PART - I
1. He founded the environmental group Green Cross International in 1993, to which he donated his royalties from narrating an introduction and epilogue to a Russian National Symphony performance of Peter and the Wolf with his often-mocked southern Russian accent. "Because of him, we have things like Pizza Hut!", according to a commercial in which he appeared to raise money for the Perestroika Library and Archives. Name this final leader of the now-defunct Soviet Union.
2. They are the only surviving members of the Anapsid clan, distinguished from all other amniotic vertebrates by their lack of a temporal opening in the skull. In the course of the evolution of their most distinctive feature, their pectoral and pelvic girdles moved inside their rib cages. They are the only other group of vertebrates besides birds to have teeth replaced with horny beaks. This order of reptiles includes the matamata, the leatherback, and the Galapagos tortoise. Can you name it?
3. When asked why he only wrote "one book full of candour and human warmth," this author replied, "Because I've only lived one life." That life included a stint as a spy in Russia during the Bolshevik revolution. In one novel, the protagonist sees his best friend and fellow World War I pilot die, prompting him to embark on a spiritual quest. In another, the protagonist dies of leprosy after painting the walls of his hut on Tahiti. Those protagonists are Larry Darrell and Charles Strickland, the latter character being based on painter Paul Gauguin. Name this author of the semi-autobiographical novel, Of Human Bondage.
4. Works in this musical key include J. S. Bach's passacaglia for organ, BWV 582;
Dvorak's First Symphony (which he thought lost); Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8, or
"Pathetique"; Mahler's Resurrection Symphony; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2;
the second prelude/fugue pair in Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier; and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. What is this minor key signature with three flats, the relative minor of Eb major and the parallel minor to the simplest major key?
5. When asked why it was needed, the man who convened it opened a window and said,
"I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in." It asserted that the Jews as a people are not to blame for killing Christ.
Closed under Pope Paul VI, it established guidelines to govern the revision of the liturgy and reduced Pentecost and Epiphany to one-day celebrations. Name this church council which opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962, and allowed Mass to be practiced in vernacular languages. What are we referring to?
6. A colonel in the Mexican War, he fought at Buena Vista all day with a bullet in his foot. As a US Senator he took an active role in opposing the compromise measures brought forth by Henry Clay and demanded that Congress protect slavery. He served as Secretary of War during the Pierce administration, where he improved and enlarged the
Army. When Lincoln became President, he resigned from the Senate in hopes of becoming the head of the Army of the Confederate States. Name this person who served as president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
7. Who is this painter whose style is so starkly reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s and whose famous painting, The Scream was stolen in 2003 and recovered in 2006?
8. This chemist's theories were not at first readily accepted and challenged with an alternate model by C. W. Blomstrand called "Chain theory". The dispute was finally resolved when the chemist was able to demonstrate that exactly two geometrical isomers of tetra-amine-di-chloro-cobalt (III) cation exist, one purple and one green. This proved that ligands directly bond to the metal ion in fixed geometries. Name this "founder of coordination chemistry".
9. It included most of Eriador, with the Brandywine, Greyflood, and the Great Road forming its southern border. The chief PalantIr of the north was located at its Great Watch-tower of Amon-Sl on Weathertop hill. In year 1975 of the Third Age, it was destroyed by the Witch-lord of Angmar, and the line of its kings survived in exile as Chieftains of the Dunedain. At the peak of its power it stretched from the Blue Mountains in the west to the Misty Mountains in the East. Name this fictional Middle-Earth kingdom, founded by the Numenorians as a sister-kingdom to its southern counterpart, Gondor.
10. In the context of the infamous Vietnam War, this action invalidated Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker's description of "steady, continual progress", and the "light at the end of the tunnel" boast of William Westmoreland. Nearly three thousand civilians were killed by the attackers during the fighting for the citadel in Hue, while American shelling of the village of Ben Tre led to the remark that "it became necessary to destroy the town to save it." The Vietnamese Lunar New Year signalled the opening of this 1968 Vietcong offensive.
11. Inspired by reports of Romanes and Morgan that described the way cats and dogs opened gate latches, he designed a puzzle box apparatus for studying animal behaviour.
His studies led him to develop his Theory of Connectionism, a model of behaviour based on the formation of neural networks through perceived stimuli. He found that any response made in a particular situation becomes associated with that situation, and that rewarding a response strengthens the response association. Name this man who influenced the behaviourists with his laws of exercise and effect.
12. The family members of failed coup leader Mohamed Oufkir were among the political prisoners detained for decades in this country's secret Tazmamart prison. In 1999, its new king pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 50,000 prisoners, a marked break from the autocratic 38 year rule of Mohammed VI's father, Hassan II. Name the northwest African kingdom located across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain.
13. The bronze sculpture Reclining Nude II and the painting Young Sailor II were among the works by this artist donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York in the 1990s. Lilacs, The Chapel of St. Anne, portraits of his daughter Marguerite, and a study for the mural Dance are among the almost 50 more that will go to it as part of the collection of the artist's son, a prominent modern art dealer named Pierre. Which longtime rival of Picasso as the last century's greatest visual artist created Joie de Vivre and led the Fauvists?
14. He was popularly known (behind his back) as ‘Scarface’. Despite his illegal activities, he opened soup kitchens to feed the poor, and even lobbied for milk bottle dating to ensure the safety of children. By the late 1920s, he ran an underworld empire valued at over $60 million, and was prepared to engage in outright war with his rival, George
"Bugs" Moran. He spent 4½ years in Alcatraz on charges of tax evasion. Name this big-time Chicago gangster that masterminded the St. Valentine Day's Massacre.
15. The Fomalont-Kopeikin experiment claimed to measure the speed of this phenomenon, and showed that it was approximately equal to the speed of light. Some attempts to quantize it include Smolin and Rovelli's loop quantum theory and Penrose's Twistor theory. The boson carrying it is hypothesized to have Spin 2, although it has never been directly observed, and LIGO is the most sensitive experiment established to look for waves caused by this force. What is this fundamental force, the center of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and most famously discovered by Isaac Newton?
16. Characters from this author's works include the merchant Petunikoff and Captain Aristid from his story Creatures That Once Were Men. The girl Tanya – and a group of poor bakers who revile her – comprise the title characters of Twenty-six Men and a Girl.
His novel Mother was adapted in Brecht's play The Mother, but he is better-known for his own play which shows a group of derelicts in a cave-like cellar. Name this bitter Russian author of The Lower Depths.
17. Author David Dodge sold the movie rights of his thriller To Catch a Thief before the book itself had been published (1952). Set in the Riviera, it tells the story of John Robie, a one-time jewel thief who’s forced out of retirement to try and nab a copycat burglar whose identical style sets the police on Robie’s trail. Starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, it was this enigmatic film director’s first and last attempt at action romance. The tight editing, racing twists and turns in the plot, and the fact that one of the world’s most celebrated film directors extracted an Oscar-winning performance from what is arguably the best-known screen pair of all time, make this film a classic. Can you name the director of this unforgettable motion picture?
18. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this novel by science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke was made into a movie set in what was then the distant future. It established a standard for film direction in this genre that – even thirty years down the road – has yet to be surpassed in many respects. TIME Magazine paid homage to it by describing it as ‘the most fantastic visual happening in the history of motion picture’. Perhaps no film ever
made has so comprehensively encompassed mankind’s humble origins or foretold its future with such chilling prescience. Can you recall its name?
19. Clint Eastwood as Detective Inspector Harry Callahan in (and as) Dirty Harry uses this potent weapon to stop a getaway car after a bank heist. This episode was taken from a real-life incident where a police officer fired a single round from this gun at a car carrying bank robbers. The bullet went through the back of the car, through the driver’s back (killing him), went into the steering column (fracturing it) and ricocheted into the gearbox (smashing it), causing the car to lurch out of control, hit a lamp-post and overturn. Can you name the fearsome handgun that caused such carnage?
20. It was a small, isolated outpost that was little more than a stockade’. In 1836, it was attacked by an army of over 4,000 men led by Mexican General Santa Anna. The 300-odd men in the stockade included legendary frontier heroes Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Although the entire garrison was wiped out, barring women and children, the massacre was later fully avenged. The name of the site became a rousing battle cry that played a decisive role in routing Santa Anna’s forces and in the formation of the state of Texas. It is now a place of pilgrimage—a shrine to the hardy breed of pioneers who helped carve out what we today call the United States of America. Can you remember the name of this blood-soaked piece of hallowed ground?
21. This Thracian warrior was captured and enslaved by Roman forces that trained him as a gladiator, for amusing the crowds in the arena. In the training school, he met Varinia, a fellow slave whom he would later marry. The famous Revolt of the Gladiators that he led in 68 A.D. smashed one Roman army after another that was sent against him, but his army was finally trapped on the seashore while trying to escape by ship. There is no evidence of this gladiator’s death, though legend says that he died fighting in the final conflict. 6,000 of the former slaves were captured and executed. A film on his life was made 50 years ago, with Kirk Douglas (the father of movie star Michael Douglas) in the title role. Can you recall the name of this valiant gladiator who stood up against tyranny and showed the world that the Roman armies were not invincible?
22. This famous Scottish author was a doctor who so despaired of selling his first novel after it was turned down by several publishers that he dumped the manuscript in a park’s garbage bin. But a kindly gardener persuaded him to retrieve it and try again, which he did…successfully this time. That first novel, Hatter’s Castle, set this doctor firmly on the road to fame, with major successes like The Citadel, The Stars Look Down, The Judas Tree and The Northern Light. Can you name him?
23. For fifteen years, this lady kept her manuscript away from prying eyes in a trunk under her bed. It came to light only when a friend who was nursing her through an illness happened to come read it and persuaded her to try and get it published. It was the only novel this author ever wrote, but it captured the imagination of generations of readers, became an indelible part of publishing history and metamorphosed into an all-time cinematic success starring Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable. Name this timeless classic and its author.
24. When this book was broadcast as a radio play directed by Orson Welles, it unleashed panic among listeners in the British Isles. Its presentation of a story of a Martian invasion was so realistic that people actually started evacuating London. Can you furnish the title of this book, and the name of its author?
25. The Sunbird is a novel set in South Africa in the last century. The plot revolves around three people who discover a long-lost civilization whose Punic script reveals its origins as an offshoot of the House of Hannibal Barca—a Carthaginian cultural transplant whose one-time presence in the Dark Continent was hitherto only conjectured but never decisively proved by means of irrefutable archaeological evidence. But in the process of unravelling the mystery, the trio stumble across an even more chilling discovery—
shadowy evidence of having played a major role in the final years of this drama before its dramatic close…all of twenty centuries ago, in their previous incarnations. Can you furnish the name of its well-known South African author?
26. This celebrated novel tells the story of the Jewish merchant prince who was falsely charged of conspiring against Rome and sent to the galleys as a slave. But he saves the life of the Roman fleet commander Quintas Arias (superbly portrayed by veteran actor Jack Hawkins, clipped British accent and all) who promptly adopts him and makes him his heir. Armed with this patrician Roman’s seal, he settles scores with his boyhood friend, the Roman Centurion Messala, traces his mother and sister, witnesses the Crucifixion and the miracles that follow, and regains his proud old heritage. Can you (a) name this extraordinary man and the eponymous novel on which the blockbuster Hollywood motion picture is based? (b) Who wrote this book? (c) Which outstandingly successful actor plays the lead role?
27. The Art of War was a treatise on military tactics written by Sun Tzu, a famous Chinese General of ancient times. Today, it has become a celebrated guide in an entirely different (though perhaps quite similar) discipline. Which discipline?
28. She wrote only one major novel about the injustice meted out to an African American in the mid-20th century that is an all-time classic. To Kill a Mockingbird went on to achieve worldwide success, but its celebrated author retreated into silence and has chosen to life the life of a recluse. Who is she?
29. He was an Englishman who migrated to America and created a fantasy literary world full of eccentric earls in castles where pigs have wings, a world full of the most unlikely yet the most memorable characters with names like Catsmeat Potter Pirbright and Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, irreverent nephews, a brainy butler, young men in spats and aunts that bellow to each other like mastodons across prehistoric swamps. “He will continue to relieve future generations from a thraldom that may be even more irksome than our own. A world to live in and delight in,” said Evelyn Waugh of this famous author. Who are we talking about?
30. Erich Segal wrote one of the greatest love stories of all time. Set in the affluent East Coast, it is about a rich Harvard boy who falls in love with a girl from Vassar who claims to be’ smart and poor’ and defies a disapproving father to marry her…only to lose her forever. It broke publishing and box office records to make the two, young unknown actors into overnight celebrities. Which book/motion picture are we talking about, and who were the actors in question (who never again repeated their early success)?
31. What do we know of the ancient epic known as the Epic of Gilgamesh?
32. William Boldwood, Gabriel Oak, Bathsheba Everdeen and Sergeant Troy are the four important characters in which unforgettable novel? Who wrote it?
33. Who Moved my Cheese is a little book that has acquired quite a large following. What is it about, and who wrote it?
34. Saki was the nom de guerre or pen name of this famous writer of short stories. What was Saki’s real name?
35. Fahrenheit 451 is a landmark science fiction book. Who wrote it, and what is the chilling significance of the title?
36. Who is the famous author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Which equally famous Hollywood actor plays the lead role in the smash-hit motion picture version?
37. Name the photogenic lady whose book titled Crystal outsold all the 2007 Booker Prize nominees put together. Married to Peter Andre, she is a mother of two and is better known by her nickname, Jordan.
38. Both were English, both were authors in middle life, both had been Intelligence agents in World War II, both wrote a series of best sellers and both were distinctly alike in appearance. Can you name this dashing duo?
39. Johnny Fontane and Nino Valenti are childhood friends who grow up to become singers, in a world-famous novel about the U.S. mafia. Who wrote the book, and which two real-life Hollywood celebrities do these fictional crooners represent?
40. He wrote a creepy crawly book about a cannibal named Hannibal that became a best seller (hardly surprising, since men have always shown cannibalistic tendencies—watch any broker or lawyer at work) and was made into a hugely profitable motion picture, as was its sequel. Name (a) the author in question, (a) the villain’s full moniker (c) the two books that turn your stomach. If you miss this one, I forgive you.
41. They were both legendary fictional detectives; both had obscure brothers, both were extremely good observers, both are credited with a famous utterance, both were extremely meticulous and methodical…and both were – for a short while at least – killed off by their respective authors. Can you name these pairs of brothers?
42. Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, God’s Little Acre…the titles of whose books are we rattling off here?
43. He was called Ivanhoe, but what his full name? And who were the two ladies who were so smitten by the charms of this handsome and gallant knight? Who created these unforgettable characters?
44. In his play The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare saves Antonio’s life by having Portia come up with a brilliant legal loophole that has Shylock on the ropes. What was
44. In his play The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare saves Antonio’s life by having Portia come up with a brilliant legal loophole that has Shylock on the ropes. What was