True or False Culture Facts

Explore true or false facts about art, music, books, film, sport, festivals and languages. Read a statement, then open its answer and explanation

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The Mona Lisa was once stolen from the Louvre by a man who used to work there
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True
Vincenzo Peruggia took it in 1911 and hid it for over 2 years, until he tried to sell it in Florence
Source: smithsonianmag.com
Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham using just 50 different words, after a bet
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True
His publisher Bennett Cerf bet him 50 dollars that he could not write a whole book with just 50 words, and this book was his answer
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Winnie-the-Pooh got his first name from a real bear that lived at London Zoo
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True
Christopher Robin Milne named his toy bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear he met at the zoo
Source: londonzoo.org
Silent films were shown in complete silence, with no music at all
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False
Cinemas usually hired a pianist, an organist or even a full orchestra to play live along with the film
Source: americanart.si.edu
The Brothers Grimm made up the fairy tales in their famous collection
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False
They gathered existing tales from books and from friends and acquaintances who told them, then edited the stories
Source: grimmwelt.de
Valencia's Las Fallas festival ends with giant sculptures being set on fire
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True
Neighborhood groups build huge satirical figures, and on the festival's last night, 19 March, the monuments are burned in bonfires
Source: cultural.valencia.es
Women always played the female roles in Shakespeare's own theatre in London
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False
Women were not allowed on the English stage, so boys and young men played Juliet and Cleopatra until the 1660s
Source: rsc.org.uk
Many marble figures from the Cyclades were once painted in bright colors
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True
Paint survives on about 30 of 95 figures and fragments in one collection, including blue from azurite and red from cinnabar
Source: metmuseum.org
The first edition of Frankenstein printed Mary Shelley's name on its title page
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False
The 1818 first edition came out anonymously, and the second English edition of 1823 was the first English one to name her
Source: en.wikipedia.org
George Orwell wrote most of his novel 1984 in his flat in London
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False
Orwell wrote most of the book at Barnhill, a remote farmhouse on the Scottish island of Jura, and finished it there in 1948
Source: orwellfoundation.com
Each Olympic ring color was picked by Coubertin to stand for one continent
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False
He said the 6 colors, white background included, match every national flag of his day, and only the 5 rings stood for the continents
Source: en.wikipedia.org
A dog named Pickles found the stolen World Cup trophy in London in 1966
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True
A collie named Pickles sniffed out the Jules Rimet trophy a week after it was stolen, before the tournament began
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Munich's Oktoberfest began as a harvest festival for local farmers
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False
The first Oktoberfest in 1810 was a public party for the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese
Source: oktoberfest.de
At the Binche carnival in Belgium, costumed dancers throw oranges to the crowd
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True
The Gilles wear tall ostrich-feather hats and toss blood oranges to onlookers during the afternoon parade
Source: en.wikipedia.org
A brand-new sign language was created by deaf children in Nicaragua
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True
Deaf pupils with no shared language invented Nicaraguan Sign Language, and each new group made its grammar richer
Source: languagecreationlab.uconn.edu
Michelangelo painted the Sistine ceiling lying on his back for about 4 years
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False
Vasari and Condivi say he worked standing on a scaffold, with his head tilted back to reach the vault
Source: en.wikipedia.org
A John Cage organ piece in a German church is scheduled to last 639 years
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True
The performance in Halberstadt began in 2001 and is planned to end in 2640, changing its sound only now and then
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Disney's Snow White was the first animated feature film ever made
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False
Lotte Reiniger's silhouette film The Adventures of Prince Achmed came out in 1926, 11 years before Snow White
Source: en.wikipedia.org
In L. Frank Baum's original Oz book, Dorothy's magic shoes are ruby red
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False
In the book they are silver, and the 1939 film changed them to ruby red to show off Technicolor
Source: si.edu
Olympic medals were once awarded for painting, sculpture, music and literature
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True
From 1912 to 1948 the Games ran art competitions, with architecture too, and handed out medals
Source: olympedia.org

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