8th November–The Questions

 

All questions set by the Ox-fford C

Vetted by the Park Taverners and the Cock Inn

Specialist rounds:

Geography

History

Arts & Entertainment

Science

Sport

Musicals

Pennies for them

Election Day

Round 1: Geography

1. Q Which African capital city has a name that means "three cities"?
   A Tripoli
2. Q Windhoek (pronounced Vind-hook) is the capital of which African country?
   A Namibia
3. Q Which river forms almost the entire border between Norfolk and Suffolk?
   A The Waveney
4. Q In which English county is the town of Maldon, famous for its sea salt?
   A Essex
5. Q Which country has three counties, named Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey?
   A Jamaica
6. Q Which Central American country's currency is the quetzal?
   A Guatemala
7. Q Which strait separates Russia from Alaska?
   A Bering Strait
8. Q Barcelona is the capital of which of Spain’s autonomous regions?
   A Catalonia

Supplementaries

1. Q Apart from Russia, which of the former Soviet republics is the largest in area?
   A Kazakhstan
2. Q Which river flows through the city of Durham?
   A Wear (despite what Roger Whittaker said)

Round 2: History

1. Q In which century was Hadrian’s Wall built?
   A 2^nd (begun in 122 AD)

1. Q Who was on the English throne when Christopher Columbus first reached America?
   A Henry VII

1. Q Which leader was overthrown by Fidel Castro during the Cuban revolution?
   A Fulgencio Batista

1. Q Which Venezuelan soldier, born in 1783, was instrumental in the liberation of several South American countries and had a country named after him?
   A Simon Bolivar

1. Q Which battle is known as Custer’s Last Stand?
   A Little Big Horn (accept its Indian name Battle of the Greasy Grass)

1. Q When Winston Churchill was first elected to parliament in 1900, which constituency did he represent?
   A Oldham
2. Q Which 17^th century war was ended by the Treaty of Westphalia?
   A Thirty Years War (accept Eighty Years War, which was ended by a part of this treaty)
3. Q Who was assassinated by Ramon Mercador near Mexico City in 1940?
   A Leon Trotsky
   Supplementaries
4. Q What is the alternative name of the Munich Putsch, a failed coup attempt made on November 8^th 1923 by Adolf Hitler?
   A The Beer Hall Putsch

1. Q In which Northern Ireland town did an IRA bomb kill eleven people on November 8^th 1987?
   A Enniskillen

Round 3: Arts & Entertainment

1. Q Which film franchise featured Martin Riggs, played by Mel Gibson?
   A Lethal Weapon

1. Q Which opera by Benjamin Britten is based on a novel by Herman Melville?
   A Billy Budd

1. Q Which Canadian rapper topped the charts for 15 weeks this year with the single One Dance?
   A Drake

1. Q The third film in which franchise caused an internet backlash this year due to its casting of three women in the leading roles?
   A Ghostbusters

1. Q Which poet wrote the line ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’?
   A Alfred Lord Tennyson (in In Memoriam)

1. Q Which surreal TV comedy show was created by Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding?
   A The Mighty Boosh
2. Q Which French artist, a leading exponent of Fauvism, became known in later life for his decoupage-style cut-outs?
   A Henri Matisse
3. Q Who wrote the novels Case Histories (2004) and Life after Life (2013)?
   A Kate Atkinson
   Supplementaries
4. Q Who played the title role in the sitcom Father Ted?
   A Dermot Morgan
5. Q Which city is the setting for Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar named Desire?
   A New Orleans

Round 4: Science

1. Q Which drug was originally derived from willow bark?
   A Aspirin (accept acetylsalicylic acid)

1. Q Which chemical element is named after the Scottish village near which it was discovered in 1790?
   A Strontium
2. Q Which element was used in the definition of the second and the metre as SI units, and is widely used in atomic clocks?
   A Caesium
3. Q What would be the purpose of bariatric surgery?
   A Weight loss
4. Q What metric unit is equivalent to ten thousand square metres?
   A Hectare

1. Q How is the medical condition dyspepsia better known?
   A Indigestion

1. Q What is the anatomical name for the voice box?
   A Larynx

1. Q In which constellation are the Pleiades star cluster and the Crab Nebula?
   A Taurus

Supplementaries

1. Q What is measured on the Gay-Lussac scale?
   A Concentration of alcohol (percentage in a given volume of alcoholic beverage)

1. Q What is measured on the Stanford-Binet (bee-nay) scale?
   A Intelligence

Round 5: Sport

1. Q Which horse won the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running from 1964 to 1966?
   A Arkle

1. Q Which boxing trainer was best known for working with Muhammed Ali for over 20 years?
   A Angelo Dundee

1. Q Andy Murray recently became the 26^th man to be named world number one tennis player. Who was the first, in 1973?
   A Ilie Nastase

1. Q What is the nationality of the new president of UEFA Aleksander Ceferin?
   A Slovenian

1. Q Which motor racing circuit hosts the Japanese Grand Prix?
   A Suzuka (not Suzuki!)

1. Q In which sport would you be most likely to use a stimpmeter?
   A Golf (it measures the speed of the green)

1. Q Which 19-year-old American gymnast won four gold medals at the Rio Olympics?
   A Simone Biles

1. Q Name either of the cycling events for which Laura Trott won a gold medal at Rio.
   A (Women’s) team pursuit or omnium

Supplementaries

1. Q Which Tottenham Hotspur player scored for both sides in the 1987 FA Cup Final, including the winning goal for Coventry City?
   A Gary Mabbutt

1. Q Which England bowler was hit for six sixes in an over by Yuvraj Singh of India at the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007?
   A Stuart Broad

Round 6: Musicals

All the answers are the name of a musical, or contain one.

1. Q Ailurophobia is the fear of what?
   A Cats
2. Q Which American city is known as the Windy City?
   A Chicago
3. Q Formerly part of a duo, which singer has released solo albums entitled Diva, Medusa and Bare?
   A Annie Lennox
4. Q Give the next five words of this quotation from Macbeth: By the pricking of my thumbs …
   A Something wicked this way comes
5. Q What name was shared by queen consorts of William I, Stephen and Henry I, as well as a 12^th century claimant to the English throne?
   A Matilda
6. Q Born in August, River Rocket is the name inflicted on the 5^th child of which TV personality?
   A Jamie Oliver
7. Q What product was advertised in the 1970s with the catchphrase ‘is she or isn’t she’?
   A Harmony Hairspray
8. Q Which US state is nicknamed the Sooner State, and has Tulsa as its second largest city?
   A Oklahoma

Supplementaries

1. Q Later this week, Magnus Carlsen is due to start his defence of what title?
   A World Chess Champion
   
2. Q Which disgraced former Conservative MP is now the leader of UKIP in the National Assembly for Wales?
   A Neil Hamilton
   (FYI the musical Hamilton is about the life of US founding father Alexander Hamilton and is due to open in London in October 2017.)

Round 7: Pennies for them

In this round, every answer contains the word Guy.

1. Q Who is the lead singer and principal front man of the rock group Elbow?
   A Guy Garvey

1. Q Who had four UK no 1 hits in the 1950s including She Wears Red Feathers and Singin’ the Blues?
   A Guy Mitchell

1. Q Who was the leader of the Dam Busters raid?
   A Guy Gibson

1. Q Which novel by Walter Scott, with the alternative title The Astrologer, featured the character Dandie Dinmont, whose name was given to a breed of dog?
   A Guy Mannering

1. Q Which character first appeared in the Robin Hood legends as a hired killer, who attempts to kill Robin but ends up being killed by him?
   A Guy of Gisborne

1. Q Which TV drama series, first broadcast in the 1980s, starred Lee Majors as a Hollywood stunt man who moonlights as a bounty hunter?
   A The Fall Guy

1. Q Which John Lennon song was a UK no 1 hit for Roxy Music, three months after Lennon’s death?
   A Jealous Guy

1. Q Which member of the Cambridge Five spy ring escaped to the Soviet Union with Donald McLean in 1951, even though he was not under suspicion at the time?
   A Guy Burgess
   Supplementaries

1. Q Which 1989 British rom-com film was written by Richard Curtis and stars Jeff Goldblum as an American actor living and working in London?
   A The Tall Guy

1. Q Nathan Detroit, Miss Adelaide and Sky Masterson are characters from which musical?
   A Guys and Dolls

Round 8: Election Day

They’re voting as we speak. In this round the definitions given will lead you to the surname of an American president.

1. Q Victoria Beckham’s maiden name.
   A Adams

1. Q Cartoon character created by Jim Davis.
   A Garfield

1. Q Non-metropolitan county, abolished in 1996, whose county town was Middlesbrough.
   A Cleveland

1. Q Maiden surname of the British tennis player who won the French Open in 1959 and was a Wimbledon finalist in 1961.
   A Truman

1. Q Stan Laurel’s real surname.
   A Jefferson

1. Q Cathedral city on the river Witham.
   A Lincoln

1. Q The name of Tom Hanks’s volleyball in the film Castaway.
   A Wilson

1. Q Director of the FBI from 1935 to 1972.

A Hoover

Supplementaries

1. Q Eponymous character played by Dudley Moore in a 1981 film about a drunken millionaire.
   A Arthur

1. Q First name of the creator of Rip Van Winkle.
   A Washington (Irving)

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

1. Q Which shipping line operated the Titanic?
A White Star

2. Q Which town or city was the seat of the French government from 1940 to 1944?
A Vichy

3. Q Who is the subject of the 2014 bio-pic The Imitation Game?
A Alan Turing

4. Q Seen in the Beano since its first issue in 1938, which character lives in Bunkerton Castle?
A Lord Snooty

5. Q In which European capital city does the TV detective Sarah Lund operate?
A Copenhagen

6. Q Who played the title character in Monty Python’s Life of Brian?
A Graham Chapman

7. Q According to Homer, who fired the arrow that struck Achilles in the heel?
A Paris

8. Q In the Bible, which of the patriarchs of Israel married his first cousins Leah and Rachel?
A Jacob (his name was later changed to Israel)
* * *

9. Q Which fictional character was the most famous creation of Swiss author Johanna Spyri?
A Heidi

10. Q How much did Edward Lear’s Owl and Pussycat pay for their wedding ring?
A One shilling

11. Q What foodstuff is produced by an apiculturist?
A Honey

12. Q Which MP was Father of the House of Commons from 1992 until 2001?
A Edward Heath

13. Q Which band did John Lydon form in 1978 after the demise of the Sex Pistols?
A Public Image Ltd (accept PiL)

14. Q Which French word is used for strips of chicken or fish, dipped in breadcrumbs and deep-fried?
A Goujons

15. Q Which minister of health introduced Britain’s National Health Service in 1948?
A Aneurin (Nye) Bevan

16. Q Which Italian film director made the so-called spaghetti westerns?
A Sergio Leone
* * *

17. Q Which cult, or body of religious beliefs, was founded in the 1950s by L Ron Hubbard?
A Scientology

18. Q In Greek mythology, who killed the gorgon Medusa?
A Perseus

19. Q Who wrote the popular science book A Short History of Nearly Everything?
A Bill Bryson

20. Q What is the largest species of seal?
A (Southern) elephant seal

21. Q Which US state has Dover as its capital?
A Delaware

22. Q Who was known as the Iron Chancellor?
A Otto von Bismarck

23. Q Name either of the co-authors of The Meaning of Liff, a dictionary of made-up words first published in 1983?
A Douglas Adams or John Lloyd

24. Q In which US state is the airport with the IATA code DFW?
A Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth)
* * *

25. Q To what class of molluscs do slugs and snails belong?
A Gastropods

26. Q Narendra Modi became prime minister of which country in 2014?
A India

27. Q Which member of the royal family was murdered by the IRA in 1979?
A Lord Mountbatten

28. Q Which Spanish city is famous for the running of bulls during the San Fermin festival?
A Pamplona

29. Q Give a year in the life of the potter Josiah Wedgwood.
A 1730-1795

30. Q Who did Neil Kinnock succeed as leader of the labour party?
A Michael Foot

31. Q What subject did Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, teach at Oxford?
A Mathematics

32. Q In cooking, what do you mix with chocolate to make a ganache?
A (Double) cream
* * *

33. Q What is the name of the mobile messaging application, launched in 2011, that allows images to be shared for a maximum of ten seconds before they are deleted?
A Snapchat

34. Q In which country are the headquarters of the Hyundai motor company?
A South Korea

35. Q Which island, midway between Orkney and Shetland, gives its name to a shipping forecast sea area?
A Fair Isle

36. Q In which track and field event has Mike Powell held the world record since 1991?
A Long jump

37. Q In which month is the Celtic festival of Beltane celebrated?
A May (May Day)

38. Q What is orology the study of?
A Mountains

39. Q Which brand of Scotch whisky is named after the Ayrshire grocer who began selling it in 1820?
A Johnnie Walker

40. Q The polar research ship which people voted to name Boaty McBoatface has actually been named after which famous person?
A Sir David Attenborough
* * *

41. Q What foodstuff can be blanket or honeycomb?
A Tripe

42. Q Which video games series is set in fictional cities such as San Andreas, Liberty City and Vice City?
A Grand Theft Auto

43. Q What was built in 1851, moved in 1854, and destroyed by fire in 1936?
A The Crystal Palace

44. Q Which sweet herbal liqueur is named after an Italian war hero, and also shares its name with a controversial fashion designer?
A Galliano

45. Q Which tennis star was married to the actress Brooke Shields from 1997-1999?
A Andre Agassi

46. Q Who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, after negotiating the peace treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese war?
A Theodore Roosevelt

47. Q Which TV presenter’s recently published memoir is entitled A Life in Questions?
A Jeremy Paxman

48. Q Beside which London square would you find the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields?
A Trafalgar Square
* * *

49. Q Which fruit has the same name as a native of a Moroccan port on the Strait of Gibraltar?
A Tangerine

50. Q Moorfields is London’s hospital for the treatment of which part of the body?
A Eyes

51. Q Who is currently fourth in line to the British throne?
A Princess Charlotte

52. Q Former presenter of The Voice, will.i.am, was a member of which band, whose hits included the 2009 UK number one I Gotta Feeling?
A Black Eyed Peas

53. Q Which island emerged from the sea off the coast of Iceland in 1963?
A Surtsey

54. Q Which playwright, who died in September, is best known for Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?
A Edward Albee

55. Q Which TV series features a race of people called the Dothraki?
A Game of Thrones

56. Q What is the name of the Paralympic-style sporting event for disabled service personnel, held in London in 2014 and Florida in 2016?
A The Invictus Games
* * *

57. Q What is the more familiar name for a dactylogram?
A Fingerprint

58. Q Which Asian country’s flag shows a yellow lion holding a sword?
A Sri Lanka

59. Q What was the name of the Japanese electronic toy, popular during the 1990s, that you had to care for as if it was a pet?
A Tamagotchi

60. Q Which Italian Renaissance painter was commemorated in the name of an unmanned European Space Agency mission, launched in 1985?
A Giotto

61. Q Actress Charmian Carr died in September. She is best remembered for her role in which hugely successful 1965 film?
A The Sound of Music (she played Liesl)

62. Q The trades union BALPA represents members of what profession?
A Airline pilots (British AirLine Pilots Association)

63. Q Which constituency was Caroline Lucas elected to represent in 2010, making her the Green Party’s first MP?
A Brighton Pavilion (accept Brighton)

64. Q Which Beatles song begins with the words ‘I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me’?
A Norwegian Wood
* * *

65. Q How is Rachel Watson, played by Emily Blunt, described in the title of a 2016 film?
A The Girl on the Train

66. Q How does the title of Johann Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus (pronounced dee flayder-mouse) translate into English?
A The Bat

67. Q Which company built the Comet, the world’s first commercial jet airliner?
A De Havilland

68. Q What is the nationality of Juan Manuel Santos, the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize?
A Colombian

69. Q In the medical term MRI scanner, what does the M stand for?
A Magnetic (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

70. Q Which comedian was born Matthew Hall in 1964, and is a qualified doctor?
A Harry Hill

71. Q Which style of music originated in Seattle, and became popular in the 1990s due to the success of bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam?
A Grunge

72. Q Also the name of the BBC TV channel that broadcasts in Gaelic, what is the Scottish Gaelic word for Scotland?
A Alba
* * *

73. Q Which British fashion retailer took its name from the title of a 1971 film directed by William Friedkin?
A French Connection

74. Q What is the married surname of Princess Anne’s daughter Zara?
A Tindall

75. Q In the US presidential elections, who is Hillary Clinton’s running mate?
A Tim Kaine

76. Q At the start of a game of chess, how many squares are unoccupied?
A 32

77. Q Name either of the two men who shared the 1994 Nobel peace prize with the recently deceased former Israeli president Shimon Peres.
A Yitzhak Rabin or Yasser Arafat

78. Q Which common medical condition is caused by a lack of red blood cells or haemoglobin?
A Anaemia

79. Q Which airline suffered two disasters in 2014, one flight disappearing over the Indian Ocean, and another shot down over Ukraine?
A Malaysian Airlines

80. Q What occupation did Al Capone have printed on his business cards?
A Used furniture dealer
* * *

81. Q In which country is Lillehammer (pronounced lily-hammer), host city of the 1994 Winter Olympics?
A Norway

82. Q Dwayne Johnson was recently named the world’s highest paid actor. By what name is he better known?
A The Rock

83. Q Who was the first scientist to be knighted?
A Isaac Newton

84. Q What is the highest peak in the Peak District National Park?
A Kinder Scout

85. Q Which Spanish word, also used in English, literally means ‘killer’?
A Matador

86. Q The island of Hispaniola is shared between Haiti and which other country?
A Dominican Republic (NB not Dominica, which is a different country)

87. Q Which boxer was nicknamed the Brockton Blockbuster?
A Rocky Marciano

88. Q Which fashion brand achieved mainstream international fame after Elizabeth Hurley wore their ‘safety pin’ dress in 1994?
A Versace
* * *

89. Q By what nickname is journalist Mazher Mahmood generally known?
A The Fake Sheikh

90. Q Which island is separated from South America by the Straits of Magellan?
A Tierra del Fuego

91. Q In which month of the year is Holocaust Memorial Day commemorated in the UK?
A January (27^th)

92. Q In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who is the daughter of Polonius and the sister of Laertes?
A Ophelia

93. Q Which baseball team have this week overcome the ‘Curse of the Billy Goat’ to win their first World Series title since 1908?
A Chicago Cubs

94. Q With which girl group did Beyoncé Knowles first find chart success?
A Destiny’s Child

95. Q What is the only UNESCO World Heritage site in Northern Ireland?
A The Giant’s Causeway

96. Q What name is given to the lower house of the Russian parliament?
A The (State) Duma
Supplementaries

97. Q Which city will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games?
A Gold Coast (Australia)

98. Q What is the common name for the African mongoose also known as the suricate?
A Meerkat

99. Q What type of Mexican tortilla has a name that means ‘little donkey’?
A Burrito

100. Q Which Roman road shares its name with a type of fur?
A Ermine St

101. Q Which character in children’s literature has a wife called Mildew and a son called Mould?
A Fungus the Bogeyman