General Knowledge Quiz # 27

IISc Quiz Club

Q 1.

“His reign for eight-and-twenty years was one of the brightest interludes in the troubled history of mankind…Such was ---------, greatest of kings. He was far in advance of his age.”

- A Short History of the World (1922)

“Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of ------shines, and shines, almost alone, a star.”

– The Outline of History(1919)

Who was H.G.Wells referring to in his two immensely popular books ?

Ashoka the Great – ‘alone among conquerors to renounce the war at the height of his conquests’.

Maurya Empire at the age of Ashoka the Great. The empire stretched from Iran to Bangladesh/Assam and from Central Asia (Afganistan) to Tamil Nadu.

Q 2. What is Galacidal acidesoxy ribonucleicacid ?

It is a Painting by Salvador Dali, inspired from the discovery of the helix-shaped DNA by Watson and Crick

It is one of a series of large canvases Dali created in 1963 now displayed at Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. The name of the painting is taken from that of his wife (Gala), himself, and DNA; Galacid, dalacid, desoxyribonucleicacidJuxtaposed against this Sistine Chapel tableau are turbaned riflemen arranged in geometric squares each holding a gun to another's head, and a representation of the DNA double-helix molecule. The painting is essentially a tribute to lives lost in the Barcelona flood (a flashflood that killed 450 people).

Q 3.

When Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, The Hindu didn’t front page the news. Why?

Front page in those days were reserved for Adv

• Though born to a wealthy Jewish family in Poland on 1908, World War I induced poverty deprived him of any formal school education.

• In early 1939, his works in neutron emission during fission process earned him an offer of collaboration from Prof. James Chadwick in England, but he traveled alone as he could not afford to support his wife there. By the time he saved enough, WWII broke out and his wife was trapped in Poland and all his desperate efforts couldn’t save her from the Holocaust.

• Despite having strong reservations against atomic bombs he went with Chadwick's group to work on the Manhattan Project, because he thought the only way to prevent Nazi Germany from using a nuclear bomb was Allies to have one to act as a deterrent.

• When it was apparent that Germany had abandoned the development of its own bomb he left the project becoming the only physicist to leave the Manhattan Project on the grounds of conscience.

• His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty.

• A signatory of the Russell-Einstein manifesto, he was secretary general of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from its founding until 1973.

• In conjunction with the Pugwash Conferences, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts towards nuclear disarmament.

Q 4. Identify the Physicist turned Nuclear Disarmament advocate

Sir Joseph Rotblat (1908 - 2005)

Q 5.

According to a story in Kaushitaki Brahmana, also called Śāṅkhāyana Brahmana (Brahmanas are commentaries on the Vedas), Kavasa Ailusa, a Rigvedic seer, was prohibited from doing a vedic sacrifice as he was the son of a maid (dasyah putra) and was banished to a sandy desert with the idea that he might die of thirst there.

What happened next or which famous religious belief is connectedwith this story?

He chanted a hymn and River Saraswati came rushing to him.

Q 6.

Next to Prophet Mohammed’ tomb within the Mosque of the Prophet (Al-Masjid al-Nabawi) in Medina, there is another empty tomb that Muslims believe awaits another famous “Prophet”. Name him.

Jesus.

Islam rejects historians’ assertions that Jesus was crucified by the Romans, instead claiming that he had been raised alive up to heaven. Islamic traditions narrate that he will return to earth near the day of judgement to restore justice and defeat al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl ("the false Messiah", also known as the Antichrist) and the enemies of Islam. As a just ruler, Jesus will then die.

Q 7. Trichophobia is fear of ?

Clue: Who is afraid of Quiz Master… Not a trichophobic, for sure

An exaggerated or irrational fear of hair.

Q 8.

She was found on the streets and was chosen as she had already learned to endure conditions of extreme cold and hunger. She wascalled by different names such as; Little Curly, Little Bug, Little Lemon and finally "Howler". A magazine described her temperament as phlegmatic, saying that she did not quarrel with others.She died on November 3, 1957 and a monument for her was unveiled on April 11, 2008.

Who was she?

Laika ( a breed of dog, literally meaning "Barker" or "Howler") was a Soviet space dog, who became the first living mammal to orbit the Earth and the first orbital casualty. Laika, a stray, originally named Kudryavka (Russian: а Little Curly-Haired One), underwent training with two other dogs, and was eventually chosen as the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft

Mini Connect 1

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A1 Famous War horses

Marengo was the war mount of Napoleon Bonaparte. Named after the Battle of Marengo, through which he carried his rider safely, Marengo was wounded eight times in his career, and carried the Emperor in the Battle of Austerlitz, Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Battle of Wagram, and Battle of Waterloo. The horse was captured by the British after the Battle of Waterloo and proudly displayed in England. After the horse's death its skeleton was put on display in the National Army Museum.The famous dish Chicken Marengo is named after the town. According to legend, Napoleon's chef created the dish from the few ingredients he could find after the battle, using a sabre instead of a cooking knife. Napoleon so loved this dish that it became a tradition for him to be served it after each victory.

Marengo, Copenhagen, Bucephalus and Chetak

Copenhagen, named in honour of the Copenhagen siege, carried the Duke of Wellingtonin the famous Battle of Waterloo.

When Arthur Wellesley became Prime Minister of Britain in 1828 he rode Copenhagen up Downing Street to No.10 to take up his new position of leadership

Bucephalus or Buchephalas( meaning "ox-head") was Alexander the Great's horse. Bucephalus died after the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC, in what is now modern Pakistan, and is buried in JalalpurSharif outside of Jhelum, Pakistan. Alexander founded a city Bucephalia (Alexandria Bucephalous, or Alexandria Bucephalus or Alexandria Bucephala or Bucephala) in memory of his beloved horse.

Chetak, was the horse of Rana Pratap, whom Pratap rode during the gruesome Battle of Haldighati in June 21, 1576.

Chetak died in this battle and since then has been immortalized in the ballads of Rajasthan.

Q9.

In 1909 a famous author and humorist predicted his own death thus,

“I came in with X in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with X. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' “

And he died of heart attack the very next year. Name him?

Mark Twain, died on April 21, 1910, one day after the Halley's Comet’s closest approach to Earth.

Q 10.

Baluswamy Dikshitar (1786-1858) is better known as the younger brother of Muthuswami Dikshitar, one of the Carnatic musical trinity. But he had made an important contribution to CarnaticMusic. What was that?

Baluswami Dikshitar is believed to be the pioneer who introduced violin to Carnatic Music, an instrument now an integral part of almost any carnatic ensemble .

A visiting European violinist taught Baluswami Dikshitar to play the violin (1806-1814). Later on, he adapted his violin playing technique to suit Carnatic music.

Muthuswami Dikshitar composed "nottuswarams" in Shankarabharanam raga to practice with.

Turkic and Mongolian horsemen from Inner Asia were probably the world’s earliest fiddlers.

The violin in its present form emerged in early 16th-Century Northern Italy.

Q 11. The first world cup in this genre of team sport happened in 1973 and the man behind the idea was Sir Jack Hayward, who paid £40,000 of the costs.

Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, England, Young England and an International team took part in the inaugural event.

Hayward, known as Union Jack because of his passion for all things English, was asked somewhat scathingly why he would want to pourso much money into what was seen as a commercially unattractive game. And he replied thus

"It's quite simple, I love --------, and I love -------- and what could be better than to have the two rolled together?“

Which this team sport?

Cricket.

Women’s World Cup started in 1973 two years before the Men’s World Cup (1975).

Hayward’s replay was - "I love women, and I love cricket "

Q12.

This Swiss born architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, adopted an altered form of his maternal grandfather's name as a pseudonym to reflect his belief that anyone could reinvent himself. He conceptualized Radiant City, where housing would be assigned according to family size rather than economic position. Four years after the inauguration of Empire State Building he was quoted assaying “American skyscrapers are much too small”.

What is his famous pseudonym?

Le Corbusier

Q 13.

In Shakespeare's play Hamlet Prince Hamlet stages a play, “The Murder of Gonzago”, to reveal the guilt of his step father, Claudius. But when Claudius inquires about the name of the play whose prologue and first scene he has just observed, Hamlet gives a different name, since "the play's the thing" in which he intends to "catch the conscience of the king."

That name (Hamlet’s answer) was later adopted as the title of a famous 20th Century play.

What was the name given by Hamlet to Claudius’s inquiry?

The Mouse-trap.

The title of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, world’s longest running play, is taken from Hamlet.

Q14. Whose real/middle name means “Shaker of trees” or more colloquially, "troublemaker"?

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Rolihlahla Mandela was the first member of his family to attend a school, where his teacher Miss Mdingane gave him the English name "Nelson".

Q15. What are these ?

Four of the most important domesticated silk worms, together with their adult moth forms from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (1885-1892)

Q16.

Who was reported to have said the following lines to a query from his well wisher, “Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease” ?

“In the world, there are 50 million children who start playing tennis each year, 1 million of them really learn to play tennis.Half a million manage to learn professional tennis. 50,000 come to the circuit, 5,000 reach the grand slam. 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 reach the final round, 2 reach the finals, and only one wins the championship. When I was holding the cup, I never asked, ‘God, why me?’ and today in pain, how could I ask him, ‘why me?’”

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (1943 – 1993).

Ashe remains the only African American player ever to win the men's singles at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open.

Mini Connect 2

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Painting by Abanindranath Tagore

A2

Nargis was born Fatima Rashid, the daughter of the Allahabad-based Muslim singer, Jaddanbai and a Hindu Mohyal father of Rawalpindi, named Uttamchand Mohanchand.

Nargis in arabic means : Narcissus; flower.

She won the inaugural National Film Award for Best Actress (Rajat Kamal/ Silver Lotus) for the film Raat Aur Din (1967) in 1968.

Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration

Bharat Mata (Mother India) is an epic painting by celebrated Indian painter, Abanindranath Tagore.

Reverse Round

Q17. This photo ran in the May 12, 1947 edition of LIFE Magazine. What happened here or how is this picture famous?

“The most beautiful suicide”

On May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck (86th floor) of the Empire State Building, then the tallest Skyscraper in the world. She had landed supine on a parked (and vacant) limousine and came to rest in an attitude that suggested peaceful sleep. Photographer Robert Wiles took a photoof McHale's oddly intact corpse a few minutes after her death.

The impact stove in the metal roof and shattered the car's windows. The driver was in a near-by drug store, thereby escaping death or serious injury.

Q18. What does this table indicate ?

1/9 -

132/202 55/105

9/32 13/38

49/73 43/69

46/115 54/100

India’s World rankings in Major Team Sports

Men WomenCricket 1/9 -

Football 132/202 55/105

Hockey 9/32 13/38

Basket Ball 49/73 43/69

Volley Ball 46/115 54/100

Q19. Known as Longwood House whose last residence is this?

Longwood House was the residence of Napoleon Bonaparteduring his exile on the island of Saint Helena, from 10 December1815 until his death on 5 May 1821.

In 1858 it was transferred to the French Government along with the Valley of the Tomb for a sum of £7,100

Q20.

In 1899, an American actor, William Gillette wrote a play calledSherlock Holmes, which ended showing Holmes marriage to Miss Alice Faulkner. Then its claim to fame was that it was approved by Conan Doyle, who watched it in London in 1901, who was "charmed with the play, the acting and the PECUNIARY result".

In the play role of Holme's Page, Billy, was played by a young orphan, who later made a name for himself in the world of Cinema. Who was that boy?

Master Charles Chaplin

Q21.

Though better known as a writer, X had done some pioneering works in other fields also. His contribution to natural science is a book titled Metamorphosis of Plants (1790). In 1810, he published a book titled Theory of Colours, which contained some of the earliest published descriptions of phenomena such as coloured shadows, refraction, and chromatic aberration.

Identify X

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Q22.

This small archipelago island nation is the only state to be a member of all of the following: African Union, Francophonie, Organisation of the Islamic Conference and Arab League (of whichit is the southernmost member state). However, it had a troubledhistory since independence in 1975, and experienced more than 20coups or attempted coups.Which is this country?

Union of the Comoros

Q23.

James A. Garfield

* a book published in 1940 contained 370 proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem, including one by him

* 2nd president shot while in office

* Alexander Graham Bell's metal detector was used to locate the bullet

Q24. Identify this athlete

• Born in Calcutta to English parents settled in India.

• First Indian athlete to participate in the Olympic Games.

• First athlete representing an Asian nation to win an Olympic medal. He won two silver medals in 200m and 200 meters hurdles at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris.

• He later moved to the United States went on to star in Hollywood (silent) movies and Broadway shows

Norman Gilbert Pritchard

Screen name was Norman Trevor

IOC credits his medal to India, while IAAF credits it to Great Britain.

Mini Connect 3

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Fastest in the world

Fastest dog - Greyhound - 43 miles per hour (69 kph)Fastest reptile - Spiny-tailed Iguana - 21 miles per hour (34 kph)Fastest insect is the Hawk moth - 33 miles per hour (53 kph)Fastest animal in water is the Sailfish - 70 miles per hour (113 kph)Fastest flightless bird is the Ostrich - 43 miles per hour (69 kph)Fastest flying bird is the Swift - 106 miles per hour (171 kph)

Fastest animal on land is the Cheetah - 70 miles per hour (113 kph)

Q 25.

What does the following word represent?

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateahaumaitawhitiurehaeaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu

It is the Māori name for a hill, 305m high, in southern Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. With 105 letters, it is the longest single word place-name found in any country. It translates roughly as “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one.”

Q26. This tomb is located in Arnos Vale Cemetery in southern Bristol, England. Which famous Indian socio-religious reformer was buried here?

Raja Ram Mohun Roy (1774 - 1833) .

In 1845, Rammohun's mortal remains were removed and returned to India by Dwarkanath Tagore and his relics were cremated near Kolkata in 1846 by his family.

Q 27. Whose real name is Kakarla Tyaga Brahmam

Sri Tyagaraja

Q 28 . In 1535, Henry VIII, King of England, taxed -------, in spite of having it himself.

His daughter, Elizabeth I, continued his father’s policy probably seeing it as a handy way of raising extra revenue. The tax imposed by Elizabeth I varied according to age and status.

In 1705 Tsar Peter I of Russia issued a decree in 1705 which prohibited ------- for everybody except a member of the Orthodox clergy unless a tax was paid. And those who paid the tax were forced to carry a sign with them which stated that “------ are ridiculous”.

Which is this taxed item?

Beard

Q 29. This small British adminstrated peninsula in Europe is home to Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus), the only primates other than humans that live freely in Europe.

A popular belief holds that as long as Barbary Macaques exist onthis peninsula, the territory will remain under British rule. During World War II when the population dwindled to just seven monkeys, British PM Churchill ordered that their numbers be replenished immediately from forest fragments in both Morocco and Algeria because of this traditional belief.

Which is this Peninsula?

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean, overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar.

The macaque population was under the care of the British Army from 1915 to 1991. An officer was appointed to supervise their welfare, and a food allowance of fruit, vegetables and nuts was included in the budget. Births were gazetted in true military fashion, and each new arrival was named. They were named after governors, brigadiers and high ranking officers. Any ill or injured monkey was taken to Royal Naval Hospital and received the same treatment as would an enlisted service man.

Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (December 4, 1882 – March 16, 1942) was a Russian science writer and author of many popular science books, including Physics for Entertainment, Mathematics Can Be Fun, Astronomy for entertainment, Lively Mathematics, Physics Everywhere, etc. His works were noted for their simplicity and wit, while explaining complicated scientific concepts to laymen and children.

Famous Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman (famous for his work leading to the proof for Poincaré conjecture and more famous for declining the Fields Medal in 2006), told The New Yorker that his father gave him Physics for Entertainment, and it inspired his interest in mathematics.

How did Yakov Perelman die?

Q30.

Perelman died from starvation in 1942, during the German Siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).

The siege started at 9 September 1941 and lasted 872 days, till 27 January 1944. The Siege of Leningrad was one of the longest and most destructive sieges of major cities in modern history and it is one of the costliest in terms of casualties (1,117,000).

Battle of Stalingrad - 1,798,619Battle of Berlin - 1,298,745

Q 31. This legendary doyenne of Bengali literature was born in a traditional and extremely conservative family, where girls were not allowed to go to school. She learned the alphabet by listening to the readings of her brothers, who read lessons aloud.

At the age of 13, she sent a poem, titled The Call from the Outside, to a children’s magazine, which was accepted with a request from the editor to send more poems and stories.

This marked the beginning of the odyssey of one of the most prolific creative geniuses of Bengali literature to whose credit go 242 novels and novelettes, 37 collection of short stories, 62 books for children. The total number of short stories runs into over 3000.

Her magnum opus is a trilogy, that symbolizes an endless struggle for women to achieve equal rights.

Name this prominent Bengali novelist and poet ?

Ashapurna Debi / Ashapoorna Devi

First published poem - “Bairer Dak”(The Call from the Outside)

Trilogy – Pratham Pratisruti (1964)Subarnalata (1967) Bakul Katha (1974)

Q 33. Connect

6.02214179 × 1023

1.3806504 × 10−23

6.62606896×10−34

Not an exhaustive list.

Scientific constants named after people

6.02214179 × 1023 mol−1Avogadro's number - Amedeo Avogadro

1.3806504 × 10−23 J/KBoltzmann constant- Ludwig Boltzmann.

6.62606896×10−34 J·sPlanck's constant - Max Planck

Grand Connect

Exhaustive list.

Clues in chronological order.

One guess per clue

No negative points

40

35

30

25

Amur/Siberian Tiger

20

Catalan Sheepdog

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Animal Mascots of the Summer Olympic Games

Waldi - 1972

Misha - 1980Amik - 1976

Sam - 1984

Cobi - 1992

Sydney - 2000

Beijing - 2008

Hodori - 1988

Thank You