General Knowledge 101 Flashcards
Who is Odysseus’s son in Homer’s “The Odyssey “?
Telemachus
In “The Odyssey” by Homer, who is Telemachus’s teacher?
Mentor
In “The Odyssey” who visits Telemachus disguised as his teacher, Mentor, in order to take him out into the world to learn about his father and thereby complete his teaching?
The goddess Athena
Who wrote The Odyssey inspired novel “Les aventures de Telemaque” (1669)
Francois Fenelon
What is foolscap?
A sheet of writing paper 8”x13” (like a legal pad - it gets its name from the watermark it used to hold of a jester’s motley (also known as a foolscap).
What is the meaning of parse?
To study something closely by looking at it’s parts.
Who is the “father of sociology?”
Auguste Comte
What is the former name of Tokyo in Japan?
Edo
(Edd-doh)
What Japanese Art movement has a name that translates as “pictures of the floating world?”
Ukiyo-e
(Uh-key-oh)
Ukiyo-e Japanese Art depicts cultural urban scenes from the Edo period in Japan under which ruling dynasty?
The Shoguns
Toyota Hokkai (born circa 1780) began his working life as a fishmonger but later honed his artistic skills under which renowned master?
Katsushika Hokusai
Within the genre of Ukiyo-e, artist Toyota Hokkai specialized in a type of intricately designed woodblock prints called what?
Surimono
Fuliginous is a synonym of what word?
Sooty (it can also be used figuratively to describe something dark or dirty, eg “fuliginous soul”)
In what Henry James novel is the character Waymarsh described as having “dark fuliginous eyes”?
“The Ambassadors”
What was singer Billie Halliday’s real name?
Eleanora Fagan
What was Paul McCartney’s 1st solo album called?
McCartney
The black swan is native to which continent?
Australia
What was the Clash’s 1st album called?
The Clash
Which artist painted “Whaam”?
Lichtenstein
Who invented the operant conditioning chamber?
B. F. Skinner
Who coined the term “pop art”?
Lawrence Alloway
What is the dog’s name on “The Muppet Show?”
Rowlf
What type of animal is a platypus?
Mammal
What date was the tank 1st used on a battlefield?
15th September 1916
What 4 islands make up the Balearic Islands?
Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentaria
What year did Michael Foucault die?
1984
Who painted “The Gleaners”?
Jean Francois Millet
What is Bel paese?
A type of Italian cheese
How many NBA championships did Michael Jordan win?
6
In what year did SOS become recognized as the universal distress signal?
1908
What year did Pink Floyd release “Another Brick in the Wall”?
1979
How many Harry Potter books are there?
7
Who did Michael Jordan win his 6 NBA championships with?
Chicago Bulls
What is Michael Jordan’s middle name?
Jeffrey
The Maidens Tower is a small observation and broadcast tower located off the coast of where?
Istanbul, Turkey
In which body of water can the Maiden’s Tower be found?
The Bosphorus strait
By what other name is the Maiden’s Tower sometimes known?
Leander’s tower
In classical mythology, who is the goddess of the moon and hunting?
Diana
Who, in myth, were the goddess Diana’s parents?
Jupiter and Leto
According to mythology, who gazed upon Diana and her nymphs bathing?
Actaeon (a hunter)
According to mythology, how did Diana punish Actaeon for catching sight of her bathing?
She turned the hunter into a stag (like the ones he was hunting), and his own dogs turned on him and tore him to shreds.
In mythology, which of Diana’s nymphs gets pregnant by her father Jupiter?
Callisto
In mythology, how does Diana punish the nymph Callisto for getting pregnant by her father?
Turns her into a bear
What is the official name for the flag of Japan?
Nisshoki (flag of the sun) but it is more commonly known as Hinomaru (ball of the sun)
What is the 2nd most populous city in Australia?
Melbourne (in the state of Victoria), Sydney is the most populous city
What is interesting about gecko’s?
They have no eyelids
According to Beijing Standard Time, how many time zones does China have?
One
Who first demonstrated classical conditioning?
Ivan Pavlov
Who is Harry Potter’s godfather?
Sirius Black
Who made their directorial debut with American History X starring Edward Norton?
Tony Kaye
Who wrote the book “X-men: The Characters and their Universe?”
Michael Mallory
Who wrote the song “Here Comes the Sun”?
George Harrison
What album was “Here Comes the Sun” on?
Abbey Road
What is the 1st name of Nash (as in Crosby, Stills and Nash)?
Graham
Where did the 1996 Summer Olympics take place?
Atlanta, USA
Who said “Some people die aged 25 and aren’t buried until their 75”?
Benjamin Franklin
What is the second highest mountain in Africa called?
Mount Kenya (after which the country Kenya is named)?
What is the 2nd largest Arab city after Cairo?
Baghdad in Iraq
What river is Baghdad located on?
Tigris
Who wrote “Existentialism is a Humanism”?
Jean Paul Sartre
On what date did President Kennedy get assassinated?
22nd November 1963
Who played Miranda in Sex and the City?
Cynthia Nixon
Who created the series Sex and the City for HBO?
Darren Star
Sex and the City was adapted from whose newspaper column and 1996 book?
Candace Bushnell
Who said “God does not play dice with the universe “?
Albert Einstein
What is the atomic symbol of lead?
Pb (from Latin plumbum)
What does aplomb mean?
Complete and confident composure and self assurance
In February 1888, Vincent Van Gogh, left Paris for where?
Arles, in southern France
Vincent Van Gogh painted his famous sunflowers in the fall of 1888 whilst waiting for which artist to join him?
Paul Gauguin
What did the constellation Orion used to be known as?
Hippolyta (named after the Amazon warier).
What country is known as the “land of the thunder dragon”?
Bhutan
What is the outside covering of a plants root called?
Root epidermis
Who was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest?
Junko Tabei
What does an M represent in Roman numerals?
1000
Rosario is what country’s 3rd most populous city?
Argentina
Who directed the movie “radio days”?
Woody Allen
Which raw material is used to make plastic?
Oil
Where is the platypus native to?
Australia
(They’re endemic to eastern Australia and Tasmania)
What is a baby dolphin known as?
A calf
Which NBA player is known as “Dr J”?
Julius Erving
Who directed “Last of the Mohicans”?
Michael Mann
Who played JR Ewing?
Larry Hagman
Who played Dr Mark Greene in ER?
Anthony Edwards
What does a camel’s hump mainly contain?
Water
What precious metal is most commonly used in catalytic converters?
Platinum
Who wrote thriller novels about Dirk Pitt
Clive Cussler
Which French footballer won the Ballon D’or three times in a row from 1985-87?
Michel Platini
What is Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem’s middle name?
Bruce
What year did Amelia Earhart become the 1st woman to fly solo across the Atlantic?
1932
A Horse’s age can be estimated using it’s what?
Teeth
What is the smallest planet in the solar system?
Mercury
Chuck Taylor All Stars is a brand of sneaker made by who?
Converse
Who wrote “The Little Prince”?
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Who hosted the 1st Winter Olympics in 1924?
France
Who painted “Cafe terrace at night”?
Van Gogh
How long does it take Venus to orbit the Sun?
224
Modern day golf originates from what country?
Scotland
“ She Walks In Beauty” is a lyrical poem by who?
Lord Byron
Which theory states that living things come only from other living things?
Biogenesis
What is the disk that surrounds a black hole called?
Accretion disk
Which constellation represents a hunter with weapons?
Orion
What drink replaced beer in the Royal Navy in 1655?
Rum
The battle of Lepanto is in which year?
1571
What is the proper name for laughing gas?
Nitrous oxide
Who said “veni, vici, vidi”?
Julius Caesar
What does the acronym IBM stand for
International Business Machines
The Iguazi Falls are on the border between which two countries?
Brazil and Argentina
What was REM’s debut album?
Murmur
The League of Nations dissolved how many years after it was formed?
26
Who created sculpture “First the Feet” which Pope Benedict labelled “blasphemous”?
Martin Kippenburger
Who had a 2013 hit with “Mirrors”?
Justin Timberlake
For how many years did Frederick the Great rule Prussia?
46 (Frederick II ruled Prussia from 1740- 1786)
In what year was Taylor Swift born?
1989
What is the capital of Columbia?
Bogota
Tutankhamen was an Egyptian pharaoh of what dynasty?
18th
What member of the cat family cannot retract its claws?
Cheetah
Who played Joyce Davenport on the tv show Hill Street Blues?
Veronica Hamel
Antirrhinium is a genus of plants commonly known as what?
Snapdragon
Warsaw, the capital and largest city in Poland stands on what river?
Vistula
What year did Spain cede Florida to the United States!
1819
Who is the author of Chill Factor?
Sandra Brown
What is Detroits NBA team called?
The Pistons
The Empire State Building is how many stories high?
102
How many of Emily Dickensens poems were published in her lifetime?
7
Ensenada is a city in which country?
Mexico
The “points” leader in the Tour de France wears jerseys of what colour?
Green
What does the man hold in the painting “American Gothic “?
Pitchfork
When is Independence Day in the USA?
July 4th
What is a John Dory?
Fish
What is the study of water called?
Hydrology
How many years does it take Saturn to orbit the Sun?
29
What is the real name of Marilyn Manson?
Brian Warner
How many sides does an icosogan have?
20
Where are the Atlas Mountains?
North Western Africa
How many seconds are there in an hour?
3600
Which astronomer and mathematician formulated three scientific laws of planetary motion?
Johannes Kepler
What year was the Russian revolution?
1917
Who invented basketball?
James Naismith
Athena was the goddess of what?
Wisdom
Hydra is a moon orbiting where?
Pluto
Who was Alexander Dubcek?
Slovak politician
What is the estimated population of Istanbul?
15 million
Sika is a type of what?
Deer
Lucien Pissarro, son of influential French painter Camille Pissarro, moved to Britain and was one of the founding members of which art group in 1911?
The Camden Town Group
Which planet in our solar system spins the slowest?
Venus
How many species of snake are there?
3000
What is the capital of Costa Rica?
San José
What kind of waves are produced by an Earthquake?
Seismic waves
What character 1st appeared in Stephen King’s “The Stand” as a demonic figure?
Randall Flagg
Which mythological creature was supposedly hatched from the egg of a rooster?
Basilisk
What is the world’s most venomous creature?
Box jellyfish
In what year was Walt Whitman born?
1819
How many wings does a bee have?
4
What is the heaviest organ in the body?
Liver
Where is the Black Forest located?
Germany
Who wrote “And then there were none”?
Agatha Christie
Where is the world’s highest mountain found?
Venezuela
Who wrote “Red Cavalry” - a collection of short stories?
Isaac Babel
Where is Waterloo?
Belgium
Who had a 1991 hit with song “Rush Rush”?
Paula Abdul
In Greek mythology Hephaestus was the god of what?
Fire and metal-working
Who painted “Chop Suey” (1929)?
Edward Hopper
What fictional continent is Game of Thrones set on?
Westeros and Essos
What biblical figures name means “brother of the father”?
Ahab
Hakeem Olajuwon competed in what sport?
Basketball
“Houses of Holy” and “Physical Graffiti“ were albums by who?
Led Zeppelin
The a am Manchurian region is found where?
China
Who painted “The Kiss”?
Gustav Klimt
Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam lies on the right bank of what river?
Red river
What was the name of Geppetto’s cat in Pinocchio?
Fígaro
What year was the Chernobyl disaster?
1986
What is real name of Boy George?
George O’ Dowd
Where does Arabica coffee bean originate from?
Ethiopia
Vince McMahon is a famous promoter of what sport?
Wrestling
What is estimated population of Istanbul?
15 million
