General Knowledge Quiz 401

Questions

1. What is the fastest animal alive?

   1. Peregrine falcon (duck hawk, US)
   2. Cheetah
   3. Sailfish
   4. Dragonfly

2. The organic chemical compound C12H22O11 is better known as what additive?

3. Put these (Sigmund Freud's) childhood-teenage stages of psychosexual development in order, earliest first: Phallic, Anal, Oral, Genital, Latency?

4. At what angle do light and other waves not refract (change direction) when passing through one medium to another?

   1. 30°
   2. 45°
   3. 60°
   4. 90°

5. Abbreviated to DA, what is the catecholamine ('fight-or-flight') hormone secreted by the adrenal glands along with adrenaline and noradrenaline?

6. A variation on the Peter Principle, "The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management.." is a humorous law named after which fictional character?

7. For what ethnic group are Misnah and Gemara the two main parts of Talmud law?

   1. Muslims
   2. Jews
   3. Hindus
   4. Sioux

8. The US military special operations SEALs force is an acronym derived from what three basic words?

9. Abbrieviated to PIE, what is the ancient Eurasian reconstructed language and origin of wide-ranging modern languages including English, Spanish, Russian, Greek, Urdu and Farsi?

10. Sinhalese (or Singhalese) is the language and people originating in north India now largely populating which country?

11. A limited company (e.g., in the UK 'Ltd', US 'LLC', Germany 'GmbH') has limited what?

    1. Services
    2. Liabilities
    3. Imports/Exports
    4. Trading history

12. In pathology what is the common term for a displacement and protrusion of part of an organ through its cavity wall?

13. The word harem, referring to a women's part of a dwelling, and especially to its female occupants, originated in which ethnic people?

    1. Chinese
    2. Greek
    3. Roman
    4. Muslim

14. Popular in the 16-18th centuries, what musical instrument is shaped like a grand piano, with plucked strings running perpendicular to the keyboard?

15. What mathematical term, from Latin meaning break, has the common prefixes: decimal, vulgar, proper and improper?

16. Light travels at its fastest in what medium?

    1. Vacuum
    2. Salt-water
    3. Air at 0°C
    4. Drizzle

17. Hemostasis/haemostasis is what in relation to bloodflow?

    1. Poisoning
    2. Bleeding
    3. Stoppage
    4. Scabbing

18. From the Greek words for empty tomb, what sort of monument exists in many cities to commemorate lives lost, especially in the 1st and 2nd World Wars?

19. Teutonic/Teutons refers mostly and typically to what ancient race of people?

    1. Roman
    2. Viking
    3. Germanic
    4. Arab

20. A demagogue is a?

    1. Church for animals
    2. Leader of a mob
    3. Large bottle
    4. Lifestyle analysis

21. What small Scottish border town is famously associated with marriages of English runaway couples?

22. The nautical term fo'c'sle (pronounced foxel) is a common shortening of what word referring to the forward part of a ship where sailors live?

23. The Latin word levare and French lever meaning raise evolved into what English word for a collection of tax?

24. What mainly microscopic life-form takes its name from the Greek word plagktos, meaning wandering?

25. Said to originate from the French expression 'tap under chin' what word refers to a nickname or assumed name (of person, or place, etc)?

26. In maths (also meaning womb, and a popular movie series) what is a rectangular series of quantities in rows and columns?

27. Spell?

    1. Pennisilin
    2. Penecilin
    3. Penicillin
    4. Pennecilin

28. What is the traditional primary ingredient of coleslaw (also slaw in the US)?

29. What two letters are on the pilots' caps in TV's Thunderbirds?

30. What is the source Italian expression of the motor vehicle abbreviation GT?