Quiz 20 Flashcards
Robert Fitzroy, who commanded HMS Beagle on which Charles Darwin sailed as the ship’s naturalist, served from 1843 as the governor of which British colony?
New Zealand
Which flower, referred to as a gillyflower in works by Shakespeare and Chaucer, was once used as a treatment for fevers and is now the symbol for Mothering Sunday?
Carnation
Le Freak was one of the best-known songs of which group of the disco era, led by musicians Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards?
Chic
Which annual publication that first appeared in 1864 has been edited over the years by Charles Pardon, John Woodcock and Matthew Engel, among others, and featured an entry on the trial of Charles I in its first edition?
Wisden
What’s the name of the mythological snake, also sometimes called a cockatrice, an example of which is killed by Harry Potter in The Chamber of Secrets?
Basilisk
Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are protozoan parasites that cause which disease, most common in the tropics and sub-tropics?
Malaria
Which jazz trumpeter was the subject of the 1988 film documentary Let’s Get Lost, released the year of his death?
Chet Baker
In 1844, the archtiects Eugene Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus were given the job of restoring which famous building?
Notre Dame
Mount Toubkal, rising to 13,670 feet or 4,167 m, is the highest peak of which mountain range?
Atlas
Which team sport, that can be played indoors or outdoors, was devised by William Morgan in 1895, supposedly for middle-aged men who found basketball too vigorous?
Volleyball
Many German princes were known as Electors, such as the Elector of Hanover - a title that referred to what special privilege or duty?
Choosing the Holy Roman Emperor
In which English country is the prehistoric monument known as the rollright stones?
Oxfordshire
Harald, son of Gorm the Old, who was King of Denmark in the 10th Century, was known by what name?
Bluetooth
In a painting is described as tondo, what shape must it be?
Round
Which publis school educated policeman, who also made his debut of radio, also appeared in the Eagle comic in the 1950s?
PC 49
A mobius strip is a band with only one face. What name is given to a bottle which is formed by passing the neck through the side to join a hole in the base, thus effectively creating a single side with neither an inside or outside
Klein bottle
Which item of food is thought to have been first displayed in England in the London shop window of Thomas Johnson on 10th April 1633?
Bananas
The names of which two signatories were generally used to identify a manfesto issued in London in July 1955, calling for scientists of the world to address together the problems of nuclear proliferation?
Russell-Einstein
In which TV series of the 1980s - set 20 minutes into the future - did the seriously injured investigative reporter Edison Carter have a copy of his mind downloaded onto a computer?
Max Headroom
Maud Gonne was a muse to which poet and visionary writer, his love for her inspiring some of his best known works?
WB Yeats
What is the name of the 264m tall volcanic neck in Wyoming in the USA, consisting of solidified lava, which was prominently featured in the Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
Devil’s Tower or Bear Lodge Butt
What name, derived from the Hebrew meaning formless thing or shapeless mass is given in Jewish legend to an artificially created being brought to life by supernatural means, and is also the title of a 20th century Gothic novel by Gustav Meyrinck?
Golem
Who commanded the joint French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar?
Villeneauve
What is the English alternative name for the Ruwenzori mountain range in East Africa?
Mountains of the Moon
Derived from an old Norse word, a Cleg is another name for which insect?
Horse-fly
The Guardian’s obituary of the film director Irvin Kershner, who died in November 2010, begins with the following sentence: Chosen to direct (X), he turned in one of the best sequels - and highest box office earners - of all time. Which film?
The Empire Strikes Back
From Fred Perry in 1936 to 1997, no British male tennis player had reached a Grand Slam singles final. Which player broke that 61 year drought?
Greg Rusedski
Having four valence electrons, which element forms the most known compounds?
Carbon
Clunton and Clunbury, Clungunford and Clun, are the quietest places, under the sun - are lines from a poem published in the 1890, nameing villages in which English county?
Shropshire
With which foreign secretary did Lord Castlereagh, the then Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, fight a duel on Putney Heath in 1809?
George Canning
Modern Tanzania consists of the former state of Tanganyika, along with three island. Pemba and Mafia are two; which is the third?
Zanzibar
Which TV weather forecaster was the subject of a novelty hit song by the Wearside band A Tribe Of Toffs in 1988?
John Kettley
Which battle of the Vietnam War, fought by the United States and South Vietnamese against North Vietnamese forces from 10th May until 20th May 1969, was made into a John Irvine directed film of 1987?
Hamburger Hill
The Arctic gets its name from Arktikos, the ancient name for a constellation, which in turn derives its name from the Greek word Arktos - meaning what?
Bear
Which Russian composer died on the same day as Joseph Stalin in 1953?
Sergei Prokofiev
What name is given to the specific speed an object must achieve as a minimum if it is rising against the pull of gravity so that it will not return to the object exerting the gravitational field?
Escape velocity
Which supposedly mystical word of seven Greek letters was used is ancient engravings on precious stones and amulets, and was used an album title by the rock group Santana
Abraxas
What word, taken from a name for the divine intoxicating drink of the gods in Hindu mythology, was used by Aldous Huxley for the drug that subdues the populace in the novel Brave New World?
Soma
In the game of backgammon, how many playing pieces are on the board at the beginning, in total?
30
In 1955, with Dutch artist created the children’s character known in English as Miffy the rabbit?
Dick Bruna
