QM Quiz #17

1 In which national capital was athlete Mo Farah born?

2 Japan's second-highest volcano erupted this week, causing the deaths of at least thirty people. What is its name?

3 Described as the largest electronic monitoring station in the world, in which English county is RAF Menwith Hill?

4 1979's Life in a Day was the debut album of which band?

5 Ghent, Antwerp, and Valenciennes are all among the towns that stand on which major river of northern France, western Belgium, and the south-west of the Netherlands?

6 In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, whose shrine are the story-telling pilgrims visiting?

7 During the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, fifty new churches were paid for by a tax levied on what item entering the capital?

8 The title of a 2008 thriller starring Tom Cruise and Kenneth Branagh, what was the codeword for the 1944 operation that was an attempt to kill Adolf Hitler?

9 The Victoria Cross was initially introduced to reward acts of courage during which war?

10 What ironic trait was shared by the composers Beethoven, Smetana, and Faure?

11 In mythology, what was the name of the Roman slave who aided and befriended a lion that subsequently saved his life after he was thrown to the aforementioned animals for attempting to escape?

12 Breeding in the south-western US and Mexico, what is the smallest species of owl?

13 The ongoing political comic strip, If..., has appeared in which daily newspaper since 1981?

14 Who remains to date the longest-serving leader of the Labour Party?

15 According to Jewish folklore, who was the first wife of Adam?

16 What is the densest naturally occurring chemical element?

17 What forename and surname links the wife of Shakespeare and a modern-day Hollywood actress?

18 Which monarch instigated the Christmas Day broadcast to the nation in 1932?

19 Aside from becoming a major early figure in the sport of golf, and lending his name to the sport's most prestigious trophy, what was Samuel Ryder's profession?

20 Which traditional sport of Central Asia consists of horse-mounted players dragging a goat carcass towards a goal?

Answers:

1 Mogadishu

2 Mount Ontake

3 North Yorkshire

4 Simple Minds

5 Scheldt

6 Thomas Becket

7 Coal

8 Valkyrie

9 Crimean War

10 Deafness

11 Androcles

12 Elf owl

13 The Guardian
14 Clement Attlee
15 Lilith
16 Osmium
17 Anne Hathaway
18 George V
19 Seed merchant
20 Buzkashi

First update from a far-flung land...

Not really, I'm only in Liverpool. But it seems far-flung when it's your first time of living away from home properly. I'll settle in.

Anyway, today's questions:

1 Derived from an Arabic word meaning "horseman", what name in medieval Iberia was given to a high-ranking official in the household of a king?
2 Which country occupies the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola?
3 Supposedly invented by Hero of Alexandria, the aeolipile was the first known device of what type?
4 Used in the selection process for the UK's special forces personnel, what is the highest peak in South Wales?
5 Located on the route of the Pan-American Highway, what is El Salvador's second-largest city?
6 The Scot Lonnie Donegan was the best-known exponent of which type of popular music, originating in 1950s USA?
7 What is the name of Sydney's natural harbour, considered to be one of the world's finest?
8 The infamous nineteenth-century murderers Burke and Hare both had which forename?
9 Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners, and Detroit Tigers are all professional teams in which sport?
10 Best-known for her 1812 affair with Lord Byron, Lady Caroline Lamb was the wife of which British prime minister?
11 Crna Gora is the local name for which small European country?
12 From Greek words for "virgin" and "birth", which biological term refers to the development of an individual from an egg without fertilisation by a male gamete?
13 Now beneath Mexico City, what was the island capital of Lake Texcoco?
14 The Mentha pulegium species of flowering plant is known by which numismatic-sounding name?
15 Alessandro Filipepi was the original name of which Italian painter (1445-1510)?
16 In 1913, who became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?
17 In 1987, Teddy Seymour became the first black man in history to do what?
18 The Gulf of Venezuela separates its namesake country from which other South American nation, home to the Guajira Peninsula?
19 Frequently listed on unusual place name lists, the town of Snowflake lies in which US state, ironic in that the state itself is one of the warmest?
20 NASA's MAVEN probe is intended to study which planet's atmosphere?
21 Tux, the mascot for the operating system Linux, is what kind of animal?
22 American attorney Bruce Buck is the current chairman of which London football club?
23 Ranked by historians as one of the worst to have ever occupied the role, who was the only US president to have originated from Pennsylvania?
24 Washington Crossing the Delaware was an 1851 oil-on-canvas painting by whom?
25 Although French-born, Jessica Fox competed for Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in which sport?




Answers:
1 Alferez
2 Haiti
3 Steam turbine
4 Pen y Fan
5 Santa Ana
6 Skiffle
7 Port Jackson
8 William
9 Baseball
10 William Lamb / Lord Melbourne
11 Montenegro
12 Parthenogenesis
13 Tenochtitlan
14 Pennyroyal
15 Sandro Botticelli
16 Rabindranath Tagore
17 Sail around the world
18 Colombia
19 Arizona
20 Mars
21 Penguin
22 Chelsea
23 James Buchanan
24 Emanuel Leutze
25 Canoeing

QM Quiz #16

This may be my last post for a few days as I'm off to university on Saturday. Will carry on posting while there - hopefully.

1 From the Latin for "white", what name is given to the reflecting power of a planet or other non-luminous body?

2 Which city, home to the Maria Luisa Park and the birthplace of Diego Velazquez, is said to be the hottest in Europe, with average summer temperatures of 35°C?

3 The Tan Hill Inn is the highest pub in the British Isles. In which English county can it be visited?

4 Who starred as Henry II in the 1968 film, The Lion in Winter?

5 What nationality is Tawakkol Karman, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and senior member of the Al-Islah political party?

6 Robert Thomas Velline was the birth name of which American pop singer?

7 Culp's Hill played a prominent role in which 1863 battle?

8 Leonard Cheshire and Charles Upham are arguably the two most notable Victoria Cross recipients of which war?

9 Which English Poet Laureate is credited with devising the words for the Christmas carol, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks"?

10 Which Massachusetts boy band had the first number-one UK single of the 1990s, with the song "Hangin' Tough"?

11 How are animals of the family Cervidae more commonly known?

12 Name either of the two automobile companies that businessman Carlos Ghosn is currently CEO of.

13 Which US photographer (1886-1958) produced notable landscapes of the Mojave Desert, and became in 1937 the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship?

14 Now represented by Jonathan Djanogly, what was John Major's constituency from 1979 to 2001?

15 Who is the patron saint of Spain?

16 Which chemical element, named after the German city in which it was discovered, has the atomic number 110?

17 Who were the last English team to win football's UEFA Super Cup, beating CSKA Moscow in 2005?

18 What was the name of the holiday camp in the 1980s TV sitcom, Hi-de-Hi!?

19 Which Greek-American was the Democratic Party's candidate for the 1988 US presidential election?

20 Which European country recently held a general election, in which Stefan Lofven led the winning party?

Answers:
1 Albedo
2 Seville
3 North Yorkshire
4 Peter O'Toole
5 Yemeni
6 Bobby Vee
7 Battle of Gettysburg
8 World War II
9 Nahum Tate
10 New Kids on the Block
11 Deer
12 Renault / Nissan
13 Edward Weston
14 Huntingdon
15 James
16 Darmstadtium
17 Liverpool
18 Maplins
19 Michael Dukakis
20 Sweden

QM Quiz #15

The Lancaster City Quiz League season began last night. The Pub got a 66-48 victory over Slyne Lodge. Decent enough set written by the Gregson A team. Managed to get a score of 15 which I'm pleased about after thinking about it more thoroughly - only got three of my eight questions right but managed to get six passes. Mistaking Cadiz for Calvi on a question about Nelson's loss of one eye was an absolute shitter, though. Still, not too bad for our first league match. That'll be my last game for a month or so at least - though I'd like to be back temporarily for a couple of matches. Depends on if I'm picked for a start.

Anyway, questions...

QM Quiz #15
1 What is the largest city to stand on Lake Champlain, which is divided between the US states of New York and Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec?

2 Which Colombian cyclist won the 2014 Giro d'Italia?

3 What was actress Diane Keaton's birth surname?

4 Close to the border crossing with Croatia, what is the only coastal town in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

5 The film Schindler's List was based on a 1982 novel by which Australian writer?

6 The 2013 and 2014 winners of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture have both been from which country?

7 Willy Lott's Cottage can be seen in which famous painting of 1821?

8 What name, meaning unauthorised, was given to the castles built in 12th-century England without royal approval, particularly during the Anarchy war of 1135 to 1154?

9 2014 is the Chinese year of which creature?

10 Which 2004 Martin Scorsese film tells the story of a twenty-year period in the life of Howard Hughes?

11 Which short-lived US comedy series, first seen in 1982 and starring Leslie Nielsen, was a spoof of police procedurals and a precursor to the successful Naked Gun film series?

12 "I met a traveller from an antique land..." is the first line of which 1818 poem?

13 What was the official name of the "Dam Busters" raids of 1943 that saw the bombing of the Moehne and Edersee Dams?

14 Which stock character of Russian folk puppetry is also the title of an Igor Stravinsky ballet?

15 The largest city of its namesake governorate, what is the capital of Oman?
16 What newspaper format has pages that are slightly wider and taller than the tabloid format, but narrower and shorter than that of the broadsheet?
17 Which Brazilian city, the country's fifth-largest, is the state capital of Ceara?
18 Possibly his best-known work is the brutalist Royal National Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames; which English architect was also responsible for designing the European Investment Bank building in Luxembourg?
19 Caused by the inhalation of coal dust, which disease affecting the lungs is known as "miner's disease"?
20 Name the year. Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is displayed in the US for the first time; Harold Wilson becomes leader of the UK Labour Party; Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes.




Answers:
1 Burlington
2 Nairo Quintana
3 Hall
4 Neum
5 Thomas Keneally
6 Japan
7 The Hay Wain
8 Adulterine
9 Horse
10 The Aviator
11 Police Squad!
12 "Ozymandias"
13 Operation Chastise
14 Petrushka
15 Muscat
16 Berliner
17 Fortaleza
18 Denys Lasdun
19 Pneumoconiosis
20 1963

Questions on Syria, serial killers and sitcoms

Seems my last post was over a week ago. Sorry for that. Not sure why I've not updated the blog with anything - indolence and being sidetracked with other things, probably.

Unfortunately I didn't attend this year's BQC. Kettering would have no doubt cost an arm and a leg, and Edinburgh was low on places. There's always next year to make my BQC debut... I'll probably be at the Birmingham GP - always more opportunities for hope and subsequent despair at missed answers and lack of knowledge.

Seeing as I've not updated it for a week, here is a set of fifty questions:

1 Which 1942 film was adapted from the play, Everybody Comes to Rick's?

2 Its population is cited as being among the longest-lived in the world; what is the largest of Japan's Ryukyu Islands?

3 French chemist Anselme Payen discovered the first one, diastase, in 1883; what name is given to a biological catalyst?

4 What is the name of a badger's habitat?

5 Which town played host to a meeting between Chamberlain and Hitler in 1938 over the Sudetenland crisis?

6 Who served for around three years as the first president of Israel?

7 Despite their name, which country is actually the largest exporter of Brazil nuts?

8 The Czech Jan Zelezny holds the world record for which athletics event?

9 "Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)", "Winter", and "Star Star" are tracks off which 1973 Rolling Stones album?

10 The Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the Estado Novo regime, occurred in which European country in 1974?

11 It's mentioned in the Bible as a place where fallen angels descend to earth; what is the highest mountain in Syria?

12 Which architecture firm, one of the largest in the world, was responsible for designs for buildings such as Chicago's Willis Tower, the Burj Khalifa, and the new World Trade Center?
13 The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji were prints by which Japanese artist (1760-1849), generally known by just his surname?
14 A statue of which Roman emperor stands outside York Minster?
15 Which item of clothing was supposedly invented by Andre Courreges and popularised by Mary Quant?
16 Which English playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter wrote the play, A Man For All Seasons, and wrote the screenplay for the film, Doctor Zhivago?
17 The Armenian-British philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian amassed a large art collection with his wealth, much of which can now be seen in a museum in which European city?
18 Which cocktail, of which the Donald Sutherland is a variation, consists of nine parts Scotch whisky and five parts Drambuie?
19 Riga and which northern Swedish city are 2014's European Capitals of Culture?
20 Who was the first Plantagenet king of England?
21 A verdict was delivered in the high-profile trial of Oscar Pistorius this week. What two-word term denotes the offence Pistorius was found guilty of by judge Thokozile Masipa?
22 Set in February 2014, which Frenchman is the current world-record holder for the pole vault athletics event?
23 In 1985, a fire broke out during a match at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium, resulting in the tragic deaths of 56 supporters. Who were Bradford City's opponents that day?
24 What subject matter links the 1979 film, The China Syndrome, and the 1983 film, Silkwood?
25 Which of tennis's famous "Four Musketeers" was nicknamed the "bounding Basque"?
26 Born Romana Barrack, which TV writer created sitcoms including The Liver Birds and Butterflies?
27 In which year did Leslie Mitchell become the first voice heard on BBC TV?
28 The M1 motorway connects London to which major city of England's north?
29 What is the only US state to share a border with only one other state?
30 An image of him appears on the front of the country's $10 bill; who was the first US Secretary of the Treasury?
31 Its native name is Rakiura; what is New Zealand's largest island after the North and South islands?
32 Which traditional Middle Eastern form of headgear consists of a patterned design on a square scarf? It was perhaps made famous by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
33 Taking its title from the name of a popular electronic toy, what was the title of Depeche Mode's debut album, with tracks such as "New Life" and "Just Can't Get Enough"?
34 Mohamed Boudiaf was assassinated in 1992 while giving a televised speech. He was a political figure of which African country?
35 Ustinov, Trevelyan, and Grey are colleges of which British university?
36 In computing, a nibble consists of how many bits?
37 Which Japanese actor was best known for his 16-film collaboration with director Akira Kurosawa, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo?
38 Running from 21st March to 20th April each year, what is the first astrological sign of the zodiac?
39 Cleopatra's Needle stands closest to which London Underground station?
40 Who was the only crew member aboard Mercury-Redstone 3 in 1961?
41 From the Latin for "shallow dish", what name is given to the greenish discolouration on a statue caused by age and weathering? The Statue of Liberty is a prominent example.
42 The Novotel hotel brand is headquartered in which country?
43 With which Italian city would you associate Francesco Guardi?
44 Due to the location of the majority of his murders, serial killer Andrei Chikatilo was known as the "Butcher of ..." where?
45 Who was runner-up in the recent US Open women's singles tournament, losing 6-3 6-3 to Serena Williams in the final?
46 How does Anna Karenina die in Tolstoy's novel of the same name?
47 Preceded by the Prussian Secret Police, in what year was the Gestapo formed?
48 Dacia - also the name of Europe's fifth-biggest car manufacturer - was the Roman name for which modern-day country?
49 From the Latin for "to chew over again", what word refers to an animal able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in the stomach prior to digestion?
50 On which island of the Bahamas is the capital - Nassau - located?




Answers:
1 Casablanca
2 Okinawa
3 Enzyme
4 Sett
5 Bad Godesberg
6 Chaim Weizmann
7 Bolivia
8 Javelin
9 Goats Head Soup
10 Portugal
11 Mount Hermon
12 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
13 Hokusai
14 Constantine the Great
15 Miniskirt
16 Robert Bolt
17 Lisbon
18 Rusty Nail
19 Umea
20 Henry II
21 Culpable homicide
22 Renaud Lavillenie
23 Lincoln City
24 Nuclear power
25 Jean Borotra
26 Carla Lane
27 1936
28 Leeds
29 Maine
30 Alexander Hamilton
31 Stewart Island
32 Keffiyeh
33 Speak & Spell
34 Algeria
35 University of Durham
36 Four
37 Toshiro Mifune
38 Aries
39 Embankment
40 Alan Shepard
41 Patina
42 France
43 Venice
44 Rostov
45 Caroline Wozniacki
46 She throws herself under a train
47 1933
48 Romania
49 Ruminant
50 New Providence 

100Quiz #1 - results

Just seen that the blog has reached 5,000 page views since it was started in mid-May. Really pleased with that. Hopefully people are enjoying reading it and will continue to do so.

100Quiz #1 results
OK, so didn't get many entries for this - at least, not as many as I was wanting - maybe my questions were shite! I'll run them in the future but will perhaps look at ways to entice people to do them. The six entries were as follows - thanks and well done to all who entered, with a particular well done to David Hesp, who achieved an incredible score:

1 David Hesp 89
2 Clive Dunning 55
3 Hugh Bennett 52
4 Alan Gibbs 46
5 Ian Chilman 37
6 Ray Hamel 33

If anyone would like a copy of the answers, please let me know.

QM Quiz #14

1 The hopak is a dance from which country?

2 Which Yugoslav movement of World War II, led by Draza Mihailovic, was dissolved in 1946 as Tito proclaimed an amnesty to all defecting forces?

3 The Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing, is set on which island?

4 Giles Clarke is the current chairman of which sport governing body?

5 Which English theatre critic and writer was supposedly the first person to say the word "fuck" on British television?

6 What is the name of the sea cave, so-called after a British captain, that lies on the south-east face of the Rock of Gibraltar?

7 What was the first James Bond film to star Roger Moore?

8 Automobile engineer Louis Chevrolet, pharmacologist Daniel Bovet, and revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat were all born in which present-day country?

9 What is the main colour of the flag of Macau?

10 Stephen Crane's book, The Red Badge of Courage, is set during which war?

11 Who is the most recent British prime minister to have served non-consecutive terms?

12 The last time a team outside the top flight won the competition, which team won the 1980 FA Cup?

13 The Wasatch Front is home to roughly 80% of the population of which US state?

14 Usain Bolt set both the 100m and 200m world records in which city in 2009?

15 Poly Styrene, Lora Logic, and Jak Airport were members of which English punk band?

16 What do the Libyans call the sirocco wind, the same name as that of a Japanese film studio?

17 Numismatics is the scientific study of what?

18 Which composer created the Symphonie fantastique and the Grande messe des morts requiem? 

19 What is the longest river in the European Union?

20 The highest point of the Dinaric Alps is in which country?

Answers:

1 Ukraine

2 Chetniks

3 Sicily

4 ECB

5 Kenneth Tynan

6 Gorham's Cave

7 Live and Let Die

8 Switzerland

9 Green

10 American Civil War

11 Harold Wilson

12 West Ham

13 Utah

14 Berlin

15 X-Ray Spex

16 Ghibli

17 Currency

18 Hector Berlioz

19 Danube

20 Albania