Quiz A

Question 1

Which winged horse from Greek myth sprang from the blood of the decapitated gorgon Medusa along with his brother Chrysaor?

Answer 1

Pegasus

Question 2

Orly Airport was the primary airport serving Paris prior to the 1974 opening of which international airport in Roissy-en-France, named after a former French President?

Answer 2

Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

Question 3

Stephen Schwartz’s Broadway musical Wicked is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is itself a retelling of which classic 1900 novel?

Answer 3

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Question 4

From the Greek for ‘dropping’ or ‘tricking’, what name is given to a tapering column rising from the floor of a cave, formed of calcium salts deposited by dripping water?

Answer 4

Stalagmite

Question 5

Also having official status in three of the autonomous communities of Spain, what is the official language of Andorra?

Answer 5

Catalan

Question 6

Lower Decks is the subtitle of a 2020 American adult animated television series set aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos. It is the ninth different TV series in which long-running franchise? The original series was created by Gene Roddenberry and was first broadcast in 1966.

Answer 6

Star Trek

Question 7

What is the name of the 18th century Spanish mission and fortress compound in modern-day San Antonio that gives its name to a 13-day siege of 1836 which saw Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna defeat the forces of the Republic of Texas? William Travis, James ‘Jim’ Bowie, and Davy Crockett all died at this battle.

Answer 7

Alamo

Question 8

Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1989 while working at which European research organization, headquartered at Meyrin near Geneva, that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world?

Answer 8

CERN

Question 9

The boxer Teófilo Stevenson, the long jumper Iván Pedroso, and the high jumper Javier Sotomayor all hail from which Caribbean nation?

Answer 9

Cuba

Question 10

The advertising mascot on the left first appeared in 1973 to promote an American manufacturer of batteries, while the mascot on the right was introduced by a rival battery manufacturer fifteen years later as a parody of the earlier bunny mascot. The latter now has exclusive trademark rights to the pink bunny in the United States and Canada, while the former has exclusive rights throughout the rest of the world. Name EITHER company.

Answer 10

Duracell or Energizer

Question 11

The islets of Langerhans are insulin-producing regions of which organ of the human body?

Answer 11

Pancreas

Question 12

Which is the world’s highest mountain outside of Asia, and the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere?

Answer 12

Aconcagua

Question 13

Only twice have two actors won an Academy Award for playing the same fictional character in different films. Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro both won Oscars for playing Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather films but, more recently, Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix each won Oscars for playing which character?

Answer 13

Joker

Question 14

In Euclidean geometry, what name is given to a quadrilateral whose four sides can be grouped into two pairs of equal-length sides that are adjacent to each other?

Answer 14

Kite or deltoid

Question 15

You probably know that James Joyce wrote A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Published posthumously in 2000, Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man, however, was the final novel written by which acclaimed American author, best-known for writing Catch-22? Mirroring the life of its author, the novel tells of an elderly writer who is struggling to write a novel that is as successful as his magnum opus.

Answer 15

Joseph Heller

Question 16

Named after the Scottish inventor who developed the concept of horsepower and who improved on the Newcomen steam engine, what is the SI unit of power?

Answer 16

Watt

Question 17

This is the logo of which German food brand, probably best-known for its bouillon cubes, founded by its namesake in Helibronn in 1838?

Answer 17

Knorr

Question 18

Get Ready for This, Twilight Zone, No Limit, and Tribal Dance were ’90s hits for which Dutch dance act?

Answer 18

2 Unlimited

Question 19

Named after the Vietnamese New Year celebration, which surprise attack against US and South Vietnamese forces was launched by the Viet Cong in January 1968?

Answer 19

Tet Offensive

Question 20

First appearing in 1984, but popularized in the late 1990s when Vibratex’s model appeared in the popular HBO series Sex and the City, this style of vibrating sex toy is named after which animal?

Answer 20

Rabbit

Question 21

With an introduction written by Bronisław Malinowski, Facing Mount Kenya is a 1938 anthropological work documenting the Kikuyu people written by which anthropologist who later became President of his country?

Answer 21

Jomo Kenyatta

Question 22

Referring to an object that was once hung on the back carriage of a railway train, what title is given to the competitor who finishes last at the Tour de France?

Answer 22

Lanterne Rouge or Red Lantern

Question 23

George Sand’s book Un hiver à Majorque (A Winter in Majorca) describes the period that she spent on that island with which composer?

Answer 23

Frédéric Chopin

Question 24

In The Lord of the Rings, Treebeard is an example of which beings who take the form of sentient trees?

Answer 24

Ents

Question 25

Which chemical element was discovered in 1735 when the Swedish chemist Georg Brandt proved that the blue colour of glass is due to a new kind of metal, and not due to the presence of bismuth as thought previously? This element shares its name with a blue dye that has been used since ancient times for jewelry and paints.

Answer 25

Cobalt

Question 26

In which sport did the Frenchman Teddy Riner win Olympic gold medals in 2012 and 2016? Between 2007 and 2017, he also won a record ten World Championship titles.

Answer 26

Judo

Question 27

The harbour of which Turkish city - known in ancient times as Halicarnassus - is dominated by the Petronium, also known as the Castle of St Peter, that was built by the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem in 1402?

Answer 27

Bodrum

Question 28

What was the name given to the main street of ancient Rome, which led from the top of the Capitoline Hill to the Colosseum? The road was part of the traditional route of the Roman Triumph.

Answer 28

Via Sacra

Question 29

Which 1987 fantasy role-playing video game for NES follows four youths called the Light Warriors as they battle the four Elemental Fiends in order to save the world? The fifteenth main installment of this game was released in 2016.

Answer 29

Final Fantasy

Question 30

This is the logo of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization (after Bitcoin). Which decentralized, open-source blockchain featuring smart contract functionality was proposed in 2013 by the Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin?

Answer 30

Ethereum

Question 31

Named in honour of Queen Victoria, what is the capital of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan?

Answer 31

Regina

Question 32

The Surma and Mursi people of the Omo River region of Ethiopia are well-known for stretching which part of their body in order to insert a large, circular disc made of clay or wood?

Answer 32

Lip

Question 33

Which 2017 Kathryn Bigelow film depicts the racially charged Algiers Motel incident which occurred during the titular city’s 12th Street Riot of 1967?

Answer 33

Detroit

Question 34

What common name is given to birds of the genus Scolopax? Relatives of the snipes of the genus Gallinago, these birds are notable for eyes that are set farther back on the head than those of any other bird, giving them a 360° field of vision, and requiring the ears to be pushed forward, so that they are located below, and in front of, the eye socket.

Answer 34

Woodcock

Question 35

Which spiritual practice, with over 70 million followers, was founded in China by Li Hongzhi in 1992 and was banned in that country in 1999 after more than 10,000 practitioners gathered at the Communist Party headquarters in Zhongnanhai in protest at the government’s refusal to officially recognize the practice?

Answer 35

Falun Gong or Falun Dafa

Question 36

Which German Neue Deutsche Welle threesome scored a worldwide hit in 1982 with the song Da Da Da?

Answer 36

Trio

Question 37

Which Eastern European dish – particularly associated with Poland – consists of dumplings stuffed with potato, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit?

Answer 37

Pierogi

Question 38

It is thought that Martin Luther was inspired, in part, to write his 95 theses by the actions of which German Dominican preacher - the Grand Commissioner for indulgences in Germany - who was trying to raise money for the ongoing construction of St. Peter’s Basilica by selling indulgences?

Answer 38

Johann Tetzel

Question 39

Which Chilean-American actor rose to fame playing Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones and Javier Peña on the Netflix biographic crime series Narcos? Since 2019, he has starred as the title character on the Disney+ space Western series The Mandalorian.

Answer 39

Pedro Pascal

Question 40

Completed in 1967 by Sargis Baghdasaryan and located in the city of Stepanakert, We Are Our Mountains depicts an old man and woman hewn from rock; it is widely considered a symbol of which disputed territory?

Answer 40

Nagorno-Karabakh or the Republic of Artsakh

Question 41

La Conquête du Pain (The Conquest of Bread) and Fields, Factories and Workshops are among the best-known works of which Russian anarchist and philosopher who spent most of his life in exile in France, Switzerland, and England?

Answer 41

Pyotr Kropotkin

Question 42

The 1954 film Gojira (Godzilla) is commonly considered the first example of which Japanese film genre - with a name translating literally as ‘strange beast’ - which features giant monsters? Other noted examples of characters from this genre include include Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Gamera.

Answer 42

Kaiju

Question 43

What is the stage name of the Ugandan singer and actor Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu who last month [Jan 2021] contested his country’s Presidential election against the long-serving incumbent Yoweri Museveni? He has been under house arrest since the day after the election.

Answer 43

Bobi Wine

Question 44

Which Canadian goaltender became the first woman to play in the NHL (and in any of the major North American pro-sports leagues) when she signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992?

Answer 44

Manon Rhéaume

Question 45

Due to be published next month, Tomás Nevinson is the latest novel by which Spanish author whose previous works include Todas las almas (All Souls), Corazón tan blanco (A Heart So White), and Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí (Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me)?

Answer 45

Javier Marías

Question 46

Sharing its title with the subtitle of My Chemical Romance’s 2010 album Danger Days, of which it is a continuation, which 2013 comic book series by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon follows the titular group as they do battle with the tyrannical megacorporation Better Living Industries?

Answer 46

The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

Question 47

Astronomical rings such as the ones pictured are often called Gemma’s rings after the first name of which Dutch instrument maker considered one of the founders of the Netherlandish school of cartography, along with Mercator and Ortelius?

Answer 47

Gemma Frisius

Question 48

Which postmodern art movement, influenced by manga and anime, and reflecting the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of postwar Japanese culture and society, was founded in 2000 by the contemporary artist Takashi Murakami?

Answer 48

Superflat

Question 49

Sing the Sorrow (2003) and Decemberunderground (2006) are the two best-selling albums by which Californian alternative rock/emo/post-hardcore band fronted by Davey Havok?

Answer 49

AFI

Question 50

Which late-Baroque Spanish architect gives his name to the style of elaborate sculptural architectural ornament which emerged as a manner of stucco decoration in Spain and Mexico in the late 17th century, marked by extreme, expressive, and florid decorative detailing?

Answer 50

José Benito de Churriguera