Enjoy the quiz which is mainly about Oxford. Many of the answers can be found on the Homestay Oxford website. Good luck!
1 What is the link between coffee drinking and Oxford?
Answer: The first coffee house in England was opened in Oxford in 1650
2 What is the significance of the cross in the road in central Oxford?
Answer: It marks the spot where the Bishops Latimer and Ridley in 1555 and Archbishop Cranmer in 1556 were burnt to death
3 What is the difference between a gargoyle (left) and a grotesque?
Answer: A gargoyle is designed to allow water to run away while a grotesque is purely decorative. Check here for more information
4 What is the name of this naturally occurring animal - is it male or female?
Answer: It is a male pheasant.
5 What is the significance of the animals in this picture?
Answer: In the picture they are speaking Latin words, which sound like their natural animal sounds (a medieval legend was that at the birth of Christ animals were able to speak). An example is the lamb saying ‘Bethlehem’ which sounds like a bleating sound. More information can be found here.
6 How old do you think this wall is?
Answer: 160 million years
7 Why does Oxford have a botanical garden? What was it used for?
Answer: It was used for growing plants to investigate their use in making medicine
8 Why does Christ Church ring 101 times at 9:05 each night?
Answer: The bell announces the curfew when students were supposed to be in college. There were 100 students originally at Christ Church and a further one joined. There is one toll of the bell for each student. The time of 9:05 GMT is the equivalent of 9pm Oxford time - it represents the difference from London (Greenwich) time
9 How many colleges are there in Oxford University?
Answer: 39
10 When were women allowed to study at Oxford?
Answer: 1920
11 When did Oxford become the temporary capital of England?
Answer: In 1642 when it became the Royalist capital of England during the Civil War
12 What was the cause of the riot that occurred in 1355 when around 60 people died ?
Answer: A student complained about the quality of wine in a tavern
13 What was Charles Dodgson, mathematician, more famous for?
Answer: He was the author Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice in Wonderland
14 The patron saint of Oxford is Frideswide. What profession did she practise?
Answer: Frideswide was a nun (born around 680, died in 735) who became the patron saint of the university in 15 century. Her sainthood was to celebrate her valiant attempt to maintain her single status against a determined pursuit by a suitor
15 Which college’s dining hall was used for the filming of Harry Potter?
Answer: Christ Church
16 What is the oldest building in Oxford?
Answer: The Tower of St Michael at the Northgate - it dates from the eleventh century and includes part of the original city wall
17 What is the origin of the name of the famous building, Carfax, at the centre of Oxford?
Answer: It derives from the French ‘quatre voies’ meaning four views
18 What famous London building was designed by Christopher Wren the architect of the Sheldonian Theatre
?
Answer: St Paul’s Cathedral
19 What is the name of these boats, the famous method of river transport in Oxford?
Answer: Punts which are propelled by pushing a pole on the river bottom - see picture here.
20 What is very unusual (in church terms) about Christ Church?
Answer: It has the cathedral (for Oxford) within its walls
