Set 03 Flashcards
Who is the current president of India, the first woman to hold the post?
Pratiba Patil
Which musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe consists largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations? It developed in the United States among Jewish immigrants.
Klezmer
Chaand Raat is a Hindi term meaning ‘Night of the Moon’ and is the rough equivalent to Christmas Eve in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is the eve of which festival?
Eid al-Fitr
What is the largest and oldest film studio in Europe, which is Russian?
Mosfilm
In 2007, the Vatican City became the world’s first carbon neutral state by planting a forest in which country?
Hungary
Which city? It is the capital and largest city in the country. A port on the Chari River, near the confluence with the Logone River, it directly faces the Cameroonian town of Kousséri, to which it is connected by a bridge.
N’Djamena
Which Japanese artist, whose work shows an obsession with repetition, is most famous for her polka-dot motifs, lives in a mental hospital in Tokyo, and currently holds the record for most expensive work by a living female artist?
Yayoi Kusama
What is the name of the arts prize awarded by the imperial family of Japan that is also known as the World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu?
Praemium Imperiale
What is the best-selling debut by legal thriller writer Scott Turow?
Presumed Innocent
In 2010, Solo by Rana Dasgupta won which prize?
Commonwealth Writers Prize
What is the name of the comedic oratorio that Eric Idle has written based on Life of Brian?
Not The Messiah
Werner Herzog’s film Bad Lieutenant is set in the aftermath of which real-life event?
Hurricane Katrina
Who appeared on British television on December 15, 2009, and said that rumours that she would be singing at an O2 concert in 2010 were not true. Instead, she said she will be doing a form of “speak singing”. Her subsequent performance was panned by critics?
Julie Andrews
Hugh Masekela is a singer from South Africa famous also for playing which other instrument?
Trumpet
Who now plays in a Polish quintet and transformed the South Bank into a ‘mini-Poland’ for his Polish weekend in May 2010?
Nigel Kennedy
Who was editor of Puffin Books between 1961 and 1979, and in 1967 founded the Puffin Club, which she ran until 1981? She was married three times, including to Ronald Searle.
Kaye Webb
Turner Contemporary is an arts centre in which seaside town due to open in 2011?
Margate
Anders Sparrman was a Swedish naturalist who accompanied which more famous man on his voyages of discovery?
Captain Cook
The MAC in Birmingham is a new visitor atraction. It is an acronym. What does MAC stand for?
Midlands Arts Centre
Who was the captain of the Mary Rose when it sank?
Sir George Carew
A famous quote from Nazi playwright Hanns Johst’s ‘Schlageter’ is ‘Whenever I hear of _____________… I release the safety catch of my Browning’?
Culture
Which member of the violin family is usually played pizzicato in a jazz context?
Double bass
Which adjective, from the Greek for ‘to hide away’ describes a story about somebody that may be of doubtful authenticity?
Apocryphal
What is the largest of the flatfishes?
Halibut
The H bone is a British cut of which meat?
Beef
Which poet is being quoted: ‘Milton, thou shouldst be alive at this hour’?
Wordsworth
Two islands in the Caribbean became independent from Spain in 1898. Cuba was one, which was the other?
Puerto Rico
Sir Norman Fumble is a scandal-prone MP in which comedy series?
Little Britain
Which man, known as ‘The Magnificent’, was the ruler of Florence during the renaissance?
Lorenzo de Medici
What is the name of the island on which Venice’s cemetery lies?
San Michele
Tungsten and which other metal are alloyed in the best quality darts?
Nickel
What is the Russian word for ‘self-boiling’?
Samovar
Whose last film was the 1966 ‘Walk, don’t run’?
Cary Grant
The word siesta is derived from the Latin word meaning what?
Sixth
What Latin word means a forecourt but now means an internal space between the outside door and the inside of a building?
Vestibule
Who played the Reverend Cleofus James in the Blues Brothers?
James Brown
Which plant related to the nasturtium has a similar peppery taste and grows in water?
Watercress
Which Greek philosopher wrote the Nicomachean Epics?
Aristotle
Myspace has acquired which online service that allows users to download and share music, founded by Ali and Hadi Partovi?
iLike
Michael and Xochi Birch founded which social networking site?
Bebo
What do the letters BEBO stand for?
Blog Early, Blog Often
Who became Secretary General of the Commonwealth in 2008?
Kamalesh Sharma
Which Canadian singer-songwriter is also known as a photographer?
Bryan Adams
Which French scientist, born in the c18, postulated the existence of black holes and gives his name to a differential equation in physics?
Pierre Laplace
Which character in the Canterbury Tales is associated with bagpipes?
The Miller
The Egoist and Diana of the Crossways are novels by which c19 author?
George Meredith
The Miracle of the Flowers and the Lady of the Rose are novels by which writer, born 1910?
Jean Genet
What was the Velvet Underground’s debut album called?
The Velvet Underground and Nico
A 2009 study by Oxford University showed that playing which computer game was effective in the treatment of PTSD?
Tetris
When Einstein learnt that his work had been used to create the atom bomb, he said that if he’d known that, he would have become a…..what?
Watch-maker
What is known as the Disease of Naples by the French?
Syphillis
What’s the name of the female protagonist of A Streetcar Named Desire?
Blanche Dubois
Which man, born in Black Notley, Essex, in 1627, is called the Father of English Natural History?
John Ray
Iron pyrites or ‘fool’s gold’ is a compound of iron and which non-metal?
Sulphur
Which organ links the endocrine system with the nervous system?
Hypothalamus
Three elements have two-letter abbreviations where the letters are consecutive in the alphabet. Cd (cadmium) and Mn (manganese) are two. Which is the third?
No (Nobellium)
Which 1973 novel by William Goldman tells of a farm hand named Westley’s relationship with a beautiful woman called Buttercup?
The Princess Bride
Who coined the phrase ‘Ulster will fight- Ulster will be right’?
Randolph Churchill
Which South Pacific nation switched to driving on the left in September 2009?
Samoa
Which are the only two South American countries that drive on the left?
Guyana and Surinam
The Dunlap Broadside and the Goddard Broadside were early versions of which document?
The US Declaration of Independence
Which former director of the Royal Ballet died of a heart attack in 1992 while backstage at Covent Garden during a production of Mayerling?
Sir Kenneth MacMillan
From the Latin ‘to listen’, what word means medical diagnosis based on listening to the sounds of the body, usually through a stethoscope?
Auscultation
In early 2010, L’Homme Qui Marche broke all records for a sculpute price when it was sold at auction for over £65m. Who did it?
Giacometti
Corrine Bailey Rae’s album The Sea was recorded in memory of her late husband, but what was his name?
Jason Rae
Most Fado songs express it in some way. What Portuguese and Galician word for a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which is lost often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might really never return?
Saudade
Which Czech band played a crucial role in ending Communism there in 1989 and are the subject of Tom Stoppard’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’?
The Plastic People of The Universe
Which Dutchman has played to millions with his ‘Johann Strauss Orchestra’?
Andre Rieu
A three-mile high column of cloud - visible from up to 100km away - will be projected from where in 2012 for 18 months. It’s one of twelve Arts Council commissions across the UK as part of the Cultural Olympiad?
Birkenhead
Which German composer is known for his political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his leftist politics and homosexuality and has produced compositions honoring Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara?
Hans Werner Henze
Which British writer is director of the charity Kids in Museums?
Dea Birkett
2009’s …And Another Thing, by Eoin Colfer, is the sixth book in which series that was originally started by someone else?
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
What is the name of Peter Biskind’s notorious biography of Warren Beatty?
Star
Mystery writer Walter Mosley created which black detective from Watts in Los Angeles, real first name ‘Ezekiel’?
Easy Rawlins
Who wrote the play of Enron?
Lucy Prebble
Which classical musical group is made up of three Catholic pastors, all from Northern Ireland. Fr Eugene and his brother Fr Martin O’Hagan. and Fr David Delargy have been singing together since they boarded as students?
The Priests
Which man, born in Rochester, NY, in 1927, is often described as ‘America’s greatest living poet’?
John Ashbery
Which two men, sentenced in Chicago in 1924 and defended by Clarence Darrow, attempted to commit the ‘perfect murder’ and their story is told in Patrick Hamilton’s ‘Rope’, also made into a Hitchcock film?
Leopold and Loeb
In Avatar, what is the name of the native species of Pandora?
Na’vi
Running in Heels was a US reality show in 2009 follwing three interns working at which magazine?
Marie Claire
Which man borrowed a first edition of Beckett’s work from Bermondsey library in 1950, and it was only returned, with a fine of £2000, after his death in 2009?
Harold Pinter
Which man, called ‘the Disney of computer games’, created Super Mario?
Shigeru Miyamoto
Joe McElderry was given ‘The Climb’ to sing at Christmas 2009, famously only getting to number two. Whose song was it originally?
Miley Cyrus
Which 2007 X-Factor runner up has released two classical crossover albums, under Simon Cowell’s tutelage?
Rhydian Roberts
Who directed the cult hit Donnie Darko?
Richard Kelly
Which terrible TV sitcom in 2009 about a travelling circus starred Amanda Holden and Tony Robinson?
Big Top
Who played Freddy Krueger?
Robert Englund
In the Catholic church, what is the first of the four stages to sainthood?
Servant of God
In the Catholic church, what is the second of the four stages to sainthood?
Venerable
In the Catholic church, what is the third of the four stages to sainthood?
Blessed
In Chile, ALMA is made up of 80 high-precision antennas that will transform our understanding of the physics of the ‘cold universe’. The cold universe is made up of regions that are optically dark to us but shine brightly in the millimetre portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. What does ALMA stand for?
Atacama Large Millimetre Array
Which Chinese breed of dog, once very rare but now more common, is known for its distinctive features of deep wrinkles and a blue-black tongue?
Shar Pei
Accurate to one second in about 3.7 billion years and developed by researchers at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), what is the world’s most accurate clock?
Aluminium Ion Clock
4 billion years ago, the Sun was far dimmer than it is now, but all the geological evidence is that the world was no colder then than now. What is the name of this paradox, first posed by Carl Sagan?
The Faint Young Sun Paradox
In early 2010, it was announced that massive extinct volcanoes had been found on the Pacific floor off Santa Barbara, CA. What are they made of?
Asphalt
Traditionally light can only be controlled on length scales down to a little below the wavelength of light, a few hundred nanometres, hence the usual resolution limit of optical microscopes and telescopes. However, a new paradigmis emerging, to control light below its wavelength limit. What’s the name of this new branch of physics?
Plasmonics
Which is the only SI unit that is still defined by an artifact rather than a fundamental physical property that can be reproduced in different laboratories?
Kilogram (based on the one in Sevres)
Which famous website started life as X.com?
PayPal
Which South African man co-founded PayPal and designed Falcon 1, the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit?
Elon Musk
Which famous actor’s screen debut was in Criss Cross, in 1949?
Tony Curtis
Who played Lily Munster in the Munsters?
Yvonne de Carlo
Which noun and adjective is given to materials, including paper, that have a negative Poisson’s ratio. When stretched, they become thicker. This occurs due to their hinge-like structures?
Auxetic
Satellite measurements have shown that which geographical feature of Antarctica, nicknamed PIG, has a greater net contribution of ice to the sea than any other ice drainage basin in the world and its rate of melt is accelerating unusually fast?
Pine Island Glacier
Caught off Iceland in 2007, what nickname has been given to a clam thought to be the world’s oldest animal, at 405-410 years old?
Ming (after the Chinese dynasty it was born during)
Scientists are trying to reduce the cost of photovoltaic cells by researching ones made of plastic, instead of which relatively expensive material that they have hitherto been made from?
Silicon
Which European Space Agency unmanned space mission to study the Earth’s magnetosphere using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation survived the loss of the first four in the Ariane 5 flight failure in1996, leading to the construction of four new spacecraft and their successful launching in 2000 on Soyuz-Fregat rockets?
The Cluster Mission
In a medical context, what does SCID stand for?
Severe Combined Immune Deficiency
Starting in Brookside, who is now more famous as Sam Ryan and Police Commander Claire Blake?
Amanda Burton
Who won three RL Grand finals in a row 2007-9?
Leeds Rhinos
What is the name of Vaughan Williams’ first symphony?
Sea Symphony
Which goddess is the mother of Zeus?
Rhea
Elvis Costello performs which Charles Aznavour song on the soundtrack of Notting Hill?
She
How many feet in diameter is the circle used to throw a hammer?
Seven
How many pounds is the steel ball in the hammer event?
Sixteen
In Ancient Greece, what name was given to the chief magistrate in ancient city-states?
Archon
In angling, what name is given to any freshwater fish that are not members of the salmon family?
Course fish
Who was the first artistic director of the National Theatre?
Lawrence Olivier
Who joined the Cabinet in 2004 as SoS for Education and left in 2008 as SoS for Transport?
Ruth Kelly
Which was the first town in England to owe its existence to the railway- it was built to ship coal from the Stockton and Darlington line?
Middlesbrough
By which of his wives was Claudius poisoned so that his son Nero would succeed?
Agrippina
What is the longest river entirely in Spain?
Ebro
Which British writer was nicknamed ‘Plum’?
P G Wodehouse
Doyenne de Commis is a variety of which fruit?
Pear
What name did Amy Williams give to her sledge?
Arthur
Which famous song was originally just the B-side to the single ‘Reason to Believe’?
Maggie Mae by Rod Stewart
Veronese’s real surname is also another Italian city- what?
Cagliari
Who directed Cathy Come Home?
Ken Loach
Who resigned as Chancellor following the 1967 devaluation?
Callaghan
Blue John mine in Derbyshire is near which village?
Castleton
Who broke the world records for the 1500m, 2000m and the mile in 1985?
Steve Cram
The name of which butterfly comes from the Latin for ‘dice box’ because of their spotted markings?
Fritillary
What section does a military band have that a brass band usually does not?
Woodwind
The Priest and the Angel of the Agony feature in which Elgar work, which he himself called ‘the best of me’?
Dream of Gerontius
Which Indian city was founded by Ram Das and has a name meaning ‘pool of immortality’?
Amritsar
What was the name of the operation ordered by Indira Gandhi to remove Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple at Amritsar, which itself triggered Gandhi’s own death at the hands of Sikh bodyguards?
Operation Blue Star
Which butterfly is known as a Mourning Cloak in America?
Camberwell Beauty
Baby-faced 35-year-old Andry Rajoelina became leader of which country in 2010?
Madagascar
The Devil’s Garden, so called by the Desert Rats, is still littered with unexploded ordnance that makes daily life a hazard for inhabitants. From which battle is this ordnance left over?
El Alamein
In which far-right community was Eugene Terreblanche killed in 2010?
Ventersdorp
What is the meaning of the Bantu word ‘ubuntu’?
Brotherhood
The Kristo Asafo, or Christ Reformed Church, founded by Apostle Asafo in 1971, is renowned for its investment in agriculture, manufacturing and industry in which African country?
Ghana
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene starts at the Bedford hotel, a thinly disguised version of The City hotel in which African capital?
Freetown
Which rather corrupt ex-leader of Zambia was cleared of all corruption charges against him in 2009?
Frederick Chiluba
The Boricua People’s Army is a guerilla organisation fighting with machetes for the independence of which territory?
Puerto Rico
The panga or tapanga in Southern Africa is what?
A machete
As of 2010, who is the president of Algeria?
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Which famous sporting event took place at the Tata Raphael Stadium, then called the 20th May Stadium?
The ‘Rumble in the Jungle’
Chinese investment in which country is bringing back to life the Benguela railway, one of Africa’s great rail routes?
Angola
A civil war in the north of which African country during the 2000s saw the Acoli people driven off their land?
Uganda
Before assuming power, Dmitri Medvedev was CEO of which huge company?
Gazprom
Which German socialist and co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany is best known for his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919?
Karl Liebknecht
Velasquez’s most famous Papal portraits were of which pope?
Innocent X
Monsignor James Horan is most associated with which Catholic location?
Knock (he built the airport and basilica)
In 2001, the government of which EU member state decriminalised recreational drugs including heroin and cocaine in an attempt to reduce the number of hard drug users in the country?
Portugal
In 2009, the Elgin Marbles debate reignited with the opening of which new museum?
Acropolis Museum, Athens
How is 9 Rue Git-le-Couer, immortalised in Harold Chapman’s photos, known?
The Beat Hotel
Oleg Deripaska, the notorious owner of the Queen K yacht, made his fortune from the trade in which element of the Periodic Table?
Aluminium
Ramzan Kadyrov is a 32-year old warlord appointed by Moscow to control which territory?
Chechnya
Mutri, or ‘thick-necks’ are the local mafia in which EU Member State?
Bulgaria
He has the shaved head, thick neck and massive shoulders of a wrestler, which is what he was, long ago. He was also a fireman, karate coach, bodyguard and top policeman. What is the name of the Bulgariam PM elected in 2009 on a promise to clean up corruption?
Boiko Borisov
Kuupik Kleist is the PM of which self-governing territory?
Greenland
Jobbik is a far-right anti-gypsy party in which EU member state?
Hungary
What is the capital of the Russian province of Tuva, reknowned for its throat-singers?
Kyzyl
What is the name of the self-built refugee camp at Calais that Afghans have created to replace Sangatte?
The Jungle
Which man won more chess championships (seven) than any other man?
Emanuel Lasker
What is the capital of Ingushetia?
Magas
Lange Anna is a guano-clad pillar of rock that is the main geographical feature of which European island?
Heligoland
Saborna Cathedral is the equivalent of St Peter’s Basilica for which branch of Christianity?
Serbian Orthodox Church
Which famous British poet’s wife was called Emily Sellwood?
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Who was the first man to call Britain ‘Great Britain’?
Dr John Dee
What was Tennyson’s last word, although other sources say it was ‘Oh that press will have me now’?
Hallam’
In 2005, soldiers opened fire on demonstrators in which Uzbek city, killing hundreds?
Andijan
What is the name of Sarkozy’s center-right party?
UMP
Gunter Demnig lays ‘Stolpersteine’, or ‘stumbling blocks’ in Berlin- small gold-coloured plaques. What do they each commemorate?
A Jew at the address murdered by Nazis
In 1998 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sent to jail for doing what in public?
Reciting an Islamic poem
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission started touring which country in 2009 to heal the scars of the ‘residential schools system’?
Canada
In Greek mythology, which wise king, the son of Zeus and Europa, gives his name to an adjective meaning ‘strictly and uncompromisingly just’?
Rhadamanthus (rhadamanthine)
Principle Voices is a campaign among residents of a certain US state for the Federal government to change the law and allow what?
Polygamy
Which American actor, first names John Leslie, began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family. In the interim, he sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers?
Jackie Coogan
In 2009, which company became the biggest industrial bankruptcy in the history of the US?
General Motors
Who was the influential President of GM in the 1920s?
Alfred P Sloan
In the USA, what name is given to a mixture of popcorn and peanut coated in toffee which is the baseball fan’s snack of choice?
Cracker Jack
What is the US equivalent of the British car boot sale?
A yard sale
What is the name of the salt flats in Bolivia, the world’s largest, which hold vast supplies of lithium below their surface?
Salar de Uyuni
Loved by right-wing Americans, and worn on a t-shirt by Timothy McVeigh, what is the end of Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote: ‘From time to time the tree of liberty must be….’?
Refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants
What is the name of the abandoned urban elevated rail line in NYC that has been converted to a new park?
The High Line
Why is Coromoto’s in Merida, Venezuela, in the Guinness Book of Records?
Ice-cream parlour selling 860 flavours
Which country is the world’s largest consumer of illegal drugs?
USA
Which factory in Cuba produces the world’s most expensive and refined brand of cigar?
Cohiba
What is the name of the state-run cigar supplier in Cuba?
Habanos
Which indigenous women in South America wear bowler hats as part of their traditional dress because, it is said, that a quick-witted salesman from Manchester sold them to them in the c19?
Aymara
Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald was played by Klaus Kinski, who was directed by Werner Herzog in which film about an Irishman who wanted to build an opera-house in Iquitos?
Fitzcarraldo
Gornik & Drucker are a long-established Beverley Hills company providing what service to the Hollywood stars?
Barbers
What was Hollywood’s first daily entertainment industry trade paper. It began as a daily film publication, then added television coverage in the 1950s. Its founder William Wilkerson was famous for his outspoken, outrageous views?
The Hollywood Reporter
What honourific title, similar to ‘Sir’, is given by Shia Muslims to the descendents of Mohammed through Fatima?
Sayyid
Which city south west of Tehran is sacred to Shias as it is the site of Fatima’s shrine and is the largest centre for Shia scholarship in the world?
Qom
What is the name of the largest faction of Shia muslims, taken from the number of Imams they believe to have existed?
Twelvers
When Stephen Fry fled the production of Cell Mates in a ‘fit of pique’ in 1995, which real-life man had he been playing in the film?
George Blake
What is the name of the Alan Bennett play about the relationship between Benjamin Britten and W H Auden?
The Habit of Art
Marli Renfro was whose body double in a particularly famous film scene?
Janet Leigh
