The Guardian - UK (2022-04-30)

The Guardian | 30.04.22 | SATURDAY | 101

SATURDAY

The kids’ quiz

Molly Oldfi eld

Quiz

Thomas Eaton

1 Morven, 4, asks: why do

elephants have long trunks?

A To help them eat and

drink as much as possible

B Way back in time, an

elephant’s nose got stuck

in a tree branch and it

stretched and stretched

C So they can sneeze loudly

and scare animals away

D So that they snore loudly

at night and no predators

come near them

2 Arran, 7, asks: how

many animals are there

on the planet?

A Over 10 trillion

B We have no idea how many

C Around a billion

D A hundred million

3 Flo, 7, asks: how big

is the sun?

A The sun is so big, you

could fi t 1m Earths inside it

B The sun is the same size

as the Earth

Down

1 ...... Abbey, near Monk’s

Bridge in Cumbria (6)

2 1944 novella by Colette (4)

3 The beanz company? (5)

4 A city in French Guiana - or

a model of Porsche (7)

5 Jorge Luis ......, author of

A Universal History of Infamy (6)

8 Nicola ......., actor who plays

Nicola King in Emmerdale (7)

12 See 13

14 City near Los Angeles, home

to several movie studios (7)

16 Dutch city, subject of the

1977 movie A Bridge Too Far (6)

18 French missile used during

the Falklands war (6)

19/11 US civil servant at the

centre of the Clinton-Lewinsky

scandal (5,5)

22 Tristram ...., former MP, now

director of the V &A (4)

Across

6 ...... le Pen, French far right

politician (6)

7 Margaret ......, author of The

Handmaid’s Tale (6)

9 ........ Rich, poet whose first

collection was A Change of

World (8)

10 Island in the Inner

Hebrides (4)

11 See 19

13/12 The ....... ......., novel by

Michael Ondaatje (7,7)

15 Thomas ......., economist

remembered for An Essay on

the Principle of Population

(1798) (7)

17 196 2 poem by Sylvia Plath (5)

20/23 U S poet who won

a Pulitzer for Live or Die (1967)

(4,6)

21 ........ Rock, novel by Graham

Greene (8)

23 See 20

24 Jack ......, founder of the

eponymous Tennessee whiskey

distillery (6)

1234 5

678

910

11 12 13

14

15 16 17 18

19

20 21 22

23 24

We eken d c r o s swor d

Sy

C The sun is smaller than

the Earth

D The sun is seven times as

big as the Earth

4 Frida, 7, asks: why

do kings and queens

sometimes wear crowns?

A They are very heavy, so

it means kings and queens

can’t run away easily

B To match their thrones

C Crowns have been worn

as symbols of power since

pre historic times

D Wearing precious things on

their head keeps them safe

5 Stanley, 9, asks:

why are we ticklish?

A So we laugh more, because

laughing is good for us

B No scientist has tried to

work it out, so we don’t know

C I t’s a defence mechanism

D We evolved from monkeys

and monkeys use tickling

as a way to communicate

Answers (no peeking!)

1 A. An elephant’s legs are

very long and its head is

large and heavy, so bending

down to eat and drink can be

tiring. The long trunk helps

it to get food without moving

its head and to keep eating

whil e grabbing more food!

2 B. Counting the number

of animals on Earth would

be impossible : scientists

think there may be 10 b n b n

ants and 18.6 b n chickens ,

and those are just two of the

millions of species we have.

3 A. The sun’s diameter (the

distance from one side to the

other, through the centre) is

around 1.392m km. You could

line up 109 Earths across its

face , or fi t 1m inside it.

4 C. Kings and queens have

worn crowns since ancient

times, ranging from wreaths

made of leaves to jewel s and

gold to show wealth. The idea

might come from antlers or

the sun’s rays, which were

both associated with power.

5 C. There are two diff erent

types of tickling. Knismesis

is from a light touch and helps

us to notice when something

unexpected touches our skin,

like a mosquito. Gargalesis

makes us laugh and could

be an automatic defence

mechanism that helps us

protect sensitive parts of our

bodies, like our stomachs.

Molly Oldfi eld hosts

Everything Under the Sun,

a weekly podcast (and

book) answering children’s

questions. Does your child

have a question? Submit

one at gu.com/kids-quiz

1 Which alter ego was

killed off in Hammersmith

on 3 July 1973?

2 “No one left and no one

came” is a line from

which poem?

3 Which retailer began as

Penneys in Dublin?

4 Whose sainthood was

formally opposed by

Christopher Hitchens?

5 The hexagonal Penfold is

an old design of what?

6 What did Ancient

Greeks regard as the

centre of the world?

7 Which rugby league

team were the original

red devils?

8 On social media, what

does AMA stand for?

What links:

9 Sun Tzu (War);

Schopenhauer

(Being Right);

Donald Trump (the Deal)?

10 The Plain;

Montagnards;

Girondins;

Jacobins?

11 Canton, OH;

Cooperstown, NY;

Springfi eld, MA;

Toronto?

12 0.0000158 light years;

149,598,000 km; 1 au?

13 Outstanding;

Exceeds Expectations;

Acceptable;

Poor;

Dreadful;

Troll?

14 King of northern Israel (4);

oldest person (8);

king of Babylon (20)?

15 Bradshaw Peak;

Mount Fiennes;

Heywood Glacier;

Penden Cliff s?

Solutions to Crossword

and Thomas Eaton’s quiz

page 99

Stephen Collins

Scan the code to

send Molly a question

for a future quiz

ILLUSTRATION: HENNIE HAWORTH

This quiz answers questions posed by children

— will you get a better score than your parents?