ICC season 5 Flashcards by xxxxxxx Hutchinson

Q

QUESTION ONE
Considered one of the landmark venues in opera, what is the name of the opera house in Venice that opened in 1792? It has twice been destroyed by fire and rebuilt, opening again in 1837 and 2004.

A

Teatro La Fenice

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION TWO
In probability theory, which discrete probability distribution describes a single experiment with two possible outcomes, such as a coin toss? It is named for a Swiss mathematician.

A

Bernoulli Distribution

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION ONE
Fictionalising the life of the title dramatist and his relationship with his wife, Armande Bejart, the 1851 play Molière is by which French author? In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf describes how George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, and this author “sought ineffectively to veil themselves by using the name of a man.”

A

George Sand

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION TWO
When Botswana became an independent nation in 1966, which politician was elected as the first President? Despite spending much of the 1950s in exile, he founded the Bechuanaland Democratic Party in 1961 and won election as Prime Minister on a pro-independence platform.

A

Seretse Khama

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION THREE
In 968 CE, Dinh B$ Linh ended the Anarchy of Twelve Warlords and established which empire that lasted until 1804, when it was reorganised into Vietnam by Gia Long [yaa lawn], the founding Emperor of the Nguyën [win] dynasty? In 1471, this empire annexed its southern neighbour, Champa.

A

Dai Viet

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION ONE
Also known in English as the Fates, what is the Greek name for the group of three goddesses who personified destiny? This group consists of Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.

A

Moirai

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION TWO
A fictionalised version of Pablo Neruda appears as ‘The Poet’ in which 1982 magical realist novel about the Trueba family written by Isabel Allende?

A

The House of the Spirits

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION ONE
What is the repeating functional unit of striated muscle? This basic contractile unit, which is absent in smooth muscle, consists of thick filaments in the centre, overlapping with thin filaments attached to the borders of this unit, which are known as Z lines.

A

Sarcomere

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION ONE
Considered a forerunner of New Age spiritualism, which 18th- and early 19th-century German physician hypothesised the existence of an invisible natural force called Lebensmagnetismus (animal magnetism) possessed by all living things? Some of this man’s concepts informed the development of hypnosis.

A

Franz Mesmer

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION THREE
Which discrete probability distribution describes N individual experiments, or Bernoulli trials, with two possible outcomes? The name of this distribution is also shared with a ‘test’ for statistical significance.

A

Binomial Distribution

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION TWO
In relaxed muscle, the I [eye] band of the sarcomere exists around the Z line and consists solely of which protein that makes up the thin filaments? In fully contracted muscle, the I band disappears because the thin filaments have fully overlapped with the thick filaments, which are made of myosin.

A

Actin

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION ONE
From 1418-27, the former peasant Lê Loi [lay lur] led a rebellion to expel the occupying Ming dynasty from Dai Vi@t. He then sought to conquer which neighbouring kingdom that had allied with the Ming? This “land of a million elephants” lasted from 1353 to 1707 and is the forerunner of modern Laos.

A

Lan Xang

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION TWO
Which figure from Irish mythology, with a name meaning “great queen”, is associated with destiny and war, often foretelling death? She is associated with the Badb, a goddess who often takes the form of a crow, and she is sometimes considered part of a triple goddess alongside the Bad and Macha.

A

The Morrigan

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION THREE
What is the official language in the Indian city of Bengaluru (or Bangalore)? Bengaluru is the capital of a state with a name derived from the name of this language.

A

Kannada

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION ONE
La Fenice also premiered what Giuseppe Verdi opera, set in Genoa and centring around the title character, who eventually becomes the first Doge of the city? The first version of this opera was relatively unsuccessful but, after being revised, received a second premiere at La Scala in Milan that proved much better received.

A

Simon Boccanegra

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION TWO
Another man sometimes seen as a forerunner of New Age spiritualism, which Stockholm-born theologian and mystic is best-known for his 1758 book De Caelo et Eius Mirabilibus et de inferno, ex Auditis et Visis (Heaven and Hell), in which he gives a detailed description of the afterlife?

A

Emanuel Swedenborg

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION ONE
For a large number of trials or random events, both the binomial and the Poissonian distribution can be approximated by which continuous probability distribution as a consequence of the central limit theorem?

A

ANS: Gaussian distribution (accept normal distribution; accept Carl Friedrich Gauss)

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION TWO
The order Blattodea connains the termites and which flat, dark insects that have become established worldwide as a household pest?

A

Cockroaches

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION THREE
Similar to the Moirai, the Norse deities Urdr [UR-thur], Verdandi [VARE-thand-ee] and Skuld [skoold] shape the course of human destinies by spinning the threads of fate at the root of Yggdrasil. They are known by what collective name? This name is also used to describe some other goddesses in Norse mythology.

A

Norns

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION ONE
The White Elephant War, fought from 1479-84, saw Lan Xang ally with which Indianised kingdom in northern Thailand in order to repel the Dai Viêt invasion? This “land of a million rice fields” lasted from 1292 until 1775, and fought a series of wars against its southern neighbour, the Ayutthaya Kingdom.

A

Lan Na

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION TWO
March 1824 saw the premiere of II crociato in Egitto (The Crusader in Egypt), a two-act opera by which German Jewish composer? While generally well-received, it took him a little longer to become well-known across the continent, with his 1831 opera Robert le diable (Robert The Devil).

A

Giacomo Meyerbeer

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION THREE
For striated muscle to contract, myosin binding sites on the thin filament must be uncovered. This occurs when calcium ions bind with which regulatory proteins, which are attached to a coiled protein named for this protein complex and myosin? Elevated levels of some proteins belonging to this protein complex in the blood are used to diagnose a heart attack.

A

Troponin

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION ONE
Working alongside Eduardo Mondlane, which politician founded the political party FRELIMO in 1962, as a reaction to Portugal’s refusal to consider the independence of Mozambique? Elected as Mozambique’s first President upon independence in 1975, he was later killed in a plane crash rumoured to have been orchestrated by South Africa due to this man’s hostile relations with the apartheid regime.

A

Samora Machel

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

Q

QUESTION TWO
In order to protect themselves against the threat of Mongol invasion, Mangrai, the first king of Lan Na and founder of the city of Chiang Mai, made an alliance with Ram Khamhaeng, the ruler of which Thai Kingdom? Ram Khamhaeng developed the Thai alphabet and introduced Theravada Buddhism to this kingdom, sometimes considered the first Thai kingdom, which was absorbed into the Ayutthaya kingdom in 1438.

A

Sukhothai

How well did you know this?

1

Not at all

2

3

4

5

Perfectly

QUESTION THREE Peter Abelard, Thomas Aquinas, and William of Ockham were all associated with which medieval school of Christian philosophy that combined religious dogma with Aristotelean logic?

Scholasticism

QUESTION ONE Another mystic often held to be a forerunner to New Age spiritualism is which Greek-Armenian thinker who founded an influential quasi-religious movement and who wrote the trilogy All and Everything? He became known as "the man who killed Katherine Mansfield" after that author died in his care in 1923.

George Gurdjieff

QUESTION ONE Which lake in Utah, the largest saline lake in the United States, has been shrinking due to climate change and over-use of snow melt, with a recent study suggesting it may dry up within five years? There are fears that as it dries, a nearby city will be threatened with toxic dust storms.

Great Salt Lake

QUESTION TWO The Code of the Nesilim is the cuneiform legal code of which ancient empire based in present-day Turkey? Written on a number of tablets uncovered from this empire's capital of Hattusa, the code contains the earliest example of sexual consent in law.

Hittites

QUESTION THREE The calcium ions that bind to the troponin complex are released from which specialised membrane-bound structure found within muscle cells? This structure is a specialised form of, and has a similar name to, the smooth subunit of another organelle, which is used in detoxification and lipid synthesis. Please answer with the name of structure found only in muscle cells.

Sarcoplasmic Reticulum

QUESTION THREE Colm Tóibín's 2004 novel The Master fictionalises the life of which American author and explores that author's ambiguous sexuality? The novel opens with the failure of this author's play, Guy Domville, and ends with this author's brother coming to stay with him in his adopted home of East Sussex, England.

Henry James

QUESTION TWO The only one of the SI Units that is based not on a physical constant but, instead, on a biological quantity, its frequency is in the visible spectrum near green, chosen because that is where the human eye is most sensitive. One unit of which SI unit is equal to the power emitted by a light source which in a given direction emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 × 1012 Hz and has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683 watt per steradian?

Candela

QUESTION THREE Which former premier of Saskatchewan introduced North America's first single-payer universal healthcare system, and has been described as the "father of Medicare" in Canada? He later became the first leader of the New Democratic Party.

Tommy Douglas

QUESTION ONE The Peloponnesian War was fought between the Peloponnesian league, led by Sparta, and the Delian league, led by which Greek city state? Pericles was described as "the first citizen" of this city.

Athens

QUESTION TWO Guy Scott became the first white African head of state since South Africa's F.W. de Klerk in 1994 and the first ever white head of state in a democratic African nation. As incumbent Vice-President, Scott became President of which country upon the death of President Michael Sata in October 2014?

Zambia

QUESTION THREE Which American philosopher proposed a thought experiment in which you awake with an unconscious violinist depending on your blood in her essay A Defense of Abortion?

Judith Jarvis Thomson

SPARE ONE The official symbol of the Sassanid Empire, this mythological bird can be commonly found in the art of Iran, Georgia, Armenia, and Byzantium. Most famously appearing in Ferdowsi's epic Shahnameh, this is which bird of Persian legend credited with possession of great wisdom?

Simurgh

QUESTION TWO Travelling 6 hours from Moscow on the Trans-Siberian Railway will bring passengers to which city at the confluence of the Oka and the Volga rivers? The sixth-largest city in Russia according to the 2021 census, it is the birthplace of Maxim Gorky, after whom the city was named from 1932 to 1990.

Nizhny Novgorod

QUESTION ONE Which Russian thinker, a notable figure in the field of anarchy, attacked the capitalist work ethic in his 1892 French-language book La Conquête du Pain (The Conquest of Bread), arguing that capitalism relies upon scarcity and poverty to function?

Pyotr Kropotkin

QUESTION THREE Aerosols and foams are examples of what type of mixture, in which insoluble particles of one substance are suspended in, and dispersed throughout, another substance?

Colloid

High waterfalls maybe higher than Angel falls if measured by total drop rather than single drop, comes from drakensberg mountains?

Tugela Falls

QUESTION ONE The colour or hue of a gemstone is generally due to the presence of an elemental impurity. Corundum is an aluminium oxide, but red varieties, such as pink sapphire or ruby, get their colour from higher concentrations of which element?

Chromium

QUESTION TWO In Hinduism, Kalki is the final incarnation of the god Vishnu and is commonly depicted riding a divine white horse named Devadatta. Devadatta is itself commonly regarded as a manifestation of which divine bird of Hindu and Buddhist myth who is the sworn enemy of the nagas and mount of Vishnu?

Garuda

Battle fought with Sucre, 9 December 1824 as part of Peruvian war of independence

Battle of Ayacucho

Battle of 24 May 1822 as part of Ecuadorian war if independence on slopes of namesake volcano

Battle of Pichincha

QUESTION THREE Another of the world's highest waterfalls are those at the canyon at Trou de Fer. Sometimes referred to as the highest waterfalls in France, they are found on which island?

La Reunion

QUESTION ONE Which American abstract expressionist often painted onto unprimed canvas using a technique involving diluting oil paints with turpentine, which she called "soak stain"? Her first professionally exhibited work, Mountains and Sea (1952), became her best-known painting.

Helen Frankenthaler

QUESTION TWO Some critics trace the end of Italian neorealism to the release of which 1954 Federico Fellini film, which Philip Booth described as a "Transitional film... [linking]... Classical Neorealism to Poetic Realism"? In this film, a young woman played by Giulietta Masina is purchased as a wife by a brutish circus strongman played by Anthony Quinn.

La Strada (The Road)

QUESTION THREE Kierkegaard is commonly held to be the first philosopher in which tradition that emphasizes the individual as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will?

Existentialism

QUESTION TWO Which Chilean author's Un verdor terrible (When We Cease to Understand the World), which was shortlisted for the 2021 Man Eboker International Prize, was described by John Banville as "...a non-fiction novel"? The novel contains several biographical descriptions of the lives of 2oth century scientists, some true and some fictionalised.

Benjamin Labatut

QUESTION THREE Sometimes compared to "quiet quitting" in the Western world, what cultural movement began in China in April 2021 as a rejection of Chinese society's pressure to work extreme hours? The movement's name comes from the title of a post written by worker Luo Huazhong, who described his decision to quit his dead-end factory job, return to his hometown, and spend his time reading philosophy.

Tang Ping or Lying Flat

QUESTION ONE What name is given to a colloid where both parts of the mixture are liquids? Milk is a common example of this colloid, whose name partly derives from the Latin for "to milk"

Emulsion

QUESTION TWO The main impurity of the so-called Type I diamonds is which element? This can sometimes result in a yellow or brown tint.

Nitrogen

QUESTION TWO Italian neorealism is traditionally, although not universally, held to begin with the 1943 release of which Luchino Visconti film based on the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain?

Ossessione (Obsession)

QUESTION TWO By 1960, Frankenthaler was experimenting with which style of abstract painting that takes its name from its characteristic use of large blocks of flat solid hues creating unbroken surfaces upon the canvas? Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still are among the other well-known practitioners of this style.

Colour Field

QUESTION THREE Continuing for 20 hours from Yekaterinburg will haul passengers on the Trans-Siberian Railway to which city on the banks of the Ob river? The third-most populous city in Russia, it was ravaged during the Civil War but was later transformed into a major industrial centre.

Novosibirsk

QUESTION ONE At 900 metres high, the Olo'upena Falls is sometimes cited as the fourth highest waterfall behind Tugela, Angel Falls, and the Tres Hermans in Peru. They are found on which Hawaiian island, known as the site of a leper colony at Kalawao?

Moloka’i

QUESTION THREE Another major colour field painter is which American artist whose paintings are characterised by areas of solid colour separated by thin vertical lines which he called 'zips"?

Barnett Newman

QUESTION ONE Continuing for 30 hours from Novosibirsk on the Trans-Siberian Railway will bring passengers to which city on the Angara river at the southern end of Lake Baikal? Nicknamed the "Paris of Siberia", dissidents were exiled to this city for their part in the Decembrist revolt of 1825.

Irkutsk

QUESTION TWO The lying-flat movement arose particularly as a reaction to the Chinese working culture known colloquially by what numerical term, which refers to the starting and finishing time of the workday and the number of days employees are expected to work?

996 working hour system

QUESTION ONE What name is given to the event of 621 CE during which Muhammad is said to have been transported from Mecca to Jerusalem astride the winged horse known as the Buraq?

Night Journey or Isra’

QUESTION THREE Amethyst is a variety of quartz with a purple hue, thanks to the substitution of the trivalent form of which element?

Iron

QUESTION ONE Colloids in which particles of a liquid are dispersed in a solid medium are known as gels - example of this is what gel, used in microbiology as a growth medium for bacteria and popularised by Walther and Fanny Hesse?

Agar Gel

QUESTION THREE In 2010, Laurent Binet was awarded the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman for which novel that recounts the assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich and, in doing so, confronts the reader with questions surrounding the distinction between nonfiction and the historical novel?

HHhH

QUESTION ONE Some critics see the 1954 English-language film Journey to Italy as the "key stepping stone" away from neorealism. Starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders, the film was directed by which man whose earlier contributions to Italian neorealism include Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City) and Germania anno zero (Germany, Year Zero)?

Roberto Rossellini

QUESTION ONE Some critics see the 1954 English-language film Journey to Italy as the "key stepping stone" away from neorealism. Starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders, the film was directed by which man whose earlier contributions to Italian neorealism include Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City) and Germania anno zero (Germany, Year Zero)?

Roberto Rossellini

QUESTION THREE J. M. Coetzee's Foe is a retelling of which 18th-century English novel told from the perspective of Susan Barton?

Robinson Crusoe

QUESTION ONE Although perhaps most closely associated with surrealism, one of Frankenthaler's primary inspirations was which European artist whose flat backgrounds with mild gradations of colour are often considered a precursor to colour field painting? Among this artist's best-known early works is La Masia (The Farm), which was purchased by Ernest Hemingway.

Joan Miro

QUESTION TWO Which country on the South American mainland arose when the Brazilian province of Cisplatina declared itself independent in 1825, an independence that was recognized three years later?

Uruguay

QUESTION ONE Many of India's highest waterfalls, such as the Unchalli, Jog, and Dudhsagar falls are found in which mountain range that runs North-South from Gujarat to Kerala between the Arabian Sea coast of the Indian Peninsula and the Deccan Plateau? This range's highest peak, Anamudi, is the tallest mountain in India outside the Himalayas.

Western Ghats

QUESTION THREE Winning Korea's Manhae Prize for Literature in 2014, Sonyeoni onda (Human Acts) is a novel that opens in the aftermath of the Gwangju Uprising of 1980. The novel traces real and fictionalised repercussions of this event, with one chapter even told from the perspective of the corpse of one of the victims of the uprising's brutal suppression. The book is by which South Korean novelist, also known for her 2016 work Chaesikjuuija (The Vegetarian), which won the Man Booker International Prize.

HAN Kang

QUESTION ONE Sapphires, typically a blue variety of the mineral corundum, will be a deeper shade of blue with higher concentrations of impurities of iron and which other transition metal?

Titanium

QUESTION TWO Overwork is not just a Chinese phenomenon. Literally translating as "overwork death", what Japanese term is used to refer to examples of workers dying at young ages due to the physical and mental stresses of extreme working patterns?

Karoshi

QUESTION THREE Said to have died of a broken heart after the departure of its master, Kanthaka was a favourite white horse of whom?

Prince Siddhartha or Buddha

QUESTION THREE Which migratory sparrow-like bird of the Ploceidae family, native to sub-Saharan Africa, is believed to be the most numerous non-domesticated bird on earth, perhaps due to an ability to exploit food sources that has seen it nicknamed "Africa's feathered locust"?

(Red Billed) Quelea

QUESTION THREE He spent most of his life as a high-ranking eunuch in the emperors' courts but is best remembered as a skilled military tactician, who led Byzantine forces to victory against the Goths at Taginae (552 (E) and Mons Lactarius (552-3 CE). After defeating the Franks at the Battle of Volturnus in 554 CE, which general became the last man to receive an official Roman triumph in the city of Rome?

Narses

SPARE THREE The opposite of halal, what Arabic name meaning 'unlawful' is used to describe food produced in such a way to make it impermissible according to Islamic law?

Haram

QUESTION ONE Featuring a dog that has begun to fade over time, which painting depicts the titular city guard led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch?

The Night Watch

QUESTION TWO In physics, the term 'scattering' describes the effects that occur between two moving particles that interact. What type of scattering, named for an Indian physicist, is the inelastic scattering of light by matter? The subsequent change of energy and direction of the interacting light is used in a spectroscopic technique named for the same scientist.

Raman Scattering

QUESTION THREE When this composer met with Samuel Beckett, they realised that neither of them liked opera, so fittingly the composer's only opera Neither, based on a 16-line Beckett poem, is rather un-opera-like, with only one voice. One of which composer's last works was the 1987 instrumental piece For Samuel Beckett, written in typically slow-moving and blurry style?

Morton Feldman

QUESTION THREE Which 14th-century Persian poet from Shiraz wrote The Divan, a work that contains almost 500 short poems called ghazals, some of which were inspired by a woman called Shakh-e Nabat? Ghazals from The Divan are sometimes collected along with this poet's contemporaries in Shiraz such as the princess Jahan Malek Khatun and the bisexual satirist Ubayd Zakani.

Hafez

QUESTION ONE Which classic ethnographic text written in 1909 describes the title events as consisting of three distinguishable, consecutive elements, beginning with separation and ending with reintegration? The Japanese Shichi-Go-San, the Buddhist shinyu, and the various Hindu samskära take different forms and occur at various stages in life, but can all be described as examples of the title events of this text.

The Rites of Passage

Primal couple in Māori mythology

Papa and Rangi

QUESTION TWO Expected to be completed by 2030, which city was founded in 2007 as the new planned capital of South Korea? The city is named after one of the country's greatest leaders, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty and creator of the Korean alphabet.

Sejong City

QUESTION ONE In 2021, Emmanuel Macron shut down which French grande école and replaced it with the Institut national du service public (National Institute of Public Service)? Despite only producing around 80 to 90 graduates per year, alumni of this graduate school dominated French political life, with presidents such as Macron himself, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Jacques Chirac, and François Hollande all having attended.

ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration)

QUESTION TWO Which Dutch-German-French ethnographer wrote the 1909 work Les Rites de passag (The Rites of Passage), and was also a founder of folklore studies in France?

Arnold van Gennep

QUESTION ONE Premiered in 1968 for the 125th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic, the composition Sinfonia for orchestra and eight amplified voices features excerpts and fragments from multiple texts, including Samuel Beckett's novel The Unnamable. It was a work by which composer, also known for the Sequenza series of solo pieces?

Luciano Berio

QUESTION TWO What is the most common form of extrusive igneous rock? It is typically formed by the rapid cooling of mantle rock that had melted due to a drop in pressure, and it can form distinctive columnar structures.

Basalt

QUESTION ONE In Les rites de passage (The Rites of Passage), van Gennep recognizes three stages of such rites: beginning with the subject's separation from their original state, and ending with reintegration as part of a new group. What term, from the Latin for "threshold", did van Gennep use for the phase in between, a state of transition that can be marked by ambiguity or disorientation?

Liminal

QUESTION TWO While graduates of Beida (Peking University) may have been more prominent in earlier administrations, recent Chinese leadership has been led by a clique of alumni of which other university in Beijing? Xi Jinping, Hu Jintao and Zhu Rongji are among the political leaders who attended this university, which is also known for its university press.

Tsinghua University

QUESTION ONE Hafez is said to have memorised not only the Quran, but also the works of Rumi, including which six-volume masterpiece, often considered the greatest work of Sufism? This work uses parables and anecdotes in an attempt to reveal the way to God through divine love.

Masnavi

Frederick V of the Palatinate wife, daughter of James I who avoided 30 years war 1618-48 even though deposed FV.

Elizabeth Stuart Queen of Bohemia

Lancashire witch trials took place in which town in reign of James I

Pendle

QUESTION THREE The repetition and the re-combination of words and phrases in Samuel Beckett's short story Bing (Ping) has been compared to the compositional techniques of which composer, whose music theatre work Originale (Originals) was inspired by absurdist dramas? Péter Eötvös [URT-vursh] used text from Beckett's Embers in Octet Plus, a work dedicated to this composer of Klavierstücke and Kontra-Punkte.

Karlheinz Stockhausen

QUESTION ONE Which painting features a brown dog among its numerous subjects, who are relaxing on their day off, at a park on the titular island in the Seine River?

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

1966 novel In Cold Blood telling story of Clutter family in Kansas, takes title from lines of Alcibiades in which play?

Timon of Athens

QUESTION THREE What type of scattering, named for an American physicist, describes elastic scattering of high-energy light, typically an X- or gamma ray, by a charged particle? Along with the photoelectric effect, the discovery of this effect demonstrated that light acts as a particle in certain conditions.

Compton

QUESTION THREE The Moai statues of Easter Island are related to the carved humanoid figures found throughout much of Polynesia that take their name from what first man in Mäori mythology? The name of these figures has been used for a popular culture movement, particularly associated with Hawaiian-themed bars, that developed in America after servicemen returned home after having been deployed in the South Pacific during World War II.

Tiki

QUESTION ONE The planned city of Ramciel, in Lakes state, is expected to become the capital of which country in the not too distant future? Located in a former rhino sanctuary just south of the largest grass swamp in the world, Ramciel's construction had originally been proposed by former leader, Dr. John Garang, prior to his death in a plane crash.

South Sudan

QUESTION TWO Which Hungarian composer premiered his first opera Fin de Partie, based on Samuel Beckett's play Endgame, at the age of 92 in 2018? Fin de Partie contrasts with much of his earlier oeuvre, which is often characterized by very short pieces such as the song cycle Kafka-Fragmente (Kafka-Fragments), and the 10-volume collection of piano miniatures Játékok (Games), which he has recorded alongside his wife Márta.

Gyorgy Kurtag

QUESTION THREE Spain saw fewer witch-hunts than northern Europe. One exception, however, was the series of witch trials held in Navarre in 1525-26, which took place after Navarre had been invaded by which Spanish King on the premise that heretical protestant beliefs had become widespread there? This king of Aragon unified Spain with his wife Isabella I of Castile.

Ferdinand II

QUESTION ONE Hafez also memorised the works of which other poet from Shiraz, the author of Bustan and the prose work Gulistan? His poem Bani Adam calls for the removal of barriers that divide humankind, and was quoted by Barack Obama in 2009 in a message intended to improve US-Iranian relations.

Saadi

QUESTION THREE Presidents Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Naftali Bennett all attended which Israeli university? It was founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann, and like Technion and the Weizmann Institute of Science, it is older than the state of Israel itself. You may answer with its full name or a four-letter initialism.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI)

QUESTION ONE Basalt is chemically equivalent to which coarse-grained, slow-cooling igneous rock that is named after a village in Tuscany?

Gabbro

QUESTION TWO Another poet whose works were memorised by Hafez, Rumi wrote that which Sufi mystic poet and apothecary had "traversed the seven cities of love"? This poet who, like Omar Khayyam, was born in Nishapur, wrote Maqämät-ut-Tuyür (The Conference of the Birds), in which birds discuss various human failings, as well as Ilähi-Nama (The Book of the Divine) and Tazkirat al-Awliya (Memorial of the Saints).

Attar of Nishapur

QUESTION THREE Liminality became a central subject for which British cultural anthropologist, who explored it in his own works, which include The Forest of Symbols (1967) and Dramas, Fields and Metaphors (1972)?

Victor Turner

QUESTION THREE Eight current heads of state or government - including Sandra Mason, Keith Rowley and Andrew Holness - attended which trans-national university that serves the English speaking countries and territories of the Caribbean? It was founded in 1948 as a college of the University of London, but has been independent since 1962 and now has nearly 50,000 students across five campuses.

University of the West Indies

PM of Trinidad and Tobago as of 2023 since 2017

Keith Rowley

QUESTION THREE What is the name of the planned city that is expected to become the new capital of Indonesia next year? Lying on the east coast of Borneo, this city takes its name from the Javanese word for the area that roughly equates to the Malay Archipelago.

Nusantara

QUESTION THREE The most sacred texts of the Zoroastrian faith are which seventeen hymns believed to have been composed by Zoroaster himself?

Gathas

Sacred book of Zoroastrianism

Avesta

QUESTION TWO Which isth-cenury Danish scientist was the first person to link electricity and magnetism, when he discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields? His brother served as the prime minister of Denmark.

Hans Christian Orsted

QUESTION THREE Yumi, Yumi, Yumi, the national anthem of Vanuatu, is written in which language? One of the country's three official languages - along with French and English - it is a creole of English origin.

Bislama

QUESTION ONE First arising in the late 3rd century CE, what Christian doctrine holds that while Jesus is the Son of God, he was created by God the Father rather than having always existed? This doctrine was declared to be heretical in 325 CE.

Arianism

QUESTION TWO It is rather unusual for authors to win the Nobel Prize in Literature primarily for nonfiction work. Which French author, whose work is mainly autobiographical, wrote works such as Les Années (The Years), and won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory"?

Annie Ernaux

STION ONE at was the name of the Nahua woman who acted as an intermediary to Hernán tes during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire? She gives her name to a ogatory term for Mexicans who are seen to be attracted to foreign culture, ticularly that of the United States, at the expense of Mexican culture.

La Malinche

QUESTION TWO What portmanteau term was coined in 1992 by Robert Duncan and Christopher Thompson for a type of neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field? By the late 1990s, astronomers had concluded that soft gamma repeaters are likely examples of these neutron stars and recent research has suggested that energy released from newly formed examples of these stars may be responsible for some of the brightest supernovae.

Magnetar

QUESTION ONE In October 1971, Michel Foucault engaged in a philosophical debate on the concept of human nature against which scholar? Foucault structured his points around human societies, whereas this thinker's arguments were built on his theory of universal grammar.

Noam Chomsky

QUESTION ONE In phonetics, consonant sounds can be classified according to their manner of articulation. Including nasal occlusives such as [m] and plosives such as [p] and [b], what name is given to consonant sounds articulated by both lips?

Bilabial Consonants

QUESTION TWO Part of the First Council of Nicaea was dedicated to a debate about Arianism. The position against Arianism was argued by Alexander and which other member of the Coptic church? This man was considered the main defender of Christianity against the Arian heresy and is one of the four great Doctors of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Athanasius I

An FRB is a transient radio pulse lasting milliseconds that releases as much energy in a millisecond as the Sun puts out in three days, and 2020 data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope suggests magnetars may be the source of FRBs. For what phrase does FRB stand*?

Fast Radio Burst

QUESTION ONE [Columns designed in the lonic order of architecture are distinguished by scroll-like capitals, which are known by what name?

Volutes

QUESTION ONE Following his theories of paradigm shifts, Thomas Kuhn debated with which philosopher over the methodologies of scientific research? While Kuhn's model was sociological, this thinker's rationalist background led him to base a model on his concept of falsifiability.

Karl Popper

QUESTION TWO The Grand Inga Dam is a series of seven proposed hydroelectric power stations at the site of the Inga Falls, approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi), upstream of where which river empties into the Atlantic Ocean?

Congo

QUESTION THREE Which name is sometimes used in Peru to mean a traitor. It is taken from the name given to the indigenous teenager who acted as an interpreter to Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro during their conquest of the Inca, during which time they captured atahualpa at the Battle of Cajamarca?

Felipillo

ESTION TWO Including plosives such as [t] and [d] and sibilant fricatives such as [s] and [z], what name is given to consonant sounds created when the blade (and sometimes the tip) of the tongue articulates with the namesake ridge that contains the tooth sockets on the jaw bones?

Alveolar consonants

QUESTION TWO Which Belarusian author won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first non-fiction writer to win the award in several decades? Her work chronicles the human face of the history and post history of the Soviet Union.

Svetlana Alexievich

QUESTION TWO Choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska for the Ballets Russes, Les Biches is a ballet with music by which French composer? Satie acted as a mentor to this composer, who collaborated with Jean Cocteau on his one-act operatic work, La Voix Humane.

Francis Poulenc

QUESTION THREE Which Swiss composer used a libretto written by Jean Cocteau for his opera Antigone, which also featured costumes by Coco Chanel and set design by Pablo Picasso? Like Poulenc, he was a member of Les Six, a group first mentored and then disowned by Erik Satie, and his best-known piece is the orchestral work Pacific 231.

Arthur Honegger

QUESTION TWO Similar to malinchismo, Guacanagarix complex refers to someone from the Dominican Republic who is perceived to be more interested in foreign culture than their own. Guacanagarix was a cacique, or chieftain, who, unlike other caciques did not enter into an effort to expel the Spanish. Guacanagaríx was a leader of what people, the indigenous inhabitants of Hispaniola and the rest of the Greater Antilles at the time of the European contact in 1492? This people spoke a dialect of the Arawakan languages.

Taino

QUESTION THREE Regarded as among the greatest works in Chinese literature, which 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong is set predominantly in the titular period of Chinese history of the 3rd century CE in which China was divided between the states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu?

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

QUESTION ONE Although the council resulted in the creation of the Nicene Creed, it failed to resolve many of the outstanding issues and caused later difficulties for which emperor of the Eastern Roman empire? Under his reign, Athanasius was forced into hiding; however, this man's dependency on his brother Valentinian I, the emperor of Western Rome and a Nicene Christian, tempered him and he was later succeeded by Theodosius I, himself an opponent of Arianism.

Valens

QUESTION TWO Although associated with ancient architecture, caryatids and atlantes are not unique to Greece. Examples in the Baroque style can be found on the Sanssouci palace in Potsdam, built on the orders of which European monarch in the mid-18th century?

Frederick II the Great

QUESTION THREE Including nasal occlusives such as [m] (the 'm' sound in 'comfort') and non-sibilant fricatives such as [f] and [v], what name is given to consonant sounds created when the lower lip articulates with the upper teeth?

Labiodental Consonants

QUESTION THREE Opened in 1974, the Cahora Bassa Dam in Mozambique is one of two major dams on which river that flows into the Indian Ocean?

Zambezi

QUESTION THREE The other of the Classic Chinese Novels dating from the 14th century is which novel, attributed to Shi Nai'an, set during the Northern Song dynasty? The novel tells of Song Jiang and 108 outlaw spirits released from their imprisonment beneath an ancient stele-bearing tortoise who gather at Mount Liang to rebel against the government.

Water Margin (or Outlaws of the Marsh)

QUESTION ONE Jean Cocteau provided the libretto for Les mariés de la tour Eiffel (The Wedding Party on the Eiffel Tower), a ballet with music written by five members of Les Six. Among them was which composer, the only female member, who is remembered for her opera cycle Du style galant au style méchant, which parodies four earlier composers from different eras?

Germaine Tailleferre

QUESTION TWO This particle remains one of the major unsolved problems in astrophysics; it is an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray detected on 15 October 1991 in Utah and is the highest-energy cosmic ray ever detected with energy equivalent to that of a baseball travelling at about 28 metres a second. If the Higgs boson is known as the 'God Particle', what is the related name given to this particle?

Oh-My-God Particle

Which philosopher wrote The Sublime Object of Ideology?

Slavoj Zizek

QUESTION ONE In chemistry, what do we call the loss of electrons in a reaction, making it essentially the opposite of reduction (with which it occurs simultaneously in a reaction)? This word is used informally to mean 'corrosion' or 'rusting'.

Oxidation

QUESTION THREE Creating the world's largest man-made lake by surface area, which Dam in Ghana was opened on which river in 1965?

Akosombo

QUESTION ONE Including nasal occlusives such as [n] (the 'ng' sound in 'sing') and plosives such as [k] and [g], what name is given to consonant sounds created when the back of the tongue articulates with the soft palate?

Velar consonants

QUESTION TWO Yanakuna was a term that referred to a serving social class in the Inca Empire, many of which later entered Spanish service and helped to overthrow the Inca Empire. In Chile, the term "yanacona" is used by what people to describe someone who is believed not to be acting in the interests of their ethnic group? Lautaro was a leader of these people during the Arauco war against the Spanish.

Mapuche

QUESTION THREE Emperor Valens later came into conflict with which other figure, another of the four Doctors of the Eastern Orthodox Church who was later canonised? Working with Gregory Nazianzus, this man participated in many public debates against Arianism that were overseen by agents of Valens; Valens himself eventually visited Caesarea to confront this man over his refusal to compromise with Arian factions.

St Basil the Great

QUESTION ONE In existence between 1185 and 1868, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned the position, which title was held by the military dictator of Japan?

Shogun

QUESTION THREE His opposition to Otto von Bismarck's financial policy resulted in a "Sausage Duel" between the two. Which German physician (1821-1902) is known as "the father of modern pathology" because his work helped to discredit humourism, pioneering the modern concept of pathological processes by his application of cell theory to explain the effects of disease in the organs and tissues of the body?

Rudolf Virchow

QUESTION TWO One of the best-selling novels of all-time, which 1936 novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky tells the story of Pavel Korchagin, a hero of socialist realism, who is fighting on the Bolshevik side during the Russian Civil War?

How the Steel was Tempered

UESTION THREE At over 3,000 years old, this city in the Fergana Valley is the oldest city in Kyrgyzstan and is commonly referred to as the country's 'capital of the south'. Famous in the Middle Ages for its production of silk, this is which city located just 5 km from the Uzbek border?

Osh

SPARE ONE The different chemical forms of an element are known as its isotopes. What name is given to the different chemical forms of compounds, in which the same chemical elements exist in the same proportions but in different arrangements?

Isomers

Nukus is the capital of which autonomous republic, located in the northwest of Uzbekistan?

Karakalpakstan

QUESTION ONE Androgyny and the concept of the "New Woman" are recurring themes in the work of which Dada artist best known for her photomontages such as Modenschau (Fashion Show) and Das schöne Mädchen (The Beautiful Girl?

Hannah Hoch

QUESTION TWO Having previously served as empress consort and empress dowager, in 690 CE who became the only woman to rule as Empress of China in her own right when she had her son, the Emperor Ruizong, yield the throne to her?

Wu (Zetian)

QUESTION THREE The neck and back of a violin is traditionally made from the wood from which deciduous trees known for their palmate leaves?

Maple

QUESTION THREE Friedrich Schleiermacher is considered a founder of the modern school of what discipline of philosophy and theology, the study of interpretation? The name of this discipline is paired with "Kritik" ("Criticism") in the title of a posthumously published collection of Schleiermacher's work on the interpretation and textual criticism of the New Testament.

Hermeneutics

QUESTION ONE Benzene is a simple aromatic compound with formula C6H6. Attaching a methyl group to benzene forms which water-insoluble liquid? Also called methylbenzene, this chemical is used as a solvent for thinners, paints and lacquers.

Toluene

Aztec god of fire and lightning with dog head sometimes seen no eyes as cried them out

Xolotl

QUESTION TWO Which Surrealist artist is best known for her work Le Déjeuner en fourrure (Breakfast in Fur), a teacup and saucer that have been lined with fur? She appeared as an androgynous figure alongside a printing press in a series of photographs by Man Ray, but viewed physical androgyny as different from the Jungian-influenced "androgyny of spirit" that she championed in her art.

Meret Oppenheim

QUESTION TWO Substituting one of benzene's hydrogen atoms with an amine group can synthesize which commodity chemical, the simplest aromatic amine, used to manufacture precursor chemicals? This chemical can also be called benzenamine, aminobenzene or phenylamine.

Aniline

QUESTION ONE In the 1870s, the British government organised the transport of a particular species of South American tree to their colonies in the east. Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Singapore were preferred but it was Malaya (Malaysia) that became the largest producer of what product used in the automotive industry, at one point accounting for 50% of the world's production?

Rubber

QUESTION THREE The top, or soundboard, of a violin is traditionally made from the wood of which coniferous evergreen trees that grow in boreal forests and high altitudes? The wood from these trees was also used in the Wright brothers' Flyer, and it appears in the nickname of the Hughes H-4 Hercules seaplane.

Spruce

QUESTION ONE The hydrogenation of benzene, typically with a Raney nickel catalyst, produces which colourless flammable liquid, used as a precursor in the mass production of nylon?

Cyclohexane

QUESTION TWO In which operetta by Johann Strauss II does Eisenstein try to seduce a Hungarian countess, who is actually his wife Rosalinde in disguise? The title of this opera comes from the outfit Falke wears to the ball hosted by Prince Orlofsky, who is played by a mezzo-soprano en travesti.

Die Fledermaus

QUESTION ONE What German philosopher explored the process of understanding in his 1960 book Warheit und Methode (Truth and Method) and his debates with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida? He spent much of his early career publishing on Greek philosophers, especially Plato and Aristotle.

Hans-Georg Gadamer

QUESTION THREE By the 1950s, Malaysia needed a new crop that had shorter gestation periods between planting and cropping and thus quicker returns. The answer was Elaeis guineensis, which originated in the tropical rainforests of West Africa and is the principal source of what product used primarily in foodstuffs, sometimes as a cheaper substitute for butter? Malaysia is the world's largest exporter of this product, and plantations of Elaeis guineensis cover 15% of its land area.

Palm Oil

Most populous city in Philippines

Quezon City

QUESTION TWO The Emperors Gaozu and Taizong overthrew which preceding dynasty to establish the Tang? This short-lived dynasty's Emperor Yang is known for large construction projects, such as the Grand Canal, but is commonly regarded as a tyrant.

Sui

QUESTION TWO Nussknacker und Mausekönig (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King) tells the story of Marie Stahlbaum, who is taken to a land of dolls after her favourite Christmas toy comes to life and defeats the evil Mouse King. It is among the best-known fairy-tales to appear in which German author's 1816 collection Kinder-Mährchen (Children's Stories)?

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann

QUESTION ONE Which aristocratic German-born artist was one of the pioneers of found objects in art with works like Enduring Object and God, and has sometimes been credited with creating Marcel Duchamp's sculpture Fountain? She was also known for her androgynous costumes made from found objects, such as tin cans, spoons, and even birdcages with live birds.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

QUESTION TWO Malaysia is one of the largest global hubs for assembly, testing and packaging activities in which industry that employs more than 100,000 Malaysians, mostly in the island of Penang? The name of this industry is represented by the letter S in the Taiwanese manufacturing company TSMC, the world's largest company dedicated to this industry.

Semiconductors

QUESTION THREE Known for its permanent lava lake and having been described by the "gates of hell" by both the indigenous people and the colonial Spanish, the Masaya Volcano is located in which country? The Masaya Volcano is located between Lake Xolotlán and this country's namesake lake.

Nicaragua

QUESTION ONE Moving hermeneutics firmly beyond textual analysis to what he called hermeneutic phenomenology', what French philosopher wrote about hermeneutics in De 'interprétation. Essai sur Sigmund Freud (Freud and Philosophy) and his three-volume Temps et Récit (Time and Narrative)?

Paul Ricoeur

QUESTION THREE In which 1911 opera by Richard Strauss, is the young Octavian a "breeches role" performed by a woman? Octavian dresses as a maid to escape his lover's husband and to keep her cousin Baron Ochs from marrying Sophie, who has fallen in love with Octavian.

Der Rosenkavalier

QUESTION ONE Wu Zetian's reign saw a great expansion of China's territory. One such expansion was in the Korean peninsula following wars against the Goguryeo and which other Korean kingdom, one of the Three Kingdoms alongside Goguryeo and Baekje?

Silla

QUESTION TWO Marxist hermeneutics can address the interpretive frameworks around a text and the artistic mode of production rather thap the text itself. What American literary theorist used this approach in The Political Unconscious and critiqued modernism and postmodernism in Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism?

Frederic Jameson

QUESTION ONE Which author selected the fairy-tale Bella Venezia as the Italian variant of the Snow White myth in his 1956 collection Fiabe italiane (Italian Folktales)? Heavily influenced by Vladimir Propp's Morfologiya skazki (Morphology of the Folktale), this man included elements of the folktale in novels such as il barone rampante (The Baron in the Trees).

Italo Calvino

QUESTION TWO What simple machine consists of a wtleel, typically with a grooved rim, which supports and changes the direction of a rope or chain that can be used to lift heavy objects? In Plutarch's Boi Parálleloi (Parallel Lives), Archimedes demonstrates the effectiveness of using the "compound" form of these simple machines by pulling a ship towards him.

Pulley

QUESTION THREE Benzene is reacted with propylene in which industrial process for synthesising phenol and acetone? Also called the Hock process, it is named for the organic compound produced in the intermediate step.

Cumene Process

QUESTION TWO Violin bows are traditionally made from the wood of which tree in the legume family, known for its dense red heartwood?

Brazilwood

QUESTION ONE Named after a narrow break in the cliffs and the site of hot springs with sulphuric water, Hell's Gate National Park is located in which country? Other national parks in this country include Aberdare, Lake Nakuru and Meru.

Kenya

Madrid golden triangle of art museum

Prado Reina Sofia Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

QUESTION THREE Which French surrealist photographer is best-known for adopting different androgynous personae for a series of self-portraits, some of which were taken in collaboration with her partner Marcel Moore?

Claude Cahun

Aorta originates from which part of heart?

Left Ventricle

QUESTION TWO Which American novelist wrote "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" in her poem 'Sacred Emily'? She lived in Paris from 1903 until her death in 1946.

Gertrude Stein

QUESTION THREE Which language, sometimes referred to as Classical Ethiopic, is used as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church? This language's namesake script is also used for Amharic and Tigrinya.

Ge’ez

QUESTION TWO Which Odessa-born French bacteriologist developed the first effective vaccines for cholera and the bubonic plague, which he tested on himself?

Waldemar Haffkine

QUESTION THREE Which 17th-century Catholic priest and composer is best remembered for his Miserere, a setting of Psalm 51 for two choirs that was written for exclusive use in the Sistine Chapel? It is alleged that a young Mozart heard the piece and transcribed it from memory.

Gregorio Allegri

Poem which is national epic of Argentina

El Gaucho Martin Fierro

Which diplomat has served as Russia's Foreign Minister since 2004?

Sergey Lavrov

SPARE TWO Which English physicist gives his name to the "vector" that describes the direction and magnitude of the flow of energy in an electromagnetic field?

Poynting Vector

SPARE THREE Which river in the Congo basin gives its name to the rainforest home to the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, and a province of the Democratic Republic of Congo that has seen conflict between Lendu and Hema people since 1999?

Ituri

QUESTION THREE Said to have been led by the Wolof couple, Maria Olofa and Gonzalo Mandinga, the earliest recorded slave rebellion in the Americas occurred at Christmas 1521 on a Caribbean sugar plantation owned by a great-grandson of Christopher Columbus named Diego Colón. The rebellion took place in which Spanish colony of which Colón was the governor? This colony is named after a city founded by Columbus's younger brother, Bartholomew, which is today the capital city of a Caribbean nation.

Santo Domingo

QUESTION ONE The teleological, cosmological, and ontological are famous examples of arguments for what concept? The cosmological argument for this concept is also known as the "prime mover" argument, broadly stating the universe could not emerge from nothing.

Existence of god

QUESTION THREE Giorgio Vasari claims that which Mannerist artist painted Autoritratto entro uno specchio convesso (Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror) to attract potential customers? The self-portrait, from 1524, shows this artist's right hand in the foreground much larger than normal; he later went on to depict somebody else with an enlarged physical characteristic in his Madonna dal collo lungo (Madonna with the Long Neck).

Parmigianino (Girolamo Mazzola)

QUESTION ONE Built on top of Jamsu Bridge, forming the upper half of a double-decked bridge, the Banpo Bridge is adorned with the Moonlight Rainbow Fountain created by nearly 10,000 LED nozzles. Which river is spanned by the spectacular Banpo Bridge?

Han River (Seoul)

What is the Montenegro mountain which is the insljratjon behind the name of the country?

Mount Lovcen

JESTION THREE Iriting in The Art of Fiction, David Lodge defined magical realism as "when marvellous id impossible events occur in what otherwise purports to be a realistic narrative", ting which author's 1979 novel Kniha smichu a zapomneni (The Book of Laughter and orgetting) as a non-Latin American example?

Milan Kundera

QUESTION THREE Instead of painting classical self-portraits, many Renaissance artists included depictions of themselves in their works. Michelangelo included himself in the flayed skin held by which Christian saint, who was said to have been martyred by being skinned alive?

Saint Bartholomew

QUESTION TWO The dramatischer Sopran (dramatic soprano) is the treble equivalent of which tenor voice? This German term describes a very powerful high tenor with a dark timbre and it [is associated with the heroic roles of Wagner, such as Siegfried and Tristan.

Heldentenor

QUESTION THREE Known for its unusual circular shape, the Laguna Garzón Bridge is a bridge crossing the Laguna Garzón in Uruguay. Opened in 2015, it was designed by which Uruguayan architect who died in 2023? His other major works include the Tokyo International Forum, 432 Park Avenue in Manhattan, and 20 Fenchurch Street in London.

Rafael Vinoly

QUESTION THREE Although her confession was extracted through torture, a woman named Maria was executed by the Dutch in 1716 for allegedly leading a slave revolt on which Caribbean island? Another slave revolt of 1795 on this island ended with the execution of its leader, Tula, who is today revered as a hero on this island that finally won some autonomy from the Netherlands in 2010.

Curacao

QUESTION ONE According to their regnal numbers, which name occurs most often in the list of monarchs of Spain? The most recent monarch of this name had the regnal number XIII (thirteen) and left the country in 1931 on the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic.

Alfonso

QUESTION TWO The Mesozoic ocean that lay between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia is named after which Titan from Greek myth? She was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia.

Tethys

QUESTION ONE In ancient Chinese mathematics, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, or what we call pi, was approximated by the number 3. In time, several improvements were suggested, leading up to Zu Chongzhi's fifth-century approximation of pi as 355 divided by 113. In modern maths, such an approximation of a real number by a ratio of two whole numbers is often named after which third-century mathematician from Alexandria?

Diophantus

QUESTION TWO One of many off-beat self-portraits she created, what 1944 work was painted by Frida Kahlo not long after she underwent surgery on her spine? Kahlo is depicted naked from the waist up, with her torso split to show the painting's title object in place of her spine.

The Broken Column

QUESTION TWO Living root bridges are, as their name suggests, created from living roots of the rubber fig tree by the Khasi and Jaiñtia people of the Shillong Plateau in which Indian state? This state in northeast India, once known as the 'Scotland of the East', has its capital at Shillong.

Meghalaya

QUESTION TWO An enslaved woman from Ghana named Breffu led a 1733 insurrection on the island of St. John against plantation owners under the supervision of the union of Denmark-Norway; Breffu and her followers were defeated after French and Swiss troops were sent in from Martinique. St. John is today a district of which 'unincorporated territory' in the Caribbean?

US Virgin Islands

QUESTION THREE | The Fortaleza del Cerro is a fortress built atop the 134 metre-tall hill that gives which capital city its name?

Montevideo

QUESTION THREE The dramatic sopranos may be contrasted with which other soprano voices that have a warm, bright, full timbre and strength in the higher registers? This range of voices sits between the lighter coloratura sopranos and soubrettes, and the heavier dramatic sopranos. Lighter roles for this voice include Pamina in Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) and fuller roles include Mimi in La bohème.

Lyric soprano

QUESTION TWO One of three French newspapers of record, along with Le Monde and Libération, which is the oldest national newspaper in France? This newspaper is named after a character in a play by Beaumarchais that was famously adapted to opera.

Le Figaro

QUESTION THREE In the novel The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, former nun Agnes assumes the identity of the dead Father Damien on a reservation where instead of converting the Indigenous residents, she/he (using different pronouns for different parts of the self) takes on traditional beliefs. What Ojibwe author, who won a 2021 Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Night Watchman, set many of her books on that same reservation?

Louise Erdrich

QUESTION TWO Most works of magical realism in Latin America were written by men; one notable exception is which 1989 novel by Laura Esquivel that centres on a young woman named Tita? The novel's title comes from a Latin American phrase used to describe a person whose emotions are about to send them over the edge.

Like Water for Chocolate

German record producer who founded the 1970s disco-pop group Boney M., the Latin pop band No Mercy and the pop band Milli Vanilli. Played by Matthias Schweighöfer in girl you know it’s true.

Frank Farian

German actor played Werner Heisenberg in Oppenheimer, army of the dead, Frank farian in girl you know it’s true, 2023 heart of stone

Matthias Schweighöfer

QUESTION ONE Zu's approximation of pi can be recreated by the method where a number X is represented as its integer part Ao (a-zero) plus a fraction with one above and another number X1 below the line, whereupon X1 is represented as its integer part A1 plus one-over-X2, and so on. What is the modern term for this kind of possibly infinite expression?

Continued Fraction

QUESTION TWO As noted in the painting's title, what unusual physical characteristic did Marc Chagall paint himself as having in a 1913 self-portrait, which shows him working on his other work Of Russia, Donkeys and Others?

Seven Fingers on his left hand

QUESTION THREE What Italian term, meaning "pushed", describes a lyric soprano who has the ease and clarity typical of a lyric soprano, but who can also achieve powerful dramatic climaxes? Leontyne Price was an example of this type of soprano, and famous roles for this voice include the title roles in Tosca and Aida.

Spinto Soprano

QUESTION TWO Part bridge, part artificial island, the Murinsel links the two banks of the Mur river while containing a seashell-shaped amphitheatre home to a café and a play area. It was built to celebrate which Central European city becoming the 2003 European Capital of Culture?

Graz

QUESTION THREE Originally published in Greece in 1992, and the first recipient of the Premio Peano, an international award for books inspired by mathematics, O theíos Pétros kai i eikasía tou Nkolntmpach (Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture) is a novel by which Greek author whose father was the architect in charge of designing Pakistan's capital, Islamabad?

Apostolos Doxiadis

QUESTION TWO Which Dutch physicist gives his name to the small attractive force that acts between two close parallel uncharged conducting plates due to quantum vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field?

Hendrik Casimir

QUESTION THREE The older of the two was raised by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra and the younger, and larger, of the two stones was raised by King Gorm's son, Harald Bluetooth, in memory of his parents. After the Danish town in which they are to be found, what name is given to these massive 10th century carved runestones that were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994?

Jelling Stones

QUESTION ONE Later used as a casus bell, the 1855 Lambert Charter, named after French adventurer Joseph-François Lambert, supposedly gave the charter's namesake the exclusive right to exploit all minerals, forests, and unoccupied land on which island in exchange for a royalty paid to the island's monarchy?

Madagascar

QUESTION ONE The gambler's fallacy is one example of what cognitive bias, with a Greek name coined by Klaus Conrad in 1958, in which people identify connections between things that are genuinely unrelated? In the gambler's fallacy, gamblers trick themselves into seeing patterns in numbers or dealt cards; another example of this is pareidolia, which commonly occurs when people see faces in inanimate objects.

Apophenia

QUESTION TWO First proposed by Edward Thorndike, what cognitive bias entails a person's existing impression of another's personality affecting how that person feels about unrelated parts of the other's life? A 1974 study by Michael Efran found that subjects were harsher when asked to pass sentence on unattractive people than attractive people even when both had committed the same crime.

Halo Effect

QUESTION ONE Although probably better remembered today for his namesake transform, used to analyse signals in the frequency domain, which French mathematician is commonly credited with the discovery of what we now call the greenhouse effect?

Joseph Fourier

QUESTION ONE The French interventions in Madagascar that led to the overthrow of the Merina Kingdom are sometimes called the Franco-Malagasy Wars but are more commonly known as the Franco- BLANK] Wars after the free commoners who formed one of the three principal historical castes in the Merina Kingdom along with the Andriana (nobles) and Andevo (slaves). Which word fills in the blank?

Hova

QUESTION THREE Perhaps better remembered today for his namesake effect, in which colloids scatter light, which Irish physicist proved the connection between atmospheric CO, and what we now call the greenhouse effect in 1859?

John Tyndall

QUESTION ONE Which 18th century figure names a cognitive bias wherein people are seen to like a person more after doing a favour for that person? This effect's namesake wrote in his memoirs about using this effect against an opposing member of the Pennsylvania legislature, and a further experiment was carried out by Landy and Jecker in 1969.

Benjamin Franklin

QUESTION TWO The Lambert Charter was signed secretly during the reign of Queen Ranavalona I without her knowledge. The charter was signed by her son, who would succeed her as monarch upon her death in 1861. What is the name of her son whose short reign was ended after less than two years when he was strangled in a coup led by his Prime Minister? Regnal number not required.

Radama II

QUESTION THREE A type of confirmation bias, in which new evidence can be rejected without being properly considered because it contradicts existing beliefs, is often named after which 19th-century doctor? The new evidence presented by this person was that mortality rates of children fell dramatically when doctors washed their hands between patients.

Ignaz Semmelweiss

SPARE TWO Smallpox was the first disease to be fully eradicated by humans. But, in 2011, which viral disease of ungulates became the second disease to be eradicated?

Rinderpest

term meaning sky clad in jainism referring to monastic practice of wearing no clothes

Digambara

QUESTION TWO Lactones, which contribute to the flavour of fruits and dairy products, are examples of what sort of organic compounds that are formed by the union of an acid and an alcohol with the elimination of water?

Esters

QUESTION THREE The title character of which Henrik Ibsen play is the unhappy and manipulative wife of George Tesman who ends the play by shooting herself with her father's pistols?

Hedda Gabler

QUESTION TWO Which island, which is mentioned second in the name of its country, was sighted by Columbus in 1498, was one of the two 17th-century colonies of the Duchy of Courland, has Scarborough as its main town, and is served by the A.N.R. Robinson International Airport?

Tobago

QUESTION ONE This French publishing house is named after its founder Pierre, who published a Grand dictionnaire universel from 1866. Since then several encyclopedias and dictionaries have been published, including the very popular Petit (BLANK) since 1905, and the iconic (BLANK) Gastronomique. Which surname has been removed?

Larousse

QUESTION ONE Using a German libretto based on the Book of Genesis, Psalms and John Milton's Paradise Lost, Die Schöpfung (The Creation) is a 1797 oratorio by which composer of the classical period?

Joseph Haydn

QUESTION TWO What name is given to the divine spirits venerated in Shintoism? The Sun goddess Amaterasu is perhaps the best known of these beings.

Kami

QUESTION ONE Also called the ethic of reciprocity, what name is given to the ethical maxim that you should treat others as you would like to be treated yourself? It is a feature in most religions, appearing in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, in the Hadith, Tripitaka and Mahäbhärata.

Golden Rule

From Sanskrit for triple basket, traditional term for ancient collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures.

Tripitaka

QUESTION ONE The Sherdor Madrassah and the Tilla-Kari Madrassah are located on what square in Samarkand? With a name meaning "sandy place" it was the heart of culture and learning during the Timurid Renaissance.

Registan

QUESTION THREE The origins of the kami are first chronicled in which text, written in 711 and 712 CE? According to its preface, this text is said to have been composed by O no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Genmei and is generally considered Japan's oldest literary work.

Kojiki

QUESTION ONE Which baroque painter's Ercole e Onfale (Hercules and Omphale) was lost in the 1734 fire in the Royal Alcázar of Madrid? Another of her works on the same subject was discovered after the explosion in Beirut in 2020.

Artemisia Gentileschi

QUESTION THREE Methyl mercaptan is used as an odorant to give natural gas its distinctive smell. Mercaptans are an alternative name for what group of compounds? These compounds are the sulphur analogue of alcohols and have an -SH functional group.

Thiols

QUESTION ONE Which 1879 play by Henrik Ibsen caused something of a scandal because of its dramatic final scene in which the central character, a mother of three, leaves her husband, Thorvald Helmer, by slamming the door in his face?

A Doll’s House

UESTION TWO Which island, which is mentioned second in the name of its country, has a name deriving from an earlier colonial name meaning "Our Lady of the Snows" in English, is separated from its larger companion island by the 3 kilometre strait called the Narrows, was the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, and has Charlestown as its capital and largest town?

Nevis

QUESTION ONE What epic poem of 1855 was the basis for three cantatas written by the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor between 1898 and 1900? Sales of the first cantata were so great that Coleridge-Taylor was commissioned to start work on a sequel, The Death of Minnehaha, before a single performance.

The Song of Hiawatha

QUESTION TWO Registan Square is also the site of a madrassah named after what third Sultan of the Timurid Empire? While he was unsuccessful as a ruler - ultimately being murdered by his son - he is remembered for his cultural contributions that include founding the observatory in Samarkand, and compiling the Zi-i-Sultani, regarded as the greatest star catalogue of the age.

Ulugh Beg

QUESTION THREE A dictionary of Chinese characters published in 1716 remained the most authoritative of its kind for two hundred years, although fewer than 25 % of its 47,000 characters are now in common use. It was commissioned by and named after the Qing emperor who reigned from 1661 to 1722, longer than any other Chinese emperor. What is its name?

Kangxi Dictionary

QUESTION THREE Which of Henrik Ibsen's plays, a fairy tale in verse, describes the journey of the title character from the mountains of Norway to Africa and back?

Peer Gynt

QUESTION TWO Which island, which is mentioned second in the name of its country, was uninhabited when the Portuguese discovered it in 1471, was the site of the 1919 Eddington experiment where the theory of relativity was supported when bending of starlight was observed, and has Santo António as its regional capital and only town?

Principe

QUESTION ONE Which echinoderms derive their name partly from an old English word for hedgehog*? They are a prized foodstuff in many culinary traditions and they can destroy kelp forests due to overgrazing.

Sea Urchins

QUESTION ONE According to the Kojiki, Amaterasu came into being when which kami washed his left eye while bathing in the Tachibana river? This creator god and his wife also beget the Japanese islands.

Izanagi

QUESTION ONE The aroma compound that gives cinnamon its flavour and smell, and decanal, which is manufactured for use in Chanel No. 5, are examples of what sort of compounds, which have a terminal carbonyl group? Methanal is the simplest of these compounds.

Aldehydes

QUESTION TWO In 1651, the Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes published a trilingual dictionary between Latin, Portuguese and which other language? Along with his teacher Francisco de Pina, de Rhodes helped develop the Latin-based alphabet used for this language.

Vietnamese

QUESTION THREE The Golden Rule appears in the Dàodé Jing (Tao Te Ching) a work by which semi-legendary Chinese philosopher, considered the founder of philosophical Daoism?

Laozi / Lao Tzu

QUESTION ONE Which country introduced a two-child policy in 1989, following a long war with a western neighbour? The Rafsanjani government launched a nationwide contraception programme, although more recently access to contraception has been restricted in an effort to increase birth rates.

Iran

QUESTION THREE Timur had made Samarkand his capital following a revolt against the Mongol khanate named after what second son of Ghenghis Khan? This man clashed with his brother Jochi during the Siege of Gurganj, leading to Ghenghis Khan appointing Ögedei as his successor.

Chagatai Khan

QUESTION ONE Which island, which is mentioned second in the name of its country, was temporarily evacuated due to Hurricane Irma in 2017, is located about 40 km north of its larger companion island, and has Codrington as its capital and onlv town?

Barbuda

Indonesian practice of trepanging is the act of collection of what foodstuff?

Sea cucumbers

QUESTION ONE Amaterasu came into being when Izanagi washed his left eye and the moon god Tsukuyomi came into being when he washed his right eye. According to the Kojiki, which impetuous younger brother of Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, a god of storms and the sea, came into being when Izanagi washed his nose?

Susanoo

QUESTION THREE Ulugh Beg's father Shah Rukh, the son of Timur, moved his capital from Samarkand to which other city, now in Afghanistan? This city was known as "the Pearl of the Khorasan" and was famous for its wine since antiquity.

Herat

QUESTION TWO First published in 1880, this dictionary is printed in twelve volumes covering various aspects of the German language; the first volume is titled Die Deutsche Rechtschreibung (The German Orthography), and is the prescriptive source for the spelling of standard German. What is its name, from the surname of the founder?

Duden

QUESTION TWO [Which Italian composer and cellist wrote the string quintet Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid (Night Music of the Streets of Madrid) while working in the court of the [Spanish Infante Luis, the brother of Charles III?

Luigi Boccherini

QUESTION THREE Which German biologist gives his name to varieties of cattle and horses that were bred at Hellabrunn Zoo in attempts to "breed back" the extinct aurochs and tarpan respectively?

Heinz Heck

Equus Ferus Ferus with name deriving from Turkic language name meaning wild horse. First described by Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin. Said to resemble the modern Heck Horse.

Tarpan

QUESTION THREE Which French author, historian and spy coined the term contes de fées (fairy tales) for her works such as 'L'oiseau bleu' ('The Blue Bird')?

Madame d’Aulnoy

SPARE ONE Chytridiomycosis is an infectious disease caused by fungi that affects what class of animals? As many as 30% of the species in this class are threatened by the disease.

Amphibians

SPARE TWO Which crater lake in the Afar Depression in Djibouti is the lowest point in Africa?

Lake Assal

The canon of scriptures used in Theravada Buddhism are written in what language?

Pali

QUESTION TWO What name is given to the lower stream of the Brahmaputra as it leaves Assam and flows through Bangladesh? It has a similar name to a North Indian river with a famously meandering course.

Jamuna (Yamuna)

QUESTION THREE Greek lyric poetry is so named because it was performed to lyre music. What lyric poet of the 7th century BE is remembered for being the first Greek poet to share strong personal emotions, such as when he claims he doesn't regret losing a shield when doing so saved his life? He is also known for proverbs like his statement that the fox has many tricks while the hedgehog has only one but a big one.

Archilochus

QUESTION TWO Prime factorisation is used in RSA because a classical computer cannot solve it in polynomial time, making it secure against "brute force" encryption attacks. Which algorithm, named for an American computer scientist, is a method of solving prime factorisation in polynomial time using quantum computation?

Shor’s Algorithm

QUESTION TWO The Jamuna joins which other river near Goalundo Ghat? Considered one of the three main rivers of Bangladesh, it is a distributary of the Ganges formed after its bifurcation with the Hooghly.

Padma

QUESTION THREE What lyric poet wrote epic narratives in the 6th century BE including the Geryoneis, detailing Heracles stealing the cattle of Geryon? He is said to have been blinded and then cured by writing insulting and then flattering poetry about Helen of Troy.

Stesichorus

QUESTION TWO What is the name for the upper stream of the Brahmaputra River located in Tibet? It is the highest major river in the world and forms the world's largest and deepest canyon when leaving the Tibetan Plateau.

Tsangpo

QUESTION TWO Which poet from Sparta is the earliest of the Nine Lyric poets, dating from the 7th century BCE? He wrote poetry for group performances in Sparta, including parthenaia for young women's choruses.

Alcman

QUESTION ONE The first quantum cryptography protocol to be developed and proven as unconditionally secure based on the no-cloning theorem is which scheme? It is named after the first letter of the surnames of two scientists and the year that it was developed.

BB84 (Bennett and Brassard)

QUESTION ONE The Yarlung Tsangpo originates in the Angsi Glacier, near to Lake Rakshastal and which high altitude freshwater lake that is sacred to four religions? Mount Kailash is located close to this lake, which was once believed to be the source of the Indus, Ganges and Yarlung Tsangpo.

Lake Manasarovar

QUESTION TWO About 40 fragments remain of the poetry by this Boeotian woman, who is often described as a contemporary and competitor of Pindar's, though unlike Sappho none of her full poems remain. 'Daughters of Asopus' and 'Terpsichore' are works by which poet, who may have written as many as five volumes of mostly lyric choral works with mythical themes?

Corinna

QUESTION THREE The use of the BB84 protocol for quantum key distribution is unconditionally secure with the use of what encryption technique, which requires the secure communication of a pre-shared private key with at least the same length as the message being shared? It is often initialised to OTP.

One Time Pad

QUESTION ONE The Indus Valley Civilisation is thought to have collapsed due to a drought lasting for hundreds of years that forced people out of its two major cities: Mohenjo-Daro and which other? Located in modern-day Punjab, this was the first Indus Valley site to be excavated, and as such its name is often applied to the civilisation as a whole.

Harappa

QUESTION TO which dwarf planet was discovered in July 2007 by Megan Schwamb, Mike Brown, and David Rabinowitz at the Pallomar Obsenatony? An online poll of the general public in aing saw this dwarf planet named after a Chinese water god and its only known satelite, Xiangliu, is mamed after a mine headed serpent who serves that deity.

Gonggong

French scientist who conames the Boyle’s law about prsssure and volume inverse proportion

Mariotte’s Law

QUESTION THREE At its 75th session in March 2021, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 the International Year of which highly-varied grain that has varieties such as 'finger' and 'pearl?? The grasses from which this grain is derived can grow on arid lands with minimal inputs and are resilient to changes in climate, making them ideal for nations that are reliant on imported cereal grains.

Millets

Who designed trevi fountain design?

Nicola Salvi (completed by Pannini)

QUESTION THREE After Chimborazo, the mountain whose peak is next furthest from the Earth's centre is which mountain in Peru, the highest in its country and the highest mountain in the Earth's Tropics?

Huascaran

QUESTION ONE Which ethnic people speak an Indo-Aryan language called Dhivehi from which we get the word 'atoll"? This people make up essentially 100% of an archipelagic nation state. You may also answer with the name of the nation state which these people inhabit.

Maldivians

Bikini Atoll is in which country?

Marshall Islands

QUESTION THREE The memoir Iran Awakening: One Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country was an English-language book by which woman, who served as one of Iran's first women judges until the Iranian Revolution? In 2003, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for her efforts for democracy and human rights".

Shirin Ebadi

QUESTION TWO When Mike Brown and Terry-Ann Suer discovered the only known natural satellite of this trans-Neptunian dwarf planet in 2006, they left the naming of the moon to California's indigenous Tongva people, who chose the name Weywot. What is the name, after a Tongva deity, of this dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt?

Quaoar

QUESTION TWO Discovered by Mike Brown and Terry-Ann Suer in 2005, and named after a winged figure who guides the souls of the dead into the underworld in Etruscan mythology, Vanth is the only known moon of which trans-Neptunian dwarf planet? Named after the Etruscan equivalent of Pluto, this body is the second largest known plutino (after Pluto itself.

Orcus

QUESTION TWO Around 15,000-20,000 Maldivians are also found on this island nation. The Veddas or Wanniyalaeto are indigenous to which Asian country and are likely the earliest inhabitants of this island? They have more-or-less lost their native language and are being assimilated rapidly.

Sri Lanka

Who wrote Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books in 2003?

Azar Nafisi

QUESTION TWO Ravi Shanker collaborated on the 1968 album West Meets East with which Jewish-American virtuoso violinist who spent much of his career in Britain, later becoming a British citizen? At the age of 16, this man recorded Elgar's Violin Concerto with the composer conducting.

Yehudi Menuhin

QUESTION THREE The term Dayak is applied to the various non-Muslim Indigenous ethnic groups native to which island? Traditionally living along the banks of the island's larger rivers, Dayak people speak various Austronesian languages.

Borneo

QUESTION ONE The 1982 non-fiction book Szachinszach (Shah of Shahs) detailed the fall of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during the Iranian Revolution. It was written by which Polish journalist, dubbed 'The Maestro' by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, whose other works include Cesarz (The Emperor), about the downfall of Haile Selassie, and Heban (The Shadow of the Sun) detailing his own time in Africa?

Ryszard Kapuscinski

Which French scientist developed the Ideal Gas Law written as pV = nRT

Benoit Paul Emile Clapeyron

QUESTION TWO "What a crowd of people are assembled here! Everybody seems to be my thief". After his cash-box and all his money are stolen, Harpagon breaks the fourth wall by accusing the audience of looking at him and laughing in what play by Molière, in which Harpagon is the title character?

The Miser

QUESTION THREE The Aztec god of life, light, and wisdom, Quetzalcoatl is typically depicted in the form of a serpent covered in what? These things are not found on snakes in the natural world.

Feathers

QUESTION TWO Another widely grown pseudocereal grain is which grain, cultivated for at least 8,000 years, that was a staple food of the Aztecs and an integral part of Aztec religious ceremonies? Aztecs once formed images of their gods from agave, maize, and this grain, and its seeds are today offered as snacks to the spirits on the Day of the Dead.

Amaranth

QUESTION ONE The Australian Aboriginal peoples are one of the two ethnically distinct groups of Indigenous peoples of Australia. The other is which Indigenous Melanesian people named after a body of water that lies between Australia and the island of New Guinea?

Torres Strait Islander Peoples

QUESTION THREE Sirleaf served as Deputy Minister of Finance from 1971 to 1974 in the administration of William Tolbert but she fled to the United States following a 1980 coup d'état that saw which man seize power? In 1990, this man was captured and executed by Prince Johnson during the First Liberian Civil War.

Samuel Doe

QUESTION ONE Located near to the Nevado Tres Cruces National Park, which dormant complex volcano on the Argentina-Chile border is the highest mountain in Chile and the world's highest volcano?

Ojos Del Salado

QUESTION ONE The three domain system largely superseded the five kingdom system that grouped organisms into five kingdoms: animalia, plantae, fungi, monera (prokaryotes), and which other group of eukaryotic organisms? According to Robert Whittaker, who proposed the five kingdom system, these organisms "are unicellular or unicellular-colonial and... form no tissues", and, today, this is used as a catch-all term for any eukaryote that is not an animal, plant, or fungus.

Protist

QUESTION THREE Among the largest and best-preserved sites of the Ancestral Puebloans, which archaeological site in Colorado is the location of a famous Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America? It was abandoned in the late 13th century CE following a drought, with the cliff dwellings only having been occupied for around a hundred years.

Mesa Verde

QUESTION THREE Merging with Thyssen in 1999, which prominent steelmaker and arms manufacturer, founded in Essen in 1811 and named after a dynasty that was first recorded in 1587, was by several measures the world's largest company at the beginning of the 20th century?

Krupp

QUESTION TWO Winner of the 1911 Physics Nobel Prize for his work on heat radiation, which physicist gives his name to a displacement theory which calculates the emission of a blackbody at any temperature from the emission at any one reference temperature?

Wilhelm Wien

QUESTION THREE The brothers Herman, Paul, and Johan were 15th century Dutch miniature painters famous for creating the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, perhaps the best known late medieval illuminated manuscript. What was their shared surname?

Limbourg

SPARE TWO What was the name of the reed boat built and sailed by Thor Heyerdahl in 1977 to demonstrate that sea trade between the ancient Mesopotamians and the ancient civilisations of modern-day Pakistan could have been possible?

Tigris

QUESTION ONE In February 2018, the government of Venezuela launched a crypto token intended to supplement the country's currency; in 2020 it was declared mandatory for certain transactions. What is its name?

Petro

QUESTION THREE Known for his role in the development of 'modernism', which architect coined the term 'less is more' to describe his approach, which involved stripping a design down to its bare essentials, and casting aside any elements that do not contribute to the pure beauty or function of an object or space? The last director of the Bauhaus, this German-American architect's best-known works include the Seagram Building in New York.

Ludwig MIES van der Rohe

QUESTION ONE In his controversial 1939 book about the origins of monotheism, Sigmund Freud hypothesized that which person had actually been born into Ancient Egyptian nobility, served as a priest of the pharaoh, fled Egypt after the pharaoh's death, and perpetuated monotheism through a different religion?

Moses

QUESTION TWO Venezuela was not the only country to announce a cryptocurrency in February 2018. Which country of less than 100,000 people uses the US dollar as its currency, but passed an act launching a cryptocurrency called the Sovereign, despite warnings from the International Monetary Fund? The issuance has not yet taken place, but profits from this currency were intended to fund healthcare for people affected by the Castle Bravo nuclear test.

Marshall Islands

QUESTION ONE On so-called 'darknet markets', where illicit goods and services are traded, Bitcoin is still most popular, but which other cryptocurrency with the code XMR is thought to be number two, due to its increased level of privacy? As opposed to Bitcoin, observers cannot trace addresses, amounts, or histories.

Monero

QUESTION THREE 'A house is a machine to live in' is the best-known maxim of which Franco-Swiss architect whose works include the Unit d'habitation in Marseille and the Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp?

Le Corbusier

Which architect said “form follows function”?

Louis Sullivan

QUESTION TWO Which blockchain platform, named after a mathematician born in 1501, was launched in 2017 using a so-called proof-of-stake blockchain, intended to use far less energy than the proof-of-work protocol of currencies such as bitcoin? It uses the internal cryptocurrency ADA, named after Ada Lovelace.

Cardano

QUESTION THREE Freud hypothesised that Moses served as a priest of which Egyptian pharaoh who introduced an early form of monotheism that stressed the uniqueness of the sun god after which he took part of his name? This pharaoh moved his capital to a new location halfway between Memphis and Thebes as a cult arena entirely for that Sun god.

Akhenaten

QUESTION THREE Now with some 2.5 million followers, which monotheistic syncretic religion was formally established in Vietnam in 1926? It combines elements of Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist key concepts like karma with local Vietnamese folk religion, while using the Roman Catholic organizational structure.

Caodaism

QUESTION TWO Which temperate rainforest in Chile covers the Chiloé archipelago and is named after a nearby city? It is around 120 million years old, and is the site of laurel forests that arose on Gondwana, which therefore have flora and fauna related to that in Australia and New Zealand rather than the rest of the Americas.

Valdivian Rainforest

QUESTION THREE Its name referencing the number of atoms in the valence shell, which rule of thumb in chemistry states that most elements with low atomic numbers combine in ways such that their valence electron configurations are similar to those in noble gases?

Octet Rule

QUESTION ONE Which major Moroccan port city lies on the western end of the Strait of Gibraltar? It was part of an international zone from 1923-56, and after Moroccan independence it became a popular site for the Beat generation and, later, hippies.

Tangier

QUESTION TWO Which German Romantic poet and novelist wrote his poetry collection Hymen an die Nacht (Hymns to the Night) in memory of his fiancée Sophie von Kühn? He is also the author of the unfinished coming-of-age novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen.

Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg)

QUESTION ONE BIV is a philosophical hypothesis, according to which humans do not experience the external world directly but, instead, are connected, via cerebral nerve endings, to a supercomputer that produces electrical impulses that simulate the experience of the external world. Often used as an argument for philosophical scepticism, for what do the letters BIV stand?

Brain in a Vat

QUESTION TWO Modern optoelectronics relies on semiconductor fabrication of on-chip devices such as transistors. One of the first stages in chip development is to obtain n- or p-type semiconductor layers by doping an intrinsic semiconductor. This can be done using which post-growth, low-temperature process that involves firing high-energy dopants at the static intrinsic semiconductor substrate?

Ion Implantation

QUESTION THREE Which politician, the former leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise party, finished third in the first round of the 2022 French presidential election, only 1.2 percentage points behind Marine Le Pen?

Jean-Luc Melenchon

QUESTION ONE Which Irish pirate, the leader of a dynasty based in the west of Ireland, sailed to England to petition Elizabeth I for the release of her sons and half-brother?

Grace O’Malley

QUESTION TWO Hiroshige belonged to which ukiyo-e school founded by Toyoharu? He was considered one of the last great masters of ukiyo-e along with other members of this school such as Kunisada and Yoshitoshi.

Utagawa School

QUESTION THREE A figurine of a seated goddess flanked by two lionesses was unearthed in 1961 by the archaeologist James Mellaart from which site in southern Turkey? This was the site of a proto-city that flourished around 7,000 BCE.

Catalhoyuk

QUESTION THREE Which physical vapour deposition technique is used to deposit thin metallic films onto semiconductor substrates? Its name comes from the physical process in which particles of a solid material are ejected from its surface following bombardment. In contrast to metal evaporation, this method uses much lower substrate temperatures, allowing the deposition of a wider range of metals.

Sputtering

QUESTION ONE The first Governor-General of India, Lord William Bentinck, passed acts to outlaw and eliminate the crimes of dacoity and which other organised criminal practice that involved robbing travellers and takes its name from the Sanskrit word for "concealment".

Thuggee

QUESTION THREE Hiroshige's best-known works are landscape series such as Meisho Edo Hyakkei (100 Famous Views of Edo) and a series that depicts the 53 stations of which coastal road that linked Edo to Kyoto?

Tokaido

QUESTION TWO Ingela Gathenhielm was a Swedish privateer who fought in the service of which Swedish king who led his country during the Great Northern War?

Charles XII

QUESTION THREE Which forest on the border of Poland and Belarus is the largest surviving part of the primeval forest that covered the European plain before human settlement? It is known for its population of European bison.

Bialowieza Primeval Forest

QUESTION TWO In Heinrich von Ofterdingen, the title character dreams of what object that became a central symbol of German romanticism? Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen wrote that it is "an emblem of the deep and nameless longings of a poet's soul."

Blue Flower

QUESTION THREE Which composer intended for his Études d'exécution transcendante (Transcendental Études) to consist of 24 études, one in each of the 24 major and minor keys? This composer of the Rhapsodies hongroises (Hungarian Rhapsodies) managed to complete only half of the project, using the neutral and flat key signatures.

Franz Liszt

QUESTION ONE Jeanne de Clisson was a Breton noblewoman who became a privateer and swore revenge on Philip VI of France after her husband was executed. She also used her ships to supply the English forces in the build up to which battle of the Hundred Years' War? This 1346 battle saw English forces led by Edward Ill rout the French army due to the superiority of their longbowmen over the French crossbowmen.

Crecy

QUESTION TWO While Governor-General of India, Bentinck also passed a law outlawing what practice in which a widow sacrificed herself on her husband's funeral pyre? This followed a long period of campaigning against this practice from Hindu reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

Sati

QUESTION THREE Perhaps the best-known treatment of the brain-in-a-vat hypothesis is by which American philosopher who, in his 1981 work Reason, Truth, and History, argued that a brain-in-a-vat thought experiment created by Gilbert Harman was incoherent by virtue of being self-refuting? This thinker, who died in 2016, also co-names an indispensability argument with Willard Quine.

Hilary Putnam

QUESTION ONE Which politician finished fourth in the first round of the 2022 French presidential election? This former TV personality is a proponent of the far-right 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory, and his party, Reconquête, primarily campaigns on immigration.

Eric Zemmour

QUESTION THREE What name is given to the property in which a single molecule has more than one possible Lewis structure, that is to say the molecule's electrons may have multiple arrangements?

Resonance

ESTION ONE set during the social and political turmoil of the Belgian withdrawal from Africa, which barbara Kingsolver novel is narrated by five female members of the missionary Price family who have moved to the Belgian Congo from the USA? The novel's title refers to family patriarch's mispronunciation of a Kikongo expression which he intends to nean "Jesus is most precious".

The Poisonwood Bible

QUESTION TWO Which German poet and literary critic described Novalis's blue flower as "Die Armesünderblum" ("Suicide's flower") in his Lyrisches Intermezzo as he began to distance himself from Romanticism? This author also wrote the poem 'Die Lorelei' and many of his lyric poems were used for Lieder by composers such as Schumann and Schubert.

Heinrich Heine

QUESTION THREE Containing the world's oldest known megaliths, which archaeological site in south eastern Anatolia has been described as the "world's first temple" by Klaus Schmidt who led its excavation from 1996 onwards? It contains richly decorated stone pillars dating from around 9,500 to 8,000 BCE.

Gobekli Tepe

QUESTION ONE After the deposition of a thin metal film, components with features down to nanometre scale can be defined with which patterning process? A polymer resist is spin-coated on top of the metal film and then exposed using this technique, which may be achieved using deep-UV light and a mask, or a high-power focussed electron beam.

Lithography

QUESTION TWO Another of New Zealand's unusual species is which olive-green parrot, Nestor notabilis, that displays bright orange under its wings? The world's only alpine parrot, its numbers fell dramatically as a result of overhunting because of its supposed habit of attacking livestock.

Kea

QUESTION THREE Which rainforest, which lies to the north of a namesake river in northeast Queensland, is often described as the world's oldest rainforest, at around 180 million years old?

Daintree Rainforest

QUESTION ONE Hiroshige's Tökaido Gojüsan-tsugi (The Fifty-three Stations of the Tökaidö) was parodied by which other member of the Utagawa school, who replaced the stations with cat puns? This artist was also known for dramatic mythical scenes such as Soma no furu-dairi (Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre).

Kuniyoshi

QUESTION THREE New Zealand's strange fauna isn't limited to vertebrates; the world's heaviest recorded adult insect, weighing as much as a song thrush or a small blue jay, was an individual of which orthopteran insects in the genus Deinacrida?

Giant Weta

QUESTION ONE Which island that lies around 60 kilometres south of Kyushu is the site of an ancient temperate rainforest that inspired Mononoke-hime (Princess Mononoke) and is home to 7,000-year-old sugi or Japanese cedars? A World Heritage Site, UNESCO described it as "the last remnant of warm-temperate ancient forest that is unique in this region".

Yakushima

QUESTION TWO Putnam argued for semantic externalism in Meaning and Reference and The Meaning of "Meaning" by describing which thought experiment in which he imagines a planet identical to our own except that a substance ostensibly identical to water has the chemical formula XYZ rather than H,O?

Twin Earth

QUESTION THREE The earliest colossal stone building in Egypt and the earliest large cut stone construction in the world is a step pyramid dedicated to which pharaoh, the founder of the third dynasty?

Djoser

QUESTION ONE Known for its 18th century fortified Medina, which city in Morocco, south of Agadir and west of Marrakesh, was formerly known as Mogador?

Essaouira

QUESTION TWO For an atom in a Lewis structure, which value is equal to the number of valence electrons in the neutral atom, minus the number of nonbonding electrons and one-half the bonding electrons? This quantity is similar to an oxidation state, but does not take electronegativity into account.

Formal Charge

Odin two ravens names

Huginn and Muninn

QUESTION ONE In 2007, which French politician defeated Dominique Strauss-Kahn to win the Socialist Party nomination for president? She was the first woman ever to reach the second round of a French presidential election, but was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy.

Segolene Royal

QUESTION TWO Which Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Anthony Doerr tells the stories of a blind French girl, Marie-Laure Leblanc, and a young German army recruit, Werner Pfennig, and their lives before, during, and after the 1944 Battle of Saint-Malo? Doer conceived of the title of this novel before it was written, inspired by the only scene he then had in mind: a girl reading to a boy over the radio.

All the Light We Cannot See

QUESTION THREE In 1873, Jyotirao Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in Pune to campaign for the rights of women and members of which group of people who belong to the lowest stratum of the caste system? Known by a Marathi term introduced by Phule, this group were excluded from the Varna caste system, and were previously known as 'untouchables'.

Dalit

QUESTION ONE Which Booker Prize-winning English novelist's final novel, The Blue Flower, is an account of Novalis's uncomfortable relationship with Sophie von Kühn, who is depicted as an unremarkable girl who dies shortly after her 15th birthday?

Penelope Fitzgerald

QUESTION TWO Which former French Prime Minister was the favourite for the 2017 French presidential election, but had his reputation damaged by an embezzlement scandal involving his wife, Penelope? He eventually finished third, behind Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.

Francois Fillon

QUESTION THREE Which archaeological site in Balochistan, Pakistan was excavated by Jean-François and Catherine Jarrige in 1974? Dating from 7,000 BCE it is the oldest known site on the Indian subcontinent, and may have been influenced by the Neolithic culture of the Near East.

Mehrgarh

QUESTION ONE New Zealand's unusual fauna is also found in its waters. What is the common name of the gelatinous, wide-mouthed deepwater marine species Psychrolutes microporos? Also found in the waters around Australia, the holotype of this species is in the Museum of New Zealand. [picture]

Blobfish

QUESTION TWO Once patterned, exposed and developed, components can be vertically defined using which subtractive technique to physically and chemically remove certain material layers? This can be divided into wet techniques that use strong acids and developers, or dry techniques that use high-power ions and plasmas.

Etching

QUESTION THREE Sayyida al Hurra, a Moroccan queen, turned to piracy following the Spanish reconquest of Spain. She allied herself with which Ottoman corsair who, along with his brother Oruç Reis, captured Algiers from the Spanish, and was later appointed Grand Admiral by Suleiman the Magnificent.

Hayreddin Barbarossa

QUESTION ONE Hokusai depicted the Tökaido road several times in his Fugaku Sanjürokkei (Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji), a series famous for prints such as Kanagawa-oki Nami Ura (The Great Wave off Kanagawa) and which print that is also known as Red Fuji?

Fine Wind Clear Morning

QUESTION THREE What name was given to the three mass assemblies - taking place in 1877, 1903 and 1911 - that were organised in Delhi by the British Raj to mark the accession of an Emperor or Empress? This Persian-derived term was used for the court by several Indian empires including the Mughals, Rajputs and Marathas. Queen Victoria applied this name to a room in Osborne House that was decorated in an Indian style.

Delhi Durbar

QUESTION ONE In Irish mythology, Aoife transforms her four stepchildren, the children of Lir, into what birds, who tell their father of what happened at Lough Derravaragh? Another of these birds is the divine mount of the Hindu goddess Saraswati.

Swans

QUESTION TWO The brain-in-a-vat hypothesis is often described as a contemporary version of earlier thought experiments exploring the nature of reality. These include Plato's 'allegory of the cave', Descartes"evil demon', and the 'dream argument' of which Chinese philosopher of the Warring States Period? This thinker described how he dreamt he was a butterfly and couldn't be sure upon waking that he wasn't, in fact, a butterfly dreaming that he was a man awakening from a dream.

Zhuangzi

QUESTION THREE The four Imperial Cities of Morocco are Fez, Marrakech, Rabat and which other, located between Rabat and Fez in the centre of the country? Ismail ibn Sharif, the founder of the Alaouite dynasty, built its vast palace complex.

Meknes

QUESTION ONE Said to have been one of the final meals of François Mitterrand, what is the common name of the small songbird illegally captured and force-fed, before being drowned in Armagnac, roasted and eaten whole by French gastronomes?

Ortolan Bunting

QUESTION TWO Which Métis politician was the leader of the Red River Rebellion and was effectively the founder of the province of Manitoba? He was elected three times to the Canadian House of Commons, but did not take his seat as he had fled to the United States to avoid prosecution.

Louis Riel

QUESTION THREE Which prolific American composer of Armenian and Scottish descent is, perhaps, best known for his symphonic works such as Exile, Mysterious Mountain, Mount St. Helens, And God Created Great Whales, and Hymn to Glacier Peak?

Alan Hovhaness

QUESTION ONE Literally meaning "feast of the sacrifice" which holiday celebrated in Islam honours the willingness of Ibraham to sacrifice Ismail?

Eid Al-Adha

QUESTION TWO Named after a German chemist, which piece of laboratory equipment, consisting of a tube running through a cooling water jacket, is used to increase the density of vapours emanating from a distillation apparatus?

Liebig Condenser

QUESTION THREE Which Iranian artist and filmmaker produced the photography series Women of Allah, in which Persian poetry is inscribed on the bodies of women wearing chadors and holding guns? She also directed a film adaptation Shahrush Parsipur's novel Zanan bedun-e Mardan (Women without Men)?

Shirin Neshat

SPARE ONE L'Aliéné (Man Suffering from Delusions of Military Rank), La Folle Monomane du jeu (The Woman with a Gambling Mania), and Le Kleptomane (Portrait of a Kleptomaniac), all painted in 1822, are works in which French artist's series of 10 paintings of the insane, known collectively as Les Monomanes?

Theodore Gericault

SPARE TWO In 2021, the South African city of Port Elizabeth was renamed as what, although this name is rarely used by locals?

Gqeberha

SPARE THREE Which 17th-century Spanish Jesuit wrote the allegorical novel El Criticón and a book of maxims called Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia (The Art of Worldly Wisdom)?

Baltasar Gracian