Jesse day 25

4/6 I got a math question right!!!!! See you all in Feb. 

1. A parabola is defined as a set of points on a plane equidistant from a given line and a given fixed point. The line is called the directrix; what is the term most commonly used for the fixed point?
Correct Answer: FOCUS
Your Answer: Focus
Points Assigned: 1

It was the only thing I could think of and it turned out to be right. 

2. Access, Calico, CapitalG, DeepMind, GV, Jigsaw, Nest, Sidewalk, Verily, and Waymo are some (but not all) of the divisions of what corporate conglomerate founded in 2015?
Correct Answer: ALPHABET INC.
Your Answer: Alphabet
Points Assigned: 0

With Nest I would have been in trouble, but I knew Google had bought them and Google was now part of Alphabet. 

3. The only occasion during which an Oscar was awarded for the portrayal of another Oscar winner happened at the 77th Academy Awards ceremony in February 2005. Name either Oscar winner (the 2005 recipient or the film's character). 
Correct Answer: CATE BLANCHETT, KATHARINE HEPBURN
Your Answer: Demille
Points Assigned: 2

Nope, I had no idea.

4. The salient in the German front lines that appeared on news maps is the source for the common name of what WWII battle, Germany's final major offensive on the Western Front?
Correct Answer: BATTLE OF THE BULGE
Your Answer: Battle of the Bulge
Points Assigned: 1

I wasn't sure what a salient was, but given the phrasing bulge made sense. 

5. What took place in London, England, beginning in April 1908 (and concluding later that year), in large part because of the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy two years prior?
Correct Answer: (1908 SUMMER) OLYMPICS
Your Answer: Olympics
Points Assigned: 2

I didn't know of any London famine at the time (I just watched a NOVA from earlier this year about a large volcano from Lombok causing a famine in London in the 1300s and they did not mention a famine in 1908.) so figured it could be an international event having to be canceled. The Olympics made the most sense to me, but I was concerned that they had not started yet, or perhaps they were always in Greece at this point. 

6. What word fills in the blank in this first quatrain from a famous poem by Emily Dickinson? \ "Hope" is the thing with ___________ - \ That perches in the soul - \ And sings the tune without the words - \ And never stops - at all -
Correct Answer: FEATHERS
Your Answer: Wings
Points Assigned: 3

Feathers is so much more poetic than wings.