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GK 3
Quiz
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Semantics is the branch of logic concerned with what? | Meaning |
| Which Northumberland castle, located between Craster and Embleton, is closely associated with the legend of Guy the Seeker? | Dunstanburgh Castle |
| Whose poem is "The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket"? | Robert Powell |
| Which poem did Milton write about the drowned fellow poet Edward King? | Lycidas |
| What was England's second-largest and second-most commercially important city for the bulk of the 14th century? | Norwich |
| Which sea battle was fought on 24 June 1340 as one of the opening salvoes of the 100 Years War? | Sluys |
| In which county are Chipchase and Belsay Castles? | Northumberland |
| In England, often associated with the wool trade, what European historiography term refers to the entire medieval system of trade and its taxation? | Staple |
| The narrator of Anthony Burgess's 'Earthly Powers' is generally held to have been a lampoon or caricature of which real-life author? | W Somerset Maugham |
| Maria Edgeworth is a character in which literary work? | Castle Rackrent |
| In which play does the line "to thine own self be true" appear? | Hamlet |
| In which Graham Greene novel is Scobie a character? | The Heart of The Matter |
| Paul Morel is the protagonist of which novel? | Sons and Lovers |
| Gerald Crich appears in which DH Lawrence novel? | Women In Love |
| Stephen Blackpool is the hero of which Dickens work? | Hard Times |
| Which fictitious Northern city is scene of much of the action in 'Hard Times'? | Coketown |
| In which novel is Paul Pennyfeather a character? | Decline and Fall (Waugh_ |
| In which century was the Sorbonne founded? | 13th (1253) |
| Dorothea Brooke appears in which classic novel? | Middlemarch |
| In a church, what is the chancel? | The space around the altar at the liturgical East end of a church. |
| Give a year in the reign of Philip II (Phillipe Auguste) of France. | 1180-1223 |
| Which perfume house introduced the 'Gentleman' brand in 1974? | Givenchy |
| Which word can refer to a bomber aircraft, a radio call sign and the Z-Cars code-name? | Victor |
| What was Eleanor Thornton the model for in 1911? | The Spirit of Ecstasy |
| Liverworts and green leaves are both rich in which vitamin group, including retinol, retinal, retinoic acid? | Vitamin A |
| Which Englishman designed the first modern steam turbine in 1884? | Parsons |
| Which foodstuff is prepared from Hydrocarbon toluene? | Saccharine |
| Which company made the 'Forester' car model? | Subaru |
| Which American first used the term 'torpedo' for a naval explosive? | Fulton |
| Which element is atomic number 9? | Fluorine |
| Highland Dirks and Stilettos are both types of what? | Daggers |
| Fish-oils and egg yolk are both rich in which Vitamin? | Vitamin D |
| Plasterers and Diggers are both types of what sort of insect? | Wasps |
| How long is a vicennial? | Every 20 years |
| What name is given to a female badger? | Sow |
| If a male cat is a tom, what is a female? | Queen |
| A musquash fur comes from which animal? | Musk Rat |
| What was unusual about the UK Nobel Prize Winner stamps issued in 2001? | Scented |
| What type of animals are cervidae? | Deer |
| The first UK self-adhesive stamps depicted what? | Cats |
| Gypsum is more correctly known by what chemical name? | Hydrated calcium sulphate |
| What is the chemical symbol of promethium? | Pm |
| Which Miletus-born Presocratic philosopher is sometimes called 'The Father of Science'? | Thales |
| The quagga is a subspecies of which animal? | Zebra |
| Which class of subatomic particles is named from the Greek for 'heavy'? | Baryons |
| Which Ancient Greek astronomer both discovered the precession of the equinoxes, and may have compiled the first star catalogue? | Hipparchus |
| Which kitchen appliance did Denis Papin introduce in 1679? | Pressure Cooker |
| Which vitamin deficiency causes beri-beri? | B1 |
| Which class of subatomic articles is named from the Greek for 'thick'? | Hadrons |
| In which year were self-adhesive stamps introduced to the UK? | 2001 |
| Which type of creature has the largest brain relative to body size yet known? | Ant |
| Asparagus, leeks and tulips are all part of which plant family? | Lily |
| Archangel and Havana Brown are both breeds of what animal? | Cat |
| Which mathematician is (possibly fancifully) often credited with inventing roulette wheels? | Blaise Pascal |
| Wemmick and Jaggers appear in which Dickens book? | Great Expectations |
| What is a furbelow? | a gathered strip or pleated border of a skirt or petticoat |
| What type of window is attached to its frame by one or more hinges? | Casement |
| Which palace, demolished and rebuilt in the 1930s, faces the Eiffel Tower across the Seine? | Trocadero |
| Which river runs through Bangui? | Ubangi |
| Which US author (1900-98) was the only foreign member of the Academie Francaise? | Julian Green |
| Which French painter ((3 October 1803 – 8 January 1869) participated in the July 1830 revolution? | Paul Huet |
| What was the profession of Jean Henri Riesener, who served the French monarchy in this capacity? | Cabinet-maker |
| Baccarat and Saint-Louis are both makers of what? | Crystal |
| Herbert Pocket and Mr Pumblechook both appear in which Dickens novel? | Great Expectations |
| Mr Brownlow features in which Dickens novel? | Oliver Twist |
| Who wrote "A Spy In The House Of Love"? | Anais Nin |
| How was Paris known to the Romans? | Lutetia |
| Which French poet ((30 October 1762 – 25 July 1794) was guillotined in the Revolution? | Chenier |
| What is a madrigal? | A secular vocal music composition |
| Which execrable poet wrote "The Railway Bridge Of The Silvery Tay"? | McGonagall |
| Agate is a variety of which mineral? | Silica |
| Which female American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts, posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926? | Amy Lowell |
| Which poet wrote "Atalanta in Calydon"? | Swinburne |
| Whose novel was "The Republic Of Love"? | Carol Shields |
| In which novel is Quilty a character? | Lolita |
| In which city is the Carnavalet Museum? | Paris |
| Who is the male protagonist of Nabokov's "Lolita"? | Humbert Humbert |
| What were Hamlet's last four words? | "The Rest Is Silence" |
| What were the last recorded words of Steve Jobs? | "Oh wow, Oh Wow, Oh Wow" |
| Which US poet's major work "The Bridge" was inspired by Eliot's "The Waste Land"? | Hart Crane |
| Elizabeth Bishop and John Berryman attained fame in which field? | Poetry |
| Whose work, Revelations of Divine Love, is the first published book in the English language to be written by a woman? | Julian of Norwich |
| Which US modernist poet wrote "Anecdote of the Jar", "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock", "The Emperor of Ice-Cream", "The Idea of Order at Key West", "Sunday Morning", "The Snow Man", and "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"? | Wallace Stevens |
| What was the adopted name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin? | Moliere |
| Which Pope was brought to Paris as a prisoner in 1810 following Napoleon's invasion of the Papal States? | Pius VII |
| The Tuilieres were burned down in an 1871 rising by which French group? | Communards |
| Which Christian theologian (1380-1471) wrote "The Imitation Of Christ"? | Thomas A Kempis |
| Which French King, who reigned from 1422-61, was the monarch on the throne throughout Joan of Arc's life? | Charles VII |
| Which religious order were revived in the late 15th century by Pope Alexander VI for the express purpose of guarding the tomb of Christ? | Knights Of The Holy Sepulchre |
| Étienne-Louis Boullée and Claude Nicolas Ledoux were noted in which field? | Architecture |
| Who wrote "La Venus D'Ille" in 1837? | Prosper Merimee |
| Which French poet (11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was called the "prince of poets"? | Pierre de Ronsard |
| Albert Lebourg was a French painter belonging to which school? | Rouen school |
| Which architect designed the 1910 Steiner House in Vienna? | Adolf Loos |
| Sir John Soane's Museum in London is dedicated to what? | Architecture |
| King's College Chapel in Cambridge is an example of which specific architectural style? | Perpendicular Gothic |
| Which English scholar, born at Colerne, Wiltshire, was a friend of Erasmus? | William Grocyn |
| Which humanist scholar and physician (1460-1524) has an Oxford college named for him | Thomas Linacre |
| Which English scholar, Renaissance humanist, theologian and educational pioneer became Dean of St Pauls in 1504? | Colet |
| What was the name of the Gloucester street where Fred and Rose West lived, where they murdered several young women? | Cromwell Street |
| Which Bible was the first English translation to work directly from Hebrew and Greek texts? | Tyndale Bible |
| In medieval times gentry who believed that they were men of their local Lord rather than the King were given what name? | Retainers |
| Cabot's voyage to Newfoundland took place during which monarch's reign? | Henry VIII |
| What is a mountebank? | A swindler or confidence trickster |
| During which years did the Dissolution of the Monasteries take place? | 1536-9 |
| In which English county is Berkhamsted castle? | Hertfordshire |
| By what collective name were the English figures Cranmer, Latimer, Tyndale and Coverdale known? | Cambridge Reformers |
| What is a convocation? | A group of people brought together for a specific (often ecclesiastical or academic) reason |
| Which English antiquary (1503 – 18 April 1552)'s most famous work was 'Itinerary'? | John Leland |
| Which two English martyrs were burned at the stake in Oxford on 16th October 1555? | Latimer & Ridley |
| Which Englishman, famous for his Bible translation, was in 1536 convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake? | Tyndale |
| In which year was the Pilgrimage of Grace? | 1536 |
| Which public school was founded by the yeoman John Lyon? | Harrow |
| In which 1549 uprising in Norfolk were 20,000 sheep slaughtered in protest at the use of land for pasture? | Kett's Rising |
| What name is given to the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist? | Solipsism |
| Roughly how long ago did the hominid Australopithecus live? | 4-2 million years ago |
| Where was Giordano Bruno burned in 1600? | Rome's Campo Dei Fiori |
| Where is the Pope's summer residence? | Castel Gandolfo |
| In which town or city was Copernicus born in 1473? | Torun, Poland |
| Which work by Ptolemy contained his famous (but erroneous) geocentric model of the universe? | Almagest |
| In which unpublished 1510 manuscript did Copernicus first outline his heliocentric model of the solar system? | Commentariolus |
| Which six-volume work of 1543 was Copernicus' published work stating his heliocentric beliefs? | De Revolutionibus |
| How is the Arab polymath Ibn Al-Haytham's name usually Anglicised? | Alhazen |
| Which seminal work in the history of science was published on 5th July 1687? | Newton's 'Principia' |
| Who first measured the Gravitational constant in 1798 using lead balls and a torsion balance? | Henry Cavendish |
| The famous 'Blue Marble' photo of Earth was taken on Christmas Eve 1968 by which Apollo mission? | Apollo 8 |
| Who said, after Martin Luther King's assassination that it was time to "tame the savageness of man make gentle the life of this world"? | Robert Kennedy |
| Name any of the three Apollo 8 astronauts. | Lovell, Borman, Anders |
| Which mathematician (1784-1846) systemised eponymous functions which are used in spherical and cylindrical geometry? | Friedrich Bessel |
| What name is given to the apparent movement of an object caused by viewing it from two different spatial locations? | Parallax |
| Who wrote "The end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time"? | TS Eliot |
| Name any of the Apollo 7 astronauts. | Schirra, Eisele, Cunningham |
| Which Arab (965-1040) mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who made significant contributions to the principles of optics, astronomy, mathematics, meteorology, visual perception and the scientific method? | Alhazen |
| Which scientific constant is equal to 6.673×10−11 N·(m/kg)2? | Gravitational constant |
| What is 'parsec' short for? | Per Arc Second |
| Which space telescope was launched on the 19th December 2013? | Gaia |
| Which female American astronomer discovered the relation between the luminosity and the period of Cepheid variable stars? | Henrietta Leavitt |
| The Oxford Apartments where Jeffrey Dahmer lived were in which city? | Milwaukee |
| Which Canadian-American retired stage magician and scientific sceptic is best known for his challenges to paranormal claims and pseudoscience? | James Randi |
| Which term, coined by Paul Geisert, is used for people who have a naturalistic view of the world? | Brights |
| What ritual did Barack Obama always perform on the morning of elections he was running in? | Play basketball |
| What is the home stadium of the Chicago Cubs? | Wrigley Field |
| What was the name of the Coronation Street character, played by Julie Hesmondhalgh, who was the first transsexual to appear on a British serial? | Hayley Cropper |
| What was the name of the wheelchair-bound boss in 'The Avengers'? | Mother |
| Which TV series about the TA was set in Roker Bridge? | Preston Front |
| Who produced the film 'Chariots of Fire'? | Puttnam |
| Who said "some women get excited about nothing - and then they marry him"? | Cher |
| What was the last Hammer film before 2010' "Let Me In" - it was released in 1976? | To The Devil....A Daughter |
| Who played the lead role in the 1960 movie "Curse Of The Werewolf"? | Oliver Reed |
| Michael Balcon became the main producer at which film studios in 1937? | Ealing |
| At which film studios was the majority of filming for both "Star Wars" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" done? | Elstree |
| Which pop star said "I would rather have a cup of tea than go to bed with someone"? | Boy George |
| Who took over from Ned Sherrin as the host of "Counterpoint"? | Paul Gambaccini |
| Which actress won an Emmy for portraying Carmela in "The Sopranos"? | Edie Falco |
| Michael Douglas movie "A Perfect Murder" was a remake of which far-superior film? | Dial M For Murder |
| Fay Ripley played Jenny Gifford in which British TV series? | Cold Feet |
| Sweet Sue and her Syncopators appear in which film? | Some Like It Hot |
| Who played the children's father in "The Sound Of Music"? | Christopher Plummer |
| Marilyn Monroe made a breakthrough playing Angela Phinlay in which 1950 film? | The Asphalt Jungle |
| The film "2001: A Space Odyssey" was based on which Arthur C Clarke short story? | The Sentinel |
| Which British film and TV studios were originally called Neptune Studios? | Elstree |
| What is considered to be the first British "talkie" movie? | Blackmail |
| Who directed "Blackmail", the first British talkie? | Hitchcock |
| Who first hosted "Call My Bluff"? | Robin Ray |
| Which actor played Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With The Wind"? | Leslie Howard |
| Which actor played the titular role in "Young Mr Lincoln"? | Henry Fonda |
| Which Northern UK comedian used the catchphrase "daft as a brush"? | Ken Platt |
| Which 'Educating Archie' actress used a catchphrase on the show "My Name Is Monica"? | Beryl Reid |
| Which TV production company makes "Harry Hill's TV Burp" and "Russell Howard's Good News"? | Avalon |
| What name did the woman born Harlean Carpentier adopt when she became a movie star? | Jean Harlow |
| Which TV series starred Maureen Lipman as Jane Lucas? | Agony |
| What shape is Ely's Cathedral tower? | Octagonal |
| English Heritage was founded in which year? | 1983 |
| The Chingford Hunting Lodge, used by Elizabeth I, lies in which forest? | Epping |
| In which county is Epsom? | Surrey |
| Which sculptor was responsible for the 18 nudes that decorate the British Medical Association building? | Epstein |
| In which county is Eton? | Berkshire |
| Which Brazilian city is capital of Rio Grande Do Sul, and is home to the Gremio team? | Porto Alegre |
| In which state is the Andrews Air Force Base, often used by the US President? | Maryland |
| For administration purposes, into which smaller unit are US states divided? | Counties |
| Which Northern Irish river rises in the Mountains of Mourne and runs to Lough Neagh, the longest river wholly in Ulster? | Bann |
| Hamley's Toy Store is on which London thoroughfare? | Regent Street |
| Fort William lies at the North-East end of which loch? | Loch Linnhe |
| Which NW Scottish fishing village and ferry port is on Loch Broom? | Ullapool |
| Where in Dublin does the Irish National Parliament meet? | Leinster House |
| What is London's oldest mainline station? | Euston |
| As of 2009-14, how many MEPs does the UK have? | 78 |
| The River Lea - which runs through a nation's capital - is a tributary of which larger river? | Thames |
| What is the county town of Devon? | Exeter |
| Exmoor lies in which two counties? | Somerset and Devon |
| What is the highest point of Exmoor? | Dunkery Beacon |
| What does 'combe' mean? | Valley |
| Which three provinces of Ulster are part of the Republic of Ireland? | Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan |
| Uppark is in which English county? | West Sussex |
| Uppark, West Sussex, is a town amidst which range of hills? | South Downs |
| Ickworth in Suffolk is home to which British Earl? | Earl of Bristol |
| The German word 'hemweh' is usually translated into English as what? | Homesickness |
| Which is the Northernmost of the Great Lakes? | Superior |
| Which aviator has Sydney's Airport been named for? | Kingsford-Smith |
| What type of structure is the famous Pont Du Gard? | Aqueduct |
| The Pont Du Gard crosses which river? | Gardon |
| In which English county is Charterhouse school? | Surrey |
| Which European country first used Guide Dogs for the Blind? | Austria |
| What is the name of Hong Kong's stock exchange? | Hang Seng |
| Apart from the Severn, which other major English river has a strong tidal bore? | Trent |
| Where is the Henry Watson Music Library? | Manchester |
| Dorval Airport was formerly which city's airport? | Montreal |
| In which German 'lander' is Aachen? | Northern Rhineland-westphalia |
| What are the second and third biggest cities of Denmark? | Aarhus, Odense |
| Boston (in England and hence the US) was named for which Saint? | Botolph |
| What name is given to the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that forms part of the Iraq-Iran border? | Shatt Al-Arab |
| Aberystywyth sits on which bay? | Cardigan |
| Which rivers join at Aberystywth? | Ystwyth and Rheidol |
| What Welsh name does Cardiganshire now use? | Ceredigion |
| What is the official capital of the Cote D'Ivoire, although Abidjan remains the De Facto capital? | Yamoussoukro |
| The Kattegat sea area lies between which two nations? | Sweden and Denmark |
| Sukhumi is the capital of which autonomous province? | Abkhazia |
| Most of the world, except Russia, recognises Abkhazia as part of which nation? | Georgia |
| Which largely unrecognised self-declared state still has a hammer and sickle on its flag? | Transdnistria |
| What is the 'capital' of Transnistria? | Tiraspol |
| Scene of a famous battle, in which country are the Plains of Abraham? | Canada |
| Gran Sasso D'Italia is the highest point of which mountain range? | Apennines |
| What is the capital of the UAE? | Abu Dhabi |
| The Mumani massacre of 1993 occurred in which disputed area? | Abkhazia |
| Before 1971, the UAE was known by what name? | Trucial States |
| What is the capital of Nigeria? | Abuja |
| Which Japanese architect designed Nigeria's capital Abuja; he also won the Pritzker Prize in 1987? | Kenzo Tange |
| Which phenomenon causes the 'dark side of the moon' to face permanently away from Earth? | Tidal locking |
| Which Soviet space probe first photographed the dark side of the moon in 1959? | Luna 2 |
| The dark side of the moon was first seen by human eyes in real time on which space mission? | Apollo 8 |
| The Horsehead Nebula lies in which constellation? | Orion |
| Which astrophysicist worked out the galactic position of the sun in 1915, while WW1 raged? | Harlow Shapley |
| In which year was Einstein's Theory of General Relativity published? | 1916 |
| The Hooker Telescope is located at which US facility? | Mount Wilson Observatory |
| Who were the famed participants in an 1860 debate about evolution: one an ardent pro-Darwinist, the other a bishop? | Huxley and Wilberforce |
| Who were the two participants in the 1920 'Great Debate' in astronomy, regarding whether there were more galaxies than our own? | Shapley and Curtis |
| There are currently believed to be 54 galaxies in which group, of which the Milky Way is a member? | Local Group |
| Galileo studied which topic at the University of Pisa? | Medicine |
| Which Vatican chapel is separated from the Sistine Chapel by the Sala Regia? | Cappella Paolina (Pauline Chapel) |
| How was artist Ludovico Cardi, a close friend of Galileo, better known? | Cigoli |
| Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity was published in which year? | 1905 |
| The world's largest vacuum chamber is in Plum Brook Station in which US state? | Ohio |
| Where did the famed 1860 Huxley-Wilberforce evolution debate take place? | Oxford |
| In which US state is Mount Wilson Observatory? | California |
| All objects follow straight line paths across space-time that are called what? | Geodesics |
| Who produced the famous First Folio engraving of Shakespeare? | Martin Droueshot |
| Which piece of laboratory equipment, named after its shape, is used to contain a vacuum? | Bell jar |
| What name is given to a stellar remnant (a 'dead star') mainly composed of electron-degenerate matter? | White Dwarf |
| What limit, worked out by an American-Indian astrophysicist, describes the upper limit of mass that a white dwarf can possess? | Chandrasekhar limit |
| What are the densest type of stars known? | Neutron stars |
| Which English monarch succeeded Edward VI? | Mary I |
| What name was given to an unsuccessful 1569 attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots? | Rising of the North |
| The Battle of Losecoat Field took place during which conflict? | Wars Of The Roses |
| Which 1547 battle was the last pitched battle between the Scots and English, and ended in such a catastrophic defeat for Scotland that it was called 'Black Saturday'? | Battle of Pinkie Cleugh |
| Which type of bay window projects from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground? | Oriel window |
| Who said of Shakespeare 'he was not of an age, but for all time'? | Ben Jonson |
| The First Folio contains every known Shakespeare work except which? | Pericles |
| The 1547 Battle of pinkie Cleugh took place near which modern-day town or city? | Musselburgh |
| A star remnant ('dead star') that exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit does not become a white dwarf, but what other type of celestial body? | Neutron star |
| Which English antiquarian wrote 'Britannia' in 1586? | William Camden |
| Which Englishman (1566 – 12 February 1630) spent most of the decade of the 1590s travelling on the European continent and the eastern Mediterranean lands, later writing about it in his multi-volume "Itinerary? | Fynes Moryson |
| Which footballer first earned £100 a week? | Johnny Haynes |
| What is Ian Botham's middle name? | Terence |
| Against who did Ian Botham take 100 runs and take 10 wickets in a single Test in 1980? | India |
| For which three counties did Ian Botham play? | Somerset, Wiltshire, Durham |
| Who was England's main wicketkeeper from 1967 to 1981? | Knott |
| Who is the only Zimbabwean bowler, as of 2014, to have taken over 100 Test wickets? | Heath Streak |
| Which South African all-rounder scored 9000 runs and 200 wickets in both ODIs and Test cricket match? | Jacques Kallis |
| For who was Gary Sobers playing when he scored his famous 6 sixes in an over? | Nottinghamshire |
| Who bowled to Gary Sobers when he scored his famous 6 sixes in an over? | Nash |
| Who holds the record for being Heavyweight Champion of the World for the longest time, 11 years, 8 months, 8 days? | Joe Louis |
| Rugby league has its roots in which town's George Hotel? | Huddersfield |
| What trophy is awarded to the winners of Rugby Union's World Cup? | William Webb Ellis Trophy |
| In which year did Rugby League's Superleague start? | 1996 |
| Which two now defunct teams played in the first Rugby League Superleague game? | PSG; Sheffield Eagles |
| What are South Sydney's Rugby League team called? | Rabbitohs |
| Which game involves hurling a beer-soaked rag at a ring of competitors? | Dwile Flonking |
| Punk poet "Attila the Stockbroker" was behind petitions for a new ground for which football team? | Brighton |
| Plough, Cobra, Upward Bow and Downward Dog are all examples of what? | Yoga Positions |
| In which sport is the libero exempt from rotating position? | Volleyball |
| Which football team, founded in Gelsenkirchen, were the Nazis' favourite team? | Schalke 04 |
| Which team share the Allianz Arena with Bayern Munich? | 1860 Munich |
| 'Card Counting' led casinos to change the rules of which game? | Blackjack |
| In craps, there are 2 possible winning scores - which two? | Seven and Eleven |
| In which country does the 'Top 14' rugby union contest take place? | France |
| The team of which nation were the last winners of Rugby Union Olympic gold? | USA |
| Which was the first Italian venue to stage the Winter Olympics? | Cortina |
| Which is the longest of England's horse racing 'classics'? | St Leger |
| In which country will the 2019 Rugby Union World Cup be held? | Japan |
| At which racecourse was the Derby run during both World Wars? | Newmarket |
| In a craps game what name is given to the dice thrower? | Shooter |
| In roulette, what is a 'straight up' bet? | Bet on a single number |
| In card game 'Hearts' which card carries the maximum penalty? | Queen of Spades |
| In card game, 'banco' a 'natural' is a score of what? | Nine |
| At which football team's home ground is the Bill Shankly Kop? | Preston North End |
| Which piece of sporting equipment has a type called a stumpjumper? | Mountain Bike |
| Hank Aaron spent the vast majority of his baseball career in which city? | Milwaukee |
| With 15, which county holds the record for most County Cricket Championship wooden spoons? | Derbyshire |
| Which three founder members of the Football League also played in the first season of the Premier League? | Aston Villa, Blackburn, Everton |
| Which piece of sporting equipment has a 'kicktail'? | Skateboard |
| In which pub game do contestants throw sticks at a 'dolly'? | Aunt Sally |
| Who, on 26th December 2006, became the oldest football player to score a Premier League goal? | Teddy Sheringham |
| Who captained the England cricket team during the 1985 Ashes? | Gower |
| In which county is the port of Bideford? | Devon |
| Which mysterious and highly virulent disease struck England, and later continental Europe, in a series of epidemics beginning in 1485 - the last outbreak occurred in 1551, after which the disease apparently vanished? | Sweating Sickness |
| Who solved Einstein's field equations while serving at the Russian Front in the German Army? | Karl Schwarzchild |
| The introduction of which non-existent constant into his equations did Einstein call 'his biggest blunder'? | Cosmological constant |
| The Triangulum Galaxy has what alternate name? | Pinwheel Galaxy |
| Who proved that the universe was expanding in a 1929 paper? | Hubble |
| Discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1964, what is the CMBR? | Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation |
| What is the temperature of the universe as a whole, to the nearest point degree Kelvin? | 2.7K |
| What, in mathematics, is the relation of two lines at right angles to one another (perpendicularity), and the generalization of this relation into n dimensions? | Orthogonality |
| What does 'pernicious' mean? | Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way |
| What was first reported by US pilot Ken Arnold in 1947? | Flying Saucer |
| Which Italian astronomer erroneously reported canals on Mars? | Giovanni Schaparelli |
| In which US state is the Los Alamos National Laboratory? | New Mexico |
| Built in 1942, what was the first artificial nuclear reactor in the world? | Chicago Pile-1 |
| Whose paradox describes the apparent contradiction between the high probability of alien civilisation and humanity's lock of evidence for them? | Fermi Paradox |
| What does the SETI project stand for? | Search For Extra Terrestrial Intelligence |
| Which radio interferometer that is dedicated to astronomical observations and a simultaneous search for extraterrestrial intelligence is named after a Microsoft founder who donated $30m to the project? | Allen Array |
| Attendees at the first 1961 SETI conference gave themselves what name? | Order of the Dolphin |
| The equation that describes the probability of extra-terrestrial life is called what? | Drake equation |
| In quantum physics, which theory is the study of the analytic properties of scattering as a function of angular momentum? | Regge theory |
| In 1977 the strongest signal ever received by SETI goes by which colloquial name? | Wow! signal |
| What is the nearest star to the famous 1977 Wow! Signal? | Tau Sagittarii |
| Which is the only manmade spacecraft that has visited Uranus and Neptune? | Voyager 2 |
| What is the most distant man-made object from Earth? | Voyager 1 |
| Klapa music originated in which country? | Croatia |
| Which king's right upper jaw was accidentally removed during dental work in 1685? | Louis XIV of France |
| Who was the wife of George III? | Charlotte of Mecklenburg |
| What was the name of the only child of George IV, who died in childbirth in 1817 - she would have been queen? | Princess Charlotte (of Wales) |
| Which non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire was a historic county of England? | Huntingdonshire |
| The Forest of Arden is mainly in which county? | Warwickshire |
| What name is given to a planet outwith the Solar System? | Exoplanet |
| What name is given to a spinning neutron star? | Pulsar |
| A star that is moving away from Earth has its colour shifted to what via the Doppler effect? | Red |
| The habitable zone around a star that could potentially support liquid water and thus life? | Goldilocks zone |
| The Kepler space observatory was designed to look specifically at what? | Earth-like planets orbiting other stars |
| What is the third most abundant element in the universe? | Oxygen |
| Which volcano erupted in 1991 was the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century? | Mount Pinatubo |
| What name is given to a scatter graph of stars showing the relationship between the stars' absolute magnitudes or luminosities versus their spectral types or classifications and effective temperatures? | Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram |
| All heavy elements on Earth originated in which celestial bodies, created by red giants that have run out of nuclear fuel? | Nebula |
| To the nearest half degree, what is the tilt of the Earth's axis? | 23.5 |
| In which year was the first exoplanet detected? | 1992 |
| Which geologic eon before the Proterozoic Eon, occurred before 2.5 Ga (billion years), or 2,500 million years ago? | Archean Eon |
| The oldest known evidence for life on Earth was found in which country? | Australia |
| In biology, what is the LUCA? | Last Universal Common Ancestor |
| What was the first geologic eon on Earth, representing the first half-billion years after the planet's formation? | Hadean Eon |
| What name is given to the earliest known complex multicellular organisms? | Ediacara Biota |
| What was the name of Buddy Holly's backing group? | The Crickets |
| Which best-selling author also wrote under the name Harry Patterson? | Jack Higgins |
| Who is the heroine of Austen's "Northanger Abbey"? | Catherine Morland |
| What is the surname of the central sisters in "Sense and Sensibility"? | Dashwood |
| What was George Eliot's real name? | Mary Ann Evans |
| Which English philosopher and critic of literature and theatre was George Eliot's partner, although they never married? | GH Lewes |
| What did the TS in the name of TS Eliot stand for? | Thomas Stearns |
| Which poem begins "Let us go then, you and I"? | The Love Song of J Alfred Prulock |
| Who wrote the "Strangers and Brothers" series of novels? | CP Snow |
| Which Roman poet first used the phrase "carpe diem"? | Horace (in his 'Odes') |
| Who wrote "Bhowani Junction", later a successful film? | John Masters |
| Which Japanese contemporary artist is behind the 'Superflat' movement and once made backpacks supposedly from the skin of endangered animals? | Takashi Murakami |
| What did the CP stand for in CP Snow's name? | Charles Perry |
| What did the L stand for in the name of Oz author L Frank Baum? | Lyman |
| Who wrote "Death In Venice"? | Thomas Mann |
| Who painted "The Triumph of Death" and "Dulle Griet (Mad Meg)"? | Pieter Breughel the Elder |
| Who wrote Gothic classic "The Vampyre" in 1816? | Polidori |
| Which poet (1752-70) died aged 18 in a possible suicide, or possible self-treatment for VD? | Chatterton |
| Who wrote "The Naked And The Dead"? | Mailer |
| In which year did Sinclair Lewis win the Nobel Prize for Literature? | 1930 |
| Who was born in Russia as Alisa Rosenblaum? | Ayn Rand |
| Mrs Malaprop is a character in which work? | The Rivals |
| Thomas Chatterton's death in 1770 was due to self-poisoning with what substance? | Arsenic |
| Dadaist Tristan Tzara hailed from which country? | Romania |
| How was other Frederick Rolfe also known? | Baron Colvo |
| Which minister of Henry VIII is the main protagonist in Mantel's "Wolf Hall"? | Thomas Cromwell |
| Who wrote the play "Androcles and The Lion"? | GB Shaw |
| Who wrote the play "The Wilmslow Boy"? | Rattigan |
| Give a year in the life of Peter Paul Rubens. | 1577-1640 |
| Who wrote best-selling book "The Time Traveller's Wife"? | Audrey Niffenegger |
| Who wrote "Ash Wednesday" in 1930? | TS Eliot |
| What was devised by Bell, MacFarquhar and Smellie in 1768? | Encyclopaedia Britannica |
| What was Buddy Holly's posthumous UK No 1 called? | It Doesn't Matter Anymore |
| In which year did TS Eliot win the Nobel Prize for Literature? | 1948 |
| Who edited the 18th century French "Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des metiers"? | Diderot |
| What name was given to Jacob Epstein's 1913 sculpture that resembled a torso on a tripod? | Rock Drill |
| Who co-edited Diderot's 'Encyclopedie'? | Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert |
| Where is Jacob Epstein's monumental sculpture 'Rima'? | Hyde Park |
| Which sculpture outside Coventry Cathedral was created by Jacob Epstein? | St Michael and the Devil |
| Who wrote the novel "Imperium"? | Robert Harris |
| Of what is Epstein's Coventry sculpture "St Michael and the Devil" made? | Bronze |
| Which famous stage actress was the great-aunt of John Gielgud? | Ellen Terry |
| Who painted "An Accident", "VE Day" and "The Empty House"? | LS Lowry |
| In the book by Frank Herbert what is the alternate name of the planet "Dune"? | Arakis |
| Who created "Dan Dare"? | Hampson |
| How did Rupert Brooke die? | Of malaris (on board a ship) |
| How did Virginia Woolf die? | Suicide by drowning |
| Who is the protagonist of Robert Harris's novel "Imperium"? | Cicero |
| When did VS Naipaul win the Nobel Prize for Literature? | 2001 |
| Which three authors have won both a Nobel Prize for Literature and a Booker Prize? | Golding, Gordimer, Naipaul |
| Which work won the 2014 Nobel Prize? | The Narrow Road To The Deep North (Flanagan) |
| Which painter has given his name to both a broad collar and a short, pointed beard? | Van Dyke |
| Thomas Hardwick (1752–1829) was famed in which field? | Architecture |
| Who wrote "Lorna Doone"? | RD Blackmore |
| Where is 'Lorna Doone' set - now a national park? | Exmoore |
| Which group of exiled French Protestants are associated with the Queen Anne style of art? | Huguenots |
| Shaw and Nesfield were often collaborators in the 19th century in which field? | Architecture |
| Who wrote both "Coromandel" and "The Deceivers"? | Masters |
| There is a museum dedicated to the works of which other in Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire? | Roald Dahl |
| Who was Governor-General of Canada from 1930 to 1935? | Buchan |
| Chawton in Hampshire is best known for its association with which writer, whose last house can still be visited? | Austen |
| Who tried to kill Andy Warhol in 1968? | Solaris |
| On which of the Greek islands is Rupert Brooke buried? | Skiros |
| At which siege did Byron die? | Missolonghi |
| What was the better known alias of Jacopo Robusti? | Tintoretto |
| Which half-brother of Æthelred the Unready, and King, was murdered at Corfe Castle? | Edward (the Martyr) |
| Æthelred the Unready had which regnal number? | The second |
| Which historical 'protection money' was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged? | Danegeld |
| What was a 'moot' in Anglo-Saxon England? | A court or gathering |
| Who was on the throne during the Great Fire of London? | Charles II |
| In which year did Britain join the EEC? | 1973 |
| What was established by the Maastricht Treaty? | EU (or, arguably, the Euro) |
| Which archaeologist gave the Minoan civilisation their name? | Evans |
| Which king expelled the Jews from England in 1289? | Edward I |
| Who was the last ruler of an independent Wales? | Prince Dafydd ap Gruffydd |
| Prince Dafydd ap Gruffydd was the first prominent figure in history to be executed by what method? | Hanging, drawing and quartering |
| In which year was the Maastricht Treaty signed? | 1992 |
| Which amending treaty was signed by the EU member states on 13 December 2007, and entered into force on 1 December 2009? | Lisbon Treaty |
| Which political party was established in 1971 by Ian Paisley and Desmond Boal? | Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) |
| In which year was the Irish Free State established? | 1921 |
| What name is given to the process where one organism engulfs another and then both live together for mutual benefit? | Endosymbiosis |
| The Z-scheme occurs in which process? | Photosynthesis |
| The earliest known eukaryotes appeared on Earth approximately how many billion years ago? | 2 Billion |
| Who was the second person to orbit the Earth after Gagarin? | Titov |
| Which port city on the Volga river is near where Yuri Gagarin landed on returning from his Vostok 1? | Engels |
| Shiro, a homogenous stew whose primary ingredient is powdered chickpeas or broad bean meal, is mainly associated with which country? | Ethiopia |
| What does lambent mean? | Glowing or luminous, but lacking heat. |
| What is the only member of the theropithecus genus? | Gelada baboon |
| The gelada baboon is found only in which country? | Ethiopia |
| What does a gramniverous animal eat? | Grass |
| The Laetoli footprints, perhaps the world's oldest, are found in which country? | Tanzania |
| The Afar Triangle is a geological depression in which three countries? | Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea |
| The Awash River is located entirely within in which country? | Ethiopia |
| How is Australopithecus fossil AL 288-1 better known? | Lucy |
| Which is the closest Cepheid variable star? | Polaris |
| Which ancient astronomer noted the precession of the equinoxes? | Hipparchus |
| Whose theory states that periodic movements of the Earth's orbit in space affect its climate? | Milankovitch |
| What is Erta Ale? | Ethiopian volcano |
| What is the nickname of the southernmost pit of Erta Ale? | Gateway To Hell |
| The famous hominid fossil 'Lucy' was found in which country? | Ethiopia |
| The famous hominid fossil 'Lucy' was of which species? | Australopithecus Afarensis |
| Who were the three crew members on the ill-fated Apollo 13? | Swigert, Haise, Lovell |
| The site Petra was built by which people? | Nabataeans |
| The slender passageway that leads to the site of Petra is given what name? | Siq |
| What is the translation of the building in Petra 'Al-Khazneh'? | The Treasure |
| What is the Russian equivalent of NASA? | Roscosmos |
| The Story of Sinuhe is a classic from which people's literature? | Ancient Egypt |
| What name is given to the earliest period of time in the history of the universe, from zero to approximately 10−43 seconds? | Planck Epoch |
| Who released the album 'Unknown Pleasures'? | Joy Division |
| Who wrote 'New Atlantis' in 1623? | Francis Bacon |
| What are the four first generation particles in the Standard Model of Physics? | Up quarks, down quarks, electron, electron neutrino |
| What are the four fundamental forces of nature that are carried by gauge bosons? | Strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagnetism, gravity |
| Which are the only types of particle that feel the strong nuclear force? | Quarks |
| The strong nuclear force is carried by which gauge bosons? | Gluons |
| The weak nuclear force is mediated by which gauge bosons? | W and Z bosons |
| What is the second-most widely spoken language worldwide? Which is the second-most widely spoken language in the world? | Spanish |
| What are the monolithic figures on Easter Island called? | Moai |
| After Spanish and English, what is the third-most widely spoken language of European origin worldwide? | Portuguese |
| What replaced GMT in 1972 as the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time? | Coordinated Universal Time (French: temps universel coordonné, UTC) |
| In which year was the Greenwich meridian officially designated as zero degrees longitude? | 1884 |
| With what is the website www.xe.com concerned? | Foreign Exchange |
| What is the currency of Cuba? | Peso |
| What is the currency of Switzerland? | Swiss Franc |
| What is the capital of the Spanish region of Asturias? | Oviedo |
| What was first developed in 1947 in the USA by Shockley, Brattain and Bardeen? | Transistor |
| Chuck Yeager used which rocket-fired aircraft when he became the first man to break the sound barrier? | Bell X-1 |
| Which Latin phrase means 'innermost reason'? | Intima Causa |
| Who designed the class of locomotives to which the Mallard belonged? | Gresley |
| The Mallard broke the speed record for a steam locomotive when travelling between which two cities? | London and Newcastle |
| Which English fashion designer is best known for her 1980s political t-shirts including "CHOOSE LIFE"? | Katharine Hamnett |
| The Clansman train ran between which two cities? | London and Inverness |
| Which German aircraft manufacturer invented the ejector seat? | Heinkel |
| What was invented by the Norwegian Ole Evintrude in 1900? | Outboard motor |
| What is a lapidary? | Someone who works with precious stones |
| The Flying Scotsman locomotive ran between which two British cities? | London and Edinburgh |
| Which group of hydrocarbons are characterised by the incorporation of a halogen in place of a hydrogen ion? | Halons |
| Which point on a celestial sphere lies opposite the zenith? | Nadir |
| An incorrect urban legend attributes the invention of the cat flap to which prominent scientist? | Newton |
| Which chemical element has white, red, violet and black allotropes? | Phosphorus |
| Which chemist first isolated sodium? | Davy |
| Which chemical element, number 41, was formerly called columbium? | Niobium |
| In the 12 days of Christmas, there were exactly 11 what? | Pipers piping |
| Which line touches a circle without intersecting it? | Tangent |
| Which are the only particles that do not interact with Higgs bosons? | Gluons and photons (both massless) |
| What is the formula to calculate a circle's circumference from its radius? | 2Ï€r (Ï€d) |
| Which interaction between a scalar field and a Dirac field is named for a Japanese physicist, and can be used to describe the strong nuclear force between nucleons, mediated by pions? | Yukawa interaction |
| In which year was the Higgs boson discovered? | 2012 |
| In Greek myth, who was the father of Niobe? | Tantalus |
| Interaction with a Higgs Boson causes a particle to gain what property? | Mass |
| What name is given to a polygon with 11 sides? | Hendecagon |
| Construction starting in 1357, in which city is the Charles Bridge? | Prague |
| In computing, what does ROM stand for? | Read-only memory |
| Which part of a computer allows data items to be read and written in roughly the same amount of time regardless of the order in which data items are accessed? | RAM |
| How many sides do all snowflakes have? | Six |
| The laws of which sport were first codified on 30th May 1788? | Cricket |
| What was first used after the 1905 murders of Thomas and Anne Harrow in order to secure a conviction? | Fingerprint evidence |
| Who formulated his laws of planetary motion in the early 17th century? | Kepler |
| In computing, what is a VDU? | Visual Display Unit |
| How many laws comprise Kepler's laws of planetary motion? | Three |
| What did early computer language ALGOL stand for? | Algorithmic language |
| Where were the laws of cricket codified on 30th May 1788? | Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) |
| In computing, how many bits make up a nibble? | Four |
| At what temperature Fahrenheit does water freeze? | 32F |
| In computing, what is OCR? | Optical Character Recognition |
| Of what vegetable is Romanesco a variety? | Broccoli |
| What name is given to a a mathematical function that summarizes the dynamics of a system? | Lagrangian |
| What does MIPS stand for in computing? | Millions of Instructions Per Second |
| In 1998 Thomas Hales announced that he has discovered a proof of which famous mathematical conundrum? | Kepler conjecture |
| The Kepler conjecture describes the packing and density of which bodies? | Spheres |
| Which 17th century National Trust property in West Sussex was affected by a devastating fire in 1989, but has since been restored? | Uppark |
| Which Australian Prime Minister was dismissed by the Governor-General in 1975? | Gough Whitlam |
| Which king was defeated by Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Lewes? | Henry III |
| In WW2, what was nicknamed 'the unsinkable aircraft carrier'? | Malta |
| Which WPC was shamefully shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in 1984? | Yvonne Fletcher |
| PC Trevor Lock was involved in which high-profile event of the 1980s? | Iranian embassy siege |
| Which US president did Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme attempt to assassinate? | Ford |
| Where did General Lee surrender to General Grant on April 9 1865, essentially ending the US Civil War? | Appomattox (court house) |
| In which US state is the historically-famous Appomattox? | Virginia |
| What type of aircraft was the Red Baron flying when he was shot down? | Fokker triplane |
| Who were the first Britons to successfully climb Mount Everest? | Haston and Scott |
| Which is the newest of the Nobel Prizes? | Economics |
| In which year was the Nobel Prize for Economics first awarded? | 1969 |
| Of the US presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore, which is the most recent? | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Where is the British Tomb of The Unknown Warrior located? | Westminister Abbey |
| In which year was the UK's 'Unknown Warrior' interred? | 1920 |
| Which organisation was founded by Peter Benenson in 1961? | Amnesty International |
| Which PM of the UK became Lord Rievaulx when he was elevated to the peerage? | Wilson |
| What was 'Operation Chastise' in WW2? | Dambusters Raid |
| Which farm was used as a hideout by the 'Great Train Robbers' of 1963? | Leatherslade |
| Who former politician was using the alias Dragan Dabic when he was caught? | Radovan Karadzic |
| Which serial killer, jailed in 2008, was nicknamed the 'Suffolk Strangler'? | Steve Wright |
| 'Mad' Frankie Fraser was a notorious member of which South London gang? | The Richardsons |
| Which King of Norway (reigned 1046-66) was sometimes called 'Thunderbolt of the North'? | Harald Hardrada (Harald III) |
| What was codenamed 'Operation Rosario (Rosary)'? | Argentine Invasion of the Falklands |
| San Carlos Water, where the British fleet were largely anchored during the Falklands conflict, attracted what ironic nickname among troops? | Bomb Alley |
| HMS Antelope was sunk during which battle of the Falklands War? | Battle of San Carlos |
| What was the name of the Kray twins' older brother? | Charlie |
| Whistler v Ruskin and Addington v Tolstoy are famous examples of what type of legal case? | Libel |
| Which monk from Iona became the first Bishop of Lindisfarne? | Aidan |
| Which king is notoriously said to have died from 'a surfeit of lampreys'? | Henry I |
| Who did Peter Robinson replace as the First Minister of Northern Ireland? | Ian Paisley |
| Which daughter of a famous politician appeared in US reality TV show "Life's A Tripp"? | Bristol Palin |
| Which town or city was the birthplace of Harold Wilson? | Huddersfield |
| Which infamous assassin used the pseudonym Eric S Galt? | James Earl Ray |
| Which MP was killed in 1830 by Stephenson's 'Rocket'? | Huskisson |
| Which event occurred when 'Fat Man' fell out of 'Bock's Car'? | Bombing of Nagasaki |
| Which man first called Thomas More 'A Man For All Seasons'? | Robert Whittington |
| Where was James Earl Ray arrested after his murder of Martin Luther King? | Heathrow |
| The first act of the US Civil War in 1861 was the bombardment of which fort? | Fort Sumner |
| Which former US president died the year after John F Kennedy was assassinated? | Hoover |
| What nickname was given to women who knitted by the guillotine in Revolutionary France? | Tricoteuses |
| In which year was Julius Caesar assassinated? | 44BC |
| The mother of Tiberius, who was seen as the perfect Roman matriarch? | Cornelia |
| Of what is bryology the study? | Moss |
| The withers are on which part of a horse? | Between the shoulders |
| Bauxite is the principal ore of which element? | Aluminium |
| What is the chemical formula of nitric acid? | HNO3 |
| Cinnabar is the principal ore of which element? | Mercury |
| Which Chinese stealth fighter plane first flew on Jan 11, 2011? | Chengdu J-20 |
| Where about on a horse's body are the stifles found? | Knees of the back legs |
| Which gas mark is equivalent to 350 degrees Fahrenheit? | Four |
| How has the Chinese stealth fighter plane Chengdu J-20 been nicknamed? | Powerful Dragon |
| What is a gourami? | A fish |
| What did Jean Henri Dunant found in 1862? | Red Cross |
| What does ISDN stand for in communication? | Integrated Services Digital Network |
| How many points are there on a traditional sailing compass? | 32 |
| How is a rheostat now more commonly known? | Potentiometer |
| A rheostat allows what part of an electrical circuit to be varied? | Resistance |
| From what is agar made? | Algae |
| Who was the captain of the space shuttle Challenger on its ill-fated flight? | McCandless |
| What was the name of the school teacher onboard the space shuttle Challenger when it exploded? | Christa McAuliffe |
| Richard Feynman demonstrated that the Challenger disaster was due to the failure of which component? | O-Ring |
| Which explosive is made from nitrocellulose, wood pulp, nitroglycerine and potassium nitrate? | Gelignite |
| Which purple stone was believed to prevent drunkenness by the Ancient Romans? | Amethyst |
| Which flower is called the 'Fair Maid of February'? | Snowdrop |
| What are graylings? | Fish |
| Single-celled organisms that do not contain organelles are called what? | Prokaryotes |
| What name is given to an organism's entire store of genetic information? | Genome |
| Prokaryotic organisms are divided into which two domains? | Archaea, bacteria |
| Creatures are classified by 8 taxonomic ranks - starting with domain, and ending with species, what are these, in order? | Domain; Kingdom; Phylum; Class; Order; Family; Genus; Species (Dear King Philip Come Over For Good Spaghetti) |
| What are the four kingdoms in the Eukarya domain of living creatures? | Animal, Plants, Fungi, Protists |
| The word 'science' derives from the Latin verb for which word? | To know |
| What name is given to non-numeric scientific data? | Qualitative |
| Where is DNA located in prokaryotic organisms? | Distributed throughout the cell |
| In order, which four elements comprise the greatest percentage of human body weight? | Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen |
| Equivalent to an amu, what unit is used to indicate mass on an atomic or subatomic level? | Dalton |
| Where is the annual Ideal Home Show held? | Earls Court Exhibition Centre |
| Which early 19th century building, with a famed rotunda, was the creation of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry who commissioned the Italian architect Asprucci to design him a classical villa in the Suffolk countryside? | Ickworth House |
| Which city, the country's 5th largest, is nicknamed "The Brazilian Venice"? | Recife |
| In which Hampshire village is the Jane Austen museum? | Chawton |
| Chipping Norton, Banbury and Abington are all in which English county? | Oxfordshire |
| The word 'serendipity' derives from an obsolete name for which country? | Sri Lanka |
| In pre-Euro Greece, the drachma was divided into 100 of which smaller units of currency? | Leptae |
| There are places called 'Toronto' and 'Pity Me' in which English county? | Durham |
| What was the Escudo divided into in pre-Euro Portugal? | 100 Centavos |
| Which company were the first sponsors of the London Eye? | British Airways |
| Which Franco-English word refers to swampy areas or inlets in the Gulf Coast region of the USA? | Bayou |
| The city of Chittagong is in which country? | Bangladesh |
| The Mekong River drains into which sea? | South China Sea |
| Which US state forms Minnesota's southern border? | Iowa |
| Which European city formerly went by the name Pressburg? | Bratislava |
| Which was the first motorway service station to be open to all traffic in the UK? | Newport Pagnell |
| Initially only open to trucks, what was the first motorway service station to open in the UK? | Watford Gap |
| What is the English translation of 'Reykjavik'? | Bay of Smokes |
| The khamsin wind is most associated with which country, where it usually arrives in April, and is usually called the 'khamaseen'? | Egypt |
| Which French port, scene of WW2's "Operation Chariot" sits at the mouth of the Loire? | Saint-Nazaire |
| On which date does Waitangi Day fall? | February 6th |
| Which institution, based at White Lodge, Richmond, has the motto 'strength and grace'? | Royal Ballet School |
| The headquarters of GCHQ are located in which town or city? | Cheltenham |
| What nickname is given to the headquarters of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)? | The Doughnut |
| Which is the oldest rank in the UK peerage? | Earl |
| Which lake was created by the building of Hoover Dam? | Mead |
| Which shipping forecast area is the only one to border Belgium, England and France? | Dover |
| Which country's flag carrying airline is LOT? | Poland |
| In which year was the breathalyzer first used in the UK, after a Road Safety Act of the same year? | 1967 |
| Which area became Britain's first dedicated national park in 1951? | Peak District |
| By tradition, who is the only Briton allowed to command a private army? | Duke of Atholl |
| What is the postal address of the building often called 'Canary Wharf'? | 1 Canada Square |
| Which group of islands has the motto "Desire The Right"? | Falklands |
| With its main peaks of Sant Jeroni (1,236 m), Montgrós (1,120 m) and Miranda de les Agulles (903 m), which mountain outside Barcelona is home to a famed Benedictine monastery? | Montserrat |
| The Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey houses which revered icon or image? | Virgin of Montserrat/Black Virgin |
| Antigua and Montserrat belong to which group of Caribbean islands, which range from Puerto Rico to Dominica? | Leewards |
| Which Lebanese town was once known as Heliopolis? | Balbek |
| Which Lebanese town was once besieged by Alexander the Great, and gives its name to a purple dye? | Tyre |
| Which limestone gorge on the border between Notts and Derbyshire contains Europe's oldest known cave art? | Creswell Crags |
| Which University city in Thuringia lends its name to an 1806 battle in the Napoleonic Wars? | Jena |
| Raasay, Sandray and Westray are islands belonging to which group? | Orkneys |
| Which area of reclaimed land in Kent and East Sussex lies between Rye and Hythe? | Romney Marsh |
| The Bedford Level is the southernmost portion of which area of reclaimed wetlands? | Fens |
| The town of Hythe is in which English county? | Kent |
| Lying at the confluence of the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede, and a former member of the Cinque Ports, in which county is Rye? | East Sussex |
| The 'Romney Marsh' is a breed of which animal? | Sheep |
| What features on the flags of Kazakhstan, Rwanda and Namibia? | A sun with rays |
| Which locks are the highest point of the Grand Union Canal? | Foxton Locks |
| Gosport lies opposite and to the West of which city, by which it is connected by ferry? | Portsmouth |
| Which of the Orkney islands is nearest to the Scottish mainland? | South Ronaldsay |
| Which of the Shetland Islands lies furthest from the Scottish mainland? | Unst |
| Which castle, the largest in England, has at times been nicknamed 'the key to England'? | Dover Castle |
| Which country is called 'Druk Yul' by its inhabitants? | Bhutan |
| Fair Isle belongs to which island group? | Shetlands |
| Which small lake lies between Grasmere and Windermere? | Rydal Water |
| Which city is served by Deurne Airport? | Antwerp |
| Aire Force lies nearest which of the lakes in the Lake District? | Ullswater |
| Foxton Locks, the highest point on the Grand Union Canal, are in which English county? | Leicestershire |
| Grantley Adams Airport serves which island? | Barbados |
| Which Shropshire town did John Betjeman call England's "most perfect"? | Ludlow |
| Tours and Orleans both stand on which French river? | Loire |
| Which RHS garden, the second most visited paid entry garden in the United Kingdom after the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is near Woking in Surrey? | Wisley |
| Which UK city has both a mathematical bridge, and a Bridge of Sighs? | Cambridge |
| The RHS runs 4 gardens in the UK - Wisley is one; name any of the other 3. | Harlow Carr, Hyde Hall, Rosemoor |
| Which shingle spit extends from Portland to Abbotsbury in Dorset? | Chesil Beach |
| Who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"? | Herbert Spencer |
| The Trobriand islands are part of which country? | Papua New Guinea |
| Which Polish-born anthropologist (1884-1942) is sometimes called "the father of social anthropology"? | Bronislaw Malinowski |
| In which country is the Omo valley, important as a site of human evolution? | Ethiopia |
| In which country did anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski die of a heart attack? | Mexico |
| In genetics, what is defined as the composite of an organism's identifiable characteristics or traits? | Phenotype |
| How many pairs of chromosomes do chimps possess? | 24 |
| How many lumbar vertebrae do humans possess? | 5 |
| The first primates to branch off from the evolutionary 'tree' that led to humans, how afe strepsirhini better known? | Prosimians |
| What is the scientific name for an expressed genetic characteristic? | Trait |
| The infra-order 'platyrrhini' comprise which group of animals? | New World monkeys |
| Alive approximately 2 million years ago, which hominids were the first known ones to exhibit the modern form of bipedalism, to have used fire, and to have made complex stone tools? | Homo Ergaster |
| The hominid remains found in 2004 in Indonesia dubbed the 'Hobbit' were given what scientific taxonomic name? | Homo Floresiensis |
| The animal family 'hylobatidae' comprise which creatures? | Siamang and gibbons |
| Which geological period lasted from 24million to 5million years before the present? | Miocene |
| Which now-accepted anthropological theory posits a common origin for all human races? | Monogenesis |
| Which British geologist and doctor began the study of dinosaurs when he discovered and named a iguanadon specimen in 1822? | Gideon Mantell |
| The extinct, fox-terrier sized hyracotherium, fossils of which were found in the London Clay by Richard Owen in the 19th century, was once believed to be a direct ancestor of which modern day animal? | Horse |
| Which country has been the world's biggest rubber producer since 1993? | Thailand |
| What is the OECD? | Organisation for Economic Co-Operation & Development |
| Which Celtic goddess was associated with the springs at Bath? | Sulis |
| The ancient cult of Mithras is believed to have originated in which state? | Persia |
| The Romans associated the local Celtic goddess of Sulis at Bath with which goddess of thir own? | Minerva |
| Whose quip was that "America and Britain are 2 countries divided by a common language"? | George Bernard Shaw |
| One of his recordings is on the Voyager space probe - which British musician was a successful populariser of early music but committed suicide in 1976 aged just 33? | David Munrow |
| "Beta Israel" is a community of Jews, mostly located in Israel, descended from which other nation? | Ethiopia |
| Which folk singer's most famous work is arguably the Vietnam protest song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" (with two 'e's)? | Arlo Guthrie |
| Which San Francisco band, formed in 1965, played at the famous concerts at Woodstock, Monterey and Altemont, and headlined the 1968 Isle of Wight festival? | Jefferson Airplane |
| Of what disease did Woody Guthrie die in 1967? | Huntington's |
| Which conductor once said that "a woman's place is in the kitchen, not in the symphony orchestra"? | Herbert von Karajan |
| Which musician famously lived with George Sand? | Chopin |
| Which French composer (1857-1944) of The Scarf Dance was the first female composer to be awarded the Legion d'Honneur, in 1913? | Cecile Chaminade |
| What name is given to the relative lowlands of southern Nepal? | Terai |
| "Symphony on a French Mountain Air" and "Istar" are among the better-known works of which French composer (1851-1931) who was also a noted music teacher and theorist? | Vincent D'Indy |
| What name is given to the discritical mark consisting of a straight bar above a letter, usually a vowel, that takes its name from the Greek for 'long'? | Macron |
| The sports apparel company Macron is based in which country? | Italy |
| Which US composer (1867-1944), born in Henniker, NH, was the first American woman to write popular and successful high-art music? | Amy Beach |
| How does "Mahayana", referring to a type of Buddhism translate? | Great vehicle |
| Which cyclist was nicknamed "The eternal second"? | Raymond Poulidor |
| In Gulliver's Travels, scientists labour fruitlessly to extract sunbeams from which foodstuff? | Cucumbers |
| Cyclist Raymond Poulidor was nicknamed "the eternal second" because he always seemed to come second to who? | Jacques Anquetil |
| In the sun, which subatomic particles are changed into which others by nuclear fusion? | Protons to neutrons |
| As of 2014, which hypothesis is the most widely accepted one for why the expansion of the universe is accelerating? | Dark energy |
| Which Roman writer wrote a history of Rome that dated from the city's foundation until 9BC? | Livy |
| In which century was the Peloponnesian War? | 5th Century BC |
| Who founded the Athenian Academy around 380BC? | Plato |
| Who is considered the founder of Birmingham University - it was thanks to his tireless enthusiasm that it was granted a Royal Charter in 1900? | Joseph Chamberlain |
| What is sometimes considered the first comprehensive school to open in England and Wales, doing so in 1949? | Holyhead County School |
| Which Jewish Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by Scotland Yard, the British Secret Service Bureau and later the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), and was nicknamed 'Ace of Spies'?? | Sidney Reilly |
| Which two countries joined the EEC at the same time as the UK, on Jan 1st 1973? | Denmark, Ireland |
| Which nation joined the EEC on 1st January 1981? | Greece |
| Which 1673 Act of UK Parliament compelled all office holders to take Church of England communion? | Test Act |
| Beginning in 1651 and ending about 200 years later, which series of laws restricted the use of foreign ships for trade between Britain and its colonies? | Navigation Acts |
| Who was the mythical leader of agricultural riots in 1830s England, the name being taken from one appended to some threatening letters? | Captain Swing |
| The UK budget is nowadays usually delivered on which day of the week? | Wednesday |
| The UK budget is nowadays usually delivered in which month? | March |
| Which West End homosexual brothel caused an 1889 scandal when it was strongly rumoured to have had a regular Royal client? | Cleveland Street |
| Who was the only man, other than Winston Churchill, to have been in the UK cabinet during both World Wars? | Lord Beaverbrook (William Aitken) |
| Historically, which title has been used most often for a cabinet minister who does not have an official function? | Lord Privy Seal |
| Who was the first female UK cabinet minister? | Margaret Bondfield |
| Which UK Chancellor of the Exchequer was forced to resign after leaking some of his budget to a reporter? | Dalton |
| Which great opponent of child labour introduced the 'Ten Hours Act 1833' into the Commons, and was a strong supporter of prohibiting the employment of boys as chimney sweeps? | Lord Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury) |
| Which city was the Royalist HQ in the English Civil War? | Oxford |
| In which town or city was the UK's first co-operative shop opened? | Rochdale |
| What title is given to the British monarch's representative to an English county? | Lord Lieutenant |
| Which two cabinet ministers of Britain, a Foreign Minister and War Minister, fought a duel? | Canning and Castlereagh |
| Which Prime Minister famously said "You've never had it so good"? | MacMillan |
| In which year was the Iranian Embassy siege in the UK? | 1980 |
| On August 5 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed which place as England's first overseas colony, under the Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I? | St John's, Newfoundland |
| The warships of what nation fired upon British fishing vessels in a case of alleged mistaken identity in 1904's Dogger Bank incident? | Russia |
| Which forged letter was published by the British press 4 days before the 1924 General Election in an attempt to discredit the Labour Party? | Zinoviev Letter |
| Which civil servant was prosecuted for revealing classified information about the sinking of the Belgrano, although a jury acquitted him? | Clive Ponting |
| Richard of Cornwall, 1st Earl of Cornwall, and from 1256 King of Germany, was the brother of which English monarch? | Henry III |
| In Chinese History, the Han Dynasty moved their capital to Luoyang from where? | Xi'an |
| Who shot and paralysed US Presidential hopeful (he was seeking the Democratic nomination) George Wallace in 1972? | Arthur Bremer |
| Which Chancellor of Austria was murdered by the Nazis in 1934? | Dollfuss |
| Who was pardoned following his execution for murders that John Christie committed? | Timothy Evans |
| To what was Oliver Cromwell referring when he said "what should we do with this bauble, take it away"? | Long parliament |
| Which British monarch made Leamington Spa 'royal'? | Victoria |
| Name any 2 of the 3 nations which joined the EU in 1995? | Sweden, Finland, Austria |
| In which city did Lewis & Clark's famous exploratory expedition of America, to the Pacific coast, start? | St Louis |
| At what temperature Fahrenheit does water boil? | 212 |
| Which element is added to steel to make it stainless? | Chromium |
| Cassiterite was the chief ore historically, and is still important as an ore of which metal today? | Tin |
| What is the Bessemer process used to produce? | Steel |
| Which chemical element, atomic number 51, was first isolated by Vannoccio Biringuccio and described in 1540? | Antimony |
| What is the birthstone for February? | Amethyst |
| Banting, Best and Macleod are famous for discovering what? | Insulin |
| Who is credited with discovering the neutron? | Chadwick |
| Soldiers from which country supposedly introduced cigarettes at the 1799 Battle of Acre, although the story is probably apocryphal? | Turkey/Ottoman Empire |
| O.A North and Albert J. Parkhouse are both credited with the invention of which everyday item? | Clothes hanger |
| What is the chemical name of vinegar? | Acetic Acid |
| Mercury(I) chloride or mercurous chloride is also known by which one-word name? | Calomel |
| Aqua Fortis is another name for which chemical compound? | Nitric Acid |
| Dry ice is which compound in solid form? | Carbon dioxide |
| In 2005 Michelin invented which cross between a tyre and a wheel, that has the advantage of being 'burst-proof'? | Tweel |
| The youngest of the 12 men to have walked on the moon, how old was Charlie Duke when he did so? | 36 |
| The youngest of the 12 men to have walked on the moon, Charlie Duke, did so as part of which Apollo mission? | Apollo 16 |
| "Whitey On The Moon", "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "The Subject Was Faggots" were all on whose debut album? | Gil Scott-Heron |
| Kill Devils Hill, where the Wright Brothers achieved powered flight, is in which US state? | North Carolina |
| Which of the Wright Brothers was the first human being to fly? | Orville |
| In the Sun, a proton turns into a neutron with the emission of which two other particles? | Positron and electron-neutrino |
| Based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, what is the NIF? | National Ignition Facility |
| Where is the privately-funded Global Seed Vault? | Spitsbergen, Svalbard Archipelago |
| Which German-born conductor, pianist, and composer (1876-62) was one of the major conductors of the 20th Century and helped establish Mahler as part of the repertoire? | Bruno Walter |
| Which term is technically given to an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon, but the term is most famously used to refer to an exhibition of that name of 1863? | Salon des Refusés |
| Which artist painted 'Burial at Ornans', which helped establish Realism by painting an ordinary scene on a vast canvas, where large canvases had previously been used exclusively for historical and mythical scenes? | Courbet |
| Which Impressionist painted "Monet Working On His Boat"? | Manet |
| In which town or city is Edge Hill University? | Ormskirk |
| Which International Airport is located at, and sometimes named after, Schwechat? | Vienna |
| Which UK transport secretary allowed Railtrack to go into receivership? | Stephen Byers |
| Which organisation has their headquarters at 8-10 Great George Street, having moved from Cowley Street in 2011? | Liberal Democrats |
| What is the translation from Danish of the Faroe Islands? | Sheep Islands |
| Which shipping forecast area makes up the Western border of Malin? | Rockall |
| What do the letters in military group the RHA stand for? | Royal Horse Artillery |
| Which port lies at the mouth of the Great Ouse? | King's Lynn |
| What was David Cameron's parliamentary seat when he became PM? | Witney, Oxfordshire |
| On which canal does the Pontcysllute Aqueduct lie? | Llangollen |
| What was the last college at Oxford to be all-female, remaining so until 2008? | St Hilda's |
| 53 of the 88 mountains over 14,000 feet in the USA lie in which state? | Colorado |
| What was London's Globe Theatre renamed in 1994? | Gielgud Theatre |
| Which river runs through Galway? | Corrib |
| Florida borders which other 2 US states? | Georgia, Alabama |
| In which Irish city is the Mardyke walk? | Cork |
| Which two UK universities are based at Milton Keynes? | Open, De Montfort |
| Which university replaced Leeds Polytechnic? | Leeds Metropolitan University |
| The Gielgud Theatre, previously the Globe, was actually opened under which third, original name? | Hicks theatre |
| The Barajas Airport serves which city? | Madrid |
| Which New Zealand city has the Maori name 'Utani'? | Christchurch |
| What designation appears on a degree from Cambridge? | Cantab |
| What name is given to Cambridge University's Honours degree examination? | Tripos |
| Where is the RAF's training headquarters? | Cranwell |
| The Dead Sea is geologically a submerged part of which valley? | Great Rift |
| Europe's longest roller coaster is based where? | Lightwater Valley Theme Park |
| The world's deepest cave is in which country - it was discovered in 2001? | Georgia |
| In which UK county is the famous Bletchley Park? | Buckinghamshire |
| The Murray River forms part of the boundary between which two Australian states? | NSW/Victoria |
| The Ebro is which country's second-longest river? | Spain |
| Lightwater Valley theme park is in which UK county? | North Yorkshire |
| Who had UK number 1s with "Hangin' Tough" and "You Got It (The Right Stuff)"? | New Kids On The Block |
| In Wagner's 'Ring Cycle', who dies giving birth to Siegfried? | Siegunde |
| How does Brunnhilde die in 'The Ring Cycle'? | Throws herself on Siegfried's funeral pyre |
| Octavian and Sophie are characters in which opera? | Der Rosenkavalier (Richard Strauss) |
| The 'Can-Can' by Bad Manners was based on which classical piece? | Offenbach's "Orpheus In The Underworld" |
| Who composed "Rhapsody In Blue"? | Gershwin |
| Black pudding is traditionally made from the blood and fat of which animal? | Pig |
| Who composed "Royal Fireworks Music"? | Handel |
| What is 'bourride'? | Fish stew or soup from Provence |
| Which film score composer is known for his work with the Coen Brothers and also scored the Twilight movies? | Carter Burwell |
| Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" comes from which ballet? | Gayane |
| 'Braxellois' is a sauce of butter, eggs and which vegetable? | Asparagus |
| Who composed the symphonic suite 'Scherezade'? | Rimsky-Korsakov |
| What are the two ingredients in 'Bubble and Squeak'? | Cabbage, potatoes |
| Who composed the oratorio "The Seasons" (not the "Four Seasons", which is a set of violin concertos)? | Haydn |
| An Australian carpetbag steak is stuffed with what? | Oysters |
| In the Bible, who were the tribe of Aaron? | Levites |
| On which island was Ariadne deserted, in Greek myth? | Naxos |
| Who was the Roman equivalent of Artemis? | Diana |
| Who was the ancient Greek God of healing? | Aesclepius |
| Who was the Roman equivalent of Athena? | Minerva |
| Which Nynph detained Odysseus for seven years, according to Greek myth? | Calypso |
| In Greek myth, whose accurate Trojan war predictions were ignored? | Cassandra |
| Which town gives its name to a double-sided lamb chop? | Barnsley |
| Who were the parents of Cassandra in Greek myth? | Priam and Hecuba |
| Which record label was set up by Eminem? | Shady Records |
| In myth, whose image was set in the stars by Neptune? | Cassiopeia |
| Which musical instrument had a forerunner called the symphonium? | Concertina |
| Who was the mother of Castor and Pollux? | Leda |
| Which composer introduced Chopin to George Sand? | Liszt |
| What was Bob Dylan's first UK Top 40 hit? | Times They Are A-Changin' |
| Melvyn Bragg's "Rich" was a biography of who? | Richard Burton |
| In Greek myth, the accurate predictions of Cassandra were ignored because of the influence of which God? | Apollo |
| Which novel was the inspiration for 1994 novel "Lara's Child"? | Dr Zhivago |
| Which play begins "In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband"? | All's Well That Ends Well |
| Which author wrote "Koba the Dread", about Stalin? | Martin Amis |
| In poetic metre, what is the term for a foot of 2 long syllables? | Spondee |
| Psychiatrist Dick Diver appears in which novel? | Tender Is The Night |
| Who wrote the poem 'The Canonisation'? | Donne |
| What nationality was 1998 Nobel literature laureate Naguib Mahfouz? | Egyptian |
| Which type of novel takes its name from the Spanish for 'rogue'? | Picaresque |
| What is the name of Hazel's brother in 'Watership Down'? | Fiver |
| JM Barrie bequeathed the proceeds from Peter Pan to which institution? | Great Ormond Street Hospital |
| Which book begins "These two very old people are the mother and father of Mr Bucket"? | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory |
| Bill Gates bought which of Da Vinci's scientific notebooks? | Codex Hammer |
| Which newspaper launched the Ideal Home Exhibition? | Daily Mail |
| Who painted "The Origin Of The Milky Way"? | Tintoretto |
| Who founded the Illustrated London News? | Herbert Ingram |
| Which painting did art historian Goldscheider call "The Mona Lisa Of The North"? | Girl With The Pearl Earring |
| What type of painting values character or expression over exact likeness? | A tronic |
| What is a 'pendant' in art? | Companion Piece |
| Who painted "The Wrightsman Girl"? | Vermeer |
| Which novelist wrote "The Girl With The Pearl Earring"? | Chevalier |
| Where is Vermeer's "Girl With The Pearl Earring"? | Mauritshuis, The Hague |
| "In Quiet Light", poems based on Vermeer works, was written by who? | Marilyn Chandler McEntyre |
| Which writer took his pen name from a Birmingham City goalkeeper? | James Herriott |
| "I'm not unhappy", with a double negative, is an example of which figure of speech? | Litotes |
| Which novel begins "It was a dark and stormy night" - and who wro wrote it? | Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton |
| Which aphorism was coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton? | The pen is mightier than the sword |
| Which 1826 poem begins "The Boy Stood On The Burning Deck"? | Casabianca |
| What is the full English title of Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas un pipe"? | The Treachery of Images: This Is Not A Pipe |
| Who painted "Blue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra)"? | Matisse |
| Who painted "Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing"? | Richard Hamilton |
| Leroy's use of the word "impressionsime" that came to define the artistic movement appeared in which magazine? | Charivari |
| Announced in December 2014, which James Bond film directly follows 'Skyfall'? | SPECTRE |
| Seurat drew on thecolour theory of which French chemist (1786-1889), who lived to be 102, in creating pointillism? | Michel Eugene Chevreul |
| Who painted "The Gleaners", "The Sower" and "The Angelus"? | Millet |
| Which architect was responsible for the modernisation of Paris, and is often associated with its wide, leafy boulevards? | Haussmann |
| What event was held at 35 Boulevard Des Capuchins from 15th April to 15th May 1874? | First Impressionist Exhibition |
| Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot was a female member of which artistic group? | Impressionists |
| What is generally considered to be the first artistic work of pointillism? | Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon On The Grande Jette" |
| Which US physicist (1831-1902), best known for his work in color (sic) theory, wrote "Modern Chromatics With Applications To Art and Industry"? | Ogden Rood |
| Roger Fry first used the term "Post-Impressionism" after viewing a 1911 exhibition at which London gallery? | Grafton Galleries |
| Who painted expressionist work "The Apparition (The Dance of Salome)"? | Moreau |
| Which Roman Emperor succeeded Augustus? | Tiberius |
| Which Emperor allegedly appointed his horse to the Senate? | Caligula |
| Who succeeded Caligula as Roman Emperor? | Claudius |
| Who was Boudicca's husband? | Prasutagus |
| The early steam engine, the aelopile, was allegedly invented by who? | Hero of Alexandria |
| Which Roman killed herself in 65AD, after involvement in a plot against Nero? | Seneca |
| What name was given to the historical dispersal of Jews from Jerusalem? | Diaspora |
| King Kanishka (the Great) led which North Indian/Central Asian Empire - originally his coronation was dated to 78AD, but more recent sources suggest 127AD? | Kushan |
| In which year did the eruption of Mount Vesuvius destroy Pompeii? | 79AD |
| Which Ancient Greek physician wrote "Da Materia Medica"? | Dioscorides |
| Who was the first of the five "good" Roman Emperors? | Nerva |
| Who were the second, third and fourth (chronologically) of the five "good" Roman Emperors? | Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pius |
| Who was the last of the five "good" Roman Emperors? | Marcus Aurelius |
| Who replaced Nero as Roman Emperor? | Galba |
| Zai Lun is said, probably apocryphally, to have invented what? | Paper |
| Under which Emperor was Dacia conquered, marking the Roman Empire's greatest extent? | Trajan |
| Which Roman Emperor instigated the building of the Pantheon? | Hadrian |
| Which religious group believed that secret knowledge gave the path to salvation, and that the world had been created by a being called the 'demiurge'? | Gnostics |
| Which Roman Emperor succeeded the last of the five 'good emperors' Marcus Aurelius? | Commodus |
| Which 184AD Chinese peasants' revolt was against the Han Dynasty? | Yellow Turban |
| Which philosopher (c204-275) is said to have invented Neoplatonism? | Plotinus |
| Which Roman Emperor founded a 27-acre bath complex in Rome? | Caracalla |
| Which historical era of China began with the collapse of the Han Dynasty? | Three Kingdoms |
| In most lineages of kings and queens (ie ignoring Lady Jane Grey) who directly preceded Mary I on the English throne? | Edward VI |
| Who was England's first male Royal consort? | Philip of Spain |
| Who led a 1554 Kent rebellion against Mary I? | Wyatt |
| Who said at execution "we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out"? | Latimer |
| Which overseas possession of England was lost in Queen Mary's reign, never to be regained? | Calais |
| At which Suffolk castle was Mary I proclaimed Queen of England? | Framingham |
| In 1557, a play called "A Sackful Of Newes" was the first in England known to have suffered which fate? | Censorship |
| Luther nailed his famous 95 theses to which town's church door? | Wittenberg |
| What was patented by Edgar Hooley in 1900? | Tarmac |
| Which British mammal is 'halichoerus grypus'; it is also found in North America? | Grey seal |
| 'Common door', 'rounded' and 'garlic' are all species of what? | Snail |
| Which two thrush species are winter migrants to the UK? | Redwings, Fieldfares |
| Which bird, a member of the thrush family, is 'turdus merula'? | Blackbird |
| What is cecidology the study of? | Plant galls |
| Where are nature reserves Caerlaverock and Campfield Marsh? | Solway Firth |
| What is a plant gall? | Abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues (can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insects and mites) |
| Which name is given to a nose that is turned up at the end? | Retroussé |
| In which year were zebra crossings introduced? | 1951 |
| What did AM stand for? | Amplitude Modulation |
| Amorphous solids are solids that lack the long range order of what type of solids? | Crystals (so amorphous solids are by definition, non-crystalline) |
| Amplitude measures a wave, from its maximum value to what other value? | Its average |
| What name is given to a newborn animal's first fur? | Lanugo |
| What does AMU stand for in chemistry? | Atomic Mass Unit |
| What word, in evolutionary biology, means 'having similar structures with different evolutionary origins'? | Analogous |
| What is an ion with a positive electrical charge called? | Cation |
| Birds that belong to the family gaviidae are better known by what two names? | Loons and divers |
| Coulorophobia is the fear of what? | Clowns |
| What is the USA's largest trade union? | Teamsters |
| In Cockney slang, what is a 'Real Madrid'? | Quid |
| Early conservationist Archie Belaney was also known how, when he took on a First Nations identity? | Grey Owl |
| Ranidophobia is the fear of what? | Frogs |
| Where was the first contraception clinic? | Amsterdam |
| Shops that are by appointment to HRH Prince Charles display what symbol? | Fleur-de-lis |
| What is the US equivalent of the Office of Fair Trading? | Bureau of Consumer Protection |
| How many years must someone be dead before an English Heritage blue plaque can be put up? | Twenty |
| What is the purpose of the glow-worm's glow? | To attract mates |
| Corncobs are the ears of which cereal? | Maize |
| What was painted on the M3 in the year 2000 as an April Fool's prank? | A zebra crossing |
| Who made the Picante car model? | Kia |
| Which female American composer (1901-53), an ultramodernist, specialised in US folk music, and was the stepmother of a famous folk singer? | Ruth Crawford Seeger |
| Which English female composer (1906-83) wrote the operas 'The Numbered' and 'The Linnet And The Leaf' but paid the bills by writing for Hammer horrors? | Elisabeth Lutyens |
| Frauenliebe und -leben (A Woman's Love and Life), is the Opus No. 42 of which composer? | Schumann |
| Which Buddhist festival which comes at the end of Vassa, is a time for the laity to show appreciation to, and often they buy robes for, monks? | Kathina |
| The Agganna Sutta details a creation story in which religion? | Buddhism |
| Polonnaruwa is a former capital city of which country? | Sri Lanka |
| The Buddha was a member of which clan? | Shakya |
| What is the Chinese "Da Xiong Mao" in English? | Giant Panda |
| Designated as Mao Zedong's successor, which Chinese general died in mysterious circumstances in a 1971 plane crash, possibly because of a failed coup attempt? He commanded the decisive Liaoshen and Pingjin Campaigns. | Lin Biao |
| Kong Qiu is the Chinese name for who? | Confucius |
| The Republic of China, preceded by the last Imperial dynasty, was declared in which year of the 20th Century? | 1912 |
| In which centuries did Confucius live? | 6th and 5th BC (551-479BC) |
| The Oracle bone script is writing on divination bones from which Chinese dynasty? | Shang |
| When did China become the People's Republic of China? | 1949 |
| The Yellow River enters the sea in which Chinese province? | Shandong |
| The Tarim Basin is in which Chinese province? | Xinjiang |
| Changsha is the capital of which province? | Hunan |
| Xiao Wutaishan (2,882 metres (9,455 ft)) is the principal peak of which mountain range? | Taihang Mountains |
| What do 'bei' and 'nan' as in Beijing and Nanjing mean in Chinese? | North, South |
| What is a 'shan' in Chinese place names? | Mountain |
| What is a 'he' in Chinese place names? | River |
| What are the indigenous people of Xinjiang called? | Uighurs |
| Who was the nephew of Emile Durkheim, who collaborated with him on many works of sociology and anthropology, including "Primitive Classifications"? | Marcel Mauss |
| The Zuni people are native to which country? | USA |
| What does the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis state? | That the particular language we use shapes how we think |
| Zhang Daoling founded which Chinese religious movement, which reached its height in the 3rd century AD when it controlled a theocratic, independent state in Sichuan - although it still survives today? | Way of the Celestial Masters |
| What name is given to the 'energy flow' at the heart of the theory of much Chinese medicine? | Qi |
| The Azande people live mainly in which area of the world? | Central Africa (DR Congo, South Sudan, CAR) |
| What is a kippa sruga? | Knitted Jewish skullcap |
| What name, of Ojibwe origin, is given to a sacred spirit (often an animal), sacred object or symbol that is used as an emblem of a people? | Totem |
| Which is the only animal where the larynx is located low in the neck, such that it must be closed when swallowing? | Man |
| When damaged or mutated, the FOXP2 gene produces difficulties for humans in which activity? | Language |
| Who composed 'Sheep May Safely Graze'? | Bach |
| What is the Aramaic name for Calvary? | Golgotha |
| What quality makes an opera a 'Grand Opera'? | Being sung throughout |
| Which liquor's name translates as "the drink that satisfies"? | Drambuie |
| In which country was Katie Melua born? | Georgia |
| Johnny McElhone was instrumental in founding which band in 1986? | Texas |
| Who is the patron saint of libraries? | Jerome |
| Who would wear a chasuble? | Priest/clergy |
| How many valves does a bugle have? | None |
| What is a 'Blenheim Orange'? | Apple |
| Who wrote the song "You Can Leave Your Hat On"? | Randy Newman |
| Which singer popularised the Irish folk song "Paddy Mcginty's Goat" in the 1960s and 1970s? | Val Doonican |
| Whose first album was called "These Foolish Things"? | Bryan Ferry |
| Who first released the song "Why Do Fools Fall In Love"? | Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers |
| What is fed to pigs that are used to make "jamon Iberico de bellota"? | Acorns |
| Pukka Pies are made near which major UK city? | Leicester |
| Who was head chef at elBulli until it closed in 2011, due to making a massive monetary loss every year? | Ferran Adria |
| What is 'pan grattato' in Italian cooking? | Breadcrumbs |
| Famed restaurant elBulli, which closed in 2011, was located on which Spanish costa? | Costa Brava |
| Musician Baaba Maal hails from which country? | Senegal |
| According to the Bible story, for how many days was Jonah in the belly of the whale? | Three |
| Which distillery makes 'Glenlivet' whisky? | George Smith & Son |
| Which Cornish cheese is traditionally wrapped in nettles? | Yarg |
| Which fruit is a cross between a grapefruit, and tangerine or orange? | Ugli Fruit |
| Which spice comes from the curcuma plant? | Turneric |
| Sweetbreads are made from which part of an animal? | Pancreas |
| Which British singer won five Grammy Awards in 2008, including Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year? | Amy Winehouse |
| Which musical is a prequel to the Wizard of Oz? | Wicked |
| Which cocktail is made from gin, grenadine, egg whites and cream? | Pink lady |
| Which small dish is used to serve crème brulee or a souflee? | Ramekin |
| Musk, horned and Santa Claus are all varieties of which fruit? | Melon |
| What name is given to South American green fried plantain chips? | Tostones |
| In which year did Luther nail his 95 theses to Wittenberg church door? | 1517 |
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garyegrant
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