Social Science Questions & Answers

The scrum-half in rugby, also known as inside-half and half-back, is an all rounder, an excellent passer of both hands, an effective kicker with both feet, a good defender around the fringes and in the cover, and a nimble runner who can sniff a gap and ‘snipe’ from both set and broken play. He is the lynchpin of a rugby …

A musher is a person who competes in cross-country races with a dog team and sled. The word mush probably originated from the French term marchons meaning ‘let us march’. Mush is a command word to sled dogs.

Hypermilers are those who try to extract every bit of mileage from their cars by trying out various techniques like coasting when it’s possible, switching off the engine, not switching on the air-conditioner, etc. The term originated in hybrid driving clubs. Some radical techniques are employed by hypermilers, which are called renegades. They use techniques that may even compromise their …

A bad parent is a ghetto parent – someone who does not care for, abuses and hits, and fails to give a good education and upbringing to his or her child. Basically, it is a style of parenting in which the parent has the mindset of those living in a ghetto. But there are many who shrink from using the …

Frenemy is made of two opposites – friend and enemy – and is used for a person who appears to be both. A friend who shares similar interests and hangs around with you, but who secretly works against your interests and is fiercely competitive. It came into currency with chicklit and television serials, mostly in the feminine world.

A flexitarian is a person whose diet is vegetarian for the most part, with an occasional meat dish. They are different from those who eat only fish and chicken, besides vegetables. Flexitarianism is not a movement yet.

A person who works on the move is called a digital nomad. Such a worker may or may not be on the rolls of a company, and could be a consultant / freelancer / a writer on the move. They are persons with a free spirit who like a remote lifestyle and earn as they move, and believe that with …

A deleb is a dead celebrity, who is used to endorse products and continues to earn good revenue even after death. Good examples are Elvis Presley, Lennon, Yves St Laurent, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Cash and now, Michael Jackson. But a deleb is not short for delebrity, which means a ‘designer celebrity’.

One of the earliest antecedents to the modern speech bubble was the speech scroll – wispy lines that connected first person speech to the mouths of speakers in Meso-American art. In Western graphic art, labels that reveal what a figure is saying have appeared even in the 13th century. Word balloons began appearing in 18th century printed broadsides and political …

The board game, today called Snakes and Ladders, originated in ancient India, where it was known with the name Mokshapat or Moksha Patamu. It’s not exactly known when or who invented it, though it’s believed the game was played at a time as early as 2nd century BC. According to some historians, the game was invented by Saint Gyandev in …