Well I hope everyone survived the first week of Social Distancing/lock down relatively unscathed.
If you are receiving this many thanks for E-mailing me and telling me you wished to take part - I only hope at least some of the varying Quizzes I will send out over the next few weeks (months??) suit you but if nothing else please see it as an opportunity to broaden your education/knowledge.
I'll start with an over-view of the group:
I have decided that I will send out the following:
Monday - a "General Knowledge" Quiz - 20 Questions based on anything, but hopefully facts some of you will know, though I hope no-one knows all of them.
I will send the answers to these out on Wednesday.
However unlike other Quizzes who say "Do not use the Internet" or other sources of information I would encourage you to look up an answer if you don't know it.
Why?
Well, U3A is all about learning, and if for example, I had asked "Which is the tallest building in the world?" and you didn't know I might tell you in the answers on Wednesday it was The Burj Khalifa in Dubai and that would be it, but a brief search on the internet would also tell you how tall it is, when it was constructed, how many floors it has, how much it cost to construct etc. See how much you've learnt!!
Anyway moving onto Wednesday, this will be Word Wednesday when the Quiz will feature clues and questions testing your knowledge of the English Language (and again with some General Knowledge).
This should be ideal for the members of the Scrabble Group amongst our numbers!
The answers to this will come out on Themed Thursday - woo hoo, as to save you getting too bored, (and me!!) I will be sending out an extra Quiz on a Thursday. This weeks theme is Birds and future themes will include such diverse subjects as Authors and Trains - but don't worry you won't need Specialist knowledge to take part which will become obvious when you get the first one.
Friday is D Day, the D's in Question being either Dingbats or Ditloids - and if you don't know what either of these are you can either wait until Friday for my explanation or again consult the Internet.
I will not be sending out any answers on Friday which will give you the weekend if necessary to keep working on the Thursday and Friday quizzes: this doesn't mean they're necessarily that difficult but may require some thought!
That gets us back to Monday when you receive the next General Knowledge Quiz and the answers to Thursday and Friday.. and off we go again!
A couple of other points: a couple of people have asked if they can just have the Quizzes for a specific day. The answer is "No" as it takes me more time to set up different Distribution Lists for different Quizzes than it does for you to press DELETE if you don't want a specific Quiz.
I have also been asked if they can share the Quizzes with others or do they have Intellectual Copyright: as most of the Questions and answers are easily available in books or on the World Wide Web there is no copyright, and I have no objection to them being shared on the basis "we're all in this together" but would ask you to wait a week until the next one comes out before passing them on.
Likewise I would re-iterate you are SELF MARKING - don't send any completed Quizzes back to me - I won't have time to look at them. However if you think I genuinely have an answer wrong please let me know as I may have made a typo - I am reasonably happy all the factual ones are up to date but you never know. However I will not enter into correspondence over it....its only a game!!
Additionally I know some couples have requested that I send the Quizzes to two different E-mails so they can both take part against each other. I have done this but would warn the gentlemen to be careful and if there is a disputed answer bow to the inevitable as I have it on the best authority - that of my wife - that there are two answers to everything: hers and the wrong one! As they say, when I married Mrs Right I didn't know her middle name was ALWAYS! (Only joking Sue - what do you mean you're putting me in enhanced Social Isolation?)
Anyway enjoy the Quizzes - remember they are meant to be primarily for fun while tweaking your brain cells: don't despair if you find some too hard - you may well subsequently find one very easy a few days later: after all any Question is easy if you know the answer although I must admit when I watch University Challenge I don't even understand the Science Questions let alone know the answers!!
Finally (at last I hear you say!) as promised please find attached the first Quiz PLUS (as I was feeling generous!) a BONUS one!!
Answers on Wednesday - have fun and most of all stay safe, and (hopefully) healthy,
Peter.