Quiz 30 Flashcards
Who won her first Best Actress Oscar at the ceremony in 1934 and her last in 1982?
Katherine Hepburn
The Philadelphia-born novelist Owen Wister is credited with the successful creation of which genre of literature
Western
Captain Matthew Webb was the first man to swim the English Channel, but he was drowned many years later in 1883 while attempting what feat?
Niagara rapids
The porcupine is a member of with order of mammals?
Rodents
Informally observed in Ireland on 6th October each year, Ivy Day commemorates the death in 1891 of which nationalist?
Charles Stewart Parnell
Although it’s now acknowledged as historically unreliable, if not pure fiction, the History of the Kings of Britain was for many centuries an important source of information about early British history, and provided Shakespeare with the story of King Lear. Which 12th century churchman was its author?
Geoffrey of Monmouth
The name of which 18th century French finance minister is commemorated in the term used to describe a type of profile portrait, at its peak of popularity immediately prior to the invention of photography?
Silhouette
The study of now force produces motion is known as Dynamics. What is the corresponding word for the study of how forces interact with each other to produce equilibrium?
Statics
Sak’art’velo is the local name for which former Soviet republic?
Georgia
Who is the Greek god of the marriage ceremony, who also appears in the final scene of Shakespeare’s As you Like it
Hymen
Who published his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828?
Webster
What nickname is shared by the most lucrative opium-growing region of South-East Asia and the part of Cheshire known for the elaborate homes of stockbrokers and Premiereship footballers?
Golden Triangle
Native to Africa and parts of Asia, which horny-plated edentate mammal, the only extant genus of the order Pholidota, is also known as the scaly anteater?
Pangolin
Complete this line from Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean
Where’s it going to end?
Which position has been held by Trinle Gyatso and Thupten Gyatso, and is currently help by Tenzin Gyatso?
Dalai Lama
A version of the Geneva Bible, first printed in 1579, is often known by which other less refined name?
Breeches Bible
Which British pop group, most successful during the early 1980s, had three members with the surname Taylor, none of them being related to one another?
Duran Duran
The drug warfarin prevents blod clotting by inhibiting the action of which vitamin?
K
In 1913, which Bengali poet and philosopher became the first Asian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature?
Rabindranath Tagore
Knisper, Knasper, Knusper is the German equivalent of which famous advertising slogan?
Snap, Crackle, Pop
The Bilby is a mammal native to what country?
Australia
What common name for the flowering plant Matthiola longipetula reflects its tendency to emit a sweet and heady odour after the sun has gone down?
Night scented stock
Wodwo and Lupercal are among the original books of poetry published by which 20th century Poet Laureate?
Ted Hughes
In astrophysics, what term is used for the likely source of the universe’s expansion according to the Big Bang theory, its existence predicted to occupy the space at the centre of a black hole - and that point in space-time at which the known laws of physics break down?
Singularity
Which product, invented by George de Mestral, is a contraction of the French for hooked velvet?
Velcro
What is the screen name of Hungarian-born Laslo Loewnstein, who first achieved international recognition as a child murderer in the 1931 film M, and went on to play a Japanese detective in eight Hollywood films between 1937 and 1939?
Peter Lorre
The Oort cloud, proposed by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in 1950, is composed of what?
Comets
In its original context, which sentence immediately follows this: Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of the heartless world and the soul of the soulless condition?
Opium of the people
The name of the group Ian Dury and the Blockheads is well-remembered, but early in his career Dury was featured in a band whose name drew affectionate inspiration from the streets of London. What was that name?
Kilburn and the High Roads
Which four EU countries share a land border with Italy?
France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia
The wild plant Rubus fruticosus and its variants, widespread in Britain, produce which commonly-eaten fruit?
Blackberry
Who was the last British monarch to lead his troops in the battle?
George II - Dettingen
What is the national instrument of Japan, a 13-string zither similar to the Chinese Guzheng
Koto
Vertigo is a medical conditoin causing dizziness, and is often associated with being in a high place, but what is the specific term for the fear of high places?
Acrophobia
Released in 1937, which Marx Brothers film followed A Night At The Opera released some two years earlier?
A Day At The Races
OPEC, the Organization of Petroluem Exporting Countries, was established as a permament body in the 1960s in which South American city?
Caracas
In the Mr Creosote scene from the film Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, what item of food finally makes the obese patron explode?
A wafer thin mint
Which city and seaport of Norway has a medieval cathedral where Norwegian sovereigns have been crowned since early times?
Trondheim
In which sport could you compete for the Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett?
Ballooning
Which archangle, prominent in the story of Christ, is also the guide of the prophet Muhammad on his night journey or al-Miraj in Islamic belief?
Gabriel
