Etymology
The mosquito-borne disease derived from Italian for "bad air"
What is malaria?
The difference in using "who" vs. "whom"
What is subject vs. object of the sentence?
The real name of American humorist Mark Twain
Who is Samuel Clemens?
The best-selling book of all time (estimated 5 billion by Guinness)
What is the Bible?
"Some Pig" and "Terrific" (written in silk)
What is Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)?
The animal derived from Greek "tartaroûkhos," the keepers of "Tártaros," the underworld
What is turtle/tortoise?
The irregular plural forms of the following nouns: larva, emphasis, radius, codex
What are larvae, emphases, radii, codices
What iambic pentameter means in poetry
What are 5 sets of an unstressed-stressed syllable pair per line?
The book in which the protagonist's job is the burn down houses containing books
What is Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)?
"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin"
What is The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)?
[Daily Double!] The phrase derived from Persian "شاه مات" / šâh mât (شاه: king; مات: stunned, amazed)
What is checkmate?
Two exceptions to the apostrophe + s rule for possession
What are plural nouns ending 's', pronouns, or the first items of a joint possessive
The meaning of the following sentence: "Buffalo buffalo, Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo"
What is "buffalo (the animal) from Buffalo (the city), whom fellow Buffalo buffalo buffalo (bully), also bully Buffalo buffalo"?
What the picture of a hat actually depicts, according to the Little Prince
A snake eating an elephant
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four"
What is 1984 (George Orwell)?
A unit of widespread information derived from Greek "mîmos" (imitation, copy), first described in Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene
What is meme?
The term for a participial phrase whose agent is not clearly stated
What is a dangling modifier/participle?
The author often credited with the infamous six-word story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn"
Who is Ernest Hemingway?
The short story often cited as the first modern detective story and the first instance of a locked room mystery
What is The Murders in the Rue Morgue (Edgar Allen Poe)?
"What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"
What is "Harlem" (Langston Hughes)?
The medical process derived from the Latin word meaning "of or derived from a cow"
What is vaccination?
The difference between gerunds and gerundives
What are verbal nouns vs. verbal adjectives
The meaning of Greek "mōrós," from which "sophomore" (from sophós: wise) is derived
What is "fool"?
The author of a famous adventure series including Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days
Who is Jules Verne?
"The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men / Gang aft agley [often go awry]"
What is "To a Mouse" (Robert Burns)?