Qaqaq, great quiz.

Did I really send "KIAKS?" I remember debating between KHAKI, KNACK and KIOSK, but I can't remember which one I finally decided on (and unfortunately didn't save a copy of my e-mail). I suppose it's possible that I went with KIOSK and was having a severe Macros moment...

[Duphrates]

Wow, fifth!! I was so pleased with pap and muff, that I thought they were certain 1 pointers.

Thanks Qaqaq, I enjoyed that.

[Werebear]

Well, if you listed the entrants in order of how FAST they filled out the answers... *G* Next one, I'll take a little more time. I just threw mine in for fun.

And DP? Your socks need washing.

[dave10000]

[Quailman]

Not that I had thought of it, but at the deli across the street (the only place I've ever seen the word), they spell it 'muffaletta' also.

[This message has been edited by Quailman (edited 08-12-2003 10:13 AM).]

[casinopete]

No one went with Swedish Meatballs? Or does it turn out invalid?

[Skellum]

Great quiz! Thanks Qaqaq. Congrats to everyone.

Matthew, I think you're mistakenly listed as Mikegoo for choosing "horse".

[Taflinel]

Firstly, thanks to Qaqaq for an excellent re-run, this time with lots of players. All those players in the middle of the summer mean that we like your ELQs and that we'd like some more. Even if it is not a GL record, it sure shows our appreciation.

Secondly, congrats to Philana. She's proven her perfect command of the subject of this quiz, repeatedly.

Thirdly, well done to all the other contestants. I don't know about you, but I was more anxious than in the previous one, competing with 37 GLers. You know you're not ordinary people.

Finally, thx to DP for the honourable mention...
We're waiting for the next...

Ta ta

[Qaqaq]

Yes, MatthewV was listed as Mikegoo in the HORSE listing; my apologies. It has been corrected. It was just a typo, and the scores for both were correct.

The dictionary lists both MUFFULETTA and MUFFALETTA. As I said in an earlier reply, though, I don't count spelling against you if it's obvious what you meant and there's really nothing else it could be. (E.g., KAHKI or SMORGASBORG.) Given the number of people here for whom English is a second language, I thought that sort of compromise was fair.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS is not in the dictionary but was submitted by one contestant. Even if it were, the phrase itself, like most multiword phrases, wouldn't be given an etymology of its own in the dictionary since the individual words each have their own separately listed ones.

DP, thanks for pointing out Taflinel's achievement. Since I don't know everyone's homes or languages of origin, I can't make mention of that when I write my report, but I do think it's noteworthy.

Sami, my sincere apologies. You in fact submitted KNACK, which gives you 1 point for that question instead of 10. What happened was that Antrax had originally submitted KOOKY then sent a later e-mail changing it to KIAKS, and I accidentally erased the word on your entry (which was directly below his on my scoresheet) rather than his. This also means that Antrax receives 10 points rather than 3 for that question, and Jadesmar and Mikegoo receive 2 points instead of 3 for their answers of KOOKY. Again, I apologize to everyone affected by this error; the final scores have been corrected.

Finally, I do plan to run ELQ4, either late this year or early next year. Start memorizing the dictionary now!

[This message has been edited by Qaqaq (edited 08-12-2003 11:05 AM).]

[Qaqaq]

And Quailman -- given the fact that you always match *me* in the various GL quizzes, I guess you were just forced to match someone else this time, is all.

[dethwing]

I'm the guilty one of sending Meatballs...mostly becuase I didn't have a clue what to send and thought it would be funny. (Especially if it turned out right)

[T McAy]

That was an amazing quiz! Congratulations, Philana!

The number of entrants in this quiz made the results very interesting. If I had known that so many people would be entering I think I would have taken some more risks with certain questions. "Smorgasbord" was a safe bet for the Swedish etymology question when I sent in my entry on the first day, but not a few days later when I realized that 30 plus intelligent people were also looking for safe Swedish words. I might have taken a chance on "f-ck" which I knew to be Scandinavian in origin.

One possible explanation to the increase in the "tiebreaker" page number from 10C to 11C: in addition to the added vocabulary, 11C has also integrated abbreviations into the main body of the dictionary. Abbreviations in 10C were placed in their own section after the main body. Of course, some 10C main body content was deleted for the new edition. One example of 10C content that didn’t make it to 11C is the illustration of a hexagram – grr!

Thanks for running another great quiz, Qaqaq!

[Beartalon]

Congratulations to everyone!

[Antrax]

Whoops. I forgot I changed Kooky -- I started doubting if it were a real word or slang
(For the record, what's wrong with Kiaks?)
Anyway, how in God's name do you guys know what a Muffletta (the way it's pronounced, I don't care about your artsy fartsy spelling) is? That's as obscure as ethnic foods get, I used to think.
Antrax

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Bah, I don't believe in anything

[Quailman]

From Dictionary.com:

[Ningal]

[Antrax]

Um, you know, those boats? Two person? Oars?
Antrax

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Bah, I don't believe in anything

[Hitchhiker]

Kayaks.

Congratulations,Philana and everyone else!

[kevinatilusa]

A whole bunch of ouches. Is Wat only listed in conjunction with Angkor, or not at all?

[Qaqaq]

Not at all, surprisingly.