General Knowledge Quiz 419

Questions

1. Ameliorate means to make something that was bad, what?

   1. Better
   2. Worse
   3. Irrelevant
   4. Disappear

2. A gilet (pronounced loosely 'jee-lay' - it's French) is a jacket or blouse without?

   1. Buttons
   2. Sleeves
   3. Pockets
   4. Stitching

3. The Russian word 'naled' (in German, 'aufeis') refers to naturally occurring thicker-than-normal layers of what?

4. Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84), who produced the first great English dictionary, famously wrote in 1777: When a man is tired of (where?), he is tired of life...'?

5. Serial, Oxford, and Harvard, all refer to one particular use of what punctuation mark?

6. Triffis, Rudy (or Rudolph), Porpoise, Cody, and Corkscrew are moves in what sport?

7. What is the largest combined weight of any animal species on Earth?

   1. Sheep
   2. Cows
   3. Cats
   4. Dogs
   5. Elephants
   6. Humans
   7. Krill

8. A diaspora is a dispersion of?

   1. Droplets
   2. People
   3. Sunlight
   4. Particles
   5. Stolen property

9. At the end of 2012, how many cities have hosted the modern Olympic Games three times?

10. Spell the word?

    1. Plagiarize
    2. Plaigerize
    3. Plaguerize
    4. Plagarize
    5. Plagorize

11. UK 1980s prime minister Margaret Thatcher's nickname was the '(What?) Lady'?

12. What is the Irish handheld single-sided round drum, often played with a double-ended beater?

13. IBM's innovative 'Selectric' typewriter of the 1960s-80s was popularly called a?

    1. Snowball
    2. Fastball
    3. Curveball
    4. Golfball

14. An eiderdown (a sort of quilted bed cover) was originally filled with what?

15. What is the currency of Pakistan?

16. Helle Thorning-Schmidt became prime minister of what country in October 2011?

17. Which two cities each hosted a John Lennon/Yoko Ono week-long hotel 'bed-in' peace protest in 1969?

18. What is Alexander Pope's (1688-1744) famous line from his poem An Essay on Criticism, written 1709, much used in books, film and music?

19. The Clostridium Botulinum bacteria causes what commonly known but rare human poisoning?

20. Rocinha favela in Brazil is said to be the biggest what in Latin America?

    1. Tree
    2. Carnival
    3. Bird
    4. Slum