Trivia Quiz

2. What name is given to the pilots of the Japanese air force in World War II who deliberately crash-dived their planes, loaded with bombs, usually on to ships of the US Navy?
a) Hokkaido
b) Karaoke
c) Kamikaze
d) Harakiri

3. In World War II, what was the unsuccessful British offensive in the Western Desert which was intended to relieve Tobruk and recapture Cyrenaica?
a) Operation Tobruk
b) The 1941 Offensive
c) Cyrenaica Offensive
d) Operation Battleaxe

4. Which Spring feast of the Christian church commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus?
a) Epiphany
b) Advent
c) Easter
d) Palm Sunday

5. What is the term for the disposal of the dead by burning?
a) Embalming
b) Cremation
c) Mummification
d) Burying

6. What is the name of the voluntary association of 51 countries and their dependencies that once formed part of the British Empire and are now independent sovereign states?
a) Eastern Block
b) European Community
c) North Atlantic Organisation
d) The (British) Commonwealth

7. Which cricketer established a record with six sixes in one over?
a) Ian Botham
b) Len Hutton
c) Basil D'Oliveira
d) Gary Sobers

8. What was the declaration issued during World War II by the British prime minister, Winston Churchill and the US president, Franklin Roosevelt after meetings Aug 1941?
a) 1941 Charter
b) Atlantic Charter
c) North Atlantic Treaty
d) Allied Agreement

9. What shingle bank extends 19 km/11 mi along the coast of Dorset, England, from Abbotsbury to the Isle of Portland?
a) Abbotsbury Bank
b) Portland Bank
c) Chesil Bank
d) Durdle Bank

10. Which Muslim dynasty based in Seville, Spain, lasted from 1023 until 1091?
a) Ming dynasty
b) Umayyad dynasty
c) Seljcuk dynasty
d) Abbadid dynasty

11. Of which Canadian province is Edmonton the capital?
a) Ontario
b) Alberta
c) British Colombia
d) Manitoba

12. Which French general and emperor was forced to retreat from Moscow in 1812?
a) Napoleon I
b) Napoleon II
c) Napoleon III
d) Napoleon IV

13. Which resort town on the Mediterranean coast of Tunisia is 18 km/11 mi South of Sousse?
a) Arzew
b) Beni-Saf
c) Gouraya
d) Monastir

14. What name refers to the courts held by judges of the High Court under the Lord Chief Justice Judge Jeffreys, after Monmouth's rebellion 1685?
a) Bloody Tribunals
b) Bloody Judiciary
c) Bloody Assizes
d) Bloody Sessions

15. Which sea off the Canadian coast was named after a British admiral who also gave his name to a well known scale?
a) Nelson Sea
b) Beaufort Sea
c) Drake Sea
d) Frobisher Sea

16. In which country did revolutionaries seize the members of the US embassy in Tehran and hold them hostage for two years?
a) Sudan
b) Syria
c) Iran
d) Lebanon

17. Which lottery is run by the Irish government, on three horse races each year, with proceeds going to the nursing services?
a) Belmont Stakes
b) The Oaks
c) Irish Sweepstake
d) Grand National

19. Which famous Admiral, commemorated by a statue on a column in Trafalgar Square, commanded the victorious British fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar?
a) Duke of Wellington
b) Sir Francis Drake
c) Lord Nelson
d) Napoleon Bonaparte

20. Which range of limestone hills in southern England stretches nearly 40 km/25 mi Southeast-Northwest from Wells in Somerset towards the Bristol Channel?
a) Mendip Hills
b) Cotswold hills
c) Cheviot hills
d) Malvern hills

21. What is the family name of the dukes of Argyll, seated at Inveraray Castle, Argyll, Scotland?
a) McEwan
b) Hamilton
c) Macleod
d) Campbell

22. Which permanent multinational military force was established 1960 in order to move immediately to any NATO country under threat of attack?
a) Allied Mobile Force
b) Multilateral Force
c) United Nations Army
d) Warsaw Pact Force

23. Which New Zealand squash player won the World Open Championship a record three times 1985, 1987, and 1990?
a) Susan Devoy
b) Grace William
c) Chris Evert
d) Monica Seles

24. In which Central American country was there conflict between the ruling Sandinista government and the US-backed Contra rebels during the 1980s?
a) Guatemala
b) Nicaragua
c) Honduras
d) El Salvador

26. In India, what was the large-scale civil disobedience campaign, orchestrated by Mahatma Gandhi, which followed the Amritsar Massacre April 1919?
a) People's Party Movement
b) Non-Aligned Movement
c) Noncooperation movement
d) Indian Mutiny

27. Which major river rises in the Valdai hills Northwest of Moscow?
a) Oder
b) Dneiper
c) Volga
d) Irtysh

28. On which French river is the world's first successful tidal power station?
a) Garonne
b) Loire
c) Seine
d) Rance

29. Who said `One cannot review a bad book without showing off.`?
a) Oscar Wilde
b) Noël Coward
c) Dorothy Parker
d) W H Auden

30. Who wrote the words ``Do you know who made you?` `Nobody, as I knows on,` said the child, with a short laugh. ... `I 'spect I grow'd.``?
a) Harriet Beecher Stowe
b) Mark Twain
c) Louisa May Alcott
d) Charles Dickens

31. Which English north-country resort is famous for its illuminations, its tower, and its pleasure beach?
a) Colwyn Bay
b) Brighton
c) Blackpool
d) Morecambe

32. What can be printed on twelve sheets of paper, with a sequence of numbers up to 28, 29, 30, or 31, and is used as a way of organising the year?
a) Directory
b) Timetable
c) Yellow Pages
d) Calendar

33. What new name did Francis Drake give his ship the Pelican during his circumnavigation of the world?
a) Golden Hind
b) Unicorn
c) Virgin Queen
d) Gloriana

34. In what year did the Representation of the People Act give the vote to all women over 21?
a) 1901
b) 1928
c) 1918
d) 1934

35. Which of the following is a group of uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of western Australia?
a) Madura
b) Grenada
c) Timor
d) Monte Bello

36. Which élite Italian mountain military force was founded in 1872?
a) Gurkhas
b) Corps d'elite
c) Alpini
d) SAS

37. What is the continent surrounding the South Pole?
a) Arctic
b) Greenland
c) Antarctica
d) Australia

38. In World War II, which two decisive battles were fought in the western desert, northern Egypt?
a) Battle of El Alamein
b) Battle of As Sallum
c) Battle of the western desert
d) Battle of Rashid

39. What is the name of the former home of the dukes of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner, which is now the Wellington Museum?
a) Windsor
b) Apsley House
c) Oakenholt
d) Blenheim

40. Which children's writer wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?
a) Mick Inkpen
b) Raymond Briggs
c) Dick King Smith
d) Roald Dahl

43. Is The Wash a bay of the North Sea, Irish Sea, The Solent or Bristol Channel?
a) North Sea
b) The Solent
c) Bristol Channel
d) Irish Sea

44. Which US family of actors are the children of British-born Maurice and Georgie Drew, both stage personalities?
a) Sheen
b) Hope
c) Douglas
d) Barrymore

45. What was the name of the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, fought in 1485?
a) Battle of Agincourt
b) Battle of Bosworth
c) Battle of York
d) Battle of Marsden Moor

47. Which inland sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is fast disappearing because the rivers that feed it have been diverted and dammed?
a) Lake Onega
b) Aral Sea
c) Lake Balkhash
d) Caspian Sea

48. What is the Italian name for Turin?
a) Tokyo
b) Toronto
c) Tripoli
d) Torino

49. Who said `Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.`?
a) Samuel Johnson
b) Winston Churchill
c) W C Fields
d) General William Booth

50. The Orinoco, a 1,500-mile-long river, forms 200 miles of the border between Venezuela and which other South American country?
a) Argentina
b) Mexico
c) Panama
d) Colombia

51. What agreement reached by Britain and France 1904 recognised British interests in Egypt and French interests in Morocco?
a) Entente Cordiale
b) Anglo-Egyptian Treaty
c) Duel Entente
d) Lalla Maghnia Convention

52. A feature of some rivers takes its name from the River Menderes in Turkey. What is this feature?
a) Mendering
b) Moraine
c) Mesa
d) Meander

53. Who wrote the words `As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.`?
a) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
b) Ira Gershwin
c) Lord Byron
d) William Shakespeare

54. From which Devon port did the Pilgrims set sail for the New World in the ship Mayflower in 1620?
a) Yarmouth
b) Plymouth
c) Falmouth
d) Portsmouth