Category: Brain Teasers

Trivia: Most of Britain’s iconic telephone boxes are what color?

Green
Yellow
Red
Blue

The correct answer is Red

So why is this answer correct? : The red telephone box is as much a British icon as Big Ben and Stonehenge. The first all-red kiosks were introduced in 1926 and were painted red so they were easy to find. The introduction of the K6 model in 1935, in honor of George V’s Silver Jubilee, became the iconic model seen throughout Britain. Today, an estimated 5,000 telephone boxes still serve their original function.

Trivia: What were the first words sent by telephone?

Am I on?
Mr. Watson – come here.
Who may I say is speaking?
Hello

The correct answer is Mr. Watson – come here.

So why is this answer correct? : Just a few days after filing his telephone patent, Alexander Graham Bell was ready to test his prototype. He sent his assistant, Thomas Watson, into another room and spoke into his telephone: “Mr. Watson – come here – I want to see you.” As Bell recorded in his journal, “To my delight he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said.”

Trivia: How did the first modern telephones transmit sound?

Via radio
Via light
Via music
Via electricity

The correct answer is Via electricity

So why is this answer correct? : Electric telegraphs were the first method of transmitting messages swiftly over long distances. Using pulses of electricity, written communication could travel across continents. The first telephones used a similar network of conductive wires (or “lines”) to transmit audio data. For the first time, a voice could be projected hundreds of miles.

Trivia: Who is commonly regarded as the inventor of the telephone?

Samuel Morse
Thomas Edison
Nikola Tesla
Alexander Graham Bell

The correct answer is Alexander Graham Bell

So why is this answer correct? : Many inventors contributed the development of the telephone, but most people credit Alexander Graham Bell with creating the first working telephone. He was granted the first U.S. patent for a telephone in 1876. Bell’s device turned speech into an electrical current by measuring the vibrations in air caused by the voice.

In the 1942 morale-boosting film “In Which We Serve,” David Lean shared directing credit with what famous playwright?

George S. Kaufman
Clifford Odets
Noël Coward
Lillian Hellman
Dennis Potter

The correct answer is Noël Coward

In Lean’s 1962 film “Lawrence of Arabia,” the title character is tortured by a sadistic Turk played by who?

Anthony Quinn
Omar Sharif
Alec Guinness
José Ferrer
Claude Rains

The correct answer is José Ferrer

Which one of the following POW dramas was directed by David Lean?

Stalag 17
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Great Escape
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
King Rat

The correct answer is The Bridge on the River Kwai

Trivia: President William Howard Taft kept which barnyard animal as a pet?

Rooster
Horse
Cow
Duck

The correct answer is Cow

So why is this answer correct? : President William Howard Taft kept multiple cows at the White House during his term from 1909 to 1913. In 1910, he received Pauline Wayne as a gift from a Wisconsin senator to replace his last cow, Mooly Wooly. Though Pauline was mainly kept for her dairy production — reportedly 25 pounds of butter a week and 9 gallons of milk a day — she also became popular in the media, and was even interviewed by “The Washington Post.”

Trivia: Richard Nixon’s famous “Checkers” speech was named after what?

His favorite game
The family dog
His tie pattern
His wife’s nickname

The correct answer is The family dog

So why is this answer correct? : Richard Nixon was a skilled speaker who climbed the political ladder in part due to his rhetorical abilities. His 1952 “Checkers” speech during the run-up to his election as President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s VP helped swing public sentiment to the Republicans, and is considered an early example of the power of televised political speeches to reach an audience.

Trivia: Which President had the first and only child born in the White House?

Grover Cleveland
Thomas Jefferson
John F. Kennedy
William McKinley

The correct answer is Grover Cleveland

So why is this answer correct? : Esther Cleveland was born in 1893 during her father’s second term, making her the only child of a President to be born in the White House. President Grover Cleveland holds a few other distinctions as chief executive: He’s the only President to serve two nonconsecutive terms, one of just two unmarried Presidents elected to office, and the only President to be wed at the White House.