Trivia Quiz

1. In which sport do the competitors use an épée, a sabre, or a foil?
a) Archery
b) Surfing
c) Angling
d) Fencing

2. Who was president of the Screen Actors' Guild in America 1947-52?
a) Warren Beatty
b) John Wayne
c) Orson Welles
d) Ronald Reagan

3. Which of the following is an island country in Polynesia, southwestern Pacific?
a) Malaita
b) Nauru
c) Palau
d) Suva

4. What was the nickname of the flying ace immortalised by `Captain` W E Johns?
a) Munchie
b) Biggles
c) Captain Thunderbird
d) Tom Cloud

5. What is the name of the river that rises to the south of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and flows Northeast to Lake Abba on the frontier with Djibouti?
a) Longa
b) Cuito
c) Eisb
d) Awash

6. Which former Scottish county South of the Firth of Forth had Edinburgh as its administrative headquarters?
a) Midlothian
b) Strathclyde
c) Aberdeenshire
d) Grampian

7. Which Agreement was signed between Germany and Japan 25 Nov 1936, which opposed Communism as a menace to peace and order?
a) Warsaw Pact
b) Germany Japan Alliance
c) Anti-Comintern Pact
d) 1936 Agreement

8. Which island off the English coast is a county in its own right?
a) Lindisfarne
b) Portland
c) Isle of Wight
d) Isle of Dogs

9. Who said: `The moment politics becomes dull democracy is in danger.`?
a) Betty Boothroyd
b) Nicholas Ridley
c) James Callaghan
d) Lord Hailsham

11. Afrikaans is an official language in the Republic of South Africa. It is a modified form of which European language?
a) Polish
b) French
c) Dutch
d) Danish

12. What is the currency of India?
a) Anna
b) Purna
c) Rupee
d) Dollar

13. What is the capital of Liechtenstein?
a) Schaan
b) Vaduz
c) Balzers
d) Ruggell

14. In which country is the Serengeti Game Reserve?
a) Uganda
b) Mozambique
c) Kenya
d) Tanzania

15. Who said `Read over your compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.`?
a) Samuel Johnson
b) Ernest Hemingway
c) The Earl of Chesterfield
d) Henry James

16. In the UK, what is the name of a public holiday when banks are closed by law?
a) Bank holiday
b) Independence day
c) Statutory holiday
d) National holiday

17. What is the term in acting and directing in which importance is attached to the psychological building of a role, rather than the technical aspects?
a) Melodramatics
b) The Method
c) Histrionics
d) Sensationalism

18. What is the name of any of the vast majority of nouns?
a) Common nouns
b) Pronouns
c) Countable nouns
d) Proper nouns

19. Which game is played with 22 balls including 15 reds and one white?
a) Skittles
b) Snooker
c) Bowling
d) Croquet

20. What is the name of the Muslim university and mosque in Cairo, Egypt?
a) Al Atrun
b) Ad Damir
c) Al Ayn
d) El Azhar

21. Which former duchy of northwestern France is now divided into two regions: Haute-Normandie and Basse-Normandie?
a) Ardenne
b) Bretagne
c) Champagne
d) Normandy

23. What London theatre is situated in Wellington Street, near the Strand?
a) Apollo
b) Lyceum
c) Coliseum
d) Lyric

24. What is the usual name for Athos, Porthos and Aramis, the three characters created by Alexander Dumas, the French writer?
a) Three for all
b) The three horsemen
c) Three of a kind
d) The three musketeers

25. Who wrote the words `You know who the critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art.`?
a) Benjamin Disraeli
b) Oscar Wilde
c) George Bernard Shaw
d) David Hockney

26. During the American Civil War, which Union victory over the Confederate army took place on 15-16 Dec 1864 in Tennessee?
a) Battle of Mill Springs
b) Battle of Nashville
c) Battle of Metz
d) Battle of Midway

27. Of which former Yugoslavian republic is Zagreb the capital city?
a) Bosnia
b) Macedonia
c) Croatia
d) Serbia

28. Its name means `New Flower` in English. What is the capital city of Ethiopia called?
a) Addis Ababa
b) Mogadishu
c) Nova Scotia
d) Fongafale

29. Who said `I was never an Angry Young Man. I am angry only when I hit my thumb with a hammer.`?
a) Angus Wilson
b) John Osborne
c) Harold Wilson
d) Kingsley Amis

30. Who wrote the words `The time is out of joint; O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!`?
a) Jonathan Swift
b) William Shakespeare
c) Percy Bysshe Shelley
d) Alexander Pope

31. Who wrote the words `I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.`?
a) Willa Cather
b) HRH The Prince of Wales
c) King George III
d) Al Gore

32. Which Agatha Christie play opened in London in 1952 and became the longest running show in the world?
a) Death on the Nile
b) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
c) The Mousetrap
d) Witness for the Prosecution

33. What number is the neutral ball at pool?
a) 6
b) 20
c) 8
d) 3

34. What is the name of the sea passage between Denmark and Sweden?
a) Kattegat
b) Gulf of Bothnia
c) Tyrrhenian Sea
d) Skagerrak

35. Which festival of pumpkins and witches is celebrated on October 31st?
a) Queen's Birthday
b) Bonfire Night
c) St Patrick's Day
d) Halloween

36. What is the French name for Brussels, the capital of Belgium?
a) Brueghel
b) Bruxelles
c) Brueges
d) Belgae

37. Which village in South Vietnam was the site of the killing of 109 civilians by US troops in March 1968?
a) My Lai
b) Tay Ninh
c) Quan Long
d) Vung Tau

38. Which German weapon of World War I was the fore-runner of the trench mortar?
a) Mill's bomb
b) Nailbomb
c) Blockbuster
d) Mine-thrower

39. Of which Pakistani state is Lahore the capital?
a) Assam
b) Bangalore
c) Punjab
d) Kashmir

40. Which 18th-century mansion in Washington DC, USA, is used for conferences and seminars?
a) Halcyon House
b) Dumbarton Oaks
c) Mt. Vernon
d) Monticello