Quiz #29

“Oh no, it wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.” is the final line of what 1933 film?

Question 2

What organisation has the following ‘404 error’ on its website to tell users the webpage they are looking for doesn’t exist: ‘the cosmic object you were looking for has disappeared over the event horizon’?

Question 3

What item currently has a UK duty tax rate of £446.67 per 1000 units – equating to £8.93 per its usual pack of 20 items – which can increase to £334.58 per 1,000 units plus 16.5% of retail price if that is higher?

Question 4

Ile de Chiens, or the Isle of Dogs, is the most northerly point of Africa. To which country does it belong?

Question 5

Crafted by Barrow Hepburn & Gale, what colour are despatch boxes traditionally used by British ministers and most famously held up by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the day of a budget announcement?

Question 6

What is the least amount of points a player needs to win in order to win a best-of-five sets tennis match?

Question 7

What two numbers form a repeating decimal in the answer to 9 ÷ 11?

Question 8

As well as the release of energy, what are the two products of aerobic respiration – that being the breathing of oxygen?

Question 9

What are the three composite parts of the ‘fire triangle’, namely the three ingredients needed to start a fire?

Question 10

Make the longest word possible from the following letters: ACDEEIJTV

Round 1 points
(Maximum: 22)

Round 2

Question 1

According to his diary, what type of cheese did Samuel Pepys bury on Tuesday September 4, 1666, as the Great Fire of London took hold?

Question 2

Which team competing in this year’s FA Cup final shares its name with the location at which 20 FA Cup finals were played between 1895 and 1914? The team was officially formed in 1905 when the owners of the stadium decided they wanted a team to play there full-time.

Question 3

The sports venue in Question 2 also holds a piece of cricket history: during a game on August 25 1900, cricketing great WC Grace was caught out off the bowling of which famous author, who was a part-time player for the Marylebone Cricket Club? The author, famous for one specific literary character, wrote about the experience in a poem entitled ‘A Reminiscence of Cricket’.

Question 4

What type of creature is Uncle Beazley, which sat outside the National Museum of Natural History on Washington D.C.’s National Mall from 1970 to 1994 and was frequently climbed on by children? It has since been moved to the city’s zoo, where children are no longer allowed to play on it.

Question 5

What is the name of the largest cinema company in the UK, and second largest in the world, that was forced to file for bankruptcy and restructure between 2022 and 2024 due to accruing $8 billion in debt thanks to completing a $3.6 billion takeover the year before Covid-19 shut down cinemas?

Question 6

In the Peanuts comic strip, what is the name of the small yellow bird who is Snoopy’s friend?

Question 7

What two members of the British Royal Family, both teenagers at the time, went incognito to join in the VE Day celebrations on May 8, 1945, with aids saying the two joined in dancing the hokey-cokey, the Lambeth walk, and a conga through The Ritz hotel, as well as shouts of ‘we want the king’ at the royal balcony?

Question 8

Making use of a decommissioned railway line, through which three countries does the 125km Vennbahn cycle route run?

Question 9

What three colours are the layers of an angel cake?

Question 10

Not including spin-offs, such as separate shows looking at the same subject but in a different country, what six words complete the titles of podcasts produced by Goalhanger that begin with ‘The Rest is …’?

Round 2 points
(Maximum: 20)

Total points
(Maximum: 42)

Round 3

Question 1

In which Jane Austen novel is a heroine’s meddling admonished with the line: “Men of sense, whatever you may chuse to say, do not want silly wives.”

Question 2

In the first 100 days of his second term as President, Donald Trump signed over 140 executive orders, the most by a president in the first 100 days of a term. Which president has signed the most executive orders across an entire presidency, having signed 3721?

Question 3

What food animal completes the name of the celebratory feast eaten on Christmas Eve in Italian culture: The Feast of the Seven ___?

Question 4

In 2012, the body of king Richard III was found beneath what type of transport infrastructure site in the city of Leicester – exactly 50 years after a historian named Audrey Strange had a request to excavate the site denied?

Question 5

In The School of Athens, painted by Raphael in the Vatican between 1509 and 1511, the figure of Heraclitus is often also said to be represent which rival Renaissance painter who once accused Raphael of plotting to poison him?

Question 6

Per legal requirements outlined in the Scotch Whisky Regulations, what is the minimum number of years that a Scotch whisky must be matured?

Question 7

What two items of clothing comprise a twinset?

Question 8

According to online retailer Amazon, what three types of items are its top selling computer and electronics accessories?

Question 9

In physics, what are the four fundamental forces?

Question 10

What eight basic tools and pieces of joinery equipment are included in the Fisher Price Wooden Tool Box Set, aimed at children aged 3 and above?

Round 3 points
(Maximum: 23)

Total points
(Maximum: 65)

Round 4

Question 1

What type of sporting event is Il Palio, held twice a year in the Italian city of Siena and with a history dating back to the 6^th century?

Question 2

Toño Rosario, Juan Espínola, Tatico Henríquez, and Ñico Lora are all associated with what type of music, which originated in the Dominican Republic?

Question 3

In which art form would one use the terms chassé, allemande, and bouree?

Question 4

In Hindu mythology, the divine musician Krauncha was turned into Mushaka, a giant mouse, and told that one day gods would bow before him. This came to pass when Mushaka became the vahana – or animal mount – of which god, often depicted as an elephant?

Question 5

May 16-17 will see Kensington Town Hall in London host the KDF summer show, now in its 40^th year and this year featuring Craig Labenz, Geoff Wonnacott, and Jens Torp. What hobbyist craft, represented by the ‘D’ in KDF, does the show exhibit?

Question 6

The endangered Przewalski’s horse is the last genetically wild horse in the world. After going extinct in the wild in the 1960s, a multinational conservation project using sites in France, Spain, Hungary, and the Chernobyl exclusion zone, amongst others, has seen horses released into the wild in Mongolia, China, and as of 2024, which other central Asian country containing a large area of steppe?

Question 7

Used as a filling, spread, ice cream flavour, or simply eaten as a bar, what two flavours are combined in the Italian food product gianduja?

Question 8

What were the names of the three saints – one man also recognised as an archangel, and two women – who Joan of Arc claimed guided her to save France from the English?

Question 9

As well as a long list of physical effects, the UK’s NHS website lists five possible ‘long-term social implications’ of misusing alcohol. What five downturns in life does the site suggest could occur by consistently drinking too much?

Question 10

According to Operabase, which has tracked global opera performances since 1996, what are the ten most performed operas in the world?

Round 4 points
(Maximum: 26)

Total points
(Maximum: 91)

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.

What name do the following people all share, either as a first name or surname?

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: 101)