You may have noticed that I haven't posted here for a while. This is because I'm currently writing a 200-question competition quiz (that will not be published here) that I will be sending out to various quiz freaks around the country. It's totally free to enter (and therefore no prizes, I'm afraid) and if you'd like to get a copy of the quiz then e-mail me at pantscat69er@hotmail.com and I'll send out a copy as soon as it's ready (in the next few days hopefully). Rules are simple - you have two hours to complete the quiz and when you've finished, send the answers back and I'll publish the scores here (probably early next month to give you some time to complete it). Please feel free to send a copy to anyone who you think may be interested in entering. Ta.
P.S. It won't be quite as tough as some of the quizzes on here but it's by no means easy.
Wednesday 12 December 2007
Friday 30 November 2007
THE 59th QUIZ - REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS
1. Roughly translating as ‘scaly’, which order, that includes lizards and snakes, is, with approximately 7,900 species, the largest order of extant reptiles?
2. During which geological period during the Palaeozoic Era did the first amphibians develop from fish similar to the modern coelacanth?
3. Tomistoma schlegelii is a fresh-water reptile, resembling a crocodile with a very thin and elongated snout. Although it had long been classed in the family Crocodylidae, recent immunological studies have meant it has been reclassed in the family Gavialidae. It is native to Sumatra and Malaysia and is also found in Borneo, Java, Vietnam and Thailand. What is its common name?
4. Many members of the families Bombinatoridae, Discoglossidae, Pelobatidae, Rhinophrynidae, Scaphiopodidae, and some species from the Microhylidae family are commonly, but erroneously, called ‘toads’. According to scientists, all true toads belong to which family, the only one that is exclusively given the common name ‘toad’?
5. The two species of reptiles of the genus tuatara (from which they get their common name), Sphenodon punctatus and Sphenodon guntheri are the only surviving members of the order Sphenodontia. They are found in the wild in just one country. Which one?
6. Extant amphibians fall into one of three orders - the Anura (frogs and toads), the Caudata or Urodela (salamanders and newts), and the Gymnophiona or Apoda. Found throughout Africa, Asia and South America, what is the common name given to the limbless, snake-like amphibians that comprise this last order?
7. The villain Tokka from the 1991 film ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze’ was a mutated variety of which species of turtle, Macrochelys temminckii, found throughout the watershed of the Mississippi River from Florida to South Dakota, and notable as the largest species of freshwater turtle in North America?
8. It is the only species in the genus Proteus and the only European species of the family Proteidae. Also known as the proteus, what is the common name for the amphibian Proteus anguinu, notable for its blindness, caused by adaptation to a life of complete darkness in its underground habitat, that is native to the subterranean waters of the Dinaric karst that flow through the Soča river basin near Trieste in Italy, through to southern Slovenia, southwestern Croatia, and Herzegovina?
9. Which alcoholic beverage indigenous to and unique to Okinawa in Japan is alternatively known as Habu sake because of the practice of placing a venomous habu snake in it, which, it is claimed, increases its potency?
10. Recent scientific evidence put forward by East Carolina University has shown that the increasing rarity of the Rio Santiago Poison Frog can be explained by the slowing of its reproduction rates. The university researchers believe that this decrease in reproduction rates is linked to an increase in what?
11. Its common name taken from the group of islands in the Pacific Ocean where it is found but also known as Guichenot's Giant Gecko or Eyelash Gecko, which species of gecko, Rhacodactylus ciliatus, had long been thought extinct until it was ‘rediscovered’ in 1994?
12. Which labyrinthodont amphibian, of the extinct order Temnospondyli, whose fossil remains are known from the Permian of the South African Karoo Basin, has a name meaning ‘nose crocodile’ and was depicted as a crocodile-like creature in the 2005 BBC series ‘Walking With Monsters?’
13. Deriving from the Ancient Greek χελώνα, meaning ‘tortoise’, what word is popular among veterinarians, scientists, and conservationists as a catch-all name for any member of the order Testudines, that comprises tortoises, turtles and terrapins?
14. Found almost exclusively in the Western Hemisphere, Plethodontid salamanders are unique amongst salamanders because of their lack of which bodily organs?
15. Sharing its name with a Marvel Comics supervillain, which snake, native to sub-Saharan African, is the only extant species in the genus Dispholidus and has a name meaning ‘tree snake’ in both Dutch and Afrikaans?
16. What was the common name of Lithobates fisheri, a frog species that was last recorded in 1942 and thought to have been the only North American amphibian to have become extinct in the 20th Century?
17. There are only two species of alligator. Each is native to just one country and each takes its common name from that of the country in which in lives. What are the common names of these two species?
18. Which North American aquatic salamander, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, has been given the vernacular names ‘devil dog’ and ‘Allegheny alligator’ because folklore claims that it smears fishing lines with slime, drives game fish away, and inflicts a painful, poisonous bite? Its common name also reflects this misguided fear of an entirely harmless species.
19. This North American lizard is well known for its ability to run on its hind legs, looking like a small dinosaur. It has been recorded running in this way at speeds of up to 16 mph. It is the state reptile of Oklahoma, in which state it is often known as the Mountain Boomer. By what name is it commonly known elsewhere?
20. Cnemidophorus vanzoi is a whiptail - a species of lizard in the Teiidae family - that is found exclusively on which 239 square mile island nation of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea?
Answers:
1. SQUAMATA
2. DEVONIAN
3. FALSE GHARIAL (or MALAYAN GHARIAL)
4. BUFONIDAE
5. NEW ZEALAND
6. CAECILIANS
7. ALLIGATOR SNAPPING TURTLE
8. OLM
9. AWAMORI
10. HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOUR
11. NEW CALEDONIAN CRESTED GECKO
12. RHINESUCHUS
13. CHELONIAN
14. LUNGS
15. BOOMSLANG
16. VEGAS VALLEY LEOPARD FROG
17. AMERICAN ALLIGATOR and CHINESE ALLIGATOR
18. HELLBENDER
19. COLLARED LIZARD
20. ST LUCIA
2. During which geological period during the Palaeozoic Era did the first amphibians develop from fish similar to the modern coelacanth?
3. Tomistoma schlegelii is a fresh-water reptile, resembling a crocodile with a very thin and elongated snout. Although it had long been classed in the family Crocodylidae, recent immunological studies have meant it has been reclassed in the family Gavialidae. It is native to Sumatra and Malaysia and is also found in Borneo, Java, Vietnam and Thailand. What is its common name?
4. Many members of the families Bombinatoridae, Discoglossidae, Pelobatidae, Rhinophrynidae, Scaphiopodidae, and some species from the Microhylidae family are commonly, but erroneously, called ‘toads’. According to scientists, all true toads belong to which family, the only one that is exclusively given the common name ‘toad’?
5. The two species of reptiles of the genus tuatara (from which they get their common name), Sphenodon punctatus and Sphenodon guntheri are the only surviving members of the order Sphenodontia. They are found in the wild in just one country. Which one?
6. Extant amphibians fall into one of three orders - the Anura (frogs and toads), the Caudata or Urodela (salamanders and newts), and the Gymnophiona or Apoda. Found throughout Africa, Asia and South America, what is the common name given to the limbless, snake-like amphibians that comprise this last order?
7. The villain Tokka from the 1991 film ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze’ was a mutated variety of which species of turtle, Macrochelys temminckii, found throughout the watershed of the Mississippi River from Florida to South Dakota, and notable as the largest species of freshwater turtle in North America?
8. It is the only species in the genus Proteus and the only European species of the family Proteidae. Also known as the proteus, what is the common name for the amphibian Proteus anguinu, notable for its blindness, caused by adaptation to a life of complete darkness in its underground habitat, that is native to the subterranean waters of the Dinaric karst that flow through the Soča river basin near Trieste in Italy, through to southern Slovenia, southwestern Croatia, and Herzegovina?
9. Which alcoholic beverage indigenous to and unique to Okinawa in Japan is alternatively known as Habu sake because of the practice of placing a venomous habu snake in it, which, it is claimed, increases its potency?
10. Recent scientific evidence put forward by East Carolina University has shown that the increasing rarity of the Rio Santiago Poison Frog can be explained by the slowing of its reproduction rates. The university researchers believe that this decrease in reproduction rates is linked to an increase in what?
11. Its common name taken from the group of islands in the Pacific Ocean where it is found but also known as Guichenot's Giant Gecko or Eyelash Gecko, which species of gecko, Rhacodactylus ciliatus, had long been thought extinct until it was ‘rediscovered’ in 1994?
12. Which labyrinthodont amphibian, of the extinct order Temnospondyli, whose fossil remains are known from the Permian of the South African Karoo Basin, has a name meaning ‘nose crocodile’ and was depicted as a crocodile-like creature in the 2005 BBC series ‘Walking With Monsters?’
13. Deriving from the Ancient Greek χελώνα, meaning ‘tortoise’, what word is popular among veterinarians, scientists, and conservationists as a catch-all name for any member of the order Testudines, that comprises tortoises, turtles and terrapins?
14. Found almost exclusively in the Western Hemisphere, Plethodontid salamanders are unique amongst salamanders because of their lack of which bodily organs?
15. Sharing its name with a Marvel Comics supervillain, which snake, native to sub-Saharan African, is the only extant species in the genus Dispholidus and has a name meaning ‘tree snake’ in both Dutch and Afrikaans?
16. What was the common name of Lithobates fisheri, a frog species that was last recorded in 1942 and thought to have been the only North American amphibian to have become extinct in the 20th Century?
17. There are only two species of alligator. Each is native to just one country and each takes its common name from that of the country in which in lives. What are the common names of these two species?
18. Which North American aquatic salamander, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, has been given the vernacular names ‘devil dog’ and ‘Allegheny alligator’ because folklore claims that it smears fishing lines with slime, drives game fish away, and inflicts a painful, poisonous bite? Its common name also reflects this misguided fear of an entirely harmless species.
19. This North American lizard is well known for its ability to run on its hind legs, looking like a small dinosaur. It has been recorded running in this way at speeds of up to 16 mph. It is the state reptile of Oklahoma, in which state it is often known as the Mountain Boomer. By what name is it commonly known elsewhere?
20. Cnemidophorus vanzoi is a whiptail - a species of lizard in the Teiidae family - that is found exclusively on which 239 square mile island nation of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea?
Answers:
1. SQUAMATA
2. DEVONIAN
3. FALSE GHARIAL (or MALAYAN GHARIAL)
4. BUFONIDAE
5. NEW ZEALAND
6. CAECILIANS
7. ALLIGATOR SNAPPING TURTLE
8. OLM
9. AWAMORI
10. HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOUR
11. NEW CALEDONIAN CRESTED GECKO
12. RHINESUCHUS
13. CHELONIAN
14. LUNGS
15. BOOMSLANG
16. VEGAS VALLEY LEOPARD FROG
17. AMERICAN ALLIGATOR and CHINESE ALLIGATOR
18. HELLBENDER
19. COLLARED LIZARD
20. ST LUCIA
Tuesday 27 November 2007
THE 58th QUIZ - LINGUISTICS
1. Which phrase was coined by the Polish/Austrian anthropologist Bronisław Kasper Malinowski in the 1923 work ‘The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages’ to describe any expression whose only function is to perform a social task, as opposed to conveying information? Examples include saying ‘hello’ when meeting someone, or ‘bless you’ after a person sneezes.
2. One of the earliest known masters of linguistic ‘word play’, who was the Greek poet of the 5th Century BC who wrote an epic poem of 24 books, each book entirely omitting a different letter of the Greek alphabet?
3. Which language, with a name meaning ‘being silent’, spoken by the Aboriginal Lardil and Yangkaal tribes of the Wesley Island group in the Gulf of Carpentaria, is the only click language (ie a language that regularly uses clicks instead of consonants in words) known to have existed outside Africa?
4. With a name deriving from the Polish for ‘little tail’, what name is given to the diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several eastern European and Native American languages? Examples from Polish include ą and ę.
5. Coined by the theologian Frederic William Farrar in 1879, what is the linguistic term, sometimes also called ‘speaking in tongues’, for the fluent speech-like but unintelligible utterances that are often used as part of religious practice?
6. Arguing that other artificial languages are unnecessary as Latin is already established as the world's international language, which Italian mathematician invented the auxiliary language Latino sine flexione, essentially a simplified form of Latin?
7. There has been controversy in the method one should use to distinguish between languages and dialects since the study of language began. Perhaps the most famous distinction between the two is the Latvian-American linguist Max Weinreich’s humorous aphorism that “a language is a dialect with…” what?
8. Of what, linguistically speaking, is cherology the study?
9. Tmesis is the name given, by linguists, to the inclusion of a word within another word. But what name is given to the inclusion of sounds (or phonemes) within a word? It is divided into two types: excrescence (if the sound added is a consonant) and anaptyxis (if the sound added is a vowel).
10. Deriving from the Greek for ‘turning like oxen in ploughing’ because the hand of the writer goes back and forth like an ox drawing a plough across a field and turning at the end of each row to return in the opposite direction, what name is given to the ancient method of inscription in which, rather than going from left to right as in modern English, or right to left as in Arabic, alternate lines must be read in opposite directions?
11. Named after the American linguists who first postulated it in the early 20th Century, what name is given to the hypothesis that postulates that a particular language's nature influences the habitual thoughts of its speakers and thus different language patterns yield different patterns of thought?
12. In the 5th Century BC, Protagoras of Abdera compiled what is thought to be the world’s first glossary. It contained definitions of unfamiliar words that were to be found where?
13. From the Greek for ‘said only once’, what name is given to a word that occurs only once in the written record of a language? It can also refer to a word that appears only once in the works of an author, or in a single text.
14. Which autonomous province in northern Serbia, capital Novi Sad, is the only place outside of Romania and Moldova in which the Romanian language has official status?
15. Named after the German neurologist who discovered it in 1874, what name is given to the impairment of language comprehension and speech that results in a natural-sounding rhythm and a relatively normal syntax, but otherwise has no recognisable meaning, that results from damage to the posterior part of Brodmann area 22 in the left hemisphere of the brain where the specialized language skill areas can be found?
16. The leading Soviet linguist of the early 20th Century, Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr, named his most famous and controversial theory, that the Kartvelian languages of the Caucasus area were related to the Semitic languages of the Middle East, after which Biblical character? This theory was officially discredited as a misrepresentation of Marxist theory in an article written by Josef Stalin in 1950.
17. A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that distinguishes meaning in spoken language. What name is given to the smallest unit of “speech” that distinguishes meaning in body language (such as a facial expression or a hand gesture)?
18. Which Sami language that was spoken in the villages of A´kkel and Ču´kksuâl, in the inland parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia is the most recent language to have been classified as extinct, the last native speaker, Marja Sergina, dying on 29th December 2003?
19. Which British linguist coined the terms ‘U’ and ‘non-U’ in 1954 referring to the language usage of the upper classes (U) and the rest of the populace (non-U)?
20. One of the twenty two national languages of India and the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, which is - with approximately 76 million native speakers - the world’s most widely spoken Dravidian language and the third most spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali?
The answers:
1. PHATIC COMMUNION
2. TRYPHIODORUS
3. DALMIN
4. OGONEK
5. GLOSSOLALIA
6. GIUSEPPE PEANO
7. AN ARMY AND A NAVY
8. SIGN LANGUAGE
9. EPENTHESIS
10. BOUSTROPHEDON
11. SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
12. IN THE WORKS OF HOMER
13. HAPAX LEGOMENON
14. VOJVODINA
15. WERNICKE’S APHASIA
16. JAPHETH (JAPHETIC THEORY)
17. KINEME
18. AKKALA SAMI
19. ALAN ROSS
20. TEGULU
2. One of the earliest known masters of linguistic ‘word play’, who was the Greek poet of the 5th Century BC who wrote an epic poem of 24 books, each book entirely omitting a different letter of the Greek alphabet?
3. Which language, with a name meaning ‘being silent’, spoken by the Aboriginal Lardil and Yangkaal tribes of the Wesley Island group in the Gulf of Carpentaria, is the only click language (ie a language that regularly uses clicks instead of consonants in words) known to have existed outside Africa?
4. With a name deriving from the Polish for ‘little tail’, what name is given to the diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several eastern European and Native American languages? Examples from Polish include ą and ę.
5. Coined by the theologian Frederic William Farrar in 1879, what is the linguistic term, sometimes also called ‘speaking in tongues’, for the fluent speech-like but unintelligible utterances that are often used as part of religious practice?
6. Arguing that other artificial languages are unnecessary as Latin is already established as the world's international language, which Italian mathematician invented the auxiliary language Latino sine flexione, essentially a simplified form of Latin?
7. There has been controversy in the method one should use to distinguish between languages and dialects since the study of language began. Perhaps the most famous distinction between the two is the Latvian-American linguist Max Weinreich’s humorous aphorism that “a language is a dialect with…” what?
8. Of what, linguistically speaking, is cherology the study?
9. Tmesis is the name given, by linguists, to the inclusion of a word within another word. But what name is given to the inclusion of sounds (or phonemes) within a word? It is divided into two types: excrescence (if the sound added is a consonant) and anaptyxis (if the sound added is a vowel).
10. Deriving from the Greek for ‘turning like oxen in ploughing’ because the hand of the writer goes back and forth like an ox drawing a plough across a field and turning at the end of each row to return in the opposite direction, what name is given to the ancient method of inscription in which, rather than going from left to right as in modern English, or right to left as in Arabic, alternate lines must be read in opposite directions?
11. Named after the American linguists who first postulated it in the early 20th Century, what name is given to the hypothesis that postulates that a particular language's nature influences the habitual thoughts of its speakers and thus different language patterns yield different patterns of thought?
12. In the 5th Century BC, Protagoras of Abdera compiled what is thought to be the world’s first glossary. It contained definitions of unfamiliar words that were to be found where?
13. From the Greek for ‘said only once’, what name is given to a word that occurs only once in the written record of a language? It can also refer to a word that appears only once in the works of an author, or in a single text.
14. Which autonomous province in northern Serbia, capital Novi Sad, is the only place outside of Romania and Moldova in which the Romanian language has official status?
15. Named after the German neurologist who discovered it in 1874, what name is given to the impairment of language comprehension and speech that results in a natural-sounding rhythm and a relatively normal syntax, but otherwise has no recognisable meaning, that results from damage to the posterior part of Brodmann area 22 in the left hemisphere of the brain where the specialized language skill areas can be found?
16. The leading Soviet linguist of the early 20th Century, Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr, named his most famous and controversial theory, that the Kartvelian languages of the Caucasus area were related to the Semitic languages of the Middle East, after which Biblical character? This theory was officially discredited as a misrepresentation of Marxist theory in an article written by Josef Stalin in 1950.
17. A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that distinguishes meaning in spoken language. What name is given to the smallest unit of “speech” that distinguishes meaning in body language (such as a facial expression or a hand gesture)?
18. Which Sami language that was spoken in the villages of A´kkel and Ču´kksuâl, in the inland parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia is the most recent language to have been classified as extinct, the last native speaker, Marja Sergina, dying on 29th December 2003?
19. Which British linguist coined the terms ‘U’ and ‘non-U’ in 1954 referring to the language usage of the upper classes (U) and the rest of the populace (non-U)?
20. One of the twenty two national languages of India and the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, which is - with approximately 76 million native speakers - the world’s most widely spoken Dravidian language and the third most spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali?
The answers:
1. PHATIC COMMUNION
2. TRYPHIODORUS
3. DALMIN
4. OGONEK
5. GLOSSOLALIA
6. GIUSEPPE PEANO
7. AN ARMY AND A NAVY
8. SIGN LANGUAGE
9. EPENTHESIS
10. BOUSTROPHEDON
11. SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
12. IN THE WORKS OF HOMER
13. HAPAX LEGOMENON
14. VOJVODINA
15. WERNICKE’S APHASIA
16. JAPHETH (JAPHETIC THEORY)
17. KINEME
18. AKKALA SAMI
19. ALAN ROSS
20. TEGULU
Sunday 25 November 2007
THE 57th QUIZ - TENNIS
1. Housed in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, ‘The Death of Hyacinth’ (1752-1753) contains what is considered to be the first pictorial representation of tennis, containing a stringed raquet and three tennis balls. Which Venetian artist painted it?
2. James Van Alen, who died in 1991, founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum at the Newport Casino, Rhode Island, the largest tennis museum in the world, but is best remembered for introducing which rule change into the game?
3. Who was the Norwegian-born American tennis player who won a bronze medal for the women’s singles at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm and is, to date, the only person to have won 8 US Open (then known as US Championship) singles titles?
4. Jaroslav Drobný, who won three Grand Slam singles titles between 1951 and 1954, including his defeat of Ken Rosewall in the final at Wimbledon in 1954, also represented his native Czechoslovakia in which team sport?
5. In 1988, the Australian Open moved from the grass courts at Kooyong to a new Rebound Ace hardcourt venue called Flinders Park (now Melbourne Park). Who is the only person to have won Australian Open singles titles at both venues?
6. The centre court at Roland Garros is named after Philippe Chatrier, a former head of the French Tennis Federation. After which female tennis player, nicknamed ‘La Divine’ by the French press and the winner of 31 Grand Slam titles between 1914 and 1926, is the secondary court named?
7. Which Bostonian won each of the first seven US Open men’s singles titles from 1881 to 1887, not dropping a single set in the entirety of his first three championships, and after his retirement from lawn tennis became the US real tennis champion in 1892?
8. Which Ecuadorian tennis-player of the 1940s and 1950s, born in 1921 and remembered for his bow-legged stance, a result of childhood rickets, was one of the few successful male tennis players to have used a two-handed forehand, a shot that his rival Jack Kramer later claimed was "the greatest single shot ever produced in tennis"?
9. What is the name of the tennis club in Forest Hills, Queens that was home to the US Open from 1915 until it moved to its current home at Flushing Meadows in 1978?
10. Which doubles specialist was the oldest of the ‘Four Musketeers’ who led France to six successive Davis Cup triumphs between 1927 and 1932 and the only one of the four never to win a Grand Slam singles title?
11. Who was John McEnroe’s partner when he won his only mixed-doubles grand slam title at the French Open in 1977?
12. Which sportsman won the Australian Open Mixed Doubles title with fellow Australian Samantha Stosur in 2005 and went on to win his first professional golf title in February this year when he triumphed at the New South Wales PGA Championship on the Von Nida Tour?
13. Fred Perry is famously is the last British player to win the Wimbledon men’s singles title in 1936, but which player, who reached the final the following year before losing to Don Budge, was the last British player to compete in a Wimbledon men’s singles final?
14. What is the name of the Hampshire-based company that developed the Hawk-Eye ball tracking technology, used in tennis and other ball sports, in 2001?
15. Only two qualifiers have ever reached the semi-final stage in the men’s singles at Wimbledon. The first was John McEnroe in 1977. Which Belarusian, who had won the Wimbledon Juniors title in 1996, became the second person to do so in 2000 before losing to the eventual winner, Pete Sampras?
16. Won by Tomáš Berdych in 2007, the Gerry Weber Open is considered one of the most important warm up tournaments in the run-up to Wimbledon. In which German town is it contested?
17. The only person to represent Nazi Germany in a Grand Slam final, which male tennis player was the losing finalist in three successive Wimbledon tournaments between 1935 and 1937, but was jailed in 1938 after being found guilty of a homosexual relationship with a young Jewish actor and singer?
18. What was the name assumed by the professional tennis player Richard Raskind after undergoing a sex change operation in 1975? As a woman she reached the ladies’ doubles final at the US Open in 1977 with Betty Ann Stuart.
19. Although he never reached the Wimbledon men’s singles final, Tim Henman did compete in the final of the warm-up competition, the Queen’s Club Championships, on three occasions. He was defeated by Pete Sampras in the 1999 final and by which player in both the 2001 and 2002 finals?
20. Prior to Mary Pierce in 2000, which Algerian-born tennis player, who defeated the Australian Lesley Turner Bowrey in the 1967 final, was the last person representing France to win the ladies’ singles title at the French Open?
The answers:
1. GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO
2. THE TIE BREAKER
3. MOLLA MALLORY
4. ICE HOCKEY
5. MATS WILANDER
6. SUZANNE LENGLEN
7. RICHARD SEARS
8. PANCHO SEGUERA
9. WEST SIDE TENNIS CLUB
10. JACQUES BRUGNON
11. MARY CARILLO
12. SCOTT DRAPER
13. HENRY ‘BUNNY’ AUSTIN
14. ROKE MANOR RESEARCH LIMITED
15. VLADIMIR VOLTCHKOV
16. HALLE
17. GOTTFRIED VON CRAMM
18. RENÉE RICHARDS
19. LLEYTON HEWITT
20. FRANÇOISE DURR
2. James Van Alen, who died in 1991, founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum at the Newport Casino, Rhode Island, the largest tennis museum in the world, but is best remembered for introducing which rule change into the game?
3. Who was the Norwegian-born American tennis player who won a bronze medal for the women’s singles at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm and is, to date, the only person to have won 8 US Open (then known as US Championship) singles titles?
4. Jaroslav Drobný, who won three Grand Slam singles titles between 1951 and 1954, including his defeat of Ken Rosewall in the final at Wimbledon in 1954, also represented his native Czechoslovakia in which team sport?
5. In 1988, the Australian Open moved from the grass courts at Kooyong to a new Rebound Ace hardcourt venue called Flinders Park (now Melbourne Park). Who is the only person to have won Australian Open singles titles at both venues?
6. The centre court at Roland Garros is named after Philippe Chatrier, a former head of the French Tennis Federation. After which female tennis player, nicknamed ‘La Divine’ by the French press and the winner of 31 Grand Slam titles between 1914 and 1926, is the secondary court named?
7. Which Bostonian won each of the first seven US Open men’s singles titles from 1881 to 1887, not dropping a single set in the entirety of his first three championships, and after his retirement from lawn tennis became the US real tennis champion in 1892?
8. Which Ecuadorian tennis-player of the 1940s and 1950s, born in 1921 and remembered for his bow-legged stance, a result of childhood rickets, was one of the few successful male tennis players to have used a two-handed forehand, a shot that his rival Jack Kramer later claimed was "the greatest single shot ever produced in tennis"?
9. What is the name of the tennis club in Forest Hills, Queens that was home to the US Open from 1915 until it moved to its current home at Flushing Meadows in 1978?
10. Which doubles specialist was the oldest of the ‘Four Musketeers’ who led France to six successive Davis Cup triumphs between 1927 and 1932 and the only one of the four never to win a Grand Slam singles title?
11. Who was John McEnroe’s partner when he won his only mixed-doubles grand slam title at the French Open in 1977?
12. Which sportsman won the Australian Open Mixed Doubles title with fellow Australian Samantha Stosur in 2005 and went on to win his first professional golf title in February this year when he triumphed at the New South Wales PGA Championship on the Von Nida Tour?
13. Fred Perry is famously is the last British player to win the Wimbledon men’s singles title in 1936, but which player, who reached the final the following year before losing to Don Budge, was the last British player to compete in a Wimbledon men’s singles final?
14. What is the name of the Hampshire-based company that developed the Hawk-Eye ball tracking technology, used in tennis and other ball sports, in 2001?
15. Only two qualifiers have ever reached the semi-final stage in the men’s singles at Wimbledon. The first was John McEnroe in 1977. Which Belarusian, who had won the Wimbledon Juniors title in 1996, became the second person to do so in 2000 before losing to the eventual winner, Pete Sampras?
16. Won by Tomáš Berdych in 2007, the Gerry Weber Open is considered one of the most important warm up tournaments in the run-up to Wimbledon. In which German town is it contested?
17. The only person to represent Nazi Germany in a Grand Slam final, which male tennis player was the losing finalist in three successive Wimbledon tournaments between 1935 and 1937, but was jailed in 1938 after being found guilty of a homosexual relationship with a young Jewish actor and singer?
18. What was the name assumed by the professional tennis player Richard Raskind after undergoing a sex change operation in 1975? As a woman she reached the ladies’ doubles final at the US Open in 1977 with Betty Ann Stuart.
19. Although he never reached the Wimbledon men’s singles final, Tim Henman did compete in the final of the warm-up competition, the Queen’s Club Championships, on three occasions. He was defeated by Pete Sampras in the 1999 final and by which player in both the 2001 and 2002 finals?
20. Prior to Mary Pierce in 2000, which Algerian-born tennis player, who defeated the Australian Lesley Turner Bowrey in the 1967 final, was the last person representing France to win the ladies’ singles title at the French Open?
The answers:
1. GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO
2. THE TIE BREAKER
3. MOLLA MALLORY
4. ICE HOCKEY
5. MATS WILANDER
6. SUZANNE LENGLEN
7. RICHARD SEARS
8. PANCHO SEGUERA
9. WEST SIDE TENNIS CLUB
10. JACQUES BRUGNON
11. MARY CARILLO
12. SCOTT DRAPER
13. HENRY ‘BUNNY’ AUSTIN
14. ROKE MANOR RESEARCH LIMITED
15. VLADIMIR VOLTCHKOV
16. HALLE
17. GOTTFRIED VON CRAMM
18. RENÉE RICHARDS
19. LLEYTON HEWITT
20. FRANÇOISE DURR
Saturday 24 November 2007
THE 56th QUIZ - ANCIENT ROME
1. Upon his death in 133BC, Attilus III bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman Empire in an attempt to avoid dynastic disputes between his heirs. However, Rome was slow to claim the kingdom and the pretender Aristonicus, the brother of Attilus, claimed the throne as Eumenes III. He was eventually defeated and captured in 129 BC by a Roman force under Marcus Perperna and executed. What was the name of this Greek kingdom that was subsequently absorbed into the Roman Republic?
2. Fought in November of 82 BC and named after the landmark near which it was fought, what was the name of the final battle at which Sulla secured control of Rome by routing the Samnites led by Pontius Telesinus?
3. Regularly appearing in the Asterix comics, what was the name, perhaps meaning ‘Superior warrior King’, of the chieftain of the Arverni who led the Gauls in their ultimately unsuccessful war against Roman rule under Julius Caesar, being executed some five years after his defeat at the Battle of Alesia?
4. ‘Odysseia’, a Latin version of Homer's ‘Odyssey’, is the best-known work of which Greco-Roman dramatist and poet, regarded as the father of Roman drama and epic poetry?
5. Meaning ‘Greatest Sewer’, what was the Latin name given to the early sewage system of Ancient Rome that was, according to tradition, constructed around 600 BC under the orders of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus?
6. The period following the death of Nero in 68AD is known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Who, on 8th June 68AD, was proclaimed the first of those Emperors?
7. After Emperor Tiberius withdrew to Capri in 26AD, he left which soldier and commander of the Praetorian Guard in control of the state as the de facto ruler of the Empire until his arrest and execution in 31AD on charges of conspiracy against the Emperor?
8. With a name deriving from the Germanic for 'watchful of wealth', who was the Roman general and the first barbarian King of Italy, who deposed the Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476AD?
9. In Ancient Rome, what name was given to the amulet, often made from cotton, leather or gold or silver depending on the wealth of the family, that was given to newborn children to wear around the neck to protect against evil spirits?
10. The popular Roman board game Tabula was played on a board almost identical to that of which modern game, and is therefore considered its direct ancestor?
11. The Pontifex Maximus was the title given to the high priest of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs. Originally very much a religious position it was gradually subsumed into the Imperial office and was last held by which Christian Emperor (who came to power in 367AD) who refused to wear its insignia, which he saw as a sign of paganism?
12. According to Suetonius in ‘Lives of the Twelve Caesars’, the Roman Emperor Caligula, best remembered for his mental instability, possibly brought about by encephalitis, once ordered his soldiers to invade Britain in order to fight which Roman god?
13. Who was the Emperor of Rome when the famous eruption of Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79AD?
14. What was the name of the Jewish leader who led the eponymous revolt against the Roman Empire under Hadrian in 132AD and established a Jewish state of Israel before it was conquered by the Romans three years later?
15. First used by Constantine I, what name was given to the Roman military standard that displayed the Greek letters χ (chi) and ρ (rho), the first two letters of the name of Christ in Greek?
16. Ben Jonson and Henrik Ibsen both wrote plays about which politician of the Roman Republic, best remembered for the conspiracy that bears his name?
17. What was the name of the edict issued by the Roman Emperor Caracalla in 212AD that granted full Roman citizenship to all free men in the Empire, thus removing the long-standing legal distinction between Italians and those from the provinces?
18. Signed in 85BC by Lucius Cornelius Sulla of Rome and the King of Pontus, the Treaty of Dardanos brought which war to an end?
19. Upon finding his body after his death at the Battle of Carrhae in 53BC, the Parthians are said to have poured molten gold down the throat of which Roman general and politician, supposedly symbolising his unhealthy obsession with money?
20. Which son of Marcus Aurelius became Roman Emperor in 180AD making him the first direct successor in a century, breaking the scheme of adoptive successors that had served Rome so well during the period known as the Five Good Emperors?
The answers:
1. PERGAMON
2. BATTLE OF THE COLLINE GATE
3. VERCINGETORIX
4. LIVIUS ANDRONICUS
5. CLOACA MAXIMA
6. GALBA
7. SEJANUS
8. ODOACER (or ODOVACAR)
9. BULLA
10. BACKGAMMON
11. GRATIAN
12. NEPTUNE
13. TITUS
14. SIMON BAR KOKHBA
15. LABARUM
16. CATALINE (or CATALINA)
17. CONSTITUTIO ANTONINIA
18. FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR
19. CRASSUS
20. COMMODUS
2. Fought in November of 82 BC and named after the landmark near which it was fought, what was the name of the final battle at which Sulla secured control of Rome by routing the Samnites led by Pontius Telesinus?
3. Regularly appearing in the Asterix comics, what was the name, perhaps meaning ‘Superior warrior King’, of the chieftain of the Arverni who led the Gauls in their ultimately unsuccessful war against Roman rule under Julius Caesar, being executed some five years after his defeat at the Battle of Alesia?
4. ‘Odysseia’, a Latin version of Homer's ‘Odyssey’, is the best-known work of which Greco-Roman dramatist and poet, regarded as the father of Roman drama and epic poetry?
5. Meaning ‘Greatest Sewer’, what was the Latin name given to the early sewage system of Ancient Rome that was, according to tradition, constructed around 600 BC under the orders of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus?
6. The period following the death of Nero in 68AD is known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Who, on 8th June 68AD, was proclaimed the first of those Emperors?
7. After Emperor Tiberius withdrew to Capri in 26AD, he left which soldier and commander of the Praetorian Guard in control of the state as the de facto ruler of the Empire until his arrest and execution in 31AD on charges of conspiracy against the Emperor?
8. With a name deriving from the Germanic for 'watchful of wealth', who was the Roman general and the first barbarian King of Italy, who deposed the Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476AD?
9. In Ancient Rome, what name was given to the amulet, often made from cotton, leather or gold or silver depending on the wealth of the family, that was given to newborn children to wear around the neck to protect against evil spirits?
10. The popular Roman board game Tabula was played on a board almost identical to that of which modern game, and is therefore considered its direct ancestor?
11. The Pontifex Maximus was the title given to the high priest of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs. Originally very much a religious position it was gradually subsumed into the Imperial office and was last held by which Christian Emperor (who came to power in 367AD) who refused to wear its insignia, which he saw as a sign of paganism?
12. According to Suetonius in ‘Lives of the Twelve Caesars’, the Roman Emperor Caligula, best remembered for his mental instability, possibly brought about by encephalitis, once ordered his soldiers to invade Britain in order to fight which Roman god?
13. Who was the Emperor of Rome when the famous eruption of Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79AD?
14. What was the name of the Jewish leader who led the eponymous revolt against the Roman Empire under Hadrian in 132AD and established a Jewish state of Israel before it was conquered by the Romans three years later?
15. First used by Constantine I, what name was given to the Roman military standard that displayed the Greek letters χ (chi) and ρ (rho), the first two letters of the name of Christ in Greek?
16. Ben Jonson and Henrik Ibsen both wrote plays about which politician of the Roman Republic, best remembered for the conspiracy that bears his name?
17. What was the name of the edict issued by the Roman Emperor Caracalla in 212AD that granted full Roman citizenship to all free men in the Empire, thus removing the long-standing legal distinction between Italians and those from the provinces?
18. Signed in 85BC by Lucius Cornelius Sulla of Rome and the King of Pontus, the Treaty of Dardanos brought which war to an end?
19. Upon finding his body after his death at the Battle of Carrhae in 53BC, the Parthians are said to have poured molten gold down the throat of which Roman general and politician, supposedly symbolising his unhealthy obsession with money?
20. Which son of Marcus Aurelius became Roman Emperor in 180AD making him the first direct successor in a century, breaking the scheme of adoptive successors that had served Rome so well during the period known as the Five Good Emperors?
The answers:
1. PERGAMON
2. BATTLE OF THE COLLINE GATE
3. VERCINGETORIX
4. LIVIUS ANDRONICUS
5. CLOACA MAXIMA
6. GALBA
7. SEJANUS
8. ODOACER (or ODOVACAR)
9. BULLA
10. BACKGAMMON
11. GRATIAN
12. NEPTUNE
13. TITUS
14. SIMON BAR KOKHBA
15. LABARUM
16. CATALINE (or CATALINA)
17. CONSTITUTIO ANTONINIA
18. FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR
19. CRASSUS
20. COMMODUS
THE 55th QUIZ - METEOROLOGY & WEATHER
Partly because I'm concerned I don't know enough about certain subjects (all of them really) and partly because it just seems like a fun idea, I'm going to theme my quizzes for a while. I've picked 100 (arbitrarily chosen) subjects and I'm going to write 20 questions on each. Starting with this one on Meteorology and Weather:
1. Named after the French mathematician and scientist who described it in 1835, what name is given to the apparent deflection of objects moving in a straight line caused by the Earth’s rotation, that is responsible for the direction of the rotation of large hurricanes?
2. During the Vietnam War, Operation Popeye was an American military project that aimed to extend the Monsoon Season over the Ho Chi Minh Trail by seeding the clouds above northern Vietnam with which chemical compound?
3. The hottest air temperature ever recorded was 57.7°C (135.9°F) on the 13th September 1922 in which city in northern Libya?
4. In meteorology, what name is given to the law that states that convergence into a given column of air must be balanced by an equal divergence from that same column of air?
5. The Peru Current is a cold, low salinity ocean current that extends along the West Coast of South America from Northern Peru to the southern tip of Chile. By what name is it better known?
6. Who was the Norwegian meteorologist, considered one of the founders of modern weather forecasting, who founded the Bergen Geophysical Institute in 1917 and wrote there the hugely influential book ‘On the Dynamics of the Circular Vortex with Applications to the Atmosphere and to Atmospheric cows and Wave Motion’?
7. The MJO is an equatorial travelling pattern of anomalous rainfall, observed primarily in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, that is the subject of large-scale on-going study as it is, as yet, not well understood. For what do the letters MJO stand?
8. Often occurring in deserts and other places of flat terrain it is a rotating updraft, that can range in size from half a meter across to over ten meters wide and over one thousand meters high. Navajo Indians refer to one as a chindi (or ghost). In Australia one is called a willy willy. In Egypt it is known as a Fasset El 'Afreet (or ghost’s wind) and in Kenya it is sometimes known as a ngoma cia aka (or woman’s demon). How is this weather phenomenon usually referred to in English?
9. What name is given to the instrument that is used to measure the drop size and velocity of hydrometeors, thus enabling it to distinguish between different types of precipitation such as rain and hail?
10. The Mistral and Bora are famous examples of which kind of (usually cold) wind, its name deriving from the Greek for ‘going downhill’, that blows down an incline such as a mountain or a glacier?
11. Introduced by scientists at the University of Chicago in 1971, what is measured on the Fujita Scale?
12. Coined by the MIT scientist Kerry Emanuel in 1996, what name is given to a hypothetical tropical cyclone, with wind speeds of over 500 kilometres an hour and an enormous lifespan, that could form if ocean temperatures reached around 50° Celsius as a result of global warming, asteroid impact or a large volcanic eruption?
13. Named after the archipelago in the Arctic Ocean where it was first described by Gerrit de Veer, a member of Willem Barents' expedition into the polar region, what name is given to the polar mirage, caused by the refraction of sunlight between atmospheric thermoclines, that gives the effect that the Sun is rising earlier than it actually should?
14. Once thought simply to be a product of folklore, Lluvia de Peces or Rain of Fish is an annual phenomenon, in which hundreds of living freshwater fish are found on land after heavy rainfall, taking place between May and June in which country? It is thought that the fish do not ‘rain’ but, instead, are ‘washed up’ from subterranean rivers by the heavy rainfall, giving the impression that they have come down in the rain.
15. The first recorded theory for the existence of what is attributed to the Greek philosopher Aristotle who believed that it was caused by the collision of clouds?
16. Named for its scent, what do we call the reddish-pink snow, caused by the presence of Chlamydomonas nivalis, a species of algae, that is common during the summer in alpine and coastal polar regions?
17. What is the name of the current chief executive of the Met Office who replaced Mark Hutchinson earlier this year?
18. Also known as a fire cloud, what scientific name is given to the dense cumuliform cloud that is produced by the intense heating of the air from the surface, most commonly induced by forest fires but most easily recognizable as the cloud formed above a volcano during an eruption?
19. Elaborated on by his student Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī, the Persian astronomer Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, author of the ‘Pearly Crown’, is generally held to be the first scientist to give a correct explanation for the formation of which meteorological phenomenon?
20. The warmest temperature ever recording during snowfall was 8.3 °C (47 °F) at which American airport?
The answers:
1. CORIOLIS EFFECT
2. SILVER IODIDE
3. AL ‘AZIZIYAH
4. DINE’S COMPENSATION
5. HUMBOLDT CURRENT
6. VILHELM BJERKNES
7. MADDEN-JULIAN OSCILLATION
8. DUST DEVIL
9. DISDROMETER
10. KATABATIC WIND
11. TORNADO INTENSITY
12. HYPERCANE
13. NOVAYA ZEMLYA EFFECT
14. HONDURAS
15. THUNDER
16. WATERMELON SNOW
17. JOHN HIRST
18. PYROCUMULUS
19. RAINBOW
20. LA GUARDIA
1. Named after the French mathematician and scientist who described it in 1835, what name is given to the apparent deflection of objects moving in a straight line caused by the Earth’s rotation, that is responsible for the direction of the rotation of large hurricanes?
2. During the Vietnam War, Operation Popeye was an American military project that aimed to extend the Monsoon Season over the Ho Chi Minh Trail by seeding the clouds above northern Vietnam with which chemical compound?
3. The hottest air temperature ever recorded was 57.7°C (135.9°F) on the 13th September 1922 in which city in northern Libya?
4. In meteorology, what name is given to the law that states that convergence into a given column of air must be balanced by an equal divergence from that same column of air?
5. The Peru Current is a cold, low salinity ocean current that extends along the West Coast of South America from Northern Peru to the southern tip of Chile. By what name is it better known?
6. Who was the Norwegian meteorologist, considered one of the founders of modern weather forecasting, who founded the Bergen Geophysical Institute in 1917 and wrote there the hugely influential book ‘On the Dynamics of the Circular Vortex with Applications to the Atmosphere and to Atmospheric cows and Wave Motion’?
7. The MJO is an equatorial travelling pattern of anomalous rainfall, observed primarily in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, that is the subject of large-scale on-going study as it is, as yet, not well understood. For what do the letters MJO stand?
8. Often occurring in deserts and other places of flat terrain it is a rotating updraft, that can range in size from half a meter across to over ten meters wide and over one thousand meters high. Navajo Indians refer to one as a chindi (or ghost). In Australia one is called a willy willy. In Egypt it is known as a Fasset El 'Afreet (or ghost’s wind) and in Kenya it is sometimes known as a ngoma cia aka (or woman’s demon). How is this weather phenomenon usually referred to in English?
9. What name is given to the instrument that is used to measure the drop size and velocity of hydrometeors, thus enabling it to distinguish between different types of precipitation such as rain and hail?
10. The Mistral and Bora are famous examples of which kind of (usually cold) wind, its name deriving from the Greek for ‘going downhill’, that blows down an incline such as a mountain or a glacier?
11. Introduced by scientists at the University of Chicago in 1971, what is measured on the Fujita Scale?
12. Coined by the MIT scientist Kerry Emanuel in 1996, what name is given to a hypothetical tropical cyclone, with wind speeds of over 500 kilometres an hour and an enormous lifespan, that could form if ocean temperatures reached around 50° Celsius as a result of global warming, asteroid impact or a large volcanic eruption?
13. Named after the archipelago in the Arctic Ocean where it was first described by Gerrit de Veer, a member of Willem Barents' expedition into the polar region, what name is given to the polar mirage, caused by the refraction of sunlight between atmospheric thermoclines, that gives the effect that the Sun is rising earlier than it actually should?
14. Once thought simply to be a product of folklore, Lluvia de Peces or Rain of Fish is an annual phenomenon, in which hundreds of living freshwater fish are found on land after heavy rainfall, taking place between May and June in which country? It is thought that the fish do not ‘rain’ but, instead, are ‘washed up’ from subterranean rivers by the heavy rainfall, giving the impression that they have come down in the rain.
15. The first recorded theory for the existence of what is attributed to the Greek philosopher Aristotle who believed that it was caused by the collision of clouds?
16. Named for its scent, what do we call the reddish-pink snow, caused by the presence of Chlamydomonas nivalis, a species of algae, that is common during the summer in alpine and coastal polar regions?
17. What is the name of the current chief executive of the Met Office who replaced Mark Hutchinson earlier this year?
18. Also known as a fire cloud, what scientific name is given to the dense cumuliform cloud that is produced by the intense heating of the air from the surface, most commonly induced by forest fires but most easily recognizable as the cloud formed above a volcano during an eruption?
19. Elaborated on by his student Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī, the Persian astronomer Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, author of the ‘Pearly Crown’, is generally held to be the first scientist to give a correct explanation for the formation of which meteorological phenomenon?
20. The warmest temperature ever recording during snowfall was 8.3 °C (47 °F) at which American airport?
The answers:
1. CORIOLIS EFFECT
2. SILVER IODIDE
3. AL ‘AZIZIYAH
4. DINE’S COMPENSATION
5. HUMBOLDT CURRENT
6. VILHELM BJERKNES
7. MADDEN-JULIAN OSCILLATION
8. DUST DEVIL
9. DISDROMETER
10. KATABATIC WIND
11. TORNADO INTENSITY
12. HYPERCANE
13. NOVAYA ZEMLYA EFFECT
14. HONDURAS
15. THUNDER
16. WATERMELON SNOW
17. JOHN HIRST
18. PYROCUMULUS
19. RAINBOW
20. LA GUARDIA
Thursday 15 November 2007
THE 54th QUIZ
Back again. here goes:
1. Which 20th Century philosopher, known for his oft-quoted witty remarks, declared in Volume III of 'The Life of Reason' that "Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit"?
2. Although it is sometimes called the flying lemur it is not a lemur nor can it fly. This large tree-dwelling mammal of the family Cynocephalidae and order Dermoptera is thought to be mankind's closest extant non-primate relative. What is it called?
3. The Grand Canal is the longest artificial waterway in the world. It flows for approximately 1800 kilometres from Beijing into which eastern Chinese province?
4. Also known as the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea, which naval battle of 1944 was the largest in history in terms of tonnage of ships and in terms of the area in which the battle took place?
5. In Chinese it is known as 青海湖, which literally means 'Blue Sea Lake'. It is the largest lake in China. In English, it is known by the same name as the central Chinese province in which it lies. How is it known in English?
6. Which Hungarian painter and photographer was commissioned by the film producer and director Alexander Korda to design the special effects for the 1936 science fiction film 'Things to Come'?
7. What is the name of the village in Gyeonggi province on the de facto border between North and South Korea in which the armistice that ended the Korean War was signed in 1953?
8. Which American mathematician, meteorologist and pioneer of chaos theory, who served as a weather forecaster for the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, discovered the strange attractor notion and coined the term "butterfly effect"?
9. Which small inlet on the Pacific coast of northern California is named after the Spanish explorer who discovered it in 1775 and was, famously, the setting of the Alfred Hitchcock film 'The Birds'?
10. 'Aegyptiaca' (History of Egypt) is the best-known work by which Egyptian historian of the 3rd Century BC?
11. Bamidbar, meaning 'in the wilderness', is the Hebrew name for which book of the Old Testament?
12. "(2n+1)H2 + nCO → CnH(2n+2) + nH2O" is the chemical equation that describes which process, named after the German scientists who developed it, for converting coal or natural gas into a synthetic petroleum substitute?
13. Charles Dickens' novels 'The Old Curiosity Shop' and 'Barnaby Rudge' both appeared originally in serial form in which short-lived weekly periodical that was published between 1840 and 1841?
14. The New York police arrested the entire crew and cast of which play at its first public performance in 1905 because of its frank portrayal of prostitution?
15. Who did Adolf Hitler appoint as the temporary leader of the Nazi Party whilst he was incarcerated in Landsberg Prison after the unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch?
16. What was the name of Hitler's German Shepherd, given as a gift to him by Martin Bormann in 1941, that was killed by Hitler on the day of his own death when he tested the cyanide tablet that he and Eva Braun were then to take on the dog?
17. Who was the lover and accomplice of Charles Starkweather, the spree killer who murdered 11 people in Nebraska, Missouri and Wyoming in 1957 and 1958? At fourteen she is the youngest person ever to be tried for first degree murder in the United States and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
18. Deriving ultimately from the Quechua for 'splendid foundation', what was the name of the legendary first king of the Kingdom of Cuzco in Inca mythology?
19. Who was 'Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office' in Downing Street under Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher before his retirement in 1987 when he was eventually replaced by Humphrey?
20. Directed by Ruggero Deodato and based on a screenplay written by Gianfranco Clerici and Giorgio Stegani, which 1980 film, that tells the story of a team of four documentarians who head deep into the jungle to make a documentary on the primitive native tribes that live there, was banned in Italy - and its makers arrested - when rumours were circulated that the actors were actually killed to record the murder scenes? These rumours were later proved to be false but the slaying of several animals in the film was proven and the film was banned in several dozen countries.
21. Named after the American female golfer who dominated her sport in the 1920s, what name is given to the trophy awarded to the LPGA player with the lowest seasonal scoring average?
22. Who became the first (and to date, only) Argentinian to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, doing so in 1970 "for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates"?
23. The American vocal group Manhattan Transfer took their name from a 1925 novel of the same name written by which Chicago-born writer of Madeiran Portuguese descent?
24. Although better known in connection with a different sport, who was elected the first President of the English Bowling Association in 1903?
25. Built on land owned by the Prince of Wales, the 'new village' of Poundbury lies on the outskirts of which market town?
26. What is the name of the parasitic volcano of the Santa Ana Volcano in El Salvador that erupted almost continuously from its formation in 1770 until 1958 and, in 1926, was responsible for the deaths of 56 people when an eruption buried the village of Matazano?
27. And which Salvadoran revolutionary guerrilla organization (now an established political party) was established in 1932 in the wake of the economic devastation caused by previous volcanic eruptions and was named after a rebel leader who was executed by the U.S.-organized National Guard that year?
28. First contested between Portuguese football league teams this season, which company sponsors the newly created Portuguese League Cup?
29. And which much-hyped 18-year old scored his first goal for Benfica in the Portuguese League Cup against Estrela da Amadora in September?
30. An example of which breed of dog, named after its city of origin and often compared to an Ewok from 'Star Wars', can be seen between the two human figures in Jan van Eyck's 1434 masterpiece 'The Arnolfini Portrait'?
And the answers:
1. GEORGE SANTAYANA
2. COLUGO (or COBEGO)
3. ZHEJIANG
4. BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF
5. QINGHAI LAKE
6. LÁSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY
7. PANMUNJEOM
8. EDWARD NORTON LORENZ
9. BODEGA BAY
10. MANETHO
11. NUMBERS
12. FISCHER-TROPSCH PROCESS
13. MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK
14. MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION
15. ALFRED ROSENBERG
16. BLONDI
17. CARIL ANN FUGATE
18. MANCO CAPAC
19. WILBERFORCE
20. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST
21. VARE TROPHY
22. LUIS FEDERICO LELOIR
23. JOHN DOS PASSOS
24. W.G. GRACE
25. DORCHESTER
26. IZALCO
27. FARABUNDO MARTÍ NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT
28. CARLSBERG
29. FREDDY ADU
30. THE GRIFFON BRUXELLOIS (or BRUSSELS GRIFFON)
1. Which 20th Century philosopher, known for his oft-quoted witty remarks, declared in Volume III of 'The Life of Reason' that "Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit"?
2. Although it is sometimes called the flying lemur it is not a lemur nor can it fly. This large tree-dwelling mammal of the family Cynocephalidae and order Dermoptera is thought to be mankind's closest extant non-primate relative. What is it called?
3. The Grand Canal is the longest artificial waterway in the world. It flows for approximately 1800 kilometres from Beijing into which eastern Chinese province?
4. Also known as the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea, which naval battle of 1944 was the largest in history in terms of tonnage of ships and in terms of the area in which the battle took place?
5. In Chinese it is known as 青海湖, which literally means 'Blue Sea Lake'. It is the largest lake in China. In English, it is known by the same name as the central Chinese province in which it lies. How is it known in English?
6. Which Hungarian painter and photographer was commissioned by the film producer and director Alexander Korda to design the special effects for the 1936 science fiction film 'Things to Come'?
7. What is the name of the village in Gyeonggi province on the de facto border between North and South Korea in which the armistice that ended the Korean War was signed in 1953?
8. Which American mathematician, meteorologist and pioneer of chaos theory, who served as a weather forecaster for the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, discovered the strange attractor notion and coined the term "butterfly effect"?
9. Which small inlet on the Pacific coast of northern California is named after the Spanish explorer who discovered it in 1775 and was, famously, the setting of the Alfred Hitchcock film 'The Birds'?
10. 'Aegyptiaca' (History of Egypt) is the best-known work by which Egyptian historian of the 3rd Century BC?
11. Bamidbar, meaning 'in the wilderness', is the Hebrew name for which book of the Old Testament?
12. "(2n+1)H2 + nCO → CnH(2n+2) + nH2O" is the chemical equation that describes which process, named after the German scientists who developed it, for converting coal or natural gas into a synthetic petroleum substitute?
13. Charles Dickens' novels 'The Old Curiosity Shop' and 'Barnaby Rudge' both appeared originally in serial form in which short-lived weekly periodical that was published between 1840 and 1841?
14. The New York police arrested the entire crew and cast of which play at its first public performance in 1905 because of its frank portrayal of prostitution?
15. Who did Adolf Hitler appoint as the temporary leader of the Nazi Party whilst he was incarcerated in Landsberg Prison after the unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch?
16. What was the name of Hitler's German Shepherd, given as a gift to him by Martin Bormann in 1941, that was killed by Hitler on the day of his own death when he tested the cyanide tablet that he and Eva Braun were then to take on the dog?
17. Who was the lover and accomplice of Charles Starkweather, the spree killer who murdered 11 people in Nebraska, Missouri and Wyoming in 1957 and 1958? At fourteen she is the youngest person ever to be tried for first degree murder in the United States and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
18. Deriving ultimately from the Quechua for 'splendid foundation', what was the name of the legendary first king of the Kingdom of Cuzco in Inca mythology?
19. Who was 'Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office' in Downing Street under Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher before his retirement in 1987 when he was eventually replaced by Humphrey?
20. Directed by Ruggero Deodato and based on a screenplay written by Gianfranco Clerici and Giorgio Stegani, which 1980 film, that tells the story of a team of four documentarians who head deep into the jungle to make a documentary on the primitive native tribes that live there, was banned in Italy - and its makers arrested - when rumours were circulated that the actors were actually killed to record the murder scenes? These rumours were later proved to be false but the slaying of several animals in the film was proven and the film was banned in several dozen countries.
21. Named after the American female golfer who dominated her sport in the 1920s, what name is given to the trophy awarded to the LPGA player with the lowest seasonal scoring average?
22. Who became the first (and to date, only) Argentinian to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, doing so in 1970 "for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates"?
23. The American vocal group Manhattan Transfer took their name from a 1925 novel of the same name written by which Chicago-born writer of Madeiran Portuguese descent?
24. Although better known in connection with a different sport, who was elected the first President of the English Bowling Association in 1903?
25. Built on land owned by the Prince of Wales, the 'new village' of Poundbury lies on the outskirts of which market town?
26. What is the name of the parasitic volcano of the Santa Ana Volcano in El Salvador that erupted almost continuously from its formation in 1770 until 1958 and, in 1926, was responsible for the deaths of 56 people when an eruption buried the village of Matazano?
27. And which Salvadoran revolutionary guerrilla organization (now an established political party) was established in 1932 in the wake of the economic devastation caused by previous volcanic eruptions and was named after a rebel leader who was executed by the U.S.-organized National Guard that year?
28. First contested between Portuguese football league teams this season, which company sponsors the newly created Portuguese League Cup?
29. And which much-hyped 18-year old scored his first goal for Benfica in the Portuguese League Cup against Estrela da Amadora in September?
30. An example of which breed of dog, named after its city of origin and often compared to an Ewok from 'Star Wars', can be seen between the two human figures in Jan van Eyck's 1434 masterpiece 'The Arnolfini Portrait'?
And the answers:
1. GEORGE SANTAYANA
2. COLUGO (or COBEGO)
3. ZHEJIANG
4. BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF
5. QINGHAI LAKE
6. LÁSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY
7. PANMUNJEOM
8. EDWARD NORTON LORENZ
9. BODEGA BAY
10. MANETHO
11. NUMBERS
12. FISCHER-TROPSCH PROCESS
13. MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK
14. MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION
15. ALFRED ROSENBERG
16. BLONDI
17. CARIL ANN FUGATE
18. MANCO CAPAC
19. WILBERFORCE
20. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST
21. VARE TROPHY
22. LUIS FEDERICO LELOIR
23. JOHN DOS PASSOS
24. W.G. GRACE
25. DORCHESTER
26. IZALCO
27. FARABUNDO MARTÍ NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT
28. CARLSBERG
29. FREDDY ADU
30. THE GRIFFON BRUXELLOIS (or BRUSSELS GRIFFON)
Thursday 8 November 2007
THE 53rd QUIZ
Another:
1. Skansen Parowozownia Kościerzyna is a famous museum located in Kościerzyna in Poland that is dedicated to which subject?
2. In which city is the Italian newspaper 'La Stampa' published?
3. Located near the Austrian border in the town of Grainau, what is the name of Germany's highest mountain?
4. Which river, that rises in Belarus, flows through Kernavė, the medieval capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the current capital, Vilnius?
5. Which 1981 film adaptation of Klaus Mann's novel of the same name, directed by István Szabó, was awarded the 1981 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film?
6. Widely regarded as the greatest comic poem in the history of Irish literature, what is the English translation of the title of Brian Merriman's 1000 line poem that has the Irish title 'Cúirt An Mheán Oíche'?
7. Meaning 'jumps in the mouth' in Italian, what is the name of the dish, popular in Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Greece that is made of veal, chicken or pork and topped with prosciutto and sage?
8. Who served as the last King of Italy for just over a month in 1946?
9. The Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen starred as which villain in the 2006 Bond film 'Casino Royale'?
10. The Baradla cave, the largest stalactite cave of Europe, is to be found in the Aggtelek National Park in which country?
11. Which pianist and composer, who wrote the opera 'Manru', served as the third Prime Minister of Poland in 1919?
12. Which Babylonian King ordered the construction of the Ishtar Gate in around 575BC?
13. Also known as The Halászbástya, what is the name of the neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style terrace designed by Frigyes Schulek in the late 19th Century that lies on the Buda bank of the Danube? Its seven towers are said to represent the seven Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in the 9th Century.
14. Which creature features on all of Finland's euro coins from one to fifty cents?
15. Which creature features on Germany's one and two euro coins?
16. And which creature features on Greece's one euro coin?
17. Dating from the 13th Century, what is the oldest city in Finland that served as the nation's capital between 1809 and 1812?
18. Which Christmas carol, with lyrics by Father Josef Mohr and a melody composed by Franz X. Gruber, was first performed in the Nicola-Kirche in Oberndorf in Austria on Christmas Day in 1818?
19. Which town in Swedish lapland is best known for its hotel made entirely from ice, the world's first such hotel?
20. Which Bulgarian physicist, who died in 1995, is best remembered as the inventor of the first automatic electronic digital computer?
21. Which Czech educator and scientist wrote 'Didactica Magna', in which he was one of the first people to put forward the concept of universal education?
22. First published in the 1850s, what is the name of the epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald that is often considered to be the Estonian national epic?
23. What is the largest city on the River Guadiana on the Iberian Peninsula?
24. Which German film director and playwright directed the 1999 documentary 'Buena Vista Social Club'?
25. Who is the Tunisian-born librettist who worked with the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg to create the musicals 'Les Misérables' (1980), 'Miss Saigon' (1989) and 'The Pirate Queen' (2006)?
26. What was the name of the satirical novel by Jaroslav Hašek, that was left unfinished at his death in 1923 and illustrated by Josef Lada, that tells the story of a Czech army veteran?
27. Which brother of a famous female singer wrote the novel 'Cowboys and Indians' that was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize in 1991?
28. Taking its name from the Dutch for 'eel lake', which town in the Netherlands is home to the world's largest flower auction and is thus sometimes described as the flower capital of the world?
29. In 1530, which island did Pope Clement VIII grant to the Order of Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem?
30. Which Spanish cyclist was announced as the winner of the 2007 Tour de France upon the disqualification of Michael Rasmussen?
The answers:
1. RAILWAYS
2. TURIN
3. ZUGSPITZE
4. NERIS
5. MEPHISTO
6. THE MIDNIGHT COURT
7. SALTIMBOCCA
8. UMBERTO II
9. LE CHIFFRE
10. HUNGARY
11. IGNACY JAN PADEREWSKI
12. NEBUCHADNEZZAR II
13. FISHERMAN'S BASTION
14. LION
15. EAGLE
16. OWL
17. TURKU
18. SILENT NIGHT
19. JUKKASJÄRVI
20. JOHN VINCENT ATANASOFF
21. COMENIUS (JOHN AMOS COMENIUS)
22. KALEVIPOEG
23. BADAJOZ
24. WIM WENDERS
25. ALAIN BOUBLIL
26. THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK (or in full THE FATEFUL ADVENTURES OF THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK DURING THE WORLD WAR)
27. JOSEPH O'CONNOR
28. AALSMEER
29. MALTA
30. ALBERTO CONTADOR
1. Skansen Parowozownia Kościerzyna is a famous museum located in Kościerzyna in Poland that is dedicated to which subject?
2. In which city is the Italian newspaper 'La Stampa' published?
3. Located near the Austrian border in the town of Grainau, what is the name of Germany's highest mountain?
4. Which river, that rises in Belarus, flows through Kernavė, the medieval capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the current capital, Vilnius?
5. Which 1981 film adaptation of Klaus Mann's novel of the same name, directed by István Szabó, was awarded the 1981 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film?
6. Widely regarded as the greatest comic poem in the history of Irish literature, what is the English translation of the title of Brian Merriman's 1000 line poem that has the Irish title 'Cúirt An Mheán Oíche'?
7. Meaning 'jumps in the mouth' in Italian, what is the name of the dish, popular in Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Greece that is made of veal, chicken or pork and topped with prosciutto and sage?
8. Who served as the last King of Italy for just over a month in 1946?
9. The Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen starred as which villain in the 2006 Bond film 'Casino Royale'?
10. The Baradla cave, the largest stalactite cave of Europe, is to be found in the Aggtelek National Park in which country?
11. Which pianist and composer, who wrote the opera 'Manru', served as the third Prime Minister of Poland in 1919?
12. Which Babylonian King ordered the construction of the Ishtar Gate in around 575BC?
13. Also known as The Halászbástya, what is the name of the neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style terrace designed by Frigyes Schulek in the late 19th Century that lies on the Buda bank of the Danube? Its seven towers are said to represent the seven Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in the 9th Century.
14. Which creature features on all of Finland's euro coins from one to fifty cents?
15. Which creature features on Germany's one and two euro coins?
16. And which creature features on Greece's one euro coin?
17. Dating from the 13th Century, what is the oldest city in Finland that served as the nation's capital between 1809 and 1812?
18. Which Christmas carol, with lyrics by Father Josef Mohr and a melody composed by Franz X. Gruber, was first performed in the Nicola-Kirche in Oberndorf in Austria on Christmas Day in 1818?
19. Which town in Swedish lapland is best known for its hotel made entirely from ice, the world's first such hotel?
20. Which Bulgarian physicist, who died in 1995, is best remembered as the inventor of the first automatic electronic digital computer?
21. Which Czech educator and scientist wrote 'Didactica Magna', in which he was one of the first people to put forward the concept of universal education?
22. First published in the 1850s, what is the name of the epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald that is often considered to be the Estonian national epic?
23. What is the largest city on the River Guadiana on the Iberian Peninsula?
24. Which German film director and playwright directed the 1999 documentary 'Buena Vista Social Club'?
25. Who is the Tunisian-born librettist who worked with the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg to create the musicals 'Les Misérables' (1980), 'Miss Saigon' (1989) and 'The Pirate Queen' (2006)?
26. What was the name of the satirical novel by Jaroslav Hašek, that was left unfinished at his death in 1923 and illustrated by Josef Lada, that tells the story of a Czech army veteran?
27. Which brother of a famous female singer wrote the novel 'Cowboys and Indians' that was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize in 1991?
28. Taking its name from the Dutch for 'eel lake', which town in the Netherlands is home to the world's largest flower auction and is thus sometimes described as the flower capital of the world?
29. In 1530, which island did Pope Clement VIII grant to the Order of Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem?
30. Which Spanish cyclist was announced as the winner of the 2007 Tour de France upon the disqualification of Michael Rasmussen?
The answers:
1. RAILWAYS
2. TURIN
3. ZUGSPITZE
4. NERIS
5. MEPHISTO
6. THE MIDNIGHT COURT
7. SALTIMBOCCA
8. UMBERTO II
9. LE CHIFFRE
10. HUNGARY
11. IGNACY JAN PADEREWSKI
12. NEBUCHADNEZZAR II
13. FISHERMAN'S BASTION
14. LION
15. EAGLE
16. OWL
17. TURKU
18. SILENT NIGHT
19. JUKKASJÄRVI
20. JOHN VINCENT ATANASOFF
21. COMENIUS (JOHN AMOS COMENIUS)
22. KALEVIPOEG
23. BADAJOZ
24. WIM WENDERS
25. ALAIN BOUBLIL
26. THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK (or in full THE FATEFUL ADVENTURES OF THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK DURING THE WORLD WAR)
27. JOSEPH O'CONNOR
28. AALSMEER
29. MALTA
30. ALBERTO CONTADOR
Wednesday 7 November 2007
THE 52nd QUIZ
Another:
1. Meaning 'hollow of the quern', what is the name of the Neolithic portal tomb in the Burren in County Clare?
2. Which Spanish explorer, credited with the discovery of the Mississippi River, died in modern-day Lake Village in Arkansas in 1542?
3. What is the English name for Tír na nÓg, the most popular of the Otherworlds of Irish mythology?
4. 'In varietate concordia' is the motto of which organisation?
5. According to Christian tradition, John the Apostle wrote the Book of Revelation while exiled on which island in the Aegean Sea?
6. Which Swedish canal links Gothenburg on the west coast with Söderköping on the Baltic Sea?
7. Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper' is to be found in the refectory of the convent of which church and World Heritage Site in Milan?
8. 'The Sonnet' (1839) and 'Choosing the Wedding Gown' (1846) are among the most famous works of which Irish-born genre painter?
9. The construction of the Arch of Titus, that commemorates the sacking of Jerusalem and is located on the Via Sacra in Rome, was ordered by which Emperor?
10. Which Danish author's most famous work, internationally, is the 1992 novel 'Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow'?
11. Manufactured by the V&S Group, Absolut Vodka is a brand produced in which country?
12. Published in 1819, which historical novel by Sir Walter Scott was used as the basis of Gaetano Donizetti's most famous bel canto opera?
13. Which Spanish missionary, who according to the Catholic Church converted more people to Christianity than anyone since St Paul, died on Shangchuan Island off China in 1552?
14. In 2000, Italy lost their first ever Six Nations rugby match against which country?
15. What is the name of Cyprus' largest mountain range that has its highest peak at Mount Olympus?
16. Signed in 1995, the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina is better known as the Dayton Agreement, named after the town of Dayton near the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in which American state?
17. Singers Football Club took its name from the bicycle manufacturer whose employees founded the club in 1883. To what did the club change its name in 1898?
18. The Irish actress Harriet Smithson was the first wife of which French composer and the inspiration for his 'Symphonie fantastique'?
19. Which Pritzker Prize-winning architect designed the large metal and glass pyramid that serves as the main entrance to the Musée du Louvre in Paris?
20. Which is the largest city on the Danish island of Funen and the third-largest city in Denmark as a whole?
21. The Rhône and Saône rivers converge in centre of which French city?
22. Jasna Góra is a Pauline Fathers monastery and pilgrimage site located in which country?
23. Located in Switzerland, what is the name of the largest waterfalls in mainland Europe, measuring 150 metres wide and 23 metres high?
24. What was the name of the Sevilla and Spanish international footballer who died on the 28th August 2007, three days after suffering a series of cardiac arrests during a league game against Getafe?
25. And what was the name of the Benfica and Hungarian international footballer who died in similar circumstances after suffering a cardiac arrest whilst playing against Vitória S.C on January 25th 2004?
26. The masterpiece of the Italian painter and architect Giotto is often said to be his decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in which Italian city?
27. Which 16th Century painter and architect wrote the 'Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects', a collection of biographies of famous artists?
28. Which Italian Renaissance architect designed the dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence?
29. Which 15th Century mathematician and architect wrote the short story 'The Fat Woodworker', that recounts a practical joke devised by Brunelleschi?
30. Which German physician founded and named homeopathy, the controversial form of complememntary medicine, in 1807?
31. Which novel by the Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder, published in 1991 and considered a basic guide to philosophy, consists primarily of a set of dialogues between Sophie Amundsen and the mysterious Alberto Knox?
32. Which Spanish mystic and writer, one of only three female Doctors of the Church - with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Thérèse of Lisieux - died on the night in October 1582 that the Catholic countries switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, her date of death, therefore, variously being given as October 4th or October 15th?
33. The Finnish liqueur Lakkalikööri is traditionally made from which berry, Rubus chamaemorus, sometimes also known as the bakeapple?
34. Who was the youngest daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, of the House of Wittelsbach and Elizabeth Stuart who would have acceded to the British throne upon the death of Queen Anne had she not died herself just three weeks before Anne?
35. Which German national daily newspaper, published by the Axel Springer AG company, was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces?
36. Lake Peipus is a large fresh water lake that lies on the border between which two countries?
37. In September 2000, the stock exchanges of Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels merged to form which pan-European stock exchange that also has subsidiaries in Portugal and the UK?
38. The Pena National Palace and the Castelo dos Mouros are two of the main attractions in which Portuguese town that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on account of its large array of 19th century Romantic architecture?
39. What is the name of the prize awarded by the European Parliament each December to honour individuals or organizations who had dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedoms that was first awarded jointly to Nelson Mandela and Anatoly Marchenko in 1988?
40. If 'The Second of May 1808' is 'The Charge of the Mamelukes', then what is 'The Third of May 1808'?
And the answers:
1. POULNABRONE DOLMEN
2. HERNANDO DE SOTO
3. LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH (or LAND OF THE EVER-YOUNG)
4. EUROPEAN UNION
5. PATMOS
6. GÖTA CANAL
7. SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE
8. WILLIAM MULREADY
9. DOMITIAN
10. PETER HØEG
11. SWEDEN
12. THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR
13. ST FRANCIS XAVIER
14. SCOTLAND
15. TROODOS MOUNTAINS
16. OHIO
17. COVENTRY CITY FC
18. HECTOR BERLIOZ
19. I.M. PEI
20. ODENSE
21. LYON
22. POLAND
23. RHINE FALLS (or RHEINFALL)
24. ANTONIO PUERTA
25. MIKLÓS FEHÉR
26. PADUA
27. GIORGIO VASARI
28. FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI
29. ANTONIO MANETTI
30. SAMUEL HAHNEMANN
31. SOPHIE'S WORLD
32. TERESA OF ÁVILA
33. CLOUDBERRY
34. SOPHIA OF HANOVER
35. DIE WELT (THE WORLD)
36. RUSSIA & ESTONIA
37. EURONEXT
38. SINTRA
39. SAKHAROV PRIZE
40. THE EXECUTION OF THE DEFENDERS OF MADRID (by GOYA)
1. Meaning 'hollow of the quern', what is the name of the Neolithic portal tomb in the Burren in County Clare?
2. Which Spanish explorer, credited with the discovery of the Mississippi River, died in modern-day Lake Village in Arkansas in 1542?
3. What is the English name for Tír na nÓg, the most popular of the Otherworlds of Irish mythology?
4. 'In varietate concordia' is the motto of which organisation?
5. According to Christian tradition, John the Apostle wrote the Book of Revelation while exiled on which island in the Aegean Sea?
6. Which Swedish canal links Gothenburg on the west coast with Söderköping on the Baltic Sea?
7. Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper' is to be found in the refectory of the convent of which church and World Heritage Site in Milan?
8. 'The Sonnet' (1839) and 'Choosing the Wedding Gown' (1846) are among the most famous works of which Irish-born genre painter?
9. The construction of the Arch of Titus, that commemorates the sacking of Jerusalem and is located on the Via Sacra in Rome, was ordered by which Emperor?
10. Which Danish author's most famous work, internationally, is the 1992 novel 'Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow'?
11. Manufactured by the V&S Group, Absolut Vodka is a brand produced in which country?
12. Published in 1819, which historical novel by Sir Walter Scott was used as the basis of Gaetano Donizetti's most famous bel canto opera?
13. Which Spanish missionary, who according to the Catholic Church converted more people to Christianity than anyone since St Paul, died on Shangchuan Island off China in 1552?
14. In 2000, Italy lost their first ever Six Nations rugby match against which country?
15. What is the name of Cyprus' largest mountain range that has its highest peak at Mount Olympus?
16. Signed in 1995, the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina is better known as the Dayton Agreement, named after the town of Dayton near the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in which American state?
17. Singers Football Club took its name from the bicycle manufacturer whose employees founded the club in 1883. To what did the club change its name in 1898?
18. The Irish actress Harriet Smithson was the first wife of which French composer and the inspiration for his 'Symphonie fantastique'?
19. Which Pritzker Prize-winning architect designed the large metal and glass pyramid that serves as the main entrance to the Musée du Louvre in Paris?
20. Which is the largest city on the Danish island of Funen and the third-largest city in Denmark as a whole?
21. The Rhône and Saône rivers converge in centre of which French city?
22. Jasna Góra is a Pauline Fathers monastery and pilgrimage site located in which country?
23. Located in Switzerland, what is the name of the largest waterfalls in mainland Europe, measuring 150 metres wide and 23 metres high?
24. What was the name of the Sevilla and Spanish international footballer who died on the 28th August 2007, three days after suffering a series of cardiac arrests during a league game against Getafe?
25. And what was the name of the Benfica and Hungarian international footballer who died in similar circumstances after suffering a cardiac arrest whilst playing against Vitória S.C on January 25th 2004?
26. The masterpiece of the Italian painter and architect Giotto is often said to be his decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in which Italian city?
27. Which 16th Century painter and architect wrote the 'Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects', a collection of biographies of famous artists?
28. Which Italian Renaissance architect designed the dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence?
29. Which 15th Century mathematician and architect wrote the short story 'The Fat Woodworker', that recounts a practical joke devised by Brunelleschi?
30. Which German physician founded and named homeopathy, the controversial form of complememntary medicine, in 1807?
31. Which novel by the Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder, published in 1991 and considered a basic guide to philosophy, consists primarily of a set of dialogues between Sophie Amundsen and the mysterious Alberto Knox?
32. Which Spanish mystic and writer, one of only three female Doctors of the Church - with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Thérèse of Lisieux - died on the night in October 1582 that the Catholic countries switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, her date of death, therefore, variously being given as October 4th or October 15th?
33. The Finnish liqueur Lakkalikööri is traditionally made from which berry, Rubus chamaemorus, sometimes also known as the bakeapple?
34. Who was the youngest daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, of the House of Wittelsbach and Elizabeth Stuart who would have acceded to the British throne upon the death of Queen Anne had she not died herself just three weeks before Anne?
35. Which German national daily newspaper, published by the Axel Springer AG company, was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces?
36. Lake Peipus is a large fresh water lake that lies on the border between which two countries?
37. In September 2000, the stock exchanges of Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels merged to form which pan-European stock exchange that also has subsidiaries in Portugal and the UK?
38. The Pena National Palace and the Castelo dos Mouros are two of the main attractions in which Portuguese town that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on account of its large array of 19th century Romantic architecture?
39. What is the name of the prize awarded by the European Parliament each December to honour individuals or organizations who had dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedoms that was first awarded jointly to Nelson Mandela and Anatoly Marchenko in 1988?
40. If 'The Second of May 1808' is 'The Charge of the Mamelukes', then what is 'The Third of May 1808'?
And the answers:
1. POULNABRONE DOLMEN
2. HERNANDO DE SOTO
3. LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH (or LAND OF THE EVER-YOUNG)
4. EUROPEAN UNION
5. PATMOS
6. GÖTA CANAL
7. SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE
8. WILLIAM MULREADY
9. DOMITIAN
10. PETER HØEG
11. SWEDEN
12. THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR
13. ST FRANCIS XAVIER
14. SCOTLAND
15. TROODOS MOUNTAINS
16. OHIO
17. COVENTRY CITY FC
18. HECTOR BERLIOZ
19. I.M. PEI
20. ODENSE
21. LYON
22. POLAND
23. RHINE FALLS (or RHEINFALL)
24. ANTONIO PUERTA
25. MIKLÓS FEHÉR
26. PADUA
27. GIORGIO VASARI
28. FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI
29. ANTONIO MANETTI
30. SAMUEL HAHNEMANN
31. SOPHIE'S WORLD
32. TERESA OF ÁVILA
33. CLOUDBERRY
34. SOPHIA OF HANOVER
35. DIE WELT (THE WORLD)
36. RUSSIA & ESTONIA
37. EURONEXT
38. SINTRA
39. SAKHAROV PRIZE
40. THE EXECUTION OF THE DEFENDERS OF MADRID (by GOYA)
Tuesday 6 November 2007
THE 51st QUIZ
Another:
1. Which Swedish film director, who made several music videos for ABBA and the film 'Abba: The Movie', had his first international success in 1985 with 'My Life as a Dog' before working on such American movies as 'What’s Eating Gilbert Grape', 'The Cider House Rules', 'Chocolat' and 'The Shipping News'?
2. Which pomace wine, obtained by fermenting must, is distilled to make the Turkish anise-flavoured liqueuer, raki?
3. Which 6th Century Italian saint was named the patron saint of Europe by Pope Paul VI in 1964?
4. Which English football club, who currently play in the Northern Premier League Division One South, are the world’s oldest football club, having been founded in 1857?
5. Originally built to be a Mosque, what is the name of the Roman Catholic cathedral in Córdoba, construction of which began in 784AD under the supervision of the Muslim Emir Abd ar-Rahman I?
6. Named after the King who ordered its construction in 1357, the Charles Bridge was built to replace the Judith Bridge which was destroyed by a flood in 1342. Which European river does it span?
7. Which Norwegian marathon runner won the silver medal in the marathon at the 1984 Olympic Games but is best remembered for winning the New York City Marathon nine times between 1978 and 1988?
8. Hautuumaasaari and Ukonkivi are the two best known islands in which Finnish lake, the country’s third largest?
9. Which Dutch film director is best known for directing Hollywood movies such as 'Robocop', 'Total Recall' and 'Basic Instinct'?
10. Which city, the capital and the largest city of the Swabia administrative region of Bavaria and located at the confluence of the Wertach and Lech rivers, was founded by the Romans in 15 BC and became the capital of the Roman province of Raetia in around 120 AD?
11. Who was the First secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party between 1954 and 1989?
12. Commissioned in 1664 by Ferdinand Maria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, in which city could you visit the Baroque Nymphenburg Palace?
13. Who was the Swiss football pioneer, who was club captain at FC Basel and also played rugby for Athletique Union in Lyon, who led the group that founded Barcelona Football Club in 1899?
14. Founded by King Alfonso IX in 1218, which is the oldest university in Spain?
15. Which well-known Irish song takes its lyrics from a poem by Patrick Kavanagh entitled 'Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away', that was first published in the Irish Press in October 1946?
16. Dividing the Tyrrhenian Sea from the western Mediterranean Sea, what is the name of the strait that lies between Corsica and Sardinia?
17. How are Lough Leane, Muckross Lake and Upper Lake collectively known?
18. Roberto Benigni took the title of his 1997 film 'Life is Beautiful' from the following letter written in 1940: "Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full." Who wrote it?
19. What are the second largest cities of the three Baltic states: a) Estonia b) Latvia c) Lithuania?
20. What is the name of the village, halfway between the towns of Vannes and Quiberon in Brittany, that is famous for its extensive collection of Neolithic menhirs, said to have been a Roman legion turned to stone by Merlin?
21. The historical region of Bukovina is currently split between which two European countries?
22. Which Irish bishop and saint built the monastery of Clonmacnoise on the River Shannon in County Offaly in 545 AD?
23. Home to several art galleries, the Palazzo Pitti stands on the banks of which river?
24. Which Polish town on the River Raba is home to the world’s oldest operating salt mine that was built in the middle of the 13th Century?
25. Which Spanish cave and UNESCO World Heritage Site, located near the town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, is famous for its Upper Paleolithic cave paintings of animals and human hands?
26. In which European city could you visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum, completed in 2006?
27. Which prominent Irish Unionist was also a famous barrister and led the Marquess of Queensbury's defence against the libel action brought by Oscar Wilde?
28. For which film did the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci win the Academy Award for Best Director in 1988?
29. The Customs House, the Four Courts and King's Inns, all in Dublin, were all designed by which 18th/19th Century London-born architect of Huguenot descent?
30. Which country is Europe's largest producer of rose oil?
The answers:
1. LASSE HALLSTRÖM
2. SUMA
3. ST BENEDICT (OF NURSIA)
4. SHEFFIELD FC
5. MEZQUITA
6. VLTAVA
7. GRETE WAITZ
8. LAKE INARI
9. PAUL VERHOEVEN
10. AUGSBURG
11. TODOR ZHIKOV
12. MUNICH
13. JOAN GAMPER (aka HANS GAMPER)
14. UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA
15. ON RAGLAN ROAD
16. STRAIT OF BONIFACIO
17. LAKES OF KILLARNEY
18. LEON TROTSKY
19. a) TARTU b) DAUGAVPILS c) KAUNAS
20. CARNAC
21. ROMANIA & UKRAINE
22. SAINT CIARÁN
23. ARNO
24. BOCHNIA
25. ALTAMIRA
26. STUTTGART
27. EDWARD CARSON
28. THE LAST EMPEROR
29. JAMES GANDON
30. BULGARIA
1. Which Swedish film director, who made several music videos for ABBA and the film 'Abba: The Movie', had his first international success in 1985 with 'My Life as a Dog' before working on such American movies as 'What’s Eating Gilbert Grape', 'The Cider House Rules', 'Chocolat' and 'The Shipping News'?
2. Which pomace wine, obtained by fermenting must, is distilled to make the Turkish anise-flavoured liqueuer, raki?
3. Which 6th Century Italian saint was named the patron saint of Europe by Pope Paul VI in 1964?
4. Which English football club, who currently play in the Northern Premier League Division One South, are the world’s oldest football club, having been founded in 1857?
5. Originally built to be a Mosque, what is the name of the Roman Catholic cathedral in Córdoba, construction of which began in 784AD under the supervision of the Muslim Emir Abd ar-Rahman I?
6. Named after the King who ordered its construction in 1357, the Charles Bridge was built to replace the Judith Bridge which was destroyed by a flood in 1342. Which European river does it span?
7. Which Norwegian marathon runner won the silver medal in the marathon at the 1984 Olympic Games but is best remembered for winning the New York City Marathon nine times between 1978 and 1988?
8. Hautuumaasaari and Ukonkivi are the two best known islands in which Finnish lake, the country’s third largest?
9. Which Dutch film director is best known for directing Hollywood movies such as 'Robocop', 'Total Recall' and 'Basic Instinct'?
10. Which city, the capital and the largest city of the Swabia administrative region of Bavaria and located at the confluence of the Wertach and Lech rivers, was founded by the Romans in 15 BC and became the capital of the Roman province of Raetia in around 120 AD?
11. Who was the First secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party between 1954 and 1989?
12. Commissioned in 1664 by Ferdinand Maria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, in which city could you visit the Baroque Nymphenburg Palace?
13. Who was the Swiss football pioneer, who was club captain at FC Basel and also played rugby for Athletique Union in Lyon, who led the group that founded Barcelona Football Club in 1899?
14. Founded by King Alfonso IX in 1218, which is the oldest university in Spain?
15. Which well-known Irish song takes its lyrics from a poem by Patrick Kavanagh entitled 'Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away', that was first published in the Irish Press in October 1946?
16. Dividing the Tyrrhenian Sea from the western Mediterranean Sea, what is the name of the strait that lies between Corsica and Sardinia?
17. How are Lough Leane, Muckross Lake and Upper Lake collectively known?
18. Roberto Benigni took the title of his 1997 film 'Life is Beautiful' from the following letter written in 1940: "Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full." Who wrote it?
19. What are the second largest cities of the three Baltic states: a) Estonia b) Latvia c) Lithuania?
20. What is the name of the village, halfway between the towns of Vannes and Quiberon in Brittany, that is famous for its extensive collection of Neolithic menhirs, said to have been a Roman legion turned to stone by Merlin?
21. The historical region of Bukovina is currently split between which two European countries?
22. Which Irish bishop and saint built the monastery of Clonmacnoise on the River Shannon in County Offaly in 545 AD?
23. Home to several art galleries, the Palazzo Pitti stands on the banks of which river?
24. Which Polish town on the River Raba is home to the world’s oldest operating salt mine that was built in the middle of the 13th Century?
25. Which Spanish cave and UNESCO World Heritage Site, located near the town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, is famous for its Upper Paleolithic cave paintings of animals and human hands?
26. In which European city could you visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum, completed in 2006?
27. Which prominent Irish Unionist was also a famous barrister and led the Marquess of Queensbury's defence against the libel action brought by Oscar Wilde?
28. For which film did the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci win the Academy Award for Best Director in 1988?
29. The Customs House, the Four Courts and King's Inns, all in Dublin, were all designed by which 18th/19th Century London-born architect of Huguenot descent?
30. Which country is Europe's largest producer of rose oil?
The answers:
1. LASSE HALLSTRÖM
2. SUMA
3. ST BENEDICT (OF NURSIA)
4. SHEFFIELD FC
5. MEZQUITA
6. VLTAVA
7. GRETE WAITZ
8. LAKE INARI
9. PAUL VERHOEVEN
10. AUGSBURG
11. TODOR ZHIKOV
12. MUNICH
13. JOAN GAMPER (aka HANS GAMPER)
14. UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA
15. ON RAGLAN ROAD
16. STRAIT OF BONIFACIO
17. LAKES OF KILLARNEY
18. LEON TROTSKY
19. a) TARTU b) DAUGAVPILS c) KAUNAS
20. CARNAC
21. ROMANIA & UKRAINE
22. SAINT CIARÁN
23. ARNO
24. BOCHNIA
25. ALTAMIRA
26. STUTTGART
27. EDWARD CARSON
28. THE LAST EMPEROR
29. JAMES GANDON
30. BULGARIA
Monday 5 November 2007
THE 50th QUIZ
Hello, once again. here we go:
1. Occurring in November 1520, The Swedish Bloodbath is the name given to the invasion of Sweden by Danish forces under the command of which King?
2. Which peak of the Monte Rosa massif is, at 15,203 feet (4,634 metres), the highest point in Switzerland?
3. What replaced the rouble as the Ukrainian unit of currency in 1992 before itself being replaced by the hryvnia in 1996?
4. The Lateran Palace that was the home of Popes from 324 to 1309 was located on which of Rome’s seven hills?
5. Which 20th Century Estonian minimalist composer, born in 1935, is best known for his choral works such as 'Kanon Pokajanen' (1997)?
6. King Michael I, who abdicated in 1947, was the last king of which country?
7. Which island, 15 kilometres off the west coast of County Kerry, is an important nature reserve and is home to a Celtic monastery built in 588 AD that became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996?
8. What was erected in Rome in 315 AD to commemorate the defeat of Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28th 312 AD?
9. Which artist, the brother of a famous poet, produced the first cartoon strip version of Sherlock Holmes in 1894?
10. Home to 212 bronze and granite sculptures created by the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, the Vigeland Sculpture Park is found inside which larger public park in Oslo?
11. With 139 caps, the Australian rugby union scrum half George Gregan is the most capped player in the history of the sport. In which African country was he born?
12. What is the name of the operetta, first performed in 1843, composed by Michael Balfe and with a libretto by Alfred Bunn that is loosely based on Cervantes' 'La Gitanilla'?
13. By what single-word name is Rosemary Scallon, who became the Member of the European Parliament for Connacht-Ulster in 1999 (a post she held until 2004), better known?
14. Which Spanish national daily newspaper was founded in Madrid on January 1st 1903 by the journalist and playwright Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena?
15. Dax 30 is the name given to the Blue Chip stock market index consisting of the thirty major German companies trading on the stock exchange of which city?
16. In which country could you visit the 138 metre deep Macocha Gorge, the deepest of its kind in Central Europe?
17. The Andy Merrigan Cup is awarded in Ireland to the winners of the All-Ireland Championship in which sport?
18. What was the name of the female theatrical producer and manager who took control of the Old Vic in 1912 and the Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1931?
19. What is the common name of the dicarboxylic acid that was historically known as spirit of amber?
20. Which Swedish director of such films as 'He Who Gets Slapped' (1924) and 'The Wind' (1928) also later tried his hand at acting? One of his most notable roles was as Professor Isak Borg in Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 classic 'Wild Strawberries'.
21. The Lithuanian town of Bernotai, the Estonian island of Saaremaa, the Slovakian village of Krahule, the Ukrainian town of Rakhiv, the Polish town of Suchowola and the Belarussian city of Babruysk all claim which distinction that can truly only belong to one of them?
22. Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Pope, overlooks which volcanic crater lake?
23. The village of Glendalough, founded by the 6th Century hermit priest St Kevin, is located in which Irish county?
24. The 'Triumph of Galatea' is a fresco masterpiece completed in 1512 by the Italian painter Raphael for which Roman villa?
25. Erki Nool was elected to the Estonian Parliament in March 2007 having won gold medals at the European Championships in 1998 and the Summer Olympics in 2000. In which athletics event did he compete?
26. Shaped by the river of the same name that flows into the Baltic Sea, in which country would you find the Gauja National Park?
27. Which Swedish industrialist, best remembered for his invention of the AGA cooker, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1912 for his invention of the sun valve?
28. Which Pope founded the Pontifical Swiss Guard, which has acted as the personal bodyguard of the Pope ever since, in 1506?
29. With approximately 104 million speakers worldwide, which is the mostly widely spoken language that is not the official langauge of any country (although it does have some official status within parts of some countries)?
30. At the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris the Englishwoman Charlotte Cooper became the first woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal for her victory in which sport?
So to the answers:
1. CHRISTIAN II
2. DUFOURSPITZE
3. KARBOVANETS
4. CAELIAN HILL
5. ARVO PÄRT
6. ROMANIA
7. SKELLIG MICHAEL
8. ARCH OF CONSTANTINE
9. JACK BUTLER YEATS
10. FROGNER PARK
11. ZAMBIA
12. THE BOHEMIAN GIRL
13. DANA
14. ABC
15. FRANKFURT
16. CZECH REPUBLIC
17. GAELIC FOOTBALL
18. LILIAN BAYLISS
19. SUCCINIC ACID
20. VICTOR SJÖSTRÖM
21. THAT THEY LIE AT THE GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE OF EUROPE
22. LAKE ALBANO
23. WICKLOW
24. VILLA FARNESINA
25. DECATHLON
26. LATVIA
27. GUSTAF DALÉN
28. JULIUS II
29. PUNJABI
30. TENNIS
1. Occurring in November 1520, The Swedish Bloodbath is the name given to the invasion of Sweden by Danish forces under the command of which King?
2. Which peak of the Monte Rosa massif is, at 15,203 feet (4,634 metres), the highest point in Switzerland?
3. What replaced the rouble as the Ukrainian unit of currency in 1992 before itself being replaced by the hryvnia in 1996?
4. The Lateran Palace that was the home of Popes from 324 to 1309 was located on which of Rome’s seven hills?
5. Which 20th Century Estonian minimalist composer, born in 1935, is best known for his choral works such as 'Kanon Pokajanen' (1997)?
6. King Michael I, who abdicated in 1947, was the last king of which country?
7. Which island, 15 kilometres off the west coast of County Kerry, is an important nature reserve and is home to a Celtic monastery built in 588 AD that became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996?
8. What was erected in Rome in 315 AD to commemorate the defeat of Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28th 312 AD?
9. Which artist, the brother of a famous poet, produced the first cartoon strip version of Sherlock Holmes in 1894?
10. Home to 212 bronze and granite sculptures created by the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, the Vigeland Sculpture Park is found inside which larger public park in Oslo?
11. With 139 caps, the Australian rugby union scrum half George Gregan is the most capped player in the history of the sport. In which African country was he born?
12. What is the name of the operetta, first performed in 1843, composed by Michael Balfe and with a libretto by Alfred Bunn that is loosely based on Cervantes' 'La Gitanilla'?
13. By what single-word name is Rosemary Scallon, who became the Member of the European Parliament for Connacht-Ulster in 1999 (a post she held until 2004), better known?
14. Which Spanish national daily newspaper was founded in Madrid on January 1st 1903 by the journalist and playwright Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena?
15. Dax 30 is the name given to the Blue Chip stock market index consisting of the thirty major German companies trading on the stock exchange of which city?
16. In which country could you visit the 138 metre deep Macocha Gorge, the deepest of its kind in Central Europe?
17. The Andy Merrigan Cup is awarded in Ireland to the winners of the All-Ireland Championship in which sport?
18. What was the name of the female theatrical producer and manager who took control of the Old Vic in 1912 and the Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1931?
19. What is the common name of the dicarboxylic acid that was historically known as spirit of amber?
20. Which Swedish director of such films as 'He Who Gets Slapped' (1924) and 'The Wind' (1928) also later tried his hand at acting? One of his most notable roles was as Professor Isak Borg in Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 classic 'Wild Strawberries'.
21. The Lithuanian town of Bernotai, the Estonian island of Saaremaa, the Slovakian village of Krahule, the Ukrainian town of Rakhiv, the Polish town of Suchowola and the Belarussian city of Babruysk all claim which distinction that can truly only belong to one of them?
22. Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Pope, overlooks which volcanic crater lake?
23. The village of Glendalough, founded by the 6th Century hermit priest St Kevin, is located in which Irish county?
24. The 'Triumph of Galatea' is a fresco masterpiece completed in 1512 by the Italian painter Raphael for which Roman villa?
25. Erki Nool was elected to the Estonian Parliament in March 2007 having won gold medals at the European Championships in 1998 and the Summer Olympics in 2000. In which athletics event did he compete?
26. Shaped by the river of the same name that flows into the Baltic Sea, in which country would you find the Gauja National Park?
27. Which Swedish industrialist, best remembered for his invention of the AGA cooker, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1912 for his invention of the sun valve?
28. Which Pope founded the Pontifical Swiss Guard, which has acted as the personal bodyguard of the Pope ever since, in 1506?
29. With approximately 104 million speakers worldwide, which is the mostly widely spoken language that is not the official langauge of any country (although it does have some official status within parts of some countries)?
30. At the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris the Englishwoman Charlotte Cooper became the first woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal for her victory in which sport?
So to the answers:
1. CHRISTIAN II
2. DUFOURSPITZE
3. KARBOVANETS
4. CAELIAN HILL
5. ARVO PÄRT
6. ROMANIA
7. SKELLIG MICHAEL
8. ARCH OF CONSTANTINE
9. JACK BUTLER YEATS
10. FROGNER PARK
11. ZAMBIA
12. THE BOHEMIAN GIRL
13. DANA
14. ABC
15. FRANKFURT
16. CZECH REPUBLIC
17. GAELIC FOOTBALL
18. LILIAN BAYLISS
19. SUCCINIC ACID
20. VICTOR SJÖSTRÖM
21. THAT THEY LIE AT THE GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE OF EUROPE
22. LAKE ALBANO
23. WICKLOW
24. VILLA FARNESINA
25. DECATHLON
26. LATVIA
27. GUSTAF DALÉN
28. JULIUS II
29. PUNJABI
30. TENNIS
Friday 2 November 2007
THE 49th QUIZ
And some more:
1. Francesinha is a dish made from wet-cured ham, pork sausages and steak covered with cheese and tomato and beer sauce that originated in which European city?
2. Which work, a series of sculptures cast in marble and bronze, by the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi sold for $27.5 million in 2005, a record for a sculpture sold at auction?
3. La Pérouse Strait separates Hokkaidō from which Russian island?
4. Which Indian chess grandmaster is the current World Champion having won the title in Mexico City earlier this year? He had previously held the title from 2000-2002, when he became the first ever Indian World Chess Champion.
5. At which racecourse is the Irish Grand National held annually?
6. Of which country did Napoleon say “Why, it’s a model republic!” when asked why he did not attempt to invade it?
7. The Cuban Missile Crisis began when Khruschev began installing nuclear missiles in Cuba in response to the United States installing Jupiter missiles in which country?
8. The Kingdom of Vannius, home to the Quadi tribe in the First Century, was located in which modern-day European country?
9. Which river starts at Fontibre in Cantabria and ends in a delta on the Mediterranean Sea in Tarragona?
10. The potentially fatal disease pellagra, that has symptoms including dermatitis, diarrhea, insomnia and dementia, is caused by a dietary deficiency of which vitamin?
11. Which brother of Napoleon served as King of Holland from 1806 until 1810?
12. At 3,103,200 km², which is the largest of the 21 Russian Republics and also the largest sub-national governing body by area in the world?
13. And with a population of 4,104,000, which is the largest of the 21 Russian Republics by population?
14. Which country will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first half of 2008?
15. Which Portuguese novelist and playwright, author of 'The Gospel According to Jesus Christ' and the 2004 work 'Seeing' was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998?
16. Which island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska is the westernmost point of the United States?
17. By what Italian name was the city of Nice officially known prior to its cession to France in 1860?
18. Who was the Spanish Renaissance Roman Catholic philosopher and theologian, remembered for his influential theories regarding international law, who founded the intellectual school of thought known as the School of Salamanca in the early 16th Century?
19. Imaqliq, Nunarbuk and Ratmanov Island are all alternative names for which island in the Bering Strait?
20. Considered one of the biggest upsets in international football history, which country did the Faroe Islands' national football team defeat 1-0 in their first ever competitive match in 1990?
21. Which 16th Century English author wrote the plays 'Supposes' and 'Jocasta', both published in 1566?
22. Which town, located at the confluence of the Tagus and Jarama rivers just south of Madrid, derives its name from the Basque for 'valley of thorns'?
23. What is the common name for the 1642 painting that is properly known as 'The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'?
24. Revolutions of the second half of the 20th and early 21st Centuries were often given memorable names. In which countries did the following Revolutions take place?: a) October Revolution (1964); b) Carnation Revolution (1974); c) Saur Revolution (1978); d) Velvet Revolution (1989); e) Log Revolution (1990-1995); f) Bulldozer Revolution (2000); g) Rose Revolution (2003); h) Orange Revolution (2004); i) Cedar Revolution (2005); j) Tulip Revolution (2005)
25. Which city in Eastern Europe, older than Rome, Athens or Carthage, was renamed Philippopolis (The city of Philip) by Philip of Macedon and known to the Romans as Trimontium (City of Three Hills) and described by the satirist Lucian as "The largest and most beautiful of all cities"?
26. Volcán de Fuego is an active volcano that erupted in August 2007 resulting in the evacuation of several families but no reported deaths. In which country is it to be found?
27. Who was the fascist politician who became the first President of the Slovak State in 1939, a post that he kept until April 1945? He was hanged by the Czechoslovak authorities in April 1947.
28. Which European city stands between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs?
29. Which Roman Stoic philosopher is credited with writing the satirical work 'The Pumpkinification of Claudius', probably in reaction to Claudius' decision to banish him to Corsica?
30. 'Catechismus' and 'Abecedarium' were two books published by the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar in 1550. They are notable as they were the first books to be printed in which language?
The answers:
1. PORTO (OPORTO)
2. BIRD IN SPACE
3. SAKHALIN
4. VISWANATHAN ANAND
5. FAIRYHOUSE
6. SAN MARINO
7. TURKEY
8. SLOVAKIA
9. EBRO
10. VITAMIN B3 (NIACIN)
11. LOUIS BONAPARTE
12. SAKHA REPUBLIC (or YAKUTIA)
13. BASHKORTOSTAN (or BASHKIRIA)
14. SLOVENIA
15. JOSÉ SARAMAGO
16. ATTU ISLAND
17. NIZZA
18. FRANCISCO DE VITORIA
19. BIG DIOMEDE ISLAND
20. AUSTRIA
21. GEORGE GASCOIGNE
22. ARANJUEZ
23. THE NIGHT WATCH
24. a) SUDAN b) PORTUGAL c) AFGHANISTAN d) CZECHOSLOVAKIA e) CROATIA f) YUGOSLAVIA/SERBIA g) GEORGIA h) UKRAINE i) LEBANON j) KYRGYZSTAN
25. PLOVDIV
26. GUATEMALA
27. JOZEF TISO
28. BARCELONA
29. SENECA THE YOUNGER
30. SLOVENIAN
1. Francesinha is a dish made from wet-cured ham, pork sausages and steak covered with cheese and tomato and beer sauce that originated in which European city?
2. Which work, a series of sculptures cast in marble and bronze, by the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi sold for $27.5 million in 2005, a record for a sculpture sold at auction?
3. La Pérouse Strait separates Hokkaidō from which Russian island?
4. Which Indian chess grandmaster is the current World Champion having won the title in Mexico City earlier this year? He had previously held the title from 2000-2002, when he became the first ever Indian World Chess Champion.
5. At which racecourse is the Irish Grand National held annually?
6. Of which country did Napoleon say “Why, it’s a model republic!” when asked why he did not attempt to invade it?
7. The Cuban Missile Crisis began when Khruschev began installing nuclear missiles in Cuba in response to the United States installing Jupiter missiles in which country?
8. The Kingdom of Vannius, home to the Quadi tribe in the First Century, was located in which modern-day European country?
9. Which river starts at Fontibre in Cantabria and ends in a delta on the Mediterranean Sea in Tarragona?
10. The potentially fatal disease pellagra, that has symptoms including dermatitis, diarrhea, insomnia and dementia, is caused by a dietary deficiency of which vitamin?
11. Which brother of Napoleon served as King of Holland from 1806 until 1810?
12. At 3,103,200 km², which is the largest of the 21 Russian Republics and also the largest sub-national governing body by area in the world?
13. And with a population of 4,104,000, which is the largest of the 21 Russian Republics by population?
14. Which country will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first half of 2008?
15. Which Portuguese novelist and playwright, author of 'The Gospel According to Jesus Christ' and the 2004 work 'Seeing' was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998?
16. Which island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska is the westernmost point of the United States?
17. By what Italian name was the city of Nice officially known prior to its cession to France in 1860?
18. Who was the Spanish Renaissance Roman Catholic philosopher and theologian, remembered for his influential theories regarding international law, who founded the intellectual school of thought known as the School of Salamanca in the early 16th Century?
19. Imaqliq, Nunarbuk and Ratmanov Island are all alternative names for which island in the Bering Strait?
20. Considered one of the biggest upsets in international football history, which country did the Faroe Islands' national football team defeat 1-0 in their first ever competitive match in 1990?
21. Which 16th Century English author wrote the plays 'Supposes' and 'Jocasta', both published in 1566?
22. Which town, located at the confluence of the Tagus and Jarama rivers just south of Madrid, derives its name from the Basque for 'valley of thorns'?
23. What is the common name for the 1642 painting that is properly known as 'The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'?
24. Revolutions of the second half of the 20th and early 21st Centuries were often given memorable names. In which countries did the following Revolutions take place?: a) October Revolution (1964); b) Carnation Revolution (1974); c) Saur Revolution (1978); d) Velvet Revolution (1989); e) Log Revolution (1990-1995); f) Bulldozer Revolution (2000); g) Rose Revolution (2003); h) Orange Revolution (2004); i) Cedar Revolution (2005); j) Tulip Revolution (2005)
25. Which city in Eastern Europe, older than Rome, Athens or Carthage, was renamed Philippopolis (The city of Philip) by Philip of Macedon and known to the Romans as Trimontium (City of Three Hills) and described by the satirist Lucian as "The largest and most beautiful of all cities"?
26. Volcán de Fuego is an active volcano that erupted in August 2007 resulting in the evacuation of several families but no reported deaths. In which country is it to be found?
27. Who was the fascist politician who became the first President of the Slovak State in 1939, a post that he kept until April 1945? He was hanged by the Czechoslovak authorities in April 1947.
28. Which European city stands between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs?
29. Which Roman Stoic philosopher is credited with writing the satirical work 'The Pumpkinification of Claudius', probably in reaction to Claudius' decision to banish him to Corsica?
30. 'Catechismus' and 'Abecedarium' were two books published by the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar in 1550. They are notable as they were the first books to be printed in which language?
The answers:
1. PORTO (OPORTO)
2. BIRD IN SPACE
3. SAKHALIN
4. VISWANATHAN ANAND
5. FAIRYHOUSE
6. SAN MARINO
7. TURKEY
8. SLOVAKIA
9. EBRO
10. VITAMIN B3 (NIACIN)
11. LOUIS BONAPARTE
12. SAKHA REPUBLIC (or YAKUTIA)
13. BASHKORTOSTAN (or BASHKIRIA)
14. SLOVENIA
15. JOSÉ SARAMAGO
16. ATTU ISLAND
17. NIZZA
18. FRANCISCO DE VITORIA
19. BIG DIOMEDE ISLAND
20. AUSTRIA
21. GEORGE GASCOIGNE
22. ARANJUEZ
23. THE NIGHT WATCH
24. a) SUDAN b) PORTUGAL c) AFGHANISTAN d) CZECHOSLOVAKIA e) CROATIA f) YUGOSLAVIA/SERBIA g) GEORGIA h) UKRAINE i) LEBANON j) KYRGYZSTAN
25. PLOVDIV
26. GUATEMALA
27. JOZEF TISO
28. BARCELONA
29. SENECA THE YOUNGER
30. SLOVENIAN
Tuesday 30 October 2007
THE 48th QUIZ
After a great deal of time writing questions for a couple of other sources, I'm back. Here's today's offering:
1. What begins: "Monsieur le Président, Me permettez-vous, dans ma gratitude pour le bienveillant accueil que vous m'avez fait un jour, d'avoir le souci de votre juste gloire et de vous dire que votre étoile, si heureuse jusqu'ici, est menacée de la plus honteuse, de la plus ineffaçable des taches?"
2. Eglise St. Louis en L’Isle is a Parisian church situated on which island in the Seine?
3. The St Elizabeth's Flood of November 1421 killed between 2,000 and 10,000 villagers in which modern-day European country?
4. Who was the French economist, thought by many to have been the chief architect of European Unity, who created the majority of what became known as the Schuman Plan?
5. Located on the Norwegian-administered Jan Mayen island in the Arctic Ocean, what is the name of the world's northernmost active volcano?
6. The famous 15th Century explorer Prince Henry the Navigator was the son of which Portuguese King?
7. Considered the foremost Dutch lanscape painter, which 17th Century artist is remembered for 'Beintheim Castle' (1653) and 'Tower Mill at Wijk bij Duurstede'(1670) among other works?
8. Which German film director first came to worldwide attention with the release of his film 'Das Arche Noah Prinzip' that opened the Berlin Film Festival in 1984 and has since gained greater fame with the Hollywood blockbusters 'Independence Day', 'Godzilla' and 'The Day After Tomorrow'?
9. Named after the town in Denmark where they are located, what name is given to the two Tenth Century carved rune stones, the first erected by King Gorm the Old and the scond by his son Harald Bluetooth?
10. According to Norse mythology, which lake was created when Gefjun removed the land that used to lie there and transported it to Denmark, thus creating the island of Zealand?
11. Built in 1854, the Spanish Arch stands on the banks of which river that flows through Galway?
12. Which country became the first all-amateur team to qualify for a Rugby World Cup since the start of the professional era when it appeared at the 2007 World Cup?
13. What name is given to the series of wars and battles that took place in Holland between the bourgeoisie and the ruling nobility from 1350 to 1490?
14. Biskupin is an archaeological site (with a life-size model of an Iron Age fortified settlement) that was excavated in 1934 and located in which European country?
15. Often considered to be the Polish national dish, what name is given to the cabbage and meat stew that is traditionally said to have been introduced to Poland by the Lithuanian prince Władysław II in the 14th Century?
16. In which lake could you find the island and World Heritage site Kizhi (or Kizhi Pogost), home to a large number of wooden churches and houses?
17. Much publicised in the case of Madeleine McCann, what name is given to the status of 'named suspect' in the Portuguese legal system?
18. Which German city, home to a famous monument of Emperor William I on horseback, stands at the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Moselle?
19. Built between 3300 and 2900 BC, which passage grave of the Brú na Bóinne complex of tombs in County Meath is known in Irish as Dún Fhearghusa and is said to be the oldest surviving building in the world?
20. The trophy awarded to the winners of the European Football Championship is named after which French football administrator who first proposed the idea for such a tournament in 1927?
21. Established in 1386, which is the oldest university in Germany?
22. The dormant volcanoes Nemrut and Süphan are to be found in which saline and soda lake, the largest in Turkey?
23. Which European republic was proclaimed on January 19th 1795 after William V fled to England?
24. Established in February 1991, the Visegrád Group is an alliance of which four European countries set up for the purpose of furthering their European integration?
25. Which of Krzysztof Kieślowski's 'Three Colours' trilogy was made primarily in Polish? The other two being made in French.
26. The Netherlands is divided into 12 administrative regions, each under the control of a Commissioner of the Queen with the exception of one region that is under the control of a Gouverneur, emphasising its perceived 'un-Dutch' character. Which region?
27. Who was the Portuguese nobleman and explorer who led the expeditions that conquered Goa, Ormuz and Malacca in the early 16th Century and was rewarded by his appointment as the first Duke of Goa by King Manuel I?
28. Also known as Thera, what is the name of the archipelago of volcanic islands in the Aegean Sea that contains the southernmost point in the Cyclades?
29. Fernando Ribeiro is the lead vocalist with which popular Portuguese goth metal band, popular throughout Europe, that released the 2006 album 'Memorial' which won them an MTV Europe Award in the 'Best Portuguese Act' category?
30. Typically containing fish (or sometimes chicken) and vegetables, what is the name of the traditional stew of northern Belgium, the name of which is derived from the Dutch for 'watery mess'?
And the answers:
1. J'ACCUSE
2. ÎLE SAINT-LOUIS
3. THE NETHERLANDS
4. JEAN MONNET
5. BEERENBERG
6. JOHN I (or JOÃO I)
7. JACOB ISAAKSZOON VAN RUYSDAEL
8. ROLAND EMMERICH
9. JELLING STONES
10. LAKE MÄLAREN
11. CORRIB
12. PORTUGAL
13. HOOK AND COD WARS
14. POLAND
15. BIGOS
16. LAKE ONEGA
17. ARGUIDO
18. KOBLENZ
19. NEWGRANGE
20. HENRI DELAUNAY
21. UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG
22. LAKE VAN
23. BATAVIAN REPUBLIC
24. CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, HUNGARY & POLAND
25. THREE COLOURS: WHITE
26. LIMBURG
27. AFONSO DE ALBUQUERQUE
28. SANTORINI
29. MOONSPELL
30. WATERZOOI
1. What begins: "Monsieur le Président, Me permettez-vous, dans ma gratitude pour le bienveillant accueil que vous m'avez fait un jour, d'avoir le souci de votre juste gloire et de vous dire que votre étoile, si heureuse jusqu'ici, est menacée de la plus honteuse, de la plus ineffaçable des taches?"
2. Eglise St. Louis en L’Isle is a Parisian church situated on which island in the Seine?
3. The St Elizabeth's Flood of November 1421 killed between 2,000 and 10,000 villagers in which modern-day European country?
4. Who was the French economist, thought by many to have been the chief architect of European Unity, who created the majority of what became known as the Schuman Plan?
5. Located on the Norwegian-administered Jan Mayen island in the Arctic Ocean, what is the name of the world's northernmost active volcano?
6. The famous 15th Century explorer Prince Henry the Navigator was the son of which Portuguese King?
7. Considered the foremost Dutch lanscape painter, which 17th Century artist is remembered for 'Beintheim Castle' (1653) and 'Tower Mill at Wijk bij Duurstede'(1670) among other works?
8. Which German film director first came to worldwide attention with the release of his film 'Das Arche Noah Prinzip' that opened the Berlin Film Festival in 1984 and has since gained greater fame with the Hollywood blockbusters 'Independence Day', 'Godzilla' and 'The Day After Tomorrow'?
9. Named after the town in Denmark where they are located, what name is given to the two Tenth Century carved rune stones, the first erected by King Gorm the Old and the scond by his son Harald Bluetooth?
10. According to Norse mythology, which lake was created when Gefjun removed the land that used to lie there and transported it to Denmark, thus creating the island of Zealand?
11. Built in 1854, the Spanish Arch stands on the banks of which river that flows through Galway?
12. Which country became the first all-amateur team to qualify for a Rugby World Cup since the start of the professional era when it appeared at the 2007 World Cup?
13. What name is given to the series of wars and battles that took place in Holland between the bourgeoisie and the ruling nobility from 1350 to 1490?
14. Biskupin is an archaeological site (with a life-size model of an Iron Age fortified settlement) that was excavated in 1934 and located in which European country?
15. Often considered to be the Polish national dish, what name is given to the cabbage and meat stew that is traditionally said to have been introduced to Poland by the Lithuanian prince Władysław II in the 14th Century?
16. In which lake could you find the island and World Heritage site Kizhi (or Kizhi Pogost), home to a large number of wooden churches and houses?
17. Much publicised in the case of Madeleine McCann, what name is given to the status of 'named suspect' in the Portuguese legal system?
18. Which German city, home to a famous monument of Emperor William I on horseback, stands at the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Moselle?
19. Built between 3300 and 2900 BC, which passage grave of the Brú na Bóinne complex of tombs in County Meath is known in Irish as Dún Fhearghusa and is said to be the oldest surviving building in the world?
20. The trophy awarded to the winners of the European Football Championship is named after which French football administrator who first proposed the idea for such a tournament in 1927?
21. Established in 1386, which is the oldest university in Germany?
22. The dormant volcanoes Nemrut and Süphan are to be found in which saline and soda lake, the largest in Turkey?
23. Which European republic was proclaimed on January 19th 1795 after William V fled to England?
24. Established in February 1991, the Visegrád Group is an alliance of which four European countries set up for the purpose of furthering their European integration?
25. Which of Krzysztof Kieślowski's 'Three Colours' trilogy was made primarily in Polish? The other two being made in French.
26. The Netherlands is divided into 12 administrative regions, each under the control of a Commissioner of the Queen with the exception of one region that is under the control of a Gouverneur, emphasising its perceived 'un-Dutch' character. Which region?
27. Who was the Portuguese nobleman and explorer who led the expeditions that conquered Goa, Ormuz and Malacca in the early 16th Century and was rewarded by his appointment as the first Duke of Goa by King Manuel I?
28. Also known as Thera, what is the name of the archipelago of volcanic islands in the Aegean Sea that contains the southernmost point in the Cyclades?
29. Fernando Ribeiro is the lead vocalist with which popular Portuguese goth metal band, popular throughout Europe, that released the 2006 album 'Memorial' which won them an MTV Europe Award in the 'Best Portuguese Act' category?
30. Typically containing fish (or sometimes chicken) and vegetables, what is the name of the traditional stew of northern Belgium, the name of which is derived from the Dutch for 'watery mess'?
And the answers:
1. J'ACCUSE
2. ÎLE SAINT-LOUIS
3. THE NETHERLANDS
4. JEAN MONNET
5. BEERENBERG
6. JOHN I (or JOÃO I)
7. JACOB ISAAKSZOON VAN RUYSDAEL
8. ROLAND EMMERICH
9. JELLING STONES
10. LAKE MÄLAREN
11. CORRIB
12. PORTUGAL
13. HOOK AND COD WARS
14. POLAND
15. BIGOS
16. LAKE ONEGA
17. ARGUIDO
18. KOBLENZ
19. NEWGRANGE
20. HENRI DELAUNAY
21. UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG
22. LAKE VAN
23. BATAVIAN REPUBLIC
24. CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, HUNGARY & POLAND
25. THREE COLOURS: WHITE
26. LIMBURG
27. AFONSO DE ALBUQUERQUE
28. SANTORINI
29. MOONSPELL
30. WATERZOOI
Friday 19 October 2007
THE 47th QUIZ
Apologies for the lack of activity on this site recently. Have been busy with other things (usually including crashing computers) but will post more regularly from the middle of next week. Anyway, here's one to keep you going:
1. The 17th Century German-born scientist Franciscus Sylvius is usually credited with the invention of which spirit?
2. Which island and UNESCO World Heritage Site, lying off the coast of Queensland, is the world's largest sand island?
3. Three years before his assassination in 1923, the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa ended his revolutionary activity after negotiating a peace deal with which Mexican President?
4. Designed by Antoni Gaudí, by what name (meaning 'the quarry' in Catalan) is the Casa Milà in Barcelona otherwise known?
5. The Angkor Wat in Cambodia was built as a symbolic representation of which mythical mountain?
6. What first name did the medical student Jean Marc Gaspard Itard give to the 'The Wild Boy of Aveyron' who was found in the woods near Saint Sernin sur Rance in France in 1797 and who, it would seem, spent almost his whole childhood alone in the woods?
7. Which author coined the word 'factoid', that appears in the 'Oxford English Dictionary' as "something which becomes accepted as fact, although it may not be true", in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe?
8. Which is the southernmost city (population 216,473) of Canada and the only Canadian city to lie due south of the 48 contiguous United States?
9. Which scientist, born in 1776, held the title Count of Quaregna and Cerreto?
10. Which historic European city was formerly known in English as Ragusa, and is still known by that name in Italian?
11. At 4,700 years old, what name has been given to the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine that has held the record of the world's oldest tree since another Bristlecone, called Prometheus, was cut down by an over-eager graduate student in 1964?
12. Which arcade game, released by Nintendo in 1981, is notable for providing the first appearance of Super Mario (then known as Jumpman)?
13. The British Captain Arthur Roston was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and invited to dine with President Taft as a result of his ship saving 705 people from the Titanic after responding to a distress signal. What was the name of his ship?
14. Released in June and October 2007 respectively, which Anglo-Swedish rock group's first two singles, 'Worried About Ray' and 'Goodbye Mr A', both peaked at number 5 in the UK charts?
15. Born in 1980, 1983 and 1985 respectively, how are Isaac, Taylor and Zac collectively known?
16. Which Slovakian tennis player, thought by many as the greatest player never to have won a Grand Slam, was Ivan Lendl's opponent in the 1986 US Open final, the last Grand Slam final to see a player still using a wooden racket?
17. Luis Buñuel's 1965 film 'Simón del desierto' is loosely based on the life of which Christian ascetic?
18. Which Danish linguist, who was also involved in the creation of Ido and Interlingua, introduced the constructed international auxiliary language Novial in his 1928 book 'An International Language'?
19. A silhouette of an American bison (or buffalo) appears on the flag of which of the United States?
20. (I can't resist this one) There are two subspecies of American bison - the Plains bison and the Wood bison. What is the wonderful zoological name for the Plains bison?
21. Which South African became only the third cricketer ever to hit six sixes from one over in first-class cricket at the 2007 World Cup against the Netherlands?
22. And which Indian became only the fourth cricketer ever to hit six sixes from one over in first-class cricket at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 against England?
23. What was the stage-name of the Canadian-born American actress Ellen Evangeline Hovick, the younger sister of Gypsy Rose Lee, whose last film role was as Aunt Clara in the 1987 movie 'A Return to Salem's Lot'?
24. A compound of the Greek word for 'solid' and the Latin word for 'ray' or 'beam', what name is given to the SI unit of solid angle?
25. Published in 'Comics Review' in 1965, the short story 'In a Half-World of Terror', later renamed as 'I Was a Teenage Grave Robber', was the first published work by which novelist?
26. Which Russian male high jumper set a new championship record and personal best at the 2006 European Championships with a jump of 2.36 metres and jumped a new personal best of 2.37 metres a week later in Monaco?
27. Which American city, which according to a 2001 study is the most commonly misspelled city in the USA, stands on the Allegheny Plateau where the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers form the Ohio River?
28. In 1913, which Bengali novelist and playwright became the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature?
29. Founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais, what was the name of the group of writers and mathematicians who sought to create works using constraining writing techniques such as lipograms and palindromes?
30. The annual World Series of Roshambo is the premier event for 'professional' players of roshambo. By what name is this game commonly known?
The answers:
1. GIN
2. FRASER ISLAND
3. ADOLFO DE LA HUERTA
4. LA PEDRERA
5. MOUNT MERU
6. VICTOR
7. NORMAN MAILER
8. MADISON
9. AMEDEO AVOGADRO
10. DUBROVNIK
11. METHUSELAH
12. DONKEY KONG
13. RMS CARPATHIA
14. THE HOOSIERS
15. HANSON
16. MILOSLAV MEČÍŘ
17. SIMEON STYLITES
18. OTTO JESPERSEN
19. WYOMING
20. BISON BISON BISON
21. HERSCHELLE GIBBS
22. YUVRAJ SINGH
23. JUNE HAVOC
24. STERADIAN
25. STEPHEN KING
26. ANDREY SILNOV
27. PITTSBURGH
28. RABINDRANATH TAGORE
29. OULIPO
30. ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS (or PAPER, SCISSORS, STONE etc.)
1. The 17th Century German-born scientist Franciscus Sylvius is usually credited with the invention of which spirit?
2. Which island and UNESCO World Heritage Site, lying off the coast of Queensland, is the world's largest sand island?
3. Three years before his assassination in 1923, the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa ended his revolutionary activity after negotiating a peace deal with which Mexican President?
4. Designed by Antoni Gaudí, by what name (meaning 'the quarry' in Catalan) is the Casa Milà in Barcelona otherwise known?
5. The Angkor Wat in Cambodia was built as a symbolic representation of which mythical mountain?
6. What first name did the medical student Jean Marc Gaspard Itard give to the 'The Wild Boy of Aveyron' who was found in the woods near Saint Sernin sur Rance in France in 1797 and who, it would seem, spent almost his whole childhood alone in the woods?
7. Which author coined the word 'factoid', that appears in the 'Oxford English Dictionary' as "something which becomes accepted as fact, although it may not be true", in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe?
8. Which is the southernmost city (population 216,473) of Canada and the only Canadian city to lie due south of the 48 contiguous United States?
9. Which scientist, born in 1776, held the title Count of Quaregna and Cerreto?
10. Which historic European city was formerly known in English as Ragusa, and is still known by that name in Italian?
11. At 4,700 years old, what name has been given to the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine that has held the record of the world's oldest tree since another Bristlecone, called Prometheus, was cut down by an over-eager graduate student in 1964?
12. Which arcade game, released by Nintendo in 1981, is notable for providing the first appearance of Super Mario (then known as Jumpman)?
13. The British Captain Arthur Roston was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and invited to dine with President Taft as a result of his ship saving 705 people from the Titanic after responding to a distress signal. What was the name of his ship?
14. Released in June and October 2007 respectively, which Anglo-Swedish rock group's first two singles, 'Worried About Ray' and 'Goodbye Mr A', both peaked at number 5 in the UK charts?
15. Born in 1980, 1983 and 1985 respectively, how are Isaac, Taylor and Zac collectively known?
16. Which Slovakian tennis player, thought by many as the greatest player never to have won a Grand Slam, was Ivan Lendl's opponent in the 1986 US Open final, the last Grand Slam final to see a player still using a wooden racket?
17. Luis Buñuel's 1965 film 'Simón del desierto' is loosely based on the life of which Christian ascetic?
18. Which Danish linguist, who was also involved in the creation of Ido and Interlingua, introduced the constructed international auxiliary language Novial in his 1928 book 'An International Language'?
19. A silhouette of an American bison (or buffalo) appears on the flag of which of the United States?
20. (I can't resist this one) There are two subspecies of American bison - the Plains bison and the Wood bison. What is the wonderful zoological name for the Plains bison?
21. Which South African became only the third cricketer ever to hit six sixes from one over in first-class cricket at the 2007 World Cup against the Netherlands?
22. And which Indian became only the fourth cricketer ever to hit six sixes from one over in first-class cricket at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 against England?
23. What was the stage-name of the Canadian-born American actress Ellen Evangeline Hovick, the younger sister of Gypsy Rose Lee, whose last film role was as Aunt Clara in the 1987 movie 'A Return to Salem's Lot'?
24. A compound of the Greek word for 'solid' and the Latin word for 'ray' or 'beam', what name is given to the SI unit of solid angle?
25. Published in 'Comics Review' in 1965, the short story 'In a Half-World of Terror', later renamed as 'I Was a Teenage Grave Robber', was the first published work by which novelist?
26. Which Russian male high jumper set a new championship record and personal best at the 2006 European Championships with a jump of 2.36 metres and jumped a new personal best of 2.37 metres a week later in Monaco?
27. Which American city, which according to a 2001 study is the most commonly misspelled city in the USA, stands on the Allegheny Plateau where the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers form the Ohio River?
28. In 1913, which Bengali novelist and playwright became the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature?
29. Founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais, what was the name of the group of writers and mathematicians who sought to create works using constraining writing techniques such as lipograms and palindromes?
30. The annual World Series of Roshambo is the premier event for 'professional' players of roshambo. By what name is this game commonly known?
The answers:
1. GIN
2. FRASER ISLAND
3. ADOLFO DE LA HUERTA
4. LA PEDRERA
5. MOUNT MERU
6. VICTOR
7. NORMAN MAILER
8. MADISON
9. AMEDEO AVOGADRO
10. DUBROVNIK
11. METHUSELAH
12. DONKEY KONG
13. RMS CARPATHIA
14. THE HOOSIERS
15. HANSON
16. MILOSLAV MEČÍŘ
17. SIMEON STYLITES
18. OTTO JESPERSEN
19. WYOMING
20. BISON BISON BISON
21. HERSCHELLE GIBBS
22. YUVRAJ SINGH
23. JUNE HAVOC
24. STERADIAN
25. STEPHEN KING
26. ANDREY SILNOV
27. PITTSBURGH
28. RABINDRANATH TAGORE
29. OULIPO
30. ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS (or PAPER, SCISSORS, STONE etc.)
Tuesday 9 October 2007
THE 46th QUIZ
Another:
1. With approximately 400,000 casulaties, the War of the Triple Alliance was the bloodiest war in the history of the Americas. It was fought between an alliance of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay against which country?
2. With names deriving from the Old Norse for 'island in the stream' and 'swine island' respectively, which two Scottish islands are situated in the Pentland Firth between Caithness and the Orkneys?
3. Also known as St John's Bread, Ceratonia siliqua is an evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean. Its edible fruit was traditionally eaten on the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat but is most commonly used in the West as a healthy alternative to chocolate. What is its common name?
4. Found in Wiltshire and composed principally of chalk and standing 130ft high, what is the name of the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe?
5. A former 'University Challenge' contestant, by what name is the soap-box orator and eccentric Ian Brackenbury Channell now better known?
6. In June 2006, what names were given to Pluto's two newly discovered moons?
7. Which moon in our solar system, the only large moon known to have a retrograde orbit, is now thought to be a captured object from the Kuiper Belt?
8. Which 14th Century painter and architect, a pupil of Giotto, is credited with the design of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence?
9. What was the name of the Danish newspaper that caused controversy in 2005 after it published a series of editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, causing protests across the Muslim world?
10. Voted the Best French Film of the Century in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in 1995, which film by French director Marcel Carné, described upon its release as the French answer to 'Gone With the Wind', tells the story of the beautiful Garance and the four men who fall in love with her?
11. One of the four 'imperial cities' of Morocco, which city, named after a Berber tribe, was the capital of Morocco under the reign of Moulay Ismail in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries before its relocation to Rabat?
12. 'La vida es sueño' (Life is a Dream) is a comedic drama and, perhaps, the best known work of which Spanish playwright of the Golden Age?
13. The ancient Assyrian capital Nineveh stood in which modern-day city on the east bank of the Tigris?
14. Who are traditionally (but often controversially) credited with the invention of the following machines of the Industrial Revolution: a) spinny jenny b) power loom c) spinning mule d) spinning frame e) flying shuttle
15. Launched in 1798, what was the name of the Royal Navy ship that transported Napoleon Bonaparte to St Helena in 1815?
16. Issued by Tsar Alexander II in 1876, the Ems Ukaz banned the use of which language in print, save those wishing to reprint existing documents?
17. The Czech automobile manufacturer Škoda has its headquarters in which city on the Jizera river?
18. The Deutsches Museum is the world's largest museum of technology and science and attracts well over 1 million visitors per year. In which city could you visit it?
19. This Bulgarian revolutionary and ideologist led the Bulgarian struggle for independence from Ottoman rule during the 19th Century before being hanged by the Ottoman authorities in Sofia on 19 February 1873. A top soccer team in Sofia are named after him and in February 2007 he was the named the 'Greatest Ever Bulgarian' in a national television poll. What was his name?
20. And which Prince of Moldavia (1457-1504), remembered as an ardent defender of Christianity and sanctified by the Romanian Orthodox Church, was voted the 'Greatest Ever Romanian' in a similar poll?
And the answers:
1. PARAGUAY
2. STROMA & SWONA
3. CAROB
4. SILBURY HILL
5. THE WIZARD (OF NEW ZEALAND)
6. NIX & HYDRA
7. TRITON
8. TADDEO GADDI
9. JYLLANDS-POSTEN
10. LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS (or CHILDREN OF PARADISE)
11. MEKNES
12. PEDRO CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA
13. MOSUL
14. a) JAMES HARGREAVES b) EDMUND CARTWRIGHT c) SAMUEL CROMPTON d) RICHARD ARKWRIGHT e) JOHN KAY
15. HMS NORTHUMBERLAND
16. UKRAINIAN (or LITTLE RUSSIAN)
17. MLADÁ BOLESLAV
18. MUNICH
19. VASIL LEVSKI
20. ŞTEFAN CEL MARE (STEPHEN III)
1. With approximately 400,000 casulaties, the War of the Triple Alliance was the bloodiest war in the history of the Americas. It was fought between an alliance of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay against which country?
2. With names deriving from the Old Norse for 'island in the stream' and 'swine island' respectively, which two Scottish islands are situated in the Pentland Firth between Caithness and the Orkneys?
3. Also known as St John's Bread, Ceratonia siliqua is an evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean. Its edible fruit was traditionally eaten on the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat but is most commonly used in the West as a healthy alternative to chocolate. What is its common name?
4. Found in Wiltshire and composed principally of chalk and standing 130ft high, what is the name of the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe?
5. A former 'University Challenge' contestant, by what name is the soap-box orator and eccentric Ian Brackenbury Channell now better known?
6. In June 2006, what names were given to Pluto's two newly discovered moons?
7. Which moon in our solar system, the only large moon known to have a retrograde orbit, is now thought to be a captured object from the Kuiper Belt?
8. Which 14th Century painter and architect, a pupil of Giotto, is credited with the design of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence?
9. What was the name of the Danish newspaper that caused controversy in 2005 after it published a series of editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, causing protests across the Muslim world?
10. Voted the Best French Film of the Century in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in 1995, which film by French director Marcel Carné, described upon its release as the French answer to 'Gone With the Wind', tells the story of the beautiful Garance and the four men who fall in love with her?
11. One of the four 'imperial cities' of Morocco, which city, named after a Berber tribe, was the capital of Morocco under the reign of Moulay Ismail in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries before its relocation to Rabat?
12. 'La vida es sueño' (Life is a Dream) is a comedic drama and, perhaps, the best known work of which Spanish playwright of the Golden Age?
13. The ancient Assyrian capital Nineveh stood in which modern-day city on the east bank of the Tigris?
14. Who are traditionally (but often controversially) credited with the invention of the following machines of the Industrial Revolution: a) spinny jenny b) power loom c) spinning mule d) spinning frame e) flying shuttle
15. Launched in 1798, what was the name of the Royal Navy ship that transported Napoleon Bonaparte to St Helena in 1815?
16. Issued by Tsar Alexander II in 1876, the Ems Ukaz banned the use of which language in print, save those wishing to reprint existing documents?
17. The Czech automobile manufacturer Škoda has its headquarters in which city on the Jizera river?
18. The Deutsches Museum is the world's largest museum of technology and science and attracts well over 1 million visitors per year. In which city could you visit it?
19. This Bulgarian revolutionary and ideologist led the Bulgarian struggle for independence from Ottoman rule during the 19th Century before being hanged by the Ottoman authorities in Sofia on 19 February 1873. A top soccer team in Sofia are named after him and in February 2007 he was the named the 'Greatest Ever Bulgarian' in a national television poll. What was his name?
20. And which Prince of Moldavia (1457-1504), remembered as an ardent defender of Christianity and sanctified by the Romanian Orthodox Church, was voted the 'Greatest Ever Romanian' in a similar poll?
And the answers:
1. PARAGUAY
2. STROMA & SWONA
3. CAROB
4. SILBURY HILL
5. THE WIZARD (OF NEW ZEALAND)
6. NIX & HYDRA
7. TRITON
8. TADDEO GADDI
9. JYLLANDS-POSTEN
10. LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS (or CHILDREN OF PARADISE)
11. MEKNES
12. PEDRO CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA
13. MOSUL
14. a) JAMES HARGREAVES b) EDMUND CARTWRIGHT c) SAMUEL CROMPTON d) RICHARD ARKWRIGHT e) JOHN KAY
15. HMS NORTHUMBERLAND
16. UKRAINIAN (or LITTLE RUSSIAN)
17. MLADÁ BOLESLAV
18. MUNICH
19. VASIL LEVSKI
20. ŞTEFAN CEL MARE (STEPHEN III)
Monday 8 October 2007
THE 45th QUIZ
Hello again. Let's get to it:
1. Which passerine bird is the official state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia?
2. With a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8, the Oruanui eruption is the name given to an eruption of which New Zealand volcano in approximately 24,500BC, the world's largest known eruption in the last 70,000 years?
3. Born in Bristol, England in 1821, which women's rights activist, who opened the Women's Medical College with Florence Nightingale, became the United States' first qualified female doctor?
4. What name is given to the two supercontinents, corresponding roughly to the present-day northern and southern hemispheres, that formed upon the breaking-up of Pangaea?
5. Which 19th Century English anatomist and biologist, a critic of Darwin's theory of evolution, is best remembered today for coining the word 'dinosauria'?
6. Louis Brabant, a 16th Century valet to Francis I of France, is thought to have been the first person to become proficient in which stagecraft?
7. Which Scottish-born Australian swimmer won three gold medals at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne and became the first man to swim the 1,500 metres freestyle in under 18 minutes?
8. Which Micronesian atoll in the Pacific Ocean is of special interest to geneticists because of the prevalence of the rare disease complete achromatopsia, sufferers of which are completely unable to distinguish colours? This prevalence was caused when a typhoon of 1775 reduced the population of the atoll to only 20, one of whom had the disease, and due to the small gene pool approximately 10% of the population are now sufferers.
9. Which city served as the Imperial capital of Japan between 794AD and 1868 when it was transferred to Edo (now Tokyo)?
10. Tommaso da Modena's 1352 portrait of Hugh of Provence is the earliest painting to show its subject wearing what?
11. Growing to little over three feet at the shoulder, which Asiatic buffalo, Bubalus depressicornis, is the smallest of all wild cattle?
12. What was the name of the cook who became the first ever Olympic champion when he won the sprint race in 776BC?
13. In which city were the first cases of AIDS identified in 1981?
14. Created in the monastery of Clonmacnoise by three scribes, the best known of whom was Máel Muire mac Célechair, what is the common name given to Lebor na hUidre, the oldest Irish manuscript to contain primarily native narrative materials?
15. Built by the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid I, which is the world's oldest remaining stone mosque and, in 2001, became the first mosque to visited by a Pope when John-Paul II came to see the relics of John the Baptist that are said to be held there?
16. Although Australia is the world's largest producer of bauxite, which African country is home to the greatest bauxite reserves, believed to be in the region of one-third of all the world's supply?
17. Named after a 19th Century Russian general, which is the closest living wild relative of the domestic horse?
18. Which subtropical fruit of Andean origin is the most popular flavouring for ice-cream in Peru, far exceeding the demand for more globally popular flavours such as vanilla and chocolate?
19. Which singer starred as Kotzebue, a young woman of androgynous appearance who works as a male miner in Alaska, in the 1991 film 'Salmonberries', written and directed by Percy Adlon?
20. Possibly the most famous lost film of all time, which 1927 silent mystery/horror film, starring Lon Chaney as Inspector Burke who is called to investigate a suspicious murder, was destroyed in a fire in an MGM film vault in 1965?
The answers:
1. CARDINAL
2. TAUPO
3. ELIZABETH BLACKWELL
4. LAURASIA & GONDWANA
5. RICHARD OWEN
6. VENTRILOQUISM
7. MURRAY ROSE
8. PINGELAP
9. KYOTO
10. GLASSES
11. LOWLAND ANOA
12. COROEBUS OF ELIS
13. LOS ANGELES
14. BOOK OF THE DUN COW
15. GRAND MOSQUE OF DAMASCUS
16. GUINEA
17. PRZEWALSKI'S HORSE
18. LÚCUMA
19. K.D. LANG
20. LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT
1. Which passerine bird is the official state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia?
2. With a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8, the Oruanui eruption is the name given to an eruption of which New Zealand volcano in approximately 24,500BC, the world's largest known eruption in the last 70,000 years?
3. Born in Bristol, England in 1821, which women's rights activist, who opened the Women's Medical College with Florence Nightingale, became the United States' first qualified female doctor?
4. What name is given to the two supercontinents, corresponding roughly to the present-day northern and southern hemispheres, that formed upon the breaking-up of Pangaea?
5. Which 19th Century English anatomist and biologist, a critic of Darwin's theory of evolution, is best remembered today for coining the word 'dinosauria'?
6. Louis Brabant, a 16th Century valet to Francis I of France, is thought to have been the first person to become proficient in which stagecraft?
7. Which Scottish-born Australian swimmer won three gold medals at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne and became the first man to swim the 1,500 metres freestyle in under 18 minutes?
8. Which Micronesian atoll in the Pacific Ocean is of special interest to geneticists because of the prevalence of the rare disease complete achromatopsia, sufferers of which are completely unable to distinguish colours? This prevalence was caused when a typhoon of 1775 reduced the population of the atoll to only 20, one of whom had the disease, and due to the small gene pool approximately 10% of the population are now sufferers.
9. Which city served as the Imperial capital of Japan between 794AD and 1868 when it was transferred to Edo (now Tokyo)?
10. Tommaso da Modena's 1352 portrait of Hugh of Provence is the earliest painting to show its subject wearing what?
11. Growing to little over three feet at the shoulder, which Asiatic buffalo, Bubalus depressicornis, is the smallest of all wild cattle?
12. What was the name of the cook who became the first ever Olympic champion when he won the sprint race in 776BC?
13. In which city were the first cases of AIDS identified in 1981?
14. Created in the monastery of Clonmacnoise by three scribes, the best known of whom was Máel Muire mac Célechair, what is the common name given to Lebor na hUidre, the oldest Irish manuscript to contain primarily native narrative materials?
15. Built by the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid I, which is the world's oldest remaining stone mosque and, in 2001, became the first mosque to visited by a Pope when John-Paul II came to see the relics of John the Baptist that are said to be held there?
16. Although Australia is the world's largest producer of bauxite, which African country is home to the greatest bauxite reserves, believed to be in the region of one-third of all the world's supply?
17. Named after a 19th Century Russian general, which is the closest living wild relative of the domestic horse?
18. Which subtropical fruit of Andean origin is the most popular flavouring for ice-cream in Peru, far exceeding the demand for more globally popular flavours such as vanilla and chocolate?
19. Which singer starred as Kotzebue, a young woman of androgynous appearance who works as a male miner in Alaska, in the 1991 film 'Salmonberries', written and directed by Percy Adlon?
20. Possibly the most famous lost film of all time, which 1927 silent mystery/horror film, starring Lon Chaney as Inspector Burke who is called to investigate a suspicious murder, was destroyed in a fire in an MGM film vault in 1965?
The answers:
1. CARDINAL
2. TAUPO
3. ELIZABETH BLACKWELL
4. LAURASIA & GONDWANA
5. RICHARD OWEN
6. VENTRILOQUISM
7. MURRAY ROSE
8. PINGELAP
9. KYOTO
10. GLASSES
11. LOWLAND ANOA
12. COROEBUS OF ELIS
13. LOS ANGELES
14. BOOK OF THE DUN COW
15. GRAND MOSQUE OF DAMASCUS
16. GUINEA
17. PRZEWALSKI'S HORSE
18. LÚCUMA
19. K.D. LANG
20. LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT
THE 44th QUIZ
Hi there. As you can probably tell (given my inactivity here) that I'm temporarily very busy with the mundane stuff of life and probably will be for the next week or so. However, I shall endeavour to put up quizzes where I can.
1. According to the Acts of Pilate from the New Testament Pseudepigraphia, what name is given to the Roman soldier who used the Spear of Destiny to pierce Christ's side while he was on the cross?
2. In July 1976, who became the first democratically elected Spanish Prime Minister after the death of Franco?
3. Released in 1983, 'Murmur' was the title of the first full-length album from which American rock group from Athens, Georgia?
4. Which small market town on the outskirts of Milton Keynes is best known for its annual Pancake Race that has taken place each Shrove Tuesday since 1445?
5. Which are the only two recognised nations not to be members of the UN?
6. In 1842, the British general and Commander-in-Chief in India, Sir Charles Napier, sent which famous one-word Latin message (meaning 'I have sinned') back to Headquarters after his victories at Meanee and Hyderabad?
7. In 1777, Marie Grosholtz (later Madame Tussaud) created her first sculpture. Who was the subject?
8. Found in the shallow tropical marine waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans, what is the common name of Synanceia verrucosa, the world's most venomous fish?
9. Katharine Lee Bates was inspired to write the words to the song 'America the Beautiful' in 1893 after taking a carriage ride to the top of which mountain in the Front Range of the Rockies in Colorado?
10. Published in 1911, what was the title of Max Beerbohm's only novel, a satire on life at Oxford University?
11. The final plate of William Hogarth's 'A Rake's Progress' series depicts a scene inside which institution, founded in London in 1247?
12. A similar size to the sparrow, Micrathene whitneyi is the world's smalleset species of owl; what is its common name?
13. Born in 1867, who was the American sculptor best known for creating the monumental presidents' heads at Mount Rushmore?
14. What is the name of the radio tower in Moscow, designed by Nikolai Nikitin, that, at 540 metres (1772 feet), is the tallest free-standing structure in Europe and was until the construction of the CN Tower also the tallest structure in the world?
15. Nikolai Nikitin was also involved in the construction of which statue on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd which, at 84 metres (270 feet) tall, is the tallest sculpture in the world?
16. Named after the English naturalist who first described it in his 'Contributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley', what is the name of the phenomenon in which harmless, edible species develop resemblences to other distasteful or poisonous species in order to gain protection from predators?
17. In 1850, while playing for the South against the North at Lord's, which cricketer took all 10 wickets in an innings, all clean bowled, which was the first and, to date, only instance of this in first class cricket?
18. According to tradition, San Marino was founded in 301AD by the stonemason Saint Marinus of Rab after fleeing his homeland in fear of the persecution of which Roman Emperor?
19. And if people from England are known collectively as the English, then which Italian word is used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of San Marino?
20. Which sea takes its name from the Kyrgyz word for 'sea of islands'?
Some good ones there I thought. The answers:
1. LONGINUS
2. ADOLFO SUÁREZ
3. REM
4. OLNEY
5. VATICAN CITY & TAIWAN
6. PECCAVI
7. VOLTAIRE
8. STONEFISH
9. PIKES PEAK
10. ZULEIKA DOBSON
11. BETHLEM HOSPITAL
12. ELF OWL
13. GUTZON BORGLUM
14. OSTANKINO TOWER
15. MOTHER MOTHERLAND IS CALLING (or MOTHER MOTHERLAND or Родина-мать зовёт!)
16. BATESIAN MIMICRY
17. JOHN WISDEN
18. DIOCLETIAN
19. SAMMARINESI
20. ARAL SEA
1. According to the Acts of Pilate from the New Testament Pseudepigraphia, what name is given to the Roman soldier who used the Spear of Destiny to pierce Christ's side while he was on the cross?
2. In July 1976, who became the first democratically elected Spanish Prime Minister after the death of Franco?
3. Released in 1983, 'Murmur' was the title of the first full-length album from which American rock group from Athens, Georgia?
4. Which small market town on the outskirts of Milton Keynes is best known for its annual Pancake Race that has taken place each Shrove Tuesday since 1445?
5. Which are the only two recognised nations not to be members of the UN?
6. In 1842, the British general and Commander-in-Chief in India, Sir Charles Napier, sent which famous one-word Latin message (meaning 'I have sinned') back to Headquarters after his victories at Meanee and Hyderabad?
7. In 1777, Marie Grosholtz (later Madame Tussaud) created her first sculpture. Who was the subject?
8. Found in the shallow tropical marine waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans, what is the common name of Synanceia verrucosa, the world's most venomous fish?
9. Katharine Lee Bates was inspired to write the words to the song 'America the Beautiful' in 1893 after taking a carriage ride to the top of which mountain in the Front Range of the Rockies in Colorado?
10. Published in 1911, what was the title of Max Beerbohm's only novel, a satire on life at Oxford University?
11. The final plate of William Hogarth's 'A Rake's Progress' series depicts a scene inside which institution, founded in London in 1247?
12. A similar size to the sparrow, Micrathene whitneyi is the world's smalleset species of owl; what is its common name?
13. Born in 1867, who was the American sculptor best known for creating the monumental presidents' heads at Mount Rushmore?
14. What is the name of the radio tower in Moscow, designed by Nikolai Nikitin, that, at 540 metres (1772 feet), is the tallest free-standing structure in Europe and was until the construction of the CN Tower also the tallest structure in the world?
15. Nikolai Nikitin was also involved in the construction of which statue on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd which, at 84 metres (270 feet) tall, is the tallest sculpture in the world?
16. Named after the English naturalist who first described it in his 'Contributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley', what is the name of the phenomenon in which harmless, edible species develop resemblences to other distasteful or poisonous species in order to gain protection from predators?
17. In 1850, while playing for the South against the North at Lord's, which cricketer took all 10 wickets in an innings, all clean bowled, which was the first and, to date, only instance of this in first class cricket?
18. According to tradition, San Marino was founded in 301AD by the stonemason Saint Marinus of Rab after fleeing his homeland in fear of the persecution of which Roman Emperor?
19. And if people from England are known collectively as the English, then which Italian word is used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of San Marino?
20. Which sea takes its name from the Kyrgyz word for 'sea of islands'?
Some good ones there I thought. The answers:
1. LONGINUS
2. ADOLFO SUÁREZ
3. REM
4. OLNEY
5. VATICAN CITY & TAIWAN
6. PECCAVI
7. VOLTAIRE
8. STONEFISH
9. PIKES PEAK
10. ZULEIKA DOBSON
11. BETHLEM HOSPITAL
12. ELF OWL
13. GUTZON BORGLUM
14. OSTANKINO TOWER
15. MOTHER MOTHERLAND IS CALLING (or MOTHER MOTHERLAND or Родина-мать зовёт!)
16. BATESIAN MIMICRY
17. JOHN WISDEN
18. DIOCLETIAN
19. SAMMARINESI
20. ARAL SEA
Tuesday 2 October 2007
THE 43rd QUIZ
1. Which are the only four American artists to have had paintings sold at auction for more than $50 million?
2. What was the name of the murdered Great Dane who was central to the trial of Jeremy Thorpe on charges of conspiracy to murder in 1979?
3. According to Hollywood legend, the German shepherd Rin Tin Tin died in arms of which actress in 1932?
4. What was the name of the 8-year old girl who appeared, with her clown doll Bubbles, on the BBC Test Card F from 1967 until 1998?
5. Originally known as 'The Blue Cloak' or 'The Topsy Turvy World', what is the common modern name for Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1559 painting in which he depicts over 100 recognisable idioms including "to bang one's head against a brick wall", "swimming against the tide" and "armed to the teeth"?
6. In Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick', what is the name of the first mate of the Pequod, an intellectual Quaker from Nantucket?
7. The equivalent of the modern year, which ancient civilisation used a calendar consisting of twenty trecenas of thirteen days, each named after a common creature, object or event such as the crocodile, rain, house, death and flint?
8. Meaning 'castle of Heaven', what was the name of the observatory built by Tycho Brahe on the island of Hven in the Öresund in the late 1570s?
9. What is the name of the fictional Mancunian estate in which the Channel 4 comedy-drama 'Shameless' is set?
10. In May 1975, which Japanese mountain climber became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest?
11. Said to have been 9'3" tall, by what name is the English 16th/17th Century giant John Middleton better known?
12. In September 1978, Janet Parker of the Birmingham Medical School was the last person in the world to die from which disease?
13. The soapstone bird appears on the flag of which country?
14. Elicio and Erastro are the central characters in which book by Miguel de Cervantes, published in 1585?
15. The Masajid of Djinguereber, the Masajid of Sidi Yahya, and the Masajid of Sankore were the three schools that comprised which mediaeval African university?
16. 'A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling', often more simply referred to as 'The Rihla', is a transcript of the account of which 14th Century Berber Sunni Muslim scholar and explorer who travelled 73,000 over a period of almost thirty years, covering almost the entirety of the known world?
17. Although the Etruscan Pygmy Shrew is the world' smallest mammal in terms of mass, which bat, also known as Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat, is the world's smallest mammal in terms of size?
18. In 1977, Phi-X174 phage became the first organism to have what done to it?
19. Who is currently listed by Forbes as the world's richest fictional character, just ahead of Montgomery Burns from 'The Simpsons'?
20. Which city in the North Rhine-Westphalia area of Germany, that was merged with the adjoining cities of Buer and Horst in 1928, was the most important coal mining town in Europe in the early 20th Century and was known as the "city of a thousand fires", because of its many smoking stacks?
And the answers:
1. ANDY WARHOL, JACKSON POLLOCK, JASPER JOHNS & MARK ROTHKO
2. RINKA
3. JEAN HARLOW
4. CAROLE HERSEE
5. NETHERLANDISH PROVERBS
6. FRANK STARBUCK
7. AZTECS
8. URANIBORG
9. CHATSWORTH ESTATE
10. JUNKO TABEI
11. CHILDE OF HALE
12. SMALLPOX
13. ZIMBABWE
14. LA GALATEA
15. UNIVERSITY OF TIMBUKTU
16. IBN BATTUTA
17. BUMBLEBEE BAT
18. ITS DNA-BASED GENOME SEQUENCED
19. OLIVER 'DADDY' WARBUCKS (from 'LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE')
20. GELSENKIRCHEN
2. What was the name of the murdered Great Dane who was central to the trial of Jeremy Thorpe on charges of conspiracy to murder in 1979?
3. According to Hollywood legend, the German shepherd Rin Tin Tin died in arms of which actress in 1932?
4. What was the name of the 8-year old girl who appeared, with her clown doll Bubbles, on the BBC Test Card F from 1967 until 1998?
5. Originally known as 'The Blue Cloak' or 'The Topsy Turvy World', what is the common modern name for Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1559 painting in which he depicts over 100 recognisable idioms including "to bang one's head against a brick wall", "swimming against the tide" and "armed to the teeth"?
6. In Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick', what is the name of the first mate of the Pequod, an intellectual Quaker from Nantucket?
7. The equivalent of the modern year, which ancient civilisation used a calendar consisting of twenty trecenas of thirteen days, each named after a common creature, object or event such as the crocodile, rain, house, death and flint?
8. Meaning 'castle of Heaven', what was the name of the observatory built by Tycho Brahe on the island of Hven in the Öresund in the late 1570s?
9. What is the name of the fictional Mancunian estate in which the Channel 4 comedy-drama 'Shameless' is set?
10. In May 1975, which Japanese mountain climber became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest?
11. Said to have been 9'3" tall, by what name is the English 16th/17th Century giant John Middleton better known?
12. In September 1978, Janet Parker of the Birmingham Medical School was the last person in the world to die from which disease?
13. The soapstone bird appears on the flag of which country?
14. Elicio and Erastro are the central characters in which book by Miguel de Cervantes, published in 1585?
15. The Masajid of Djinguereber, the Masajid of Sidi Yahya, and the Masajid of Sankore were the three schools that comprised which mediaeval African university?
16. 'A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling', often more simply referred to as 'The Rihla', is a transcript of the account of which 14th Century Berber Sunni Muslim scholar and explorer who travelled 73,000 over a period of almost thirty years, covering almost the entirety of the known world?
17. Although the Etruscan Pygmy Shrew is the world' smallest mammal in terms of mass, which bat, also known as Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat, is the world's smallest mammal in terms of size?
18. In 1977, Phi-X174 phage became the first organism to have what done to it?
19. Who is currently listed by Forbes as the world's richest fictional character, just ahead of Montgomery Burns from 'The Simpsons'?
20. Which city in the North Rhine-Westphalia area of Germany, that was merged with the adjoining cities of Buer and Horst in 1928, was the most important coal mining town in Europe in the early 20th Century and was known as the "city of a thousand fires", because of its many smoking stacks?
And the answers:
1. ANDY WARHOL, JACKSON POLLOCK, JASPER JOHNS & MARK ROTHKO
2. RINKA
3. JEAN HARLOW
4. CAROLE HERSEE
5. NETHERLANDISH PROVERBS
6. FRANK STARBUCK
7. AZTECS
8. URANIBORG
9. CHATSWORTH ESTATE
10. JUNKO TABEI
11. CHILDE OF HALE
12. SMALLPOX
13. ZIMBABWE
14. LA GALATEA
15. UNIVERSITY OF TIMBUKTU
16. IBN BATTUTA
17. BUMBLEBEE BAT
18. ITS DNA-BASED GENOME SEQUENCED
19. OLIVER 'DADDY' WARBUCKS (from 'LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE')
20. GELSENKIRCHEN
Monday 1 October 2007
THE 42nd QUIZ
1. Sharing its name with a city in New England, which French city on the River Lez is home to the Musée Fabre and the 14th Century cathedral of Saint-Pierre?
2. Stendahl's novel 'Le Rouge et le Noir', a Bildungsroman telling the story of the ambitious Julien Sorel, is set during the reign of which French king?
3. Which French Jesuit scholar and philosopher wrote 'The Practice of Everyday Life' in which he drew a distinction between "strategies", which he saw as linked to institutions of power, and "tactics", which he held to be utilised by individuals to create space for themselves in environments defined by strategies?
4. Discovered by the Dutch botanist Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, which disease of plants was the first virus ever to be discovered?
5. For what did the letters USM stand in the name of the British indie band Carter USM, formed in 1987 by Jim Bob Morrison and Fruitbat Carter?
6. Later used as a chemical weapon during World War I, which poisonous gas was first developed by the American chemist Julius Nieuwland in 1904?
7. Dedicated to arts and culture, the Festuge is the largest carnival in Scandinavia and takes place annually in which Danish city?
8. Which Nigerian-born Portuguese sprinter won the men's gold medal in both the 100m and 200m at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg?
9. Known as the 'Mad King', and the subject of a 1972 film by the Italian Director Luchino Visconti, who was the King of Bavaria during the second half of the 19th Century best remembered as the patron of Richard Wagner and for ordering the construction of several fantasy castles such as the Neuschwanstein?
10. The Russian city Arkhangelsk lies on the banks of the Northern Dvina river near its exit into which sea, an inlet of the Barents Sea?
11. Which ex-Soviet state is often referred to as 'the cradle of wine-making' as it is believed to contain the world's first cultivated grapevines and was home to neolithic wine production approximately 7000 years ago?
12. named after a 19th Century Austro-Hungarian dermatologist, what name is given to the tumour caused by Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) that became more widely known during the 1980s as one of the defining illnesses of AIDS?
13. Which town in the Girona province of Catalonia was the birthplace of Salvador Dalí and is home to the unusual Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, designed by Dalí himself?
14. The 1953 musical 'Kismet' was adapted from the music of which Russian composer?
15. Also known as the seladang, which southern Asian ox is the largest of all wild cattle?
16. 'The Blood of a Poet', 'Orpheus' and 'Testament of Orpheus' comprised the Orphic trilogy of which 20th Century film director?
17. What was the Latin pseudonym of the 15th Century German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Müller von Königsberg who is credited with establishing the study of algebra and trigonometry in Germany?
18. Which football team, who play their home games at Stadion GOS, won the Polish league championship for only the second time in their history in 2007?
19. Released in September 2007, 'Open Warfare 2' is the latest installment in which hugely successful video game series, first released on the Amiga in 1994?
20. The 1997 comic-horror 'Office Killer', was the first film directed by which American photographer and conceptual artist?
The answers:
1. MONTPELIER
2. CHARLES X
3. MICHEL DE CERTEAU
4. TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS
5. UNSTOPPABLE SEX MACHINE
6. LEWISITE
7. AARHUS
8. FRANCIS OBIKWELU
9. LUDWIG II
10. WHITE SEA
11. GEORGIA
12. KAPOSI'S SARCOMA
13. FIGUERES (or FIGUERAS)
14. ALEXANDER BORODIN
15. GAUR
16. JEAN COCTEAU
17. REGIOMONTANUS
18. ZAGŁĘBIE LUBIN
19. WORMS
20. CINDY SHERMAN
2. Stendahl's novel 'Le Rouge et le Noir', a Bildungsroman telling the story of the ambitious Julien Sorel, is set during the reign of which French king?
3. Which French Jesuit scholar and philosopher wrote 'The Practice of Everyday Life' in which he drew a distinction between "strategies", which he saw as linked to institutions of power, and "tactics", which he held to be utilised by individuals to create space for themselves in environments defined by strategies?
4. Discovered by the Dutch botanist Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, which disease of plants was the first virus ever to be discovered?
5. For what did the letters USM stand in the name of the British indie band Carter USM, formed in 1987 by Jim Bob Morrison and Fruitbat Carter?
6. Later used as a chemical weapon during World War I, which poisonous gas was first developed by the American chemist Julius Nieuwland in 1904?
7. Dedicated to arts and culture, the Festuge is the largest carnival in Scandinavia and takes place annually in which Danish city?
8. Which Nigerian-born Portuguese sprinter won the men's gold medal in both the 100m and 200m at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg?
9. Known as the 'Mad King', and the subject of a 1972 film by the Italian Director Luchino Visconti, who was the King of Bavaria during the second half of the 19th Century best remembered as the patron of Richard Wagner and for ordering the construction of several fantasy castles such as the Neuschwanstein?
10. The Russian city Arkhangelsk lies on the banks of the Northern Dvina river near its exit into which sea, an inlet of the Barents Sea?
11. Which ex-Soviet state is often referred to as 'the cradle of wine-making' as it is believed to contain the world's first cultivated grapevines and was home to neolithic wine production approximately 7000 years ago?
12. named after a 19th Century Austro-Hungarian dermatologist, what name is given to the tumour caused by Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) that became more widely known during the 1980s as one of the defining illnesses of AIDS?
13. Which town in the Girona province of Catalonia was the birthplace of Salvador Dalí and is home to the unusual Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, designed by Dalí himself?
14. The 1953 musical 'Kismet' was adapted from the music of which Russian composer?
15. Also known as the seladang, which southern Asian ox is the largest of all wild cattle?
16. 'The Blood of a Poet', 'Orpheus' and 'Testament of Orpheus' comprised the Orphic trilogy of which 20th Century film director?
17. What was the Latin pseudonym of the 15th Century German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Müller von Königsberg who is credited with establishing the study of algebra and trigonometry in Germany?
18. Which football team, who play their home games at Stadion GOS, won the Polish league championship for only the second time in their history in 2007?
19. Released in September 2007, 'Open Warfare 2' is the latest installment in which hugely successful video game series, first released on the Amiga in 1994?
20. The 1997 comic-horror 'Office Killer', was the first film directed by which American photographer and conceptual artist?
The answers:
1. MONTPELIER
2. CHARLES X
3. MICHEL DE CERTEAU
4. TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS
5. UNSTOPPABLE SEX MACHINE
6. LEWISITE
7. AARHUS
8. FRANCIS OBIKWELU
9. LUDWIG II
10. WHITE SEA
11. GEORGIA
12. KAPOSI'S SARCOMA
13. FIGUERES (or FIGUERAS)
14. ALEXANDER BORODIN
15. GAUR
16. JEAN COCTEAU
17. REGIOMONTANUS
18. ZAGŁĘBIE LUBIN
19. WORMS
20. CINDY SHERMAN
Wednesday 26 September 2007
THE 41st QUIZ
Another short one today. I've been busy writing my weekly quiz for my local. I think the landlord wants it to be a permanent thing - he intimated that he's fed up with me winning every week. At least if I'm writing it, I can't win.
Anyway, to the quiz:
1. Although Podgorica is its de facto capital, which city is designated as Prijestonica, or the old royal capital, of Montenegro?
2. Which transition metal of the platinum group was named in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston after an asteroid that had been discovered the previous year?
3. Declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers, what collective name has been given to the dams, sluices, locks, dikes and storm surge barriers built in the southwest of the Netherlands between 1950 and 1997?
4. Who was Commander-in-Chief of the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916?
5. The first major combat operation in NATO's history was a sustained air campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 30th August to 20th September 1995. What was the NATO codename given to the campaign?
6. South Africa has three capital cities, which city is the judicial capital?
7. Established in 1602, which city’s stock exchange is considered to be the world’s oldest?
8. Remembered as the founder of seismology, which English astronomer and geologist published ‘Essay on the Causes and Phenomena of Earthquakes’ in 1760, in which he described earthquakes as wave motions in the Earth’s interior created by layers of rocks rubbing against one another?
9. Who became the first king of a united Norway after the Battle of Hafrsfjord, probably fought in 872AD?
10. In Robert Louis Stevenson's novella ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde’, what was Dr Jeckyll's first name?
11. Painted in the 1660s, ‘Self Portrait as a Lutenist’ shows which Dutch genre painter sitting cross-legged on a chair playing a lute?
12. Which are the only two groups beginning with the letter ‘Z’ to have had more than one UK top ten hit?
13. The Riigikogu is the name given to the unicameral parliament of which country?
14. By what name was the American painter Anna Mary Robertson better known?
15. Meaning ‘book language’ and used by around 85% of the population, which is the most commonly used of the two official written standards of Norwegian, the other being Nynorsk?
16. A young murderer, who is the title character of a 1944 French novel who briefly lived with a drag queen called Divine and a pimp called Darling Daintyfoot before being arrested and tried, and executed?
17. It is often claimed that Milton based his ‘Paradise Lost’ partly on ‘Lucifer’ and ‘Adam in Ballingschap’, works by which Dutch author and playwright?
18. Which 18th Century French physician is known as the 'father of modern dentistry'?
19. Killed at the Battle of Fitjar in 961AD, who was the first Christian King of Norway?
20. Which oddly-named city in Alberta was described by Rudyard Kipling as "all hell for a basement" referring to the vast reserves of natural gas beneath it and is thus known colloquially as the Gas City?
And the answers:
1. CETINJE
2. PALLADIUM
3. DELTA WORKS
4. ADMIRAL JELLICOE
5. OPERATION DELIBERATE FORCE
6. BLOEMFONTEIN
7. AMSTERDAM
8. JOHN MICHELL
9. HARALD FAIRHAIR
10. HENRY
11. JAN STEEN
12. ZZ TOP & THE ZUTONS
13. ESTONIA
14. GRANDMA MOSES
15. BOKMÅL
16. OUR LADY OF FLOWERS
17. JOOST VAN DEN VONDEL
18. PIERRE FAUCHARD
19. HAAKON I (or HAAKON THE GOOD)
20. MEDICINE HAT
Anyway, to the quiz:
1. Although Podgorica is its de facto capital, which city is designated as Prijestonica, or the old royal capital, of Montenegro?
2. Which transition metal of the platinum group was named in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston after an asteroid that had been discovered the previous year?
3. Declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers, what collective name has been given to the dams, sluices, locks, dikes and storm surge barriers built in the southwest of the Netherlands between 1950 and 1997?
4. Who was Commander-in-Chief of the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916?
5. The first major combat operation in NATO's history was a sustained air campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 30th August to 20th September 1995. What was the NATO codename given to the campaign?
6. South Africa has three capital cities, which city is the judicial capital?
7. Established in 1602, which city’s stock exchange is considered to be the world’s oldest?
8. Remembered as the founder of seismology, which English astronomer and geologist published ‘Essay on the Causes and Phenomena of Earthquakes’ in 1760, in which he described earthquakes as wave motions in the Earth’s interior created by layers of rocks rubbing against one another?
9. Who became the first king of a united Norway after the Battle of Hafrsfjord, probably fought in 872AD?
10. In Robert Louis Stevenson's novella ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde’, what was Dr Jeckyll's first name?
11. Painted in the 1660s, ‘Self Portrait as a Lutenist’ shows which Dutch genre painter sitting cross-legged on a chair playing a lute?
12. Which are the only two groups beginning with the letter ‘Z’ to have had more than one UK top ten hit?
13. The Riigikogu is the name given to the unicameral parliament of which country?
14. By what name was the American painter Anna Mary Robertson better known?
15. Meaning ‘book language’ and used by around 85% of the population, which is the most commonly used of the two official written standards of Norwegian, the other being Nynorsk?
16. A young murderer, who is the title character of a 1944 French novel who briefly lived with a drag queen called Divine and a pimp called Darling Daintyfoot before being arrested and tried, and executed?
17. It is often claimed that Milton based his ‘Paradise Lost’ partly on ‘Lucifer’ and ‘Adam in Ballingschap’, works by which Dutch author and playwright?
18. Which 18th Century French physician is known as the 'father of modern dentistry'?
19. Killed at the Battle of Fitjar in 961AD, who was the first Christian King of Norway?
20. Which oddly-named city in Alberta was described by Rudyard Kipling as "all hell for a basement" referring to the vast reserves of natural gas beneath it and is thus known colloquially as the Gas City?
And the answers:
1. CETINJE
2. PALLADIUM
3. DELTA WORKS
4. ADMIRAL JELLICOE
5. OPERATION DELIBERATE FORCE
6. BLOEMFONTEIN
7. AMSTERDAM
8. JOHN MICHELL
9. HARALD FAIRHAIR
10. HENRY
11. JAN STEEN
12. ZZ TOP & THE ZUTONS
13. ESTONIA
14. GRANDMA MOSES
15. BOKMÅL
16. OUR LADY OF FLOWERS
17. JOOST VAN DEN VONDEL
18. PIERRE FAUCHARD
19. HAAKON I (or HAAKON THE GOOD)
20. MEDICINE HAT
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