ISAAC ASIMOV’S SUPER QUIZ

Take this Super Quiz to a PHD. Score one point for each correct answer on the Freshman Level, two points on the Graduate Level and three points on the PHD Level.

SUBJECT: TWO-WORD BOOK TITLES STARTING WITH ‘THE’

(eg, Also known as There and Back Again. Answer: The Hobbit.)

FRESHMAN LEVEL

1. Crime novel by Mario Puzo about the Corleone family.

2. A novella by John Steinbeck about a poor diver named Kino.

3. A play by Shakespeare that is set on a remote island.

4. A horror novel that details the demonic possession of 11-year-old Regan Macneil.

5. A political treatise written by political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli.

GRADUATE LEVEL

6. A children’s fantasy novel about tiny people who ‘borrow’ from the big people.

7. A horror novel by Stephen King. It centres on Jack Torrance in the Overlook Hotel.

8. Homer’s epic poem about a Greek hero’s journey home from the Trojan War.

9. A novel about African Americans working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi. 10. This novel was inspired by a doll’s house on display in an Amsterdam museum.

PHD LEVEL

11. The German title is Der Vorleser. It is a parable about how to come to terms with the past.

12. A Peter Benchley novel about a journalist and her son who are captured by pirates.

13. This Stephen King novel is about a deadly pandemic and its aftermath.

14. The title of the book is a metaphor for “the house you build out of your own pain”.

15. The book concerns three generations of women affected by the novel Mrs. Dalloway.

ANSWERS FOR FRI, SEPTEMBER 23:

1. Christopher Plummer. 2. Larry King. 3. Ed Asner. 4. Colin Powell. 5. B.J. Thomas. 6. Norm Macdonald. 7. John Madden. 8. Stephen Sondheim. 9. Betty White.

SCORING:

24 to 30 points – congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points – honours graduate; 13 to 17 points – you’re plenty smart, but no grind; 5 to 12 points – you really should hit the books harder; 1 point to 4 points – enrol in remedial courses immediately; 0 points – who reads the questions to you?