What is a snake’s venom made of and what is ochre? Try our kids’ quiz

<span>Illustration: Hennie Haworth/The Guardian</span>
Illustration: Hennie Haworth/The Guardian
  1. Carys, 6, asks: what is a snake’s venom made of?

    1. Snake wee!

    2. Blood from the snake’s previous victims

    3. A toxic mixture of proteins and enzymes

    4. An evil witch’s potion

  2. Bailey, 5, asks: which book has the most pages in the whole world?

    1. “ONEPIECE”, a giant collection of pages of a Japanese comic series

    2. The Odyssey, the Greek epic poem

    3. The Holy Bible

    4. The Collected Works of Shakespeare

  3. Rudy, 5, asks: why are tyres on car wheels always black?

    1. To make them stronger

    2. To help protect tyres against damage from heat

    3. So they don’t look so dirty

    4. All of the above!

  4. Tim, 7, asks: what is “ochre”?

    1. A very strong and cold wind

    2. A natural yellowy orange coloured clay

    3. A tropical fruit used to flavour chocolate

    4. An illness where you lose feeling in your toes

  5. Iona, 9, asks: what is the difference between an ocean and a sea?

    1. Oceans have much bigger waves – seas have very small ones

    2. Seas don’t have tides but oceans do

    3. Seas are typically smaller than oceans

    4. Seas are much saltier than oceans

Solutions

1:C - Snakes’ venom is made up of proteins and enzymes. Some types can stop blood from clotting; others attack the nervous system, shutting down functions such as your heartbeat and breathing., 2:A - The artist Ilan Manouach bound together 21,450 pages from a popular Japanese comic series for an art project, “ONEPIECE”, in 2022. However, the longest traditional book is thought to be Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, with more than 3,000 pages, published from 1913-1927., 3:D - The chemical “carbon black” is added to car tyres, turning them black. This protects the tyre, absorbing UV rays from the sun and helping to prevent damage caused by heat. It also hides dirt! But you can get fancy tyres in different colours., 4:B - Ochre is a natural substance, made of iron, clay and sand. It has a golden colour, and humans have made paint with it for more than 250,000 years, for decorations for clothes and skin and cave paintings through to modern-day art., 5:C - Seas are usually smaller than oceans, and often they are at least partially surrounded by land.

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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