Round 1
Question 1
What vegetable in depicted in US sign language by putting a bent index finger by the eye and rotating the finger back and forth, and in British sign language by pointing to the eye and then drawing the finger down the cheek?
1 point
Question 2
How many full circles are marked on an ice hockey rink? Note these are full circles, and therefore does not count the two semicircles marked in front of the goals?
1 point
Question 3
In the film 28 Days Later, with what emotion is the patient zero chimpanzee infected, leading to a zombie-style outbreak and three sequel films?
1 point
Question 4
Stating that it was inappropriate to take ‘blood money’, for which of his films did director Steven Spielberg refuse to take a salary and directed his share of the film’s profits to the establishment of a new charity?
*Spielberg’s money was used to help establish the Shoah Foundation which recorded audio-visual testimony of Holocaust survivors and witnesses.
1 point
Question 5
144 years after construction began, the final piece of the central tower of what famously unfinished building was put into place on February 20 – although it is estimated that the building will require another decade of work in order to complete its façade?
*The final piece of the central tower brought Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, which was designed by Antoni Gaudi, to 172.5m in height.
1 point
Question 6
Although now banned in numerous states, where might a person eat a meal called nutraloaf, or ‘the loaf, in the US’? The dish does not have a set recipe but generally involves mashing or blending together various ingredients and baking them.
*Nutraloaf, also called prison loaf or meal loaf, has been widely banned as it is seen as a counterproductive punitive punishment. Some facilities and states have got around the issue by claiming that the nutritional value of nutraloaf is high enough to call it a ‘dietary adjustment’, or that its serving to prisoners is a ‘behaviour modification’ technique.
1 point
Question 7
In January, what shoe company and what toy company signed an agreement to make crossover products, with the agreement commencing with the release of novelty red plastic shoes shaped like toy bricks?
The Crocs Lego shoes are priced at £149.99 in the UK.
Lego
2 points
Question 8
Since March 2025, US restaurant and entertainment business Dave & Buster’s has been fighting a trademark infringement lawsuit against a Florida company named Arcade Time that it claims has an overly similar slogan. Noting that both companies specialise in venues that combine a restaurant, bar, and arcade, what three basic verbs appear as the first three words of both companies’ slogans, before Arcade Time uses ‘Win’ rather than Dave & Buster’s ‘Watch Sports’?
*Dave & Buster’s registered the trademark ‘Eat Drink Play’ in 1988, before also registering trademarks for variants such as ‘Eat Drink Play Watch Sports’ and ‘Eat Drink Play Together’. Arcade Time has countered by saying Dave & Buster’s trademark is too generic to be valid, while also moving the words in its own venue slogans to ‘Play Win Eat Drink’ and ‘Drink Eat Game’.
Drink
Play
3 points
Question 9
Hair types are often categorised on a scale of 1A to 4c. In this system, what type of hair is described by the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively?
Wavy
Curly
Coily
4 points
Question 10
Make the longest word possible from the following letters: ABBENORST
Up to 9 points
(*length of word equates to points awarded)
Round 1 points
(Maximum: 24)
Round 2
Question 1
Which member of the current US administration received criticism and ridicule at a congressional hearing on February 11 when, upon being asked questions about the Epstein files and the administration not providing justice to survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking, she said people should instead be talking about how well the Dow Jones stock market was performing?
1 point
Question 2
Olympic kayak sprint competitions involve competitors taking a position in which they sit down in their boat with their legs and feet in front of them. What is the position of a competitor’s legs in Olympic canoe sprints?
*Whereas the sprint disciplines have different stances, kayak (k) and canoe (c) slalom events both involve sitting in the boat.
1 point
Question 3
By what stage name is the rapper born Onika Tanya Maraj better known?
1 point
Question 4
The Pangea Proxima hypothesis states that a new supercontinent will be formed in around 250 million years time as oceans begin to contract rather than expand. Models of the hypothesis show that the this new continent will have a large area of inland water, the remnant of which present day ocean which will have become surrounded?
*The model moves Australia to attach to East Asia, Antarctica splitting into two and attaching either side of the Malay peninsula, and the Americas moving across to wrap around Europe and Africa, thereby trapping the Indian Ocean.
1 point
Question 5
In 1077, in an incident known as the Humiliation of Canossa, Holy Roman Emperor and German king Henry IV walked barefoot to Canossa Castle in northern Italy, and then waited outside for three days, in order to beg forgiveness from whom?
*Gregory VII had excommunicated Henry after Henry had pushed back against Vatican interference in the selection and investiture of religious posts. His position undermined, and both men under pressure from rivals, Henry decided to ask for forgiveness. The two would clash again in 1084, with Henry sacking Rome and driving the pope out to Salerno, after which Henry was excommunicated for a second time but to little effect, and Gregory VII died the following year.
1 point
Question 6
What fruit goes before ‘Express’ in the title of a stoner comedy film by Seth Rogen, and plays a role in the critically acclaimed Chungking Express by Wong Kar-wai in which a lovesick cop buys a tin of the fruit every day, eventually leading him to meet the shop assistant and thereby introducing her love story to the film?
1 point
Question 7
The top ten longest snakes in the world all belong to which two families? Answers can be either the scientific or common name.
*Anacondas, of which two of the world’s longest snakes are, are a genus (eunectes) within the boa family. The python family has several genera within it.
Pythonidae (pythons)
2 points
Question 8
What were the three surnames – two being maiden names and one a name used from a previous marriage – that the two wives of UK monarch Charles III had in their life before marrying him?
*Diana Spencer married Charles Windsor in 1991. Camilla Shand married Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973, and kept his surname after their divorce in 1995 before marrying Charles in 2005.
Shand
Parker Bowles
3 points
Question 9
A DNI card is compulsory for all Spanish citizens aged 14 or above. When translated into English, for what three words do the letters D, N, and I stand?
National (nacional)
Identity (identidad)
3 points
Question 10
On February 21, English footballer James Milner broke the record for the most appearances in the English Premier League by playing in his 654th game. Since his debut in 2002, for which six premier league teams – all of which are also in the league in the 2025-2026 season – has Milner played?
*When Milner made his Leeds debut aged 16 years and 309 days, he was at the time the second youngest player to have played in the EPL. He also held the youngest goalscorer in EPL history record for three years, having scored his first goal aged 16 years and 356 days. However, with the EPL only having started in 1992, Milner remains far short of the overall top flight appearances record: Peter Shilton played 32 seasons of professional football between 1965 and 1997, during which he made 848 appearances in England’s top league.
Newcastle United
Aston Villa
Manchester City
Liverpool
Brighton and Hove Albion
6 points
Round 2 points
(Maximum: 20)
Total points
(Maximum: 44)
Round 3
Question 1
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on February 19 for suspicion of misconduct in a public office. Who, in 1647, was the last member of the British royal family to be arrested?
*Charles I was arrested after his side’s defeat in the English Civil War. In 2002, Andrew’s sister Princess Anne was charged – but not arrested – under the dangerous dogs act after her English bull terrier bit two children. Anne has also been repeatedly fined for speeding.
1 point
Question 2
According to the Bible’s New Testament, The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane – in which Jesus prays and accepts he is about to be betrayed – and his subsequent arrest and later ascent to heaven all occurred in an area known for the growing of what type of tree, which also gives the ‘mount’ above the Garden of Gethsemane its name?
*The Mount of Olives above Gethsemane and the Garden of Gethsemane are now both major pilgrimage sites.
1 point
Question 3
The conversion of the amino acid tryptophan into what other chemical substance known to enhance mood has led to the postulation that consuming tryptophan-rich foods such as chicken and cheese can help alleviate depression, although limited scientific evidence of this happening exists?
*As well as problems measuring the abstract concept of mood, not all serotonin produced from the tryptophan reaction reaches the brain, and other chemicals are required to make the reaction occur.
1 point
Question 4
For what purpose did Spartans use a scytale, which consisted of a piece of leather wrapped along the length of a stick?
*The message was written across the wound leather, which when unwrapped would leave the letters randomly placed. The receiver of the message then wound the leather around their own stick, once again revealing the message.
1 point
Question 5
Andromache, Medea, Electra, and The Trojan Women are all works attributed to which ancient Greek playwright?
1 point
Question 6
Between signing a contract with the gallery in 1926 and its closure at the end of 1929, Galerie Le Centaure in Brussels was a leading exhibition space for which Belgian surrealist painter whose work includes The Son of Man – depicting man in a suit with an apple covering his face – and the Empire of Light series showing night scenes beneath sunny skies?
1 point
Question 7
Often associated with ill-conceived counter-attacks in which regiments were killed within minutes, the Battle of Frœschwiller, or Battle of Wörth, was a conflict on August 6 1870 that featured multiple forces from which two modern day countries?
*Resulting in French casualties estimated at between 6000 and 11000 dead or wounded, the Battle of Frœschwiller was an early conflict in the larger Franco-Prussian war fought between the North German Confederation and the French forces of Napoleon III. The Germans won both the battle and war, although in 1793 the French had won a different battle at Frœschwiller, which sits on the French side of the French-German border, when they beat the Austrian Habsburg forces.
France
2 points
Question 8
All having at one point been the tallest building in the country, in which three different cities are the three tallest buildings in Japan?
*The Yokohama Landmark Tower in Yokohama was the tallest building in Japan from 1993 to 2014, before it was surpassed by Abeno Harukas in Osaka, before it too was surpassed by Azabudai Hills in Tokyo in 2023. Azabudai Hills has the largest floor area of any skyscraper in the world.
Osaka
Yokohama
3 points
Question 9
What four chemical elements combine to make the mineral dolomite, the second most common sedimentary carbonate rock on Earth after limestone and the inspiration for the name of the Italian Dolomite mountain range?
*Dolomite’s chemical formula is CaMg(CO3)2.
Magnesium
Carbon
Oxygen
4 points
Question 10
Not including the Black Hawk Eagle, which sometimes strays into southern Texas from its usual range between Mexico and Argentina, what are the four species of eagle that can be seen wild in the United States and Canada? Two of the species are resident, while two others visit from Asia or Eurasia.
Golden eagle
Steller’s sea eagle
White-tailed eagle (gray sea eagle)
4 points
Round 3 points
(Maximum: 19)
Total points
(Maximum: 63)
Round 4
Question 1
Coined by Swiss climber Eduoard Wyss-Dunant in 1952 after his attempt to climb the 8849m Mt Everest, the term ‘death zone’ describes heights above how many metres, at which it becomes impossible for humans to survive for extended periods of time due to the lack of oxygen?
*Amongst the members of Wyss-Dunant’s 1952 ‘Swiss Expedition’ was Tenzing Norgay, who completed the first summit of Everest alongside Edmund Hillary the following year. He and climber Raymond Lambert spent a night at 8400m during the 1952 Swiss Expedition – without food, water, or sleeping bags – but could ascend to only 8611m the next day. Other ‘nearly men’ of Everest include Eric Shipton, who had led British efforts in 1935 (which also featured a 20-year old Tenzing Norgay) and 1951 but was stepped down from leadership of the successful 1953 expedition due to disagreements with the British organisers; and Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, who were the first two to try for the summit on the 1953 expedition but, after conquering the South Summit, could get to only 8750m of the Main Summit due to Evans having a problem with his oxygen system.
1 point
Question 2
A play on the name of the arena in which it happened, The Palace in Auburn Hills, what rhyming nickname was given to the infamous brawl that occurred during the NBA game between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers on November 19, 2004 in which players fought members of the crowd both in the stands and on the court?
*The brawl started simply as shoving after Indiana’s Ron Artest fouled Detroit’s Ben Wallace; however, after a drink was thrown from the stand, hitting Artest, he and teammate Stephen Jackson ran into the crowd and began fighting a fan. Ultimately, with drinks, food, and bits of seating being thrown, and Pacers’ 6”11 forward Jermaine O’Neal having infamously landed a punch in the face of a fan who squared up to him on the court, the game was called. Nine players were given fines totalling over $11m and suspensions total ling 146 games, while several fans were given fines and community service punishments.
1 point
Question 3
The 1929 St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago saw four men – two of whom were dressed as policemen in order to aid the escape – shoot seven men dead against a wall of a warehouse using what type of rapid-fire gun which became infamously connected to prohibition era violence in the US, leading to its nickname of ‘The Chicago Typewriter’?
*With its distinct round drum magazine situated below the barrel, the Thompson submachine gun – or ‘Tommy gun’ – had initially been design during WW1 as ‘the annihilator’, only for the war to finish before it was rolled out.
1 point
Question 4
Which character created by American writer Dr Seuss ‘speaks for the trees’ and must stop the Once-ler chopping down every last Truffula Tree?
1 point
Question 5
Containing a castle, zoo, museums dedicated to modern art, art, independence, technology, and natural history, plus wildlife and exercise areas, Chapultepec is a 866 hectare park in which national capital?
1 point
Question 6
Key to the introduction of Eastern religions to many western audiences, what religious movement was formally established in September 1875 by mystic Helena Blavatsky, alongside Henry Olcott and William Judge, and proposes that a group of spiritually- and morally-superior ‘masters’ with ancient wisdom have guided human knowledge and subsequent religions throughout history, and that stars and their solar systems are the creations of solar deities?
*After the 1891 death of Blavatsky, who said she had been in contact with the masters, Judge said he too had been contacted by them and been told to lead the group – a claim Olcott met with suspicion. Theosophy hit major issues in the 1910s and 1920s when accusations of pedophilia and teaching boys how to masturbate were levelled against members, as well as the rise of an alternative Theosophy organisation. Although a fringe group today, at its height the Theosophy Society – which crucially allowed the intellectual questioning of ancient great texts and did not present its own works as gospel – included Thomas Edison as a member, and was a major influence in spreading ideas such as karma, reincarnation, and numerology into the west.
1 point
Question 7
Derived from the Asante word for ‘basket’ due to its distinct pattern, and Ghana’s first-ever protected Geographical Indication product, what is the name of the colourful handwoven silk and cotton textile that originated in Ghana and is widely worn for ceremonial purposes in the country? And what other west African fabric, which mixes Dutch and Indonesian wax print techniques, takes its name from the Hausa pronunciation of Ghana’s capital, Accra?
Ankara
2 points
Question 8
What are the three novels by Irish writer James Joyce that feature the character Stephen Dedalus, one of which is a posthumously published earlier version of a subsequent work and spells the character’s name Daedalus?
*Stephen Hero is an early version of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and was published in 1944, three years after Joyce died.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Ulysses
3 points
Question 9
All also amongst the cast of the 1986 film Stagecoach, and all leading names in the ‘outlaw country’ music subgenre, who were the four members of the country music ‘supergroup’ The Highwaymen, which released three albums between 1985 and 1995?
Kris Kristofferson
Willie Nelson
Waylon Jennings
4 points
Question 10
In the UK a person can qualify for legal aid if they have assets of £8000 or below and their monthly income, along with a partner, is £2,657 or less or they are on relevant benefits. What seven situations are listed on the UK government’s legal aid website as possible times in which people on higher incomes or with assets listed as being worth over £8000 can receive legal aid?
Involves child abduction
Involves children in care
Involves domestic abuse
Involves forced marriage
Person is over state pension age
Home ownership is disputed
7 points
Round 4 points
(Maximum: 22)
Total points
(Maximum: 85)
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.
The following are all products, services, or subsidiaries connected to which company?
Clue 1
One Medical
10 points
Clue 2
Whole Foods Market
9 points
Clue 3
MGM
8 points
Clue 4
Ring
7 points
Clue 5
Twitch
6 points
Clue 6
Fire Stick
5 points
Clue 7
AWS
4 points
Clue 8
Kindle
3 points
Clue 9
Alexa
2 points
Clue 10
Prime
1 point
Round 5 points
(Maximum: 10)
Total points
(Maximum: 95)
