Quiz 12

Question 1

Which English singer-songwriter, who died tragically young in 1974, released only three albums during his lifetime: Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later and Pink Moon. All were largely ignored at the time but now are acknowledged as classics?

Answer 1

Nick Drake

Question 2

A Cream Cracker Under The Settee was the title of the last of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed 1988 series of TV monologues, Talking Heads. Which actress performed it?

Answer 2

Thora Hird

Question 3

Aqua Fortis the Latin for strong water, was a name used archaically for which acid?

Answer 3

Nitric acid

Question 4

What common process is known to botanists as positive geotropism?

Answer 4

Roots growing downwards

Question 5

The viral disease epidemic parotitis, most commonly afflicting children between the ages of 5 and 15, is commonly known by what name?

Answer 5

Mumps

Question 6

What name is given to the long sleeveless outer vestment worn by priests, and normally distinguished by the liturgical colour appropriate to the mass being celebrated?

Answer 6

Chasuble

Question 7

The Rev Canon Chasuble DD is a vicar in which of Oscar Wilde’s comedies?

Answer 7

The Importance of Being Ernest

Question 8

Which naturalist and physician was responsible for giving us our biological name Homo sapiens?

Answer 8

Carl Linnaeus

Question 9

Alphabetically, which is the last book of the Old Testament?

Answer 9

Zephaniah

Question 10

Which 14th century manuscript, consisting of more than fifty poems, including some attributed to a bard who lived as early as the 6th century, inspired the title of an LP by the rock band Deep Purple?

Answer 10

The Book of Taliesin

Question 11

Claire Tomalin, whose biography of Charles Dickens was published in 2011, is also the author of an acclaimed biography of Dickens’ mistress, published twenty years earlier with the title The Invisible Woman. What was the mistress’s name?

Answer 11

Ellen Ternan

Question 12

Patrick Troughton, Richard Greene, Michael Praed and Jonas Armstrong have all appeared in TV dramas playing which medieval figure?

Answer 12

Robin Hood

Question 13

Which London railway terminus is depicted in WP Frith’s painting of 1862 entitled The Railway Station?

Answer 13

Paddington

Question 14

What term is used in archaeology to refer to the physical material - such as soil or sediment - in which cultural artefacts or fossils are embedded?

Answer 14

Matrix

Question 15

The organisation SETI, founded in the USA in 1990 by Stephen M Greer, is dedicated to the furtherance of human understanding of what phenomenon?

Answer 15

Extra-terrestrial intelligence

Question 16

In 1985 the zoologist Diane Fossey was murdered while making a study of mountain gorillas - in which African country?

Answer 16

Rwanda

Question 17

Which European capital city got its ancient name from the Latin word for mud?

Answer 17

Paris - Lutetia

Question 18

“The book of my enemy has been remaindered / And I am pleased / In vast quantities it has been remaindered / Like a van-load of counterfeit that has been seized” - These are the opening lines of the title poem of which writer’s book of collected verse?

Answer 18

Clive James

Question 19

In physics, what is the anti-particle to the electron called?

Answer 19

Positron

Question 20

In the 17th century, Nicholas Lanier became the first person to hold what post at the English royal court?

Answer 20

Master of the King’s Musick

Question 21

Certain insects have stridulatory organs. Can you explain what these are?

Answer 21

They make sound when rubbed

Question 22

In Greek legend, what did the craftsman Epeius fashion from timbers cut from the slopes of Mount Ida?

Answer 22

The Trojan Horse

Question 23

A Satire Against Reason and Mankind is a poem by which courtier of Charles II, who has been portrayed on film by Johnny Depp, and whose debauched lifestyle earned him the reputation of the wickedest man in England?

Answer 23

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Question 24

When the Republic of China was declared in 1912, who was named its first provisional President?

Answer 24

Sun Yat-Sen

Question 25

In which city in France was Joan of Arc burned at the stake in 1431?

Answer 25

Rouen

Question 26

In the Beatles’ 1964 film A Hard Days Night, which Irish-born actor, by then already familiar from TV, was cast as the grandfather?

Answer 26

Wilfred Brambell

Question 27

The area known as The Hamptons, in Suffolk Country, an exclusive summer retreat for wealthy Americans, is at the eastern end of which island?

Answer 27

Long Island

Question 28

From Doon With Death, first published in 1964, was the first novel from which British crime writer?

Answer 28

Ruth Rendell

Question 29

Which year of the 20th century saw the start of the First Arab-Israeli War, the publication of the Kinsey report into sexual behaviour in the human male, and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi?

Answer 29

1948

Question 30

What common three letter word was originally an abbreviation of a two word Latin phrase meaning excitable crowd, a meaning that it often retains?

Answer 30

Mob

Question 31

According to tradition, who was shot dead at Mann’s saloon in August 1876, holding, in a poker game, two eights and two aces, the combination of cards becoming known as the dead man’s hand?

Answer 31

Wild Bill Hickok

Question 32

Which branch of mathematics was developed by John Von Neumann with later collaboration by Oskar Morgenstern?

Answer 32

Game Theory

Question 33

Which director-general of the BBC introduced on air the radio broadcast of the abdication speech made by Edward VIII on 11th December 1936

Answer 33

John Reith

Question 34

Which district of New York City is situated north of 96th Street in Manhattan?

Answer 34

Harlem

Question 35

Which transition metal, which shares its name with a major London theatre, has atomic number 46 and atomic mass of 106.4?

Answer 35

Palladium

Question 36

Which force created to preserve public order in London, originally numbering only six men, was founded by Henry Fielding in the 1740s, and lasted until being finally disbanded in the 1830s?

Answer 36

Bow Street Runners

Question 37

At 636m, which is the highest point in the Peak District?

Answer 37

Kinder Scout

Question 38

The composer Richard Rodgers had two astronomically successful partnerships in his career. Can you name the two lyricists with which he scored his major hits?

Answer 38

Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II

Question 39

What is the name of the man eating water monster who plagues the hall of King Hrothgar in the Anglo Saxon epic poem Beowulf?

Answer 39

Grendel

Question 40

The so called underground cathedral, housed in a former mine in Wieliczka in South Eastern Poland, consists of a series of large-scale sculptures in which material?

Answer 40

Salt