Why do people have eyebrows? Try our kids’ quiz

Illustration: Hennie Haworth/The Guardian

1. Willow, 9, asks: why do people have eyebrows?

   1. To protect the area of skin underneath them

   2. To protect our eyes and help us express ourselves

   3. To make us look more beautiful

   4. They’re a useless leftover part from when we were monkeys!

2. Melina, 9, asks: did the Greek gods and goddesses move around the globe, or stay on Mount Olympus?

   1. They never left the safety of Mount Olympus

   2. They only occasionally left to visit Athens

   3. They meddled in affairs all over the Mediterranean

   4. They went all the way to South America!

3. Jacob, 8, asks: why does gravity pull things down?

   1. Gravity makes things feel serious, and that makes us feel like we’re being pulled down

   2. It doesn’t, otherwise we’d all be squished

   3. Because otherwise we’d float off into space

   4. Because gravity is a force of attraction

4. Cillian, 5, asks: what was the first food that humans made?

   1. Yoghurt

   2. Bread

   3. Cooked meat

   4. Ratatouille

5. Saroj, 9, asks: when was the first flag created and what was it?

   1. The Scottish flag from AD832

   2. A pirate flag from AD1705

   3. A flag from the Ottoman empire from AD1348

   4. A flag from Shahdad in Iran from 2400BC

Solutions

1:B - Humans have eyebrows to stop things like rainwater and sweat from getting into our eyes and impairing our vision. They also allow us to express feelings like anger or surprise without speaking., 2:C - The Greek gods and goddesses often visited people or appeared in different forms. There are also gods who weren’t Olympian gods, like the Titans, who didn’t live on Mount Olympus. However, the world of Greek mythology extends mostly around the Mediterranean, so they didn’t quite move around the whole globe., 3:D - Gravity is a force of attraction between two objects. We experience the gravity of our planet, which pulls us towards its centre, and as that’s below our feet, it feels like down!, 4:C - Although it’s impossible to say exactly, we can tell from bone remains at some of the oldest archaeological sites that humans might have cooked meat first., 5:D - The oldest flag-like thing comes from Shahdad from around 2400BC. It is made of bronze and is attached to a pole. It depicts a man and woman facing each other with a star in between them.

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 weekly podcast answering children’s questions, out now as a book.

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