The Rules



Wednesday, August 31, 2005

[4] This quiz brought to you Samizdat

It seems that I have automatically fallen into a three questions a day kind of format. I'm wondering if I should switch to a proper 10 questions a week kind of format or not, but I somehow like it the way it is (it reminds me of a kabalistic English teacher I had in school once, who told us that the line ``And he stoppeth one of three'' was significant because Three is a very mystical number with occult properties), anyway: Another day, another Quiz . . .

  • Q1: X is an interjection, used commonly in α,β,γ . . . (the Greek letters are names of countries)It can be used to call someone's attention or as an expression of surprise, and also be used to mean friend, when used in a vocative sense. It loosely corresponds to the English "eh!", "hey!", or "wow!". It basically lends a degree of informality and familiarity to a coversation (similar to the English "pal", or "dude"). There is a soccer team known as The X. However, the way most of us know of the word X is in an altogether different context. Since I've left it a bit vague I'll give two hints,
    [Hint 1: Guvax Crefbanyvgl]
    [Hint 2: orjjey Orgesbay oatré avé aughtšaj oariçté lustratingiway aþay oosyaj offé aþay urdwé X invé eçiphikspé atinlej Amerykanvé auntextəké]

  • Q2: I am considered a god by the Z religion. I have a son named Adam. Who am I? . . . Ok, before you say יהוה or Adonai or something, let me say that Z is not Jewism or any other Semitic religion. So, lets give a few more clues: Born to a Russian father and Jewish mother, my native languages were Russian and Yiddish, but I also spoke Polish and German fluently. Later I learnt French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English, and also had an interest in Italian, Spanish and Lithuanian. For two years I tried to raise funds to publish a book on a my creation. Finally in 1887, with my future father-in-law's financial help I published the book under the psedonym: Doctoro Y. Among my many works I also translated the Old Testament. My second daughter who was also interested in my work, later joined the Bahá'í Faith. Mainly because the Bahá'í Faith believes that representatives of all the world's countries must select X(this is a phrase, not a single word).

    Still clueless? Here's a fotograf to help you:

  • Q3: This one's going to be really arbit, because the book from which I'm taking this is not with me right now. I couldn't find this anecdote on the net. I apologise in advance for the lack of hard facts and dates. Anyway, here goes: It is remarkable that in spite of his great and varied contributions to Physics this famous physicist is hardly known outside the community. This is probably because, he was by nature, an extremely shy and reclusive person. In fact his abhorrence of human contact was so great that in college he even switched his schedule, staying awake at night and sleeping in the day to avoid interacting with other students. As a result he didn't attend most of his classes anyway. However this was more than made up for by his genius, and he did pretty well acaedemically. However he did fail a certain chemistry course once when in the exam he was presented with such vague questions as:
    Prove that dε = dη + dμ

    And these were not common symbols used in the subject either. This was the instructers way of making sure that students who didn't attend his classes flunked the course. Interestingly, a few years(? not sure about the time period maybe less) the young man gave a lecture in the institute and he was so good that the whole auditorium was full, and in order to accommodate all the people who wanted to attend the lecture, a second date had to be announced when the lecture would be give again. When the chemistry Prof. asked a colleague who this extremely popular speaker was, the gentleman replied ``You should know, being the only one to flunk him''(obviously I'm not quoting verbatim, but something similar). Who is the famous young man? [Yikes! that was so vague that I feel like Parnab]



Anonymous Sumeet said...

Guvf frg jnf gbhtu, naq V ubcr lbh jba'g zvaq gur snpg gung V hfrq Tbbtyr naq Jvxvcrqvn gb trg fbzr pyhrf:

1. Gur jbeq vf 'Pur'. V jnf frnepuvat enaqbzyl sbe vagrewrpgvbaf, naq jura V fnj Pur fbzrjurer, vg vzzrqvngryl fgehpx zr nf n cbffvovyvgl. Gur crefbanyvgl, bs pbhefr, vf Rearfgb "Pur" Thrinen, juvyr gur fbppre grnz vf Fcnva'f Inyrapvn. Bapr V unq gur jbeq, V jnf noyr gb ybbx hc Jvxvcrqvn; boivbhfyl lbh'q frg gur dhrfgvba sebz gurer, fb V nyfb sbhaq bhg gung gur 3 pbhagevrf ner Netragvan, Hehthnl naq Cnenthnl, juvyr gur Obetrf fubeg fgbel vf "Yn genzn" (ol gur jnl, qb lbh unir nal vqrn jung gur fgbel'f nobhg? V gevrq genafyngvat vg hfvat Tbbtyr, ohg vg pnzr bhg cerggl jrveq).

2. Bapr ntnva, unq gb gel nyy xvaqf bs frnepu fgevatf orsber uvggvat hcba gur erdhvfvgr Jvxvcrqvn negvpyr: Y. Y. Mnzraubs. Frevbhfyl, qb lbh ernyyl rkcrpg crbcyr gb xabj gurfr guvatf, be qvq lbh zrna sbe gurfr dhrfgvbaf gb or Tbbtyrq bhg? Naljnl, gur qrgnvyf ner: Gur eryrtvba (fvp) M vf 大本; L vf Rfcrenagb, nyfb gur anzr bs gur ynathntr perngrq ol uvz; naq K vf 'nhkvyvnel jbeyq ynathntr'. Tbbq dhrfgvba gubhtu; sbhaq bhg n ybg bs vagrerfgvat fghss guebhtu guvf; V'q arire urneq bs gur zna, gur eryvtvba be gur ynathntr orsber.

3. Jryy, guvf bar vf nyzbfg hanafjrenoyr, vfa'g vg, hayrff bar unf ernq gung cnegvphyne obbx? Vs lbh pbhyqa'g svaq gur vapvqrag bayvar, xabjvat gur thl'f anzr, gura fbzrbar jub qbrfa'g xabj vg pregnvayl jba'g unir zhpu bs n punapr. Naljnl, V'yy unmneq n thrff: Cnhy Qvenp. Ur jnf cerggl erpyhfvir, naq bs pbhefr ur vf n irel snzbhf culfvpvfg; gbb snzbhf creuncf, tvira gung gur dhrfgvba fnvq ur vf "uneqyl xabja bhgfvqr gur pbzzhavgl". Ohg naljnl, vg'f gur orfg V pna pbzr hc jvgu.

Blogger Shanth said...

I'm sorry about the last question, haven't been able to get my hands on the book yet. I do agree that without any further info it's a horribly framed question, but well you do have the ``... The weirdest Quizzing Blog around'' thing. ;)

As for the other questions, V gubhtug zbfg crbcyr unir urneq nobhg Rfcrenagb, naq tvira gung gur thl xarj fb znal ynathntrf, gubhtu abg boivbhf, V qrsvavgryl gubhtug vg zbqrengryl thrffnoyr. And in the first question the Borges hint gives away the language, which again makes it vaguely guessable.

Anyway, I'm trying to make the questions better, at least in the funda, even if they remain obscure. ;(


Anonymous Anonymous said...

To reassure you: I got the Esperanto question right away, no researching or thinking needed.


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