The Questions
|
Contest Main Page
47th Word
The following is a list of the opening lines of books, songs, and poems.
Your job is to figure out what the source of the line is, and to provide us with the 47th word of that source, be it book, song, or poem. If you come across a hyphenated word in a book or poem (such as by-product), treat it as 2 words. Contractions (won't, can't) are one word. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT FOR THE SOURCE WITHOUT THE CORRECT 47th WORD!! You need not even provide us with the name of the source, just the 47th word will be sufficient. GOOD LUCK!!
- Now I'm the king of the swingers, oh, the jungle V.I.P.
"I Wanna Be Like You" from Disney's "The Jungle Book" (around)
- I sit in the dusk. I am all alone. Enter a child and an ice-cream cone.
"Tableau at Twilight" by Ogden Nash (vitamin)
- I'm lying alone with my head on the phone, thinking of you 'til it hurts
"All Out of Love" by Air Supply (so)
- The King asked the Queen, and the Quen asked the Dairymaid
"The King's Breakfast" by A.A. Milne (curtsied)
- I'm your average, ordinary kind of woman
- This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child
"The Magician's Nephew" by C.S. Lewis (Sherlock)
- This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it
"The Princess Bride" by William Goldman (and)
- We slept in what had once been the gymnasium
"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood (balcony)
- It is a sin to write this
"Anthem" by Ayn Rand (but)
- Giddyup! Giddyup! Well, I'm a long, tall Texan
"Long Tall Texan" written by Henry Strezlecki; performed by many (look) (*1)
- On the first part of the journey
"Horse with No Name" by America (clouds)
- Arrested on charges of unemployment he was sittin' in the witness stand
"Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" by Chuck Berry (I)
- Once when I was six years old I saw a maginificent picture in a book
"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (in)
- Now they're making movies in old black and white - happy endings where nobody fights
"Pencil-Thin Mustache" by Jimmy Buffett (a) (*2)
- I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
"Once Upon a Dream" from Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" (you)
- Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K.
"The Trial" by Franz Kafka (--) (*3)
- Cowboys ain't easy to love, and they're hard to hold
"Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" by Willie Nelson (young)
(*4)
- Gee but it's great to be back home
"Keep the Customer Satisfied" by Simon & Garfunkel (I)
- Look for the bare necessities
"The Bare Necessities" from Disney's "The Jungle Book" (the)
- It was a pleasure to burn
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury (his)
- Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now
"Winnie-the-Pooh" by A.A. Milne (stop)
- I hardly suppose I know anybody who wouldn't rather be a success than a failure
"Kindly Unhitch That Star, Buddy" by Ogden Nash (archangels)
- It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen
"1984" by George Orwell (swirl)
- The house stood on a slight rise just on the edge of the village. It stood on its own and looked out over a broad spread of West Country farmland
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams (of)
- He came into the world in the middle of the thicket
unknown
- Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents
"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott (all)
- Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
"Copacabana" by Barry Manilow (worked) (*5)
- On the road again. Just can't wait to get on the road again
"On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson (I)
- I've got two eyes, one, two
"One Fine Face" from "Sesame Street" (eyes)
- The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom
*somewhere in the collected works of Dorothy L. Sayers (*6)
- When wilt Thou save the people? O God of mercy, when?
"People's Anthem" by Ebenezer Elliott (people)
- Behold the way our fine-feathered friend his virtue doth parade
"My Funny Valentine" by Rodgers & Hart (valentine) (*7)
- If you want to marry me, here's what you'll have to do
"My Rules" by Shel Silverstein (shoes)
- I love trash
"I Love Trash" by Oscar the Grouch (was)
- To all the girls I've loved before
"To All the Girls I've Loved Before" by Willie Nelson (owe)
- When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this urge
"Travels with Charley" by John Steinbeck (greater)
- They didn't say anything about this in the books, I thought
"All Creatures Great and Small" by James Herriot (keep)
- The drought had now lasted for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended
"2001: A Space Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke (and)
- It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea
"Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach (and)
- The Night Max wore his wolf suit
"Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak (and)
- Marriages. Wimsey-Vane.
*somewhere in the collected works of Dorothy L. Sayers (*8)
- I've been alive forever, and I wrote the very first song
"I Write the Songs," sung by Barry Manilow (I)
- There once was a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid
"The Velveteen Rabbit" (sprig)
- Lorsque j'avais six ans j'as vu, une fois, une magnifique image
"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (dans)
- The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no one in the room but the corpse
"War in Heaven" by Charles Williams (--)
- London. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln Inn Hall
"Bleak House" by Charles Dickens (Megalosaurus)
- Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea
"Portrait of a Lady" by Henry James (delightful)
*1 (Long Tall Texan): The lyrics involve call-and-response backup singing;
counting that, the 47th word is "look." Although in fact, "giddy" and "up"
should be 2 words, not one. Also, not all versions of this western chestnut
include the opening "giddy up"s.
*2 (Pencil-Thin Mustache): If, as the instructions indicate you must, you
consider "pencil-thin" as two words.
*3 (The Trial): Errrr.... pinpointing the 47th word kinda depends on which
English translation you're using. Pick 'em.
*4 (Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys): Alas, the song does NOT
begin with the "opening" words listed in the Hour Bonus. From the point in
the song where the bonus' line is taken from, the 47th word is "young." The
song's actual 47th word, however, is "even." The lyrics should read
"harder," not "hard," though this does not affect the word count.
*5 (Copacabana): If, as the instructions indicate you must, you consider
"cha-cha" as two words. Well, we concede that a one-legged man could do the
cha.
*6 (no title): You are free to read the collected works of Dorothy L. Sayers
to identify which two of her opening lines are listed in this bonus. We have
chosen not to.
*7 (My Funny Valentine): If, as the instructions indicate you must, you
consider "dim-witted" as two words.
*8 (no title): See #6.