GK Set B Flashcards
Who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1508 and 1512?
Michelangelo
The city of Sunderland lies at the mouth of which river?
Wear
What is the name of the opera in which the character Canio, dressed as a clown, sings “Vesti la giubba”?
Pagliacci
Where, on the human body, are the so-called Mount of Apollo, Mount of the Moon and the Girdle of Venus?
Palm of the hand
Who played Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland?
Forest Whittaker
In Norse mythology, what is the name of the dwelling place of the gods?
Asgard
What word, indicating that a reference will be found in several places through a text, is derived from the Latin for “scattered”?
Passim
Common and Darwin’s are the two species of which ostrich-like birds native to South America?
Rhea
Who wrote the novels Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender, which were republished as the Sword of Honour trilogy in 1965?
Evelyn Waugh
The period of industrial unrest at the end of the 1970s that led to the fall of the Callaghan government is known by what name, borrowed from a Shakespeare play?
Winter of Discontent
Closely related to the nasturtium, what peppery plant grows in the wild submerged in fast-flowing streams? Its sharply flavoured leaves are often used in green salads or as a garnish.
Watercress
Which element, a vital component of the common match, was originally discovered in, and distilled from, urine?
Phosphorus
Which famous 1818 novel contains the words “I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created”?
Frankenstein
In which country is Cape Nord-kinn, the northernmost point of mainland Europe?
Norway
According to the Noel Coward song, who “go out in the midday sun”?
Mad dogs and Englishmen
The Popes Callistus III and Alexander VI were members of which notorious family?
The Borgias
In which sport is the rank of Yokozuna the highest attainable title?
Sumo
The Saguaro, which gives its name to a National Park in Arizona, can reach a height of about fifteen metres and live for around 200 years, is a giant species of which plant?
Cactus
In Arthur Miller’s play Death Of A Salesman, what is the full name of the salesman?
Willy Loman
Which famous street in New York is named after an embankment built by Dutch settlers in about 1653 to repel attacking forces?
Wall Street
Which fashion designer launched the prét-á-porter Rive Gauche range in 1966
Yves Saint Laurent
The name of which Scottish festival comes from the old Norman French for “a gift at the New Year”?
Hogmanay
Who was the manager of The Beatles from 1961 until his death in 1967?
Brian Epstein
What name is given to the incident in Manchester in 1819 when local magistrates ordered troops to clear a peaceful meeting about Parliamentary reform, resulting in eleven deaths and hundreds of injuries?
Peterloo Massacre
Which classic Ealing comedy features Kate Johnson as the elderly landlady Mrs Wilberforce?
The Ladykillers
The ruins of which Cistercian abbey, founded in 1131, lie on the banks of the River Wye between Monmouth and Chepstow?
Tintern
Who wrote his only novel, Rasselas, during the evenings of a single week in 1759, to pay for his mother’s funeral expenses?
Samuel Johnson
What name is given to the traditional British system of weights, based on the grain and the pennyweight, and used to weigh precious metals?
Troy weight
What is the premier French Order of Distinction, founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802?
Legion D’Honneur
Which American chat show host was born in a London underground station in 1944?
Jerry Springer
The notorious naval mutiny against Captain Bligh took place on which ship in 1789?
The Bounty
The adjective “vulpine” refers to which mammal?
Fox
Whose works include The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman?
Laurence Sterne
Antananarivo is the largest city and capital of which island republic off the coast of Africa?
Madagascar
Which conductor founded both the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestras?
Thomas Beecham
Which term for the band of colour formed when a beam of light is split into its constituent wavelengths was coined by Isaac Newton in 1672?
Spectrum
Angus Deayton was the original host of which topical satirical quiz show, first broadcast in 1990?
Have I Got News For You
Most English translations of the Bible (including the Authorised Version) begin with which three words?
In The Beginning
Which architect’s work includes the rebuilding of the Brighton Pavilion in the oriental style?
John Nash
In which battle of 480BC did Leonidas, King of Sparta, and a small force unsuccessfully defend a pass against a much larger Persian army?
Thermopylae
Founded in 1858, Blackheath, who play at the Rectory Field, claim to be the oldest continuously existing English club in which sport?
Rugby Union
What is the name of the chalk headland, situated near Eastbourne, which is one of the highest cliffs on the South Coast of England?
Beachy Head
The 1966 film Walk, Don’t Run, was the last screen appearance of which debonair, British born film actor?
Cary Grant
In anatomy, what name for the soft lower part of the outer ear can also be applied to divisions of the lungs and brain?
Lobes
Who wrote the plays Dirty Linen and Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead?
Tom Stoppard
What name is given to the male reproductive part of a plant where pollen is produced, consisting of the anther and the filament?
Stamen
What seventeenth century invention is called a tire-bouchon in France, a Kurkentrekker in the Netherlands and a Cavatappi in Italy?
Corkscrew
Who was the leader of the Liberal party from 1976 until 1988, when it merged with the SDP to become the Liberal Democrats?
David Steel
Graham Nash left which group in 1968 to join David Crosby and Stephen Stills?
The Hollies
An “unkindness” or “conspiracy” is the collective noun or which members of the crow family?
Raven
Who is the commanding officer of the Nautilus in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea?
Captain Nemo
Taken from the Old Norse for “third part”, what is the name of the administrative divisions into which the old county of Yorkshire was divided?
Ridings
Dr Evil is the arch enemy of which spoof film hero?
Austin Powers
What name and surname are shared by the father and son who both served as British Prime Minister during the eighteenth and nineteenth century?
William Pitt
Which alternative name is commonly used for Leonardo da Vinci’s famous pen and ink drawing of a naked man with arms outstretched, also known as “The Proportions Of The Human Figure”?
Vitruvian Man
The Taj Mahal is in which Indian city?
Agra
The works of which Nobel Prize winning author include One Hundred Days of Solitude and a fictional account of the last days of Simon Bolivar called The General In His Labyrinth?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Which is the name of the train service that links London to Paris and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel?
Eurostar
Who wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Oliver!
Lionel Bart
The word for which financial arrangement comes from the Old French words for “death” and “pledge”?
Mortgage
The name of which online reference work comes from the Hawaiian for “fast” and the classical Greek for “education”?
Wikipedia
In geometry, what name is given to a triangle with two equal sides and angles?
Isocoles
Which novel by James Joyce features the characters of Leopold Bloom and his estranged wife Molly?
Ulysses
Montgomery is the state capital of which American state?
Alabama
What name is shared by Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony and Vaughan-Williams’ Third?
Pastoral
Which Roman Emperor is widely assumed to have been poisoned by his fourth wife Julia Agripinna, to ensure the succession of her son Nero?
Claudius
Which American cartoonist created a fictional sinister family who were named after him, and were first televised in the 1960s?
Charles Addams
The Siberian or Amur is a sub-species of which endangered animal?
Tiger
Which vegetable is the essential ingredient in a dish described as Lyonnaise?
Onions
Italians use the word “Tedesco” for which European nationality and language?
German
In classical Greek architecture, there are three orders of column: Doric, Ionic and which other, the newest and most elaborate?
Corinthian
What is the name of the Duke of Bedford’s family home, situated near Whipsnade Zoo?
Woburn Abbey
In the film The Great Dictator, who appeared in a dual role as a Jewish barber and as Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomania?
Charlie Chaplin
In Norse mythology, the bridge Bifrost connected Earth with Asgard, the home of the Gods. What form did the bridge take?
A rainbow
On board ship, what is housed in a binnacle?
A compass
What word for the testing of metal to determine its ingredients or purity comes from an Old French word meaning “trial” or “attempt”?
Assay
According to the sonnet by Shelley, which ancient tyrant’s ruined statue carries the words “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair”?
Ozymandias
What is the name of the early flowering deciduous shrub with yellow bell-like flowers which is a member of the olive family and is widespread in the UK?
Forsythia
“Lara’s Theme” was part of the Oscar-winning musical score for which 1965 film?
Doctor Zhivago
Which Falls on the Argentine-Brazilian border are four times wider than Niagara and consist of a series of around 275 cataracts?
Iguazu Falls
The works of which Surrealist artist, who died in August 1967, feature recurring symbols such as the “female torso”, “the bowler hat” and “the castle and the rock”?
Rene Magritte
Which is the larger of the two bones in the lower leg, also known as the shinbone?
Tibia
In 1992, the Summer Olympic Games were held in which Spanish city?
Barcelona
Which Caribbean island, along with Puerto Rico, gained independence from Spain as a result of the 1898 Spanish-American War?
Cuba
Who wrote Love On The Dole, a 1933 novel about working-class poverty?
Walter Greenwood
In 1981, who became the first socialist President of France since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958?
Francois Mitterand
With which protest song did Bob Dylan first enter the UK Singles Chart in March 1965?
The Times They Are A-Changin’
What determines the number of men and women who receive Maundy money from the monarch, and also the amount they are given?
The monarch’s age
What was the name of the puppet made by Gepetto who was eventually granted his wish to be a “real boy”?
Pinocchio
The Kama Sutra was originally written in which ancient language?
Sanskrit
What name is traditionally given to the black pirate flag showing a skull and crossbones?
Jolly Roger
Jethou, Lihou and Brecqhou are smaller members of which island group?
Channel Islands
What is the title of the play by Arthur Miller, set around the Salem witch trials of 1692?
The Crucible
Which rare, bearlike mammal has an enlarged wrist bone that functions rather like a thumb, enabling it to handle food?
Giant Panda
Which cult film of 1969 stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as a pair of motorcycling dropouts?
Easy Rider
Which Dutch artist painted The Garden of Earthly Delights in the early sixteenth century?
Hieronymus Bosch
What name is given to any of the group of twenty organic molecules that are the basic building blocks of proteins?
Amino Acids
Which disgraced politician was the Secretary of State for War from 1960 to 1963?
John Profumo
In English verse, what name is given to a pause in the middle of a metrical line?
Caesura
Which British fighter unified the WBA, WBC and IBF World Heavyweight titles when he beat Evander Holyfield in Las Vegas in November 1999?
Lennox Lewis
What is the name of the large marshy island in the delta of the River Rhone, famed for its bulls and wild birds?
Camargue
Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s only British hit single was composed by Aaron Copland. What is its title?
Fanfare for the Common Man
In the mythology of Ancient Egypt, Thoth was the Patron of Scribes and a god of which celestial body?
The Moon
What Italian dessert is made by whisking egg yolks, wine and sugar together over a gentle heat?
Zabaglione
In anatomy, what name is given to the fibrous sac surrounding the heart?
Pericardium
Which opera by Puccini is set in the days of the Californian Gold Rush?
La Fanciulla Del West
Which book of the Bible gets its English name because it starts with a census of the “children of Israel”?
Numbers
Frederick William Lanchester, who built one of the first motor cars in Britain, patented what type of brake now standard on motor cars?
Disc brake
Who founded the American Institute of Public Opinion in 1935 and developed the polls for testing opinion that still bear his name?
George Gallup
What word for a nickname comes from an early French word for “a playful tap under the chin”?
Sobriquet
What well-known revolutionary socialist hymn was the National Anthem of the Soviet Union from 1917 until 1944?
The Internationale
Whom did Henry VIII appoint as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533 following the death of William Warham?
Thomas Cranmer
Who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Mrs Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate?
Anne Bancroft
What name was adopted by the former British colony of the Gold Coast when it gained independence in 1957?
Ghana
Who wrote the poem, one of his “Sonnets Dedicated to Liberty”, that opens, “Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour!”?
William Wordsworth
What general name is given to any tree that produces its seeds in cones?
Conifer
The architect Sir Frederick Gibberd, best known for the “Crown of Thorns” design of Liverpool’s Catholic cathedral, was responsible for planning which New Town in Essex?
Harlow
In 1925, the teacher John T Scopes was put on trial in Tennessee for teaching what?
Evolution
In The Magic Roundabout, what type of creature was Brian?
Snail
In Ancient Greece, what general name was given to the Chief Magistrate in many city-states?
Eponymous Archon
According to legend, which eleventh century king of England ordered the waves to recede, while on Bosham beach in West Sussex, to demonstrate the limit of his powers?
Canute
Second Viscount Townsend, who directed Britain’s foreign policy from 1721 to 1739, was given what nickname, because of the root vegetable he favoured in his crop rotation system?
Turnip (Townsend)
Who won the Booker Prize in 1981 for Midnight’s Children?
Salman Rushdie
What is the general name for an arachnid with a pair of grasping pincers and a segmented curved tail terminating in a venomous sting?
Scorpion
Who created the television series Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks?
Phil Redmond
The statement ‘L’état, c’est moi”, which literally means “I am the state” is usually attributed to which French king?
Louis XIV
Under what surname did the Bronté‚ sisters publish a volume of poetry in 1846?
Bell
Which Caribbean island, a British Overseas Territory, was sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1493 by Christopher Columbus, who named it after a monastery in Catalonia and the jagged mountain it stands on?
Monserrat
Which group’s song “Flowers In The Rain” was the first to by played on BBC Radio One when it began broadcasting in 1967?
The Move
In Buddhism, what name, of Sanskrit origin, is given to the universal truth or law as expounded by Buddha?
Dharma
Which film, based on a novel by Michael Ondaatje, won nine Oscars at the 1997 ceremony, including Best Supporting Actress for Juliet Binoche?
The English Patient
The BCG vaccine is given to protect against which disease?
Tuberculosis
Which Pop artist featured in Ken Russell’s Pop Goes The Easel, and produced the collage The Toyshop in 1961, using glass and cut-outs?
Peter Blake
By what slang name were FBI agents commonly referred to in the 1930s? It was also the title of a James Cagney film?
G Men
The French city of Dijon is particularly associated with which condiment?
Mustard
What numbers, when used in table form to simplify calculations, consist of an integral part called the characteristic and a decimal part called the mantissa?
Logarithms
In which winter sport is a match or tournament known as a bonspiels?
Curling
What river forms the boundary between Devon and Cornwall?
Tamar
The heroine of which novel by Tolstoy commits suicide by throwing herself under a train?
Anna Karenina
Which flightless bird has nostrils at the tip of its bill rather than the base? It also lays a larger egg relative to its body size than any other bird?
Kiwi
In the Aztec empire, a bitter version of which familiar beverage was used as a drink for warriors and the social elite?
Chocolate
Which Scottish public school did Prince Charles and his brothers attend?
Gordonstoun
Cape Comorin is the southernmost point of which Commonwealth country?
India
The climax of which Alfred Hitchcock film takes place on Mount Rushmore?
North By Northwest
In German mythology, who brings about the death of Siegfried after she finds that he has won her for someone else?
Brunhilde
In 1925, the wearing of what type of hat was prohibited in Turkey?
Fez
What term for a large urban area is derived from the Greek for Mother and City?
Metropolis
Which opera by Puccini opens on a freezing Christmas Eve in Paris, where the poet Rudolfo burns some of his manuscripts to keep warm?
La Boheme
What name is given to the method of sending messages using two flags, held in different positions by a signalman, to represent individual letters or numbers?
Semaphore
Douglas Hogg made newspaper headlines in 2009 when he was alleged to have claimed the cleaning bill for what part of his country estate on parliamentary expenses?
Moat
What French word is used for an additional song or piece at the end of an artist’s performance?
Encore
In the early 1970s, which American surgeon pioneered an eponymous emergency procedure to restore breathing to a person who is choking, by means of a sequence of abdominal thrusts?
(Henry J) Heimlich
The Norfolk town of Cromar is particularly famed for which seafood?
Crab
Shami Chakrabarti was appointed Director of which human rights organisation in 2003?
Liberty
Which twentieth century artist had a ten year relationship with Dora Maar, who inspired his painting Weeping Woman, as well as other major works?
Picasso
Europe’s longest river, the Volga, empties into which sea?
Caspian
On which instrument did Anton Karas play the theme music to The Third Man?
Zither
In Greek mythology, who abducted Helen of Troy?
Paris
In cockney rhyming slang, what is a ‘butchers’
Look
What is the name of the Safari Park near Liverpool, situated at the ancestral home of the Earls of Derby?
Knowlsey
Created by John Le Carré, which fictional British intelligence officer’s long-term adversary was the Soviet spymaster Karla?
George Smiley
What name, from the Latin for seaweed, is given to the simple plant-like organisms that typically lack stems, roots and leaves?
Algae
Which hit American TV comedy series starred David Hyde Pierce as Niles Crane and John Mahoney as his father, who has a Jack Russell Terrier called Eddie?
Frazier
Which city and its surrounding area was the last English possession in France. It was taken back by the French in 1588?
Calais
What is the popular name for the floating capsule that is intended to make canned beer taste like draught?
Widget
The Pascal, which is named after French philosopher and scientist, is the international standard unit of which physical quantity?
Pressure
In Coleridge’s poem, which bird does the Ancient Mariner kill?
Albatross
What was the self-appointed office of Matthew Hopkins, who came to office in 1645?
Witchfinder General
Which comedy duo starred in the 1932 film The Music Box, about two delivery men attempting to take a piano up a flight of steps into a house?
Laurel and Hardy
What is the capital and chief port of the Northern Territory of Australia?
Darwin
Which baseball star became Marilyn Monroe’s second husband when they married in 1954?
Joe DiMaggio
Heath, Marsh and Dark Green are species of which butterflies, whose name comes from the Latin for “dice box” because of their spotted markings?
Fritillaries
In the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, which fictional doctor discovers a drug that absorbs all his evil instincts?
Jekyll
The Galton-Henry system that was officially introduced by Scotland Yard in 1901, is a method of classifying what?
Fingerprints
In Star Trek, which character was the son of Ambassador Sarek and a human teacher named Amanda Grayson?
Spock
Which Hindu deity is worshipped as The Preserver, one of the three gods who oversee and maintain justice and the world order?
Vishnu
Which cartoon character’s falsetto voice was provided by Walt Disney until 1946, when Jimmy McDonald took over the role?
Mickey Mouse
What is the proper name of the flag that is sometimes known the Red Duster, and which is flown by the British Merchant Fleet?
Red Ensign
Which Swiss ski resort was the first venue to host the Winter Olympics twice?
St Moritz
What term for a younger man who is paid by an older woman to act as her escort was used as the title of a book by Edna Ferber published in 1923?
Gigolo
Which embroidered artefact begins with Edward the Confessor meeting the future King Harold II and ends with the Battle of Hastings?
The Bayeux Tapestry
The name of which sea comes from the Latin for “middle of the land”?
Mediterranean
The common or blue species of which mollusc, found growing in tight clusters on rocks, is widely harvested in Europe where it is often served with french fries?
Mussels
What was Margaret Thatchers first cabinet post when the Conservatives were returned to power under Edward Heath in 1970?
Education and Science
Bonnano Pisano was the engineer in charge of which famous building, begun around 1174?
Leaning Tower of Pisa
In the New Testament, what was the name of the prisoner released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus at the behest of the crowd?
Barrabus
The name of which sea monster from the Book of Job was used by Thomas Hobbes for the title of his best known work, first published in 1651?
Leviathon
What was the last Royal House to rule an independent Scotland?
Stuart
On what subject did Albert Einstein publish his Special Theory in 1905 and his General Theory in 1916, concerning bodies in motion with respect to each other?
Relativity
The gemsbok, the scimitar-horned and the Arabian are three species of which large antelope? The latter two are endangered species?
Oryx
Which playwright is the subject of John Lahr’s biography, Prick Up Your Ears? It was made into a 1987 film starring Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina?
Joe Orton
What fabulous fire-breathing monster, slain by Bellepheron, had a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a snake or dragon’s tail?
Chimera
