Test Your Yiddish Skills (6)

Instructions:

• Click the dot next to each answer you think is correct.
• If you check the wrong answer, simply click the correct one to change it.
• When finished, enter your name and click the "Submit" button.
• Your answers will be checked and your score will appear on a new page where you can see how you did.

(Source: some items were inspired by "Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish Trivia," by Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe.)

1. If you were to purchase the 2004 book, Schlepper! A Mostly True Tale of Presidential Politics by Iris Burnett, for $5, it would be billik vi borsht!" What does this term mean?

A. Shoyn ainmol a metsieh.
B. It's as cheap as beet soup.
C. It’s a bargain.
D. All of the above.

2. A shaynem dank dir im pupik means:

A. don't do it.
B. thanks for nothing.
C. we will go together.
D. my belly hurts.

3. Someone who falls on his back and hurts his nose is a:

A. kvetsh.
B. shlemazl.
C. shlepper.
D. shmegeggie.

4. The college librarian told the student, "Sha shtil makht nish keyn gerider." What did she say?

A. "Quiet; don't make an uproar."
B. "The two kinds of books are ones that no one reads and others that no one ought to read."
C. "In some books the backs and covers are by far the best parts."
D. “There’s still time to browse before we close.”

5. Keep your fingers away from your:

A. ayzn.
B. oylem.
C. oygn.
D. boikh.

6. The glossary in Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer's 1995 book, Growing Up Jewish in America -- An Oral History, contains the word pishke. It means

A. a nobody; a little squirt.
B. a pee pot.
C. a tin can.
D. a cart.

7. The book, Yiddish Wisdom for Parents by Rae Meltzer, includes this Yiddish folk saying: Eyn mame dergreykht mer vi a hundert lerers, meaning,

A. a mother's slap won't give a child a hole in the head.
B. a mother understands the hundreds of things children do not say.
C. a mother takes away the pain of a hundred hurts.
D. one mother achieves more than a hundred teachers.

8. A 10-year-old boy asks the librarian if she has the book, Adam & Eve. Before checking out the book, he asks, "Why was Adam the luckiest man who ever lived?" She replied, "Adam was the only husband who never had a _____.” A what?

A. shaile
B. shviger
C. makheteneste
D. chaver

9. In the 1969 book, Mrs. Portnoy's Retort - A Mother Strikes Back! by David Martin and Harvey Jacobs, we read, "Did you know that your friend Mrs. P. was born under the sign of Taurus?...It was more like _______ -- trouble with a capital." Fill in the blank.

A. tinif
B. tsuris
C. tsimmes
D. tummult

10. In the 1964 book, Help! I'm a Prisoner in a Chinese Bakery by Alan King, we read, "Romeo and Juliet, they got married. They spent one night together and the next day he committed suicide. Then she committed suicide. I'm trying to figure out what went on in that bedroom. That's a hell of a way to start a marriage. Can you imagine what this epic romance would have been like if they had to live together like normal people?
        ‘Aren't you going to shave, Romeo?’
        ‘It's Saturday; why should I shave?’
        ‘Because my mother is coming over, that's why.’
        ‘Your mother doesn't shave on Saturday either.’
        ‘And on your way out, take the garbage with you.’
        ‘Who's going out?’
        ‘You are. My mother wants you to pick her up.’
How's that for romance?”
        Which of the following lines reflect the lovers’ conversation?

A. Hostu khasene blind, vet dayn vayb dikh firn bay der noz.
B. Der "harey at" iz a kurtser prolog tsu a lange drame.
C. Di khasene iz a shlos, der get a shlis'l.
D. Ales iz in himel ongeshribn, afile di zman ha-khasene vos men hot oysgeklibn.