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 87. Who was the famous brother-in-law of the author who created Raffles? (A) Charles Dickens (B) Somerset Maugham (C) H. G. Wells (D) Arthur Conan Doyle 88. Which poets, father and son, took out the senior and junior prizes for poetry in an Australian Natives Association competition in 1893? (A) Pixie O Harris and Rolf Harris (B) Henry Lawson Sr and Henry Lawson Jr (C) Surgeon John Harris and Pixie O Harris (D) John Neilson and John Shaw Neilson 89. Long John Silver was based on an editor and poet. What was his name? (A) W. E. Henley (B) Leigh Hunt (C) Samuel Johnson (D) Henry Newbolt 90. What disease was running riot at the time of Boccaccio's Decameron? (A) mumps (B) measles (C) tuberculosis (D) the Black Death 91. What disease is mentioned in the title of a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez? (A) poliomyelitis (B) porphyria (C) cholera (D) tuberculosis 92. Mr. Micawber became a magistrate: where did he take his place on the Bench? (A) Port Esterbrand (B) Port Middlebay (C) Port Arthur (D) Port Macquarie 93. At the start of 'Bleak House', what creature does Dickens picture, waddling up Holborn Hill? (A) A megalosaurus. (B) An elephant. (C) Queen Victoria. (D) A wildebeest. 94. Who was the murderer in Dickens' 'Hunted Down'? (A) Uriah Heap (B) Smike (C) Slinkton (D) Sykes 95. In 'Pickwick Papers', Mr. Pickwick has written a paper about Hampstead Ponds and (A) cricket bats (B) numbats (C) wombats (D) tittlebats 96. Which writer correctly predicted that Mars would have two moons, 100 years before they were seen? (A) Jonathan Swift (B) H G Wells (C) Charles Dickens (D) Jules Verne 97. Which Australian poet died in an English poorhouse after being deserted by her husband? (A) May Gibbs (B) Jennings Carmichael (C) Dorothea Mackellar (D) Dorothy Wall 98. Who wrote the play 'The Sport of My Mad Mother'? (A) George Bernard Shaw (B) Ann Jellicoe (C) Christopher Marlowe (D) Arthur Miller 99. Before he became famous, Joseph Conrad met another future author in Adelaide in 1893. Who was it? (A) Mark Twain (B) Rudyard Kipling (C) H. G. Wells (D) John Galsworthy 100. Who was given two cows by Governor Macquarie in about 1819 for his services as colonial "poet laureate"? (A) Henry Lawson (B) Manning Clark (C) Michael Massey Robinson (D) C. J. Dennis Free response questions 1. How many lines are there in a limerick? 2. What kind of bird is Hedwig? 3. When the princess slept on twenty mattresses, what could she feel under them? 4. Who created Miss Marple? 5. Which writer created the fictional character Black Beauty? 6. Who wrote the play 'Hamlet'? 7. Who wrote the poem 'Bell-Birds' 8. What language did Julius Caesar most commonly speak and write in? 9. Who created Sherlock Holmes? 10. Who wrote 'The Man from Snowy River'? 11. Who wrote 'Fox in Socks', 'The Cat in the Hat' and 'Green Eggs and Ham'? 12. Who created Noddy and wrote about 'The Famous Five' and 'The Secret Seven'? 13. Which poet created the character Hiawatha? 14. What book which describes Gallipoli was written by Albert Facey? 15. Which poet created the character Gunga Din 16. Which Australian artist also wrote novels and a children's book, but was best known for his nudes? 17. Which Andersen story is commemorated by a statue in the harbour of Copenhagen? 18. Who wrote the story of Robinson Crusoe? 19. Who wrote the story of Peter Pan? 20. Which writer created the fictional character Oliver Twist? 21. What sort of an animal is Hairy McLary? 22. Colin Thiele wrote a book about a boy on the Coorong with an unusual animal friend. What was it? 23. What sort of animal was Blinky Bill? 24. What sort of bird said "Nevermore" in a poem by Edgar Allen Poe? 25. Who wrote 'Storm Boy'? 26. Who wrote 'Mrs. Dalloway', 'To the Lighthouse' and 'A Room of One's Own'? 27. Who created D. I. Rebus? 28. What was the real name of Henry Handel Richardson? 29. How did Captain Hook lose his hand? 30. Who wrote 'The Triantiwontigongolope'? 31. Which famous poem contains the line "He stoppeth one of three" 32. Who wrote the story of Anna Karenina? 33. Who wrote 'Possum Magic'? 34. Tiny Tim has the last words in a famous Christmas story. What does he say? 35. In Rudyard Kipling's 'The Jungle Book', which animals brought up Mowgli? 36. In a famous cricket poem, 'Vitai Lampada', where was there a breathless hush? 37. Which writer created the fictional character Jeeves? 38. Who were the three men collectively known as the Three Musketeers? 39. Who wrote the play 'The Club' and 'Don's Party'? 40. Who wrote 'It was a Lover and his Lass'? 41. How many lines are there in a sonnet? 42. What is a clerihew? 43. What was the Mabinogion? 44. In a famous children's book, Dot had a friend. What was it? 45. Who met Mole on the river bank and took him for a boat ride? 46. Who wrote 'Emma' and 'Jane Eyre'? 47. They were philologists and linguists, but we recall them for their fairy tale collections. Who were they? 48. At the start of 'A Christmas Carol', we are told that somebody is dead. Who is it? 49. Who wrote 'Crime and Punishment'? 50. Who wrote 'The Selfish Gene'? 51. Who created the first true English dictionary? 52. By what name is Mary Ann Evans better known? 53. From which Shakespeare play did Tom Stoppard lift the line "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead"? 54. Who wrote 'Robbery under Arms'? 55. Who wrote 'Moby Dick'? 56. Who wrote the poem 'Said Hanrahan'? 57. Who wrote a short story called 'The Loaded Dog'? 58. Which poet created the character Nicholas Nye 59. Which famous poem contains the line "the boy stood on the burning deck"? 60. Which country had playwright Vaclav Havel as its leader? 61. According to Ray Bradbury, what is the flash point at which paper ignites? 62. What sort of an animal was C. J. Dennis' Triantiwontigongolope? 63. Who dictated The Jerilderie letter? 64. Which two Australian poets played the lead roles in the 'Bush Controversy'? 65. Which Australian poet won the 1996 £5,000 T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry for his Subhuman Redneck Poems? 66. Dr Dolittle had a talking dog. What was his name? 67. Which writer created the fictional character Tarzan? 68. Which American author went by train over the Blue Mountains and said the coffee was like sheep-dip? 69. Which writer created the fictional character Major Major Major? 70. Which famous poet used the line 'Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!' 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"? 72. Where did fictional cracksman Raffles commit his first robbery? 73. Who wrote several geology books, including The Antiquity of Man, and inspired Charles Darwin? 74. Which Australian naturalist wrote 'The Future Eaters'? 75. When Muslims speak of 'the children of the book', which other religions are they referring to? 76. About when was the Book of Kells created? 77. Gradgrind and Squeers are both evil schoolmasters. Which two books do they appear in? 78. Which of these authors is or was really a man? 79. Before Robert Louis Stevenson started publishing, what was his family famous for? 80. The three writing Bell sisters were better known as what? 81. Who was the British poet-laureate who wrote detective novels under the nom-de-plume Nicholas Blake? 82. Which Welsh poet lost a foot while 'jumping rattlers' in the USA? 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"? 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? 85. Who wrote a short carol: 'May all my enemies go to hell, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel'? 86. What was Giraldus Cambrensis discussing when he said "... you might believe it was the work of an angel rather than a human being" 87. Who was the famous brother-in-law of the author who created Raffles? 88. Which poets, father and son, took out the senior and junior prizes for poetry in an Australian Natives Association competition in 1893? 89. Long John Silver was based on an editor and poet. What was his name? 90. What disease was running riot at the time of Boccaccio's Decameron? 91. What disease is mentioned in the title of a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez? 92. Mr. Micawber became a magistrate: where did he take his place on the Bench? 93. At the start of 'Bleak House', what creature does Dickens picture, waddling up Holborn Hill? 94. Who was the murderer in Dickens' 'Hunted Down'? 95. In 'Pickwick Papers', Mr. Pickwick has written a paper about Hampstead Ponds and 96. Which writer correctly predicted that Mars would have two moons, 100 years before they were seen? 97. Which Australian poet died in an English poorhouse after being deserted by her husband? 98. Who wrote the play 'The Sport of My Mad Mother'? 99. Before he became famous, Joseph Conrad met another future author in Adelaide in 1893. Who was it? 100. Who was given two cows by Governor Macquarie in about 1819 for his services as colonial "poet laureate"?