• Sharks, Komodo dragon lizards and snakes have proven repeatedly that it doesn’t necessarily take two to tango: females can give birth just fine without ever having contact with a male. The phenomenon is called parthenogenesis — from the Greek for “virgin birth” — and it may occur with animals in captivity as well as in the wild. Strangest of all, in every documented case of parthenogenesis, the offspring have been male.

• To create the effect of a swarm of locusts in Terrence Malick’s 1978 film, “Days of Heaven,” cinematographers had helicopters fly overhead dropping peanut shells and sycamore seed pods to resemble insects in flight. They filmed the scene in reverse so the “locusts” appeared to rise from the wheat fields instead of falling from the sky. Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and the other actors in the scene had to walk backward during filming so their movements would look right in the finished version.

1. The captain and crew of the brigantine Mary Celeste famously did what in 1872?

A) Claimed Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory

B) Sailed the first U.S. trade route to China

C) Tried to start a war with France

D) Vanished

2. Virginia is one of four U.S. states that are officially called commonwealths. Which of these states is NOT a commonwealth?

A) Alabama

B) Kentucky

C) Massachusetts

D) Pennsylvania

3. Ancient Greeks wore amethyst jewelry to prevent what?

A) Death in battle

B) Drunkenness

C) Plague

D) Pregnancy

4. Donald Sutherland’s character in the 1975 film “The Day of the Locust” shares his name with what other fictional character?

A) Clark Kent

B) Roger Rabbit

C) Barney Rubble

D) Homer Simpson

5. During Operation Gunnerside in 1943, a team of skiing commandos infiltrated a Nazi-held hydroelectric plant in what country?

A) Germany

B) Norway

C) Poland

D) Sweden

6. Which best describes the patches that cover a standard black and white leather soccer ball?

A) 12 hexagons and 20 pentagons

B) 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons

C) 32 hexagons

D) 32 pentagons

Answers

1) The Mary Celeste was found in December 1872 floating in the Atlantic; her captain and crew had vanished.

2) Alabama is not a commonwealth.

3) Legend says that wearing amethyst jewels will prevent drunkenness.

4) Homer Simpson

5) Norway

6) The surface of a classic soccer ball is covered by 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons.