Quick puzzle

[Alatar]

I got this in mail today. I have the answers also, for those who want them.

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 only 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."

[yovargas]

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?
Strawberries?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters " dw" and they are all common words. Name two of them.
dwell and dwimmer

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?
. ; , ? ! - ' " ( )
(that one seems unfair with a keyboard in front of me )

[JewelSong]

Hm...I'll give some of them a go...
?

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?

Asparagus and onions?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

Strawberries/

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?

They put the bottle over the pear while it is still small and on the tree.

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters " dw" and they are all common words. Name two of them.

Dwarf is one. Dwelling another. Hm. Dweeb?

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

Off the top of my head: period, question mark, colon, semi-colon, exclamation point, quotation marks, comma, elipsis, dash, parenthesis, apostrophe

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

Lettuce?

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "S."

Socks. Shoes. Stockings. Slippers. Slides? Silly faces?

Still thinking about the other ones...

[Primula Baggins]

Fun, Alatar!

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

Ya got me.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

Niagara Falls.

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?

Asparagus and artichokes? I don't know if either is technically a vegetable, though.

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

Yov's right.

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?

They make this in Oregon. The bottle is put over the fruit on the tree when the fruit is still tiny. The fruit grows inside the bottle; when it's ripe, they take the bottle off the tree and add the brandy. This is why this kind of brandy costs sixty bucks a bottle.

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters " dw" and they are all common words. Name two of them.

Dwarf, too

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

Period, comma, colon, semicolon, quotation mark, apostrophe, exclamation point, question mark, hyphen, en dash, em dash, solidus, parenthesis, bracket. Some of those probably don't count as punctuation, though.

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

Cucumber

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "S."

Shoes, socks, slippers, sandals, spikes, snowshoes?

[yovargas]

Cucumber

What about pickles?

[Faramond]

6. dwindle

9. sneakers

hey, I have a cat named sneakers.

I'm most interested in the first question.

edit: isn't the ellipses considered a punctuation?

[vison]

I'll go with Artichokes and Asparagus. But there is a kind of Zen gardening in which you plant, say, Carrots, and you use some but you let some go to seed and then they grow and you use a few, etc. Sounds like BS to me, but I've never tried it.

Lettuce would be my guess about the "only vegetable always sold fresh".

dwarf, dwindle, dwell.

sandals, sneakers, slippers, slides, socks, spikes, snowshoes, skiboots, skis, skates . . . .

[Primula Baggins]

Ooo, ya got me, yov. I don't know how I forgot about pickles. I love pickles. And those cucumber slices you brine in cider vinegar, sugar, and salt and keep in the fridge. Yummm.

Lettuce, as Jewel said, then.

Faramond, I'm really curious about question 1, too.

[vison]

Chess?

[Primula Baggins]

Except there's a visible "score" in the number of pieces taken on both sides. (My son was captain of the chess team for three years. . . .)

[Faramond]

If chess counted as an answer, then checkers also qualified, and that's two sports right there, which contradicts the questions assertion that it's just "one sport". Except neither is a sport, so chess is doubly eliminated.

Connect four would also work, if living room games count. In that case you really can't tell who is ahead.

[Holbytla]

#3 is definitely rhubarb and asparagus.
Definitely.
I'm an excellent driver.
Uh oh, fifteen minutes to Judge Wapner.

[Teremia]

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

boxing?

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

Golden Gate Bridge?

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?

mushrooms and ? -- oh, right, mushrooms don't count as vegetables, probably

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

Strawberry

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?

It's put on the tree when the pear is still just a flower.

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters " dw" and they are all common words. Name two of them.

4, actually: dweeb , dwarf, dwindle, AND dwell.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

yes

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

I think there are several tender lettuces that would qualify here.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "S."

slippers, socks, stockings, shoes, sandals, stickers, smudges, scratches, suntans

[Faramond]

Excellent, boxing is certainly the correct answer to the first one. It's true, they judges who keep score don't show the scores to anyone until the fight is over. That's my understanding, anyway.

[Holbytla]

I refrained from answering #1 specifically, because I had heard the question before. Boxing is indeed the answer.

[Sunsilver]

1) Boxing
2) Niagara Falls
3) Asparagus and rhubarb, I think!
4) Strawberries, blackberries and raspberries
5) I dont know, unless they form the molten glass around the pear!
6) Dweeb, dwimmerlak and....um....(well, dwimmerlak IS a common word for us Tolkien fans, is it not?? :D:D:D
7) comma, colon, semicolon, period, exclamation mark, question mark, hyphen, ampersand (&) asterix (*) single quotations marks, double quotation marks, dash, brackets, apostrophe.
8 ) Hmmm....bananas?
9) spats, skates, shoes, socks, sandals, stockings

[The Watcher]

Hmm, I can think of at least two answers for question 8 - the common red radish and lettuce ( lettuce is never sold in any other form but fresh, and things like horseradish do not count!! )

Fun quiz!!

I know the pear brandy answer, I saw some show where they were tying the bottles onto the trees once. Niagara Falls is indeed moving backwards, by a few inches a year I believe - there is the huge gorge where one can see the erosion from the waterfall over the last several thousand years. Strawberries of course are the only fruit with their seeds on the outside, raspberries and blackberries are considered drupes, and the seeds are still contained within the little individual juicy bits.

As far as reproducing vegetables, asparagus is a definite, we grew it for years, and rhubarb would be the same, but don't some other things keep reproducing in the same manner? Things like bamboo shoots, oregano, sage, thyme, chives, etc? What makes something technically a "vegetable" as opposed to an herb or a shrub or whatever else?

[Alatar]

I think all the right answers are here, just not in the same post

I'll put them up tomorrow.

[narya]

The fronts of all the glaciers in Glacier Bay National Monument are receeding. The glaciers are still going forward, but melting and calving faster than they proceed, so it looks like they are moving backwards.

[Alatar]

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

2. 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.