Quiz 29 Flashcards
In the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, which regnal number is applied to the queen Cleopatra, who ruled in two periods from 51BC to her death in 30BC?
VII
Guided walks from Arnside to Kents Bank cross which notoriously dangerous part of the British coastline?
Morecombe bay
Which mammal, common to the United States, has the taxonomic name Mephitis mephitis?
Skunk
What or who is assessed using an apgar score?
Newborn children
What technical term is applied to liquid precipitation which consists of drops with a diameter of between 0.2 and 0.5mm?
Drizzle
Which two Russian cities are the end-points of the Trans-Siberian Highway?
St Petersburg and Vladivostok
With a total of 31 by the time of his death in 1997, which orchestral conductor has won more Grammy Awards than any other artist?
Georg Solti
What is written without effort is generally read without pleasure, and No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money, are assertions attributed to which 18th century writer?
Johnson
The layout of the streets of which capital city was designed by the architect Pierre Chalres L’Enfant?
Washington DC
Which British magazine, founded by Budapest born Stefan Lorant in 1938, pioneered a style of photo-journalismm with a conscience that, in its heyday, attracted a huge readership?
Picture Post
Which explorer gave the Pacific Ocean its name?
Ferdinand Magellan
Which compound, once commonly used in the manufacture of felt hats, was responsible for the prevalence of St Vitus Dance and other neurological conditions among workers in the hat making industry?
Mercury
Who played the part of the Ringo Kid in the 1939 film western Stagecoach, directed by John Ford?
John Wayne
In the works of Homer, with Greek island is the home to Odysseus, the story about his delay in returning there being a key element of the epic?
Ithaca
Which motor sport developed in the US in the 1920s when cars were modified to enable moonshine runners to outpace the authorities during prohibition?
NASCAR
Which colour takes its name from the common term for hydrated basic copper aluminium phosphates?
Turquoise
In the 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabakov, what’s Lolita’s real first name?
Dolores
The subject of many of her husband’s portraits. Jacqueline Roque became the second wife in 1961 of which painter, then aged 79?
Pablo Picasso
As recounted in an old Scottish ballad, which hero was shipwrecked on his return voyage from Norway near the island of Papa Stronsay with everyone on board being lost?
Sir Patrick Spens
Drop, lancet, horseshoe, ogee and parabolic are all types of which architectural feature?
Arches
What two-word term, popularised as a disparaging phrase by George Bush Sr during his first Presidential election campaign, is often used for an ill-advised policy or promise to reduce taxes, while maintaining government spending levels?
Voodoo economics
Coverving just one square mile in area, what is the name of the small island located between Malta and Gozo?
Comino
Still used by some Scandinavians, which Swedish name served as the original official designation for the Finnish capital, Helsinki?
Helsingfors
Which private detective, created by Mickey Spillane, appeared in ten novels beginning with I, The Jury, in 1947?
Mike Hammer
The description of fox hunting as the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable first appeared in which play, first performed in 1893?
A Woman of No Importance
What was the title of the composition with which the English composer John Tavener first came to prominence in the late 1960s, a dramatic cantata on a Biblical theme released on the Beatles’ Apple label?
The Whale
All captive examples of which popular pet animal are thought to have descended from a female captured at Aleppo, Syria in 1930?
Hamster
Diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder in the 1950s, Christine Costner-Sizemore inspired which Hollywood film directed by Nennally Johnson in 1957?
The Three Faces Of eve
Ephelides is a medical term used to refer to which condition, associated in particular with a fair skin?
Freckles
Which prominent journalist and commentator was punched on live TV by the writer and musician Desmond Leslie in 1962?
Bernard Levin
In 1810, which German dramatist published Zur Farbenlehre, a scientific treatise on his theory of light and colour?
Goethe
What was the middle name of the 19th President of the United States, Warren G Harding?
Gamaliel
Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away, if your car could go straight upwards - an observation made in 1979 by which British astronomer whose works of science fiction began with The Black Cloud?
Fred Hoyle
Which form of alternative medicine has its origins in an Iowa magnetic studio where, in 1895, Daniel Palmer claimed to have restored a client’s hearing by realigning a vertebra in his spine?
Chiropractism
Which comet, first observed in 1786, has a period of about 3.3 years, and is the single most frequently observed of all such bodies?
Encke’s comet
Which influential and politically-radical New York hip hop band won acclaim for its albums It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and Fear Of A Black Planet, and was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012?
Public Enemy
Knights, Wasps, Clouds, Birds and Frogs all provide titles of plays by which Ancient Greek playwright?
Aristophones
The only authentic canvas of Jane Austen from life is to be found in the National Portrait Gallery. Who painted it?
Cassandra Austen
Which name, now more familiar in a medical sense, was used by the British scientist JJ Thomson to refer to the highly negatively-charged sub-atomic particles - now called electrons - whose existence he postulated in 1897 after experiments with cathode ray tubes
Corpuscles
The Order of the Elephant, founded in the first half of the 15th century, is the highest honour bestowed by which European country?
Denmark
