Trivia Quiz

1. In which part of the world are the Ross and Weddell seas?
a) Antarctica
b) The Arctic
c) The Caribbean
d) The Pacific

2. What is the term for an informal word or phrase appropriate to familiar, everyday conversation?
a) Onomastic
b) Colloquialism
c) Cliché
d) Nomenclature

5. What is the capital of Bahrain?
a) Isa Town
b) Manama
c) Muharraq
d) Hidd

6. Signed by the New York Yankees, he was a powerful switch- hitter and won the Triple Crown in 1956. Who was he?
a) Gordie Howe
b) Arnold Palmer
c) Gary Sobers
d) Mickey Mantle

7. Which US state is nicknamed `The Golden State`, originally because gold was mined there, but now because of its sunshine?
a) Hawaii
b) Florida
c) California
d) New Mexico

10. Who said `It is hard to tell where the MCC ends and the Church of England begins.`?
a) J B Priestley
b) John Cleese
c) George Orwell
d) Clement Attlee

11. Which country was ruled by the Romanov dynasty 1613-1917?
a) Romania
b) Hungary
c) Slovakia
d) Russia

12. Who said `It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.`?
a) Samuel Johnson
b) Siegfried Sassoon
c) Anthony Trollope
d) Oscar Wilde

13. Which German river is spanned by the Zoo Bridge?
a) Oder
b) Havel
c) Elbe
d) Rhine

14. During the Hundred Years' War, which English defeat by the French took place during Oct 1428-May 1429?
a) Battle of Orléans
b) Battle of Nantes
c) Battle of Néry
d) Battle of Mons

15. Which Russian port, on the Pacific coast at the end of the Trans-Siberian Railway, is kept open by icebreakers during the winter?
a) Timbuktu
b) Moscow
c) Vladivostok
d) Murmansk

16. Which of the following is a lyric poem of complex form?
a) Travelogue
b) Ode
c) Vignette
d) Novella

17. Which central region of Namibia is the home of the nomadic Bantu-speaking Herero?
a) Damaraland
b) Ovamboland
c) Ngamiland
d) Namaland

18. Who was the first king of the House of Lancaster?
a) Henry V
b) Henry IV
c) Richard II
d) Henry VI

19. What type of book was published by the English lexicographer Samuel Johnson in 1755, one of the early examples of its kind?
a) Dictionary
b) Encyclopedia
c) Atlas
d) Directory

21. Which Southeast county is also known as `the garden of England`?
a) Essex
b) Kent
c) Suffolk
d) East Sussex

22. What series of diplomatic documents was initialled in Switzerland 16 Oct 1925 and formally signed in London 1 Dec 1925?
a) Pact of Locarno
b) Treaty of Sèvres
c) Entente Cordiale
d) Little Entente

23. What is the name for any expression that is peculiar to a language and cannot be translated or interpreted literally?
a) Collocation
b) Noun phrase
c) Idiom
d) Antonym

25. Whose tactics at the Battle of Bull Run earned him the name `Stonewall`?
a) Thomas Jackson
b) General Sherman
c) General Grant
d) Joseph Hooker

26. What is the alternative spelling of Elat, a port in Israel?
a) Elut
b) Elaith
c) Ilat
d) Eilat

27. Who wrote the words `We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion.`?
a) William Shakespeare
b) Francis Bacon
c) John Locke
d) Thomas Hobbes

28. Which of the following is a ruined city beside the Nile, 19 km/12 mi South of Cairo, Egypt?
a) Al Burj
b) Nabq
c) Idmu
d) Memphis

29. Who wrote the words `Their's not to make reply, Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.`?
a) Rudyard Kipling
b) Alfred, Lord Tennyson
c) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
d) Robert Browning

30. What is the collective term for dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons?
a) Lords and ladies
b) Honours list
c) Peerage
d) Who's who

31. Which English town, with a Royal Pavilion, is a seaside resort on the east Sussex coast?
a) Penzance
b) Torquay
c) Brighton
d) Blackpool

32. Which sandbank at the mouth of the River Thames, England was the site of the first lightship?
a) The Nore
b) Foulness Island
c) Isle of Sheppey
d) Orford Ness

33. Who wrote the words `Against the beautiful and the clever and the successful, one can wage a pitiless war, but not against the unattractive.`?
a) William Morris
b) Cyril Connolly
c) Desmond Morris
d) Graham Greene

34. Which pair of German brothers collected such stories as `Hansel and Gretel`?
a) The Andersen brothers
b) The brothers Grimm
c) The brothers Jung
d) The Weiss brothers

35. What nationality was 1986 Nobel prizewinner Wole Soyinka?
a) Nigerian
b) Czech
c) Polish
d) American

36. Which of the following is a Panamanian island of the Pearl Island group in the Gulf of Panama?
a) Aruba
b) Coiba
c) Contadora
d) Mayaguana

37. What was the nickname of James Edward Stuart, the son of James II of England?
a) Old Nick
b) Old Bill
c) Old Pretender
d) Old Scratchy

38. Which city, the provincial capital of Ontario, is the largest in Canada?
a) Vancouver
b) Toronto
c) Quebec
d) Niagara Falls

39. Who said `I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.`?
a) Tom Paine
b) William Wilberforce
c) Abraham Lincoln
d) George Washington

40. Who wrote the words `Capten, art tha sleepin' there below?`?
a) Henry Newbolt
b) Walter de la Mare
c) John Masefield
d) Alfred Noyes

41. How many pieces of wood make up one wicket in cricket?
a) 6
b) 4
c) 3
d) 5

42. In which branch of philosophy was Jean-Paul Sartre a leading figure?
a) Existentialism
b) Neo-Thomism
c) Phenomenology
d) Logical positivism

44. Which large lake on the borders of Jordan and Israel lies 394 m/1,293 ft below sea level?
a) Lake of Galilee
b) Lake Titicata
c) Dead Sea
d) Lake Tiberias

45. Ingrid Christiansen, the outstanding long-distance runner, has broken world records and won all the world's leading marathons. What nationality is she?
a) Norwegian
b) Dutch
c) Icelandic
d) Danish

47. In which athletic field event are you allowed three consecutive failures before being eliminated?
a) High jump
b) Shot put
c) Triple jump
d) Long jump

48. What name is given to the highest distinction in any sphere?
a) Silver riband
b) Yellow riband
c) Gold riband
d) Blue riband

49. What are articles made to cover the human body called?
a) Blankets
b) Clothes
c) Sheets
d) Furs

50. The Mersey Tunnel links Birkenhead with which city?
a) Carlisle
b) Liverpool
c) Chester
d) Manchester