Round 1
Question 1
What member of the big cat family is known for its ability to hoist prey heavier than its own body weight into trees in order to eat away from scavengers such as hyenas?
Answer: Leopard
1 point
Question 2
What does the app Leafsnap help its users identify?
Answer: Plants
1 point
Question 3
In what direction do hurricanes rotate?
Answer: Anticlockwise
*When in the Southern Hemisphere hurricanes become known as cyclones, which conversely rotate clockwise due to the Coriolis effect.
1 point
Question 4
What type of vegetable juice is one of the ingredients in a ‘What’s Up Doc?’ cocktail?
Answer: Carrot juice
1 point
Question 5
The English use of the words ‘beef’ and ‘pork’ for cow and pig meat stems from which other European language, which became prominent in Britain after the Norman Conquest of 1066?
Answer: French
1 point
Question 6
What item of formal wear is also used as a nickname for black cats with white on the area around the throat?
Answer: Tuxedo
1 point
Question 7
The water body known on one of its shores as Берингов пролив (Beringov proliv) separates which two countries?
Answer: Russia; US
*Beringov proliv is the Russian for Bering Strait.
2 points
Question 8
The names of which three US states start with two consonants?
Answer: Florida; Rhode Island; Wyoming
3 points
Question 9
In the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, who were the four attendees at the Mad Hatter’s tea party?
Answer: Alice; The Mad Hatter; The March Hare; The Dormouse
4 points
Question 10
Make the longest word possible from the following letters: AABEEHRTT
Answer: Heartbeat
Up to 9 points
(*length of word equates to points awarded)
Round 1 points
(Maximum: 24)
Round 2
Question 1
Referenced in its first six words, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was delivered how many years after the American Declaration of Independence?
Answer: 87
*The Declaration of Independence was in 1776, and the Gettysburg Address was in 1863. The address begins with the words ‘four score and seven years ago’.
1 point
Question 2
Where in the universe would one find Fred Dube speaking Sotho, Elizabeth Bilson speaking Hungarian, a horse pulling a cart, the Mahi musicians of Benin, Cathy Rigby performing on a balance beam, and an unnamed woman eating grapes in a supermarket, all travelling at over 35000km/h?
Answer: Golden records on the Voyager space crafts
1 point
Question 3
Which actor, best known for being one of the stars of the TV show Friends, has said that, as part of their first job when aged 18 they served Rod Stewart his divorce papers?
Answer: David Schwimmer
1 point
Question 4
In the book A Bear Called Paddington, by Michael Bond, what was written on the label around Paddington’s neck when he was found in the train station by the Brown family?
Answer: Please look after this bear
1 point
Question 5
By what common name is the skin condition dermatophytosis better known due to its circular shape?
Answer: Ringworm
1 point
Question 6
In the nursery rhyme ‘Monday’s Child’, which day’s child ‘works hard for a living’?
Answer: Saturday
1 point
Question 7
What is the smallest nation by population to have won the Eurovision Song Contest? And what is the largest European country by population to have entered but never won the contest?
Answer: Monaco; Poland
*Monaco won in 1971. Poland have entered 26 times, with its best result being finishing second on its debut in 1994.
2 points
Question 8
O+ blood can be used in transfusions for what four blood types?
Answer: A+, B+, AB+, O+
*O+ can be used for transfusions on around 76 per cent of the population.
4 points
Question 9
Prior to their various marriages, what were the surnames of the five members of the pop group Spice Girls?
Answer: Adams; Brown; Bunton; Chisholm; Halliwell
5 points
Question 10
What are the six classical simple machines?
Answer: Inclined plane; lever; pulley; screw; wedge; wheel and axle
6 points
Round 2 points
(Maximum: 23)
Total points
(Maximum: 47)
Round 3
Question 1
Derived from the Greek words for sun and ball, what is the name given to the region around the sun filled with the solar magnetic field and solar wind?
Answer: Heliosphere
1 point
Question 2
What hedonistic literary character, who also appears in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, was able to stay young and handsome because he had a painting in his attic that aged and showed the ugliness of sin instead of its owner?
Answer: Dorian Gray
1 point
Question 3
US President Ronald Reagan declared May 6 1985 as a national day dedicated to which virologist, whose work on the polio vaccine he called an ‘epochal discovery’?
Answer: Jonas Salk
1 point
Question 4
What film about immortal gods fighting because ‘there can only be one’ saw a Frenchman play a Scot, a Scot play a Spaniard, and reportedly involved the crew glueing antlers onto a deer to make it look like a stag, only for the deer to then run away?
Answer: Highlander
1 point
Question 5
In the engineered wood product MDF, for what do the letters MDF stand?
Answer: Medium-density fibreboard
1 point
Question 6
Which Englishman, who set both land and water speed records in the 1960s, died on film on Coniston Water in 1967 as he attempted to push the water speed record past 300mph?
Answer: Donald Campbell
1 point
Question 7
Which two English footballers have finished as top scorer at a World Cup finals?
Answer: Gary Lineker (1986); Harry Kane (2018)
2 points
Question 8
Data for Scotland’s salmon export industry is expected to show it pass $1bn for 2024. What are the three countries that already export over $1bn of salmon per year?
Answer: Norway; Sweden; Chile
*With annual exports over $8bn, Norway makes up almost half of global salmon exports.
3 points
Question 9
With the equestrian element to be replaced by a new discipline, what five sports will comprise the modern pentathlon at the 2028 Olympics?
Answer: Fencing; Swimming; Shooting; Cross-country; Obstacle course racing
5 points
Question 10
Equations of motion are also known as SUVAT equations. For what variables do the letters S, U, V, A, and T stand?
Answer: Distance (s); initial velocity (u); velocity at time (v); acceleration (a); time (t)
5 points
Round 3 points
(Maximum: 21)
Total points
(Maximum: 68)
Round 4
Question 1
David Lynch passed away last week. In his 2017 black-and-white short film What Did Jack Do? Lynch plays a chain-smoking detective interrogating what type of animal for murder, the animal dressed in shirt, tie, and overcoat?
Answer: Monkey
*The exact species is a capuchin.
1 point
Question 2
Footballer Denis Law also passed away last week. In what Scottish city was he born?
Answer: Aberdeen
1 point
Question 3
Which Italian fashion designer got a major break when US First Lady Jackie Kennedy bought six of his dresses in 1964, starting a friendship that would see Kennedy frequently wear his designs, including at her second wedding?
Answer: Valentino Garavani
1 point
Question 4
What connects 60s girl group The Ronettes, 90s girl group Eternal, and the Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice?
Answer: They all have Bennett/Bennet sisters
*The Ronettes included Veronica and Estelle Bennett (Veronica was later known as Ronnie Spector); Eternal included Easther and Vernie Bennett; Pride and Prejudice followed the story of Bennet sisters Elizabeth, Jane, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia.
1 point
Question 5
What hotel and tower in Las Vegas has become famous for its high elevation thrill ride attractions, including Insanity, which span people in chairs 270m above the ground, and X-Scream, which drives a car along a see-saw 8m over the edge of the building’s roof?
Answer: The Strat
1 point
Question 6
Although she has said the joke is disrespectful to her opponents, Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek has been said to run what type of food outlet due to her habit of winning sets 6-0 or 6-1?
Answer: Bakery
*’Iga’s Bakery’ comes from the fact a 6-0 set is called a bagel, while a 6-1 set is called a breadstick. Between 2022 and 2024 49% of Swiatek’s sets ended with the opponent winning 0 or 1 game.
1 point
Question 7
The 1962 Évian Accords brought an end to an eight-year conflict between which two nations?
Answer: France; Algeria
2 points
Question 8
Which two artists collaborated on paintings entitled Zenith, Olympics, and Olympic Rings in the mid-1980s?
Answer: Andy Warhol; Jean-Michel Basquiat
2 points
Question 9
After Peter the Great formed the Empire of Russia in 1721, which four women served as Empress in their own right – that being they did not have a living husband also on the throne?
Answer: Catherine I; Anna; Elizabeth; Catherine II
*Catherine II was also known as Catherine the Great.
4 points
Question 10
What are the six novels written by George Orwell?
Answer: Burmese Days; A Clergyman’s Daughter; Keep the Aspidistra Flying; Coming Up for Air; Animal Farm; Nineteen Eighty-Four
6 points
Round 4 points
(Maximum: 20)
Total points
(Maximum: 88)
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 film and television parts have all been played by the same actor. Who is it?
Clue 1
Ron Anderson
10 points
Clue 2
Father Gerald
9 points
Clue 3
Nigel Small-Fawcett
8 points
Clue 4
Rufus the shop assistant
7 points
Clue 5
Gerald the Gorilla
6 points
Clue 6
Zazu
5 points
Clue 7
Jules Maigret
4 points
Clue 8
Edmund Blackadder
3 points
Clue 9
Johnny English
2 points
Clue 10
Mr Bean
1 point
Answer: Rowan Atkinson
Round 5 points
(Maximum: 10)
Total points
(Maximum: 98)