WHAT NOISE IS THIS?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 143, 20 March 1942, Page 9

WHAT NOISE IS THIS?

Apple Quiz Tests Listeners’ Astuteness

to a flying start over the CBS network last Saturday evening, and promises to be just as novel and successful as the telephone quiz of 1940 and last year’s "Apple Quest." Modestly entitled "The Apple Query," it is an ingenious quiz which isn’t as simple as it sounds. There is a prize of £25 to be won every week, and a sixpenny fee for each entry, proceeds going to the National Patriotic Fund. The contest is conducted by a whimsical person who calls himself "Jonathan the Apple Man," and he is aided by another humorist, "Sturmer’ the Stooge," who attends to sound effects. The idea is a straightforward one. There are 10 questions, and each question consists of three noises or sound effects which are teferred to as A, B and C. The compére identifies one of them, plays the three and asks his audience to select the one he has identified, The completed answer to the contest, written on a postcard-size sheet of paper, consists merely of 10 letters, A, B, or C. Below the answers, stamps are affixed to a minimum value of sixpence, though the commentator points out that larger amounts will not disqualify the entry, and all gifts will be welcomed by the Patriotic Fund. The Post and Telegraph Department is redeeming the stamps at their face value; entries are to be posted to "Apple Query," Wellington, this being sufficient address; entries must carry Monday’s postmark. : There is no limit to the number of entries by one_ listener. An amateur mathematician at the CBS, however, has worked out that it is not easy to make absolutely sure of the £25 prize by sending in several entries. One would have to buy several hundred thousand pounds worth of sixpenny stamps. One entry, however, is just as" likely to do the trick. For those who did not hear the epen~ ing contest, here were the 10 questions: 1. Three voices saying "Good morning, everybody." Which is Aunt Daisy’s? 2. Two gongs are struck with an interval of a few seconds between. Was the interval three seconds, five seconds, or eight seconds? 3. Extracts are played from three well-known pianoforte solos? Which pianist was Eileen Joyce? 4. A‘ number of people are heard clapping in the studio. Was it four people, six people, or eight people? 5. Three articles are wound up close to the microphone. Which was a clock? 6. Water is poured into a bucket from three jugs, one containing half a pint, one a pint, and the third a pint and a-half. Which was the pint jug? 7. Three coins, a sixpence, a shilling and a two-shilling piece are dropped into a cup. Which was the shilling? 8. Three well-known musical items 1942 Apple Contest went off

are played, one of them the anthem of an American State. Which was it? 9. Writing paper, blotting paper, and cardboard are torn. Which was the blotting paper?

10. Records of three people, Winston Churchill, "Uncle Scrim,’ and Sandy Powell are played at fast speed. Which is "Uncle Scrim"? As listeners who competed in the "Apple Query". on Saturday night will realise, it is not a simple matter to distinguish betwéen some of the sounds, and it will be an astute competitor indeed who manages to answer «all 10... questions correctly.