Sharp Brains: Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health News

Sunday Afternoon Quiz

Here’s a quick quiz to test your memory and thinking skills which should work out your temporal and frontal lobes. See how you do!

  1. - Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.
  2. - What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?
  3. - Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?
  4. - What fruit has its seeds on the outside?
  5. - In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn’t been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?
  6. - Only three words in Standard English begin with the letters “dw” and they are all common words. Name two of them.
  7. - There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?
  8. - Name the one vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.
  9. - Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter “S.”

Click here for the answers.

Categories: Brain Teasers

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50 Responses

  1. Stuart Buck says:

    Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

    Hmmm. What about watermelon? I’ve never seen it in any of those forms (it’s mostly water, after all).

  2. Caroline says:

    Stuart- I think you’re right! I don’t think watermelon is included in canned fruit cocktail – the one place where I can think of it being in one of those forms. I’ll update the question and answer.

  3. Brian says:

    Actually, pickled watermelon rind is widely available so the original answer may still be correct.

  4. Caroline says:

    Back we go to the original version. Nice find Brian!

  5. Alex says:

    1) If you’re good at boxing, like say if you’re a boxing referee, then you can pretty much keep the score. I think Sumo would be a much better answer for this question.

    8) What about celery? I have eaten cooked lettuce, it’s not bad once you get used to the soggy texture.

  6. Jeff says:

    1A. How about a shooting or archery match?

    1B. Boxing scores are posted round by round in big matches these days.

    6. Dwelling is distinct from dwell, particularly dwell as used in mechanics.

  7. Caroline says:

    1) In a sumo tournament, a winner is declared at the end of each round and the rounds are counted for the tournament winner. Therefore, the winner of the round may be unknown to everyone until the end, but the leader of the tournament would be known as the tournament progessed. In archery the arrows stay in the target until the end of each end, so again, everyone involved would be able to see the running score of each competitor. Riflery scoring is like archery – with the targets left in place for each round, allowing people to see who is winning throughout the round.

    6) “Dwelling” in an inflected form of “dwell” (according to Miriam Webster’s.

    8) Celery is often served cooked. (It is in almost all soup stocks.)

  8. janise says:

    1) Horse racing
    8) avocado

  9. scott says:

    1. In boxing and racing the leader can be quite obvious long before the contest ends.

    6. dweller

    8. avocado => guacamole and used in soups and some other cooked recipes.

    lettuce is sold chopped up in bags which is technically processed.

  10. Lars says:

    What about chess? Both in chess and boxing, the obvious leader can do a mistake, and loose in a moment. I believe chess is a sport too.

  11. Necroid says:

    1.) Fishing (specifically size contests)

    3.) What about potatoes, leafy veggies like spinach or kale, which don’t need to be picked whole but can have leaves plucked?

    4.) Sunflowers

    5.) How do they clean the bottles before bottling?

    6.)dwine (origin of dwindle as opposed to another form)
    dweeb

    7.) Why do you distinguish between dash and hyphen, but not between single and double quotes? Also what about angle brackets,, tildes, Carots, slashes, and would the ampersand be considered a punctuation mark?

    8.) Lettuce is now sold in various forms including shredded, and premixed salads which would have to be considered processed.

    9.) If we are distinguishing between shoes and sneakers, then why not Steel-toed boots, or Stiletto heels?

    Sorry to be so contrarian, I’m in a mood. speaking of which:
    2.) Niagara is technically not moving backward, the eroded debris is being moved forward.

  12. Necroid says:

    Also a fellow role-pleyer reminded me of 6.) Dweomer

  13. omar says:

    You’ve never had an asian noodle soup with lettuce in it? Thats tasty and cooked!

  14. Jeni says:

    #8 I say a Banana. They are never frozen, cooked, processed or canned.
    They are always sold fresh.

  15. Kathy says:

    Bananas are sold as dried chips.

  16. Ron says:

    Answer for 9 could be any physical object that begins with the letter “S”.

  17. Bryan says:

    #3 There are at least three because an artichoke is also a perennial vegetable.

  18. Susan says:

    What direction are the faces on Mt. Rushmore looking?

  19. daniel yoon says:

    @Necroid- One question: what’s a single quotation mark? BEcause the only thing that I can think of that looks like a single quotation mark (looking at my keyboard here) is an apostrophe, which was listed. Otherwise, go ahead.

    One more thing, and this is just a question. On Sunflowers, is the whole top of it the fruit? Because then where does the flower part end and where does the fruit start?
    No wait, one more thing. If you’re going to get specific at all on number 9, then I’m pretty sure you can come up with quite a few things to wear. The object was to find six or more, and the extras were just there to offer a wider range.

  20. SeattleGuy says:

    Susan, I agree – Artichoke.

  21. JP says:

    Strawberries are technically not a fruit. They’re not even a berry – they’re actually a swelling in the stem of the plant.

    And I have to agree with Ron – the way the “S” question is written, most anything beginning with S can be put on the feet.

  22. Thos Weatherby says:

    Don’t be a DWEEB. There is also a Kim Chi using lettuce. Also found in Cole Slaw. Frozen banana’s and guacamole. There’s a fruit from Thailand that you only eat fresh. Don’t think it’s canned or cooked. Darian.

  23. John says:

    @daniel – there might be only one key for both apostrophes and single quotes, but I’m fairly sure they count as different punctuation marks – they have distinct functions at any rate, and don’t some typefaces distinguish them?

  24. Eric D. says:

    you people make these types of quizzes no fun. You focus, focus, focus on technicalities and then it just becomes pointless to try an answer.

  25. Alvaro says:

    Happy to see so much, and much of it unexpected, brain activity going on :-)

  26. Natovr says:

    Really intresting :) some stuff I didn’t know about…
    Number 1 I thought was athletics, or chess (yeah, chess is a sport :D )
    Number 3, I thought it was potatoes and tomatoes (but these can’t grow over seasons)
    Number 4 and 5 I got instantly.. its how they grow square watermelons too :p
    Number 6 I only got dwindle
    Number 7, i almost forgot question mark but i got it :D
    Number 8… had a problem… I thought pineapple, because they can’t really be frozen or canned… that’s what i THOUGHT o.o
    Number 9 i thought stockings and socks were the same thing

    Stumbled :D

  27. superpablo says:

    I agree with Alvaro. The quiz was a good brain teaser and challenging it is another. Keep thinking, people!

  28. angelee says:

    for the last question, stilletos could be an answer! btw

  29. Cai says:

    Cabbage ( a form of lettuce) comes in all kinds of bags and cans.

    Sauerkraut.

  30. NoDownloadsKThxBai says:

    Because having to download an RTF to get the answers is just plain stupid, here they are:

    Answers To Quiz:

    1. The one sport in which neither the spectators, nor the participants, know the score or the leader until the contest ends: boxing

    2. The North American landmark constantly moving backward: Niagara Falls (the rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

    3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons: asparagus and rhubarb.

    4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside: strawberry.

    5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside the bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.)

    6. Three English words beginning with “dw”: dwarf, dwell, and dwindle.

    7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar: period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

    8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh: lettuce.

    9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with “s”: shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.

  31. Alvaro says:

    I have to disagree that something we did is “plain stupid” (we do things for a reason) but I agree that at this point it is a pain more than a good option, so will maintain the answers here.

    Thanks for being proactive and solve a problem.

  32. chris says:

    Dwarf!

  33. hh says:

    Natovr, …you’ve never had or seen canned pineapple?

  34. Gurubaliga says:

    4) The Cashew which is a seed grow outside its fruit.

  35. nick says:

    4) Strawberries

  36. mark says:

    Answer to question on Feet and “S” – Sun Tan lotion (I have been burned before)

  37. Ashy says:

    8. You know, not to play devil’s advocate here, but aren’t all vegtables/fruits somehow served as baby food?

    7. is the slash, / not considered a valid punctuation mark?

    1. in boxing, the guy who’s bleeding the most is likely losing. If you’re well versed in boxing, it’s not too hard to determine a leader by spectating. I think fishing or sumo are much better answers.

  38. Expat says:

    The Asian fruit is called a durian, not “darian”. It stinks like a rotten peaches over an open sewer. It is eaten raw or is used to make smoothies, ice cream, and cakes. Lettuce figures heavily in Asian cuisine, both in soups and fried.

    I don’t think there is a single vegetable which is not prepared somehow, somewhere (cutting or shredding does not count).

  39. Mike says:

    Ashy — not lettuce, dope.

    9. Stirrups

  40. ubergoober says:

    ASHY – let me know when you find your first jar of lettuce baby food for sale. And some of the rest of you don’t read well. The Question said “name one” vegetable not “there is only one” Sometimes when you focus to tightly on being right you force yourself to be wrong. Part of being a progressive thinker is not so much to find fault but to offer alternative views. These are two different things.

  41. Al says:

    Isn’t lettuce transported frozen?

  42. Yvette says:

    umm strawberries have its seeds on the outside!

    and i think bananas r always sold fresh.

  43. Larry says:

    And let’s not forget about #9 Spurs…for all those cowboys out there.

  44. Lisa says:

    Dwarf Dwell Dwindle!

  45. Rick says:

    What about gymnastics for #1?

  46. Miss Blu says:

    Hey Larry… As a cowgirl who wears spurs I’d have to say there are lots of cowboy/girl sports that qualify you may know the time but you don’t know where you’ll fall until the end… Barrel Racing, Pole Bending, Team Roping, Break-a-way roping, calf roping, etc.

  47. b mor says:

    1. If we are going to include chess, then what about poker (it’s on ESPN) and ballroom dancing (nearly in the Olympics).

    Gymnastics: as one sees the scores on an ongoing basis, one knows the leader.

    7. How could one forget “?” when there are 5 in the questions–including question 7. Including the introduction, there are 7 punctuation marks.

    8. The question says “sold frozen”, so being transported frozen, doesn’t make it a looser.

    9. Wouldn’t “ski boots” be a better answer than skis?

  48. Kyle says:

    - Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends. -Skate is another sport that nobody knows their score until it ends. =)

  49. Myranda says:

    4.don’t strawberries have their seeds on the outside?

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