Missing Words, Revisited Trivia Quiz

Answer: cake

Cup cake or cake mix.

Cupcakes can be plain or fancy, with the only real characteristic being that they are small. The recipe seems to date from the 1790s and asked for "a light cake to bake in small cups". The French name for a cupcake is 'petit gāteau'- sounds very exotic, eh?

Answer: rain

Acid rain or rain dance

Acid rain is caused by pollutants in the atmosphere, such as sulphur dioxide from factories, which have the effect of increasing the acidic content of rainwater from around 7, to roughly 5 on the pH scale.

Rain dances are ritual dances, hoping to encourage rainfall. They are performed by indigenous participants in many parts of the world, from Australia, Africa, Europe and North America. Their effectiveness is open to debate.

Answer: book

Text book or book case.

A textbook (or text book) is generally used as a teaching and learning aid. If you have a lot of textbooks, you can store them in a bookcase!

Answer: ball

Soccer ball or ball gown.

Soccer balls (known simply as 'footballs' in the UK and other regions) have very specific measurements. They have a circumference of 68cms and a weight of between 410 and 450 grams.

A ball gown is a dress, designed to be worn to a formal dance. They are usually long and flowing, and oh, so elegant.

Answer: trap

There are many different ways of trapping mice, ranging from spring loaded, to gluey pads, to electrocution, to drowning. Agatha Christie's play, 'The Mousetrap' ran for over 30,000 performances in London's West End, from 1952 until a temporary cessation in 2020, due to the Covid pandemic.

Trapdoors are small, usually horizontal, doors that are used in stage plays, and gallows! There is even a spider found in Australia named the trapdoor spider - it lives in a hole in the ground, with a hinged lid.

Answer: card

If you are playing this quiz on your birthday, Happy Birthday to You! Hopefully you get to blow out the candles on your birthday cake soon. You should get lots of birthday cards, too.

A cake board is a board to transport a cake on. They can be made of various substances, even cardboard.

Answer: mouth

Smash Mouth are an American rock band, founded in California in 1994. They named themselves after an American football tactic.

A mouthguard is a moulded piece of plastic, usually worn by sporty types to prevent their teeth from being knocked out.

Answer: Dry

Bone dry simply means VERY dry, conjuring up an image of bones in a desert.

A dry dock is a repair facility for ships, where water can be pumped out of, allowing access to the bottom parts of the vessel. The history of dry docks dates back to the ancient Phoenicians, circa 200BC.

Answer: bird

Black bird or bird cage.

Blackbirds are found over much of Europe and have been introduced to Australia. They belong to the thrush family. They should not be confused with other birds that are black, such as crows, ravens and rooks, which are quite a bit larger in size.

A bird cage is a cage to house birds - logical, innit! 'The Birdcage' was a 1996 movie starring Robin Williams and Gene Hackman, with the title coming from the name of a club in Miami.

Answer: door

Many houses have a doorbell - usually very close to the front door.

In 1817, William Murdoch invented a doorbell powered by compressed air. These days, there is an app for that...