Deck 1 Flashcards
(23 cards)
Which man was responsible for the 19th century genocide in the Congo resulting in the deaths of at least 10 million Congolese?
King Leopold II of Belgium
Who wrote the Man Booker shortlisted ‘The Garden of Evening Mists’?
Tan Twan Eng (2012)
For which pharaoh was the first pyramid built?
Khufu
Where is the ‘Bocca della Verita’ and what was its original purpose?
Rome. It was a sewer cover. (It has been linked since the Middle Ages to a belief that if one puts one’s hand into its mouth and one has been unfaithful, one’s hand will be bitten off.)
When did World War II end?
14 August 1945 following the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki.
Which edifice above the Forum dominated Ancient Rome?
The Temple of Jupiter.
Where does the word ‘goodbye’ originate?
A contraction of the medieval farewell ‘God be with you’.
Which classic novel was written on the island of Jura in the Hebrides in 1948?
Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
In mythology, who killed herself after she was violated by Tarquin?
Lucretia
What is the original meaning of ‘quintessence’?
The ‘fifth essence’ additional to the four elements. It was the stuff of which the heavenly bodies were thought to be composed.
For whom are Vladimir and Estragon waiting?
Godot. (Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett).
What does the Latin term ‘sui generis’ mean?
Unique in its characteristics; of its own kind/genus.
What is the capital of Emilia Romagna and what are its three nicknames?
Bologna. La dotta; la grassa; la rossa. (The learned; the fat; the red.)
In Roman mythology who was the god of medicine?
Apollo
In the Standard Model, what are the six varieties of quark called?
Up; down; top; bottom; charm; strange.
Electromagnetic radiation which according to theory should be emitted by a black hole is known as what?
Hawking radiation (named after British physicist Stephen Hawking).
Which pioneering people devised the first alphabet?
Containing how many letters?
The Phoenicians.
22.
Where was the ancient city of Babylon?
Modern day Iraq
Whilst banished to Babylon, which work of fiction did the Jews begin work on?
What did it establish?
What was the name of their god?
The Bible ( The Old Testament).
The world’s first monotheistic religion.
Yahweh.
What does the term ‘basilica’ actually mean?
What is the name of the most famous basilica in Rome?
King’s hall.
St. Peter’s Basilica.
According to the accepted version of the story, who swam the the Hellespont every night to visit Leander?
Where is the Hellespont and what is its modern name?
Leander.
Northern Turkey ( a narrow strait connecting the Aegean and the Sea of Marmara).
The Dardanelles.
English biographer (1880-1932). Member of the Bloomsbury Group. Achieved recognition with ‘Eminent Victorians’ (1918).
Lytton Strachey
How is George Remi better known?
Hergé. (His initials reversed and pronounced in French - RG.)
