Books quiz

More questions about Books

These visible examples show the question style. LearnClash turns the full topic into ranked duels and spaced repetition.

1. 1 Easy

   Why does Captain Ahab obsessively hunt the white whale Moby Dick?

   Answer: The whale bit off his leg

   Why: Ahab's leg is ivory cut from a sperm whale's jaw, and the Pequod's deck was bored with auger holes so he could stand braced in it.

2. 2 Medium

   Which Dickens novel begins with 'It was the best of times'?

   Answer: A Tale of Two Cities

   Why: The opening is one 119-word sentence that ends by saying 1775 was so much like Dickens's own day.

3. 3 Hard

   What name does Victor Frankenstein give his creation in the novel?

   Answer: no name

   Why: He is called creature, wretch and daemon, and the name most people use for him belongs to the man who made him.

4. 4 Easy

   Why does the delusional knight Don Quixote charge at a group of windmills?

   Answer: He believes they are monstrous giants

   Why: This iconic episode gave rise to the phrase 'tilting at windmills,' which means fighting imaginary enemies or futile battles.

5. 5 Medium

   According to Ray Bradbury, what happens at 451 degrees Fahrenheit?

   Answer: paper catches fire

   Why: Bradbury phoned UCLA's chemistry department and USC's science department first; only the fire department could tell him paper burns at 451.

6. 6 Hard

   What food does Leopold Bloom eat for breakfast in Ulysses?

   Answer: fried pork kidney

   Why: Joyce says he liked grilled mutton kidneys best, yet the one he buys at Dlugacz's pork shop gets scorched while he is upstairs with Molly.