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GK 34
Quiz
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Terry Scott played Terry Fletcher in which British sitcom? | Happy Ever After (his surname was changed to Medford in Terry and June) |
| Who played Frederick Treves - a doctor who takes John Merrick from the freakshow to work in the hospital - in the 1980 film "The Elephant Man"? | Anthony Hopkins |
| Who played Dr John Hammond in the film "Jurassic Park"? | Richard Attenborough |
| Which actor was Oscar nominated for four films - for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984)? | Albert Finney |
| Named "the most valuable Victoria's Secret Angel" in 2017, in which country was supermodel Adriana Lima born? | Brazil |
| Which 2009 American-South African biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon was based on the 1995 Rugby World Cup? | Invictus |
| The Case of the Velvet Claws was the first book to feature which popular literary and TV character? | Perry Mason |
| Who directed the 1973 film "Don't Look Now"? | Nicholas Roeg |
| Who played opposite Donald Sutherland as the female lead in the 1973 film "Don't Look Now"? | Julie Christie |
| Which Prague-born actor played Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, Inspector Clouseau's long-suffering superior in several of Blake Edwards' Pink Panther films? | Herbert Lom |
| Which Chinese literary critic, writer, poet, anti-communist and human rights activist won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 but died of liver cancer in 2017? | Liu Xiaobo |
| Who served as President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015? | Christina Kirchner |
| Which Argentinian President assumed office on 10 December 2015? | Mauricio Macri |
| The "trolley problem" was a philosophical problem introduced in 1967 by which female philosopher who lived from 1920 to 2010? | Philippa Foot |
| Francisco I. Madero was the 33rd President of which country? | Mexico |
| Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola were nationalists from where, who attempted to assassinate Harry Truman in 1950? | Puerto Rico |
| In which building was Edward V born? | Westminster Abbey |
| Under which English monarch was the 'Parliament of Devils'? | Henry VI |
| A dog called Tubby was the only casualty of which November 7, 1940 bridge collapse? | Tacoma Narrows Bridge |
| Danes under Christian II were responsible for which massacre that occurred between 7 and 9 November 1520, climaxing on 8 November? | Stockholm Bloodbath |
| Living c.BC 4 – AD 7 and AD 13–c. 40 which historical ruler of the kingdom of Osroene, holding his capital at Edessa, is said by some to have been the first Christian king? | Abgar (V) |
| Who was the father of megalomaniac Roman Emperor Commodus? | Marcus Aurelius |
| The first time the Senate elected a Roman Emperor, who succeeded Domitian as Emperor upon his assassination in 96CE, ruling until his death from natural causes in 98CE? | Nerva |
| Dying in 68AD, who was the last of Augustus's descendants to be Roman Emperor? | Nero |
| What relation was Tiberius to his predecessor as Roman Emperor, Augustus? | Son-in-law |
| In which year did the Roman Emperor Augustus die? | 14CE |
| Meaning 'greatest bridge-builder' what was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, a title conferred upon Augustus in 12BCE? | Pontifex maximus |
| Meaning "First Citizen" which official title of a Roman Emperor was used to determine the leader in Ancient Rome at the beginning of the Roman Empire? | Princeps civitatis |
| On which specific date was Julius Caesar assassinated? | 15th March 44BCE |
| What name was given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires? | Satrap |
| In the Ancient Iranian religion, what was the name of Zoroastrianism's principal act of worship, and also the name of the primary liturgical collection of Avesta texts? | Yasna |
| According to prophecy and legend, for how many years did Zoroaster live? | 77 |
| Which American FIFA official-turned-informant, who admitted taking bribes in relation to the 1998 and 2010 World Cups, died in 2017? | Chuck Blazer |
| What is the most populous Egyptian city located geographically in Asia rather than Africa? It lies on the north coast of the Sinai Peninsula. | El Arish |
| With a population of around 1.5 million, what is Russia’s third-largest city and its largest on the continent of Asia? | Novosibirsk |
| Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, spans two continents. Which is the country’s most populous city to lie entirely in Asia? | Ankara |
| The badge of which luxury car manufacturer is called the Trishield, and consists of three shields of red, white and blue, each with a silver diagonal line from the upper left to the lower right? | Buick |
| The Rumble in the Jungle, the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1974, was the subject of which 1996 Oscar winning documentary film? | When We Were Kings |
| In which round did Ali knock out Foreman after Ali’s ‘rope a dope’ tactics wore down the champion, in 1974's "Rumble in the Jungle"? | Eighth |
| Otis Lee Crenshaw is a character created by which American comedian, now a fixture on British TV? | Rich Hall |
| Who directed "Magic Mike" (2012) and "Erin Brockovich" (2000)? | Steven Soderbergh |
| Making up 21% of the people of Nigeria, which people are the predominant group in the SW of the country, and also live in substantial numbers in Benin and Togo? | Yoruba People |
| The Special Period in Time of Peace (Spanish: Período especial) was a euphemism for an extended period of economic crisis that began in 1989 in which country? | Cuba |
| What products are Cohibas and Montecristos? | Cigars |
| In office 1858-72, who was the first indigenous Mexican to be President of his country? His birthday (March 21) is a national public and patriotic holiday in Mexico, the only individual Mexican so honoured. | Benito Juárez |
| The Giraldilla of Havana, a bronze weather vane, is the symbol used on which brand of drinks? | Havana Club |
| From 1795 to 1898 the body of Christopher Columbus was interred in a church in which country? | Cuba |
| Christopher Columbus is currently buried in which city's cathedral? | Seville |
| Which Spanish Baroque painter (1618-82) painted several pictures for the convent of St. Francisco el Grande in Seville and several pictures of children, including "The Young Beggar" in the Louvre? | Bartolomé Esteban Murillo |
| Which Cuban artist (1902-82)'s masterpiece is popularly held to be 1943's "The Jungle"? | Museum of Modern Art |
| Which English obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist's (1790-1852) attempts to reconstruct the structure and life of Iguanodon began the scientific study of dinosaurs? | Gideon Mantell |
| The first example of the fossil 'Archaeopteryx', long held to be an ancestor of birds, was found in which country in the 1860s? | Germany |
| What two word name has been given to the period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery in the 19th century, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh? | Bone Wars |
| The American explorer, adventurer and naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews (1884-1960) is believed to have been the inspiration for which fictional character first seen in 1981? | Indiana Jones |
| Give a year in the life of monk and genetics pioneer Gregor Mendel. | 1822-84 |
| What is the meaning of the dinosaur name "deinonychus"? | Terrible claw |
| Which novelist, screenwriter and film producer worked with Billy Wilder as his collaborator on thirteen movies, including The Lost Weekend (1945) and Sunset Boulevard (1950), which won Academy Awards for their screenplays? | Charles Brackett |
| Which 1950 film stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, an unsuccessful screenwriter, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a faded silent film star who draws him into her fantasy world where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen? | Sunset Boulevard |
| Which 1958 crime film that tells the story of two escaped prisoners, one white and one black, who are shackled together and who must co-operate in order to survive stars Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier? | The Defiant Ones |
| Which American actor, who played both Major League Baseball and in the National Basketball Association is best known for his five-year role as Lucas McCain in the highly rated ABC series The Rifleman? | Chuck Connors |
| Who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1936, 1938, and 1940, and played Grandpa Amos McCoy in The Real McCoys? | Walter Brennan |
| Which choreographer (1904-83) was styled as the "father of American ballet", and co-founded the New York City Ballet of which he remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years? | George Balanchine |
| Which American dancer, actor, singer, and choreographer (1946-2003) won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Jelly's Last Jam (1992) and the Theatre World Award for Eubie!, but died of liver cancer aged 57? | Gregory Hines |
| What was the forename of Fred Astaire's sister, with whom he formed a childhood double act? | Adele (Astaire) |
| Which American tap dancer and actor, the best known and most highly paid African-American entertainer in the first half of the twentieth century, was nicknamed "Bojangles"? | Bill Robinson |
| Known as the father of "rhythm tap", which US dancer played Sportin' Life in the original "Porgy and Bess" and taught tap dance to Fred Astaire? | John Bubbles (John Sublett) |
| Which husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers and dance teachers appeared on Broadway and in silent films early in the early 20th century and are credited with reviving the popularity of modern dancing, until his death in a 1918 plane crash? | Vernon and Irene Castle |
| In which musical by George and Ira Gershwin, a major Broadway hit, did Fred Astaire first dance in evening clothes and a top hat? | Funny Face |
| Which Cole Porter song, written for "The Gay Divorcee" was a number 1 hit when sung by Fred Astaire, and was so associated with Porter that it was the title of a 1946 film biopic of him? | Night and Day |
| "A Fine Romance", "Never Gonna Dance" and "The Way You Look Tonight" are all songs in which Astaire and Rogers film of 1936? | Swing Time |
| Which 1955 American romantic drama film directed by Delbert Mann with a screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky was the first film to win the Palme D'Or, as well as winning a Best Picture Oscar, the only film to do both? | Marty (The Lost Horizon won the top prize at the Cannes festival, but it was not then called the Palme D'Or) |
| Which German and American film actress, who died aged 104 in 2014, was the first actor to win more than one Academy Award? She was briefly married to playwright Clifford Odets from 1937-40. | Luise Rainer |
| Which Hollywood screenwriter wrote the screenplays for North by Northwest, West Side Story, The Sound of Music and Hello Dolly!? | Ernest Lehman |
| What was Alfred Hitchcock's last completed film? | Family Plot |
| Who wrote the novel "Peyton Place" in 1956 - she said "If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste"? | Grace Metalious |
| Which German-Australian photographer (1920-2004) whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications, published his first book "White Women" in 1976? | Helmut Newton |
| Stella McCartney was chief designer for which fashion house between 1997 and 2001? | Chloé |
| Born 1954, which West German-born American artist created several works based on the death of her actress sister from AIDS, and sculpted 1994's "Mary Magdalene"? | Kiki Smith |
| What term can only be used by a fashion house that presents at least 35 new models every season, manufactured by at least 15 full-time staff in a Paris studio, and which provides made-to-measure services for clients? | Haute Couture |
| A full-body-length semicircle of fabric that is open down the front, what name is given to an outer garment or open cloak worn by some women in Iran and some other countries in public spaces or outdoors? | Chador |
| Which American television personality, businesswoman, celebrity cook, and author hosts an eponymous syndicated daily talk and lifestyle program, and is the host of the Food Network series "30 Minute Meals"? | Rachael Ray |
| What are the English names of the four ghosts in the video-game Pac-Man? | Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde |
| Which home video game console, released on September 11, 1977, is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and ROM cartridges containing game code, and was originally called the VCS? | Atari 2600 |
| Snow Crash is a science fiction novel by which American writer, published in 1992? | Neal Stephenson |
| Which web portal and online service provider was originally founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, and was then called Quantum Link, before adopting its more familiar name in 1991? | America Online (AOL) |
| Which actress was married to John Agar from 1945 to 1950? | Shirley Temple |
| Whose third husband was William Grant Sherry (m. 1945; div. 1950) and fourth Gary Merrill (m. 1950; div. 1960)? | Bette Davis |
| One of the most prolific songwriters from the 1920s to the 1950s, he is credited with over 500 songs, including "On The Sunny Side of the Street", "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" and "Don't Blame Me" - which US composer? | Jimmy McHugh |
| Which Jewish festival involves the observant Jew living in a small shack for its duration? | Sukkot (Tabernacles) |
| Which Jewish festival commemorates the victory of the Hasmonean priests over the non-Jewish Seleucid rulers of Palestine in the 2nd century BCE? | Chanukah (Festival of Lights) |
| Which app was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010? | |
| Which French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science (1923-2015) contended that desire is mimetic (i.e. all of our desires are borrowed from other people) and that all conflict originates in mimetic desire (mimetic rivalry)? | René Girard |
| In which year was "selfie" the OED "Word of the Year"? | 2013 |
| Who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in 2010's "127 Hours" and has also starred in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), Milk (2008), Pineapple Express (2008) and Eat, Pray, Love (2010)? | James Franco |
| In which mobile game developed by Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen in 2012 does the player control a bird, attempting to fly between columns of green pipes without hitting them? | Flappy Bird |
| Which Canadian tech company was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM)? | BlackBerry |
| Which company was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams? | |
| What are measured on the Ulmer Scale? | Actors (fame eg A-List) |
| Lake Wobegon is a fictional town created by which American author? | Garrison Keillor |
| In which year was Facebook's "like" button enabled? | 2009 |
| The Salarian Way was a Roman road that linked Rome to which city? | Ancona |
| What is the scientific name given to the ability of some animals, such as lizards, to self-amputate a part of their body in order to elude a predator? | Autotomy |
| Which German-Dutch alchemist and chemist, who was the first person to produce hydrochloric acid, is known as 'the German Boyle'? | Johann Rudolf Glauber |
| Reaching number 28 in the UK charts in 1980, which group's first hit was entitled 'Ne-Ne-Na-Na-Na-Na-Nu-Nu'? | Bad Manners |
| In which American state were the Seminole Wars fought from 1835 to 1842? | Florida |
| 'The Age of Anxiety' is the nickname of which composer's 2nd Symphony? | Leonard Bernstein |
| In which African country would you find the Toubkal National Park? | Morocco |
| In September 1956, which singer became the first person to have four UK number 1 singles when 'A Woman in Love' reached the top spot in the charts? | Frankie Laine |
| What was the name of the ship that was supposed to sail to America with the Mayflower but had to return to Plymouth because of a leak? | Speedwell |
| What was the name of the naturalist and explorer, known as the 'Father of Biogeography', who proposed a theory of natural selection in his books 'The Malay Archipelago' and 'Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection'? | Alfred Russell Wallace |
| Which group of 24 universities, considered the UK's best, and headquartered in London was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests? | Russell Group |
| Which country's oldest universities are called the 'sandstone universities'? | Australia |
| Which constituency was represented by Tony Blair from 1983 to 2007? | Sedgefield |
| Theresa May became MP for which constituency in 1997? | Maidenhead |
| What are the middle names of Tony Blair? | Charles Lynton |
| Which English county did the Great Train Robbery take place in? | Buckinghamshire |
| What was the real name of the Great Train Robber portrayed as "Buster" in the Phil Collins movie of 1988? | Robert Edwards |
| Which former Special Constable committed the murders that Timothy Evans was hung for in a 1950s miscarriage of justice? | John Christie |
| Which British serial killer was also known as the Muswell Hill Murderer and the Kindly Killer? | Dennis Nilsen |
| Which British murderer was known as "The Black Panther"? | Donald Neilson |
| Which estuary lies between County Londonderry in Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland? | Lough Foyle |
| What is the largest town in the county of Isle of Anglesey in Wales? | Holyhead |
| Lund University is one of Europe's oldest, largest and most prestigious universities and is based in which country? | Sweden |
| Sarah Linden is the main character, played by Mireille Enos, in the US remake of which European TV series? | The Killing |
| Which Philip Roth novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1998? | American Pastoral |
| Which quarterback led the Philadelphia Eagles to the 2018 Superbowl after first-choice Carson Wentz was ruled out for the season? | Nick Foles |
| "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" was written by Junot Diaz, an author born in which country? | Dominican Republic |
| Which genus includes fly-agaric and death cap mushrooms? | Amanita |
| Which King of Mercia died in July 796? | Offa |
| Which grandson of Alfred the Great was styled "Rex Totius Britanniae" on his coins? | Athelstan |
| 'Mermaid Avenue' was a 1998 collection of Woody Guthrie songs re-recorded, at the request of Guthrie's daughter Nora, by which singer-songwriter in collaboration with the Chicago rock band Wilco? | Billy Bragg |
| What is the name of the UK-based gay rights direct action campaigning group formed by Peter Tatchell among others following the murder of the gay actor Michael Boothe? | Outrage! |
| Which famous theorem states that it is impossible to find an integer solution to the equation 'xn + yn = zn' if 'n' is greater than 2 and 'x', 'y' and 'z' are not zero? | Fermat's Last Theorem |
| who became the first person to be guillotined on April 25th 1792? | April 25th 1792 |
| In 1986, which Nigerian playwright became the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature? | Wole Soyinka |
| Which archipelago of islands was originally known to the French as Îles Malouines? | Falkland Islands |
| Who was the gambler and businessman who set up both Howletts Zoo, near Canterbury, and Port Lympne Zoo, near Hythe? | John Aspinall |
| In Greek mythology, who continued to cry for her slain children even after being turned to stone by Zeus? | Niobe |
| Which number, larger than a googol but smaller than a googolplex, can be written as 1 followed by 303 zeroes? | Centillion |
| The Schick Test is used to determine the susceptibility of a person to which infectious disease? | Diphtheria |
| What was the score when England beat Australia in the 2003 rugby World Cup final? | 20-17 |
| In the novel by Jules Verne, who was the French valet who accompanied Phileas Fogg on his attempt to go Around the World in Eighty Days? | Passepartout |
| In Greek mythology, what was the name of the youth killed by a blow to his head, caused by a discus thrown by Apollo? | Hyacinthus |
| Found guilty, at the age of 14, of the murder of his 12-year-old schoolmate Lynne Harper in 1959 and sentenced to hang, which Canadian, whose case has been a cause célèbre for almost fifty years, was officially acquitted of the crime in August 2007? | Steven Truscott |
| Which Moroccan athlete won both the men's 1500 and 5000 metres at the 2004 Olympic Games? | Hicham El Guerrouj |
| Which famous English poet had the middle name Chawner? | Rupert Brooke |
| In the play by Christopher Marlowe, what was the name of the Jew of Malta? | Barabas |
| Begun in 1697, what is the name of the baroque palace complex built in Vienna by Prince Eugene of Savoy? | The Belvedere |
| Which African capital city was formerly known as Christopolis? | Monrovia |
| What is the name of James Fennimore Cooper's fictional Mohican chief, the companion of Natty Bumppo, who was played by Russell Means in the 1992 film 'The Last of the Mohicans'? | Chingachgook |
| Who wrote "Childhood's End", "Rendezvous with Rama" and "The Foundations of Paradise"? | Isaac C Clarke |
| Which American science fiction writer, considered one of the Big Three with Asimov and Clarke, wrote "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Starship Troopers", and the libertarian novel "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress"? | Robert Heinlein |
| Bartholomeus Strobel the Younger, whose masterwork is considered to be "Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St John the Baptist" was born in which modern-day country? | Poland (Wrocław) |
| Which animal, also called the zebra giraffe, was first described as Equus johnstoni by English zoologist Philip Lutley Sclater in 1901? | Okapi |
| Which Iranian mathematician was the first female winner of the Fields Award in 2014 but died of cancer in 2017? | Maryam Mirzakhani |
| Yet to be discovered in 1871, which element, atomic number 43, was given the name "eka-manganese" by Mendeleev? Nearly all of it is produced synthetically, and only minute amounts are found in the Earth's crust. | Technetium |
| Which football team won back-to-back European Cups, in 1961 and 1962? | Benfica |
| Who were the first British football team to win back-to-back European Cups? | Liverpool (1977, 1978) |
| Who were the second British football team to win back-to-back European Cups? | Nottingham Forest (1979, 1980) |
| Completed in 1986, which London building, sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building, was designed by the architect company Richard Rogers and Partners and completed in 1986? | Lloyd's Building |
| Which British sociologist, social activist and politician (1905-2002) coined the term "meritocracy", and helped found "Which?" magazine, the National Consumer Council, the Open University? | Michael Young |
| Replacing George Galloway, who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bethnal Green and Bow in 2010, retaining her seat in 2015 and 2017? | Rushanara Ali |
| Which British television presenter and writer married Charlie Brooker, and has a sister Rupa was elected as a Labour MP in 2015? | Konnie Huq |
| What is the most northerly London borough? | Enfield |
| Which 19th c. English civil engineer's (1819-91) major achievement was the creation of a sewer network for central London which was instrumental in relieving the city from cholera epidemics, while starting the cleansing of the River Thames? | Joseph Bazalgette |
| Which London borough hosts the Wimbledon tennis championships? | Merton |
| Which novel of 1915 by Ford Madox Ford is subtitled "A Tale of Passion"? | The Good Soldier |
| London City Airport is situated in which London borough? | Newham |
| "Don't Kill My Vibe" was the debut single by which singer and songwriter in February 2017? | Sigrid |
| During WW2, who authored the Education Act in the UK in 1944? He was Education Minister at the time and the Act is thus often named after him? | Rab Butler |
| Which Japanese figure skater is the 2014 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (2014, 2017), and a four-time Grand Prix Final champion (2013–2016)? | Yuzuru Hanyu |
| Which male American figure skater was the 2010 Olympic champion, the 2009 World champion and the 2009 Grand Prix Final champion? | Evan Lysacek |
| Which American gymnast and two-time Olympian won 2012 gold medals in the team and floor competitions, as well as the bronze medal on the balance beam, and is also known for her powerful testimony against molester Larry Nassar? | Aly Raisman |
| In the novel "Treasure Island" what colour is the dreaded spot? | Black |
| Carlsberg Special Brew was created in honour of which British PM? | Churchill |
| General Zod is a traditional enemy of which superhero? | Superman |
| How many kilograms are in half a metric ton? | 500 |
| In 2016, which street artist, called the "Banksy of LA" built a tiny wall around Donald Trump's Hollywood Hall of Fame star? | Plastic Jesus |
| Which one-word term is used for the generational demographic cohort, typically born in the 1990s and 2000s, also known as 'Generation Y'? | Millennials |
| Which 'Big Red Dog', later a staple of US children's TV, first appeared in a book published in 1963, written by Norman Bridwell (1928–2014)? | Clifford |
| Which major city arose on the site of a settlement called "Duwamps"? | Seattle |
| The TV series "Deadliest Catch" portrays fishing for which creature? | Crabs |
| Which once popular Victorian family game, is an 18th-century English round game of cards for three to eight players derived from the French game of Matrimony and Comete? | Pope Joan |
| Which chicken sauce is usually made with curry powder and mayonnaise? | Coronation |
| Green fizzy drink "frobscottle" is a creation of which children's author? | Roald Dahl |
| Which former Labour Foreign Secretary was one of the SDP's "Gang of Four"? | David Owen |
| What type of animal is the Beatrix Potter character "Timmy Willie"? | Mouse |
| After delivering a speech on malaria in 2009, who released a jar of mosquitos into the audience? | Bill Gates |
| Which singer, who died in 1998, has "The Best Is Yet To Come" inscribed on his tombstone? | Frank Sinatra |
| Eden Gardens is a Test cricket ground in which city? | Kolkata |
| William Stern, a German psychologist, coined which famous term in 1912? | IQ (Intelligence Quotient) |
| The fifth edition of which intelligence test was released in 2003, and tests five factors: knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, working memory, and fluid reasoning? | Stanford-Binet |
| In 1910, the American Association for the Feeble-Minded defined someone with a mental age between three and seven with what term, today pejorative? | Imbecile |
| In 1910, the American Association for the Feeble-Minded defined someone with a mental age between eight and twelve with what term, today pejorative? | Moron |
| Which airport, the hub of Aeroflot, is the busiest in Russia? | Sheremetyevo International Airport (Moscow) |
| Which Greek island, geographically part of the North Aegean Sea, whose largest town shares its name, is historically famous for revolting against the Delian league in 465BCE, though after a two-year siege, Athens prevailed? | Thasos |
| Which French psychologist (1857-1911) is held to be the 'father of intelligence testing'? | Alfred Binet |
| Who wrote the 1869 work "Hereditary Genius"? | Francis Galton |
| Which US entomologist contributed hugely to sexology in the 1940s and 1950s with his eponymous 'Reports'? | Alfred Kinsey |
| Who wrote the 1921 novel "We"? | Yevgeny Zamyatin |
| With some evidence that she reigned in her own right for some period after her husband Aurelian's death in 275, who might be the only woman to have ruled over the entire classical Roman Empire by her own power? | Ulpia Severina |
| Which capital city of an island group was named for the queen consort to King Christian V of Denmark-Norway? | Charlotte Amalie (US Virgin Islands) |
| The Arabic word for "consultation", what name is given to a meeting in Islam used to resolve a matter of importance? Its name also features in the name given to the collective upper and lower parliaments of Afghanistan. | Shura |
| How were the Dardanelles known in Classical Antiquity? | Hellespont |
| The narrow Euripus Strait separates which island, Greece's second largest after Crete, from Boeotia in mainland Greece? | Euboea or Evia |
| Which country was formerly known as Pleasant Island? | Nauru |
| Which shipping forecast area lies immediately south of South Utsire? | Fisher |
| In which century was the city of Manchester granted a charter? | 14th (1301) |
| What natural feature forms 'drumlins'? | Glaciers |
| What name is given to one of a series of regular sinuous curves, bends, loops, turns, or windings in the channel of a river or stream, produced by it swinging from side to side as it flows across its floodplain or shifts its channel within a valley? | Meander |
| Which solar system planet has an equatorial diameter which is about one-tenth that of Neptune? | Mercury |
| Which discrete probability distribution is a continuous distribution obtained as a limit of binomial distributions as n tends toward infinity but p does not tend to 0? | Normal or Gaussian Distribution (accept bell curve) |
| What term is used to describe highly redshifted active galactic nuclei surrounding a supermassive black hole? | Quasars |
| Which character is the protagonist of John Osborne's "Look Back In Anger"? | Jimmy Porter |
| Popularised by US historian Theodore Roszak in the title of a work of 1969, what term describes the lifestyle and approach of those who reject or oppose the dominant values of conventional society? | Counter-culture (the book was "The Making of a Counter-culture") |
| Which historian wrote 1963's "The Making of the English Working Class"? | EP Thompson |
| The dulzian, the curtal and the sordone are early versions of which double-reeded orchestral musical instrument? | Bassoon |
| Which art gallery links "How It is" by Miroslaw Balka, "Shibboleth" by Doris Salcedo, "Embankment" by Rachel Whiteread, "Marsyas" by Anish Kapoor and "The Weather project" by Olafur Eliasson? | Tate Modern (all have been Turbine Hall exhibits) |
| Which British contemporary artist and curator born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar was prominent in the 1980s Black Art movement and won the 2017 Turner Prize? | Lubaina Himid |
| How is the musician Mathangi Arulpragasam, born in 1975 in London, better known? | M.I.A. |
| With which song did actor Richard Harris have a number one hit in Australia and Canada and a top ten hit in the United Kingdom and United States? | MacArthur Park |
| Who was the first person to host the Golden Globes regularly, doing so in 2010, 2011 and 2012? | Ricky Gervais |
| As of 2018, who has hosted the BBC's coverage of every general election since 1979 and many United States elections? | David Dimbleby |
| Who directed the 1960 film "The Apartment"? | Billy Wilder |
| Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal starred in which 2004 disaster movie that depicted catastrophic climatic effects following the disruption of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation? | The Day After Tomorrow |
| Who directed the movies "Speed" and "Twister", and was director of photography for "Die Hard"? | Jan De Bont |
| Vin Diesel starred in which 1999 sci-fi thriller movie set on a world with three suns? | Pitch Black |
| The St. George’s Night Uprising is the name given to a series of rebellions that took place between 1343 and 1345 against the primarily German rulers of which European country? | Estonia |
| Which dramatist's first play was 'Catalina', published in 1850? | Henrik Ibsen |
| In December 2006, which Danish American footballer became the all-time leading scorer in the history of the National Football League? | Morten Andersen |
| The second horse trained in Scotland to win the Grand National (the other being Rubstic in 1979), which horse won the 2017 Grand National? | One For Arthur |
| Which England cricketer was in his final Test in 1930, at 52 years and 165 days, the oldest player who has appeared in a Test match? | Wilfred Rhodes |
| What nationality is the former skier Aksel Lund Svindal, often considered his nation's greatest? | Norwegian |
| What is the weight of a men's discus at the Olympics? | 2kg |
| What nationality is former tennis player Kevin Curran, beaten by Boris Becker at Wimbledon in 1985? | South African |
| On 22nd November 1986, who did Mike Tyson defeat to become the youngest ever World Heavyweight Champion? | Trevor Berbick |
| Mike Tyson was convicted of the rape of which Miss Black Rhode Island? | Desiree Washington |
| Which F1 driver was the first to beat Juan Manuel Fangio's then-record of 24 wins in World Championship races? | Jim Clark |
| Which international rugby union player for Ireland, who represented his nation from 1955 to 1970 later became the CEO of the Heinz company? | Tony O'Reilly |
| Knighted in 2015, which former Welsh rugby union scrum-half, active from 1966 to 1978, has often been voted the greatest player ever? | Gareth Edwards |
| Which former racing driver was nicknamed El Chueco ("the bowlegged one", also commonly translated as "bandy legged")? | Fangio |
| Which country's first win in the Rugby league World Cup came in 2008, when they became the tournament's third ever winners? | New Zealand |
| Who did Australia defeat in the final of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup? | England |
| Nick Rogers won silver medals at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics for Great Britain in which sport? | Sailing |
| Jack Laugher and Chris Mears won gold medals for team GB at which sport at the 2016 Rio Olympics? | Diving |
| Which swimmer won gold for GB in the Men's 100 m breaststroke at the 2016 Olympics? | Adam Peaty |
| Darren Lockyer is hailed as one of the greatest ever players in which sport? | Rugby league (he's a former Australian player) |
| From which football team did Vincent Kompany move to Manchester City in 2008? | Hamburg/Hamburger SV |
| Charles VIII of France died due to striking his head on a door while on his way to watch which sport? | Jeu de paume/Real tennis |
| In which city are the rugby league team Catalans Dragons based? | Perpignan |
| Completed in 1534, who painted the "Venus D'Urbino"? | Titian |
| Also called Danish Port Salut, which cheese is a Trappist-style pale yellow semi-soft cow's milk cheese with a pungent aroma and a full, sweet flavour, that is named after a Danish abbey? | Esrom |
| Which cheese that originated during the 19th century in an historical area which is now divided between Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, is especially known for its strong smell caused by the bacterium Brevibacterium linens? | Limburger |
| Which painter's 'breakthrough' came with the life-sized group portrait "The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company" in 1616? His most noted portrait today is the one of René Descartes which he made in 1649. | Franz Hals |
| Abolished 1966, what Latin name was given to the list of publications deemed heretical, anti-clerical or lascivious, and therefore banned by the Roman Catholic Church? | Index Librorum Prohibitorum |
| How is the city of Canton currently known? | Guangzhou |
| Which museum houses the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, the Market Gate of Miletus reconstructed from the ruins found in the Middle East, and as the Mshatta Façade? | Pergamom Museum, Berlin |
| Its rebuilding overseen by the English architect David Chipperfield, which Berlin museum houses the bust of Nefertiti? | Neues Museum |
| The Glypothek is a museum in which European city? | Munich |
| In 1896, which USA mountain was given a name by gold-prospectors in support of a then-presidential candidate, although it is now generally known by its older Koyukon name? | Mt Denali (formerly Mt McKinley) |
| Which male actor starred opposite Ida Lupino in both 1940 films "They Drive By Night" and "High Sierra"? | Humphrey Bogart |
| Which British American economist and author was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare? | Angus Deaton |
| In the George R.R. Martin novels, The Riverlands are the populous and fertile areas surrounding the forks of the which river on Westeros? | Trident |
| Part of the narrative in George R.R, Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" lies across the narrow sea from Westeros, an area comprising the large eastern continent named what? | Essos |
| Which large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia was named by Cecil Madigan after president of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia? | Simpson Desert |
| What is the largest desert in Australia? | Great Victoria Desert |
| Lying south of the Great Sandy Desert, and east of the Little Sandy Desert, which Australian desert was named by explorer Ernest Giles after a member of his party who became lost and presumably died there during an expedition in 1874? | Gibson Desert |
| Thought to take its name from a corruption of a Walpiri name for the area, meaning "never die", which Australian desert is the country's third largest, and lies in the Northern Territory and Western Australia? | Tanami Desert |
| Which two-word term, coined by John Ruskin, is a literary term for the attributing of human emotion and conduct to all aspects within nature? | Pathetic fallacy |
| Which physicist gives his name to the quantum mechanical principle which states that two or more identical fermions (particles with half-integer spin) cannot occupy the same quantum state within a quantum system simultaneously? | Wolfgang Pauli (Pauli Exclusion Principle) |
| From an idea by Duns Scotus, what term did Gerard Manley Hopkins coin to refer to the distinctive design that constitutes individual identity? | Inscape |
| Which Italian artist, in the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists? | Giorgio Di Chirico |
| Which art term refers to an architectural fantasy, placing together buildings, archaeological ruins and other architectural elements in fictional and often fantastical combinations? | Capriccio |
| Which French artist (1600-82) was one of the first artists to concentrate on landscape painting, landscapes often turned into history paintings by the addition of a few small figures, typically representing a scene from the bible or classical mythology? | Claude (Lorrain) |
| Which Italian artist (1720-78) was famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" (Le Carceri d'Invenzione)? | Giovanni Battista Piranesi |
| President of the country from 1983-87, who changed the name of Upper Volta to Burkina Faso? | Thomas Sankara |
| Born in Reims in 1619, who Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV? | Jean-Baptiste Colbert |
| Who is best known for his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England (1951–74)? | Nikolaus Pevsner |
| Which grammatical mood is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences? | Indicative or Realis |
| Which grammatical mood is typically used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, obligation, or action that have not yet occurred? | Subjunctive |
| Which UK rapper, singer and songwriter was born Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu in 1988? | Tinie Tempah |
| In Greek myth, which King of Elis was forced into an endless sleep by Selene? | Endymion |
| Which operatic heroine of a work of 1926, will only marry a man who solves three riddles? | Turandot |
| In which book of the Bible does God instruct Moses to lead his people into the wilderness, and ends with the new generation of Israelites in the Plain of Moab ready for the crossing of the Jordan River? | Numbers |
| In Islamic writings, her name is often prefixed by the title "Mother of the Believers", who was - reputedly - the Prophet Mohammed's favourite wife? | Aisha |
| What is oloroso a variety of? | Sherry |
| Who had a UK number 1 in 1959 with "Roulette"? | Russ Conway |
| Which Gilbert and Sullivan operetta is subtitled "Flowers of Progress?" | Utopia Limited |
| Who wrote the song "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" in 1955? | Pete Seeger |
| Which musical features the song "I Remember It Well"? | Gigi |
| Which city has been nicknamed "Bride of the Adriatic"? | Venice |
| What is the second largest city, by population, in Finland, if Espoo is counted as part of Helsinki? | Tampere |
| On which river does the town of Limerick stand? | Shannon |
| Which official's official residence is 1 Carlton Gardens, London? | The British Foreign Secretary |
| Which was the first Scandinavian country to adopt the Euro? | Finland |
| The Saqqaq culture existed from around 2500 BCE until about 800 BCE where? | Greenland |
| What was the name the Norse Greenlanders used for the peoples they encountered in North America and Greenland, largely Paleo-eskimo people of the Thule culture? | Skrælings |
| Which decorative material is also called morse? | Walrus ivory |
| What broad type of animal is a phalarope? | Bird (shorebird) |
| In which year did the European Union replace the EEC? | 1993 |
| The Athenian tyrant Pisistratus, ruler of ancient Athens during most of the period between 561 and 527 BC, was replaced by which of his sons, who in turn ruled until 510BC? | Hippias |
| Which type of warship, named for its rows of oars, dominated naval warfare in the Mediterranean in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE? | Trireme |
| The Fighting Irish is the name of the sporting teams of which US university? It is particularly well known in college football? | Notre Dame (Indiana) |
| Legendary NFL player Red Grange played for which still-extant team in 1925, and again from 1929-34? | Chicago Bears |
| How many NFL players may be dressed and ready to play on game day, according to the rules? | 46 |
| The Mystical Nativity is a painting of circa 1500–1501 and is the only one signed by which great artist? | Botticelli |
| What name is given to the line that runs 66°33′47.0″ south of the Equator, although it moves by 15m every year? | Antarctic Circle |
| In which country are the Pamukkale Hot Springs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site? | Turkey |
| What was the name of Mali from 1880 until 1960? | French Sudan |
| Becoming the world's longest suspension bridge in the world on completion in 1998, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge links which city on the Japanese mainland of Honshu to Iwaya on Awaji Island? | Kobe |
| The Maids (1947), The Balcony (1957), and The Blacks (1959) were plays by who? | Jean Genet |
| Which 1931 Noel Coward play focuses on three decades in the life of the Marryots, a quintessential British family, and their servants, beginning in 1900 and ending on New Year's Eve in 1929 and is set against major historical events of the period? | Cavalcade |
| Which US author married Virginia Clemm in 1836 when she was just 13? | Edgar Allan Poe |
| Born in Cork, which US artist (1848-92) was known for his trompe-l'œil still lifes of ordinary objects, and painted "After the Hunt"? | William Harnett |
| Jorge Chávez International Airport serves which city? | Lima |
| Emily Dickinson was born and died in which Massachussetts town? | Amherst |
| Who wrote "A Royal Duty" in 2003, and entered the fourth series of the ITV reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2004? | Paul Burrell |
| The Franco-German author Emile Herzog is better known under what pen name, under which he wrote the 1923 book "Ariel" about Percy Shelley? | André Maurois |
| The engineers James Martin and Valentine Baker made significant contributions to the design and development of which emergency device? | Ejection Seat |
| In Greek myth, which woman was abandoned by Jason for the younger Glauce? She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis. | Medea |
| What name is usually given to the International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913, the first large exhibition of modern art in America? | Armory Show |
| Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon (1930-2017) designed what for London Zoo? | An aviary |
| Which female American painter and printmaker (1844-1926) befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists? | Mary Cassatt |
| In fiction, how is Vice Admiral Sir Miles Messervy better known? | M (James Bond books) |
| Which word in English literally means "no place" in Ancient Greek? | Utopia |
| Which composer was Maestro di Capella at St Mark's Basilica in Venice from 1613 to 1643? | Claudio Monteverdi |
| Born in 1602 in the Republic of Venice, which composer wrote a number of operas include Didone, Erismena and Calisto? | Francesco Cavalli |
| The Burgess Shale lies near the town of Field in which Canadian National Park? | Yoho National Park |
| Which Venetian composer made his first public appearance as a violinist at St Mark's Basilica in 1696? He is best known for his concertos, of which around 500 survive. | Antonio Vivaldi |
| The Merneptah Stele was discovered at Thebes by which English Egyptologist who pioneered the use of the sequence dating method in archaeology? | Flinders Petrie |
| Who was born Henry McCarty in New York in 1859? | Billy the Kid |
| In which year was the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre? | 1572 |
| What was the nickname of Edith the Fair, the first wife of English king Harold Godwinson? | Swan-neck |
| Which country did British PM Gladstone call "that cloud...that coming storm", in 1845? | Ireland |
| A British political journalist, who wrote the book "The End of The Party" that contained allegations of bullying by former PM Gordon Brown? | Andrew Rawnsley |
| José Sócrates was PM of which country from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011? | Portugal |
| Convicted of money laundering in 2017, who served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2011 | Lula da Silva |
| What is the direct translation of the word 'mossad', the name given to Israel's secret service? | The Institute |
| Meaning 'the gathering', what is the name of Israel's parliament? | Knesset |
| Who succeeded Cristina Fernández de Kirchner as Argentine President in 2015? | Mauricio Macri |
| Which name, familiar in Coronation Street, was shared by the last monarch of the Latin Empire ruling from Constantinople? | Baldwin (Mike et al and Baldwin II) |
| What was WW2's "Operation Dynamo"? | Dunkirk Evacuation |
| Who was the first Soviet leader not to be given a state funeral with interment in the Kremlin Wall? | Nikita Khrushchev |
| In which city was the world's first true stock market founded, in 1602? | Amsterdam |
| In 1799, which British PM introduced income tax to fund the war with France? | Pitt the Younger |
| Who served as head of state of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and later of the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1946? | Mikhail Kalinin |
| On which aircraft carrier did Prince Andrew serve during the Falklands War? | HMS Invincible |
| Which horse did Tacitus claim that Caligula wanted to make a consul? | Incitatus |
| Similar to a present-day country that does not share any territory with it, what was the Latin name for an area in the ancient Maghreb running from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic, covering northern Morocco, and south to the Atlas Mountains? | Mauretania |
| The expression "the empire on which the sun never sets" was coined during which European monarch's reign of 1556-1598? | Philip II of Spain |
| Who is credited with the famous quote "because it's there!" when asked why he wanted to climb Everest? | George Mallory |
| Who was Scotland's first 'First Minister' following devolution in 1999? | Donald Dewar |
| Who founded Harrow public school in 1572? | John Lyon |
| What was the first ever perforated postage stamp? | Penny Red (UK) |
| What was achieved by the thirteenth amendment to the US constitution? | Abolition of Slavery |
| Who was the first US President to hold a patent, an invention to lift boats over shoals in a river? | Abraham Lincoln |
| Which English admiral, who led the British fleet to victory at Battle of the Mona Passage in April 1782 during the American Revolutionary War, had a battlecrusier sunk in 1941 named for him? | Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood |
| In which pub did Ronnie Kray shoot and kill George Cornell? | The Blind Beggar |
| What was the nickname of Leonard Reed, the policeman who led the efforts to convict the Kray twins? | Nipper |
| Which American bass baritone singer and actor who became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, and who was a college football player, died of complications of a stroke on January 23, 1976? | Paul Robeson |
| Which ocean liner collided with the eastbound MS Stockholm of the Swedish American Line in 1956, costing 46 lives? | SS Andrea Doria |
| Who married Nadezhda Krupskaya in Siberia in 1898? | Vladimir Lenin |
| How many King Georges have reigned in Britain, as of 2018? | Six |
| What was the family name of Lord Beaverbrook, a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century? | Aitken (William Maxwell Aitken) |
| Who was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1964 to 1967? | James Callaghan |
| Who was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1967 to 1970? | Roy Jenkins |
| Which Norwegian polar explorer was the first to make solo, unsupported journeys to the North and South poles? | Børge Ousland |
| Who was British PM at the time of the USA's Declaration of Independence? | Lord North (Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford) |
| What name was given to a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility but dismounted to fight on foot? | Dragoons |
| Which politician served as the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo) from June until September 1960? He was executed in January 1961. | Patrice Lumumba |
| Which 16th/17th century school of painting's most important representatives were the Carracci family, including Ludovico Carracci, and his two cousins, the brothers Agostino Carracci and Annibale Carracci? | Bologna school |
| Which Scottish writer and comedian won the 2007 Costa Prize for the novel "Day"? Her other works include "On Bullfighting" and "Paradise". | A.L. Kennedy (Alison Louise Kennedy) |
| Which Scottish writer's "The Accidental" was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize? Her 1997 debut was "Like". | Ali Smith |
| Born in 1870, which Swedish mathematician gives his name to the 'star', 'snowflake' or 'island' that is one of the earliest described types of fractal curve? | Helge von Koch (Koch snowflake) |
| Cilmeri is a village in Powys, Wales, notable for being the site of a memorial to which man, who was killed in a skirmish nearby? | Llywelyn ap Gruffudd |
| What four-word name was give to the agreement between the English parliament and the Scots in 1643 to strengthen their position against Charles I? | Solemn League and Covenant |
| Under what name was Zambia known prior to independence in 1964? | Northern Rhodesia |
| Which planet of the solar system has an orbit that most approximates to a true circle? | Venus |
| In the French revolutionary calendar, Bastille Day fell during the month of Messidor, which means what in English? | Harvest |
| In the French revolutionary calendar, every month was organised not into weeks, but groups of ten days known as what? | Decade |
| The UK kitemark symbol is enclosed at its base by two lines in the shape of a 'V' and has which two letters at the top? | B and S (British Standards) |
| Inhabiting coastal scrub in New Guinea and Australia, a pademelon is a small species of which animal? | Wallaby |
| Which carnivorous marsupials native to mainland Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania belong to the genus Dasyurus and have been threatened because they eat the poisonous, introduced cane toad? | Quolls |
| In Cartesian co-ordinates, what shape is the solution to the equation 1-x2-y2-z2=0? | Sphere |
| In finance, what Italian-derived term refers to unsecured, higher-yielding loans that are often used to fund takeovers? | Mezzanine capital |
| Who played the title character in the 1957 film ‘The Admirable Crichton’? | Kenneth More |
| Which German Dadaist artist, who painted ‘The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter’, served in the army during WW1 and said in his autobiography that he “…died the 1st August 1914”? | Max Ernst |
| In 1971, which British aviatrix became the first woman to fly over the North Pole? | Sheila Scott |
| The German inventor and early filmmaker Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil invented which early movie projector, used to display the first moving picture to be shown to a paying audience in November 1895, two months before the Lumière Brothers? | Bioscop |
| The American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd were all shot dead by the FBI in which year? | 1934 |
| The 2007 movie 'Rescue Dawn', starring Christian Bale and Steve Zahn, was directed by which German, whose directorial debut was the 1962 short film ‘Herakles’? | Werner Herzog |
| What was the name of the ship that arrived at Tilbury in June 1948 carrying the first large group of West Indian immigrants to the UK after World War II? | Empire Windrush |
| Designed in 1941 by the German engineer and computer pioneer Konrad Zuse, what was the name of the world's first functional program-controlled computer? | Z3 |
| During World War II Operation Felix was the proposed name for a German/Spanish plan to seize what? It was scheduled to take place on January 10th 1941 but it was never executed. | Gibraltar |
| The Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant is in which European country? | Finland |
| Which scientist was born of Serbian parents in a part of the Austrian empire, which shortly later became part of the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary but is now in Croatia? He later became a US citizen. | Nikola Tesla |
| Also known as roundworms, which unsegmented worms are parasites of plants and animals and are added to soil by gardeners as an organic slug killer? | Nematodes |
| Peel and cannon are shots and a bisque a free turn in which sport? | Croquet |
| From the Greek for 'different power' what term refers to the generation of beat frequencies by the combination of two waveforms? | Heterodyning |
| Which British bird, that takes its name from the old Norse for 'foul gull' can squirt an evil-smelling stomach oil up to 2 metres to repel unwanted visitors? | Fulmar |
| In the UK, membership grades of AMICE and MICE can be found in which profession? | Civil Engineers (Associate Member of the Institute and Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers) |
| Also called a quickhatch, what is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae (weasels etc)? | Wolverine |
| Oak apple or oak gall is the common name for a large, round, vaguely apple-like gall commonly found on many species of oak caused by which type of creatures? | (Gall) Wasps |
| Who drove the Thrust SSC when it set the world land speed record in 1997? | Andy Green |
| Who drove the Thrust2 when it set the world land speed record in 1983, a record it held until superseded by Thrust SSC in 1997? | Richard Noble |
| Quinine was first obtained from the bark of which tree/genus of flowering plants? | Cinchona |
| Snipes are wading birds in which family? | Sandpipers (Scolopacidae) |
| Which principle? "The upward buoyant force exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially submerged, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces & acts in the up direction at the centre of mass of the displaced fluid" | Archimedes' principle |
| Launched in 1960, what was the United Kingdom's first nuclear-powered submarine, built by Vickers Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness? | HMS Dreadnought (S101) |
| What colour is a piebald horse? | Black and white |
| Which US entertainer was born Fania Borach on October 29, 1891? | Fanny Brice |
| Who did Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias marry in 1971? | Mick Jagger |
| Which English stage, screen and radio comedian of the pre- and post-war years had the catchphrase 'You lucky people'? | Tommy Trinder |
| Which English music hall comedian was born Thomas Henry Sargent on 21 November 1894? | Max Miller |
| In the Disney film "Snow White and The Seven Dwarves" what were the dwarves mining for? | Diamonds |
| Which English comedian and TV and radio presenter, broadcasting almost continuously from the 1940s to the 1990s, was nicknamed "Cheerful" and had a catchphrase of "I say, what a smasher!"? | Charlie Chester |
| Who played Napoleon Solo in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E. "? | Robert Vaughn |
| Played by Leo G. Carroll, who was Napoleon Solo's boss in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."? | (Alexander) Waverly |
| Which English music hall comedian had the signature tune "Mary From The Dairy"? | Max Miller |
| In which German city is the Goethe Museum or Goethe House? | Frankfurt am Main |
| What do stamp collectors understand by the abbreviation 'o.g.'? | Own gum |
| Why were both Mark Roe (who was two shots off the lead) and Jesper Parnevik disqualified from the 2003 Open Championship? The rule was changed in 2005 so it could no longer happen. | Failed to sign each other's scorecards |
| Which trophy is awarded to the best boxer stylistically at the Olympics? | Val Barker Trophy |
| Which female golfer won ten majors in her career, her only Open victory coming in 2003? | Annika Sörenstam |
| As of 2018, England, Spain and which other nation have won every football World Cup Final in which they have played? | Uruguay |
| In the game 'Go' what term is used for a vacant point that is immediately adjacent to a stone in a cardinal (orthogonal) direction, or connected through a continuous string of same-coloured stones to such a point? | Liberty |
| Which suit of cards is called Bells in German, and is Coins in Old Latin packs? | Diamonds |
| What are Spades called in a German pack of cards? | Leaves (Laub) |
| Which Portuguese football team plays at the Estádio da Luz? | Benfica |
| Which German football team has the largest stadium by capacity? | Borussia Dortmund (Westfalenstadion) |
| In snooker, who became the first Asian player to be ranked world number one, a feat he first achieved in 2014 to become the 11th player to reach the top spot? | Ding Junhui |
| Where did Chinese teenager Ding Jinhao cause an international scandal by engraving his name on an ancient monument in 2013? | Luxor, Egypt |
| Which short-lived variant of snooker was introduced by Barry Hearn in 2010 in an attempt to make the game "faster and more exciting"? | Power Snooker |
| Which English professional football team has played at Adams Park since 1990? | Wycombe Wanderers |
| Cheltenham Racecourse is located in which park? | Prestbury Park |
| Who wrote the words to "Rule Britannia"? | James Thomson |
| How are Urs Bühler (Switzerland), Carlos Marín (Spain), David Miller (USA), and Sébastien Izambard (France) collectively known? | Il Divo |
| What is a 'cathedra' that a church must contain to be called a cathedral? | A bishop's throne |
| Which Gilbert and Sullivan operetta is subtitled "The Statutory Duel"? | The Grand Duke |
| Which musical features the song "The Night They Invented Champagne"? | Gigi |
| Sunburst, May Duke and Merton Glory are varieties of which fruit? | Cherry |
| Which knight of the round table threw Excalibur in the lake? | Bedivere |
| Which three Arthurian knights achieved the Holy Grail according to Thomas Malory? | Bors, Galahad, Parsifal |
| Who wrote the music for the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers"? | Arthur Sullivan |
| What is the lowest pitched string instrument in a standard orchestra? | Double Bass |
| Which group released the 1976 album "Rastaman Vibration"? | Bob Marley and the Wailers |
| Delius composed "On Hearing The First..." what "...In Spring"? | Cuckoo |
| Which Greek hero, in a Sophocles play, killed himself when Achilles' armour was given to Odysseus? | Ajax |
| Who had a June 1974 UK Top 10 hit with "One Man Band"? | Leo Sayer |
| Which Gilbert and Sullivan operetta is subtitled "The Slave of Duty"? | The Pirates of Penzance |
| What is the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "HMS Pinafore" subtitled? | The Lass That Loved A Sailor |
| Who, in Roman myth, was the goddess of strife, the equivalent of Greek Eris? | Discordia |
| How was musician Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe better known? | Jelly Roll Morton |
| Which Persian deity was a god of light and wisdom, and led to a Roman mystery religion with the addition of the letter 's' to his name? | Mithra |
| Which Pet Shop Boys song got to number 1 in the UK at Christmas 1987? | Always On My Mind |
| Which monstrous creature with parts from multiple animals was killed, in Greek myth, by Bellerophon? | Chimera |
| Which celebrated German scientist won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1932? | Werner Heisenberg |
| Which English architect designed the international railway terminal at Waterloo Station? | Nicholas Grimshaw |
| Known as 'The Angel of the Battlefield,' who was the American teacher, nurse and humanitarian who founded the American Red Cross in 1881? | Clara Barton |
| Which French engineer invented the world's first passenger-carrying airship in 1852? | Henri Giffard |
| Which letter signifies the electron shell that is the second nearest to an atom's nucleus, after the K shell? | L (the third is the M) |
| What unit of luminance can be expressed as lumens per metre squared? | Lux |
| What name is given to the scientific study of charged particles being emitted from a surface due to heat? | Thermionics |
| Which English composer went blind from syphilis in the mid-1920s, but carried on writing - works from that period including A Song of Summer, Songs of Farewell, and Fantastic Dance? | Frederick Delius |
| The Brown Bear is the national animal and the Whooper Swan is the national bird; which country? | Finland |
| Chrystabel Leighton-Porter, who died in 2000, played which mid-20th century comic strip character on stage and in films? | Jane |
| Which two men founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935? | William Griffith Wilson and Dr Bob Smith (Bill W and Dr Bob) |
| Which 19th century Norwegian mathematician gives his name to one of the most intensely studied of the topological groups, in which the topology of each point is like that of an "n"-dimensional Euclidean space for some fixed "n"? | (Marius Sophus) Lie |
| His actions considered the precursor of the Athens Polytechnic uprising, what was the name of the Greek geology student who set himself ablaze in Matteotti square in Genoa in protest at the dictatorial regime of Georgios Papadopoulos? | Kostas Georgakis |
| Which animal phylum, characterised by pentamerous symmetry, includes starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers? | Echinodermata/Echinoderms |
| What name is given to a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another, and also refers to a person who signs a document on behalf of another under the latter's authority? | Amanuensis |
| Which Greek philosopher, who died in 323BCE begged for a living and often slept in a large ceramic jar in the marketplace? | Diogenes (the Cynic) |
| The Virgin Soldiers (1966) and Kensington Heights (1996) were written by which Welsh author? | Leslie Thomas |
| Which former baker and media personality referred to himself as "just the fat, bald bloke on MasterChef who likes pudding"? | Gregg Wallace |
| The Warlock chronicles, Grail Quest novels, Starbuck chronicles and 1999's "Stonehenge" were written by who? | Bernard Cornwell |
| Which poet was the MP for Hull from 1661 to 1678? | Andrew Marvell |
| Which sculptor, born in Castleford in 1898, drew Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War? | Henry Moore |
| The Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman are furnishings made of which material and leather? | Moulded plywood |
| Which German philosopher wrote "The World As Will And Representation"? | Schopenhauer |
| Which British-American wrote "In Darkest Africa"? | Henry Morton Stanley |
| Which poet laureate died on 12 May 1967? | John Masefield |
| Which Russian painter and scene and costume designer designed sets for Diaghilev's ballets from 1909-21? He died on 27 December 1924, in a clinic in Rueil Malmaison, near Paris, from lung problems. | Leon Bakst |
| Originally from Arabic, which word refers to Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework? | Azulejo |
| Milly Theale and Susan Stringham are characters in which 1902 novel? | The Wings of The Dove (Henry James) |
| What name does Viola use in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night when disguised? | Cesario |
| Which artist created "Equivalent VIII" in 1966? | Carl Andre |
| In the Dewey Decimal Classification system what comes under 200? | Religion |
| Which parodic holiday of Sept 19 was created in 1995 by John Baur and Mark Summers, of Albany, Oregon, U.S.A.? | International Talk Like A Pirate Day |
| An offshoot of the Hudson River School, what name is given to an American landscape painting style of the 1850s – 1870s, characterized by effects of light in landscapes, through using aerial perspective, and concealing visible brushstrokes? | Luminism |
| Who wrote the novel "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" in 1880? | Lew Wallace |
| Which ancient artefact is thought to be the world's largest single gold object? | Tutankhamun's sarcophagus |
| Thought to contain the oldest free standing buildings in the world, what name is given to the temple grouping built in Malta during the Ġgantija and Tarxien phases between 3600 and 2500BC? | Mnajdra |
| In which English county is Sissinghurst Castle, famously owned by Vita Sackville-West, who designed its garden? | Kent |
| Which ox-like antelope, Boselaphus tragocamelus, also known as the blue bull, is found in northern India and eastern Pakistan? | Nilgai |
| The Bund is a collection of early 20th century neo-classical buildings found in which city? | Shanghai |
| Which sea is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda and Ceram seas to the northwest? | Arafura Sea |
| Leather objects are traditionally gifted on which wedding anniversary? | Third |
| Who was defeated by Clement Attlee in the Labour leadership election of 1935, but acted as Home Secretary in the wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945? | Herbert Morrison |
| During the Jacobite rising of 1745, which battle on 17 January 1746 was the last noteworthy Jacobite success? | Battle of Falkirk Muir |
| In which country was Adolf Eichmann living when he was abducted by Israeli agents and taken for trial in Jerusalem? | Argentina |
| After graduating from teacher-training school in 1918, who then went on to work as a librarian's assistant at Peking University? | Mao Tse-Tung |
| Which calendar date gives its name to an anti-Japanese, anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student participants in Beijing in 1919? | May the 4th |
| Which honey-like substance is released from the tamarisk tree of the Arabian desert by the action of feeding insects, or secreted by the insects themselves? | Manna |
| Which Rio de Janeiro football team's nicknames include A Estrela Solitária (The Lone Star), O Glorioso (The Glorious One) and O Mais Tradicional (The Most Traditional)? | Botafogo |
| In which Brazilian city is the team of Gremio based? | Porto Alegre |
| Which Guillermo del Toro movie won Best Picture at the 90th Academy Awards, held in 2018? | The Shape of Water |
| For which film did Gary Oldman win a Best Actor Academy Award at the 90th Academy Awards, held in 2018? | Darkest Hour |
| At the 2018, 90th Academy Awards, who won the Best Supporting Actor category for playing Officer Jason Dixon in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri? | Sam Rockwell |
| Who hosted the Academy Awards in both 2017 and 2018, making him the first back-to-back host since Billy Crystal 20 years earlier? | Jimmy Kimmel |
| Rigid censorship of literature deemed corrupting or salacious was advocated by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, led by which moral crusader, who died in 1915? | Anthony Comstock |
| Which French term refers to the artistic technique whereby paper is placed over a textured surface and rubbed with pencil or crayon to produce an impression - a technique used by Max Ernst? | Frottage |
| Which politician was hailed as "Lord Festival" for his successful leadership of the Festival of Britain, a critical and popular success in 1951 that attracted millions of visitors to fun-filled educational exhibits and events throughout the country? | Herbert Morrison |
| The RSPB reserve at Minsmere is in which English county? | Suffolk |
| What was the name of Nelson's flagship at the Battle of the Nile in 1798? | HMS Vanguard |
| What was Anne's surname in LM Montgomery's novel 'Anne of Green Gables'? | Shirley |
| Referencing an area of London, what two-word term is theatrical slang for fake blood? | Kensington Gore |
| Which actor played Avery Tolar in "The Firm", and white supremacist Sam Cayhall in "The Chamber"? | Gene Hackman |
| Which film of 1997 starred Matt Damon as an inexperienced lawyer taking on the case of a leukaemia victim in dispute with his insurance company? | The Rainmaker |
| Pennyroyal, apple and ginger are all varieties of which herb? | Mint |
| In the animated TV show "Ren and Stimpy" what breed of dog was Ren? | Chihuahua |
| What are isobaths equal measures of? | Water depth |
| In which US city was Black & Decker founded in 1910? | Baltimore |
| What name is given to the study of underwater depth of lake or ocean floors? | Bathymetry |
| Which flower is the national follower of Nepal, and has a name meaning "rose-tree"? | Rhododendron |
| Which type of bush produces flowers called "may blossom"? | Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna/common hawthorn) |
| What name is given to the young of an otter? | Pup |
| What is the more common name of the medical condition pediculosis? | Lice |
| In heraldry, what name is given to sable? | Black |
| What was the profession of Harry Enfield's character "Loadsamoney"? | Plasterer |
| Which Hungarian-born man conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea of a nuclear reactor with Enrico Fermi in 1934, & in 1939 wrote the letter for Einstein's signature that resulted in the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb? | Leo Szilard |
| Which English writer, television presenter and comedian formed a writing partnership with Marty Feldman in 1954? | Barry Took |
| What were the names of the two dogs in the TV series in "Magnum PI"? | Zeus & Apollo |
| Mildred Harris, Lita Grey, Paulette Goddard and Oona O'Neill were the four wives of which entertainer? | Charlie Chaplin |
| What was the first name of TV character "Magnum PI"? | Thomas |
| Which was the first Bond film not to use an Ian Fleming book or short story title? | Never Say Never Again |
| DS Albert Chisholm and DS Ronald Rycott appeared on which British TV series of 1979-94? | Minder |
| Who was the first president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? | Douglas Fairbanks Sr. |
| What is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival? | Palme D'Or |
| In which year was the 'X' certificate for movies introduced in the USA? | 1968 |
| Who were the recipients of PATSY Awards from 1939 to 1986? | Animals (animal performers in films) |
| Which British city was once called Tigguo Cobauc, meaning Place of Caves? | Nottingham |
| Which castle on Anglesey is a UNESCO World Heritage Site? | Beaumaris Castle |
| What is the formal name of the Nepalese airport at Lukla, the traditional start of the Everest Base Camp trek? | Tenzing-Hillary Airport |
| Which London underground line, that connects to all the others, was officially opened by the Prince of Wales on 30 April 1979? | Jubilee Line |
| Which is the largest lake wholly in Switzerland? | Lake Neuchâtel |
| The most westerly point in mainland Britain is located on which peninsula? | Ardnamurchan |
| Which American actress was known for her role as Arya in the Netflix series Love, produced and developed by her father? | Iris Apatow |
| What is the most northerly city in the UK? | Inverness |
| What is the oldest city in Wales? | Bangor |
| Which English town or city did the Romans call Danum? | Doncaster |
| Which boxer who reigned as the undisputed heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973 won heavyweight gold at the 1964 Olympics? | Joe Frazier |
| The rumba music style originated in which country? | Cuba |
| In 2005, which actor and his partner – director Gregory Doran, with whom he frequently collaborated professionally – became one of the first gay couples to enter into a civil partnership in the UK? | Antony Sher |
| What is the literal meaning of the word 'cenotaph' in the original Greek? | Empty tomb |
| Complete the popular saying: "Speak of the devil...." | And he's sure to appear |
| According to Shakespeare, to whom did Julius Caesar bequeath 75 drachma? | Every Roman citizen |
| Who wrote the book "All Things Bright and Beautiful" (1974)? | James Herriot |
| Similar to haberdashery in the UK, which US word refers to small objects or accessories, including items that are sewn or otherwise attached to a finished article, such as buttons, snaps, and collar stays? | Notions |
| When he was seventeen, which artist was struck on the nose by another pupil, Pietro Torrigiano, causing the disfigurement that is conspicuous in some of his portraits? | Michelangelo |
| Which Italian artist's only show, in 1917 in Paris, was closed by the police on its opening day for obscenity? | Amadeo Modigliani |
| George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, was a major patron of which artist who for a time lived at his house? | J. M. W. Turner |
| Who wrote the 1835 short story "Diary of a Madman"? | Nikolai Gogol |
| What is the first name of the son in Dickens' "Dombey and Son"? | Paul |
| What was the name of Don Quixote's horse? | Rosinante |
| Remaining unseen in the novel, who does Don Quixote describe as "my queen and lady"? | Dulcinea (del Toboso) |
| Which fictional character lived in Puddleby on the Marsh, and was first seen in 1920? | Dr Doolittle (by Hugh Lofting) |
| Which German author wrote 1947's "Doktor Faustus: Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn, erzählt von einem Freunde", usually just called "Doctor Faustus" in English? | Thomas Mann |
| In which story of 1886 is Sir Danvers Carew MP murdered? | Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde |
| In 1609, who was appointed as court painter by Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, sovereigns of the Low Countries? | Peter Paul Rubens |
| In 1789 who was appointed court painter to Charles IV of Spain? | Goya |
| Which Japanese word means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them? | Tsundoku |
| The political writer Jonathan Rauch once coined a rule that no-one can win the US Presidency if they are more than how many years from their first Senatorial or gubernatorial election win? | 14 (14-year rule) |
| Who was the first footballer from outwith the British Isles to make 500 appearances in the English Premier League? | Mark Schwarzer |
| Which composer wrote the 1868 lullaby "Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht"? | Brahms |
| In which city was the prestigious theatre Theater am Kärntnertor located until demolition in the late 19th century? | Vienna |
| Michael Jackson died in which month of 2009? | June |
| In which year did Americans first start spending more time on digital devices (laptops, tablet, smartphones) than watching TV? | 2012 |
| How many seconds did a Vine, the short-form video hosting service, last for? | Six |
| Which French painter, member and patron of the artists known as Impressionists painted "Young Man at his Window"? | Gustave Caillebotte |
| By what two-word term is the number 1.618033988749894848204586834... better known? | Golden ratio |
| Which man was called The Man Who Shaped America, The Father of Streamlining and The Father of Industrial Design, and created the logos for Exxon and the US Postal Service? | Raymond Loewy |
| Air Force One has a mainly blue livery because it was which US President's favourite colour? | John F Kennedy |
| Who had a massive hit in 2015 with the song "Stitches?" | Shawn Mendes |
| What was the United States' first and only space station, orbiting Earth from 1973 to 1979, when it fell back to Earth amid huge worldwide media attention? | Skylab |
| Established on the basis of the now-defunct Federal Space Agency on December 28, 2015, what is the Russian equivalent of NASA? | Roscosmos |
| Which French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker (1881-1955) evolved from Cubism to forerunner of pop art, and painted La Ville (The City) that is housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art? | Fernand Léger |
| In January 2010, it was announced that which video game franchise had sold more than 170 million copies, approximately 70 million physical copies and over 100 million copies for cell phones, making it the best selling paid-downloaded game of all time? | Tetris |
| Who had a big hit in 2008 with "I'm Yours" from his third album "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things."? | Jason Mraz |
| Which on-demand transportation company based in San Francisco, California was launched in June 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer as competition for Uber? | Lyft |
| Sports broadcaster ESPN was acquired by which company in 1996, and as of 2018 is 80% owned by them? | Walt Disney Company |
| In music, a treble clef is also known by the name of which letter, from where it is placed on the stave? | G Clef |
| In music, a bass clef is also known by the name of which letter, from where it is placed on the stave? | F Clef |
| In music, which cadence is also known as the "Amen Cadence" because of its frequent setting to the text "Amen" in hymns? | Plagal cadence |
| Give a year in the life of composer Claudio Monteverdi. | 1567-1643 |
| Which opera - of which only the lament survives - did Claudio Monteverdi write after his wife's death, it was his second opera? | L'Arianna |
| Which artist's "Bacchus and Ariadne" (1522-23) hangs in the National Gallery, London? | Titian |
| Which musical command means "very slow (25–45 bpm)"? | Grave |
| Which musical command means "as fast as possible" (over 200bpm)? | Prestissimo |
| What is the direct meaning of the musical command "largo"? | Broadly |
| What broad category of musical instrument, or section of an orchestra, would the old musical instruments shawms and crumhorns have belonged to? | Woodwind |
| On the Internet, which top level domain signifies an international non-profit making body? | .org |
| In Internet terms, what does URL stand for? | Universal Resource Locator |
| Which part of the body is also called the hypophysis? | Pituitary Gland |
| Enoch Powell made a speech in which town on 11 October 1968 on the economy, setting out alternative, radical free-market policies? The speech was named after the town. | Morecambe (The Morecambe Budget) |
| Which Roman soldier and poet, born 65BCE, wrote: "In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war"? | Horace |
| Which bird is Tetrao tetrix, known for its communal mating displays, or "leks" in Spring? | Black Grouse |
| What is the surname of William who, with his son Lawrence, founded the science of X-ray crystallography? | Bragg |
| How are trees of genus abies better known? | Firs |
| What is the British/Cockney slang for £500? | A monkey |
| Which word, from the Greek for "grace", can be used in a religious sense for a divinely-bestowed talent or power, and can also describe a strong ability to attract people and inspire loyalty and admiration? | Charisma |
| Syracuse, a city founded by ancient Greeks, is on which island? | Sicily |
| Of which US state is Jackson the capital? | Mississippi |
| On the US Presidential seal, what is held by the bald eagle in its right leg? | Olive branch |
| On the US Presidential seal, what is held by the bald eagle in its left leg? | Twelve arrows |
| Against whom do football team Palermo contest the Sicilian derby? It is the second largest city in island. | Catania |
| Arthur Eddington and Bob Hope lived in which western English town when they were young - Jeffrey Archer's mother also once wrote a column for the local paper called "Over The Tea Cups". | Weston-Super-Mare |
| Which Hitchcock film was based on Ethel Lina White's novels "The Wheel Spins"? It features cricket fanatics Charters and Caldecott. | The Lady Vanishes |
| The dog Flush, whose story was later told by Virginia Woolf, belonged to which Victorian literary figure? | Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
| The Act for Better Government for India of 1858 replaced whose rule with that of the British Crown? | The East India Company |
| Published in 1982, what was Isabel Allende's first novel? | The House of the Spirits |
| Which British conductor and cellist is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 1943 and conducted for the rest of his life? | John Barbirolli |
| What does UN/M mean to a stamp collector? | Unmounted, mint |
| In which 1759 novel does the eponymous hero visit the city of El Dorado? | Candide |
| Martha Argerich is regarded as one of the greatest ever players of which musical instrument? | Piano |
| Which popular pub name is a corruption of "piggin and wassail"? | Pig and Whistle |
| In which London Park is Cumberland Terrace, intended to face a royal palace that was never built? | Regent's Park |
| In which Ealing comedy of 1952 is a branch railway line threatened with closure, and taken over by local villagers as a private concern? | The Titfield Thunderbolt |
| The Système international (d'unités), whose units are called SI units, defines fundamental units in which all other units can be expressed. What are these other units called in the SI system? | Derived Units |
| Which film director used the name Bob Robertson for the release of his first successful film, in 1964? | Sergio Leone |
| Former actress Elia Zaharia married which nation's crown prince in 2016? | Albania |
| What is the full name of the professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures, that awards the Oscars? | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |
| What was the top grossing movie of the 1990s? | Titanic |
| What was the top grossing movie of the 1950s? | The Ten Commandments |
| What was the top grossing movie of the 1940s? | Fantasia |
| What was the top grossing movie of the noughties worldwide (2000-2009)? | Avatar |
| Who is sometimes regarded as the first African-American performer to win Best Actor -- because previous Oscar-winner Sidney Poitier was of Bahamas descent? | Denzel Washington |
| Who was Oscar nominated for playing Father Charles "Chuck" O'Malley in both Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)? | Bing Crosby |
| Paul Newman was Oscar-nominated twice for playing the same character - 'Fast' Eddie Felson - in The Hustler (1961) and which 1986 film? | The Color of Money |
| Who was the first woman to receive two Academy Award acting nominations for playing the same character in two different films? | Cate Blanchett (Best Actress for Elizabeth (1998) and Best Actress for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)) |
| Peter O'Toole was Oscar nominated on both occasions for playing which character in both Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968) ? | Henry II |
| In UK horse racing, what forms the "Spring Double" with the Grand National? | Lincoln Handicap |
| Considered by many in cricket to be the fastest bowler of all time, which Australian bowler, active in Test Cricket from 1972 to 1985 said "The sound of a ball hitting a batsman's skull was music to my ears"? | Jeff Thomson |
| Which game is nicknamed "Nero's Game"? | Backgammon |
| Which Welsh professional boxer earned various nicknames such as, "The Mighty Atom," "Ghost with the Hammer in His Hand" and "The Tylorstown Terror"? | Jimmy Wilde |
| Which US boxer (1905-74) was nicknamed "Cinderella Man"? | James J Braddock |
| Which British boxing journalist and television commentator lost his left leg in WW2, and was cousin of Jackie Pallo, the wrestler? | Reg Gutteridge |
| In which country was former England cricketer Andy Caddick born? | New Zealand |
| Which is the largest city in Baja California? | Tijuana |
| What is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California? | Mexicali |
| Which English football team were in the bottom football league tier continuously from 1974 to 2010, when they finally won promotion? | Rochdale |
| In English football, which was the last club to leave the Football League through the re-election process? | Southport |
| Which British cyclist won the "King of the Mountains" competition in the 1984 Tour de France and finished fourth overall - he later had a sex change and is now a woman? | David Millar (as was, accept Philippa York) |
| Which London borough is home to the All-England Lawn Tennis Club? | Merton |
| Nowruz is New Year in which country? | Iran |
| Which goalkeeper played his entire football career (1978-2001) at Leeds and Arsenal, having two separate spells at each club? | John Lukic |
| Whose drop-goal essentially won the 1971 Lions tour of New Zealand for the British Lions rugby team, by being the Lions' final score in a 14-14 draw? It was the only drop-goal in his Test career. | JPR Williams |
| In British horse racing, at which racecourse is the Midlands Grand National run in March? | Uttoxeter |
| From which football club did Peter Schmeichel join Manchester United? | Brøndby |
| Which horse won the 1982 Grand National, ridden by amateur Dick Saunders, who at the age of 48 became the oldest jockey to have won the Grand National? | Grittar |
| Which horse won the 1979 Grand National, being the first horse trained in Scotland to do so? | Rubstic |
| For which four films did Katherine Hepburn win Best Actress Oscars? | Morning Glory, The Lion In Winter, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and On Golden Pond |
| To whom was George Burns married from 1926 to 1964? | Gracie Allen |
| To whom was Tatum O'Neal married from 1986 to 1994? | John McEnroe |
| Marlon Brando refused his Best Actor Oscar in protest at Hollywood's treatment of who? | Native Americans |
| Which was the first of the seven "Road To..." films, released in 1940 and starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope? | Singapore |
| C. C. “Bud” Baxter, played by Jack Lemmon, is a character in which 1960 film? | The Apartment |
| Released in 1962, what was the last "Road To..." film starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope? | The Road To Hong Kong |
| Which five words complete the first words of Al Jolson in the "talkie" movie 'The Jazz Singer': "Wait a minute, wait a minute boys..."? | You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet |
| Who founded Fox Film, later 20th Century Fox, in 1915? | William Fox |
| Which was the first movie to gain four female acting Academy Award nominations, two each in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories? | All About Eve |
| In Thomas Hardy's "Far From The Madding Crowd" which two characters does Bathsheba Everdene marry? | Sergeant Troy, Gabriel Oak |
| Who wrote "Fanny Hill" in 1748? | John Cleland |
| Isabel Archer is a character in which 1881 novel? | The Portrait Of A Lady (Henry James) |
| The central character and narrator is 17-year-old David Balfour in which 1886 novel? | Kidnapped (RL Stevenson) |
| Dr Aziz and Adela Quested are characters in which novel? | A Passage To India |
| 1932's "The Camels are Coming" marked the first literary appearance of which character? | Biggles |
| Who popularised the African-American character of Br'er Rabbit in his Uncle Remus stories of the 1870s? He spent most of his adult life in Atlanta working as an associate editor at the Atlanta Constitution. | Joel Chandler Harris |
| Who created the detective Sexton Blake, using the pseudonym Hal Meredeth? | Harry Blyth |
| Which character was loosely based on the Rt Rev. Msgr. John O'Connor (1870–1952), a parish priest in Bradford, who was involved in the character's creator's conversion to Catholicism in 1922? | Father Brown (by GK Chesterton) |
| Who created the fictional detective Lew Archer? | Ross MacDonald |
| Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine were all associated with which movement in the arts and poetry? | Symbolism |
| What name was given to late 19th-century artistic and literary movement, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality? The artist Félicien Rops's body of work and Huysmans's novel Against Nature (1884) are considered prime examples. | The Decadent Movement |
| Which group of New York City writers, critics, actors, and wits, including Harpo Marx, Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker, took what name from the hotel where they met? | Algonquin Round Table |
| For which novel did JM Coetzee win the Booker Prize in 1983? | The Life and Times of Michael K |
| Al-Ahram is the most widely-circulated newspaper in which country? | Egypt |
| In which year did the Sunday Times produce the first colour magazine supplement in the UK? | 1962 |
| Which Maryland-born painter (1741-1827) is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolution, including "George Washington at the Battle of Princeton"? | Charles Wilson Peale |
| John James Audobon found fame for painting which creatures? | Birds |
| Born Jacopo Comin, which painter was sent home by Titian after just 10 days at his painting school, believing he was unteachable? | Tintoretto |
| Which artist, born 1930 in Augusta, Georgia is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related topics? An example is "Three Flags". | Jasper Johns |
| Which member of the royal family died in an air crash on 28 August 1972? | Prince William, Duke of Gloucester |
| Who, President of the South African Republic (or Transvaal) from 1883 to 1900, came to international prominence as the face of the Boer cause—that of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State—against Britain during the Second Boer War of 1899–1902? | Paul Kruger |
| Who was fatally stabbed along with Lord Frederick Cavendish in the 1882 Phoenix Park murders in Dublin? | Thomas Henry Burke |
| James Wilson Marshall was the instigator of which event of 1848? | California Gold Rush |
| Reigning 1816-28, which Zulu king was nicknamed "The Black Napoleon"? | Shaka |
| What were called "monkey closets" or "halting stations" when introduced at the Crystal Palace during the Great Exhibition of 1851? | Public Toilets |
| At which hospital was the world's first "test-tube baby" Louise Brown, born? | Oldham General Hospital |
| What was the name of the "Acid Bath Murderer" hanged in 1949? | John George Haigh |
| Why were the death sentences of the infamous Manson "family" commuted in 1972? | California had abolished the death penalty |
| In which year did the tunnellers from France and England creating the Channel Tunnel meet? | 1991 |
| Who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York? | Peter Stuyvesant |
| Give a year in the life of the Venerable Bede. | 673-735CE |
| Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria, was a member of which ethnic group? | Kurds |
| Give a year in the life of the sultan Saladin, famous for leading the Muslim military campaign against the Crusader states in the Levant. | 1137-93CE |
| What was the real name of "the Sundance Kid"? | Harry (Alonzo) Longabaugh |
| Which battle of 24 June 1859 was the last major battle in world history where all the armies were under the personal command of their monarchs? | Battle of Solferino |
| At one time the largest saltwater lake on Earth and now 10% of its former size, which lake lies between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan in Iran? | Lake Urmia (or Orumiyeh) |
| In which years did Julius Caesar make two expeditions into Britain, before the full invasion under Claudius in 43CE? | 55 and 54BCE |
| The ancient site of Hengistbury Head, occupied since Paleolithic times, and an important pre-Roman port, is in which English county? | Dorset |
| Which monarchy flourished during the 13th through 15th centuries, consisting of the far northeastern corner of Anatolia and the southern Crimea? | Empire of Trezibond |
| In the Roman Republic, which position was held by the two most powerful members of the Roman Senate and was the highest political office? | Consul |
| Which historical British tribal chief led the defence against Julius Caesar's second expedition to Britain, but later was forced to surrender? | Cassivellaunus |
| The Belgic king Commius, first an ally of Caesar and then an enemy when he relocated to Britain, was leader of which tribe meaning "inhabitants"? | Atrebates |
| Which river is mentioned as Germany's western boundary in the first stanza - no longer sung - of the Deutschlandlied, Germany's national anthem? | Meuse |
| The ancient Celtic tribe the Veneti are described as having lived on which peninsula? | Brittany |
| Which criss-cross travelogue, showing an American couple travelling in Europe and a European couple travelling in the U.S is now largely forgotten but was the top-grossing film of 1955 in the USA? | Cinerama Holiday |
| Which hugely popular Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of an adolescent ninja who searches for recognition from his peers and the village and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village? | Naruto |
| What is the pen-name of Erika Mitchell, born 7 March 1963? | EL James |
| Which obsolete medical theory held that diseases—such as cholera, chlamydia, or the Black Death—were caused by a noxious form of "bad air", also known as night air? | Miasma theory |
| Which leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a guerrilla group that formerly operated in Uganda, was the subject of what has been called "the most viral video in history" in 2012? | Joseph Kony |
| In which year did Charles Dickens die? | 1870 |
| From its construction in 1837, which London terminus was distinguished by a tall Doric entry arch - the arch was demolished, despite public outcry, in the 1960s? | Euston |
| What two-word term is used for a hypothetical type of degenerate star that has cooled to the point that it is no longer visible - a process believed to take considerably longer than the current age of the universe? | Black Dwarf |
| What apparent phenomenon is seen during planetary transits as a dark area that briefly seems to link the limb of the Sun with the limb of the transiting planet? | Black drop effect |
| Ruling an indeterminate area of present-day Yorkshire, which Brittonic kingdom was conquered by Northumbria in the 7th century? Its name appears in the name of two villages to the east of Leeds. | Elmet |
| Which English writer, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher is considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, wrote "The Spirit of the Age: Or, Contemporary Portraits"? | William Hazlitt |
| Which 6th century Brittonic kingdom is thought to have been centred on the Solway Firth and is intimately associated with the king Urien Rheged and his family? | Rheged |
| The modern name 'Devon' derives from the name of which Brythonic kingdom, centred in the area later called Devon, but included modern Cornwall and part of Somerset? | Dumnonia |
| What seven-letter word did Lord John Russell define as "One man's wit, and all men's wisdom"? A book of the same name, in the plural form, is found in the Hebrew Bible. | Proverb |
| From a 1999 study, which two psychologists at Cornell University give their names to a cognitive bias or effect by which incompetent people are unaware of their mistakes and overstate their abilities as a result? | Dunning–Kruger (Effect) |
| "The Anvil Chorus" comes from which Verdi opera? | Il Trovatore |
| The Krumbein phi scale and the Wentworth Scale are used to classify what? | Grain size in rocks |
| Which organisation was awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize? | The European Union |
| Joseph Rotblat, a Polish physicist shared the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize with which series of conferences, design to diminish the role of nuclear weapons, reduce the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats? | Pugwash Conferences |
| A major tourist attraction, which French river gorge lies between the towns of Castellane and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie and flows into the artificial lake of Sainte-Croix? | Verdon Gorge |
| Known for its gorges, the French River Tarn is a tributary of which other river, which it joins near Moissac? | Garonne |
| The Dreiländereck is a European monument built where the borders of which three countries meet? | France, Germany, Switzerland |
| Crêt de la Neige is the highest point in which range of mountains? | Jura |
| The Doubs River runs along the border of France and which other country? | Switzerland |
| Founded by Suroosh Alvi, Gavin McInnes and Shane Smith, which magazine was launched in 1994 as the "Voice of Montreal"? | Vice |
| Which rival claimant to the throne of Henry VI was killed at the 1460 Battle of Wakefield? | Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York |
| Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known as 'Kingmaker', died in which 1471 battle in the Wars of the Roses? | Battle of Barnet |
| Which Lancastrian heir to the throne was killed aged 17 at the 1471 Battle of Tewkesbury? He is the only heir apparent to the English throne to die in battle. | Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales |
| What surname links the directors of Heat (1995) and Collateral (2004); Marty (1955) and Separate Tables (1958); and The Far Country (1955) and El Cid (1961)? | Mann (Michael, Delbert and Anthony, respectively) |
| Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi; Tatya Tope; and Rao Sahib were all leading figures of which historical event of the 19th century? | The Indian Mutiny |
| Who acceded peacefully to the throne of Roman Emperor in AD98 as the successor to Nerva? | Trajan |
| Made governor of Bithynia et Pontus province in 110 CE which Roman author wrote hundreds of letters, of which 247 survive and are of great historical value? | Pliny the Younger |
| Which artist, born in Paris in 1771, studied under Jacques-Louis David in Paris and began an independent artistic career during the French Revolution? His most famed work is "Bonaparte at the Pont d'Arcole". | Antoine-Jean Gros |
| "Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne" is an 1806 work by which French artist? | Ingres |
| "The Hémicycle", a Raphaelesque tableau influenced by The School of Athens; "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps" and "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey" are all works by which French artist? | Paul Delaroche |
| Which book of the Bible describes the birth and death of Samson? | Judges |
| Which composer's first opera was 1705's "Almira"? | Handel |
| Which pop group included Kevin Godley, Graham Goldman and Eric Stewart? | 10cc |
| John Nelson Darby founded which religious movement | Exclusive Brethren (accept Plymouth Brethren) |
| Which musical was based on a play that was originally called "The Merchant of Yonkers" and then rewritten and titled "The Matchmaker"? | Hello Dolly! |
| Which Russian composer wrote an opera called "The Giant" aged 9? | Prokofiev |
| Who, with Pete Carpenter, composed the theme tune to "The A-Team"? | Mike Post |
| Which ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity consists of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days or weeks? | Novena |
| How many symphonies did Mahler compose, including one unfinished one? | Ten |
| How is the musical instrument, the guimbarde, better known? | Jew's Harp |
| Which high street brand was founded in 1825 by brothers Cyrus and James Clark in Street, Somerset, England – where it still has its headquarters? | Clarks shoes |
| Which bird, troglodytes troglodytes, is often cited as the UK's commonest breeding bird? | (Eurasian) wren |
| What name was given to internationally recognized refugee travel documents from 1922 to 1938, first issued by the League of Nations to stateless refugees? | Nansen passports |
| Eric Simms and Ludwig Karl Koch were 20th century British-based sound recordists both famed for recording what? | Birdsong |
| Changing to its current name in 1919, what British high street chain was founded in 1909 under the name H. P. Newman? | Dorothy Perkins |
| With which chemical element is rubber heated in the process known as vulcanisation? | Sulphur |
| Eight species of which animal (Phyrosoma asio, P. cornutum, P. coronatum, P. ditmarsi, P. hernandesi, P. orbiculare, P. solare, and P. taurus) are able to squirt an aimed stream of blood from the corners of the eyes for a distance of up to 5 feet ? | Horned Toad |
| What is the chemical formula of benzene? | C6H6 |
| Jimmy Wales co-founded what in 2001? | Wikipedia |
| A cord is a unit of measurement of what, especially in North America? | Firewood (or pulpwood) |
| How many kings of Bavaria were named Ludwig? | Three |
| "Participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed" is the standard formulation of which rule named after a London building? | Chatham House Rule |
| What name is given to a small DNA molecule within a cell that is physically separated from a chromosomal DNA and can replicate independently? | Plasmid |
| The site of manufacture and storage of important chemical compounds used by the cell, and discovered and named by Ernst Haeckel, which major double-membrane organelle is found in the cells of plants, algae, and some other eukaryotic organisms? | Plastid |
| According to Harold MacMillan in 1981, there are three bodies no sensible man directly challenges. The Brigade of Guards was one name wither of the other two. | Roman Catholic Church or the NUM |
| Mary of Guise married which monarch of Scotland in 1538? | James V |
| Who wrote the 1558 work "The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women"? | John Knox |
| The Wiphala, a 7x7 patchwork of colourful squares, has a dual status as the official flag of which country with the more well-known flag? | Bolivia |
| February 6th is the official day of which people in Norway, on which day it is compulsory for municiplaties to fly their flag? | Sami |
| The flag of which people is horizontally divided into a black region (above) and a red region (below), with a yellow disc superimposed over the centre of the flag? | Australian Aborigines |
| In December 2000, the world's first offshore megawatt wind turbines were opened off the coast of which English county? | Northumberland |
| Dennis Gabor invented holography in 1947 while actually trying to improve which scientific device? | The Electron Microscope |
| Until the 1990s, the death penalty was still in the law books in England and Wales for high treason, burning down the naval dockyards, and which other offence? | Piracy (With Violence) |
| In 1909, which politician derided the House of Lords as "a body of 500 men, chosen accidentally from among the unemployed"? | David Lloyd George |
| In a film of 1968, which character confesses "My mind is going, There is no question about it. I feel it.", before starting to sing "Daisy, Daisy"? | HAL 9000 (In 2001: A Space Odyssey) |
| In the King James version of the Gospel of Matthew it says "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called - "...what? | The Children of God |
| The essential oil neroli, is distilled from the flowers of which fruit tree? | Orange |
| Which two Latin words, taken from a phrase meaning "now lettest thou thy servant depart" are used as the title of Simeon's song of praise on the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple, the song being also used in evening liturgical services? | Nunc Dimittis |
| Who wrote the poem "Aurora Leigh" in 1856? | Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
| Who wrote the work of the 1720s "Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain"? | Daniel Defoe |
| Which Roman general is best known as the commander who defeated the rebellion of Boudica? He became governor of Britain in 58CE. | Suetonius Paulinus |
| What was the title of certain officials (not magistrates) in ancient Rome who were in charge of the financial affairs of a province, or imperial governor of a minor province? | Procurators |
| Give a year during the reign of Rome's Flavian Emperors. | 69-96CE |
| Which Roman Emperor visited the province of Britannia (Britain) in 122CE? | Hadrian |
| Which British tribe inhabited the area now known as Devon and Cornwall (and some areas of present-day Dorset and Somerset) in the further parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Iron Age up to the early Saxon period? | Dumnonii |
| Which Celtic people of Iron Age Britain inhabited modern Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales, and gave their name to the county of Dyfed? | Demetae |
| Which modern British town was called Noviomagus Reginorum in Roman times? | Chichester |
| According to Ptolemy's Geographia, in which modern day English county were the Parisi tribe located? | Yorkshire (East) |
| In which English county is the town of Cirencester? | Gloucestershire |
| The Carvetii were an Iron Age people and were subsequently identified as a civitas (canton) of Roman Britain and lived in which modern-day English county? | Cumbria |
| What is the name of the character played by Robert de Niro in the film "Taxi Driver"? | Travis Bickle |
| What is the full title of the 'worst in film' awards known as the Razzies? | Golden Raspberry Awards |
| For which 2008 American romantic comedy film, often derided as one of the worst of all time, did Paris Hilton win a "Worst Actress" Razzie? | The Hottie and the Nottie |
| Which classic 1945 film starred Ray Milland as Don Birnam and Jane Wyman as Helen St. James? | The Lost Weekend |
| Universal Exports is a cover company used by which famous fictional character? | James Bond |
| Who directed action crime film Point Break (1991), The Hurt Locker (2008) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012)? | Kathryn Bigelow |
| Who did actress Anita Dobson marry in the year 2000? | Brian May |
| Who is the only actor to have appeared in EastEnders from its inception in 1985 to 2018? | Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale) |
| What nationality is Maud Adams, an actress known for her roles as two different Bond girls, first in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and then as the eponymous character in Octopussy (1983)? | Swedish |
| The film "1984", released in the same year, was the final film appearance of which actor, who died on 5 August 1984 at his home in Céligny, Geneva? | Richard Burton |
| What the Butler Saw is a farce written by which English playwright? It was his final play and the second to be performed after his death. | Joe Orton |
| In Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", complete the phrase: "All men kill the thing they love, some with a bitter look, some with....". | Flattering Words |
| In "Little House On The Prairie", what disease made the character Mary Ingalls blind? | Scarlet Fever |
| Which Flemish artist painted "The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company" in 1616? | Franz Hals |
| Two of John Constable's favourite subjects were the mills owned by his father: some were those in Flatford in Suffolk, where in Essex are the others? | Dedham |
| In which decade was the business computing language COBOL created? | 1950s (1959) |
| In which great battle were the two opposing leaders born in the same year - this was the only occasion that they met in war, and the last battle that either fought? The victor was aged 46, the loser 45. The loser died in 1821, six years later. | Waterloo |
| What general term is used for computer programming languages in which instructions, sometimes expressed as words in English, correspond to several machine code instructions, examples being 'fortran', 'basic' and 'pascal'? | High-level/problem-oriented languages |
| What name is given to the sign put over an "N" in Spanish, which gives it a 'nya' pronounciation? | Tilde |
| Who was the first Briton to win a gold at the 100m in the Olympics? | Harold Abrahams (1924) |
| Who said "Communism fits Germany like a saddle fits a cow"? | Stalin |
| In what field did Cloudesley Shovell achieve fame? | British naval officer (accept similar) |
| Anne Bonny and Mary Read achieved infamy in which field? | Pirates |
| British-born Archibald Belaney (September 18, 1888 – April 13, 1938) reinvented himself as which allegedly 'Native American' environmentalist? | Grey Owl |
| Prince Philip, the consort of Queen Elizabeth II, was what relation to Queen Victoria? | Great-great grandson |
| The Jarrow March took place in which month of 1936? | October |
| Which complex, naturally-occurring chemicals are linked together by bonds between the sugar and phosphate groups to form the building blocks of mucleic acids such as DNA and RNA? | Nucleotides |
| When British author Stephen Potter popularised the term "gamesmanship" he defined its meaning as "The art of winning games without actually..." what? | Cheating |
| Who is the Scarecrow's Kansas counterpart in MGM's 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz"? | Hunk |
| Who is the Cowardly Lion's Kansas counterpart in MGM's 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz"? | Zeke |
| In which novel by Max Beerbohm do all the young men of Judas College, Oxford, fall madly in love with the Warden's niece? | Zuleika Dobson |
| Cecil-Day Lewis, Poet Laureate from 1968 to 1972, was noted for his translations of which Latin poet? | Virgil |
| What was the principal religion of China during the Tang Dynasty? | Buddhism |
| Which 1922 film by Robert Flaherty is often credited as the first film documentary? | Nanook of the North |
| What was the capital city of the Inca Empire? | Cuzco |
| Who was US Secretary of State during the Cuban Missile Crisis? | Dean Rusk |
| In which city were the Plymouth Brethren founded by Dr Edward Cronin and John Nelson Darby, in 1825? | Dublin |
| The writer Elinor Glyn, who earned a reputation in the 1920s for risqué novels, coined which one-word term for sex appeal? | It (as in It Girl) |
| Name the composer who died in 1990 and whose works include the operetta Candie, the ballet Dybbuk and the musicals On The Town and West Side Story? | Leonard Bernstein |
| Who was arrested in 1649 after he produced a series of controversial pamphlets including "Eikonoklastes" and "A Ready and Easy Way To Establish A Free Commonwealth"? | John Milton |
| Named after its most famous ruler, who became Emperor in 324, what informal name is given to the ruling family of the Roman Empire from Constantius Chlorus (died 305) to the death of Julian in 363? | Constantinian dynasty |
| Who was a Roman emperor from AD 198 to 217? He co-ruled with his father Septimus Severus until the latter's death in 211, and then briefly with his brother Geta until he had him murdered. | Caracalla |
| Named for the first and fourth chronologically, which dynasty of seven Roman Emperors ruled over the Roman Empire from 96 AD to 192 AD? | Nerva-Antonine Dynasty |
| The younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and Western Roman Emperor from 393 to 423, during whose reign Rome was sacked for the first time in over 400 years? | Honorius |
| After the death of Theodosius I, the last Roman Emperor to rule both both halves of the empire, which of his sons became Eastern Roman Emperor from 395 to 408? A weak ruler, his reign was dominated by powerful ministers & his wife Aelia Eudoxia. | Arcadius |
| Which term denoted the lowest rank of freemen in Anglo-Saxon England, and came from the Old English for "a man"? | Ceorl/churl |
| Who was King of Kent from about 589 until his death in 616, wrote the earliest written law code in any Germanic language, married Bertha, the Christian daughter of Charibert, king of the Franks and converted to Christianity after Augustine's mission? | Æthelberht of Kent |
| Which Roman missionary and the first Bishop of York converted Eadwin of Northumbria to Christianity? | Paulinus |
| Cynegils and Cwichelm are among the first kings of which Anglo-Saxon kingdom, and were probably the first of this people to be baptised? | Wessex |
| Peada was the son, and briefly the successor, of which King of Mercia, who died in 655? Peada was baptised, although his father remained pagan until his death. | Penda of Mercia |
| What is the capital of the Falkland Islands? | Stanley |
| The 1941 film Buck Privates turned which double act into bona fide movie stars? | Abbott & Costello |
| Sally Field won Best Actress Academy Awards for two films - which two? | Norma Rae; Places In The Heart |
| For which 1995 film did Susan Sarandon win a Best Actress Academy Award? | Dead Man Walking |
| Who won a Best Actress Academy Award for the 1985 film "The Trip To Bountiful"? She died just two years later of a sudden heart attack. | Geraldine Page |
| RTVE is the state-owned broadcaster in which country? | Spain |
| Diana Rigg played which character in the 1960s TV show "The Avengers"? | Emma Peel |
| Wade Wilson is the real name of which fictional superhero? | Deadpool |
| Which fictional character was the captain of the Starfleet starship USS Voyager, and thus the lead character on the television series Star Trek: Voyager? | Kathryn Janeway |
| Which British TV show, that ran from 1984 to 2010, started as a one-off special called "Woodentop"? | The Bill |
| The town of Roccasecca in Lazio, Italy, is most famous as the birthplace of which historical figure? | Thomas Aquinas |
| Which metallurgist and inventor from Birmingham, England created the first man-made plastic? | Alexander Parkes (Parkesine) |
| Which US inventor, born in Starkey, New York in 1837, is mainly known for simplifying the production of celluloid, the first industrial plastic? | John Wesley Hyatt |
| Sir Alec Jeffreys, born 1950 in Oxford, is best known for inventing which aid to policing? | DNA fingerprinting/DNA profiling |
| Which US naval cruiser shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988 over the Persian Gulf, sparking an international incident between Iran and the United States? | USS Vincennes |
| Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson discovered what in 1965, each winning a 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics for it? | Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (accept similar) |
| Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a passenger plane from Seoul to New York, was accidentally shot down by Russia in which year? | 1983 |
| In which year was Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down while flying over Eastern Ukraine, killing all on board? | 2014 |
| Which aircraft manufacturer made the O-1 Bird Dog, the first all-metal fixed-wing aircraft ordered by the United States Army since the U.S. Army Air Forces separated from the Army in 1947, becoming its own branch of service, the United States Air Force? | Cessna |
| While working at Texas Instruments in 1958, Jack S Kilby and Robert Noyce created the first what? | Integrated Circuit/Microchip |
| What is the middle play in David Hare's early 1990s trilogy about British institutions that include "Racing Demon" and "The Absence of War"? | Murmuring Judges |
| The Psammead, a sand-fairy with ability to grant wishes, first appeared in which 1902 novel? | Five Children and It (E.Nesbit) |
| How is the star cluster Praesepe also known? | Beehive Cluster |
| The Mildenhall Treasure was discovered in 1942 in which English county? | Suffolk |
| Cervus Nippon is the name of which deer introduced to the UK in the 19th century? | Sika deer (accept Japanese deer) |
| As well as Ditton Station, which other railway station is the place where Paul Simon reportedly wrote "Homeward Bound"? | Widnes |
| Which was the first US city to have an underground network? | Boston |
| How many modern-day countries are sites of Ancient Wonders of the World? | Four (Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq) |
| The confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri is near which major US city? | St Louis |
| Great Paul, the bell at St Paul's Cathedral, was cast in which English town? | Loughborough |
| Located in Mitte, Berlin, which reconstructed historical area was destroyed by air raids and the Battle of Berlin during World War II, but then rebuilt in a peculiar mixture of reconstructed historic houses and concrete slab Plattenbau blocks in 1987? | Nikolaiviertel |
| Which Berlin hotel located on Unter den Linden, directly opposite the Brandenburg Gate, was where Michael Jackson dangled baby Blanket out of a window in 2002? | Adlon Hotel |
| Which American architect, considered one of the "New York Five" designed the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin? | Peter Eisenman |
| The Berlin zoo is located in which large inner-city park of Berlin? | Tiergarten |
| In the Peak District, the Edale Cross lies immediately south of which prominent mountain or hill? | Kinder Scout |
| England's first statutory Marine Nature reserve was created around which island in 1986? | Lundy Island |
| Which US state is known as the 'Evergreen State'? | Washington |
| Which bay divides Cornwall's Lizard and Land's End peninsulas? | Mount's Bay |
| What is Italy's highest mountain? | Monte Rosa |
| Born Frank Edwin Wright III, Tré Cool is the drummer for which successful American rock group? | Green Day |
| Richard Hadlee played international cricket for which nation? | New Zealand |
| Who scored the first ever double century in a One-day International men's cricket match in 2010, against South Africa? | Sachin Tendulkar |
| The athlete Babe Didrickson, who won two golds at the 1932 Olympics, later became very successful at which different sport? | Golf |
| Which actor's signature routine was the stair dance, in which he would tap up and down a set of stairs in a rhythmically complex sequence of steps, a routine that he unsuccessfully attempted to patent? He once set a 75 yards backwards dash record, too. | Bill "Bojangles" Robinson |
| Which British athlete won the silver medal in the 400 metres at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, and two gold medals at the 1969 European Championships in Athletics in Athens, but died of colon cancer the following year? | Lillian Board |
| John Akii-Bua (3 December 1949 – 20 June 1997), won the 400m hurdles at the 1972 Olympics, thus becoming which country's first ever Olympic champion? | Uganda |
| Jeff Gutteridge became, in 1988, the first British athlete to be banned for life for drug use - which event did he compete in? | Pole Vault |
| Jānis Lūsis won four consecutive European Championships and 1968 Olympic Gold at which event? | Javelin |
| Who was the first man to run a sub-ten second 100m? | Jim Hines |
| Which athlete first ran the 5000m event in less than 13 minutes, doing so in 1987? | Saïd Aouita |
| Anagallis is a genus of about 20–25 species of flowering plants in the family Primulaceae best known by what name, perhaps most familiar from a literary work of 1905? | Pimpernel |
| Whose debut novel was "From Here To Eternity", later a major film starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, and Ernest Borgnine? | James Jones |
| The late 1st century AD work the Satyricon is believed to be the work of which author? | (Gaius) Petronius |
| Who was Poet Laureate from 23 December 1692 to 30 July 1715, the third man to hold the post? | Nahum Tate |
| A leader in the French army, and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc, best known for his reputation and later conviction as a confessed serial killer of children, which man (1405-40)supposedly inspired Charles Perrault's villainous "Bluebeard"? | Gilles de Rais |
| Fanny Price is the heroine of which novel by Jane Austen? | Mansfield Park |
| Mr Rochester's housekeeper in "Jane Eyre", and an orphan whose only family consists of her aunt, Miss Bates, and her grandmother, Mrs Bates in "Emma" both share which surname? | Fairfax (Alice Fairfax and Jane Fairfax respectively) |
| Traditionally, lines of which 1914 Laurence Binyon poem are read at military remembrance services? | For the Fallen |
| The book "Ulysses" by James Joyce takes place over how many hours? | Eighteen |
| In which magazine did Burt Reynolds appear nude in 1972? | Cosmopolitan |
| The play "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams is set in which city? | New Orleans |
| In the 1950s, which sport did Burt Reynolds play at college level - injuries ruining his hopes of making it as a professional? | American Football |
| A cavalcade is a procession specifically involving what? | Horseriding/riders |
| Miss Prism is a character in which play of 1895? | The Importance of Being Earnest |
| "Five Guys Named Moe" is a musical with a book by Clarke Peters based on an earlier musical short of the same name, and with music by, which songwriter and saxophonist, whose new slant on jazz paved the way for rock and roll in the 1950s? | Louis Jordan |
| Flatford Mill, much painted by Constable, stands on which river? | Stour |
| Known as ‘The Gateway to Hell’, which is Iceland’s most active volcano, its last eruption occurring in February 2000? | Hekla |
| Situated in the North Caucasus mountains, which large republic, a federal subject of the Russian Federation, was established in January 1921 and has its capital at Makhachkala? | Dagestan |
| The difference between bio and non-bio detergents is that bio detergents contain which very effective stain cleaners? | Enzymes |
| Which 1892 play is subtitled "A Play About a Good Woman"? | Lady Windermere's Fan |
| What is the smallest monkey and one of the smallest primates in the world, at just over 100 grams? | Pygmy Marmoset |
| What is the smallest of the mouse lemurs and the smallest primate in the world? | Madame Berthe's mouse lemur |
| What is Sweden's largest island? | Gotland |
| Count Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and Nicodemus Tessin the Elder were 17th century and 18th century architects and city planners in which country? | Sweden |
| Displayed on the flag of Macedonia (FYROM) what is the name of the symbol of a stylised star with sixteen rays that was discovered during archaeological excavations in Greece by Professor Manolis Andronikos in 1977? | Vergina Sun (or Star of Vergina) |
| The Three Crowns, or Tre Kronor, was the name of a castle dating from the 13th century until it was destroyed by fire in 1697 in which country? The three crowns are now a national emblem. | Sweden |
| A Hanseatic city that is arguably the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia, and since 1995, on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list which town in Gotland gives its name to a 1361 battle? | Visby |
| What is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the European Union and the third-largest lake entirely in Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia? | Vänern |
| Which author left his novel 'Confessions of Felix Krull' unfinished at his death in 1955? | Thomas Mann |
| Between the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and the Treaty of Turin in 1860, Monaco was designated as a protectorate of which Kingdom? | Sardinia |
| Footage of racer snakes hunting hatchlings of which creature, Amblyrhynchus cristatus, became a viral trend in the UK after broadcast on Planet Earth II? | Marine Iguana |
| In which year did Charles Darwin first visit the Galapagos Islands? | 1835 |
| First broadcast on Friday 27 October 2017, which music show on the BBC was seen as a belated replacement for Top of the Pops, although it did not feature the charts? | Sounds Like Friday Night |
| What is unique, for a cormorant, about Phalacrocorax harrisi, also known as the Galapagos cormorant? | Flightless |
| The Sally Lightfoot is a name given to two species of what type of creature? | Crab |
| In geology what name is given to a large cauldron-like depression that forms following the evacuation of a magma chamber/reservoir? | Caldera |
| Called camanchaca in Chile, which word refers to the moist cold fog that blankets the coasts of Peru and northern Chile, especially during the southern hemisphere winter? | Garúa |
| What is the largest island of the Galápagos? | Isabel |
| What is the most populous town in the Galápagos Islands, with more than 12,000 inhabitants? | Puerto Ayora |
| Created by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, which National Park and World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado protects some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States? | Mesa Verde National Park |
| Which American actor, writer, teacher and director, known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in the Babylon 5 series served as George Takei's best man? | Walter Koenig |
| Which much-hyped book published in 2015 is now generally thought to have been a first draft of, and not in fact a sequel to, which book published some 55 years previously? | Go Set A Watchman |
| The home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which concert hall is th evenue for the annual Vienna New Year's Concert? | Musikverein |
| Coming from the Hebrew root meaning fit, proper or correct, what is the body of Jewish law dealing with which foods can and cannot be eaten , and how foods must be prepared? Foods that may be eaten are called kosher. | Kashrut |
| Anti-hero Frank Castle is which Marvel comics character's alter ego? | The Punisher |
| What is the only structure in France that is higher than the Eiffel Tower? | Millau Viaduct |
| Which autonomous province in Northern Italy has Bolanzo as its capital? | South Tirol |
| Which rock and roll singer was born Jean-Philippe Smetin 1943? | Johnny Halliday |
| Which Ivorian athlete who specialises in sprints won the silver medals at the 100m and 200m London Athletics World Championship in 2017? She finished 4th in both events at the 2016 Rio Olympics. | Marie-Josée Ta Lou |
| Considered to be Iceland's signature distilled beverage, and made from fermented grain or potato mash and flavoured with caraway, which popular Icelandic liquor is the traditional drink for the mid-winter fest of Þorrablót? | Brennivín |
| What was the first posthumously released No. 1 single in U.S. chart history? | "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (by Otis Redding) |
| Who had the second posthumously released No. 1 single in U.S. chart history with a version of "Me and Bobby McGee"? | Janis Joplin |
| Which scientist gave his name to the angle of incidence at which light with a particular polarization is perfectly transmitted through a transparent dielectric surface, with no reflection? | David Brewster (Brewster's Angle) |
| In the animal kingdom, the family Leporidae consists of which common British mammals? | Rabbits and hares |
| Which British broadcaster, born in 1933, came to prominence as one of the regulars on television's "Late Night Line-Up" in the 1960s, and later presented the ethical investigative series "Heart of the Matter" on BBC for many years? | Joan Bakewell |
| What does DOCG mean on Italian wine labels? | Denominazione di origine controllata |
| The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem lies on which 'mount'? | Temple Mount/Mount Moriah |
| What kind of strutting dance, especially popular at the height of the Ragtime era in early 20th-century America, was named after the prize that was traditionally awarded to the best dancers? | Cakewalk |
| "Stars And Stripes Forever", directed by Henry Koster and starring Clifton Webb , is a biopic of which American composer? | John Philip Sousa |
| Which British daily newspaper began life in 1754 as the "Leeds Intelligencer"? | Yorkshire Post |
| Which Krakow-born animator brought such characters as Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen? He created Betty Boop. | Max Fleischer |
| "Jumpin' at the Woodside" is a composition by which pianist and bandleader, whose live appearances continued into the 1990s? | Count Basie |
| In the nine-fold celestial hierarchy, what are the second-highest rank of beings, after Seraphim? | Cherubim |
| In the nine-fold celestial hierarchy, what are the second-lowest rank of being, just after angels? | Archangels |
| Which small gap in Saturn's A ring is named after a German astronomer who lived 1791-1865? | Encke Gap (for Johann Franz Encke) |
| "Elk Cloner", created by 15 year old schoolboy Richard Skrenta in 1982 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was the first identified example of what? | Computer virus |
| What are the two geographically closest capital cities in the world? | Kinshasa and Brazzaville |
| What title, used by the hereditary spiritual leader of the Nizari sect of Ismaili Muslims, was first conferred on Hasan Ali Shah by the Shah of Persia? | Aga Khan |
| What is the highest point in England outside the Lake District? | Cross Fell |
| In 1709 Abraham Darby first successfully smelted iron with coke at his furnace in which Shropshire valley, off what is now called the Ironbridge Gorge? | Coalbrookdale |
| In computing term URL, if RL stands for 'resource locator', what does the U stand for? | Uniform |
| Give either of the real names of "The Ambassadors" in Holbein's painting of that name? | Jean de Dinteville, Georges de Selve |
| Which Greek goddess, the daughter of night, was the goddess of divine retribution? | Nemesis |
| Which British PM spent his last years in a house called Arundells in Salisbury Cathedral Close? | Sir Edward Heath |
| What name is given to the brown discolouring effect, caused by damp, that gives a mottled, speckled appearance to the pages of books? | Foxing |
| How was New York City, previously New Amsterdam, briefly known from 1673 to 1674 when it was recaptured by the Dutch? | New Orange |
| Sir Winston Churchill had two other Christian names - what were they? | Leonard Spencer |
| What word for a lamentation, or a warning against the morals of the times, is taken from the name of an Old Testament prophet? | Jeremiad |
| Which British author, who died in 1992, wrote the story "The Company of Wolves", which was adapted for the screen by the director Neil Jordan? | Angela Carter |
| Which Hollywood actor's five wives were, in order, Margaret Sullavan, Frances Ford Brokaw, Susan Blanchard, Afdera Franchetti and Shirlee Mae Adams? | Henry Fonda |
| What name is given to the long sleeveless outer vestment worn by priests, and normally distinguished by the liturgical colour appropriate to the mass being celebrated? | Chasuble |
| Which London railway terminus is depicted in WP Frith's painting of 1862, entitled "The Railway Station"? | Paddington |
| Which jazz player and composer made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight," "Straight, No Chaser," "Ruby, My Dear," "In Walked Bud," and "Well, You Needn't"? | Thelonious Monk |
| Which author died of typhoid at his home in Baker Street, London, on 27 March 1931, after returning from a visit to Paris where, in defiance of a waiter's advice, he had drunk tap water in a restaurant? | Arnold Bennett |
| Who was Charles Dickens' mistress, about whom Claire Tomalin wrote a biography in 1991 called "The Invisible Woman"? | Ellen (Nelly) Ternan |
| What term is used in archaeology to refer to the physical material - such as soil or sediment - in which cultural artefacts or fossils are imbedded? | Matrix |
| Which European capital city got its ancient name from the Latin for mud? | Paris (Lutetia, from lutum, mud) |
| Which writer's book of collected verse has a title poem that begins "The book of my enemy has been remaindered/And I am pleased/In vast quantities it has been remaindered/Like a van-load of counterfeit that has been seized"? | Clive James |
| In 2012 the deadliest school shooting in US history took place in which school in Newtown, Connecticut? | Sandy Hook Elementary |
| What is the anti-particle of an electron? | Positron |
| The British singer Brinsley Forde began his showbusiness career as part of the ensemble cast of which children's TV programme of the early 70s? | Here Come The Double Deckers |
| In an early 2000s survey to find the most frequently played pop songs ever on British radio, both the top place and runner-up spot were taken by songs containing the word "fandango". Which two songs? | Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen; A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harum |
| Which island off the SW coast of Iceland was the last place where the great auk was found alive? The last two were killed in the 1840s by two Icelandic sailors who are now hopefully rotting in hell. | Eldey |
| Lasse Viren won both 5000m and 10000m Olympic gold at which two successive Olympics? | 1972, 1976 |
| The last private resident of Downing Street had a surname that he shared with which animal? | Chicken (he was Mr Chicken) |
| Which Johannesburg suburb - the location of Lilliesleaf Farm where ANC members were arrested in 1963 - lent its name to the trial of Nelson Mandela and others, who were charged with 221 acts of sabotage? | Rivonia |
| Eustasy is the process of global change in what? | Sea levels |
| When it started as a single division in 1888, how many teams were in the English football league? | Twelve |
| Which actress, who is bilingual, was able to dub the voice of her own character Fiona in the 1994 film "Four Weddings And A Funeral"? | Kristin Scott Thomas |
| What were Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise's real surnames? | Bartholomew and Wiseman, respectively |
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