14 Aug 2016

Quiz 19- 10 questions on stairs - Answers

1. On December 4, 1981, lights went out on the spiral staircase of this famous monument and the resulting panic created a stampede in wich forty-five people were trampled to death. The incident resulted in the government banning tourist from ever entering the monument. Which monument?

Ans: Qutub minar

2.The escalator was originally a trademark of which company ?

Ans: Otis Elevator Company, the word was adjudged in 1949 to have become public property through popular use.

3.On a display screen or monitor curved or slanted edges on type characters are prone to a 'staircasing effect', also called as the “jaggies.”It happens because the resolution of the image is too coarse to achieve the appearance of a smooth line or curve. What term is used to define the smoothing of this jagged, “stairstep” appearance ?

Ans: Anti-aliasing

4. On Prinsengracht, street was a three storied building, the first floor was a warehouse, the second floor consisted of offices, and the third floor served as a storeroom.The staircase of the building had a sliding bookcase and behind this bookcase was a secret area. Which famous book was written here?

Ans:The Diary of Anne Frank.

5.  This American film comedian and directors original name was Joseph Frank. He earned his famous nickname when, at age 18 months he fell down a long flight of stairs; magician Harry Houdini picked up the unhurt infant, turned to the boy's parents and chuckled “That's some ________ your baby took.” Joe and Myra the boy's parents added the name to  his name and has been known ever since by that name. Who?

Ans: Buster Keaton.
Six-year-old Buster Keaton with his parents Myra and Joe Keaton during a vaudeville act

6.The Winchester Mystery House is a bizarrely constructed Victorian mansion in California. It was the house of Sarah L. Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune.The 160 room mansion contains stairs and passages that lead to nowhere or to a brick wall. Why was the house constructed in this fashion ?

Ans: Sarah believed in Ghosts, hence she built the mansion to confuse the ghosts and spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifle.

7.Where will you find this stairway?

Ans: Inside the statue of Liberty.

8.If a dam has a fish ladder, what is it used for or what is its purpose ?

Ans: Mature diadromous fish like Salmons swim upstream for spawning, but many of these rivers have dams built across them thus creating obstacles for the salmon from reaching their breeding place. A fish ladder consists of a series of small pools, each slightly higher than the one below it. Water rushing from one pool to the next simulates the flow of a natural river. Driven by instinct, fish leap from one pool to the next until they eventually bypass the dam entirely and thus swim up past the dam .

Fish ladder safety sign 

Different types of fish ladders.

9. The name for the phenomenon comes from French encyclopedist and philosopher Denis Diderot's description of such a situation in his 'Paradoxe sur le comédien' he called it  'esprit de l'escalier'. In English it is 'called staircase wit' or ' "escalator wit", what is it ?

Ans: It is a repartee (quick and witty reply) thought of only too late, as one is leaving and on the way downstairs.

10.The below work titled 'The Rude descending a staircase (Rush-Hour at the Subway)' was printed in The New York Evening Sun, on 20 March 1913 and was a parody of a famous painting that was creating a sensation in New York because it was considered too radical. The painting was synthesis of two modern-art styles: cubism and futurism and was  popularly described as “an explosion in a shingle factory" Which painting does the below comic caricature and who was the artist (of the actual painting) ?

Ans: Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 by Marcel Duchamp



1 comment:

  1. Scores of Quiz 19.

    Annie 10
    Harman Singh 7
    Rajiv 7
    Ancil 7
    Paul 3
    Vidyadhar Gadgil5
    Ajey 23
    Sahil H R 4
    Aditya Mallya 10

    ReplyDelete