Quiz 06 Flashcards
In August 2009 the founders of the internet messaging service Twitter failed in their bid to have which English word officially registered in the United States as a trademark of their own?
Tweet
In 1709 Abraham Darby first successfully smelted iron with coke at his furnace in which Shropshire village, off what is now called the Ironbridge Gorge?
Coalbrookdale
What, when originally discovered in 1781 by William Herschel, was given the name Georgium Sidus in honour of King George the Third?
Uranus
Relapsing fever, trench fever and typhus are diseases transmitted by the parasitic insect Pediculus humanus corporis, which is more commonly known by what name?
The body louse
Which city in the United States was devestaed by a fire started on the the 8th October 1871, supposedly by a cow kicking over a lantern and setting light to its barn?
Chicago
The author of novels such as Cranford and North and South was often just known as Mrs Gaskell. What was her first name?
Elizabeth
The species of which long-armed member of the ape family include the Siamang, the Black Crested and the Hoolock?
Gibbon
Which of the nobel gases takes its name from the Greek for something strange?
Xenon
What title, used by the hereditary spiritual leader of the Nizari sect of Ismaili Muslims, was first conferred on Hasan Ali Shah by the Shah of Persia?
Aga Khan
The 56 pits known as the Aubrey holes are a feature of which English monument?
Stonehenge
Which best selling children’s book, first published in 1960 and written using a volcabulary of no more than fifty words, features the persistently enthusiastic Sam-I-Am?
Green Eggs and Ham
After Everest and K2, which is the third highest mountain in the world?
Kanchenjura
How are Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve referred to in the title of a 1553 canvas by Hans Holbein the Younger?
The Ambassadors
With its origins in the southern states of the USA, zydeco is a traditional style of which art form?
Music
Which Greek goddess, the daughter of the night, was the goddess of divine retribution?
Nemesis
Which British Prime Minister spent his last years in a house called Arundells in Salisbury Cathedral Close?
Edward Heath
The purplish-red fruits of which plant take their name from the American judge and horticulturalist who first grew it in 1881?
Loganberries
Mensa was founded in 1946 as the society for people with high Iqs. What does Mensa mean in Latin?
Table
What name is given in art to a brown discolouring effect, caused by dampness, thqat causes a mottled spotted apearence on prints and the pages of books?
Foxing
Coming to prominence in the 2000 Presidential Election results in the state of Florida, which word was used for the partially punctured holes in ballot sheets that were regarded as invalid, variously referred to as hanging, dimpled or pregnant?
Chard
Which French term can be applied to both the main course or dish in a meal, or the most valuable item in a collection of artworks?
Piece de resistance
What is the modern name of the city known as New Orange from 1673 to 1674, following its temporary recapture by the Dutch?
New York
Sir Winston Churchill had two other Christian names. What were they?
Leonard Spencer
Parastheisiae - experienced mainly after long periods of immobility or as a symptom of some neurological diseases - is a sensation commonly referred to by which name?
Pins and needles
What word for a lamentation, or a warning against the morals of the times, is taken from the name of a Hebrew prophet?
Jeremiad
Which British author, who dies in 1992, wrote the story The Company Of Wolves which was adapted for the screen by the director Neil Jordan?
Angela Carter
210mm x 297mm are the standard dimensions of which common paper size?
A4
Which Hollywood actor’s five wives were in order Margaret Sullavan, Ford Brokaw (formerly Seymour), Susan Blanchard, Afdera Franchetti and Shirlee Mae Adams?
Henry Fonda
The French phrase tant mieux, often used to mean I’m glad to hear that, literally means So much the better. What is the convers phrase meaning That’s too bad, or So much the worse?
Tant pis
The Warwickshire town of Rugby stands on which river?
The Avon
Tenochtitlan, located on the site of what is now Mexico City, was the capital of which ancient people?
Aztecs
Which gas, whose chemical symbol is CH4, is also known as fire damp?
Methane
At the start of which fairy tale, collected by the Grimm Brothers does a miller foolishly boast that his daighter can spin straw into gold?
Rumplestilskin
Which term for the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear meaningfully related but have no discoverable causal connection, was used in 1983 as the title for a bestselling album by the rock group The Police?
Synchronicity
The flightless nocturnal bird the kakapo - Strigops habroptius - is an endangered species belonging to which order of birds?
Parrots
In 1712 Jane Wenham of Walkern in Herfordshire is thought to have been the last person in England to be convicted of what?
Witchcraft
Which institution, with its headquarters near the Tower of London, is responsible for lighthouses, light vessels, buoys and beacons around the coasts of Britain, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibralter?
Trinity House
Mountain of Light is a translation of which Farsi phrase, most familiar as the name given to the diamond acquired by Britain in 1849 when the Punjab was annexed?
Kohinoor
During the Vietnam War, what was the name of the surprise attack by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army against the American and South Vietnamese forces during the Lunar New Year celebrations in 1968?
Tet offensive
Which famous and sometimes scandalous figure from twentieth century music was born Maria Anna Sophie Cecelia Kalogeropolous in the USA in 1923?
Maria Callas
