Round 1
Question 1
What breakfast cereal has been advertised in Germany with the slogan ‘Knisper! Knasper! Knusper!’?
Answer: Rice Krispies
*’Knisper! Knasper! Knusper!’ is the German equivalent of ‘Snap! Crackle! Pop!’.
1 point
Question 2
Resisting the use of the word ‘doll’, what famous toy line was described by makers Hasbro as ‘America’s moveable fighting man’?
Answer: G.I. Joe
1 point
Question 3
What type of flower, whose name is an anagram of ‘toe pianist’, is commonly used in Christmas displays, supposedly because its star-shaped leaves represent the Star of Bethlehem and its red colour the blood of Christ?
Answer: Poinsettia
1 point
Question 4
Who is the only client of sports agency CK66, run by Charlie Kane?
Answer: Harry Kane
1 point
Question 5
According to traditional Bolivian culture, the fetus of what type of animal should be buried beneath a person’s house or burnt as an offering to the fertility goddess Pachamama?
Answer: Llama
1 point
Question 6
What type of animal is Clyde in the 1978 film Every Which Way But Loose, and Dunston in the 1996 film Dunston Checks In?
Answer: Orangutan
1 point
Question 7
Started in 1862 as the Special Scotch Express, between which two capital cities does the Flying Scotsman train operate?
Answer: Edinburgh; London
2 points
Question 8
Per the Global Carbon Atlas, what three countries are the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the world, accounting for nearly 20000 metric tonnes?
Answer: China; USA; India
3 points
Question 9
What four interactive options are presented beneath a post on Facebook?
Answer: Like; comment; send; share
4 points
Question 10
Make the longest word possible from the following letters: ACCEILPST
Answer: Sceptical
Up to 9 points
(*length of word equates to points awarded)
Round 1 points
(Maximum: 24)
Round 2
Question 1
Which 1990s comedy film includes a scene in which weatherman Phil Conners enthusiastically greets old school classmate Ned Ryerson in the street, before punching him in the face?
Answer: Groundhog Day
1 point
Question 2
In May 2020 President John Magufuli declared that Covid-19 had been defeated in his country thanks to the power of prayer and god, less than one year before his own death, widely reprted as being from heart failure caused by Covid-19. Of which African nation was John Magufuli the president?
Answer: Tanzania
1 point
Question 3
What is the simple three word question that comprises the title of a US television show, presented by comedian Mikey Day, in which contestants try to guess whether an item is real or a replica made of a particular baked produce?
Answer: Is it cake?
1 point
Question 4
Famous for her huge pay packets, which have totalled over £2bn since she took over and once included annual pay of £466mn, Denise Coates is the chief executive of what UK betting company?
Answer: Bet365
1 point
Question 5
Film director Duncan Jones, who directed the films Moon, Source Code, and Warcraft, is the child of which British musician?
Answer: David Bowie
*David Bowie’s real name was David Jones.
1 point
Question 6
‘I kill where I please because it is all mine. / There is no sophistry in my body: / My manners are tearing off heads -’. What type of bird do these lines describe in a poem by Ted Hughes?
Answer: Hawk
*The lines are from the poem Hawk Roosting, published in Hughes’s Lupercal collection in 1960.
1 point
Question 7
Which two candidates took part in the first US presidential debate to be televised?
Answer: Richard Nixon; John F. Kennedy
*The debate was held in 1960. Kennedy won the presidency that year, although Nixon won in 1968.
2 points
Question 8
What are the four ingredients that go into a slow comfortable screw cocktail?
Answer: Vodka; orange juice; sloe gin; Southern Comfort
*In the name the ‘slow’ refers to sloe gin, the ‘comfortable’ to Southern Comfort, and the ‘screw’ to the two-ingredient screwdriver cocktail, which is made of vodka and orange juice.
4 points
Question 9
Which five films written by Richard Curtis have starred Hugh Grant?
Answer: Four Weddings and a Funeral; (1994) Notting Hill (1999); Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001); Love Actually (2003); Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
5 points
Question 10
In a standard game of poker using a single pack of cards and no wild cards, what are the nine ranking poker hands?
Answer: Straight flush; four of a kind; full house; flush; straight; three of a kind; two pair; one pair; high card
*The term royal flush is given to a straight flush starting with an ace, and is the best hand in the game.
9 points
Round 2 points
(Maximum: 26)
Total points
(Maximum: 50)
Round 3
Question 1
Despite its Irish sounding name, what French fast food chain – with over 300 outlets in 11 countries – specialises in a dish consisting of flour tortillas containing meat, cheese, and French fries?
Answer: O’Tacos
1 point
Question 2
Which religion, founded in the 19th century, is led by a nine-person ruling body based at the Universal House of Justice in Israel?
Answer: Baháʼí
1 point
Question 3
What is the only country to have hosted successive Champions League or European Cup finals, doing so in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions affecting Turkey?
Answer: Portugal
*Covid meant that the 2019-2020 competition had its quarter-finals, semi-finals and final all played in Lisbon, rather than in Istanbul. Istanbul then replaced St Petersburg as the scheduled host for the next year’s final, but was replaced because both the finalists were from England, which had put Turkey on its travel red list. The final was therefore moved to Porto.
1 point
Question 4
What type of fabric was traditionally known as Manchester in several European countries, including Czechia, Germany, and the Netherlands, due to that English city’s strong connection with textiles during the British Industrial Revolution?
Answer: Corduroy
1 point
Question 5
Which English city sits on the site of Camulodunum, widely believed to be the first major Roman city built on the island of Great Britain?
Answer: Colchester
1 point
Question 6
The initials A.S.C. are frequently seen after names during the closing credits of American films. To what invited membership organisation do the letters A.S.C. refer?
Answer: American Society of Cinematographers
1 point
Question 7
Of the 29 recognised and named SI base units and SI derived units, which two have the shortest names, each at three letters in length?
Answer: Ohm; lux
*The ohm measures resistance, and the lux measures illuminance.
2 points
Question 8
What three men named Thomas or Tomas have won the Nobel Prize for Literature?
Answer: Thomas Mann (1929); T.S. Eliot (1948); Tomas Tranströmer (2011)
3 points
Question 9
The men’s rugby union teams of which four nations perform pre-match war dances respectively called the Haka, Siva Tau, Sipi Tau, and Cibi?
Answer: New Zealand; Samoa; Tonga; Fiji
4 points
Question 10
What five animals are mentioned in the lyrics to the song My Favourite Things from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music?
Answer: Kitten; pony; goose; dog; bee
*Amongst the favourite things are ‘whiskers on kittens’, ‘cream-coloured ponies’, and ‘wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings’. The chorus, which describes when the singer thinks of these, starts with the line ‘when the dog bites, when the bee stings’.
5 points
Round 3 points
(Maximum: 20)
Total points
(Maximum: 70)
Round 4
Question 1
A statue called ‘The Signer’, designed by EvAngelos W. Frudakis and depicting a man holding aloft a scroll, can be found in which US city?
Answer: Philadelphia
1 point
Question 2
Which 19th century biologist was nicknamed ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’ due to his public defence of the theory of natural selection?
Answer: Thomas Henry Huxley
1 point
Question 3
What type of lesser seen geographical feature gives its name to a national park near Puerto Princesa in the Philippines, with the park named amongst the New Seven Wonders of the World list released in 2011?
Answer: Subterranean river
*The park’s name is Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park.
1 point
Question 4
In February 2024, as part of the organisation being found guilty on corruption charges, which former CEO of America’s National Rifle Association was ordered to repay over $4m he was deemed to have misspent on items such as a private jet, expensive suits, and a team of beauticians for his wife?
Answer: Wayne LaPierre
1 point
Question 5
What futuristic American architectural style which was popular in the 1950s, named for a coffee shop in Los Angeles that was an early example of it, and is only one letter different from the name of a major technology company, makes use of roofs that sweep upwards, geometric shapes, and symbols such as atoms and flying saucers?
Answer: Googie
1 point
Question 6
What football team is the only one to have fired Alex Ferguson as manager?
Answer: St Mirren
1 point
Question 7
Since the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, eight of the country’s nine chancellor’s have come from which two political parties?
Answer: Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands / CDU); Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands / SDP)
2 points
Question 8
Fruit Salad, the yellow and pink coloured British confectionery chew that has existed since the 1920s, is advertised as tasting of what two types of fruit – although no fruit is listed in its ingredients?
Answer: Raspberry; pineapple
2 points
Question 9
Excluding ‘non-word’ categories (such as abbreviations, interjections, prefixes and suffixes, proper nouns, modern slang, and Old English variants), as well as plurals, what are the five words in the Merriam-Webster dictionary that start with the letter p and include none of the five vowels A, E, I, O, and U?
Answer: Ply; pry; psych; pygmy; pyx
5 points
Question 10
While the original novel by Bret Easton Ellis referenced many more, what seven musical artists or bands of the 1980s were mentioned in the film adaptation of American Psycho, released in the year 2000?
Answer: George Michael; Huey Lewis and the News; Elvis Costello; Phil Collins; Genesis; U2; Whitney Houston
*Protagonist Patrick Bateman talks enthusiastically about Huey Lewis and the News, Genesis, Phil Collins, and Whitney Houston prior to killing people. He compares Huey Lewis to Elvis Costello, and is trying to listen to George Michael when his fiancee talks to him. U2 is mentioned by one of the victims.
7 points
Round 4 points
(Maximum: 22)
Total points
(Maximum: 92)
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.
In which city are the following locations all found?
Clue 1
Patriarch’s Ponds
10 points
Clue 2
Panorama360
9 points
Clue 3
Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy
8 points
Clue 4
Exhibition Complex Bunker 42
7 points
Clue 5
GUM department store
6 points
Clue 6
The Arbat
5 points
Clue 7
Saint Basil’s Cathedral
4 points
Clue 8
Bolshoi Theatre
3 points
Clue 9
Red Square
2 points
Clue 10
Kremlin
1 point
Answer: Moscow
Round 5 points
(Maximum: 10)
Total points
(Maximum: 102)