General Quiz Questions

At Aussee, I know a wonderful wood full of ferns and mushrooms, Where you shall reveal to me the secrets of the world of the lower animals and the world of children. I'am gape as never before or what you have to say - and I hope that the world will not hear it before me, and that instead of a short article you will give us within a year a small book which will reveal organic secrets in periods of 23 and 28

Ans: William Fleuiss

His research into creatures and their environment form the basis for the whole subject of ecology. He founded the Bureau of Animal Populations at Oxford in 1932. Who was this?

Ans: Charles Elton
He was born in 1753, and was co-pilot in the first successful balloon crossing of the English Channel. He invented a parachute, but died testing it in 1809.

Ans: Jean Pierre Blanchard

He was a Lancashire-born MP, who with his brother expanded a small family business and founded, in 1888, the town of Port Sunlight. In 1917, he was elevated to the peerage.

Ans: William Hesketh Lever

The murder of teenaged girl in Leicestershire in 1983 made headline news in 1985, murderer was convicted. More importantly a year before the wrong guy was absolved of his charges thanks to an Alec Geofries. What did Alec do?

Ans: invented DNA finger-printing.

Born in 1730 and educated at Harrow, he was the one-time wine merchant and consular official, who reached Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, in 1770.

Ans: James Bruce
In 1958, Ingraw & Hunt discovered that when glutamic acid is replaced by Valine a condition prevalent among African negros appeared. What?

Ans: sickle celled anaemia
This human gene was spliced (using ligase) to plasmoids from cells of E.Coli bacteria. A landmark achievement in
Genetic Engg. What?

Ans: insulin was synthesized artificially.
This theorem was 1st popularised by astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington. It became part of the idiom of techies via the classic SF short story Inflexible Logic by Russell Maloney. Many youngsters know it through a reference in
Douglas Adams' Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Robert Wilensky, Univ. of California disproved it using Internet as a proof. What is it?

Ans: Infinite Monkey Theorem
A 19th-century German geographer and explorer, he completed a 12000-mile British-sponsored expedition across the Sahara, despite the death of his two companions. His memoirs are entitled Travels and Discoveries in North and
Central Africa.

Ans: Heinrich Barth
The comic character Yogi Bear lives in a national park that takes its name from the world's first national park. Name both.

Ans: Jellystone and Yellowstone
As a result of the book on the dissection of human corpses, he was condemned by the church and compelled to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He died on the return journey in 1564.

Ans: Andreas Vesalius
He was a Scottish chemist. Along with Morris William Travers, he discovered the existence of Neon, Krypton and Xenon. In 1904 he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Ans: William Ramsay
Although originally thought of as a laboratory research device, this is now being widely applied to analyse air pollutants. Basically it is an instrument used to separate and identify atoms and molecules. What?

Ans: Mass Spectrometer
Who, in 1887, inherited The San Francisco Examiner from his father and, by his death in 1951, had introduced a radical change and innovation in the field of journalism?

Ans: William Randolph Hearst
In 1927, American Geneticist Herman J. Muller discovered a phenomena which later lent movie makers major flights of fantasy. What?

Ans: mutation
What did Aleksei Pazhitnov create in 1985 on ancient Soviet equipment, basing the game on a Roman Puzzle called Pentomino.

Ans: Tetris
The unpopular version of this is the 'Dvorak', but what is the well-known version?

Ans: The `QWERTY' keyboard.
In 1980, first patent on a genetically engineered higher animal was issued in the US. Name the animal.

Ans: onco mouse
He was the long-serving Director of the Paris Observatory, who was born in 1625 and who discovered four moons of Saturn. His son, grandson and great grandson were each later holders of his office.

Ans: Jean Dominique Cassini
He was an English engineer, who in 1912 constructed the first cabin aircraft. He was the co-founder of the Avro Company and later established a company for the design and construction of flying-boats.

Ans: Edwin Verdon-Roe
Name the English surgeon, born in 1827, who discovered that infection was caused by the action of micro-organisms. He invented a spray of carbolic acid for use as an antiseptic.

Ans: Joseph Lister

The early French kept their money in a box which they called by a word which came from the Latin capsa meaning a chest or box. This has given a financial term to English language. What term?

Ans: Cash from casse
Since 1987, Hindustan Computers Ltd. (HCL) has been quite prominent in the Indian computer industry. Who founded it and when?

Ans: Shiv Nadar, 1977
He was a German scientist. He used his development of 'spectroscopy' to discover the elements Caesium and Rubidium in 1860. In 1841, he invented a carbon-zinc electric cell for use in arc-lamps. Another of his inventions is known to all schoolchildren.

Ans: Robert Bunsen
This element was discovered in 1923 by DirkCosta, a Dutch Physicist and Giorg Von, a Hungarian chemist. Its name comes from the Latin name for Copenhagen, because they discovered it there. Which element?

Ans: Hafnium
In 1839, a German engineer by name Christian Schonbein spilt an acid mixture in the kitchen on the ground. To hide this from his wife, he cleaned the split mixture on the ground with his wife's apron and hung it above the fire place for drying. As a result ,there was a major explosion due to this. Why?

Ans: He had discovered Nitrocellulose
He was an automobile designer who was born in Bohemia in 1875. He worked for Daimler and Auto Union before embarking on the production of prestige cars, which still today bear his name.

Ans: Ferdinand Porsche
Darwin and Alfred Wallace were originally inspired by a book which was published 11 yrs before Darwins birth and provided them with key bits of info during research. What?

Ans: Principle of Population - an essay by Thomas Malthus
A soldier and explorer, he is reputed to have said shortly before his death in 1912, 'I am just going outside and may be some time'.

Ans: Lawrence Oates
An Australian immigrant of Scottish origin, he headed a government-initiated search party in 1861, which ventured into the interior of Australia to look for Burke and Wills. Although unable to find more than traces of them, he successfully completed the expedition without loss of life despite hardship and privation.

Ans: John McKinlay
He was born in Salisbury, New York, in 1821. His domestic security invention is the basis of many similar devices in use today.

Ans: Linus Yale
Born in 1629 he was the Dutch scientist who developed the first pendulum clock and propounded a 'wave theory' to explain double refraction.

Ans: Christiaan Huygens
A former buccaneer, he was employed by the Admiralty in 1699 to explore Australia, where an archipelago now bears his name. He was aboard the ship which recovered the castaway Alexander Selkirk

Ans: William Dampier
The son of a Scottish shepherd, he had constructed, by his death in 1834, the Caledonian canal and more than 1000 miles of roads in Scotland.

Ans: Thomas Telford
In 1893, his specially-built ship the Fram was allowed to drift in the pack ice across the Arctic. In 1923, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ans: Fridjof Nansen
Drugs used for bringing down temperature in high fevers are called by what Tech Name?

Ans: Antipyretics
Born in 1887, he was the British engineer and designer of many aeronautical innovations including the airship R100.

Ans: Barnes Wallis
The holder of America's Pilot's Licence, he was a pioneering pilot who designed and constructed the first US seaplanes.

Ans: Glenn Hammond Curtiss
Which animal is mentioned as the teacher of Yudhishthira in the Mahabharatha?

Ans: mongoose
Born in London in 1656m he was a professor of geometry, the inventor of a diving-bell, and discovered that altitude could be measured with a barometer. In 1720, he was appointed Astronomer Royal. He is best remembered for the discovery of a rarely seen natural phenomenon.

Ans: Edmond Halley
A procedure where cells are taken from the fluid around the foetus and their chromosomes are examined to check for disturbances. Whats the procedure called?

Ans: amniocentesis
When was the world's first laptop computer introduced in the market and by whom?

Ans: Epson, 1981
In 1928, he was appointed Director of Research at the Du Pont Chemical Company. My research into polymers resulted
in the discovery of nylon. He took his own life before his invention went into commercial production.

Ans: Wallace Carothers
Born in 1872 in Poland, she helped create a range of beauty products, which she marketed under her own name, first
in Australia and, later, through a world-wide chain of Maisons de Beaute.

Ans: Helena Rubinstein
Who is called the 'mother' of COBOL?

Ans: Grace Murray Hopper
Forced to leave Vienna, he created a sensation in Paris in 1778 when he claimed to be able to heal people, when
they were in the trance-like state, which he was able to induce by his 'animal magnetism'

Ans: Friedrich Mesmer
The US Bureau of Standards in cooperation with certain enterprising users had adopted as a basis for the
construction of a wire having a diameter of 0.21 inches. This choice was made on the basis of a proposal made by a
person many years ago. The first complete set of this produced in accordance with this plan was manufactured by
W.S. Tyler and Co. Who was the peson who made this proposal?

Ans: The proposal was that each opening would be twice as large as the next smaller hole. It was made by
Rittinger.
Paul Elrich is credited with the discovery of modern chemotherapy and called his discovery Magic Bullets, What did
he discover?

Ans: Use of Medicines as Tablets
What did Fleming in 1882 and Farmer and Moore in 1905 postulate which was a break through in genetics.

Ans: mitosis &meiosis
Gene maps are constructed by cleaving a chromosomes's DNA in a gene sized fragments. What are chemicals used for
cleaving called?

Ans: Restriction Enzymes
In 1519, he sailed for the Spice Islands by the western route. His fleet consisted of the Trinidad, Vittoria, San
Antonia, Concepcion and Santiago.

Ans: Ferdinand Magellan
In 1936 he founded Penguin Books. He was born in 1902.

Ans: Allen Lane Williams Lane
The byline of which company, rather ironically went What we do will touch your lives in some way everyday?

Ans: Union Carbide Limited
A movie called GATTACA ran in Bangalore recently. What is the speciality of the name?

Ans: title has all the DNA codes
In 1895, when Professor of Physics at Wurzburg University, he discovered X-rays, which are also known by his name.
In 1901 he won the Nobel Prize for Science.

Ans: Wilhelm Rontgen
German born, in 1738, he first earned a living as an oboist, before, in 1766, moving to Bath, where he became an
organist. In 1781, he discovered the planet, which he referred to as 'Georgium Sidus'

Ans: Sir William Herschel
A physician born in County Down, he founded the Chelsea Physic Garden and in 1727 succeeded Isaac Newton as
President of the Royal Society. His library and other collections were the nucleus for the foundation of the
British Museum.

Ans: Hans Sloane
What was the name of the first personal-computer electronic spreadsheet software package which became a smash hit
as soon as it was introduced in 1978?

Ans: VisiCalc
Born in 1771, he was an English naval surgeon, who explored, between 1797 and 1798, the strait separating Tasmania
from mainland Australia.

Ans: George Bass
Robert Boyle and his French assistant invented it in 1680 and gave it his assistant's name rather than his own.
What did he invent?

Ans: The Papin's Digester
During WWI, Britain used to print huge advertisments in the paper emphasising the fact that the RAF pilots had the
best eyesight because they eat carrots. Why?

Ans: They had invented the radar
In 1858, Rudolf Virchow stated one basic rule of Cytology - Omnis Cellulae Cellula. What?

Ans: Cells come only from pre-existing cells.
He was a French explorer claiming for France the territory of the southern Mississippi, which he named Louisiana
in honour of Louis XIV. A later colonizing expedition met with disaster and his followers mutinied and killed him
in 1687.

Ans: Robert la Salle
He was a German astronomer. In 1801 he published Uranographia the first comprehensive atlas of stars visible to
the naked eye.

Ans: Johann Elert Bode
The largest flower in the world is named after the person who forced Lord Minto to occupy Java and was at one time
the keeper of the London Zoo. We know him best for a city that he founded. Name him and the flower?

Ans: Sir Stamford Thomas Raffles and the Rafflesia Arnoldi
A Belgian priest, born in 1894, his astrophysical studies in America and England led to the development of his
'Big Bang' theory of the origin of the Universe.

Ans: Georges Lemaitre
The Pentagon commissioned a project to study the after effects of the Korean War. One revealed that the GIs from
the country were stronger than those from the city. Hence a chemical engineer by name Don Spears was commissoned
to come up with a solution. What did he do?

Ans: He invented Astroturf
It has been found that 30 percent of the people feel 'computer anxious'. Out of these, about 3 to 5 percent suffer
from serious computer phobia. What is the technical name for this feeling of fear?

Ans: Cyberphobia
Which popular brand takes its name from a particular species of deer native to South Africa?

Ans: Reebok
What resulted as an outcome of failures of languages developed by Martin Richards & Ken Thompson in 1970 for the
use in the 1st Unix system DEC-PDP 7?

Ans: HTTP
He was a Greek astronomer who, amongst many calculations, established the length of the solar year and created the
first trigonometrical tables. He lived in the 2nd century BC.

Ans: Hipparchus
Connect Teryllium Aluminium Silicate, Aluminium Oxide, Aragonite (Calcium Carbonate) and Carbon.

Ans: Precious stones.
Born in Holland in 1632, he developed a microscope which enabled him to become the first to describe spermatozoa
and bacteria. He also made detailed observations of red blood cells and capillaries.

Ans: Anton van Leeuwenhoek
A German bacteriologist born in 1843, he investigated the causes of many diseases and was able to identify and
isolate the bacillus causing tuberculosis. He identified the bacteria causing anthrax and bubonic plague.

Ans: Robert Koch
The British Pluvisin Company in 1899 devised a process to manufacture cloth from nitro cellulose and castor oil.
The companies like ICI, Nobel Industries and New Regamoid began manufacturing it. It gets its name from the fact
that it was the king of its market?

Ans: Rexine
In which book would you find the lines All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others ?

Ans: George Orwells Animal farm
In Jurassic Park, the DNA code of a dinosaur is used to synthesize the organism, by obtaining the code from the
fossilized mosquito from the ambergis. What's wrong here?

Ans: mosquitoes could never suck blood of dinosaurs
An engineer, he built and flew, in Russia in 1913, the first four-engined aeroplane. In 1919 he moved to the US to
build flying boats and in 1939 he developed the first successful single-rotor helecopter.

Ans: Igor Ivan Sikorsky
He was born in Ireland in 1627 and in 1645 he became a founder-member of the Royal Society. He was sometimes
described as the 'father of modern chemistry' for his work on gases and vacuums, which resulted in a 'law' named
after him.

Ans: Robert Boyle
He was a British physician. He entered the Navy in 1791 and attended Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. His
subsequent publication was The Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson.

Ans: William Beatty
A Dutch astronomer, he discovered a 'supernova' in 1572 and made the first accurate records of the movements of
stars and planets.

Ans: Tycho Brahe
Born in 1877, he worked with J.J Thompson at Cambridge, where he developed the mass spectrograph. This enabled him
to pursue research on isotopes, for which he received the 1922 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Ans: Francis Aston
www.hungersite.com is a unique site on the net. We recommend you to visit the site frequently. What's special
about this site ?

Ans: Every time you visit this site the sponsors donate a sum equal to feed a hungry child for a day. So,
indirectly you would be contributing to a cause.
Probably the most important of all Greek mathematicians, he was born in Syracuse, where was killed in 212 BC by
the invading forces of Rome

Ans: Archimedes
Levine and La Course suggested an enzymatic reaction as part of a system that would reduce the size of an
artifical kidney. The devised result was the production of an artifical kidney that could be worn by a patient and
would incorporate a replaceable unit for the elimination of nitrogenous waste products such as uric acid and
creatinine. What is the enzynme used here? What is the reaction suggested?

Ans: Enzyme is urease. The catalytic oxidation of urease would cause urea to decompose to ammonia and CO2
The Greek philosopher Anaximander of Melitus' cylindrical model with a North-South curvature was the first step in
the eventual discarding of What?

Ans: The theory that earth was a flat slab standing on 4 pillars mounted on 4 elephants backs that stood on a
Giant Turtle.
What was the nickname of the computer used by the Americans in 1952 for their H-Bomb project?

Ans: MANIAC
Born in Ohio in 1930, he was accompanied in 1969 on a major voyage of exploration, by two similarly-aged
compatriots, both educated at West Point. However, only two of them made the last part of the journey.

Ans: Neil Armstrong
He was the Palaeontologist who, during one of several archaeological expeditions to East Africa with his wife,
discovered 'Nutcracker Man' at Olduvai Gorge in 1959.

Ans: Louis Leakey
He was a Portugese navigator, who was born in the middle of the 15th century. While exploring the west coast of
Africa, he was blown around its southern tip and thus discovered the sea route to India. He was lost at sea, while
accompanying Cabral on the voyage in 1500, during which he discoverd Brazil.

Ans: Bartolomeu Diaz
Way back in the fifties, the first Indian computer was designed in Calcutta which was relatively large and
employed thermionic valves. What was the name of the computer?

Ans: ISI-JU
A scientist, mathematician and philosopher, his work on barometric pressure was instrumental in the development of
the barometer. In 1654 he entered a monastery and his Pensees sur la Religion were published posthumously in 1669.

Ans: Blaise Pascal
This was invented by a person by name Eli Whitney in 1858 and was used for road work. Then another person
introduced a small change into this and even that type caught on. What?

Ans: Jawcrusher
Considered one of the greatest railway contractors of the 19th century, he built more than 6500 miles of railway
in Europe, India, Australia, and South America.

Ans: Thomas Brassey
What is the title of the first book written by a computer an published by Warner Books in mid-1984?

Ans: The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed
What were first isolated from the nucleus of pus cells by Fredrick Meisher in 1869?

Ans: Nucleic Acids
A photographic pioneer, he invented the first negative process. He published the first book of photographs
entitled The Pencil of Nature.

Ans: William Fox Talbot
Which discovery is the result of an idea to conduct a new experiment, conceived by the inventor while cycling,
from the station to college on one day after a trip from London?

Ans: DNA Double Helical Structure, expt. was to investigate a two-link structure.
Knighted in 1935, he carried out archaeological excavations in Syria and Egypt, but he is best known for his
workings at Ur between 1922 and 1934 in search of biblical evidence.

Ans: Leonard Woolley
Sometime physician to Elizabeth I, in 1600 he published Magnete in which he described his experiments and
conclusions concerning the magnetic nature of the Earth.

Ans: William Gilbert
He was born in 1886, he was a one-time Government naturalist in Labrador. In 1924, he formed a company in
Massachusetts to develop a process for freezing food for the retail market. On 6th March 1930, in Springfield,
Massachusetts, 10 stores offered individually packaged frozen products for sale, including raspberries and
spinach.

Ans: Clarence Birdseye
What is the name of the quick-witted gentleman who is connected with Hewlett-Packard (I) and whose favourite quote
is All the things I like to do are either immoral, illegal or fattening ?

Ans: Suresh Rajpal
Which was the first guided weapon which used a programmable digital computer?

Ans: Sting Ray Torpedo
The Indian television series Living on the Edge was the first in Asia to win the prestigious Panda Award. By what
popular name is this award known?

Ans: The Green Oscar
Appointed English Astronomer Royal in 1742, he had discovered the aberration of starlight about 14 years earlier.

Ans: James Bradley
He was born in 1785, and was the illegitimate child of a creole. He created a portfolio of wild-life
illustrations, which was expanded during his voyages on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. They were printed by a
British publisher and provided a valuable and lasting contribution to the study of natural history.

Ans: John James Audubon
A Scottish-born explorer, he was found in Ujiji, severely ill, by a representative of The New York Herald.

Ans: David Livingstone
Professor of Physics at Berlin University, he framed the Quantum Theory in 1900 and, in 1918, was awarded a Nobel
Prize.

Ans: Max Planck
An American and former spy, later created a count of the Holy Roman Empire, he helped found the Royal Institute in
London. In 1798 he published his theories on heat.

Ans: Benjamin Rumford
A pathologist at the Princeton Hospital, Dr. Thomas Harvey, came into possession of something in 1955. Inspite of
many requests, he never allowed access to it. In 1996, he gave invaluable data and part of it to Dr. Sandra
Witelson. She found out that parietal operculum region is missing. So inferior parietal lobe (seat of mathematical
and visual reasoning) is 15% wider than normal. What was it?

Ans: Albert Einstein's Brain
Born in 1838 in Austria- Hungary, his conceptual and mathematical apporach to science greatly influenced Einstein.
His name has been given to a unit of measurement relating to the speed of sound.

Ans: Ernst Mach
An Australian archaeologist born in 1892, he discovered a pre-historic village in the Orkneys at Skara Brae in
1939. He was the author of The Dawn of European Civilization and was Director of the London Institute of
Archaeology from 1946 until his death, in 1957.

Ans: Gordon Childe
Oh come now, Muses and go to the craggy sacred place upon the far seen twin peaked Parnassus What is the
significance of this inscription ?

Ans: The Oracle at Delphi.
The Clermont, a 19th-century steam paddle-ship of his design, made the 150-mile river journey from New York to
Albany, thus heralding the end of commercial sailing vessels.

Ans: Robert Fulton
He was Professor of Physics at Zurich, from 1928, and, in 1931, suggested the existence of a sub-atomic particle,
later proved by Enrico Fermi and named a 'neutrino'.

Ans: Wolfgang Pauli
What is the claim to fame of a body called the Dasohli Gram Swarajya Mandali?

Ans: Pioneered the Chipko movement
As assistant zoologist, he accompanied Robert Scott to the Antarctic and wrote The Worst Journey in the World

Ans: Apsley Cherry-Garrard
He was born in Missouri in 1889 and worked at the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1919. His astronomical
observations helped him to advance the understanding of the 'Big Bang' theory.

Ans: Edwin Hubble
An engineer, he registered his patent for a jet engine in 1930. On 15th May 1941 the first British jet aircraft,
powered by an engine of his design, took to the air.

Ans: Sir Frank Whittle
Largest cell known to man?

Ans: ostrich cell
An Egyptologist and associate of Howard Carter, he was involved in the excavation of tombs at Thebes and died
during the exploration of the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1923.

Ans: George Herbert (Lord Carnarvon)
He was a Frenchman, born in 1890, whose collection of more than 2500 rare birds and animals was destroyed during
World War Ii. He was the author of the definitive Birds of Indo-China.

Ans: Jean Delacour
Although originally thought of as a laboratory research device, this is now being widely applied to analyse air
pollutants. Basically it is an instrument used to separate and identify atoms and molecules. What?

Ans: Mass Spectrometer
He shared the 1932 Nobel Prize for Medicine with Charles Sherrington for his research in the field of nerve
impulses.

Ans: Edgar Adrian
Who developed a mechanical device in the 17th century that could add, subtract, multiply, divide and find square
roots?

Ans: Leibnitz
The name of this group has come from a legendary boy, who to spite his father, broke a knitting frame. The
government dealt harshly with these people, 14 were hanged in Jan 1813 in York. By 1816 the movement had died out.

Ans: Luddites (from Ludlam) engaged in a campaign to break knitting machinery to protest against the unemployment
caused by the Industrial Revolution
He was born in 1842, he was the Scottish scientist, whose research into the properties of water and gases at
extreme low temperatures led to the invention of the vacuum flask in 1872.

Ans: Sir James Dewar
During the days of the British Raj, Malaria was majorly prevalent in India. Quinine used to be prescribed to cure
it. But it was uneatable/unpalatable hence the Britishers instituted a practice still used today. What?

Ans: Gin and Tonic
When first looked at, they looked like small prison rooms surrounded by walls. What?

Ans: cells
Which term in Biochemistry is derived from Greek and means Holding 1st place?

Ans: Proteins from proteus
A physicist and astronomer born in 1840, he became a partner of Carl Zeiss and contributed to major advances in
the field of optics.

Ans: Ernst Abbe
From 1943 to 1945, he was the director of the laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb
was constructed.

Ans: Robert Oppenheimer
The first product made by this company was a car record player. They gave themselves a name similar to the name of
the market leader in record players in those days. Today, this company has a worldwide presence and is known as a
premier communications company. Name the company?

Ans: Motorola (from Motorised Victrola, a Victrola being one of those gramaphone types)
Who has developed the first Indian fingerprint matching and identification system called 'Anguli' ?

Ans: Electronics Corporation of India
Which was the first company in the world to build computers for sale?

Ans: Remington Rand Corporation
What is the enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay related to?

Ans: AIDS
He was born in the second half of the 17th century, he was a London watch and clockmaker, who developed an alloy
of zinc and copper, named after him, for use in jewellery. It has a yellow colour.

Ans: Christopher Pinchbeck
He won a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956 for the development of the transistor, and shared the Nobel award in 1972
for his work on superconductivity.

Ans: John Bardeen
One is positive, the other is negative; what is this in connection to genetics ?

Ans: strands of DNA
Many present-day software packages boast of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Who coined this term?

Ans: BYTE Magazine
He was a physicist and was born in Yorkshire in 1892. Much of his research was carried out in Cambridge. In 1947,
he received the Nobel Prize for Science for his studies of the atmosphere and, in particular, the demonstration of
the existence of the 'Kennelly-Heaviside Layer'.

Ans: Edward Appleton
Cubatao, in Brazil has certain epithet because it is the worlds most polluted place. What epithet?

Ans: Valley of Death
He was born in 1731 in France, he was a grandson of the second Duke of Devonshire. His scientific research yielded
many discoveries including the identification of hydrogen and the realisation that water is a compound. There is a
laboratory at Cambridge named after him.

Ans: Henry Cavendish
Born in 1891, he was the Canadian co-developer of the successful use of insulin for the treatment of diabetes. A
medical research foundation in Toronto is named after him and C.H. Best.

Ans: Frederick Grant Banting
Born in Suffole, in 1817, he was educated in Glascow. A long-time friend and supporter of Charles Darwin, he was a
plant geographer, who succeeded his father, William, as Director of the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew in 1865.

Ans: Joseph Dalton Hooker
US banned her entry calling her a communist good. She was kept in On her journey to the USA from China she got
into trouble when the London for times sake and became a major attraction there. Who?

Ans: Chi-Chi the Panda, who became the mascot of the WWF
A Greek astronomer and philosopher, born in 610 BC, he is credited with the determination of solstices and
equinoxes and the invention of the sundial.

Ans: Anaximander
Computers are incapable of emotional feelings, as of now. However, some people attribute human-like emotions to
inanimate objects including computers. What is this called?

Ans: Anthropomorphism
Anton Von Leewenhoek discovered them in 1678, called them animal nucleus. what ?

Ans: bacteria
This fictional computer was said to have been named after a real life company by a one-letter displacement, though
the author later denied this. Name the computer and the company.
 HAL
Feb 3, 1959 was the day that the plane in which Richie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper were flying crashed.
This day came to be known by a phrase, later immortalised in a song. Which phrase and which song?
 "The day the music died" from American Pie by Don McLean
The French call it 'le petit mort' which means 'the little death'. The roots of the word include a Greek word
meaning to grow ripe and swell and the Sanskrit 'urja' meaning nourishment and power. Name the word.
 Orgasm
What is rumoured to be almost certainly made up of the oils of lemon, orange, lime, cassia and nutmeg?
 7x, the secret ingredient in Coca Cola
He was originally a dancer at a Calcutta bar and went by the name Rana Rayaz. His real name is Gauranga. After his
first film the only question Bombay producers asked him was if he could act with his clothes on. Who?
 Mithun Chakraborty
In 1996, Marvel Comics introduced a superhero called Northstar, who was a part of Alpha Team, Marvel's first all-
Canadian superteam. Another first was also achieved by him. What?
 He was the first gay comic superhero
He first appeared in a story written by Robert L. May for a 1939 Montgomery Ward promotional giveaway booklet.
May's boss was worried that the character's most famous characteristic would be associated with drunkenness, but
gave way when he saw the drawings. When May wrote the story, he was deeply indebted by his dying wife's medical
bills. But because he was a store employee, he didn't have a share in the licensing windfall that followed.
Originally called Donder, the name was changed in a 1949 song recorded by Gene Autry & written by May's brother-
in-law. Name him.
 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
This publication doesn't have an officially designated editor since its fourth editor Lig Lury Jr left his office
late one morning and never returned. His desk is still preserved with a sign: "Lig Lury Jr, Editor. Missing,
presumed dead." All the editors since then have worked under the title of acting editor. Name the publication.
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams
In March 1994, an ad appeared in 'The Stage', a British periodical: "R U 18-23 with the ability to sing/dance? R U
streetwise, outgoing, ambitious and dedicated?" What is the significance of this ad?
 It led to the formation of the Spice Girls
The oldest known version of the Bible, they were discovered by Mohammed ad-Dibh, when while looking for his lost
sheep, he threw some pebbles in a cave. They date back from the 1st century A.D. and are written in Aramaic. They
comprise fragments of every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther, as well as poetry, calendars and Biblical
apocrypha. They were presumed to be hidden by the members of the ascetic brotherhood called Essenes. What?
 The Dead Sea Scrolls
food -----------
Laws forbidding the sale of sodas on Sunday prompted William Garwood to invent what in Evanston, Illinois in 1875?
 Ice-cream sundae
Who introduced noodles to Italy after a trip to China?
 Marco Polo
On discovering something in 1668, a blind priest exclaimed: Oh, come quickly. I am drinking the stars. What was he
drinking?
 Champagne
In 1847, Hanson Gregory, a 15 year old baker's apprentice knocked the soggy parts off a fried confectionery, thus
creating what?
 The first ring donuts
What is the basic difference between jam and marmalade?
 Both
You can tell a _______ by just reading it. Famous tagline. Which brand?
 Sunkist oranges
Which is the most widely eaten fish in the world?
 Salmon
The Mai Tai cocktail was created in 1945 by Victor Bergeron (Trader Vic). It got its name when he served it to two
Tahitian friends who exclaimed "Maitai roa ae!" What does it mean?
 Out of this world
What is traditionally made from the root of the blue agave cactus?
 Tequila
The Jerusalem artichoke
 Is part of the sunflower family

Natural vanilla flavouring comes from
 Orchids
Shoot a Waco was the original name of what product
 Dr Pepper
In the New Testament, St. John the Baptist survives on what foods while in the desert?
 Locusts and honey
What new fad did the brand Wonder Bread introduce in 1930?
 Sliced bread
In the Middle East, what is called the poor man.s food?
 Figs
The hamburger, invented in 1900 by Louis Lassen is called so because
 It was invented in Hamburg
What is the essential difference between apple juice and apple cider?
 Apple juice is pasteurised and cider is not
In 1853 in Saratoga Springs a chef George Crum retaliated to a patron.s complaint that his French fries were too
thick. How?
 He invented Potato chips
The first product to have a UPC bar code on its packaging was a food product. Which?
 Wrigley's
What.s the name of the McDonald.s clown?
 Ronald
The Ladakhi gur-gur chai gets its name because
 The tea is churned in pipes and makes a gur-gur sound
Which product gets its name from a Roman soldier who was a great wrestler during the Ancient Olympic Games?
 Milon
What.s the name of the dimpled cheese traditionally shown in cartoon strips/films?
 Gouda
Name the Japanese fish considered a delicacy, which if not cleaned carefully can prove fatal.
 Fugu
After his tomato crop failed, a certain gentleman dabbled in something else. It gave rise to a product which takes
its name from an American Indian word that means 'a place with fertile and humid soil'. Which brand?
 Tabasco
In an open competition to select a name for this brand, a name was chosen which loosely translated from Latin as
Strength of Man. Which brand?
 Hovis Bread
A Napoli baker designed the first pizza in the shape of the Italian flag using tomato, cheese and parsley. He
dedicated it to the visiting King Philip.s wife, thus naming the first ever pizza. The name?
 Margharita
What range of products are Messrs. Mahashiyan di hatti famous for?
 Masala
Why is the drink Punch called so?
 Traditionally has 5 (paanch) ingredients

Hewlett-Packard released a new programming language as an alternative to Sun Microsystems's Java. What have they
named it?
Chai. - Chai, coz Java is named after a brand of coffee.
The Plymouth Brethren a fundamentalist Christian sect in the 80 created a stir in London Public schools by
advocating their unusual principle that children were being corrupted by the hand tool of the Devil. What was the
tool?
The Computer. - The Computer.
The inventor's wife considered the name plain stupid" because acronym took longer to pronounce than the expansion
for it. What are we talking about?
www - world wide web. - Tim Berners Lee''s wife said this because www takes longer to say than World wide web. Tim
Berners Lee conceptualized the www. .
Which term did William Gibson coin in his sci-fi novel .Necromancer"?
Cyberspace. - Cyberspace.
Herman Hollerith, the inventor of the Punched Card, merged his company with two others to form The Calculating,
Tabulating and Recording Company (CTR Co.) What is this company known as today?
IBM. - International Business Machines.
What term was introduced in 1983 by American electrical engineer Fred Cohen to describe a self-replicating
program?
VIRUS. - VIRUS.
The unpopular version of this is the 'Dvorak', but what is the well-known version?
THE QWERTY KEYBOARD. - THE QWERTY KEYBOARD.
I don't know who you are or where you are from, but I am gonna get you. Who said this to whom?
Deep Thought (the chess playing comp) to Kasparov.. - Deep Thought (the chess playing comp) to Kasparov..
M.M. Hasham was invited by Jinnah to join the cabinet, but he refused and remained in India set up Western India
Products which manufactured vegetable and hydrogenated oil. Some of these brands like Dalda are still well known.
How do we know this company now?
WIPRO. - WIPRO - Western India Products.
Oh come now, Muses and go to the craggy sacred place Upon the far seen twin peaked Parnassus What is the
significance of this inscription?
Oracle. - Oracle at Delphi ...which also gives its name to the company.
After the Maharaja of Patiala eloped with an English lady, the British prohibited him from entering Shimla. So he
established another hill-station to rival Shimla. Which one?
 Chail
According to mountaineer Reinhold Messner, what is the best way to escape from a female Yeti?
 Run downhill as fast as you can
How did the Maharaja of Patiala get Chail (Himachal) a place in cricket record books?
 Chail has the world's highest cricket pitch
Which actor started his career at Gaiety Theatre in Shimla?
 Anupam Kher
What does Mudumalai in the Nilgiris, literally mean?
 Ancient Mountains
This quaint hill resort moved Lord Curzon so much that he named his youngest daughter after it. Which one?
 Naldera
What does the K in Mount K2 stand for?
 Karakoram
The popular hill station Mussoorie gets its name from
 The Mansuri plant grows there
According to the Ramayana, when Hanuman was returning with the Sanjeevani Buti for Lakshmana, he stopped atop a
hill for a moment.s rest. The place has a temple dedicated to him, though it gets its name from a local deity.
Which place?
 Shimla
Which place has the unique distinction of having the highest TV tower in the country?
 Kasauli
It is known to the Hindus as the Kiakra, a sign of sexual union: the cross (phallus) within the circle (yoni). You chose: The Griganet. The Celtic Cross
What said on one side "Hold Me" and on the other "Throw Me Away"?
 The Excalibur
It is said that his grave was dicovered at Ros, a place which cannot be identified with certainty, in the reign of
King William II (1087-1100). His skull was supposed to be in Dover Castle.Who?
 Gawain
The degrees of becoming one of this fraternity were elaborate and formal, their roles well defined through eons,
apparently, of unaltered tradition. The candidate progressed from Mabinog - which had two distinct subdivisions,
Cawganog and Cupanog and proceeded up through the various degrees: Filidh, Brehon, Gwyddon, Derwydd, and finally
Penderwydd. What fraternity?
 Bardship
He was basically a knight with magical powers.When Guignier, wife of Caradoc Briefbras, lost her breast when
aiding her husband, Aarlardin supplied a magic shield boss which provided a golden breast. He married Arthur''s
grand-niece, Guigenor. Who?
 Aarlardin
He is one of Arthur's followers in the earliest Welsh traditions. He helped Arthur to fight the Giant of St.
Michael's Mount. In Geoffrey, he was made Duke of Neustria and perished in the Roman campaign. In Malory, he was
present at Arthur's last battle. He and Arthur alone survived and he was charged with flinging Excalibur into the
lake. He had only one hand. His son was called Amren, his daughter Eneuavc and his father Pedrawd. His grandfather
shared his name and founded the city of Bayeux.Who?
 Bedivere
She has long streaming hair and a grey cloak over a green dress. Her eyes are fiery red with continual weeping.
She gets her name from Gaelic for- "woman of the fairy-mounds" who?
 Banshee
It is so called because it swallowed up or cracked underneath whoever wrongfully sat in it. It was the place
reserved at the Round Table for the Grail Knight. It was claimed by Perceval in the earlier versions of the story:
he sat in it and it cracked apart while a disembodied voice warned him of his misdeed. He later caused the stone
to reunite when he became a successful Grail Knight. In later versions, it is Galahad's place. It is said to
represent the place of Christ at the table in the cenacle.What?
 The Siege Perilous
According to HUON DE BORDEAUX, he was the son of Julius Caesar and Morgan Le Fay, naming his Faery kingdom Momur.
Elsewhere it is stated that he was originally an extremely ugly dwarf named Tronc, but the fairies took pity on
him, removed his ugliness and gave him a kingdom
 Oberon
The Young Son of Light, he is the Celtic god of liberation, harmony, unity and music. He may have been one of the
most universally worshipped deities in the Celtic world, and was at the centre of the Druidic magical cosmology as
the original Being, pre-existent, Son of the Great Mother. He is represented in myth and legend as both a prisoner
and a liberator. Who?
 Mabon
In which country did the Mau Mau guerrilla movement exist?
 Kenya
Which saint is supposed to have been crucified upside down?
 St. Peter
When studying birds, what does the term syndactylism refer to?
 Feet that have two of the front toes partially joined
What fruit does the ananas comosus plant give us?
 Pineapple
What kind of food is pemmican?
 Dried concentrated meat
What does a farrier do?
 Shoe horses
Which species of deer is commonly known as the barking deer?
 Muntjac
We all know that Macbeth lived in Glamis Castle all those years ago. Who lives there today?
 The Earl of Strathmore
We all know of the Birmingham in England. Not so common is the Birmingham in the USA. This is a simple one. In
which state does it lie?
 Alabama
Which sport has its headquarters at St. John’s Woods?
 Cricket
For approximately how many years did the Triassic Period last?
 180 million years
This last one is for all boy band aficionados. It’s a five-member British boy band. Need I say more?
 Five
What is the period of orbit of the Arend-Roland comet first sighted in 1957?
 10,000 years
The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 concerned which two nations?
 Spain and Portugal
What is the currency of Liberia?
 Liberian Dollar
This trio, fronted by Mark O. Everett (a.k.a. E) hit the big time with the smash hit Novocain for the Soul in 1996
from the album Beautiful Freak. The band’s second album was Electro-Shock Blues. As to the band name, there is
something very fishy about it.
 Eels
This four member British band released their first album, Replenish in 1995. Through consistent gigging, it is now
one of the biggest bands of the day, its status confirmed with the success of its latest album, Rides. There is a
marked blues influence in the band’s sounds. In fact, it came in for early criticism for its retro style.
 Reef
A four-member female grunge band, its outspoken lead singer has got a lot of press coverage due to her ill-fated
marriage to one of the biggest rock stars of the nineties. She has also acted in movies like The People v/s Larry
Flynt. The band’s bassist recently left the band to join the Smashing Pumpkins.
 Hole
Who said “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”?
 Dr. Samuel Johnson
This four-member rock band is based in Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. Their first album, Sunburn has done very well,
becoming gold-certified and selling over 500,000 copies.
 Fuel

This Australian band has been around for ages, selling millions of records all over the world. Tragedy struck the
band in 1997 when its lead singer was found dead in a Sydney hotel room. Various reasons have been given for his
death, from a sex game gone wrong to suicide. Who?
 INXS
When this British pop-rock quartet released their first album All Change, it made it into the UK Top 10, in some
measure due to Oasis guitarist, Noel Gallagher's continuous praise. Hit singles included Alright and Sandstorm.
Singer-songwriter John Power writes the band's often philosophical lyrics.
 Cast
Unquestionably mainstream, this 70's rock band battled with the criticism of mediocrity throughout its career.
However, this had no effect on the band's commercial success. Its biggest successes were Lady and Babe. Only god
knows how they came up with the band name, which evokes images of Hades, the Greek version of hell.
 Styx
This four-member band is one of the biggest in Britain, gaining popularity through sophisticated lyrics and catchy
melodies. Although selling millions of records at home, it has lost out to fellow Manchester band, Oasis, when
considering worldwide sales. It finally cracked the US market with a self-titled album, with hits like Beetlebum.
 Blur
This South California quintet has released four albums so far, each selling over a million copies. Their canny use
of a variety of musical influences such as metal, hip-hop and industrial along with an angst-ridden outlook are
what makes them so great. They may count bands like Limp Bizkit as among their proteges.
 Korn
Fronted by blood-red lipstick wearing Robert Smith, this band had been making music for over 20 years. Much credit
might be given to it for the creation for the Goth style of music. However, it has also experimented with many
other genres. Hit singles include Love Song and Friday, I'm in Love. The band's latest album is Bloodflowers,
released this year.
 The Cure
A golden oldie, this five member hard rocking band made its debut way back in 1976 with the album High Voltage.
The band has been prodigious to say the least, releasing 15 albums in 21 years. Some of their more memorable
albums include Ballbreaker and Back in Black. Their latest single, Stiff Upper Lip was released in February 2000.
 AC/DC
This Sacramento quintet released its second album, Fashion Nugget in 1996, which remains their most well known
album. The band was formed in 1992 by singer-songwriter, John McCrea. They also did a cover of the Gloria Gaynor
disco smash, I Will Survive. They also released a third album, Prolonging the Magic in 1998.
 Cake
This four-member band hails from Pennsylvania. They released their first album, Mental Jewellery in 1991, but hit
the really big time with their sophomore effort from 1994, which contained hits like I Alone. They released their
latest album last year which has met with much critical acclaim.
 Live
This four member British outfit have yet to achieve any notable success in their own country, even though they
have sold millions of records on the other side of the Atlantic. When they first came onto the scene, they were
criticized for ripping off the Nirvana sound, but with their second effort, they proved that they had their own
distinctive style, with great tracks like Cold Contagious and Greedy Fly. Who?
 Bush
Which frog is sometimes known as the garlic frog because of its smell?
 European Spadefoot
In which year did the United Nations put into force the Law of the Sea?
 1982
We all know that albatrosses are the largest of all flying birds. Which is the largest albatross?
 Laysan Albatross
Amino acids were found for the first time in a meteorite fall some years ago. Where did this meteorite fall occur?
 Kilrea, Ireland
Who is the patron saint of shoemakers?
 St. Crispin
In which country do we find polders?
 The Netherlands
Which seafood is sometimes served in the Thermidor manner?
 Lobster
Who is credited with taking the first photograph?
 Joseph Niepce (in 1826)
In which sport, do competitors compete for the Wightman Cup?
 Lawn Tennis
Which industry of many tropical countries is dependent on coral?
 Lime
This company had to change it's name in China when it was discovered that its phonetic equivalent meant "bite the
wax tadpole". The name was recomposed in a Chinese equivalent which now means "make man mouth happy". Name it.
 Coca-Cola
The actual name of this city is Krung Thep Maha Nakorn Amarn Rattanakosindra Mahindrayudhya Mahadilokpop
Noparatana Rajdhani Mahasathan Amorn Piman Avatarn Satit Sakkatultiya Vishnukarn Prasit. King Rama the 3rd gave
the name. The official name is a shortened version of the same (Krung Thep). How do we better know it?
 Bangkok
What's common to Spaceman Spiff, Stupendous Man & Private Eye Tracer Bullet?
 Alter-egos of Calvin
In Rome, it was the custom among men, when swearing to tell the truth, to place one's rigth hand on one's
testicles. What English word is derived from this practice?
 Testimony
With respect to the schools of detective fiction, what is the distinctive feature of the 'inverted novel'?
 The background is revealed at the end.
They are known in Europe as the 'Fables of Bidai'. How do we better know them in India?
 Panchatantra
Written by Francis Scott Key on the back of an envelope after witnessing the shelling of Fort Henry in 1812, this
song was to be sung to the tune of a popular English drinking song called the 'Anacreontick Song', composed by
John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society of London. Name it.
 The Star-Spangled Banner
What is the name given to the unit of time equivalent to 1/100th of a second?
 Jiffy
During World War 2, Mussolini banned all the comic strips in Italy that were published in America. But on popular
demand, he had to lift the ban on one. Name it.
 Popeye
This novelist tried in 1972 to overthrow, with the help of 13 men, the goverment of Equatorial Guinea by
kidnapping it's president, Francisco Macias Nguema, an attempt on which he had spent $200,000. He failed as a
Spanish co-conspirator did not come through with the ammunition. The novel based on the experience was a great
success, however. Name him.
 Frederick Forsyth
In the conventional typewriter, the letters QWERTYUIOP were not placed there by chance, but because of a
particular reason. What?
 To slow down the typing speed
This term, now usually used in the context of war, was originally introduced into the military vocabulary by the
Americans during the Vietnam War to denote the increasing degrees of United States involvement in the fighting. It
has also been used by military writers to describe the development of a possible war between 2 powers through
successive stages from the use of conventional weapons to the localized employment of atomic weapons and, finally,
an all-out exchange of annihilating nuclear misslies. What?
 Escalate
Name the largest structure on this planet ever made by any living creature?
 The Great Barrier Reef
When JFK Jr launched the first edition of his magazine 'George', who modelled as George Washington on the cover?
 Cindy Crawford
During World War 2, the American air force bought 'high-altitude writing sticks' for their pilots. They were
originally made by a person called Ladislo. How do we better know them today?
 Ball pens
In 1992, she appeared in American advertisements to promote the 'Rock the Vote' campaign. In it, she was naked
except for an artfully placed American flag & she told the viewers to vote in the presidential elections "or
you're going to get a spanky". Who?
 Madonna
Khushwant Singh once described every Bengali as being obdurate about the 5 holy cows: Tagore, Netaji, Ray,
Calcutta & ...?
 Mohun Bagan
A Persian legend refers to it as the cradle of the human race and the Persian name for it is Koh-i-Nuh. For
centuries, Armenians believed that God forbade anyone to reach its top, but on 7th september 1829, Johann Hacob
von Parrot, a German in the Russian service, made the first successful ascent. Name it.
 Mt Ararat
How did George Orwell decide upon the title for his book '1984'?
 He reversed the last 2 digits of 1948, the year in which it was published
In business parlance, who are 'new collar workers'?
 Sons doing better than their fathers professionally
Which group took it’s name from a William Burroughs novel, and their first recorded work was the soundtrack for
the Zalman King movie, You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (Or You’ll Lose That Beat)?
 Steely Dan
Joining radio WGRM in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the late 50’s, he was first spotted by Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice
Miller), who took him to the far more important Memphis station WDIA, where he became resident DJ, and was dubbed
“The Beatle Street Blues Boy”. What do we better know him as?
 BB King
They began by pushing Lou Reed and Bowie glitter rock to the extreme. The members hid behind comic book costumes
and greasepaint. Their albums emphasised gothic aspects of music. Live shows had massive drumkits rising 40’ into
the air, and explosives flashing everywhere. Which group?
 Kiss
He began his musical career playing tenor sax in a school group. He injured his eye in a fight. Later, he dropped
out of music, and flirted with Buddhism for a while. He also joined Lindsay Kemp’s mime company, which was a great
influence on his later theatre work. Who?
 David Bowie
Despite artistic commitments (her abstracts commanded high prices in the art market, and her photographic
endeavours are worthy of exhibition in galleries), she felt obliged to complete recording of her last album in the
early 90’s for Geffen. Who?
 Joni Mitchell
Netherlands born brothers, originally trained as concert pianists due to an inability to promote gigs, they tried
every attention getting gimmick – including parachuting into the Stadium in a successful attempt to upstage the
headlining band. Who?
 The Van Halen Brothers
When his musical career seemed down, he popped up in a cameo role in Blues Brothers , followed by a soundtrack
contribution to Speilberg’s “The Colour Purple”. Who?
 John Lee Hooker
Complete the sequence – Spiders, Earwigs, Nazz, _____________.
 Alice Cooper
The first LP featured full frontal nude of a duo, resulting in it being sold in a brown paper bag. Which duo?
 John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Connect The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Hollies.
 Crosby, Stills and Nash
Who claimed that he was a ‘bear of very little brain’?
 Winnie the Pooh
Who wrote A Child’s Garden of Verses?
 Robert Louis Stevenson
Day after day, day after day, we stuck, no breath no motion … What are the next two lines to this immortal poem.
 As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.
Which American dramatist wrote Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
 Edward Albee
The infamous Love Canal incident is concerned with:
 A toxic waste dump
Who is the American president who used to host a television programme called General Elections?
 Ronald Reagan
Which country has installed the largest number of biogas plants?
 China
Caries is an affliction that attacks which part of the body?
 Teeth
How do we better know the musician Paul Hewson?
 Bono
Who are the gauchos?
 Cattle herders of the Pampas

What is the art movement derived from a term meaning "wild beasts"?
 Fauvism
Initially a Venetian dialect form equivalent to Gianni, or Giovanni, it was a nickname applied to porters and
servants. The role of the servant was to mimic and make fun of his master. This gave him a name, which now
describes anything funny. Which term?
 Zany
Which music group gets it''s name from the printed words on a vacuum cleaner?
 AC/DC
Dionysius was a Greek God, and giver of grape and wine. The grateful Greeks held night festivals in his honour.
The style and outcome of these parties gave us a word used even today. Which word?
 Orgy
In the renaissance days of Italy, the Italian women found a pleasant use of the extract of a deadly nightshade. A
drop of this substance in each eye, would expand the pupils and give them an expression of languorous beauty.
Today, it means "beautiful lady"? What substance?
 Belladonna
What were Steely Dan fans called based on a certain way obsessive fans of celebrities were caricatured?
 Danoraks
Which group was named after a novel by Willard Manus?
 Mott the Hoople
He came from Miletus in Asia Minor. Instead of drawing on West Asian myth to explain the heavens, he used
astronomical records compiled by Babylonian priests to predict an eclipse of the sun in 585 B.C. His rational
outlook led to the emergence of the discipline of philosophy. Who?
 Thales
What is French for "the crow"?
 Le Corbusier
Which music group originally started off under the name " Earth"?
 Black Sabbath
Proboscis is a term used for any long, flexible snout or for the elongated, protruding parts of certain insects
used for sucking and piercing. Name the living being with the largest proboscis in the world.
 Elephant
Which comic-strip character went to England and played the original Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet?
 Phantom
Joan of Arc was actually forced into making a confession and sentenced to life imprisonment only. But she had to
adhere to a certain condition, failing which she would die. However, her captors made it impossible for her to
follow the condition. What was the condition?
 She had to stop wearing men's clothes
Coined by Jon Yantin, the marketing manager for the Tiger Bar in London, 'Vertie' is a term used to refer to an
emerging social class, in keeping with the earlier yuppies and tweenies. Jon is also the manager of 'On Anon', a
"multi-environment" bar specifically designed for this class' tastes and attitudes. What does the term mean?
 Virtual Thirty Somethings
The opening lines of which book are: "I am giving the results of my inquiries so that the memory of what men have
done shall not perish from the world nor their achievements, whether of Greeks or of foreigners, go unsung. They
form my theme and the cause why they went to war"?
 'History' by Herodotus
'Psycho 2', the sequel to the classic horror flick, was a big bomb, mainly because it was released 22 years after
the original. Why was this done?
 The murderer spent 22 years in a mental institution
In his last will, he left behind less than #80,000 & the instruction that those who come to his funeral "wear no
scarf, cloak, black bow, long hatband, or other such revolting absurdity." Name him.
 Charles Dickens
In Hindu mythology, which god/goddess was born from an egg?
 Brahma
It was invented by poor Frenchman Barthelemy Thimmonier in 1830, but an angry mob smashed the first models and
almost murdered him because they thought it would put people out of work. Thimmonier persevered and one model was
displayed in London's Great Exhibition in 1851, but no one took it seriously. Gandhi described it as "one of the
few useful things ever invented". Name it.
 Sewing machine
Which popular product was originally introduced as 'Bio-Label Light-Hearted Lemon-Time Soda'?
 7UP
This spider called Zygella-x-notata has this very peculiar handicap. This handicap is the reason for it to become
famous in history. Why?
 This one keeps falling off its web.
"It felt weird walking in a lab coat, with a medical chart in my hand. I kept thinking - In some alternate reality
this might have been true." Who about what?
 Manoj N. Shyamalan on his cameo in SS
What is Ali-ben-Nassir''s claim to fame?
 Refereed "Hand of God"
This person made the first horror movie, ''Uncle Josh in a spooky hotel''. Who?
 Thomas Alva Edison
What''s the killing arm of the Mafia called?(used in a certain song)
 Murder Inc.
This reporter was the one to discover Imelda Marcos'' shoe collection. He got into the news again for a different
reason. Who? What reason?
 Phil Bronstein who married Sharon Stone
Literary character whose name was borrowed from that of a mews (stables) of a coach proprietor in Bath. Who?
 Pickwick
Among all the things that "fell" in 1665, one which fell at Woodsthorpe manor became most famous. Which one?
 Newton''s apple
This castle called the Urquhart castle(in ruins) overlooks what eerie place?
 Loch Ness
Sign at Hoboken, New Jersey says " Birthplace of baseball and -------." What?
 Frank Sinatra.
All of us have heard of the Tamagotchi craze that spread across Asia in 1996. Which Japanese company marketed this
virtual pet?
 Bandai
Roy Plunkett perfected a slippery polymer called Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene. What name did he patent it under?
 Teflon
Orthosulphobenzimide was one of the first artificial food substitutes. It was banned in 1977 after studies
revealed its carcinogenic properties. The trade name for the substance now survives as a word.Which substance?
 Saccharine
The insect "Ranikira" is marketed exclusively in Chattisgarh under what name?
 Jiagra, India''s answer to Viagra
"And you will expect an airline that’s going around since 1365 to be the world''s best". Whose adline?
 Saudia
Which company is based on the pillars of computer communication and compatibility?
 3com
Daisuke Inoue invented something which revolutionised the music industry. What was this invention?
 Karaoke
Which brand advertises with the line "Entertainment for Men"?
 PlayBoy
Wells Fargo uses these to sell postage stamps.In Spain, they are used in theatres, concert halls, and Railway and
Airway terminals to sell tickets. Las Vegas uses them in large-scale gambling operations. What?
 ATMs
What advertising first is associated with Cinzano wines?
 First product to be advertised using Neon lit lamps
Where is the world''s highest cricket ground situated?
 At Chail, near Shimla
Which Football Olympian also captained his State''s Ranji Trophy team?
 Chuni Goswami
Which Indian cricketer was nicknamed ''''Rhubarb''''?
 S. Venkataraghavan
One Indian batsman was almost killed when he was hit on the head during a match with the West-Indies. Who was the
player?
 Nari Contractor
By whom was the Ranji Trophy first instituted?
 The Maharaja of Patiala
Against which team did B.B. Nimbalkar score the highest score by an Indian at the first class level (443 n.o.)?
 Kathiawar
Against which country did Mohammed Azharuddin lead India for the first time?
 New Zealand
Name the venue of the first test match played on Indian soil.
 Bombay Gymkhana Ground, Mumbai
One Indian opener could never make century in his test career. He was out a number of times in his nineties. Can
you name the player?
 Chetan Chauhan
What fruit does the ananas comosus plant give us?
 Pineapple
We all know that Macbeth lived in Glamis Castle all those years ago. Who lives there today?
 The Earl of Strathmore
We all know of the Birmingham in England. Not so common is the Birmingham in the USA. This is a simple one. In
which state does it lie?
 Alabama
What kind of food is pemmican?
 Dried concentrated meat
When studying birds, what does the term syndactylism refer to?
 Feet that have two of the front toes partially joined
What does a farrier do?
 Shoe horses
In which country did the Mau Mau guerrilla movement exist?
 Kenya
Which species of deer is commonly known as the barking deer?
 Muntjac
Which saint is supposed to have been crucified upside down?
 St. Peter
Which sport has its headquarters at St. John’s Woods?
 Cricket
 Topic : US President
Which U.S President was called-"Idol of Ohio"?
 William McKinley
One said "You can''t expect to see calves running in the field the day after you put the bull to the cows." the
other replied "No, but I would expect to see some contented cows."Which two presidents in a debate?
 Coolidge to Herbert Hoover
Once a California State Senator who was advocating birth control for teenagers charged that "illegitimate births
to teen-aged mothers has increased alarmingly since he has been in office." The newspaper clipping was sent to
this President and he replied back: "Thanks for sending me the clipping... I have never felt so young and virile."
 Ronald Reagan
This President was in the habit of bathing in the Potomac River every morning. On at least one occasion, newspaper
reporters held his clothes captive until he provided the requested press conference from within the riverbank.Who?
 John Quincy Adams
Ralph Waldo Emerson about whom "The weight and penetration of the many passages in his letters...are destined to a
wide fame. What pregnant definitions, what unerring common sense, what foresight, and on great occasions what
lofty, and more than national, what human tone...?
 Abe Lincoln
This President's biological father, was killed a few months before he was born in a car accident.He wasn't hurt
badly in the crash, but was knocked unconscious and landed in a deep puddle of water face down, and drowned. Which
President's father died in this unfortunate fashion?
 Bill Clinton
This president was once arrested for driving his horse too fast and was fined $20.Who?
 Ulysses S. Grant
His personal library of some 6,000 books formed the basis of the Library of Congress. They were purchased from him
for $23,950.Who?
 Thomas Jefferson
" Upon being told that the former president was dead, writer Dorothy Parker quipped "How can you tell?" Which
President?
 Calvin Coolidge
In his office,there was a famous photograph of him playing the piano with Hollywood siren Lauren Bacall sitting on
the top of the piano. When asked about his wife''s thoughts about the photo, he responded "She says maybe it is
time for me to quit playing the piano."
 Harry S. Truman
He was the youngest member of Stanford University''s first graduating class. One of the most honoured presidents,
he received 84 honorary degrees, 78 medals and awards, and the keys to dozens of cities. During prohibition he
would visit the Belgian Embassy in Washington D.C. for drinks. It was considered foreign soil, so drinking was
legal there. Who?
 Herbert Hoover
He was the only president to serve in two different cabinet posts. He was secretary of state and war. His
inauguration in 1817 was the first to be held outdoors. He was also the first president to ride on a steamboat.
Who?
 James Monroe
He was a second cousin of James Madison, a fourth cousin once removed of Robert E. Lee, and a fourth cousin three
times removed of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Name this President!
 Zachary Taylor
He graduated from West Point sixty-fifth in a class of 165.. He carried three coins with him for good luck: a
silver dollar, a five-guinea gold piece, and a French franc. He was also a wonderful cook, who specialised in
barbecued steaks. Name this President.
 Dwight D. Eisenhower
This President who commanded the Continental Army as a four-star general was promoted posthumously to the position
of six-star "General of the Armies of Congress" by an order of Jimmy Carter. Who?
 George Washington
When he was elected President in 1840, the Indian leader Tecumseh placed a curse on him, saying that every
president elected in a year that ends with a 0 will die while in office. He died while in office, as did Lincoln,
elected in 1860, Garfield, elected in 1880, Mckinley, elected in 1900, Harding, elected in 1920, Roosevelt,
elected in 1940, and Kennedy, elected in 1960. Reagan, elected in 1980, broke the curse, but was almost
assassinated while in office. Name him.
 William Henry Harrison
Of the five presidents who served in the Civil War,he was the only one to be wounded. He won the presidency by
only one electorial vote. His wife, Lucy Hayes, banned alcohol, smoking, dancing and card playing from the White
House. Who?
 Rutherford Hayes
He never wanted to be president. He wanted to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but his wife wanted to be
the first lady. She talked him into running for office. He finally got his wish in 1920 when he was appointed
Chief Justice.
 William H. Taft
The Baby Ruth candy bar was named after his baby daughter, Ruth. He acted as executioner while sheriff of Erie
County, New York. He personally pulled the hanging trap on two convicted murderers. He and the first lady would
shake hands with as many as 8,000 callers at a New Year''s Day reception. Crowds entered through the doors and the
East Room windows! Name him.
 Grover Cleveland
He was the second president shot in office. Doctors tried to find the bullet with a metal detector invented by
Alexander Graham Bell. But the device failed because Garfield was placed on a bed with metal springs, and no one
thought to move him. He died on September 19, 1881.
 James Garfield
 ---------
 Topic : Calvin
Calvin is often taken to the museum of Natural History by his parents. When there, his parents often admire a
painting on the wall. The painting shows a landscape from another cartoon strip, one which was Bill Watterson's
major inspiration. Which strip?
 Krazy Kat
Among Bill Watterson's early inspirational influences, there's this strip drawn by Walt Kelly. Bill Watterson
describes it as a 'lushly drawn strip, full of bombast and physical commotion.' What is the name of this strip?
 Pogo
There's this C & H strip where Hobbes gives Calvin a haircut. Why is this strip important in C & H history?
 It introduces Tracer Bullet
Maybe a bit vague, but still guessable. What is the name of Bill Watterson's wife's family beagle?
 Derkins
About which of his characters does Bill Watterson say, 'This guy probably spawned on damp locker room floors'?
 Moe
From which book does Miss Wormwood, Calvin's teacher, get her name?
 The Screwtape Letters
When a dog steals Hobbes, Calvin intends to put up notices describing Hobbes. This is his description: 'On the
quiet side. Somewhat peculiar. _____________________________'. Fill in the blank.
 'A good companion, in a weird sort of way.'
Which character in C & H is named after a 16th century theologian who believed in predestination?
 Calvin
Real trivia. When was the first C & H strip published?
 November 18, 1985
What bait does Calvin use to trap Hobbes in the first ever Calvin and Hobbes strip?
 A tuna fish sandwich
Which comic book does Bill Watterson parody in his Spaceman Spiff strips? The comic book’s overwrought narration
was something that quite amused him.
 Flash Gordon
What does Calvin invent when he turns a box of corrugated cardboard upside-down?
 A transmogrifier
What modification does Calvin make to convert his Transmogrifier into a Duplicator?
 Turns it on it’s side
In one of the C&H strips, Bill Watterson introduces a certain parental relation, which he later regretted, and did
away with. What’s this relation’s name?
 Uncle Max
When trying to top the previous Calvin-Rosalyn conflict, Bill Watterson came up with another new and whacky
character, who then made his presence felt in several strips later on, as one of Calvin’s innumerable alter-egos.
Who?
 Stupendous Man
Calvin’s lunches at school are invariably gross and disgusting, yet morbidly fascinating. When one particular
newspaper picked up Calvin and Hobbes, one of these ‘lunch strips’ ran, and the paper promptly canceled the strip
after just a day. This strip, however, didn’t feature something gross about Calvin’s lunch. Rather, it was his
dessert that was gross. What was the dessert?
 A thermos full of phlegm
According to Calvin, what is the most essential ingredient in a school report?
 A professional plastic binder
What is Calvin’s dad’s profession?
 A patent attorney
Bill Watterson’s first published cartoon character was a diminutive loudmouth, not unlike Calvin, albeit with a
Chaplin mustache, flying goggles, and a cigar. What was his name?
 Spaceman Spiff
The Spaceman Spiff cartoons originate with a certain character who Bill Watterson created in a high school German
class. What is the name of this precursor of Spiff?
 Raumfahrer Rolf
 ---------
This lyricist of yesteryears also played a guest appearance in the movie Zanjeer ... Name him?
 Gulshan Bawra
''An instrument of torture'' is held synonymous with the name of a popular band... Name the band?
 Iron Maiden
Which Indian Music Director has the rare distinction of being invited to conduct the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra?
 Illayaraja
Bipasha Basu was the lead model in one of Sonu Nigam''s pop song..."tu"... Name the album?
 Kismat
Pam Anderson was the lead model for a rock-group''s song. This group also starred in Pam''s series ''VIP''in one
episode. Name the group?
 LIT
Which international group popularised the kannada "Vachana"?
 Beatles
Which band popularised the song "Stairway to Heaven"?
 Led Zeppelin
What is the real name of Apache Indian?
 Steven kapoor
This reknowned singer(also called the voice of America, at one time)died at the age of 27 in his bath-tub. Who is
he?
 Jim Morrison
Which International pop-star is said to use Indian Shlokas in songs, to popularise them?
 Madonna
How many pounds of roasted, ground coffee does a coffee tree yield in one year?
 1
Septicemia is a form of what?
 Blood poisoning
Cape Agulhas is the southern most cape of which country?
 Africa
Five dashes represent what number in Morse code?
 0
What year did striking Flint auto workers win the right to organize their labour movement?
 1937
According to the Mersenne organisation, how many "perfect" numbers have been found?
 37
When did John Flaxman die?
 1826
Lake Tanganyika borders what African city?
 Bujumbura
Which European nation was not a main coloniser of Africa in 1914?
 Austria
How many locks are on the Suez Canal?
 0
How many circles are in Dante''s "Inferno"?
 9
How many states border Alaska?
 4
What is the capital of Illinois?
 Springfield
Governmental programmes like the WPA, came about during what period of American history?
 The great depression
"The Man in The Iron mask" was the continuation of which book?
 The three musketeers
A stop sign is commonly seen on a sign that is shaped like what?
 An octagon
What is the meaning of mezza voice?
 Half volume
An electrocardiograph records electric current produced by what organ?
 The Heart
How many books in the bible are named after women?
 2
In what month are the U.S presidential elections held?
November
How many tentacles does a squid have ?

Ans: 10
Which of these words is derived from the term God''s wounds?

Ans: Zounds
In taxonomic classification which kingdom includes bacteria and viruses?

Ans: Monera
What is the translation of Ditat Deus?

Ans: God enriches
In which year did Afghanistan suspend its embassy operations in the U.S.?

Ans: 1997
In what year were vitamins first described?

Ans: 1912
Peniaphobia is the fear of what?

Ans: Poverty
A perfect game in tenpin bowling is?

Ans: 12 strikes
In what year was the Berlin Wall erected?

Ans: 1961
What is the capital of Oregon?

Ans: Salem
Name the actor that played the title roll in "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit".

Ans: Gregory Peck
What is Ray Bradbury’s “Illustrated Man” illustrated with?

Ans: Tattoos
How many medals were won by swimmer Mark Spitz in the 1972 summer Olympics held in Munich?

Ans: 7
Which is the smallest of the Great Lakes?

Ans: Ontario
Name the sinister doctor in many of author Sax Rohmer''s novels.

Ans: Fu Manchu
In what Oscar winning movie did Laurence Olivier play Max de Winter?

Ans: Rebecca
What actor played opposite Rex Harrison as his homosexual lover in "Staircase"?

Ans: Richard Burton
What film was Robert Redford''s first to direct?

Ans: Ordinary people
Who is credited with saying religion is the opium of the people?

Ans: Karl Marx
Give the name of fictional character Simon Templar''s alter ego.

Ans: The Saint
The President of the United States of America lives in the White House. The President of which country lives in
the Blue House?

Ans: South Korea
Which vitamin is essential for clotting of the blood?

Ans: Vitamin K
Which narcotic drug is named after the Greek god of sleep and dreams?

Ans: Morphine
Which movement did General Sir Robert Baden-Powell start?

Ans: Scouts
Flushing Meadow is the venue of the U.S Open. What is the venue where Australian Open is played called?

Ans: Flinders Park
New England is now in the United States. New France is now in Canada. But what country used to be New Holland?

Ans: Australia
To which Hindu god is the Gayatri Mantra addressed?

Ans: Surya
This Guru Dutt production was his only film to be entered at an International film Festival and was also nominated
for an Oscar?

Ans: Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam
What do dinosaurs’ heirs live on today as?

Ans: Lizards
How many viscosity coefficients are there?

Ans: 2