Quiz 06

Question 1

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?

Answer 1

Tweet

Question 2

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?

Answer 2

Coalbrookdale

Question 3

What, when originally discovered in 1781 by William Herschel, was given the name Georgium Sidus in honour of King George the Third?

Answer 3

Uranus

Question 4

Relapsing fever, trench fever and typhus are diseases transmitted by the parasitic insect Pediculus humanus corporis, which is more commonly known by what name?

Answer 4

The body louse

Question 5

Which city in the United States was devastated by a fire started on the the 8th October 1871, supposedly by a cow kicking over a lantern and setting light to its barn?

Answer 5

Chicago

Question 6

The author of novels such as Cranford and North and South was often just known as Mrs Gaskell. What was her first name?

Answer 6

Elizabeth

Question 7

The species of which long-armed member of the ape family include the Siamang, the Black Crested and the Hoolock?

Answer 7

Gibbon

Question 8

Which of the noble gases takes its name from the Greek for something strange?

Answer 8

Xenon

Question 9

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?

Answer 9

Aga Khan

Question 10

The 56 pits known as the Aubrey holes are a feature of which English monument?

Answer 10

Stonehenge

Question 11

Which best selling children’s book, first published in 1960 and written using a vocabulary of no more than fifty words, features the persistently enthusiastic Sam-I-Am?

Answer 11

Green Eggs and Ham

Question 12

After Everest and K2, which is the third highest mountain in the world?

Answer 12

Kanchenjunga

Question 13

How are Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve referred to in the title of a 1553 canvas by Hans Holbein the Younger?

Answer 13

The Ambassadors

Question 14

With its origins in the southern states of the USA, zydeco is a traditional style of which art form?

Answer 14

Music

Question 15

Which Greek goddess, the daughter of the night, was the goddess of divine retribution?

Answer 15

Nemesis

Question 16

Which British Prime Minister spent his last years in a house called Arundells in Salisbury Cathedral Close?

Answer 16

Edward Heath

Question 17

The purplish-red fruits of which plant take their name from the American judge and horticulturalist who first grew it in 1881?

Answer 17

Loganberries

Question 18

Mensa was founded in 1946 as the society for people with high IQs. What does Mensa mean in Latin?

Answer 18

Table

Question 19

What name is given in art to a brown discolouring effect, caused by dampness, that causes a mottled spotted appearence on prints and the pages of books?

Answer 19

Foxing

Question 20

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?

Answer 20

Chads

Question 21

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?

Answer 21

Piece de resistance

Question 22

What is the modern name of the city known as New Orange from 1673 to 1674, following its temporary recapture by the Dutch?

Answer 22

New York

Question 23

Sir Winston Churchill had two other Christian names. What were they?

Answer 23

Leonard Spencer

Question 24

Paresthesia - experienced mainly after long periods of immobility or as a symptom of some neurological diseases - is a sensation commonly referred to by which name?

Answer 24

Pins and needles

Question 25

What word for a lamentation, or a warning against the morals of the times, is taken from the name of a Hebrew prophet?

Answer 25

Jeremiad

Question 26

Which British author, who died in 1992, wrote the story The Company Of Wolves which was adapted for the screen by the director Neil Jordan?

Answer 26

Angela Carter

Question 27

210mm x 297mm are the standard dimensions of which common paper size?

Answer 27

A4

Question 28

Which Hollywood actor’s five wives were in order Margaret Sullivan, Ford Brokaw (formerly Seymour), Susan Blanchard, Adera Franchetti and Shirley Mae Adams?

Answer 28

Henry Fonda

Question 29

The French phrase tant mieux, often used to mean “I’m glad to hear that”, literally means “So much the better”. What is the converse phrase meaning That’s too bad, or So much the worse?

Answer 29

Tant pis

Question 30

The Warwickshire town of Rugby stands on which river?

Answer 30

The Avon

Question 31

Tenochtitlan, located on the site of what is now Mexico City, was the capital of which ancient people?

Answer 31

Aztecs

Question 32

Which gas, whose chemical symbol is CH4, is also known as fire damp?

Answer 32

Methane

Question 33

At the start of which fairy tale, collected by the Grimm Brothers does a miller foolishly boast that his daughter can spin straw into gold?

Answer 33

Rumplestiltskin

Question 34

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?

Answer 34

Synchronicity

Question 35

The flightless nocturnal bird the kakapo - Strigops habroptius - is an endangered species belonging to which order of birds?

Answer 35

Parrots

Question 36

In 1712 Jane Wenham of Walkern in Herfordshire is thought to have been the last person in England to be convicted of what?

Answer 36

Witchcraft

Question 37

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 Gibraltar?

Answer 37

Trinity House

Question 38

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?

Answer 38

Koh-i-noor

Question 39

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?

Answer 39

Tet offensive

Question 40

Which famous and sometimes scandalous figure from twentieth century music was born Maria Anna Sophie Cecelia Kalogeropolous in the USA in 1923?

Answer 40

Maria Callas