Quiz 48 Flashcards
The massive 20-novel sequence by Emile Zola set during the French Second Empire, whch includes such works as Nana, La Bete Humaine and Germinal, is often known collectively by the names of the two familes whose stories it traces. What are those names?
Rougon-Macquart
What was the name of the British cleric, a reader of Geology at Oxford University from 1818, who identifed the fossil bones of a prehistoric reptile that he called the Magalosaurus, the first dinosar to be given a scientific name?
William Buckland
In the periodic table, which hard, brittle, pinkish-white metal has, at 83, the highest atomic number of all the stable elements?
Bismuth
The contraction Interpol actually only utilises two of the four words in the organization’s name in English. What is the full four word name?
International Criminal Police Organisation
Which powerful poison is extracted from the seeds of the castor oil plant?
Ricin
When signing a letter in place of someone else, it is common to place the abbreviation pp before one’s signature. What to the letters pp strand for?
Per procuratiomen
Although derived from different sources, which term for an argument is the same as that for a short heavy arrow shot from a crossbow or arbalest?
Quarrel
Two pop groups, both with their origins in Sheffield, released hit albums with the title Hysteria within three years of each other in the 1980s. Which two?
Human League, Def Leppard
The word Eureka, which Archimedes reputedly exclaimed on lighting upon a hydrostatic method of assessing the amount of alloy in the crown of the King of Syracuse, was adopted as the motto of which US state?
California
Named after the 5th Marquis of Salisbury, the Salisbury doctrine or convention relates to what policy regarding the House of Lords?
Peers do not imdede manifesto legislation
Which contraversial novel of 1928 opens with the line: Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically?
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Which of the wives of Henry VIII died last, surviving until 1557?
Anne of Cleves
The children’s novels Dick Willoughby and The Otterbury Incident are the work of which British Poet Laureate?
Cecil Day Lewis
Taking its oxygen supply directly from the air, which part of the body uniquely has no blood supply?
Cornea
An exhibition of reclining nudes, judged obscene by Parisian police officials and shut down in 1917, was the work of which Italian painter?
Amadeo Modigliani
Which film of 1950 completes the director John Ford’s so-called Cavalry trilogy of westerns, the first two being Fort Apache in 1946 and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon in 1949?
Rio Grande
The Neandertal, the German valley in which skeletal remains discovered in 1856 proved to be those of a palaeolithic hominid, is cross by which river?
Dussel
Which colonial soft coral, with the scientific name Alcyonium digitatum, gets its popular name from its fleshy pink appearance?
Dead Men’s Fingers
Terry, who starred as Toto in the film The Wizard of Oz, was what breed of dog?
Cairn terrier
Computers routinely use USB connections and devices. What do the latters USB stand for?
Universal Serial Bus
The line Play up! Play up! And play the game comes from a poem called Vitai lampada by which Victorian poet?
Henry Newbolt
The novelist William Golding, the 19th century world heavyweight boxing champion Bob Fitzsimmons and the chemist and inventor Humphrey Davy were all born in which English county?
Cornwall
Which British artist was a founding father of the Pop Art movement and became famous for canvases incorporating collage, such as My Marylin and Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?
Richard Hamilton
Scofula, which affects the lymph glands, especially in the neck, and was once known as the King’s Evil, is a form of which chronic infectious disease?
Tuberculosis
What name is given to that region of the atmonsphere in contact with the Earth’s surface and which contains most of the clouds?
Troposphere
A salt lake in Western Australian called Dumbleyung became the centre of some attention on New Year’s Eve in 1964 - for what particular reason?
Donald Campbell’s water speed record
Which city in the former East Germany was known as Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1953 to 1990?
Chemnitz
Which British physical chemist, who pioneered research into atomic disintegration, also coined the term isotope?
Frederick Soddy
The annual rise in stream levels in cold climates brought ablout by melting snow is known by what name?
Freshet
The Venetian Renaissance painter Gorgio da Castelfranco is better known by which one-word name?
Giorgione
Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore achieved a notable first in 2009, by becoming the first female recruit to which well-known outfit in the British Armed Forces?
Red Arrows
Which famous sporting venue stands on h site of a failed venture to build a London rival to the Eiffel Tower?
Wembley
Can you name to two ships in which Captain Robert Scott sailed to the Antarctic for his expeditions there, the first taking place between 1901 and 1904, and the second, fatal, one from 1910 to 1912?
Discovery and Terra Nova
What term did the French theorist, actor and director Antonin Artaud coin to refer to his idea that theatre should communicate to its audience at a visceral level like a plague, rather than through words?
Theatre of Cruelty
Cockaigne, the name of an imaginary country of luxury and idleness, was sometimes given to which real city, in a play on words on the nickname of its inhabitants?
London
When Lord Salisbury left office as British Prime Minister in 1902, he was succeeded by his nephew. Who was that?
Arthur Balfour
Which wild plant, also called keck, that grows abundantly and spectacularly in British hedgerows in spring, has the Latin name Anthriscus sylvestris?
Cow parsley
In the Bible, who was the husband of Ruth, and became the great grandfather of King David?
Boaz
Which writer’s skit on Hamlet, entitled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, was given its first professional performance in 1892?
WS Gilbert
Claiming to be the chief of an Abyssinian tribe, under what name did racing tipster Peter Mackay become better known on British racecourses in the inter-war years?
Ras Prince Monolulu
