Multiple choice questions
1. How many lines are there in a limerick?
(A) 5
(B) 7
(C) 8
(D) 6
2. What kind of bird is Hedwig?
(A) an owl
(B) an eagle
(C) a hawk
(D) a parrot
3. When the princess slept on twenty mattresses, what could she feel under them?
(A) A pumpkin
(B) Her shoe
(C) A cat
(D) A pea
4. Who created Miss Marple?
(A) Leslie Charteris
(B) Agatha Christie
(C) Adam Dalgliesh
(D) Ellery Queen
5. Which writer created the fictional character Black Beauty?
(A) Emily Bronte
(B) Anna Sewell
(C) Charles Dickens
(D) Anthony Trollope
6. Who wrote the play 'Hamlet'?
(A) Henrik Ibsen
(B) Ben Jonson
(C) William Shakespeare
(D) Christopher Marlowe
7. Who wrote the poem 'Bell-Birds'
(A) Breaker Morant
(B) C. J. Dennis
(C) Henry Kendall
(D) Dorothy Wall
8. What language did Julius Caesar most commonly speak and write in?
(A) Latin
(B) Romany
(C) Greek
(D) Etrurian
9. Who created Sherlock Holmes?
(A) Ian Rankin
(B) Agatha Christie
(C) G. K. Chesterton
(D) Arthur Conan Doyle
10. Who wrote 'The Man from Snowy River'?
(A) Breaker Morant
(B) C. J. Dennis
(C) Hugh Ogilvie
(D) Banjo Paterson
11. Who wrote 'Fox in Socks', 'The Cat in the Hat' and 'Green Eggs and Ham'?
(A) Dr Seuss
(B) Charles Dickens
(C) James Joyce
(D) Aldous Huxley
12. Who created Noddy and wrote about 'The Famous Five' and 'The Secret Seven'?
(A) Charles Dickens
(B) Enid Blyton
(C) Mark Twain
(D) John Galsworthy
13. Which poet created the character Hiawatha?
(A) Henry Longfellow
(B) Rudyard Kipling
(C) Leigh Hunt
(D) A. E. Housman
14. What book which describes Gallipoli was written by Albert Facey?
(A) My Fortunate Career
(B) A Fortunate Life
(C) 1915
(D) On the Beach
15. Which poet created the character Gunga Din
(A) Tennyson
(B) Rudyard Kipling
(C) William Wordsworth
(D) Shelley
16. Which Australian artist also wrote novels and a children's book, but was best known for his nudes?
(A) Sir Russell Drysdale
(B) Norrman Lindsay
(C) Pro Hart
(D) Tom Roberts
17. Which Andersen story is commemorated by a statue in the harbour of Copenhagen?
(A) The Ice Maiden
(B) The Little Mermaid
(C) Thumbelina
(D) The Little Match-Seller
18. Who wrote the story of Robinson Crusoe?
(A) Thomas Hardy
(B) George Eliot
(C) Daniel Defoe
(D) Rudyard Kipling
19. Who wrote the story of Peter Pan?
(A) James Barrie
(B) Rudyard Kipling
(C) George Eliot
(D) Thomas Hardy
20. Which writer created the fictional character Oliver Twist?
(A) Rudyard Kipling
(B) Charles Dickens
(C) Mark Twain
(D) William Shakespeare
21. What sort of an animal is Hairy McLary?
(A) a dog
(B) a spider
(C) an angora goat
(D) a caterpillar
22. Colin Thiele wrote a book about a boy on the Coorong with an unusual animal friend. What was it?
(A) an eagle
(B) a shark
(C) a pelican
(D) a dolphin
23. What sort of animal was Blinky Bill?
(A) a hopping mouse
(B) a koala
(C) a possum
(D) a kangaroo
24. What sort of bird said "Nevermore" in a poem by Edgar Allen Poe?
(A) a raven
(B) a parrot
(C) a macaw
(D) a dodo
25. Who wrote 'Storm Boy'?
(A) Colin Thiele
(B) May Gibbs
(C) C. J. Dennis
(D) Dorothea Mackellar
26. Who wrote 'Mrs. Dalloway', 'To the Lighthouse' and 'A Room of One's Own'?
(A) Virginia Woolf
(B) Enid Blyton
(C) Charles Dickens
(D) F. Scott Fitzgerald
27. Who created D. I. Rebus?
(A) Agatha Christie
(B) G. K. Chesterton
(C) Leslie Charteris
(D) Ian Rankin
28. What was the real name of Henry Handel Richardson?
(A) Mark Twain
(B) Miles Franklin
(C) George Sand
(D) Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson
29. How did Captain Hook lose his hand?
(A) A crocodile ate it
(B) Peter Pan cut it off
(C) He lost it in a shipwreck
(D) He lost it in a fight
30. Who wrote 'The Triantiwontigongolope'?
(A) John O'Brien (Father P. J. Hartigan)
(B) C. J. Dennis
(C) Henry Kendall
(D) Dorothy Wall
31. Which famous poem contains the line "He stoppeth one of three"
(A) Casey at the Bat
(B) The Charge of the Light Brigade
(C) The Ancient Mariner
(D) How the Melbourne Cup Was Won
32. Who wrote the story of Anna Karenina?
(A) Leo Tolstoy
(B) George Eliot
(C) James Barrie
(D) Charlotte Brontë
33. Who wrote 'Possum Magic'?
(A) May Gibbs
(B) Mem Fox
(C) Manning Clark
(D) Norman Lindsay
34. Tiny Tim has the last words in a famous Christmas story. What does he say?
(A) Bah, Humbug!
(B) I want some more!
(C) God bless Us, Every One!
(D) Merry Christmas!
35. In Rudyard Kipling's 'The Jungle Book', which animals brought up Mowgli?
(A) monkeys
(B) tigers
(C) wolves
(D) bears
36. In a famous cricket poem, 'Vitai Lampada', where was there a breathless hush?
(A) on the green
(B) around the ground
(C) in the stands
(D) in the close
37. Which writer created the fictional character Jeeves?
(A) P. G. Wodehouse
(B) G. H. Hardy
(C) H. G. Wells
(D) P. D. James
38. Who were the three men collectively known as the Three Musketeers?
(A) Aramis, Porthos and d'Artagnan
(B) Athos, Aramis and d'Artagnan
(C) Porthos, Athos and d'Artagnan
(D) Aramis, Porthos and Athos
39. Who wrote the play 'The Club' and 'Don's Party'?
(A) Ray Lawler
(B) Tom Stoppard
(C) David Williamson
(D) Louis Nowra
40. Who wrote 'It was a Lover and his Lass'?
(A) William Shakespeare
(B) Lennon and McCartney
(C) John Donne
(D) Robbie Burns
41. How many lines are there in a sonnet?
(A) 5
(B) 14
(C) Between 8 and 12
(D) 24
42. What is a clerihew?
(A) a verse of four lines
(B) a type of garment
(C) a type of animal
(D) a disease of cattle
43. What was the Mabinogion?
(A) a collection of Welsh legends
(B) a horde of gold in Rhiw
(C) a Druidic ritual
(D) a train near Blaenau
44. In a famous children's book, Dot had a friend. What was it?
(A) a kangaroo
(B) a possum
(C) a pelican
(D) a hopping mouse
45. Who met Mole on the river bank and took him for a boat ride?
(A) Rat in 'Wind in the Willows'
(B) the white rabbit in 'Alice in Wonderland'
(C) Bunyip Bluegum in 'The Magic Pudding'
(D) a kangaroo, in Dot and the Kangaroo
46. Who wrote 'Emma' and 'Jane Eyre'?
(A) Enid Blyton
(B) Aldous Huxley
(C) Mark Twain
(D) Charlotte Bronte
47. They were philologists and linguists, but we recall them for their fairy tale collections. Who were they?
(A) Brothers Karamazov
(B) Blyton sisters
(C) Brothers Grimm
(D) Brontë sisters
48. At the start of 'A Christmas Carol', we are told that somebody is dead. Who is it?
(A) Marley
(B) Scrooge
(C) Bob Cratchit
(D) Tiny Tim's sister
49. Who wrote 'Crime and Punishment'?
(A) Eugene Onegin
(B) Boris Pasternak
(C) Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
(D) Count Leo Tolstoy
50. Who wrote 'The Selfish Gene'?
(A) Richard Dawkins
(B) Gregor Mendel
(C) Francis Crick
(D) James Watson
51. Who created the first true English dictionary?
(A) George Bernard Shaw
(B) William Shakespeare
(C) James Boswell
(D) Samuel Johnson
52. By what name is Mary Ann Evans better known?
(A) Henry Handel Richardson
(B) George Eliot
(C) George Sand
(D) June Bronhill
53. From which Shakespeare play did Tom Stoppard lift the line "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead"?
(A) King Lear
(B) Julius Caesar
(C) Macbeth
(D) Hamlet
54. Who wrote 'Robbery under Arms'?
(A) Rolf Boldrewood
(B) Henry Lawson
(C) Ruth Park
(D) Marcus Clarke
55. Who wrote 'Moby Dick'?
(A) Herman Melville
(B) Dr Seuss
(C) Henry Lawson
(D) Mark Twain
56. Who wrote the poem 'Said Hanrahan'?
(A) Henry Kendall
(B) Breaker Morant
(C) Michael Massey Robinson
(D) John O'Brien (Father P. J. Hartigan)
57. Who wrote a short story called 'The Loaded Dog'?
(A) Miles Franklin
(B) Henry Kendall
(C) Banjo Paterson
(D) Henry Lawson
58. Which poet created the character Nicholas Nye
(A) Leigh Hunt
(B) Henry Longfellow
(C) Walter de la Mare
(D) Percy Shelley
59. Which famous poem contains the line "the boy stood on the burning deck"?
(A) Drake's Drum
(B) Casabianca
(C) Tom Bowling
(D) The wreck of the Hesperus
60. Which country had playwright Vaclav Havel as its leader?
(A) Yugoslavia
(B) USSR
(C) Poland
(D) Czech Republic
61. According to Ray Bradbury, what is the flash point at which paper ignites?
(A) 451 degrees Fahrenheit
(B) 100 degrees Celsius
(C) 451 degrees Celsius
(D) 911 degrees Celsius
62. What sort of an animal was C. J. Dennis' Triantiwontigongolope?
(A) a three-legged horse
(B) a giant rabbit
(C) a spider
(D) a caterpillar
63. Who dictated The Jerilderie letter?
(A) Ned Kelly
(B) Dan Kelly
(C) Black Caesar
(D) Ben Hall
64. Which two Australian poets played the lead roles in the 'Bush Controversy'?
(A) John Neilson and John Shaw Neilson
(B) John O'Brien and Father P. J. Hartigan
(C) Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson
(D) Breaker Morant and Adam Lindsay Gordon
65. Which Australian poet won the 1996 £5,000 T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry for his Subhuman Redneck Poems?
(A) Mark O'Connor
(B) John Tranter
(C) David Campbell
(D) Les Murray
66. Dr Dolittle had a talking dog. What was his name?
(A) Crab
(B) Lassie
(C) Jip
(D) Fido
67. Which writer created the fictional character Tarzan?
(A) Edgar Rice Burroughs
(B) Rider Haggard
(C) H. G. Wells
(D) Fenimore Cooper
68. Which American author went by train over the Blue Mountains and said the coffee was like sheep-dip?
(A) Washington Irving
(B) Mark Twain
(C) Harper Lee
(D) Ernest Hemingway
69. Which writer created the fictional character Major Major Major?
(A) Henry Lawson
(B) Ian Fleming
(C) Enid Blyton
(D) Joseph Heller
70. Which famous poet used the line 'Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!'
(A) William McGonagall
(B) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(C) William Wordsworth
(D) Henry Lawson
71. Which poet wrote the poem that includes the lines "At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them"?
(A) John McCrae
(B) Henry Newbolt
(C) Laurence Binyon
(D) Rudyard Kipling
72. Where did fictional cracksman Raffles commit his first robbery?
(A) outside Melbourne
(B) in Perth
(C) in central Sydney
(D) in Adelaide
73. Who wrote several geology books, including The Antiquity of Man, and inspired Charles Darwin?
(A) Erasmus Darwin
(B) Josiah Wedgwood
(C) Jeremy Bentham
(D) Charles Lyell
74. Which Australian naturalist wrote 'The Future Eaters'?
(A) Jared Diamond
(B) Isaac Asimov
(C) Jeremy Bentham
(D) Tim Flannery
75. When Muslims speak of 'the children of the book', which other religions are they referring to?
(A) Judaism and Hinduism
(B) Hinduism and Buddhism
(C) Christianity and Judaism
(D) Christianity and Buddhism
76. About when was the Book of Kells created?
(A) Early 9th century
(B) Late 12th century
(C) Mid-16th century
(D) Mid-4th century
77. Gradgrind and Squeers are both evil schoolmasters. Which two books do they appear in?
(A) Oliver Twist' and 'Hard Times'
(B) 'Hard Times' and 'Nicholas Nickleby'
(C) 'Nicholas Nickleby' and 'David Copperfield'
(D) 'David Copperfield' and 'Oliver Twist'
78. Which of these authors is or was really a man?
(A) P. D. James
(B) Henry Handel Richardson
(C) George Eliot
(D) H. G. Wells
79. Before Robert Louis Stevenson started publishing, what was his family famous for?
(A) Building lighthouses
(B) Mucking byres
(C) Distilling whiskey
(D) Stealing cattle
80. The three writing Bell sisters were better known as what?
(A) The Brothers Karamazov
(B) The Brontë sisters
(C) The Brothers Grimm
(D) The Weird Sisters
81. Who was the British poet-laureate who wrote detective novels under the nom-de-plume Nicholas Blake?
(A) Adam Dalgliesh
(B) Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(C) Robert Graves
(D) Cecil Day-Lewis
82. Which Welsh poet lost a foot while 'jumping rattlers' in the USA?
(A) W H Davies
(B) Dylan Thomas
(C) Ann Griffiths
(D) Dafydd ap Gwilym
83. In which Charles Dickens novel does a character keep "a copper-coloured woman in linen, with a bright handkerchief round her head, to serve her Tiffin"?
(A) Oliver Twist
(B) David Copperfield
(C) Barnaby Rudge
(D) Nicholas Nickleby
84. Near the home of the wombles, there is a windmill, in which a famous book for boys (and girls) was written: what was the book called?
(A) Beau Geste
(B) Treasure Island
(C) Swallows and Amazons
(D) Scouting for Boys
85. Who wrote a short carol: 'May all my enemies go to hell, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel'?
(A) Robespierre
(B) Ebenezer Scrooge
(C) Hilaire Belloc
(D) G. H. Hardy
86. What was Giraldus Cambrensis discussing when he said "... you might believe it was the work of an angel rather than a human being"
(A) Trinity College
(B) The Book of Kells
(C) Gallarus Oratory
(D) Guinness