Next 23 Flashcards
The Hindu deity Rama, central character of the Ramayana, is the king of what city? The
festival Diwali marks the day that Rama returned home to this city.
Ayodhya
The Irish composer John Field was the first to use what name for piano compositions
that used a cantabile melody over an arpeggiated accompaniment in the left hand? This style of composition was further developed by Frédéric Chopin, who wrote 21 such
pieces.
Nocturnes
Who wrote the famous sentence, “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” in her 1923 poem
‘Sacred Emily’? In 1903, this American author moved to Paris, where she lived out the
remaining 43 years of her life.
Gertrude Stein
The world’s third largest charitable foundation is the Wellcome Trust, which funds medical research. It was founded by Henry Wellcome, who also founded Wellcome Burroughs, one of the predecessors to which British-based multinational pharmaceutical company? This company developed the world’s first malaria vaccine, but has also been fined for promoting the anti-depressant Paroxetine, or Paxil, to teenagers despite trials showing it is ineffective.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
The Saguaro cactus is native to which very hot desert that spreads across parts of
Arizona, California and Mexico?
Sonoran Desert
After becoming a red giant, the Sun will have around 120 million years left before it
becomes what other kind of star? These much smaller stars are formed from the
carbon-oxygen cores remaining once red giants shed their outer layers, and do not
contain fusion reactions.
White Dwarf
Which character is the main antagonist of the Ramayana? A rakshasa and king of Lanka, he is portrayed as a villainous character despite also being a scholar and a devotee of the god Shiva.
Ravana
What Greek-derived term, coined by Frederic Clements, refers to an area with a shared
regional climate as well as the particular biological community that has formed there?
Sitting above ecosystems and below the biosphere in the hierarchy of life, examples of
these regions include tundra, mangroves and tropical rainforests.
Biome
Rama goes to war against Ravana after Ravana kidnaps which character, Rama’s wife?
An avatar of Vishnu and a form of Lakshmi, she was abducted after stepping out of a
protective circle to help a beggar, who was Ravana in disguise.
Sita
Which composer and pianist published three nocturnes under the title Liebesträume
(‘Dreams of Love’)? The Liebesträum No. 3 in A-flat major was based on the poem ‘O
lieb, so lang du lieben kannst’ (‘Love as long as you can’) by Ferdinand Freiligrath and is
among this composer’s most familiar compositions for the piano
Franz Liszt
Divided by the Swartberg mountains into ‘Great’ and ‘Little’ subregions, what is the
name of the large semi-desert region of South Africa that lies immediately to the
north of the Great Escarpment?
Karoo
Which American pharmaceutical company was the first to mass produce insulin, and
also developed the anti-depressant fluoxetine, which it sold under the brand name
Prozac? The founder of this company also established a charitable foundation that was
once the world’s largest and which funds religious and conservative political causes
rather than medical research.
Eli Lilly
The Ramayana is held to have been written by which Hindu poet? In the final chapter of
the Ramayana, Sita takes refuge in this poet’s ashram and gives birth to Lava and
Kusha, who became this poet’s first disciples
Valmiki
The theory of humourism is sometimes compared to the theory of Dosha, which is
central to which system of alternative medicine practiced in India and Nepal? Its name
translates as “the practice of longevity”.
Ayurveda
The astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky suggested that main-sequence stars became neutron
stars through what explosive events? These can be caused either by the reignition of
fusion in a white dwarf, or a massive star’s core undergoing gravitational collapse.
Supernova
Which Persian philosopher and physician based his hugely influential work al-Qānūn fī
al-Ṭibb (The Canon of Medicine) on the theory of humours? He is also the author of Kitāb
al-Shifāʾ (The Book of Healing).
Ibn Sina / Avicenna
Hebo, the god of the Yellow River, drove a chariot pulled by what mythical creatures,
that were symbolically linked to the Emperor of China? Fáfnir and Níðhöggr [NEETHhogr] are examples of these creatures from Norse mythology, and another mortally
wounds the titular character of Beowulf.
Dragon
Cameron largest city by population
Douala
Which Russian composer’s earliest compositions were heavily influenced by Chopin and included several nocturnes such as his D-flat major nocturne for left hand? His later pieces moved away from tonality, and he is known for including his “mystic chord” in works such as the tone poem Prometey (Poema ognya) (Prometheus: The Poem of Fire).
Alexander Scriabin
Selling brands such as Tylenol, Benadryl and Neutrogena, Kenvue was spun off as a
division of which American pharmaceutical company in 2022? One of the founders of
this company also established a charitable foundation that focuses on access to
healthcare for at-risk communities and other health initiatives such as anti-smoking
campaigns
Johnson & Johnson
By some measures, largest city in Ghana, capital city of the Ashanti Region, in southern Ghana?
Kumasi
Known as Pentecost in Ancient Greek, what Hebrew name is given to the Jewish
festival marking both the wheat harvest and the day God gave the Torah to the nation
of Israel? The festival is commonly known in English as the Feast of Weeks.
Shavuot
What is the name of the large gulf on Tunisia’s east coast that runs between Sfax in
the north and the island of Djerba in the south?
Gulf of Gabes
Widely considered Romania’s most important musician, the 1936 opera Œdipe is the
masterpiece of which composer?
George Enescu