Twenty CCs of Trivia Trivia Quiz

Answer: North America

The word "raccoon" is borrowed from the language of the Powhatan people of Virginia, where English speakers first encountered this beast. With its bandit's-mask face coloring and the remarkable dexterity of its front paws, the raccoon has earned a reputation as a trickster, both in ancient myths and in modern stories.

In the twentieth century, these omnivores adapted well to urban life, and are particularly infamous for breaking into garbage cans and carrying rabies - but this didn't stop raccoon-lovers from releasing them into the wild in Japan and in several parts of Europe.

The motives varied from the sentimental (the release of a pet) to the sartorial (raccoons have pretty fur).

Answer: Buccaneer

A male deer is a buck; family members are kin; and something close by is also near. Put the pieces together and you get "buccaneer," another word for a pirate. It's best to keep them far away!

Answer: Camila Alves

Alves, a model from Brazil, first met McConaughey in 2007. By the time of their wedding, at their luxurious home in McConaughey's native Texas, the pair were proud parents to a three-year-old boy, Levi, and a two-year-old girl, Vida. Alves must not have followed the advice in "How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days" (2003), but a "Wedding Planner" (2001) turned out to be a good investment.

Answer: Florence

The house's founder, Guccio Gucci, was a native of Florence, and he capitalized on his hometown's tradition of leatherwork. Over the generations, fashions and techniques have changed, but Gucci loafers are still a highly sought-after product -- even if they now share the name with watches, jewelry, and automobile interiors.

Answer: His broomstick is summoned to his hand.

For a natural flier like Harry, a broomstick-summoning spell provides the one tool necessary for solving a range of problems, from garden-variety boredom to stealing an egg from an angry dragon. Of course, in the eponymous seven-book series by J.K. Rowling, the Accio spell will summon just about anything a witch or wizard cares to name, as long as it is free to come. I could use that spell...

Answer: Ouija

The Ouija board was patented in 1891 (though not under that name) and marketed as a parlor game; it picked up its modern name in 1901 and its association with séances and the spirit world in the 1910s. Since then, its eerily sliding planchette indicator has fueled many a pop-culture plot point. Beloved by teens at sleepovers and condemned by some religious groups, the Ouija board is a smashing success.

Answer: Tripoli

Tripoli is the capital of Libya, a different country in the Maghreb. Morocco, whose capital is Rabat, is a primarily Muslim country whose people grow up speaking Arabic and Berber. Many also speak French, the language of Morocco's primary colonizer; the nation gained its independence in 1956. Though it's a constitutional monarchy, the king's powers far exceed those granted in governments like the UK's or Japan's. Casablanca is Morocco's largest city; Fez, another major city, gave its name to a cylindrical, tasseled hat.

Answer: The first vaccines were derived from a disease of cattle.

"Vacca," the Latin word for "cow," gave this preventative treatment its name. Cowpox, a disease once common among cattle and among human dairyworkers, is a milder relative of the horrific smallpox -- close enough that cowpox sufferers later have immunity to smallpox. The first vaccine, developed by Dr. Edward Jenner in 1796, infected people with cowpox in order to confer this immunity. The word "vaccine" now describes a large variety of inoculations, acting against everything from toxins to viruses.

Before Jenner's vaccine, doctors in parts of Asia reduced the smallpox death toll via a technique called variolation, in which scabs from sick patients were used to infect healthy ones. Usually this resulted in a weaker and more survivable form of the disease, but the death rate -- while a dramatic improvement over full-blown smallpox -- was still significant.

Answer: Playing cards

In the most common form of baccarat, players bet on the outcome of a matchup between two hands of cards. An ace is worth one; cards two through nine are worth face value; and all other cards are worth zero. The value of a hand is the last digit of the sum of all the card values, so the highest possible score is a nine. Strict rules determine whether a player draws a new card or stands pat, though some variants allow players to choose.

Answer: A self-help book

In "How to Succeed...", written by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, a young window washer named J. Pierrepont Finch takes advice from the titular self-help book. A pre-recorded voice -- provided by beloved newsman Walter Cronkite in the 1995 revival -- shares the passages Finch reads with the audience. These earnest instructions both set up Finch's goals in the scenes that follow, and provide some charming comic relief.

For example, at the beginning of the musical, Finch goes all out to follow the book's instructions to land a mailroom job. When he starts the next chapter, though, the book tells him, "You MUST get out of the mailroom."

Answer: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

First published in 1938, "Rebecca" made its author's reputation. The novel tells the story of a woman who marries a wealthy widower, thereby becoming Mrs. de Winter -- and unknowingly entering into a competition with Mr. de Winter's dead first wife, the eponymous Rebecca. Haunted by Rebecca's idealized memory and manipulated by Rebecca's devoted housekeeper, Mrs. de Winter comes perilously close to madness at the family estate of Manderley.

Marley's death begins Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Jem's sister Scout narrates Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird", and the bright cold April day is in George Orwell's "1984".

Answer: Cricket

That would be the famous Jiminy Cricket, voiced by Cliff Edwards. Unusually dapper for a cricket with his top hat, jacket and umbrella, Jiminy has his hands full narrating parts of the movie and trying to guide his charge onto the right path. In the 1883 Carlo Collodi novel that inspired this 1940 movie, Jiminy had no name and played a much smaller role, but the cricket is vital to the Disney version.

Answer: Strike the key quickly, without holding it

A staccato note is detached from the following one; there is a silence between notes instead of a smooth, legato flow from one note to the next. In modern written music, it's marked with a dot above or below the note in question. Like many musical terms, "staccato" comes from Italian, but it's an unusually good phonetic match for its meaning: the word itself seems staccato, interrupted and perhaps a little harsh.

Answer: Anarchism

When Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested in 1920 for a double murder during a payroll robbery, a violent anarchist movement had been active for decades. In Europe and the U.S., anarchists had planted bombs and assassinated government figures, even heads of state.

These two Italian immigrants to the U.S. were committed anarchists and possibly involved in the murder, but their arrest, trial and sentencing were marred by political and ethnic prejudice. In particular, they were denied a retrial after another person confessed to the crime, an unfairness that resulted in major legal reform.

It was too late for Sacco and Vanzetti, though: the controversy lasted decades, but they died in the electric chair.

Answer: Sabbat

"Sabbat" shares its etymological roots with "Sabbath," a weekly observance in Judaism. In Wicca, the Sabbat cycle is set by ancient Celtic tradition. The Sabbat of Samhain marks the new year in late fall; it's followed by Yule at the winter solstice, Imbolc in late winter, Ostara at the spring equinox, the fertility Sabbat of Beltane in late spring, Midsummer, and the two harvest festivals of Lammas and Mabon.

Answer: Tobacco mosaic virus

As the name implies, tobacco mosaic virus blights tobacco plants and their relatives, giving the leaves a characteristic mottled appearance. It's an appealing prospect for virological studies, partly because it has no effect on humans or other animals, reducing the necessary safety precautions.

The virus was first identified as a non-bacterial agent in the 1890s by Dmitri Ivanovsky and Martinus Beijerinck; it was first crystallized, which allowed the detailed study of its structure with X-rays, by Wendell Stanley in 1935. (He later shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this feat.) The virus is still a popular subject of study among scientists.

Answer: Argentina

In this match, Argentina faced England just four years after the Falklands War, so tensions were high. Maradona scored the first goal of the game, but broke the rules doing it: in soccer, goalkeepers are the only players allowed to touch the ball with their hands, but Maradona had used his hand to knock the ball into the goal.

The referee didn't see the infraction, though, so the goal stood -- and Maradona facetiously referred to the "hand of God" during post-game interviews. His good mood was no doubt helped by the fact that he had scored the game-winning goal (more legally this time) a few minutes later. Argentina went on to win the World Cup.

Answer: The Simpsons

Troy McClure, voiced by the late Phil Hartman, was a recurring character in the first ten seasons of the animated comedy "The Simpsons." An aging B- or C-list actor with an inflated sense of his own celebrity, he could be counted on to narrate whatever media the story required, from schoolroom-style educational videos to infomercials to automated welcome kiosks.

He delivered his exposition with panache, always introducing himself with some variation on the patter in the question.

Answer: Super Mario Kart

As a Nintendo franchise, "Super Mario Kart" has access to all the characters of the Mario Brothers games, from the eponymous siblings to the Princess to their archenemy, Bowser. They tear around tracks inspired by Mario's other adventures, from haunted houses to lava-infused castles. The original game was released on the Super Nintendo platform in 1992; its sequels have kept the basic game play while adding new courses and items.

The 50 cc, 100 cc, and 150 cc races are named according to the engine displacement (in cubic centimeters) of the available vehicles. As in real life, a larger displacement means more power, but whether that's a good thing depends on the driver's skill level!

Answer: A diagonal line drawn from lower left to upper right

In Spanish, the acute accent is placed over a vowel that's supposed to be stressed despite the normal rules. For example, without an accent, "Jose" would be pronounced "HOE-say"; with an accent, the name "José" is pronounced "hoe-SAY." In French, an acute accent changes the pronunciation of the letter E. "Ne" (not), without an accent, rhymes with "le": the E is pronounced like the I in "bird." Meanwhile, "né" (born), with an accent, sounds like "nay."

A diagonal line from upper left to lower right (as in the French "là", meaning "there") is a grave accent. Two dots, side-by-side above a letter (as in the German "für," meaning "for") make an umlaut. An upside down V (as in the French "hôtel") is a circumflex.