Round 1
Question 1
In what year is the next leap year?
1 point
Question 2
The rivers Rio Grande, Mississippi, Iguazu, Guadalquivir, Futaleufú, and Avenmore all have names that mean what when translated into English?
*The Yangtze is called Cháng Jiāng, or long river, in Chinese, but is also colloquially called Da Jiāng, or big river.
1 point
Question 3
‘Out, damned spot! Out, I say’ is a line spoken by which Shakespearian character?
1 point
Question 4
Already outselling its rival when hybrid models are counted, which Chinese company officially overtook Tesla as the biggest electric vehicle (EV) company in the world in 2025, based on units sold?
*BYD was started as a battery company in 1995 by Wang Chuanfu, a peasant farmer’s son who had studied metallurgy at university. In 2003 the company took over a car plant, and although its first car design used petrol, it subsequently began to use its battery technology in vehicles. By 2009, Wang was China’s richest man, although his current $24bn valuation presently only puts him 12th, according to Forbes. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathway company made a $230m investment in BYD in 2008 before selling its position between 2022 and 2025 for a reported profit of 20-30 times the initial investment.
1 point
Question 5
What is the profession of Vic Armstrong which has allowed him to appear in films as the characters Indiana Jones, James Bond, and Superman?
*Now nearly 80, Armstrong has changed his role to that of stunt coordinator.
1 point
Question 6
Used by the Nguni people, and most famously the Zulu and Xhosi, the Nguni shield is a large oval shield made out of the skin of what type of animal?
*Nguni is also the name of the cattle breed common to southern Africa from which the shield can be made.
1 point
Question 7
A precursor to the emoji, emoticons use letters, numbers, and punctuation marks to create facial expressions. What two punctuation marks are required to make a smiley face emoticon?
Right bracket (closing bracket)
2 points
Question 8
What are the three options that become available when a user opens the ‘power’ menu on a Windows desktop programme?
Shut down
Restart
3 points
Question 9
What five chemical elements have names that are four letters long?
Iron
Lead
Neon
Zinc
5 points
Question 10
Make the longest word possible from the following letters: AAAACDIMM
Up to 9 points
(*length of word equates to points awarded)
Round 1 points
(Maximum: 25)
Round 2
Question 1
What type of bird was ‘pretty’ in the title of a Manfred Mann UK number one single from 1966?
1 point
Question 2
Who was the American inventor of the ice resurfacing vehicle which is commonly seen at ice rinks, and from whom the commonly used name of the machine is taken in an example of a trademarked brand becoming the general term for a product?
1 point
Question 3
Which edition of the Grand Theft Auto computer game series is due to be released in 2026, having had its original 2025 release date postponed?
1 point
Question 4
What visible change to the human body is a result of the birth defect polydactyly?
*The condition of having fewer than five digits on a hand or foot is called oligodactyly.
1 point
Question 5
The term ‘tennis bracelet’ began to be used to describe diamond bracelets after which US tennis star’s bracelet broke during a match at the 1978 US Open?
1 point
Question 6
What type of flower has a hall of fame overseen by the WFRS, into which members have been inducted every 2-3 years since 1976? Members of the hall of fame include flowers named Queen Elizabeth, Ingrid Bergman, and Graham Thomas.
*The World Federation of Rose Societies is comprised of 39 rose societies from around the world.
1 point
Question 7
As well as butter and seasoning, what were the two ingredients in the dish bubble and squeak as described by Maria Rundell in her 1806 book A New System of Domestic Cookery – one of which, a meat, has been replaced by potatoes in modern dishes?
Cabbage
2 points
Question 8
What are the three city states of Germany – albeit one technically consists of two cities, specifically the city after which it is named plus its external port city?
*Bremen includes Bremen and the port of Bremerhaven.
Hamburg
Bremen
3 points
Question 9
The Andean condor is the national bird of which four South American countries?
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
4 points
Question 10
In the puppet TV show Thunderbirds, what were the names of the respective pilots and drivers of the five Thunderbird vehicles?
Virgil (Thunderbird 2)
Alan (Thunderbird 3 and Thunderbird 5)
John (Thunderbird 3 and Thunderbird 5)
Gordon (Thunderbird 4)
5 points
Round 2 points
(Maximum: 20)
Total points
(Maximum: 45)
Round 3
Question 1
After the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs changed its measurement methodology, which Asian city overtook Tokyo in November to be classified as the world’s largest city, with a population of approximately 42 million people?
*In 2019, Indonesia President Joko Widodo announced plans to move Indonesia’s capital to a new city named Nusantara to tackle Jakarta’s over-population and land subsidence problems, with Nusantara’s construction still continuing. The capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, is now second on the UN’s largest city list with 37 million people.
1 point
Question 2
What type of fish is the basa, which is used as the main ingredient of Captain Birdseye Crispy Fishfingers?
*Basa, generally sourced from Vietnam fish farms and capable of growing to 1.5kg by the age of 6 months, is also known as cobbler, panga, or bocourti.
1 point
Question 3
The Estonian dish Kaneelirull, the Swedish dish kanelbullar, the Danish dish kanelsnegle, and the German dish Franzbrötchen are all variants of what type of sweet Viennoiserie pastry snack?
1 point
Question 4
Used in the film special effects industry and military, what is a squib?
*The phrase ‘damp squib’, meaning a highly anticipated event that fails to meet expectations, derives from squibs that fail to detonate due to being wet.
1 point
Question 5
On January 3 it was confirmed that an African elephant named Craig had died in Kenya at the age of 54. Craig had been the face of a Kenyan brand named Tusker, which sells what kind of product?
*Craig was a ‘super tusker’, meaning he had tusks that each weighed more than 100lb. Poaching has largely wiped out the super tusker gene: it is believed less than 100 remain on the entire African continent.
1 point
Question 6
With a motto of ‘All the World’s a Stage’ and a mission to be a place for ‘actors and men of refinement to meet on equal terms’, what invite-only members club situated in London’s West End was established in 1831 and is named for one of the 18th century’s most famous actors?
*After years of criticism and campaigning against its all-male membership policy, The Garrick Club – named for actor David Garrick – reinterpreted its membership policy to allow women to join in 2024, with Judi Dench and Siân Phillips being the first women to join, while some members also suggested making Joanna Lumley an honorary member after her membership in 2011 (nominated by Hugh Bonneville) was denied and crude messages written on the application. As well as prominent names in the arts, politicians, royalty, and lawyers are amongst the ‘professions’ that have been allowed to join the club, with the then Prince Charles writing on his application in 1985 that he was ‘self-employed’.
1 point
Question 7
China’s so-called ‘Century of Humiliation’ describes a time from the mid-19th to mid-20th century in which China was subject to extensive foreign influence and subjugation. What two events are generally seen as the respective start and end of this time period?
*Although some nationalist narratives have attempted to extend the time period in order to justify later political decisions, historians generally either choose the defeat of Japan at the end of WWII (1945) or the founding of the new Chinese nation at the end of its civil war (1949) as the end of this definition – not least because Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Ze Dong declared the century of humiliation over in 1943 and 1949 respectively.
End of WWII / defeat of Japan in Sino-Japanese War (or founding of People’s Republic of China)
2 points
Question 8
For which three shows has British actor Hugh Laurie been nominated for an Emmy acting award – one as lead actor, one as supporting actor, and one as guest actor?
*Including production categories, Laurie has been nominated for 10 Emmys, but not won. He has three Golden Globe awards.
The Night Manager
Veep
3 points
Question 9
Who are the four members of the Irish band U2?
The Edge (David Evans)
Adam Clayton
Larry Mullen Jr
4 points
Question 10
In 2010 the UK Government tried to tackle the country’s binge drinking problem by introducing the Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) Order 2010, which included the need for establishments in England and Wales to supply water and smaller alcohol servings, as well as the banning of what five broadly defined ‘irresponsible promotions’?
*The guidance against dispensing alcohol directly into a customer’s mouth names the infamous ‘dentist’s chair’ drinking activity, which came to public attention after several members of the England football team had been photographed doing it in the 1990s.
Free or discounted alcohol
Rewards for drinking
Posters that glamorise ‘antisocial’ behaviour or drunkenness
Dispensing alcohol directly into a customer’s mouth
5 points
Round 3 points
(Maximum: 20)
Total points
(Maximum: 65)
Round 4
Question 1
In 1960, US Congress agreed to create a new military medal in honour of four men who gave up their lifejackets to others when the Dorchester troopship was sunk by a German submarine in 1943. What non-combat role in the army did the four men all hold?
*The Four Chaplains Medal was awarded posthumously to chaplains Rev. George Fox, Rev. Clark Poling, Fr. John Washington, and Rabbi Alexander Goode, who all held the rank of lieutenant. Of the 904 men aboard, 674 died in the sinking of the Dorchester.
1 point
Question 2
The microanimals tardigrades are capable of surviving in a cryptobiotic ‘tun’ state in which 0.01 per cent of normal metabolic activity takes place, before reawakening and repairing themselves when better conditions arise. What prompts a tardigrade to enter a tun state?
*Tardigrades often live in mosses or areas of sitting water that can dry out, so have developed a process to survive times of dehydration. This is not their only survival trait that has interested scientists: tardigrades have been found to survive extremely high and low temperatures, radiation, high pressure, and even within vacuums in space, as well as produce a form of natural antifreeze and individual cell protection. In 2019, thousands of tardigrades in their tun state were aboard a craft that crashed onto the moon. It is not known whether the animals survived, or could continue to survive dormant without oxygen or water.
1 point
Question 3
Which amateur English football club, which shared its name with the common moniker of West Ham United’s former stadium, won the inaugural Olympic football event in 1900, meaning it went defunct in 1911 having an unusual trophy haul of two London Cups and one Olympic gold medal?
*Upton Park shared several players with West Ham United, which itself is joked to have won the World Cup because all of England’s goals in the 1966 World Cup Final were scored by West Ham players. As well as being an Olympic gold medallist, Upton Park was a key proponent of banning handball in the game: prior to its proposal to the Football Association in 1870, players could call a fair catch and receive a freekick, similar to the rules in rugby.
1 point
Question 4
What name is given to a form of confectionery in which a hard sugar shell is placed around chocolate, sugar, or a nut, as seen in M&Ms, Skittles, Smarties, or Jordan almonds?
1 point
Question 5
Discovered by Romanian medical researcher Nicolae Paulescu between 1916 and 1922, the substance pancreine was shown to treat what medical condition? Paulescu was controversially not awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which instead went to Canadian Frederick Banting and Scot John Macleod for discovering a similar medication.
*Paulescu is a controversial figure within Romania: one of the country’s greatest scientists, in 1922 he co-founded the National Christian Union, a far-right political group with antisemitic ideology that used a swastika as its official symbol.
1 point
Question 6
In fluid dynamics, Plateau–Rayleigh instability describes the break up of a stream of liquid into droplets as the liquid seeks to achieve stability. In 2013, researchers at Brigham Young University in the US used calculations that streams of urine expelled by human males standing up to urinate break apart at around 6 to 7 inches outside the urethra to investigate what toilet-based problem?
*The research found that the lowest splashback occurred when liquid hit the surface at a low angle, rather than 90°, while several environmental issues made the issue worse: toilets cleaned with chemicals are smoother, making more potential for rebound, while porcelain is hydrophilic, meaning it keeps a layer of water that adds to the problem. The researchers found the best solutions were to dampen the strike by having toilet paper in the bowel, or sitting down, which reduces the length of stream by around five times.
1 point
Question 7
In the city of Rome, the street Via Celio Vibenna changes its name to Via di S. Gregorio as it makes a 700m connection between what two ancient arenas, one circular and one whose name alludes to a circle?
Circus Maximus
2 points
Question 8
Which three men served as ‘commander in chief’ during the US Civil War, which ran from 1861 to 1865 – two as President of the Federal government, and one as leader of the Confederacy?
*Johnson was President for only 26 days of the war, taking over after Lincoln’s assassination.
Andrew Johnson
Jefferson Davis
3 points
Question 9
Not including the disputed claim of Lady Jane Grey or the Spanish king Philip I who claimed the title by marriage, England’s House of Tudor, which reigned from 1485 to 1603, consisted of five monarchs who used what four regnal names?
Edward (Edward VI)
Mary (Mary I)
Elizabeth (Elizabeth I)
4 points
Question 10
Also known as Catisfactions or Dreamies in many markets, including the UK, the popular catfood snack Temptations are available in what thirteen different flavours? Whilst not all Temptations flavours are available in the Catisfactions and Dreamies lines – Dreamies has nine flavours – the full range as advertised by Mars has seven flavours related to the ocean, three to poultry, one to red meat livestock, one to a dairy product, and one to a plant.
Tuna
Seafood
Shrimp
Lobster
Crab
Trout
Turkey
Chicken
Duck
Beef
Cheese / dairy
Catnip
13 points
Round 4 points
(Maximum: 28)
Total points
(Maximum: 93)
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 all occur in what month?
Clue 1
Nyerere Day in Tanzania
10 points
Clue 2
Sports Day in Japan
9 points
Clue 3
German Unity Day
8 points
Clue 4
Tattie Holidays in Scotland (schoolchildren are traditionally given time off school to pick potatoes)
7 points
Clue 5
Columbus Day in the US
6 points
Clue 6
Thanksgiving in Canada
5 points
Clue 7
British summertime ends (clocks go back)
4 points
Clue 8
National Day in China
3 points
Clue 9
Yom Kippur (usually)
2 points
Clue 10
Hallowe’en
1 point
Round 5 points
(Maximum: 10)
Total points
(Maximum: 103)
