Quiz on Flags with stars: can you guess all ten - with a little help?

Palace of Nations, UN building in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo in Wikipedia by Tom Page.

Quiz

Problem
Which country do these flags with stars belong to?

Flag 1

Flag 2



Flag 3


Flag 4




Flag 5




Flag 6










Flag 7

 




Flag 8






Flag 9









Flag 10














Bonus Flag




Hints:
These flags are of (alphabetical order): Australia, China, Esperanto, European, Israel, Malaysia; New Zealand, Singapore, Turkey, Vietnam, USA,
Do the quiz again, by process of elimination, before looking at the answers.

Clues
1 United. 'Beautiful'. Take the 'Route ..', or a greyhound, 'from sea to shining sea'. Be careful if you are 'in the city'.

2 The crescent suggests Muslims. Near Singapore. See their statue resmbling American's Iwo Jima flag-raising memorial. Visit the towers where Katherine Zeta-Jones made a movie.

3 Holy land. David's star. See the Scrolls and the wall. Volunteer to work on a kibbutz.

4 British flag. English speaking. Big and brash. Somewhere down under. Hop over and see it. They may be far but we think of them as 'Neighbours'.

5 British flag. English speaking. A smaller, quieter country, accent and flag. Not old. Ski in summer (their winter). See Lord of the Rings and Hobbit sights.

6 Red for communists. Lucky colour, red. A great country with a Great Wall you can climb.

7 More lucky red. Chinese speakers? Get out of the concrete jungle and take a Night Safari.

8 Another Muslim crescent. That's the only key I'm giving you. Would you like a second key? See the  Blue mosque, Green mosque, and red flag.

9 Not a white star like the American flag, but Americans know this drafty country. 'Good morning.'  See and sigh.

10 Union of countries. Which continent? Not America. Where? The united kingdom is divided on whether to get disunited and exit. Go now, while it's easy.

Bonus Flag - 'I hope' you will try learning this easy International language. Inventor Zamenhof. See the museum in Vienna, Austria. The language taught in schools in Hungary, if you want a place to practise your extra language, which compensates for lack of languages.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Answers
Flag 1 USA
Flag 2 Malaysia
Flag 3 Israel
Flag 4 Australia
Flag 5 New Zealand
Flag 6 China
Flag 7 Singapore
Flag 8 Turkey
Flag 9 Vietnam
Flag 10  European
 Bonus Flag Esperanto

If you got
1-3 right answers, your first go at this quiz?
Same result as me.  Learn something new every day. Go back and try it again.

4-5 right. You've lived in Australia or New Zealand or Singapore or China. That gives you a head start.  Good effort.

6-10 You've done this quiz before. Great to learn flags, isn't it!
Useful Websites

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/03/should-you-and-i-learn-esperanto-or.html
(Flags of Esperanto and Edo.)

Author
Angela Lansbury. Travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker. I can give an entertaining and informative talk or workshop on flags to a club, college or corporation. If you like this quiz, please share links to it with your friends.

How Many Cities Have You Visited This Year? A Challenge. An achievement List. A Xmas and New Year Game.

Problem
A girl I spoke to in a restaurant said she loves travelling and had visited 25 cities in the past year. I was surprised that:
a) She had visited so many cities
b) That she had taken the trouble to keep count
c) That she had counted cities instead of countries.

If, for example, you live in either the USA or Europe, without taking a flight or changing money, you could easily travel to a lot of cities.

In the case of the USA, you might know only one country, the USA, but visit up to 25 cities in a year, just by driving and using your American dollars, no passport or plans needed. You could even visit near 50 (without flying to Hawaii or anywhere offshore).

Capitals and Other Cities
I've just realised I am thinking of capital cities. Taking just cities into account, reaching an impressive count is much easier. It's easier to visit more capitals when lots of small coutnries are grouped together or one country has split into two or three smaller ones.

Non-capital Cities
If you want to count only cities, you can take city-hopping planes, trains, overnight coaches, buses, bicycle, hitch-hike (not recommended for safety reasons nowadays), taxis, uber, or share costs with a group of four or five friends or family members or colleagues.

Sponsors and Charity
You could also do it as a novelty exercise to raise money from sponsors for charity. Another way is to pick landmarks, such as cathedrals, or pubs or restaurants, or a trail following a theme or famous character, tourist boards being your starting point for ideas.

Weekends Away
For example, if you take a weekend trip to another city, setting off Friday night you have dinner and stay overnight in another city. Number one.

Home And Away In A Second Family Home
Now count your home city, if you live in a city, and you have now done two. If you have two homes, or stay with parents or family over Christmas, New Year, or any holiday, automatically two.

Long Weekends
Let's go back to our weekend travel trip. Next day, Saturday, you stop for elevenses, lunch, tea, and dinner on Saturday stay overnight at another city. Add five to your original one or two. That makes six or seven.

On Sunday, taking a triangular or circular route, you came back in a different direction on and see different cities for elevenses, lunch and tea. Add three. So that's up to ten on a weekend starting Friday evening and ending Sunday evening.

Take a four-day break, at the same pace as Saturday, and you can make your total up to 16 or 17.

New Year
That's an impressive start, if you want to begin your year with a New Year's Eve getaway. I find it easier to start counting travel trips from January. Your own diary or work appointments book will help.

American Holidays
Many Americans get less holiday than Europeans. Americans tend to get 10 days holiday a year minimum (in a new job, as a school leaver, university leaver, or somebody switching jobs and companies - unless they negotiate a special deal).

Long Weekends and Half Days
As a result, Americans often use their odd days to make a series of long weekends. Almost one a month. You can have one long weekend ten months out of twelve. If you are allowed to take half days, using four half days, you can extend that to four weekends leaving work lunchtime Friday.

UK and Europe Holiday Allowances
Check the allowances in the country where you are working or planning to work. In the UK workers tend to get a minimum of a fortnight's holiday (14 days). Anybody senior would ask for or be offered three weeks. Top management would get four weeks.

European Coach Trips
A famous film about Americans visiting Europe on a 'whistle-stop tour' used a phrase now in common use, which was the title of the film: 'If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium'.

Who Has The Time To Travel?
Many well paid, overworked sales and other executives are sent from one city to another with little time to see anything. Two ways around this: ask for a city centre hotel and go for a walk in the evening or before breakfast. Ask the taxi from the airport to show you two or three main landmarks en route. Tell the boss you need an extra day to recharge before flying on and use your day of rest for sightseeing on a pre-booked tour. Many major cities have a hop on hop off bus.

Students have long holidays. Teachers have long holidays. You can take a work-related course in another city.

Conferences
If you are booking a conference, look for one in a city you would like to visit, or one near enough for a side trip to two or more other cities. Many conferences organise a spouse programme during the day of arrival (trying to get everybody on site in advance to minimise the risk of VIPs being delayed and arriving late or too late on day one).

Retirees
Hotels in London frequently discover or tell journalists that their most expensive rooms, which make the difference between profit and loss, are honeymoon suites occupied by young rich honeymooners or elderly recently retired couples who still have the energy to travel.

To go back to the young woman who started my consideration of this city-hopping and city-counting project, she was a freelance teacher of both sports (such as pilates) and music (piano, violin etc). She travelled with other single young ladies in groups.

UK Groups
Hen parties and stag parties to foreign cities are also popular, with UK groups going to Europe or Dubai.

Off-Season Breaks
If you are retired or an empty-nester, you can take advantage of off-season breaks.

If you are going nowhere today, think about
a) Going to another city, maybe across the country or state border.
b) If you are taking a break and just want to stay home, you can amuse yourself by counting the number of cities you have visited in the past year, perhaps comparing your count with another family member, the number of cities you have vistied in your lifetime!

Here are some quizzes for Christmas and New Year gatherings?
How many capital cities have you visited?
How many USA cities have you visited?
How many cities have you visited this year? (Make the question 'your parents or family' - to include childen in this game).
How many cities have you visited in your life? (Compare the generations.)
How many cities did you visit before you were aged 21? After the age of 21?
To help contestants, you may wish to give each person a map marked with cities of your coutnry, continent or the world.

This could be a challenge, a list of achievements, or a competitive game.

Which cities have I visted and written about on my blogs?
In 2017:
Brasov, Romania
Bucharest, Romania
London, England
Perugia, Umbria, Italy
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Singapore (city), Singapore (island and country)

I could immediately think of six.

Going through my blog posts I can expand the list of places I have described this year to give you a guide as to where you might like to visit:

Brussels, Belgium
Cardiff, Wales, UK
Edinburgh, Scotland
Fishguard, Wales, UK
New York, New York, USA
Paris, France
Rome, Italy
Rykjavik, Iceland
Stratford, England, UK
Venice, Italy
York, England, UK
Washington, DC, USA

Useful Websites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_cities_by_country
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City Defines cities by size or type. Analysis of city development. Half the world's populations lives in cities.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Using Duolingo's Tiny Cards To Learn The Chinese Numbers One to Ten

Problem
When I first started using Duolingo tiny cards, the numbers one to ten appeared in random order.

Answer
That was because I missed the first lesson. At first, all the numbers one to ten appear on tiny cards not moved left to right across your screen but downwards. On my small phone, I saw only one card. I then moved the cards off to the left and started on the multiple choice quiz.

I also did not know how to start the next set of cards. In the larger and more clear lessons for a laptop, you will get instructions such as 'continue'. Tap on that to continue.

However, on the phone there's no room. So you get a small circular blue symbol. Click on that and up comes a lesson.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.

July 4 in the USA: what did you and I miss? A quiz for you on the USA.

Map of the USA from Wikipedia.

Problem
I wasn't in the USA on July 4 this year, 2017. The British papers which I read on line, the BBC News and the Daily Mail, did not report much. I found a few people and places in London, such as pubs and American theme restaurants which were offering American food and drink.


In Hatch End we have Baskin Robbins. Their website says:
Headquartered in Massachusetts, USA, Baskin-Robbins is part of Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: DNKN) along with sister brand Dunkin' Donuts. 

We are forever indebted to the Americans. I remember going to the USA in 1967 and being astonished to see shops selling several varieties of ice cream. Back in London, England, post-war, an ordinary shop or restaurant only had vanilla ice cream. The top places offered you three sorts, vanilla,  chocolate and, if you were lucky, strawberry.

B, back to July 4th, 2017. It was too late to go there because I was out all day in London at Imbibe at Olympia. I had hardly had time to notice it was the 4th of July, and looking at families with children whose faces are painted feels like I'm introducing on somebody else's family party.

One reason for the shortage of news from the USA on July 4th could be that London, England is five hours ahead of New York. So it's still 1pm, lunch time in New York when Londoners get home from work at 6 pm.  New York is still early evening, 7 pm, if we go to bed in London at midnight, if we stay up that late. The West coast, San Francisco is even further away, timewise.

July 4 Picnic
When I lived in the USA, in Rockville, Maryland, in the late 1980s, on July 4th we went for a picnic on a hillside in the south near the military cemetery overlooking Washington DC.  The fireworks were not until late in the evening, a long wait, and they were far away. Now I understand why we saw so little festivity.

We didn't realise that family picnics are just that, like Christmas Day, a day off work when families can get together. We expected parades or events all day everywhere. Nothing much happened in our park. Just a lot of families having picnics. We would have seen more at home all day enjoying our swimming pool in the morning then watching morning parades from the west coast on TV in the east coast in the afternoon.

Never mind. No point thinking about the past. Learn from that. Plan to be where you can see something happening next time.

Another member of my family had a picnic in Central Park on the 200th anniversary in 1976.

July 4 Plans
Nowadays everything is on line for you to enjoy, even if you are in another city or another continent. So what can you see of the 4th of July celebrations that you missed this year?  What could you look out for or join next year?

Answers
1 Don't rely on other people. For your selfie photos stock up on American flags and face paint and keep everything together in a bag with stars and stripes on it, as you would for Christmas. Note where in your attic or basement the American theme items are kept.
2 Check your dirty ahead and see which clubs are meeting that week so you can suggest an American theme. Bake red white and blue cakes or biscuits or put flags on the food. Ask all your friend to bring red white and blue. Find a flag for your emails, websites, newsletters and blogs.

Quiz on America
Plan a quiz for children or adults on:
1 American states.
2 American state capitals.
3 American Presidents.
4 Who was your favourite American President and why?
5 Which President did the most for America?
6 Which First Lady most inspired you?
7 Make a quiz on American quotations.

My Quiz
1 Which year was the Declaration of Independence? 1666, 1776, 1886, 1996?
2 America declared independence from: Canada, France, Great Britain, Mexico, Russia, South America, all of the above?
3 Who was the first American President? Jefferson, Lincoln, Kennedy, Washington?
4 Who are the four Presidents on Mount Rushmore? Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, ....?
5 The National anthem is: America the beautiful. The Star Spangled Banner.
6 The motto is: All for one and one for all. In God We Trust.
7 Where is Mount Rushmore? Washington state? Colorado? North Dakota? South Dakota?
8 Which of these states are on the west coast? California. Washington. Oregon. California. New Mexico? Alaska?
9 Which of these states are on the East coast? New York. Virginia. West Virginia. Florida. Texas. South Carolina, North Carolina. Maryland. R h o d e Island. Massachusetts. New Hampshire. Vermont. ...?
10 Which of these states border Mexico? New Mexico. Texas. California? ...?
11 Which states border Canada? New York State. Michigan. Washington State. North Dakota?
12 Name an American film star who became a President.
13 How many American states are there? And how many stars on the American flag?
14 Name an American female film star with the initials M M.
15 Name an American singer with the initials E P.
16 Buffalo wings are made of what? Chicken. Buffalo.
17 Which American President said: the business of America is business.
18 Which President said: Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
19 Name three to ten ten tourist sights in the USA in NY, Washington DC, Dakota. Add one American connected site in London, England.
20 Name the previous and current presidents of the USA.

Answers
1 1776
2 Great Britain. Being independent, all of the above also applies, but specifically America wanted independence from Britain. (And from the taxes. Remember the Boston Tea Party?)
3 The first President was Washington. Maybe that's why the capital is called Washington DC. Maybe that's why there is a Washington state, but no state named after others.
4 George Washington. Abraham Lincoln. Thomas Jefferson. Theodore Roosevelt.
5 The Star Spangled Banner.
6 In God We Trust. All for one and one for all is from the novel The Three Musketeers.
7 South Dakota.
8 See map above. I can tell you. But you will remember better if you look at the map and memorise it.
9 See map above.
10 See map above.
11 New York state - of course, Niagara Falls is both sides.
12 President Reagan
13 How many states in the USA, 50, (although some say, 52, but only if you count 'territories' etc, Puerto Rico, and Washington DC. The stars on the American flag are therefore 50. (13 stripes - recalling the early days of the USA.)
14 Marilyn Monroe.
15 Elvis Presley.
16 Chicken. The dish of chicken wings was invented in Buffalo. I discovered this when I lived in the USA. At the Grand canyon we saw lots of Buffalo. Buffalo wings was on the menu. I was disappointed when I got chicken and not Buffalo. I complained that the server had brought the wrong dish. She thought I was crazy. I discovered my error a year later when I met a lady from Buffalo and asked her if her state had any national dish. Thinking about it, I still blush and wince and cover my mouth and shake my head and tut and run my hands through my hair.
17 President Calvin Coolidge.
18 President J F Kennedy.
19 Statue of Liberty. Mount Rushmore. Lincoln Memorial. Washington Memorial. Benjamin Franklin House museum in London, England.
20 Barack Obama. Donald Trump.

Use as many questions as you like, one, five, ten, or fifteen. Add your own questions. Award prizes or certificates or titles such as Top of the Class and Last But Not Least or Last But Not Lost. (I just made up 'last but not lost'. If you use it, please attribute it to me.)

You can use the quiz to entertain the family when travelling by car or train or plane, having a party or picnic or when hiking. You could make prizes for the winners, which a small certificate. Or list everybody's score and time answering.

On July 4, 2017, I did a competition at Imbibe exhibition at Olympia, London, on the WSET stand. (WSET stands for Wine and Spirits Education Trust.) I was immensely pleased to have my name up on the wall.  Even if everybody's name is on the wall, and you are last, your name is still on the wall.

Photo of Angela Lansbury Proudly Pointing to Her Name on the Top of the Class board at WSET stand at Imbibe, London, July 4, 2017, England. 

Tips For What To See In The USA or UK on July 4

Morning - see parades in person or on TV news. Parades:

Evening - see fireworks. Fireworks: San Francisco. New York.

All Day: Lights on Miami Tower in Florida.

MORE INFORMATION FROM

http://www.baskinrobbins.co.uk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories_of_the_United_States

US visitor and visa information:

https://uk.usembassy.gov/visiting-united-states/

https://www.visitbritain.com/gb/en

http://www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org

https://americanmuseum.org (near Bath, England, UK)

WSET

http://www.westlondonwineschool.com/catlist.

Imbibe.com

FLIGHTS

www.virginatlantic.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Author of Quick Quotations (Lulu.com)
Author of Who Said What When (Lulu.com)
My two previous posts are on the IMBIBE exhibition and one post mentions Prince Charles and Camilla. If you work for a tourist board please keep me updated with new attractions, museums, hotels, restaurants, films and books. I have several other posts on Benjamin Franklin, quotations, the USA, and London, England and tourism worldwide, everything from monuments to tips on packing your suitcase. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Game of Thrones Quiz and Tour to Northern Ireland

I clicked on a Game of Thrones quiz and scored only 2 out of 6, but I have never watched the TV series. However, the locations looked so lovely that I am now interested in both watching the series and visiting Northern Ireland.

My list of must see places in Northern Ireland and Eire include:

1 The Titanic Belfast exhibition
2 Giant's Causeway
3 The Blarney Stone - might not kiss it, but photograph others and learn about it.
4 Belfast
5 Dublin (again)
6 Jewish tour including Jewish museum (I was sent a leaflet years ago)
7 Literary tour (James Joyce, Yeats and more): Grave of Yeats. Mountains of Mourne (inspired CS Lewis's children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia which includes the book The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.).
8 Scenic places from the quiz including: White Peak Bay in Northern Antrim, a beach with elephant rock, Ireland's smallest church and fossils.

Yeats was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1923. Interesting and opposite views of whether it is wonderful or dull to visit his grave, inscribed with a poem.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g211933-d215212-Reviews-Yeats_s_Grave-Drumcliff_County_Sligo_Western_Ireland.html

Game Of Thrones tour £35 per person from Belfast including Giant's Causeway.
http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/offer/

Longer Game of Thrones tours four days cost more than £1000.
http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/articles/regions/game-of-thrones/game-of-thrones-quiz/?

Numerous tours of different kinds,  including escorted and DIY, with bikes or boats, to waterfalls and caves and cliffs and castles. Other tours and events feautre Irish music or food.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, researcher and speaker.

Travel Quotations on travel, food, drink, wine, cities, countries

What can you do with these quotations? Write one or more on your travel notebook or diary.

Frame one for your second home or holiday home.

Print them on a tee-shirt to start conversations with people when travelling.

Hum them along to put yourself in a good mood and pass the time when waiting.

Write a travel quiz for the children or family to keep everybody quiet and busy when waiting in a restaurant.

TRAVEL
It is better to travel in hope than to arrive.
R L Stevenson
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye (WWII)
We'll meet again (WWII Vera Lynn)

FOOD and DRINK and DINNER
If this is tea, bring me coffee. If this is coffee, bring me tea.
American President Abraham Lincoln

WINE
Life is too short to drink bad wine.

CITIES
USA
New York, New York
Take me back to San Francisco
Chicago - my kind of town
Galveston Oh Galveston
All my exes live in Texas - That's why I leave my hat in Tennessee (Country song)
There is a house in New Orleans
I get my kicks on Route 66

COUNTRIES
USA
I want to be in America
Song from West Side Story

MONEY
Money makes the world go around
Song from musical

WELCOME
Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome
Song from musical film Cabaret

Angela Lansbury, B S Hons, author and speaker.
Author of
Quick Quotations
Who Said What When.

Quiz: French words from wine bottles and the map of France

chateau - castle, grand house
neuf - new
du
of
Pape - pope
massif centrale - central massive hilly area
grenache gris - grey g r e n a ch e grape, makes pink wines from Tavel on the south east coast of Spain, very dry
gris - grey
hermitage - hermitage
la chapelle
la the
chapelle - chapel
tour - tower, as in Tour Eiffel
cote du Rhone - not the coast but a slope if you see it on a bottle, so from the slope(s) of the river rhone

QUIZ
A quiz for your friend, family, pub, teens, children.
What do these words mean:

1 tour
2 chapelle
3 gris
4 neuf
5 Pape
6 blanc
7 noir
8 centrale
9 chateau
10 maison

Alternatively give the English and ask for a translation
1black
2 red
3 pink
4 new
5 tower
6 Pope
7 grey
8 of
9 the
10 central
Keep a French-English and English-French dictionary if you do not have an internet connection.

Angela Lansbury

Wine label, Workplace and Language Flashcards - Read or Make Your Own

I am studying for level one of the WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) exam and I've been creating a set of slides in Keynote (apple equivalent of Powerpoint or Mosaic) about wine and wine label/menu languages in French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. I find learning from pages of vocabulary is tedious, whilst reading a wine bottle or chocolate label or clothes label is more interesting because you have a purpose and the word has an importance, telling you about quality, or safety.

The terms on wine labels make it easy to remember, but they are not quite same as the word in everyday language. It's easy to remember that vinho verde means literally green wine, but in context of wine this could mean white wine or young wine. Casa means house, but in the context of wine it could mean wine from a single vineyard, not blended wine.

I'd filled in a few Portuguese terms but needed more so I googled Portuguese wine terms. Up pops a site which has flashcards of Portuguese wine terms. The same page has links to other languages, (everything except French), Spanish, and Italian.

http://www.cram.com/flashcards/wine-portugal-glossary-of-label-terms-1889822

I then went back to the home page looking for French and German, the home page labelled Flashcards. Up pop pages of languages, everything you could think of, right the way from Afrikaans and Arabic down to Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish and Yoruba.

If you don't see what you want, you can create your own in any language, from a book, the internet, from signs you pass when travelling, or for example sitting on a bus or plane, talking to somebody from a foreign country or reading a menu in a restaurant.
cram.com is create and share online flashcards
http://www.cram.com/language

You can make flashcards for your phone to revise on the bus, and make flashcards for any subject, not just languages, but any subject you are studying, for exams, for holidays and travel, or a glossary of terms used at work, for example, computers, law enforcement, medicine, the military.

You could also print them off and use them for a Xmas quiz on Xmas and New Year greetings in foreign languages for a Xmas dinner or Xmas party.

http://www.cram.com/flashcards/create

Geography Quiz

Here's a geography quiz. I think you'll enjoy this one. I never win quizzes in pubs and find those on my area of expertise, writing, a challenge, even on a Writers' Holiday. However, I did well on this one. I always enjoy a quiz where you have the possible answers presented. I looked at some of the questions about which I could not be sure of the answer and used my knowledge of the language of the country to confirm my decision. I thought they might be trick questions, like a model of an Eiffel Tower being not in Paris but in a model village in Japan, but they were not. See how you get on.

http://anotherquiz.com/can-you-answer-10-geography-questions-(tough)/index1.html