Quiz 11

Question 1

Which month, known as the windy month, was the sixth month of the French Revolutionary calendar, and lasted from around 20th February to 21st March

Answer 1

Ventose

Question 2

Alberto Juantorena, Quincy Watts and Michael Johnson are among those who have won Olympic gold in which athletics event?

Answer 2

400m

Question 3

Which children’s story by Roald Dahl was first adapted for the London stage in 2011 with songs by musician and comedian Tim Minchin?

Answer 3

Matilda

Question 4

One of the four kings in a standard English pack of cards is depicted without a moustache - supposedly, originally, it was missed off because of poor copying. Which king is it?

Answer 4

The King of Hearts

Question 5

Which artist became the first President of the Royal Academy in 1768?

Answer 5

Joshua Reynolds

Question 6

Of which British Prime Minister is the Labour politician Douglas Jay quoted as saying “He never used one syllable where none would do”?

Answer 6

Clement Attlee

Question 7

In a chemistry laboratory, what is the purpose of a Kipp’s apparatus?

Answer 7

Production of gases

Question 8

Which two provinces in the North East of France, annexed by Bismark in 1871, were returned to France by Treaty of Versaille after the First World War?

Answer 8

Alsace and Lorraine

Question 9

Which is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World whose exact location remains unconfirmed by archaeology?

Answer 9

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Question 10

The adjective pelagic, often used to describe certain types of bird, comes from a Greek word meaning what?

Answer 10

The open sea

Question 11

Which powerful Italian organised crime ring, whose name is possibly derived from a local word for thief, is based in Calabria but has links and operatives all over the world?

Answer 11

The ‘Ndrangheta

Question 12

In the children’s TV drama series Grange Hill, what was the name of the long-serving head teacher played by Gwyneth Powell?

Answer 12

Bridget (the Midget) McCluskey

Question 13

Although it’s used in casual speech to mean the dim and distant past, in law the phrase time immemorial relates very precisely to a particular calendar year. Which one?

Answer 13

1189 (Richard I)

Question 14

Which Dutch sprinter, who won the 100m and 200m at the 1948 London Olympics, was nicknamed The Flying Housewife?

Answer 14

Fanny Blankers-Koen

Question 15

In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, what is Gulliver’s first name?

Answer 15

Lemuel

Question 16

What name, also meaning a particular time of day, is sometimes given to the hot and dry southern states of Italy, including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia?

Answer 16

Mezzogiorno

Question 17

Which North American city is served by George Bush International Airport?

Answer 17

Houston, Texas

Question 18

Which novelty swing dance, derived from the Charleston, was named following Charles Lindbergh’s crossing of the Atlantic in 1927?

Answer 18

Lindy hop

Question 19

Which part of the British Isles has a parliament called the Court of Chief Pleas?

Answer 19

Sark

Question 20

Which type of theatre derives its name from a Latin word meaning a player of many parts?

Answer 20

Pantomime

Question 21

Apatosaurus is the name by which scientists now refer to the dinosaur formerly known as the Brontosaurus. The name Brontosaurus means Thunder Lizard - but what does the name Apatosaurus mean?

Answer 21

Deceptive Lizard

Question 22

Windermere is the largest of the lakes in the English Lake District, and the largest natural lake in England. Which is the second largest?

Answer 22

Ullswater

Question 23

In Morse Code, the most commonly occurring vowel and the most commonly occurring consonant are represented respectively by a single dot and a single dash. Which letters are these?

Answer 23

E and T

Question 24

Which athlete and politician became the first person to be named BBC Sports Personality Of The Year in 1954?

Answer 24

Chris Chattaway

Question 25

The comic playwright born Jean Baptiste Poquelin in 1622 is better known by what pen name?

Answer 25

Moliere

Question 26

Which pioneering jazz pianist, who came to prominence as part of the be-bop movement in the 1940s had the unusual middle name Sphere?

Answer 26

Thelonius Monk

Question 27

In the care label symbols found on clothes, what is indicated by a square with a circle inside it, crossed out.

Answer 27

Do not tumble dry

Question 28

A painting of 1599 by Caravaggio depicts a scene from the Old Testament, in which the Hebrew widow Judith beheads an Assyrian commander, after having calculatedly seduced him and made him drunk. What’s his name?

Answer 28

Holofernes

Question 29

The heavy black-brown mineral cassiterite is the principle ore of which metallic element?

Answer 29

Tin

Question 30

The toxic quinolizidine alkaloid, that became the suspected agent of poisoning in the Daphne du Maurier novel My Cousin Rachel, is present in the seeds of which tree, grown for its hanging clusters of golden flowers?

Answer 30

Labernum

Question 31

Which Scottish monarch was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513?

Answer 31

James IV

Question 32

Which artist did Gore Vidal call a genius with the IQ of a moron?

Answer 32

Andy Warhol

Question 33

Which Latin phrase meaning come with me is often used to describe a personal handbook, carried for use when needed?

Answer 33

Vade Mecum

Question 34

The cran, equal to 37.5 gallons, is often used commercially to measure the volume of which commodity?

Answer 34

Fish - herring

Question 35

The comedian Frankie Howerd’s role as Pseudolus, in the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, led to a TV comedy series which was written for him, and directly inspired by that show. What was its title?

Answer 35

Up Pompeii

Question 36

The four American Presidents whose faces are carved into Mount Rushmore in South Dakota are Lincoln, Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and which other?

Answer 36

Thomas Jefferson

Question 37

The Canadian physician Frederick Banting won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923, for his work with his colleague Charles Best, that made possible the treatment of which common condition?

Answer 37

Diabetes

Question 38

The Drury Lane Theatre, on 28th September 1745, saw the first recorded public performance of which now very popular piece of music?

Answer 38

God Save The King