Quiz #53

In its standard printed form, as would appear on a keyboard, and without retracing over a previous line, what is the only letter in the Roman alphabet that requires a minimum of three distinct pen strokes in which the pen leaves the paper?

Question 2

Sold under the Bachelor’s brand name, Smash is a instant form of what type of vegetable-based foodstuff?

Question 3

Now liberally and inaccurately used to describe retro bars, what term was used for bars illegally selling alcohol during the US prohibition era, which itself was a word borrowed from a term known to be used by British sailors to refer to locations selling smuggled alcohol?

Question 4

What music channel broadcaster is to close all five of its dedicated music channels in the UK at the end of 2025, leaving only a channel primarily showing reality television?

Question 5

The band Ming Tea, formed by Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles, fellow musician Matthew Sweet, and comedian Mike Meyers, saw the introduction of which comedic character, who would star in a three-movie franchise in the late 1990s and early 2000s?

Question 6

In the 1952 novel Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White, which was adapted into films in 1973 and 2006, what sort of animal is Wilbur?

Question 7

Which European country and its capital city, when combined, create the anagram ‘Chet knows models’?

Question 8

In the Bible, what are the names of the first three books of the Old Testament?

Question 9

According to a traditional English rhyme, brides should carry items meeting what four qualities on their wedding day, plus what denomination of obsolete coin in their left shoe? In the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the four qualities were met by a piece of cloth from the wedding dress of Princess Diana, a dress created by Givenchy, a tiara donated by the Queen for the day, and forget-me-not flowers.

Question 10

Make the longest word possible from the following letters: CEINOPPRU

Round 1 points
(Maximum: 25)

Round 2

Question 1

What type of acid is produced by the breakdown of pyruvate during exercise, and is commonly mistakenly believed to be the cause of post-exercise muscle soreness, which is instead actually caused by damage to stressed muscles and tendons?

Question 2

Brutal, Nuclear Oblivion, Nuts, Kernow Killer, and Tough Mudder are all versions of what sort of race?

Question 3

Named for the continent’s mountain range in which it lived, what was the only species of bear that lived in Africa in modern times, with the last one killed in 1870?

Question 4

Which NFL team is said to being suffering the Curse of the Honey Bears, the curse having supposedly started when the team’s owner disbanded its cheerleader squad after winning the Super Bowl in 1986 due to perceiving its existence as sexist, only to have generally suffered mediocrity in the four decades since?

Question 5

The traditional spelling of the word Halloween includes an apostrophe that replaced what letter, which does not appear in the modern spelling of the word?

Question 6

First practiced in Scotland and Ireland, and taking its name from the notion of wearing a disguise, what Halloween activity involved children knocking on people’s doors and asking for treats to help protect them from evil spirits, which would later evolve into the modern activity known as trick-or-treating?

Question 7

Deriding the modern trend of young women treating Halloween as ‘the one night of the year a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it’, the 2004 comedy film Mean Girls states ‘hard core girls’ only wear what two items as their Halloween costume – the description narrated over a scene in which a father weeps as his daughter goes out to a party grossly under-dressed?

Question 8

Commonly seen in banking transactions involving companies, for what does the acronym BIC stand?

Question 9

In physiology, what are the four basic forms of animal tissue?

Question 10

What ten colours – two of which are different shades of the same colour – appear as the backgrounds on UK road signs?

Round 2 points
(Maximum: 25)

Total points
(Maximum: 50)

Round 3

Question 1

The Linux computer operating system developed by Linus Torvalds in the 1990s is based on – but does not use code from – what operating system developed in the late 1960s and 1970s by Bell Labs, the name of which is comprised of four letters present in the Linux name?

Question 2

The Chinese city of Yiwu has the world’s largest what, covering five districts and multiple buildings of five or more floors, and a total floor space of over 6 million square metres?

Question 3

Lasting under 45 minutes, the UK’s 1896 war with which African island sultanate is generally considered the shortest war in history?

Question 4

Which actress, best known for playing the title role of a TV drama which ran from 1997 to 2002 and who is 23 years younger than her husband, has been married to actor Harrison Ford since 2010?

Question 5

Following similar reports in 2023, what type of animal was reported last week to have been stealing surfboards in Santa Cruz, California, including with surfers still on them?

Question 6

The Balkan dessert tufahije is a poached apple filled with what type of nuts, and then topped with whipped cream?

Question 7

Although no physical evidence has ever been available for analysis, scientists have used seismic wave and magnetic fields measurements, coupled with theories relating to other celestial objects, to deduce the Earth’s inner core is formed primarily of what two metals?

Question 8

All trading on the US stock exchange and all operating in the technology sector, what three companies have the world’s largest market capitalization, or ‘marketcap’, value – that being number of shares in circulation multiplied by the share price?

Question 9

Between 1984 and 1989 songwriters Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg had a run of five number one hits on the US Billboard Chart, all sung by female singers or bands fronted by women. What five acts – three solo singers and two bands – performed these number ones, which all became worldwide hits?

Question 10

Which six US states comprise the area known as New England?

Round 3 points
(Maximum: 22)

Total points
(Maximum: 72)

Round 4

Question 1

At the UK supermarket Co-op, what type of edible product is named Crumbs, the name having been chosen by the supermarket’s members?

Question 2

What two-word term was given to the cities in 19^th-century China and Japan that were forced to accept foreign ships, foreign trade, and overseas residents who lived outside local laws as a result of unequal agreements signed with western powers after events such as the Opium Wars and the US sailing gunboats into Endo – now Tokyo – harbour?

Question 3

Which fashion designer, born in New York to affluent Chinese immigrant parents, was once the senior fashion editor at Vogue prior to transferring to become a design director for Ralph Lauren before, aged 40, borrowing money from her father to open a bridal boutique on Madison Avenue?

Question 4

Sericulture, which has been practiced in China over 4500 years, is the cultivation of what product?

Question 5

In the animation The Simpsons, what is the name of the Barbie-style doll collected by Smithers and loved by Lisa, despite its sexist overtones?

Question 6

Already banned in New York City, and illegal in several European nations including the UK, what traffic manoeuvre has been banned in Washington D.C. since January 1, 2025, and will be banned in central Atlanta from the start of 2026?

Question 7

The longest single-name road in France is the A10, or L’Aquitaine, which runs between which two cities?

Question 8

The winners of both the 1973 and 1974 Miss World competitions were forced to give up their titles, one through it being removed and one via resignation. What two reasons forced the winners, Marjorie Wallace and Helen Morgan, to lose their titles, even though Morgan did not break any rules?

Question 9

The new NBA season started on October 21. In which four countries have the winners of the last seven NBA League MVP awards been born – none of which are the US?

Question 10

One of the many renowned eating challenges in the US is the Victory Lap Challenge at Sickie’s Garage outlets in which participants have one hour to eat a burger made up of four of the restaurant’s burgers – including three ‘supercharged’ burgers – on top each other, plus ‘a heaping pile of fries’. Since the challenge was changed in 2025 to make it harder, which also removed the chicken element, what nine ingredients are included in the stacked burger, not counting sauces or the pickle and jalapeño toppings?

Round 4 points
(Maximum: 23)

Total points
(Maximum: 95)

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.

To what number do all of the following refer?

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: 105)