General Knowledge Quiz 197

Questions

1. A stimpmeter measures the speed of a ball over what surface?

   1. Golf putting green
   2. Football (soccer) pitch
   3. Cricket outfield
   4. Pinball table

2. Which long-standing cartoon characters made their debut in 'Puss Gets The Boot' in February 1940, called originally Jasper and Jinx?

3. The 'cardinal points' are the four main points on what?

4. Which US president in office 1945-53, is said to have coined the phrase 'If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen' ?

5. Strangely derived from Latin meaning ship, relating to maritime/direction, what is the central area of a church called?

6. Which is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas?

7. Anosmia is the lack of which of the senses in humans?

8. The initials of French company LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods business, stand for what three famous brands?

9. Alberto Grando, who died in 2011 aged 88, was whose motorcycle companion in the 1950s?

10. The poems (English titles) The Prisoner of the Caucasus (1821), The Bronze Horseman (1833) and the play Boris Godunov (published 1831) were written by which Russian writer?

    1. Nabokov
    2. Dostoyevsky
    3. Pushkin
    4. Solzhenitsyn

11. Eutrophication is the addition of natural or artificial nutrients to what, causing plant growth?

12. The Japanese musical instrument the shamisen (or samisen or sangen) has traditionally how many strings (the answer, in Japanese and the earlier Chinese, is in the name)?

    1. One
    2. Three
    3. Twelve
    4. Twenty-four

13. The Scoville Scale is used to measure the heat of what?

14. Name the excessively cheerful optimistic heroine created by American author Eleanor H Porter in the famous 1913 eponymously titled book, and subsequent series, which became a term for someone of such attitude?

15. Following a violent 'domestic incident', which European country did Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi want to abolish in 2009?

16. What is Uganda's staple crop, of which each adult consumes over three-times bodyweight annually?

17. The liqueur sambuca originates from which European country?

18. What 1986 disaster caused pollution across Europe by the radioactive isotope caesium-137, which at least 25 years later still required livestock to be scanned on some UK upland farms?

19. The Hallé Orchestra, named after its Anglo-German founder (born Karl Halle) is based in which city?

20. The Tinikling, a dance using bamboo poles, is the (or a) main national dance of which 7,000-island nation?

21. Which Jewish holiday is also known as the Day of Atonement?

22. In which European city are the headquarters of the European Central Bank?

23. Mattel Inc closed its vast flagship retail store for what iconic product/brand in Shanghai, China, two years after its launch in 2009?

24. Which British crime writer helped clean and preserve thousands of 3,000 year-old carved ivory pieces, found in the Assyrian capital of Nimrud, 1949-63, in excavations led by her then husband Sir Max Mallowen?

25. Which online music service announced in March 2011 achieving one million paying subscribers across Europe, of a total exceeding 10 million users?

26. What former president of a European country was charged in 2011 with misusing public funds while mayor of his country's capital city?

27. 100 degrees Celsius is how many degrees Fahrenheit?

28. Which two significant European rivers formed most of the northern inland frontier of the Roman Empire?

29. Which hollywood sex symbol, star of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, died in 2011, aged 89?

30. The mummified ancient man, thought killed by an arrow 5,300 years ago, is known as '(who?).. the Iceman' ?