Quiz #31

The mnemonic ‘God’s Eternal Love Never Dies’ can be used to remember the first five books of which testament of the Bible?

Question 2

Devised in 1923 by Frederick Stanley Mockford, a radio officer at Croyden airport, the international distress call ‘mayday’ is based on what French phrase?

Question 3

The dominant vegetation on approximately 40 per cent of the Earth’s non-polar land mass, by what name is the plant family poaceae most commonly known?

Question 4

The numbers of primary highways in the US are prefixed with the letter I, standing for interstate, while in the UK it is M, for motorway. What letters precedes such roads in Germany?

Question 5

Drift, drove, fleet, and sounder are all possible collective nouns for which species of mammals, generally referred to as a herd when living on a farm?

Question 6

First appearing in a 1932 comic strip, but not given an English name or defined family connection until 2000 – when she was drawn noticeably younger – Felicity Fieldmouse is the older sister of which cartoon character?

Question 7

In publisher Penguin’s list of the 100 greatest novels ever written, as chosen by readers, what two titles – written successively from 1864 to 1877 – were authored by Russian author Leo Tolstoy?

Question 8

What are the names of the three wires in a standard plug?

Question 9

What are the five most common family names in Wales?

Question 10

Make the longest word possible from the following letters: ADDEPQRUU

Round 1 points
(Maximum: 25)

Round 2

Question 1

In economics, the term ‘perverse incentive’ describes an incentive scheme that leads to counter-productive results. By which species of snake is the incentive also known due to a tale from the British Raj in which the British Government offered rewards for the killing of this type of snake, which led to people the breeding of the snake, which led to the cancellation of the rewards, which led to the release of the captive snakes and therefore an increase in its wild population?

Question 2

A 2011 challenge for visitors to find 18 Adirondack chairs hidden around Canada’s 1800 km² Gros Morne National Park – which took three years to find a winner – has evolved into over 400 such chairs being placed by Parks Canada around the entire country. What colour are these chairs?

Question 3

Described as the UK’s unofficial national anthem, and the most streamed song from the 2000s on the Spotify platform, what song by The Killers is currently at number 71 in the UK singles chart, meaning it has been in the UK charts for 458 weeks – or nearly 9 years?

Question 4

At the time the largest ever conference on a single medical issue, what disease was the subject of a conference in Washington D.C. in June 1987 that was attended by over 6000 medical experts from over 50 countries, plus 900 journalists, 60 film crews, and the US President?

Question 5

From November 1999 to April 2020, the Bolivian city of Cochabamba saw mass protests and civilian unrest due to the government’s decision to privatise what resource as a condition of a loan it had taken from the World Bank? The incident is mirrored in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, as well as serves as the setting of the Spanish film Even the Rain.

Question 6

In thermodynamics, an adiabatic process is a system in which, even though the system’s temperature may change, no heat is released into the environment, and the only energy released is work or mass flow. What everyday meteorological event is the result of ‘pseudo adiabatic cooling’ within clouds, in that cooling causes energy to be released – the pseudo being added because although no heat is transferred to the atmosphere, the process’s product does contains latent heat?

Question 7

What two outwardly visible physiological reactions occur in a tonic-clonic seizure, most associated with the neurological condition epilepsy – although such seizures are only one of several types that are caused by the condition?

Question 8

According the Article 2.1 of the 1993 law Le Décret Pain, what are the only three ingredients that can go into bread sold as ‘French traditional bread’, not including the fermenting agent?

Question 9

As featured in the episode ‘Homer’s Barbershop Quartet’, which five characters from The Simpsons were members of the barbershop quartet The Be Sharps – one of whom gets kicked out of the group and spends the rest of the episode trying to sneak back into the group?

Question 10

In 2007, the New 7 Wonders of the World Foundation announced the winners of a six year poll to name seven new wonders the world. What seven sites were chosen, and can respectively be found in Brazil, China, India, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, and Peru?

Round 2 points
(Maximum: 23)

Total points
(Maximum: 48)

Round 3

Question 1

What French luxury department store, named for one of the seasons, has its flagship store at 64 Boulevard Haussmann, Paris, in an 1865 building now declared a French historic monument?

Question 2

As well as being UK tourist locations, the names Portmeirion, Hornsea, and Torquay are all connected to what form of art?

Question 3

According to Nielsen Ratings, which measure television viewership, the 1983 finale of which comedy series remains the most watched scripted television show in US history, with just under 106 million viewers?

Question 4

The children’s playhouse known as a Wendy House is named after a character in which fictional story?

Question 5

Although hairdressers Tracey Cahoon and Alex Foden have both claimed they were the first person to give her the look, British singer Amy Winehouse’s distinctive beehive hairstyle – as well as her ‘Cleopatra’ makeup – is generally believed to pay homage to which 1960s girl group whose style she admired?

Question 6

What former BBC Director of Programmes, controller of BBC One and BBC Two, and presenter of arts series Imagine, who greenlit shows such as Absolutely Fabulous, Have I Got News for You, and Wallace and Gromit but courted controversy with his attempts to influence news reporting and inserting footage of himself into interviews at which he was not present, died on May 24?

Question 7

While its fillings may range from meat, to cheese, to mushrooms, of what are the two outer layers of the Italian snack arancini made?

Question 8

The 1987 album Trio, and its 1999 follow-up Trio 2, were collaboration between which three country singers who between them have 35 won Grammy Awards, with two of them also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and two the recipients of the Kennedy Centre Honor?

Question 9

The French Open tennis tournament began on Sunday May 24. Who are the only five people to have won the men’s singles competition in its past 20 editions of that tournament?

Question 10

In management theory, and as defined by the Cambridge Business English Dictionary, what are the ‘5 Ts’ – those being five qualities beginning with the letter T – that an employee needs in order to do their job effectively?

Round 3 points
(Maximum: 21)

Total points
(Maximum: 69)

Round 4

Question 1

Nicknamed ‘China’s Hawaii’, and with a name that literally translates at ‘south sea’, what island is China’s most southerly province?

Question 2

In which Charles Dickens novel does the Jarndyce and Jarndyce court case around an inheritance last multiple generations, ultimately ending when legal costs have devoured the entire inheritance?

Question 3

On June 16, the UK parliament will debate the end of using what item on British farms after a petition started by Dame Joanna Lumley reached the 100000 public signatures required to force it to be discussed?

Question 4

Three of the final four teams in this season’s NHL ice hockey playoffs play in cities rarely associated with ice: Dallas, Texas; Miami, Florida; and Raleigh, North Carolina. Which Canadian city, with a January average temperature of −10.3°C, and which once hit −49°C, is the only cold weather team left in the tournament?

Question 5

Once ranked the most influential person in British culture, which London-born designer was a key figure in the design of Apple’s iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and was this year announced as a new billionaire by Forbes after his AI hardware start-up was bought by OpenAI?

Question 6

‘From this day forth begins a new era in the history of the world’ wrote the poet Goethe about France’s victory against Prussia on September 20, 1792, at which French commune outside Paris? Fought beside a windmill, the battle saw the French resist a Prussian effort to crush the French Revolution, setting the tone for France to abolish the monarchy two days later and begin the Revolutionary Wars around Europe.

Question 7

Who are the only two actors to have won an Academy Award and played the named title role in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film?

Question 8

Which two Scottish islands, both in the Western Isles, had the highest driving test pass rates in the UK in 2024, both above 90 per cent – over 42 per cent higher than the UK average? One of the islands, famous for having planes land on the beach, has one circular main road and no traffic lights, while the second, the administrative area of Uist, has a main town of only 510 people?

Question 9

Which four nations – three of which were in the Communist Bloc – competed at the first European Nations Cup football tournament, held in 1960?

Question 10

Based on current studies, which seven chemical elements constitute approximately 98 per cent of the rock and soil found on the moon’s surface?

Round 4 points
(Maximum: 21)

Total points
(Maximum: 90)

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 sites all located?

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: 100)