Quiz 30

Question 1

Who won her first Best Actress Oscar at the ceremony in 1934 and her last in 1982?

Answer 1

Katherine Hepburn

Question 2

The Philadelphia-born novelist Owen Wister is credited with the creation of which genre of literature?

Answer 2

Western

Question 3

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?

Answer 3

Niagara rapids

Question 4

The porcupine is a member of which order of mammals?

Answer 4

Rodents

Question 5

Informally observed in Ireland on 6th October each year, Ivy Day commemorates the death in 1891 of which nationalist?

Answer 5

Charles Stewart Parnell

Question 6

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?

Answer 6

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Question 7

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?

Answer 7

Silhouette

Question 8

The study of how 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?

Answer 8

Statics

Question 9

Sak’art’velo is the local name for which former Soviet republic?

Answer 9

Georgia

Question 10

Who is the Greek god of the marriage ceremony, who also appears in the final scene of Shakespeare’s As You Like it?

Answer 10

Hymen

Question 11

Who published his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828?

Answer 11

Webster

Question 12

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 Premiership footballers?

Answer 12

Golden Triangle

Question 13

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?

Answer 13

Pangolin

Question 14

Complete this line from Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - “Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean…”

Answer 14

“…where’s it going to end?”

Question 15

Which position has been held by Trinle Gyatso and Thupten Gyatso, and is currently held by Tenzin Gyatso?

Answer 15

Dalai Lama

Question 16

A version of the Geneva Bible, first printed in 1579, is often known by which other less refined name?

Answer 16

Breeches Bible

Question 17

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?

Answer 17

Duran Duran

Question 18

The drug warfarin prevents blood clotting by inhibiting the action of which vitamin?

Answer 18

K

Question 19

In 1913, which Bengali poet and philosopher became the first Asian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature?

Answer 19

Rabindranath Tagore

Question 20

Knisper, Knasper, Knusper is the German equivalent of which famous advertising slogan?

Answer 20

Snap, Crackle, Pop

Question 21

The Bilby is a mammal native to what country?

Answer 21

Australia

Question 22

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?

Answer 22

Night scented stock

Question 23

Wodwo and Lupercal are among the original books of poetry published by which 20th century Poet Laureate?

Answer 23

Ted Hughes

Question 24

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?

Answer 24

Singularity

Question 25

Which product, invented by George de Mestral, is a contraction of the French for hooked velvet?

Answer 25

Velcro

Question 26

What is the screen name of Hungarian-born Laslo Lowenstein, 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?

Answer 26

Peter Lorre

Question 27

The Oort cloud, proposed by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in 1950, is composed of what?

Answer 27

Comets

Question 28

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”?

Answer 28

The opium of the people

Question 29

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?

Answer 29

Kilburn and the High Roads

Question 30

Which four European countries share a land border with Italy?

Answer 30

France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia

Question 31

The wild plant Rubus fruticosus and its variants, widespread in Britain, produce which commonly-eaten fruit?

Answer 31

Blackberry

Question 32

Who was the last British monarch to lead his troops in battle?

Answer 32

George II - Dettingen

Question 33

What is the national instrument of Japan, a 13-string zither similar to the Chinese Guzheng

Answer 33

Koto

Question 34

Vertigo is a medical condition causing dizziness, and is often associated with being in a high place, but what is the specific term for the fear of high places?

Answer 34

Acrophobia

Question 35

Released in 1937, which Marx Brothers film followed A Night At The Opera released some two years earlier?

Answer 35

A Day At The Races

Question 36

OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, was established as a permanent body in the 1960s in which South American city?

Answer 36

Caracas

Question 37

In the Mr Creosote scene from the film Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, what item of food finally makes the obese patron explode?

Answer 37

A wafer thin mint

Question 38

Which city and seaport of Norway has a medieval cathedral where Norwegian sovereigns have been crowned since early times?

Answer 38

Trondheim

Question 39

In which sport could you compete for the Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett?

Answer 39

Ballooning

Question 40

Which archangel, prominent in the story of Christ, is also the guide of the prophet Muhammad on his night journey or al-Miraj in Islamic belief?

Answer 40

Gabriel