Quiz 35

Question 1

Diego Maradona’s infamous Hand of God goal against England was scored in which city?

Answer 1

Mexico City

Question 2

Nevil and Shute were actually the forename and middle name of the author known for novels such as A Town Like Alice. His surname at birth was the name of a European country. Which one?

Answer 2

Norway

Question 3

Fenks, used as a manure and in the synthesis of Prussian blue pigment, is the waste from which animal product?

Answer 3

Whale Blubber

Question 4

Mahatma, the honorific title of Mohandas K Gandhi, means what in Sanskrit?

Answer 4

Great Soul

Question 5

Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus, Roman emperor from 37 to 41 AD, is better known by what name?

Answer 5

Caligula

Question 6

Which European politician was quoted in 1990 as saying of Margaret Thatcher that she had the eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe?

Answer 6

Mitterand

Question 7

If the chemical elements are arranged in alphabetical order, which comes first?

Answer 7

Actinium

Question 8

What surname is shared by the Danish composer of six symphonies, and an actor whose roles include Frank Drebin in Police Squad?

Answer 8

Neilson

Question 9

Which rocky location off he south-west coast of England has had lighthouses constructed upon it designed by, in turn, Henry Winstanley, John Rudyard, John Smeaton and James Douglas?

Answer 9

Eddystone Rocks

Question 10

Which animals are raced in the Sheikh Zayed International endurance race held at Hughenden in Queensland, Australia?

Answer 10

Camels

Question 11

In which London borough was the Tabard Inn, where Chaucer’s pilgrims set out from in the Canterbury Tales?

Answer 11

Southwark

Question 12

The so-called Saturn family of large US rockets was developed for the Apollo project by a team of scientists led by which aerospace engineer?

Answer 12

Werner von Braun

Question 13

In Roman Britain, what was the Classis Britannica?

Answer 13

Fleet in the English Channel

Question 14

Batrachophobia is an irrational fear of what kind of animals?

Answer 14

Amphibians

Question 15

The Northumberland National Park and Kielder Forest were given what official designation in December 2013, making them the largest so-designated area in Europe?

Answer 15

Dark Sky Park

Question 16

Mark Gatiss, Jeremy Dyson, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith were the writers and performers of which dark comedy series on British TV in the 1990s?

Answer 16

League of Gentlemen

Question 17

The Mezzotint, The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, and O Whistle and I’ll Come To You, My Lad, were among the ghost stories of which Biblical authority and Provost of Eton College, who died in 1936?

Answer 17

MR James

Question 18

In ancient Greece, what was a hoplite?

Answer 18

A soldier

Question 19

The British Labour Peer Baron Thompson, at the time the Secretary of State of Air, perished aboard which aircraft in 1930?

Answer 19

R101 Airship

Question 20

Which place, the Paris residence of French kings since the 16th century, of which only the gardens remain today, was destroyed by the Commune of 1871?

Answer 20

Tuilleries

Question 21

What title is usually given to the poem by Robert Browning which begins “Oh, to be in England/Now that April’s here”?

Answer 21

Home Thoughts From Abroad

Question 22

What was the Canadian airman Roy Brown’s claim to fame in the First World War?

Answer 22

Shot down the Red Baron

Question 23

What name is given to the lift which consists of a chain of open compartments moving continuously in a loop, allowing passengers to get on and off as they wish?

Answer 23

Paternoster

Question 24

Which is the only one of the five boroughs of New York City that’s on the mainland of the United States?

Answer 24

The Bronx

Question 25

The name of which film character - created in 1982 - might be represented in morse code by a single dot and a single dash?

Answer 25

ET

Question 26

All Human Life Is There was a slogan used to advertise which now-defunct national newspaper?

Answer 26

News of the World

Question 27

The coin known as a groat was minted in England from the 14th century until well into the 17th, and was worth how much money?

Answer 27

Fourpence

Question 28

Which variety of garden plant, a member of the primrose family, is commonly known as sowbread?

Answer 28

Cyclamen

Question 29

Which bestselling book of 1995 has the subtitle: The true story of the lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time?

Answer 29

Longitude

Question 30

Possibly originating in Norse mythology, what is the correct name for the three legged symbol that appears on the flag of the Isle of Man?

Answer 30

Triskelion

Question 31

1313 South Harbor Boulevard, Anheim, California is the postal address of what?

Answer 31

Disneyland

Question 32

Which Italian born queen became, in time, mother to three French kings, namely Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III?

Answer 32

Catherine de Medici

Question 33

What device for detecting subatomic particles and radiation was devised by CTR Wilson and first constructed in 1911?

Answer 33

Cloud chamber

Question 34

Which English novelist’s father was a professional cricketer who took four wickets in four balls for Kent against Sussex in 1862?

Answer 34

HG Wells

Question 35

Which American actor played the lead character Tony Soprano in the six seasons of the hit drama series The Sopranos?

Answer 35

James Gandolfini

Question 36

An annual summer folk music festival has been held since 1976 at Copredy in Oxfordshire, founded by which durable British folk band?

Answer 36

Fairport Convention

Question 37

What’s the name of the Japanese animation studio whose international successes have included films My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and The Red Turtle?

Answer 37

Ghibli

Question 38

What term, meaning to stay or live in the countryside, is used for the dismissal of a student from university on a temporary basis as a punishment?

Answer 38

Rusticated

Question 39

In which English county are the Neolithic flint mines known as Grimes Graves?

Answer 39

Norfolk

Question 40

Whose death was greeted by Spike Milligan with the immortal words, “Now I won’t have to have him singing at my funeral”?

Answer 40

Harry Secombe