What 'R' They? Trivia Quiz

Answer: rose

The name 'rose' refers to the hundreds of species of flowering plants of the Rosa genus and the thousands of hybrid versions that have been developed by keen gardeners since ancient times. Archaeological evidence dates the use of roses as garden plants to the 14th century BC in Ancient Egypt and records show that they have been cultivated for thousands of years in both China and Greece. The creation of new hybrids has been particularly popular in Europe since the 17th century. The Rose Bowl stadium in California hosts the famous annual 'Rose Bowl Game' - an American football match between two college teams. Traditionally it was a post-season showdown between the champion teams of the Big Ten Conference and the Pac-12 Conference (under various names), but the Rose Bowl Game has also sometimes been held as a championship or play-off match.

The picture clue shows Rosa californica, a species of wild rose known as the California rose.

Answer: Russia

'From Russia With Love' (1963) was the highly successful second film in the long-running 'James Bond' series. In it, Bond was sent to Turkey to steal a 'Lektor' cipher machine from the Soviet consulate in Istanbul, unaware that the whole scheme has been set up by the criminal organisation known as SPECTRE in revenge for the death of their agent, Dr. No, in the previous film. The 'love' element in the film comes from the relationship between Bond and the ubiquitous 'Bond Girl' - in this case, a Soviet consulate (and army intelligence) worker named Tatiana Romanova.

The flag of Russia consists of white, blue and red horizontal stripes (as shown in the picture clue). Romania's has blue, yellow and red vertical stripes, while the flag adopted by Rwanda in 2001 features blue, yellow and green horizontal stripes with a yellow sun in one corner. Rhodesia was the name used by the country that later became Zimbabwe after it achieved formal independence from Britain in 1980.

Answer: Rachel

The supermodel Rachel Hunter married Rod Stewart in 1990. They had two children together before they separated in 1999 and subsequently divorced in 2006. Hunter was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1969. Although it was her modelling career that initially brought her fame and fortune, she has also had several minor acting roles and appeared as a judge on reality TV shows such as 'Make Me a Supermodel' and 'New Zealand's Got Talent'. The biblical Rachel was the young woman who Jacob met at a well and fell in love with. However, Rachel's father insisted on Jacob working for him for seven years in order to earn the right to marry her and then reneged on the agreement at the last moment when he substituted her older sister, Leah, for her on the wedding day. Jacob and Rachel were allowed to marry shortly afterwards - but only after Jacob promised to work for his father-in-law for another seven years.

In the Bible, Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi who later married Boaz, Rebekah was the mother of Jacob and Rhoda was a servant girl who was briefly mentioned in Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament.

The picture clue shows the constellation of Orion, also known as The Hunter.

Answer: Ratchet

Ratchets are handy little devices, usually made up of a toothed bar or wheel that interacts with another bar or tooth in such a way that it can only turn in one direction without getting stuck. Common uses for them include turnstiles, jacks, handcuffs or even simple fasteners such as cable ties. The video game character of Ratchet is a Lombax - an anthropomorphic cat-like creature from the planet Fastoon. He appears in the 'Ratchet & Clank' series that debuted on the PlayStation 2 system in 2002. Ratchet uses a variety of gadgets and weapons (and the help of his sidekick, Clank) to thwart the plans of evil villains such as Chairman Drek and Doctor Nefarious.

A rowlock is the device on the side of a boat in which oars are positioned. A regulator controls the rate at which a machine works or the flow of fluid through a system. A reflector is an object used to reflect light or waves such as sound or radio signals.

Answer: Roulette

The game of roulette involves a wheel with numbered sections coloured either red, black or green and a little ball. Players bet on various outcomes associated with which section the ball will end up in after the wheel has been spun, e.g. odds versus evens, reds versus blacks, different groups of numbers, or even a specific number - with the size of the pay-out depending on the probability of each result. On European roulette wheels, there is also one green number, 0, which ensures the house advantage on all playable outcomes. American casinos have an even greater advantage as a wheel with two greens slots (0 and 00 - as shown in the picture clue) is used.

'Roulette' was released by Bruce Springsteen as the B-side to his single 'One Step Up' and later featured on his 1998 album 'Tracks', which contained a variety of his lesser-known songs and previously unpublished material. The lyrics were about a man taking a risk and referenced the potentially fatal game known as Russian Roulette rather than the casino version. Bon Jovi's 'Roulette' was a song included on their (imaginatively titled) debut album 'Bon Jovi' and clearly highlighted the futility of gambling:

"Roulette you're goin' round in a spin,
Caught up in a game you just can't win"

Answer: Roots

The word 'root' has numerous definitions, including: the part of a plant or tree that secures it to the ground and supplies water, typically found underground (see picture clue); to dig around for objects or information; a mathematical term, e.g. a square root; and the source, start or history of something.

It is that final definition that relates to the missing word in the title of Alex Haley's 1976 novel 'Roots: The Saga of an American Family'. The novel tells the story of the different generations of the family of a young man named Kunta Kinte; from the point when he was captured in Africa and sold into slavery, to the American Civil War and the subsequent freedom granted to his descendants.

The book was immensely popular and was adapted into the television series 'Roots', with LeVar Burton (who later starred in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation') in the role of the young Kunta Kinte and John Amos (known for his recurring roles in 'The West Wing' and 'Two and a Half Men') as the same character as an older man.

Answer: Remington

The QWERTY keyboard was originally invented by Christopher Latham Sholes, who developed and patented his ideas for a mechanical typewriter along with Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soule in the late 1860s (see picture clue). The design for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter (as it became known) was developed further and then bought by Remington, an American company that manufactured guns and sewing machines amongst other things, in 1873. Re-branded as the 'Remington No.1', the typewriter became a commercial success and the progenitor of the keyboards still in use for modern computers, tablets and smartphones.

The American artist Frederic Remington was a cousin of the Remingtons of typewriter fame and was noted for his paintings, drawings and sculptures of life in the American West in the late 19th century. In addition to his depictions of cowboys, ranchers and soldiers he also painted Native Americans and produced a series of illustrations for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem 'The Song of Hiawatha'.

Mark Rothko and Norman Rockwell were both 20th century American artists while Sir Joshua Reynolds was an 18th century British portrait artist.

Answer: Rhea

There are two living species of rhea, the greater rhea (also known as the American rhea, shown in the picture clue) and the lesser rhea (or Darwin's rhea). Although both are native to South America, the greater rhea is found across grassland areas of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil, while the lesser rhea is found at greater altitude on the Andean Plateau and in Patagonia. The Rhea of Greek mythology also lived at high altitude as she was one of the 12 original Titans who resided on Mount Othrys. Rhea was the wife of Cronus and mother of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus.

Ratite is a collective term for large flightless birds, including rheas, ostriches and emus. Rails are a type of ground-dwelling waterfowl and quite a few species are flightless - although several of these have been declared extinct. The roc is a mythological bird of prey and the stories surrounding it suggest that it was perfectly capable of flight.

Answer: Roman Empire

The Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD (XLIII when written in Roman numerals) on the orders of the Emperor Claudius. They went on to leave a lasting mark on the country in the form of towns, infrastructure and defences, including the famed Hadrian's Wall (as shown in the picture clue) and the baths of the city of Bath. The ruins of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, were amazingly well-preserved by the volcanic ash that buried them and now provide an invaluable insight into life in Roman times. The First Dacian War of 101-102 AD and the Second Dacian War of 105-106 AD were both notable victories for the Roman Empire; Dacia was a region of central-eastern Europe that broadly corresponded with modern day Romania and Moldova.

The Russian Empire existed between 1721 and 1917. The Rashidun Empire (or Caliphate) controlled much of the Middle East during the mid-7th century. The Romulan Empire appeared in science fiction drama 'Star Trek' and its spin-offs.

Answer: riddle

The chief villain in J. K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' series is the evil Lord Voldemort. He was thought to have been vanquished when he attempted to kill Harry as a baby, but later returned to power to once again terrorise the wizarding world with his ideas for pure-blood supremacy. However, like Harry, Lord Voldemort was in fact a half-blood wizard; his father was a muggle named Tom Riddle who became one of his son's earliest victims. Voldemort had originally been named after his father and his full name - Tom Marvolo Riddle - is an anagram of "I am Lord Voldemort".

The picture clue shows an Indian cobra. Lord Voldemort was a descendant of the Hogwarts founder, Salazar Slytherin, who used a snake as the symbol of his house. He also had the ability to speak to snakes in Parseltongue.