Mastermind Club
Quiz 2022
Number 5
General Knowledge
Set by Mel kinsey
Comments
Answers
1/ Derived from the Javanese for ‘to write in dots’, which five-letter word refers to the technique of cloth-dyeing in which patterned areas are covered with wax so that they will not receive the colour? The pattern usually consists of complex dots and lines, and is popular in Southeast Asian countries.
Batik
2/ Named after a 9th-century founder of the nation, which country’s currency is known as the somoni? It was introduced in 2000, replacing the rouble.
Tajikistan
3/What common 5-letter word is shared by the following : a military figure commonly-associated with Sir Gawain in Arthurian legend; a Lynn Riggs play upon which the musical `Oklahoma!’ is based; and a masked vigilante who is the alter-ego of Britt Reid, a young newspaper publisher?
Green (Green Knight/ ‘Green Grow the Lilacs’/ Green Hornet)
4/ Add Joseph Ratzinger’s ordinal number to that of a 1995 post-Apocalyptic movie starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. Add this total to a cult novel published in 1969 in which the protagonist Billy Pilgrim journeys through a fire-bombed Dresden. What is the resulting number?
33 (Benedict XVI, ’12 Monkeys’, ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’)
5/ Which first name is shared by the scientist for whom the SI unit of capacitance is named, the writer of The Andromeda Strain’, and the fictional antagonist of the ‘Halloween’ series of horror films?
Michael (Faraday/ Crichton/ Myers)
6/What is the name of the giraffe mascot of the US-based multinational toy retailer Toys “R” Us?
Geoffrey
7/ Adapted in 1971, the dalasi is the currency of which country in West Africa? The 20-dalasi note features Yahya Jammeh, its 2nd President who was defeated by Adama Barrow in an election in December 2016.
The Gambia
8/Which five-letter word, popularized by the 2008 book by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, is a concept in behavioural science which argues that indirect suggestions and positive reinforcements can be more effective in causing behavioural change than direct enforcement?
Nudge
9/Which country uses the hryvnia as its national currency?
Ukraine
10/ Which military helicopter with two horizontal rotor assemblies shares its name with a dry, warm, down-slope wind in the interior West of North America?
Chinook
11/ Which five-letter word can mean ‘the property of a sound depending on the frequency of its waves’, ‘a playing field for sports such as cricket’ and ‘an attempt to persuade someone to make a purchase’?
Pitch
12/ The precious stones sapphire and lapis lazuli are usually of which colour?
Blue
13/Which six-letter word links : a path in a 1900 novel by L.Frank Baum, a viral illness transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and the nickname given to the Spanish football (soccer) team Villareal CF?
Yellow (The yellow brick road, Yellow fever, the Yellow Submarines)
14/In investing terminology, a bull market denotes one in which prices are generally rising. What animal gives its name to the opposite trend, in which prices are on the decline?
Bear
15/ In the NATO phonetic alphabet (e.g. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc), which is the only letter that is represented by the name of a capital city?
L (Lima)
16/ Which number links the following : the third of a trilogy of plays by Aeschylus about Oedipus; an autobiographical travel work by the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, and a 1957 Ingmar Bergman film featuring a medieval knight’s chess game with Death himself?
Seven (‘Seven Against Thebes’, ‘Seven Years in Tibet’, ‘The Seventh Seal’)
17/ Which common 4-letter word links the following : an early 19th-century poem published as part of the collection ‘Prometheus Unbound’; a 16th-century novel by the Ming Dynasty writer Wu Cheng’en about the voyage of Xuanzang (or Tripitaka); and a political drama TV which premiered in 1999 starring Martin Sheen and John Spencer?
West (‘Ode to the West Wind’, ‘Journey to the West’, ‘The West Wing’)
18/ The dinar is a currency unit used in nine countries in the world today, which three are in Africa?
Algeria/ Libya/ Tunisia
19/ What short noun links the following : a 1959 play about the Younger family’s experiences in the Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago’s Woodlawn neighbourhood; a 1926 novel featuring the ‘Lost Generation’ of US/UK expatriates & their experience at the running of the bulls at Pamplona; and a 1964 hit rendition of a folk song that warns of a life that’s gone wrong ‘down in New Orleans’?
Sun (‘A Raisin in the Sun’ by Lorraine Hansberry, ‘The Sun Also Rises’ by Ernest Hemingway and ‘House of the Rising Sun’ by the Animals)
20/ Which olive-green gemstone, also known as precious olivine, is a magnesium iron silicate and is the birthstone for the month of August?
Peridot
21/ What common word links the following – the writer whose Barsoom series of stories inspired the 2012 Disney sci-fi movie ‘John Carter’; George W. Bush’s National Security Adviser from 2001-2005; and the British lyricist best known for his collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber on works such as ‘Evita’ and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’?
Rice (Edgar Rice Burroughs/ Condoleeza Rice/ Tim Rice)
Sweden
22/ Add the following : the number of stars that make up the asterism known as Orion’s Belt; the number of theses that Martin Luther posted on the doors of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg; and the age at which the patriarch Methuselah (the longest-lived man according to the Old Testament) died. What number do you get?
1067 (3 + 95 + 969)
23/Which common word is created if you take in sequence : the chemical symbol of the element whose chief ore is cassiterite + the alphabet that is the scarlet letter in the novel of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne + the abbreviated surname of the protagonist in the 1925 novel ‘The Trial’ + the mathematical constant that approximates 2.71828?
SNAKE (Sn for tin + A + K + E
24/ Which first (given) name links the following : the queens of Kings Edward I and Henry II of England; the heroine in a 19th-century novel who falls in love with Edward Ferrars; and the First Lady to the 32nd President of the U.S.A? (N.B. The spellings of their names may differ slightly)
Eleanor/ Elinor (Eleanor of Castile/ Eleanor of Aquitaine/ Elinor Dashwood/ Eleanor Roosevelt)
25/ Which first name (given name) links the following : the US President nicknamed the ‘Little Magician’, the philosopher known for exploring the concept of ‘Dasein’ (‘being’) in his work ‘Being and Time’, and the director whose works include ‘Cape Fear’ and ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore?
Martin (Van Buren/ Heidegger/ Scorsese)