Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Wednesday Quiz I:1 -- World Cities

The Wednesday Quiz -- Season I -- Quiz I

World Cities

The Wednesday Quiz is a test of knowledge and intuition. Looking up answers or asking your buddy is right out. Questions about the rules are answered here.

Identify each city from the clues given!


Name That Famous World City!

1. The unofficial capital of its country’s high tech industry, it is also the official capital of the state of Karnataka. It is the third largest city in its country, and easily the largest urban area on the Deccan plateau.

2. The second largest city in England was one of the first major centers of the Industrial Revolution. It’s not only the home of soccer’s Aston Villa F.C. but also home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club, the site of the highest ever score by a batsman. One Brian Lara apparently “scored 501 not out” for Warwickshire there, whatever that means.

3. The fourth largest city in the United States is a port and industrial city near Galveston Bay. Its skyline looks like this:


4. The biggest city in Southeast Asia is on the northwest coast of Java. From 1619 to 1942, it was called Batavia.

5. Traditionally a university town, it was made into an industrial city during Poland’s communist era. It has grown very rapidly over the last 100 years, and recently passed Lodz to become the country’s second largest city.

6. It’s the largest city, but not the capital, of the most populous country in Africa. It’s a terminus of the Trans-West African Coastal Highway and of the soon to be completed Trans-Sahara Highway, but it might be faster just to fly into Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

7. A little more than a hundred miles east from Buenos Aires across the bay of the Rio de la Plata, it is a national capital and home to around a third of its country’s population.

8. The biggest city and capital of Saudi Arabia had a population of around 150,000 fifty years ago, but has reached about 7 million today.

9. This city grew explosively as a center of international trade in the 19th Century, and is growing explosively as a center of international trade even as we speak. It is now one of biggest cities in the world. At night, it looks something like this:


10. The third largest city in Canada, it’s a harbor at the mouth of the Frasier River. It is home, among other things, to Stanley Park and Simon Frasier University.

Submit your answers in the comments!


The L&TM5K Advent Calendar
December 2


Domenico Ghirlandaio, Adoration of the Shepherds. 1485. Tempera on wood. Santa Trinita, Sassetti Chapel, Florence, Italy.

23 comments:

fingerstothebone said...

1. Bangalore
2. Manchester
3. Houston
4. Kuala Lumpur
5. No Hope
6. Hang My Head in Shame
7. Phooey
8. Riyadh
9. Shanghai
10. Montreal

Cartophiliac said...

1. Bangalore
2. Birmingham
3. Houston
4. Jakarta
5. Krakov
6. Lagos
7. Montevedeo
8. Riyad
9. Bangkok
10. Vancouver

Elaine said...

1. Damascus
2. Manchester
3. Houston
4. Djakarta
5. Krakow
6. Cape Town
7. Rio de Janiero
8. Riyadh
9. Hong Kong
10. Toronto

God, I have no clue!

The Calico Cat said...

1. Bangalore
2. Manchester
3. Houston
4. Jakarta
5. Krakow (Even though my kin are from Bialystock)
6. Cape Town
7. Montevideo
8. Riyadh
9. Bangcock
10. Vancouver
Sorry about any misspellings & blatant guesses...

Dug said...

1. Bangalore
2. Birmingham
3. Houston
4. Jakarta
5. Krakow
6. Lagos
7. Montevideo
8. Riyadh
9. Shanghai
10. Vancouver

Elizabeth said...

OMG OMG OMG WEDNESDAY QUIZ!!!

1. Bangladesh
2. Leeds
3. Houston
4. I thought Batavia was in Germany or Austria ... so confused.
5. Krakow
6. Morocco
7. Rio de Janiero
8. Riyaad
9. Hong Kong
10. Saskatoon

"Where ignorance is bliss, `tis folly to be wise" - Thomas Gray (1716-1771)

d said...

oh dear lord. it would have to be geography wouldn't it?

1. i know i've heard of the deccan plateau, but i can't for the life of me think of where it's at.
2. manchester is the only other english city i can think of. unless you count where shakespeare was born, but i doubt that's it
3. i know this one! houston! (my confidence probably assures that i'm wrong)
4. jakarta?
5. warsaw is the only other polish city i can think of. i'm sure it will be something less obvious.
6. so, NOT johannesburg? cape town
7. montevideo
8. riyahd? (spelling?)
9. well it's obviously in asia. hong kong
10. vancouver

Christine M. said...

1. Bangalore
2. Birmingham
3. Houston
4. Jakarta
5. Cracow
6. Um, dunno. Lagos?
7. Montevideo
8. Riyadh
9. Dubai
10. Vancouver

Nichim said...

1. Bangalore
2. Birmingham
3. Houston
4. Jakarta
5. No idea, but did you know that Lodz is pronounced "Wooj"?
6. Kinshasa
7. Santiago de Chile
8. Riyadh
9. Hong Kong
10. Vancouver

mrs.5000 said...

OK! Here goes!
1 uh, Peshawar
2 Manchester
3 Houston!
4 Jakarta
5 Krakow?
6 Lagos?
7 is there, like, a Bolivar City?
8 Riyadh
9 Shanghai
10 Vancouver

No insider information here, alas--all I got was a preview of the masthead.

DrSchnell said...

1. Bangalore
2. Birmingham
3. (B)houston
4. Jakarta (OK, there goes the B theme, unless you count the old name of the city)
5. Krakow
6. Lagos (and that airport is always one of the ones you see listed on the TSA list of airports they don't trust.)
7. Montevideo
8. Riyadh
9. Shanghai?
10. Vancouver

Trena said...

This list includes an appalling number of random and/or desperate guesses, as well as a couple of blanks:

1. Bangalore
2. Dover
3. Dallas
4. ???
5. Gdansk
6. ???
7. Montevideo
8. Riyadh
9. Singapore
10.Vancouver

Ben said...

Yay! A quiz! (Too bad I'm going to bomb it.)

1. Mumbai
2. York
3. Houston?
4. Singapore
5. Warsaw
6. Legos
7. Rio de Jeniero (I know, I can't spell)
8. Mecca
9. Shanghai
10. Toronto

Happy to be humiliated again! I'm looking forward to having this score thrown out because I'm hoping to perform much better on future Wednesday quizzes!

Cat Man Do said...

1 / Bangalore
2 / Birmingham
3 / Houston
4 / Cupajoe
5 / Krakow
6 / Mill Valley
7 / Montevideo
8 / Riyahd
9 / Singapore
10 / Vancouver

re. #6, I bet you're right that it would be faster to fly in, rather than to await the completion of the highway.

re. #9, I assume that is NOT a picture of the city in question, as it looks "something like" it. That made it tough.

sister jen said...

1 Don't know!
2 Don't know! (Maybe Manchester?)
3 Don't know! (Maybe like Houston?)
4 Don't know!
5 Don't know!
6 Don't know!
7 Don't know!
8 Don't know!
9 Don't know!
10 Vancounver, B.C.!

I suspect that this is just not my game.

sister jen said...

P.S. Love love love the advent calendar. Love the brown cow.

Yankee in England said...

only one i know is 2. Birmingham due to the football refrence. I would have thought however Manchester would have the title of second largest city. I am of to wiki it.

Eversaved said...

1-no idea
2-I've even been to England but I still have no idea
3-effing Houston
4-Not sure, but I lived in Batavia, Illinois for 16 months
5-no idea
6-no idea
7-Montevideo
8-Riyadh
9-No idea

Michael5000 said...

OK! Y'all have points on the board!

I'll cut and paste Dug's answers; he and DrSchnell both nailed it:

1. Bangalore
2. Birmingham
3. Houston
4. Jakarta
5. Krakow
6. Lagos
7. Montevideo
8. Riyadh
9. Shanghai
10. Vancouver

La Gringissima and Cartophiliac were right behind them; Calico Cat, Mrs.5000, and Cat Man Do were runners-up.

Michael5000 said...

Also: I made up a whole buncha topics and then scrambled them into random order. It's PURE CHANCE that we started with geography. Really!

Thanks for playing the inaugeral Wednesday Quiz. Lodz!

The Calico Cat said...

:o)

Elaine said...

I may not know what city I'm in, but I can spell its name! (snivel)
You can give this quiz again in a few weeks, and I'll get it wrong again.

Aviatrix said...

Darn it, I missed a quiz with a Canadian answer.