BBC Radio 4 Brain of Britain Ultimate Quiz Book. Russell Davies

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ What name is given to non-volatile computer memory that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed, which is primarily used on memory cards, memory sticks and the like?

       Click here for Quiz 9 answers.

       Click here for the main index.

Quiz 10

      1. Which elementary particles, believed to be one of the basic building blocks of matter, are divided into six types: Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Strange and Charm?

      2. Which fictional villain, later the subject of a musical by Stephen Sondheim, made his first appearance in ‘The String of Pearls’, a story which first appeared in The People’s Periodical in 1846?

      3. Marie van Goethem – a 14-year-old dance student at the Palais Garnier in Paris – became the subject of an iconic work by which French artist?

      4. In which county of Ireland is Knock, the village celebrated as the site of a series of visions of the Virgin Mary in August 1879?

      5. What is a Devon rex?

      6. The ‘Otto Cycle’ is the name given to the function of which type of engine?

      7. In classical mythology, who, collectively, were Stheno, Euryale and Medusa?

      8. Which fictional group began its adventures ‘on a Treasure Island’ in 1942 and ended them ‘Together Again’ in 1963?

      9. Which country became known as ‘The Cockpit of Europe’ because it has so frequently been the battleground of Europe?

      10. What is the name for a triangle which has three sides of differing lengths?

      11. In biology, what is the name for the point of contact between one neurone and another, the junction across which a nerve impulse passes from an axon terminal to a neuron, muscle cell, or gland cell, also known as a neuronal junction?

      12. In art, what is the generally used French term for an object found by an artist and displayed as it is, or sometimes with minimal alteration?

      13. ‘Oeil de boeuf’, or ‘bull’s eye’, is a French term referring to a 17th century type of which architectural feature?

      14. ‘Rehearsal for Disaster’ is the title of the first chapter of which novel by Paul Gallico, filmed in 1972 with a cast including Gene Hackman, Shelley Winters and Ernest Borgnine?

      15. Which Arabic term is used as a title of respect, for one who knows the Koran by heart?

      16. What is the collective term for the four largest moons orbiting Jupiter?

      17. Given a licence in 1962, the oral vaccine widely used against poliomyelitis takes its name from which Polish-born American microbiologist who developed it in 1955?

      18. Of which larger family of animals is the badger a member?

      19. Derived from the Old French for a coin, what word is used to denote the fineness of material such as silk?

      20. How many years separated London’s 19th century Great Exhibition, and the 20th century’s Festival of Britain?

      21. ‘Urchin’ is a Middle-English word for which common insectivorous mammal native to mainland Britain?

      22. Which English king instituted the Order of the Garter in 1348?

      23. What name is given to the protecting and nourishing fluid in which a baby develops in the womb?

      24. Paralysis agitans is a medical term for a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, now more usually referred to by the name of which English doctor, who published the first detailed description of the condition in 1817?

      25. The Hindu god Ganesh or Ganesa is depicted as having the head of which animal?

      26. Dead Cert, published in 1962, was the first novel by which crime writer?

      27. Batavia, a Roman name for the Netherlands, was the capital of the Dutch East Indies; post-independence, how is the city known today?

      28. The Stevie Wonder hit song ‘Happy Birthday’ was written as a tribute to which public figure?

      29. Depending on their activities, which scatologically-named insect is grouped into either ‘rollers’, ‘tunnelers’ or ‘dwellers’?

      30. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ are among the stories collected under the title Tales of Mystery and Imagination, the best known work of which American writer?

      31. Which actress, in a film entitled Klondike Annie, utters the quip that when choosing between two evils ‘I always pick the one I’ve never tried before’?

      32. In the human body, which membranous sac surrounds the heart?

      33. Which US physicist gave his name to zones of highly energised charged particles, trapped at high altitude in the Earth’s magnetic field?

      34. The characters Buttons and Baron Hardup traditionally appear in which pantomime?

      35. Jewish people of ‘Sephardic’ descent have ancestors that were resident in which part of Europe, from the Middle Ages until their persecution and mass expulsion from those countries in the last decades of the 15th century?

      36. Jody Scheckter, Jacques Lafitte and Jochen Rindt were prominent competitors in the 1970s in which international sport?

      37. By what name do we now know the element produced in the 18th century by Henry Cavendish and described by him as ‘inflammable air’?

      38. Which silent film star became known as ‘The Great Stone Face’, because of his deadpan demeanour?

      39. What name is given to the unsuccessful attempt by Mao Zedong between 1958 and 1961 to hasten the process of industrialization and the improvement of agricultural production in China?

      40. Arrangement in grey and black was the original title, when it was first exhibited in 1872, of an American painting now much better known by what name?

       СКАЧАТЬ