Singapore
World
Media & Technology
Education & Environment
Wildcard
100
How many people are estimated to have visited the Parliament House to pay their respects to Lee Kuan Yew after his death?
About 415,000 people visited the Parliament House (according to Channel News Asia) and an approximate 850,000 others visited the various community centre tribute areas set up throughout Singapore.
100
Which African country recently held its Presidential election. (And for extra points, who won?)
Nigeria, President Buhari from the All Progressive Congress Party. (it is Nigeria's 5th democratic election since 1999, when military rule in the country was lifted.)
100
Which major airline's flight most recently crashed, killing 150 people on board?
Germanwings, a German low-cost airline.
100
what is green fatigue
100
what does the root word 'geo' mean
earth
200
Name the Singaporean blogger who was sued for defamation by Lee Hsien Loong and found guilty in October 2014? (For additional points, what did he write that got him sued?)
Roy Ngerng. He was sued by PM Lee for his blog posts which allegedly insinuated that PM Lee was involved in the criminal misappropriation of CPF funds.
200
Who is the Prime Minister of Greece?
Alexis Tsipras, of the Syriza party. He campaigned on an anti-austerity stance and is now embroiled in negotiations with the EU, Russia and America about its economy.
200
What is the title of the recent BBC documentary about the gangrape in Delhi in 2012?
India's Daughters.
200
Name the tiny pacific island that was struck by an earthquake in mid-February.
Vanuatu
200
When was World Poetry Day? Name one poem you like and the poet who wrote it.
22 March
300
What is 'Skillsfuture'?
An government initiative introduced by Tharman Shanmugaratnam in the Budget 2015 which aims to invest in skills of the future and lifelong learning
300
What triggered the #Bringbackourgirls campaign last year?
The abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from a school in Chibok, a town in Borno state, Nigeria on 14-15 April 2014. While some girls have since escaped, most of them are still missing.
300
Why did China's annual Lunar New Year Gala show spark a great deal of anger and controversy this year?
It presented skits that mocked women who are overweight and unmarried, and also minority groups. There was even an (unsuccessful) petition to cancel the show for these reasons.
300
What percentage of japan's population is aged over 65.
more than 25%
300
What do the letters in SPECTRAM stand for? Come up with at least one category for each letter.
400
There was a deadly fire in an apartment in Geylang last week. What was the apartment used for and who died?
The private walk-up apartment was used as a makeshift dorm for 30 foreign construction workers and two of them aged 20 and 22 died in the blaze.
400
Who is Jihadi John?
He has achieved infamy for being the executioner in several ISIS execution videos. 4) “Jihadi John” has been identified as Mohammad Emwazi, who was born in Kuwait, grew up and was educated in Britain, and has a degree in computing from Westminster University. Intelligence and terrorism experts are now trying to piece together how a quiet, highly-educated boy who has assimilated/liked Western culture in his formative years turned into the infamous executioner of ISIS.
400
Name (and explain) 2 things that made this year's Academy Awards (Oscars) politically charged.
(i) The host, Neil Patrick Harris, started it off when his opening line to refer to #OscarsSoWhite debate, which was critical of the fact that this year’s 20 acting nominees were exclusively white (ii) Patricia Arquette used her best supporting actress speech to call for equal pay rights for women (iii) best actress nominee Reese Witherspoon had spoken on the red carpet about her #AskHerMore campaign, which encourages reporters to ask women about their creative work and not what dress they are wearing. (iv) John Legend, during his Oscar Speech raised the issue of justice and quality by claiming that incarceration "disproportionately" affected black and brown communities. (v) Guilianan Rancic (the Fashion Police show host) had to apologise for making allegedly racist comments about black actress Zendaya’s dreadlocks hairstyle.
400
what is special about the town of Guiyu in Guandong province of China
it is an agglomerate of 4 villages thought to be the biggest e-waste processing area in the world. In 2005 there were 60,000 e-waste workers in Guiyu who processed the more than 100 truckloads that were transported to the 52 square kilometre area every day
400
analyse this qn and define any key words in it- “For parents to choose the sex of their unborn child is neither natural nor desirable. Discuss.”
500
Where will the FIFA World Cup be held in 2022 and why has it caused a lot of controversy recently?
Qatar. Due to the hot weather, FIFA has stated that the 2022 World Cup will be held in the winter months of Nov-Dec, but this will interfere with the European league games schedule.
500
What significant change did Apple make to its emojis in its most recent updates to the OSX operating system?
It made the emojis more racially diverse by offering a range of 5 skin tones. It is currently only available to testers but is expected to be available to a wider audience in the coming months.
500
According to a recent study published in The Guardian, what is the world's population projected to be in the year 2100
11 bn
500
each person in the group write down one thing you've read in the news this week that you feel strongly about. explain.
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