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GK 35
Quiz
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| In which US state would you find the cities of Chesapeake, Roanoke and Fredericksburg? | Virginia |
| The St Brice's day massacre of 1002 was an attack against which people? | Danes |
| What sort of fish makes an Arbroath Smokie? | Haddock |
| In which operetta would you hear the Barcarolle "Belle Nuit, ô Nuit d'Amour"? | Tales of Hoffmann |
| What would be measured on a galvanometer? | Electric current |
| In the 1997 film "Wag the Dog" starring Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffmann, which country is invaded by the USA as a cover for the US President's sexual indiscretions? | Albania |
| Which portmanteau term, now an academic discipline, was first coined by the Swedish academic Rudolf Kjellen in 1899? | Geopolitics |
| Existing 1942-45, what was the name of the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II, a predecessor of the modern Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)? | Office of Strategic Services (OSS) |
| Which British (1861-1947) geographer and academic, the author of seminal geopolitical paper "The Geographical Pivot of History", coined the term "Post-Columbian" and was instrumental in the establishment of geography as a distinct discipline in the UK? | Halford MacKinder |
| "The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer" is an 1871 novella about an invasion of the UK by which man? It is widely seen as the first example of 'invasion literature'. | George Chesney |
| Noted for a large crater on its surface, which moon of Saturn is, with a diameter of 396 kilometres (246 mi), the smallest astronomical body that is known to be rounded in shape because of self-gravitation? | Mimas |
| Its name is Latin for the keel of a ship, which southern hemisphere constellation contains an eponymous brightly coloured nebula that is visible to the naked eye? | Carina |
| What name is given to a type of galaxy intermediate between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy in galaxy morphological classification schemes, such as the Hubble sequence? | Lenticular |
| Which letter is used to denote the hottest, blue stars under the Morgan–Keenan (MK) classification system? | O |
| Which letter is used to denote the coolest, red stars under the Morgan–Keenan (MK) classification system? | M |
| What nationality was astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung, probably best known for the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram used to classify stars? | Danish |
| When viewed from Earth, what is the second brightest visible star, after the Sun and Sirius? | Canopus |
| In which constellation is the star Antares located? | Scorpius |
| In the southern hemisphere, which 2 stars are the "pointer stars", from which a line can be drawn that leads to Gacrux, the star at the top of the Southern Cross? Using Gacrux, a navigator can draw a line with Acrux at the bottom to determine South. | Alpha and Beta Centauri |
| What is the popular two-word term for a G-type main-sequence star, of which the Sun is an example? | Yellow Dwarf |
| Which American television, film, and radio actor (1907-98) was best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father character in "Father Knows Best", and the physician Marcus Welby in "Marcus Welby, M.D."? | Robert Young |
| Raymond Burr played which two title characters on TV - one from 1967 to 1975, and one from 1957 to 1966? | Ironside; Perry Mason |
| The 1956 film "The Ten Commandments" was produced, directed, and narrated by who? | Cecil B DeMille |
| Which celebrity was born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10, 1899? | Fred Astaire |
| Which American actress and gossip columnist, notorious for feuding with her arch-rival Louella Parsons, was born Elda Furry on May 2, 1885? | Hedda Hopper |
| "Cheek to Cheek" is a song from which 1935 musical film? | Top Hat |
| Which American newspaper and radio gossip commentator's (1897-1972) newspaper column was syndicated in over 2,000 newspapers worldwide, and was read by 50 million people a day from the 1920s-1960s, though he fell out of favour after embracing McCarthyism? | Walter Winchell |
| Which American pioneer, explorer, woodsman, and frontiersman (1734-1820), whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States, is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky? | Daniel Boone |
| Fred Astaire's only Academy Award nomination came for which film? | The Towering Inferno |
| Which 1981 film was the final role of all three of Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks Jr? | Ghost Story |
| Which Indian film actor first gained popularity in the early 1970s for films such as Zanjeer, Deewaar, and Sholay, was called the Shahenshah of Bollywood or Star of the Millennium because of his dominance of Bollywood in the 1970s and 1980s? | Amitabh Bachchan |
| Who played Johnny Friendly in classic film "On The Waterfront"? | Lee J Cobb |
| Which French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic wrote the novels Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835) and Captain Fracasse (1863)? | Theophile Gautier |
| Which French poet and writer (1870-1925), most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings wrote La Femme et le pantin ("The Woman and the Puppet") and Les chansons de Bilitis ("The songs of Bilitis")? | Pierre Louÿs |
| Which French journalist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, novelist, and playwright (1848-1917) wrote L'Abbé Jules (Abbé Jules) and Sébastien Roch (1890)? | Octave Mirbeau |
| Which American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive is best known for producing Gone with the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940), both earning him an Academy Award for Best Picture? | David O Selznick |
| Which American attorney served as Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel and gained special prominence during the Army–McCarthy hearings? He later advised a young Donald Trump in his early business dealings. | Roy Cohn |
| Which film saw Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth duet to Jerome Kern's "I'm Old Fashioned"? | You Were Never Lovelier |
| The Indian TV show Kaun Banega Crorepati was based on which British TV show? | Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? |
| What is the capital of Uttar Pradesh in India? | Lucknow |
| The Jewish festival of Purim commemorates the events of which book of the Bible? | Esther |
| What is 'matzah' commonly eaten during the Jewish Passover? | Unleavened Bread |
| Which Hollywood gossip columnist of the 1950s was born Elda Furry in Pennsylvania on May 2, 1885? | Hedda Hopper |
| Audie Murphy played Henry Fleming (aka The Youth) in which 1951 John Huston-directed film? | The Red Badge of Courage |
| From their author, what name is generally given to two books on human sexual behavior, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953)? | Kinsey Reports |
| Who wrote the 1958 one-act play "Suddenly Last Summer"? | Tennessee Williams |
| Which American writer and filmmaker, who died in 2012, was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Writing: for Silkwood (1983), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993)? | Nora Ephron |
| Which New York street's name has been metonymous with the American advertising industry since the 1920s, and runs from 23rd Street to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Street? | Madison Avenue |
| Carlos Slim is, as of 2017, CEO of which Mexican telecommunications company headquartered in Mexico City? | Telmex |
| What did the letters AT&T originally stand for in the name of the company? | American Telephone & Telegraph |
| Which predecessor of Myspace and Facebook as a social networking service website was founded by Canadian computer programmer Jonathan Abrams in 2002? | Friendster |
| Jessica Rose, an American-New Zealander actress, first gained popularity after playing which fictional teenage homeschooled character named Bree who appeared in YouTube video blogs, beginning in June 2006? | lonelygirl15 |
| Which blog that promoted itself as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip" was made bankrupt as a result of the Hulk Hogan sex tape lawsuit? | Gawker |
| What do the letters TMZ stand for in the name of the celebrity new website? | Thirty Mile Zone |
| How is the blogger Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr better known? | Perez Hilton |
| The Gray Lady is a nickname for which newspaper? | New York Times |
| Who played Daisy Buchanan in the 1974 film version of "The Great Gatsby"? | Mia Farrow |
| Which American artist, author, actress, fashion designer, heiress, and socialite was the subject of a high-profile child custody trial in the 1930s dubbed "the trial of the century"? | Gloria Vanderbilt |
| Who was the first centrefold and cover star of Playboy magazine, when the first issue appeared in 1953? | Marilyn Monroe |
| Launched in 1867 and still published, by Hearst Magazines, what was America's first fashion magazine? | Harper's Bazaar |
| In 973CE which King of the English established Royal control over the minting of coins? | Edgar |
| Which Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor, wrote the book "Man's Search For Meaning"? | Victor Frankel |
| The term edaphic refers to which habitat? | Soil |
| What are the three mineral components of soil? | Sand, silt and clay |
| Which term refers to soil in which none of the three main mineral components of soil predominate? | Loam |
| Natasha Romanoff is the alter ego of which Marvel superhero, portrayed by Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers films? | Black Widow |
| Clint Barton is the alter ego of which of the Marvel Avengers superheroes? | Hawkeye |
| In 2018, which Briton became the sixth man to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament in the Open tennis era when he did so at the Australian Open? | Kyle Edmund |
| Which town in the East Riding of Yorkshire was originally known as Inderawuda and was founded around 700 AD by Saint John? | Beverley |
| Which specific species, Corvus Moneduloides, was the first animal bar humans to be seen creating hooks as tools? | New Caledonian Crow |
| Which chemical element has the symbol Nh and atomic number 113? | Nihonium |
| What is the name of chemical element 115, taken from the name of the city location of the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, where it was first synthesized in 2003? | Moscovium |
| Element number 116 is named for which city in Alameda County, California? | Livermore (Livermorium) |
| The penultimate element of the 7th period of the periodic table, and discovered in 2010, which element - atomic number 117 - is named after a US state? | Tennessine |
| One of only two elements named after a living person at the time of naming, the other being seaborgium, what is chemical element number 118? | Oganesson |
| Alexis Ohanian co-founded which popular website in 2005? | |
| At the Athletics World Championships in which city did both Mike Powell and Carl Lewis better Bob Beamon's long-standing long jump world record, in 1991? | Tokyo |
| "Whizziwhig" and "Pig-Heart Boy" are both novels by which former Children's Laureate? | Malorie Blackman |
| Which Chinese business magnate, philanthropist, internet and technology entrepreneur, is the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group? | Jack Ma |
| In descending order, which are the four most common elements in the human body? | Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen |
| The paranoiac-critical method was a technique pioneered by which famous painter? | Salvador Dali |
| Who was the third Roman Emperor after Augustus and Tiberius? | Caligula |
| Which character did Dick Van Dyke play in the film "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"? | Caractacus Potts |
| Which EB White novel features Homer Zuckerman's barn? | Charlotte's Web |
| The platinum selling single "All Over" was a UK hit for which singer, the main female member of So Solid Crew? | Lisa Maffia |
| How many internal angles does a dodecagon have? | Twelve |
| Which band had worldwide success with "Bamboléo"? | The Gipsy Kings |
| Subaru is a car maker from which country? | Japan |
| Which former PM was Edward Heath's Foreign Secretary? | Alec Douglas-Home |
| Rob Andrew played rugby union in what position for England? | Fly-half |
| Which Belgian beer was named after the Christmas star? | Stella Artois |
| Jared Leto played The Joker in which 2016 film? | Suicide Squad |
| Petrozavodsk is the capital of which Russian republic? | Karelia |
| Which Mexican-American dog behaviourist is known as "The Dog Whisperer"? | Cesar Millan |
| Which central idea in Chinese society, often translated as "connections" or "relationships" refers to the basic dynamic in personalized networks of influence? | Guanxi |
| "Gattamelata", the subject of Donatello's equestrian bronze sculpture in the main square of Padua, was which Italian condottiero of the Renaissance? | Erasmo of Narmi |
| In the NFL, the referee wears a white hat and the other six, a hat of which colour? | Black |
| According to Greek mythology, who sacrificed his son Pelops and served up his flesh at a banquet for the Gods? | Tantalus |
| Which three European countries are the only countries in the world in which a Uralic language is spoken by the majority of the population? | Estonia, Finland, Hungary |
| Which two Danish authors shared the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1917? | Henrik Pontopiddan & Karl Gjellerup (aka Epigonos) |
| The term "bad blood" was once a euphemism or synonym for which communicable disease? | Syphilis |
| The Binet-Simon Test was once one of the most widely used tests of what? | Intelligence |
| Who wrote 1915's science fiction novel "Herland"? | Charlotte Perkins Gilman |
| Whose 1899 novel "The Legacy of Cain" turns on whether the daughter of a murderess will inherit her mother's criminality? | Wilkie Collins |
| Born in Elston Hall near Newark-on Trent in 1731, which naturalist and poet wrote the important scientific work 'Zoönomia'? | Erasmus Darwin |
| Which double battle, taking place both on water and land, between the Delian League of Athens and her Allies, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I, was named for a river now called the Köprüçay? | Battle of the Eurymedon |
| What is the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan? | Kazan |
| Which artist was born Jerome Von Aiken circa 1450? | Hieronymus Bosch |
| Alfred Deakin was a 3-time PM of which country? | Australia |
| Which Swedish couple, who both won Nobel Prizes, her in Peace in 1982, he in Economics in 1974, were architects of the Swedish welfare state? | Alva and Gunnar Myrdal |
| Gigi is a musical with a book and lyrics by who? | Lerner and Loewe |
| Scottish & Newcastle is a former company, bought over in 2009, in which industry? | Brewing |
| Which distilled alcoholic drink is typically produced in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, made from either the fermented sap of coconut flowers, sugarcane, grain (e.g. red rice) or fruit, depending upon the country of origin? | Arrack |
| Whose Symphony Number 8 is often called the "Symphony of a Thousand"? | Mahler |
| Who wrote the music for the popular hymn "Jerusalem"? | Hubert Parry |
| Using a mistaken etymology for its name, what was Wagner's last completed opera? | Parsifal |
| What is a bolete? | A fungal fruiting body/fungus |
| How is the bird the water ouzel better known? | Dipper |
| Which animal has the scientific name Lumbricus terrestris? | Earthworm |
| The Capuchins, of the subfamily Cebinae, are what type of animal? | Monkey |
| In which 2000 British comedy film, directed by Nigel Cole and based on a screenplay by Mark Crowdy and Craig Ferguson, did Brenda Blethyn play an unlikely drug dealer? | Saving Grace |
| Which 2000 French-American war film directed by Jonathan Mostow & starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel & Jon Bon Jovi was described as an "affront" to British sailors in the UK parliament for claiming the US captured an Enigma machine? | U-571 |
| Who wrote and directed 2000 film "Maybe Baby", based on his book "Inconceivable"? | Ben Elton |
| The Alabama 3's song "Woke Up This Morning" was the theme tune to which acclaimed US TV series? | The Sopranos |
| In which year was Big Brother first screened in the UK? | 2000 |
| In Popeye, what is the name of Olive Oyl's brother? | Castor |
| Jack Shephard, Kate Austen and Hugo "Hurley" Reyes were recurring characters in which US TV series? | Lost |
| Which character was Grant Mitchell's first wife in soap opera "EastEnders"? | Sharon Watts |
| Which actress did Paul Simon marry in 1983? | Carrie Fisher |
| In which US state is Auburn University? | Alabama |
| The statue of Alan Turing in Sackville Park, Manchester, is holding what object? | Apple |
| A statue of Diana Dors can be found in which British town, her birthplace in 1931? | Diana Dors |
| What is the world's largest non-continental island? | Greenland |
| Which town, the county town of East Sussex and formerly all of Sussex, produces its own currency for tourism purposes? | Lewes |
| What did Nikita Khrushchev rename Stalingrad? | Volgograd |
| Which musical, by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a hapless florist, features the songs "Dentist!", "Suddenly, Seymour" and "Ya Never Know"? | Little Shop of Horrors |
| Which city located in Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan gives its name to a type of collectable porcelain? | Imari |
| "Not Waving but Drowning" is a 1957 poem by which British poet? | Stevie Smith |
| Central to all life on earth, which bond occurs when exactly two of the hydrogen groups in phosphoric acid react with hydroxyl groups on other molecules to form two ester bonds? | Phosphodiester Bond |
| Structural, geometric and enantiomer are types of which chemical category? | Isomers |
| Which nation left the EEC in 1985? | Greenland |
| Located in Russia, what is the largest subnational governing body by area in the world at 3,083,523 square kilometres? | Sakha Republic |
| Which widely used climate classification systems was named after the Russian German climatologist who first published it in 1884? | Köppen Classification System (after Wladimir Köppen) |
| The tiny islet "83-42" is also known by what name, after its US discoverer? It is significant as possibly the world's most northerly landmass. | Schmitt's Island |
| The name ermine is used for which animal in its winter coat? | Stoat |
| Which composer wrote the suite "Lieutenant Kijé" in 1933? | Prokofiev |
| Which family is the ruling royal family of Dubai, and one of the six ruling families of the United Arab Emirates? | Al-Maktoums |
| The World Scout Bureau, the secretariat that carries out the instructions of the World Scout Conference and the World Scout Committee, is located in which city? | Geneva |
| What was the ancient name - often seen in Asterix comics - for Brittany? It derived from Gaulish for "place by the sea"? | Armorica |
| In which Irish province is County Clare? | Munster |
| Which man, an Athenian aristocrat in the late 6th century BC and the son on Tisander, was overthrown by Cleisthenes? | Isagoras |
| Also the name of a famous work by Plato, what name was given to a drinking party in ancient Greece? | Symposium |
| Who was the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom and the arts? | Athena |
| Which two teams participated in what is widely considered to be the first match of American Football held on 6th November 1869? | Rutgers and Princeton, |
| Rutgers University – New Brunswick is located in which US state? | New Jersey |
| Which American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football (1862-1965) introduced numbers on shirts in the sport, and coached Chicago from 1892 to 1932? He lived to be 102. | Amos Stagg |
| How many feet off the ground is the crossbar on the goalposts in an NFL match? | Ten feet |
| Which Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, a powerful and enthusiastic patron of the Renaissance, was Lord of Florence from 1469 to 1492? | Lorenzo de' Medici/Lorenzo the Magnificent |
| Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici was an important patron of which Renaissance artist? | Botticelli |
| Which musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine was inspired by the French pointillist painter Georges Seurat's painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"? | Sunday In The Park With George |
| Founded in the city in 1901, what is Detroit's MLB franchise? | Detroit Tigers |
| Founded as an expansion franchise in 1969, and participating in four World Series, winning in 1985 and 2015, and losing in 1980 and 2014, what is Kansas City's MLB team? | Kansas City Royals |
| What is the nickname of Ghana's national football team? | Black Stars |
| Which football player released the 2007 autobiography "Walking Tall"? | Peter Crouch |
| At which Olympics was the ice hockey match dubbed the "Miracle on Ice"? | 1980 Winter Olympics |
| Norwegian Petter Northug won 13 World Championship and 2 Winter Olympic gold medals at what sport? | Cross Country Skiing |
| What is the name of the American politician who replaced Rudolph Giuliani as Mayor of New York in 2002? | Michael Bloomberg |
| In 1599, who became the first poet to be buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey since Geoffrey Chaucer? | Edmund Spenser |
| On Boxing Day 1999, which English football team became the first to select eleven foreign players for their team? | Chelsea |
| Against which club did Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman famously take legal action in 1990 when they refused to let him sign for Dunkerque at the end of his contract? | RFC Liège |
| William of Orange had what regnal number as King of Great Britain? | William III |
| William of Orange landed at Brixham in 1688 - in which county is Brixham? | Devon |
| A literal translation from the Latin, 'nares' is an alternative name for what part of the body? | Nostrils |
| The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations who were (originally) followers of whom? | Menno Simons |
| Which Asian capital city has a name meaning 'Town of Victory' in the local tongue? | Jakarta |
| In 1990, which US microbiologist proposed a system of biological classification based on genetic relationships that divided all organisms into three domains? | Carl Richard Woese |
| Believing that all knowledge evolves from experience of the mind, which Austrian-born philosopher formulated the principle of 'falsifiability' and published "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" in 1944? | Karl Popper |
| Established in 1988, which environmental body is usually known by the initials IPCC? | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |
| The European Environment Agency has its headquarters in which capital city? | Copenhagen |
| Which NGO was founded in 1969 as an anti-nuclear group by Robert O Anderson who contributed $200,000 in personal funds to launch it with David Brower? | Friends of The Earth |
| Which UK national newspaper established itself in the 1850s by undercutting other dailies in price and becoming London's first penny daily newspaper? Originally radical, it now embodies "Conservative middle England". | Daily Telegraph |
| Who wrote 1962's "An Unofficial Rose"? | Iris Murdoch |
| "Child with a Dove" was painted by who in 1901? It was sold for £50 million in 2012. | Pablo Picasso |
| Who painted "Le Boulevard de Montmartre, Matinée de Printemps", a view from a window, in 1897? | Camille Pissarro |
| Lifou Island, Maré Island, Tiga Island, Ouvéa Island, Mouli Island, and Faiava Island are the six inhabited islands in which archipelago, part of the French territory of New Caledonia? | Loyalty Islands |
| Before her marriage to Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine was the Queen of which French King? | Louis VII |
| Which famous Japanese work was written by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu in the early years of the 11th century? | The Tale of Genji |
| Who painted "Madonna and Child with Saints" (the Montefeltro Altarpiece of 1472–74)? | Piero della Francesca |
| Who was the monarch husband of the English consort Philippa of Hainault? | Edward III |
| Who was married to Mary I of England? | Philip II of Spain |
| What is the Japanese 'Asahi Shimbun'? | A newspaper |
| Picasso's "Still With Chair Caning" features which art technique, that consists of three-dimensional elements projecting out from the canvas? | Assemblage |
| Which poet wrote "Home Thoughts From Abroad"? | Robert Browning |
| Which 1969 Michael Crichton thriller, made into a 1971 film, catalogues the travails of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in Arizona? | The Andromeda Strain |
| Who is credited with the deathbed quote "I am dying beyond my means"? | Oscar Wilde |
| Which novelist was instrumental in the design and installation of post boxes (pillar boxes) in the UK, following a trip to the Channel Islands on behalf of Rowland Hill? | Anthony Trollope |
| Which British TV character was renowned for visiting Pomeroy's Wine Bar? | Horace Rumpole/Rumpole of the Bailey |
| In which British city is the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery? | Swansea |
| Who released the 1976 autobiography "Spend, Spend, Spend"? | Viv Nicholson |
| Which defunct British newspaper used the motto "all human life is there"? | News of the World |
| In the Harry Potter novels, what is Hagrid's first name? | Rubeus |
| In the Harry Potter novels, what is the name of Hagrid's enormous boarhound? | Fang |
| Which legendary creature, found in the Harry Potter novels, has the front half of an eagle and the hind half of a horse? | Hippogriff |
| A ruthless tyrant who rules the planet Mongo, who is the arch enemy of the character Flash Gordon? | Ming the Merciless |
| In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, which character does Antony call "the noblest Roman of them all"? | Brutus |
| With a population density of just 15.5 people per square kilometre, which is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union? | Finland |
| Which French short story writer and dramatist wrote the novella upon which Bizet's opera 'Carmen' is based? | Prosper Mérimée |
| Who was the first king of Scotland from the House of Stuart? | Robert II |
| What was the name of the flying island in the 1726 novel "Gulliver's Travels"? | Laputa |
| Who wrote 1911's "Heart of the Antarctic"? | Ernest Shackleton |
| Who was the wife of Harold Godwinson, his second, during his 1066 reign? | Edith of Mercia/Ealdgyth, daughter of Earl Ælfgar (NOT Edith the Fair, who was his first wife) |
| What alias did Billy the Kid adopt from 1877 onwards? | William H Bonney |
| Which 'war' in then New Mexico Territory began in 1878 and lasted until 1881, and involved Billy the Kid, Sheriff William Brady, cattle rancher John Chisum, businessman Alexander McSween, James Dolan, and the man who started the problem, Lawrence Murphy? | Lincoln County War |
| In which city did El Cid die in 1099? | Valencia |
| The New York Draft Riots took place during which conflict? | US Civil War |
| Which 1282 event, the name given to a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily, led to the overthrow of Charles I (Charles of Anjou)? | Sicilian Vespers |
| Which of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade contained Athens and the Peloponnese? | Principality of Achaea |
| In which century was Constantinople controlled by the "Latin Empire" or "Romanian Empire"? | 13th (1204-1261) |
| Which European monarch declared five state bankruptcies in the 16th century, and yet still had the epithet 'the prudent'? | Philip II of Spain |
| Which monarch of Britain had a horse called Sorrel, that threw him causing a broken collarbone, and ultimately, his death? | William III |
| A sausage name after which city is sometimes called baloney? | Bologna (Bologna sausage) |
| In which sport is the MacRobertson Shield contested? | Croquet |
| The parasitic hirudo medicinalis is a species of which hirudin-secreting annalids? | Leeches |
| Which British-born US physicist gives his name to a 'sphere' that is a vast arrangement of artificial habitats orbiting a star, which he proposed as an observable signature of advanced alien civilisations? | Freeman Dyson (Dyson sphere) |
| Named after a US astronomer born in 1838, what name is given to a planet's gravitational region of influence? | Hill Sphere (after George William Hill - it is also called a Roche sphere, but after a Frenchman) |
| What was the acronymic name of the German intelligence organisation, operative from 1921 until 1944, the full name of which translated into English as ‘Overseas Department/Office in Defence of the Armed Forces High Command’? | Abwehr |
| What was the name of the Canadian journalist and art critic who is best remembered as the executor of the estate of Oscar Wilde, with whom he had been lifelong friends? | Robbie Ross |
| Who was the German-born Dutch artist who painted portraits of both Charles I and Charles II as well as the famous 'warts and all' portrait of Oliver Cromwell? | Peter Lely |
| Which novel of 1894 was set in Ruritania? | The Prisoner of Zenda |
| Corundum is an oxide of which metal? | Aluminium |
| Which Italian painter's (1395-1475) best known works are the three paintings representing the battle of San Romano, which were wrongly entitled the "Battle of Sant' Egidio of 1416" for a long period of time? | Paolo Uccello |
| What name is given to the separate pronunciation of the two vowels in a diphthong for the sake of poetic metre? | Diaeresis |
| Algeciras Nasier was the anagrammatical pseudonym used by which French physician and writer? | François Rabelais |
| "Puff, the Magic Dragon" was made famous by whose recording in 1963? | Peter, Paul & Mary |
| Which US game show was the UK's "University Challenge" based on? | College Bowl |
| Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for which film studio from 1940 to 1958? | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/MGM |
| Which actor was in Flesh+Blood, Blind Fury, Blade Runner, The Hitcher and Batman Begins? | Rutger Hauer |
| Who is the acting mother of Rupert Penry-Jones? | Angela Thorne |
| Roy Trenneman, Maurice Ross and Jen Barber were characters in which British sitcom by Channel 4? | The IT Crowd |
| The 2008 British-Irish historical drama film "Hunger" was directed by which winner of the 1999 Turner Prize? | Steve McQueen |
| Which Derbyshire memorial, located on a hill above its namesake village, is dedicated to the memory of the soldiers from the Sherwood Foresters Regiment who died in World War I and World War II? | Crich Stand (village is Crich) |
| The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is the national measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, based at Bushy Park in which suburban area of South-West London? It shares its name with the Thames's lowest non-tidal lock. | Teddington |
| Which Spanish explorer completed the first known navigation of the entire length of the Amazon River, which initially was named after him? | Francisco de Orellana ('Rio de Orellana') |
| Located in Somalia, what is Africa's most easterly mainland point? | Cape Hafun |
| Located in Senegal, what is Africa's most westerly mainland point? | Cap Vert/Cape Verde |
| Which is the only nation whose flag is different on each side? | Paraguay |
| What are the three colours of the Pan-African flag? | Red, black, green |
| How many white stripes are there on the US flag? | Six |
| The regions of South Karelia and North Karelia are part of which country? | Finland |
| Glenn H. Curtiss Airport was the former airport once sited at the location of which more modern one? | LaGuardia Airport |
| Le Bourget Airport is a minor airport near which city? | Paris |
| Fornebu was the location, until 1998, of which city's airport, when it was closed down and moved? | Oslo (moved to Gardemoen) |
| Which airport is sometimes known as Kloten Airport? | Zürich Airport |
| Either Cape Angela, or Cap Blanc, might be the northernmost point in Africa - both are located in which country? | Tunisia |
| Which cape is the geographic southern tip of the African continent? | Cape Agulhas |
| The Welsh place name prefix "Caer" and English suffixes "Caster" and "Chester" all derive from the Roman for what? | Fort |
| Gander International Airport is located on which island? | Newfoundland |
| The New Bedford River, also known as the Hundred Foot Drain because of the distance between the tops of the two embankments on either side of the river, is a man-made cut-off or by-pass channel in which county of England? | Cambridgeshire (bypass channel of the Great Ouse) |
| The London terminus of services provided by the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838, which mainline station required around 25 acres of glass to rebuild its roof in 1945? | Paddington |
| How are the Danish West Indies today known? | United States Virgin Islands |
| Which song starts off and finishes (as a reprise) the musical 'Gigi'? | Thank Heaven For Little Girls |
| Which singer, born in Brooklyn on January 24th, 1941, who is nicknamed "The Jewish Elvis"? | Neil Diamond |
| In which year did Igor Stravinsky die? | 1971 |
| Which Stravinsky ballet tells the story of the loves and jealousies of three puppets? | Petrushka |
| Which clear, colourless, unsweetened anise-flavoured distilled alcoholic drink was invented in the Levant? | Arak |
| What is the popular name of Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, in A major, Op. 90? | Italian Symphony |
| 'Bloody Mary' is a character in which 1958 film musical? | South Pacific |
| Zivania is pomace brandy produced from the distillation of a mixture of grape pomace and local dry wines from which country? | Cyprus |
| Which was the only Live 8 venue of 2005 in the southern hemisphere? | Johannesburg |
| "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" is a song from which musical? | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers |
| Who was the Greek goddess of strife and discord? | Eris |
| Which Greek hero was born at Corinth and was the son of the mortal Eurynome by either her husband Glaucus, or Poseidon? | Bellerophon |
| Copper is the traditional British gift on which wedding anniversary? | Ninth |
| Which composer's most popular piece is probably "Marche des petits Faunes" from his ballet "Cydalise et le Chèvre-pied"? | Gabriel Pierné |
| Which poet's most enduring contribution to literary history is the children's classic The Story of the Three Bears, the original Goldilocks story? | Robert Southey |
| Which actress won a BAFTA Award for her role in The Age of Innocence (1993) and went on to take the role of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series? | Miriam Margolyes |
| Who wrote the novel "The Girl At The Lion D'Or" in 1989? | Sebastian Faulks |
| What is the lowest number that can be expressed as the sum of two cubes in two different ways? | 1729 (1cubed and 12cubed and 9cubed and 10cubed) |
| Thuma, towcher, long-man, lech-man and little-man are Old and Middle English names for what? | Digits of the hand/thumb and fingers |
| What was the name of Robert Louis Stevenson's donkey in his "Travels With A Donkey In The Cevennes"? | Modestine |
| Which letter represents the knight in chess notation? | N |
| The Battle of Cape Matapan took place in which conflict? | World War Two |
| The Battle of Bunker Hill took place in which conflict? | US War of Independence |
| Which city did Wordsworth call "the eldest child of liberty"? | Venice |
| In the Bible who was the father of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulon, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin? | Jacob |
| In Greek myth, in what form did Zeus seduce Alcmene? | Disguised as Amphitryon, her husband |
| Whose last words were "thy necessity is yet greater than mine" in 1586? | Sir Philip Sidney |
| Whose last words were "Now God be praised, I will die in peace" on 13 September 1759? | Major General James Wolfe |
| In an 1818 work which fictional character was educated at the University of Ingolstadt as a student of natural philosophy, where Professor Krempe dismisses his outdated study of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus? | Victor Frankenstein |
| Who, in the second book of Samuel, brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem "dancing with all his might before the lord" "girded with a linen ephod"? | David |
| Also called kado, what is the Japanese art of flower arrangement? | Ikebana |
| Which school did Tom Brown attend in Thomas Hughes' books? | Rugby |
| Which former British Home Secretary, Education Secretary and Conservative Party Chairman was depicted as a slug on satirical TV show "Spitting Image"? | Kenneth Baker |
| Which Romantic poet registered as a medical student at Guy's Hospital (now part of King's College London) and began studying there in October 1815? | John Keats |
| Which word was first used for the sanctuary of Athena in which Plato taught? | Academy |
| Which word meaning 'laugh' was coined by Lewis Carroll in "Through the Looking Glass" in 1871? | Chortle |
| Which 1961 play by Samuel Beckett starts with a woman called Winnie up her waist in a low mound? | Happy Days |
| Who wrote "What is this life if, full of care/We have no time to stand and stare" | W. H. Davies |
| Which type of book has a name derived from Latin for 'leaf'? | Folio |
| In Clive King's 1963 children's novel, which Stone Age man is found on a rubbish tip? | Stig of the Dump |
| Renowned for his flamboyant lifestyle outside the ring, which boxer is credited with being the originator of the modern sports "entourage"? He was ranked number one on The Ring magazine's list of "80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years" in 2002. | Sugar Ray Robinson |
| Sport Club Internacional, best known as Internacional, are a football team from which Brazilian city? | Porto Alegre |
| In which city are the Brazilian football team Corinthians based? | São Paulo |
| Esporte Clube Vitória, usually known simply as Vitória, is a Brazilian football team from which city? | Salvador |
| The Augustusburg and Falkenlust palaces, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites, are near the city centre of which German town, the birthplace of Max Ernst? | Brühl |
| Which herb has dull, grey-green leaves and takes its name from the Latin for "safe"? | Sage |
| Which former Academy Award winning actor's final film appearance was the romantic comedy "Welcome to Mooseport" in 2004? | Gene Hackman |
| In brass musical instruments, what name is given to the detachable piece of metal tubing usually inserted between the mouthpiece and ain body that allows the player to reach notes not available in the harmonic series of the unmodified instrument? | Crook |
| Who won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the 90th Academy Awards in 2018 for playing LaVona Golden in "I, Tonya"? | Allison Janney |
| Upon winning a 2018 Oscar and BAFTA for the screenplay of "Call Me By My Name" at the age of 89, who became the oldest-ever winner in any category for both award shows? | James Ivory |
| "A Fantastic Woman" was which country's first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film? | Chile |
| Originally the name for a single gun-decked, three-masted, square-rigged sailing vessel of French design, adopted by the British, which class of small, single-screw warship was devised for WW2 convoy escort duties? | Corvette |
| 19th century British scientist Sir William Crookes discovered which bluish-grey metallic element, found in iron pyrites, that is toxic to humans and has atomic number 81? | Thallium |
| How are the fruits in the genus fragaria better known? | Strawberries |
| Which island has the greatest land area of any coral atoll in the world, about 388 square km, and makes up about 70% of its country's land mass? | Kiritimati (in Kiribati, it is also called Christmas Island) |
| Who wrote the 1886 work "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow"? | Jerome K. Jerome |
| In which weekly youth supplement to a Belgian newspaper did the Adventures of Tintin first appear? | Le Petit Vingtième |
| Which Rome landmark was constructed as a tomb for the Emperor Hadrian and his successors? | Castel Sant'Angelo |
| Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain are buried in the Royal Chapel of the Gothic cathedral of Santa Maria de la Encarnacion in which city? | Granada |
| To which actress did Agatha Christie dedicate her book "The Mirror Crack'd Side To Side"? | Margaret Rutherford |
| Who was the first man to score in an international football match, doing so for England in the second England v Scotland match? | William Kenyon-Slaney |
| After which physicist is a "law of induction" named? | Michael Faraday |
| Which company was founded in the 19th century by David H. McConnell and known as the "California Perfume Company"? | Avon Products |
| What does the abbreviation 'BP' stand for in archaeology and geology? | Before Present |
| In chemistry, which letter is used to denote the proton (atomic) number of an element? | Z |
| The simplest tetraorganosilane, and used in NMR spectroscopy, what does TMS stand for? | Tetramethylsilane |
| Which scientist did JBS Haldane call "the greatest Jew since Jesus"? | Einstein |
| Which fruit did Aztecs collect from what they called the "testicle tree"? | Avocados |
| Over which lake did Ferdinand von Zeppelin make the first test flight of an airship in 1900? | Lake Constance |
| The Cadenza, Forte and Soul are models by which car manufacturer? | Kia |
| John J. Fitz Gerald popularised which city nickname in horse racing columns in the 1920s? | The Big Apple (for NYC) |
| What name is given to the four main gatehouses in York's city walls? | Bars |
| Which city gave its name to muslin? | Mosul, Iraq |
| Which plain-woven textile made from unbleached and often not fully processed cotton is named after the Indian city of Calicut? | Calico |
| The word doolally takes its name from a camp in which country? | India (Deolali) |
| What is the highest mountain in Antarctica? | Vinson Massif |
| A mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, which word derives from Latin for "small mound"? | Tumulus |
| Which African country lies closest to Italy? | Tunisia |
| Which area of Washington DC west of the White House and downtown, in the Northwest quadrant, has become a synonym for the US State Department? | Foggy Bottom |
| Which country is known as Misr by its inhabitants? | Egypt |
| Who played Deadpool in the 2016 film? | Ryan Reynolds |
| In which US state was the Battle of Little Bighorn? | Montana |
| In which German city is the HQ of Volkswagen? | Wolfsburg |
| In which North Americanriver are the Thousand Islands? | St Lawrence |
| Which country is called Hanguk by its inhabitants? | Korea (North or South) |
| What US state is Fort Sumter in? | South Carolina |
| On which motorway in the UK is Strensham Services? | M5 |
| In which Czech city are the headquarters of Skoda? | Mladá Boleslav |
| The Precinct of Amun-Re is part of which large Egyptian temple near Luxor? | Karnak |
| Which York-class heavy cruiser launched in 1929, fought at the River Plate in 1939, and was sunk at the Battle of the Java Sea in 1942? | HMS Exeter |
| Which English barrister, a vegetarian and socialist, participated in prominent and controversial court cases involving accused IRA bombers, the Birmingham Six, Bloody Sunday incident, the Hillsborough disaster and the death of Jean Charles de Menezes? | Michael Mansfield |
| The Lateran Treaty created which independent country? | Vatican City |
| In France, who was the bourreau? | State executioner |
| In which decade was the last change to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom? | 1830s (1837) |
| What was the capital of the Isle of Man until 1869? | Castletown |
| In which year was the Berlin wall erected? | 1961 |
| What is the lowest of the five ranks of the UK peerage? | Baron |
| In which month was D-Day in 1944? | June |
| In which month of 1941 was the Pearl Harbor attack? | December |
| Who entered parliament as Member of Parliament for Islwyn Bedwellty in 1970? | Neil Kinnock |
| Who was the only occupant of the car in which Princess Diana died, to survive? | Trevor Rees-Jones |
| Who was the Soviet Union's Minister of Foreign Affairs (1957–1985)? | Andrei Gromyko |
| From which city did the Portuguese monarchy rule from 1808 to 1821? | Rio de Janeiro |
| Which was the third flag put on the summit of Everest by Hillary and Tenzing, after the Union Jack and Nepalese flags? | UN flag |
| Who ascended to the Spanish throne on 19 June 2014 upon the abdication of his father, King Juan Carlos I? | Felipe VI |
| The Spanish monarchy belongs to which royal house? | Bourbon |
| Who was the last British monarch to be of the House of Hanover? | Victoria |
| What was WW2's Operation Shingle? | Anzio Landings |
| In which year did Dwight D. Eisenhower die? | 1969 |
| How many old pennies were in a guinea? | 252 |
| Which animal taught Hugh Lofting's character Dr Doolittle the language of animals? | Polynesia the parrot |
| What was the name of Dr Doolittle's dog? | Jip |
| What was the name of the "gazelle-unicorn cross" in the Dr Doolittle books that had two heads, one at either end? | Pushmi-pullyu |
| Which man, who died in Rome aged 88 in 1564, was the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive? | Michelangelo |
| Which artist was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England? | Peter Paul Rubens |
| Which artist (1894-1978) is arguably most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over nearly five decades? | Norman Rockwell |
| Which artist fathered two daughters, Eveline (1801–1874) and Georgiana (1811–1843), by his housekeeper Sarah Danby? | JMW Turner |
| In literature, who is the husband of Tonya Gromeko? | Dr Zhivago (Yuri Zhivago) |
| Who wrote the 1952 novel "East of Eden"? | John Steinbeck |
| In a novel of 1815, who marries George Knightley? | Emma (Woodhouse) |
| Whose bequest to the French government included 68 paintings by many artists: Camille Pissarro (19), Claude Monet (14), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (10), Alfred Sisley (9), Edgar Degas (7), Paul Cézanne (5), and Édouard Manet (4) and popularised Impressionism? | Gustave Caillebotte |
| Which Greek letter is used to represent the Golden Ratio? | Phi |
| Which pioneer in psychology and founder of psychophysics (1801-87) is credited with demonstrating the non-linear relationship between psychological sensation and the physical intensity of a stimulus? He also noted the aesthetic appeal of the golden ratio. | Gustav Fechner |
| Which geological epoch immediately preceded the current Holocene? | Pleistocene |
| Which word is both a unit of energy and a word for a sand covered desert or dune field? | Erg |
| In which decade did the British museum open? | 1750s (1759) |
| In which city did Charles Willson Peale found one of the first museums in the USA, in 1801? | Philadelphia |
| In which year did the Louvre Museum in Paris open? | 1793 |
| In which city did the first satellite museum of the Louvre open in 2012? | Lens |
| Branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim, as well as the Zayed National Museum, are located on which island off the coast of Abu Dhabi? | Saadiyat Island |
| Popularised by designer Raymond Loewy, the phrase "MAYA", which determines whether a product will be a hit with the public, stands for what? | Most Advanced Yet Acceptable |
| Which car manufacturer made the Starlight Coupe in the 1950s, often called the Loewy Coupe after the company who designed it? | Studebaker |
| The 1956 Predictor, a concept car, was the last car made by which car manufacturing company of Detroit, Michigan, that were named after their founder in 1899? | Packer |
| Which NBA team have played at the Oracle Arena in Oakland since 1966? | Golden State Warriors |
| Who wrote the music, lyrics and book for the musical "Hamilton", first performed in 2015? | Lin-Manuel Miranda |
| Which US-Gujarati songwriter wrote or co-wrote "What Makes You Beautiful" for One Direction, "Amazing" for Westlife, "Love Me Like You Do" for Ellie Goulding and "One Last Time" for Ariana Grande? | Savan Kotecha |
| Which US singer-songwriter was born in Dallas in 1979, and has the surname "Raymond"? | Usher |
| Who won the fourth season of American Idol and had US hits with "Jesus, Take the Wheel", "Cowboy Casanova" and "Before He Cheats"? | Carrie Underwood |
| Which Canadian singer was born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye? | The Weeknd |
| "All The Stars" and "Humble" were Top 10 hits in the UK in 2018 and 2017 respectively for who? | Kendrick Lemar |
| The festival South by Southwest has been held since 1987 in which US city? | Austin, Texas |
| Which Swedish songwriter wrote or co-wrote "...Baby One More Time" (1998), "I Want It That Way" (1999) "It's My Life" (2000), "Blank Space" (2014), "Can't Stop The Feeling" (2016)? | Max Martin |
| NAc is an abbreviation for which part of the brain that has a significant role in the cognitive processing of motivation, aversion, reward (i.e., incentive salience, pleasure, and positive reinforcement), and reinforcement learning? | Nucleus Accumbens |
| Which MTV reality show of 2004-06 was subtitled "The Real Orange County"? | Laguna Beach |
| What was the name of Fredric Wertham's 1954 US bestseller that claimed that comic books had a corrupting influence on the young? | Seduction of the Innocent |
| What was the forename of Monteverdi, who composed 1603 opera "Orfeo"? | Claudio |
| In which city did composer Monteverdi spend most of his musical career, from 1613 to 1643? | Venice |
| Sharing his name with a character from European legend, who was the former bassist and backing vocalist for US band Something Corporate who married reality TV star Lauren Conrad in 2014? | William Tell |
| Including sharps and flats, how many basic musical notes are there in the chromatic scale? | Twelve |
| By what other letter is the musical note B known in Germany? | H |
| Which overture in E♭ major, Op. 49 by Tchaivoksky features part of "La Marseillaise"? | 1812 Overture |
| How is the wine grape Shiraz known in France? | Syrah |
| In the Bible, who was the second son of Joseph, blessed by Jacob? His name means "being fruitful". | Ephraim |
| What is the name, from Greek myth, of the case in which decanters are locked? | Tantalus |
| Which hymn begins with the words "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord"? | Battle Hymn of The Republic |
| In which country is the first evidence of coffee drinking, dating to the 15th century? | Yemen |
| Similar to a zip line, which crude rope-based rescue device is used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one location to another in situations of danger? | Breeches buoy |
| Traditionally, at what height is a tree's girth measured? | Five feet |
| What type of creatures are the genus sepia? | Cuttlefish |
| What is the calendar date of Lady Day? | 25th March |
| Michael Jackson died due to an overdose of propofol mixed with which other class of drugs? | Benzodiazepines |
| What type of animal is a takin? | Goat-antelope (accept either) |
| Which genus of flowering plants has a name that comes from the Greek for "water vessel"? | Hydrangea |
| What do Ben Elton, Mel Gibson, Denis Thatcher and William Shakespeare have in common, paternally? | They are all fathers of twins |
| What name is given to the housing for a ship's compass? | Binnacle |
| Who was appointed head creative director of the fashion house Chanel in 1983? | Karl Lagerfeld |
| Which boat has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012 and is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission? | HMS Victory |
| Which man, born in Penzance in 1778, discovered nine chemical elements? | Humphry Davy |
| What is the densest chemical element? | Osmium |
| How many chemical elements have four-letter names? | Five (zinc, gold, neon, lead, iron) |
| Which figure of speech is the repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, typically within the same sentence, for vehemence or emphasis? An example is Margaret Thatcher's "No, no, no". | Epizeuxis |
| Which rhetorical term means repetition of a word or phrase with one or two intervening words? An example is "Bond. James Bond." | Diacope |
| Which figure of speech is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order; for example, "I know what I like, and I like what I know" or "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country"? | Antimetabole |
| What is tested by the Flesch-Kincaid test? | Readability/how easy or difficult a written passage is to understand |
| Which American lawyer, who died in 2005, is best known for his leadership role in the defence and acquittal of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman? He said "if it don't fit, you must acquit". | Johnnie Cochran |
| Which novelist wrote the 1897 work "What is Art?"? | Leo Tolstoy |
| Which Shakespeare character says "I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space"? | Hamlet |
| Which other dramatist said of Shakespeare that he was "not of an age, but for all time"? | Ben Jonson |
| What name is given to the condition where one does not possess a functioning mind's eye and cannot visualize imagery? | Aphantasia |
| Who created the character Flash Gordon? | Alex Raymond |
| Which English king was murdered at Corfe Castle in 978CE by supporters of his mother Elfrida? | Edward the Martyr |
| The highest peak in the Appalachians is Mount Mitchell, in which state? | North Carolina |
| What is the correct anatomical name for the haunch bone, the upper part of the hip bone in the pelvis? | Ilium |
| Which fashion designers produced the wedding dress worn by Princess Diana when she married Charles in July 1981? | David & Elizabeth Emanuel |
| Jacinth is a reddish-orange gem variety of which mineral? | Zircon |
| Which building in Buenos Aires is the official residence of the Argentine President? | Casa Rosada |
| Which building, the Malay word for "palace", is the official residence of the Singapore President? | Istana |
| Suggesting a reader should be more alert and aware of the current situation, what does the Internet acronym WUASTC stand for? | Wake Up And Smell The Coffee |
| In which nation was the shop C&A founded in 1841? | Netherlands |
| Which 16th century monarch owned a horse called "Black Agnes"? | Mary, Queen of Scots |
| Which tree has the scientific name pinus sylvestris? | Scots Pine |
| Which actor narrated the BBC TV series "Walking With Dinosaurs"? | Kenneth Branagh |
| Which writer and naval administrator was appointed Secretary of the Admiralty in 1672, before being deprived of his post and imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1679 for his alleged complicity in the Popish Plot; he was reappointed in 1684? | Samuel Pepys |
| Which highly contagious infection takes its name from the Greek for "leather"? | Diphtheria |
| John Henry Newman wrote which 1866 poem that was later set to music by Edward Elgar? | The Dream of Gerontius |
| Who was the author of 1816's "The Dream", a poem in which he described his love for his cousin Mary Chaworth, ad the disaster of his marriage to Anabella Milbanke? | George, Lord Byron |
| The signatures of Casanova and the Marquis de Sade lie inches apart on the wall of which Roman Emperor's subterranean golden palace in Rome? | Nero |
| The chlorinated compound 1-O-chloro-phenyl-2, 2-di-cyano-ethylene is more commonly known by what name, from the initials of the chemists who devised it? | CS Gas (Corson and Stoughton) |
| The Battle of the Bulge in WW2 involved a German counter-offensive to gain control of which city on the Schelde river? | Antwerp |
| Originally staged to mark the coronation of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, the "Battle of the Flowers" is held annually on which island? | Jersey |
| Who succeeded Warith Deen Mohammed as leader of the Nation of Islam in 1976? | Louis Farrakhan |
| Between 1975 and 1996 the historic county of Dunbartonshire in Scotland was part of which council region? | Strathclyde |
| Which football team won the Chinese Super League every year from 2011 to 2017? | Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao F.C./Guangzhou Evergrande |
| What is the most populous city south of the Equator? | São Paulo |
| In which US state is the Innoko River? | Alaska |
| Cape Comorin is the southernmost point of the mainland of which nation? | India |
| What is the name of the national emblem of Argentina and Uruguay that appears on both countries' flags? | Sun of May |
| The Bridge of Segovia is a16th century bridge in which capital city? | Madrid |
| How many emirates make up the UAE? | Seven |
| In which US state is the Klickitat river? | Washington |
| Chief of Imperial General Staff from 1916 to 1918 in WW1, who was the first and (as of 2018) only British Army soldier to rise from private soldier to field marshal? | William Robertson |
| In the poem by Edward Lear, what provided the "single, lurid light" that moved through the vast and gloomy dark, as he searched for his lost love? | The Luminous Nose of The Dong |
| Leonardo, also called Fibonacci, who introduced Europe to the sequence of Fibonacci numbers, which he used as an example in Liber Abaci, was from which Republic, now a famous tourist city? | Pisa |
| Which poet wrote, in 1917, of: "Restless nights in one-night cheap hotels/And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells"? | TS Eliot (The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock) |
| What unit of pressure is equal to ten to the five pascals, and is approximately equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level? | The bar |
| Also meaning "courage" what name is given to the heart, liver and lungs of a slaughtered animal when used as food? | Pluck |
| What was the London terminus of the Great Western Railway? | Paddington |
| Who was the so-called ‘Mad Mullah’ of Somalia who led armed resistance to the British, Italian and Ethiopian forces in Somalia during the first twenty years of the Twentieth Century? | Mohammad Abdullah Hassan |
| Liechtenstein Castle, built in the 12th century, is in which country? | Austria |
| On May 5th 1961, Alan Shepard was the first US man in space on which Mercury program aircraft? | Freedom 7 |
| Which French officer is credited with founding Detroit in 1701? | Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac |
| What is Ireland's smallest county by area? | Louth |
| Martha Argerich, considered one of the greatest ever pianists, was born in which country? | Argentina |
| Whose report into the Stephen Lawrence case was published in February 1999? | Sir William MacPherson |
| How many vertices does an icosahedron have? | 12 |
| Designed by John Nash, which church lies in Langham Place, London, near Broadcasting House? | All Souls |
| Thomas More was accused of treason for his alleged interest interest in the prophecies of Elizabeth Barton, a Kentish servant girl who was given what nickname? | Maid or Nun of Kent |
| In mechanics, what is expressible as the product of the magnitude of a force applied to move an object, and the speed of the object in the direction of the force? | Power |
| What is the lowest region of the Earth's atmosphere, with an upper boundary about 10-15km above the planet's surface? | Troposphere |
| Down House on Luxted Road, near Downe in Kent, is most famous as whose former home? | Charles Darwin |
| Who trained the winner of the Grand National for a fourth time in 2004 with Amberleigh House? | Ginger McCain |
| The Spanish football team CA Osasuna are based in which town or city? | Pamplona |
| What was the first British film to win a Best Picture Oscar? | Hamlet |
| Which actress won Best Actress Academy Awards for "Coming Home" and "Klute"? | Jane Fonda |
| How many Oscar nominations, then a record, did 1950 film "All About Eve" receive? | Fourteen |
| Which film won all 11 Oscars for which it was nominated at the 76th Academy Awards? | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
| Who has played Janice Battersby in Coronation Street for over 20 years? | Vicky Entwistle |
| Which 1960 film, directed by Michael Powell, written by Leo Marks, and starring Carl Boehm, Anna Massey, and Moira Shearer, revolves around a serial killer who murders women while using a portable movie camera to record their dying expressions of terror? | Peeping Tom |
| Who won a Best Actor Oscar in the 1990s for playing a character that was onscreen for only 16 minutes? | Antony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter) |
| In which short cartoon did Mickey and Minnie Mouse both debut? | Plane Crazy |
| Who were the first husband and wife to win Best Actor and Actress Oscars (in different years)? | Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh |
| In which Disney cartoon did Mickey Mouse first talk? | Steamboat Willie |
| Which of Mickey Mouse's items of clothing first appeared in "The Opry House"? | His gloves |
| How many Best Actress Academy Awards did Katherine Hepburn win, in total? | Four |
| Which entertainer was born Nathan Birnbaum on January 20, 1896? | George Burns |
| Apart from Marlon Brando which other actor, as of 2018, has refused a Best Actor Academy Award? | George C Scott |
| Who was the first person to refuse an Oscar - doing so in 1949 for an honorary award? In 1951, he shot and wounded the agent of his then-wife, Joan Bennett, because he suspected they were having an affair. | Walter Wanger |
| As of 2018, who is the youngest person ever to win a competitive Academy Award, which she won in 1974 at age 10 for her performance as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon? | Tatum O'Neal |
| How many inches tall is an Oscar statuette? | Thirteen |
| Which actress won a special (non-competitive) Academy Award aged 6? | Shirley Temple |
| Which Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire is most famed for his work "Geographica"? | Strabo |
| Under what name did the writer known as EL James write the Twilight fan fiction "Master of the Universe" that was the basis for the Fifty Shades trilogy? | Snowqueen's Icedragon |
| Which Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest became the dominant tribe in the area before the invasion, under the king Cunobelinus? | Catuvellauni |
| Cartimandua (reigned c. AD 43 – c. 69) was a 1st-century queen of which Celtic people of northern England? | Brigantes |
| Which town, once the capital of the Algarve, was finally taken from the last Muslim king Ibn Afan by Paio Peres Correia, Grand-Master of the Order of Santiago in 1242? | Silves |
| Which American singer, songwriter, and pianist's April 2010 performance of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" at a sixth-grade music festival went viral on YouTube when he was just 13? His debut album, Hold On 'Til the Night, was released on August 2, 2011. | Greyson Chance |
| Which actor and successful venture capitalist starred as Walden Schmidt on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men (2011–2015)? | Ashton Kutcher |
| The Alborz mountains lie predominantly in which country? | Iran |
| Who said "Everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power"? He died aged 46. | Oscar Wilde |
| Which 1st-century king of the Regnenses or Regni tribe in early Roman Britain may have been the owner of the famous villa at Fishbourne? There is debate as to whether his name starts with a C or a T. | Cogidubnus or Togidubnus |
| Napoleon Crossing the Alps (also known as Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass or Bonaparte Crossing the Alps) showing the Emperor on a rearing horse, is an 1801 work by which French painter? | Jacques-Louis David |
| In 1944, which Mediterranean country experienced an economic crisis culminating in the issuing of notes to the value of 100,000 million of the local currency? | Greece |
| Writing in 1979, which US economist showed that, for a currency crisis to happen, all that is needed is for a government to carry out policies that are inconsistent with the exchange rate? | Paul Krugman |
| After a period of hyperinflation, which southern African government revalued its dollar by removing 12 zeroes from the old notes in 2009? | Zimbabwe |
| In which city are the Evolution Tower, the Mercury City Tower and the Federation Tower? | Moscow |
| Which Scottish physical chemist's "law" states that the rate of effusion of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of the mass of its particles? | Thomas Graham (Graham's Law) |
| In chemistry and physics, which law states that in a mixture of non-reacting gases, the total pressure exerted is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of the individual? | Dalton's law |
| Cleopatra is generally cited as having been what age when she died in 30BCE? | 39 |
| How old was Mahatma Gandhi when he was assassinated in Delhi in 1948? | 78 |
| Which major writer was born on July 21st 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois? | Ernest Hemingway |
| Which insect of the order orthoptera was nicknamed "wart-biter" in Southern England after a folk remedy where it would bite off warts? | Grasshopper |
| Born in 1852, which Irish writer was the patron of WB Yeats, was one of the founders of Dublin's Abbey Theatre, and herself wrote or translated some 40 plays? | Lady Augusta Gregory |
| Which poet wrote about his journeying: "I travelled among unknown men/In lands beyond the sea; nor, England! did I know till then/What love I bore to thee"? | William Wordsworth |
| Which former US senator to New Jersey, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, was formerly a professional basketball player and Olympic gold medallist? | Bill Bradley |
| In A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, which "rude mechanical" asks the fairy Cobweb to find him a humble-bee on top of a thistle, and bring him the honeybag? | Bottom |
| Which decade saw Frederick Barbarossa become Holy Roman Emperor; Henry II become King of England and Nicholas Breakspear become Pope Adrian IV? | 1150s |
| An udometer is another name for which device? | Pluviometer |
| Which Canadian actor starred in Klute, Don't Look Now and Day of the Locust? | Donald Sutherland |
| Who wrote "The Confidential Agent" in 1939, one of several thrillers that he termed "Entertainments"? | Graham Greene |
| Which palace in Rome is the official home of Italy's President? | Quirinal Palace |
| Asking "was God an astronaut?", which Swiss author wrote several books which make claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, including the best-selling Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968? | Erich von Däniken |
| Who became the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc in the early 1960s? | Warren Buffett |
| The forty members of which body are known as les immortels (the immortals)? | Académie française |
| Which bird, Regulus regulus, is the smallest breeding bird in the UK? | Goldcrest |
| What type of bird is a boobook? | Owl |
| What is measured by a wet and dry bulb thermometer? | Humidity |
| In which year was the RAF formed? | 1918 |
| The aldabra, Arnold's and Seychelles are species of which animal? | Giant tortoise |
| What was the last biplane heavy bomber to serve with the RAF? | Handley Page Heyford |
| An okta is a unit of measurement of what? | Cloud cover |
| Which Royal Institute is based at Chatham House in St James Square, London? | Royal Institute of International Affairs |
| Chatham House takes its name from a title of nobility granted to which British PM, who lived at the house for several years? | William Pitt the Elder (1st Earl of Chatham) |
| Which play by Shakespeare contains the lines "Lord, Lord! methought, what pain it was to drown! What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears! What ugly sights of death within mine eyes! Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks"? | Richard III |
| In which Oscar Wilde work does the quote "the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it" come? | The Picture of Dorian Grey |
| What did Jorge Luis Borges call "the final stage in all art, when art flaunts and squanders its resources"? | The Baroque |
| The Earl Of Squander and his son Viscount Squanderfield appear in which series of paintings by Hogarth? | Marriage A La Mode |
| In ecology, what term from the Greek for "well nourished", denotes the process when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients that induce excessive growth of plants and algae? | Eutrophication |
| In chemistry, what name is given to a chemical compound derived from an acid (organic or inorganic) in which at least one –OH (hydroxyl) group is replaced by an –O–alkyl (alkoxy) group? | Ester |
| What is the SI unit of magnetic flux density? | Tesla |
| Formed from the outer integument, what name is given to the outer shell of a seed? | Testa |
| Whose sex manual Married Love (1918) was controversial and influential, and brought the subject of birth control into wide public discourse? | Marie Stopes |
| The Presidio Modelo, a former prison built to a Panopticon design, is in which country? | Cuba |
| Who wrote the 1975 book "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison"? | Michel Foucault |
| When paired with declination, which astronomical coordinate specifies the direction of a point on the celestial sphere (traditionally called in English the skies or the sky) in the equatorial coordinate system? | Right Ascension |
| Forming a large subclass of hadrons, what name is given to particles formed of a quark-antiquark pair? | Mesons |
| The song "Losing My Mind" was written by Stephen Sondheim for which musical, that began its New York run in 1971? | Follies |
| Native to northern Mexico, and the SW USA, the shrub simmondsia chinensis, also called the goat nut, yields which high quality oil, used extensively in soaps, moisturisers and hair conditioners? | Jojoba |
| Which Edinburgh-born novelist wrote the 1992 autobiography "Curriculum Vitae"? | Muriel Spark |
| What is the common name of potassium or sodium nitrate, which is added as a preservative to cured meats and helps to produce their characteristic pink colour? | Saltpetre |
| Which of the apostle is also known as Thaddeus? | St Jude |
| Which Native American leader had a name meaning "the one who yawns", and lived June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909? | Geronimo |
| Burrus, the praetorian prefect and the philosopher and dramatist Seneca the Younger were the two 'good' advisers of which Roman Emperor? | Nero |
| Prasutagas, who lived in the 1st century CE, was a king of which British tribe? | Iceni (he was Boudicca's husband) |
| What relation was the Gallo-Roman general and governor of Britannia Gnaeus Julius Agricola to the author Tacitus? | Father-in-law |
| Which word, originally part of the Greek phrase for "royal walkway", once denoted a Roman town hall, but later came to mean a church built with a central nave and aisles, usually with a slightly raised platform and an apse at each of the two ends? | Basilica |
| Which name is used for both a powder used to thicken petrol for use in war, and the resultant jellied fuel which clings to everything it touches and burns violently? | Napalm |
| Established in 1872 as a railhead on the Santa Fe trail, which settlement gained a reputation as a rowdy frontier town and was known as the "Cowboy Capital"? | Dodge City |
| In which play by TS Eliot is the hero, Colby Simpkins, employed by Sir Claude Mulhammer, his job description being the title? | The Confidential Clerk |
| The Shickshocks and Berkshires are part of which major mountain system? | Appalachians |
| Which King of Scotland was 11 years old when he succeeded his grandfather David in 1153, died unmarried, and was nicknamed "The Maiden"? | Malcolm IV |
| Which Roman Emperor re-took the breakaway Gallic Empire after the Battle of Châlons in 274? | Aurelian |
| Which Roman Emperor defeated his rival claimant, Clodius Albinus at the Battle of Lugdunum in Gaul in 197CE? | Septimius Severus |
| Which military commander of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century declared himself the emperor in Britain and northern Gaul in 286CE and held power for seven years, before being assassinated by his finance minister Allectus? | Carausius |
| Who was Roman Emperor in the year 100CE? | Trajan (98-117CE) |
| Which city did one of the last Western Roman Emperors, Constantine III, rule from, from 408 to 411CE? | Arles |
| Reaching number 4 in the UK in 2006, who released the single "Monster"? | The Automatic |
| Who played James Bond in the 1967 film "Casino Royale"? | David Niven |
| How many times did Sean Connery play James Bond on film? | Seven (including Never Say Never Again) |
| What was the first name of the woman who briefly married James Bond before being killed in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"? | Tracy |
| Which English actor was best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films? | Bernard Lee |
| Which British motorway runs from the outskirts of Edinburgh, bypassing the towns of Linlithgow, Falkirk, Grangemouth and Stirling to end at Dunblane? | M9 |
| HMNB Clyde, popularly known as Faslane, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. The others being HMNB Portsmouth and which other? | HMNB Devonport |
| Which Cornish former stannary and cattle market town is best known for the annual Furry Dance (known locally as the Flora Dance), said to originate from the medieval period? | Helston |
| Which one-word term is often used to denote the Iranian parliament - it literally means "place of sitting"? | Majlis |
| Four English counties border Shropshire: Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, and which other? | Worcestershire |
| What is the main town of North Devon, England and possibly the oldest borough in the United Kingdom? | Barnstaple |
| What links the Sahara Desert, Lake Nyasa, Pendle Hill and the River Avon? | They are doubly named (eg Sahara means desert in Arabic, Avon is derived from the Welsh for river etc) |
| Which gulf separates Italy's "toe" from its "heel"? | Gulf of Taranto |
| Which tributary of the River Derwent flows through Edale? | River Noe |
| How many separate time zones are there in Russia? | Eleven |
| Which two US states are perfectly rectangular? | Colorado and Wyoming |
| In which town or city was the USA's first university founded in 1636? | Cambridge, Mass (Harvard) |
| Which English county administers the island of Lundy? | Devon |
| The area known as the Isle of Athelney (although it is really just located in swampy land) lies in which English county? | Somerset |
| Bremen in Germany stands on which river? | River Weser |
| Which river runs through Borrowdale in the Lake District? | River Derwent |
| Which island's airport was once called Los Rodeos Airport? | Tenerife |
| In which English county was the Battle of Bosworth Field? | Leicestershire |
| Which airport is part-named after Giovan Battista Pastine, an Italian airship pilot who served in World War I? | Rome-Ciampino |
| In which English county is the town of Whitstable, famous for its oysters? | Kent |
| Which computing language, introduced at Bell Laboratories in 1974, was originally developed for use in the UNIX operating system? | C |
| The portion of an estate that remains after payment of debts, funeral and testamentary expenses, legacies, administrative costs etc is called what? | Residue (residual expenses) |
| What name is given to the mark placed over a vowel in some languages to indicate the omission of a letter or the rising or fall of the voice on a vowel or syllable? | Circumflex |
| Of which teeth does a human being have two in each quadrant and because of their two cusps are alternatively known as bicuspids? | Pre-molars |
| Which branch of dentistry deals with the care of the gums and other structures supporting the teeth? | Periodontics |
| Made famous by Bronislaw Malinowski what is the name of the ceremonial system of exchanging gifts of red shell necklaces and white shell bracelets in the Milne Bay Province and Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea? | Kula/kula ring |
| Derived from the Chinese words for "three" and "plank" what name is given to a small, flat-bottomed boat propelled by oars? | Sampan |
| Which fictional land has Archenland and Calormen to the south and Ettinsmoore to the north? | Narnia |
| Which Greek city state was destroyed by the Visigoths in 395CE, and was the site of the Byzantine city of Lacadaemon? | Sparta |
| What is the smallest and farthest south and west of the Canary Islands? | El Hierro |
| Who was the horse of the fictional cowboy Hopalong Cassidy? | Topper |
| Who is believed to have created the character Hop-along Cassidy in 1904, although some claim he was based on a real person? | Clarence E. Mulford, |
| In the 1950s TV series, what was the name of the Cisco Kid's horse? | Diablo |
| In which field was Billings Learned Hand (January 27, 1872 – August 18, 1961), known as Learned Hand famous? | Law (he was a an American judge and judicial philosopher) |
| What was the symbol of Free France during World War II? | Cross of Lorraine |
| What is the oldest British military corps still in existence, created by King Henry VII in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth? | Yeomen of the Guard |
| The Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard is a UK government post usually held by the person filling which role in the House of Lords? | Government Deputy Chief Whip |
| Which Irish politician and writer founded and later led the political party Sinn Féin? He served as President of Dáil Éireann from Jan to Aug 1922 & was chairman of the Irish delegation at the London negotiations that produced the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty? | Arthur Griffith |
| Kenneth Baker, the former Conservative Member of Parliament and cabinet minister who held the offices of Home Secretary, Education Secretary and Conservative Party Chairman was made Baron of where upon ennoblement? | Dorking |
| Who served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1974 to 1982? | Helmut Schmidt |
| Referenced in a Harry Lauder song, which Scottish term of Gaelic origin describes a drink taken by guests or travellers immediately before departure? | Doch-an-Doris |
| Sometimes called vergeboards, the projecting boards placed against the inside of the gable of a building to conceal the ends of the horizontal roof timbers are more commonly known by which name? | Bargeboards |
| Part of the super-order Commelinidae, which widespread monocotyledonous plants, with around 9000 species, belong to the family gramineae? | Grasses |
| Also called kinaesthesia, what is the sense of the relative position of one's own parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement? It comes from Latin for "to take one's own". | Proprioception |
| What is the name of the 18th century novel by Tobias Smollett which describes the Bramble family's tour of England, that includes a lengthy stay in Bath? | Humphry Clinker |
| What was the name of Sir Philip Sidney's sonnet sequence inspired by his hopeless love for Penelope Devereux, married against her will to Lord Rich? | Astrophel and Stella |
| Based on the novel by William Trevor "Felicia's Journey" is a film of 1999 by which Egyptian-born director who grew up in Canada? | Atom Egoyan |
| Which British electrical engineer invented the mnemonics, using the fingers and thumb of one hand, for relating the relative directions of magnetic field, current and force in electrical machines? | (Sir John Ambrose) Fleming |
| Who wrote the music for the ballet Scaramouche, first performed in 1922? | Jean Sibelius |
| What name is commonly given to a convex polyhedron with one face, the base, a convex polygon, and all the vertices of the base joined by edges to one other vertex, the apex, thus making all the other faces triangular? | Pyramid |
| A former senator for the Italian Forza Italia party, who directed the 1986 movie version of Verdi's "Otello"? Bruce Robinson based the character of Uncle Monty in "Withnail and I" on him, having been subject to lecherous advances from the director. | Franco Zeffirelli |
| The song "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" comes from the Broadway production of which musical, made most famous by a 1953 film version? | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes |
| Royston Vasey (born 3 February 1945) is the real name of which famous British person? | Roy "Chubby" Brown |
| Which American actor and writer with recurring roles on Modern Family, The Good Wife, and The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story won Tony Awards in 1996 and 2001 for "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" and "The Producers"? | Nathan Lane |
| In which 1932 film did Greta Garbo famously say "I want to be alone"? | Grand Hotel |
| Which comedians were the main stars of 1944 film "Lost In A Harem"? | Abbott and Costello |
| Alan Bates plays a fugitive in which 1961 British film, directed by Bryan Forbes and with screenplay by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall? | Whistle Down The Wind |
| The German Film Awards are known by what informal name, akin to the US Oscars? | Lolas |
| Which 2008 UK BBC TV series searched for a new, unknown lead to play Nancy and three young performers to take it in turns to play Oliver in a West End revival of the British musical Oliver!? | I'd Do Anything |
| In 1961, who became the first actress to win a Best Actress Academy Award for a non-English speaking role? | Sophia Loren |
| Hawkins Maidenland (or Maydenland) was an early name given to which group of islands? | Falkland Islands |
| After a siege, which French town was fortified and defended as an English possession on the French mainland between 14 September 1544 and March 1550? | Boulogne |
| Which type of coat takes its name from a town in the province of Antwerp in Belgium where the material originated? | Duffel coat |
| The name of which ecclesiastical position comes from Latin for a representative, deputy or substitute? | Vicar |
| Which Roman co-emperor from 293-306 defeated the usurper Allectus in Britain and campaigned extensively along the Rhine frontier, defeating the Alamanni and Franks? He was the father of Constantine the Great. | Constantius I |
| During the 1982 invasion, what did the Argentines temporarily name the Falklands' capital, Stanley? | Puerto Argentina |
| Which chief navigator of Elizabeth I (c. 1550 – 29 December 1605) discovered the Falkland Islands in August 1592 (but did not land there)? | John Davis |
| Which English captain made the first landing on the Falkland Islands in 1690? | John Strong |
| Greer Garson won her only Best Actress Academy Award for which film of 1942? | Mrs Miniver |
| What was the given name of the "Vicar of Dibley" in the BBC sitcom? | Geraldine Granger |
| Which Led Zeppelin album had an outer sleeve which was made to look like a plain brown paper bag, and the inner sleeve featured black and white line artwork which, if washed with water, would become permanently fully coloured? | In Through The Out Door |
| In which year did Diet Coke first appear? | 1982 |
| In which then-kingdom was Thomas Aquinas born? | Kingdom of Sicily |
| What term is give to a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology? | Dryad |
| How many stations of the cross are there, traditionally? | Fourteen |
| How many formally numbered Mozart symphonies are there, although 3 of these are of doubtful provenance? | 41 |
| Which founder member, keyboardist, and vocalist of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd died in 2008 aged 65, of cancer? | Rick Wright |
| What was Bob Dylan's name at birth? | Robert (Allen) Zimmerman |
| What name is collectively given to St. Mamertus (or, in some countries, St. Boniface of Tarsus), St. Pancras, and St. Servatius in Austrian, Belgian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, North-Italian, Polish, Slovene and Swiss folklore? | Ice Saints |
| Which patron saint popularly venerated as the patron saint of children, jobs and health, and his name is also invoked against cramps, false witnesses, headaches and perjury? | St Pancras |
| Which British medium-to-long-range airliner launched in 1952 became known by the title of "The Whispering Giant" for its quiet exterior noise and smooth flying, although the passenger interior remained less tranquil? | Bristol Britannia |
| What was the national airline of East Germany from 1963 to 1990? | Interflug |
| What is the third largest city in Bulgaria and the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast? | Varna |
| What is the second largest city in Bulgaria? | Plovdiv |
| In which country was Bugatti founded in 1909? | Germany (it was founded in Molheim, Alsace, now part of France but then part of Germany) |
| How many carbon atoms are there in a single molecule of buckminsterfullerene? | Sixty |
| Name any of the three scientists who discovered buckminsterfullerene in 1985, and thus won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. | Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, or Richard Smalley |
| On which space mission did man first land on the moon? | Apollo 11 |
| The unit of mass, the carat, is equal to how many grams? | 0.2 |
| A quipu was a counting device chiefly used by which civilisation, its name deriving from their language? | Inca |
| Built by Denmark in 1659 and sold to the UK, in 1850, Fort Christiansborg has housed the offices of the president of which West African country? | Ghana |
| Including the islands Saint Croix and Saint Thomas, the Danish West Indies were sold to which country in 1917? | USA |
| The English name of which 979m high waterfall comes from the surname of an American aviator who crash-landed nearby in 1937? | Angel Falls |
| In which novel by Thomas Hardy does Angel Clare reject his wife on their wedding night when she tells him she is not a virgin? | Tess of the D'Urbervilles |
| The Angel Islington is a character who lives below London and is the city's protector in which novel by Neil Gaiman? | Neverwhere |
| Conceived by the philosopher Henry Sidgwick in 1874, which paradox asserts that anyone who actively seeks happiness for their own sake will always be denied it? | Paradox of Hedonism |
| Often using a historical spelling, the name of which national capital appears before the words "opera", "man" and "duck" in the Oxford English Dictionary? | Beijing (as Peking) |
| Between 2005 and 2012, four small moons of Pluto were discovered. Name any one. | Nix, Styx, Hydra, Kerberos |
| Meaning "sacred knowledge", which short Sanskrit word comes from the same Indo-European root as the English words "wit" and "history"? | Veda |
| Denoting the emblem on the Indian flag, which Sanskrit word is etymologically related to the English words "cycle", "circle" and "wheel"? | Chakra |
| Which horse won five consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups in the 1930s and the 1934 Grand National? | Golden Miller |
| Which bird of prey (Sagittarius serpentarius) is the only one in Africa that hunts on foot rather than by flying? | Secretary bird |
| In physics, what name is given to a coil whose length is substantially greater than its diameter, often wrapped around a metallic core, which produces a uniform magnetic field in a volume of space when an electric current is passed through it? | Solenoid |
| In which year did China implement its one child per couple policy? | 1980 |
| How many days old was Mary, Queen of Scots, when she succeeded to the throne on the death of her father? | Six days |
| In the military, what name, more associated with a family member, is given to a small case for needles, thread and other small sewing items? | Housewife |
| Which real prison is featured John Gay's work The Beggar's Opera? | Newgate |
| Which general and commander-in-chief led the New Model Army at the Battle of Naseby in 1645? | Thomas Fairfax |
| Which Icelandic politician became the world’s first female President when she was elected in 1980? She held the position until 1996. | Vigdís Finnbogadóttir |
| Which Uruguayan President of 2010-15 was described as "the world's humblest head of state" due to his austere lifestyle and his donation of around 90 percent of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities that benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs? | José Mujica |
| How high off the ground are the hurdles in a 400m hurdles race in men's athletics? | 3 feet |
| Which county cricket team's ground in England was once the Beverley Ground? It was last used in 1846 before the St Lawrence Ground took over. | Kent |
| The Britannia Challenge Cup is an annual event in which sport? | Rowing (part of the Henley Regatta) |
| Which Indonesian badminton star won the men's singles title at the prestigious All-England Championship eight times, seven times consecutively (1968–1974) and the World Championship in 1980 on his only attempt at this title? | Rudy Hartono |
| Which city's NBA team are called the 'Heat'? | Miami |
| Between 1954 and 1967, which American won ten women's singles titles at the All England Open Badminton Championships? | Judy Devlin |
| Ascot Racecourse was founded by which monarch? It lies just 6 miles away from Windsor Castle. | Queen Anne (1711) |
| The Orioles are a professional MLB baseball team from which US city? | Baltimore |
| Which female tennis player was stabbed by crazed spectator Günter Parche in 1993? | Monica Seles |
| Which English player won the European Footballer of the Year award in 2001? | Michael Owen |
| Anthony Buckeridge wrote about which schoolboy who attends Linbury Court preparatory school in England, in the 1950s? | Jennings |
| Geoffrey Willans wrote books about which schoolboy, the "goriller of 3B" and "curse of St. Custard's"? | Nigel Molesworth |
| Who became the first female editor-in-chief at The Guardian on 1 June 2015 succeeding Alan Rusbridger? | Katharine Viner |
| "Yakety Sax" was the theme tune of which comedian? | Benny Hill |
| Which scientific theory, used to predict the effect of a change in conditions on a chemical equilibrium, states: if a change is made in pressure, temperature or concentration of a system in equilibrium, it will be displaced in such a way to oppose it? | Le Chatelier's Principle |
| Whose first published novel was 1929's "The Man Within"? | Graham Greene |
| Telling the story of Charles Highway, a bright, egotistical teenager (a portrait Amis acknowledges as autobiographical) and his relationship with his girlfriend in the year before going to university, what was Martin Amis's first published novel? | The Rachel Papers |
| Born near Stockport in 1904, which author wrote "Kathleen and Frank", about his parents, in 1971? | Christopher Isherwood |
| Who wrote the 1940 novel "Farewell, My Lovely"? | Raymond Chandler |
| Humphrey Earwicker is the central character in which novel? | Finnegan's Wake |
| Which pivotal battle in the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage, fought in 207 BC, was fought in Marche and resulted in a decisive Roman victory? | Battle of the Metaurus |
| What was the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I? It involved 600,000 soldiers and 2,200 artillery pieces. | Battle of Leipzig |
| Which Director General of MI5, the British internal Security Service, from October 2002 until her retirement on 20 April 2007, became a crossbench life peer on 18 April 2008? | Eliza Manningham-Buller |
| What was the first country to recognize a legal relationship for same-sex couples, establishing "registered partnerships" in 1989? | Denmark |
| Which queen of Denmark from 10 August 1387 – 28 October 1412 was the founder of the Kalmar Union, which spanned Scandinavia for over a century? | Margaret I of Denmark |
| A trial that led to a series of executions between 7 and 9 November 1520 was known as the 'Bloodbath' of which city? | Stockholm |
| Which English playwright was involved in writing the TV shows "The Day Today" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge"? | Patrick Marber |
| In which year was the Peace of Westphalia? | 1648 |
| The members of which House of monarchs between 1308 and 1437 ruled as King of the Romans and Holy Roman Emperors as well as Kings of Bohemia? | House of Luxembourg |
| Who was recognised as the ruler of Italy by Byzantium in 497? | Theodoric the Great |
| Mesa Verde National Park, containing ancient Pueblo dwellings, is in which state of the USA? | Colorado |
| Who were the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians who built the structures at Mesa Verde? The term actually means "ancient anemies" so the current Pueblos do not approve of its use. | Anasazi |
| Which genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae are used as a shampoo in Native American rituals, for starting fires, making wickerwork and for hanging meat? | Yucca |
| Located in Senegal, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which island was the largest slave-processing centre on the west coast of Africa? | Île de Gorée |
| Which historical district of Kraków and Kraków Old Town, Poland, whose boundaries are defined by a former island in the Vistula, was home to the city's Jewish population, before they were decimated in the Holocaust? | Kazimierz |
| Among the oldest in Europe, at which university did Copernicus, Ivo Andric and John Paul II study? | Jagellonian University, Krakow |
| Because his marriage was never consummated, the Polish king Boleslaw V (21 June 1226 – 7 December 1279) was known by what nickname? | The Chaste |
| Which cathedral in Krakow is the Polish national sanctuary and traditionally has served as coronation site of the Polish monarchs as well as the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Krakow? | Wawel Cathedral |
| Which town in Amhara Region, northern Ethiopia is famous for monolithic rock-cut churches that were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978? | Lalibela |
| Which South American capital was founded in the sixteenth century on the ruins of an Inca city and stands at an altitude of 2850m? | Quito |
| Which igneous, volcanic rock is the extrusive equivalent of granite? | Rhyolite |
| Which old world monkey is also called the bleeding-heart monkey? | Gelada |
| Which canid native to the Ethiopian Highlands is Africa's most endangered carnivore? | Simien fox |
| The 'walia' of which only about 500 individuals survive in the Ethiopian Highlands, is an endangered species of which animal? | Ibex |
| In which country is the L'Anse Aux Meadows National Heritage Site? | Canada |
| Flourishing from 1050 to 1722, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries under the Safavid dynasty, when it became the capital of Persia for the second time in its history, which city's Naghsh-e Jahan Square is a UNESCO World Heritage Site? | Isfahan |
| Which city became the capital of the Umayyad caliphate in 636CE? | Damascus |
| Django Reinhardt being a notable member, which Romani people of Central Europe were persecuted by the Nazis? | Sinti |
| Which crater has the highest concentration of mammalian predators in Africa? | Ngorogoro |
| Bryggen is a historic wharf and UNESCO World Heritage Site in which European city? | Bergen |
| Which type of mathematical curve is named after the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and also the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university? | The Witch of Agnesi |
| In geometry, what name is given to the roulette formed by the path of a point fixed to a circle when that circle rolls around the outside of a circle of equal radius? | Limacon of Pascal |
| In geometry, an algebraic curve defined by the equation x(cubed) + y(cubed) − 3 axy = 0 is named after which man, born in 1596 in La Haye en Touraine (a town that later changed its name to the man's surname)? | Descartes (Folium of Descartes) |
| Turning Torso is a neo-futurist residential skyscraper in which city - it is the tallest building in Scandinavia as of 2018? | Malmö |
| Which Austrian skydiver, daredevil, and BASE jumper is best known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere on 14 October 2012, becoming the first man to break the sound barrier without vehicular assistance? | Felix Baumgartner |
| In which century was China's An Lushan rebellion? | 8th (755-763CE) |
| Which future British PM stood unsuccessfully as MP for Stockton-On-Tees in 1923 but was elected there the following year? | Harold Macmillan |
| Which future British PM was MP for Birmingham Ladywood 1918-29? | Neville Chamberlain |
| The Hainish Cycle consists of a number of science fiction novels and stories by which author? | Ursula Le Guin |
| Which common name refers to several species of the genus commiphora, from which aromatic resins are derived for various fragrance and medicinal uses by humans? | Myrrh |
| What name is given to an instrument that measures the specific gravity (relative density) of liquids: the ratio of the density of the liquid to the density of water? | Hydrometer (not to be confused with hygrometer, which measures humidity) |
| Who was Henry IV of England's father? | John of Gaunt |
| Edward the Black Prince was the eldest son of which English monarch? | Edward III |
| D.M. Thomas, author of the erotic and somewhat fantastical novel The White Hotel (1981), the story of a woman undergoing psychoanalysis, has what two forenames? | Donald Michael |
| Also called Alpha Ursae Majoris, what is the second-brightest star in the constellation of Ursa Major? | Dubhe |
| In Act 5, Scene 5 of "The Merry Wives of Windsor", Falstaff is tricked into impersonating which mythological creature, a spirit said to haunt Windsor Forest? | Herne the Hunter |
| Robert III of Scotland, Charles VI of France and Tamerlane were all on their respective thrones in the first year of which century? | Fifteenth |
| Focussing mainly on the Battle of Stalingrad, which novel was banned in the USSR and finally published in the west in 1980, sixteen years after the death of its author, Vassily Grossman? | Life and Fate |
| Sigobert the Lame and his son Chlodoric the Parricide were among the rulers of which Germanic people, who gave their name to a country? | Belgae |
| What is the SI unit for measuring angles? | Radian |
| On what date of 1066 was William of Normandy acclaimed King of England in Westminster Abbey? | December 25th |
| Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last sovereign prince of Wales, was what relation to Llywelyn the Great (full name Llywelyn ap Iorwerth)? | Grandson |
| Who was the consort of Henry III of England? | Eleanor of Provence |
| Who was the last king of England to hold court at Bordeaux? | Edward I |
| Constrruction of which ruined medieval castle, located 90 metres (300 ft) above the commune of Les Andelys overlooking the River Seine, in the Eure département of Normandy, began in 1196 under the auspices of Richard the Lionheart? | Château Gaillard |
| Richard I 'the Lionheart' died from a wound received while besieging which castle? | Château de Châlus-Chabrol |
| Which set of legislative procedures passed by Henry II of England in 1164 were composed of 16 articles and represent an attempt to restrict ecclesiastical privileges and curb the power of the Church courts and the extent of Papal authority in England? | Constitutions of Clarendon |
| Nicknamed "The Bean", 'Cloud Gate' is a public sculpture by Anish Kapoor that stands in which city? | Chicago |
| What were the names of the twins to whom Beyoncé gave birth in June 2017? | Rumi and Sir Carter |
| Which French film director's works include "Balthazar at Random" (1966) and "L'Argent" (1983)? | Robert Bresson |
| Which character in a Dickens novel often used the saying "When found, make a note of"? | Captain Cuttle (Dombey and Son) |
| Which British quiz show was originally entitled "What Do You Know?"? | Brain of Britain |
| In February 2017, who was named the first ever female Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, succeeding Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe? | Cressida Dick |
| Spenlow and Jorkins appear in which Dickens novel? | David Copperfield |
| In the Caribbean, what is a 'duppy'? | Spirit or ghost |
| In which decade did Barbie make her debut at the New York Toy Fair? | 1950s (1959) |
| Which woman served as the president of the toy manufacturer Mattel Inc., and is best remembered for inventing the Barbie doll, although the doll's design was created by missile engineer-turned-toy designer Jack Ryan? | Ruth Handler |
| The names William Cookworthy, Samuel Gilbody and Benjamin Lund are associated with high quality 18th century examples in what field of craftsmanship? | (English Blue) Porcelain |
| Which English monarch was the father of Henry III? | King John |
| Who directed the 1954 film "Sabrina"? | Billy Wilder |
| Which actor came to prominence in films including The Blue Lamp in the early 1950s, before starring in the successful Doctor film series (1954–63)? He twice won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role; for The Servant (1963) and Darling (1965). | Dirk Bogarde |
| According to the warder Mr McKay in "Porridge", "In this prison there are only two rules. One is, you do not write on the walls." What is the other? | Obey all the rules |
| Ergosterol is converted to which vitamin in the human body? | Vitamin D (specifically D2) |
| In which US state is Yale University? | Connecticut (New Haven) |
| What name is given to the gold-colour alloy of copper, zinc and sometimes tin, that is sometimes used to decorate ornaments? | Ormolu |
| By what name is the medical condition pityriasis capitis better known? | Dandruff |
| The music-hall star born Matilda Alice Victoria Wood in 1870, who first appeared as 'Bella Delmere' is best known by what stage name? | Marie Lloyd |
| Which Scotsman invented the first portable 3D viewing device, the stereoscope, and the kaleidoscope? | David Brewster |
| Who wrote the books "Peter Duck" and "Pigeon Post"? | Arthur Ransome (follow ups to Swallows and Amazons) |
| Which much-recorded country music song, composed by Kris Kristofferson, has a refrain which begins with the words "Freedom's just another word for nothin' to lose"? | Me and Bobby McGee |
| The English poet William Langland, who lived from around 1330 to 1400, is best known for which long alliterative poem, his only known work? | Piers Plowman |
| Which British number 1 rock album of the 1970s features the cover image of an inflatable pig flying above Battersea Power Station? | Animals by Pink Floyd |
| Which inventor, born in the USA, and later a naturalised Briton, developed the first fully-automatic machine gun, manufactured by Vickers and adopted by the British Army? | Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim |
| What do the letters OJ stand for in the name of infamous former US football player and actor OJ Simpson? | Orenthal James |
| The Sargasso Sea is so named because it has an abundance of sargassum - what is sargassum? | Seaweed |
| What does the name of the soup, mulligatawny, mean in the Tamil language? | Pepper-water |
| Born Karoline Blamauer in Austria at the turn of the twentieth century, the future wife of the composer Kurt Weill was best known by what stage name? | Lotte Lenya |
| Joyce Grenfell and Ruth Draper were known variously as monologists or which French term, French for "teller", and broadly meaning a talker, storyteller, dramatic-singer or dramatic-talker? | Diseuse |
| Which European city was the birthplace, in 1924, of sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi? | Edinburgh |
| Who was the author of the 1750s work "The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director"? | Thomas Chippendale |
| The French phrase "tant mieux", often used to mean "I'm glad to hear that", literally means "so much the better". What is the converse phrase meaning "that's too bad", or "so much the worse"? | Tant pis |
| The Warwickshire town of Rugby stands on which river? | Avon |
| Which term for the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear meaningfully related, but have no discoverable causal connection, was used in 1983 as the title for a bestselling album by rock group The Police? | Synchronicity |
| Whose debut album was 1995's "The B-Funk"? | Beverley Knight |
| In 1712, which woman of Walkern, Herefordshire, was the last person in England to be convicted of witchcraft? | Jane Wenham |
| Which institution, with an HQ near the Tower of London, is responsible for lighthouses, light vessels, buoys and beacons around the coasts of England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar? | Trinity House |
| Which figure from music was born Maria Anna Sophie Cecelia Kalogeropolous in the USA in 1923? | Maria Callas |
| The name of the parrot the kakapo is derived from the Maori word for what? | Night (because it is nocturnal) |
| Which institution was founded in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a lawyer, and Dr Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer? | Mensa |
| Of which 1960s household item did its inventor famously say "If you buy it you won't need drugs"? | Lava lamp |
| Which 1972 movie starring Gene Hackman, Shelley Winters and Ernest Borgnine was based on a novel by Paul Gallico? | The Poseidon Adventure |
| By what name do we now know the element produced in the 18th century by Henry Cavendish and described by him as 'inflammable air'? | Hydrogen |
| Which German engineer (1832-91) successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas and led to the modern internal combustion engine? | Nikolaus Otto |
| What nationality was Jonas Salk, who developed one of the first polio vaccines? | American |
| Buster Keaton, Keanu Reeves and Ed Sullivan have all been given which nickname? | The Great Stone Face |
| Although Canadian, in which country was Keanu Reeves born in 1964? | Lebanon (he was born in Beirut) |
| The George Cross superseded which medal when it was introduced during WW2? | Order of the British Empire for Gallantry |
| Which titular character of a book of 1726 has the first name Lemuel? | Gulliver (Gulliver's Travels, of course) |
| Quincy Watts and Alberto Juantorena both won Olympic gold at which specific event? | 400m |
| Which month of the French Revolutionary calendar was the sixth month and lasted from around 20th Feb to 21st March? Its name was derived from the supposed weather around this time. | Ventose |
| The toxic quinolizidine alkaloid, that became the suspected agent of poisoning in the Daphne Du Maurier novel "My Cousin Rachel" is present in the seeds of which tree, grown for its hanging clusters of golden flowers? | Laburnum |
| Which Scottish monarch was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513? | King James IV |
| Which Scottish monarch died within Roxburgh Castle, when one of his own cannons exploded? | King James II |
| Which artist did Gore Vidal call "a genius with the IQ of a moron"? | Andy Warhol |
| The British national anthem "God Save the King/Queen" was first played at which theatre on 28th September 1745? | Drury Lane Theatre |
| Which actress performed the last of Alan Bennett's 1988 TV series "Talking Heads", entitled "A Cream Cracker Under The Settee"? | Thora Hird |
| The Rev. Canon Chasuble DD is a vicar in which of Oscar Wilde's play? | The Importance Of Being Earnest |
| Alphabetically, what is the last book of the Old Testament? | Zephaniah |
| Which 14th century manuscript, consisting of more than fifty poems including some attributed to a bard who lived as early as the 6th century, inspired the title of an LP by Deep Purple? | The Book of Taliesin |
| In which country was Dian Fossey murdered in 1985? | Rwanda |
| In which US state is Sandy Hook Elementary, site of a deadly school shooting on December 14th 2012? | Connecticut |
| Who wrote "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" in 1872? | Charles Darwin |
| In fMRI scanning, what does the 'f' stand for? | Functional |
| The 3D equivalent of a pixel, what name is given to the enitiy that represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space? | Voxel |
| The Japanese delicacy hachinoko is made from the young of which animal? | Bees (bee larvae) |
| Discovered by the Dutch botanist Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, which disease of plants was the first virus ever to be discovered? | Tobacco Mosaic Virus |
| Nicholas Lanier was the first person to hold what position, in the 17th century? | Master of the King's Musick |
| What are stridulatory organs in insects used for? | Producing noise |
| How many players play in a baseball team at any one time? | Nine |
| Major League Baseball teams maintain rosters of how many players? | 25 |
| According to US humourist Will Rogers "The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than..." what? | Golf |
| The pioneering scientists Sir William Herschel, Sir Joseph Banks and Sir Humphry Davy all died within a few years of each other in which decade? | 1820s (1820 Banks, 1822 Herschel, 1829 Davy) |
| Which bestselling 1972 novel includes the chapters "The Crow And The Beanfield", "The Departure" and "The Story Of The King's Lettuce"? | Watership Down |
| What is the sum of the internal angles of a hexagon? | 720 degrees |
| What was the name of PH Newby's inaugural winning novel of the Booker Prize? | Something To Answer For |
| When he won the first Booker prize in 1969 PH Newby was the Controller of which radio station? | BBC Radio 3 |
| Arundel Castle in West Sussex is the principal seat of which member of the nobility? | Duke of Norfolk |
| On a standard grand piano keyboard, how many keys are there in total? | 88 |
| On a standard grand piano keyboard, how many black keys are there? | 36 |
| Which adjective in botany describes plants that flower at night? | Nyctanthous |
| The grave of which 19th century writer, the translator of the Rubaiyat, bears a rose tree grown from a cutting taken from which grew on the tomb of Omar Khayyam? | Edward Fitzgerald |
| Which US feminist author and therapist wrote the anti-dieting classic "Fat Is A Feminist Issue"? | Susie Orbach |
| First developed by botanist Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward in 1842, what name is given to a sealable glass container containing soil and plants, that can be opened for maintenance to access the plants inside? | Terrarium |
| "And life is given to none freehold, but is leasehold for all" were the words of which Epicurean poet of the first century BCE? | Lucretius |
| Which two of the 12 Apostles of Jesus were brothers, the sons of Zebedee, and were collectively as Boanerges, meaning "sons of thunder"? | James and John |
| Which American Unitarian lay preacher wrote the Battle Hymn of The Republic? | Julia Ward Howe |
| In Irish legend, which King of Ulster was the uncle of Cuchalainn, and is said to have died when a slingshot buried deep in his head was dislodged as he tried to avenge the crucifixion of Christ? | Conchobar |
| From the Greek words for "equal" and "tongue" what name is given to a line on a map delimiting the area where a given linguistic feature appears? | Isogloss |
| Which hill's summit at 425 metres (1,394 ft) is the highest point of the Malvern Hills? | Worcestershire Beacon |
| In his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People", what image did the Venerable Bede evoke to compare "the present life of men on earth...with that time which to us is uncertain"? | A sparrow flying into a hall then immediately out |
| What standard strength of spirit or alcohol was originally defined as the minimum concentration of alcohol which will burn when mixed with an equal quantity of gunpowder, and is now defined as equivalent to 57.1% of alcohol per volume at 10.6 degrees C? | 100 per cent proof |
| What two-word term is used for the event that restored practical imperial rule to the Empire of Japan in 1868? | Meiji Restoration |
| Which group of chemicals, used for treating sheep against parasites, have been identified by researchers as a potential health risk to humans, and are referred to as OPs? | Organophosphates |
| In a work of 1958, which satirist made the caustic observation that "the man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take"? | C. Northcote Parkinson (in "Parkinson's Law") |
| For the chemical reaction A plus B gives C plus D, where A and B are concentrations of reactants, and C and D are concenrations of products, what is given by C times D divided by A times B? | The equilibrium constant |
| Invented by Ktesibios of Alexandria in the 3rd century BC, and used until medieval times, the hydraulis was an early form of which musical instrument? | Organ |
| From the Latin for "spring" what name is given to the stimulation of flowering in some plants by exposure to low temperature? | Vernalisation |
| Which Nobel-prize winning zoologist, who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, described the 'waggle dance' made by hive bees as they communicate with each other? | Karl von Frisch |
| Which medical disorder has a name that derives from the Greek for 'ox hunger'? | Bulimia |
| Which battle of 1916 became a symbol of French military determination, inspired by Petain's declaration "Ils ne passeront pas!", or "they shall not pass"? | Verdun |
| Which two word term was coined by Thomas Rymer to describe the concept that in a work of fiction, good characters should be rewarded and bad ones punished? | Poetic justice |
| Which silver-white metalloid element, discovered by Franz Joseph Muller von Richtenstein in 1782, has the atomic number 52 and takes its name from the Latin word for 'earth'? | Tellurium |
| Casey Kasem was a US DJ who also voiced which cartoon character created by Hanna-Barbera? | Norville "Shaggy" Rogers |
| Pearl Harbor is on which Hawaiian island? | Oahu |
| "Tumbleweed Connection" was a 1970 album by who? | Elton John |
| Which writer's first published novel "The Grass Is Singing" dates from 1950? | Doris Lessing |
| Which Indian-born British medical doctor received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria, becoming the first British Nobel laureate, and the first born outside Europe? | Ronald Ross |
| Two Italian composers wrote an opera called "La Bohème". One was Puccini, who was the other, whose version debuted at the Teatro la Fenice, Venice on 6 May 1897? | Ruggero Leoncavallo |
| Who was the author of "Scènes de la Vie de Bohème", taken from his own experiences as a desperately poor writer living in a Parisian attic, and which inspired Puccini's opera "La Bohème"? | Henri Murger |
| In which decade did these phrases enter the Oxford English Dictionary: nouvelle cuisine, paternity leave, no-go area and passive smoking? | 1970s |
| Who wrote the 1824 poem "Imitations of the Quran"? | Alexander Pushkin |
| Whose first novel was 1856's "Rudin"? | Ivan Turgenev |
| Which English poet, educationalist, and devoted assistant to Florence Nightingale wrote "Amours de Voyage", a novel in verse in 1849? | Arthur Hugh Clough |
| In Greek myth, who was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite? | Hermaphrodite |
| Who had 5 consecutive number 1 hits in the US with their first five singles, starting with "Vision Of Love"? | Mariah Carey |
| Which 1976 UK hit single had the line "and little early-pearly came by in his curly-wurly"? | Blinded By The Light (Manfred Mann's Earth Band) |
| Which nuts are actually used in a "Cadbury's Fruit & Nut"? | Almonds |
| In The Kinks song "Waterloo Sunset", where did Terry meet Julie every Friday night? | Waterloo Station |
| The band Eskimo Joe were formed in 1997 in which country? | Australia |
| In the 1974 hit recording by MFSB (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother) featuring vocals by The Three Degrees, "TSOP", what did TSOP stand for? | The Sound of Philadelphia |
| In which century did Byzantine emperor Leo III initiate the first true bout of iconoclasm in history? | 8th century CE |
| As well as the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them, what else - according to the Bible - were housed in the Ark of the Covenant? | Aaron's rod and a pot of manna |
| Give a year in the life of Jan Van Eyck. | 1395-1441 |
| Which Renaissance artist was recognised as a 'blessed', or minor saint by Pope John Paul II in 1982, and in 1984 was named a patron of the arts? | Fra Angelico |
| What was the surname of Renaissance artist Raphael? | Sanzio |
| Give a year in the life of the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent. | 1545-63 |
| Which Bernini sculpture depicts 16th century nun, Teresa of Avila, being pierced through the heart by an angel? | The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa |
| In Christian iconography, which archangel is usually depicted in military uniform? | Michael |
| Which British television seasonal drama series dealing with the subject of student nurses and was broadcast by the BBC between 1975 and 1983 and was described as the "Z-Cars of nursing"? | Angels |
| Which French philosopher with a scholarly interest in the philosophy of Francis Bacon, and Sir Thomas More's utopianism wrote "Hipparchia's Choice" in 1989? | Michèle Le Dœuff |
| Named after the Spanish city of Cordoba, what is Cordovan? | A style of leather |
| England's first cave art was discovered in 2003 in which enclosed limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire? | Creswell Crags |
| Maine borders only one other US state - which one? | New Hampshire |
| Who was the first man to set foot on all the continents of the world, bar Antarctica? | Captain (James) Cook |
| In which county is Stilton, that gave its name to the cheese? | Cambridgeshire |
| New Caledonia is part of the territory of which state? | France |
| Which British city is served by St Davids and St Thomas railway stations? | Exeter |
| Which Italian city is considered to be the home of pizza, as the modern version was invented there? | Naples |
| Which flower forms the centre of Derbyshire's flag? | Tudor Rose |
| Which island houses over three quarters of the population of the Outer Hebrides? | Lewis |
| What was the title of the 2004 movie starring Gael Garcia Bernal that narrated a journey by the young Che Guevara through South America in 1952? | The Motorcycle Diaries |
| The writer Rustichello of Pisa based his book "Il Milion" (The Millions) on stories told by which man who he met in prison in Genoa? | Marco Polo |
| How many syllables are in a haiku? | Seventeen |
| Who was the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director? | Kathryn Bigelow |
| A mutiny in 1975 aboard the anti-submarine frigate Сторожевой or Storozhevoy inspired which 1984 novel and subsequent 1990 film? | The Hunt For Red October |
| Which novel of 1948 follows a Zulu pastor in a journey to Johannesburg, seeking his sister Gertrude and long-lost son Absalom? | Cry, The Beloved Country |
| Which literary character, also the title of the novel in which he appears, is taught by Pangloss and falls in love with beautiful Cunegonde but as a result has to flee the castle Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh in Westphalia? | Candide |
| A former 'University Challenge' contestant, by what name did the soap-box orator and eccentric Ian Brackenbury Channell become better known? | The Wizard of New Zealand |
| Which 2010 movie/documentary tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles who is obsessed with street art? | Exit Through The Gift Shop |
| Which 14th Century painter and architect, a pupil of Giotto, is credited with the design of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence? | Taddeo Gaddi |
| Innse Gall, the Gaelic name for the Outer Hebrides, translates how? | Islands of Strangers |
| The county seat of Heves, which town in Northern Hungary is most associated with Bull's Blood wine? | Eger |
| For more than three millennia, ancient Egypt was divided into administrative districts given what name? | Nomes |
| Which sea is bounded to the west by Corsica and Sardinia? | Tyrrenhian Sea |
| The Abbey River, a leat cut by order of the Abbot of Chertsey Abbey in the eleventh century to supply power to the mill closest to their monastery/abbey, is an artificial tributary of which river? | Thames |
| Romaldo Giurgola designed which nation's parliament building? | Australia |
| First appearing in Saxon chronicles called Cantuctun, which range of hills were England's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, being designated in 1956? | Quantocks |
| In which country is the Bay of Kotor? | Montenegro |
| Where is Kourou, used a spaceport by the European Space Agency? | French Guiana |
| What is the capital of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern? (also known as Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) | Schwerin |
| Which ocean liner, the first ever to exceed a thousand feet in length, ended her days under the name of Lafayette while being converted into a Second World War troopship? | SS Normandie |
| Which Holy Roman Emperor was one of the leaders of the Third Crusade in 1189, but drowned in a river before reaching the Holy Land? | Frederick the First (Barbarossa) |
| A 'kit' is a tiny, high-pitched variety of which musical instrument, and was used widely by dancing masters between the 16th and 18th centuries? | Violin |
| Macfarlane Burnet, Lawrence Bragg and Howard Florey are all Nobel laureates from which country? | Australia |
| How was the city of Maputo known before 1976? | Lourenço Marques |
| Which form of transport was first developed in Yokohama in 1869 by the Reverend Jonathan Scobie, for his invalid wife? | Rickshaw |
| Which word for a source of wealth, often associated with a large output from a mine, comes from a Spanish term for 'good weather'? | Bonanza |
| Which US golfer, in 1971, became the first man to win the UK, US and Canadian opens in the same year? | Lee Trevino |
| The French term "houille blanche" and the German "weisse kohle" both literally meaning "white coal" refer specifically to what? | Hydroelectric power |
| Cryophytes, a group of organisms most likely to be algae and fungi, thrive in which specific type of environment? | Snow and ice |
| With which Foreign Secretary did Lord Castlereagh, the then Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, fight a duel on Putney Heath in 1809? | George Canning |
| Tanzania consists of the former state of Tanganyika and three islands - Tanzania is one, what are the other two? | Pemba and Mafia |
| Who had a UK novelty hit in 1988 with "John Kettley Is A Weatherman"? | A Tribe of Toffs |
| Which battle of the Vietnam War, fought by the United States and South Vietnam against North Vietnamese Forces from 10th to 20th May 1969, was made into a John Irvine directed film of 1987? | Hamburger Hill |
| The Arctic gets its name ultimately from the Greek word arktos - meaning what? | Bear |
| Which supposedly mystical word of seven Greek letters was used in ancient engravings on precious stones and amulets, and was also used as an album title by the rock group Santana? | Abraxas |
| Which word, taken from a name for the divine intoxicating drink of the gods in Hindu mythology, was used by Aldous Huxley for the drug that subdues the populace in "Brave New World"? | Soma |
| In the game of backgammon, how many playing pieces are on the board at the beginning, in total? | Thirty (fifteen white, fifteen black) |
| In 1955, which Dutch artist created Miffy the Rabbit? | Dick Bruna |
| Which American bass player, singer, songwriter and record producer, a member of Chic, died aged just 43 in Tokyo from pneumonia? | Bernard Edwards |
| Which starsign (Jun 23rd to Jul 23rd) lies between Gemini and Leo? | Cancer |
| The organic compound alizarin traditionally makes a dye of which colour? | Red |
| A plant that cannot stand much rain has what one-word name, from the Greek for "rain-hater"? | Ombrophobe |
| In distance, a league represents how many miles? | Three |
| Which son of Harald Bluetooth revolted against him, seized the throne and was king of Denmark from 986–1014? | Sweyn Forkbeard |
| How many amino acids are directly encoded in human genes? | Twenty |
| Which form of radiation can echindnas and platypi sense that humans can not? | Electromagnetic |
| Which animal has the scientific name gulo gulo? | Wolverine |
| Archaeopteryx was descended from which group of dinosaurs, with a name meaning "wild beast foot"? | Theropod |
| What is the surname of the doll Barbie? | Roberts |
| Which German pilot of the 1930s is remembered as the first person to fly an aircraft under liquid-fueled rocket power, the Heinkel He 176, on June 20, 1939 and also the first to fly an aircraft under turbojet power, the Heinkel He 178 later the same year? | Erich Warsitz |
| What connects the deaths of tenpin bowling legend Earl Anthony, Mughal Emperor Humayun, Shadows drummer Tony Meehan, and actor Derek Nimmo? | Died after falling down stairs |
| What relation was Gore Vidal to Al Gore? | Cousins |
| Which tough, tightly woven fabric used to make suits, overcoats, trousers, uniforms, windbreakers and other garments was invented in its modern form by Thomas Burberry in 1879? | Gabardine |
| Which US state is divided into three counties - New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County? | Delaware |
| What is the most common name given to the shrub with the scientific name Maclura pomifera and common names hedge apple, horse apple, bois d'arc, bodark, monkey ball, bow-wood, yellow-wood or mock orange? | Osage Orange |
| Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a treaty that ended which war? | Russo-Japanese War (1905 Treaty of Portsmouth) |
| Which musical instrument is known as cornemuse in French? | Bagpipes |
| The flag of which region is called the Gwenn-ha-du, which means white and black in the local language? | Brittany |
| In 1967, which female cyclist set a women's record for the 12-hour time-trial which exceeded the men's record for two years? | Beryl Burton |
| In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, which ridiculous dispute was the cause of a long-running war between Lilliput and Blefescu? | Which end to open a boiled egg |
| Moved from Turin in 1864-5, what was Italy's temporary capital until replaced by Rome in 1870? | Florence |
| The site of Lepenski Vir, an important archaeological site of the Mesolithic Iron Gates culture, is in which country? | Serbia |
| How is the rove beetle or cock-tail beetle, ocypus olens, better known? | Devil's coach horse beetle |
| Who was the first German winner of the Men's Singles at Wimbledon? | Boris Becker |
| Whose second and third albums, both in 1973, were "For Your Pleasure" and "Stranded"? | Roxy Music |
| Name any two of the three stars in Orion's Belt. | Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. |
| In which direction do objects appear to move in the Northern Hemisphere due to the Coriolis Effect? | Right |
| Which commonly used religious word derives directly from the Greek adjective for "anointed"? | Christ |
| "A Childhood at Green Hedges" by Imogen Smallwood is an account of her younger years by the youngest daughter of which author? | Enid Blyton |
| Which US President described the Holy Trinity as the "abracadabra of the mountebanks"? | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Greg Lake's song "I Believe In Father Christmas" borrowed melodies from which composer, who died in 1953? | Prokofiev |
| In which Bond film did Donald Pleasance first play Blofeld? | You Only Live Twice |
| What did The Monkees rename their song "Randy Scouse Git" in the UK? | Alternate Title |
| Which Belgian is buried next to Paul Gauguin in Tahiti after he died on 9 October 1978 at the age of 49? | Jacques Brel |
| Which musical instrument is played by a "fagottist"? | Bassoon |
| What name, shared with a girls' name, is an alternate name for a persimmon? | Sharon Fruit |
| Which band had a September 1973 UK hit with "All The Way From Memphis"? | Mott The Hoople |
| Who released a 1990 album entitled "Rhythm and Sounds" which was based on South American music? | Paul Simon |
| Which of the four Gospel writers was a physician? | Luke |
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garyegrant
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