Thursday 31 December 2009

You Think You Know About Scotland?



Question 1
St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and which other three countries?
a) Slovakia, Greece and Czech Republic
b) Norway, Greece and Latvia
c) Romania, Greece and Russia

Question 2
What is the name of Scotland's national poet?
a) George Mackay Brown
b) Robert Burns
c) Robert Louis Stevenson

Question 3
What is the name of the Scottish flag?
a) The Lion Rampant
b) The Saltire
c) The Salt and Sauce

Question 4
How many Scottish islands are there?
a) 800
b) 30
c) 15

Question 5
What connects Sherlock Holmes to Scotland?
a) The author Arthur Conan Doyle was Scottish
b) Sherlock Holmes was Scottish
c) Both Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle were Scottish

Question 6
What are the three officially recognised languages of Scotland?
a) English, Scots and Gaelic
b) English, British and Gaelic
c) English, Gaelic and Glaswegian

Question 7
What is the population of Scotland?
a) 6.8 million
b) 5.1 million
c) 5.8 million

Question 8
How many people worldwide call Scotland their ancestral home?
a) Between 5 and 10 million
b) Between 10 and 20 million
c) Between 30 and 40 million

Question 9
Which Scottish location did Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' make even more famous?
a) Fyvie Castle
b) Roslyn Chapel
c) Abbotsford House

Question 10
On which Scottish island did George Orwell write his novel '1984'?
a) Jura
b) Islay
c) Iona

I've all the answers and will publish them later. I'm sure everyone will get 10 out of 10 though!

20 comments:

MekQuarrie said...

If we give you our answers now, will you mark it for us..?
cbbaaaccba
(No Googling required, ta.)

Anonymous said...

1 c
2 b
3 b
4 a
5 a
6 a
7 b
8 c
9 b
10 a

subrosa said...

I've marked yours Mek. Just one wee hiccup. :)

subrosa said...

Bug, I'm no' marking yours. :)

The answers will be posted in a few hours.

Jon Lellenberg said...

Regarding #5, What connects Sherlock Holmes to Scotland, the correct answer would actually be: d) None of the above. Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, and went to its university, but he was not Scottish, and never thought he was. His father was from an Irish family resident in London so long they had come to think of themselves as English, and his mother came from Ireland. His father was in Edinburgh for a specific job; after Conan Doyle got his first medical degree, he left for England and never lived in Scotland again, which was also true of his brother and five sisters as each of them came of age.

MekQuarrie said...

Re: Sherlock. Many born-Scots at the time considered themself English (some still do), but we can only go on the facts (the final refuge of the scoundrel).

Conan Doyle did base his character on a methodical physician at Edinburgh which could make Holmes a Scotsman. Again without Googlin' I can't remember if any of these particular characters were avowedly Scots.

I'm giving up Google for New Year. (The odds are only on the number of minutes before I break the habit.)

Strathturret said...

Was the model for SH not a professor at Edinburgh called Wilson?

Anonymous said...

Jon

Correct

and by that same logic I declare Tony Blair not to be in the remotest fashion a Scot except for the accident of Birth and education (Fettes FFS?)

By linear extension I withdraw all possible connections between Scotland and James Gordon Brown. He publicly declared on American TV that he was North British and not Scots.

On the other side of the coin, I remember being in a Northern California small town where Robert Louis Stevenson must have stayed. for a very short time, before setting out by boat for Hawaii, other South Seas island and New Zealand. They called him a great American author.

In fact he could have been better described as Hawaiian or even Samoan.

As for Connan Doyle, we are an inclusive lot, we Scots and even let in Irish, English and Welsh (not too many though) as well as heeps from old and new Europe , Scandinavia, and Asia. You can always find the odd Yank in Scotland or haunting Subrosa's blogs and giving their tuppenceworth on Scottish independence.

Welcome, they are all too

Just a few thoughts

Danish Pastry (Mrs) said...

Hej Jon Lellenberg, hvor er du fra, Danmark???

Velkommen til Skottland

Godt nytår


Skål!

Dansk Pastry (Mrs)

Faux Cu said...

Mek

I have just had a wee visitation from Arthur Conan Doyle (spirit of) and he tells me he would be proud to be a Scot, if he were still alive today.

I feel a book coming on.

Faux Cu said...

i believe than Jon Lellenberg lives in Washington DC and has co-authored a book on Arthur Conan Doyle.

It is amazing what google alerts can do, just amazing.

Happy Hogmanay to you Jon and Good New Year!

Come back again and join in the nonsense of our banter

GoodnightVienna said...

Thanks for that SR, though I didn't do as well as some others (I already know what I don't know!). Happy New Year to you and may your chimney always smoke.

Jon Lellenberg said...

I used to live in Washington, but now live in Chicago. And it's actually two books about Conan Doyle, a long time ago one entitled THE QUEST FOR SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE about how he's been treated biographically, and two years ago co-authored ARTHR CONAN DOYLE: A LIFE IN LETTERS, an annotated edition of his family correspondence over a 54-year period (1867-1920), prepared with my friend Dan Stashower, author of the best recent Conan Doyle biography, TELLER OF TALES.

In response to other comments, Conan Doyle basec the Sherlock Holmes method on an old professor of his, Dr. Joseph Bell. He at any rate was Scottish.

Faux Cu said...

Well Jon, so you live in Chicago now. Was DC not cold enough for you?

I know your near area of Chicago a bit, Lincolnwood and Downtown, of course. These were the days.

Conan Doyle was an Anglo Irish, one of a group who considered themselves English but living in Ireland. It is not too far a stretch of the imagination to consider them colonial English asettlers like those in Africa, India etc. They were mainly chased out post the establishment of the Republic.

The fact then when the Doyle family lived in Scotland they still considered themselves English would not be a surprise.

Anyway, have a "Good Yin", Jon and I am sure that had he been alive today he would have been pleased to be called a Scot, albeit by adoption. Many now do as our political landscape changes.

subrosa said...

Jon, thank you so much for your contribution. I have never connection Sherlock Holmes to Scotland either but I have to admit I never delved deep enough. Always I thought he was English.

Even though his writings are highly rated in my literary findings.

In fact, if you don't mind, I may put your comments on as a post because I know how many avid readers of his stories there are around.

subrosa said...

Mek, use Yahoo. Far better.

subrosa said...

Thanks so much GV. The expression here is 'Lang May Yer Lum Reek'. That means I wish that you always have warmth.

May I wish the same to you.

subrosa said...

Thanks for your contributions to this thread. It's quite amazing what a wee quiz does.

Do hope you don't mind the next post Jon.

subrosa said...

Thanks for your contributions to this thread. It's quite amazing what a wee quiz does.

Do hope you don't mind the next post Jon.

subrosa said...

Auch GV that's to be expected because you're not accustomed to Scottish habits.

May I too wish you and yours a Guid New Year.

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