Landmark Connections Trivia Quiz

Answer: castle

Based on the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Sleeping Beauty Castle stands at the centre of Disneyland, the first of the Walt Disney Company's theme parks. Opened in 1955, it is the oldest Walt Disney castle, and one of the symbols of the media and entertainment company. Sleeping Beauty Castle appeared in the logo of Walt Disney Pictures from 1985 to 2006, then was merged with Cinderella Castle, which is located in Disneyworld, Florida.

Answer: castle

A sandcastle is a miniature building made of sand. A popular game that children play for fun at the beach, where both sand and water abound, it can also be an art form in which elaborate structures are produced - sometimes even replicas of real buildings. Sand festivals and sandcastle-building contests are held in many parts of the world: some of the structures created during these events are truly impressive, requiring days of work and huge amounts of sand.

Answer: castle

"Castles in the air" is an idiom synonymous with daydreaming or making plans that stand little or no chance of coming to fruition. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary and other online sources, the phrase was first attested in English in the 1560s.

Its origins lie in the 13th-century French allegorical poem "Roman de la Rose", where it appears as "castles in Spain" (another version of the idiom).

Answer: castle

In the game of chess, the rook is able to move any number of squares both horizontally and vertically. As the piece has the shape of a tower, it is also informally known as castle, though various sources regard the term as old-fashioned or inaccurate. Castling is also the name of a common chess move that involves moving the king and the rook at the same time - the only move in the game in which it is possible to move two pieces at once.

Answer: bridge

In Norse mythology, Bifröst is a burning bridge that connects Midgard (the Earth) with Asgard, the home of the gods. In Snorri Sturluson's 13th-century "Prose Edda", where the name is first attested in this form, it is said that Bifröst ends at the heavenly residence of the god Heimdall, who stands watch against the giants and other enemies of the gods. Though the bridge is traditionally identified with the rainbow, other theories have linked it with the Milky Way or the Northern Lights.

Answer: bridge

One of the world's most famous bridges, Venice's Bridge of Sighs ("Ponte dei Sospiri") is a short, enclosed bridge that does not cross a river but rather a narrow canal, the Rio di Palazzo. Built in 1600 of white limestone with tiny, latticed windows, the bridge connects the Prigioni Nuove (New Prisons) with the interrogation room of the Doge's Palace. According to a popular story, the bridge's name refers to prisoners sighing while catching a last glimpse of Venice as they were led to their cells to serve their sentence or await execution.

Answer: bridge

"Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802" was written by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth in the form of a Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet, and published in 1807. The poem was composed while the poet was crossing the bridge on a coach heading to Dover, and was deeply moved by the beauty of the city in the clear, smokeless air and peaceful atmosphere of the early morning hours.

The bridge where Wordsworth stood, however, was replaced by a new one in 1862.

Answer: bridge

"Bridge over Troubled Water" is one of folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel's best-known and most enduringly popular songs. Released in 1970, the song was the second single from the album of the same title, the duo's fifth and final studio effort. Written by Paul Simon, "Bridge over Troubled Water" is a moving love song with an almost religious feel, featuring beautiful vocals by Art Garfunkel.

It reached number one in the UK and US singles chart, and won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1971.

Answer: cathedral

Born in London in 1119 or 1120, Thomas Becket was an English cleric and statesman who was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. His conflict with King Henry II of England over the rights and privileges of the Church eventually led to Becket's assassination in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170.

The four knights who murdered him allegedly acted by order of the king himself. Becket's death is the subject of T.S. Eliot's 1935 play "Murder in the Cathedral".

Answer: cathedral

Deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1831 historical novel "Notre-Dame de Paris", known in English as "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". This tragic tale of love, obsession and betrayal is set in 15th-century Paris, with the city's magnificent Gothic cathedral as much of a central character as the unfortunate Quasimodo. Hugo wrote the novel as a means of raising public awareness of the need for preserving Gothic architecture at a time of great political and social unrest.

Answer: cathedral

The New Vaudeville Band was a group formed by English studio musicians in 1966. It was put together by songwriter Geoff Stephens to record his novelty song "Winchester Cathedral", inspired by the music-hall bands of the 1920s. The song, in which a man abandoned by his girlfriend blames the titular cathedral for his plight, became a huge worldwide hit, reaching number one on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The real Winchester Cathedral, one of Europe's largest Gothic cathedrals, is located in the English county of Hampshire.

Answer: cathedral

One of the greatest English architects, Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) is known for his stately buildings in the Baroque style. In particular, he was responsible for rebuilding many of the churches in the City of London that had been destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 - including the magnificent St Paul's Cathedral and its imposing dome, completed in 1710. Wren, who was also an eminent scientist and one of the founders of the Royal Society, also designed the original part of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

Answer: gate

In an airport terminal, a gate is the area to which passengers are directed prior to boarding an aircraft. A gate usually consists of a waiting area with extensive seating, a service counter and a doorway that leads directly to the aircraft - or, alternatively, to ground transportation if the aircraft is parked at some distance from the terminal. Gates are usually identified by a letter (designating the terminal) and a number.

In many large airports, boarding gates are located near shops, restaurants and cafés.

Answer: gate

The Golden Gate is a strait in California that connects San Francisco Bay with the Pacific Ocean. Its width of 1.6 km (1 mi) is spanned by the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, opened in 1937. The strait, which was discovered by Europeans at least two centuries after the first explorations of that coastal area, owes its name to explorer and US senator John C. Fremont, who on 1 July 1846, gave it the name "Chrysopylae" (Golden Gate in Greek) - stating that the strait was "a golden gate to trade with the Orient". Two years later, gold was discovered in California near Sacramento.

Answer: gate

37th US President Richard Nixon (1913-1994) is associated with the Watergate scandal, a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. that occurred on 17 June 1972. Though Nixon tried to deny his involvement, two years later (8 August 1974) he was forced to resign by the looming threat of impeachment. Watergate has left an enduring legacy in popular culture: in fact, the suffix "-gate" is commonly used in English-speaking countries and beyond to create names for scandals or controversies.

Answer: gate

Somebody who attends a party or any other function without an invitation or a ticket is colloquially called a "gatecrasher" - a rather vivid expression that suggests the forceful action of battering down a city gate. The word, first attested in English in the 1920s, is also used figuratively (especially in journalism) for an unexpected event or appearance.

The verb "gatecrash" (or even simply "crash") is a back-formation from the noun. Both the noun and the verb can be spelled with or without a hyphen.