Why does nature sleep in winter and when did life first appear? The kids’ quiz

1. Alfred, 7, asks: why does nature sleep in the winter?

   1. Nobody knows

   2. Summer is so exhausting for nature that by the time winter comes, it has to sleep

   3. Autumn is nature’s bedtime, so everything in nature must be asleep by winter

   4. Nature needs to sleep in order to survive the harsh conditions of winter

2. Mabel, 11, asks: do all countries have a prime minister or president?

   1. No, some countries have neither and some countries have both!

   2. Yes, every country must have a prime minister or president

   3. If the country begins with a vowel, it has a president

   4. If the country begins with a consonant, it has a prime minister

3. Ezio, 10, asks: what is the name of Sooty’s female panda friend?

   1. Noot

   2. Pip

   3. Soo

   4. Wick

4. Leo, 6, and Rosa, 4, ask: when did life first appear on Earth?

   1. About 100 years ago

   2. No one knows

   3. 2 million years ago

   4. More than 3 billion years ago

5. Solly, 9, asks: which dinosaurs evolved into which birds?

   1. No dinosaurs evolved into birds – it’s a myth!

   2. Chickens evolved from pterodactyls

   3. Birds evolved from dinosaurs called theropods

   4. Only pigeons evolved from dinosaurs

Solutions

1:D - To humans in the northern hemisphere, winter often means dark days and leafless trees. Small animals need to hibernate to survive the cold winter, and many trees shed their leaves to survive as it gets colder and darker. Historically humans had to store food from the harvest to get through winter., 2:A - Only some countries have presidents or prime ministers. Brazil has a president and the UK has a prime minister, but Oman has an “absolute monarchy”, ruled by a sultan, who is head of state and of government. King Charles III is monarch of the UK, but does not have direct power over the government., 3:C - Sooty’s female panda friend is Soo. She was first introduced as Sooty’s girlfriend in 1964! , 4:D - The earliest undisputed evidence for life on Earth is 3.5 billion years ago – fossils formed by tiny bacteria in rocks found in Australia., 5:C - After the asteroid strike killed most of the dinosaurs, the few that remained were those that could fly, all belonging to a group called theropods. These are the ancestors of modern birds.

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.