Lost & Unusual Jobs Quiz – Printable Version
20 multiple-choice questions with an explained answer key, ready to print.
Print the sheet (or save it as a PDF from the print window), hand it out, then mark it together using the answer page: every answer is explained. Perfect for a party, a birthday, a classroom, a care home or a team activity.
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- In 'The Little Prince', why does the lamplighter never get a minute's rest?
- A. He must light thousands of lamps
- B. His planet spins faster and faster: day and night come every minute
- C. His lamp keeps going out
- D. The king forbids him to sleep
- What does 'Oyez!', the cry with which town criers began their announcements, mean?
- A. 'Look!'
- B. 'Good morning!'
- C. 'Listen!', from the Old French verb 'ouïr'
- D. 'Silence or prison!'
- According to the story, why did businessman Almon Strowger invent the automatic telephone exchange in 1889?
- A. He wanted to phone at night without waking anyone
- B. He was deaf and couldn't talk to operators
- C. His wife was an operator and overworked
- D. He suspected a switchboard operator of diverting his customers to a rival
- According to the most widespread explanation, why are the letters on QWERTY and AZERTY keyboards arranged so oddly?
- A. To stop the typebars of mechanical typewriters jamming when typing fast
- B. So the commonest words can be typed with one hand
- C. In the order the letters were discovered
- D. For looks
- With which precious metal leaf did illuminators highlight initials, to the point of naming their art after it?
- A. Silver
- B. Gold, which makes the page 'shine'
- C. Copper
- D. Tin
- Before running water, where did Paris water carriers often draw the water they delivered upstairs?
- A. From public fountains or the Seine
- B. From wells dug beneath the cathedral
- C. From rooftop rain tanks
- D. From filtered sewers
- What was the name of Queen Victoria's famous official rat-catcher?
- A. Jack the Ripper
- B. Sherlock Holmes
- C. Jack Black
- D. Jack Sparrow
- Which device protected some Scottish graves from body snatchers in the early 19th century?
- A. A guard dog buried with the deceased
- B. A heavy iron cage, the 'mortsafe', placed over the grave
- C. A bell alarm linked to the coffin
- D. A mantrap
- What did 'mudlarks', often poor children, look for in the Thames mud at low tide?
- A. Things to sell: coal, nails, rope, bones…
- B. Wild oysters
- C. Pirate treasure
- D. Frogs
- Which prickly plant did craftsmen once use to tease out and raise wool fibres?
- A. Nettle
- B. Holly
- C. Fuller's teasel
- D. Wild rose
- What equipment did the travelling knife-grinder push from street to street?
- A. A cart full of new knives
- B. A barrow fitted with a treadle-driven grindstone
- C. A small charcoal stove
- D. A donkey loaded with stones
- Why were old rags so sought after in the 19th century?
- A. They were the raw material for making paper
- B. They were burned for light
- C. They replaced money
- D. They were used to stuff saddles
- Which French word, borrowed by English, comes from 'sabot', the wooden shoe carved by the clog-maker?
- A. Sabotage
- B. Savate
- C. Sobriety
- D. Sandglass
- Which famous French luxury house began in 1837 as a harness and saddle workshop?
- A. Chanel
- B. Dior
- C. Hermès
- D. Cartier
- Where does the French word 'fiacre', the hired horse cab driven by a coachman, come from?
- A. From a sign showing Saint Fiacre, near which the first cabs waited in Paris
- B. From the name of the cab's inventor
- C. From a Latin word meaning 'fast'
- D. From the sound of wheels on cobbles
- Where did the postilion who drove a post-chaise sit?
- A. Inside the carriage
- B. On one of the team's horses, not on a seat
- C. On the roof with the luggage
- D. He walked in front of the horses
- Where does the word 'chauffeur', now used for someone who drives a car, come from?
- A. Because the first cars were heated
- B. From a famous driver named Chauffeur
- C. From a slang verb meaning to steal
- D. From the worker who stoked the boiler of locomotives and early steam vehicles
- In a manual signal box, what was the 'interlocking' that mechanically linked the levers for?
- A. Counting the number of trains
- B. Preventing two conflicting routes being set that would make two trains collide
- C. Switching on the box lighting
- D. Locking the door at night
- Which famous Cuban cigars are said to be named after novels read aloud to tobacco factory workers?
- A. Cohiba and Partagás
- B. Davidoff and Dunhill
- C. Havana and Corona
- D. Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta
- Who most often held the job of 'pinboy', resetting pins in American bowling alleys?
- A. Teenagers, paid per game
- B. Retired soldiers
- C. Robots from 1900
- D. The players themselves
Answer key — Lost & Unusual Jobs Quiz
- B. His planet spins faster and faster: day and night come every minuteHe follows the order to light the lamp at night and put it out in the morning, but his tiny planet now turns once a minute.
- C. 'Listen!', from the Old French verb 'ouïr'Criers often repeated 'Oyez, oyez!' to a drum or bell to announce decisions, sales or lost property.
- D. He suspected a switchboard operator of diverting his customers to a rivalStrowger was an undertaker in Kansas City. He was convinced that a competitor's wife, a switchboard operator, was routing calls to her husband.
- A. To stop the typebars of mechanical typewriters jamming when typing fastOn early machines, two typebars struck in quick succession could jam, so letters often used together were supposedly placed apart.
- B. Gold, which makes the page 'shine''Illuminate' comes from the Latin 'illuminare', to light up.
- A. From public fountains or the SeineLoaded with buckets on a yoke or a hand-pulled barrel, they carried water up the stairs for a few coins.
- C. Jack BlackWearing a sash decorated with cast-iron rats, Jack Black roamed London with his dogs and sometimes caught rats with his bare hands.
- B. A heavy iron cage, the 'mortsafe', placed over the graveAnatomy schools lacked bodies for dissection, and 'resurrectionists' dug up the recently dead to sell them.
- A. Things to sell: coal, nails, rope, bones…In the 19th century these mud scavengers waded through cold, polluted mud for a few coins.
- C. Fuller's teaselThe dried heads of teasel, bristling with tiny hooks, were mounted on frames to comb wool or raise the nap of cloth.
- B. A barrow fitted with a treadle-driven grindstoneHe announced himself by calling out or ringing a bell, then sharpened knives, scissors and tools on the spot, turning the stone with his foot.
- A. They were the raw material for making paperBefore wood-pulp paper became widespread in the late 19th century, paper was made from linen and hemp fibres taken from rags.
- A. Sabotage'Saboter' first meant clattering with clogs, then doing a job badly.
- C. HermèsThierry Hermès opened a Paris workshop supplying harnesses and bridles to aristocratic carriages.
- A. From a sign showing Saint Fiacre, near which the first cabs waited in ParisIn the 17th century a carriage hirer set up business in Paris near a house bearing the sign of Saint Fiacre.
- B. On one of the team's horses, not on a seatMounted on a front horse, often on the left, he guided the team from one post house to the next, where horses were changed.
- D. From the worker who stoked the boiler of locomotives and early steam vehiclesOn a steam locomotive, the fireman (chauffeur in French) shovelled tonnes of coal into the firebox while the driver drove.
- B. Preventing two conflicting routes being set that would make two trains collideAn ingenious system of bars and locks made certain moves physically impossible: a signal could not be cleared until the points were in the right position.
- D. Montecristo and Romeo y JulietaTo brighten long days of rolling, workers paid a reader to read them newspapers and novels.
- A. Teenagers, paid per gameHidden at the end of the lane, they set the pins back up and returned the balls, dodging flying pins.