22 October, 2006

Miscellany: history quizzes and a short story competition

Skint Writer is running the second Skint Short Story Competition. Entries must be no more than 1500 words, never before published (not even on the Web), and the closing date is 30 November 2006. The theme is spirituality. Full details here. Entries are posted on Skint Writer's blog - I haven't found a page that groups together all the entries so far, so scroll down through the posts until you find them. If you can write short stories, why not give it a go?

If you're interested in history, and if you're reading this you probably are, test your general knowledge with the history quizzes on the European History website. There are lots to choose from, including:


The links take you to the first question in each quiz. Pick your answer, click on it, and you'll be told whether you were right or wrong and invited to try again or go on to the next question. There are 15 questions in each quiz.

Let me know how you get on!

There are lots more to play with, and if you don't find one that takes your fancy, you can create one and submit it to the site via email.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got all answers correct on the Beginners' quiz, and 3 wrong on the more challenging one (the Crimean War, the epitome of the Enlightenment and who first named the Industrial Revolution).

Quite pleased with myself, actually. ;)

Anonymous said...

I've done the 'Henry Who'? one before and got them all right - I like that quiz! I've also tried the 'Magnificent Medieval Women' and found it very challenging.

Carla said...

Alianore - well done! I got the one about who first named the Industrial Revolution wrong as well, which was not very bright as I once went to a lecture in a Toynbee Room at a college in Oxford and really ought to have tried to look up who Toynbee was and what he was famous for. I wonder if he's related to the Polly Toynbee who writes as a columnist for the Grauniad?

I shall try the others you mention at some point :-)

Anonymous said...

I would have done OK on the second quiz if it hadn't been for the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean War. Silly Ottomans.

Gabriele Campbell said...

Same here, Susan. :)

Anonymous said...

I got all right on the beginners' quiz. Should hope so, considering I taught world history at one point. Only got 10 on the second one. I missed the Toynbee, Hapsburgs (mainly because I knew they'd ruled until the 20th century...just not the HRE), Voltaire (I figured Rousseau, but that's never been my favorite time period), first tsar (shouldn't have missed that one), and Vienna (I knew it was one of the two last ones). Couldn't find the others easily, so decided I should stop wasting time and go on with blog reading :)

Carla said...

Susan and Gabriele - I had to think hard about the Ottomans, too. Interesting how some events and eras are so much more familiar than others.

Nessili - here's the link to Henry Who? and Magnificent Medieval Women. I haven't tried either of them yet. Am pleased to report I got a full score on the Easy Dark Ages Quiz - something of a comfort, since it's my period!

ali said...

I got them all right on the beginners one (though that involved one lucky guess) but only ten on the second. One of which I really should have got right - I said Serbia declared war first in 1914.

Alex Bordessa said...

I passed OK for the first quiz, but the 2nd one ... 2 wrong :-(

Bernita said...

All right but one. Also thought Gladstone for the industrial revolution.
A few in the second were lucky, lucky guesses though.

Carla said...

We all seem to be doing well on the beginners' quiz and getting a score of 10 or more on the second quiz. Which is not bad at all. Take a collective bow :-). Bernita (missed 1) and Alex (missed 2) seem to be top at the moment.

Gabriele Campbell said...

I got all but one correct in the Dark Age quiz - had no idea who wrote City of God, bloody heathen that I am. :)

Carla said...

Oh, I got that one, Gabriele - probably because I have the poor man firmly lodged in my mind as "St Augustine the Hippo", which is a memorable mental image to say the least :-) Where I had to think really hard was the questions on Charles Martel, Otto and Charlemagne. I bet you knew those without even thinking!

Unknown said...

Got 'em all right on both quizzes (even the one they have wrong!). Everything I've ever read states that Britain outlawed slavery in 1807, not 1833 as the quiz claims.

Carla said...

My understanding is that slavery was abolished in Britain in 1807, and in the British Empire in 1833, and the quiz question refers to the British Empire.