The Titan Test

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Captain Kremmen, Jun 20, 2013.

  1. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    See how many questions you can get right from the verbal part of the Titan Test for geniuses.
    No answers given, but that shouldn't be a problem for sciforum genii.
    Say whether you had to use reference/google to help.

    VERBAL ANALOGIES

    Write the word or prefix that best completes each analogy. For example, in the analogy MAN : WOMAN :: ANDRO- : ?, the best answer would be GYNO-.

    1. STRIP : MÖBIUS :: BOTTLE : ?
    2. THOUGHT : ACTION :: OBSESSIVE : ?
    3. LACKING MONEY : PENURIOUS :: DOTING ON ONE'S WIFE : ?
    4. MICE : MEN :: CABBAGES : ?
    5. TIRE : RETREAD :: PARCHMENT : ?
    6. ALL IS ONE : MONISM :: ALL IS SELF : ?
    7. SWORD : DAMOCLES :: BED : ?
    8. THING : DANGEROUS :: SPRING : ?
    9. HOLLOW VICTORY : PYRRHIC :: HOLLOW VILLAGE : ?
    10. PILLAR : OBELISK :: MONSTER : ?
    11. 4 : HAND :: 9 : ?
    12. GOLD : MALLEABLE :: CHALK : ?
    13. EASY JOB : SINECURE :: GUIDING LIGHT : ?
    14. LEG : AMBULATE :: ARM : ?
    15. MOSQUITO : MALARIA :: CANNIBALISM : ?
    16. HEAR : SEE :: TEMPORAL : ?
    17. ASTRONOMY AND PHYSICS : ASTROPHYSICS :: HISTORY AND STATISTICS : ?
    18. JEKYLL : HYDE :: ELOI : ?
    19. UNIVERSE : COSMO- :: UNIVERSAL LAWS : ?
    20. SET OF SETS NOT MEMBERS OF THEMSELVES : RUSSELL :: DARKNESS OF THE NIGHT SKY IN AN INFINITE UNIVERSE : ?
    21. TEACHING : UPLIFTING :: PEDAGOGIC : ?
    22. LANGUAGE GAMES : LUDWIG :: PIANO CONCERTI FOR THE LEFT HAND : ?
    23. IDOLS : TWILIGHT :: MORALS : ?
    24. SWEETNESS : SUFFIX :: BOATSWAIN : ?

    From http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/titan.html
     
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  3. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    No answers yet.
    The answer to 1. is
    KLEIN I think.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 21, 2013
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  5. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    You're right about #1, but it's usually spelled
    Klein's bottle.
    I don't feel like searching for any of these (I charge for research.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    ), but I will double-check my own answers. So far, only one:

    3.
    Uxorious. From Latin uxor, wife.
     
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  7. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    They are more to do with General Knowledge than IQ.
    A good quizzer would get most of them.

    For 1. It is the name of the mathematician, not the object you need.
    For 3. Yes I thought the same.

    Number 11 is a measurement. 4 inches to a hand, 9 inches to a ..............?
    I thought it might be an Ell, but that turns out to be roughly the length of the arm, 45 inches.
    I won't look it up. See if someone else knows it.

    Number 23 is a puzzle.
    I was thinking "Twilight of the Gods", .................. but can't get any further.

    For 12.
    12. GOLD : MALLEABLE :: CHALK : ?
    FRIABLE
     
  8. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Still, just knowing how to approach the question requires a good intellect.

    Not clear from the statement of the problem. It works either way.

    Good for you. Not a word in common use in the 20th century, much less the 21st!

    People were smaller in the past. My foot is 11 inches long, but in the 16th century they may have been much shorter.
     
  9. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    I think that a foot has always been 12 inches.
    How big are rods and perches? Could be a rod.

    3. A person utterly devoted to his wife. (or her wife)

    5. Not sure of spelling, but
    PALIMPSEST
     
  10. Randwolf Ignorance killed the cat Valued Senior Member

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    11. 4 : HAND :: 9 : ?

    Span?
     
  11. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    24,690
    Yes, that seems to be correct, varying between 11 and 13 in ancient Greece. The Romans initially divided it into 16 units, but eventually invented the uncia, which is the source of both "inch" and "ounce."

    A rod = 5.5 yards, more than 2 meters. A perch is a 3-dimensional measurement for stones = 16.5ft x 1.5ft x 1ft.

    It's an adjective, not a noun. And I'm sure that people who toss around the word
    uxorious
    are too old to have absorbed gay marriage into their worldview, even if they're decent enough not to object to it.

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    As a linguist I'm expected to know that word and I do. But the connection didn't spring to mind.
     
  12. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    13. Must be some word meaning lighthouse, beacon ending in -ure.
    Could be
    CYNOSURE

    Never used outside of the odd crossword puzzle.
    That's a tough one.
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2013
  13. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Last edited: Jun 21, 2013
  14. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    2,394
    1.
    Klein
    2.
    Complusive?
    4.
    kings
    7.
    Procrustes
    9.
    potemkin
    12.
    friable
    15.
    Kuru
    16.
    spatial
    18.
    Morlock
    20
    Olber
     
  15. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    1.Agreed
    2.
    COMPULSION rather than COMPULSIVE
    4. Agreed
    7. Agreed
    9. That's a good answer.
    I was thinking "DESERTED", but POTEMKIN fits better
    12
    Could be FRANGIBLE, FRIABLE is more like good soil, whereas chalk breaks into fragments
    15. Is that a disease caused by cannibalism?
    I was thinking CJD, but KURU is a single word, so fits better
    16.
    Answer is the part of the brain that deals with vision. Is there one word which means VISUAL CORTEX? Could be CORTEX
    18. From "The Time Machine", agreed.
    20. Is a Paradox. Is Olber the Astronomer who thought of it?
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2013
  16. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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  17. Randwolf Ignorance killed the cat Valued Senior Member

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    16. HEAR : SEE :: TEMPORAL : ?


    Occipital
     
  18. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    @Randwolf
    Yes, I think you have it. Fits exactly.
    Both are lobes.

    The questions are quite clever I think.

    @Janus
    Re 2. I get your point.
    There is a case for both.
     
  19. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    14. Is a Latin rooted word for moving using your ams ending in -ATE
    I've had to look this one up. It's BRACHIATE

    6. That's quite an easy one. The philosophical belief that everything is self.
    8. Is based on a famous quotation by Alexander Pope.
    17. Could be Historico plus a Greek word meaning statistics.
    I came up with Historicometrics, but there's no such word.
     
  20. arfa brane call me arf Valued Senior Member

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    Try "brachiate". I don't think it has to mean walking on your hands.

    Apes brachiate by swinging from their hands, so I think the connection is just "movement", rather than "orientation".

    What might 6 be?
     
  21. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    We crossed over there. Yes, that's right.

    6. Is
    SOLECISM
    8. Is
    PIERIAN, from
    "A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
    Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
    There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
    And drinking largely sobers us again."

    I wouldn't have spelled it properly

    17. Maybe something simple.
    ECONOMICS

    10 is
    BASILISK
     
  22. arfa brane call me arf Valued Senior Member

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    17. Is
    DEMOGRAPHICS
    ?
     
  23. Randwolf Ignorance killed the cat Valued Senior Member

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    17. Is
    cliometrics
    n
    (Economics) (functioning as singular) the study of economic history using statistics and computer analysis
     

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