Sunday 12 October 2014

This weeks questions

1 The death of which Russian composer, on 5 March 1953, was overshadowed by the death on the same day of Joseph Stalin?

2 What is the name of the 2013 film directed by Martin Scorsese based on the memoirs of  Jordan Belfort?

3 Ellis Park Stadium which hosts football and rugby games, is in what South African city?

4 Which pop group were successfully sued for libel in 1967 by Harold Wilson, then British Prime Minister, over a promotional postcard which showed him in bed with his secretary, Marcia Williams?

5 Which author and poet wrote 'The Sherston Trilogy', named after the protagonist, George Sherston, who serves as a pseudonym for the author?

6 What geologic period, the second of the Paleozoic Era, is named after a Celtic tribe living in present Wales and England prior to the Roman conquest?

7 Which region of France gives its name to a type of car? Originally an enclosed automobile with open driver's seat, it resembled a style of cloak and hood that was worn by the inhabitants of the region.

8 What is the name of the Australian passenger train service run between Adelaide and Darwin by Great Southern Rail?

9 Which Hollywood actress founded the lifestyle website Goop in 2008?

10 With an area of 787 square miles or 2,038 square kilometres, what is the largest Area of Oustanding National Beauty in Britain?










11 Pictured above. Representing England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games she won four gold medals, the most won by an Englishwoman at a single Games since 1930. What is the name of this gymnast?

12 With a name derived from the Greek for animal and ailment, what word describes the process whereby an infectious disease is transmitted between species? It is usually used specifically to mean diseases that can travel from non-human animals to humans, such as rabies and Ebola.

13 The three stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka are a feature of the night sky collectively known by what name?

14 Known as the 'Eton of the North' and for instilling its pupils with traditional values, Fettes College is located in which British city?

15 On 3 July 1940 at which Algerian port did the Royal Navy bombard the French fleet, sinking a battleship and damaging of five other ships? The attack was a result of fears that the French fleet would end up as a part of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine.

16 Born in Huddersfield in 1963, which poet and author published his first collection of poems, Zoom!, in 1989? He has published a further fifteen collections subsequently, as well as translations of the Odyssey and Sir Gawain and The Green Knight.

17 On board which ship did Napoléon Bonaparte surrender to the British after the Battle of Waterloo, after finding it blockading his escape to America?

18 Marlon Brando won his first Best Actor Oscar for his role in On the Waterfront, which of his co-stars won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role?

19 In 1973, in a match billed  as The Battle of the Sexes, Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in three straight sets. Riggs had beaten which female tennis player earlier in the year, who had stepped in after King declined his initial challenge?

20 Which Conservative politician, a minister under Margaret Thatcher and Deputy Prime Minister under John Major and now in the House of Lords, founded the media company Haymarket Media Group in 1965?






Answers:

1 Sergei Prokofiev
2 The Wolf of Wall Street
3 Johannesburg
4  The Move
5 Siegfried Sassoon
6 Ordovician
7 Limousin
8 The Ghan
9 Gwyneth Paltrow
10 Cotswolds
11 Claudia Fragapane
12 Zoonosis
13 Orion's Belt
14 Edinburgh
15 Mers-el-Kébir
16 Simon Armitage
17 HMS Bellerophon
18 Eva Marie Saint
19 Margaret Court
20 Michael Heseltine

Sunday 5 October 2014

Another set of questions

1 The 2006 film The Prestige, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, was based on a novel of the same name by which author?

2 Since the death of Humphrey Lyttelton in 2008, which comedian has been the host of the Radio 4 comedy panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue?














3 Excavated in the early twentieth century and reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin, (pictured above), the Ishtar Gate  was part of which Mesopotamian city?

4  The Queen's Plate, Prince of Wales Stakes and Breeders Stakes are the three horse races that make up which country's Triple Crown?

5 Gaby Aghion who died on 27 Septmber 2014 founded which French fashion house in 1952?

6 Thespis, first performed in 1871, was the first collaboration between which librettist and composer?

7 The La Liga football club Real Sociedad are based in which Spanish city?

8 What two word expression, from the Greek for the 'many or majority', is used in English as a derogatory term for the working class or common people?

9 What surname links a British artist married to Barbara Hepworth from 1938 to 1951, a 1961 double winning manager of Tottenham Hotspur and a 1961 football pools winner who pledged to "spend, spend, spend"?

10 What is the name of the production company that made Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? from 1998 to 2007?

11 What was the name of car manufacturer Henry Ford's son? His first name was used for a range of car Ford manufactured from 1958 to 1960, that was so unpopular the name became a popular symbol for failure.

12 What is the name of the French fashion designer who, along with Mary Quant claims to be the inventor of the mini skirt, launched what he called his 'Space Age' collection in 1964?

13 The 2009 film Oil City Confidential, directed by Julien Temple, documents the story of which band, who despite their most commercially productive years being the 1970s still tour today, albeit without any of the original line-up?

14 What was the name of the first Soviet secret police organization, founded on the orders of Lenin in December 1917 and led by Felix Dzerzhinsky?

15 What is the modern day name of the Polynesian island nation formerly known as the Ellice Islands?

16 Which English biologist was known as "Darwin's Bulldog" due to his advocacy of Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution?

17 What name is given to a pizza folded in half and filled with a stuffing?

18 The flowering plants of the genus Kniphofia, are known more commonly by what name?

19 The jockey Brian Fletcher, who rode Red Rum to victory in the Grand National in 1973 and '74, won his first National in 1968 on which horse?

20 Which march composed by John Phillip Sousa is named after a US newspaper?






Answers:

1 Christopher Priest
2 Jack Dee
3 Babylon
4  Canada
5 Chloe
6 Gilbert and Sullivan
7 San Sebastián
8 Hoi polloi
9 Nicholson, respectively Ben, Bill and Viv
10 Celador
11 Edsel Ford
12 André Courrèges
13 Dr. Feelgood
14 The Cheka
15 Tuvalu
16 Thomas Huxley
17 Calzone
18 Red hot poker
19 Red Alligator
20 The Washington Post March