15th December The Questions

All Questions Set By the Ox-Fford  C

SPECIALIST ROUNDS

1. Seasonal Arts and Entertainment

2. Geography – Santa’s Coming To Town

3. History All the questions relate to events that happened on Christmas Day.

4. Oh Yes It Is This round is of course about pantomimes and other Christmas entertainments.

5. Sport Review of the year

6. Science

7. Festive Fare

8. Christmas number ones You will be given the first line of a song and the year it became the UK number one Christmas single. All you have to do is name the song

Round 1: Seasonal Arts & Entertainment
1. Q Who composed the 1734 work The Christmas Oratorio?
A J S Bach
2. Q Originally created for radio, who wrote the prose work A Child’s Christmas in Wales?
A Dylan Thomas
3. Q In the 2003 film Elf, who plays Buddy, the elf who learns he is really a human?
A Will Ferrell
4. Q The Christmas specials of which British sitcom included episodes entitled The Queen of Sheba, The New Sofa and Barbara’s Old Ring?
A The Royle Family
5. Q Which book begins with a list of New Year's resolutions, starting with "I will not drink more than 14 alcohol units a week"?
A Bridget Jones’s Diary
6. Q Which West End musical features the song Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher?
A Billy Elliott
7. Q Which EastEnders character collapsed and died under Albert Square’s Christmas tree in 2006?
A Pauline Fowler
8. Q Which 1979 film begins with the birth of both Jesus and his next door neighbour?
A (Monty Python’s) Life of Brian
Supplementaries
9. Q In which fictional land is it always winter but never Christmas?
A Narnia
10. Q In which film did Judy Garland first sing Have yourself a merry little Christmas?
A Meet me in St Louis
Round 2: Geography – Santa’s coming to town
The questions are all about places named after saints.
1. Q What is the capital of the island of Jersey?
A St Helier
2. Q St Catherine’s Point is the southernmost point on which island?
A Isle of Wight
3. Q St Mark’s Square is the principal public square in which European city?
A Venice
4. Q Which European city stands on the River Neva?
A St Petersburg
5. Q Castries is the capital of which Caribbean island?
A St Lucia
6. Q Which American state has Santa Fe as its capital?
A New Mexico
7. Q Which archipelago, a World Heritage site 40 miles from the nearest land, contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides?
A St Kilda
8. Q Which Welsh town became a city in 2012?
A St Asaph
Supplementaries
9. Q St Nazaire is a port on which French river?
A The Loire
10. Q Santo Domingo is the capital of which Caribbean country?
A Dominican Republic
Round 3: History
All the questions relate to events that happened on Christmas Day.
1. Q Which Holy Roman Emperor was crowned in 800?
A Charlemagne
2. Q What was stolen from Westminster Abbey in 1950?
A The Stone of Scone
3. Q Which territory was surrendered to Japan in 1941?
A Hong Kong
4. Q Which member of the royal family, otherwise known as Lady Ogilvy, was born in 1936?
A Princess Alexandra
5. Q Which space probe disappeared in 2003?
A Beagle 2 (accept Beagle)
6. Q Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born on Christmas Day in 1876. He became the founder and first governor-general of which country?
A Pakistan
7. Q Which statesman, the first Muslim winner of the Nobel peace prize, was born on Christmas day in 1918?
A Anwar Sadat
8. Q Which river did George Washington cross in 1776 to attack the Hessian forces in Trenton New Jersey?
A The Delaware
Supplementaries
9. In 1974, which Australian city was devastated by Cyclone Tracy?
A Darwin
10. Q Which ship with a two-word name was wrecked off Haiti in 1492?
A Santa Maria
Round 4: Oh, yes it is!
This round is of course about pantomimes and other Christmas entertainments.
1. Q In which pantomime do Robin Hood and Maid Marian traditionally appear?
A Babes in the Wood
2. Q Which traditional English story features a cow called Milky-White?
A Jack and the Beanstalk
3. Q In traditional English pantomime, who is Harlequin’s lover?
A Columbine
4. Q Which theatrical knight appeared as Widow Twankey at the Old Vic in 2004?
A Sir Ian McKellen
5. Q In Tchaikovsky’s ballet and in the Disney film, what is the name of the Sleeping Beauty?
A Aurora
6. Q Mustapha the tailor is the father of which pantomime character?
A Aladdin
7. Q What famous duo are currently playing Cinderella’s Fairy Godparents at Manchester’s Opera House?
A Torvill & Dean
8. Q Which pantomime character marries Alice Fitzwarren, the daughter of his former master?
A Dick Whittington
Supplementaries
9. Q Which pantomime character was played by the Austrian actor Robert Hoffmann in a classic 1960s television series?
A Robinson Crusoe
10. Q In The Archers, what is the Ambridge Christmas show for 2015?
A Calendar Girls


Round 5: Sport – review of the year
1. Q Which golfer won both the US Open and US Masters tournaments?
A Jordan Spieth
2. Q Which team did Arsenal beat in the FA Cup Final?
A Aston Villa
3. Q Sports Personality of the Year nominee Max Whitlock won Great Britain’s only gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships, in which event?
A Pommel horse
4. Q Which jockey won both the Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe?
A Frankie Dettori
5. Q In which city did the World Athletics Championships take place in August?
A Beijing
6. Q At which country’s Grand Prix did Lewis Hamilton clinch his third F1 world title in October?
A USA
7. Q Who became the first England cricketer to take 400 test wickets?
A James Anderson
8. Q Which Belgian did Andy Murray beat on day 3 of the Davis Cup final to clinch victory for Great Britain?
A David Goffin
Supplementaries
9. Q Who became Minister for Sport after the general election?
A Tracey Crouch
10. Q Who captained the England team during the FIFA women’s world cup tournament?
A Steph Houghton
Round 6: Science
1. Q Where in the body is the pyloric sphincter or pylorus?
A In the stomach
2. Q What's the name of the wall of cartilage that separates the nostrils?
A Septum
3. Q What name is given to the process of treating rubber with sulphur, to improve its durability?
A Vulcanisation
4. Q Which English scientist invented the dynamo?
A Michael Faraday
5. Q Which chemical element, with an atomic number of 51, has a name that starts with A but a symbol that starts with S?
A Antimony
6. Q Which poisonous substance is present in apple seeds?
A Cyanide
7. Q What is the SI derived unit of pressure?
A Pascal
8. Q Commonly prescribed for pregnant women, how is Vitamin B9 more commonly known?
A Folic acid
Supplementaries
9. Q Which soluble powder, obtained from certain lichens, is used to test for acidity or alkalinity?
A Litmus
10. Q What type of substance are collagen, elastin and keratin?
A Proteins


Round 7: Festive Fare
A round about seasonal food and drink.
1. Q What name is given to the sweet bread loaf originating in Milan, that is popular in many European countries at Christmas?
A Panettone
2. Q What fish is traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve in Poland and other Eastern European countries?
A Carp
3. Q What seasonal fruit shares its name with a type of earthenware and a Japanese region of southern Kyushu?
A Satsuma
4. Q Which celebrity chef created the Christmas pudding for Waitrose with an orange hidden inside it?
A Heston Blumenthal
5. Q Apart from sugar, what is the principal ingredient of marzipan?
A Almonds
6. Q How is the vegetable brassica oleracea better known?
A Brussels sprouts
7. Q Which supermarket is using the song My Favourite Things in its current TV advertisements?
A Aldi
8. Q The name of what drink, often used to make a snowball, is the Dutch word for lawyer?
A Advocaat
Supplementaries
9. Q Which confectionery brand takes its name from a 1901 play by J M Barrie?
A Quality Street
10. Q Spaniards believe they will have good luck by eating twelve of what item as the clock chimes on New Year’s Eve?
A Grapes
Round 8: Christmas number ones
You will be given the first line of a song and the year it became the UK number one Christmas single. All you have to do is name the song.
1. Q 1964: Baby’s good to me you know, she’s happy as can be you know, she said so
A I feel fine (The Beatles)
2. Q 1971: You could hear the hoof beats pound as they raced across the ground
A Ernie (Benny Hill)
3. Q 1988: The child is a king, the carollers sing, the old has passed, there’s a new beginning
A Mistletoe and Wine (Cliff Richard)
4. Q 2008: I heard there was a secret chord that David played, and it pleased the Lord
A Hallelujah (Alexandra Burke)
5. Q 1987: Maybe I didn’t treat you quite as good as I should, maybe I didn’t love you quite as often as I could
A You were always on my mind (Pet Shop Boys)
6. Q 1981: You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you
A Don’t you want me (Human League)
7. Q 1994: Baby if you’ve got to go away, don’t think I can take the pain
A Stay another day (East 17)
8. Q 2001: I know I stand in line until you think you have the time to spend an evening with me
A Something stupid (Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman)
Supplementaries
9. Q 1974: Try to imagine a house that’s not a home, try to imagine a Christmas all alone
A Lonely this Christmas (Mud)
10. Q 2003: All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces
A Mad World (Michael Andrews & Gary Jules)
11. Q 1973: Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall, it’s the time that every Santa has a ball
A Merry Xmas Everybody (Slade)

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

1. Q What was the name of the aeroplane in which Charles Lindbergh made the first solo flight across the Atlantic?
A Spirit of St Louis
2. Q Who played Norman Bates in the 1960 film Psycho?
A Anthony Perkins
3. Q Which 2015 animated film is set largely in the mind of 11-year-old Riley Andersen?
A Inside Out
4. Q Whose final novel, published in 1924 - 33 years after his death - was Billy Budd?
A Herman Melville
5. Q In the chemical abbreviation pH, what does the H stand for?
A Hydrogen (ions)
6. Q Which fashion designer was shot dead in Miami in 1997?
A Gianni Versace
7. Q Who was the first leader of the UK's Social Democratic Party?
A Roy Jenkins
8. Q Which famous liqueur is essentially made from whisky and heather honey?
A Drambuie
9. Q Who originally played the title role in Phantom of the Opera on the London stage?
A Michael Crawford
10. Q Which famous British ship has a name that means a short skirt or undergarment?
A Cutty Sark
11. Q Anastasia Steel is the protagonist in which literary trilogy?
A 50 Shades (of Grey)
12. Q Which is the only planet in the Solar System that's not named after a Greek or Roman god?
A Earth
13. Q Give either of the forenames of the author A. A. Milne.
A Alan, Alexander
14. Q Who married the Lebanese-born human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in September 2014?
A George Clooney
15. Q In poker, what name is given to a hand that has three cards of one rank and two of another?
A Full house
16. Q Which politician, who died in October, took the title Baron Aberavon?
A Geoffrey Howe
17. Q Shannon Airport is on the outskirts of which Irish city?
A Limerick
18. Q In a series of children's books by Francesca Simon, whose brother is Perfect Peter?
A Horrid Henry
19. Q Which computer operating system has a penguin as its logo?
A Linux
20. Q Which Australian cricketer, currently coaching Yorkshire, is nicknamed Dizzy? (Both names required)
A Jason Gillespie
21. Q Who was on the English throne when the Mayflower sailed to America?
A James I (1620)
22. Q Which company is North America's largest chocolate manufacturer?
A Hershey
23. Q Actor Peter Baldwin, who died in October, was best known as which Coronation Street character?
A Derek Wilton
24. Q Whose breakthrough role, on stage and on film, was as the rough, working-class Polish-American anti-hero Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire?
A Marlon Brando
25. Q Which fictional criminal genius was created by Sax Rohmer?
A Fu Manchu
26. Q How many pounds are there in a hundredweight?
A 112
27. Q Who succeeded William Hague as leader of the Conservative Party in 2001?
A Iain Duncan Smith
28. Q Marie Antoinette was the wife of which French king?
A Louis XVI
29. Q Which fashion designer and former pop star was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014?
A Victoria Beckham
30. Q Who recently replaced Stuart Lancaster as England’s Rugby Union head coach?
A Eddie Jones
31. Q Which comedian raised £3.4 million for Comic Relief in 2012 by completing a "triathlon" from Paris to London?
A John Bishop
32. Q Famous for its university and for a popular food dish, what's the capital of the Italian region of Emilio-Romagna?
A Bologna
33. Q FAST is an acronym for recognising and reacting to what sort of medical emergency?
A Stroke (a.k.a. cerebrovascular accident or cerebrovascular insult)
34. Q Which American entertainer, who died in 2014, said, "When I die, they'll donate my body to Tupperware"?
A Joan Rivers
35. Q Which English king was married to Elizabeth of York?
A Henry VII
36. Q What is the official London residence of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall?
A Clarence House
37. Q This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the National Dialogue Quartet, for its contribution to democracy in which country?
A Tunisia
38. Q Who replaced his brother Mike with Schnorbitz the St. Bernard?
A Bernie Winters
39. Q In which city is the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum and research centre?
A Washington DC
40. Q Who originally wrote the line "The female of the species is more deadly than the male"?
A Rudyard Kipling
41. Q Name either of the couple who used the phrase ‘conscious uncoupling’ to describe their break-up in 2014.
A Chris Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow
42. Q Which African nation ousted its long-term dictator, Hastings Banda, in 1994?
A Malawi
43. Q What's the American term for a drawing pin?
A Thumb tack
44. Q Dame Maggie Smith is being tipped for an Oscar for her role as a homeless woman in which film?
A The Lady in the Van
45. Q In The Addams Family, what's the name of the family's manservant?
A Lurch
46. Q The former kingdom of Bohemia is now a region of which country?
A Czech Republic
47. Q Which Shakespeare play is mainly set in "a forest outside Athens"?
A A Midsummer Night’s Dream
48. Q The Austrian Karl Landsteiner won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1913 for the discovery of what?
A Blood groups
49. Q Which Liberal peer gave his name to the 1942 report that led to the foundation of Britain's National Health Service?
A William Beveridge
50. Q Which toy has a name that's derived from the Greek for "to look at beautiful forms"?
A Kaleidoscope
51. Q Who is commemorated by a statue outside the railway station in Huddersfield, his home town?
A Harold Wilson
52. Q Who is the regular presenter of the Channel 4 quiz show Million Pound Drop?
A Davina McCall
53. Q A word commonly applied to a small band of street musicians, "mariachi" is a type of folk music native to which country?
A Mexico
54. Q In music, which note is equivalent to two crotchets?
A Minim
55. Q What's the common name for the arctic whale Monodon monoceros, in which the male has a long spiral tusk?
A Narwhal
56. Q What nationality is the tennis player Victoria Azarenka, winner of the Australian Women's Singles title in 2012 and 2013?
A Belarusian
57. Q The adjective "anserine" refers to which type of birds?
A Geese
58. Q Malcolm Turnbull was appointed to which position in September 2015?
A Prime Minister of Australia
59. Q Count Duckula was a spin-off from which other animated cartoon series?
A Dangermouse
60. Q Which modern country corresponds fairly closely with the historical region of Mesopotamia?
A Iraq
61. Q Which Manchester-based group had a hit in 1995 with a cover of the Small Faces' Itchycoo Park?
A M People
62. Q Which common British bird has a Latin name that suggests it lives in caves?
A The wren (troglodytes troglodytes)
63. Q Give a year in the life of the novelist Henry Fielding.
A 1707-1754
64. Q In World War Two, what was Operation Chastise?
A The Dam Busters raid
65. Q Who described his position as "Minister for Fun" after becoming the UK's first Culture Secretary?
A David Mellor
66. Q Which charitable organisation was founded in 1865 by William and Catherine Booth?
A The Salvation Army
67. Q By what name was Bangladesh known from 1947 to 1971?
A East Pakistan
68. Q Who wrote the 1970s non-fictional best-seller The Naked Ape?
A Desmond Morris
69. Q Which spring-flowering woodland plant, a protected species in the UK, has the scientific name Hyacinthoides (hyacinth-OY-dees) non-scripta? A Bluebell
70. Q Who coined the aphorism, "Men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses"?
A Dorothy Parker
71. Q Which Buckinghamshire estate was the centre of British code-breaking operations during World War II?
A Bletchley Park
72. Q How are members of the Society of Jesus - including Pope Francis - more commonly known?
A Jesuits
73. Q Who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1998 for eight minutes of screen time in Shakespeare in Love?
A Judi Dench
74. Q The Australian city of Melbourne stands at the mouth of which river?
A The Yarra
75. Q Who wrote the novel on which Steven Spielberg's film Jurassic Park was based?
A Michael Crichton
76. Q To which sub-order or group of animals does the skink belong?
A Lacertilia (lizards)
77. Q On which lake did Donald Campbell die in 1967 while attempting to break the world water speed record in Bluebird?
A Coniston Water
78. Q Which US state provided the land on which Washington and the District of Columbia were built?
A Maryland
79. Q Which spirit is traditionally used in a mojito (mo-HEE-to) cocktail?
A (White) rum (accept Bacardi)
80. Q On what date in 44 BC was Julius Caesar assassinated?
A March 15^th (accept the ides of March)
81. Q What name is given to the canals of Cambridge?
A The Backs
82. Q Who wrote the poem, I wish I'd looked after me teeth?
A Pam Ayres
83. Q Name one of the two British explorers who completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days, in 2003?
A Ranulph Fiennes, Mike Stroud
84. Q Which technology company was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergei Brin?
A Google
85. Q Name either of the current regular presenters of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
A Jenni Murray, Jane Garvey
86. Q In Greek mythology, Hippolyta was the queen of which tribe?
A Amazons
87. Q Which 1992 treaty led to the creation of the euro?
A Maastricht
88. Q Which song, by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, sold a million copies within ten weeks of its release in December 2014?
A Uptown Funk
89. Q Who wrote the Pomp and Circumstance marches?
A Edward Elgar
90. Q Which pigment has the same name as the genus of the cuttlefish, from which it is obtained?
A Sepia
91. Q What political office did Ronald Reagan hold from 1967 to 1975?
A Governor of California
92. Q In which French city was Joan of Arc burned at the stake?
A Rouen
93. Q What type of pastry is used in profiteroles?
A Choux
94. Q What is the usual name for the English uprising of 1381 led by Wat Tyler?
A The Peasants’ Revolt
95. Q What name links the characters played by Todd Carty in Grange Hill and Peter Capaldi in The Thick Of It?
A Tucker (Peter ‘Tucker’ Jenkins and Malcolm Tucker)
96. Q Which popular beauty spot in the North Downs of Surrey featured in the 2012 Olympic road cycling race?
A Box Hill

Supplementaries
97. Q Which comedian was known for his trademark "broken microphone" routine?
A Norman Collier
98. Q Which company launched its first Sonic the Hedgehog game in 1991?
A Sega
99. Q Which boxer had part of his ear bitten off by Mike Tyson in a 1997 fight?
A Evander Holyfield
100. Q Who played Liberace in the 2013 bio-pic Behind the Candelabra?
A Michael Douglas
101. Q Name one of the two former foreign secretaries involved in the "cash for access" scandal in February 2015.
A Michael Rifkind, Jack Straw

102. Q Which drug is named after the Greek god of sleep and dreams?
A Morphine