Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Molly Oldfield

Why do onions have layers and do sharks swim in groups? The kids’ quiz

Illustration of a small brown onion
  1. Betsy, 5, asks: why do onions have layers?

    1. Because they like to play dress-up in lots of coats

    2. Each layer is a leaf that stores food and protects the onion

    3. To make people cry more when it’s chopped

    4. They’re secret Russian dolls in disguise

  2. Asher, 6, asks: do sharks swim in groups?

    1. No, because it would mean less food

    2. Yes, they even have best friends they swim with

    3. No – they’d eat each other

    4. Sharks can’t swim

  3. Rowie, 4, asks: how many dinosaurs were meateaters?

    1. All of them

    2. None – so they never tried to eat each other!

    3. About 30 species

    4. About 130 species

  4. Ruaridh, 8, asks: why do love hearts look so different from the hearts in our bodies?

    1. The hearts in our bodies actually do look like that

    2. The shape comes from the end of Cupid’s arrow

    3. The love heart shape goes all the way back to Ancient Greece, but nobody knows why it represents love

    4. Our real hearts are far too ugly to put on Valentine cards

  5. Grace, 9, asks: how many miles would your blood vessels go if they were all stretched out?

    1. 50,000 – twice the circumference of the Earth

    2. The distance between Paris and Rome (685 miles)

    3. The length of Australia (2,500 miles)

    4. The circumference of Pluto (4,627 miles)

Solutions

1:B - Each layer is actually a modified leaf. These leaves wrap tightly around one another to protect the onion’s centre and to store food and water., 2:B - Some species of shark have other sharks they feel more comfortable swimming with. Studies have shown that “friendships” between sharks can last many years. Hammerhead sharks can have groups with more than 100 members!, 3:D - According to the Natural History Museum, there were about 130 species of dinosaur that ate meat, including about 30 species that ate plants as well as animals. They typically ate lizards, turtles, eggs and small mammals., 4:C - The love heart symbol dates back to Ancient Greece, but it didn’t really represent love at the time. It wasn’t until the middle ages that the shape began to represent the heart and love. It was actually drawn upside down until the 1500s!, 5:A - The average adult’s blood vessels, when stretched out, would reach about 50,000 miles! The Earth’s circumference is nearly 25,000 miles, measured round the equator.

Scores

  1. 5 and above.

  2. 4 and above.

  3. 3 and above.

  4. 2 and above.

  5. 0 and above.

  6. 1 and above.

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.