Next 32 Flashcards
In which decade did the California Gold Rush commence?
1840s in Coloma
Christian Grey and which other literary character appear for the first time
in the 2011 novel Fifty Shades Of Grey?
Anastasia Steele
Which soft drink is manufactured by Nichols plc, who are based in Newton le Willows?
Vimto
Gary Burghoff was the only actor to play the same character in the film MASH and the TV series of the same name. What was his character?
Radar O’Reilly
Donald Trump’s parents names?
Fred and Mary (MacLeod)
Which Cunard liner commenced her maiden voyage on 3rd May 2024?
Queen Anne
QUESTION ONE
The shopkeeper, Alihodza Mutevelić, has his ear nailed to the title structure in which
historical novel by Ivo Andrić? This novel is set in the town of Višegrad, which spans
the river mentioned in the novel’s title.
The Bridge on the Drina
The second derivative test can be used in calculus to locate what points on a curve?
These points are the place on a curve where the direction of the curvature changes, for
example going from convex to concave.
INFLECTION point or FLEX
The blossoming of Byzantine culture in the 9th to 11th centuries prompted
historiographers to use what term for the ‘renaissance’ that followed the ‘Byzantine
Dark Ages’? Also known as the ‘era of Byzantine encyclopedism’ because of the attempts made during this time to codify knowledge, the more common name for the period in question is derived from its ruling dynasty.
MACEDONIAN Resistance
In his form as the morning star, Venus, the god Quetzalcoatl [ket-zal-cwaht-ul] is often
depicted as which very large species of eagle? Among the largest of all eagles, this
species is named after hybrid winged creatures from Classical mythology who flew the
dead to Hades or Tartarus.
Harpy Eagle
Which box-shaped percussion instrument developed among the enslaved population
in Peru in the 19th century and is widely used in Afro-Peruvian music? Performers
traditionally sit on this instrument and slap the front face with their hands.
CAJON
In his book S, M, L, XL, the Dutch architect and critic Rem Koolhaas critiques an article
by William Gibson written about the culture and architecture of Singapore. Gibson’s
article was entitled “Disneyland with the [BLANK]”. What two English words fill in the
blank?
Death Penalty
Although Endliches und ewiges Sein (Finite and Eternal Being) was, primarily, Edith
Stein’s attempt to synthesize the works of Thomas Aquinas with phenomenology, the
work also contains a noted analysis of the compatibility of phenomenology with this
man’s work. This is which Scottish Catholic priest whose philosophical commentaries
are collected in the Ordinatio (also known as the Opus Oxoniense)?
John DUNS SCOTUS
A Tasmanian state reserve since 1978 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997,
which island is perhaps best known for being home to the world’s entire royal penguin
population during their annual nesting season?
Macquarie Island
Which acidic antiseptic is commonly used in capsule form to inhibit the growth of
candida in the vaginal microbiome?
Boric acid
Storage diseases such as Gaucher disease and Niemann-Pick disease are caused by
defects in the function of which hydrolase-rich, waste-disposing organelles found in
all mammalian cells except red blood cells?
LYSOSOMES
Valperga (1823), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837) are all novels by which author who is
better known for an 1818 gothic novel?
Mary SHELLEY
QUESTION TWO
Ilya Repin’s painting Burlaki na Volge (Barge Haulers on the Volga) is perhaps the
defining work of which movement in Russian realist art that presented subject matter
drawn from everyday life, reflecting the movement’s egalitarian sociopolitical views?
Peredvizhniki or The Wanderers or The Itinerants
Which star in the constellation Octans serves as the Southern Hemisphere’s pole star
and counterpart to Polaris in the Northern Hemisphere?
SIGMA OCTANTIS
SPARE ONE
Opened in 1913, the oldest underground railway system in the Southern Hemisphere
can be ridden in which South American capital city?
Buenos Aires
His arrest and imprisonment in 1960 being a factor in the establishment of Amnesty
International, Agostinho Neto served as the first president of which African country?
Angola
Which British rock band had UK hits in 1964 with Not Fade Away and It’s All Over Now?
The Rolling Stones
Which U.S. president sported a “chin curtain” or Shenandoah beard?
Abraham Lincoln
Rachel Trevor-Morgan is most famous as a designer of which wearable items?
Hats
Stadion Schnabelholz, home to SC Rheindorf Altach football club, is located in which country?
Austria
What is the mach number for the speed of sound?
Mach 1
In an Olympic individual medley event, which swimming stroke comes immediately after the butterfly?
Backstroke
Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s painting commemorating both the eighty-second birthday of the Duke of Wellington and the opening day of the Great Exhibition of 1851 is titled The First of ___ what month?
May
Which American filmmaker directed Ice Station Zebra, The Magnificent Seven, and The Great Escape?
John Sturges
Which British electronic dance band released the 2015 album The Day is My Enemy?
The Prodigy
What “Q” links the ship on which Ernest Shackleton made his last voyage, a 2011 book by Daniel Yergin, and a British television channel?
Quest
Which Michelin-starred restaurant in Nuremberg shares its name with a Roald Dahl character?
Wonka
Which French post-impressionist painter was nicknamed “the customs officer”?
Henri Rouseau
Which British folk band were named after the symbol on Sir Gawain’s shield in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?
Pentangle
Which 1995 film featured Kiss From a Rose by Seal, and Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me by U2?
Batman Forever
French sculptor known for her figurative works in bronze and marble. She died in relative obscurity, but later gained recognition for the originality and quality of her work. The subject of several biographies and films, she is well known for her sculptures including The Waltz and The Mature Age. Which French sculptor is the subject of Anne Delbée’s biography Une Femme?
Camille Claudel
Which 1963 comedy-drama film stars Tom Courtenay as the ruler of the fantasy world of Ambrosia?
Billy Liar
Spotifys Top Tunes: Which song (at time of writing) is Jamiroquai’s most listened to tune on Spotify with 267m streams?
Virtual Insanity
Spotifys Top Tunes: Which song (at time of writing) is Meat Loaf’s most listened to tune on Spotify with 218m streams?
I’d Do Anything For Love
Spotifys Top Tunes: Which song (at time of writing) is Roxy Music’s most listened to tune on Spotify with 191m streams?
More Than This
Same Title, Different Song: What two different songs by Five and Soul II Soul share the same title?
Keep On Movin
Same Title, Different Song: What two different songs by Michael Jackson and Madonna share the same title?
Human Nature
In wine tasting, the scents associated with fermentation and ageing are generally called “bouquet”, whereas the smells associated with the grape variety are known as what?
Aroma
What was the surname of the prime minister whose party polled the record number of votes in a British General Election, over 14 million, despite the opinion polls widely predicting that he would lose?
Major
Which card in a standard pack of playing cards is known in Italy as “Il Jolly”?
Joker
What is the surname of the England batsman who in the third test of the 2023 Ashes series became the fastest batsman to 1000 career runs in test history, getting to that mark after facing just 1058 balls?
Harry BROOK
Which word for a poor golf shot is shared with the non-cutting end of a drill bit, a type of knot used to shorten a rope, and a bright-legged wading bird?
Shank
In computing, what is the difference between an emoji and an emoticon?
Emoji image, an emoticon text.
Whose election website states: “I’m an intergalactic space warrior, leader of the Recyclons from planet sigma IX, Lovejoy fan, two-time candidate to be London mayor and three-time candidate at UK general elections. I’m currently a candidate for the beautiful constituency of Richmond & Northallerton and I am supposed to be the ludicrous novelty candidate, although these days, I’m not so sure”?
Count Binface
Which epithet used for Horace Rumpole’s wife in the works of John Mortimer was taken from the lead character in a novel by H. Rider Haggard which has never been out of print since first publication in 1887?
She Who Must Be Obeyed (the novel is “She”)
Which Latin name is often given to the period of relative peace between the great powers which lasted from Napoleon’s defeat in 1815 until the outbreak of The Great War in 1914?
Pax Britannica
According to the lyrics of Waterloo by Abba, what does the history book on the shelf do?
Repeats itself
Waterloo station was the London terminus for Eurostar international trains from 1994 until 2007, when they were transferred to which other London terminus?
St Pancras
Which word meaning nonsense, rubbish, or humbug is taken not as you might think from the name of a flower, but from a Dutch word meaning doll’s excrement?
Poppycock
What connects Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, San Marino and Spain?
National Anthems no words
Who is referred to in the Quran as one of the greatest women of all time and is the only woman mentioned directly by name therein?
Virgin Mary
Which book first published in 1611 is in the public domain in most of the world, but is not out of copyright in the UK because the rights are held in perpetuity by the British Crown?
King James Bible
Which airport, which was Paris’s only international airport until Orly opened in 1932, was the landing site for Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo transatlantic crossing in 1927 in the Spirit of St. Louis, and hosts the biennial Paris Air Show?
Le Bourget
Which expression connects a bar opened in 1828 at 98 Holborn Hill called Thompson and Fearon’s, a large ostentatious pleasure craft, and the Dreadnought class battleship HMS Agincourt?
Gin Palace
Which of the nucleotide bases in DNA pairs specifically with adenine to help form the rungs of the DNA double helix?
Thymine
Which two countries declared their independence from Yugoslavia in 1991?
Croatia and Slovenia
Who is set to replace Jens Stoltenberg as secretary-general of NATO in October 2024?
Mark Rutte
Which billionaire got married for a fifth time to Russian biologist Elena Zhukova?
Rupert Murdoch
The Majlisi Oli or Supreme Assembly is the bicameral parliament of which Central Asian country?
Tajikistan
What scientific law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points and inversely proportional to the resistance of the conductor?
Ohms Law
Who portrayed detective John Klute in the film Klute (1971)?
Donald Sutherland
Which Holy Roman Emperor died after being drowned while trying to cross the Saleph River in Turkey during the Third Crusade?
Frederick Barbarossa
Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks to win the 2024 NBA Finals. As of 2024, how many NBA Finals titles do the Celtics have?
18
What play written by David Adjmi won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Play? It follows a fictional rock band as they struggle through recording their new album set from 1976 to 1977?
Stereophonic
The status of what wild cat species was upgraded by the IUCN from endangered to vulnerable in 2024 after a census showed a population of 2,021 animals?
Iberian Lynx
What is the name of the female swimmer who surpassed Kaylee McKeown to break the women’s 100-metre backstroke world record at the 2024 USA Olympic Trials in Indiana?
Regan Smith
What do you call a small, dense stellar remnant that remains after a star of low to medium mass has exhausted its nuclear fuel and shed its outer layers?
White Dwarf
The 2022 song “Calm Down” is widely regarded as the biggest and most successful Afrobeats song of all time. Which Nigerian musician recorded this song?
Rema
In Greek mythology, what is the name of the personification of death who is often depicted as a winged, somber figure who gently carries souls to the underworld?
Thanatos
Rory McIlroy narrowly lost out on a 2024 US Open win after missing a three-foot par putt on the 18th, allowing which American, nicknamed ‘the Scientist’, to take his second US Open title?
Bryson DeCHAMBEAU
‘St. Thomas’ and ‘Strode Rode’ both appear on which acclaimed jazz album of 1957 by Sonny Rollins?
SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS
(accept SAX COLOSSUS)
A 2007 ad campaign featured a character with what first name, who was widely mocked for purchasing bootleg DVDs? The ads included a mocking song, saying “Knock-off [this name], buys knock-off DVDs”.
Nigel
The teacher Miss Mackenzie is the subject of most of the lyrics in which 2002 track, the debut single of Busted?
What I Go To School For
Which star of the silent era of American cinema was nicknamed “the Vamp” and was one of cinema’s earliest sex symbols?
Most of her films were destroyed in the 1937 fire at Fox Studios vault.
Theda BARA
Founded by the double bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku [NWAH-no-koo], which London-based orchestra describes itself as the first orchestra in Europe to be primarily made up of black and ethnically diverse musicians? It made its debut at the Proms in 2017, where it premiered a work by the composer Hannah Kendall.
CHINEKE! Orchestra
Snow Kids, Superman and the Zorblaxians are among the few recurring characters in which webcomic created by Zach Weinersmith, which is sometimes abbreviated SMBC? It is described on its website as “a daily comic strip about life, philosophy, science, mathematics, and dirty jokes.”
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Which Welsh footballer became the first woman to earn 100 caps for the national team, winning Welsh Footballer of the Year five times between 2011 and 2019? An attacking midfielder, she is still active for the national side and for Seattle
Reign.
Jess FISHLOCK
Sharing its name with a south London borough, which bridge crosses the River Thames between Westminster and Vauxhall Bridges?
Lambeth
Derived from the Italian for ‘pillow’, what name is given to a sandy or shingle isthmus linking an island to the mainland?
TOMBOLO
Which British racing driver won the second race of his Formula 1 career at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday? He drives alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes having joined from Williams in 2022.
George Russell
The Chineke! Orchestra premiered which composer’s Three Songs from Ethiopia Boy in 2019? He is better known as a bass-baritone
and performed at the Coronation of King Charles in 2023.
Roderick Williams
Busted sing “I like the way you dress” about which title figure in a 2004 track released by the band? The band illegally boards a
Concorde in the video for the song.
AIR HOSTESS
Which actress and icon of the flapper culture starred in the films Pandora’s Box and Miss Europe? She is often credited with popularising the bob hairstyle, and in later life she struggled with alcoholism and financial issues.
Louise Brooks
Which journalist resigned her position as Downing Street Press Secretary after footage was released of her making joking references
to the Christmas gatherings at Number 10 later dubbed “Partygate”?
Allegra Stratton
‘Lonely Woman’ and ‘Focus on Sanity’ both appear on which acclaimed jazz album of 1959 by Ornette Coleman?
The SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME
Bryson DeChambeau is the first repeat winner of the US Open since which American golfer in 2018? He is well known for a period of dominance in which he won four majors between 2017 and 2019, and his victory at the PGA Championship in 2023 made him the first LIV golfer to win a major championship.
Brooks KOEPKA
Which American actor, who rose to fame in the role of Erin Hannon in the US version of The Office, starred in the title role in the
Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt?
Ellie KEMPER
What word describes a coastal inlet formed by the sea drowning a non-glacial river valley? This word comes from the Galician
language, and many such examples are found in the Galician coast of northern Spain?
Ria
What Arabic word refers to the practice of fasting and abstinence during daylight hours in the month of Ramadan? It is the fourth
of the Five Pillars of Islam.
SAWM
Cloud chambers were used in experimental physics until the 1950s when they were superseded by the bubble chamber. Which
American was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the bubble chamber?
Donald A GLASER
Mouse, Bird with cigarette, sketchy Snail, Grey Cat and Orange Cat are recurring characters in which webcomic created by Reza Farazmand, which is sometimes abbreviated PDL? While it has recurring characters, it typically features simple standalone strips with an absurdist or satirical tone.
Poorly Drawn Lines
Jess Fishlock was replaced as Welsh captain by which Chelsea defender? A former Puskas Award nominee, she was the only Welsh
player named in the Great Britain team that competed at the 2020 Olympics
Sophie Ingle
One of only two people to win the Academy Award for Best Picture three times, who produced the films On
the Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia?
Sam SPIEGEL
What chatbot, released by Google and based on the large language model of the same name, received criticism in early 2024 for its historically inaccurate image generation?
Gemini
Deriving from the Urdu-Hindi word for “house”, what name is given to individual schools or traditions of Hindustani classical music and dance? These schools often trace their heritage to a founding guru.
Gharana
One of the four classic Roman pasta dishes, amatriciana is traditionally served with what thick spaghetti-like pasta? It takes its name from the Italian for “hole”.
BUCATINI
In November 2000 the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh were each bifurcated, creating three new states. Name any of the three new states.
UTTARAKHAND (accept
Uttaranchal) or JHARKHAND
or CHHATTISGARH
In 1970, which former Trinidadian High Commissioner to the UK and campaigner for racial equality became the first black member of the House of Lords? Thirty years earlier, he had been the second black player to be named a Wisden cricketer of the year.
Laurie CONSTANTINE
Standing at 2.31 metres or 7 feet 7 inches, which Romanian is generally regarded as the tallest player in the history of the NBA? He spent the majority of his career with the Washington Bullets, leaving the team shortly after they changed their name to the Wizards.
Gheorghe MURESAN
The vast majority of cases of what cancer, which typically affects the lining of the lungs and chest wall, are caused by exposure to asbestos?
Mesothelioma
Although now grown all over the world, which red wine grape is native to Burgundy, and continues to be the primary grape for the majority of red wine produced in Burgundy? It is also one of the three grapes traditionally used to make Champagne
Pinot Noir
Papa Wemba, Franco, and Tabu Ley Rochereau are all iconic musicians from which African country? They are all associated with the genre of soukous (SOW-kuss) as well as this country’s namesake form of rumba.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE
CONGO
Named for an Asian country, which set of chess openings involves black responding with knight-to-f6 to white’s d4?
Indian Defence
The only vegetarian one of the classic Roman pasta dishes, cacio e pepe (CATCH-oh EH PEP-eh) is traditionally served with what spaghetti-like pasta?
Tonnarelli
What honorific, from a Persian word for “master”, is often given to male, Muslim exponents of Hindustani classical music, such as the sarod players Ali Akbar Khan and Amjad Ali Khan?
Ustad
The most recent creation of an Indian state was in 2014, when a state with its capital at Hyderabad was bifurcated. Name either the new state or the state it was created from.
TELANGANA or ANDHRA
PRADESH
Entering the House of Commons in 1987 as one of the UK’s first black MPs alongside Diane Abbott &Bernie Grant, who, in 2002, became the country’s first black Cabinet minister, when he was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury?
Paul Boateng
In the 1990s, 27 Bishops Road was the final residence of which Booker Prizewinning novelist? Among the books she wrote there was her historical novel The Blue Flower, which went on to win the National Book Critics Circle Award in the US.
Penelope Fitzgerald
One of only two people to win the Academy Award for Best Picture three times, who produced the films One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, and The English Patient?
Saul Zaentz
What form of dance and pilates based conditioning workout takes its name from the wooden support used in the first half of a ballet class?
BARRE
What general term is used for a set of occupational lung diseases caused by long-term inhalation of dust? This class includes asbestosis, silicosis, and coal miner’s lung.
Pneumoconiosis
Standing at 1.60 metres or 5 feet 3 inches, which Baltimore-born point guard is the shortest-ever NBA player? He was drafted by the Bullets in 1988, but spent the majority of his career with the Charlotte Hornets.
Muggsy BOGUES
Starring Thora Hird and Christopher Beeny, which sitcom set at a Yorkshire undertakers’ in the 1920s and 30s had five series broadcast on ITV between 1979 and 1986?
In Loving Memory
The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh was a major populariser of which form of meditation, which he described as the practice of being “established in the present moment, mind and body together”?
Mindfulness
What is the name of the largest lake in the European Union? It is located in Sweden and is Europe’s third largest lake after Lakes Ladoga and Onega in Russia.
Lake VANERN
What Greek term is used in philosophy to mean a state of puzzlement or bemusement
arising from an insoluble contradiction or logical impasse? Plato’s early dialogues
commonly end with Socrates reducing another person to this state by demonstrating
that their thought processes were incomplete and faulty.
Aporia
Who became the first woman to serve as a president of any country when she
succeeded her husband in that role in 1974? The leader of the Justicialist Party, she was
arrested over her involvement in forced disappearances in 2007. First name and
surname required.
Isabel Peron
After developing his compound microscope, the scientist Robert Hooke published the
best-selling book Micrographia in 1665, which was the first work to include illustrations
of plants and animals as seen through microscopes. One of the most famous of
Hooke’s illustrations is of which small, blood-sucking insects of the order
Siphonaptera, which are associated with spreading plague?
Fleas
Which organic compound is the second simplest carboxylic acid? It is typically
produced industrially via methanol carbonylation, such as in the Monsanto or Cativa
processes.
Acetic Acid or Ethanoic Acid
August Wilson has been nominated nine times for the Tony Award for Best Play but has won only once, for Fences. His first nomination came in 1985 for which play, set in a Chicago recording studio, in which a trumpeter named Levee kills a pianist called Toledo?
Ma Rainey’s Black BottomQ
In 1994, Tony Kushner became the first person to win the Tony Award for Best Play in
consecutive years when the second half of his two-part masterpiece, Angels in America:
A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, emulated the first half by winning the award. What
was the title of the second part of Angels in America which opens with a speech given
by the world’s oldest living Bolshevik?
Perestroika
Not published during his lifetime, and only discovered 40 years after his death, what is
the more common title of Beethoven’s Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor? Modern scholars
disagree whether the work was dedicated to Therese Malfatti, or to one of the women
with last names Röckel or Barensfeld.
Fur Elise
Which Platonic dialogue ends with an example of aporia, with Socrates unable to come to a satisfactory conclusion with the title prophet? The dialogue concerns the meaning of piety and leads to Socrates asking the title character whether a thing is pious because the gods approve of it, or whether the gods approve of it because it is pious.
Euthyphro
Which military officer deposed Isabel Perón in a coup in 1976? He formed a military junta and served as president until 1981, a period known for its large-scale human rights abuses.
Jorge Rafael VIDELA
First described by Yakov Frenkel, which electrically neutral quasiparticle is a bound
state consisting of an electron-hole pair?
EXCITON
Building on ideas developed by Simon de Bruges, Faust Vrančić designed tied-arch,
through-arch and truss types of what structures? His proposals for two commonly
used types of these structures predated their construction by over two centuries.
Bridges
In industry, the Niacet process is used to produce which salt by immersing its metal
derivative in anhydrous acetic acid? This salt is widely used as a food preservative, and
also as a neutralising agent in the textiles industry.
Sodium Acetate
Not to be confused with a similarly-named fermionic quasiparticle, which quasiparticle
describes the bound boson-like state consisting of a strongly-coupled photon and a
quasiparticle, such as a phonon or exciton, within a material?
POLARITONs
A more modern use of aporia in philosophy occurs in Questions to Emmanuel Levinas:
On the Divinity of Love by which French-speaking philosopher? Her most famous works
examine language and its application to feminism, and she forwards a Marxist
argument that men exchange women like commodities in her work Ce sexe qui n’en est
pas un (This Sex Which is Not One).
Luce IRIGARAY
Ernst Haeckel was a controversial biologist who introduced the terms “ecology” and
“phylum”. He also produced the book Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature),
which includes several plates of the phylum Cnidaria [nid-AIR-ee-a], including which
group of marine invertebrates, sessile polyps that resemble flowers and may form
mutualistic relationship with clownfish?
Sea Anemone
Also known as Quasi una fantasia, what is the best-known title for the Piano Sonata
No. 14 in C-sharp minor, which Beethoven dedicated to his pupil Giulietta Guicciardi?
Moonlight Sonata
Aporia is a term used in rhetoric as well as philosophy, famously by Demosthenes in
what 330 BCE oration, the most famous of his judicial orations? He delivered the speech while defending Ctesiphon [TESS-if-on] from charges brought by the prosecutor Aeschines [ESK-in-eez], using aporia to denigrate Aeschines’ character without making a direct attack.
On the Crown
The Democratic Republic of Congo is home to 70% of the world’s deposits of which
ore, which has a name that is a contraction of its two predominant minerals and is important in the production of capacitors? The DRC hasn’t been able to profit from the extraction of this ore, much of which is mined illegally and smuggled into Uganda,Rwanda and Burundi.
COLTAN (columbite–tantalite)
Combining acetic acid and sodium acetate can result in what specific type of chemical mixture? This particular example can stabilise mildly acidic pH levels, and generally the pH of these types of mixture will depend on the dissociation constants of the compounds involved.
Buffer Solution
Which quasiparticle specifically denotes a collective excitation of the electron spin
structure in a crystal lattice? Carrying a fixed amount of lattice momentum and
thermalising into phonons, they can be considered as quantised spin waves.
MAGNONS
The ability of a buffer solution to resist changes in pH occurs due to a chemical equilibrium between the acid and the base. Any shifts in concentration away from the equilibrium will occur in accordance with which principle?
Le Chatelier’s Principle
Faust Vrančić also designed the concept of what type of transport frequently used in
mountainous areas? Recently, cost-effectiveness has seen this type of transport being
integrated into urban public transport systems.
aerial lift (or aerial tramway, ropeway, gondola lift, cable car, funitel, funifor)
Another French dramatist to win the Tony Award for Best Play is Jean Anouilh [onwee]. He was nominated in the 1950s for both La Valse des toréadors (The Waltz of the Toreadors) and Léocadia (Time Remembered) but finally won in 1961 for a play alternatively titled L’honneur de Dieu (The Honour of God). That play is better known by the name of which historical figure central to the plot?
Becket
Shango is the Orisha or deity of thunder and lightning in the religion of which West
African ethnic group? This culture’s concept of orishas appears in syncretic religions of
the New World such as Cuban Santería and Brazilian Candomblé.
Yoruba
Which African country’s August 2023 military coup raised significant concerns for, among other things, the COMILOG company, which mines manganese at Moanda? For decades, uranium was mined in this country at Oklo, home of the only known natural fission reactor
Gabon
Which Greek-Irish writer and translator is known for Kwaidan [kwye-dan] : Stories and
Studies of Strange Things, a collection of Japanese ghost stories? He ended the book
with three short essays about insects.
Lafcadio HEARN
What word is used for a composite particle consisting of quarks held together by the
strong interaction? They may be baryons, such as protons and neutrons, which contain
an odd number of quarks; or mesons, which contain an even number.
HADRON
What is the name of the ancient Chinese zither associated with Confucius and which
has been nicknamed “the father of Chinese music” or “the instrument of the sages”?
gǔqín
Located about 30 kilometres south of South Island, what is the third largest island of
New Zealand?
Stewart Island
The 8888 Uprising was a series of protests in 1988 against the government of which
country, then led by Ne Win?
Myanmar
Meaning “successors”, what collective Greek name is given to the figures who fought
for control over the empire of Alexander the Great following his death in 323 BCE?
Diadochi
Pyruvate is converted to acetyl coenzyme A before what eight-step metabolic
pathway, the first step of which sees the reaction of acetyl CoA with oxaloacetate? This series of reactions sees the production of three molecules of NADH.
Citric Acid Cycle or Krebs Cycle
During Ramadan, Muslims traditionally break their fast, following the example of
Muhammad, by drinking a glass of water and eating which fruit?
Dates
Probably derived from the Arabic maqam system, Freygish is a musical mode used in
what genre of music that developed in Eastern Europe? Clarinettists Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein helped to popularise this style of music in the United States in the early 20th century.
Klezmer
A hanamachi is a long, raised platform, connected to the stage, that is used for
character entrances and exits in which form of theatre? Performers of this form of
theatre wear elaborate make-up called kumadori.
Kabuki
Related to Arabic maqam and Iranian Dastgāh modal systems, mugham is a style of
music associated with which country? The Voyager golden record includes a recording
of a musician from this country, Kamil Jalilov, playing the balaban, an instrument used
in mugham.
Azerbaijan
Which critic and theorist introduced the literary concept of polyphony in his 1929 work
Problemy poetiki Dostoevskogo (Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics), considered a
seminal work in literary theory?
Mikhail Bakhtin
Which of the Diadochi [dye-ADD-uh-kee] states controlled, at its height, large parts of
Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Asia Minor? The largest of the nations controlled by the
Diadochi [dye-ADD-uh-kee], it fought repeatedly with Ptolemaic Egypt to its west.
Seleucid Empire
Wearing entirely different kumadori make-up to other actors, onnagata (or oyama) are
actors who play what roles in kabuki? Onnagata actors became necessary after a 1629
law prevented certain people from appearing on stage and it was not until the 20th
century that the need for these actors declined.
Women or female characters
The national flag of Slovakia displays three peaks, symbolising three mountain ranges;
the Tatras, which lie on the border between Slovakia and Poland, the Greater and
Lesser Fatra mountains in central Slovakia, and which other mountain range that today lies entirely within Hungary? This range’s highest peak is Kékestető.
Matra
Orogenic, or mountain-forming regions, typically feature what process in which
oceanic crust sinks beneath continental crust? This process is largely driven by the
cooling of oceanic crust in “slab pull”.
Subduction
The Krebs cycle follows what other metabolic process in which glucose is converted
into pyruvate, yielding two molecules of ATP and NADH?
Glycolysis
In reference to krebs cycle and glycolysis, NADH stands for what?
nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) + hydrogen (H)
Mount Kinabalu appears on the flag of which Malaysian state? Along with Sarawak and
the Federal Territory of Labuan, this is one of three Malaysian states or territories
found on Borneo.
Sabah
What term did Mikhail Bakhtin introduce in Problemy poetiki Dostoevskogo (Problems
of Dostoevsky’s Poetics) to describe literature that temporarily destabilises or subverts
dominant cultural power structures, typically by using humour, eccentricity, and satire?
Carnivalesque
The “Pictures Generation” also included Louise Lawler, whose photo Monogram
depicts a painting by which man above a perfectly made bed? The title of Lawler’s
work may be a reference to a ‘combine’ of the same name by this artist’s partner
Robert Rauschenberg
Jasper Johns
The NADH and FADH2 generated in the Krebs cycle then enter what series of
reduction-oxidation reactions that use ubiquinone and cytochromes as a series of
carriers for negatively charged particles? This creates a proton gradient that is used to
power oxidative phosphorylation.
Electron Transport Chain
Which instrument that typically has 11 strings grouped in 6 courses is commonly used
in maqam music? It is considered a descendant of the Persian barbat, and the ancestor
of the European lute.
Oud
sometimes also called alphasyllabary, neosyllabary, or pseudo-alphabet – is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is secondary, similar to a diacritical mark, most known is Devanagari used to write Hindi and Sanskrit.
Abugida
The English explorer William Baffin, after whom the bay and the island are named, was
killed on Qeshm [GEZH-um] Island in 1622 during a battle against Portuguese forces
who occupied the Forte de Queixome [kay-show-may] on the island. To which country
does Qeshm Island now belong?
Iran
The ongoing orogeny of what North American mountain range is driven by the
eastward subduction of the small Juan de Fuca plate, and has added such peaks as
Mount Garibaldi to the Ring of Fire?
Cascade Mountains
The “Pictures Generation” also featured which artist, who sued the sneaker brand
Supreme for copying her trademark use of white-on-red Futura font in works such as I
shop therefore I am?
Barbara Kruger
The 301 BCE Battle of Ipsus is often thought to mark the final breakup of Alexander’s
empire, and was fought between a coalition of Seleucids, Antipatrids, and Lysimachids
against the forces of which member of the Diadochi [dye-ADD-uh-kee]? Known by the
epithet Monophthalmus – or the One-Eyed – he was killed during the battle and his
territory was divided between Seleucus and Lysimachus
Antigonus I
Bakhtin further develops the concept of the carnivalesque in which hugely influential
work, a classic of Renaissance studies, completed in 1940 but not published until 1965?
In this work, Bakhtin argues that the title author embodies the spirit of the carnivalesque in his best-known work, which recounts the vulgar and amusing exploits of a pair of giants. The title of Bakhtin’s book is required.
Rabelais and His World
The final stages of cellular respiration see ADP and phosphate converted into ATP by
ATP synthase, which, in eukaryotes lies across the inner mitochondrial membrane.
What name is given to the folds in the inner mitochondrial membrane that increase
its surface area allowing more space for ATP synthesis and other reactions to occur?
Cristae
The “Pictures Generation” also included Sherrie Levine, who made exact reproductions of the works of earlier photographers. The works of which Depressionera photographer, many of whose best-known pictures appeared in the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, did Levine reproduce in a 1981 series entitled After [BLANK].
Walker Evans
who took migrant mother photo
Dorothea Lange
What style of music syncretised Turkish makam modes with European harmony and is
described as the ‘urban popular music’ of the Greeks? The bouzouki is an instrument
central to this style of music.
Rebetiko
The Quill, also known as Mount Mazinga, is a stratovolcano that appears on the flag of
which island in the Caribbean Netherlands? The fifth largest of the six major Dutch
islands in the Caribbean, it has its capital at Oranjestad, which should not be confused
with the much larger settlement of that name on Aruba.
Sint Eustatius
While demons in kabuki wear brown kumadori make-up and villains wear blue, heroes
wear what colour? In the West, this is the colour most closely associated with kabuki,
in large part because of the extremely elaborate kumadori worn by Kamakura
Gongoro, the powerful hero of Shibaraku.
Red
Built by the Portuguese in 1588, and fortified by the Dutch from the mid-17th century
onward, the Galle Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Bay of Galle in which
country?
Sri Lanka
Which historian, literary theorist, and philosopher described Bakhtin as the “greatest
theoretician of literature in the twentieth century” and wrote the 1981 book Mikhaïl
Bakhtine, le principe dialogique (Mikhail Bakhtin: The Dialogical Principle) in his secondlanguage, French? This key disseminator of Russian formalism also wrote the 1970 book Introduction à la littérature fantastique (The Fantastic).
Tzvetan Todorov
By what name was Saint Petersburg’s Mariinsky Ballet known between 1935 and 1992?
This was the surname of a Bolshevik leader assassinated by Leonid Nikolaev in 1934.
KIROV ballet
The winner of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which French scientist is known for
discovering his namesake reagents which form via the reaction of an alkyl or aryl halide
with magnesium and which are important in the formation of carbon-carbon bonds?
Victor Grignard
Derek Jarman’s 1976 film Sebastiane is particularly noted for its dialogue, which is
entirely in which language?
Latin
Distancia de Rescate (Fever Dream) was the 2014 debut novel of which Argentine
author, now living in Berlin, who won the 2008 Casa de las Americas award for her
short story collection Pájaros en la boca (Mouthful of Birds)?
Samanta Schweblin
It has the most eccentric orbit of any known satellite in our Solar System; what is the
name of the third largest moon of Neptune, the unusual orbit of which suggests that it
may be a captured asteroid?
Nereid
Kings of Norway have traditionally been crowned in which cathedral city, which lies
around 400 km north of Oslo?
Trondheim
In 1978, Janet Parker, a medical photographer at Birmingham University, became the last person to die of what infectious viral disease following a laboratory accident? This disease had killed billions throughout history and was
just about to be eradicated through a WHO vaccination program?
Smallpox
What electronic devices are used to implement Boolean functions such as AND,
OR and XOR?
Logic GATES
Stage magician Max Mephisto is one of the chief protagonists in a series of crime
novels by Elly Griffiths, set mainly in which English coastal city?
Brighton and Hove
Which middle-African country joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 2022,
despite not having been part of the British Empire? It has borders with Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of the Congo.
Gabon
The name of which fashion designer is informally used as rhyming slang for
footwear?
Jimmy Choo
What Yiddish name, literally meaning ‘stuffed fish’, is given to the Ashkenazi dish
of poached minced fish, traditionally served as a starter?
Gefilte Fish
What is the name of the Raye album that took the 2024 Brit award for the British
Album of the Year?
My 21st Century Blues
What five letter name is given to the tables that determine the output of electronic
logic gates, such as AND, OR and XOR gates, given their inputs?
TRUTH tables
Archaeologist Ruth Galloway is the chief protagonist in a series of crime novels
by Elly Griffiths, set mainly in which Eastern English coastal county?
Norfolk
Which west-African country joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 2022, despite
not having been part of the British Empire? It has borders with Ghana, Benin and
Burkina Faso
Togo
Another of Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy’s Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World,
which CE 451 battle in modern day France saw the Romans and Visigoths fight
the Huns, led by Attila? The result is disputed, but it’s considered the last major
battle of the Western Roman Empire.
Chalons (Catalaunian Fields)
In 1993, Holly Hunter won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in
The Piano. The same year, she was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress
for which Sydney Pollack directed thriller, starring Tom Cruise?
The Firm
If a cryptic crossword clue contains words such as declared, outspoken or reportedly, what type of solution probably is being indicated?
Homophones
Who is the silent player-protagonist named in the title of a 2011 computer game
who finds himself in an abandoned office and has to determine what has
happened? His name precedes the word ‘Parable’ in the title.
The STANLEY Parable
What does the letter L stand for in the acronym for the FLAC audio file format? It
reflects the fact that the specification allows for a perfect reconstruction of the original data after compression and decompression.
Lossless
Adrian Newey is rumoured to be moving to Ferrari at sometime during the 2025
Formula One season, having stepped down from his job at which other constructor, for which he has designed the cars that have won seven Constructors’ Championships since 2010?
Red Bull
What Yiddish name is given to egg noodles, used for a number of purposes in Ashkenazi cookery including a sweet version made into a pudding and served as a dessert?
Lokshen
The Baldur’s Gate series of computer games are based on what tabletop game,
first published in 1974 by TSR inc.?
Dungeons and Dragons
One of the minor characters in the ongoing feud between Drake and Kendrick
Lamar, which producer collaborated with Future on the album We Don’t Trust
You, which featured a verse on the track Like That targeting Drake by Lamar?
Metro Boomin (Leland WAYNE)
Containing several of the highest peaks in Africa, the Rwenzori mountains lie on
the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and what country to its
east? The lowest point in this country is over 2,000 feet above sea level at its
border with South Sudan.
Uganda
The period of the lunar month when the surface area of the Moon visible from
Earth increases, leading to a full moon, is known by what word beginning with w?
Waxing
Of Stuart Broad’s 604 Test wickets, eleven were of which Australian captain, who
succeeded Ricky Ponting in the role until his retirement in 2015?
Michael Clarke
The criminals are revealed to be a corrupt miner’s trade union and gang seeking
revenge against the Pinkerton agent who brought them down in which novel, the
last one written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes?
The Valley of Fear
The instant noodle was first developed by Momofuku Ando, the founder of what
food company? Their product Cup Noodles are widely sold in the UK.
Nissin
What actor, who died in 2021, played Lieutenant Al ‘Gee’ Giardello in Homicide:
Life on the Street? His film roles included Parker in Alien and Dr. Kananga in Live and Let Die.
Yaphet KOTTO
Inspired by her viewing of a Peter Paul Rubens portrait of a woman wearing the
article of clothing, a self-portrait of which late eighteenth and early nineteenth
century artist in a Straw Hat is in the collection of the National Gallery?
Élisabeth Louise
VIGEE LE BRUN
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered
what cosmological phenomenon while working at Bell Labs? This phenomenon is
a form of radiation that acts as significant evidence of the Big Bang.
Cosmic microwave
background radiation
One of the minor characters in the ongoing feud between Drake and Kendrick
Lamar, which rapper released the diss track 7 Minute Drill on his mixtape Might Delete Later? Appropriately, he later deleted the track from streaming services and apologised to Lamar.
J Cole (Jermaine Cole)
Shin Ramyun, known for their distinctive red packaging, are a brand of instant
noodles widely sold in the UK by which food company, the largest instant noodles
company in South Korea?
NONGSHIM
Meaning ‘discourse’ in Arabic, what is the name of the group of texts in Islam
containing oral accounts of the life and actions of Muhammad? It is second only
to the Quran in importance for Muslims.
HADITH
The intake stroke, compression stroke, power stroke and exhaust stroke are the
four strokes of what thermodynamic cycle, which powers most modern petrol
engines and is named for the German engineer who first built it?
Otto Cycle
Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker was partially financed by which right-wing
billionaire, who had been publicly outed as gay by the website in 2007?
Peter Thiel
The novelist Beryl Bainbridge was shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times without
winning. Which shortlisted book is a 1974 novel which sees a group of colleagues take a
day trip from London to Windsor, which takes a dark turn when one of them is found dead
in Windsor Great Park?
The Bottle Factory Outing
In which of London’s non-royal parks will you find the Peace Pagoda, a sculpture
completed in 1985 and which is watched over on a daily basis by a Buddhist monk? The
park is also home to a Grade II listed pump house, which is next to its large boating lake.
Battersea Park
Launched in the UK in 1970, what is the two-word rhyming name of the chocolate bar
manufactured by Cadbury that consists of chocolate coated caramel arranged into a holefilled lattice shape?
Curly Wurly
Released in 1991, which early Microsoft Windows game saw players control a winter
athlete as they descended an endless slope, using the arrow keys or the mouse to avoid
obstacles such as trees and dogs? If the player passed 2,000 metres the Abominable
Snowman appeared to chase the player.
SkiFree
Sometimes referred to as ‘white gazpacho’, what Spanish cold soup is made primarily
from almonds and bread mixed with garlic, olive oil, salt and water? It is traditional to
garnish the soup with grapes.
Ajoblanco
A system developed by Otto Eric Deutsch, the D Numbers is a catalogue of the
works of which composer? These works include the String Quintet in C Major,
Erlkönig, and the song cycle Winterreise. [vint-ur-RICE-uh].
Franz Schubert
What name is given to the programme in the suite offered by Google that is their
equivalent of Microsoft Word?
Docs
Named for a Greek Titan, which moon of Saturn has an equatorial ridge that
gives it a walnut-like appearance, and is also notable for its unusual colouring,
with a dark leading hemisphere and a bright trailing hemisphere and poles?
Iapetus
Kathleen Hanna and Kathi Wilcox were two of the founding members of which riot grrrl [girl] band, whose albums include Pussy Whipped from 1993 and Reject All American from 1996? They disbanded shortly after the latter release, but reunited in 2017 as a three-piece, touring but not recording any new material.
Bikini Kill
Released in UK cinemas in 2024, Monster is the latest film by which Japanese director, whose 2018 film Shoplifters won the Palme d’Or?
Hirokazu Kore-eda
Thicker than gazpacho, what Spanish cold soup is made from dense bread and a
large quantity of skinned and pureéd tomatoes mixed with olive oil and garlic? It is
traditional to garnish the soup with shavings of ham or with diced boiled eggs.
SALMOREJO
Also released in 1991, which early Microsoft Windows game saw players control a
mouse who pushed blocks around in order to trap cats? As the player passed more
levels impediments would begin to appear, such as mouse traps and flying balls of
yarn which killed the mouse on contact.
Rodent’s Revenge
What part of a neuron receives electrical information and propagates it throughout
the rest of the neuron?
Dendrite
Another Beryl Bainbridge novel shortlisted for the Booker Prize was which 1989
novel, about the intrigues and rivalries among an acting troupe in 1950s Liverpool, as
they prepare for a Christmas production of Peter Pan? The title of the novel is taken
from a line in Peter Pan.
An Awfully Big Adventure
In which of London’s non-royal parks will you find the Chinese Pagoda, a sculpture
located on one of the islands in the park’s large lake? The park is also home to two
large fragments from the old London Bridge, demolished in 1831, which are used as
alcoved seating areas.
Victoria Park
Another co-chair of the 2024 Met Gala was which Australian actor, who in 2024
played Dementus in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and who will provide the voice of
Optimus Prime in the upcoming film Transformers One?
Chris Hemsworth
Corin Tucker and Carie Brownstein were the founding members of which rock
band, part of the riot grrrl movement? They released albums including Dig Me
Out and The Hot Rock in the 1990s before disbanding in 2006, only to reunite
almost a decade later, with their first new release being 2015’s No Cities to Love
Sleater-Kinney
Name and regnal number required. After the defeat of a Catholic uprising against
her in the North of England, Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated in 1570 by
which Pope?
Pius V
Which jeans brand popularised the cowboy cut?
Wrangler
What word can be a computer font, a tour guide, a variant of chess, or a professional delivery service?
Courier
The Saffir-Simpson wind scale grades the strength of hurricanes from 1 to what number?
5
Which English landscape artist painted Stonehenge at Sunset (1836)?
John Constable
The PVTIEDL is the intelligence agency of which Nordic country?
Finland
What vegetable is added to eggs and onions to make a traditional Spanish omelette?
Potato
The video game Hover Bovver, released in 1983 for the Commodore 64, simulated what mundane activity?
Lawn Mowing
Which Manchester band released the album Second Coming in 1994?
The Stone Roses
Which British crime drama series is set in the fictional town of Causton in south Oxfordshire?
Midsomer Murders
The Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is located in which European country?
Bulgaria (Sofia)
In the tale by Beatrix Potter, what type of animal is Timmy Tiptoes?
Squirrel
George Blagdon Westcott, captain of the HMS Majestic, was killed in which naval battle of 1798?
Battle of the Nile
The islands Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer, off County Galway, are collectively known by what name?
Aran Islands
Which nut is produced by the tree whose Latin name translates to “the royal nut of Jupiter”?
Walnut
Which round domed pastry pie dish is named after a French town twinned with Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire?
Pithivier
Mark Hollis was the lead singer of which 1980s pop band?
Talk Talk
What word completes the title of the 1966 Steve McQueen film The Sand ___?
Pebbles
Which Hermann Hesse novel is also known by the title Magister Ludi?
The Glass Bead Game
The Botola Pro is the top professional football league in which North African country?
Morocco
What colour is a Welsh Poppy?
Yellow
In Bible, the Garden of Gethsemane is at the foot of which mountain?
Mount of Olives
Iconic painting “Venus and Mars” by which Italian artist?
Sandro Botticelli
Ratafia biscuits are flavoured with which essence?
Almond
Which bird species Pandion Haliaetus extinct in UK since 1916 was returned to UK from Scandi in the 1950s and now found England, Scotland, Wales?
Osprey
What was married surname of minor music hall performer Belle Elmore who was victim of 1910 murder?
CRIPPEN
Which pretender to English throne, who claimed to be son of Edward IV was actually Flemish and hanged in 1499?
Perkin Warbeck
Which 1949 Gene Kelly film featured song New York New York?
On the Town
Chopin’s Piano Sonata No 2 in B Flat is known by what popular name?
Funeral March
Which British company produced the Black Shadow, advertised in 1948 as the World’s fastest production motorbike?
Vincent
Two islands separated by Sunda Strait?
Java or Sumatra
Cato Conspiracy of 1820 was plot to kill which PM and his cabinet?
Lord Liverpool
Which Northern brewery produces Taddy Lager, Taddy Porter and Old Brewery Bitter?
Sam Smiths
Which Northern brewery produces the beers XB, Lightfoot and Barista Stout?
Theakstons
The soay is believed to be the only wild breed of which usually domesticated animal to be found in the UK?
Sheep (found on St Kilda)
The Doubly Thankful Villages of Arkholme and Nether Kellet that didn’t lose man either World War, are in which English county?
Lancashire
Sacred Arias and Viaggio Italiano, 2 of the 20 best selling classical albums in the UK in the last 25 years are by which performer?
Andrea Bocelli
Which 2024 ITV drama about prisoner being escorted back to Beijing by plane starred Richard Armitage and Jing Lusi?
Red Eye
Which man served as the Queen’s official dressmaker between 1952 and 1989?
Hardy Amies
Fashion label Ted Baker founded and opened its first store in which British city?
Glasgow
Which 1970’s drama series, based on an Andrea Newman novel, starred Susan Penhaligon and Frank Finlay as a daughter and father with a strained relationship?
A Bouquet of Barbed Wire
Which 2023 BBC series set in Belfast and about problems faced by number of police recruits starring Richard Dormer and Sian Brooke?
Blue Lights
Barracks, Central and Manchester Road are three railway stations in which Northern town?
Burnley
Which 1970s TV series starred Gemma Jones as Louisa Trotter a servant who works her way up to become owner of a high class hotel?
The Duchess of Duke Street
Stroopwafel cookies made up of caramel placed on a hot drink to warm up the filling are from which country?
Netherlands
“Living a Dream” and “Second Nature”, 2 of the top 10 selling classical albums in the UK in last 25 years are by which woman?
Katherine Jenkins
Anti-pruritic drugs are designed to relieve which condition?
Itching
Which group had top 10 hit in 1982 with song Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)?
A Flock of Seagulls
Alphabetically last book of bible?
Zephaniah
WW2, what name given to operation to evacuate children from British cities to avoid bombing?
Operation Pied Piper
What is the name of the owner of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop which is featured on the History series Pawn Stars?
Rick Harrison
The State Great Khural is the unicameral legislature of which Asian country?
Mongolia
Which team defeated the Edmonton Oilers in June 2024 to win their first Stanley Cup championship in their franchise history?
Florida Panthers
What do you call the French sweet wine made from Sémillon, sauvignon blanc, and muscadelle grapes that have been affected by noble rot?
Sauternes
The term turdine pertains to which bird?
Thrush
Which future US president was the American governor-general of the Philippines from 1900 to 1903?
William Howard Taft
French basketball player Zaccharie Risacher was selected with the first overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. He will play with what NBA team?
Atlanta Hawks
Which US singer-songwriter is best known for his 1962 number-one hit record “Hey! Baby”?
Bruce CHANNEL
Founded in 1927 when its founders opened a root beer stand in Washington, D.C., what is the world’s largest hotel chain?
Marriott International
Which khaki-coloured trousers take their name from clothing worn by Philippine soldiers in the Spanish-American war of 1898, which is thought to have been made from material which originated in China?
Chinos
How do we better know the primitive wingless insect named Lepisma Saccharinum for its diet of carbohydrates and starches? It is thought to have evolved more than 400 million years ago and shares its name with the highest adult award in Girlguiding?
Silverfish
Birmingham, Bourton-on-the-Water, the Maryhill district of Glasgow, Leeds, the Paddington area of London, Manchester, Rochdale, and Skipton are the British cities which are included in a list of 37 cities on Wikipedia which are known by which watery nickname?
Venice of the North
Which country is the world’s largest producer of black pepper, accounting for one-third of the world market, the second-largest rice exporter in the world after Thailand, and the world’s second largest exporter of coffee after Brazil?
Vietnam
Which Belgian city was home to the first Stock Exchange in the world opened in 1309, features on the Wikipedia list of 37 countries mentioned earlier, and features in the closing scene of The Monuments Men when a looted Madonna by Michelangelo is returned to the Church of Our Lady?
Bruges
In jewellery, who or what is a “parure”?
Matching set of jewellery
A recent study by Colorado State University established that humans and which other animals are the only ones known to invent arbitrary names for each other, rather than merely copying the sound of the recipient?
Elephants
Techniques of which type of activity might be called Box, Cascade, Columns, Fountain, Mills Mess, Shower, or Windmill?
Juggling
Which is the only English football club to have won the Champions League/European Cup more often than it has won the League title?
Nottingham Forest
Which iconic British food brand, still in production today owned by Unilever, took advantage of the two middle letters of its name to issue a fake farthing to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1898?
BoVRil
Which hit movie of 1963 produced 4 UK number 1 singles, one of which made a reappearance in the 2023 film sequel to Chicken Run, Dawn of the Nugget?
Summer Holiday
Who was Jimmy Anderson playing when got 701st wicket in July 2024?
West Indies test
Which former Green Bay Packers quarterback won his first NFL MVP award in 2011? By the time he was traded away from the Packers in 2023 he had won the award a further three times.
Aaron Rodgers
Section 11 of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act is commonly known by what name, after the Liberal MP for Northampton who proposed it? Both Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing were convicted of “gross indecency” under this
Amendment.
LABOUCHERE Amendment
The American-Canadian composer Lena Raine has worked on many video
games, including Caves & Cliffs and Tricky Trials, which are updates for what
extremely popular Mojang release?
Minecraft
Sandy Passage, the premiere episode of the cable television series
Documentary Now! is a parody of which 1975 Maysles Brothers film? It stars Fred Armisen as Big Vivvy and Bill Hader as Little Vivvy.
Grey Gardens
Which relativistic modification of the Schrödinger equation has negative energy solutions that imply the existence of antimatter? This equation can be expanded to calculate the fine structure of the hydrogen atom
DIRAC Equation
With its capital at Argostoli and sitting north of Zakynthos, what is the largest
of the Ionian islands?
Kefalonia
In the sport of cycling, what word of French origin is universally used to
describe the specialised water bottles that can be held in a cage on the bike’s frame?
Bidon
Ernest Boulton, also known as Stella, was a Victorian crossdresser who was arrested in 1870 alongside which man, also known as Fanny? The pair’s subsequent prosecution only resulted in them being bound over, an outcome
said to be a contributing factor in the creation of the Labouchere Amendment.
Frederick PARK
The failure of the Dirac equation to predict which anomalous energy difference between the 2S one-half and 2P one-half orbitals in a hydrogen atom led to the development of quantum electrodynamics? The discovery of this anomaly earned its namesake American scientist the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics.
LAMB Shift
The titular structure of which 1563 oil on wood panel painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder inspired the skyscraper that looms over the city in the Fritz Lang masterpiece Metropolis? There are two surviving versions of this painting, one in Vienna and one in Rotterdam.
TOWER OF BABEL
Which current Baltimore Ravens quarterback, who succeeded Joe Flacco in
the role, was voted NFL MVP for the 2023-24 season? This was the second time he had won the award, first doing so in 2019.
Lamar JACKSON
Which band released the song that contains the lyrics “A Pizza Hut, a Pizza
Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut”? A classic of 2000s school discos, this song peaked at number two in the UK charts.
Fast Food Rockers
One of Lena Raine’s most acclaimed works is the soundtrack to which
challenging 2018 platform game about a depressed woman named Madeline
attempting to climb the titular mountain?
Celeste
Said by Ridley Scott to be inspirational in the development of the film Gladiator, which 1872 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme depicts a victorious gladiator standing over his defeated foe while Vestal Virgins perform the title gesture?
POLLICE VERSO
How They Threw Rocks is an episode of Documentary Now! that parodies
which 1996 Leon Gast film? It centres on a duel dubbed The Melon vs The Felon in the fictional Welsh sport of Craig Maes
When We Were Kings
Santorini, Naxos and Mykonos are part of which Greek island group that sits
in the Aegean Sea?
Cyclades
In 2012, H&M launched a sellout collaboration with which Belgian fashion designer, who began his career with Jean Paul Gaultier? In 2003, this designer was succeeded by Gaultier as the creative director of Hermes after he stepped down to concentrate his efforts on his own French fashion house, named Maison <this>.</this>
Martin MARGIELA
Which former quarterback became NFL MVP in the 2016 season, the year in which he took the Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl? Although leading the game at 28-3, the Falcons would lose to Tom Brady’s New England Patriots in overtime.
Matt RYAN
“A Service, like a Drum / Kept beating - beating - till I thought / My mind was going numb” is a line from I felt a Funeral, in my Brain by which American poet, better known for Because I could not stop for Death?
Emily Dickinson
In the sport of cycling, what French word is given to the lightweight cotton shoulder bags that are handed to riders in a feed zone during a race? These bags typically contain bidons along with food and energy gels
MUSETTE
The Lamb shift was originally discovered by Willis Lamb and Robert Retherford when they used which ‘effect’ to excite hydrogen atoms with microwave radiation? This is the name given to the splitting of atomic spectral lines by the application of a magnetic field.
ZEEMAN Effect
Babur had reconquered Samarkand after allying with Ismail I, who was the founder and first shah of which Iranian empire, which ruled the country between 1501 and 1736?
SAFAVID
Part of the North Aegean island group, which large Greek island has its capital at Mytilene?
LESBOS
Lena Raine also created the score for the 2020 platform game Sackboy: A Big
Adventure, starring the namesake PlayStation mascot which had earlier
debuted in which 2008 PS3 title?
Little Big Planet
What pathological term follows “Ulcerative” in the name of an inflammatory
bowel disease that can cause serious flare-ups of copious loose and bloody
stools, with the potential for “toxic megacolon” and fatal bowel perforation?
Colitis
Babur was succeeded as Mughal Emperor by which of his sons? This man’s
own son, Akbar, is considered one of the greatest of all Indian emperors.
Humayun
The Documentary Now! episode ‘Juan Likes Chicken & Rice’ parodies which
2011 David Gelb film? David Chang, the founder of Momofuku, cameos as himself in this parody.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
In the sport of cycling, what word of French origin is given to the member of support staff who prepares bidons and distributes musettes during a race? Other responsibilities of this team member include sorting out kit and providing riders with massages.
SOIGNEUR
Which 1889 scandal was named for the London location of a gay brothel frequented by high-ranking officials? Henry Labouchere harshly criticised the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, for his handling of this affair.
CLEVELAND STREET Scandal
In 2008, H&M launched a capsule collection in collaboration with Comme des
Garcons, the avant-garde fashion label associated with which Japanese fashion designer, also the founder of the London high fashion emporium Dover Street Market?
Rei KAWAKUBO
Which Heisman Trophy winner and former Carolina Panthers quarterback
became the NFL MVP in the 2015 season after he led the Panthers to Super
Bowl 50 with a season record of 15-1?
Cam NEWTON
The design of the Bates Motel in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was strongly
influenced by which 1925 Edward Hopper painting, now housed at MoMA, which depicts a Victorian mansion in New York state?
House By The Railroad
Garbolc is the easternmost point of which European country and also the site
of an international tripoint with Romania and Ukraine?
Hungary
What word of French origin is given to the peaked cotton cap that traditional
formed part of a road cyclist’s kit? Although less common since the introduction of cycling helmets, these caps are still worn on the winner’s podium at the end of race stages.
Casquette
What pathological term follows “Necrotizing” in the name of a catastrophic condition, in which destruction of soft tissue is caused by “flesh eating” Group A Streptococcus strains? The same term follows “Plantar” in the painful inflammation of connective tissue in the sole of the foot.
Fascitis
Which Nobel Prize-winning physicist explained the Lamb shift in the hydrogen spectrum in terms of the self-interaction of the electron,
supposedly while on a train ride? Earlier in his career he headed the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos during World War 2.
Hans BETHE
While Toby Fox composed most of its music, Lena Raine also worked on the
soundtrack for which quirky RPG, whose first chapter debuted in 2018? The game’s title is an anagram of Fox’s more famous earlier work.
Deltarune
The iconic scene of the priest silhouetted in front of Regan’s lit room in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist was inspired by which series of three paintings by René Magritte that depict a nocturnal street scene below a paradoxically sunlit sky?
The EMPIRE OF LIGHT
Parker Gail’s Location Is Everything is a Documentary Now! episode that parodies which 1987 Jonathan Demme film? Bill Hader portrays the title character as a caricature of Spalding Gray
Swimming to Cambodia
In response to repressive policies of the time, George Cecil Ives founded which gay secret society in London in 1897? The society took its name from a battle of 338BC which featured the destruction of a troop consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers?
Order of Chaeronea
In the 1994 erotic thriller The Last Seduction, which actress plays Bridget Gregory, a femme fatale who steals money from her husband’s illicit cocaine deal before seducing and subsequently framing another man for her husband’s murder? This actress went on to play Dr Laurel Weaver in Men in Black.
Linda Fiorentino
Which American won gold and broke the record in the 100m butterfly event at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021? He became the fifth American to win five golds at one Olympics.
Caeleb DRESSELL
Which Labour politician defeated Liz Truss in the seat of South West Norfolk
at the 2024 UK General Election?
Terry JERMY
Created in 1970 by German artist Wolf Vostell, the artwork Concrete Traffic looks like a car made from concrete, but is in fact an actual model of a ‘Sedan De Ville’, made by which company, encased within?
Cadillac
In response to Common Sense by Thomas Paine - the work ‘Thoughts on
Government’ rejected the idea of a single legislative body and suggested the
three branch US system which exists today. It was written by which man?
John Adams
Which band released the early 2000s hit ‘World Of Our Own’?
Westlife
What NHL team clawed their way to a Game 7 victory to win the 2024 Stanley Cup?
Florida Panthers
Name of 35 year old Russian goaltender for Florida Panthers who won Stanley Cup in 2024?
Sergei Bobrovsky
May 2024 Iranian president who died in helicopter crash?
Ebrahim Raisi
The countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) have seen an influx of hundreds of thousands of Russian emigrants in recent years, known by what term?
RELOKANTY
What Indian state, the country’s youngest, has become an economic powerhouse thanks to a strong tech industry in Hyderabad?
TELANGANA
Shanghai, China; Krikenes, Norway; and Hamburg, Germany, are all ports on a projected sea route through the Arctic Circle known by what name?
NORTHERN SEA ROUTE or the SILK ROAD ON ICE
The Boston Celtics have won a record-breaking 18th NBA Championship in franchise history. Which Celtics shooting guard won the playoffs MVP award? 2024
JAYLEN BROWN
What US state became the first to require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms? 2024
LOUISIANA
Indian American software engineer Sarabh Netravalkar has become an overnight sensation after carrying Team USA to an upset victory over Pakistan in what sport? 2024
CRICKET
After the MLB acknowledged stats from the Negro Leagues between 1920 and 1948, what baseball player, known as the “Black Babe Ruth”, became the all-time career batting average leader?
JOSH GIBSON
What nepo baby sad girl singer is known for such albums as Good Riddance (2023) and The Secret of Us (2024), and has been an opening act on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour?
Gracie Abrams (daughter of JJ Abrams)
What pop singer’s recent DWI arrest has led to a viral meme exchange about how “this is going to ruin the tour”? 2024
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
The length of what article of clothing has become a generational marker between Millennials and Gen Z?
SOCKS
2024 album by The Last Dinner Party
Prelude to Ecstasy
1965 historical drama film directed by Carol Reed, starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Appointed French Minister of Justice after the fall of the monarchy on August 10 1792, which lawyer and leading figure of the French Revolution became the First President of the Commitee of Public Safety? He was later executed by Guillotine in April 1794 after accusations of Royalist inclinations.
Georges DANTON
The designer of an iconic 1990’s dress for Demi Moore in the film Indecent Proposal, which French former ballet dancer and fashion designer (1948-2022) launched the best-selling fragrance Angel, with its distinctive star shaped bottle, in 1992?
Thierry MUGLER
Making its debut as an Olympic sport at the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Olympic games, which high speed sport involves supine athletes, either alone or in pairs, travelling down an icy track feet first on a flat sled?
LUGE
Produced between 1957 and 1991 and the butt of many jokes, which East German car model, produced by VEB Sachsenring from the recycled cotton material duroplast, gained notoriety for its smoky exhaust and its poor build quality?
Trabant
Which late French ye-ye singer-songwriter, astrologer and fashion muse for Andres Courreges and Yves St Laurent first found success with her 1962 song Tous les garcons et les filles?
Francoise Hardy
Which Icelandic former actress and TV language teacher became the first woman in the world to be democratically elected as a country’s President in 1980, and after 16 years, becoming the longest-serving elected female head of state in history?
Finboggadotir (vigdis)
Nicknamed “The Big Bear”, which American boxer first became World Heavyweight Champion in 1962 after knocking out Floyd Patterson?
Sonny Liston
With its territory spanning the modern Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco and a name meaning “rubber people “ in Nahuatl, which Mesoamerican civilisation was known for its giant head statues and its practice of ritual blood-letting?
Olmec
Playing for the West Indies from 1988 to 2000, which Antiguan right-arm fast bowler took 405 wickets in his career and was one of the 1992 Wisden Cricketers of the Year? Surname A.
Curtly Ambrose
What four letter term links
1) The title of a 2008 novel by Australian author Christos Tsolkas, concerning the repercussions of the title reprimand
2) An informal or derogatory term for make-up?
SLAP (The Slap is the novel)
Sharing its name with the first female Prime Minister of Peru in 2003, which breed of domestic sheep gives its name to a fine, soft wool used for luxury garments?
Merino (Beatriz Merino)
Sharing her family name with American musical brothers Duane and Gregg who played the instrumental “Jessica”, which former professional dancer became the Women ‘s Olympic Discus Champion in 2021 at the Tokyo Games?
ALLMAN (Valerie)
Which crater lake in the Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand is the second largest lake by surface area on the North Island of New Zealand? A city of the same name extends across its Southern shore.
Rotorua
Spinning the threads of Fate at the foot of the sacred tree Yggdrasil, which powerful maidens of Norse mythology were deemed by pre-Christian Scandinavians to visit newborns and shape their destinies?
Norns
What name links
1) A British fashion photographer who photographed King Charles III for a 2024 cover of The Big Issue, highlighting the Coronation Food Project
2) The creator of Scottish policemen Malcolm Fox and John Rebus in a long-running series of crime novels?
Rankin (John Rankin Waddell known as “Rankin” and Ian Rankin)
Attributed to the legendary poet Valmiki, which epic text of Hinduism narrates the life of a Prince of Ayodhya during his 14 year exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana?
Ramayana
Which President of Equatorial Guinea is the second-longest consecutively serving current non-royal leader in the world after Paul Biya in Cameroon?
Teodoro Obiang
Alleging that Mussolini’s fascists had committed fraud in the 1924 Italian Election, which socialist politician and member of the Chamber of Deputies was bundled into a car and assassinated by stabbing on June 10th 1924?
Matteotti (Giacomo)
Produced by oxidative ageing in pre-seasoned oak barrels, which dry, nutty dark coloured Spanish sherry is made from Palomino grapes pressed twice and fortified early to kill off the flor (surface) yeasts? Its name derives from its fragrance.
Oloroso
Created using a narrow stream of sand pouring from the base of a compound pendulum, which French physicist gives his name to “figures” produced by the intersection of two sinusoidal curves with perpendicular axes? His work expanded on that of Nathaniel Bowditch in 1815.
Lissajous (Jules Antoine)
Mentioned by Socrates and Plato as a major influence on the rhetorical style of her partner Pericles, which Miletus-born intellectual opened a renowned school of philosophy and rhetoric in Athens in the 5th centruy BCE? She is a “guest” in the first Wing of Judy Chicago’s feminist work The Dinner Party.
Aspasia
Using a demi grande ronde de jambe to build momentum, which outward ballet turn named for the French for “whipped” is performed 32 times by Odile, the Black Swan in Act 3 of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake?
FOUETTE
Which 2003 young adult fantasy novel by Cornelia Funke marked the start of a namesake trilogy concerning a bookbinder with the ability to bring characters out of books by reading aloud? It was adapted into a 2008 film starring Brendan Fraser and Helen Mirren.
Inkheart
Originally characterised by Francois Jacob, Andre Lwoff and Jacques Monod in E. coli, what name is given to a cluster of genes, under a single promoter’s control, which are co-transcribed to regulate a particular facet of metabolism, e.g the use of lactose as an alternative fuel when glucose is not available?
OPERON
The autoimmune multisystem disease SLE is characterised by a butterfly rash over the cheeks, joint pain, kidney disease and neuropsychiatric manifestations? Possibly relating to the similarity of ulcerating lesions to animal bites, for what does the “L” stand in “SLE”?
Lupus (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus)
Write your answer as a word…….Seventeen, the first K-pop boy band to appear on Glastonbury’s main Pyramid stage in 2024, has how many members in its full ensemble?
Thirteen
Concerning a boy robbed of his grandmother’s savings en-route to Berlin, where he befriends and recruits local children to help him apprehend the thief, which 1929 Eric Kastner children’s novel was first adapted into a film by Billy Wilder in 1931?
Emil and the Detectives
Situated in the Northern and Western Region of Ireland, which Irish County contains Lough Key and the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park?
Roscommon
Which amino acid with a basic side chain is given the single letter amino acid code “R”?
Arginine
Which French philosopher’s 1967 book Of Grammatology originated the idea of deconstruction, and argued for the primacy of writing over speech in language development?
Jacques DERRIDA
Credited with the first recordings of Bach’s Cello Suites, which cello virtuoso refused to play in Spain during the Franco regime and founded a namesake classical music festival in Puerto Rico? On being warned of the dangers of marrying a 20 year old at the age of 80 in 1957, he remarked “I look at it this way; if she dies, she dies”
Pablo CASALS
Which American Civil War battle of April 9th 1865 saw the surrender of General Robert E Lee when surrounded by Unionist forces in Virginia and cut off from the Confederate army of Tennessee?
Appomattox Courthouse
Which Canadian pop-punk singer-songwriter became the subject of an internet conspiracy theory originating in Brazil in 2011, suggesting she had died by suicide after her early success and been replaced by an actress body double, Melissa Vandella?
Avril LAVIGNE
Czech professional tennis player WON WIMBLEDON 2024, HAD WON FRENCH OPEN IN 2021 AND WON LOADS OF DOUBLES GRAND SLAMS
Barbora KREJCIKOVA
Italian tennis player who was losing finalist at both 2024 French Open (to Swiatek) and Wimbledon (to Krejcikova)
Jasmine Paolini
Which daughter of King Baldwin II was Queen of Jerusalem from 1131-53 and regent for her son Baldwin III from 1153 to 1161, until the latter defeated her for control of the throne in a Civil War?
Melisende
One of the “Antwerp Six” fashion designers, which Belgian fashion designer known for her asymmetric tailoring launched her own fashion house in 1985, but resigned from it in 2013 taking up porcelain designs with Serax? Her debut fragrance “A” was launched in 2023
Demeulemeister (Ann)
Which Hungarian-Austrian Composer confounded his audience with a Poem Symphonique for one hundred mechanical metronomes in 1962, during his association with the Fluxus art movment?
Gyorgy Ligeti
Popularising scientific ideas in the early 20th Century, which British physicist, who parodied The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in a description of the 1919 solar eclipse, gives his name to a natural “limit” of the luminosity of stars? He shares his name with an actor who portrayed Jim Hacker in the British sitcom Yes Minister.
Eddington (Arthur and Paul)
Adapted by choreographer Wayne McGregor for the National Ballet of Canada and to be performed by The Royal Ballet in November 2024, which trilogy of post-apocalyptic novels by Margaret Atwood contains the books Oryx and Crake and The Year of The Flood?
Maddaddam
An Olympic Bronze medallist in Judo in 2008, which UFC Mixed Martial Arts Bantamweight Champion from 2012 to 2015 made her WWE wrestling debut in 2018 at WrestleMania 34, winning the Raw Women’s Championship at that year’s SummerSlam?
Ronda ROUSEY
One of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement, which Belgian architect created the Hotel Tassel in Brussels in 1893, influenced by the architectural theorist Eugene Viollet-le-Duc?
Victor HORTA
The singer of Want to Want Me (2015), which American singer-songwriter’s 2009 debut single Whatcha Say sampled and uses as a chorus Imogen Heap’s 2005 single Hide and Seek?
Jason DERULO
Named after a 17th Century English Scientist, the French priest and physicist Edme Mariotte is credited with designing which device with a two word name demonstrating the principles of conservation of momentum and energy?
Newton’s Cradle
Which singer-songwriter and Golden Globe-winning actor in Come September recorded his worldwide hit song Dream Lover in 1959, featuring Neil Sedaka on the piano? He died, aged 37, in 1973.
Bobby DARIN
Used in alternative medicines, what nutrient rich honey bee glandular secretion is fed to larvae in Queen cells, leading to the development of Queen bee morphology?
ROYAL JELLY
Wearing the Yellow Jersey all the way through the 1961 Tour de France, which winner of 8 Grand Tours between 1957 and 1964 has been surpassed by only Eddy Merckx (11) and Bernard Hinault (10).
Jacques ANQUETIL
What four letter instrument links
1) A French psychedelic rock band, formed in 1967 by Australian Daevid Allen, which released Camembert Electrique in 1971
2) “____ Bath”, a fashionable, fully-clothed post-yoga and meditation “immersion” in percussion-generated sound waves
3) Something struck in the company trademark of the J Arthur Rank Organization?
GONG
The first woman to become a FIDE chess Grandmaster in 1978, which Georgian Women’s chess pioneer sued the makers of TV show The Queen’s Gambit for erroneously stating that she was Russian and that she had never competed against men? An out of court settlement was reached with Netflix in 2022.
Gaprindashvili (Nona)
Complete stories is a volume of the collected lifetime works of which Ukrainian-born Brazilain novelist who died in 1977, and whose works include The Passion according to G.H, A Breath of Life, The Hour of the Star and her debut novel Near to the Wild Heart?
Lispector (Clarice)
Speculum of the Other Woman is a 1974 work by which French feminist philosopher and activist (born 1930) who examines phallocentrism in Western philosophy, with her most cited essay critiquing Sigmund Freud’s views on femininity,The Blind Spot of An Old Dream?
Irigaray (Luce)
A DEXA (Dual-Energy-X-Ray Absorptiometry) scan is used to diagnose which common age-related skeletal disorder which predisposes to bone fractures, and for which oestrogen and testosterone loss, alcohol consumption, smoking and low body mass are risk factors?
OSTEOPOROSIS
Sampled in Stormzy’s 2019 release Rainfall, the 2000 single Shackles (Praise You) was originally released by sisters Erica and Tina Campbell under what band name?
Mary Mary
Based on a Tony award-winning 1948 Broadway play in blank verse, which 1969 historical drama film starred Geraldine Bujold as the title character and Richard Burton as King Henry VIII?
Anne of the Thousand Days
Bobby Jones and Lady Frances Derwent investigate the mysterious last words of a man found dying on his local golf course in a 1934 Agatha Christie novel. What were those last words, also the British title of the crime novel?
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
American actor. He is best known for playing Fulton Reed in The Mighty Ducks trilogy (1992–1996), Foggy Nelson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) streaming television series Daredevil (2015–2018), The Defenders (2017), Jessica Jones and Luke Cage (both 2018), and Pollux in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015).
Elden HENSON
American actor. He is known for his role as Turk Barrett in all six of Marvel’s Netflix television series (2015–2018), Hap Jackson in Mudbound (2017), Officer Powell in Stranger Things (2016–present), and Teddy Oglethorpe in Don’t Look Up (2021).
Rob Morgan
Who plays Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the Netflix and DisneyPlus series Daredevil?
Charlie Cox
Who plays Luke Cage in Marvel tv series?
Mike Colter
Who plays Danny Rand/Iron Fist in the Marvel TV series? Also played Loras Tyrell in Game of Thrones.
Finn Jones
Billie Jean King won 20 of her 39 Grand Slam titles at which tennis tournament?
Wimbledon
What word links a biochemist who isolated penicillin, a song by Fleetwood Mac, and a bridge in Budapest?
Chain
Which Dalziel & Pascoe character was played by Colin Buchanan?
Peter Pascoe
The Tacaná volcano is a 4,000-m peak straddling the border between Guatemala and which other Latin American country?
Mexico
Fern Arable is the heroine in which novel by E.B. White?
Charlotte’s Web
Paul Simonon was the bass guitarist with which 1970s punk rock band?
Clash
What device was first used in the UK in 1992 on the westbound A316 over Twickenham Bridge?
Gatso Speed Camera
In June 2024, who beat Laura Muir to become British national champion in 1500m?
Georgia Bell
Which English port city is home to Tinside Lido?
Plymouth
Which English rock band released the album Quadrophenia in 1973?
The Who
Which member of the Fonda family dynasty played a journalist in The Godfather Part III?
Bridget
Which Shakespeare play is notable for the title character’s “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks” monologue?
King Lear
The zampoña or syrinx, a traditional Andean wind instrument crafted from bamboo, is better known by what name?
Panpipes
Which Italian novelist wrote the 1940 psychological thriller The Tartar Steppe?
Dino BUZZATI
Which country was the holiday destination for the Brown family in the 1961 book Paddington Abroad?
France
Which British garden bird has the Latin name Carduelis carduelis?
Goldfinch
St Anne is the capital of which channel island?
Alderney
Shahdag Mountain resort is the largest winter resort in which Asian country?
Azerbaijan
Easy A: The Intolerable Acts were five punitive laws published by the British Parliament following what protest?
Boston Tea Party
Hard B: What nickname is also given to the “5 October Revolution”, which culminated in the removal of Slobodan Milošević as President of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, also known as?
Bulldozer Revolution
Hard D: In the picture, you will see the coat of arms and location in Germany of a city which lies on both the Ruhr and the Rhine rivers. It also has the world’s largest online port. What is its name?
Duisberg
Hard E: In the picture, there is an evolutionary tree showing the hypothetical Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) and how it diverges into the three domains of life: Bacteria and Archaea are two of the domains; what is the name traditionally given to the third domain?
Eukaryote
Easy F: The capital of Equatorial Guinea, Malabo, is on the island of Bioko, But by what name was the island known, prior to the 1970s?
Fernando Po
Hard F: What is the name of the small island in the Shetland archipelago, the British Isles’ most remote inhabited island, mostly famous for not converting to the Gregorian calendar, and being also one day ahead of the Julian calendar since they did not celebrate a leap year in 1900?
Foula
Easy G: By what name is the Mona Lisa also known, particularly in Italian?
La Gioconda
Easy I: In which French Départment, famed for its skiing, would you find Grenoble?
Isere
Hard J: In Hinduism, who is the Goddess of Light, born either from Shiva’s halo or from a spark from Parvati’s forehead, depending on which myth one believes in?
Jyoti
Hard M: Who is the Patroness Saint of Catalonia, an example of a Black Madonna? She is venerated and named after the mountain range near Barcelona in the picture.
Montserrat
Hard N: Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Eta form a square of stars within which constellation in our skies, which has a female-sounding name?
Norma
Hard O: What word is given to broken-off pieces of pottery or stone that have writing carved into them (occasionally used in Classical Athens to vote on whether or not someone should be exiled)?
Ostracon
Easy P: What item of clothing comes from the Aleutian (via Nenets) word for an “animal skin”, though has been used in the English language since 1625?
Parka
Hard P: What name is given to the breathing pore of a slug or land snail?
Pneumostome
Easy Q: What name is given to the party celebrated, especially in Mexico, when a girl reaches the age of 15?
Quinceanera
Easy U: What country has only ever won two Olympic medals in their history: gold for shooting in 2004, and bronze for judo in 2016?
UAE
Hard U: What country won for the first time the Best International Feature Film Oscar (previously known as Best Foreign Language Film) earlier this year? (They have had two previous failed nominations for this category in the 1990s).
United Kingdom
Easy W: What animal name has Buick used for a number of vehicles, in particular ones produced between 1963 and 1970, though they recently revived the name for their EV concept cars?
Wildcat
Hard X: What is the name of the extraterrestrial ruler who, according to Scientology beliefs, brought billions of people to Earth 75 million years ago, then killed them, and their spirits live on and (according to them) adhere themselves to humans?
Xenu
Easy Y: Dieter Mieler and Boris Blank formed what electronic music band in Switzerland in 1979, still going strong to this day? Their most famous song, “Oh Yeah”, has featured in a number of movies, including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Yello
Hard Z: By what name is the main square in Mexico City, the Plaza de la Constitución, most commonly known?
ZOCALO
Which method of mathematical proof involves showing that the statement is true
for the base case, and then showing that if the statement holds for any given
case, it also must hold for the subsequent case?
Induction
Which art deco building in Perivale was the UK headquarters of, and production
factory for, its namesake then Ohio-based company
HOOVER building
Consisting of coils around magnetic cores, which electrical component transfers
electrical energy from one circuit to another and may be used to step-up or stepdown voltages
Transformer
Which TV chef has a Lhasa Apso named Ralph and a Cocker Spaniel named
Cooper? Allegations of his bullying of production staff came to light in 2023
James Martin
Incorporating Latin and jazz rhythms, the 2000s albums De-Loused in the
Comatorium and Frances the Mute were released by which Mexican-American
progressive rock band?
The MARS VOLTA
Suzi Perry was the “skyrunner” in a 2002 revival of which gameshow, which first
aired in 1982? Two contestants were tasked with guiding the skyrunner by
following a series of clues
Treasure Hunt
Debuting in Mortal Kombat 2, which Mortal Kombat character is a former Shaolin
monk who uses his razor-brimmed hat as a weapon?
KUNG LAO
Presenters of which live BBC wildlife programme, broadcast seasonally from late
May each year, have included Bill Oddie, Michaela Strachan, and Chris
Packham
Springwatch
Consisting of a coil and a set of contacts, which electrical component was used in
telegraph systems to amplify signals? They can be “normally closed” or “normally open”
Relay
An art deco building with Egyptian ornamentation, built on the communal garden
area of Mornington Crescent, served as a factory for Carreras, a manufacturer of
what product
Cigarettes
Also known as brute force or complete induction, which method of mathematical
proof involves identifying a complete set of cases to check, and showing that the
statement holds for each of these cases
Exhaustion
Introduced in the first Tekken game, incarnations of which character, a ninja who
wields the Cursed Blade, also appear in the Soulcalibur franchise?
Yoshimitsu
Incorporating folk and classical elements, the 2000s albums Blackwater Park and
Ghost Reveries were released by which Swedish progressive metal band
Opeth
In which country is North Malé Atoll, on which the capital Malé is found, at around
4 degrees north of the equator?
Maldives
The current men’s squad of which continental European football club includes
Lee Kang-in and Ousmane Dembélé? The current women’s squad includes
Grace Geyoro and Mary Earps.
PSG
Airing in 1989 and presented by Annabel Croft, which gameshow saw
contestants tasked with locating a key to unlock their partner’s backpack? The
show’s title described the role of its infra-red-beam-firing villain, who tried to
prevent a successful meeting by jamming the backpacks.
Interceptor
Plants commonly known as the boomer plant and the squirting cucumber are
among species that display which process, where a fruit or seed pod splits along
a built-in line of weakness to release its contents?
Explosive DEHISCENCE
Which sweet wine from the Graves section of Bordeaux is made from Sémillon,
sauvignon blanc, and muscadelle grapes which have become partially “raisined” due to noble rot?
SAUTERNES
What ordinal number can in music denote the interval between the notes C and
E, and in grammar a person such as him, her or it
Third
In an 1860s example of gunboat diplomacy, the Royal Navy seized slave ships
bound for which country in the Christie Affair? This country later abolished
slavery with the Golden Law
Brazil
In one of several controversies at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, which Irish
entrant was ordered to alter Ogham-script text on their body reading “Ceasefire”
and “Freedom for Palestine”?
Bambie Thug
Which family of media players were developed by Microsoft as a competitor to
Apple’s iPod? They never achieved much market share, and were discontinued in 2011.
Zune
Which Melbourne suburb, home to one of the most successful Aussie Rules
Football sides, shares its name with a club that was once the headquarters of the
British Conservative Party?
Carlton
Which Australian performance artist was the subject of a series of paintings by
Lucian Freud? One of his regular performances saw him simulate giving birth to
his partner Nicola Bateman from a concealed harness on his stomach
Leigh BOWERY
The fourth, and most recent edition of which Paradox series of grand strategy
games allows players to control a country in World War II, starting in either 1936
or 1939
Hearts of Iron
In one of several controversies at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, which
Dutch entrant was disqualified and prevented from appearing in the final after
allegedly threatening a female camera operator
Joost KLEIN
In an 1850s example of gunboat diplomacy, the Royal Navy blockaded the Greek
port of Piraeus during the Don Pacifico Affair. Which future Prime Minister
defended the blockade in his five-hour “Civis Romanus Sum” speech?
Lord PALMERSTON
The second section of The Waste Land begins with the words “The Chair she sat
in, like a burnished throne / Glowed on the marble” – a reference to which
Shakespeare play, in which Enobarbus says a similar line?
Anthony and Cleopatra
Which estate in the Sauternes region, now part of the LVMH group, produced the
only sweet wine to be given the rating Premier Cru Supérieur in the 1855 classification of Bordeaux wines? The name of the Château begins with an unusual pair of letters
Chateau d’YQUEM
The fourth, and most recent edition of which Paradox series of grand strategy
games allows players to control a country in the early modern period from the
Battle of Varna to the death of Napoleon?
Europa Universalis
Greta Garbo received her final Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in
which film, her first comedy? Garbo played the title Russian special envoy in this movie, which was marketed with the slogan Garbo Laughs!
Nintochka
Also the subject of a series of paintings by Lucian Freud, the model Henrietta
Moraes may be better known as the subject of a series of posthumous charcoals
by which British artist, her partner? This artist also created a memorial to Oscar
Wilde in Charing Cross
Maggi HAMBLING
Which multimedia encyclopaedia was published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009?
Initially sold on a CD-ROM, it suffered due to competition from Wikipedia
Encarta
Which Melbourne suburb, home to a perennially-underachieving Aussie Rules
football team, shares its name with a Scottish archipelago whose islands include
Hirta, Soay and Boreray?
St Kilda
The first stage of the 2024 Tour de France saw the race visit which country for
the first time? Romain Bardet passed through this country on his way to take a
stage win and the yellow jersey in the town of Rimini
San Marino
Its name beginning with B, what fluffy deep-fried leavened sourdough bread that originates
from the Indian subcontinent is similar to the unleavened puri and eaten with yoghurt, pickles
or with chole [cho-leh] in a traditional dish?
Bhatura
Which English singer-songwriter sang the lead female vocals on the 1993 Meat Loaf single I’d
Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) and backing vocals on other songs from the Bat
Out Of Hell II album? Backing vocalist for Bonnie Tyler and Sam Fender, she released her
only studio album Mrs Loud in 2008.
Lorraine CROSBY
Part of the larger Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which is the oldest and largest national
park in South Africa, located in the northeast of the country? As a game reserve, it is notable
for containing the largest number of mammalian species of any reserve in Africa.
KRUGER
First aired in 2021, which Netflix original series concerns the lives of the mother and teenage
daughter title characters, played by Brianne Howey and Antonia Gentry respectively, as they
move to the fictional Massachusetts town of Wellsbury for a fresh start?
GINNY AND GEORGIA
Situated behind the brainstem, which major area of the hindbrain is crucial for motor
control, amongst other roles in language, attention and mental imagery? While it
does not initiate movement, it is responsible for co-ordination, controlling balance and fine tuning.
CEREBELLUM
Nicknamed the ‘Garden Isle’, which is the fourth-largest island of the Hawaiian
archipelago by both area and population? On this island, where Mark Zuckerburg
infamously purchased land in 2014, tourists might visit Waimea Canyon, the Na Pali
Coast and Hanalei Bay.
KAUAI
Which member of McFly won the UK version of The Masked Singer in 2024
disguised as ‘Piranha’?
Danny JONES
n May 2023, Dani Dyer and Jarrod Bowen had twin daughters. One of them shares
her name with what season of the year, also found in the name of a popular friendly
league in the QLL?
SUMMER
Who released the 2011 Top 20 single The One Who Got Away, whose lyrics
reference “making out in your Mustang to Radiohead”? Other Top 40 hits by this
artist include Unconditionally, Chained To The Rhythm and Thinking Of You.
Katy PERRY
The initialism SEO is used in website marketing terminology to refer to the act of
increasing unpaid traffic. In this context, the ‘SE’ stands for ‘search engine’; what
does the ‘O’ stand for?
Optimisation
With the title track performed by Kenny Loggins, which 1984 musical film whose title
begins with ‘F’, stars Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer and tells the story of a teenager
who moves to a small town where he attempts to overturn the ban on dancing?
Footloose
Which battle of June 1813, fought in the modern-day Basque Country of Spain, saw
the victory of a Wellington-led combined British, Spanish and Portuguese army over
the occupying French forces of Joseph Bonaparte? This battle paved the way for
victory in the larger Peninsular War.
Vitoria
With a range that extends up to C8, the C three octaves above middle C, which
woodwind instrument is the highest pitched instrument in a standard symphony
orchestra?
Piccolo
What mathematical concept quantifies the sensitivity of change of the output of a
function with respect to a change in its input? On a graph of a single variable of a
function at a chosen input value, this concept is depicted by the gradient of the
tangent at that point.
Derivative
First aired in 2019 and consisting of five seasons so far, which Netflix original series
tells the story of Mel Monroe, a midwife and nurse practitioner played by Alexandra
Breckenridge, who moves to the titular location in remote northern California for a fresh start?
Virgin River
Which Roman goddess is associated with agriculture, motherly relationships and
fertility? Her Greek counterpart, upon whom she is based, is Demeter
Ceres
Which American singer performed the lead female vocals on the 1977 Meat Loaf
single Paradise By The Dashboard Light and backing vocals on much of the rest of
the Bat Out of Hell album? She has also provided backing vocals for several songs
by The Clash, and is a former partner of band member Mick Jones.
Ellen FOLEY
What thin pancake, with alternative names beginning with A and H, traditionally made
from fermented rice batter and coconut milk originates from southern India and Sri
Lanka, and is often served topped with an egg?
Appa or appam or
hopper
Which character, a painter, is the male lead role in Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca?
Sung by a tenor, the role’s most famous aria is E lucevan le stelle [ay loo-che-van leh
stel-lay], performed while he is waiting to be executed.
Mario Cavaradossi (Acc either name)
Ben Duckett, Stuart Broad and Strictly Come Dancing alumnus Graeme Swann have
all represented which English county in domestic cricket? The second test of the
2024 West Indies tour of England, held at this county’s ground, saw the renaming of
its Pavilion End to the Stuart Broad End.
Nottinghamshire
Along with Gabby Douglas, who was the other gymnast to feature in the London and
Rio double team gold-winning ‘Fierce Five’ and ‘Final Five’ women’s USA gymnastics
teams? The captain of both teams, she also won four other individual Olympic medals, including a gold in the floor exercise in London
Aly RAISMAN
Also known as the Battle of the Nations, which October 1813 battle fought in modernday Germany, resulted in the victory of the Coalition forces of Austria, Russia, Sweden and Prussia over the French army? The largest battle in Europe until World War I, it saw France lose control of all territory east of the Rhine.
LEIPZIG
Housed in a historic complex of the same name, which museum and art gallery in
Vienna is home to Gustav Klimt’s painting The Kiss?
Belvedere
Who released the 2013 Top 20 hit Here’s To Never Growing Up whose opening line
describes “Singing Radiohead at the top of our lungs”? Other Top 40 hits by this
artist include What The Hell, When You’re Gone and I’m With You.
Avril LAVIGNE
Which area of the hindbrain, a long structure that makes up the lower part of the
brainstem, connects the brain to the spinal cord and controls many autonomous
functions of the body, such as reflexes, heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate?
MEDULLA Oblongata
Nicknamed the ‘Pineapple Island’, what is the sixth largest island of Hawaii by both
area and population? Formerly the site of the world’s largest pineapple plantation,
since 2012, 98% of the island has been owned by Larry Ellison, former CEO of Oracle.
LANAI
Which member of Busted won the UK version of The Masked Singer in 2023
disguised as ‘Rhino’
Charlie SIMPSON
Which 1943 musical film, with a predominantly black cast, is based on the life of the
dancer and actor Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson? Lena Horne appears as Selina and performs
the title song, first sung by Ethel Waters in 1933.
Stormy Weather
Which battle in the War of the Roses took place in Yorkshire in December 1460? It
resulted in a victory for the House of Lancaster and saw the death of Richard, Duke of York.
Wakefield
Which Australian cyclist made 17 appearances at the Tour De France between 1997 and
2013? He was second in the points classification on four occasions and won a gold medal
in the Madison at the 2004 Olympics.
Stuart O’Grady
Which 1966 musical, adapted into a 1969 film starring Shirley MacLaine, is about a
dancer for hire in New York and features the songs Big Spender and If My Friends Could See Me Now?
Sweet Charity
During the ‘Transfermium Wars’ about the naming of superheavy chemical elements,
which name was proposed, unsuccessfully on both occasions, by the US for element 105
and by the Soviets for element 108? The name derived from a German Nobel Laureate
who ultimately had no element named after him.
Hahnium
Which parenting podcast is hosted by Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn? Launched
in 2013, it released a tie-in book in 2017.
Scummy Mummies
In which artistic gymnastics event did Beth Tweddle win a bronze medal at the
2012 Summer Olympics? Nina Derwael won gold at this event at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Uneven bars (accept
asymmetric bars)
Which Danish-Norwegian author was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928, the third woman to be awarded the prize? She is best known for her trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter.
Sigrid Undset
Which country’s flag has a star just below a line, depicting its geographical
location just south of the equator? This island in Micronesia was formerly known
as Pleasant Island.
Nauru
Which notorious music impresario managed music acts including Little Richard
and Black Sabbath? He was known for his violent negotiating methods, including threatening to throw producer Robert Stigwood out of a window.
Don ARDEN
Which German archaeologist began excavating Hisarlik, the present-day site of
Troy, in 1870, potentially confirming the Iliad as a record of historical events?
Heinrich Schliemann
What name is shared by an area in Dublin, home to the Jameson Whiskey
Distillery, and an area in the City of London, which is home to a namesake meat
market and St Bartholomew’s hospital?
Smithfield
Which American cyclist, a domestique for Lance Armstrong, made 17
appearances at the Tour De France between 1996 and 2012? He was retrospectively disqualified from three races after admitting to doping.
George HINCAPIE
Which 1943 film with an all-black cast was Vincente Minnelli’s directorial debut?
An adaptation of a 1940 musical, it starred Ethel Waters and Lena Horne in
leading roles with appearances from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
Cabin in the Sky
Which country in Micronesia has a flag depicting its position just north of the equator with a star? It is spread across two island chains; Ratak and Ralik.
Marshall Islands
Which fashion house launched its fragrance Bang in 2010 with a promotional image of its namesake American designer posing naked on silver foil? In 2020 this fashion house launched a fragrance called Perfect.
Marc Jacobs
Which notorious music impresario managed acts including the Beatles and the
Rolling Stones? Both bands accused him of withholding royalty payments and in1980 he was jailed for making a false statement on his tax return.
Allen KLEIN
In which artistic gymnastic event did Amy Tinkler win a bronze medal at the 2016
Summer Olympics? Jade Carey won gold at this event at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Floor Exercise
Who is the only Italian woman to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, winning
in 1926 for works set in her native Sardinia? Her final novel The Church of
Solitude is a semi-autobiographical depiction of her breast cancer diagnosis.
Grazia DELEDDA
Which parenting podcast is hosted by Giovanna Fletcher? Launched in 2017
Catherine, Princess of Wales, appeared on the podcast in 2020.
Happy Mum, Happy Baby
Which superphylum of bilateral animals includes the chordata, and therefore
humans, hemichordata and echinoderms? Its name means ‘mouth second’,
because in the embryos of these animals, the anus develops before the mouth.
Deuterostomes
In 1956, Althea Gibson was the first African American to win a tennis grand slam
tournament, the French Open ladies’ doubles. Who was her British partner, with
whom she also won that year’s Wimbledon?
Angela Buxton
Which influential Jamaican record producer opened Studio One in Kingston in
1963? He produced the first recordings by the Skatalites, the Maytals and the
Wailers, and also wrote You’re Wondering Now, the theme tune of Death in Paradise.
Clement ‘Coxsone’
Dodd
In viviparous animals, what name is given to the process or period of developing
inside the womb, between conception and birth?
Gestation
In a two-word legal term for the parts of a court judgment that do not refer to the crucial facts or law of the particular case, and so do not set precedent, what Latin word precedes dictum or dicta?
Obiter
Which river is the fourth longest in France, after the Loire, Seine and Rhône? It
rises in the Spanish Pyrenees and flows through Toulouse and Agen to near Bordeaux, where it empties into the Gironde estuary?
Garonne
Which French nobleman and 49th Grandmaster of the Order of Malta led the
resistance against the Ottomans at the Great Siege of Malta in 1565?
Jean de Vallette
In the classic red wine grape blend, sometimes known as GSM, what does the G stand for? These wines are particularly associated with the Rhône valley and Australia.
Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre
Who succeeded Thales as master of the Milesian school of philosophy, being
himself followed by his pupil Anaximenes? An early proponent of the scientific
method, this man was the first to posit that the Earth was free-floating in space.
Anaximander
Which Ukrainian-American film producer and screenwriter is probably best known
for the string of low budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the
1940s, including Cat People and Bedlam, the latter starring Boris Karloff?
Val Lewton
In 1513, Henry VIII invaded France and defeated a French force at which battle
near Calais, usually named after a type of equestrian equipment?
Battle of the SPURS (Guinegate)
Although this is now disputed, most other bilateral animals, including arthropods,
molluscs, and the various phyla of worms, have been considered to belong to which superphylum, in which the mouth develops before the anus?
Protostomes
Which species of wheat, also known as dinkel or hulled wheat, is more nutritional and easily digestible than more common varieties? An important staple from the Bronze Age to medieval times, it is now marketed as a health food.
SPELT
Which racket sport, invented in Mexico in 1969, is usually played by four players on a 10 by 20 metre court, partially surrounded by glass walls?
PADEL
In the classic red wine blend GSM, the S is for Syrah, but what does the M stand
for?
Mourvedre
Which rugby team won the Gallagher Premiership title in June 2024? You may give either the large town where they are based at Franklin’s Gardens, or their religiously-flavoured nickname.
Northampton Saints
Who was the last Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, who was burned at the
stake in Paris in 1314 by order of King Philip IV?
Jacques de Molay
In the two-word legal term for that part of a court judgment that does set precedent and is binding on lower courts, what Latin word precedes decidendi?
Ratio
What type of South American flatbread, made from a maize dough, and stuffed with fillings including meat, cheese and beans, is particularly notable in the cuisines of Venezuela and Columbia?
Arepa
Which river, the fifth longest in France, rises in the Auvergne mountains, and flows west through Limousin and Perigord before joining the Garonne to form the Gironde estuary?
Dordogne
In 1957, Althea Gibson won the ladies’ singles championship at Wimbledon,
becoming the first black player to win any grand slam singles event. Which fellow
American did she beat in the final?
Darlene HARD
Arthur Ashe defeated which Dutch player in the final, 14–12, 5–7, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 to win the men’s singles tennis title at the 1968 U.S. Open.[1] It was his first major singles title, and Ashe became the first African-American man to win a major.
Tom Okker
Australian former professional tennis player. He is one of the few men to have attained a world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles. At the majors, he won seven singles titles, a former record 17 men’s doubles titles, and two mixed doubles titles. Wimbledon 1967, 1970, 1971. US Open 1967, 1973. Australian Open 1973, 1975.
John Newcombe
Australian won 11 Grand Slam singles titles and 8 Pro Majors titles. He completed the Grand Slam (winning all four slams in a calendar year) in singles twice in 1962 and 1969; the latter remains the only time a man has done so in the Open Era.
Rod Laver
Which Jamaican roots reggae band’s first album, officially released in 1976, was
titled Satta Massagana, the Amharic for “He gave praise”? It was originally
recorded in 1969 at Studio One, but Coxsone Dodd refused to release it.
The Abyssinians
Located in the cheek, what major and minor pair of facial muscles help form facial
expressions by elevating and shaping the upper lip? They are attached to a bone
with a similar, but not identical, name.
Zygomaticus
For several years, which British supermarket chain’s adverts ended with shots of
contented shoppers patting their bottoms twice, accompanied by the sound of
coins jingling in their pockets?
ASDA
Generally regarded as having no direct translation in English, what seven-letter
Welsh word is used to describe a sense of longing or homesickness for a place,
time or person to which one can no longer return?
Hiraeth
In 2023, Gary Neville was widely mocked for an appearance on the Diary of a
CEO podcast, in which he seemingly used what two-word term as a synonym for
a holiday?
Mini retirement
Which American indie musician had her first UK hit in 2023 with My Love Mine All
Mine, a song whose popularity was in part driven by TikTok users? Her albums
include Laurel Hell and The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We.
Mitski
In what hit video game from 2019 do players work alongside Kim Kuturagi to investigate a murder in a dystopian city, while also trying to discover the identity of their own character, an amnesiac detective with a self-destructive streak?
Disco Elysium
Which Swiss-American psychologist wrote the 1969 book On Death and Dying, in
which she first outlined her ideas on the five stages of grief?
Elisabeth KUBLER-ROSS
The name of which French-American photographer follows ‘Finding’ in the title of
a 2013 documentary film? Unknown during her lifetime, she became a sensation
following the discovery of thousands of her photographs of Chicago street
scenes, including several self-portraits taken in the city’s storefront windows.
Vivian Maier
In the human head, what thick muscles run between the zygomatic and mandible
bones, and govern the opening and closing of the jaws?
Masseter
The final line of what 1976 Brotherhood of Man song reveals that the group was
singing it to a three-year-old child? This song won that year’s Eurovision Song Contest, as well as spending six weeks at number one in the UK
Save Your Kisses For Me
With a name derived from the Turkish for ‘bruised wheat’, what form of cracked
wheat is often served as part of Middle Eastern dishes such as tagines and
tabbouleh? It is also frequently used as an alternative to rice or couscous.
Bulgur Wheat
Mark Rylance won both a Tony Award and an Olivier Award in 2011 for his role in
what critically acclaimed Jez Butterworth play? Rylance played Johnny ‘Rooster’
Byron, a man battling an array of demons at his Wiltshire caravan on St George’s Day.
Jerusalem
Which American R&B musician had his first UK solo hit in 2023 with Sure Thing,
a song that was first released in 2010 but experienced a revival on TikTok more
than a decade later? His albums include Kaleidoscope Dream and Wildheart.
Miguel
In what hit video game from 2022 do players take control of Andreas Maler, an
artist trying to solve the murder of a baron at an abbey in 16th-century Germany?
Pentiment
Generally regarded as having no direct translation in English, what seven-letter
Portuguese word is used to describe a melancholic longing for an absent person or place that is unreachable, or may never have existed?
Saudade
In 2023, Gordon Ramsay was widely mocked for an appearance on the High
Performance podcast in which he recalled his father’s advice that, if he wanted to
buy a flat, he should do what? Your answer should include a brand name.
Sell his Porsche
In one of the most successful podcasts of 2023, Helen McLaughlin and Karen
Whitehouse try to uncover who was responsible for what specific misdemeanour at their wedding?
Shitting on the Floor
The Zinkopfle, a hill noted for its unusual terroir [te-rwa-ur] producing a metallic tang in wines made from
grapes which grow on it, which adds distinctiveness to the local Riesling [ree-sling] and Gewurztraminer [gewurts-tram-een-er] wines is located in which French growing region?
Alsace
Released on May 24th this year, “Post Human: Next Gen” is the seventh album by which British band, fronted by Oli Sykes?
Bring Me the Horizon
Defending champions, which team won the 2024 Wheelchair Rugby League Challenge Cup? The only time this
club’s men’s team has won the trophy was in 2018. You may answer with either word in this team’s two word name.
Catalan Dragons
The 1994 novel, The Shape of Water was the first to feature which Italian police detective?
Salvo MONTALBANO
Lickers are virus altered humans who appear in which video game series and its screen adaptations?
Resident Evil
Which attraction at Blackpool Pleasure Beach is the the only twin-track roller coaster in Britain, and is now one
of two surviving wooden Möbius Loop roller coasters in the world? It shares its name with one of the most famous horse races in the UK
Grand National
Between 2002 and 2008 Walton Goggins portrayed corrupt detective Shane Vendrell in which TV series created by Kurt Sutter?
The Shield
A ‘battle’ commemorated in songs by Dire Straits and the Manic Street Preachers, which violent confrontation between striking miners and police occurred on on 18 June 1984 at a coking plant in Rotherham?
Battle of ORGREAVE
Based upon the poems of Friedrich Rückert, who composed the 1904 song cycle Kindertotenlieder [kin-dertote-en-lie-der] or Songs on the Death of Children?
Gustav Mahler
Birmingham based hip hop collective The Streets, recently collaborated with which U.S. sportswear brand to produce a range of their ‘Classics’ training shoe? This company takes its name from a type of African antelope.
Reebok
Accessory navicular syndrome is a condition that is caused by an extra bone growing on which specific parts of the human body?
Feet
Which culinary YouTube channel is hosted by Barnsley born Danny Malin, in which he samples and critiques
cuisine to go from a folding table and chair?
Rate My Takeaway
Recorded by the French band Air, the song Playground Love features on the soundtrack of which 1999 high
school movie directed by Sofia Coppola?
The Virgin Suicides
What is the name of the culinary YouTube channel hosted by the hirsute Adam Moran, a competitive eater and personal trainer from Leeds?
Beard Meets Food
Released on May 24th this year, “Clancy” is the seventh album by which American duo, fronted by Tyler Joseph?
Twenty One Pilots
Duane syndrome is a condition caused by underdeveloped muscles, it affects the movement of which specific parts of the human body?
Eye
Defending champions, which team won the 2024 Women’s Rugby League Challenge Cup, this club’s men’s team are 13 time winners of the trophy, their latest being in 2021?
St Helens
The peat bogs Glenmachrie & Gartbreck, which are tree free and therefore perfect terroir [te-rwa-ur] for whisky making, are found on which Scottish island, famous for its heavily peated whiskies?
Islay
Recorded by the French band Air, the song Sexy Boy features on the soundtrack of which 1999 high school movie directed by Gil Junger?
10 Things I Hate About You
The Callanish Standing Stones is a stone circle found on which island of the Outer Hebrides?
Lewis
A ‘battle’ commemorated in songs by Ian Dury, Hawkwind and The Levellers, which violent confrontation between travellers and Wiltshire police occurred 1 June 1985, when officers were instructed to stop people approaching Stonehenge?
Battle of the Beanfield
Between 2012 and 2014 Walton Goggins portrayed transgender sex worker Venus Van Dam in which TV series created by Kurt Sutter?
Sons of Anarchy
The 1987 novel Knots and Crosses was the first to feature which Scottish police detective?
John Rebus
Inventor of the ‘Newport Helicopter’, Benji Webbe is the vocalist of which metal fusion band?
Skindred
The first novel to be published under the Pelican imprint was The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism,
Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism by which author?
George Bernard Shaw
YolanDa Brown, Charles Nove and Ayanna Witter-Johnson all present shows on which UK DAB radio station?
SCALA radio
At the 2023 Golden Joystick Awards, which game, made by Sabotage Studios, won best Indie game? In this
game the player controls the two heroes Valerie and Zale as they fight against an alchemist.
Sea of Stars
Leader of Sinn Fein at 2024 GE UK
Mary Lou McDonald
Leader of DUP at 2024 GE UK
Gavin Robinson
Leader of Plaid Cymru at 2024 GE UK
Rhun ap Iorwerth
Leader of Social Democratic and Labour Party at 2024 GE UK
Colum Eastwood
Leader of Alliance Party at 2024 GE UK
Naomi Long
Leader of Ulster Unionist Party at 2024 GE UK
Doug Beattie
Leader of Traditional Unionist Voice at 2024 GE UK, he is only MP for them (North Antrim).
Jim Allister
In June 2024, Thomas Brodie-Sangster of Love Actually fame married which woman who had previously twice been married to Elon Musk?
Talulah RILEY
Which Japanese New Wave psychological thriller of 1964 follows the last events of Niki Junpei, an amateur entomologist? It also starred Kyoko Kishida as the title character and was the Japanese submission for the best International Film at the 37th Academy Awards ceremony.
Woman in the Dunes
What is the more common name of the shrubs known as Lonicera?
Honeysuckle
In the UK National Lottery draw Thunderball, what is the guaranteed prize for matching all 5 main numbers and the Thunderball?
£500k
In the Ted Lasso series, what is the first name of the owner of AFC Richmond played by Hannah Waddingham? This is also the first name of the character in Cheers who was played by Kirstie Alley.
Rebecca
In 2019 a cover version of which song was released as a single by Norwegian DJ Kygo and the late Whitney
Houston? The song, Houston’s first posthumous top 10 track, peaked at number 2 in the UK charts.
Higher Love
The composition Ordo Virtutum is the oldest surviving morality play and was written around 1151, who was its composer?
Hildegard of Bingen
What is the name of the actress daughter of Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins who in June 2024 married chef Ian
Hock? She had previously been married to footballer Kyle Martino.
Eva AMURRI
In 2019, which George Michael song was featured in the film Last Christmas and later released as a posthumous single? The song peaked at number 10 in the UK charts.
This is How (We Want You
to Get High)
Which transition metal, noted for the bright colours of many of its salts, is the second-densest chemical element after osmium? Until recently, the kilogram was defined in reference to a cylinder made from an alloy of osmium and this element.
Iridium
In which African country is Djamaa el Djazair located? It is the third largest mosque in the world and houses the world’s tallest minaret.
Algeria
Sadly very little of her music survives but which woman wrote the 1625 stage work La liberazione di Ruggiero which is considered to be the first opera written by a woman?
Francesca Caccini
Which fictional school was attended by twins Pat and Isabel O’Sullivan in a series of books by Enid Blyton? The first of these books was titled The Twins at ……..
St Clare’s
The Japanese submission for best International film at the 36th Academy Awards ceremony was what film of 1963 that was based on the novel The Old Capital? It starred Shima Iwashita as both the title characters.
Twin Sisters of Kyoto
At the 2023 Golden Joystick Awards, which game, made by Annapurna Interactive, won the Breakthrough Award? In this puzzle adventure game the player must solve puzzles to unravel the mysteries of the universe via controlling a beatle which hops between worlds.
Cocoon
In the UK National Lottery draw Set for Life, matching all 5 main numbers and the life ball wins a player how much money every month for 30 years?
£10k
Perhaps a bit surprising given that his surname would suggest he was from Colorado and one of his most
famous songs is about Country Roads taking him home to West Virginia, who is the biggest selling musical
artist to be from the state of New Mexico?
John Denver
Who was the third wife of Roman emperor Claudius? She was a very powerful and influential woman and her alleged involvement in a conspiracy against Claudius resulted in her execution.
MESSALINA
As Lake Baikal is located in Asia and not Europe, which Norwegian Lake, which reaches a maximum depth of 514m is the deepest lake in Europe?
Lake Hornindalsvatnet
In the Gladiators remake, under what name does Jodie Ounsley compete? She is the first ever deaf Gladiator and had previously been the first ever deaf player to play in a Rugby Sevens international match. She walks out to the Ed Sheeran hit “Bad Habits”.
Fury
Which two names precede “Little Kingdom” in the name of a popular children’s TV show?
Ben and Holly
Which market town on the River Eden, now part of Cumbria, was the county town of
the ceremonial county of Westmorland, which was abolished as an administrative
area in 1974?
Appleby
What does the ‘C’ stand for in the acronym WRICEF, used to refer to the various
components and objects in customisation and expansion projects in SAP ERP
(Enterprise Resource Planning)?
Conversions (Workflow, Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Enhancements, and Forms)
What word comes after ‘Daily’ to give the name of a US-based, progressive politics
website? It was created in 2008 by Tina Brown, and CNN presenter John Avlon is a
former editor-in-chief and managing director.
Beast
Which influential US record label, focusing on rock and metal bands, released many
early works from extreme metal artists such as Obituary, Sepultura and Deicide? It
shares its name with that of a Looney Tunes cartoon character.
Roadrunner Records
Which San Francisco post-punk band was led by vocalist Jello Biafra? Its other
core members include East Bay Ray and Klaus Floride, and they released
albums such as Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, Plastic Surgery Disasters and
Bedtime for Democracy.
Dead Kennedys
Which cloud-based communication platform, most known for its use by gamers
and online communities, has a name which suggests a very distinct lack of
effective communication and collaboration?
Discord
What word comes after ‘Daily’ to give the name of a US-based conservative politics
website? It was created in 2015 by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing.
Wire
Which influential Nottingham-based record label, focusing and rock and metal bands,
released early works from extreme metal artists such as Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower
and Carcass? It shares its name with a possible side-effect of listening to such records
Earache Records
Which Graham Greene novel, set in the early part of the American involvement in the
Vietnam war, also concerns a love triangle between a British journalist, a Vietnamese
ex-dancer and a US CIA agent?
The Quiet American
What does the ‘E’ stand for in the acronym WRICEF used to refer to the various
components and objects in customisation and extension projects in SAP ERP
(Enterprise Resource Planning)?
Enhancements (Workflow, Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Enhancements, and Forms)
Which Indian fast bowler was named Player of the Series in the recent T20 World Cup? He took 15 wickets at an average of 8.26 and an economy rate of just 4.17. He is the second Indian player, after Virat Kohli, to receive this award. Unfortunately for batsmen around the world, he has not yet retired from the format.
Jasprit Bumrah
Which market town on the River Lugg, now part of Powys, was the county town of the historic county of Radnorshire, which was abolished as an administrative area in 1974?
Presteigne
Which cloud-based communication platform, most known for its use by creative
businesses and productivity enthusiasts, has a name which suggests a very
distinct lack of discipline and rigour?
Slack
Which Japanese boxer from Kanagawa prefecture in Japan, became the second champion to unify all four major belts in two separate weight divisions, namely the bantamweight in 2022 and the super bantamweight in 2023?
Naoya INOUE
Which UK Overseas Territory gained independence in 1967 as part of a multiisland nation, but seceded in 1980 and returned to its status as an overseas
territory? During its independence, it formed an association with Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Anguilla
What name is given to the person on a film set who is responsible for the assessing, selecting and transporting camera equipment and rigging? They are often assisted in this role by a Best Boy or Best Girl.
Key Grip
Which Washington DC post-punk band was led by vocalist Henry Rollins? The only remaining permanent member is guitarist and songwriter Greg Ginn, and they have released albums such as Damaged, My War and In My Head. Their name relates to a historical anarchist symbol.
Black Flag
What term is used to describe significant investments in prestigious, major
sporting events to improve international perceptions of regimes with poor human
rights records? Qatar and Saudi Arabia are often accused of this.
Sportswashing
Boxer Nicola Adams was part of the first same-sex matchup on Strictly Come
Dancing. With which dancer was she paired in 2020? The duo’s run ended after this
professional tested positive for COVID.
Katya JONES
Actors Kate Hudson and Kevin Hart are associated with which sportswear company,
primarily known for its leggings, which operates a subscription-based service?
Fabletics
Which character kills Carmen in Bizet opera?
Don Jose
What Grade II listed “hall” in Westminster, named after a printer, was the site of an
annual “Women’s Parliament” held by the Women’s Political and Suffrage Union, starting in 1907?
CAXTON Hall
Which horticulturist is known for her garden designs in Surrey houses including her
own at Munstead Wood? She names an award-winning pink rose bred by David
Austin in 1986.
Gertrude JEKYLL
Which WNBA team selected Caitlin Clark first overall in the 2024 WNBA draft?
This Eastern conference team won the 2012 WNBA Final against Minnesota Lynx.
Indiana Fever
Although she did not coin the term ‘mansplaining,’ which journalist and
campaigner wrote the essay Men Explain Things to Me, later included in her book
of the same name?
Rebecca SOLNIT
American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photographic project The Kitchen Table Series. Won Hasselblad Award in 2023.
Carrie Mae Weems
Born 1953 Guyana, British artist and photographer. Her work uses portraiture photography and traditional landscape imagery to explore social constructs such as Britishness or racial difference. She is associated with Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers. She produced a series of photographs of black people in rural landscapes, entitled Pastoral Interludes, Seaside Series (1989), Wordsworth’s Heritage (1992) and Self Evident (1995). Won Hasselblad Award in 2024.
Ingrid Pollard
Japanese high street retailer Uniqlo is currently partnering with which Finnish
design house, known for its patterned prints used in clothing and home goods?
MARIMEKKO
Which artist, known for the albums Pang and Desire, I Want to Turn Into You,
wrote the song I Believe about the hyperpop producer SOPHIE, who died in 2021?
Caroline POLACHEK
Which English goalkeeper for Manchester City had the most clean sheets in the 2023-2024 Women’s Super League season, with a total of 9?
Khiara Keating
Which horticulturist has had over 60 plants named after her or her home Warley
Place, in Essex? Her alleged secret planting of the giant prickly thistle Eryngium giganteum led to this being named Miss <blank> ‘s Ghost.</blank>
Ellen WILLMOTT
What Grade II listed “hall” in Tower Hamlets, founded by Henrietta and Samuel
Barnett, was the home of the international settlement school movement?
TOYNBEE Hall
Comedian Jayde Adams was partnered with which Strictly pro in a same-sex
matchup? They made it to week 5, when they were eliminated in a dance-off with Molly and Carlos.
Karen Hauer
DeAnne Brady founded what home sales-based leggings company, named after
her grandchildren, which ended up being a multilevel marketing scheme? Its rise
and downfall has been the subject of multiple documentaries
Lularoe
Which artist, known for the albums Vroom Vroom and Crash, wrote the song So I
about the hyperpop producer SOPHIE?
Charlie XCX
“Fasten your seatbelts! It’s going to be a bumpy night!” is a quote from what 1950
Bette Davis film about Broadway and the struggle between a diva and a conniving fan?
All About Eve
Another high street chain that frequently partners with luxury design houses is
H&M. In 2011, which designer, known for their bright rococo prints, produced a
collection for the store?
Donatello Versace
Which British digital radio station, owned by News UK, launched in June 2020? Its presenters include Ruth Davidson, Jane Garvey and Fi Glover.
Times Radio
Which WNBA team selected Angel Reese seventh overall in the 2024 WNBA draft? This team beat Phoenix Mercury in the 2021 WNBA final.
Chicago Sky
Which woman founded the Everyday Sexism project in 2012, designed to be a
portal where women could catalogue the instances of sexism they faced on a
daily basis? She has since written seven books about misogyny and sexism, and been a contributor to the Guardian and the Independent.
Laura BATES
In 2018 Frances Arnold won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her work on the
directed evolution on what type of protein which acts as a catalyst for chemical reactions?
ENZYME
Which author is popular in BookTok for her romantic comedies such as People We Meet on Vacation, Book Lovers, and Beach Read?
Emile HENRY
In the second round of the 2024 Wimbledon tennis championships the top two ranked
British men’s players faced each other. Which man, the British number one and world
number 28, lost to Cameron Norrie?
Jack Draper
Which inaugural inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 had a backing
band called The Upsetters? After he briefly left music in the late 1950s they also
worked with Otis Redding.
Little Richard
What profession completes the idiom describing someone who now supports interests they previously opposed: poacher turned <blank>?</blank>
Gamekeeper
In the Street Fighter games, what is the Japanese name of Ryu and Ken’s fireballtype attack, which they say when it is performed? This is also the name of a UK indie band whose two top 20 albums include 2008’s Music for an Accelerated Culture.
Hadouken
First spotted off the coast of Australia in 1991, Migaloo is a rare albino of what genus
of animal, with the scientific name Megaptera?
Humpback Whale
What medical device is a type of tube inserted into a part of the body to keep the
passageway open? These are particularly associated with the heart, and used to
widen obstructed arteries.
Stent
Which cosmetics company owns the brands Lancôme, Garnier, and Maybelline,
and also produces perfumes for Prada?
L’oreal
Created in 2022, which South Korean drama series tells the story of an autistic
lawyer whose excellent recall memory helps her law firm in their various cases?
Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Fought in Greece in 48 BC, what was the decisive battle of Julius Caesar’s civil war? His victory over Pompey’s army led to Pompey fleeing to Egypt where he was assassinated, leaving Caesar to become dictator.
Pharsalus
the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the namesake city in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I.
Plataea
Playing alongside Michael Jordan, who was the only other basketball player to
win all six championships won by the Chicago Bulls? Like Jordan he played in the
1992 Olympic “Dream Team”, and recently his ex-wife started a relationship with Jordan’s son.
Scottie PIPPEN
In the Dragonball series, what is the name of Goku’s signature energy wave attack, which he says when it is performed? This is also the name of the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii, who united the islands in 1782.
Kamehameha
Which 1981 horror film, directed by Sam Raimi, was “reimagined” in 2013 with
Fede Álvarez directing? Bruce Campbell reprised his role from the original in a post-credits cameo.
The Evil Dead
Who created the Night of the Living Dead franchise? The story follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, under assault by reanimated corpses. Although the flesh-eating monsters that appear in the film are referred to as “ghouls”, they are credited with popularizing the modern portrayal of zombies in popular culture.
George Romero
1992 American dark fantasy comedy film directed, co-written, and co-edited by Sam Raimi. The film is the third installment in the Evil Dead film series and the sequel to Evil Dead II (1987). Starring Bruce Campbell and Embeth Davidtz, it follows Ash Williams (Campbell) as he is trapped in the Middle Ages and battles the undead in his quest to return to the present.
Army of Darkness
1981 American independent supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, and Theresa Tilly as five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in the woods, where they find an audio tape that, when played, releases a legion of demons and spirits.
The Evil Dead
1995 American revisionist Western film directed by Sam Raimi, and starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, and Leonardo DiCaprio. The story focuses on “The Lady” (Stone), a gunfighter who rides into the frontier town of Redemption, controlled by John Herod (Hackman). The Lady joins a deadly dueling competition in an attempt to exact revenge for her father’s death.
The Quick and the Dead
1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, The story follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, under assault by reanimated corpses. Although the flesh-eating monsters that appear in the film are referred to as “ghouls”, they are credited with popularizing the modern portrayal of zombies in popular culture.
Night of the Living Dead
American actor and filmmaker. He is known best for his role as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead horror series, beginning with the short movie Within the Woods (1978). He has also featured in many low-budget cult movies such as Crimewave (1985), Maniac Cop (1988), Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989), and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).
Bruce Campbell
What profession completes the idiom describing someone who undertakes a
recreational activity that is similar to what they do as a job: a <blank>’s holiday?</blank>
Busman’s
In the second round of the 2024 Wimbledon tennis championships the top two
ranked British women’s players faced each other. Which woman, the British number one and world number 29, lost to Harriet Dart?
Katie BOULTER
Which inaugural inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 did not, as
a solo artist, meet the criteria of having released their first record 25 years before nomination, but was accepted by counting records he had made with his former band, The Famous Flames? The band themselves were not inducted until 2012.
James BROWN
Who was the head coach of the Chicago Bulls for all six of their championships in the Jordan-Pippen era? After leaving the team he coached the LA Lakers to five more championships making him the most successful head coach of all time.
Phil JACKSON
Fought in Macedonia in 42 BC, what was the decisive battle in the Liberators’ civil
war? The defeat of Caesar’s assassins, Brutus and Cassius, led to Mark Antony,
Octavian, and Lepidus forming a ruling triumvirate.
Battle of PHILIPPI
Which cosmetics company owns the brands Clinique, Bobbi Brown, and Mac,
and also produces perfumes for Tom Ford?
Estee Lauder
Created in 2019, which South Korean drama series tells the story of a businesswoman who is blown off course by a tornado while paragliding and ends
up in North Korea, where she falls in love with the man who finds her?
Crash Landing on You
What medical device is a type of tube inserted into the body, most commonly the arm, to take fluid for samples or deliver fluids to the body?
Cannula
Which Irish novelist wrote the children’s book The Cats of Copenhagen?
James Joyce
Which English pop group had a 1968 UK hit with Sleepy Joe?
Herman’s Hermits
Which novel by Daphne du Maurier, named after a tributary of the Helford River, features the pirate Jean-Benoit Aubrey?
Frenchman’s Creek
Which French fashion house created the fragrance Lady Million?
Rabanne
What dance completes the title of the Anne Enright novel The Forgotten ___?
Waltz
What “D” is the term used in bookmaking where the paper is produced with an irregular edge to make it appear handmade?
Deckle Edge
Which 1980s BBC sitcom starred Karl Howman as a womanising house painter?
Brush Strokes
What surname links a French tennis player and former junior world number one, the composer of Scenes from Prometheus Unbound, and an Arctic explorer who commanded the Hecla?
Parry
(Diane, Hubert, William)
Which 2020 book by Arundhati Roy is subtitled “Fascism, Fiction and Freedom in the Time of the Virus”?
Azadi
Which toxic gas, used as a chemical weapon during World War I, has the formula COCl2?
Phosgene
Which France and Toulouse flanker won 80 international caps and was voted World Rugby Player of the Year in 2011?
Thierry Dusautoir
Famously adapted for a Cornetto commercial, what is the English translation of the Giovanni Capurro song O Sole Mio?
My Sunshine
Named after the original Derby run at Epsom, at which racecourse in County Kildare has the Irish Derby been run since 1866?
The Curragh
Since 2016, the DJ Trevor Nelson has presented a BBC Radio 2 show with what name, that since 2019 has been broadcast from 10pm to midnight, Monday to Thursday? This is the same title as the second single from a Janet Jackson album that was not recorded in the year 1814.
Rhythm Nation
FULL NAME REQUIRED. Which Oscar winning actress has collaborated several times with the independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, appearing in the films Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff and Showing Up? She shares her name with the singer and actress whose only solo single to chart in the UK was 2014’s Say Yes, which featured her former bandmates.
Michelle Williams
Josie Breen, Punch Costello and Gerty MacDowell are some of the minor characters in which novel of 1922? It has the same title as the 1842 Alfred Lord Tennyson poem which begins, “It little profits that an idle king, / By this still hearth, among these barren crags…”
Ulysses
Between the Bars, Angeles and Say Yes are all tracks that appear on what 1997 Elliott Smith Album? They are not the titles of chapters in a work of 1843 by Søren Kierkegaard.
Either/Or
Located in the city of Viña del Mar and named for the English club of the same name, who toured South America in the early twentieth century, the football club Everton de Viña del Mar have won which country’s national title four times?
Chile
Released in 1983 and remixed for their debut album the following year, what was the title of the first single by the Smiths? It has long been speculated, although never confirmed, that Morrissey took the title from that of a 1947 detective novel by Ngaio Marsh in which Roderick Alleyn is tasked with solving a murder that takes place at a high-society treasure hunt party.
Hand in Glove
What is the shared one-word title of the lead single from Laura Marling’s 2007 debut album Alas I Cannot Swim, and the biggest hit for the new-wave band Japan, which reached Number 5 in the UK charts in 1982?
Ghosts
First released in 2003 and inspired by the earlier game FreeReign, what is the name of the open-source game developed in France that allows players to designate land as a commercial, industrial or residential zone as they build a metropolis? You might spot Julius, the narrator of a 2011 Teju Cole novel, wandering around.
Open City
Written in prison under the direct orders of Tsar Nicholas I in order to be granted clemency, what is the title of the 1851 memoir by the anarchist thinker Mikhail Bakunin? It shares its title with a religious work of 1882 by Leo Tolstoy in which he details his struggle with an existential crisis.
Confession
FULL NAME REQUIRED. What footballer who turned to management in the mid 1960s is best remembered for his time as Brian Clough’s assistant at both Derby County and Nottingham Forest, where he won the League with both clubs and two European Cups with the latter? He shares his name with a BBC journalist and filmmaker who has made many documentaries for the corporation, most notably on Al Qaeda and the Northern Ireland Troubles.
Peter Taylor
Published in 2019, what is the title of the book by the Irish academic and broadcaster Emma Dabiri in which she combines memoir with philosophy and anthropology to examine the appropriation and stigmatisation of certain aspects of Black and African physical appearance? The book’s title is the same as that of a 2016 single taken from the Solange album A Seat at the Table. (Note that the book has a different title in the US, but I need the UK one that is the same as the song.)
Don’t Touch My Hair
UB40 and Chrissie Hynde teamed up for 2 UK hit singles, I Got You Babe was one. What was the other?
Breakfast in Bed
After headlining Glastonbury this year, Coldplay took the record for headlining there, but how many times have they headlined? 2024
5
Which Paul Hardcastle hit featured the voices of Bob Hoskins and Laurence Olivier?
Just For Money
What was the name of the pop “supergroup” consisting of Abz Love from Five, Ben Ofoedu from Phats & Small, Dane Bowers from Another Level and Shane Lynch from Boyzone?
Boyz on Block
Sarah Cracknell is the lead singer of which alternative dance group?
St Etienne
Dexy’s Midnight Runners had a hit with Because of You, the theme tune to which 80s BBC comedy series?
Brush Strokes
Dennis Waterman hit the top 3 singing the theme song to Minder. What was the song called?
I Could Be So Good for You
The most successful ever tour by the British and Irish Lions saw which Irish lock captain the side? This 1974 tour of South Africa saw the Lions go undefeated in the test series.
Willie John MCBRIDE
On a Japanese menu, which dish consists of bite-sized pieces of grilled chicken served on bamboo skewers?
Yakitori
What logic gate returns an output of true only if one of the two input values is true? If both input values are true or both are false, this logic gate returns an output of false.
XOR [ex-or]
A favourite of Frank Capra, who starred alongside Gary Cooper in comedies Meet John Doe and Ball of Fire in the 1940s, the latter of which saw her gain a Best Actress Oscar nomination? She went on to host and star in an eponymous anthology drama show for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award.
Barbara Stanwyck
The 1995 album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, sometimes referred to as the Purple Tape, is a hip-hop classic released by
which member of Wu-Tang Clan?
RAEKWON the Chef
Consisting of the then-regions of Gao, Kidal, and Timbuktu, what was the name of the short-lived unrecognised state declared by Tuareg separatists in northern Mali in 2012–13?
Azawad
First opened in 1924, the Chicago Bears have, since 1971, played at which stadium, the oldest in use in the NFL?
SOLDIER Field
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia and which other of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were located in modernday Greece?
Colossus of Rhodes
Patrick Grant and Esme Young are the current judges on which BBC reality competition that first aired in 2013?
Great British SEWING BEE
For what does the initialism ENM stand in the context of relationships in which all partners consent to engage in relationships
with multiple people?
ETHICAL NONMONOGAMY
Preceded by the singles ‘Houdini’, ‘Training Season’ and ‘Illusion’, what is the title of the album released by Dua Lipa in May 2024?
Radical Optimism
Known for her roles in screwball comedies of the 1930s, who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role in My Man Godfrey, starring alongside her first husband William Powell? She died in a plane crash in 1942 aged only 33.
Carole Lombard
On a Japanese menu, which dish consists of small, thinly-sliced raw fish pieces, typically served with soy sauce and wasabi paste? It is
not to be confused with sushi, which includes rice.
Sashimi
What Boolean logic gate returns a true output if both input values are false or if only one of the two input values is true? If both input values are true, this logic gate produces a false output
NAND (Not And)
Which Welsh fly-half was the highest point scorer in the only series to date that has seen the British and Irish Lions win a tour of New Zealand? This series of 1971 saw the Lions win 2-1.
Barry JOHN
First broadcast on RTÉ in 2021 and broadcast by the BBC in the UK, which Irish crime drama stars Aidan Gillen as gangster Frank Kinsella? He is caught up in a gangland war with a rival crime family led by Eamonn Cunningham, played by Ciarán Hinds.
Kin
Which Greek philosopher, a student of Cleanthes, is sometimes called the “second founder of Stoicism” because of his efforts to
systematise the movement? He is perhaps best known today for having allegedly died of laughter after watching a donkey eat his figs
Chrysippus
Food that has been through a bird’s gizzard proceeds into their intestines in a loosely-packed ball known by what name? In
medicine, the same name is used for the administration of a specific amount of a medication, such as fast-acting insulin taken with food.
BOLUS
Even more so than gold or copper, what metal has the highest measurement for ductility in its pure form? Like palladium and
rhodium, it is commonly used in catalytic converters, typically those installed in diesel or hybrid vehicles
Platinum
Sue Gray led the inquiry into ‘Partygate’ after which civil servant recused himself when reports emerged that a party was held in his
office? He has served as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service since 2020.
Simon Case
Preceded by the singles ‘360’, ‘Dutch’, and ‘Girl, so confusing’, what is the title of the album released by Charlie XCX in June 2024?
Brat
In online dating jargon, what word precedes “season” to give the name of the period when people seek short-term relationships so
they have a companion for the colder months only to revert to being single once Spring arrives?
Cuffing
The 1995 album Liquid Swords is a hip-hop classic released by which member of Wu-Tang Clan?
GZA
Consisting of two regions bordering Nigeria, what is the name of the political entity claimed by English-speaking separatists in
the west of Cameroon?
Ambazonia
With an average top speed of 447 kilometres an hour, which car manufacturer’s Agera RS is the world’s fastest production car?
Koenigsegg
Who was known as the father of Greek tragedy? Only seven of his plays are known to have survived; these include The Persians and Prometheus Bound
Aeschylus
What is the name given to the chemical elements with an atomic number greater than 92 but less than 103? Although
technically naturally occurring, their half life dictates that on earth they will only ever exist after being created in laboratories.
Transuranic
Sadly it isn’t true, but a popular internet meme suggests that “Popity Ping” is the Welsh translation of which kitchen appliance?
Microwave
Appointed in 1852 and serving for a little over 2 years, who was the only British Prime Minister to be a member of the Peelite party?
Earl of Aberdeen (George Hamilton-Gordon)
Which Astronaut flew missions aboard both Gemini 3 and 10, two lunar missions in Apollo 10 and 16 and commanded the Space shuttle twice, including its first ever flight? In 1972 he became the 9th person to walk on the moon.
John Young
Winning the US Open Pool Championship in 1994, Which much loved Filipino pool player is nicknamed “The Magician”?
Efran Reyes
Sadly passing away in 2021, what was the name of the actor who became famous playing Gunther in Friends?
James Michael TYLER
“You’re not a man you’re a gland, you’re one big neck with sausage hands” is a lyric from the song “Never Fight a Man With a Perm” by which Bristol based Indie band? The track appeared on the band’s 2018 second album, Joy as an Act of Resistance.
Idles
Founded in 1989 by a former gymnast, which company is one of the leading Chinese sportswear brands? They formerly sponsored Basketball player Shaquille O’Neal and Espanyol football club.
Li Ning
With the top 3 highest grossing Nollywood films to her name, which Nigerian Director was responsible for A Tribe Called Judah, Battle on Buka Street and Omo Ghetto?
Funke Akindele
An early attempt at anti-pirating security, a colour code chart involving a grid of non repeating four colour patterns was first used on which 1984 ZX Spectrum platform game, a sequel to the 1983 game Manic Miner? Anyone could copy the game on cassette but you’d need the colour chart key to be able to access the game
Jet Set Willy
Call Me Kenneth, a lifestyle droid that malfunctioned and became a homicidal megalomaniac was the first
repeat villain of which comic book hero who appears in the comic 200AD?
Judge DREDD
5 times winner of the US Open Pool Championship, which hugely controversial and divisive pool player is nicknamed “The Pearl”?
Earl Strickland
Scottish snooker and pool referee. She established significant milestones for female officials in professional cue sports, beginning in pool, where she officiated at top tournaments such as the WPA World Nine-ball Championship and the Mosconi Cup. She became the first woman to officiate at a professional ranking snooker tournament at the 2002 Welsh Open, and the first woman to referee a ranking tournament final at the 2007 Welsh Open. She is the only woman to have refereed the World Snooker Championship final, which she did twice, in 2009 and 2012.
Michaela Tabb
With multiple Box office smashes to his name, who is regarded as the most successful Bollywood film producer of all time? His films include Baaghi, Kick and Housefull.
Sajid Nadiadwala
What is the longest distance swum in an indoor Olympic Swimming event? It is the same distance as an athletics event which consists of 3 and three quarter laps of the track.
1500M
Which astronaut’s only mission was aboard Apollo 17? A geologist by trade, he was the first non-military person to become
an Astronaut. One of only 12 people to walk on the moon, when he returned to earth he became a noted climate change sceptic and anti-environmentalist. From 1976 to 1982 he served as the Republican Senator for New Mexico
Harrison Schmitt
What name is given to all the chemical elements with an atomic number greater than 103? These are all radioactive elements and are synthetic in nature, only ever existing after being created in laboratories.
Super Heavy elements
Sadly it isn’t true, but a popular internet meme suggests that “Wibly Wobli” is the Welsh translation for which aquatic creature?
Jellyfish
Perhaps angered by Disney’s imminent release of Snow White, which country, the 2nd largest on the Arabian Peninsula, imposed a tax on NOT growing a beard in 1936? In an episode of Friends, Chandler claimed to be moving to this country to escape from Janice.
Yemen
Founded in 1968 and concentrating largely on Badminton equipment, what Taiwanese sports company sponsors the Danish National Badminton team amongst others?
Victor
Lenslok, a security system that involved holding a row of prisms in front of your TV screen to reveal a security code, was first used on which 1985 ZX Spectrum space based trading game? Anyone could copy the game on cassette but you’d need the prisms to be able to access the game itself.
Elite
What word beginning with D is defined as the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle?
Diffraction
Sadly passing away in 2021, What was the name of the actor who became famous playing Stanford in Sex and the City? Do not mistake him for a famous jockey whose name is very similar.
William Garson
Arguably the most successful ever British musician is which session Drummer? He has played on 42 separate British number one singles including Tony Christie’s “Is this the way to Amarillo”, Renée and Renato’s “Save your Love” and “Telstar” by his own band, the Tornados. He was the first choice to be the drummer for Led Zeppelin but found himself “too busy” to take up the offer
Clem Cattini
“Paddle Dyno”, “Double Gaston” and “taking a whipper” are all terms in which Olympic sport?
Sport Climbing
chancellor of exchequer country residence near Burnham Buckinghamshire?
Dorneywood
Which American military leader, who served as Commander General of the US Army from 1841 to 1861, was known by the nickname ‘Old Fuss and Feathers’? As the Whig candidate, he was the runner-up in the 1852 presidential election.
Winfield SCOTT
Featuring in all five series, which UK rap artist plays Sully in the Channel 4 and Netflix drama series Top Boy?
KANO
Known for her research into borderline personality disorder, which American psychotherapist developed dialectical behavioural therapy, which combines Aaron Beck’s cognitive behavioural therapy with mindfulness practices?
Marsha M. LINEHAN
Which Canadian, who plays as a forward for the Portland Thorns, has the record for most international goals scored in
women’s football with 190?
Christine Sinclair
Which torch song from A Little Night Music did Stephen Sondheim write specifically for Glynis Johns? It is sung by Desiree,
who finally is willing to accept Fredrik’s marriage proposals only to find he has moved on and rejected her.
Send in the Clowns
In French cuisine, what name is given to a coarse-grained sausage made from pig intestine? The powerful odour coming from
the colon portion of the sausagemeat is usually difficult for novice eaters to distinguish from that of faeces, but it is prized by gourmands
Andouillette
Which 33-year-old American won the 2024 Elite Women’s World BMX title in South Carolina to add to the titles she’d
won back in 2017 and 2019?
Alise Willoughby
Florence Bravo, Maria Manning and Sarah Bird are among the historical criminals covered in episodes of what podcast, hosted by Lucy Worsley and featuring a rotating cast of historians, barristers and academics?
LADY KILLERS
The smallest national capital in the world by population is which city, the capital of Palau?
Ngerulmud
Which Swedish-born meteorologist gives his name to a type of inertial wave in rotating fluids, also known as planetary waves, that cause undulations in the jet stream?
Carl-Gustaf ROSSBY
Lady Charlotte Guest is known as the first modern publisher to compile which collection of mediaeval prose stories that recount Welsh myths and legends? Pwyll, Rhiannon, and Pryderi all appear in this collection.
MABINOGION
Which American forward, the 2012 FIFA World Player of the Year, is the second highest all-time goal scorer in women’s international football with 184 goals?
Abby WAMBACH
‘On My Own’, a torch song from Les Misérables, is sung by which character? Besotted by Marius, the song lyrics tell of her realisation that he will never see her the way he sees his beloved Cosette
Eponine
The 1964 work Conjoint Family Therapy was a key work by which psychotherapist, who is known as the ‘Mother of Family
Therapy’ for her pioneering work in the field?
Virginia Satir
Winfield Scott proposed which strategy at the start of the American Civil War which emphasised a Union blockade of the Southern ports and included an advance down the Mississippi to divide the South and suppress the Confederacy?
Anaconda Plan
In mediaeval Welsh legend, which poet is referred to as ‘chief of the bards’ with later mythologies claiming that he was a companion
of King Arthur? The ‘Book of [this poet]’ dates to the early 1300s and is considered one of the most famous Middle Welsh manuscripts.
TALIESIN
The surname of which Swedish oceanographer precedes “transport” and “spiral” to give the names of a phenomenon in which surface water moves perpendicular to the wind, and a rotating column of water that forms due to that process and the Coriolis Effect?
Vagn Walfrid EKMAN
Which 33-year-old Frenchman won the 2024 Elite Men’s World BMX title in South Carolina to add to the titles he’d won back in
2011 and 2016?
Joris DAUDET
Comedians Rachel Fairburn and Kiri Pritchard-McLean host what true crime podcast, which focuses on their mutual interest in serial killers and, quote, “stops us from writing to them in prison”?
All Killa No Filla
From Eve to Dawn and The Women’s Room are books written by which radical feminist novelist?
Marilyn French
Used in French and Italian cooking. Black, White, Whitish and Summer are all types of what fruiting bodies, in the fungal genus Tuber?
Truffles
What metric prefix is used to denote that a value is a trillionth (10^-12) of quantity?
Pico
Which geochemical classification of elements, groups chemical elements found within the earth into their preferred host phases? These groups are lithophile (rock-loving), siderophile (iron-loving), chalcophile (sulfide ore-loving or chalcogen-loving), and atmophile (gas-loving).
Goldschmidt Classification
In archery, what type of bow one of the main shapes a bow can take, with limbs that curve away from the archer when unstrung? Stores more energy and delivers energy more efficiently than the equivalent straight-limbed bow, giving a greater amount of energy and speed to the arrow.
Recurve
Australian swimmer. She is the reigning Olympic champion in the women’s 200-metre and 400-metre freestyle, having won both events at the 2020 Summer Olympics and the latter event at the 2024 Summer Olympics and the world record holder in the long course 200-metre freestyle and 400-metre freestyle events.
Ariarne Titmus
Australian cyclist who won female time trial at Tokyo 2024? Won 2022 Commonwealth Gold too. Won 2024 Liège–Bastogne–Liège Femmes.
Grace BROWN
Which Belgian cyclist won TIme Trial at Tokyo 2024? Won Vuelta a Espana in 2022.
Remco Evenepoel
Who won WNBA title 2023 and 2022?
Las Vegas Aces
Over the weekend, Donald Trump survived an apparent assassination attempt during a campaign stop in what city?
BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA
What company will be merging with Paramount in a $8 billion takeover of the classic film studio?
SKYDANCE (founded by David Ellison, son of Larry)
She is the founder of Annapurna Pictures, established in 2011. She produced the films Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Her (2013), American Hustle (2013), and Phantom Thread (2017), all of which have earned her Oscar nominations. Daughter of a billionaire.
Megan Ellison
Manager of mens Spain national team - winner of Euros 2024
Luis de la Fuente
Despite a strong showing in the first half of France’s snap elections, the far-right National Rally party ultimately fell to what left-wing coalition? 2024
NEW POPULAR FRONT
Who is the newly elected president of Iran? 2024
MASOUD PEZESHKIAN (replacing Ebrahim Raisi)
In early July, four scientists emerged from a 378-day stay in what simulated environment in Houston, Texas, part of NASA’s CHAPEA project?
Mars
President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani was re-elected as head of state in what northwest African country?
Mauritania
What Asian country is the world’s largest producer and exporter of mined uranium, causing Russia and China to actively woo this country for its resources?
Kazakhstan
What South American trade bloc, consisting of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recently admitted Bolivia as its newest member?
Mercosur
“Nasty,” a song in which the singer asks “is somebody gonna match my freak?”, is a viral hit by what R&B singer?
Tinashe
Twisters, the blockbuster sequel to the 1996 Twister, is directed by what Oscar-nominated filmmaker? Did 2020 film Minari.
LEE ISAAC CHUNG
What order of animal is used to described men with narrow, pointy faces with toothy smiles and large ears? They are all the rage right now.
Rodent Men
Slang: Points assigned to what four-letter are used as a way to measure one’s coolness? This word describes the general distinctive atmosphere that surrounds a person.
Aura Points
Which guide featured illustrations of Charles and Edeltraud Raymond?
The Joy of Sex (Alex Comfort)
Which bird sings while flying up vertically above its nest?
Skylark
Who is the UK’s first billionaire musician?
Paul McCartney
Which empire was named after an Arabic word for slave?
Mamluk
What type of drink is pét-nat?
Pet Nat (abbreviated from ‘petillant naturel’) is a natural sparkling wine
What New York store has the slogan “18 miles of books”?
Strand Bookstore
Members of what would wear a 1% patch?
Outlaws Motorcycle Clubs
Which capital city is home to the world’s largest bullring?
Mexico City
What links:Minehead, Somerset and Poole Harbour, Dorset?
South West Coast Path
Who did Rupert Murdoch marry in 2024?
Elena Zhukova
What links: Alabama (13); California (20); Colorado (27); Florida (114); Louisiana (57)?
Shared chemical symbols/US state abbreviations (atomic number): Aluminium, Al; Calcium, Ca; Cobalt, Co; Flerovium, Fl; Lanthanum, La.
ONLY CONNECT - four starting words of the Planet of the Apes reboots
Rise, Dawn, War, Kingdom
What links: Fire Over England; Jubilee; Orlando; Shakespeare in Love; The Sea Hawk?
Films featuring Elizabeth I
district and adjacent area of 14,268 square kilometres (5,509 sq mi) in the city of Aveiro, in the Brazilian state of Pará. It is located on the east banks of the Tapajós river roughly 300 kilometres (190 mi) south of the city of Santarém. Deserted and named after American tycoon.
Fordlandia
a former town and a declared contaminated site, 1,420 kilometres (880 mi) north-north-east of Perth, in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The declared contaminated site comprises 50,000 hectares (120,000 acres), making it the “largest contaminated site in the southern hemisphere”. Mining of blue asbestos.
Wittenoom
Surname of the Eric the Eel contender from Equatorial Guinea at 2000 Olympics Sydney
Moussambani
The monk Edward Grim was an eyewitness to whose murder?
Thomas Becket
Who wrote the 1856 essay Silly Novels by Lady Novelists?
George Eliot
Elbrus is the highest peak in what mountain range?
Caucasus
Where is the 1,100-room Palace of the Parliament?
Bucharest
Which football teams contest the Derby of the Lighthouse?
Genoa and Sampdoria
Derby della Mole is between which two Italian football teams? Derby of the Mole.
Juventus and Torino
Derby della Scala (Derby of the Scaligers): Italy’s newest city derby is between which two football teams?
Chievo and Verona
also known as the Marassi from the name of the neighbourhood where it is located, is a multi-use stadium in Genoa, Italy. The home of Genoa C.F.C. and U.C. Sampdoria football clubs, it opened in 1911 and is the oldest stadium still in use for football and other sports in Italy.
Stadio Luigi Ferraris
In 2012, which singer played seven concerts on seven days in seven countries?
Rihanna
Who said his epitaph should be “Here lies Joseph, who failed in everything he undertook”?
Joseph II (Holy Roman Emperor)
capital and largest city of the Republic of Somaliland, a de facto sovereign state in the Horn of Africa
Hargeisa
What links: Laurentian Library; Medici Chapel; Porta Pia; St Peter’s Basilica?
Designed by Michelangelo
What links: Decadent; gullible; hawkish; manhunt; pretentious; world-famous?
Words coined or first usage by Thomas Carlyle
What links: City; Dover Street; Gillespie Road; Gower Street; Post Office?
Renamed London Underground stations: Bank; Green Park; Arsenal; Euston Square; St Paul’s.
What links: Addiewell; Barlinnie; Castle Huntly; Glenochil; Shotts?
Scottish Prisons
What is the UK’s, and Europe’s, largest shopping centre?
Westfield London (Shepherd’s Bush)
Which novel was subtitled A Record of Secret Service?
The Riddle of the Sands (Erskine Childers)
Author and Irish nationalist who was executed on 24 November 1922 by firing squad at the Beggars Bush Barracks in Dublin. Before his execution he shook hands with the firing squad. He obtained a promise from his then 16-year-old son, a future President of Ireland, to seek out and shake the hand of every man who had signed his death sentence.[166] His final words, spoken to the firing squad, were: “Take a step or two forward, lads, it will be easier that way.”
Erskine Childers
Jeannette Charles was whose double?
Queen Elizabeth II
The Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers were disastrously diverted from where?
Aral Sea
Which carriage is named after the son of the god Helios?
Phaeton
What links: Agate; cicero; diamond; minion; pica; point?
Units of measure in typography
What links: Hartland Point, Devon and St Govan’s Head, Pembrokeshire?
Bristol Channel (western limits)
What links: Full Fathom Five; O Mistress Mine; Sigh No More; Who is Sylvia?
Songs in Shakespeare plays: The Tempest; Twelfth Night; Much Ado About Nothing; The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Stuart Maconie instigated the urban myth that the sax solo on Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty had been played by which broadcaster?
Bob Holness
Which port in Wales is the third largest port in the UK in terms of cargo?
Milford Haven
What was the appropriate name of the aeroplane involved in the first powered flight in 1903?
Wright Flyer
The people who own the rather nice Tebay services on the M6 also own which service area on the M5?
Gloucester
Which large country has only one time zone, five and a half hours ahead of GMT?
India
Which English racecourse has an Old Course, a New Course and a CrossCountry course?
Cheltenham
Brand names Dow’s, Warre’s, Taylor’s or Quinta das Carvalhas, what would you be buying drink?
Port
Which Paralympic sport is designed for athletes with a visual impairment
and involves teams trying to throw or roll a ball containing bells into the opponent’s goal?
Goalball
Which former Prime Minister was appointed one of the 65 Companions of Honour in the 2024 Birthday Honours list?
Gordon Brown
What name is given to the section of the A465 between Abergavenny and Neath past Brynmawr, Ebbw Vales. Tredegar, Rhymney and Merthyr Tydfil?
Heads of the Valleys Road
An element in many Welsh place names, what does the word Llan mean?
Church
In which country was Lars Ulrich, drummer with and co-founder of Metallica, born in 1963?
Denmark
Which is the largest port in Scotland, handling 250,000 containers every year?
Grangemouth
What was the appropriate name of the first steam engine to pull a passenger carrying train on a public railway in 1825?
Locomotion No 1
Who created the fictional amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey?
Dorothy L Sayers
In 1999, the first services as you head out of London on the M1 were renamed from Scratchwood to what?
London Gateway
Apart from the Azores, Cape Verde is the only country to be in which time zone relative to GMT?
One Hour Behind
Which British golf complex consists of seven courses, including the Old
Course, The New Course, the Eden Course and the nine hole Balgove Course?
St Andrews
Making up about 28%, which is the second most abundant element in the crust?
Silicon (after Oxygen)
If you were to buy a drink with the brand name Juan Miquel Hidalgo, Jose Maria Quiros Sacaluga or Gonzalez Byass, what would you be buying?
Sherry
Which Paralympic sport is similar to bowls and petanque in that participants try to project their balls from their wheelchairs towards a target ball?
BOCCIA
Which former chart topping singer has been a member of the RadioAuthority and head of UK Music and is now an environmental campaigner trying to stop water companies pumping untreated sewage into British waterways?
Feargal Sharkey
What name is given to the A830 from Fort William to Mallaig via Glenfinnan, Arisaig and Morar?
Road to the Isles
Originally an Antipodean creation, which coffee is basically a cappuccino without the foam or chocolate sprinkle?
Flat White
An element in many Welsh place names, what does the word Caer mean?
STRONGHOLD, FORTRESS or CITADEL (accept anything similar, also accept ROMAN CAMP)
When placed in water, which metallic element scoots around the surface and dissolves to produce an alkaline solution while hydrogen is given off?
Sodium
In her capacity is Chief Cashier of the Bank of England, whose signature appears on all new banknotes?
Sarah JOHN
Which shiny material is produced when warp threads are not interwoven with every weft thread, as normal, but only with every fourth or fifth?
Satin
In the British Library, what is Cotton MS Vitellius A XV, f. 132r?
Only surviving copy of BEOWULF
What duetted with the cellist Beatrice Harrison for 12 years?
Nightingales
NC500 is a route around where?
Scottish North Coast
Which Indian religion was founded in the late 15th century?
Sikhism
What links: Another Brick in the Wall; DDU-DU DDU-DU; Just Like a Pill; The Last Film?
Pink hits: Pink Floyd; Blackpink; Pink; Kissing the Pink
What links: Arne; Bempton Cliffs; Forsinard Flows; Minsmere; Snettisham?
RSPB Reserves
Arne RSPB reserve is a 5.634-square-kilometre (1,392-acre) nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest located in which county? Rare namesake heather, Erica Ciliaris.
Dorset
Bempton Cliffs is a section of precipitous coast at Bempton. It is run by the RSPB as a nature reserve and is known for its breeding seabirds, including northern gannet, Atlantic puffin, razorbill, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake and fulmar. Which county?
East Riding of Yorkshire
Morus bassanus - a seabird, largest of its family
Northern Gannet
Alca torda - North Atlantic colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus Alca of the family Alcidae, the auks - closest living relative to great auk
Razorbill
Uria aalge - large auk - has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.
Guillemot
Rissa tridactyla - a seabird species in the gull family Laridae, English name is derived from its call
Black-legged Kittiwake
Tubenosed seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The family includes two extant species and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Historically on St Kilda. Smelly gave name.
Fulmar
a national nature reserve (NNR) covering much of the area surrounding namesake area in the Highland council area of Scotland. It lies at the heart of the Flow Country, a large, rolling expanse of peatland and wetland area of Caithness and Sutherland that makes up almost 5% of the world’s blanket bog. RSPB site.
Forsinard Flows
a large, rolling expanse of peatland and wetland area of Caithness and Sutherland in the North of Scotland. It is the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe, and covers about 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi). It is an area of deep peat, dotted with bog pools and a very important habitat for wildlife, as well as climate change mitigation.
Flow Country
RSPB Minsmere is a nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Minsmere in which county?
Suffolk
Botaurus stellaris a wading bird in the namesake subfamily within heron family Ardeidae. Name comes from sound of call sounds like a bull.
Bittern
Burhinus oedicnemus, also known as dikkops or thick-knees. Bird.
Stone-Curlew
Circus aeruginosus - two word name for bird - aeruginosus is Latin for “rusty”, first word in European name refers to habitat
Marsh Harrier
Caprimulgus europaeus - a crepuscular and nocturnal bird in the namesake family that breeds across most of Europe and the Palearctic to Mongolia and Northwestern China
Nightjar
Luscinia megarhynchos), is a small passerine bird which is best known for its powerful and beautiful song - used to be known as thrush family but now probable flycatcher
Nightingale
Snettisham RSPB reserve is a nature reserve in the care of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, situated near Snettisham in which county? The nature reserve’s bird lagoons provide a safe habitat for them. It is rare in this county that it is a beach facing West.
Norfolk
Haematopus ostralegus - a wader - has striking black and white plumage, a long straight orange-red bill, red eyes and relatively short dull pink legs
Oystercatcher
Which family of birds comes from where they were thought to congregate when the rains come?
Plover
Calidris canutus - medium-sized shorebird which breeds in tundra and the Arctic Cordillera in the far north of Canada, Europe, and Russia. It is a large member of the Calidris sandpipers
(Red) Knot
The genus name Limosa is from Latin and means “muddy”, from limus, “mud”, referring to its preferred habitat - which bird, large and strongly migratory wader in the family Scolopacidae, which feeds on bristle-worms and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries?
Godwit
Calidris alba - a small wading bird - The name derives from Old English sand-yrðling, “sand-ploughman”
Sanderling
Numenius arquata is a very large wader in the family Scolopacidae - english name comes from the call or for French for “to run”, first recorded in Langland’s Piers Plowman.
Curlew
Calidris alpina is a small wader in the genus Calidris - name comes from dull brown
Dunlin
What is the surname of the Scotland Yard Inspector who appears in more of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories than any other police officer? His first name begins with G but is never revealed in full.
Lestrade
Holmes’ substance abuse in The Sign of Four is curtailed by the welcome arrival of a client. What is the name of this client, the daughter of a missing army captain, and Dr Watson’s future wife? First name or pre-Watson surname acceptable.
Mary Morstan
In the opening to The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual, Watson protests at his flatmate’s idea of interior decoration, feeling strongly that “neither the atmosphere nor the appearance of our room was improved” by Holmes having shot a pattern of bullet-holes into the wall forming what “patriotic” two-letter abbreviation?
VR
It is mentioned in multiple stories that Holmes is the author of a “little monograph” on distinguishing between 140 varieties of what substance, a waste product more ubiquitous in Holmes’ time than ours?
Tobacco ash
What word, forms of which appear 23 times in the Holmes canon, fills the blank in extracts such as “a sudden […] caused me to wake up” and “finally he sprang down with an […] of satisfaction”? This word is used in its older sense meaning a sudden exclamation, as the quizzers giggling at the back well know.
Ejaculation
“You see, but you do not observe,” says Holmes to Watson in A Scandal in Bohemia. To demonstrate the distinction, Holmes asks Watson how many of what item there are at their Baker Street residence? Watson does not know the answer, despite knowing this set of items well. “I know that there are seventeen [BLANK],” continues Holmes, “because I have both seen and observed.”
Steps/Stairs
Years after his apparent death, Holmes returns in The Adventure of the Empty House, much to Watson’s amazement. Later that evening, Holmes apprehends which murderous associate of the late Moriarty? Holmes describes this man as “the second most dangerous man in London”.
Colonel Sebastian MORAN
In The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, Holmes investigates how the titular stolen gemstone came to be found inside what kind of bird? The stone might have been discovered during Christmas dinner by the bird’s owner Henry Baker and his wife, but for his unfortunate loss of the bird.
Goose
In The Adventure of the Priory School, Holmes’ attempt to find a boy abducted from the school is initially hampered by the abductor’s horse having been shod with special shoes, which left footprints resembling those of what other animal?
Cattle
A suspicious death accompanied by “mysterious last words” is a recurring theme in the Holmes canon, as the next three questions show. In The Boscombe Valley Mystery, a murdered Australian’s mumbled last words are described as “some allusion to a rat”. Holmes discovers he was actually referring to which Australian city, now the third largest in the state of Victoria?
Ballarat
Found dying near a Sussex beach, science teacher Fitzroy McPherson tries to warn Holmes with what last words, which give this story its name? Holmes eventually realises McPherson was referring to the world’s largest species of jellyfish, which had stung him.
The Lion’s Mane
The story about the jellyfish is one of two narrated by Holmes himself. The other is The Blanched Soldier, in which the missing title character is discovered to be living in secret isolation in the belief that he is infected with what then-incurable bacterial disease?
Leprosy
Which story is named after the child-like drawings whose unexplained appearance around Mr Hilton Cubitt’s home prompts him to consult Holmes? Holmes correctly reasons that these are cryptograms intended for Cubitt’s wife Elsie and deciphers them.
The Adventure of the DANCING MEN
“I’ve had to do with fifty murderers in my career, but the worst of them never gave me the repulsion which I have for this fellow.” Holmes is describing which serial blackmailer, the title character of the story in which he appears? This character’s surname was changed to “Magnussen” for the BBC series Sherlock.
Charles Augustus MILVERTON
Many stories make teasing references to unpublished cases such as “the Darlington substitution scandal”, which are never revisited. However, in The Adventure of the Naval Treaty, Watson mentions which then-unpublished case which would be written over a decade later? This story concerns the unexpected position of some blood on a rug.
The Adventure of the SECOND STAIN
At the start of A Study in Scarlet, Watson recounts how he was invalided out of the army after being shot during which 1880 battle of the Second Anglo-Afghan War? A statue of a lion in Forbury Gardens, Reading, is named after this battle and commemorates the men of the 66th Berkshire regiment.
Maiwand
a period comedy-drama television series created by Abe Sylvia, based on the 2018 novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel. The series premiered on March 20, 2024, with the first three episodes on Apple TV+. Set in 1969, outsider Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons (Kristen Wiig) strives to attain a place in the high society of Palm Beach, Florida, through the town’s most exclusive country club.
Palm Royale
American comedy-drama television series created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi for FX Productions. It follows the lives of four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma, as they spend their days hanging out and committing crimes to earn enough money to leave their reservation community.
Reservoir Dogs
American historical drama television series created and written by Julian Fellowes for HBO that is set in the United States during the boom years of the 1880s in New York City. Louisa Jacobson (Streep) is Marian Brook, Carrie Coon as Bertha Russell, Morgan Spector as George Russell.
The Gilded Age
Gary Oldman plays which head of Slough House who is slovenly and rude, but has a sharp and devious mind, and retains his abilities as an experienced intelligence officer? Mick Herron’s Slow Horses.
Jackson Lamb
Who presents Late Night on NBC since 2014? Had Fred Armisen and the 8G Band until August 2024.
Seth Meyers
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs on which American network since 2003?
ABC
Who presents The Late Show on CBS since 2015?
Stephen Colbert
Who has presented NBC’s The Tonight Show since 2014?
Jimmy Fallon
The long-running host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central from 1999 to 2015, he returned to the satirical news program in 2024 after Trevor Noah left.
Jon Stewart
American late-night talk and satire television program hosted by comedian John Oliver. The half-hour-long show premiered in the end of April 2014 on HBO and currently premieres simultaneously on the network and Max.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
2024: emmy lead actor comedy for Reservation Dogs as Bear Smallhill?
D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai
American comedy television series created by Matt Hubbard and Alan Yang that premiered on June 24, 2022, on Apple TV+. It follows newly single 45-year-old Molly Wells (Maya Rudolph Emmy nominated), whose divorce from her tech billionaire ex-husband has made her the third-wealthiest woman in the world, as she decides to run the day-to-day of the charitable foundation she forgot she founded, much to its employees’ chagrin.
Loot
Emmy nominated 2024 Hacks as Deborah Vance (Max)
Jean Smart
a thriller television series created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, with Idris Elba starring in the lead role. It premiered on 28 June 2023 on Apple TV+. In January 2024, the series was renewed for a second season. Sam, a talented business negotiator, must use his skills to broker a peaceful end to a hijacking of a seven-hour flight from Dubai to London.
Hijack
2024 Emmy nomination Shōgun as Lord Yoshii Toranaga (FX)
Hiroyuki Sanada
2024 Emmy nomination Shōgun as Toda Mariko (FX)
Anna Sawai
a 2023 American historical romance political thriller television miniseries based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon. Starring Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, it centers on the decades-long romance between two men who first meet during the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s. Matt Bomer as Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller.
Fellow Travellers
Two names needed. American socialite and fashion icon during the 1950s and 1960s, exemplifying the American jet set. Keith was married 3 times; first to American film director Howard Hawks, second to American producer Leland Hayward, and finally to British banker and aristocrat Kenneth Keith. American socialite and fashion icon during the 1950s and 1960s, exemplifying the American jet set. Keith was married 3 times; first to American film director Howard Hawks, second to American producer Leland Hayward, and finally to British banker and aristocrat Kenneth Keith.
Slim Keith
American biographical crime drama television miniseries directed by Andrés Baiz and produced by Eric Newman and Sofía Vergara. It is written by Doug Miro and Ingrid Escajeda. It stars Vergara as a notorious Colombian drug lord.
Griselda
2024 Emmy nomination The Bear as Richard “Richie” Jerimovich (FX)
Ebon Moss-Bachrach
The Bear as Tina Marrero (FX) 2024 emmy nomination
Liza Colon-Zayas
Emmy nomination 2024 Shōgun as Kashigi Yabushige (FX)
Tadanobu Asano
American actor. A son of an actor, he began his acting career with the film The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017), starring his father. His subsequent film credits include The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018), Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). On television, he has played Major Major Major Major in Catch-22 (2019) and starred in Outer Range (2022) and Lessons in Chemistry (2023).
Lewis Pullman
American true crime drama television miniseries developed by Quinn Shephard that is based upon the book of the same name by Rebecca Godfrey. It follows the murder of Reena Virk, as a writer enters the hidden world of the accused killers. Lily Gladstone Emmy nominated for acting as Cam Bentland.
Under the Bridge
American professional boxer and actress. She is a former world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBC female middleweight title in 2016. She has since starred in the mystery series True Detective: Night Country (2024) - Emmy nominated.
Kali Reis
Norwegian professional boxer and former kickboxer. She reigned as the undisputed female welterweight boxing champion from 2014 to 2020, and is the first woman in any weight class to hold the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles simultaneously.
Cecilia Braekhus
Name of the series finale of The Crown which aired on 14 December 2023, nominated for Emmy. Named after a bagpipe lament.
Sleep, Dearie Sleep
American musical comedy television series created by Meredith Scardino that premiered on May 6, 2021, on Peacock. It follows four women who were part of a namesake girl group, which was briefly popular around the year 2000 before fading into one-hit-wonder status.
Girls5eva
American sitcom created by Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider. The story follows two floundering millennial siblings who must grapple with their 13-year-old brother’s overnight fame. The series premiered on Comedy Central on January 24, 2019.
The Other Two
2024 American documentary film directed by Ron Howard, about puppeteer Jim Henson.
It premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, in the Cannes Classics sections on May 18, 2024. It premiered on Disney+ worldwide on May 31, 2024.
Jim Henson Idea Man
Who established Britain’s only foundling hospital?
Thomas CORAM
Which novel is set on the SS Karnak?
Death on the Nile
Which actor failed an audition to join Boyzone?
Colin Farrell
In finance, what is an IBAN?
International bank account number
Which Balkan city is named from a bridge over the Neretva River?
Mostar
What links: Ding; Ge; Guan; Jun; Ru?
Five great kilns of Chinese porcelain
What links: Bergman and Boyer; Charlie Chaplin; McAdams and Ruffalo; Ali, Rhodes and Monáe?
Stars of ____light films
What links: Pee on a bus tyre; plant tree; sign name; watch White Sun of the Desert?
Pre-launch rituals of Russian/ISS cosmonauts
Widely regarded as the successor of Kohei Uchimura, he won two gold medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in all-around and horizontal bar, as well as a silver in team. Gold team medal in Team at 2024 Paris. Won individual all-around, team and horizontal bar gold at 2023 Antwerp WC.
Daiki Hashimoto
He is a double world champion on the pommel horse, having won gold in 2022 and 2023, the first Irish artistic gymnast ever to win world championship gold.
Rhys McClenaghan
Ukrainian born Israeli gymnast who won Gold in 2020 Tokyo floor exercise and also 2023 Antwerp WC.
Artem Dolgopyat
Chinese gymnast who won 2023 Antwerp and 2014 Nanning WC gold and 2020 Tokyo gold on Rings.
Liu Yang
In his first major senior championships, the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which British gymnast won the gold medal in the team all-around, individual all-around, floor exercise and vault, the first English male gymnast to win four gold medals at a single Games? Won vault gold at 2023 Antwerp World Championships.
Jake Jarman
He is the 2022 European all-around and parallel bars champion and the 2019 world champion on the parallel bars. He is the first British gymnast to ever win gold in these events, and the third British world champion (following Beth Tweddle and Max Whitlock).
Joe Fraser
He is the 2022 world champion on floor exercise (the second British world floor champion after Beth Tweddle and the first British male) and the fourth British world champion in the sport of artistic gymnastics (after Tweddle, Max Whitlock, and Joe Fraser).
Giarnni Regini-Moran
Greek artistic gymnast. He is the 2016 Olympic champion, 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, three-time World champion (2015, 2017, 2018) and a nine-time (2011, 2015–18, 2021–24) European medalist on the still rings (seven gold and two bronze). He was named the Greek Male Athlete of the Year, for the years 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Eleftherios Petrounias
French-Algerian artistic gymnast currently representing Algeria in international competition. At the 2023 World Championships, she became the first African gymnast to win a medal at the World Championships, winning silver on the uneven bars.
Kaylia Nemour
How high are the two bars in Uneven Bars in Gymnastics?
250cm and 170cm
Dimensions of the balance beam in womens gymnastics?
125m high, 500cm long, 10cm wide
also known as round-off entry vaults, are a family of vaults performed in artistic gymnastics in which the gymnast does a round-off onto the springboard and a back handspring onto the horse or vaulting table. The gymnast then performs a salto, which may range in difficulty from a simple single tuck to a triple twist layout. Named after Soviet gymnast.
Yurchenko
In Japanese known as a moonsault, which named vault consists of a half turn off the springboard onto the vault table, then a push backwards, usually into a back salto or layout? Named after five time gold medal winning Japanese gymnast who won for team and horizontal bar.
Mitsuo Tsukahara
How high is the horizontal bar or high bar in male gymnastics?
278cm
Which German-French gymnastics educator and nationalist whose writing is credited with the founding of the German gymnastics (Turner) movement invented the parallel bars, rings, high bar, the pommel horse and the vault horse?
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
Individually, she is the 2022 World champion on floor exercise, the second British female and third Briton to win a World title on the apparatus (after Beth Tweddle and Giarnni Regini-Moran) as well as a three-time European champion on the same event (in 2021, 2022 and 2023).
JESSICA GADIROVA
American artistic gymnast who specializes on the pommel horse. He is the 2021 World Champion and a two-time NCAA National Champion on the event. He is a member of the United States men’s national gymnastics team. He represented the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics where he won a bronze medal in the team event.
Stephen Nedoroscik
Which British cyclist won Men’s cross country cycling gold at 2024 Paris?
Tom Pidcock
Filipino artistic gymnast. He is the first Filipino and the first male Southeast Asian gymnast to medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships with his floor exercise bronze medal finish in 2018, and the first-ever gold medal finish for the same criteria in 2019 in the same event. Won 2021 WC Gold in Vault too.
Carlos YULO
Which British sharp shooter won Gold Shooting Men’s trap 2024 Paris?
Nathan Hales
Four countries around Lake Tanganyika?
Tanzania
Burundi
DRC
Zambia
From French for “nape of the neck” which French word refers to a female hairstyle where the hair is pinned in a knot at the back of the head?
Chignon
2024 ghostbusters film has what subtitle?
Frozen Empire
In recent European Athletics Championship, which event was won by Belgian Alexander Doom and British Charlie Dobson won Silver?
Men’s 400m
British track and field athlete who competes as a sprinter. He won the bronze medal in the 100 metres at the 2024 European Athletics Championships.
Romell Glave
Which Norwegian won 1500m and 5000m at 2024 Euro Athletics Championship?
Jakob Ingebritgtsen
English athlete specialising in the 1500 metres and 5000 metres, won 5000m Silver at 2024 Euro Champs behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
George Mills
Greek long jump athlete, who is considered as one of the greatest long jumpers of all time, He won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the gold medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
Miltiadis Tentoglou
Polish hammer thrower. He won the gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, silver medals at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and bronze medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics, 2015, 2017 and 2019 World Championships.
Wojciech Nowicki
Which female British runner won silver in 200m at 2024 Euro Champs?
Daryll Neita
Which female British runner won gold in 800m at 2024 Euro Champs?
Keely Hodgkinson
Which female Irish runner won gold in 1500m at 2024 Euro Champs?
Ciara Mageean
Which female British runner won silver in 1500m at 2024 Euro Champs behind Irish athelete Ciara Mageean?
Georgia Bell
Female Italian runner who won 5000m and 10000m golds at european championships 2024?
Nadia Battocletti
Irish runner who came second in 400m at 2024 Euro Champs?
Rhasidat Adeleke
British athlete who competes in the pole vault event for England and Great Britain. She is the 2024 World Indoor champion. She was also a silver medalist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and took bronze at the 2024 European Athletics Championships. holds the British national record for the women’s pole vault, with a best of 4.92 m.
Molly Caudery
German athlete, the current Olympic champion and 2019/2022 world champion in long jump, European Championship golds in 2018/2024.
Malaika Mihambo
Ukrainian high jumper and women’s high jump world record holder. She was the 2020 Summer Olympics bronze medalist, 2019 and 2022 World Championships silver medalist, 2023 World Championships gold medalist, 2022 World Indoor Championships gold medalist, and 2024 World Indoor Championships silver medalist.
2024 Paris Diamond League got the world record.
Yaroslava MAHUCHIKH
Croatian discus thrower. She is a two-time Olympic (2012 London, 2016 Rio) and world (2013, 2017) champion and a record seven-time European champion (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022, 2024) which no other female athlete achieved.
Sandra ELKASEVIC
Atropine, a drug used to treat low heart rate, is produced from extracts from which plant?
Deadly Nightshade (Belladonna)
Majority of humans are born with how many pairs of ribs?
12 pairs
In lead up to WW2, name of assassinated Federal Chancellor of Austria?
Engelbert Dolfuss
Which Italian dish is a mix of egg yolks, sugar and wine, usually Marsala, beaten over hot water until thick and creamy?
Zabaglione
Which actor and presenter who died in 2020 was the voice of Tex Tucker in the 1960s TV puppet series Four Feather Falls?
Nicholas Parsons
Gogarburn, Gyle Centre, Bankhead and The Shore are stops on the tram network of which British city?
Edinburgh
“East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet” and “A woman is only a woman but a good cigar is a smoke” are quotes from works by which author?
Rudyard Kipling
As evidenced in IKEA stores, jam made from which berry is traditionally eaten with meatballs in Sweden?
Lingonberry
In Corrie, surname of Dev, Sunita, Aadi and Asha?
Alahan
Traditionally, Lancashire play some home cricket fixtures at the ground of which public school named for the Cumbrian town in which it is siutated?
Sedbergh
Which 1915 novel was first in series featuring the same character, the next two being Greenmantle and Mr Standfast?
The 39 Steps
Which singer’s best known song was Year of the Cat which although successful abroad reached only number 31in UK charts in 1977?
Al Stewart
Yorkshire play home First Class cricket fixtures at Headingley and at the North Marine Road ground in which town?
Scarborough
The 2024 Carbuncle Cup for Britain’s worst new building was awarded to a development, which in part replaced the Georgian inspired Futurist Cinema on which famous Liverpool street?
Lime Street
Manifesto by Robert Peel in 1832 which became basis for modern Conservatives was named after which Midlands town?
TAMWORTH Manifesto
Which poison has the scientific name Prussic Acid?
Cyanide
Which 1939 novel was first in a series featuring the same character, the next two being Farewell My Lovely and The High Window?
The Big Sleep
Which creature features in the name of a hairstyle where the hair at the back of the head was combed back towards the sides then a comb used to define a centre parting?
Duck(tail)
Which battle, began 23rd August 1914 was first battle fought by British in WW1?
Mons
Northern Irish swimmer who won 2024 Paris 800m freestyle gold as well as 2024 Doha World Championships Gold in 800m and 1500m freestyle?
Daniel WIFFEN
Which former Green Bay Packers quarterback won his first NFL MVP award in
2011? By the time he was traded away from the Packers in 2023 he had won
the award a further three times.
Aaron RODGERS
Section 11 of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act is commonly known by
what name, after the Liberal MP for Northampton who proposed it? Both
Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing were convicted of “gross indecency” under this Amendment.
LABOUCHERE Amendment
Sandy Passage, the premiere episode of the cable television series
Documentary Now! is a parody of which 1975 Maysles Brothers film? It stars Fred Armisen as Big Vivvy and Bill Hader as Little Vivvy.
Grey Gardens
Which relativistic modification of the Schrödinger equation has negative
energy solutions that imply the existence of antimatter? This equation can be
expanded to calculate the fine structure of the hydrogen atom
DIRAC Equation
With its capital at Argostoli and sitting north of Zakynthos, what is the largest of the Ionian islands?
Kefalonia
In the sport of cycling, what word of French origin is universally used to
describe the specialised water bottles that can be held in a cage on the bike’s frame?
BIDON
Ondeko and sansa-odori are among styles of folk music and dancing that use what
Japanese percussion instruments? There is evidence of these drums being used as
early as the 6th century CE.
taiko
After acquiring the Paganini–Mendelssohn Stradivarius viola, Niccolò Paganini
commissioned Hector Berlioz to compose a solo piece to show off the instrument,
leading to Berlioz’s composition of what work? Inspired by a major work of poetry, this
piece is a ‘symphony with viola obbligato.’
Harold en Italie (or Harold in Italy)
In 2021, an influx of which semi-aquatic rodents caused chaos in Nordelta, an exclusive
gated community in Buenos Aires? These animals are also increasingly moving into
urban parks in Brazil, perhaps due to habitat loss.
Capybara
Which largely unnavigable river rises in a range in Eastern Tibet called T’ang-ku-la? A
130-kilometre section forms the frontier between Myanmar and Thailand, but most of
its 3289-kilometre length is in the Chinese provinces of Tibet and Yunnan.
SALWEEN
In 1550, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V convened a junta, or jury, to discuss the
colonisation of Spain in the Americas, and more specifically the justice of subjugating the
native people. This junta gathered to debate in which Spanish city?
Valladolid
In Zoroastrian dating systems, the abbreviation AY or ZY is used to refer to the year of
the accession of Yazdegerd III as the final ruler of which pre-Islamic Iranian empire?
The first ruler of this empire, Ardashir, had also introduced a calendar beginning from
his accession to the throne.
Sassanian or Sassanid Empire (Neo-Persian)
Proposed in 1888 and passed in 1960, the 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
allowed which group of people to vote in U.S. Presidential elections for the first time?
These inhabitants of the U.S. mainland, who currently number roughly 700,000,
uniquely have no voting representation in the House of Representatives or Senate
Residents of Washington DC
Joseph Haydn spent most of his career working for what family of Hungarian nobility,
mainly as their court musician? Haydn commented that his relative isolation from the
European musical scene meant that he was ‘forced to become original’.
ESTERHAZY
At the Valladolid debates, which Dominican friar argued in favour of the rights of the
native population and against the encomienda system? He stated that the scriptures
did not support war against all heathens and that the advanced indigenous social
structures meant there was no need for European control.
Bartolomé de las CASAS
Originally attributed to Stasinus, which lost poem of the Epic Cycle tells the story of
the events leading up to the Trojan War and the first nine years of the conflict? Comprised of 11 books of verse in dactylic hexameter, its story directly precedes the Iliad.
CYPRIA
French-born Australian world and Olympic champion slalom canoeist. She made her Olympic debut at 18 years of age in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where she won a silver medal in the K1 event. She won a bronze medal in the same event four years later in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and again at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, before finally winning the gold medal in the K1 event in Paris at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She also won gold at the 2020 Olympics in the C1 event, becoming the first Olympic champion in that event.
Jessica FOX
The District of Columbia has never had voting representation in congress despite
consistently being more populated than several states. What is the only U.S. state that
has been less populous than the District of Columbia in every decennial census since
gaining statehood in 1890? Dick and Liz Cheney have both served as this sparsely
populated state’s sole congressperson.
WYOMING
Which ethnic group in Myanmar (Burma) primarily resides in a namesake state in the
southeastern part of the country, where the KNU, a political organisation representing
this people, has been engaged in a long-standing conflict with the Myanmar military? A subgroup of these people, the Padaung, are known for their practice of wearing neck rings.
KAREN
A popular story involving Inanna is her descent into the underworld, which was ruled
by the goddess Ereshkigal, who is sometimes described as Inanna’s sister. Inanna is
stripped of her powers and killed, but is revived by two beings sent by which Sumerian
god of water, the brother of Enlil?
ENKI
Sometimes known as pailas, what Latin American percussion instruments were
developed in Cuba as an alternative to the larger kettledrums or timpani?
Timbales
The chacma species of which genus of monkeys have become increasingly common in
suburban Cape Town, sometimes bringing them into conflict with humans?
Baboons (Papio)
Which river, longest of the five tributaries of the Indus River originates from Lake Rakshastal (Lake La’nga) in Tibet entering India in Himachal Pradesh and continuing through Punjab, eventually merging with the Chenab River in Pakistan? It is crucial for irrigation, supporting agriculture in both India and Pakistan.
SUTLEJ
Enki is often considered the father of which god, the patron deity of the city of Babylon? This god is associated with the planet Jupiter and a dragon-like creature called Mušḫuššu
MARDUK
Sometimes attributed to Arctinus of Miletus, the story of which lost poem of the Epic
Cycle immediately follows the Iliad, and tells of the arrival of Trojan allies, namely
Penthesileia and Memnon? Comprised of five books of verse in dactylic hexameter, it
opens following the death of Hector and ends with the funeral games for Achilles.
Aethiopis
The Maya used a system of calendar rounds that repeated every 52 years. For greater
periods of time they used a system known by what name? This calendar system was
divided into periods called bʼakʼtun, the thirteenth of which ended in December 2012.
LONG COUNT calendar
Svante Arrhenius had many varied scientific contributions. Another namesake is his
equation, which uses which physical quantity to relate the rate constant of a chemical
reaction to temperature? Catalysts work by lowering this quantity, the amount of
energy required to start a chemical reaction
Activation energy
Popularly used in Afro-Cuban music, what name is shared by both the percussion
instrument made from paired, short but thick wooden sticks, and a five-note rhythmic
pattern played on that instrument?
Claves
Recent decades have seen the Australian white species of which subfamily of birds
establish itself in several Australian cities and earn itself the nickname “bin chicken” for
its habit of rummaging in rubbish?
IBIS (Threskiornis)
So-called first generation computers used what sealed glass devices for logic circuitry?
Triodes and pentodes are examples of these devices, which were almost completely
replaced by transistors in the 1960s.
Vacuum Tubes
What scholar opposed Bartolomé de las Casas at the Valladolid debates and argued
that Native Americans were slaves by nature, and should be subjugated? He claimed
that they lacked the capacity for reason and should be forced into Christianisation.
Juan Ginés de la SEPULVEDA
The Rohingya people are a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, primarily concentrated
in which state in the western part of the country? Violence erupted in this state in 2017,
leading to a mass exodus of people fleeing to Bangladesh and other nations.
Rakhine State
Known for using many commas in his long, digressive sentences in works such as 2666,
which Chilean author’s Nocturno de Chile (By Night in Chile) is written without
paragraphs or line breaks?
Roberto Bolaño
Which river gives its name to an endorheic basin in the southern half of the Xinjiang
province that separates the Tibetan plateau from the Tian Shan range? The Taklamakan
desert is located in this basin.
TARIM
The majority of Burmese refugees in India belong to which ethnic group, 90% of whom
are Baptist or Presbyterian? This ethnic group shares its name with a state of Myanmar
that lies to the north of Rakhine state and borders Manipur and Mizoram in India.
Chin
Which Nigerian author employed an unconventional use of commas in his novel The
Palm-Wine Drinkard in order to recreate speech patterns used in the Yoruba oral
tradition?
Amos Tutuola
In contrast to TTL gates, complementary metal-oxide silicon or CMOS gates are usually
based on integrated circuits comprising which other type of transistor, which has
source, gate and drain regions? This type is more common in physical implementations
due to lower power consumption.
Field Effect Transistor (FET)
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge was a prolific patron of music who commissioned works
from composers such as Prokofiev, Britten and Schoenberg. Among the works she
commissioned was the fifth of six string quartets by which composer? The slow
movements of this work are an example of his ‘night music’ style, which he also
employed in his Mikrokosmos
Bela BARTOK
The provenance of what Irish percussion instrument is thought either to stem from
ancient Ireland, according to composer Seán Ó Riada [REE-uh-da], or from the middle
of the 19th century where it developed from the tambourine?
BODHRAN
Svante Arrhenius is also credited with coining which term, used to describe the theory
that life on Earth originated with molecules from outer space?
Panspermia
The Ethiopian calendar is also referred to by what name, that of the liturgical language
of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church?
Ge’ez calendar
Comprised of four books of verse in dactylic hexameter, which lost poem of the Epic
Cycle follows Aethiopis and tells the story of the Trojan Horse, and the Awarding of the
Arms to Odysseus? The work in question was variously attributed by ancient writers to
five different authors, one of whom was Homer.
Little Iliad
Although becoming extinct on the island in the 1960s, the oriental pied species of
which family of birds has become established in Singapore since the 1990s thanks, in
part, to nest boxes?
hornbills
The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar that begins in 622 CE, marking an event in the
life of Muhammad known by what Arabic name?
Hijra (or Hegira)
Digital logic gates based on transistors are the fundamental components of all microprocessor circuits. Transistor-transistor logic (TTL) gates are usually based on integrated circuits comprising what type of transistor, which can be in NPN or PNP configuration, and has emitter, base and collector regions?
BIPOLAR junction transistor (BJT)
Which ethnic group in Myanmar primarily resides in the namesake northernmost state
of the country? The state has been the centre of conflict between the KIA, an armed
group seeking greater autonomy, and the Myanmar military. Members of this ethnic
group also reside in Arunachal Pradesh (India) and Yunnan Province (China).
KACHIN
Before the Valladolid debates, de las Casas had spent years opposing the forced
conversions of native Americans, which led to the papal bull Sublimis Deus being issued
by which Pope? In 1545, this Pope convoked the Council of Trent.
Paul III (or Alessandro Farnese)
In the Babylonian creation myth, the Enūma Eliš, Marduk slays which primordial
goddess of chaos and the sea who is sometimes depicted as a dragon?
Tiamat
Opposition to representation for the District of Columbia is driven by partisanship; the
seat would be seen as a lock for Democrats, as no Republican presidential candidate
has scored more than 10 percent of the D.C. vote since 1988. The presidential election
before that one, ’84, saw Democratic candidate Walter Mondale win in only D.C. and
which Midwestern state, his home state? Politicians Michelle Bachman, Ilhan Omar and
Amy Klobuchar have all represented this state.
Minnesota
The Tarim River used to empty into which large endorheic lake on the eastern fringe
of the Tarim Basin, but it no longer reaches anay further than Taitema Lake? Now
largely dried up, this salt lake is fed by the Shule River from the west, and has been
used as a nuclear testing site.
LOP NUR
Comprised of five books in dactylic hexameter, which lost poem of the Epic Cycle
follows Iliupersis (The Sack of Troy) and precedes the Odyssey? It includes the story of
Agamemnon’s arrival back in Greece and his murder by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
Nostoi
While studying at the École Normale, Simone de Beauvoir earned her certificate in
‘General Philosophy and Logic’ with marks second only to which other Simone? This
French philosopher and mystic wrote the posthumously published La Pesanteur et la
Grâce (Gravity and Grace) and her brother, André, was a mathematician who did major
work on number theory.
Simone Weil [vay]
Igor Stravinsky’s chamber concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” was commissioned by
Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss with the commission brokered by which
musician, who also conducted its premiere? A member of a successful musical family,
she is best remembered as a music teacher, with her many pupils including Aaron
Copland, Philip Glass and Quincy Jones.
Nadia Boulanger
According to the doctrines of Scientology, who was the dictator of the Galactic Confederacy who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a spacecraft before killing them with hydrogen bombs?
Xenu
Literally meaning ‘something enclosed by a fence’, what Arabic name is given to the
114 chapters that make up the Quran?
Surah
Serving as President of Iceland until 1996, which former Artistic Director of the
Reykjavík Theatre Company became the world’s first elected female president in 1980?
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
With a name meaning ‘splendid foundation’ in Quechua and reigning in the 12th or 13th
Century, who was the first king of the Kingdom of Cuzco according to Inca mythology?
Manco Capac
Covering the 545 million years since the end of the Proterozoic, and going back to the
time when diverse hard-shelled animals first appeared, what is the name of the
current eon in the geological timescale?
Phanerozoic
Current era?
Cenozoic
Current period?
Quaternary
Current epoch?
Holocene
Which French personal care company was founded in 1909 by Eugène Schueller, a
member of La Cagoule, a pro-fascist group that supported the Vichy regime? Until it
was sold in 1991, this company’s German headquarters had been located on land
confiscated from a Jewish family during World War II.
L’Oreal
This author was inspired to write his 1979 debut novel after watching a baseball game.
Which man wrote a 2007 memoir that both detailed his passion for marathons and
ultramarathons and discussed his translations of the works of Raymond Carver, one of
which inspired the title of the memoir?
Haruki Murakami
The Last Glacial Period - commonly referred to as the ‘last ice age’ - ended around
11,700 years ago. This marks the end of which geological epoch and the beginning of
the Holocene?
Pleistocene
Upon his death in 1957, Eugène Schueller’s L’Oréal fortune was inherited by his
daughter, who had married a French politician who, in his youth, had also been a
member of La Cagoule. She took her husband’s surname and, upon her own death in
2017, she was the world’s richest woman. What was her name?
Liliane Bettencourt
Which Ancient Greek bronze sculpture, created by Myron in around 450 BCE, exemplifies the Greek ideal of physical beauty and athleticism, capturing an athlete in mid-motion? The original sculpture is lost but its existence is known to us thanks to numerous Roman copies which are often in marble. Please give the sculpture’s oneword Greek name.
Discobolus
Ice ages are predicted to occur with a periodicity of 41,000 years according to which
model developed by the namesake Serbian geophysicist and astronomer who
hypothesized that variations in the Earth’s eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession
combine to result in cyclical variations in climate?
Milankovitch cycles
Lord Byron’s “Manfred: A dramatic poem” was inspired by the same ghost-story
sessions that resulted in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It was adapted to incidental
music in 1852 as Manfred. Dramatisches Gedicht in drei Abtheilungen (Manfred: Dramatic
Poem with Music in Three Parts) and as the Manfred Symphony in 1885. Name either
composer of those musical adaptations.
Robert Schumann or Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The Tang dynasty was briefly interrupted between 690–705 CE when which woman
seized the throne? The widow of Emperor Gaozong, she is generally regarded as the
only woman to rule China in her own right.
Wu Zetian
The hub for Jubba Airways and Daallo Airlines, the international airport that serves
Mogadishu is named after which man? The airport was established in 1928 as Aeroport
di Mogadiscio-Petrella but in 2007 it was renamed following the death of this first
President of Somalia.
Aden Adde
In which novel does a smuggler named Gonzalez bond with Raymond Rambert over
their shared love of football (soccer)? Rambert is a journalist visiting the Algerian city
of Oran in this 1947 novel by a football-obsessed author who had once played in goal
for his local junior team.
La Peste or The Plague (Camus)
What name is given to the short-lived dynasty of which Wu Zetian was the only ruler?
Wu chose this name as she claimed descent from the ancient dynasty of the same
name that ended with the Warring States Period and the rise of the Qin.
Zhou
Created by Jonas Roces, a statue of a grieving, blindfolded woman was installed on
Roxas Boulevard in which capital city’s prominent beachfront in 2017? The statue
memorialised victims of the Japanese army’s World War II practice of forcing young
women and girls into sexual slavery, but local authorities soon removed the statue in
fear of a Japanese backlash, and it has since gone missing.
Manila
The largest dam and reservoir for hydroelectric power production outside of China and
Brazil is the Guri dam, found on the Caroní River in which country?
Venezuela
What name is given to the very brief period of around 1,200 years at the end of the
Pleistocene when temperatures sharply declined in contrast to the steady global
warming that had preceded it? This period is named after an alpine-tundra wildflower
whose fossils are abundant at this time.
Younger DRYAS
Former Soviet/Russian gymnast and two times Olympic Champion, 1980 Moscow Team and Parallel Bars gold. In 1977 he performed for the first time a gymnastics element on the Horizontal Bar, which was later named after him and became one of the most popular and impressive elements, frequently used on international gymnastics competitions.
Tkachev (pronounced Katchev as per BBC)
Who won mens all around individual at Tokyo 2024 beating the Chinese pair Zhang and Xiao?
Shinnosuke OKA
Proposed as a solution for a population in which under 10% of people have access to
electricity, the Grand Inga Dam is a planned hydroelectric power station at the site of
the Inga Falls in which country? If built, it would become the largest power station in
the world by capacity.
DRC
Hub for Bahamasair, Pineapple Air, and Western air, the international airport that is the
largest gateway into the Bahamas is named after which politician? Formerly known as
Nassau International Airport, in 2006 this airport was formally named after the
Bahamian “Father of the Nation”.
Lynden PINDLING
Even before the death of her husband, Wu had been seen as the real power behind the Chinese throne, helping to expand the empire’s range. In one such campaign, she arranged for the Tang dynasty to ally with which Korean kingdom to defeat the Goguryeo and Baekje kingdoms? Two years later, this kingdom, located in the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula, would declare war on the Tang.
Silla
A replica of the Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengasi now stands in the Reina Sofia Museum
in Madrid after it was recreated in 2009 by the original artist. Incredibly, sometime
during the 1990s the museum managed to lose the original 38 tonne sculpture, which
had been created in 1986. The sculpture was created, and recreated, by which
American artist whose abstract sculptures have been described as ‘post-minimalist’?
Richard SERRA (POST-MINIMALIST)
Although the evidence is inconclusive, scientists have typically attributed the climatic
effects of the Younger Dryas to an influx of fresh, cold water into the Atlantic Ocean
from which North American lake? At its peak larger than all the modern Great Lakes
combined, this ancient lake was named after a pioneer of glaciology.
Lake AGASSIZ
Opened in 1936, Tallinn Airport is alternatively named after which Estonian politician,
who served as the president of the country immediately following the dissolution of
the Soviet Union? Formerly known as Ülemiste Airport, it was renamed in 2009, three years after the death of the politician in question.
Lennart MERI
What name is given to the small openings found on the exoskeletons of insects, and
some other arthropods, that allow oxygen to enter the trachea?
Spiracles (or Stigmas)
The Cave of the Patriarchs, known to Jewish people as the Cave of Machpelah and to
Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham, is a series of subterranean caves located in a compound in which ancient city in the West Bank?
Hebron
Which Polish poet included Z nie odbytej wyprawy w Himalaje (Notes from a Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition) in her 1957 collection Wołanie do Yeti (Calling Out to Yeti)? 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature
Wisława Szymborska
Its members taken mostly from the nomadic Arabic-speaking Abbala tribe in western
Sudan and eastern Chad, what name, thought to derive from the Arabic for ‘devil on
horseback’, is given to the armed militia who were unofficially backed by the Sudanese
government during the Darfur Genocide?
Janjaweed
Severny and Yuzhny, separated by the narrow Matochkin Strait, are the two main islands of which Russian archipelago that forms the boundary between the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea?
Novaya Zemlya
In Islam, who was the third and youngest wife of the Prophet Muhammad, in whose
arms he is said to have died?
Aisha
Which Swedish swimmer won her second Gold olympic medal in 100m freestyle in 2024 Tokyo? Follows her 100m butterfly 2016 Rio gold. 3 other olympic medals too. 2024 Doha WC won 50m freestyle and butterfly.
Sarah Sjöström
Which thermodynamic law, named after a French chemist, states that, in an ideal
mixture, the partial pressure of each component is equal to the mole fraction times the
vapour pressure?
Raoult’s law
A pair of 2024 Reddit posts by user u/chappersbarfo in the subreddit r/imaginarymaps imagined how Italian soccer leagues Serie A and Serie B might look like today “had Italy under Mussolini regained control over the territories considered lost.” Those
leagues might have included teams from Nice, Monaco, Ajaccio, Pula, and Split had
Italian policies described by what term of 19th-century Italian origin been successful?
irredentism
At the end of the 20th century, The Publishing Triangle released a list of the 100
greatest LGBT novels of all time. Although the list was supposedly limited to novels,
which American author’s book Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, which combines
biography and history with elements of fiction, made the list’s top 10?
Audre LORDE
Named after a Dutch chemist, which ‘factor’ is calculated by taking the number of
dissociated particles in a solution over the number of unit particles initially dissolved?
Van’t Hoff factor
Some Mexican soccer fans have also imagined this year what their top-level soccer league, Liga MX, might look like if their country regained its long-lost territory in what is now the southwestern United States, with teams added from Houston to San Jose. Such irredentist visions for claiming these regions to form a Greater Mexico have commonly used what Spanish term dating back to the Middle Ages, which was originally used with regards to battles over control of the Iberian Peninsula?
Reconquista
The 1951 novel Kinjiki (Forbidden Colours) is one of two novels by which author to
appear on the Publishing Triangle’s list of the 100 greatest LGBT novels of all time? The
novel tells the story of a young man whose beauty is used by an embittered older
novelist to take revenge on the women whom he feels have wronged him.
Yukio MISHIMA
Which doubly eponymous equation calculates vapour pressure using the enthalpy of
vaporization, and shows a nonlinear relationship between the temperature and vapour
pressure of a system?
Clausius-Clapeyron equation
A 2015 boxing match in Moscow featured a series of banners claiming that many
formerly Russian-controlled territories – Crimea, Ukraine, and even Alaska – should be
restored to Russia. Such slogans, which seek to recover lost territory through
retaliation, are described by what word of French origin that originated in the 1870s
among nationalists who wanted to avenge the French defeat during the FrancoPrussian War and reclaim the lost territories of Alsace-Lorraine?
Revanchism
This English poet and novelist is another writer who has two books represented on The
Publishing Triangle’s list of the 100 greatest LGBT novels of all time. One of those is her
1924 debut novel, The Unlit Lamp, which follows Joan Ogden, a girl who dreams of
setting up a flat in London with her friend Elizabeth. Who wrote The Unlit Lamp?
Radclyffe Hall
Named after an American chemist, which ‘phase rule’ states that the number of
phases in the system plus the number of degrees of freedom is equal to the number of
chemical components plus two?
GIBBS phase rule
A viral video filmed in Dortmund before one of the opening games of the UEFA Euro
2024 soccer tournament showed Albanian fans taunting Italians by playfully desecrating a national symbol (they were breaking dry spaghetti in half). This playful action received less attention than the Albanian nationalist banner shown in the video’s background which displayed a widely circulated image of Greater Albania, with an outline reaching beyond the country’s modern borders, above what Greek-derived word, meaning “indigenous”, which is used by Albanians to support claims for
Albanian expansionism? In Ancient Greece, this name was given to the indigenous
inhabitants of a country, including its mythical figures.
Autochthonous
Another book that makes The Publishing Triangle’s list is which Austrian author’s 1906
novel Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (The Confusions of Young Törless), which
caused a scandal upon publication because of its sexually explicit content?
Robert Musil
In which country did José Figueres Ferrer abolish the nation’s army during the first of his three terms in office? Ferrer also passed laws giving the vote to women and people of African descent.
Costa Rica
Which Indonesian author was imprisoned for his left-wing activities by the Suharto government on the island of Buru, where he proceeded to write his Buru Quartet, including the novel Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind)?
PRAMOEDYA Ananta Toer
What Italian term is used to instruct a violinist to return to using the bow after playing pizzicato?
Arco
In computer science, what name is given to an algorithm that recursively splits a problem into smaller sub-problems, solves these independently, and then combines their solutions to address the original problem?
Divide-and-Conquer
The Urca Hill Natural Monument appears in the full name of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that centres on which natural geographical feature, named after the foodstuff it is fancied to resemble?
Sugarloaf Mountain
Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist. Living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, he was widely known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. Did Slav Epic cycle of 20.
Alphonse Mucha
Born 1871, Czech painter and graphic artist. He was a pioneer and co-founder of the early phases of the abstract art movement and Orphic Cubism. Disks of Newton, The Cathedral, very into colour theory.
Frantisek Kupka
French Cubist painter born in Hesdin, most famous painting Mountaineers Attacked by Bears. Others include Abundance, The Hunter.
Henri Le Fauconnier
Born 1888, Hungarian avant garde artist and early Cubist sculptor. Sculptures include Groupe de Femmes, Danseuse, Head, Cones and Spheres.
Joseph Csaky
Born 1883 Nantes, wrote first theoretical work on Cubism: L’oiseau bleu, Two nudes in exotic landscape, coucher de soleil no 1, La danse, Tea Time, DANCER in a cafe.
Jean Metzinger
Born 1881 Paris, wrote first theoretical work on Cubism.
Le Chemin, Paysage à Meudon (1911)
Harvest Threshing (1912)
Les Baigneuses (1912)
Les Joueurs de football (1912–13)
Man in a Hammock (1913)
Portrait of an Army Doctor (1914–15)
Woman with Black Glove (1920)
Albert Gleizes
Born 1881, French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as “tubism”) which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style. His boldly simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of pop art.
Fernand Leger
In the form of the angry axe-wielding avatar Parashurama, Vishnu goes on a rampage against what people for abusing their power on earth? These people constitute a varna whose other members include Vishnu’s ninth avatar, the Buddha.
kshatriyas
Hindu term for the varna containing Vedic scholars, priests or teachers
Brahmins
Hindu term for the varna containing Rulers, administrators or warriors
Kshatriyas
Hindu term for the varna containing Agriculturalists, farmers or merchants
Vaishyas
Hindu term for the varna containing Artisans, laborers or servants
Shudras
In early Christianity, the Eucharist formed part of a ‘lovefeast’ given what Greek name? This is also the name of a type of Christian love that, according to Paul, is selfless and unconditional, and is contrasted with storge [STOR-JAY] (familial love) and philia (brotherly love).
Agape [uh-GAH-pay]
In photochemistry, what process can occur when two identical molecules are stimulated by light and form a covalent bond? This will typically occur for conjugated molecules, for example anthracene.
photodimerization
Befitting its authors’ anarchist politics, the 2021 book The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow hypothesizes that several early examples of urban living demonstrate non-hierarchical forms of social organisation. While discussing some of the earliest known cities, they speculate that archaeological findings dating to before 3200 BCE suggest that large public courts in this city could hold and accommodate most of its population. They argue this suggests high levels of direct democratic participation in which ancient city’s Eanna district?
Uruk
Sometime around 1025 CE, which Arab scholar produced a work entitled Al-Shukūk ‛alā Batlamyūs (Doubts Concerning Ptolemy) that criticized the complexity of the Ptolemaic model of the universe? Ironically, this man helped greatly in the popularization of Ptolemy’s Almagest through his hugely influential Fī Hay’at al-ҁ ālam (On the Configuration of the World).
Ibn al-Haytham or Alhazen
H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu is often said to have been inspired by which French author’s 1887 short story Le Horla, in which the central character unintentionally invites a supernatural entity into his home?
Guy de Maupassant
In the form of the lion avatar Narasimha, Vishnu emerges from a pillar to defend the faithful boy Prahlada from what invulnerable demon? This demon’s brother Hiranyaksha was also defeated by Vishnu in the form of the boar avatar Varaha.
Hiranyakashipu
Although only English has official status, what is the most widely spoken language in Malawi? Hastings Banda changed the name of this language in Malawi, although its older name is still used in neighbouring Mozambique and Zambia.
Chichewa or Chinyanja
Who served as President of Costa Rica between 1986 and 1990, and again between 2006 and 2010? Perhaps his greatest achievement was organising the Esquipulas Peace Agreement, which provided the framework for the eventual end of the Central American Crisis.
Oscar Arias (NP in 1987)
Graeber and Wengrew also analyse the Mashkan-shapir settlement near Uruk, claiming evidence demonstrates “strikingly even” distribution of wealth and resources. Their narrative roots this homogeneity in purposeful administrative decisions to “prevent the emergence of obvious differences in status” as part of what period of Mesopotamian culture that directly preceded the ‘Uruk period’?
Ubaid period (accept Halaf-Ubaid if offered)
Which other type of photochemical process, effectively the opposite of photodimerization, describes the breakdown of a chemical compound under light stimulation? An example of this process is photochemical smog in the Earth’s atmosphere resulting from pollutants reacting with sunlight.
photolysis (accept photodissociation)
In 2023, which Malaysian novelist fictionalized Somerset Maugham’s travels throughout Southeast Asia in The House of Doors? This author’s best-known novel, The Garden of Evening Mists, follows a judge who recalls her imprisonment by the Japanese in Malaya.
TAN Twan Eng (accept Eng if offered)
What Italian term is used to indicate the extended violin technique of using the stick of the bow to strike the strings rather than the hair? It is notably employed by the cellos at the beginning of ‘Mars’ in Holst’s The Planets?
COL LEGNO
Which fast multiplication algorithm that uses a divide-and-conquer approach to multiply two n-digit numbers is named after the Russian mathematician who published it in 1962?
Karatsuba algorithm
Which doubly eponymous law, also known as the principle of photochemical activation or the first law of photochemistry, states that only light absorbed by an affected chemical compound will result in a photochemical change?
Grotthuss-Draper Law
Chichewa may be the third most spoken indigenous language in Zimbabwe, behind Shona and the ‘northern’ form which other Bantu language? The southern form of this language is spoken in parts of South Africa and is more closely related to Zulu.
Ndebele
The seventh painting in Alphonse Mucha’s Slovanská epopej (The Slav Epic) depicts an earlier figure of the Bohemian reformation, Jan Milíč of Kroměříž. Milíč worked as a notary for which Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, who issued the Golden Bull of 1356 and established Prague as capital of the Holy Roman Empire? Regnal name and number required.
Charles IV or Karl IV or Karel IV or Carolus IV
From an Nguni word that can be translated as ‘I am because we are’, or more simply as ‘humanity’, what is the name of the southern African value system, emphasising compassion and human connectedness, that was central to the theology of Archbishop Desmond Tutu?
Ubuntu
Which Renaissance artist painted her sisters playing chess in the c. 1555 work Partita a scacchi (The Game of Chess)? Although she was to achieve success as a painter of courtly figures, many of this artist’s best-known works are family portraits painted early in her career.
Sofonisba Anguissola
What term is used for the technique of a violinist playing two notes at once? Although its name suggests that both strings must be fingered, one or both can be open.
double stopping (or multiple stopping)
Which former Vice President succeeded Óscar Arias as Costa Rican President in 2010, becoming the first woman to hold the position? The high point of her presidency is often considered to be her response to Nicaragua’s occupation of the disputed Isla Calero barely six months after taking the role.
Laura Chinchilla
Prim’s algorithm is a greedy algorithm that finds which type of subgraph in a weighted undirected graph that includes all vertices with the least possible edge weight?
minimum spanning tree or MST
Considered by some to be the creator of trigonometry as a mathematical discipline, which influential Persian polymath names a geometric tool to model planetary motion that he introduced in his 1247 Tahrir al-Majisti (Commentary on the Almagest)? That tool, known as the [BLANK] couple or the [BLANK] mechanism, has a small circle rotating inside a larger circle twice the diameter of the smaller one.
Nasir al-Din Tusi or Al-Tusi
In the form of the dwarf avatar Vamana, Vishnu tricks what immortal asura king into giving him three steps of land? Since this king was benevolent, Vishnu allowed him to return once per year from the underworld.
Mahabali (or Bali or Indrasenan or Māveli)
The Singaporean graphic novelist Sonny Liew is best known for a novel about a cartoonist with what name, which got popular after the Singaporean government withdrew a grant? Another character with this name was introduced in the novel The House Without a Key.
Charlie Chan (or Charlie Chan Hock Chye; prompt on Charlie or Chan)
Graeber and Wengrew argue that there is nothing inevitable about societies organizing themselves via the spread of administrative, military, or commercial institutions. They give the example of which pre-Incan civilisation which they argue spread its influence throughout the Andes in the form of images, with the emphasis on “retaining control over certain kinds of knowledge”? Mostly constructed between around 1200 BCE and 750 BCE, a namesake archaeological site of this civilisation is home to a ‘Circular Plaza’ that appears to have been a sacred, and ritually important, open-air space.
Chavín (accept Chavín de Huántar)
Cambodia’s highest peak is Phnom Aural, found in which mountain range in the country’s southwest, straddling the Thai border, that is named after a foodstuff widely grown on its eastern slopes?
Cardamom Mountains
Also rarely encountered by humans is this deepwater filter-feeder recognisable by its huge head and bizarre, rubbery lips. Which shark species, sometimes considered to represent an entirely new family, was discovered only in 1976 when one became entangled in the sea anchor of an American naval ship?
megamouth shark or Megachasma pelagios
The so-called “Rizal Law” is controversial in the Philippines because it makes students read what novel by José Rizal and its sequel, El filibusterismo, which both have anti-Catholic themes? This novel follows Crisóstomo Ibarra, who returns from studies in Europe and tries to reform his village.
Noli Me Tángere
The tenth painting in Mucha’s Slovanská epopej (The Slav Epic) depicts the aftermath of which battle of 1410 in which a Polish–Lithuanian alliance defeated the Teutonic Order? This battle preceded the Siege of Marienburg.
Battle of Grunwald
Widely considered the greatest astronomer of the medieval Islamic world, which Arab polymath is renowned for his accurate astronomical observations, detailed in his work Kitāb az-Zīj, which corrected and refined Ptolemy’s Almagest? His observations led him to accurately calculate Earth’s obliquity, the solar year, and the precession of the equinoxes, and the accuracy of his work encouraged Nicolaus Copernicus to pursue ideas about the heliocentric nature of the solar system.
Al-Battani or Albategnius
Also called cross-tuning, what Italian term is used for a non-standard tuning on a violin? For instance, in Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre, the soloist’s top string is tuned to an E-flat instead of an E, creating a tritone (or ‘Devil’s Chord’) when played with the A and evoking a rarely played, out-of-tune instrument.
ANS: scordatura
Which American artist painted the 1876 work The Chess Players, which depicts his father watching over a chess match? As well as depicting his actual father, this artist also included his ‘artistic father’, Jean-Léon Gérôme, his master at the École des Beaux-Arts, whose Ave Caesar Morituri te Salutant can be seen on the wall in the background.
Thomas Eakins
Commonly translated as “benevolence” or “humaneness”, what Chinese name is given in Confucian philosophy to the virtuous state-of-being that a person attains through acts of altruism?
ren
Which female President defeated Daniel Ortega in 1990 in Nicaragua becoming first female President in Central America?
Violeta Chamorro
Which Bantu language is the most widely spoken language in Zambia? Chichewa, or Nyanja, was traditionally predominant in Lusaka, however migration from the Copper Belt region has led to a hybrid language called Town Nyanja which incorporates elements of this language and English.
Bemba (or Chibemba or Ichibemba or Chiwemba)
In contrast to Prim’s algorithm, which greedy algorithm for finding minimum spanning trees starts with an empty set of edges and, in each step, adds the lowest-cost remaining edge, as long as that edge will not create a cycle? This algorithm is more generalised than Prim’s algorithm and can also find a minimum spanning forest for disconnected graphs.
Kruskal’s algorithm
Often translated as ‘flourishing’, or more literally ‘good spirit’, what Greek term was used by Aristotle to name the highest human good? In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle took this term to mean human activities that exhibited aretē [a-ret-ay] (virtue or excellence).
ANS: eudaimonia
Which 10th century astronomer, from what is now Iran, wrote Kitāb ṣuwar al-kawākib (The Book of Fixed Stars), which significantly improved upon Ptolemy’s system for measuring star brightness, and attempted to synthesize the star catalogue found in the Almagest with traditional Arabic catalogues? Many individual star names still in use today, such as Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, and Algol, are corruptions of names that appeared in this man’s catalogue.
al-Sufi or Azophi
In the form of the avatar Krishna, one of Vishnu’s first major opponents was what naga who had polluted the Yamuna river with his venom? Krishna defeated this naga by dancing on his head.
ANS: Kāliya
Which other doubly eponymous law, also known as the photoequivalence law, states that each single unit of radiation absorbed will stimulate a single molecule of the absorbing chemical in the primary photochemical process?
Another example Graeber and Wengrew cite is the Taljanky megasite in modern-day Ukraine, a settlement with thousands of homes but no evidence of government or administrative buildings. Taljanky is the largest discovered settlement belonging to what Chalcolithic culture of southeastern Europe? The phenomenon of intentionally burning down and rebuilding settlements every 60-80 years is one of the most distinct features of this culture.
ANS: Cucuteni-Trypillian culture (accept either word; also accept Tripolye)
Not to be confused with the Cardamom Mountains, the Cardamom Hills, also known as Yela Mala, are a subrange of the Western Ghats and are found in which Indian state? This region had been a prominent exporter of spice since around 3000 BCE and the arrival of Portuguese traders here in the 15th century helped pave the way for the European colonisation of the Indian subcontinent.
Kerala
Bemba is also one of over 200 languages spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Which Bantu creole developed from the Kikongo language and is one of the country’s four official languages, alongside Lingala, Tshiluba, and Congo Swahili?
ANS: Kituba (or Kikongo la yeta or Kikongo l’état or Monokutuba)
Whose 1911 painting Portrait de la famille du peintre depicts his two sons playing draughts (checkers)? This is one of the four paintings this man executed in his Intérieurs symphoniques series for the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin; another painting in the series is L’Atelier Rouge, now held at MoMA.
Henri Matisse
The fourteenth painting in the Slovanská epopej (The Slav Epic) depicts Nikola IV Zrinski’s defense of Szigetvár [see-get-vahr] in 1566? Which invading military leader died of natural causes the day before the final battle of the Siege of Szigetvár? He had earlier earned a victory against the Habsburg forces in the 1526 Battle of Mohács [moe-hahtch].
ANS: Suleiman the Magnificent or Suleiman I
Amongst the many Tory politicians to step down at the 2024 election was which
former Cabinet minister, who became the first British Asian and Muslim to hold
one of the four Great Offices of State? He was also Boris Johnson’s first Chancellor.
Sajid Javid
Alongside which fellow diver did Tom Daley win a gold medal in the men’s synchronised 10-metre platform at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021?
Matty Lee
Formally established in 1961, and now with 120 member nations, what name is
given to the international forum for countries not formally associated with any of
the major world power blocs?
Non-Aligned Movement
British singer PJ Harvey has won the Mercury Music Prize twice. With which
album did she win the award for the second time in 2011?
Let England Shake (first was Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea)
‘Listen Very Carefully’ is a podcast presented by three of the stars of which 1980s
British sitcom? The title is one of the many catchphrases the show spawned.
‘allo ‘allo
What is the administrative capital of the French Overseas Department of Guadalupe?
Basse-Terre
Alongside which fellow cyclist did Laura Kenny win a gold medal in the women’s
madison at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021?
Katie Archibald
In 1928, when universal suffrage was enacted in the UK, what was the minimum
voting age for both men and women?
21
With a distance of just over 206,000 astronomical units, what unit of length is
used in astronomy to measure large distances to objects outside the Solar System’?
Parsec
What is the administrative capital of the French Overseas Department of Réunion?
Saint Denis
Which company, founded as Red Door salon on Fifth Avenue in 1910, is famous for fragrances named ‘Red Door’ and ‘Fifth Avenue’?
Elizabeth Arden
She has released three critically acclaimed albums as a solo artist: Welsh Music Prize winner Y Dydd Olaf (2014); Le Kov (2018), her first album in Cornish; and Tresor (2022), which was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize.
Gwenno
A number of members of the Borgia family have become Pope. One of them was Alfonso,
who took which regnal name and number? He was responsible for the 1456 posthumous
retrial of Joan of Arc against accusations of heresy.
Callixtus III
Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham is currently helping advertise which Spanish based
high street fashion chain, known for products like slip dresses and flared trousers? Founded in Barcelona by brothers Isak Andic and Nahman Andic in 1984.
Mango
Developed during the Second World War, what name was given to a type of portable,
prefabricated bridge which saw extensive use by Allied military engineering units? It
shares its name, that of the civil servant who devised it, with part of a mediaeval castle.
BAILEY bridge
What term is used to define a person who has entered a religious order and is under
probation, before taking vows? This term is shared with a more general term for a
beginner.
Novice
Which animation studio has produced films including Coraline, The Boxtrolls and Kubo
and The Two Strings? Despite receiving a number of best animated movie Academy
Award nominations this studio has so far failed to win any.
Laika
On the Elizabeth Line, which Underground station is also accessible from Farringdon
Station at its eastern end? This station has platforms serving the Circle, Hammersmith &
City and Metropolitan lines.
Barbican
Comprising a pun on the US title of the show Blankety Blank, in which parody game show
in Ru Paul’s Drag Race do contestants have to provide rude answers to the ‘blank or
blanks’ questions provided to celebrity guests?
Snatch Game
The Bayeux Tapestry was created using only four different embroidery techniques,
including which variant of couching, otherwise known as Bayeux stitch, in which yarn or
other materials are fastened in place with small stitches of the same or a different yarn?
Laid work
What is the five-letter name of the genre of fanfiction which involves putting together two
characters of the same sex, for example Captain Kirk and Spock? This term is shared
with the punctuation mark that is placed between the names of a male pairing.
Slash
The supreme being of Waaqa and the divinities of Ayyaana are deities of the Waaq·effan·naa religion practised by which African ethnic group of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan?
Oromo
Which animation studio has produced films including Song of the Sea, The
Breadwinner and Wolfwalkers? Despite receiving a number of best animated movie
Academy Award nominations this studio has so far failed to win any.
Cartoon Saloon
Although they move to the same stadium as their male Premier League counterparts
for the 2024-5 season, which Women’s Super League football team used to play their
games at Meadow Park in Borehamwood?
Arsenal
Callixtus III appointed his nephew Rodrigo a cardinal, continuing a tradition of ‘cardinal nephews’ in the Catholic Church at the time. He later became Pope under what regnal name and number, during which time he excommunicated Girolamo Savonarola?
Alexander VI
Girls Aloud member Kimberley Walsh is currently helping advertise which DIY chain
which has the slogan ‘It’s got our name on it’ and produces paints like Subtle Sage and Blue Haze?
Wickes
The Edinburgh Literary and Hay festivals are among festivals which have dropped
sponsorship from which investment company due to its oil investments? The formerly
named Samuel Johnson Prize and the National Gallery of Scotland continue to take
sponsorship from this company, for the time being.
Baillie Gifford
What word is used to reflect a desire by fans to play matchmaker by theorising about
romances involving two or more people not officially together, for example Harry
Potter and Hermione Granger? This term is the final four letters of a longer word
used to refer to a romantic coupling.
Ship or Shipping
Which winner of the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal in 1996 provided
evidence for the existence of dark matter by comparing discrepancies between the
predicted and observed angular motion of galaxies?
Vera RUBIN
The Bayeux Tapestry was created using only four different embroidery stitches
including which overlapping back stitch used for outlining embroidered shapes and lettering but which, as its name suggests, is often used to form key elements of plants and flowers?
STEM stitch
Which Welsh artist was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2019 for her album
Reward? She is also a contributor to St Vincent’s 2024 album, All Born Screaming.
Cate Le Bon
On the Elizabeth Line, which Underground station is also accessible from Liverpool
Street Station at its western end? This station has platforms serving the Circle,
Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Northern lines as well as being a terminus of
the Great Northern route.
Moorgate
Rats and Lairy Poppins are examples of which of the regular challenges in Drag
Race UK? It has a name which combines the name of the show’s host and the type
of theatrical performance being parodied.
Rusical
With articles including the Tichborne Claimant and Spring Heeled Jack, which publisher is responsible for the book, Strange Stories, Amazing Facts? Also known in the past for prize draws for subscribers, they ceased publication of their monthly magazines in the UK in May 2024.
Reader’s Digest
During the first English Civil War, which battle of July 1644 saw a decisive victory for
Parliamentarians, aided by Scottish Covenantists, over Royalist forces, that saw the
Royalists effectively abandon northern England? It is named for an area west of York.
Marston Moor
Which uninhabitable granite islet in the North Sea was annexed by the United Kingdom in 1955 and formally incorporated into Scotland in 1972? It is thus the westernmost point of the UK.
Rockall
In music theory, what Greek-derived name is given to the fifth mode of the major
scale - that is to say, if you played the white notes from G to G on a piano?
Mixolydian mode
If you were going to das Kino in Germany, what sort of establishment are you headed to?
Cinema
Cluj [“klooj”] and Iași [“yash”] are the second and third-largest settlements respectively in which south-eastern European country?
Romania
“This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.” are the final four lines of which 1925 poem by T.S. Eliot?
The Hollow Men
A glitch in Pokémon Red and Blue is commonly known by the name of which
Pokémon, who appears as a random block of pixels? This glitch, and its sister
glitch M 00 caused graphical anomalies, but was frequently exploited as a way to easily duplicate rare items, such as Rare Candies.
MissingNo
In mathematics, what simple sorting algorithm builds the final list one item at a time
via comparisons? A real-life example would be manually sorting one’s cards in a bridge hand.
Insertion sort
In music theory, what Greek-derived name is given to the sixth mode of the major
scale - that is to say, if you played the white notes from A to A on a piano? It is also
called the natural minor scale.
Aeolian mode
A glitch in World of Warcraft led to a virtual pandemic known by what name, after
a debuff caused by a boss? Players were able to infect their pets with this debuff, then fast travel back to populated areas and re-summon their pets, causing it to infect other players.
Corrupted Blood incident
One of the greatest sopranos of all time, which 20th-century Australian singer
was nicknamed “La Stupenda”? She was the first Australian to win a Grammy,
doing so at the 1962 ceremony in the Best Classical Performance - Vocal Soloist
(with or without orchestra) category.
Joan Sutherland
Opera singer although born in New Zealand, made her career in the UK. She is renowned for her performances in Mozart and Strauss operas, as well as her appearance at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
Kiri Te Kanawa
Britsh female opera singer born 1963 a mezzo-soprano, is known for her interpretations of Handel and Wagner. She was made a Dame in 2017 for her services to music.
Sarah Connolly
Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher and is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history, born 1881, Romanian Rhapsodies, only opera Œdipe, tragédie lyrique in four acts.
George Enescu
Born 1961, Australian composer did One of a Kind ballet, Bliss opera and Hamlet opera. The Lost Art of Letter Writing for violin and orchestra (2006).
Brett Dean
“Forgive me / they were delicious / so sweet / and so cold” are the final four lines
of which 1934 poem by William Carlos Williams?
This Is Just To Say (poem talking about eating plums from an icebox)
In May 2024, Veronica Leoni was named Creative Director at which American fashion house, newly reviving their Collection line?
Calvin Klein
What branch of engineering concerns the use of pressurised gases?
Pneumatics
Chicken pie and sugar cake are among the regional specialties of Winston-Salem, North Carolina that were brought to America by members of what religious denomination named for a region in the modern-day Czech Republic?
Moravian Church
Many Jewish delicatessens in the US feature a distinctive soda made by Dr. Brown’s which is flavored with what vegetable?
Celery
Louis’ Lunch, a restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut, claims to have invented what ubiquitous American food item? It steams these items and serves them with toast, tomatoes, and onions.
Hamburgers
Home fries, macaroni salad, baked beans, french fries, and meat are the signature ingredients of what iconic Rochester, New York dish first served at Nick Tahou Hots?
Garbage Plate
A meat-and-grain sausage called goetta and a unique form of chili made with spaghetti are staples of what Midwestern city’s cuisine?
Cincinnati
The muffuletta is a sandwich invented by Italian immigrants to what city, whose restaurants are the origins of oysters Rockefeller and bananas Foster?
New Orleans
Gumbo, a Louisiana stew, is often thickened with what vegetable, which was also historically referred to as “gumbo”? It was brought to the southern United States from West Africa with the slave trade.
Okra
What is the official state question of New Mexico? It’s commonly heard at restaurants around the state, and answering it with “Christmas” indicates a desire for both options.
Red or Green
A dish based on sautéed escarole is named for what city? In a famous fictional exchange about food regionalisms, Principal Skinner notes that people in this city wouldn’t use an “Albany expression” for another food.
Utica
A variety of what dish made with a molasses-based sauce and salt pork lends its name to a common nickname for Boston? This food was exported from America to the UK and became one part of a “full English breakfast”.
Baked Beans
Eyalet of Rumelia, Beylerbeylik of Trabzon, Regency of Tripolitania, Pashalik of Yanina
subdivisions of what?
Ottoman Empire
Huanacavelica, Tacna, Puno, Madre de Dios, Ucayali, Callao
subdivisions of what country?
Peru
Kingdom of Bohemia, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Free City of Trieste, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Free City of Fiume
subdivisions of what?
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Maryland County, Bomi County, Rivercress County, Bong County
subdivisons of what?
Liberia
Rushen Sheading, Middle Sheading, Glenfaba Sheading, Ayre Sheading subdivisions of where?
Isle of Man
Turkana County, Tana River County, Wajir County, Nandi County subdivisions of where?
Kenya
Canillo, Ordino, Escaldes–Engordany, La Massana subdivisions of where?
Andorra
Kwango Province, Equateur Province, Nord-Kivu Province, Sud-Kivu Province, Haut-Katanga Province subdivisions of where?
DRC
Which UK airport was built on land originally owned by the vicar of Harmondsworth?
Heathrow
The Bay of Fires and Devil’s Corner are locations in which Australian state?
Tasmania
“Stroke”, “Yes let”, and “No let” are refereeing decisions in which sport?
Squash
Which Evelyn Waugh novel features the characters Paul Pennyfeather and Margot Beste-Chetwynde?
Decline and Fall
Which American singer duetted with Shakira on the 2007 single Beautiful Liar?
Beyonce
The manufacturing companies Winmau and Nodor make equipment for which indoor sport?
Darts
Which American author wrote the classic gothic romance novel Dragonwyck?
Anya Seton
Sigmund Jähn was the first person from which country to go into space?
Germany
Searchin’ My Soul by Vonda Shepherd was the theme tune to which American comedy drama television series?
Ally McBeal
What is the title of Margaret Atwood’s 2019 sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale?
The Testaments
The Friendship bridge over the Oxus river crosses the border between Afghanistan and which other country?
Uzbekistan
The eighth-century teacher Parshvanatha founded the “fourfold restraint” in which religion?
Jainism
Which Kenyan photographer, who specialises in creating optical illusions with fabrics and models, produced the Camo series for an exhibition at the 193 gallery in Paris?
Thandiwe Muriu
What “C” is used to describe the first pressing juice of a Champagne, or a blend of more than one grape variety?
Cuvee
Which king of Yugoslavia led an émigré government from Claridge’s hotel in London?
Peter II
Which short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. begins with the line “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal”?
Harrison Bergeron
Passion Air is the largest domestic airline of which West African country?
Ghana
Which spy novelist wrote the 1940 thriller Journey Into Fear?
Eric Ambler
Which English surgeon discovered the first Iguanodon fossil in Sussex in 1822?
Gideon Mantell
Which British band had a 1969 UK number one with Blackberry Way
The Move
Which Scottish artist, known for her paintings of flowers and cats, was made a dame in 2003
Elizabeth Blackadder
Also known as Surabaya open-sea battle, which decisive naval battle of pacific campaign of ww2 was a big victory for Japanese on 27 February 1942? The American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) Strike Force commander— Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman—was killed. The aftermath of the battle included several smaller actions around namesake island, including the smaller but also significant Battle of Sunda Strait.
Battle of the Java Sea
4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre in n namesake sea of WWII, the battle was the first naval action in which the opposing fleets neither sighted nor fired upon one another, attacking over the horizon from aircraft carriers instead. Both sides finally located and attacked the other’s fleet carriers, leaving the Japanese fleet carrier Shōkaku damaged, the U.S. fleet carrier Lexington critically damaged and later scuttled, and the fleet carrier Yorktown lightly damaged.
Battle of the Coral Sea
Major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. lost the carrier Yorktown and the destroyer Hammann.The Japanese fleet carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū sunk. Nimitz led US to big victory against Japanese led by Yamamoto.
Battle of Midway
the fourth aircraft carrier battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, also known as third battle of Solomon Sea, 25-27 October 1942. tactical victory for the Japanese in terms of both tonnage and control of the seas around Guadalcanal. Named after islands belonging to Solomon Islands.
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
Former military airfield on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, during World War II. Originally built by the Japanese Empire, the conflict over its possession was one of the great battles of the Pacific War. Today it is Honiara International Airport.
Henderson Field
23–26 October 1944
Largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. The battle consisted of four main separate engagements (the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, the Battle of Surigao Strait, the Battle off Cape Engaño, and the Battle off Samar). It was the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks, and it was the last naval battle between battleships in history.
Battle of Leyte Gulf
Name of Eminem’s 2024 album got to #1 in UK
The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)
English punk rock duo formed by Isaac Holman (lead vocals, drums) and Laurie Vincent (backing vocals, guitar, bass) in Royal Tunbridge Wells in 2012, were called Slaves before but changed name. 2024 album: Heavy Jelly.
Soft Play
Olivia Rodrigo 2023 album
Guts
Charli XCX 2024 album
Brat
