General Knowledge Quiz 405

Questions

1. Human depression illness is sometimes called?

   1. Black Dog
   2. Dark Horse
   3. Cold Turkey
   4. Fat Pig

2. What portmanteau term refers popularly in recent times to holidaying in a luxurious tent or similar outdoors construction?

3. What Spanish/Portuguese word, loosely meaning join, refers to a political faction which typically rules after a revolutionary takeover?

4. What notable vastly wealthy Budapest-born financier announced his retirement from managing external investment funds in 2011?

5. The genocide of Tutsi people by Hutu militia in 1994 was in which country?

6. Alluding to American Wild West legend, what reptile-derived medicine refers to a salesman or promoter of dubious ideas?

7. What is the common term for the practice of freezing a human body in hope of a cure being developed enabling thawing and revival?

8. Shiva is a traditional period of mourning in which religious faith?

9. In the 'fixed-doh' (or 'fixed do solfège') musical system (as in 'do re mi fa so la ti') , what note is re or ray?

10. What Buddhist term and title of reverence (typically for a spiritual leader) derives from the Sanskrit words for 'great soul'?

11. Name the German tribe which settled in Britain during the 5-6th centuries, whose name persists in a region of Denmark?

12. A schism normally refers to a split within what sort of institution?

    1. Marriage
    2. Church
    3. Government
    4. Business

13. The stone, flint, is a form of what near-to-pure compound, formula SiO2?

14. A cruciferous plant has how many petals?

15. What metallic element element is named after an asteroid discovered in 1802, itself named after (an alternate name of) the Greek goddess Athene?

16. The 'Lungs of London' popularly refer to the city's what?

    1. Houses of Parliament
    2. Tube train network
    3. Parks
    4. Church choirs

17. What colour/color (a bright strong green), and also a diamond pattern, takes its name from a famous clown?

18. Which two similar six-letter words both refer to sorcery, each containing the same double vowel pairings, differing only in their two consonants?

19. Spell the word (being the Irish prime minister's Irish title) Taieseich; Taoiseach; Taosiach; or Taesoech?

20. In 2011 what did International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge cite as the biggest threat to sport alongside doping?

    1. Social networking websites
    2. Computer games
    3. Climate change
    4. Illegal gambling

21. What French IT company is engaged (as at 2011) by the UK government in the controversial assessment of work capability of incapacity benefit claimants?

    1. Etas
    2. Otis
    3. Itus
    4. Atos

22. What is the compound, NH4NO3, commonly used in fertilizers and improvised bombs?

23. Regicide refers to killing a?

    1. King
    2. Military officer
    3. Public servant
    4. Commoner

24. What originally Venetian word refers to a meeting of boats or yacht races?

25. Gramophone records are made of, and sometimes called, what popular name for the polymer material in question?

26. What is a word which has more than one distinctly different meaning (and the same spelling)?

    1. Acronym
    2. Palindrome
    3. Anagram
    4. Homonym

27. Formed after national revolution in 1917 the NKVD was the public and also ruthless secret police of which country until 1946?

28. The failed Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s preceded eventual independence from British colonial rule of what nation in 1963?

29. First Direct is a bank owned by which financial services corporation (at 2011)?

    1. Santander
    2. HSBC
    3. Wells Fargo
    4. Credit Suisse

30. Which former US presidential First Lady founded a famous drug rehabilitation clinic?

31. What is the second highest (pitch) note on a conventionally tuned violin or mandolin?