The answers to a feathered friend quiz. If you’ve not done it yet, and want to, head over to that page before reading on.
1. Wata – an abbreviation from the German WasserTanzen – is a type of aquatic therapy which was developed in Switzerland where a person is gently guided underwater, pulled, swayed, and “flown” while being regularly brought to the surface for breath. How is this known in English?
Water dance
2. A crossbow bolt is also know as what?
A quarrel
3. What began as a collection by Sir Hans Sloane, is now housed in a building designed by Alfred Waterhouse, used to be the home of Dippy and has been called “A Cathedral to Science”?
Natural History Museum
4. Which song was a number one hit for popular beat combo Adam & The Ants, in September 1981?
Prince Charming
5. Unemployment Benefit is commonly referred to as what, in the UK?
Dole
6. What is the name of a large hemispherical brass percussion instrument (one of the timpani) with a drumhead that can be tuned by adjusting its tension?
Kettle Drum
7. What is the title of the American crime drama television series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher?
Murder She Wrote
8. What word means to assemble troops, especially for inspection or in preparation for battle?
Muster
9. What do the Americans (incorrectly) call Autumn?
Fall
10. What are the parallel sloping beams that support a roof called?
Rafters
11. What, in the UK, has two Houses that work on behalf of UK citizens to check and challenge the work of Government, make and shape effective laws, and debate/make decisions on the big issues of the day?
Parliament
12. Originally on May Day, but now usually on the 30th October, what is the name associated with this day, on which children and teenagers engage in pranks and vandalism?
Mischief Night
13. Which British television sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb was broadcast on Channel 4 from 2003 until 2015 and in 2010, became the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history in terms of years on air?
Peep Show
14. In which town do the TV characters Barney Gumble, Chief Clancy Wiggum, Edna Krabappel, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy and Waylon Smithers live?
Springfield (The Simpsons)
15. Which 2002 British biographical comedy-drama film about Manchester’s popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records, was named after a Happy Mondays single?
24 Hour Party People
16. George Blake, Ian Brady, Charles Bronson, Pete Doherty and Leslie Grantham have all been detained at Her Majesty’s please at which prison?
Wormwood Scrubs
17. Which large instrumental ensemble is based in Manchester, England and supports a choir, youth choir, youth training choir, children’s choir and a youth orchestra?
The Hallé Orchestra
18. What phrase commonly refers to the two possible physiological reactions to highly stressful or threatening situations: to defend oneself or to run away?
Flight or fight
19. Which 1981 BBC cartoon series was narrated by Kenneth Williams and became popular with children and adults, as it bridged the gap between the end of weekday children’s programming and the early evening news, the principal character being a blue, floating creature drawn as a caricature of Williams?
Willo the Wisp
20. What is the name of a species of woodboring beetle that sometimes infests the structural timbers of old buildings, named after the tapping or ticking sound made by the adult insects?
Deathwatch beetle
All answers contain a collective noun for a type of bird:
- A water dance of grebes
- A quarrel of sparrows
- A museum of waxwings
- A charm of finches/goldfinches
- A dole of doves
- A kettle of hawks [riding a thermal]
- A murder of crows
- A muster of storks
- A fall of woodcocks
- A raft of ducks/A rafter of turkeys
- A parliament of owls
- A mischief of magpies
- A peep of chickens
- A spring of teal
- A party of jays
- A worm of robins
- An orchestra of avocets
- A flight of swallows [or doves, goshawks, or cormorants]
- A wisp of snipe
- A watch of nightingales
