BH149: Fragments of Quizzes That Never Were
Rejects for the next big quiz
I spend insane amounts of time amending and replacing questions in my 500+ monsters, meaning I start with a full set - the completion of which is greeted with a lusty Hurrah! - and then, with the Hurrah! dwindling gradually to a barely heard whimper, draft relentlessly, nay autistically, until I am left with a quiz which I believe will cover all the bases.
But that is never enough. I look again. Then the itty bitty nit-picking starts in earnest for days, weeks, even months on end. Things start to appear that were never there before. Irritating, odious things. I go back and change something else (e.g. American movies, or in fact any evidence of my falling victim to unconscious bias towards the cultural imperialism of our Transatlantic buddies, and all that foreign literature guff no one will get right), and so on and again and again, grinding all my free time into nothingness until about what seems like years later, when I am left with a set that bears no relation to the one I started with (only 150 of the original will survive if they are lucky ... I do like culling stuff, though admittedly of the textual not animal kind). Often there is nothing wrong with the questions I take out, only something in them has slightly gone off and that niggly feeling grows and grows, until I exile them to the relative oblivion of my BH quizzes, swapping them with something I think is, like, a billion times better (but really isn't, when viewed in the cold light of day).
Therefore I present a selection of the questions I wrote for my next big quiz (yes, the final draft has just been finished, and I looked upon my mighty work and thought it, erm, um, alright, I suppose ... must draft again). So don't get too antsy, muttering to yourself, "Well, I would have got that one. Bet the silly sod put something in that is sure to instil blankness in my mind."
BH149
1 All the famous blue-eyed and white-coloured examples of which tiger breed that are alive today are descended from a male white tiger called Mohan that was captured alive in 1951 by the Maharajah of Rewa?
2 Famed for its wine, the Constantia estate was established in 1685 by Simon van der Stel. It is located in an affluent suburb of which South African city?
3 Ernest Rutherford's pioneering of the orbital theory of the atom through the discovery of his eponymous scattering with the Gold foil experiment (aka the Geiger-Marsden experiment) led to the downfall of which model of the atom, proposed by JJ Thomson in 1904 and named after a type of dessert?
4 The Duke of Lorraine and then Louis XIII served as patron for which French artist, who worked from 1620 at Luneville and painted 40 positively identified, mostly religious works, including St Joseph the Carpenter (Louvre) and The Lamentation over St Sebastian (Berlin)?
5 Sompapuri Vihara, a Buddhist monastery covering 11 hectares, is located in which country?
6 Now considered Germany's most influential TV commentator, which midfielder and 1974 World Cup winner played with Borussia Monchengladbach from 1961 for most of his career before joining Real Madrid in 1973?
7 Which animated cartoon director, who shot his first cartoon - Porky Pig in Goldiggers of '49 - in 1935 was originally named Frederick Bean?
8 Evgeni Berzin became the first Russian to win which cycling event in 1994?
9 Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen is the reigning Olympic champion in which athletics event?
10 Which animal's intestines are used in the Italian dish pajata?
11 What term describes the sticky brown fixatives that bees collect from trees to use as a cement-like substance in their hives?
12 Which basketball team won their last NBA championship in 1986 when they beat the Houston Rockets 4-2 in the play-offs final game series?
13 Belonging to the class Cyclostomata, lampreys and hagfishes are the only living members of which subphylum or superclass of marine and freshwater vertebrates that lack jaws?
14 Who directed the films Le Beau Serge (1958), Le Boucher (1969), Cop au Vin (1984), Merci Pour Le Chocolat (2000) and La Fille coupee en deux (2007)?
15 Formed in 2006 under Mahamat Nouri's leadership, the United Forces for Democracy is a rebel group fighting against President Idriss Deby. Deby is president of which landlocked African country?
16 Who played Pippi Longstocking in a series of four Swedish films made between 1969 and 1971?
17 Which war was concluded by the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople?
18 Which German writer (1893-1947), whose real name was Rudolf Ditzen, wrote the novels Kleiner Mann, Was Nun?/Little Man, What Now? (1932) and Wolf unter Wolfen/Wolf Among Wolves (1938)?
19 On Rocky Marciano's retirement as world heavyweight champion in 1956, which boxer beat Archie Moore for the vacant title?
20 Which French cosmetics company bought The Body Shop chain in March 2006?
21 Which Carthaginian church father (160-230 AD) used the phrase "Out of the frying pan into the fire" in his work De Carne Christi?
22 Based on his World War Two experiences and written when he was 19, Williwaw was the debut novel by which American man of letters?
23 After the disastrous defeat at Teutoburg Forest, which trees gave their name to the wall that the Romans built along the length of the frontier from the Rhine to the Danube?
24 Opened in Los Angeles on January 11, 1964, The Whisky a Go Go is believed to be the first example of which music venue in the USA?
25 In Iran, "Lavat" is what sort of crime?
26 The Green Line has divided Cyprus between the Greek south and the Turkish north since the invasion of the latter country in which year?
27 The name of which Olympic sport, and therefore the sporting apparatus it uses, literally means "stilts" in Italian?
28 The Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius published which great work on the subject of international law in 1625?
29 Who wrote in his work A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers: "It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak, and another to hear"?
30 Which country beat Canada to become ice hockey Olympic champions at the 1936 Winter Games at Garmisch Partenkirchen?
Answers to BH148: Rejects ...
1 Bengal tiger 2 Cape Town 3 Plum pudding model 4 Georges de la Tour 5 Bangladesh 6 Gunter Netzer 7 Tex Avery 8 Giro d'Italia 9 Javelin 10 Lamb 11 Propolis 12 Boston Celtics 13 Agnatha 14 Claude Chabrol 15 Chad 16 Inger Nilsson 17 Russo-Ottoman War 18 Hans Fallada 19 Floyd Patterson 20 L'Oreal 21 Tertullian or Tertullianus 22 Gore Vidal 23 The Limes 24 Disco 25 Sexual intercourse between two men 26 1974 27 Trampolining 28 De Jura Belli et Pacis/On the Law of War and Peace 29 Henry Thoreau 30 Great Britain
Disaster at Bluebell Close
Our unbeaten President's Cup record was smashed upon the fatal rocks of bad luck, mild incompetence and an excellent performance from our opponents Beds. Nic starting off proceedings by saying "O'Connell" instead of United Irishmen founder Wolfe Tone, and my saying "Jim Clark" in place of Graham Hill as the motor-racing triple crown were two ugly errors that resulted in 6 points falling in the lap of the other side, but truth be told, had we got those we would have still lost, the final score being 39-31.
I cannot say that we blew the chance to win, no way, and that our opposing number four, Fred, was extremely unlucky in not being given Campaign For Fully Dark Skies, when he guessed that the acronym stood for Campaign for Fully Dark Skies (a piece of great lateral thinking) and that overall, this was one set that did not play to our usually redoubtable strengths, though, in contrast, nearly every other team in the competition did markedly better in the scoring department than us.
You see it's all about the question-setting bias of which we are sometimes barely aware, but which I am determined to flag up. Flag up constantly, I say! With a big flapping flag, I have sewn from harsh and deflating experiences suffered in the trenches of the Quiz War I have fought in for so very many years (er, 12?). Maybe I have not have mentioned our loss during the past fortnight because it has traumatised me so. Or maybe, because I have been struck by laziness induced by a type of defeatist amnesia. That could, of course, be the same thing. Whatever. It's only a game. Only a game.
Frien...
As evidenced by their regular post-match appearance on this blog, I have not written a friendly for the past two, albeit, away matches. This is possibly because I have got slightly concerned with the constant tropes that appear (who directed? which currency? which composer? which samey thing blah-dee-blah?) time and time again. This is what happens when you make a list of such things and think, can't I write questions about something else? It is something that has preyed upon my mind in a totally pointless manner and has therefore chucked a spanner in the previously unthinking friendly-setting works. It has all gone a bit MEH.
For the Beds & Herts match I tried to change up, but, let's just say I got bored in the mind-numbing way and my break with tradition was aborted in early flow. I had come across a useful literature guide: short, snappy articles delineating the ages and literary movements, above which a banner ran with relevant, tangential trivia and historical titbits. So I thought why not do a friendly set with pairs that come from the same decade? Why not?
The answer came in Round 3: the balancing act either too predictable or too unpredictable. I had predictability problems. And problems that one side would get the cream and the other, the scummy stuff that floats in milk gone sour. Ergo, the friendly died there and then. However, for your quizzing curiosity, I present the questions for your delectation...
Unfinished President's Cup Friendly 17/2/08
Round 1
1a Who published volume one of his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776?
Edmund Gibbon
1b 1774 saw the publication of the Earl of Chesterfield's Letters. Who said: "They teach the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing master"?
Dr Samuel Johnson
2a At which London station was a man with a wooden leg paid to ride and demonstrate the safety of the new escalators to encourage passengers to use them in 1911?
Earl's Court
2b Which British chemist discovered isotopes in 1913?
Frederick Soddy
3a Civil war broke out in Nigeria when which state seceded in 1967?
Biafara
3b Who became Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1964 and, in the same year, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner?
Martin Luther King
4a In 1876, who said: "Mr Watson, come here, I want you"?
Alexander Graham Bell
4b In 1877, an electoral commission decided that which man was to become US President?
Rutherford B Hayes
Round 2
1a In 1933, the Massachusetts woman Ruth Wade invented which baked snacks?
Chocolate chip cookies
1b In 1933, Professor AMJ Michels of Amsterdam collaborated with chemists from ICI to invent which thermoplastic?
Polythene
2a Which British astronomer compared star positions with those listed by Ptolemy and discovered the independent motion of the stars in 1710?
Edmund Halley
2b Specifying a limited term of protection, the 1710 law the Statute of Anne was the first piece of legislation to recognise whose rights?
Authors'
3a Which law, excluding women from succession to the throne, was adopted in France in 1317?
Salic Law
3b Which alcoholic spirit is said to have first been distilled by the French medical professor Arnaldus de Villa Nova in 1310?
Brandy
4a Launched in 1946 at $6.95 each, which watches were created by the Norwegian-American Joakim Lehmkuhl, who had made bomb timing mechanisms during World War Two?
Timex
4b Thor Heyerdahl sailed which balsa-wood raft from Peru to Polynesia in 1947?
Kon-Tiki
Round 3
1a Which Trinidadian sprinter beat Don Quarrie to win the 100m at the 1976 Montreal Olympics?
Hasley Crawford
1b Which athlete did the men's 100m and 200m sprint double at the Munich Games?
Valery Borzov
2a Now seen everywhere, what made their first appearance in Perfect Occurrences of Every Day in 1647?
Advertisements
2b Which superb lyricist and sardonic satirist of the Spanish Golden Age wrote: "Life begins in tears and shit"?
Francisco de Quevedo
The Future: Quadrillogy Quiz
I've got an idea (and so my mind wanders off to Han Solo and Return of the Jedi). I've been thinking of doing a future big quiz that isn't quite so big. One that is quite compact and far less wordy and easy on the mental faculties. Instead of great bleeding chunks of exposition, there will be quartets of snappy questions based on the same subjects (you will see below, but basically, let's just say, capitals of countries, car companies, chocolate cookies, card-carrying communist Canadians) with different levels of difficulty. Therefore you would have 125 separate subjects (the format going Question 1 A) B) C) D)), most of which I hope would interest you. The time limit would be reduced to two hours and the entry free likewise cut down to something like £5.
It is a very "listy" sort of quiz, but one I believe has an appeal different to the usual quizzes I do. There seems to be a lot less thinking time involved. Changing up (yet again) is the primary appeal to me of writing it, but also useful because in my own selfish way, it would help me brush up on several of my weaknesses. You see, I'm always thinking about me me me in some way.
So I started out doing it randomly, but then realised that assigning question categories requires forward planning that will prevent me flailing in confusion and boredom when searching for more questions to call upon. Having my book sources and subject distributions to hand will make it infinitely easier and tolerable, but here is my embryonic taster.
(And yes, I know that Quadrillogy is not even a real word and that it should be tetralogy (or similar), but if it is good enough for the makers of the Alien films DVD box-set, and has the bonus of attractive alliteration, then it is sure as hell good enough for a humble e-mail quiz.)
The Quadrillogy Quiz That Basically Died Before It Was Born
Q1 Which capital cities stand on the following rivers?
a) Manzanares
A:
b) Potomac
A:
c) Rimac
A:
d) Nerisr
A:
Q2 In which countries are the following national parks?
a) Royal Chitwan National Park
A:
b) Machalilla National Park
A:
c) Joshua Tree National Park
A:
d) Carnarvon National Park
A:
Q3 Which Hong Kong film-makers directed these movies?
a) Exiled, The Mission, Election
A:
b) The Killer, A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled
A:
c) City on Fire, Replicant, Wild Search
A:
d) God of Gamblers, Challenge of the Gamesters, Holy Weapon
A:
Q4 In which sports are these trophies contested?
a) Bledisloe Cup
A:
b) Marcel Corbillon Cuo
A:
c) Brendan Martin Cup
A:
d) Air Canada Silver Broom
A:
Q5 Who are credited with the following sporting quotations?
a) US boxing manager in 1932 referring to his fighter Jack Sharkey losing to Max Schmeling: "We wuz robbed!"
A:
b) Baseball player nicknamed "Satchel": "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, age don't matter"
A:
c) Scottish racing driver: "In my sport the quick are too often listed among the dead"
A:
d) American football coach: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going"
A:
Q6 Also given their creators, which detectives appear in these novels ?
a) Rex Stout - Murder by the Book
A:
b) John Dickson Carr - Death Watch
A:
c) Dorothy L Sayers - The Nine Tailors
A:
d) Ngaio Marsh - Death and the Dancing Footman
A:
Q7 Who made the following technological or scientific discoveries during the 1930s?
a) US geologist devised a scale to measure the intensity of earthquakes in 1935
A:
b) British physicist discovers the neutron in 1932
A:
c) Swiss scientist synthesises DDT as an insecticide in 1939
A:
d) US engineer invents the catalytic process of cracking crude oil in 1930
A:
Q8 In which months do these countries have their national days?
a) Brazil's Independence Day celebrating the declaration of independence from Portugal in 1822
A:
b) Italy commemorates the foundation of the Republic in 1946
A:
c) Russia marks the declaration of the Russian Federation's sovereignty in 1991
A:
d) Australia remembers the birth of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901
A:
Q9 By what names do we commonly know these moveable Christian feasts?
a) The first day in Lent, falling between February 4th and March 10th
A:
b) The Sunday after Pentecost
A:
c) Also known as Whit Sunday, falling seven weeks after Easter between May 10th and June 13th
A:
d) The Sunday nearest to November 30th
A:
QuadQuizAnswers
1 a) Madrid b) Washington DC c) Lima d) Vilnius 2 a) Nepal b) Ecuador c) USA d) Australia 3 a) Johnnie To b) John Woo c) Ringo Lam d) Wong Jing 4 a) Rugby union b) Table tennis c) Gaelic football d) Curling 5 a) Joe Jacobs b) Leroy Paige c) Jackie Stewart d) Knut Rockne 6 a) Nero Wolfe b) Gideon Fell c) Lord Peter Wimsey d) Roderick Alleyn 7 a) Charles Richter b) James Chadwick c) Paul Muller d) Eugene Houdry 8 a) September (7th) b) June (2nd) c) June (12th) d) January (26th) 9 a) Ash Wednesday b) Trinity Sunday c) Pentecost d) Advent Sunday
I spend insane amounts of time amending and replacing questions in my 500+ monsters, meaning I start with a full set - the completion of which is greeted with a lusty Hurrah! - and then, with the Hurrah! dwindling gradually to a barely heard whimper, draft relentlessly, nay autistically, until I am left with a quiz which I believe will cover all the bases.
But that is never enough. I look again. Then the itty bitty nit-picking starts in earnest for days, weeks, even months on end. Things start to appear that were never there before. Irritating, odious things. I go back and change something else (e.g. American movies, or in fact any evidence of my falling victim to unconscious bias towards the cultural imperialism of our Transatlantic buddies, and all that foreign literature guff no one will get right), and so on and again and again, grinding all my free time into nothingness until about what seems like years later, when I am left with a set that bears no relation to the one I started with (only 150 of the original will survive if they are lucky ... I do like culling stuff, though admittedly of the textual not animal kind). Often there is nothing wrong with the questions I take out, only something in them has slightly gone off and that niggly feeling grows and grows, until I exile them to the relative oblivion of my BH quizzes, swapping them with something I think is, like, a billion times better (but really isn't, when viewed in the cold light of day).
Therefore I present a selection of the questions I wrote for my next big quiz (yes, the final draft has just been finished, and I looked upon my mighty work and thought it, erm, um, alright, I suppose ... must draft again). So don't get too antsy, muttering to yourself, "Well, I would have got that one. Bet the silly sod put something in that is sure to instil blankness in my mind."
BH149
1 All the famous blue-eyed and white-coloured examples of which tiger breed that are alive today are descended from a male white tiger called Mohan that was captured alive in 1951 by the Maharajah of Rewa?
2 Famed for its wine, the Constantia estate was established in 1685 by Simon van der Stel. It is located in an affluent suburb of which South African city?
3 Ernest Rutherford's pioneering of the orbital theory of the atom through the discovery of his eponymous scattering with the Gold foil experiment (aka the Geiger-Marsden experiment) led to the downfall of which model of the atom, proposed by JJ Thomson in 1904 and named after a type of dessert?
4 The Duke of Lorraine and then Louis XIII served as patron for which French artist, who worked from 1620 at Luneville and painted 40 positively identified, mostly religious works, including St Joseph the Carpenter (Louvre) and The Lamentation over St Sebastian (Berlin)?
5 Sompapuri Vihara, a Buddhist monastery covering 11 hectares, is located in which country?
6 Now considered Germany's most influential TV commentator, which midfielder and 1974 World Cup winner played with Borussia Monchengladbach from 1961 for most of his career before joining Real Madrid in 1973?
7 Which animated cartoon director, who shot his first cartoon - Porky Pig in Goldiggers of '49 - in 1935 was originally named Frederick Bean?
8 Evgeni Berzin became the first Russian to win which cycling event in 1994?
9 Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen is the reigning Olympic champion in which athletics event?
10 Which animal's intestines are used in the Italian dish pajata?
11 What term describes the sticky brown fixatives that bees collect from trees to use as a cement-like substance in their hives?
12 Which basketball team won their last NBA championship in 1986 when they beat the Houston Rockets 4-2 in the play-offs final game series?
13 Belonging to the class Cyclostomata, lampreys and hagfishes are the only living members of which subphylum or superclass of marine and freshwater vertebrates that lack jaws?
14 Who directed the films Le Beau Serge (1958), Le Boucher (1969), Cop au Vin (1984), Merci Pour Le Chocolat (2000) and La Fille coupee en deux (2007)?
15 Formed in 2006 under Mahamat Nouri's leadership, the United Forces for Democracy is a rebel group fighting against President Idriss Deby. Deby is president of which landlocked African country?
16 Who played Pippi Longstocking in a series of four Swedish films made between 1969 and 1971?
17 Which war was concluded by the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople?
18 Which German writer (1893-1947), whose real name was Rudolf Ditzen, wrote the novels Kleiner Mann, Was Nun?/Little Man, What Now? (1932) and Wolf unter Wolfen/Wolf Among Wolves (1938)?
19 On Rocky Marciano's retirement as world heavyweight champion in 1956, which boxer beat Archie Moore for the vacant title?
20 Which French cosmetics company bought The Body Shop chain in March 2006?
21 Which Carthaginian church father (160-230 AD) used the phrase "Out of the frying pan into the fire" in his work De Carne Christi?
22 Based on his World War Two experiences and written when he was 19, Williwaw was the debut novel by which American man of letters?
23 After the disastrous defeat at Teutoburg Forest, which trees gave their name to the wall that the Romans built along the length of the frontier from the Rhine to the Danube?
24 Opened in Los Angeles on January 11, 1964, The Whisky a Go Go is believed to be the first example of which music venue in the USA?
25 In Iran, "Lavat" is what sort of crime?
26 The Green Line has divided Cyprus between the Greek south and the Turkish north since the invasion of the latter country in which year?
27 The name of which Olympic sport, and therefore the sporting apparatus it uses, literally means "stilts" in Italian?
28 The Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius published which great work on the subject of international law in 1625?
29 Who wrote in his work A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers: "It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak, and another to hear"?
30 Which country beat Canada to become ice hockey Olympic champions at the 1936 Winter Games at Garmisch Partenkirchen?
Answers to BH148: Rejects ...
1 Bengal tiger 2 Cape Town 3 Plum pudding model 4 Georges de la Tour 5 Bangladesh 6 Gunter Netzer 7 Tex Avery 8 Giro d'Italia 9 Javelin 10 Lamb 11 Propolis 12 Boston Celtics 13 Agnatha 14 Claude Chabrol 15 Chad 16 Inger Nilsson 17 Russo-Ottoman War 18 Hans Fallada 19 Floyd Patterson 20 L'Oreal 21 Tertullian or Tertullianus 22 Gore Vidal 23 The Limes 24 Disco 25 Sexual intercourse between two men 26 1974 27 Trampolining 28 De Jura Belli et Pacis/On the Law of War and Peace 29 Henry Thoreau 30 Great Britain
Disaster at Bluebell Close
Our unbeaten President's Cup record was smashed upon the fatal rocks of bad luck, mild incompetence and an excellent performance from our opponents Beds. Nic starting off proceedings by saying "O'Connell" instead of United Irishmen founder Wolfe Tone, and my saying "Jim Clark" in place of Graham Hill as the motor-racing triple crown were two ugly errors that resulted in 6 points falling in the lap of the other side, but truth be told, had we got those we would have still lost, the final score being 39-31.
I cannot say that we blew the chance to win, no way, and that our opposing number four, Fred, was extremely unlucky in not being given Campaign For Fully Dark Skies, when he guessed that the acronym stood for Campaign for Fully Dark Skies (a piece of great lateral thinking) and that overall, this was one set that did not play to our usually redoubtable strengths, though, in contrast, nearly every other team in the competition did markedly better in the scoring department than us.
You see it's all about the question-setting bias of which we are sometimes barely aware, but which I am determined to flag up. Flag up constantly, I say! With a big flapping flag, I have sewn from harsh and deflating experiences suffered in the trenches of the Quiz War I have fought in for so very many years (er, 12?). Maybe I have not have mentioned our loss during the past fortnight because it has traumatised me so. Or maybe, because I have been struck by laziness induced by a type of defeatist amnesia. That could, of course, be the same thing. Whatever. It's only a game. Only a game.
Frien...
As evidenced by their regular post-match appearance on this blog, I have not written a friendly for the past two, albeit, away matches. This is possibly because I have got slightly concerned with the constant tropes that appear (who directed? which currency? which composer? which samey thing blah-dee-blah?) time and time again. This is what happens when you make a list of such things and think, can't I write questions about something else? It is something that has preyed upon my mind in a totally pointless manner and has therefore chucked a spanner in the previously unthinking friendly-setting works. It has all gone a bit MEH.
For the Beds & Herts match I tried to change up, but, let's just say I got bored in the mind-numbing way and my break with tradition was aborted in early flow. I had come across a useful literature guide: short, snappy articles delineating the ages and literary movements, above which a banner ran with relevant, tangential trivia and historical titbits. So I thought why not do a friendly set with pairs that come from the same decade? Why not?
The answer came in Round 3: the balancing act either too predictable or too unpredictable. I had predictability problems. And problems that one side would get the cream and the other, the scummy stuff that floats in milk gone sour. Ergo, the friendly died there and then. However, for your quizzing curiosity, I present the questions for your delectation...
Unfinished President's Cup Friendly 17/2/08
Round 1
1a Who published volume one of his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776?
Edmund Gibbon
1b 1774 saw the publication of the Earl of Chesterfield's Letters. Who said: "They teach the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing master"?
Dr Samuel Johnson
2a At which London station was a man with a wooden leg paid to ride and demonstrate the safety of the new escalators to encourage passengers to use them in 1911?
Earl's Court
2b Which British chemist discovered isotopes in 1913?
Frederick Soddy
3a Civil war broke out in Nigeria when which state seceded in 1967?
Biafara
3b Who became Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1964 and, in the same year, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner?
Martin Luther King
4a In 1876, who said: "Mr Watson, come here, I want you"?
Alexander Graham Bell
4b In 1877, an electoral commission decided that which man was to become US President?
Rutherford B Hayes
Round 2
1a In 1933, the Massachusetts woman Ruth Wade invented which baked snacks?
Chocolate chip cookies
1b In 1933, Professor AMJ Michels of Amsterdam collaborated with chemists from ICI to invent which thermoplastic?
Polythene
2a Which British astronomer compared star positions with those listed by Ptolemy and discovered the independent motion of the stars in 1710?
Edmund Halley
2b Specifying a limited term of protection, the 1710 law the Statute of Anne was the first piece of legislation to recognise whose rights?
Authors'
3a Which law, excluding women from succession to the throne, was adopted in France in 1317?
Salic Law
3b Which alcoholic spirit is said to have first been distilled by the French medical professor Arnaldus de Villa Nova in 1310?
Brandy
4a Launched in 1946 at $6.95 each, which watches were created by the Norwegian-American Joakim Lehmkuhl, who had made bomb timing mechanisms during World War Two?
Timex
4b Thor Heyerdahl sailed which balsa-wood raft from Peru to Polynesia in 1947?
Kon-Tiki
Round 3
1a Which Trinidadian sprinter beat Don Quarrie to win the 100m at the 1976 Montreal Olympics?
Hasley Crawford
1b Which athlete did the men's 100m and 200m sprint double at the Munich Games?
Valery Borzov
2a Now seen everywhere, what made their first appearance in Perfect Occurrences of Every Day in 1647?
Advertisements
2b Which superb lyricist and sardonic satirist of the Spanish Golden Age wrote: "Life begins in tears and shit"?
Francisco de Quevedo
The Future: Quadrillogy Quiz
I've got an idea (and so my mind wanders off to Han Solo and Return of the Jedi). I've been thinking of doing a future big quiz that isn't quite so big. One that is quite compact and far less wordy and easy on the mental faculties. Instead of great bleeding chunks of exposition, there will be quartets of snappy questions based on the same subjects (you will see below, but basically, let's just say, capitals of countries, car companies, chocolate cookies, card-carrying communist Canadians) with different levels of difficulty. Therefore you would have 125 separate subjects (the format going Question 1 A) B) C) D)), most of which I hope would interest you. The time limit would be reduced to two hours and the entry free likewise cut down to something like £5.
It is a very "listy" sort of quiz, but one I believe has an appeal different to the usual quizzes I do. There seems to be a lot less thinking time involved. Changing up (yet again) is the primary appeal to me of writing it, but also useful because in my own selfish way, it would help me brush up on several of my weaknesses. You see, I'm always thinking about me me me in some way.
So I started out doing it randomly, but then realised that assigning question categories requires forward planning that will prevent me flailing in confusion and boredom when searching for more questions to call upon. Having my book sources and subject distributions to hand will make it infinitely easier and tolerable, but here is my embryonic taster.
(And yes, I know that Quadrillogy is not even a real word and that it should be tetralogy (or similar), but if it is good enough for the makers of the Alien films DVD box-set, and has the bonus of attractive alliteration, then it is sure as hell good enough for a humble e-mail quiz.)
The Quadrillogy Quiz That Basically Died Before It Was Born
Q1 Which capital cities stand on the following rivers?
a) Manzanares
A:
b) Potomac
A:
c) Rimac
A:
d) Nerisr
A:
Q2 In which countries are the following national parks?
a) Royal Chitwan National Park
A:
b) Machalilla National Park
A:
c) Joshua Tree National Park
A:
d) Carnarvon National Park
A:
Q3 Which Hong Kong film-makers directed these movies?
a) Exiled, The Mission, Election
A:
b) The Killer, A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled
A:
c) City on Fire, Replicant, Wild Search
A:
d) God of Gamblers, Challenge of the Gamesters, Holy Weapon
A:
Q4 In which sports are these trophies contested?
a) Bledisloe Cup
A:
b) Marcel Corbillon Cuo
A:
c) Brendan Martin Cup
A:
d) Air Canada Silver Broom
A:
Q5 Who are credited with the following sporting quotations?
a) US boxing manager in 1932 referring to his fighter Jack Sharkey losing to Max Schmeling: "We wuz robbed!"
A:
b) Baseball player nicknamed "Satchel": "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, age don't matter"
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c) Scottish racing driver: "In my sport the quick are too often listed among the dead"
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d) American football coach: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going"
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Q6 Also given their creators, which detectives appear in these novels ?
a) Rex Stout - Murder by the Book
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b) John Dickson Carr - Death Watch
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c) Dorothy L Sayers - The Nine Tailors
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d) Ngaio Marsh - Death and the Dancing Footman
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Q7 Who made the following technological or scientific discoveries during the 1930s?
a) US geologist devised a scale to measure the intensity of earthquakes in 1935
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b) British physicist discovers the neutron in 1932
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c) Swiss scientist synthesises DDT as an insecticide in 1939
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d) US engineer invents the catalytic process of cracking crude oil in 1930
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Q8 In which months do these countries have their national days?
a) Brazil's Independence Day celebrating the declaration of independence from Portugal in 1822
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b) Italy commemorates the foundation of the Republic in 1946
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c) Russia marks the declaration of the Russian Federation's sovereignty in 1991
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d) Australia remembers the birth of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901
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Q9 By what names do we commonly know these moveable Christian feasts?
a) The first day in Lent, falling between February 4th and March 10th
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b) The Sunday after Pentecost
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c) Also known as Whit Sunday, falling seven weeks after Easter between May 10th and June 13th
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d) The Sunday nearest to November 30th
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QuadQuizAnswers
1 a) Madrid b) Washington DC c) Lima d) Vilnius 2 a) Nepal b) Ecuador c) USA d) Australia 3 a) Johnnie To b) John Woo c) Ringo Lam d) Wong Jing 4 a) Rugby union b) Table tennis c) Gaelic football d) Curling 5 a) Joe Jacobs b) Leroy Paige c) Jackie Stewart d) Knut Rockne 6 a) Nero Wolfe b) Gideon Fell c) Lord Peter Wimsey d) Roderick Alleyn 7 a) Charles Richter b) James Chadwick c) Paul Muller d) Eugene Houdry 8 a) September (7th) b) June (2nd) c) June (12th) d) January (26th) 9 a) Ash Wednesday b) Trinity Sunday c) Pentecost d) Advent Sunday
posted by That Quiz Guy at 3:48 AM
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