words & languages
This punctuation mark can show possession, form contractions, or mark omitted letters.
What is an apostrophe?
This civilization built Machu Picchu in the Andes.
Who were the Inca?
Plants release this gas during photosynthesis.
What is oxygen?
In Greek mythology, this hero killed the Minotaur inside the Labyrinth.
Who is Theseus?
This is the largest country in the world by land area.
What is Russia?
The word “alphabet” comes from the names of the first two letters of this ancient language.
What is Greek?
In 1215, English barons forced King John to seal this document limiting royal power.
What is the Magna Carta?
A metal spoon feels colder than a wooden spoon at the same temperature because metal conducts this more quickly.
What is heat or thermal energy?
This Shakespeare play features the feuding Montagues and Capulets.
What is Romeo and Juliet?
The Danube River empties into this sea.
What is the Black Sea?
A word such as “buzz,” “hiss,” or “clang” that imitates a sound is called this.
What is onomatopoeia?
This West African ruler’s 14th-century pilgrimage to Mecca became famous for his enormous wealth.
Who was Mansa Musa?
The blue color of the daytime sky is mainly caused by this scattering of shorter wavelengths of light.
What is Rayleigh scattering?
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, this type of animal becomes the ruling class.
What are pigs?
This European country is famously shaped like a boot.
What is Italy?
This term describes a word that is its own opposite, such as “sanction,” meaning either to permit or to penalize.
What is anaphora?
The defenestration of officials in Prague in 1618 helped ignite this major European conflict.
What was the Thirty Years’ War?
This law explains why you move backward when you jump forward from a small boat.
What is Newton’s third law of motion?
This ancient Mesopotamian epic follows a king of Uruk who seeks immortality after the death of Enkidu.
What is The Epic of Gilgamesh?
The city of Istanbul sits on two continents: Europe and this one.
What is Asia?
This term describes a word that is its own opposite, such as “sanction,” meaning either to permit or to penalize.
What is a contronym (or auto-antonym)?
This 1884–85 meeting set rules for European colonization and trade in Africa, without African representatives.
What was the Berlin Conference?
This mysterious substance does not emit light but is inferred from its gravitational effects on galaxies.
What is dark matter?
In Dante’s Divine Comedy, this Roman poet guides Dante through Hell and most of Purgatory.
Who is Virgil?
This imaginary line at 0 degrees latitude divides Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
What is the Equator?