Quiz 05

Question 1

First donated in 1892 by the Governor General of Canada, which ice hockey trophy is awarded each year to the National Hockey League play-off champions?

Answer 1

Stanley Cup

Question 2

Which large building in London, opened in 1998, was described lunflatteringly by Prince Charles as looking like an academy for secret policemen?

Answer 2

British Library

Question 3

A small fish found in the seas off southern Asia, the Bummalo, is generally known by what name when it’s salted and dried and used as a foodstuff?

Answer 3

Bombay duck

Question 4

Which British locomotive, designed by Sir Nigel Greasley, set a world speed record for a steam-powered train of 126 miles per hour in 1938?

Answer 4

Mallard

Question 5

Mel Blanc, the actor who provided the voices for many of the best-loved Warner Brothers cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, chose what valedictory three-word phrase for his tombstone?

Answer 5

That’s all folks!

Question 6

In 2009 Dorothy Hughes and Winifred Phillips, both in their 80s, joined the ranks of which previously all-male institution?

Answer 6

Chelsea Pensioners

Question 7

What was the name of the Australian Prime Minister who disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach in Voctoris in 1967, and was presumed to have drowned?

Answer 7

Harold Holt

Question 8

Which woodland north of Perth in Scotland is the setting for the climax of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which the witches prophecy is fulfilled that the trees should march upon the castle of Dunsinane?

Answer 8

Birnham

Question 9

Acknowledged as one of the world’s pre-eminent members of her profession, what position did Pauline Kael hold on the New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991?

Answer 9

Film critic

Question 10

No Way Home is the title of the 2007 rags to riches autobiography of which ballet dancer, who began like as one of eight children living in poverty in the back streets of Havana?

Answer 10

Carlos Acosta

Question 11

The capital cities of the two distinct states of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo face one another across the Congo river. Can you name them both?

Answer 11

Kinchasa and Brazzaville

Question 12

The name of which household fixture is derived from an old French word meaning a pony or a horse?

Answer 12

Bidet

Question 13

Teenager Holden Caulfield is the hero of which American novel of the mid 20th Century?

Answer 13

The Catcher In The Rye

Question 14

Now largely discredited, ECT was a common technique of psychiatric treatment in the 20th Century. What do the letters ECT stand for?

Answer 14

Electro-Convulsive Therapy

Question 15

Which word, sometimes used poetically to refer to the female sex, was given to a cleft stick measuring about three feet long, around which flax was wound in the days before mechanised spinning?

Answer 15

Distaff

Question 16

The provocative New York born singer Stefani Joanne Angelica Germanotta became one of the world’s bestselling recording stars in 2009, thanks to hits such as Poker Face and Papparazzi. By what stage name is she better known?

Answer 16

Lady Gaga

Question 17

In 1984 Alec Jeffries of the Universiaty of Leicester discovered which now common technique of particular importance in forensic science?

Answer 17

Genetic fingerprinting

Question 18

Of the eight Kings of England called Henry, which one had the longest reign?

Answer 18

Henry III

Question 19

Which Premiership football club was until 1900 known as Thames Ironworks FC?

Answer 19

West Ham United

Question 20

While she was First Lady of the United States, Jackie Kennedy’s stylish wardrobe was much admired and imitated. Which French born American designer and celebrity couturier was credited with inventing the Jackie Look?

Answer 20

Oleg Cassini

Question 21

The standard unit of magnetic flux density is named after which American physicist, who invented the AC induction motor?

Answer 21

Tesla

Question 22

A cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, said to have been inspired by the singer and flapper Helen Kane, had to be drawn with longer skirts and fuller bodices to comply with the strictures of the Hayes Code of 1934. Which character?

Answer 22

Betty Boop

Question 23

Which ascetic sub-order of Cistercian monks was founded in Normany in 1664 by the Abbot de Rance?

Answer 23

Trappists

Question 24

The towns of Widnes and Runcorn stand facing one another across which major river?

Answer 24

Mersey

Question 25

In 1635, who founded the Academie Francaise, the body charged with preserving French cultural heritage and whose membership is limited to forty so-called Immortals?

Answer 25

Cardinal Richlieu

Question 26

In which city would you find the cricket test match venue called Basin Reserve, often known locally as The Basin?

Answer 26

Wellington, NZ

Question 27

The slang word Droog, amongst many others, was first coined in which novel first published in 1962 and filmed nine years later?

Answer 27

A Clockwork Orange

Question 28

In which type of chemical reaction does a molecule of a compound split by reacting with water?

Answer 28

Hydrolysis

Question 29

Which British statesman published a book entitled Painting As A Pastime?

Answer 29

Winston Churchill

Question 30

In Christian tradition, if plain old Angels are the lowest rank of the nine-fold celestial heirarchy, which group of beings are the highest?

Answer 30

Seraphim

Question 31

Along with the malleus and the incus, which tiny stirrup shaped bone in the middle war helps transmit vibrations to the organs of the inner ear?

Answer 31

Stapes

Question 32

What’s the correct term for the pastoral staff carried by a bishop as part of the official vestments, fashioned in the form of a shepherd’s crook?

Answer 32

Crosier

Question 33

Which building was the subject of a real time film by Andy Warhol lasting over eight hours, the only action in the picture being the lights of the building going on and off?

Answer 33

Empire State Building

Question 34

In physics, which elementary particle has a name derived from the Greek word for light, which was first used by the physical chemist Gilbert Lewis in 1926?

Answer 34

Photon

Question 35

One O’Clock Jump and Jumpin at the Woodside are compositions by which jazz pianist and bandleader, whose live appearences continued until the 1980s?

Answer 35

Count Basie

Question 36

Where in the solar system will you find the Cassini Division and the Encke Division?

Answer 36

Rings of Saturn

Question 37

Elk Cloner, created in 1982 by a fifteen year old schoolboy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, named Richard Skrenta, was the first identified example of what?

Answer 37

Computer virus

Question 38

What do you get if you multiply the square root of four by the square of four?

Answer 38

32

Question 39

In the Shrek films, what is the name of the princess that Shrek woos and marries?

Answer 39

Fiona

Question 40

What type of creature is a boomslang?

Answer 40

Snake