Quiz 11

Question 1

Which month, known as the windy month, was the sixth month of the French Revolutionary calendar, and lasted from around 20th February to 21st March

Answer 1

Ventose

Question 2

Alberto Juantorena, Quincy Watts and Michael Johnson are among those who have won Olympic gold in which athletics event?

Answer 2

400m

Question 3

Which children’s story by Roald Dahl was first adapted for the London stage in 2011 with songs by musician and comedian Tim Minchin?

Answer 3

Matilda

Question 4

One of the four kings in a standard English pack of cards is depicted without a moustache - supposedly, originally, it ws missed off because of poor copying. Which king is it?

Answer 4

The King of Hearts

Question 5

Which artist became the first President of the Royal Academy in 1768?

Answer 5

Joshua Reynolds

Question 6

Of which British Prime Minister is the Labour politician Douglas Jay quoted as saying He never used one syllable where none would do?

Answer 6

Clement Atlee

Question 7

In a chemistry laboratory, what is the purpose of a Kipp’s aparatus

Answer 7

Production of gases

Question 8

Which two provinces in the North East of France, annexed by Bismark in 1871, were returned to France by Treaty of Versaille after the First World War?

Answer 8

Alsace and Lorraine

Question 9

Which is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World whose exact location remains unconfirmed by archeology?

Answer 9

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Question 10

The adjective pelagic, often used to describe certain types of bird, comes from a Greek word meaning what?

Answer 10

The open sea

Question 11

Which powerful Italian organised crime ring, whose name is possibly derived from a local word for thief, is based in Calabria but has links and operatives all over the world?

Answer 11

The ‘Ndrangheta

Question 12

In the children’s TV drama series Grange Hill, what was the name of the long-serving head teacher played by Gwyneth Powell?

Answer 12

Bridget (the Midget) McKluskey

Question 13

Although it’s used in casual speech to mean the dim and distant past, in law the phrase time immemorial relates very precisely to a particular calendar year. Which one?

Answer 13

1189 (Richard I)

Question 14

Which Dutch sprinter, who won the 100m and 200m at the 1948 London Olympics, was nicknamed The Flying Housewife?

Answer 14

Fanny Blankers-Koen

Question 15

Which medal of the Order of the British Empire for gallentry was superceded in September 1940 by the introduction of which other honour?

Answer 15

George Medal

Question 16

In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, what is Gulliver’s first name?

Answer 16

Lemuel

Question 17

What name, also meaning a particular time of day, is sometimes given to the hot and dry southern states of Italy, including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia?

Answer 17

Mezzogiorno

Question 18

Which North American city is served by George Bush International Airport?

Answer 18

Houston TX

Question 19

Which novelty swing dance, derived from the Charleston, was named following Charles Lindbergh’s crossing of the Atlantic in 1927?

Answer 19

Lindy hop

Question 20

Which part of the British Isles has a parliament called the Court of Chief Pleas?

Answer 20

Sark

Question 21

Which type of theatre derives its name from a Latin word meaning a player of many parts?

Answer 21

Pantomime

Question 22

Apatosuarus is the name by which scientists now refer to the dinosaur formerly known as the Brontosaurus. The name Brontosausus means Thunder Lizard - but what does the name Apatosaurus mean?

Answer 22

Deceptive Lizard

Question 23

Windermere is the kargest of the lakes in the English Lake District, and the largest natural lake in England. Which is the second largest?

Answer 23

Ullswater

Question 24

In Morse Code, the most commonly occuring vowel and the most commonly occuring consonant are represented respectively by a single dot and a single dash. Which letters are these?

Answer 24

E and T

Question 25

Which athlete and politician became the first person to be named BBC Sports Personality Of The Year in 1954?

Answer 25

Chris Chataway

Question 26

The comic playwright born Jean Baptiste Poquelin in 1622 is better known by what pen name?

Answer 26

Moliere

Question 27

Which pioneering jazz pianist, who came to prominence as part of the be-bop movement in the 1940s had the unusual middle name Sphere?

Answer 27

Thelonius Monk

Question 28

In the care label symbols found on clothes, what is indicated by a square with a circle inside it, crossed out.

Answer 28

Do not tumble dry

Question 29

A painting of 1599 by Caravaggio depicts a scene from the Old Testament, in which the Hebrew widow Judith beheads an Assyrian commander, after having calculatedly seduced him and made him drunk. What’s his name?

Answer 29

Holofernes

Question 30

The heavy black-brown mineral cassiterite is the principle ore of which metallic element?

Answer 30

Tin

Question 31

The toxic quinolizidine alkaloid, that became the suspected agent of poisoning in the Daphne du Maurier novel My Cousin Rachel, is presentin the seeds of which tree, grown for its hanging clusters of golden flowers

Answer 31

Labernum

Question 32

Which Scottish monarch was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513?

Answer 32

James IV

Question 33

In an early printed book, where would you find the explicit?

Answer 33

At the end

Question 34

Which artist did Gore Vidal call a genius with the IQ of a moron

Answer 34

Andy Warhol

Question 35

Which Latin phrase meaning come with me is often used to describe a personal handbook, carried for use when needed

Answer 35

Vade Mecum

Question 36

The cran, equal to 37.5 gallons, is often used commercially to measure the volume of which commodity?

Answer 36

Fish - herring

Question 37

The comedian Frankie Howerd’s role as Pseudolus, in the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, led to a TV comedy series which was written for him, and directly inspired by that show. What was its title?

Answer 37

Up Pompeii

Question 38

The four American Presidents whose faces are carved into Mount Rushmore in South Dakota are Lincoln, Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and which other?

Answer 38

Thomas Jefferson

Question 39

The Canadian physician Frederick Banting won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923, for his work with his colleague Charles Best, that made possible the treatment of which common condition?

Answer 39

Diabetes

Question 40

The Drury Lane Theatre, on 28th September 1745, saw the first recorded public performance of which now very popular piece of music?

Answer 40

God Save The King