This week's quiz, last week's answers

This week’s quiz: Battles of history.

1. King Leonidas was the leader of his army in what battle?

2. A famous poem was inspired by a battle in the Crimean war. Name the poem and the poet.

3. Mikhail Kutuzov commanded Russian forces in what battle?

4. In a war fought by American forces there were two battles fought in the same place, almost a year apart. Name the war and the place.

Next week's quiz: American and British writers.


Answers to last week’s quiz: European countries.

1. One country has four official languages. What is the country and what are the four languages?

Switzerland. French, German, Italian, and Romansch.

2. The languages of all but three countries are members of the Indo-European family (none of the Russian federation countries are considered here). What are the three exceptions and what is their family called?

Finland, Estonia, and Hungary. They are the Finno-Ugric family. Finnish and Estonian are similar enough that speakers of one can generally understand the other. However, Hungarian seems so different as to make it not understandable by Finns or Estonians, and vice-versa. I say that by comparing written texts.

3. Four countries have a female head of state. Name two of the countries and their heads of state.

Finland: Tarja Halonen
Ireland: Mary McAleese
Germany: Angela Merkel
Latvia: Vaira Vike-Freiberga

4. A department store operates in five countries, one of which is Russia. Name the store and two of the other four countries in which it operates.

Stockmann. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, it has stores in Finland, Estonia, Russia, Latvia, and Lithuania. I did some shopping at its flagship store in Helsinki during a trip there in 2004.