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GK 36
Quiz
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What name is given to an enzyme that synthesises long chains of nucleic acids? | Polymerase |
| Sharing his name with a rock star, which Australian was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1996 for the discovery of how the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells, jointly with the Swiss immunologist Rolf M. Zinkernagel? | Peter Doherty |
| The CRISPR defence system against viruses is used by which type of organisms? | Bacteria |
| Named by Alexander Fleming, and also called muramidase or N-acetylmuramide glycanhydrolase, which antimicrobial enzyme is abundant in tears? | Lysozyme |
| What name is given, in biology, to a relationship between two organisms where one organism benefits from the other without affecting it? | Commensalism |
| In biology, what name is given to a relationship that exists where one species is inhibited or completely obliterated and one is unaffected by the other, gaining no advantage from negatively affecting the other? | Amensalism |
| Which virus type is the most common viral infectious agent in humans and is the predominant cause of the common cold? | Rhinovirus |
| In which disease of the lungs do bronchi become enlarged and thus less able to clear secretions, increasing bacteria in the lungs? It can result from infection, and is the usual outcome of cystic fibrosis, but in many cases the cause remains unknown. | Bronchiectasis |
| T cells, or T lymphocytes, develop in which part of the human body? | Thymus |
| The Bursa of Fabricius is the site of haematopoiesis in which group of animals - equivalent to the bone marrow in humans? | Birds |
| Which Tony and Golden Globe winning actress was best known for roles as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the Howard Hawks comedy His Girl Friday (1940), as well as for her portrayals of Mame Dennis in Auntie Mame (1958) and Rose in Gypsy? | Rosalind Russell |
| Born Maurice Valadon in 1883, which French painter specialised in cityscapes, especially those of his native Montmartre? | Maurice Utrillo |
| As of 2017, which are the only two films to have won both the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and the Best Picture at the Academy Awards? | The Lost Weekend (1945), Marty (1955) |
| Which actor was born Bernard Schwartz in Brooklyn on June 3, 1925? | Tony Curtis |
| "The Man In The White Suit", "Whisky Galore!", "The Ladykillers" and "The Sweet Smell of Success" were all directed by which Glasgow-born film director? | Alexander (Sandy) MacKendrick |
| Which George Bernard Shaw play, made into a 1959 film starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier, tells the story of Richard Dudgeon, a local outcast and the titular character? | The Devil's Disciple |
| Which American playwright, screenwriter, and director wrote the plays Waiting for Lefty (1935), Awake and Sing! (1935), Till the Day I Die (1935) and Clash By Night (1941)? | Clifford Odets |
| Which glamorous actress starred in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Peyton Place (1957), the latter for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress? | Lana Turner |
| Which cowboy actor, born Leonard Franklin Slye on November 5, 1911, was known to have a golden palamino horse called Trigger? | Roy Rogers |
| Which American singer, composer, actor and writer was the second-biggest charting artist of the late 1950s, behind only Elvis Presley in the Billboard charts? | Pat Boone |
| Which philosopher wrote "The Analyst: a Discourse addressed to an Infidel Mathematician" (1734)? | George Berkeley |
| Which pretender to the English throne landed in England in 1495 in an attempt to overthrow King Henry VII and was hanged as a traitor at Tyburn? | Perkin Warbeck |
| Which Flemish-Dutch painter, born in 1525, earned the nickname 'peasant' because of his practice of putting on disguises in order to take part in peasant gatherings? | Peter Breughel the Elder |
| In 1982, who became the first female jockey to complete the Grand National? | Geraldine Rees |
| In 2001, which British rock group became the first Western act to play in Cuba for over 20 years? | Manic Street Preachers |
| Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, in office 1999-2007, was the first female President of which country? | Latvia |
| A sign over the entrance to Plato's Academy supposedly read "Let no-one enter who has not studied..." what? | Geometry |
| In which century was the physician Galen born and live most of his life (there is some dispute about his exact year of death)? | 2nd century AD/CE (he died in 200 or 216CE) |
| Which Pope ordered the execution of the Friulian miller Menocchio in 1599 after he was named as a heresiarch for his philosophical teachings? | Clement VIII |
| What name is given to the uncut sideburns worn by male orthodox Jews? | Payess |
| What is the next most abundant chemical element in the human body after carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen? | Calcium |
| What name was given to the six thousand political police whose roles included mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats, and who were created as a body by Ivan the Terrible? | Oprichniki |
| The mass number of a chemical element can be found by adding together the total number of which two entities in it? | Protons and neutrons |
| What name is given to the outermost electron shell of an element? | Valence shell |
| Supposedly the mountain known as today as Pir Omar Gudrun near the city Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, which mountain was the equivalent of Ararat (ie where the boat in the flood came to rest) in the Epic of Gilgamesh? | Mount Nisir (also spelled Mount Niṣir, and also called Mount Nimush) |
| Poti is a port city in which country? | Georgia |
| What is measured on the Pauling Scale? | Electronegativity |
| Isotopes of a chemical element contain differing numbers of which particle, compared to other isotopes of the same element? | Neutrons |
| The sexagesimal numeral system, as used in ancient Sumer, is based on which number? | Sixy |
| King David is believed to have reigned over Israel and Judah in which century? | Tenth BC (approx. 1000-961BCE) |
| Who wrote Degeneration (Entartung, 1892), in which he comments on the effects of a range of social phenomena of the period, such as rapid urbanization and its perceived effects on the human body? | Max Nordau |
| Which Italian criminologist and physician, often referred to as the father of criminology, using concepts drawn from physiognomy, degeneration theory, psychiatry and Social Darwinism thought criminality was inherited? | Cesare Lombroso |
| What is the capital of the Calabria region of Italy? | Catanzaro |
| Potenza is the capital of which Italian region? | Basilicata |
| Campobasso the capital of which Italian region? | Molise |
| Who was the Greek goddess of the moon and the hunt? | Artemis |
| The Kings of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II belonged to which royal house? | Savoy |
| Who became the first President of Finland in 1919? | Kaarlo Juho Stahlberg |
| Which city did Astana replace as capital of Kazakhstan in 1998? | Almaty |
| Pisidia and Pamphylia were ancient regions in which modern-day country? | Turkey |
| What colour 'Revolution' refers to protests and events in Ukraine over 2004-5? | Orange |
| What is the most populous republic in Russia, with a capital at Ufa? | Bashkortostan |
| In which year was the USSR founded? | 1922 |
| In which country was the investor George Soros born? | Hungary |
| What is the lower legislative house of the Russian Federation? | Duma |
| "Frightsome", "splendiferous" and "human bean" are OED words associated with which British author, born in 1916? | Roald Dahl |
| In which city is the European Court of Human Rights based? | Strasbourg |
| The largest organization in the world responsible for promoting the study and the teaching of Spanish language and culture, which non-profit organisation was created by the Spanish government in 1991? | Instituto Cervantes |
| PEN International is a worldwide association of writers, and a pressure group for free speech. What does PEN stand for? | Poets, Essayists and Novelists |
| What is, as of 2018, the third most populous city in Russia, after Moscow and St Petersburg? | Novosibirsk |
| Often cited as the first female Olympic gold medallist, although Hélène de Pourtalès had been awarded one for sailing 2 months earlier, which tennis player was definitely the first individual female gold medallist? | Charlotte Cooper |
| Which toy was invented by Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall, from Germany in 1920, and refined by George B Hansburg in 1957 with the addition of a double-handle? | Pogo stick (POhlig GOttschall) |
| In which US state is the 1960 Winter Olympic venue of Squaw Valley? | California |
| Alex Gregory, Constantine Louloudis, George Nash and Mohamed Sbihi won golds for team GB at the 2016 Rio Olympics in which sport? | Rowing (Men's coxless four) |
| Steven Burke, Ed Clancy and Owain Doull won golds for team GB at the 2016 Rio Olympics in which sport? | Cycling |
| Which former Welsh international footballer became involved in a counterfeit currency scam, whereby he laundered the money through Wrexham's trainees? North Wales Police arrested him in 1993, and after a trial he was sentenced to 18 months in jail. | Mickey Thomas |
| How many tiles are used in total in a game of Scrabble? | 100 |
| Who became Britain's first ever gold medalist in artistic gymnastics when he won both the men's floor and pommel horse exercises at the 2016 Summer Olympics? | Max Whitlock |
| How many times did John Surtees win the 500cc World Motorcycling Championship? | Four (he won the 350cc three times for 7 championships in total) |
| Which football player, who played for Arsenal from 1962 to 1977, was convicted of various criminal offences; including keeping a brothel, and was jailed for three years for financing a plot to counterfeit gold coins in 1980? | Peter Storey |
| What name is given to a piece of cloth put over the back of a chair to protect it from grease and dirt or as an ornament? | Antimacassar |
| In the world of motoring, what does the acronym ICE stand for? | In Car Entertainment |
| Which actinide metal of silvery-grey appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized, atomic number 94, has been nicknamed "the infernal element"? | Plutonium |
| What aid to cooking was invented by Denis Papin in 1679? | Pressure cooker |
| In computing, what does RTF stand for? | Rich Text Format |
| Of what is rubophobia the morbid fear? | Dirt |
| How does the word 'tungsten' translate from Swedish? | Heavy Stone |
| The "death's head" can be any one of the species of the genus Acherontia (Acherontia atropos, Acherontia styx and Acherontia lachesis), and is what type of animal? | Moth |
| Plains, mountain and Grévy's are the three extant species of which animal? | Zebra |
| Which English female first name, meaning 'happiness' derives from the Latin word meaning "luck, good fortune"? | Felicity |
| "The Day Off" and "Everybody Loves Louis" feature in which musical, that opened on Broadway in 1984? | Sunday In The Park With George |
| Which poet, born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachussetts published fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems during her lifetime? | Emily Dickinson |
| Sonatrach is the national oil company of which country? | Algeria |
| Which meeting of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Metternich had as its objective to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars? | Congress of Vienna (1814-5) |
| How was USSR youth organistaion The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League better known? | Komsomol |
| Which Russian city was known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev? | Samara |
| Which Norwegian Viking is remembered in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland, which he named as a scam to attract settlers? | Erik the Red |
| What was the surname of the father and son Portuguese explorers João Vaz and Gaspar who in the 15th century were some of the first to reach Newfoundland, Greenland and possibly other parts of northeastern Canada? | Corte-Real |
| Which Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary (1686-1758) launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the "Apostle of Greenland"? | Hans Egede |
| Equisetum, a genus of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds are often called by what name because of their resemblance to a particular animal's anatomy? | Horsetails |
| Which one-word term refers to the "Rightly Guided Caliphs", Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman ibn Affan, and Ali, the successor caliphs to the Prophet Muhammed? | Rashidun |
| Originating in Ancient Greece, what name as given to a set of religious beliefs and practices associated with a mythical poet, who descended into the Greek underworld and returned? | Orphism (Orphic mysteries) |
| Which Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns, and later included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets, was born in around 582 BC at Teos, an Ionian city on the coast of Asia Minor? | Anacreon |
| Which country has by far the highest suicide rate in the world: reports between 1985 and 2012 showed that an average of 83 people in 100,000 committed suicide, more than twice the rate of the second placed country, Lithuania? | Greenland |
| Species of which aquatic bird include red-throated, black-throated, common, yellow-billed and Pacific? | Loon |
| How many feet wide is a standard football pitch in the NFL? | 160 feet |
| Which plot of 26th April 1478 to displace the de' Medici family as rulers of Renaissance Florence was named after the family who wished to usurp them - they were then banished? | Pazzi Conspiracy |
| Which artist of the Renaissance was appointed court painter to the Gongaza family in Mantua in 1460? | Andrea Mantegna |
| Shi'ites believe that the Prophet Muhammad designated which cousin, the husband of Fatima, to be his successor? | Ali |
| Which Spartan general, sharing his name with a Classical author, was leader at the Greek victory over Mardonius and the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC? | Pausanias |
| António Costa became the PM of which country in November 2015? | Portugal |
| What was the (modern) name of both of Harold Godwinson's wives? | Edith |
| Who (constitutionally incorrectly) said "I am in control here" after John Hinckley Jr's assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan? He was at the time, the US Secretary of State. | Alexander Haig |
| After the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, who became President of Brazil in 2016? | Michel Temer |
| Which prominent UK politician married Jill Craigie in 1949? | Michael Foot |
| In the early 19th century, who wrote both his second novel, "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship", and the verse epic "Hermann and Dorothea"? | Goethe |
| Babieca or Bavieca was whose war horse? | El Cid |
| In which year was Lord Mountbatten assassinated? | 1979 |
| Amanda Knatchbull, later Ellingworth, turned down a marriage proposal from who in 1977? | Prince Charles |
| The Mullaghmore coast, where Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the Provisional IRA, was off the coast of which Irish county? | County Sligo |
| In contrast to a piebald (black and white) horse what name is given in the UK to a horse that is white and any colour other than black? | Skewbald |
| Wool is traditionally given on which wedding anniversary? | Seventh |
| Which animal species has the Latin name gulo gulo? | Wolverine |
| What is traditionally given on the 5th wedding anniversary? | Wood |
| Wechsler, Stamford-Binet and Goodenough-Harris are all tests of what? | Human Intelligence |
| In computing and technology, for what does the acronym DSL stand? | Digital subscriber line |
| Which animals can suffer from the condition 'strangles'? | Horses |
| Which Italian painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art was born Paolo di Dono in 1397? | Paolo Uccello |
| How else is "the Delian problem" known in mathematics - it is now known to be impossible, and is similar to squaring the circle and trisecting the angle? | Doubling the cube |
| Originally meaning a semantic misuse or error, which word (from 'abuse' in Greek) is also the name given to many different types of figures of speech in which a word or phrase is being applied in a way that significantly departs from conventional usage? | Catachresis |
| A bronze state of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, sculpted by John Doubleday, was erected on which London mainline station concourse in 1982? | Paddington |
| Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, once called RAF Santacruz, serves which city? | Mumbai |
| Which of the Leeward Islands is equally divided between France and the Netherlands? | Sint Maarten/Saint Martin |
| Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport is located on which island, a former name of the airport? | Dorval |
| Watling Street was a Roman road that led from the Kentish ports and London in the East to which point in the West? | Wroxeter |
| The Tower of London's "White Tower" was ordered whitewashed by which English king? | Henry III |
| In classical myth, who lulled Cerberus to sleep by playing his lyre? | Orpheus |
| In which city was photographer Man Ray born in 1890? | Philadelphia |
| Cedar Rapids is the second-largest city, at around 130,000 people, in which US state? | Iowa |
| An old lord named Lafew and the Countess of Roussillon appear alongside the main hero and heroine in the opening scene of which Shakespeare play? | All's Well That Ends Well (they are Bertram and Helena, of course) |
| Who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 2000 to 2009 and the first Roman Catholic to serve in the role since the Reformation? | Michael Martin |
| The BBC radio version of the game "Just A Minute" allows three grounds for a challenge - what are they? | Hesitation, repetition, deviation. |
| Which word derives from the Corsican Italian meaning "thicket" and came to be applied to rural guerrilla bands of French Resistance fighters during the Occupation of France in World War II? | Maquis |
| During the 2000 F1 season only two teams won a race. Ferrari was one, who was the other? | McLaren (McLaren-Mercedes) |
| Who wrote the 1897 poem "Recessional" to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee? | Rudyard Kipling |
| In pianos, often a felted block that rests on a string and is controlled by pedals, what general name is given to a device in various keyboard instruments for deadening the vibrations of the strings? | Damper |
| Which Italian politician served as the 10th President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004? | Romano Prodi |
| Who became President of the European Commission in 2014, succeeding José Manuel Barroso? | Jean-Claude Juncker |
| Claude Elwood Shannon founded which theory, with a landmark paper, A Mathematical Theory of Communication, that he published in 1948? | Information Theory |
| Which animal phylum is traditionally divided into 8 living classes including cephalopoda, gastropoda, bivalvia and scaphopoda? | Mollusca |
| Which naval disaster of 1707 that led to the loss of four warships of a Royal Navy fleet was the motivation behind the huge prize offered for a method of calculating longitude? | Scilly naval disaster of 1707 |
| Which self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker invented a marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea? | John Harrison |
| What name is given to the basic unit in a database table or spreadsheet, formed by the intersection of a row and a column? | Cell |
| "The Battle of Blenheim" and a biography of Lord Nelson are among the best known works by which poet, Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 until his death in 1843? | Robert Southey |
| Laurent Kabila served as the third President of where from May 17, 1997, when he overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko, until his assassination by one of his bodyguards on January 16, 2001? | Democratic Republic of Congo |
| Which saint's day falls on 11th November each year? | St Martin (Martinmas) |
| Which country was called the Batavian Republic from 1795 to 1806? | Netherlands (NOT Indonesia!) |
| Which sacred Hindu work is an epic narrative of the Kurukṣetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes? | Mahabharata |
| In the classification of Burgundy wines, which designation indicates a superior grade to Premier Cru? | Grand Cru |
| The Leningrad is which numbered Shostakovich symphony? | Seventh |
| Which former newsreader was appointed Chair of English National Ballet in 2000, but resigned in late 2003 following complaints and briefings about her leadership style, which was described as "schoolmistressy" and "imperious"? | Angela Rippon |
| Who played Rose Nylund in US sitcom "The Golden Girls"? | Betty White |
| Who played Mike in cult 1980s UK comedy "The Young Ones"? | Christopher Ryan |
| At which battle of World War I was the German Admiral Maximilian von Spee killed? | Battle of the Falkland Islands |
| Which American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991 released the albums "Let's Go" and "...And Out Come The Wolves"? | Rancid |
| Who was the best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution and the country's President from 1801-1802? | Toussaint Louverture |
| Which man (1866-1925) is referred to as the "Father of the Nation" in the Republic of China (ROC) and the "forerunner of democratic revolution" in the People's Republic of China (PRC)? | Sun Yat-Sen |
| Which French-German theologian received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life”? | Albert Schweitzer |
| The North Atlantic Treaty, the treaty establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was signed on 4 April 1949 in which city? | Washington D.C. |
| "The Witches' Sabbath" in Gogol's short story "St John's Eve" was the inspiration for which Mussorgsky work? | Night On Bald Mountain |
| Which type of shop takes its name from the ancient Greek for 'merchant'? | Emporium |
| "Brazzaville Beach" (1990) and "Any Human Heart" (2002) are works by which Scottish author? | William Boyd |
| Who wrote "The Raj Quartet" from 1965 to 1975? | Paul Scott |
| What nationality was Derek Walcott, who won the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature? | St Lucian |
| In Kipling's Just So stories which river was "grey, green, greasy, all set about with fever trees"? | Limpopo |
| Which term for a view or landscape comes from the Greek for "all space"? | Panorama |
| In Shakespeare's "As You Like It" what is Sir Oliver Martext's profession? | Curate/vicar |
| What is the name of the medium in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit"? | Madame Arcati |
| Which author said "'When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends"? | Mark Twain |
| Who created the fictional detective Nero Wolfe? | Rex Stout |
| The Musgrave Ranges, a series of granite hills first sighted in 1873 by English explorer William Gosse are in which Australian state? | South Australia |
| Which American timber, the true form of which is produced by four species of carya, has been used in the traditional manufacture of lacrosse sticks because it can withstand the strain of hard play? | Hickory |
| The Scot John Broadwood, born 1732, was one of the great early manufacturers of which musical instrument? | Piano |
| According to tradition Sigmundur Brestisson brought Christianity to which islands in 999AD? | Faroe Islands |
| Which Greek King was assassinated in Thessaloniki in 1913? | George I |
| In France, which foodstuff are 'Marron glacés'? | Chestnuts |
| Which US singer's only UK hit was 1965's "Eve of Destruction"? | Barry McGuire |
| How many books are there in the New Testament? | 27 |
| Who had UK hits in 1966 and 1967 with "Night of Fear" and "I Can Hear The Grass Grow"? | The Move |
| "Don't Rain On My Parade" is from which 1964 musical? | Funny Girl |
| In which year was the Second Council of Nicaea? | 787CE |
| Sushi rice has sugar, salt and which other substance added? | Rice vinegar |
| Which musical comedy has characters called Leopold Bloom and Hold Me! Touch Me!? | The Producers |
| Who wrote and produced the 1966 Nancy Sinatra U.S./UK No. 1 hit, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and sang with Sinatra on "Some Velvet Morning"? | Lee Hazlewood |
| In the book of Genesis, how old was Noah when he died? | 950 |
| Who had a UK Top 20 hit with "Marrakesh Express"? | Crosby, Stills & Nash |
| How old was Franz Schubert when he died in 1828? | 31 |
| Which is the only book in the New Testament to begin with the letter 'G'? | Galatians |
| What name is shared by the small intestines of animals when served as food, and an old word for the frills on a shirt? | Chitterlings |
| Which Irish mythological hero who appears in the stories of the Ulster Cycle was born under the name Sétanta, was known for his battle frenzy and at age 17 defended Ulster single-handedly against the armies of queen Medb in the "Cattle Raid of Cooley"? | Cú Chulainn, also spelled Cú Chulaind or Cúchulainn |
| Which Scottish composer was born in Edinburgh in 1928, studied in Paris under Nadi Boulanger and wrote the operas "Mary, Queen of Scots" and "A Christmas Carol" and the ballets "Beauty and the Beast" and "A Tale of Thieves"? | Thea Musgrave |
| Who was the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980? | Donald Coggan |
| Walter Pater, one of the leading influences on the English aesthetic movement of the 1880s, is associated with which four-word phrase, which claims to sum up the aesthetic doctrine and implies that art is self-sufficient? | Art for art's sake |
| Who wrote "The Lion and the Unicorn" in 1941? | George Orwell |
| Which literary and art periodical that ran from 1894-7 provided a forum for writers of the aesthetic movement and was named for Aubrey Beardsley's distinctively coloured covers? | The Yellow Book |
| In 1998, Jill Paton Walsh published "Thrones, Dominations" based on surviving drafts by Dorothy L Sayers and featuring which detective hero? | Lord Peter Wimsey |
| Which eponymous hero is found as a baby in Mr Allworthy's bed, is later thrown out of Allworthy's house, and after traversing the country finally marries his love Sophia Western? | Tom Jones (by Henry Fielding) |
| Barani, turntable, seat drop and crash-dive are moves in which sport? | Trampolining |
| What does MIPS stand for, a common computing expression in the 1980s? | Million Instructions Per Second |
| The 500th anniversary of the death of which Portuguese prince is commemorated by the "Monument to the Discoveries" in Lisbon, erected in 1960? | Henry the Navigator |
| Who painted the famous civil rights work "The Problem We All Live With" in 1964? | Norman Rockwell |
| In a probably apocryphal tale, who apparently was tied to a ship's mast to paint 1842's "Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth" that hangs in the Tate? | JMW Turner |
| Who wrote 1823's "Essays of Elia"? | Charles Lamb |
| Tatyana Larina is the female protagonist in which work published in serial form between 1825 and 1832? | Eugene Onegin (by Pushkin) |
| Who wrote the 1936 novel "Eyeless in Gaza"? | Aldous Huxley |
| Now rarely used, a important contribution to the Industrial Revolution was the "puddling process" for manufacturing what? | Iron |
| Knighted in 1981, which Australian-born artist made his name with a series of paintings of Ned Kelly, begun in 1946? | Sir Sidney Nolan |
| Which capital city has a name meaning "Red Hero"? | Ulaanbaatar |
| Which unit of illuminance is equal to 10,000 lux, or one lumen per square centimetre? | Phot |
| In which Disraeli novel do the politicians Mr Tadpole and Mr Taper appear? | Coningsby |
| Which composer married Claudia de Cattaneis in 1599? | Claudio Monteverdi |
| The hautbois was a forerunner of which musical instrument? | Oboe |
| The sackbut was a forerunner of which musical instrument? | Trombone |
| Where did Peter Maxwell Davies found a festival in 1977, and die in 2016? | Orkney Islands |
| A name for a poem in which one person laments another's death, which term means "one song" in ancient Greek? | Monody |
| Which term, meaning "chambered" in Italian refers to a small chamber orchestra or choir, with up to 40 to 60 musicians or choristers? | Camerata |
| First performed in 1598, what is generally held to be the first opera? | Dafne by Jacopo Peri |
| Which Roman Catholic priest and Italian composer of the Roman School (1582-1652) wrote the "Miserere mei, Deus", traditionally perfomed during Holy Week? | Gregorio Allegri |
| Originating from the frottola, which unaccompanied secular vocal music compositions reached its formal and historical zenith by the second half of the 16th century and were the most popular form of music in that time? | Madrigals |
| Which English composer and organist (1576-1623) was briefly dismissed from the position of organist at Chichester Cathedral for drunkenness? | Thomas Weelkes |
| Who was the apprentice and laboratory assistant to Humphry Davy who arguably became more famous? He was described by Davy as his "greatest discovery". | Michael Faraday |
| Which web browser by Google was launched in 2008? | Chrome |
| What is the British equivalent of the French term SARL and the German term GmbH? | Ltd (limited) |
| Which animals belong to the family macropodidae? | Marsupials/kangaroos and wallabies specifically |
| Which type of bird is sometimes called the goatsucker? | Nightjar |
| Which word derived from the Persian for "big jug" is given to a rigid container with a typical capacity of 20 to 60 litres, often used to carry corrosive liquids? | Carboy |
| What is the largest lizard alive in the world today? | Komodo Dragon |
| What is the first chemical element alphabetically? | Actinium |
| Where on the human body are the lunulas? | Fingernails/toenails |
| First flown on 6th November 1935, which British single-seat fighter aircraft is probably the best known creation of Sydney Camm? | Hawker Hurricane |
| From the Greek "to make a letter X" or "crossing", which is the figure of speech in which two or more phrases are presented, then presented again in reverse order to make a larger point? | Chiasmus |
| Which American science-fiction film set in a dystopian future was George Lucas's 1971 directorial debut? | THX 1138 |
| Set in his birthplace of Modesto, California, which 1973 coming-of-age movie directed by George Lucas was extremely successful commercially and allowed Lucas to get the finance to make Star Wars? | American Graffiti |
| The Source, thought to have been an influence on "the Force" in George Lucas's Star Wars films, appeared in which Jack Kirby DC comics title that debuted in 1971? | The New Gods |
| Based on a novel of the same name by Frederick E Smith, which 1964 British film depicted the exploits of a fictional World War II British fighter-bomber squadron and starred Cliff Robertson, George Chakiris, and Maria Perschy? | 633 Squadron |
| Which 1958 Akira Kurosawa film starring Toshiro Mifune as General Makabe Rokurōta has been acknowledged by George Lucas as a heavy influence on Star Wars? | The Hidden Fortress |
| The "psychohistorian" Hari Seldon is a prominent character in which novel series? | Foundation (Isaac Asimov) |
| Who wrote the 1949 work "The Hero With A Thousand Faces", which attempted to show common themes in much worldwide mythology? | Joseph Campbell |
| The "Save The Cat!" trilogy by Blake Snyder was a hugely influential series of guide books on what activity? | Screenwriting |
| Which Hungarian physicist, the nephew of writer Sándor Bródy, invented the krypton-filled fluorescent lamp in 1930? | Imre Bródy |
| Which 2016 Disney film details the unlikely partnership between a rabbit police officer and a red fox con artist in a mammalian metropolis? | Zootopia |
| Which 2004 American science-fiction disaster film starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal depicts catastrophic climatic effects following the disruption of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation that ushers in a new ice age? | The Day After Tomorrow |
| Which 2015 American disaster film directed by Brad Peyton and written by Carlton Cuse stars Dwayne Johnson and focuses on a catastrophic Californian earthquake? | San Andreas |
| In Star Trek, what was the first name of the character "Bones" McCoy? | Leonard |
| Who created the 1912 pulp fiction character John Carter? | Edgar Rice Burroughs |
| Which 1945 Japanese film, written and directed by Akira Kurosawa was based on the kabuki play Kanjinchō, which is in turn based on the Noh play Ataka? Its emphasis on feudal values saw it briefly banned by the occupying Allied Powers. | The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail |
| Which man, born in Cincinnati in 1938, founded CNN? | Ted Turner |
| What is the dying word of Citizen Kane in the movie by Orson Welles? | Rosebud |
| Which toy dog, of which Queen Victoria owned an example, is named for an area in Germany and Poland? | Pomeranian |
| In which sport was Geena Davis, the actress, a semifinalist for the US Olympic team in 2000? | Archery |
| Which Hungarian-born US paediatrician developed a test for susceptibility to diphtheria in 1913? | Bela Schick |
| "The course of true love never did run smooth" is a line in which Shakespeare play? | A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| In Italian cuisine, what are taleggio, fontina, provolone and cacao-cavallo? | Cheeses |
| Which Shakespeare character says the line: "Since brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief"? | Polonius (in Hamlet) |
| The River Elan, dammed to provide water for Birmingham, is a tributary of which other river? | River Wye |
| In Greek myth, who was the lover of the goddess Eros? He was granted the gift of eternal life but not eternal youth, and became older, smaller and weaker until he ended his days as a cicada. | Tithonus |
| Becoming decrepit and simple-minded as they age, requiring care and support from the young, who are the immortal race in Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"? | Struldbrugs |
| Which Johannesburg-born singer married the radical black activist Stokely Carmichael in the USA, and moved to Guinea with him in 1969? | Miriam Makeba |
| Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen are known how in the title of a 1921 novel? | Women In Love (by DH Lawrence) |
| Which US city was built on the site of Fort Duquesne and was laid out in 1764 to a design by John Campbell? | Pittsburgh |
| The star Canopus, the second-brightest in the night sky, lies in which southern constellation? | Carina |
| The star formation called 'The False Cross' because it resembles the constellation Crux, or the Southern Cross, lies in which constellation? | Vela |
| Which 1956 US film was the first science fiction film to depict humans traveling in a faster-than-light starship of their own creation, and also the first to be set entirely on another planet in interstellar space, far away from Earth? | Forbidden Planet |
| Which chemical element takes its name from the Greek meaning "to smell"? | Osmium |
| The chemical element with atomic number 110 was named after which Austrian physicist? It thus became the first element named solely for a non-mythological woman. | Lise Meitner (Meitnerium) |
| What is the popular name of the musical composition on the theme of a witches' sabbath occurring on St. John's Eve, which the composer completed on that very night, 23 June 1867? | Night On Bald Mountain (Mussorgski) |
| Danza ritual del fuego (Ritual Fire Dance) is a movement of the ballet El amor brujo(The Bewitched Love), written by which composer in 1915? | Manuel de Falla |
| What is the SI unit for cycles per second, which is dimensionally equivalent to the multiplicative inverse of a second? | Hertz |
| Which city gives its name to a treaty of 1569 that united Poland with Lithuania? | Lublin |
| Lincoln is the capital of which US state? | Nebraska |
| On the Warta river, what is the largest city and capital of Wielkopolska, or the Greater Poland state? | Poznan |
| Previously a capital of China, what is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China? | Nanjing |
| Which Greek philosopher's teachings were written down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses and Enchiridion? | Epictetus |
| Which Stoic philosopher taught Cicero logic, and died in his friend's house in 59BC? | Diodotus |
| Which word, coming from Greek for "other than the disease" did Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, use to describe orthodox medicine? | Allopathy |
| In biochemistry, what name is given to regulation of an enzyme by binding an effector molecule at a site other than the enzyme's active site? | Allosteric Regulation |
| To drive from Canada to Mexico using just 3 US states, there are 4 possible combinations. One is Washington, Oregon and California, Which state appears in all of the other possible combinations, because of its characteristic panhandle? | Idaho |
| By 1900, which illustrator, born in Lewisham in 1867, developed a reputation for pen and ink fantasy illustration with richly illustrated gift books such as The Ingoldsby Legends (1898), Gulliver's Travels and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm? | Arthur Rackham |
| What name is given to the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and finally behaviour? | Allometry |
| Which part of a plant's stamen takes its name from Latin from "medicine extracted from the flower" and typically contains pollen? | Anther |
| Which three fictional characters' individual names are Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde? | Rhinemaidens |
| 120 days separates the 1916 birthdays of which two British Prime Ministers? | Edward Heath and Harold Wilson |
| Depicting a dingo "Portrait of A Large Dog" is a 1772 work by which artist, and is one of the first depictions of an Australian animal in Western art? | George Stubbs |
| Which 3-word title is that of by far the most famous series by the US artist CM Coolidge (September 18, 1844 – January 24, 1934)? | Dogs Playing Poker |
| What is the largest county in the Republic of Ireland? | Cork |
| In which year was the Battle of Adrianople at which the Emperor Valens died? | 378CE |
| What was the name of the Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity (preceding Procopius) - known as the Res Gestae? | Ammianus Marcellinus |
| William Railton and Edward Hodges Baily are now chiefly remembered for their part in creating which London landmark? | Nelson's Column |
| Which British bird has the Latin name Aegithalos caudatus? | Long-tailed tit |
| David Lee, Douglas Osheroff and Robert Coleman Richardson shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of superfluidity in which isotope? | Helium-3 |
| Give a year in the reign of Henry VII. | 1485-1509 |
| Who received the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first one awarded, for his discovery of a diphtheria antitoxin? | Emil von Behring |
| What nationality was the first winner of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry? | Dutch (Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff) |
| Which eight word proverb emerges from the translation of the Latin phrase "amicus certus in re incerta cernitur"? | A friend in need is a friend indeed |
| The Bronze Doors, the Arch of the Bells and the Via de Porta Angelica are the three public entrances to where? | Vatican City |
| In July 1945, scientists set off the first atomic bomb at which test site in New Mexico? | Alamogordo |
| The instruction "sul ponticelo" tells a musical performer to play with the bow as close as possible to which part of the instrument? | The bridge |
| Who, in 1993, was the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature? | Toni Morrison |
| In mechanics, what may be defined as the product of the magnitude of a force applied to a move an object, and the displacement produced in the direction of the force? | Work |
| Which large animal of the African plains has the Latin name Phacochoerus africanus? It is largely herbivorous and possesses tusks. | Warthog |
| What was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project? | Trinity |
| "Mr B" is among the correspondents in which epistolary novel, whose author, Samuel Richardson, presents himself as the editor? | Pamela |
| By what means is Yellow Fever transmitted? | Mosquito (bite) |
| Which US writer wrote the short story "The Masque of the Red Death", in which a wealthy prince entertains his guests while a plague rages outside the castle? | Edgar Allan Poe |
| Thomas Wart is a country soldier recruited by Falstaff in which play by Shakespeare? | Henry IV Part 2 |
| Which London-born portrait painter was responsible for the sculpture "Physical Energy" in Kensington Gardens? | GF Watts |
| "The Drain" is a name which has been popularly associated with the direct underground link built in 1899 between the Bank in the City of London and which major rail terminus? | Waterloo |
| The amateur enthusiasts Jess Oakroyd, Inigo Jollifant and Miss Trant set up a small theatrical company in which JB Priestley novel? | The Good Companions |
| What species is Dan Dare's arch-enemy, the Mekon? | Treen |
| The first woman to be consecrated as an Anglican bishop was Barbara Harris, appointed in 1989 by the Episcopal Church of the United States as the Bishop of which state? | Massachussetts |
| In which city was Jacques Offenbach born in 1819? | Cologne |
| "Adam's Needle" is another name for which house plant, popularised in the UK in the 1960s, and characterised by long strap-like leaves tapering to sharp points? | Yucca |
| What is the surname of the father and son who rode Grand National winners L'Escargot in 1975 and Bobby Jo in 1999? | Carberry (Tommy and son Paul) |
| Harold Brighouse was the author of which play, filmed by David Lean in 1954 with Charles Laughton in the title role? | Hobson's Choice |
| Which Brighton-born radio astronomer developed the use of interferometers, a technique employing separate radio telescopes to achieve better resolution in the same observed distant object? | Martin Ryle |
| The spectacle of crowds flowing over which bridge prompted TS Eliot's line: "I had not thought death had undone so many"? | London Bridge (in The Waste Land) |
| Also called the Magnetic Equator, what name is given to the imaginary line where a compass needle balances horizontally, the attraction of the north and south poles being equal? | The Aclinic Line |
| Ten of Hercules labours involved animals, animal waste or monsters - which two did not? | Claiming the girdle of Hipployta, stealing the Golden Apples of the Hespirides |
| Who kills Sergeant Francis Troy in Hardy's "Far From The Madding Crowd"? | John Boldwood |
| Porwiggle and polliwog are dialect names for which creature? | Tadpole |
| Give a year in the life of Attila the Hun. | 406-453 |
| The aftermath of which battle of 24 June 1859 inspired the foundation of the Red Cross? | Battle of Solferino |
| Which English lawyer led the Pilgrimage of Grace, and was thus executed for treason on 12 July 1537 by order of Henry VIII? | Robert Aske |
| Who was US President when Prohibition was introduced? | Woodrow Wilson |
| Which middle name of Queen Elizabeth II is also that of a former monarch of the UK? | Mary |
| What was the name of the first corgi owned by the Royal Family that inspired Queen Elizabeth II's love of the dogs? It shares its name with a pop-punk album of 1994. | Dookie |
| At 6 feet 4 inches, who was the tallest British PM of the twentieth century? | Marquis of Salisbury |
| Which man helped establish brass works at Coalbrookdale in 1712, and developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal? | Abraham Darby I |
| Which was the first of the three Baltic States to regain independence after the collapse of the USSR? | Lithuania |
| Which warrior king of the Greek city-state of Sparta led a heroic but ultimately losing last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae? | Leonidas |
| Arthropoda and nematoda are examples of which taxonomic rank? | Phylum |
| In anatomy, which bone articulates with the odontoid process? | Atlas |
| First performed in 1942, "Capriccio" was the final work of which German composer? | Richard Strauss |
| The Veil nebula and the Northern Cross asterism lie in which constellation of the night sky? | Cygnus |
| In 1337, Edward the Black Prince became the first holder of which Dukedom? | Duke of Cornwall |
| The final four letters of which 20th Century British PM's name spell the French word for 'oven'? | Balfour (Four) |
| Tadpole, hooded, pistol, coral and fairy are varieties of which aquatic creature? | Shrimp |
| The musical genre of zydeco is most associated with which US state? | Louisiana |
| When 11 countries fixed their exchange rate against the Euro in January 1999, which was the only currency where a single unit was worth more than one Euro? | Irish punt |
| In which country was the Geraldine league formed in the 1530s with the aim of overthrowing English rule? | Ireland |
| Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar" was dedicated to which Russian tsar, after he attended a rehearsal? | Nicholas I |
| Who wrote the music for the political-satirical opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (German: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny)? | Kurt Weill |
| The Memory of Trees, A Day Without Rain, Amarantine and And Winter Came... are all albums by which singer? | Enya |
| "Boys Cry" was a UK Top 10 hit for which singer, born Richard Sarstedt? | Eden Kane |
| Which Jamaican duo had a 1978 number 1 in the UK with "Up Town Top Ranking"? | Althea and Donna |
| The Reinheitsgebot applied or applies to which product? | Beer (German beer purity laws) |
| Who composed the opera "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" in 1830? | Vincenzo Bellini |
| Which singer was born Charles Weedon Westover on December 30, 1934? | Del Shannon |
| What was the first UK Number 1 for the Rolling Stones, in June 1964? | It's All Over Now |
| "Let It Be Me" in 2008 and "Sign Of Your Love" in 2012 were albums by which singer? | Jason Donovan |
| What are classified by the Whyte notation? | Steam locomotives (by wheel arrangement) |
| In computing, what does the U stand for in URL? | Uniform (Resource Locator) |
| To the nearest whole number, how many joules equal one calorie? | Four (4.2) |
| What comes next in the organisation of the military: company, battalion, regiment....? | Brigade |
| Which motor manufacturer made the Aveo and Epica models? | Chevrolet |
| What is WNV, a disease of humans whose main hosts are birds? | West Nile Viruses |
| Which military order of German warrior monks was first organised by Albert of Buxhoeveden in 1202? | Livonian Brothers of the Sword (Livonian Order) |
| Which war, ended by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, that saw the Russian Empire take on Sweden for the domination of Eastern Europe marked the end of the Swedish Empire? | Great Northern War |
| Which artist's last work was 'The Transfiguration' which he left unfinished at his death in 1520? | Raphael |
| Which male tennis player did Billie Jean King defeat in straight sets 1973 in a match dubbed 'The Battle of the Sexes'? | Bobby Riggs |
| In particle physics, which are the lightest mesons? | Pions |
| Formerly believed to be a meson, which elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 e and a spin of 1/2, but with a much greater mass, is in fact a lepton? | Muon |
| Which conglomerate part-financed the 1992 South Korean movie "The Marriage Story", starting a trend in that nation? | Samsung |
| Which 2011 Korean film is based on the true story of a Korean named Yang Kyoungjong who was captured by the Americans on D-Day? Yang Kyoungjong was conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army, the Red Army, and the Wehrmacht. | My Way |
| Which film by Kim Ki-duk won the Golden Lion at the 2012 Venice Film Festival, becoming the first Korean film to win the top prize at one of the three major international film festivals — Venice, Cannes and Berlin? | Pietà |
| Born in 1884, which Italian statistician, demographer and sociologist developed a namesake coefficient, a measure of the income inequality in a society? | Corrado Gini (Gini coefficient) |
| Who wrote the 1881 novel "The Prince and the Pauper"? | Mark Twain |
| Which poem in Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" is a parody of Isaac Watts' moralistic poem about idleness and mischief, entitled "How Doth The Little Busy Bee"? | How Doth The Little Crocodile |
| According to Thomas Hobbes in 1651's "Leviathan", what are: "Wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools"? | Words |
| What name is given to any astronomical body occupying the equilateral Lagrangian points of other pairs of bodies? | Trojans |
| Which real private coeducational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland was supposedly attended by the fictional James Bond? | Fettes College |
| What was Roger Moore's first Bond film? | Live And Let Die |
| Which British actor and television screenwriter, who died in 2007, was best known as a writer and co-creator with Julia Smith of the BBC soap opera EastEnders? | Tony Holland |
| In which film of 1972 did Diana Ross play Billie Holliday? | Lady Sings The Blues |
| Which film was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, and at the 75th Academy Awards, won the Oscar for Best Director for Roman Polanski? | The Pianist |
| Which fictional character was born in the early 1920s to a Swiss mother, Monique Delacroix, of the Canton de Vaud? | James Bond |
| Which fictional TV character, born in December 2036, has the real name Paul Metcalfe? | Captain Scarlet |
| Who married the multi-millionaire James Howard Marshall II in 1994? | Anna Nicole Smith |
| Who played Daphne Moon in the TV sitcom "Frasier"? | Jane Leeves |
| Captain Harold C. Dobey was the fictional boss in which TV seies of the 1970s? | Starsky and Hutch |
| Which London mainline station is the terminus for the Chiltern Railways? | Marylebone |
| The town of Gosport is in which English county? | Hampshire |
| Now uninhabited, which is the most southerly of the islands in the Pentland Firth between the Orkney islands and Caithness, the northeasternmost part of the mainland? | Stroma |
| What is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and the third largest island in Shetland after the Mainland and Yell? | Unst |
| What is the main tributary of the Dead Sea? | River Jordan |
| What nationality did boxer Joe Bugner adopt from 1986 onwards, having previously fought for Britain? | Australian |
| What is the name of the NHL team based in Detroit since 1932? | Red Wings |
| The Brabazon Trophy is awarded in which sport? | (Amateur) golf |
| Which British footballer won the European Player Of The Year Award in 1978 and 1979? | Kevin Keegan |
| What is the maximum possible score in a tenpin bowling game? | 300 |
| Near which major city is The Belfry Golf Course? | Birmingham |
| What is the highest possible bid in contact bridge? | Seven No Trumps |
| Which rugby league team won all of their 26 Division Two matches in 1978–79, the only time a club has won all of its league matches in a season and returning to the top flight? | Hull F.C. |
| Which 1977 agreement was signed by Commonwealth leaders to discourage contact and competition between their sportsmen and sporting organisations, teams or individuals from South Africa? | Gleneagles Agreement |
| Before Carlos Tevez, who was the last player to move direct from Manchester United to Manchester City, doing so in 1999? | Terry Cooke |
| Which English football team won the first Football League Cup in 1961? | Aston Villa |
| Which English footballer scored four goals against Scotland in a 7-2 win in 1955? | Dennis Wilshaw |
| Which rowing race is held on the Thames between London Bridge and Cadogan Pier, Chelsea, passing under a total of eleven bridges en route? | Doggett's Coat and Badge |
| Which English cricketer, born in Monk Bretton in Yorkshire, played in 58 Tests from 1994 to 2003, taking 229 wickets? | Darren Gough |
| Chicago, Cincinnati and Omaha are all variants of which card game? | Poker |
| Which architect extended Brighton Pavilion, starting in 1815? | John Nash |
| Who wrote the 2010 novel "Solar"? | Ian McEwan |
| What is the second book in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy? | The Girl Who Played With Fire |
| Which Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas (1820/2-1890) wrote London Assurance (1841), The Corsican Brothers (1852) and The Colleen Bawn or The Brides of Garryowen (1860)? | Dion Boucicault |
| Which New Zealand cricketer of part-Samoan descent, generally considered one of the greatest cricketers to represent New Zealand, became the highest ODI century maker for New Zealand surpassing 16 by Nathan Astle, on 22 February 2017? | Ross Taylor |
| Which Italian art term means a fine shading meant to produce a soft transition between colours and tones, often so that there is no perceptible transition at all? | Sfumato |
| Which Welsh fashion designer and British fashion icon founded a shop on the King's Road in London called Bazaar in 1955? | Mary Quant |
| In Hardy's novel, what is the surname of "Jude the Obscure"? | Fawley |
| Which collection of poems were the counterpart to William Blake's "Songs of Innocence"? | Songs of Experience |
| Which writer coined the phrase "fools rush in where angels fear to tread"? | Alexander Pope |
| Which new US party was created as a vehicle for Robert M. La Follette, Sr. to run for president in the 1924 election? It was dissolved in 1934. | Progressive Party |
| Who led The 1916-7 Pancho Villa Expedition—now known officially in the United States as the Mexican Expedition, but originally referred to as the "Punitive Expedition, U.S. Army? | John Pershing |
| The Knickerbocker Crisis – a United States financial crisis that took place over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year - was in which year? | 1907 |
| Who was the Royalist commander at 1644's Battle of Marston Moor? | Prince Rupert of the Rhine |
| Which English scholastic theologian and seminary professor at the University of Oxford (1320s – 31 December 1384) has been nicknamed "The Morning Star of The Reformation"? | John Wycliffe |
| Which former United States Army officer was convicted by court-martial of murdering 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War? | William Calley |
| Perkin Warbeck was a pretender to the throne during the reign of which English king? | Henry VII |
| Who was on the English throne in the year 1400? | Henry IV |
| In The House of Lords, The Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms is a usually known by what name? | The (Government) Chief Whip |
| Which common US slang word derives from the surname of a US Civil War General (November 13, 1814 – October 31, 1879) best remembered for his stunning defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863? | Hooker (meaning prostitute, from Joseph Hooker - it applied to some of his camp followers) |
| Who is the Tin Man's Kansas counterpart in MGM's 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz"? | Hickory |
| The Earl of Kent is a faithful follower of which of Shakespeare's eponymous characters, serving him in disguise after being banished from his kingdom? | King Lear |
| Which two-letter word, in the OED, is described as the Northern English form of "oh"? | Ee |
| Usually serving as an anchor for the handrail, what name is given to the upright post either at the foot of a stairway, at its landings or at its top? | Newel Post |
| Those who reigned in Ireland between the 3rd and 12th centuries were accorded which title - a purely nominal one which did not necessarily give them authority over other kings? | High King |
| In 1964 which long-term medical therapy was developed by Vincent Dole and Marie Nyswander? | Methadone (for narcotic addiction) |
| What name did Virgin Publishing give to their imprint introduced in 1993 and specialising in erotic fiction written for women by women? | Black Lace |
| Which title did historian Hugh Trevor-Roper take when he was created a life peer in 1979? | Baron Dacre of Glanton |
| Which German composer's "helicopter quartet", performed in Amsterdam in 1995, used four helicopters from The Grasshoppers, the Dutch Air Force display team, along with the Arditti Quartet? | Karlheinz Stockhausen |
| Vostok 6 completed 48 orbits of the earth between 16 and 19 June 1963; who was its famous passenger? | Valentina Tereshkova (first woman in space) |
| Dying suddenly, possibly because of severe allergies, in February 2018, which actress was known for playing the role of Alice Tinker in the BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibley and Honey Thacker in the film Notting Hill (1999)? | Emma Chambers |
| What was the soubriquet of the Roman Caesar Constantius I on account of his appearance? | Constantius Chlorus/Constantius the Pale |
| Who played the title role in the 1986 film "Highlander"? | Christopher Lambert |
| Which islands are name after the man who served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1693 to 1694? | Falkland Islands (Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland) |
| Where was Constantine the Great proclaimed Emperor in 306CE? | York (Eboracum) |
| The early Christian church had five patriarchs, based in Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria and which other place? | Antioch |
| Of what people or tribe was Theodoric the Great (475–526), sponsored by the Byzantine Empire to recover Italy, a leader? | Ostrogoths |
| Give a year in the life of Clovis, the first King of the Franks. | 466-511 |
| Which people began overrunning and ruling most of the Italian peninsula from 568CE? | Lombards |
| In the first millennium AD, what term denoted the landed possessions and revenues of various kinds that belonged to the Church of St. Peter (i.e. the Pope) at Rome? | Patrimonium (Petri) |
| In Spain what name is given to red wines that are aged for 2 years with at least 6 months in oak? | Crianza |
| Which historical novel by George Eliot is set in the fifteenth century, and is "a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view"? | Romola |
| On January 1, 1953, which singer suffered heart failure while traveling to perform at a concert in West Virginia, and died as a result, on the back seat of a car, aged just 29? | Hank Williams |
| Which wealthy family commissioned Mozart's 35th Symphony and an eponymous serenade, technically called The serenade for orchestra in D major, K. 250 (248b)? | Haffner |
| Which album topped the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart for a week and remained in the chart for 741 weeks from 1973 to 1988? | Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd) |
| Which alcoholic drink is the traditional accompaniment to a crepe in a French crêperie? | Cider |
| A top 3 hit in the UK and US what was Avril Lavigne's first single? | Complicated |
| Released in the year 2000, whose debut album was "Not That Kind"? | Anastacia |
| What is the predominant grape variety in a chianti wine? | Sangiovese |
| Meaning "may the wolf die", what phrase do Italian opera singers use to wish each other luck before a performance? | In Bocca al Lupo |
| Who is the patron saint of: book sellers; Catholic academies, schools, and universities; chastity; learning; pencil makers; philosophers; publishers; scholars; students? | Thomas Aquinas |
| Which American scientist and cytogeneticist was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and became the first woman to win an unshared prize in this category? | Barbara McClintock |
| Though more famous for an eponymous disease, which British physician also discovered pernicious anaemia? | Thomas Addison (Addison's) |
| Which value is a dimensionless quantity representing the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound? | Mach Number |
| Which chemist discovered uranium (1789), zirconium (1789), and cerium (1803), and named titanium (1795) and tellurium (1798)? | Martin Klaproth |
| Which retired orbiter from NASA's Space Shuttle program was the fifth and final operational shuttle built, and was approved by US Congress to replace the lost Challenger? | Endeavour |
| Which scientist, born 1919, is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system? | James Lovelock |
| In which year was the Hindenburg air disaster? | 1937 |
| A relatively small cranium named Toumaï ("hope of life" in the local Daza language of Chad in central Africa), five pieces of jaw, and some teeth are the best preserved remains yet found of which hominid of about 7 million years ago? | Sahelanthropus (tchadensis) |
| Which man, who won the inaugural United States National tennis doubles championship at Newport Casino in 1881, and finished 4th at golf at the 1900 Olympics, was one of the first management consultants? | Frederick Taylor |
| In 1795, who became the first two men to cross the Channel by hot-air balloon? | Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries |
| What is the national airline of Indonesia? | Garuda |
| The first synthetic virus to be made was based on the genome of which virus? | Polio |
| José Mujica, a former guerrilla with the left-wing Tupamaros, imprisoned for 13 years in the 1970s and 1980s, was the 40th President of which country from 2010 to 2015? | Uruguay |
| The ELN and the M-19 have been among the armed insurgent groups in the 70s and 80s in which country? | Colombia |
| Who composed the opera "Einstein on the Beach"? | Philip Glass |
| Which English composer, who worked as a schoolteacher to support himself, composed "St Paul's Suite"? | Gustav Holst |
| Which American modernist composer ran an insurance company for most of his life and wrote "Three Places In New England", "Central Park in the Dark" for chamber orchestra and "The Unanswered Question" for chamber group? | Charles Ives |
| With an orbital period of just over 7 hours, Metis is the innermost moon of which planet? | Jupiter |
| The moon Naiad takes just over 7 hours to orbit which planet in the solar system? | Neptune |
| "Afternoon of a Faun" (1912), "Jeux" (1913) and "Le Sacre du Printemps" (1913) were all ballets by who? | Vaslav Nijinsky |
| "Daphnis and Chloe" is the only known work of which 2nd century AD Greek novelist and romancer? | Longus |
| "Daphnis et Chloe" is a 1912 ballet in one act with three parts (scenes) by which composer? | Maurice Ravel |
| Who choreographed a ballet adaptation of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" that premiered on June 4, 1910, at the Opéra Garnier in Paris by the Ballets Russes? | Michel Fokine |
| What two-word term denotes the sound represented in the international phonetic alphabet by a dotless question mark, made by bringing together the vocal cords tightly and releasing them suddenly? | Glottal Stop |
| Which tropane alkaloid is extracted from deadly nightshade? | Atropine |
| A cycloplegic drug paralyses which specific muscle ring in the body? | Ciliary Muscle |
| What is mydriasis in the human body? | Dilation of the pupil |
| Who wrote the 1963 work "The Making Of The English Working Class"? | E. P. Thompson |
| In 1620, Denmark established a training station, or mission, at Tranquebar on the Bay of Bengal in which present-day Indian state? | Tamil Nadu |
| Since 1997, what is the duration of Prime Minister's Questions in the UK, each Wednesday? | 30 Minutes |
| Blousey Brown, Cagey Joe and Leroy Smith are characters in which stage and film musical? | Bugsy Malone |
| Which British singer won five Grammy Awards in 2008, including Best New Artist? | Amy Winehouse |
| What sporting nickname is given to the heavy, metal suitcase containing the nuclear codes that is taken everywhere by the US President? | Football |
| What is the name of the panther in the 1967 film, The Jungle Book? | Bagheera |
| The phrase "three strikes and you're out" is derived from which sport? | Baseball |
| Which rugby union team play their home matches at Welford Road? | Leicester |
| Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by which author? | Sinclair Lewis |
| Which football team won the European Cup in 1971, 1972 and 1973? | Ajax |
| Which tennis player won the Grand Slam of mixed doubles titles with Ken Fletcher in 1963? | Margaret Court |
| Which Roman historian is best known for his monumental work 'Ab Urbe Condita', usually referred to in English as the 'History of Rome'? | Livy |
| Regarded as the unofficial national poet of Italy, which poet, whose collections include ‘Rime Nuove’ (New Rhymes) and ‘Odi Barbare’ (Barbarian Odes), became, in 1906, the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature? | Giosuè Carducci |
| Roy of the Rovers first appeared in a weekly strip in which comic magazine in 1954? | Tiger |
| Which is the only land mammal native to Iceland? | Arctic Fox |
| Which Roman Emperor was assassinated in 41AD by members of the Praetorian Guard, led by Cassius Chaerea? | Caligula |
| What type of animal was "Lenin" in the BBC sitcom "The Good Life"? | Cockerel |
| Who played Dr. Josef Mengele in the 1978 film "The Boys From Brazil"? | Gregory Peck |
| The Road to Perdition is a 2002 American crime film directed by who? | Sam Mendes |
| In which 1971 film does Woody Allen become a South American revolutionary leader? | Bananas |
| In which 1991 film does Julia Roberts star as Laura Williams Burney, who fakes her own death and adopts the name of Sara Waters? | Sleeping with the Enemy |
| In which city was the 2002 football World Cup Final between Brazil and Germany held? | Yokohama |
| In the dice game craps, what nickname is given to a pair of ones? | Snake Eyes |
| In the dice game craps, what nicknames is used for a pair of sixes? | Boxcars or Midnight |
| Which three track events are involved in a heptathlon? | 100m hurdles, 200m, 800m |
| Which four field events are involved in a heptathlon? | High jump, long jump, javelin, shot putt |
| In which English county is Ascot racecourse? | Berkshire |
| First starting play in 1998, which MLB franchise represents Tampa Bay? | Rays |
| Who is the central figure in the story that inspired the marathon race, having been said to have run from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of a military victory against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon? | Pheidippides |
| First competed for in 1879, which sporting trophy is finely engraved with three king cobras forming the handles and is supposedly made from melted down Indian coins? | Calcutta Cup |
| Who wrote 1972's "The Farewell Waltz" (Valčík na rozloučenou) (Original translation title: The Farewell Party)? | Milan Kundera |
| The real life women Augusta Way and Agatha Thornycroft are said to have inspired the appearance and personality title character of which novel of 1891? | Tess of the D'Urbervilles |
| Sharing its name with a type of tree, what word is used to describe a child's first set of teeth? | Deciduous |
| Sharing its name with a chemical element, what name is given to an image or other object of great antiquity on which the safety of a city or nation is said to depend? | Palladium |
| Which book of 1653 has the alternative title "The Contemplative Man's Recreation"? | The Compleat Angler (by Isaak Walton) |
| What was the name of the creation of writer William Donaldson who wrote to numerous public figures with unusual or outlandish questions and requests? | Henry Root |
| Published in 2003, and later made into a play and a 2007 film, what was the title of the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini? | The Kite Runner |
| Who wrote the very popular 1986 novel "The Physician", featuring the real-life Ibn Sina (Avicenna)? The book hardly sold in his native US, but was a bestseller in Europe. | Noah Gordon |
| Which Norwegian journalist wrote non-fiction best-seller "The Bookseller of Kabul"? | Åsne Seierstad |
| Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon; Benedick, and Beatrice all appear in which Shakespeare play? | Much Ado About Nothing |
| What relation was Henry IV of England to Edward III? | Grandson |
| Which English synthpop band were best known for the 1981 hits "Einstein a Go-Go" and "Norman Bates"? | Landscape |
| Birger Jarl was the official founder of which city? | Stockholm |
| The Riksdagshuset is the seat of the parliament of which country? | Sweden |
| In WW2, which nation liberated the Danish island of Bornholm on 9th May 1945? | USSR |
| In which year was Adolf Eichmann hanged in Israel? | 1962 |
| Which Union Army general in the American Civil War (1813-64) is well remembered for his ironic last words: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance"? | John Sedgwick |
| Which naval battle fought on 20 October 1827 was the last major naval battle in history to be fought entirely with sailing ships? | Battle of Navarino |
| What is the alternative name of the Battle of the Nile? | Battle of Aboukir Bay |
| Which English king was the son of Geoffrey of Anjou and Empress Matilda? | Henry II |
| Commius was a king of which Gallic tribe that revolted against Caesar? | Atrebates |
| Which Yugoslavnovelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961 wrote "The Bridge on the Drina"? | Ivo Andrić |
| Krakow lies on which river? | Vistula |
| Île de Gorée is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which country? | Senegal |
| Which possibly mythical Polish prince, first real king and founder of Kraków, the ruler of the tribe of Lechitians (Poles), apparently defeated Roman armies invading from the south? | Krakus/Krak |
| Charlemagne is buried in which building, which he also ordered built? | Aachen Cathedral |
| The Church of the Society of Jesus (Spanish: La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús), known colloquially as la Compañía, is a Spanish baroque Jesuit church in which capital city? | Quito |
| A small river running between the rock-hewn churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia is named after which Biblical river? | Jordan |
| The wapiti is an alternative name for which animal? | Elk |
| Two-thirds of all the geysers on the planet are in which national park? | Yellowstone |
| Which salt mine located in the Kraków metropolitan area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978? | Wieliczka Salt Mine |
| In which country is the Nahanni National Park? | Canada |
| What is the only authenticated Viking site in North America, probably the 'gateway to Vinland' mentioned in the sagas? | L'Anse aux Meadows |
| Generally considered the strongest ruler of the Safavid dynasty, the third son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, which man (1571-1629) moves his capital to Isfahan? | Shah Abbas I ("the great") |
| What is the oldest capital city in the world? | Damascus |
| In which century was the Hanseatic League founded? | 14th (1358) |
| The Dene and Metis peoples are both native to which country? | Canada |
| Which dynasty ruled Iran from 1501–1736? | Safavids |
| Fortified trading posts between Keta and Beyin were made UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1979, and lie in which country? | Ghana |
| In which country was the first place to be delisted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 2007? | Oman (Arabian oryx sanctuary) |
| The cave site of Lascaux lies in which river valley, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979? | Vézère |
| Two of the first three First Ladies of the USA shared which forename? | Martha |
| Who died in office in August 1827, after just 119 days in office, the shortest tenure of any British Prime Minister? | George Canning |
| Lina Wertmuller was the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Directing for which film of 1975? | Seven Beauties |
| Which Italian (1718-99) was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university? | Maria Agnesi |
| As of 2018, who is the only Attorney General to have become Prime Minister? | Spencer Perceval |
| Which vitamin is also called retinol? | Vitamin A |
| In which British city is there a library founded by a bequest by tobacco magnate Stephen Mitchell (1789-1874)? | Glasgow (Mitchell Library) |
| Who married Mary Wollstonecraft in 1797? | William Godwin |
| Which Scottish geologist, born November 14, 1797, popularised the works of James Hutton, who died 26th March 1797? | Charles Lyell |
| What term denotes the paraphyletic group of non-vascular land plants that includes mosses, liverworts and hornworts? | Bryophytes |
| What is (supposedly) the collective name for sea cucumbers? | A pickle |
| Ozone supposedly smells like which genus of plant, also called cranesbills? | Geranium |
| The unusually high abundance of which element in the clay layer at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary gave rise to the Alvarez hypothesis that the impact of a massive meteor caused the extinction of dinosaurs and many other species 66 million years ago? | Iridium |
| Sphalerite is the main ore of which metal? | Zinc |
| Which common substance is composed of approximately 75% silicon dioxide (SiO2), sodium oxide (Na2O) from sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), calcium oxide, also called lime (CaO), and several minor additives? | Glass |
| What does ADSL stand for in computing? | Asymmetric digital subscriber line |
| How many stories tall were the North and South Tower of the New York World Trade Center, destroyed in 2001? | 110 |
| Which American architect was best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and the Pruitt-Igoe Complex in St Louis? Both of them became infamous, for different reasons. | Minoru Yamasaki |
| Which three letters on a QWERTY keyboard appear in the order that they also appear in the alphabet? | JKL |
| Albert J. Parkhouse of Jackson, Michigan, Christopher Cann and A.O. North have all been credited with the invention of which common household item? | Clothes hanger |
| The three types of bee in a colony are generally the queen, workers and which other type? | Drones |
| Which hot air balloon piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman, became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it landed 17 August 1978 in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours 6 minutes after leaving Presque Isle, Maine? | Double Eagle II |
| In which year did Amelia Earhart become the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic? | 1932 |
| Which make and model of airplane carried out the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? | Boeing B29 Superfortress |
| What was the name of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki in 1945, the equivalent of Enola Gay for Hiroshima? | Bockscar |
| What name did Amy Johnson give to her de Havilland DH.60 Gipsy Moth G-AAAH, in which she was the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia? | Jason |
| In 1919, which brothers became the first people to fly from England to Australia? | Ross and Keith Macpherson Smith |
| Which two companies formed British Airways in 1974? | British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA) |
| Aircraft registered in the United Kingdom always have which letter as a prefix to their registration number? | G- |
| The aircraft registration prefix PH is used by which country? | Netherlands |
| Britten's opera "Billy Budd" is base don whose novel? | Herman Melville |
| Who won Eurovision by a huge margin with "Ein bißchen Frieden" in 1982? | Nicole (Germany) |
| Which song was the last of the 20th century to win Eurovision for the UK, doing so in 1997? | Love Shine A Light (Katrina and the Waves) |
| Which band's members included Roy Wood, Ben Bevan, Chris Kefford, Carl Wayne and Trevor Burton? | The Move |
| In Arthurian legend, which knight threw Excalibur in the lake as Arthur lay dying? | Bedivere |
| Which DJ (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965), whose career was destroyed by the payola scandal, is credited with popularizing the term "rock and roll"? | Alan Freed |
| Which US musician was a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band from 1984, a former member of Crazy Horse, and founder/frontman of the band Grin? | Nils Lofgren |
| Which piano pedal is used to soften the sound - it is typically the rightmost of two or three pedals? | Damper pedal |
| A clarion is an old instrument most similar to which modern one? | Trumpet |
| Whose rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952 - she also won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968? | Pearl Bailey |
| Which Jack Judge song was allegedly written for a 5-shilling bet in Stalybridge on 30 January 1912 and performed the next night at the local music hall? | It's A Long Way to Tipperary |
| Which band's first single, released in 1979, was a tribute to Jamaican ska singer Prince Buster called "The Prince"? | Madness |
| How many surahs are there in the Koran? | 114 |
| Which massively successful pop group first performed in December 1957 at Gaumont cinema in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy? | The Bee Gees |
| Who had a 1973 hit with the instrumental "Jessica"? | The Allman Brothers Band |
| Which Sardinian cheese contains live insect larvae (maggots)? | Casu Marzu |
| As of 2018, which London production has run continuously since October 1985, making it the longest-running musical in the West End and the second longest-running musical in the world after the original Off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks? | Les Misérables |
| Who had a 1974 hit with "How Long" that reached No. 3 in the US and Canadian charts, and No. 20 in the UK Singles Chart? | Ace |
| Which Trinidadian pianist was the first black person to have a number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart? | Winifred Atwell |
| It is often claimed that Milton based his ‘Paradise Lost’ partly on ‘Lucifer’ and ‘Adam in Ballingschap’, works by which Dutch author and playwright? | Joost Van Den Dondel |
| Which sea is surrounded by, and effectively created by the enclosing effects of, the Gulf Stream, Canary Current and the Equatorial Current? | Sargasso Sea |
| Who played Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love (1963)? She was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as a jaded aristocrat in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961). | Lotte Lenya |
| Invented in 1884 and named after its inventor, what was the first recoil-operated machine gun, and was called "the weapon most associated with the British imperial conquest"? | Maxim Gun |
| What is the proper name for a bird's wishbone, the bone to which the muscles of flight are attached? | Furcula |
| In the musical West Side Story, who are the rival gang to the Jets? | The Sharks |
| The Battle of the Boyne took place in which year? | 1690 |
| The Battle of Gettysburg took place in which year? | 1863 |
| The Battles of the Boyne, of Gettysburg and of the Somme all began on which date of the year? | July 1st |
| The first chapter of which 1954 novel is entitled "The Sound of the Shell"? | The Lord of the Flies |
| Which English jeweller lends his name to an alloy of copper and zinc that he invented in the early 18th century? | (Christopher) Pinchbeck |
| Which viral disease is known in France as 'La Rage'? | Rabies |
| Which clergyman, known to posterity through his diaries, lived at Clyro in Radnorshire during the 1870s? | Lewis Francis Kilvert |
| While the family strygidae comprises most owls, which family contains the ten barn owls? | Tytonidae |
| In Genesis, Noah's Ark is described as 50 cubits wide, 30 cubits high and how many cubits long? | 300 |
| Which standard unit of energy represents the amount of heat required to warm one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit? | British Thermal Unit |
| Vouvay, Saumur and Sancerre wines are all made in which river valley? | Loire |
| Which BBC television reporters dispatches from famine-hit Ethiopia in 1984 prompted Bob Geldof to write and record "Do They Know It's Christmas?"? | Michael Buerk |
| An ocean-going oil tanker of over 415m is an ULCC. What does ULCC stand for? | Ultra Large Crude Carrier |
| Who was the first British woman to win an Olympic gold at a track and field event? | Mary Rand/Bignal (long jump, Tokyo, 1964) |
| Which bacterial disease is also sometimes called "woolsorters' disease"? | Anthrax |
| Which title is missing from the list of James Fenimore Cooper's five "Leatherstocking Tales" - Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, the Deerslayer, the Pioneers and....? | The Pathfinders |
| In which poem did Philip Larkin famously say that sexual intercourse was invented in 1963? | Annus Mirabilis |
| What title was held by George Bingham, who was in overall charge of the cavalry at the Battle of Balaclava? | Lord Lucan (he was the 3rd) |
| The invention of what is created to Giovanni Maria Farina in the early eighteenth century, after he moved from Italy to Germany? | Eau de Cologne |
| Which animal with a black and white coat that maintains an upright posture when climbing or clinging, is also called the babakoto and is one of the largest of the lemurs? | Indri |
| Which cat-like, carnivorous mammal endemic to Madagascar is closely related to mongeese, and has a diet that mainly consists of lemurs? | Fossa |
| What name is given to a machine or generator that transforms mechanical energy to electrical energy? | Dynamo |
| "Comparisons are odorous" is a characteristic malapropism spoken by which Shakespeare character? | Dogberry (in Much Ado About Nothing) |
| Which small island in the Thames is linked by a footbridge to the Embankment at Twickenham? | Eel Pie Island |
| Which mythical beast was said to have a lion's head, a goat's middle and a serpent's tail? | Chimera |
| Which American non-fiction author and financial journalist wrote "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game", and "Flash Boys"? | Michael Lewis |
| In Greek legend, what did the craftsman Epeius fashion from timbers cut from the slopes of Mount Ida? | Pandora's Box |
| Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main island of Kiriwina, which is also the location of the government station, Losuia. Other major islands in the group are Kaileuna, Vakuta, and Kitava. Which islands? | Trobriand Islands (Papua New Guinea) |
| In 1907 who received the Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in a science, and helped disprove the existence of the 'luminiferous ether'? | Albert A. Michelson |
| Who was U.S. Secretary of State and White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush, from 1989 to 1992, and was in post at the outbreak of the first Gulf War? | James Baker |
| Who wrote 1884 novel "À Rebours"? | Joris-Karl Huysmans |
| Which Dutch-born Crimean War correspondent, watercolour painter and illustrator for British and French newspapers was called "the painter of life" by Baudelaire, who wrote a long essay on him in which he praised his works? | Constantin Guys |
| Which word derives from the Latin for "to decay down", and is associated with a late 19th century movement that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality? | Decadence |
| Who was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, a reign remembered mainly for sex scandals and religious controversy? We was assassinated aged 18 after scandalising Rome by allegedly prostituting himself? | Elagabalus |
| Give a year in France's "Second Empire". | 1852-70 |
| About which notorious 17th century courtier did Gilbert Burnet write that, "For five years together he was continually Drunk ... [and] not ... perfectly Master of himself ... [which] led him to ... do many wild and unaccountable things"? | (John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of) Rochester |
| Whose first novel was 1964's "From Doon With Death"? | Ruth Rendell |
| Which year saw the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the publication of the Kinsey Report into Sexual Behavoiur in the Adult Male, and the start of the first Arab-Israeli War? | 1948 |
| With which two lyricists did composer Richard Rodgers achieve vast commercial success? One died in 1943, the other in 1960, both long before Rodgers' death in 1979. | Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II |
| Henry Fielding founded which force to preserve order in London in the 1740s? | Bow Street Runners |
| The eighth of the minor prophets, and preceding Zephaniah in the Bible, which book of the Bible consists of five oracles about the Chaldeans (Babylonians) and a song of praise to God? | Habbakuk |
| Consisting of only two chapters, which book of the Bible is named for a Hebrew prophet who lived during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible? It follows Zephaniah and precedes Zechariah. | Haggai |
| What was the forename of Charles Dickens' wife, who he left for his mistress in 1858? | Catherine |
| In which country's National Library is the "Book of Taliesin" kept? | Wales |
| Later used as a chemical weapon during World War I, which poisonous gas was first developed by the American chemist Julius Nieuwland in 1904? | Lewisite |
| The 1980s sitcom "Allo' Allo'" parodied which British drama of 1977-79, set in Nazi-occupied Belgium? | Secret Army |
| Asides from Accrington, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Everton and Preston North End, six teams from the midlands made up the inaugural English Football League. Name any four. | Aston Villa, Derby County, Notts County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers |
| In "Great Expectations", Herbert pocket gives Pip the nickname "Handel" because of his association with which piece of music? | The Harmonious Blacksmith (Pip grew up in a blacksmith's forge) |
| Which 60s hit begins "Woke Up one morning half asleep, with all my blankets in a heap"? | Flowers In The Rain by The Move |
| What is the name of the soldier with which Tolstoy's Anna Karenina falls in love, events ending tragically, of course? | Count Vronsky |
| The word "menhir" derives from "long stone" in which language? | Welsh |
| In physics what name is given to a temperature and pressure at which all three phases of a substance - solid, liquid and gas - can exist? | Triple point |
| Coined by Erasmus in 1521, which term refers to a bad or inferior poet? Ben Jonson wrote a play of this name in 1601. | Poetaster |
| The Weimar Republic began its brief existence in which year? | 1919 |
| What term did Susan Sontag describe as an ability to tell the difference between inferior art and deliberately inferior art - "the good taste of bad taste"? | Camp |
| The Marquis de Sillery has been credited with being the first man to ship which drink to London, some time in the 17th century? | Champagne |
| Which syncretic religion, literally "Religion of God" was founded by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1582? | Din-I- Ilahi |
| Who had hits in 2015 with "The Hills" and "Cant Feel My Face"? | The Weeknd |
| Which Chinese manufacturer of home appliances, founded in 1981, is one of the largest by market share in the world? | Meyer |
| Titled after WH Auden's poem dedicated to the Russian conductr and composer Serge Koussevitsky, what is the nickname of Symphony No.2 composed by Leonard Bernstein? | Age of Anxiety |
| Who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing three times, for Silkwood (1983), When Harry Met Sally (1989) and Sleepless In Seattle (1993)? | Nora Ephron |
| Two winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Alvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura are alumni of the prestigious architecture school in which city? | Porto |
| The Diabaté family (Toumani, Sidiki, Mamadou and Mamadou Sidiki) are all Malian musicians considered virtuosi on which 21-stringed musical instrument? | Kora |
| In his book "Distinction: A Social Critique of Judgement of Taste", which French philosopher (1930-2002) argues that people with a high volume of capital determine taste within society, and those with low volumes of capital accept these tastes? | Pierre Bourdieu |
| Born Georg Albert Ruthenberg, which US musician, a founding member of the influential punk band The Germs, was the additional live rhythm guitarist for Nirvana, and rejoined the Foo Fighters after an 8 year hiatus in 2005? | Pat Smear |
| The doctrines of which Alexandrian priest, declared a heretic at the Council of Nicaea in 325, denied that Jesus was of the same substance as God and held instead that he was only the highest of created beings? | Arius |
| What form of modality is used in the sentence "He must know that; he's got a degree in physics", where the word "must" expresses a judgement about the truth of a proposition? | Epistemic modality |
| Which peninsula and former province of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu gives its name to a cream-coloured porcelain first manufactured there by Korean artists in the 16th century, but is probably better known as the name of something else? | Satsuma |
| The author of numerous works on naval history, of which fictional naval hero did C. Northcote Parkinson publish a biography in 1970? | Horatio Hornblower |
| What term was given by the historian Karl Wittfogel to a culture having an agricultural system dependent upon large-scale, state-managed systems of irrigation and flood control? | Hydraulic Civilisation |
| The 2nd century writer Diogenes Laertius is best known for his biographies of which eminent figures? | Philosophers |
| The "Ox Minuet", by Ignas Xavier von Seyfied is based on the legend that which composer, of whom von Seyfried was a pupil, wrote a minuet for a butcher who gave him an ox in return? | Josef Haydn |
| The STW conjecture, also called the modular problem, is one of the most difficult in mathematics. The T stands for which mathematician, who first proposed some of the ideas behind the conjecture? | Yukata Taniyama |
| The now obsolete genus "chaos" was created by Linnaeus to accommodate with organisms, whose many different species include armalarria ostoyae, an individual example of which was identified as the world's largest living thing in 1992? | Fungi |
| "Drink to me only with thine eyes, and I will pledge with mine" are the opening lines to "To Celia" by which English playwring and poet, renowned for his masques at the court of King James I? | Ben Jonson |
| Which term meaning "easily dissolved" is a one-word term for freeze drying? | Lyophilization |
| In "The Burial Of The Dead", the first part of TS Eliot's "The Waste Land", what form of divination is practiced by Madame Sosostris? | Cartomancy/reading playing or tarot cards |
| "The Acharnians", written in 425BCE, is the earliest of which Greek playwright's 11 comedies to have survived intact? | Aristophanes |
| Also known as Alpha Bootes, which star is an orange giant and the fourth brightest star in the night sky, its name deriving from the Greek meaning "guardian of the bear", and referring to its position in relation to the tail of Ursa Major? | Arcturus |
| Which English actor and comedian played Will McKenzie in The Inbetweeners and Adam Goodman in the Channel 4 comedy Friday Night Dinner? | Simon Bird |
| Which British lexicographer was, with his brother Francis, the author of "The King's English" and editor of "The Concise Oxford Dictionary", although his most famous work, first published in 1926, is "Modern English Usage"? | Henry Watson Fowler |
| Which apostle was known as "the zealot" or "the Canaanean" was, according to some sources, martyred by being cut in half longitudinally with a saw, the instrument now being one of his chief iconographic symbols? | Simon |
| Which American actor was best known for his roles as Dexter Morgan, a serial killer and blood spatter analyst, in the Showtime TV Network series Dexter, and as David Fisher in the HBO drama series Six Feet Under? | Michael C Hall |
| "The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses/Nobody, not even the rain, but has such small hands" are the closing lines of "Somewhere I Have Never Travelled" by which US poet, born in 1894? | EE Cummings |
| The Torino Scale runs from nought to ten, and indicates the degree of potential threat from what form of hazard? | Asteroid or comet impact with Earth |
| His instruments described by Mozart as 'magnificent beyond measure', which German organ-builder's grand pipe organ of the Frauenkirche in Dresden was played by Bach soon after its dedication in 1736? | Gottfried Silbermann |
| Which man's nickname of Plantagenet was adopted by his descendants to name the English dynasty that ruled from 1154 to 1485? | Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou |
| With its origins in the Kamakura period around the 13th century, the code of conduct adopted by the Samurai class of Japan is known by which term, meaning "way of the warrior"? | Bushido |
| In Greek myth, the Gordian knot was supposedly finally cut apart by which man? | Alexander the Great |
| Whose body, along with those of John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton, was removed from its burial place, taken to Tyburn and displayed there after the Restoration in 1660? | Oliver Cromwell |
| Which word, that also refers to a bone in the human body, means a scree slope formed from frost-shattered rocks? | Talus |
| Successor to Isaac Newton as President of the Royal Society, which Irish-born British physicist bequeathed to the nation the collections and library which formed the nucleus of the British Museum? | Sir Hans Sloane |
| Which disease is also known as Weil's disease? | Leptospirosis |
| "Fete Galante" and "The Embarkation for Cythera" are paintings by which French Rococo artist, born in 1684? | Jean-Antoine Watteau |
| Named after the Viennese scientist who discovered them in 1808, the Widmanstatten pattern of lines are formed by bands of kamacite and taenite, and appear when a cross-section of which objects are etched with weak acid? | Meteorites |
| In both the Bible and the Quran, Adam was made from which substance by God? | Clay |
| Who is the Islamic equivalent of Satan - cast out of heaven by God after he refused to prostrate himself before Adam? | Iblis |
| In the Book of Judges, to whom does an angel appear - this man puts food on a rock, and the angel makes it burst into flame? | Gideon |
| Who is the wife of Albert II of Monaco? | Princess Charlene (Wittstock) |
| Give a year in the life of Philo of Alexandria. | 20BCE-50CE |
| Which artist (18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) produced the line drawing "Forgetful Angel" (Vergesslicher Engel) in the run up to WW2? | Paul Klee |
| In fish, the lateral line system is a sensory organ used for which purpose? | Sensing movement |
| Which British PM was the last to be born in the 19th century? | Harold Macmillan (born 1894) |
| What name comes next in the following sequence: Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, Kurt von Schleicher.... | Adolf Hitler |
| Which fruit derives its name from the old Aztec word for a testicle? | Avocado |
| Who was the first female presenter of BBC TV show "Watchdog"? | Lynn Faulds-Wood |
| Who famously called Joan Bakewell "the thinking man's crumpet"? | Frank Muir |
| Who played the title role in 1950 film "Annie Get Your Gun"? | Betty Hutton |
| Who won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1999 (71st Academy Awards) for an 8 minute cameo? | Judi Dench (Shakespeare In Love) |
| In children's TV, who got aboard the Ninky Nonk with Iggle Piggle and the Tombliboos, and was played by Rebecca Hyland? | Upsy Daisy |
| Which comedian hosted the 1990s TV show "In Bed With Medinner" and "The Show"? | Bob Mills |
| Who played the deceitful lover, Morris Townsend, in the 1949 film "The Heiress"? | Montgomery Clift |
| Who played Bonnie Prince Charlie in the 1948 film? | David Niven |
| Jean Seberg made her film debut in 1957 in which title role, based on a George Bernard Shaw play? | Saint Joan |
| The 1960 film "À bout de soufflé" was released under what title in the US and the UK? | Breathless |
| Who directed 1960 film "À bout de soufflé"? | Jean-Luc Godard |
| At which film festival are Golden Lions awarded? | Venice Film Festival |
| Also seen in Toy Story, what was the first toy seen advertised on British TV? | Mr Potatohead |
| Who, now with the married name Womack, and best known for a run on EastEnders from 2013 to 2017, represented the UK at the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest? | Samantha Janus |
| Who were Alan Sugar's original two assistants on the BBC show "The Apprentice"? | Nick Hewer; Margaret Mountford |
| For which cause did comedian Eddie Izzard run 43 marathons in 51 days in 2009? | Sport Relief |
| Which 1996 Mike Leigh film was the only British film of the 1990s to win the Palme D'Or? | Secrets & Lies |
| Which 1986 film directed by Roland Joffé starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons won the Palme D'Or? | The Mission |
| What or who did Bette Davis call "a good time that's been had by all"? | Marilyn Monroe |
| Who played Alfie in the 1975 sequel "Alfie Darling"? | Alan Price |
| What are the two official languages of Pakistan? | Urdu, English |
| The county of Powys in Wales covers most of Brecknockshire (Breconshire), and a small part of Denbighshire, and all of which two historic counties? | Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire |
| In UK car registration plates, what does 'F' stand for? | Forest and Fens |
| Lawrence Weston is a post-war suburban area in which British city? | Bristol |
| Kirk Ella is a suburb of which English city? | Kingston-upon-Hull |
| In which country is Schengen, famed for the European passport agreement? | Luxembourg |
| Which is the only country outside the USA where alligators are found in the wild? | China |
| At which point on the Cumbrian coast does Wainwright's Coast to Coast walk start? | St Bee's |
| Which country is the first in which you would make landfall if you travelled due west of Land's End in Cornwall? | Canada |
| Which stretch of water separates Canada and Greenland? | Davis Strait |
| Which college was originally founded as The Warden and Scholars of St Mary's College of Winchester in Oxford? | New College |
| Which college at Oxford University was originally named for a door knocker? | Brasenose |
| John Middleton (1578–1623) was an English giant commonly known by what name? | Childe of Hale |
| Statues of Winston Churchill and which other former British PM can be found at the entrance to the House of Commons? | David Lloyd George |
| Espiritu Santo is the largest island of which nation? | Vanuatu |
| Frankland Prison is in which English county? | Durham |
| Which theatre in St Martin's Lane has 2,359 seats making it the largest theatre in London? | London Coliseum |
| Which Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing wrote the twelve-volume textbook on the theory and practice of rhetoric "Institutio Oratoria"? | Quintilian |
| In botany, what name is given to the diurnal motion or seasonal motion of plant parts (flowers or leaves) in response to the direction of the sun? | Heliotropism |
| Which man, considered the father of modern sleep research, both discovered REM (with Eugene Aserinsky) and personally undertook sleep studies in total darkness in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky? | Nathaniel Kleitman |
| As of 2018, the European Parliament is bound legally to meet regularly in which city, except Brussels? | Strasbourg |
| In myth, Zeus carried Europa on his back, as a great bull, to which island? | Crete |
| Europa, after whom the continent Europe was named, was a mythical woman from which people? | Phoenecians |
| In the Divine Comedy, which classical author was Dante's guide to Hell and Purgatory? | Virgil |
| Who opened a pottery works called Etruria in Staffordshire in 1769? | Josiah Wedgewood |
| How many square meters are in a hectare? | 10,000 |
| Who wrote the work "Ithaka, the Peloponnese and Troy" in 1869? (It was "Ithaka, der Peloponnesus und Troja" in the original German) | Heinrich Schliemann |
| Which prominent and famous archaeologist became the Balkan correspondent for the Manchester Guardian in 1877? | Arthur Evans |
| What is the name given to the Fifth Ottoman–Venetian War, a conflict between the Republic of Venice and her allies (chief among them the Knights of Malta, the Papal States and France) against the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary States fought 1645-1669? | Cretan War |
| Who were the mythical parents of Minos? | Europa and Zeus |
| In literature, which secret organisation had its headquarters at 12 Grimmauld Place, London? | The Order of the Phoenix |
| Who played Hitler in the 2004 film "Downfall"? | Bruno Ganz |
| What Golden Palm winner and Steven Soderbergh debut film was released in 1989? | Sex, Lies and Videotape |
| The Firm is a 1991 legal thriller by which American writer? It was made into a 1993 film with Tom Cruise. | John Grisham |
| What was the name of the Danish newspaper that caused controversy in 2005 after it published a series of editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, causing protests across the Muslim world? | Jyllands-Posten |
| Voted Best French Film of the Century in a poll of 600 critics in 1995, which film by Marcel Carné, described upon its release as the French answer to 'Gone With the Wind', tells the story of the beautiful Garance and the 4 men who fall in love with her? | Les Enfants Du Paradis |
| The most important literary prize for the Portuguese language is named after the most important Portuguese poet, a man best remembered for his epic work "Os Lusiadas" - which poet? | Luís de Camões |
| Collaborative web sites such as Wikipedia derive their name from "wiki", the word for "hurry" in which language? | Hawaiian |
| What is considered the first film in Baz Luhrmann's "Red Curtain Trilogy", preceding "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" and "Moulin Rouge"? | Strictly Ballroom |
| One of the four 'imperial cities' of Morocco, which city, named after a Berber tribe, was the capital of Morocco under the reign of Moulay Ismail in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries before its relocation to Rabat? | Meknes |
| Which monumental novel, first published between 1930 and 1943, plays in the fictional country of Kakania in 1913, a state obviously by the Austro-Hungarian Empire? | The Man Without Qualities |
| An edited version of which 2002 film, was on 26th December 2010, the first Western-made film ever to be shown on North Korean television? | Bend It Like Beckham |
| 'La vida es sueño' (Life is a Dream) is a comedic drama and, perhaps, the best known work of which Spanish playwright of the Golden Age? | Pedro Calderón de la Barca |
| Which character, familiar from a 1960s trilogy, re-appeared in Bullet to Beijing in 1995 and its sequel Midnight in Saint Petersburg? | Harry Palmer (again played by Michael Caine) |
| How is Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky known in the title of a 1897 play? | Uncle Vanya |
| Most instalments of which horror movie series begins by explaining why Jason isn't really dead, and ends with him dying? | Friday the 13th |
| Born in 1930, which Syrian poet and essayist, oft considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature shares his pen name with a figure from Greek mythology? | Adonis |
| The 2010 movie subtitled "Money Never Sleeps", by Oliver Stone, is a sequel to which Academy Award winning movie? | Wall Street |
| The ancient Assyrian capital Nineveh stood in which modern-day city on the east bank of the Tigris? | Mosul |
| Who are traditionally (but often controversially) credited with the invention of the following machines of the Industrial Revolution: a) spinny jenny b) power loom c) spinning mule d) spinning frame e) flying shuttle? | a) James Hargreaves b) Edmund Cartwright c) Samuel Crompton d)Richard Arkwright e) John Kay |
| The most geographically isolated island on Earth is administered by which nation? | Norway (Bouvet Island) |
| In which country is the province Friesland? | Netherlands |
| What is the largest settlement on the island of Arran? | Brodick |
| What did the Romans call the kingdom of Judah when it was a Roman province? | Judea |
| What is the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia? | Dusseldorf |
| Plantage and De Pijp are areas of which major European city? | Amsterdam |
| The School of Arts, including the Department of English & Humanities, of which college or university is housed in Virginia Woolf's former Gordon Square residence in Bloomsbury? | Birkbeck College, University of London |
| The Gaelic name for which geographical area is Innse Gall? | Outer Hebrides |
| Lake Lindeman and Bennett Lake are in which country? | Canada |
| In which English county is the town of Tavistock? | Devon |
| Who directed both "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Angels With Dirty Faces"? | Michael Curtiz |
| Which actor was the male lead in both "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Angels With Dirty Faces"? | James Cagney |
| Burt Lancaster plays "Massai" in which seminal "liberal" Western film of 1954, directed by Robert Aldrich? | Apache |
| What is the nickname of the character Beatrix Kiddo in the film "Kill Bill"? | The Bride (or The Black Mamba) |
| Which actor played the character Morpheus in the Matrix series of films? | Lawrence Fishburne |
| Which actor played Sam Seaborn in "The West Wing" and Chris Traeger on the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation"? | Rob Lowe |
| Tico the Squirrel and Isa the Iguana were characters in which children's TV series? | Dora the Explorer |
| The massive citadel at Gla is the largest known to have belonged to which ancient civilisation? | Mycenaean |
| Nuraghe, a type of ancient megalithic edifice, are found exclusively on which island? | Sardinia |
| Which artist, who wrote an autobiography in 1563, described in detail the "lost wax" method of casting bronze in that book? He also sculpted "Perseus with the Head of Medusa", located in the Loggia dei Lanzi of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. | Benvenuto Cellini |
| Which Australian pharmacologist and pathologist shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the development of penicillin? | Howard Florey |
| The youngest ever Nobel laureate in physics, having received the award at the age of 25 years, Lawrence Bragg received his award in 1915 for work in which field? | X-ray Crystallography |
| In 1974, after a rock concert in Boston, Massachussetts, the music critic Jon Landau wrote "I saw rock and roll future and its name is -" - who? | Bruce Springsteen |
| How is hydrated magnesium silicate better known when used in the home? | Talc(um powder) |
| Now an archaic poetic term, which type of horse meant one with a smooth, ambling gait in the Middle Ages, and was often considered particularly suitable for use by women? | Palfrey |
| The Göksu River, once the Saleph, in Turkey was the site where in 1190 which prominent leader drowned? | Frederick I Barbarossa |
| Heard in the US Supreme Court in 1893, the case of Nix v Hedden established that which edible crop was a vegetable and not a fruit? | Tomato |
| Also a term for a florid melodic passage in music, what name is given to the posture in ballet where the dancer stands with one leg extended horizontally backwards, the torso extended forwards and the arms outstretched? | Arabesque |
| Which species of North American pit viper gave its name to a Northerner sympathetic to the South, or opposed to Lincoln's policies, in the US Civil War? | Copperhead |
| The term 'dystrophy', as in muscular dystrophy, literally refers to a fault or defect in what function? | Nutrition |
| The 1896 novel "Quo Vadis" by Henryk Sienkiewicz, and the film adaptation of 1951, are set in the Rome of which Emperor? | Nero |
| Which criminal-sounding name is given to the broad-nosed marsh crocodile , found in parts of India and Sri Lanka and traditionally venerated in the Hindu religion? | Mugger |
| The ancient mathematician Euclid was born in which modern-day country? | Egypt |
| What is the name of the faun who is the first inhabitant of the land of Narnia introduced in the novels of CS Lewis? | Mr Tumnus |
| Players of which game compete for the Bermuda Bowl and the venice Cup? | Contract Bridge |
| Which author coined the word 'factoid', that appears in the 'Oxford English Dictionary' as "something which becomes accepted as fact, although it may not be true", in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe? | Norman Mailer |
| Which is the southernmost city (population 216,473) of Canada and the only Canadian city to lie due south of the 48 contiguous United States? | Madison |
| Which scientist, born in 1776, held the title Count of Quaregna and Cerreto? | Amadeo Avogadro |
| Whose acclaimed 2009 play "Jerusalem" centres around Johnny "Rooster" Byron, a defiant drop-out living in a ramshackle mobile home, played in the original production by Mark Rylance? | Jez Butterworth |
| What regular polygon has eleven sides? | Hendecagon |
| Which tennis player reached six Ladies' Doubles Finals from 1965 to 1975, with 5 different partners, and lost them all? | Françoise Dürr |
| Name any two of the three British racecourses whose name starts with F, and were in use in 2018. | Fakenham, Ffos Las, Fontwell Park |
| At which Olympic Games was the men's steeplechase a slightly bizarre 2590 long? | 1904 |
| Who was the opponent of Jack 'Bull' Young, who died in a boxing match in 1913, after a single punch to the head in the 9th round? | Jess Willard |
| What is the home ground of River Plate, the largest Argentine football stadium? | El Monumental (Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti) |
| The death of Gilberto Parlotti in 1972 brought about a boycott of which event? | Isle of Man TT |
| In a dramatic monologue by J. Milton Hayes, whose grave is tended by a "broken-hearted woman" beneath the gaze of a "one eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu"? | Mad Carew |
| Whose 1966 recording of the song "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot M Down)" was memorably used in the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's film "Kill Bill Vol. 1" and was also sampled by the Audio Bullys in the hit "Shot You Down2? | Nancy Sinatra |
| Hoopes Process, that can achieve a purity level of 99.99%, is an electrolytic technique of refining which metal? | Aluminium |
| At 4,700 years old, what name has been given to the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine that held the record of the world's oldest tree since another, called Prometheus, was cut down in 1964? it was superseded in 2012 by a pine with an age of 5,067 years. | Methuselah |
| Which US state flag bears the date December 7, 1787, declares the day on which it became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution? | Delaware |
| In 1913, which novelist and playwright became the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature? | Rabindranath Tagore |
| Founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais, what was the name of the group of writers and mathematicians who sought to create works using constraining writing techniques such as lipograms and palindromes? | Oulipo |
| Which army group of the Imperial Japanese Army in the first half of the 20th century was the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA? Many of its personnel, such as Seishirō Itagaki and Hideki Tōjō were promoted to high positions in the Empire. | Kwantung Army |
| Jimmy Young had two UK number 1s in 1955 - Unchained Melody and what else? | The Man from Laramie |
| In 1802 he made his Salon debut, and won the Prix de Rome for his painting The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles. Which painter, born in Languedoc in 1780? | Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres |
| Which Welsh tenor played Gio Compario in the Go Compare adverts of the 2010s? | Wynne Evans |
| Which chemical element, atomic number 66, has the symbol Dy? | Dysprosium |
| The 40th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, which element atomic number 62 was discovered by Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran and named - indirectly - for a Russian mine official who thus became the first person to have an elemnt named after him? | Samarium |
| Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata was dedicated to which man, who sued Mozart over an unpaid debt just before the composer's death? | Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky |
| Which 1965 comedy Western musical film starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin involves a woman who hires a notorious gunman to protect her father's ranch, and later to avenge his murder, but finds that the gunman is not what she expected? | Cat Ballou |
| The Swordfish, Firefly, Delta and Gannet were all military aircraft built by which former British manufacturer? | Fairey |
| Which Soviet-Armenian composer is best known for his ballet music—Gayane (1942) and Spartacus (1954)? | Aram Khachaturian |
| The Battle of Marengo of 1800 was fought in which region of Italy? | Piedmont |
| The Artmachine Iterations, Large Field Array, the Nature Paintings and Studio Wall Drawings are all works by which Turner Prize winner? | Keith Tyson |
| Referred to in the Orthodox tradition as the First-Called which Christian Apostle was the brother of Saint Peter? | Saint Andrew |
| What is the chief ore of aluminium? | Bauxite |
| Which bight off the West African coast lies in the easternmost part of the Gulf of Guinea? | Bight of Bonny |
| Which mass extinction event occurred about 201.3 million years ago? | Triassic-Jurassic |
| Which term derives from the cavalry of late medieval Hungary, under Matthias Corvinus, and refers to a member of a class of light cavalry? | Hussar |
| Who had a 1967 UK hit with the song "Paper Sun", their debut single? | Traffic |
| Roy Wood first came to prominence as a member of which band? | The Move |
| Which Austrian playwright and novelist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004, and wrote the plays "What Happened after Nora Left Her Husband; or Pillars of Society" and "Silence"? | Elfriede Jelinek |
| Who released the albums "Cosmo's Factory" (1970) and "Bayou Country" (1969)? | Creedence Clearwater Revival |
| The Andy Merrigan Cup is awarded in Ireland to the winners of the All-Ireland Championship in which sport? | Gaelic Football |
| What was the name of the female theatrical producer and manager who took control of the Old Vic in 1912 and the Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1931? | Lilian Bayliss |
| Which city was the capital of Japan from independence until the late 1950s? | Karachi |
| According to legend, who was the captain of "The Flying Dutchman"? | Captain Vanderdecken |
| With which group did Eric Clapton release the song "Layla", a hit in 1972? | Derek and the Dominos |
| In which year was Miles Davis' seminal album "Bitches Brew" released? | 1970 |
| Randy California and Jimi Hendrix were both members of which brief-lived band of 1966? | Jimmy James and The Blue Flames |
| "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" is the fourth album by which American psychedelic rock group, released in 1970? | Spirit |
| Which duo wrote the song "Close To You", made famous by The Carpenters? | Burt Bacharach and Hal David |
| In which year did Karen Carpenter die? | 1983 |
| David Crosby was a member of which band before joining Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young? | The Byrds |
| Graham Nash was a member of which band before joining Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young? | The Hollies |
| What is the common name of the dicarboxylic acid that was historically known as spirit of amber? | Succinic Acid |
| In the book "Cider With Rosie" what was Rosie' suitably bucolic surname? | Burdock |
| How is the city known as Gorky from 1932 to 1990 now known? | Nizhny Novgorod |
| Which medically-important chemical was fortuitously discovered by US chemist and physician Samuel Guthrie when, in 1831, he combined alcohol with chlorinated lime in an effort to produce an economically viable pesticide? | Chloroform |
| Which three-word title is awarded to the winning dog at Crufts? | Best in Show |
| The Aintree Grand National Festival is staged over three days in which month? | April |
| "Love The One You're With" was a 1970 hit for which former Buffalo Springfield man? | Stephen Stills |
| Which Beatle released the solo albums Wallsand Bridges, Mind Games, and Rock’n’Roll? | John Lennon |
| In the 1990s, Quinlan Terry designed a castle for which twin brothers on their private Channel Island of Brecqhou? | Barclay Brothers (David and Frederick) |
| Who released the 1970 album "After The Gold Rush"? | Neil Young |
| What was the title of Morrissey's first solo album of 1988? | Viva Hate |
| How was recording artist Don Van Vliet, born 1941, better known? | Captain Beefheart |
| "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Sympathy For The Devil" appear on which Rolling Stones' album? | Beggars Banquet |
| "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" is a 1968 psychedelic folk album by which band? | The Incredible String Band |
| Which cricket ground, named after the Hampshire fast bowler who leased the land on which its pitches were established in the 1840s, is used to stage home matches played by the students of Cambridge University? | Fenner's (he was Philip Francis Fenner) |
| Which director, born into an aristocratic Italian family, is noted for - among other films, "The Leopard" (1963) and "Death In Venice" (1971)? | Luchino Visconti |
| Roberto Benigni took the title of his 1997 film 'Life is Beautiful' from the following letter written in 1940: " Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full." Who wrote it? | Leon Trotsky |
| The region known as the Maghreb derives its name from the Arabic word for what? | West |
| In most versions of the traditional rhyme, one magpie is for sorrow and two for joy - what do six magpies bring? | Gold |
| In most versions of the traditional rhyme, one magpie is for sorrow and two for joy - what do three magpies bring? | A Girl |
| In most versions of the traditional rhyme, one magpie is for sorrow and two for joy - what do seven magpies bring? | A secret never to be told |
| In most versions of the traditional rhyme, one magpie is for sorrow and two for joy - what do four magpies bring? | A Boy |
| In most versions of the traditional rhyme, one magpie is for sorrow and two for joy - what do five magpies bring? | Silver |
| What is Latvia's largest port? | Ventspils |
| Which Jules Verne character has been played on screen by Herbert Lom and James Mason? | Captain Nemo |
| How many acres are there in a square mile? | 640 |
| Captain Hawdon, a retired military officer, does law-writing under the name of Nemo in which Charles Dickens novel? | Bleak House |
| What phrase meaning "keep quiet" derives from a Navy signal for all hands to turn in? | Pipe down |
| Which Welsh equestrian won individual European Championships in 1961, 1967 and 1969, Olympic bronze in 1960 and 1968, and was individual World Champion in 1970? | David Broome |
| What term describes the point at which a celestial object in orbit around the Earth, such as the Moon, makes its closest approach to Earth? | Perigee |
| Who invented the stethoscope in 1816? | Dr René Laennec |
| The word 'callipygian' refers to which part of the body? | Buttocks (it means a shapely pair) |
| Who were the first football World Cup hosts not to qualify from their group? | South Africa |
| Jumbo (about Christmas 1860 – September 15, 1885), an elephant owned by PT Barnum, died in what manner? | Hit by a train |
| "The Sun Rising" (also known as "The Sunne Rising") is a thirty line poem with three stanzas published in 1633, and one of whose best-known works? | John Donne |
| In Mediterranean winds, what name is given to a directly easterly wind, the opposite to the westerly Ponente? | Levante |
| Including the poem "The Wanderer", and named after the English cathedral to which it was donated, what is the largest known collection of Old English literature still in existence? | Exeter Book |
| Best known for his scathing religious polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, which recounts the history of the Britons before and during the coming of the Saxons, in which century did Gildas live? | Sixth CE/AD (500-570) |
| Also known as 'Night Prayer', and in monastic communities the start of silence until morning prayers, what name is given to the final church service (or office) of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours? | Compline |
| What is the name of the mead-hall described in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf as "the foremost of halls under heaven"? | Heorot |
| The monster Grendel of Beowulf is supposedly a descendant of which figure in the Bible? | Cain |
| On what date is Michaelmas? | 29th September |
| Consisting of 3500 items, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found is named after which English county, where it was found in 2009? | Staffordshire (Staffordshire Hoard) |
| Widely regarded as the last of the Fathers of the Church, which man's (c. 560 – 636) fame chiefly rests on his Etymologiae, an etymological encyclopedia which assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would have otherwise been lost? | Isidore of Seville |
| Which flightless bird gets its name from the Portuguese for ostrich? | Emu |
| Which flightless bird is thought to be named after the daughter of Uranus and Gaea and sister of Kronos in Greek myth? | Rhea |
| Who wrote the poem "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey"? | William Wordsworth |
| The ruins of Tintern Abbey sit on which British river? | Wye |
| What is the difference between magma and lava? | Magma is semi-molten rock beneath the Earth's crust; lava is the name given to magma on the Earth's surface |
| Which German philosopher and anthropologist was best known for his book The Essence of Christianity, which provided a critique of Christianity which strongly influenced generations of later thinkers, including Marx and Nietzsche? | Ludwig Feuerbach |
| Which English film and stage character actor's most famous role was the guardian angel Clarence Odbody in the 1946 film classic It's a Wonderful Life? | Henry Travers |
| Which 1987 Wim Winders film is about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its human inhabitants, comforting those who are in distress? | Wings of Desire |
| Which former Archbishop of Canterbury wrote the book "Wrestling with Angels"? | Rowan Williams |
| Which American playwright and screenwriter received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play "Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes"? He also wrote the screenplay for the 2012 film Lincoln. | Tony Kushner |
| Which British PM fought the "Midlothian campaign" and flew the "Hawarden kite"? | Gladstone |
| In which city was King Juan Carlos I of Spain born in 1938? | Rome |
| Which Chinese dynasty were in power during Christ's lifetime? | Han (206BCE - 220CE) |
| Which village in the UK, where most victims were from, gives its name to a disaster of 4th August 1881 when 189 fishermen were killed in a storm? | Eyemouth |
| In which year did the Pilgrim Fathers land in Plymouth, USA? | 1620 |
| What was the main new story in the UK the day before the 7/7/2005 bombings? | London winning the 2012 Olympic bid |
| Who was the heir presumptive to Queen Anne from 1707, but died only a few months before her, paving the way for George I? | Sophia of Hanover (George I's mother) |
| Which colony, also called the Lost Colony was founded in 1585 in North Carolina by Walter Raleigh, but mysteriously disappeared within 5 years? | Roanoke Island |
| Richard Grenville, captain of the "Revenge", died at which 1591 sea battle? | Battle of Flores |
| Which 878CE battle saw Alfred defeat the heathens under Guthrum, at a location in Wiltshire? | Battle of Edington (accept older name of Battle of Ethandun) |
| What is the correct chemical name of LSD? | Lysergic acid diethylamide |
| For which pharmaceutical company was Albert Hofmann working when he synthesised LSD? | Sandoz |
| Called teonanacatl by the Aztecs, what is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms that has mind-altering effects similar, in some aspects, to those of LSD, mescaline, and DMT? | Psilocybin |
| Which Canadian-born American radio and television personality, who was the host of "House Party" and "People Are Funny" led a campaign to ban LSD after his daughter committed suicide? | Art Linkletter |
| How is John Chapman (born September 26, 1774) better known? | Johnny Appleseed |
| Which American public radio personality was the host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life from 1995 onwards? | Ira Glass |
| Which class of compounds take their name from the Greek for "mind manifesting"? | Psychedelic |
| Who was the sixth person to walk on the Moon, the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 14, and known for his later controversial views on UFOs? | Ed Mitchell |
| Which Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor was the founder of logotherapy and wrote "Man's Search for Meaning"? | Viktor Frankl |
| Who released the album "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" in 1974? | The Rolling Stones |
| The Diablo Range of mountains is in which US state? | California |
| To the nearest billion years, the Big Bang theory estimates the universe to be how old? | 14 billion (13.8 or 13.7 to be more exact) |
| Michael S. Turner, a theoretical cosmologist, is best known for coining which term in 1998, a term that is used to explain why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate? | Dark energy |
| Which Swiss-American astronomer first inferred the existence of, and coined the term, "dark matter"? | Fritz Zwicky |
| Give a year during the Neo-Babylonian Empire. | 626-539BCE |
| With a name meaning "honoured" or "of good repute", which ancient Greek from Cnidus was renowned as one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers of Classical times, although all his works are now lost? | Eudoxus |
| Which Greek astronomer and mathematician is considered the founder of trigonometry, and produced the first star catalogue, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of precession of the equinoxes? | Hipparchus |
| From approximately 57 BC – AD 935 the Kingdom of Silla ruled over most of which peninsula? | Korean |
| The title of which Percy Bysshe Shelley sonnet was the Greek name for Rameses II of Egypt? | Ozymandias |
| Film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013, who, in 1975, became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism? | Roger Ebert |
| Which US Navy guided missile cruiser shot down an Iranian Airbus A300 in 1988? | USS Vincennes |
| How is the Grumman F-14 aircraft better known? | Tomcat |
| Which gorge on the River Danube divides the Balkan and Carpathian mountains? | Iron Gates |
| Which English cricket county opted not to renew the contracts of Viv Richards and Joel Garner in 1986? | Somerset |
| What is the name of the prize awarded by the European Parliament each December to honour individuals or organizations who had dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom, first awarded to Nelson Mandela and Anatoly Marchenko in 1988? | Sakharov Prize |
| The Pena National Palace and the Castelo dos Mouros are two of the main attractions in which Portuguese town that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on account of its large array of 19th century Romantic architecture? | Sintra |
| If 'The Second of May 1808' is 'The Charge of the Mamelukes', then what is 'The Third of May 1808'? | The Execution Of The Defenders of Madrid (works by Goya) |
| In Italian cookery, carnaroli and vialone nano are varieties of what? | Rice |
| The USSR declared war on Japan the day before an atomic bomb was dropped on which city? | Nagasaki |
| What was the first name of Captain Oates, who died on Scott’s second Antarctic expedition? | Lawrence |
| The 1965 John Boorman film "Catch Us If You Can" was a vehicle for which band? | Dave Clark Five |
| Who else was in the original line-up of this 1960s band: Pete York, Steve Winwood, Muff Winwood and.....? | Spencer Davis |
| Advocaat is made from the three main ingredients of brandy, eggs and what else? | Sugar |
| Who was the first recording artist to be awarded a gold disc, in 1942? | Glenn Miller |
| Which Beatles song features the lyric "on the way the paper bag was on my knee"? | Back In The USSR |
| Most beansprouts sold in the UK are derived from which type of beans? | Mung beans |
| Which vegetable is also known as endive, especially in the USA? | Chicory |
| Which was the first of the plagues visited upon Egypt by God in the Bible? | Water (in the Nile) into Blood |
| Geneva Gin is traditionally made in which country? | Netherlands (accept Belgium) |
| In the Bible, how old was Aaron when he died? | 123 |
| Florence Nightingale Graham (born December 31, 1878) was better known as who? | Elizabeth Arden |
| Which season ends with the vernal equinox? | Winter |
| What name is given to the trope where a caregiver develops romantic feelings, sexual feelings, or both for their patient, even if very little communication or contact takes place outside of basic care? It is named after a famous 19th century person. | Florence Nightingale Effect |
| In 1970 what denomination of note was issued by the Bank of England for the first time since 1943? | £20 |
| Often seen at the bottom of advertising hoardings, billboards and bus shelters what is the name of the largest outdoor advertising company in the world, founded in France in 1964? | JCDecaux |
| What, collectively, are Merak, Phelda, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, Alkaid and Dubhe? | Ursa Major |
| Atomic number 23, which soft grey transitional metal was discovered by Andrés Manuel del Río, a Spanish-Mexican mineralogist, in 1801? It can be used in steel alloys. | Vanadium |
| What is dactylography? | Fingerprinting |
| What does a philargyrist love? | Money |
| Winning the second Kremer prize, which pedal-powered aircraft flew over the Channel in 1979? | Gossamer Albatross |
| Pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles was born on which island? | Sicily |
| Which ancient Greek goddess also went by the names Nestis or Kore, the latter meaning "maiden"? | Persephone |
| Two Manic Street Preachers songs reached No. 1 in the UK - "If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next", and which other? | The Masses Against The Classes |
| Which Japanese tennis player was ranked World No. 3 in 1933, but committed suicide in the Strait of Malacca during his trip to the Davis Cup in 1934? | Jiro Sato |
| Which tennis player became first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles tournament at the US Open in 2018, although her victory was overshadowed by the antics of her opponent Serena Williams? | Naomi Osaka |
| What name is shared by a county in Southern California and a major southern African river? | Orange |
| What name is shared by an Italian physicist and a major West African river? | Volta |
| Which Englishman (1828-1914) was, independent of Edison, an early developer of the incandescent light bulb, and was the person responsible for developing and supplying the first incandescent lights used to illuminate the Savoy Theatre, London, in 1881? | Joseph Swan |
| Blur had two UK number 1 hit singles in the UK in the 20th century - "Country House" was one, what was the other? | Beetlebum |
| In meteorology, what name is given to the law that states that convergence into a given column of air must be balanced by an equal divergence from that same column of air? | Dine's Compensation |
| Which was the first country to have TWO cities that have each twice hosted an Olympiad? | USA (Lake Placid and LA) |
| Taken from a Turkic term meaning "black rock" or "black gravel" which mountain range spans the borders of Pakistan, India, China and Afghanistan? | Karakoram |
| Its founders included Friedrich Hayek, Frank Knight, Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, George Stigler and Milton Friedman - for what does MPS stand? | Mont Pelerin Society |
| Passage of which 1978 initiative in California presaged a "taxpayer revolt" throughout the country that is sometimes thought to have contributed to the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency during 1980? | Proposition 13 |
| Which major multi-national company was founded in a one-car garage in Palo Alto in 1938? | Hewlett-Packard |
| Probably deriving from the name of a family of merchants in Augsburg in the 15th and 16th centuries, what word means an inferior legal practitioner, especially one who deals with petty cases or employs dubious practices? | Pettifogger |
| Who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy? | Milton Friedman |
| What name is given to the scientific and objective study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions? | Ethology |
| Which Jewish leader is known for two sayings: (1) "And if not now, when?" and (2) the "Golden Rule": "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."? | Rabbi Hillel |
| Amerigo Bonasera appears in the opening scene of which novel? | The Godfather (Puzo) |
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