All One's Geese are Swans Trivia Quiz

Answer: White Swan

Swans are the largest members of the waterfowl family called Anatidae. They are one of the largest flying birds with wingspans exceeding three metres and weighing up to 15 kg. The largest species are the mute swan, trumpeter swan, and whooper swan. These are European swans.

There is a black swan and a black-necked swan from the southern hemisphere and the tundra swan is a smaller North American bird, Bewick's swan is a Eurasian variant of the tundra swan which is known as the whistling swan in North America.

Answer: One tends to exaggerate

The saying can trace its origins to Aesop's fables of the "Swan and the Goose" where it was thought that a swan was a goose until it was about to be killed for food when it spoke up. There are variants of the saying: 'Every man thinks his own geese are swans', means blind partiality or exaggeration, and 'All his swans are turned to geese', refers to a change or reversal of fortune.

Interestingly, whilst geese are seen to be a good choice of food especially on festive occasions, the swan is not seen as an edible creature perhaps because of the perception of being protected. (See below).

Answer: A census of swans that reside on the River Thames

Swan Upping is an English annual ceremony where mute swans on the River Thames are caught, tagged, checked for health and released. Any unmarked mute swan is deigned to belong to the British Crown. There are two other "proprietors": each July, over five days, the Queen's, Vintners' and the Dyers' respective swan uppers row up the river in small boats tagging swans. Apart from a ring linking to a data base, the Queen's swans are left unmarked.

The other two families "claims" have an additional leg band added.

These methods replaced the traditional marking of the swans' bills to signify ownership. The propensity of pubs around the Thames called "The Swan with Two Necks" is a corruption of a swan with two nicks.

Answer: Southern Australia

Swans are not found in tropical Asia, Central America, northern South America or all of Africa. Swans are generally found in temperate environments such as Europe, Southern South America, the North American tundra regions and southern Australia.
Black swans are the symbol of Western Australia, even appearing on the state flag. In WA they are found in the coastal temperate regions of the south-west of the state. In the eastern part of Australia they are found in a wide range of cooler places such as the Atherton tableland and especially around the Murray-Darling basin. They are not found in Northern and Central Australia.

According to the Nyungar people of south-western Australia, they tell a Dreamtime story of black swans. Two brothers were turned into white swans so they could steal weapons from a neighbouring tribe. After this raid, eaglehawks stole the feathers off the swans. Crows, known enemies of eaglehawks, gave the swans their feathers. This is how black swans originated according to indigenous folklore.

Answer: Natalie Portman

All of the listed actresses starred in this movie which, while described as a thriller or even a horror movie, was really a metaphor for the pressures of attaining artistic perfection. Ms Portman, who had played many acclaimed roles before, nailed the Oscar by playing an already fragile ballerina who took on the demanding role of Swan Lake's White Swan and achieved her goal of a perfect performance at the cost of her own life.

Answer: Cob, Pen, Cygnet

The English word 'swan', (German schwan, Dutch zwaan, Swedish svan), is obtained from an Indo-European source swen (meaning to sound, to sing). {Does this make "Mute Swan" an oxymoron?}
The male is called a cob which is derived from the Middle English "Cobbe" meaning "leader of a group".
The female is called the pen from the way she holds her wings back in a penned manner. This comes from the Old English term "Penne".
Cygnet comes from Latin for swan "Cygnus" which the suffix "-ets" meaning small. A young swan can also be known as a flapper.

Answer: Skein

A skein is a group of flying geese. (They are called a gaggle on the ground)
Collective nouns for swans that are on the ground are relatively straight-forward:- They are known as a bevy, a bank or a herd. However when they fly they are known as a flight but they are also known as a wedge because when they fly, they form a wedge shaped pattern to reduce collective air resistance.

Other collective nouns that have been proposed as collective nouns for swans include: Whiteness, ballet and regatta.

Answer: Australian Rules Football

The Sydney Swans are a successful Australian Rules team. When they won the Australian Football League premiership in 2012, it was their fifth. They won three premierships as South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League before relocating to Sydney in 1982 and winning again in 2005 and 2012. Their uniform is predominantly white with a prominent red collar which has a silhouette of the Sydney Opera House cut out of the V-shape.

The Swansea City FC (soccer) are also known as the Swans.

Answer: I Can Help

Billy Swan had his hit "I Can Help", a rockabilly number, go all the way to the top of the US Billboard Top 100 in 1974. While he had a few moderate subsequent hits on the US Country Charts, he never hit the Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten again. There were other one hit wonders around that time: Also in 1974, Terry Jacks had a Billboard number one with "Seasons in the Sun" and "Kung Fu fighting" was a smash, and only smash, for Carl Douglas in the same year.

In 1970 Edison Lighthouse had their only hit with "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)".

Answer: Yes

A swan song refers to a belief (that can be traced back to the ancient Greeks) that swans sing a beautifully sounding song song immediately before they die, having been mute for most of their lifetime. This belief has been propagated and disputed for 24 centuries!
The mute swan (Cygnus olor), whilst not mute, does not vocalise at all before it dies and this is the main argument for refuting the sing before you die belief.
The whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus), a possesses a 'bugling' call, and has been known for bellowing a drawn-out series of notes when its lungs collapse when it dies. This is because it has an extra tracheal loop within its chest, and it was this sound that appears to be the basis for the legend. Both mute and whooper swans were known in ancient Greek and Egyptian art. Near relatives, the trumpeter and tundra swans, also have this musical tracheal loop.
"Swan song" has become a cliche referring to a final dramatic appearance, or any final accomplishment not necessarily before dying.