Quiz #05

With around 250000 hectares of land and 1300 tenant farmers, what organisation is the largest farm owner in the UK?

Question 2

According to Hesiod’s retelling of the myth in 700BC, what was the only item left in Pandora’s jar – later referred to as Pandora’s Box – after she opened it in curiosity and released a plague of ills upon humanity?

Question 3

Outside the North and South Pole, what desert is the driest in the world, with some weather stations yet to record any rainfall?

Question 4

Internet TV series Hot Ones involves celebrities being interviewed whilst eating increasingly spicy versions of what food?

Question 5

Erin, harlequin, kelly, and kombu are all shades of which colour?

Question 6

According to Fountains of Wayne’s 2003 single, whose mom ‘has it going on’?

Question 7

What are the two Bailiwicks, or jurisdictional areas, within the Channel Islands, named for the two largest islands in the archipelago?

Question 8

Which three Italian football teams have won the European Cup or its successor, the Champions League?

Question 9

Who are the five children of Donald Trump?

Question 10

Make the longest word possible from the following letters: ADEEEPRTW

Round 1 points
(Maximum: 25)

Round 2

Question 1

What is the English name of the island known by its native population as Rapa Nui?

Question 2

According to his biography ‘The Fastest Man Alive’, a fear of stomach issues led Usain Bolt to eat what item off the MacDonald’s menu for every meal during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, at which he won gold in the 100m and 200m in world record times?

Question 3

In the Sherlock Holmes story The Red-Headed League, by Arthur Conan Doyle, a mysterious benefactor pays a shop owner to copy out the contents of which reference book under the pretense of financially helping people with red hair?

Question 4

The theme music from the 1966 film The Trap, composed by Ron Goodwin, is used annually by the BBC in its live coverage of which April sporting event?

Question 5

Which well-known comedian was the lead singer of 1980s band Seona Dancing, which made little impact in his home country but found popularity in the Philippines?

Question 6

What letter of the alphabet is given to the cell cycle phase in which DNA is replicated, occurring between the G1 and G2 growth phases?

Question 7

Who were the two Stanford PhD students who started Google in 1998, who now have a combined wealth of over $300 billion?

Question 8

In the contentious DEI framework, which seeks to promote the representation of those deemed under-represented or discriminated against via targeted hiring and corporate practices, for what do the letters D, E, and I stand?

Question 9

Per data gathered by the Airport Council International, which five cities in the US have an airport amongst the world’s 10 most busy in terms of passenger numbers?

Question 10

After its expansion in 2024, what are the nine nations that are part of the BRICS organisation?

Round 2 points
(Maximum: 25)

Total points
(Maximum: 50)

Round 3

Question 1

In the musical Cats, what is the name of the railway cat?

Question 2

From which country does toy company Brio, best known for its wooden trains, originate?

Question 3

Who is the named director on the films Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, both released in 1939 and named in the American Film Institute’s 100 best American films ever list?

Question 4

Who was the 16^th century pre-telescope Danish astronomer whose observations, deemed far more accurate than any previously made, later helped his one-time assistant Johannes Kepler formulate his three laws of planetary motion?

Question 5

Which musical theatre star described ‘On My Own’ from the musical Les Misérables as the song that changed her life, it having been the first song she performed as a 17-year old at the 1988 Miss Saigon original cast auditions where she won the part of Kim, and the solo she performed when cast as Éponine in the Broadway Les Misérables production four years later?  

Question 6

What is the name of the fermented spongy flatbread staple in Ethiopia and Eritrea that often serves as both a serving vessel and means to pick up accompanying ‘wot’ dishes?

Question 7

For what do the initials A.A. stand in the name of Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne?

Question 8

Which three countries produce the most orange juice in the world?

Question 9

According to the country’s Ministry of Public Security, what are the five most common surnames in China?

Question 10

What are the seven different component parts of a Big Mac?

Round 3 points
(Maximum: 23)

Total points
(Maximum: 73)

Round 4

Question 1

Which unrecognised de-facto nation held a general election on November 13, 2024, the fourth in its history, with President Muse Bihi Abdi seeking re-election?

Question 2

Bismuth-209 has the longest known radioisotope half-life, described using SI prefixes as 20.1 exayears. How many years is one exayear if described using short scale words derived from standard Latin prefixes, such as million, billion, trillion, etc.?

Question 3

Residing in Cuba, weighing less than 3g, and named for its nectar-seeking habits that are similar to a particular insect, what is the smallest known bird in the world?

Question 4

What colour completes the title of the 2021 book by Elizabeth Kolbert which investigates geoengineering projects and their disastrous unintended consequences, including plans to spray particles across the atmosphere to protect against global warming: Under a …Sky?

Question 5

In 2023, what flavour of Quality Street was re-released in a limited capacity after a 20 year absence, having won a ‘favourite retro sweet’ survey by the sweet’s? manufacturer, Nestle, in 2021?

Question 6

What Hebrew word means ‘In the beginning’, and is the title of the first book of the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible?

Question 7

Which Scottish Premiership football club shares its name with an American abstract expressionist painter from the New York School? And which other Scottish Premiership club shares its name with the town in Washington state in which this painter was born?

Question 8

Which three future Academy Award winners were amongst the cast of 1993 cult film Dazed and Confused?

Question 9

Since the Open Era began in 1968, which four Swedes have won a tennis grand slam tournament?

Question 10

Which six Prime Ministers of the UK have served as Rector of the University of Edinburgh?

Round 4 points
(Maximum: 21)

Total points
(Maximum: 94)

Round 5

In Round 5, there is only one answer. The less clues you need to get it, the more points you receive. If you need only one clue, you receive 10 points; if you require two clues, you will receive 9 points, and so on.

However, you may only answer once. If you answer incorrectly, you receive zero points for the round.

The following events all occurred in the same year. When was it?

Clue 1

Clue 2

Clue 3

Clue 4

Clue 5

Clue 6

Clue 7

Clue 8

Clue 9

Clue 10

Round 5 points
(Maximum: 10)

Total points
(Maximum: 104)