Quiz #27

In which British newspaper has the Lex investment column been published daily since 1945, with future UK Chancellor Nigel Lawson amongst its previous writers?

Question 2

What type of diabetes is also known as adult-onset diabetes, and is commonly associated with poor diet and lack of exercise?

Question 3

Which human organs filter about half a cup of blood every minute, removing extra water to create urine, and secretes hormones such as renin that help balance the body’s chemical systems?

Question 4

Concluding two months of programming, the 2025 edition of what annual musical event will be conducted by Elim Chan from Hong Kong and feature a premiere by Oscar winning composer Rachel Portman, before moving into its traditional closing numbers that include a crowd-participation rendition of Rule, Britannia?

Question 5

What entertainment device accessory, which usually retails at £20-£50, has been adapted by NASA to control a rover, the US military to guide missiles and drones, medical science companies to navigate 3D MRI images, and the company that makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner to remotely drive a bomb disposal robot?

Question 6

What type of animal is raised on all of the ten largest farming stations in Australia, including Anna Creek, which at over 5.8m acres is the largest such station in the world?

Question 7

In the US, what two ingredients comprise half-and-half, a liquid often added to coffee?

Question 8

Which two men famously met at Ujiji in Tanzania on November 10, 1871?

Question 9

If using a standard telephone keypad, what numbers would need to be pressed to spell the word ‘quiz’?

Question 10

Make the longest word possible from the following letters: ACEFLLRUY

Round 1 points
(Maximum: 23)

Round 2

Question 1

What two word term is given to the cuisine popular in African American communities in the US which includes dishes such as catfish, chitlins, collared greens, cornbread, jambalaya, and sweet potato pie?

Question 2

In which present day country is Hamelin, known through the folk tale The Pied Piper of Hamelin in which a rat catcher left unpaid lures away the town’s children in revenge?

Question 3

Although makers Burton’s have released other varieties, including a version containing chocolate, what flavour of jam is used within the regular Jammie Dodger biscuit?

Question 4

Which album by The Beatles was described as ‘the most important rock ‘n’ roll album ever made’ when it topped Rolling Stone magazine’s inaugural Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2003, but was only at number 24 in the latest version, sitting behind two of the band’s other releases, Abbey Road and Revolver?

Question 5

Eve Jardine-Young is the current principal of which UK school? With a 36-acre estate and 172 year history, it is the most expensive all-girls education facility in the UK, with annual fees of between £54000 and £62000.

Question 6

What two-letter personal pronoun is the title of a 1924 work by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin, a key work in the dystopian fiction genre?

Question 7

In international cricket, what country wears an item known as the ‘baggy green’? And what type of clothing item is it?

Question 8

What are the only four countries outside Europe and the Americas to have hosted a men’s football World Cup finals tournament?

Question 9

In the Harry Potter books, by JK Rowling, what four animals represent the four houses at the Hogwarts school?

Question 10

In a 2024 survey of musculoskeletal (bone or joint) pains felt by 2000 UK residents, which four areas of the body were identified as being sources of pain to over 30 per cent of participants?

Round 2 points
(Maximum: 20)

Total points
(Maximum: 43)

Round 3

Question 1

Which sports company made the volleyball that becomes Tom Hank’s friend in the film Cast Away and was later sold at auction for over $300000?

Question 2

What plant, the name of which is derived from the Latin for ‘to wash’ due to its role in Roman bathing, is commonly farmed in fields across the Provence region of France and is traditionally used in the area’s households to repel scorpions?

Question 3

The federal minimum hourly wage in the US is $7.25. To the nearest dollar, to what does the minimum wage drop if the worker is a ‘tipped worker’, that being they receive more than $30 a month in tips?

Question 4

In March, which Welsh singer made her first public appearance in over 10 years when she briefly lip synced and winked on a TikTok video? Her only previous public communications in her time away had been a social media post saying she was recovering after being drugged, abducted and raped, and sending a song to Radio 2 DJ Jo Wiley to play during the Covid lockdown.

Question 5

Believed to possibly be the largest living organism in the world, a specimen of the fungus Armillaria ostoyae is estimated to cover 9.1 km² and weigh 31500 tonnes. Nicknamed ‘the humongous fungus’, in which widely forested US state can it be found?

Question 6

At a 1979 baseball doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers, fans were invited to bring records of what music genre to the stadium, with the records then placed in a box that was blown up between the games – unfortunately also blowing a hole in the field and prompting 7000 people to rush on to the playing surface, where they stole and destroyed equipment?

Question 7

What are the two shafts within a piston engine, one of which controls the intake and exhaust valves, and the other converting the up-and-down reciprocating motion into rotational motion?

Question 8

Not including the 39-minute documentary The Elephant Whisperers, which won the documentary short prize in 2023, what are the three feature films for which an Indian national has won an Academy Award – a costume design Oscar in 1983; the Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Song, and Best Original Score Oscars in 2009; and a Best Original Song Oscar in 2023?

Question 9

What are the three Laws of Robotics that robots must follow, as outlined by author Isaac Asimov?

Question 10

A joke in Russian politics is that since 1825 the country’s leaders have alternated between bald men and men with hair. Who have been the seven bald rulers since the Russian empire ended in 1917?

Round 3 points
(Maximum: 21)

Total points
(Maximum: 64)

Round 4

Question 1

What 6^th-century underground site in Istanbul includes 336 marble columns, blocks carved in the shape of Medusa’s head which are inverted so people avoid her stare, and could hold 80000m³ of water if used at full capacity – but is currently mostly drained so tourists can visit?

Question 2

According to both the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics, what is the earliest time a high school should start in order to allow teenagers – whose average bedtime is 11pm – to get enough sleep?

Question 3

What natural phenomenon occurs at Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, where it is fed by the Catatumbo River, for around 9 hours a day, 150 days a year, and is said to have forced Francis Drake to abandon a sneak attack on a nearby city in 1595 because it revealed where his ships were situated?

Question 4

At 3 hours and 15 minutes in length, which film by Steven Spielberg has the longest running time?

Question 5

The painting Liberty Leading the People, depicting a Goddess with a French tricolour encouraging revolutionaries across the battlefield, was painted by which French painter?

Question 6

Which band fired its lead singer in 1979 due to his drug use, which included disappearing on a six-week drug binge? Guitarist Tommy Iommi described the bandmates’ inability to continue as: “As much as everyone wanted us to, we just couldn’t do it. Nothing was happening and it would have meant the end of the band. We didn’t want to fire him but we had to if we wanted to continue.”

Question 7

In March, singer Dawn Robinson released a video in which she said she had been living in her car for three years, having decided to ‘research car life’ after falling out with her mother and deciding hotels were too expensive. With which two groups did Robinson have charting albums in the 1990s and 2000s – one being a girl group whose first two albums sold over 6m copies, for which each group member was paid only $20000 plus 2¢ per copy sold?

Question 8

Canada’s general election is today. Of its 338 federal electoral districts – also called ridings – which two cover entire territories and have areas larger than 1 million square kilometres?

Question 9

Although many types and varieties exist, what are the four main types of leaf used for cigar wrappers – three of which refer to the tobacco variety used, and one meaning an aged leaf with a name derived from the Spanish for ‘ripe’?

Question 10

In a 2004 edition of its quarterly magazine, Prologue, the US National Archive attempted to put together a list of the top ten most requested photos and images which it held – an action it admitted was almost impossible due to the numerous methods and locations through which a person could gain access to a photo. Of the 11 images the magazine did name, what seven photographs or images connected to World War II were included?

Round 4 points
(Maximum: 21)

Total points
(Maximum: 84)

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.

Which company owns all of the following brands?

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: 94)