Mastermind Club
Quiz 2022-11
General Knowledge
Set by Mel Kinsey
Answers
1/ Its name coming from Italian for “light-dark”. Which of the four canonical modes of painting of the Renaissance is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition?
Chiaroscuro
2/ Starring Mark Wahlberg, which 2008 M. Night Shyamalan film sees the world under attack from flowers which induce humans to commit suicide?
The Happening
3/ Portrayed by Emma Watson in the 2019 film of the book, what was the name of the eldest March sister in the classic novel “Little Women”? In the book she marries John Brooke.
Meg/ Margaret
4/ Nicknamed ‘El Jefe’, which leader was the dictator of the Dominican Republic between 1930 and his assassination in May 1961?
Rafael Trujillo
5/ Dirty Old Town”, a minor hit for the Dubliners in 1968 and the Pogues in 1985, was written by which British folk singer, the father of a famous musical daughter, about his native Salford?
Ewan McColl
6/ Which Jamaican sprinter won the women’s 100m and 200m gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics?
Elaine Thompson
7/ The 1959 novel “Naked Lunch” was the most famous work by which Beat Generation author?
William Burroughs
8/ What was the name of the first prime minister of Republic of the Congo. He served from June 1960 until being deposed in a coup three months later before being executed in early 1961.
Patrice Lumumba
9/ Which English king came to the throne when he overthrew Richard II in 1399?
Henry IV
10/ Including singles and doubles but not mixed, who has the most Grand Slam tennis titles of all time? Her best-known doubles partner was Pam Shriver, with whom she won 21 of her 31 titles.
Martina Navratilova
11/ One of the most acclaimed works of Australian literature, which 1972 novel by Thomas Keneally, later adapted into a Fred Schepisi film, was inspired by the life of a bushranger and tells the story of an indigenous Australian on a revenge mission?
The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith
12/ Julius Caesar is reported to have told the Roman Senate “Veni, vidi, vici” after his victory at which 47 BC battle?
The Battle of Zela
13/ At 980ft high, it is built on the Vakhsh river – one of the 10 highest dams in the world, in which former Soviet republic is the Nurek Dam?
Tajikistan
14/ Which renowned painter of ancient Greece was essentially the court painter of Alexander the Great, the latter of whom is depicted alongside Campaspe in the studio of this painter by the Venetian Giovann Tiepolo?
Apelles
15/ What type of whimsical, four-line poem, in which the first line is the name of the poet’s subject, follows the rhyme scheme AABB and was named after its inventor, Edmund Bentley?
Clerihew
16/ If you order “takoyaki” from a street vendor in Japan, you will get balls of fried batter topped with savoury sauce, with bits of what mollusc inside?
Octopus
17/ What type of word puzzle, in which a phrase, quotation, or fact must be deduced from the numbers and letters in the clue, originates from the name of a novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn?
Ditloid
18/ Completed as late as 1888, the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque (aka The Pink Mosque) is found in which city – the fifth largest in the country of Iran? One of the oldest cities in ancient Persia, it is the capital of Fars Province and shares its name with a grape variety.
Shiraz
19/ Which winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles only won one doubles crown, with Gabriela Sabatini in 1988? She won that title in the midst of her Golden Slam – all four Grand Slams and Olympic gold.
Steffi Graf
20/ What singer, who technically performed the first rap to top the Billboard Hot 100, was the first female musician to receive an NME Godlike Genius award? She was honored in 2014, alongside Chris Stein and the rest of her hugely successfull new wave band.
Debbie Harry
21/ Marc Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide just a year after their defeat to Octavian, at which 31 BC naval battle?
Battle of Actium
22/ Magnus Magnusson was the key translator for several works by which novelist, Iceland’s only Nobel Prize winner?
Haldor Laxness
23/ The prince Calaf falls in love with the title character of which Giacomo Puccini opera?
Turandot
24/ Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve are the two figures in which 1533 painting by Hans Holbein the Younger?
The Ambassadors
25/ In 1873 Major Walter Wingfield invented a version of Real Tennis that could be played outside on grass. The Greek for “playing ball” it was called what?
Sphairistike