Quiz 29

Question 1

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?

Answer 1

VII

Question 2

Guided walks from Arnside to Kents Bank cross which notoriously dangerous part of the British coastline?

Answer 2

Morecambe Bay

Question 3

Which mammal, common to the United States, has the taxonomic name Mephitis mephitis?

Answer 3

Skunk

Question 4

What or who is assessed using an Apgar score?

Answer 4

Newborn children

Question 5

What technical term is applied to liquid precipitation which consists of drops with a diameter of between 0.2 and 0.5mm?

Answer 5

Drizzle

Question 6

Which two Russian cities are the end-points of the Trans-Siberian Highway?

Answer 6

St Petersburg and Vladivostok

Question 7

With a total of 31 by the time of his death in 1997, which orchestral conductor had won more Grammy Awards than any other artist?

Answer 7

Georg Solti

Question 8

“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?

Answer 8

Samuel Johnson

Question 9

The layout of the streets of which capital city was designed by the architect Pierre Chalres L’Enfant?

Answer 9

Washington DC

Question 10

Which British magazine, founded by Budapest born Stefan Lorant in 1938, pioneered a style of photo-journalism with a conscience that, in its heyday, attracted a huge readership?

Answer 10

Picture Post

Question 11

Which explorer gave the Pacific Ocean its name?

Answer 11

Ferdinand Magellan

Question 12

Which element, 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?

Answer 12

Mercury

Question 13

Who played the part of the Ringo Kid in the 1939 film western Stagecoach, directed by John Ford?

Answer 13

John Wayne

Question 14

In the works of Homer, which Greek island is the home to Odysseus, the story about his delay in returning there being a key element of the epic?

Answer 14

Ithaca

Question 15

Which motor sport developed in the US in the 1920s when cars were modified to enable moonshine runners to outpace the authorities during prohibition?

Answer 15

NASCAR

Question 16

Which colour takes its name from the common term for hydrated basic copper aluminium phosphates?

Answer 16

Turquoise

Question 17

In the 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, what’s Lolita’s real first name?

Answer 17

Dolores

Question 18

The subject of many of her husband’s portraits. Jacqueline Roque became the second wife in 1961 of which painter, then aged 79?

Answer 18

Pablo Picasso

Question 19

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?

Answer 19

Sir Patrick Spens

Question 20

Drop, lancet, horseshoe, ogee and parabolic are all types of which architectural feature?

Answer 20

Arches

Question 21

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?

Answer 21

Voodoo economics

Question 22

Covering just one square mile in area, what is the name of the small island located between Malta and Gozo?

Answer 22

Comino

Question 23

Still used by some Scandinavians, which Swedish name served as the original official designation for the Finnish capital, Helsinki?

Answer 23

Helsingfors

Question 24

Which private detective, created by Mickey Spillane, appeared in ten novels beginning with I, The Jury, in 1947?

Answer 24

Mike Hammer

Question 25

The description of fox hunting as “the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable” appeared in which play, first performed in 1893?

Answer 25

A Woman of No Importance

Question 26

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?

Answer 26

The Whale

Question 27

All captive examples of which popular pet animal are thought to have descended from a female captured at Aleppo, Syria in 1930?

Answer 27

Hamster

Question 28

Diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder in the 1950s, Christine Costner-Sizemore inspired which Hollywood film directed by Nennally Johnson in 1957?

Answer 28

The Three Faces Of Eve

Question 29

Ephelides is a medical term used to refer to which condition, associated in particular with a fair skin?

Answer 29

Freckles

Question 30

Which prominent journalist and commentator was punched on live TV by the writer and musician Desmond Leslie in 1962?

Answer 30

Bernard Levin

Question 31

In 1810, which German dramatist published Zur Farbenlehre, a scientific treatise on his theory of light and colour?

Answer 31

Goethe

Question 32

What was the middle name of the 19th President of the United States, Warren G Harding?

Answer 32

Gamaliel

Question 33

“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?

Answer 33

Fred Hoyle

Question 34

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?

Answer 34

Chiropractic

Question 35

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?

Answer 35

Encke’s comet

Question 36

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?

Answer 36

Public Enemy

Question 37

Knights, Wasps, Clouds, Birds and Frogs all provide titles of plays by which Ancient Greek playwright?

Answer 37

Aristophanes

Question 38

The only authentic canvas of Jane Austen from life is to be found in the National Portrait Gallery. Who painted it?

Answer 38

Cassandra Austen

Question 39

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?

Answer 39

Corpuscles

Question 40

The Order of the Elephant, founded in the first half of the 15th century, is the highest honour bestowed by which European country?

Answer 40

Denmark