2018–19 Season: Week 10 – 15 January 2019

Specialist Rounds

Set by the Nags Head; vetted by the Robin Hood.

Round 1: Geography – Back to Basics

1	What's the name of the bridge which, when it opened in 2004, was the highest road bridge in Europe – being 270 metres above the River Tarn in France?
	The Millau Viaduct
2	Which country's highest point is only 2.4 metres above sea level – the lowest of any country in the world?
	The Maldives
3	On which continent are the McMurdo Dry Valleys, which have had no rainfall for nearly two million years and are the driest place on Earth?
	Antarctica
4	According to UN estimates for 2018, which country has the highest population density in the world?
	Monaco
5	Which bridge in the UK was the longest single span suspension bridge in the world, when it opened in 1981? It was not surpassed until 1998, but is now the 8th longest.
	The Humber Bridge
6	Where in England is the world's longest pleasure pier?
	Southend
7	Before being surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931, which was the world's tallest building?
	The Chrysler Building
8	Which is the deepest lake in the world?
	Baikal

Supplementaries:

1	In which country is the Statue of Unity, which was inaugurated in November 2018 and with a height of 182 metres is the world's tallest statue?
	India
2	Name either of the two countries involved in the world's shortest scheduled international flight, which is 14 miles long.
	The flight is between Germany (Friedrichshafen) and Switzerland (St. Gallen)

Round 2: Arts & Entertainment

1	Which Roald Dahl novel told the story of a boy and his pheasant–poaching father?
	Danny, the Champion of the World
2	Which US artist died in a car crash in August 1956, aged 44?
	Jackson Pollock
3	Which comedian started his career as a member of folk group The Humblebums?
	Billy Connolly
4	What is the stage name of the singer–songwriter Rory Graham?
	Rag'n'Bone Man
5	Who wrote the music and lyrics for Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street?
	Steven Sondheim
6	What was the first name of the composer Vivaldi?
	Antonio
7	What is the name of the infamous English art forger, born in 1917, who claimed to have faked more than 2000 paintings by over 100 artists?
	Tom Keating
8	Who was the Poet Laureate between May 1999 and May 2009?
	Andrew Motion

Supplementaries:

1	In which seaside resort would you find the Stephen Joseph Theatre, strongly associated with the plays of Alan Ayckbourn?
	Scarborough
2	Which sculptor was responsible for the lions which surround Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square?
	Sir Edwin Landseer

Round 3: Science & Nature

1	Which common wild flower has the Latin name Ranunculus?
	Buttercup
2	Of what is entomology the study?
	Insects
3	What name is given in mechanics to the pivot, point or support about which a lever turns?
	The fulcrum
4	Jefferson and Warwickshire Drooper are popular UK varieties of which fruit?
	Plum
5	What is the name of the order of insects that includes butterflies and moths?
	Lepidoptera
6	Gossamer is a substance produced by which creatures?
	Spiders
7	How many of the manned Apollo missions successfully landed humans on the moon, and brought them safely back to Earth?
	Six (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17)
8	In the human body, what is secreted from the lacrimal gland?
	Tears

Supplementaries:

1	Which bandwidth of radio broadcasting uses frequencies between 87.5 and 108 MHz?
	FM
2	Which chemist is credited with creating the Periodic Table?
	Dmitri Mendeleev

Round 4: It's A Kind of Magic

1	Which magician's illusions included making the Statue of Liberty disappear and levitating over the Grand Canyon?
	David Copperfield
2	Which magician had a TV series called Magic Box in the 1970s, and was Basil Brush's first partner?
	David Nixon
3	Which term, associated with magic, is believed to originate from Roman times when it was alleged to have medicinal properties?
	Abracadabra
4	Which novelist and screenwriter, who died in 2018, wrote the screenplays for films including Magic and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
	William Goldman
5	Which British blues band originally wrote and recorded Black Magic Woman?
	Fleetwood Mac
6	In the Harry Potter novels, Harry belongs to Gryffindor House at Hogwarts School. Name any of the other three houses.
	Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff
7	Who is the only magician to have won Britain's Got Talent?
	Richard Jones (in 2016)
8	How is illusionist Erik Weisz better known?
	Harry Houdini

Supplementaries:

1	Who, as the fictional talk show host Mrs. Merton, famously asked Debbie McGee "what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels"?
	Caroline Aherne
2	In which decade was the Magic Circle formed?
	1900s (1905)

Round 5: It's My Round

1	Gin and rum are normally produced at 40% to 43% proof. What proof percentage is indicated by 'navy strength'?
	57% (or higher – accept anything over 56%)
2	In which country is the Maipo Valley wine region?
	Chile
3	Which cognac producer is responsible for the super–fine (and super–expensive) brand Paradis (pronounced paradees)?
	Hennessy
4	Other than some form of sweetener, what ingredient can always be found in any form of 'sour' cocktail?
	Lemon or lime juice (accept either)
5	Which gin brand has its distillery at Bottom of the Oven near Wildboarclough?
	Forest
6	In which Italian city is Harry's Bar, where the Bellini cocktail (made from peach purée and Prosecco) was invented?
	Venice
7	From which country do Lech, Okocim and Zywiec beers come?
	Poland
8	Which sparingly–used cocktail ingredient, originally invented in Venezuela, is produced exclusively in Trinidad and Tobago?
	Angostura Bitters

Supplementaries:

1	What was the name of the pub that, until its closure in 2010, occupied the building high up on the road from Macclesfield to Whaley Bridge, with spectacular views over the Cheshire plain?
	The Highwayman
2	Which English Football League team is known as 'the Brewers'?
	Burton Albion

Round 6: The History of the World in Eight Questions (and Two Supplementaries)

1	The Ancient World: Where in the world were the ancient cities of Uruk, Ur and Eridu?
	Sumeria, Mesopotamia, or Iraq (accept any of these)
2	The Greeks: Menelaus was king of which Greek city–state?
	Sparta
3	The Romans: Against which Roman leader did Vercingetorix attempt to unite the Gauls around 52 BC?
	Julius Caesar
4	The Early Middle Ages: Which explorer had travelled almost 15,000 miles when he returned to his home city in 1295?
	Marco Polo
5	The Tudor Era: Who was declared a heretic and excommunicated by Pope Leo the Tenth on the 3rd of January 1521?
	Martin Luther
6	The Early Modern Era: Who served as Chief Secretary for the Admiralty under Charles II and James II, and provided important eye–witness accounts of the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire?
	Samuel Pepys
7	Industrialisation: Who was the consulting engineer for the building of the Bridgewater Canal?
	James Brindley
8	World War: Which campaign resulted in the only major victory during the Great War for the forces of the Ottoman Empire?
	Gallipoli (1915–16)

Supplementaries:

1	Who, in 1962, became the first American to orbit the Earth?
	John Glenn
2	Which voting area produced the highest percentage vote in favour of Remain in the 2016 European Union membership referendum?
	Gibraltar

Round 7: Sport

1	Who are the current holders of the Rugby League Challenge Cup?
	Catalans Dragons
2	Wayne Rooney made his last appearance for England versus the USA in November 2018. How many caps has he been awarded in total?
	120
3	The women's World Twenty20 cricket competition was held in November 2018. Who were the hosts and reigning champions?
	West Indies
4	Serena Williams now holds the record for most grand slams in their career. Whose record did she beat to achieve this?
	Steffi Graf
5	Who won the men's singles title at Wimbledon in 1985, at the age of just 17?
	Boris Becker
6	Lewis Hamilton has won the formula one world title in four of the past five years. Who won it in the other year?
	Nico Rosberg (in 2016)
7	How many points are currently awarded to the winning driver in a Formula 1 race?
	25
8	Boston Red Sox won the 2018 baseball world series. Whom did they defeat in the final?
	LA Dodgers

Supplementaries:

1	In which country will the 2019 Tour de France cycle race begin?
	Belgium
2	How many players make up a full American football team, eleven of which are allowed on the field at any one time?
	45

Round 8: Trains on Film

Each question gives a description of a film that featured a train (or trains). You just need to name the film.

1	1965 film starring Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard, leading prisoners of war escaping on a train.
	Von Ryan's Express
2	2004 animated film for children, with Tom Hanks voicing the Conductor amongst others.
	The Polar Express
3	Filmed at least three times, the first time by Hitchcock in 1938 with Margaret Lockwood searching for Miss Froy.
	The Lady Vanishes
4	Filmed many times, this Agatha Christie classic most recently starred Kenneth Branagh in 2017.
	Murder on the Orient Express
5	The first film in which a young wizard travels to his new school on the Hogwarts Express.
	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
6	A heist movie set on the New York subway, remade at least twice since the 1974 original which starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw.
	The Taking of Pelham 123
7	1963 Bond movie, in which Sean Connery has a final encounter with Robert Shaw on a train.
	From Russia with Love
8	Classic Buster Keaton movie from 1926, set during the American Civil War, in which he steals a train and causes much chaos.
	The General

Supplementaries:

1	2016 film, based on a best–selling novel by Paula Hawkins and starring Emily Blunt.
	The Girl on the Train
2	1953 Ealing comedy about a group of amateurs trying to set up their own preserved railway, starring Stanley Holloway.
	The Titfield Thunderbolt
3	1987 comedy starring Steve Martin and John Candy, trying to get home for Thanksgiving.
	Trains, Planes and Automobiles

General Knowledge

Set by the Robin Hood; vetted by the Nags Head.

1	As of the 1st of January 2019, who is Secretary of State for Health and Social Care?
	Matt Hancock
2	What is the capital of Namibia?
	Windhoek
3	Which author and playwright's best–known work is probably Waiting for Godot?
	Samuel Beckett
4	As of the 1st of January 2019, who is the Shadow Foreign Secretary?
	Emily Thornberry
5	Who wrote Oranges are Not the Only Fruit?
	Jeanette Winterson
6	Who was the US president at the start of the First World War?
	Woodrow Wilson
7	What is the state capital of Arkansas?
	Little Rock
8	How many players are there in a hurling team?
	Fifteen

9	Who was the 40th president of the USA?
	Ronald Reagan
10	Who wrote Mrs Dalloway?
	Virginia Woolf
11	Which film won the Best Film Oscar at the 2018 Oscars?
	The Shape of Water
12	Who won the Best Actress Oscar award at the 2016 Oscar ceremony for her role in the film Room?
	Brie Larson
13	What was the nickname of the enormous aeroplane, the Hughes H–4 Hercules, built by the Hughes Aircraft Corporation from wood and which only ever made one brief flight?
	The Spruce Goose
14	Which British film star began life in Bristol in 1904 as Archibald Alexander Leach?
	Cary Grant
15	Farrokh Bulsara fronted a famous British rock band of the 1970s and 1980s. By what name was he better known?
	Freddie Mercury
16	Who assassinated Abraham Lincoln?
	John Wilkes Booth

17	Hedera is the scientific name for which common climbing plant?
	Ivy
18	What are 'death caps' and 'destroying angels'?
	Poisonous mushrooms (accept toadstools)
19	Which wall ran from the River Forth in the east to the River Clyde in the west?
	The Antonine Wall
20	As of the 1st of January 2019, who is the manager of Chelsea Football Club?
	Maurizio Sarri
21	Who is the England cricket captain for the limited overs version of the game?
	Eoin Morgan
22	Which English scientist, who lived from 1642 to 1726, invented the reflecting telescope?
	Isaac Newton
23	Which Italian scientist, who lived from 1745 to 1827, is credited with the invention of the battery?
	Alessandro Volta
24	Who was the manager of Liverpool Football Club, immediately before Jurgen Klopp?
	Brendan Rodgers

25	As of the 1st of January 2019, who is the leader of the UK Independence Party?
	Gerard Batten
26	Why can calcium sulphate be used to mend a broken bone?
	It's plaster of Paris (used to make plaster casts to support broken limbs)
27	In what year was the Act of Union, which united the parliaments of England and Scotland, implemented?
	1707
28	Which English rock and blues musician earned the nickname 'Slowhand'?
	Eric Clapton
29	On which Shakespeare play is the musical Kiss me Kate based?
	The Taming of the Shrew
30	In which organ of the body are beta cells found?
	The pancreas
31	In which Puccini opera does Mimi appear?
	La Bohème
32	Venetian blinds originated in which country?
	Japan

33	Bright's disease affects which organ of the human body?
	The kidneys
34	Which great soprano earned the name 'La Divina'?
	Maria Callas
35	Which charitable institution was founded in 1824 by Sir William Hillary?
	The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (accept RNLI)
36	How many lifeboats were donated to the RNLI from appeals by the the children's TV programme Blue Peter?
	28 (accept 24–31)
37	Name one of the two presenters of the 2019 Royal Institution Christmas lectures.
	Professor Alice Roberts or Professor Aoife McLysaght
38	Which naturalist and TV presenter was awarded a CBE in the 2019 New Year's Honours?
	Chris Packham
39	How was the England football manager, Gareth Southgate, honoured in the 2019 New Year's Honours?
	He was awarded an OBE
40	What is the first name of Captain Hastings, the companion of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, who appears in nine of her novels?
	Arthur

41	Which country has more tornadoes per square kilometre than any other?
	Great Britain
43	What kind of poem has only 17 syllables?
	A haiku
44	'Ankle–biter', 'pen–pusher' and 'postman–chaser' are examples of what kind of figurative expression, usually used in poetry?
	Kennings
45	For which film, released in 1951, did Humphrey Bogart win his only Oscar?
	The African Queen
46	What was the family name of the Liverpool couple who, in 1983, had the UK's first surviving sextuplet daughters?
	Walton (Janet and Graham)
47	Another Walton family lived on Walton's Mountain in the TV series The Waltons. How many children did the family have in the first series?
	7 (John–Boy, Jim–Bob, Ben, Jason, Mary–Ellen, Elizabeth and Erin)
48	Whose autobiography, published in 2018, was entitled Becoming?
	Michelle Obama

49	The bilingual signs in Helsinki are in Finnish and which other language?
	Swedish
50	The bilingual signs in Strasbourg are in French and which other language?
	The Alsatian dialect of German (accept Alsacien or German)
51	In a 1980 film, which actor played the part of a man in 19th century London who was severely deformed by Proteus syndrome?
	John Hurt (the film was The Elephant Man)
52	New Caledonia is a dependent overseas territory of which country?
	France
53	How many moons does the planet Venus have?
	None
54	What Italian word for 'scratched drawing' can be found on walls all over the world?
	Graffiti
56	What musical features the songs Some Enchanted Evening and There Is Nothing Like A Dame?
	South Pacific

57	What was the name of the manned mission that in 1969 became the first to land on the Moon?
	Apollo 11
58	Which boxer was nicknamed 'the Dark Destroyer'?
	Nigel Benn
59	What was the name of Ritchie Valens's girlfriend (immortalised in his only UK No. 1 hit)?
	Donna
60	In which procedure is an anaesthetic injected close to the spinal cord?
	Epidural
61	Who had his first UK Top Ten hit with Wichita Lineman?
	Glenn Campbell
62	The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the USA, presented by which country?
	France
63	How is the alligator pear more commonly known?
	Avocado
64	In which year did the pound note cease to be legal tender?
	1983

65	At 2,277 feet, Mount Botrange is the highest point of which European country?
	Belgium
66	The record for the fastest tennis serve by a woman currently stands at 127.4 miles per hour. Who holds that record?
	Venus Williams
67	In which American state are the Everglades?
	Florida
68	Riga is the capital of which European country?
	Latvia
69	In a Lonely Hearts advert, what do the initials 'ANI' signify?
	Age Not Important
70	Which mountain was known as Peak XV (Fifteen) until 1865?
	Mount Everest
71	Which perfume house launched the perfume named Joy in 1930?
	Jean Patou
72	Which planet was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel?
	Uranus

73	What was the Titanic's first port of call, after it left Southampton?
	Cherbourg
74	What sort of puzzle originated as an education device to teach geography?
	The jigsaw puzzle
75	In which TV show was Lennard Pearce replaced by Buster Merryfield?
	Only Fools and Horses
76	The Angel Falls, the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, is in which country?
	Venezuela
77	What is the alternative name for the belladonna plant?
	Deadly nightshade
78	How are Conquest, War, Famine and Death collectively known?
	The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
79	Which legendary chief of the Onondaga tribe of native Americans was the subject of a famous poem by Henry Longfellow?
	Hiawatha
80	Which famous sportsman was presented with a gold medal during the 1996 Olympics, to replace the one he threw away in the 1960s?
	Muhammad Ali

81	Which Mediterranean island was sold to France in 1768, after being under Genoese control from the 14th century?
	Corsica
82	On what date in July do the French celebrate Bastille Day?
	14th
83	According to tradition, Mount Nebo in Jordan contains the tomb of which Biblical leader?
	Moses
84	In cookery, 'florentine' means served with which vegetable?
	Spinach
85	Whom did Timothy Laurence marry in 1989?
	Princess Anne
86	Name the American astronaut who, in 1984, became the first man to make an untethered spacewalk.
	Bruce McCandless
87	Which inlet of the Firth of Clyde was the site of a US Polaris nuclear submarine base from 1961 until 1992?
	Holy Loch
88	What type of Australian eucalyptus tree is mentioned in the song Waltzing Matilda?
	Coolibah

89	Walker Smith was the real name of which famous world welter and middleweight boxing champion of the 1940s and 1950s?
	Sugar Ray Robinson
90	Which feminist, a constant companion of Jean–Paul Sartre, wrote The Second Sex?
	Simone de Beauvoir
91	Born in Scotland, who was Canada's first Prime Minister?
	John Alexander MacDonald
92	Which French author wrote Around the World in Eighty Days and Journey to the Centre of the Earth?
	Jules Verne
93	Which Italian city lies at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, opposite ancient Pompeii?
	Naples
94	Which port did Abuja replace as the capital of Nigeria?
	Lagos
95	Which unit of length is equal to the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun?
	The astronomical unit
96	Name one of the locations of murders in Agatha Christie's ABC Murders.
	Andover, Bexhill, Churston or Doncaster

Supplementaries:

1	For which 1994 film did Robert Zemeckis win an Oscar for Best Director?
	Forrest Gump
2	Who was the only US president to serve two non–consecutive terms?
	Grover Cleveland
3	In which European country does most of the population write in Bokmal script?
	Norway
4	For what novel, which was later filmed, did Alice Walker win a Pulitzer Prize in 1983?
	The Color Purple
5	Who was US president at the time of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation?
	Dwight D. Eisenhower (2 June 1953)
6	How many cards are there in the original version of the board game Cluedo?
	21 (6 suspects, 6 weapons and 9 rooms)
7	To whom is the famous quote "Be the change that you wish to see in the world" attributed?
	Mahatma Gandhi
8	Who is the current Wimbledon women's singles champion?
	Angelique Kerber
9	Romansch is the fourth national language of which European nation?
	Switzerland
10	In 2005, Cate Blanchett became the first person to win an Academy Award for portraying another Academy Award winner, when she won Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Aviator. Which four–time winner of the Best Actress Oscar did she play?
	Katharine Hepburn

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2019