EQC X

Question 1

Described as “Europe’s most important theatrical producer” by ‘Life’ magazine in 1964, which man — born in 1917, in the Swedish town of Uddevalla — was the third and final husband of Ingrid Bergman?

Answer 1

Lars Reinhold SCHMIDT

Question 2

In a friendly against Croatia on May 28, 2017, which former Manchester United and LA Galaxy striker — born in Guadalajara in 1988, and nicknamed “Chicharito” — became the all-time top-scorer for México’s national team?

Answer 2

Javier HERNÁNDEZ Balcázar

Question 3

Previously home to a British concentration-camp during the Second Boer War, which town in the Free State province of South Africa — whose name means “Peace Garrison” — is home to Earth’s largest verified impact crater?

Answer 3

the VREDEFORT impact structure (accept the VREDEFORT dome)

Question 4

Taking its name from a nearby cattle-station in Western Australia, what is Earth’s oldest known impact structure?

Answer 4

the YARRABUBBA impact structure

Question 5

Which Malian film-director — born in 1961 in Kiffa, Mauritania — was responsible for the 2006 film ‘Bamako’, and was Oscar-nominated for his 2014 film ‘Timbuktu’?

Answer 5

Abderrahmane SISSAKO (accept عبد الرحمن سيساكو)

Question 6

Having won medals for three separate Olympic teams — the Soviet union, the unified team, and Georgia — which Tbilisi-born pistol-shooter competed in a record-equalling tenth Summer Olympic Games in Paris in 2024?

Answer 6

Nino SALUKVADZE (accept ნინო სალუქვაძე)

Question 7

Which of the three main branches of Shia Islam — considered the closest to Sunni Islam, and concentrating more on rationalism than Koranic literalism — is associated with the Houthi movement of Yemen?

Answer 7

ZAYDism (accept az-ZAYDiyya, or الزَّيْدِيَّة)

Question 8

Born in Tokyo in 1957, who succeeded Fumio Kishida as prime minister of Japan in October, 2024?

Answer 8

Shigeru ISHIBA (accept ISHIBA Shigeru, or 石破 茂)

Question 9

An unfinished oil-on-canvas by Eugène Delacroix was later split into one portrait of Frédéric Chopin — later shown in the Louvre, in Paris — and another of George Sand, housed in which state-owned gallery to the north of Copenhagen?

Answer 9

ORDRUPGAARD

Question 10

Born in Treguaco in the 1530s and killed in an ambush in 1557, which Mapuche leader finished seventh — just ahead of Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda — in the Chilean equivalent of ‘Great Britons’, for his resistance to Spanish conquest?

Answer 10

LAUTARO (accept LEVTARU, or LEF-TRARU)

Question 11

In August, 2024, Utah’s board of education released its inaugural list of thirteen banned books — including six by which New York-born author of the fantasy series ‘Throne Of Glass’, ‘A Court Of Thorns And Roses’, and ‘Crescent City’?

Answer 11

Sarah Janet MAAS

Question 12

Starring Lily Gladstone, the Martin Scorsese film ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ was based on a 2017 book — subtitled “The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI” — by which 1967-born journalist, author, and ‘New Yorker’ staff writer?

Answer 12

David Elliot GRANN

Question 12

Unrelated to a similarly-named African politician, which monolith overlooks the Nigerian capital city of Abuja, and is depicted on the one-hundred-naira note?

Answer 12

ZUMA rock

Question 13

Which intrusive igneous mafic rock — which constitutes the majority of Earth’s oceanic crust — is named for a small hamlet in Tuscany?

Answer 13

GABBRO

Question 14

Alongside James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann, which famously-taciturn New Haven physicist founded the field of statistical mechanics — coining its name, in 1884 — and was described by Albert Einstein as “the greatest mind in American history”?

Answer 14

Josiah Willard GIBBS

Question 15

Grandson of Chinggis, son of Tolui, and brother of Kublai, which Khan sacked and destroyed Baghdād in 1258 — resulting in the fall of the Abbasid caliphate?

Answer 15

HULEGU Khan (accept HÜLEGÜ Khan, or HULAGU Khan)

Question 16

Born in 1893 in Tarnów, Poland, which polyglot was — between 1923 and 1975 — the sole researcher for the ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!’ newspaper-column?

Answer 16

Norbert PEARLROTH

Question 17

Situated directly to the north of Dalmatia, which Roman province encompasses the territory of seven modern nations — western Hungary, western Slovakia, eastern Austria, northern Croatia, north-western Serbia, northern Slovenia, and northern Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Answer 17

PANNONIA

Question 18

The boxing world champions Billy Backus and Carmen Basilio are both from which village — on the Erie canal, just east of Syracuse, New York — which is also home to the sport’s international hall of fame?

Answer 18

CANASTOTA (accept KNISTE STOTA)

Question 19

With over one-million species divided between eleven orders, which superorder of the class Insecta — which includes butterflies, bees, ants, and beetles — is distinguished by having distinct larval, pupal, and adult stages, which differ considerably in their structure and behaviour?

Answer 19

HOLOMETABOLA

Question 20

Gerald — a British army officer — is the male protagonist of which 1883 opera, with a libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille?

Answer 20

‘LAKMÉ’, by Léo Delibes

Question 21

Presented by ‘Picture World’ magazine annually since 1997 — and named for a mediæval lyric-poet — which are the only film awards in Iran not to be overseen by the government?

Answer 21

the HAFEZ awards (accept the DONYAYE TASSVIR awards, or جایزه حافظ)

Question 21

Three French operas of the late nineteenth century were set on the Indian subcontinent: ‘Lakmé’ by Léo Delibes, ‘Les Pêcheurs De Perles’ by Georges Bizet, and which five-act 1877 opera by Jules Massenet, with a libretto by Louis Gallet?

Answer 21

‘Le ROI De LAHORE’ (accept ‘The KING Of LAHORE’)

Question 21

Since 1947, the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction has been headquartered at the main campus of which system of public universities, based in the city of Bloomington?

Answer 21

INDIANA university (accept INDIANENSIS universitas)

Question 22

Born in Pennsylvania in 1830 — and described as “the first of the modern first ladies” — which niece of James Buchanan was the nineteenth woman to serve as first lady of the United States, and the only one to serve a bachelor president?

Answer 22

Harriet Rebecca LANE Johnston

Question 23

Cast in ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ first as the Scarecrow, then as the Tin Man — but falling ill from the aluminum-dust in his makeup — which Illinois-born actor played Holly Golightly’s estranged husband Doc in ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’; before starring as Jed Clampett in ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’, and as Barnaby Jones in the eponymous 1970s detective series?

Answer 23

Buddy EBSEN (accept Frank EBSEN, or Christian Ludolf EBSEN, Jr.)

Question 24

The university of Florida is headquartered in which city in Alachua county, where one of its predecessor institutions — the East Florida Seminary, the state’s first government-supported higher-education institute — re-opened in 1866, following the American Civil War?

Answer 24

GAINESVILLE

Question 25

Born in Ohio in 1950, which singer-songwriter fronted the group Wild Cherry, and wrote their only hit — 1976’s ‘Play That Funky Music’?

Answer 25

Robert PARISSI

Question 26

Born in Leningrad in 1962, which lead-singer and songwriter of the rock-group Kino died in a car-crash in 1990, at the age of twenty-eight?

Answer 26

Viktor Robertovich TSOI (accept Виктор Робертович ЦОЙ)

Question 26

Born in California in 1989, which Canadian-American first-baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers was named World Series MVP in 2024 — after setting a record for consecutive World Series games with a home run, including the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history?

Answer 26

Freddie FREEMAN (accept Frederick Charles FREEMAN)

Question 27

The Algerian city of Oran takes its name from the Berber expression “wa iharan”, meaning “place of . . .” which animal — whose last-known wild specimen was shot in 1942, near the Moroccan pass of Tizi n’Tichka?

Answer 27

”. . . the Barbary LION” (accept PANTHERA LEO leo)

Question 28

As of 2024, who are the only two actors to have won both two Academy awards and two Tony awards?

Answer 28

Helen HAYES MacArthur and Fredric MARCH (accept Helen HAYES MacArthur and Ernest Frederick McIntyre BICKEL, Helen HAYES Brown and Fredric MARCH, or Helen HAYES Brown and Ernest Frederick McIntyre BICKEL)

Question 29

Born in Brussels in 1927, which Swiss actor made his film début in title-rôle of Robert Bresson’s 1951 film ‘Diary Of A Country Priest’ — before starring as Franz Schubert in ‘Sinfonia D’Amore’ and Carlo Goldoni in ‘Italienisches Capriccio’, and creating the French puppet-show ‘Bonne Nuit Les Petits’ with his wife, Christine Balli?

Answer 29

Claude LAYDU

Question 30

Born in 1716, which Parisian sculpted a 1782 equestrian statue of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg that inspired Alexander Pushkin’s namesake 1833 poem ‘The Bronze Horseman’, and whose twelve-hundred-and-fifty-tonne rapakivi granite pedestal — known as “Thunder Stone” — is thought to be the largest monolith ever moved by humans?

Answer 30

Étienne Maurice FALCONET

Question 31

Born in Den Haag in 1664, which painter of numerous floral still-lifes is thought to be the best-documented female artist of the Dutch golden age?

Answer 31

Rachel RUYSCH

Question 32

Its lyrics rendering the Lord’s Prayer into Swahili — with a title, accordingly, translating as “Our Father” — which composition by Christopher Tin was the theme for the 2005 video-game ‘Civilization IV’, and was both the first piece of game music to be nominated for a Grammy, and the first to win?

Answer 32

‘BABA YETU’

Question 33

During the Seven Years’ war, a British fleet led by Edward Hawke decisively defeated the French in a 1759 engagement also known as “la bataille des Cardinaux”, but named in English for which arm of the bay of Biscay — located just north of the Loire estuary, and one-hundred kilometres north-west of Nantes?

Answer 33

the battle of QUIBERON bay (accept la bataille de la baie de QUIBERON)

Question 34

Taking place on a square mat called a “gilem”, with competitors wearing jackets called “yaktaks” — men in green, and women in white — which five-thousand-year-old form of wrestling is the national sport of Tajikistan?

Answer 34

GUSHTINGIRI

Question 35

The largest seed in the plant kingdom belongs to the palm variously-known as “the sea-coconut”, “coco de mer”, or “the double-coconut”, which — despite its binomial name, “Lodoicea maldivica” — is endemic to the islands of Praslin and Curieuse, in which country?

Answer 35

the republic of SEYCHELLES (accept la république des SEYCHELLES, or repiblik SESEL)

Question 36

Having led the Iowa Hawkeyes to victory in the 2022 and 2023 Big Ten college-basketball tournaments, the Des-Moines-born point-guard Caitlin Clark was the first overall pick of the 2024 WNBA draft — when she was selected by which Eastern Conference franchise?

Answer 36

the INDIANA FEVER

Question 37

The films ‘Mommie Dearest’, ‘The Aviator’, ‘Trumbo’, ‘Judy’, and ‘Mank’ all feature portrayals of which Minsk-born producer — who, reportedly, abused Judy Garland?

Answer 37

Louis Burt MAYER (accept Lazar MEIR)

Question 38

In 1927, Benito Mussolini’s fascist government placed an antique marble column from the Roman Forum on which mountain of the northern Apennines — marking the source of the river Tiber?

Answer 38

mount FUMAIOLO (accept monte FUMAIOLO)

Question 39

In 1565, which southern-Indian empire was defeated by a coalition of Muslim sultanates, who left its capital — the UNESCO world heritage site of Hampi — in ruins?

Answer 39

the VIJAYANAGARA empire (accept the KARNATA kingdom, or KARNATA rajya)