A Diversity of Truth (or Falseness) Quiz

Answer: False

The opossum is native to North America, and it is its only native marsupial. As the picture shows, a Californian zoo has an opossum that walks a tightrope. Opossums (commonly called possums in Australia) are the largest order of marsupials, with over 100 species.

Answer: True

This event happened in November 1960, early in the career of the talented musician. In later interviews, McCartney explained that he and Pete Best were attempting to provide extra lighting but it drew the attention of the German police, who apparently thought they were trying to set fire to their van.

The duo's lack of German did not help and they were taken to the police station before being sent on a plane home to Britain.

Answer: False

Wimbledon is the oldest of the slams, debuting in 1877. The US Open is actually the second (first contested in 1881). While France is generally considered to be the birthplace of tennis, the French Open did not debut until 1891. It was originally known as Roland Garros, and is sometimes still referred by that name, particularly among French tennis enthusiasts.

Answer: False

Russia, part of the former USSR, remained the largest country after 1991. Russia comes in at a bit over 17,000,000 square km; it's quite a long way ahead of Canada at about 9,980,000 square km. Russia's relative size is huge: USA and Canada's combined size is only about 2.8 million square km larger than Russia.

Answer: True

Napoleon died on May 5, 1821. While his autopsy suggested cancer was the culprit, large traces of arsenic found in his hair samples in 1961 suggested that he may have been poisoned. It was subsequently discovered that his father also died of stomach cancer, establishing a genetic predisposition. Given this and the fact that there was no other obvious evidence of poisoning symptoms, it has been concluded that the initial autopsy was probably correct.

Answer: True

Like many food dishes, the precise origin of the omelette is debatable. However, most food historians agree that it first appeared in the ancient era, probably somewhere in what is now known as the Middle East.

Answer: True

The musical, probably most famous for its song "Don't Cry for me Argentina", is based on the life of Eva Perón (nicknamed Evita). Perón was the second wife of Argentine President Juan Perón, and was one of Argentina's most famous people. Tim Rice became fascinated with her story and took the idea of making a musical about her to his musical partner, Andrew Lloyd Webber, in the mid 1970s.

It debuted in 1978 in London's West End.

Answer: False

Hitchcock is quite famous for never winning Best Director (despite being nominated on five separate occasions). One of his films did win Best Picture, however. "Rebecca" took out the 1940 Best Picture Academy Award.

Answer: False

The Rolling Stones' debut album was self-titled (although the American release had the subtitle: "England's Newest Hit Makers"). Their second was somewhat uncreatively named "The Rolling Stones No. 2"; their third album changed the trend and was named "Out of Their Heads".

Answer: True

This famous quotation has been attributed to Rutherford (a physicist, obviously) in Manchester in 1962. Rutherford also has been quoted as saying "An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid" and "When we have found how the nucleus of atoms is built up we shall have found the greatest secret of all - except life".