Quiz 37

Question 1

When George Orwell left Eton, as Eric Blair, he became a policeman in a place that inspired his first novel. Where was that?

Answer 1

Burma

Question 2

In which European city did Yasser Arafat die in 2004?

Answer 2

Paris

Question 3

Kevin Keegan was voted European Footballer of the Year twice in 1978 and 1979, while playing for which club?

Answer 3

Hamburg SV

Question 4

The name of which forerunner of the trombone came from that of a hook used to pull a person off a horse?

Answer 4

Sackbutt

Question 5

Da xiong mao and Baixiong are Chinese names for which large mammal?

Answer 5

Panda

Question 6

How would you write the number 975 in Roman numerals?

Answer 6

CMLXXV

Question 7

The series of six long novels by Anthony Trollope published between 1864 and 1880, including Phineas Finn, The Eustace Diamonds and The Prime Minister, are known by what collective title?

Answer 7

The Pallisers

Question 8

The Battle of the Nile, fought off the Egyptian coast in 1798, is also known by what more geographically precise name?

Answer 8

Aboukir Bay

Question 9

What name is given to the garment worn by aviators and astronauts who are subject to high levels of acceleration force, designed to prevent blackouts and loss of consciousness?

Answer 9

G-Suit

Question 10

Walt Disney was awarded a Special Oscar for his work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. What physical form did the award take?

Answer 10

One full size and seven small statuettes

Question 11

The British artist Roger Dean is best known for the fantasy landscapes he created for the covers of Fragile, Tales from the Topographic Ocean, Close to the Edge and other albums recorded by which progressive rock band?

Answer 11

Yes

Question 12

According to the book of Ecclesiastes, “He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth…” what?

Answer 12

Sorrow

Question 13

The phrase Maunder Minimum refers to the period of reduced activity between 1645 and 1715 of which astronomical phenomenon, after the British astronomer Edward Maunder who drew attention to it?

Answer 13

Sunspots

Question 14

In which Italian city would you find the Torre Pendante?

Answer 14

Pisa

Question 15

In Newtonian physics, which Greek letter is used to denote the universal gravitational constant?

Answer 15

Gamma

Question 16

In the TV series first shown in 1997, who played Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Answer 16

Sarah Michelle Geller

Question 17

In French cuisine, a crepe is a pancake. But what is a crepinette?

Answer 17

Small sausage

Question 18

A plaque on a traffic island at the junction of Edgware Road and Bayswater Road in central London marks the site of which notorious place of execution?

Answer 18

Tyburn

Question 19

The city of Carrara, in the region of Tuscany known as the Lunigiana, is most famous for the production of what?

Answer 19

Marble

Question 20

The mining village of Bestwood in Sons and Lovers, and Beldover in Women in Love are thinly described depictions of DH Lawrence’s native village, a few miles from Nottingham. What’s it really called?

Answer 20

Eastwood

Question 21

In which Shakespeare play is Joan of Arc a character?

Answer 21

Henry VI part I

Question 22

Which 18th century Swiss born French revolutionary social philosopher, who is associated with the idea of the noble savage, did Isiah Berlin describe as the first militant low-brow?

Answer 22

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Question 23

The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith is an analysis of the background to which historical incident?

Answer 23

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Question 24

In 1993, mitochondrial DNA analysis of which member of the British Royal Family was used by scientists to confirm the identity of the remains of several members of Tsarina Alexandra of Russia’s family, decades after their 1918 massacre by the Bolsheviks?

Answer 24

Prince Philip

Question 25

Which familiar political term was created in reaction to a redrawing of the Massachusetts state election districts in 1812 under the then governor?

Answer 25

Gerrymandering

Question 26

What name is given to the science and philosophy of law?

Answer 26

Jurisprudence

Question 27

What room number - that of the apartment where he and his band were living at the time - provided the title of the 1928 tune Glenn Miller co-wrote with Benny Goodman, which is though to be Miller’s earliest composition?

Answer 27

Room 1411

Question 28

Adolf Hitler was known Der Fuhrer, Mussolini by Il Duce - what equivalent title was borne by General Franco?

Answer 28

El Caudillo

Question 29

Rising to just short of 20,000 feet, what is the highest peak in Canada?

Answer 29

Mount Logan

Question 30

What four letter word can mean both a young oyster and a tiff or dispute?

Answer 30

Spat

Question 31

Which silent film star, his acting career destroyed by scandal, went on to become a director under such names as William Goodrich?

Answer 31

Fatty Arbuckle

Question 32

Can you name two of the three distinct and basic patterns recognisable, to a forensic scientist, on a fingerprint?

Answer 32

Arch/Loop/Whorl

Question 33

What name is given to the migration by Boers, away from British control in the Cape Colony during the 1830s and 1840s?

Answer 33

The Great Trek

Question 34

Which novelist created the London private investigator Cormoran Strike, a former military policeman who lost a leg on a tour of service in Afghanistan?

Answer 34

Robert Galbraith or JK Rowling

Question 35

In 1599, which actor and comedian made a celebrated Morris dance from London to Norwich lasting 9 days?

Answer 35

William Kemp

Question 36

Where specifically in the human body would you find the frontalis muscle?

Answer 36

Forehead

Question 37

Which aromatic resin, obtained from trees and sometimes used in the production of perfumes, has the alternative name olibanum?

Answer 37

Frankincense

Question 38

Experimenting on dogs at Oxford in the 1660s, the physician Richard Lower conducted the first properly documented instance in Britain of which medical procedure?

Answer 38

Blood transfusion

Question 39

What was the name of the private press set up by the artist William Morris at Hammersmith in the 1890 to reproduce the quality of detail and decoration characteristic of books from the early years of printing?

Answer 39

Kelmscott press

Question 40

Which Canadian actor, whose movie credits include MASH and Don’t Look Now, appeared in the music video for Kate Bush’s hit song Cloudbusting in 1985?

Answer 40

Donald Sutherland