Quiz #33

Dragonflies and damselflies are two similar looking members of the odonata order, but can be distinguished through differences such as wing position when resting. Which of the two rests with its wings closed, as opposed to outstretched?

Question 2

‘Of the herd boy and the farmers’, ‘A boy and false alarms’, and ‘Of the child whiche kepte the sheep’ were traditional names for which of Aesop’s fables?

Question 3

Mikey Madison, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2025, is the first-cousin-twice-removed, or grandcousin, of a Texan cowboy named Clarence Hailey Long, whose portrait on a 1949 edition of Life Magazine inspired advertising executive Leo Burnett to create which character?

Question 4

What word is given to a diet that eats fish but is otherwise vegetarian?

Question 5

Formication, a symptom of delusional parasitosis, is the tactile hallucination that what is on or under the skin?

Question 6

‘From his ear tag he was traced back to a farm in Leicestershire, but they suspect because he’s in Birmingham he’s probably escaped from an abattoir somewhere on the back streets of Birmingham,’ said animal sanctuary owner Wendy Valentine after what type of animal arrived in her care as a consequence of it being found confusedly walking through traffic in the suburbs of the city on June 6?

Question 7

What two figures from the Bible have been the subjects of musicals composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber?

Question 8

The Masterclass video website, in which industry experts share their skills, currently features courses by which two former US Presidents, both of whom are teaching leadership?

Question 9

According to a 2019 survey conducted by ICI Business, what are the five qualities or details most commonly looked for by European consumers when purchasing strawberries?

Question 10

Make the longest word possible from the following letters: AABCENORT

Round 1 points
(Maximum: 24)

Round 2

Question 1

William Kidd, Bartholomew Roberts, Edward Teach, and Amaro Pargo were some of the most famous individuals involved in what illegal profession during the 17^th century, it’s so-called ‘golden age’?

Question 2

In 1466, following the death of his mentor Donatello, Italian sculpture Agostini di Duccio stopped work on a commissioned sculpture, leaving it ‘badly blocked out and supine’ in Florence. Twenty-five years later the commission was passed to artist Michelangelo, who turned it into what renowned masterpiece?

Question 3

Artist Sam Van Aken’s ‘Tree of 40 Fruits’, in which a single tree has been modified to produce 40 different types of fruit, makes use of what horticultural process in which one plant is adhered to another by cutting and joining their tissue?

Question 4

Named for the Pattison brothers, two big-spending former dairy farmers from Edinburgh who swiftly built a drinks empire but were then convicted of fraud and embezzlement, the Pattison Crash of 1898 saw which spirits industry temporarily collapse due to over-speculation and over-extended credit lines?

Question 5

In typography, kerning is altering of the space between what?

Question 6

Swoop, Swipe, and Swap are relatives of which UK children’s television character, who first appeared in 1957 and whose distinctive voice was initially created by a saxophone reed?

Question 7

In astrology, the summer solstice – which occurs during the night of June 20 or morning of June 21 – signals the changeover between which two star signs?

Question 8

Although there were 17 sections in operation at the end of World War II, what are currently the three active branches of the UK’s Military Intelligence programme?

Question 9

What five modern day countries comprised The Federal Republic of Central America, a state that existed in the first half of the 19th century between Mexico and Gran Colombia?

Question 10

What are the seven European sovereign nations, as recognised by the United Nations and therefore not including the individual countries within the UK, that have a flag that contains only the colours red and white?

Round 2 points
(Maximum: 23)

Total points
(Maximum: 47)

Round 3

Question 1

Which iPhone model was the first to have no headphone jack, a source of controversy when it was released in 2016?

Question 2

Joan Baez, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Marianne Faithful are amongst the artists to have sung variations of the folk song Fare Thee Well, also known as 10000 Miles, the lyrics of which are broadly taken from the work of which poet?

Question 3

In English law, how long does the option to annul a marriage last, after which couples must instead file for a divorce to end their marriage?

Question 4

Containing five species, what family of birds is the only aquatic songbird – that being a songbird capable of diving and swimming underwater?

Question 5

In evolutionary theory, carcinisation is the idea that crustaceans naturally evolve towards the body shape of what animal, it having occurred independently to five different decapod crustacean groups?

Question 6

What disease was named phthisis, or consumption, by Hippocrates because he observed that it consumed its victims through substantial weight loss? The name lasted until Robert Koch discovered the microorganism that causes the disease in 1882.

Question 7

What were the first names of the German folklorists Brothers Grimm?

Question 8

What are the respective descriptive names used by sailors for the intense winds felt in the Southern Hemisphere between 40° and 49° south, 50° and 59° south, and 60° and 69° south?

Question 9

Since a Beatrix Potter anniversary series was released in 2016, the reverse side of the British 50p coin has featured several beloved British children’s literary characters. In the series of 50ps featuring Michael Bond’s Paddington, which four London locations is the bear seen visiting?

Question 10

Released in 1973, the series of six animated children’s UK public information films known as ‘Charley says…’ involved a boy translating the incomprehensible health and safety warnings given by his cat Charley. What six warnings did Charley give Britain’s children?

Round 3 points
(Maximum: 21)

Total points
(Maximum: 68)

Round 4

Question 1

In ten-pin bowling, what is the highest score a player can get in a game without throwing a single strike?

Question 2

Although over a million people still visit the site each year, what UK tourist attraction that was known for its curative qualities for two thousand years has not been in public use since 1978, after a child with a local swimming club contracted a fatal dose of water-borne meningoencephalitis?

Question 3

Often mistakenly claimed to be ‘the town that made dying illegal’, Longyearbyen on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard has had strict rules on burial since 1950, with limited licences given for cremation and Section 3 of the ‘Regulations on Cemeteries’ law banning all coffin burial. What reason is given for coffin burial being outlawed?

Question 4

Established in 2006, Shēnzhèn Shì Dà Jiāng Chuàngxīn Kējì Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, or DJI, is the world’s largest manufacturer of what technology product, estimated to account for roughly 70 per cent of the global market? The company is currently under a security review by the US government, and its products have been linked to deaths in Ukraine and Gaza despite it saying ‘our resellers globally commit to DJI not to sell products for combat purposes’? 

Question 5

Its name referring to its location within the broader interconnected network, what term is given to the computing model in which computation and storage is done closer to the data source, utilising the power of objects such as smart phones, rather than being sent to centralised data centres?

Question 6

Built between 700 and 1400, measuring approximately 16000km, and named by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest earthworks of the pre-mechanical era, what man-made feature once surrounded Benin City in Nigeria, although much has now been destroyed or left to ruin?

Question 7

What are the equivalents of the blackjack terms ‘hit’ and ‘stand’ that are used in the British card game pontoon, another casino game in which the aim is to get cards with a total value as close to 21 as possible?

Question 8

As defined by the British Lichen Society, lichen is not a single organism but a ‘stable symbiotic association’ that may include what three types of organisms?

Question 9

In 1959, winemaker Paul Gineste de Saurs established the Le Relais de Venise – L’Entrecôte restaurant in Paris, in which he served only one type of main course. Since then, his three children have established three international restaurant groups – L’Entrecôte Porte-Maillot, L’Entrecôte, and Le Relais de l’Entrecôte – all owned separately but also serving that same single main course. What three items arrive on a plate if one orders a main course at any of the children’s restaurants?

Question 10

What four dishes are listed as ‘Switzerland’s national dishes’ by the country’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the department responsible for promoting the nation’s image around the world? Two of the dishes are based on cheese, one on potato, and one generally eaten for breakfast.

Round 4 points
(Maximum: 18)

Total points
(Maximum: 86)

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 what city did all the following events take place?

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: 96)