Why do tigers have stripes and why do people have bogeys? Try our kids’ quiz

1. Gussie, 8, asks: why do tigers have stripes?

   1. Because tigers find stripes attractive

   2. So baby tigers know which one is their mum

   3. To help hide tigers from their predators and prey

   4. Tigers have copied the pattern of zebras – their favourite things to hunt!

2. Albie, 1, asks: how do babies learn to talk?

   1. Babies love faces, so they watch their parents when they speak and try to copy

   2. By listening to singing, babies learn speech patterns and rhythms

   3. By playing games! It teaches them to listen

   4. All of the above

3. Esther, 6, asks: how tall are giraffes?

   1. All giraffes are more than 6 metres tall

   2. About 5 metres

   3. Between 4 and 5.5 metres

   4. Between 7 and 8 metres

4. Eve, 9, asks: why do people have bogeys up their nose?

   1. So we have something to play with when we’re bored

   2. Bogeys are dried mucus, the stuff lining our nostrils

   3. To give us an emergency snack if we get hungry

   4. Cavemen used bogeys as glue to stick up drawings – and we still have them

5. Beth, 7, asks: how were humans named “human”?

   1. From the Old French word “humain”, meaning “of man”

   2. From “humanus”, Latin for “man of earth”

   3. From the Proto-Indo-European “dhghemon”, meaning “earthly being”

   4. All of the above

Solutions

1:C - Scientists call the pattern of stripes on a tiger “disruptive colouration”. The stripes help break up the tiger’s shape and size so it can blend in with trees and the grass, and be less easily spotted by predators., 2:D - Babies learn to talk in many ways; in general they learn how to say things by copying their parents and the people in the world around them., 3:C - Giraffes use their height to graze on leaves and buds that would be out of reach of other animals! Male giraffes range from about 4.8 to 5.5 metres tall, and female giraffes range from about 4 to 4.8 metres tall., 4:B - We have sticky mucus in our noses to catch viruses and bacteria which may otherwise get into our bodies through the nose when we breathe in. Bogeys are dried-up bits of mucus – they come out of our nose and take the nasty bacteria with them. So that’s why it’s not good to eat them. Yuck!, 5:D - We call the study of the history of words “etymology”. The etymology of the word “human” traces it back to many different roots, from French to Latin to Proto-Indo-European.

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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