Quiz 42

Question 1

In Norse mythology, Baldur, the son of Odin, was killed by which plant?

Answer 1

Mistletoe

Question 2

The 1970 Top Ten hit Up the Ladder to the Roof was significant in the career of The Supremes for what particular reason?

Answer 2

First without Diana Ross

Question 3

The Cambridge landmark The Bridge of Sighs, built across the River Cam in 1831, belongs to which college?

Answer 3

St Johns

Question 4

In computing, what does the acronym MIPS stand for?

Answer 4

Millions of Instructions Per Second

Question 5

Ike’s Pond and the Eisenhower Tree, both named after the 34th President of the United States, are notable features of which major American golf course?

Answer 5

Augusta

Question 6

Marie Laveau, who died in 1881, was a hairdresser with a salon in New Orleans. But what other, more sinister role did she play in the life of the city?

Answer 6

Voodoo priestess

Question 7

In 1876, Sir Henry Wickham brought seeds from the Amazon to Kew Gardens that subsequently were shipped to Sri Lanka and Malaysia to establish plantations producing which crop?

Answer 7

Rubber

Question 8

A progestogen is any of a group of steroid hormones that can maintain which condition in humans and other mammals?

Answer 8

Pregnancy

Question 9

In simple terms, if an object is described as Quaquaversal, in which direction does it point?

Answer 9

Every direction

Question 10

Samphire, also known as glasswort, pickleweed, marsh or rock samphire among the other names, has a name in French that associates it with which saint?

Answer 10

St Peter

Question 11

Which Hebridean island has three distinctly-shaped rocky mountains rising from its western side, known as The Paps?

Answer 11

Jura

Question 12

Who was the father of Henry IV of England?

Answer 12

John of Gaunt

Question 13

Although the first of the official Carry On series of movies was Carry On Sergeant in 1958, a year earlier a British comedy film with a nautical theme had appeared with the words Carry On in the title, featuring David Tomlinson, Ronald Shiner and Joan Sims. What was it called?

Answer 13

Carry on Admiral

Question 14

Following the break-up of the USSR, which city in Belarus was designated as the administrative centre of the alliance of twelve former Soviet republics known as the Commonwealth of Independent States?

Answer 14

Minsk

Question 15

Captain Bill Turner was the last captain of which vessel?

Answer 15

Lusitania

Question 16

Which Latin term is used to refer to that form of logical fallacy when an argument is attacked or rebutted essentially on the grounds of some perceived personal flaw or circumstance of its proponent?

Answer 16

Ad Hominem

Question 17

Which fishing village in eastern Germany was the location for German rocket development under Werner von Braun during World War II?

Answer 17

Peenemunde

Question 18

The works of which Victorian artist, confined for much of his life to asylums, include The Fairy Feller’s Masterpiece?

Answer 18

Richard Dadd

Question 19

The pair of giant sculptures by Andy Scott at Falkirk in Scotland, The Kelpies, were inspired by water spirits in Scottish folklore reputed to haunt rivers and lakes - and taking the form of which creature?

Answer 19

Horses

Question 20

Which grey-white metal, discovered in 1803 by the English chemist Smithson Tennant, is the densest naturally occurring element?

Answer 20

Osmium

Question 21

Which snooker player, one of the two brothers who dominated the game from 1927 until 1956, won the World Billiards Championship in 1980 and 1981 in his late 60s?

Answer 21

Fred Davis

Question 22

Which present day African capital city was named Fort Salisbury by the British, after the Prime Minister who was in office when it was founded?

Answer 22

Harare

Question 23

Which practice - sometimes used in alternative medicine to induce analgesia - was given its modern name by the British physician and surgeon James Braid in the mid 19th century?

Answer 23

Hypnotism

Question 24

Known variously as the Little Magician and the Sly Fox, among other nicknames, who was the first US President to be born a citizen of the United States?

Answer 24

Van Buren

Question 25

Which Greek god granted Midas his wish that everything he touched would turn to gold?

Answer 25

Dionysus

Question 26

In the sixth Harry Potter novel and film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when Dumbledore and Harry call at the home of the former Hogwarts Potions master Horace Slughorn, they find him trying to hide by disguising himself as what?

Answer 26

Chair

Question 27

Used as a pigment, vermilion is a bright red sulphide of which element?

Answer 27

Mercury

Question 28

A huge plaster monument on the site of the Bastille in Paris, which stood for more than thirty years in the early 19th century and plays a role in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, was in the shape of what animal?

Answer 28

Elephant

Question 29

Who said in 1945, “The war has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage”?

Answer 29

Emperor Hirohito

Question 30

For what is the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Award given in the USA?

Answer 30

Children’s literature

Question 31

What name is given to the cheaper spectator benches at an American sports stadium, a name derived from the fact their occupants often sit uncovered and in sunshine?

Answer 31

Bleachers

Question 32

The Fosse Way and Ermine Street are Roman roads that were built to run northwards from the South of England to meet at which city?

Answer 32

Lincoln

Question 33

What was the name of the US space station launched into Earth orbit in May 1973?

Answer 33

Skylab

Question 34

Prominent in Gothic buildings of the Middle Ages, the curved angle formed by the intersection of two vaults of arches is usually known by which architectural term?

Answer 34

Groin

Question 35

Edith Head, who died in 1981, holds the record as the woman who has won most Oscars, with a total of eight - in which category were her successes?

Answer 35

Costume

Question 36

Which dog breed, originating in Germany, shares its name with the German name for a moustache, more specifically a walrus moustache?

Answer 36

Schnauzer

Question 37

In the verse by Rudyard Kipling in Just So Stories, “I keep six honest serving men/They taught me all I knew” - can you name them?

Answer 37

How and why and where and when and what and who

Question 38

Which general and politician was in charge of Poland during the 1981 crisis involving the trade union Solidarity, placing the country under martial law, outlawing Solidarity and ordering the arrest of its leaders?

Answer 38

Wojciech Jaruzelski

Question 39

Which of the Beatles was the youngest?

Answer 39

George