Quiz 09

Question 1

What name is given in reproductive biology to a certain type of cell, two of which merging with one another produce a zygote - examples being sperm and egg cells?

Answer 1

Gametes

Question 2

The five Leatherstocking Tales of the 19th century American novelist James Fennimore Cooper are The Pioneers, The Prairie, The Pathfinder, The Deerslayer, and which other novel, first published in 1826?

Answer 2

The Last of the Mohicans

Question 3

In 1598 the Edict of Nantes finally defined freedom of worship for which French religious group, who had to suffer its revocation in 1685 by Louis XIV?

Answer 3

Huguenots

Question 4

Which term - first used in 1976 in Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene - is used to refer to a so-called unit of cultural information passed between minds through imitated use?

Answer 4

Meme

Question 5

At approximately 192km, which is the longest river in Scotland?

Answer 5

Tay

Question 6

According to Philip Larkin’s poem Annus Miralibis, in which year did sexual intercourse begin?

Answer 6

1963

Question 7

Which British actor’s prominent roles encompass Lennie Pice in Two Way Stretch in 1960 and Wilf Mott in Dr Who in the 21st century?

Answer 7

Bernard Cribbens

Question 8

C5H9N3 is a chemical formula for which biogenic compound released by the immune system during allergic reactions?

Answer 8

Histamine

Question 9

Which bird, sometimes known as the sea swallow, has varieties including the Sooty, Arctic and Sandwich?

Answer 9

Tern

Question 10

What name is generally given to the palaeoanthropological theory - advanced by geneticists in the 1980s - that all living humans share a single ancestor, a hypothetical woman living in eastern Africa between 150 and 200 thousand years ago?

Answer 10

Eve Hypothesis

Question 11

Benjamin Franklin, Percival Lowell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allen Poe and Paul Revere were all born in which city, historically known as the Athens of America?

Answer 11

Boston

Question 12

What was King George IV’s first name?

Answer 12

Albert

Question 13

What traditional custom takes place in the Derbyshire villages of Tissington and Youlgreave, amongst others, said to be associated with the worship of water deities?

Answer 13

Well dressing

Question 14

What is the name of the French village, outside Paris, where Monet spent the last years of his life, painting his famous Waterlilies series?

Answer 14

Giverny

Question 15

George Bingham was in overall charge of the cavalry charge at Balaclava: he was the 3rd holder of which title that was made infamous by the 7th holder, declared legally dead in the 1990s?

Answer 15

Lord Lucan

Question 16

Which Austrian physicist is responsible for the naming of the ratio of the speed of a body or fluid to the local speed of sound, particularly commonly applied in relation to aircraft?

Answer 16

Ernest Mach

Question 17

The invention of which perfume is credited to Giovanni Maria Farina, who moved from Italy to Germany in the early eighteenth century to manufacture it?

Answer 17

Eau de Cologne

Question 18

Which musical instrument was patented in Hawaii in 1917?

Answer 18

Ukelele

Question 19

The indri, aye-aye and fossa are animal species native to which country?

Answer 19

Madagascar

Question 20

Although credited to different acts, the early 1970s hit songs In a Broken Dream, Cindy Incidentally and You Wear It Well all featured lead vocals by whom?

Answer 20

Rod Stewart

Question 21

Who was the man who ruled Cuba in the 1940 and again in the 1950s when he was overthrown by Fidel Castro?

Answer 21

Fulgenio Batista y Zaldivar

Question 22

Working on principles developed by Michael Faraday, what name is given to a machine or generator that transforms mechanical energy into electrical energy?

Answer 22

Dynamo

Question 23

With book and lyrics by Glenn Slater, which Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is a sequel to The Phantom Of The Opera?

Answer 23

Love Never Dies

Question 24

John Milton, Isaac Newton, Henry VIII and Benjamin Franklin are among the most famous names said to have suffered from which form of arthritis, brought on by the defective metabolism of uric acid?

Answer 24

Gout

Question 25

“Comparisons are odorous” is a characteristic malapropism spoken by which Shakespearean character?

Answer 25

Dogberry in Much Ado

Question 26

Which small island in the River Thames, named after a foodstuff, is connected to the shore by a footbridge at Twickenham?

Answer 26

Eel Pie Island

Question 27

Which Russian composer’s second piano concerto in C minor is heard on the soundtracks of the 1945 film romance Brief Encounter and the 1955 Billy Wilder comedy The Seven Year Itch?

Answer 27

Rachmaninoff

Question 28

Which spice, used in natural or powdered form, is derived from the dried membrane that covers nutmeg?

Answer 28

Mace

Question 29

Which two word phrase is used for the boundary of a black hole with the rest of the universe?

Answer 29

Event Horizon

Question 30

Which mythical beast was said to have a lion’s head, a goat’s middle and a dragon or serpent’s tale?

Answer 30

Chimera

Question 31

What name is given to the oldest known fossil bird of the late Jurassic period?

Answer 31

Archaeopteryx

Question 32

What was the nationality by birth of Marie-Antoinette, whose husband ascended the French throne as Louis XVI in 1774?

Answer 32

Austrian

Question 33

Although its name derives from the Provencal word for capers, what is actually the main ingredient of the dish Tapenade?

Answer 33

Olives

Question 34

Which film directed by David Lean, based on a classic novel, did one critic say, “does for snow what his Lawrence of Arabia did for sand”?

Answer 34

Dr Zhivago

Question 35

A cordwainer is an archaic term for an artisan who manufactured what type of good?

Answer 35

Shoes, boots, etc - leather

Question 36

To distinguish him from his father, the second President of the United States, the sixth President is almost always referred to using which distinctive middle name from his great-grandfather?

Answer 36

Quincy

Question 37

The ounce is an alternative name for which animal that lives in the mountains of Central Asia?

Answer 37

Snow leopard

Question 38

Which dry apple brandy shares its name with the department of north-west France where it is made?

Answer 38

Calvados

Question 39

Which international organisation, whose aims are the education and stimulation of retired members of the community, was founded in Toulouse in 1973?

Answer 39

University of the Third Age

Question 40

What name is given to non-volatile computer memory that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed, which is primarily used on memory cards, memory sticks and the like?

Answer 40

Flash memory