December 11th

Specialist Questions

11th December 2007

Set by

The Plough Taverners






Rounds Are:
Science
History
Artists
Sport
Geography
Alliteration Agony
Arts and Entertainment
Christmas

Round 1 Science

1 Who first argued that the world was not flat?
Aristotle

2 Which metal is the best conductor of electricity?
Silver

3 Which scientist was born in Germany in 1879, became a Swiss citizen in 1901 and later became a US citizen in 1940?
Albert Einstein

4 Which temperature has the same value in both centigrade and Fahrenheit?
-40

5 Which planet in the Solar System is closest in size to Earth?
Venus

6 What is the sum of the internal angles in a hexagon?
720 degrees

7 In mathematics what word is used to describe numbers which can be expressed as an exact fraction?
Rational numbers

8 What is an Ishihara test used for?
To determine whether or not someone is colour blind


SUPPLEMENTARIES:



S1. What is the most common blood type in humans?
O

S2. Which piece of household equipment works by passing non-ionising radiation at a frequency of 2.45 Giga-herz through substances to cause a dielectric heating effect?
A microwave oven



Round 2 History


1. By what nickname was Sir Henry Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland, who was killed at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, generally known?
(Harry) Hotspur.

2. Where was Joan of Arc burnt at the stake in 1431?
(In the market square at) Rouen.

3. For what is Wynkyn de Worde (died about 1535) famous?
He was one of the earliest printers who worked in England. He took over Caxton’s business after Caxton died.

4. Who was appointed commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary forces in the English Civil War in 1645?
Sir Thomas Fairfax.

5. The composer Ludwig van Beethoven and the poet William Wordsworth were both born in the same year. Which year was it?
1770. (Allow 1765-1775 )

6. What position did King George I of Great Britain hold before he became king?
Elector of Hanover.

7. Who noted the day before he was killed in 1968: “I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man”?
Martin Luther King

8. What body part was most frequently covered with lard and roasted as a torture during the Spanish Inquisition?
The foot


SUPPLEMENTARIES:

S1. Which legendary organisation did King Louis Philippe of France found?
The French Foreign Legion

S2. Who was dubbed “Lenin’s left leg” during the early stages of Russia’s Marxist movement?
Joseph Stalin


Round 3 Which Artist?


The date and place of birth plus the type of art is given, name the artist.

1. Born 1840 in Giverny, France. Famous for his paintings of water-lilies.
Claude Monet

2. Born 1834 in Paris. Famous for his paintings of ballet dancers.
Edgar Degas

3. Born 1860 in Moravia. Master of Art Nouveau, famous for his Parisian posters for Sarah Bernhardt plays and ‘The Seasons’.
Alfons Mucha

4. Born 1881 in Malaga. Master of cubism and famous for his political painting ‘Guernica’.
Pablo Picasso

5. Born 1904 in Figueras, Spain. Surrealist painter famous for his melting clocks in ‘The Persistence of Memory’.
Salvador Dali

6. Born 1927 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Famous for his pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s soup.
Andy Warhol

7. Born 1844 in Laval, France. Famous for his Jungle and Wild Animal paintings.
Henri Rousseau

8. Born 1862 in Baumgarten, Austria. Famous paintings include ‘The Kiss’ and ‘Adele Bloch-Bauer’.
Gustav Klimt



SUPPLEMENTARIES:

S1. Born 1853 in Groot Zundert, Netherlands. Famous for his paintings of sunflowers.
Vincent van Gogh

S2. Born 1937 in Bradford. Famous for his swimming pool pictures and ‘Mr & Mrs Clark and Percy’.
David Hockney


Round 4 Sport


1 Football: Who is the only player to have scored in Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow derbies?
Andrei Kanchelskis

2 Rugby League: Name the former Warrington and Great Britain captain who died of motor neurone disease last month (November 2007) aged just 43?
Mike Gregory

3 Tennis: Andy Murray attended which Primary School (which sadly became famous for another reason in 1996)?
Dunblane Primary School

4 Yachting: Which country surprisingly won the America’s Cup in 2003?
Switzerland

5 Rugby Union: England captain Phil Vickery plays for which domestic club?
Wasps

6 Motor Racing: Who was the last British Winner of the British Grand Prix?
David Coulthard (1999 and 2000).

7 Cricket: Who won the 2007 County Championship?
Sussex

8 Football: Who is the only player to have scored for England in three different World Cup Finals tournaments?
David Beckham



SUPPLEMENTARIES:


S1. Golf: Who did Padraig Harrington beat in a playoff to win this year’s (2007) British Open?
Sergio Garcia

S2. Horse Racing: Which horse won this year’s (2007) Grand National?
Silver Birch


Round 5 Geography


1. Where would you find the Pensacola Mountains?
Antarctica

2. How many states of the United States of America have a Pacific coast?
Five: California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii

3. What is the Capital of San Marino?
San Marino

4. What is the capital of Uzbekistan?
Tashkent

5. Which word describes the flat area of alluvial deposits on the mouth of some rivers?
Delta

6. In geographical terms what is the more common name for the Abyssal Plain?
The ocean floor.

7. The Dominican Republic shares an island with which other country?
Haiti

8. What port is at the Atlantic end of the Panama Canal?
Colon


SUPPLEMENTARIES:



S1. Which mountain chain is deemed as forming the eastern boundary of Europe?
The Urals

S2. In which ocean are The Maldives, Chagos and Cocos Islands situated?
The Indian Ocean


Round 6 Alliteration Agony
In the following questions you will be given a description of a famous person with an alliterative name. All you have to do is name the person (BOTH names required).

Example: US Singer, famous for “I will Survive” - Gloria Gaynor

1. Lead guitarist with the Kinks who suffered a stroke in 2004.
Dave Davies

2. Author and CBE whose books include “The Dogs of War” and “The Fourth Protocol”.
Frederick Forsyth

3. Manager of The Sex Pistols and co-founder of punk fashion with Vivienne Westwood.
Malcolm McLaren

4. Star of controversial 1972 film “Deep Throat” who subsequently became an active anti-porn campaigner.
Linda Lovelace

5. English author whose books include “The Power and The Glory” and “The Quiet American”.
Graham Greene

6. Blue Peter presenter and owner of Blue Peter dog Petra
Peter Purves

7. English actor who starred in the controversial films “Caligula” and “A Clockwork Orange”.
Malcolm McDowell

8. English actor who first came to fame as PC “Fancy” Smith in Z Cars, also an accomplished mountaineer.
Brian Blessed


SUPPLEMENTARIES

S1. 20th Century British journalist and author who surprisingly converted to Christianity in later life.
Malcolm Muggeridge

S2. French composer and performer whose albums include “Oxygene” and “Equinoxe”
Jean-Michel Jarre



Round 7 Arts and Entertainment

1. Who played Al Capone in the 1987 film, The Untouchables?
Robert De Niro

2. Which instrument represents the duck in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf?
Oboe

3. Which UK TV series was based on Eric Chappell's play The Banana Box?
Rising Damp

4. Jan Morrow and Brad Allen are characters who share a phone line in which 1959 film?
Pillow Talk (starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day)

5. How many contestants' boxes feature in the (UK version) TV show Deal or No Deal?
Twenty-two (eleven 'reds' and eleven 'blues')

6. Who played the Russian mail-order bride in the 2001 film Birthday Girl?
Nicole Kidman


7. Pixel, Stingy and Stephanie appear in which children's TV programme?
Lazy Town


8. What is the name of the title character in Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman? Willy Loman



SUPPLEMENTARIES:



S1. In which US state did Buddy Holly's plane crash in 1959?
Iowa

S2. What was Humphrey Bogart's last film?
The Harder They Fall (1956, in which Bogart played jobless sportswriter Eddie Willis)


Round 8 Christmas Crackers


1. Who resigned from their position of power on Christmas Day 1991?
Mikhail Gorbachev

2. In which country was tinsel invented in the 1600s?
Germany

3. Who popularised the Christmas tree in England in the 19th Century?
Prince Albert

4. Who wrote the words for the Christmas carol “In the Bleak Midwinter”?
Christina Rossetti

5. Which well-known author of fantasy fiction also created a book called “The Father Christmas Letters”?
J.R.R. Tolkien

6. Which word, associated with Christmas, comes from a Greek word meaning "we can act anything"?
Pantomime

7. "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents" is the first line from which literary classic by Louisa May Alcott?
Little Women

8. At the start of “A Christmas Carol”, we are told that somebody is dead - who is it?
Jacob Marley



SUPPLEMENTARIES:

S1. In which Shakespeare play do the lines “At Christmas I no more desire a rose / Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth” appear?
Love’s Labour’s Lost

S2. What is another name for the traditional German Christmas Loaf?
Stollen





General Knowledge Questions

Set by


Chester Road Tavern



General Knowledge Questions – 11/12/07

1. Which car name translates as 'people's car’?
A. Volkswagen
2. What first left Gare de l'Est in Paris on October 4th, 1883?
A. Orient Express
3. What colour is the zero on a roulette wheel?
A. Green
4. Prior to 1664, what was New York called?
A. New Amsterdam
5. What is chromophobia the fear of?
A. Colours
6. Which horse won this years Epsom derby?
A. Authorised
7. Name the British teacher jailed recently in Sudan?
A. Gillian Gibbons
8. Which is the smallest of the 50 states in the US?
A. Rhode Island
9. Which stretch of water separates Alaska from Russia?
A. The Bering Strait
10. Whose wife was turned into a pillar of salt?
A. Lot
11. How many children did Queen Victoria have?
A. 9
12. What is a Garganey?
A. A bird
13. An Archimedes screw is a device for moving what?
A. Water
14. What football team has the nickname ‘The Royals’?
A. Reading
15. How many teams play in the Scottish Premier League?
A. 12
16. Which cartoon lion's catchphrase was 'Heavens to Murgatroyd'?
A. Snagglepuss
17. What was the name of the magazine launched by the BBC in 1929?
A. The Listener
18. What was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair?
A. George Orwell
19. In the Fairy Tale, what dwarf could turn Straw into Gold?
A. Rumpelstiltskin
20. Who won an Oscar for his direction of Lawrence of Arabia?
A. David Lean
21. In which film did the character of Marion Crane die?A. Psycho22. What event does the Rhyme, 'Ring a ring o' roses' commemorate?
A. Great Plague
23. Which team has the only 100% home record in the premier league?
A. Manchester City
24. Les McKeown was the lead singer of which 1970’s pop group?A. Bay City Rollers
25. War, Death, Famine and what are the names of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse?
A. Pestilence.
26. Which metal is obtained from the mineral cinnabar?
A. Mercury
27. What is the name of the fat Little Britain character portrayed by Matt Lucas, who
spends all her time at a heath spa?
A. Bubbles
28. J and which other Scrabble letter has an eight-point value?
A. X
29. The middle name of Robert Scott (the polar explorer) is also the name of which bird?
A. Falcon
30. Clint Eastwood starred in and directed which western film in 1992?
A. The Unforgiven
31. Which children's TV character lives on the island of Sodor?
A. Thomas the Tank engine
32. Who wrote the Midwich Cuckoos?
A. John Wyndham
33. Who, other than Roger Federer, was the last winner of the men’s singles at
Wimbledon?
A. Leyton Hewitt
34. In which Disney film does Angela Lansbury play Eglantine Price, an amateur witch?
A. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
35. Who painted the Merry Drinker?
A. Franz Hals
36. In which battle of 1314 did Robert the Bruce defeat the English?
A. Bannockburn
37. In what year was the Berlin wall built?
A. 1961 (accept 1960 – 62)
38. Who starred in Mr Smith goes to Washington and Destry rides again?
A. James Stewart
39. Who wrote ‘The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’?
A. Robert Louis Stevenson
40. What is the name of the Black Panther in Jungle book?
A. Bagheera
41. Which plant has the latin name Bellis Perennis?
A. Daisy
42. What does palmiped mean?
A. Webbed feet
43. Who replaced Bruce Forsythe on TV’s ‘The generation game’?
A. Larry Greyson
44. Which football club did Kevin Keegan join in 1977?
A. FC Hamburg
45. Name either of the two jockeys who shared the flat jockeys’ title this year?
A. Jamie Spencer / Seb Sanders
46. Which book is based on the real life experiences of Alexander Selkirk?
A. Robinson Crusoe
47. What is the name of Al Pacino's character in the 1983 film Scarface?
A. Tony Montana
48. Who was the lead singer of Frankie Goes To Hollywood?A. Holly Johnson
49. Which Lancashire born engineer invented the Spinning Jenny in the 18th Century?
A. James Hargreaves
50. What do the Dutch call areas of land reclaimed from the sea?
A. Polders
51. At which US University did a mad gunman massacre 33 students in April 2007?
A. Virginia Tech (accept Virginia)
52. Which Australian batsman top-scored in the world cup final against Sri Lanka with a
quick fire 149?
A. Adam Gilchrist
53. Which country is called Suomi in its native language?
A. Finland
54. The St Leger is run at which English racecourse?
A. Doncaster
55. Who was the president of Yugoslavia, 1953-80?
A. Tito
56. Which popular Welsh entertainer wrote the First World War song Keep the Home
Fires Burning?
A. Ivor Novello
57. What is the largest island in the Mediterranean?
A. Sicily
58. Yellowstone National Park is in which US state?
A. Wyoming
59. What is the fourth book of the Bible's Old Testament?
A. Numbers
60. Who played Elliot Ness in the 1987 film The Untouchables?
A. Kevin Costner
61. What did a cordwainer make?
A. Shoes
62. Who was America named after?
A. Amerigo Vespucci
63. Who is the Roman Goddess of War?
A. Minerva
64. A Pearmain is what type of fruit?
A. Apple
65. Which British boxer and past world middleweight champion committed suicide in his
flat in Leamington Spa in 1966?
A. Randolph Turpin
66. Where was the first British Grand Prix motor race held?
A. Brooklands (1926)
67. What is the main ingredient of the dish Borscht?
A. Beetroot
68. What is the US state capital of Virginia?
A. Richmond
69. In which year was the Channel Tunnel (between England and France) opened?
A. 1994
70. What was the name of Napoleon's horse at Waterloo?
A. Marengo
71. If something is bicephalous it has two what?
A. Heads
72. Which famous fashion emporium did Barbara Hulanicki in London start in 1964?
A. Biba
73. Who wrote the ballet The Firebird?
A. Igor Stravinsky (1910)
74. Mrs Danvers is the sinister housekeeper in which novel?
A. Rebecca
75. St Peters Port is the capital of which of the Channel Islands?
A. Guernsey
76. China, Laos and which other country border Vietnam?
A. Cambodia
77. Where in the human body is the lacrimal gland?
A. Eye
78. What does the name of the Russian newspaper Pravda mean?
A. Truth
79. At what sport did Greg Louganis excel?
A. Diving
80. In which English county is Ashdown Forest?
A. Sussex
81. What did Harry Brearley invent in 1913?
A. Stainless Steel
82. Which damsel in distress has vital statistics 19-19-19?
A. Olive Oyl
83. What does a Trichologist study?
A. Hair
84. What are chitterlings?
A. Animal Intestines prepared as food
85. Name the ex- Scotland Football Team manager who is now manager of Birmingham.
A. Alex McLeish
86. Name the property developer at the centre of the illegal donations scandal presently
plaguing the Labour party.
A. David Abrahams
87. Name the British student recently murdered in Perugia Italy.
A. Meredith Kercher
88. Whose album ‘Myths of the Near Future’ won this years Mercury Music prize?
A. Klaxons
89. Who did Phil Taylor beat in the recent inaugural Grand Slam of Darts Final?
A. Andy Hamilton
90. What club does Rugby Union convert Andy Farrell now play for?
A. Saracens
91. Which writer created Tarzan?
A. Edgar Rice Burroughs
92. In which European city is the International Court of Justice based?
A. The Hague
93. Sandra Goodrich was better known as which 1960's singer?
A. Sandy Shaw
94. What type of flower is a ladies slipper?
A. Orchid
95. What (as at August 2006) is the world's longest running current children's TV
programme?
A. Blue Peter
96. In which English county is Belvoir (pronounced 'beaver') Castle?
A. Leicestershire (close to the Lincolnshire border and Grantham)

Supplementaries:

97. Who designed Princess Dianna's wedding dress?
A. David and Elizabeth Emanuel
98. What is the fastest running British bird?
A. Pheasant (up to 21 mph)
99. The Merciless Parliament convicted of treason the entire court of which British
monarch?
A. Richard the Second
100. Ingram Wilcox won a million pounds with the answer Bombardier Billy Wells – what
was the question?
A. Which boxer was famous for striking the gong in the J. Arthur Rank films?