2013-12-24 Christmas Eve

【Aiden in English】

        Question number one! I was part of my team, Team Trivia, which consisted of eight people, including me, the two brothers, Alex and Nick, their dad, and four other adults.

        This was how trivia worked. There were 20 questions that the cruise director, Willie, would give slowly, one by one. Each person had a piece of scrap paper and a pen. You wrote it down on scrap paper when you thought you had an answer. The person with the best answer on the team wrote it down on the team's answer sheet. Questions always sounded difficult if you did not know how to answer. For example, "Which Greek inventor created wings made of wax that melt when it flies too close to the sun?" (Icarus), "What is the common name for baby kangaroos, baby koalas, and baby wallabies?" (Joey).

        "What is the original language of Brazil"? It was obviously Portuguese. We settled down and waited for the next question.

        After we got our final score, I was astonished that we had 18 out of 20. One of the two wrong answers was "How many time zones are there on Earth?" and the answer we had was 24. But the correct one was 27. The other incorrect question was, "What relationship does Chitty Chitty Bang Bang have with James Bond?" Our answer was that both movies used the same car. However, the correct answer was almost too obvious. The two were written by Ian Fleming.

        We came in second place and were extremely surprised. However, we usually find ourselves in last place.

        Team Trivia was not for an individual but for everyone on the team. Each person had his/her own role that no one else had. Everybody worked together and gave their best effort. In addition, Trivia brought out a piece of knowledge and that piece of knowledge came from our daily life.

【紅霞譯】

        第一個問題！我正同隊友們一起參加百科知識競賽。我們這個隊由八人組成：本人、亞歷克斯“人類的捍衛者”和尼克“人民的勝利”倆兄弟、倆小子的爸爸、還有其他四位。

        百科知識競賽通常需要回答20道題目，遊輪總監威利“堅定保護者”慢條斯理地提問，參賽者每人手握紙筆隨聽隨寫，先提交各自答案供大家討論，然後從中選出最好答案代表全隊參賽。難者不會，會者不難，百科知識競賽尤其如此，譬如：“哪位希臘發明家使用過由遇熱融化的蠟黏製成羽翼？”答案是伊卡魯斯“追隨者”；“小袋鼠、小樹袋熊以及沙袋鼠共有的名稱是什麼？”答案是喬伊“上帝會增加”。

        “巴西母語是什麼？”這個問題很簡單，我們寫好答案，等待下一個問題。

        總分公布之後，我們出乎意料地答對了20道問題中的18道。兩道答錯的題目之一：“全世界一共有多少時區”？我們認為24，正確答案是27；之二：“發動機聲與詹姆斯·邦德“取代者·農夫”之間有何關係”？我們猜成他們開的車一樣，正確答案是他倆均為作家伊恩‧弗萊明“神慈·沼澤地者”筆下人物。

        這次我們得了第二名，大家喜出望外，因為以往我們常常答非所問，所以一直榜上無名。

        團隊百科知識競賽考量的不是個人實力而是集體合作，每個人都要盡職盡責，努力貢獻自己的聰明才智；競賽薈萃了方方面面的背景知識，而這些背景知識取決於我們平常每一天文化積累。

Christmas Eve in History(歷史上的今天):

2012: Puerto Montt the City of Roses, Chile(智利蒙特港—玫瑰之城)

2009: 新西蘭首都惠靈頓(Capital Wellington, NZ)

Dart Throwing (投飛鏢 12-24-2013)

Christmas Eve Celebration (平安夜慶典 12-24-2013)

Night Performance @ Nautica Oceania

(“大洋·航海”號遊輪——表演晚會)

Crosslink(相關博文):

Across the Indian Ocean(穿越印度洋)