The United Nations
History & Culture
Political Geography
Physical Geography
Potpourri
100

Who are the 5 permanent members of the U.N. Security Council? 

China, France, Russia, United States, United Kingdom

100

First introduced by an American teacher in the late 19th century, yakyū (野球) is by far the most popular sport in Japan. Yakyū means this in English. 

Baseball

100

Boris Yeltsin was the first democratically elected president of this modern nation. 

Russia

100

This ancient mountain range is so old that it spans multiple continents. 

Appalachian Mountains

100

This is the only letter of the alphabet that does not appear in any of the names of the 50 states of the USA. 

Q
200

This many countries have a population > 200,000,000 people. 


a. ) 5

b. ) 6

c. ) 7

d. ) 8

c.) 7 - India, China, The USA, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil

200

This artist and architect is famously known for the Statue of David and his painting of the Sistine Chapel, but more importantly serves as the namesake for this member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

300

What are the 6 official languages of the United Nations? 

Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish

300

This Northern Hemisphere nation has more than 200,000 km of coastline, greater than the coastlines of the next 3 largest nations combined. 

Canada

300

House, Trance, and Synthwave are all examples of sub-genres of this genre of music that is a favorite of both Mr. Morrison and Mr. Decker. 

Electronic Dance Music (EDM)

400

Name 2 countries with the word "Democratic" in their official name. 

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe

Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal

People's Democratic Republic of Algeria

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

400

With a record 23 individual Olympic gold medals, this former University of Michigan swimmer has more career Olympic golds than the entire nations of India, Indonesia, and Armenia combined. 

Michael Phelps

500

Name the countries of origin of 3 of the 9 Secretary Generals of the United Nations.

 (Bonus 500 points if you can name their countries of origin as well). 

Norway - Trygve Lie - 1946-1952 

Sweden - Dag Hammarskjöld - 1953-1961 

Myanmar (Burma) - U Thant - 1961-1971

Austria - Kurt Waldheim - 1972-1981

Peru - Javier Perez de Cueller - 1982-1991

Egypt - Boutros Boutros-Ghali - 1992-1996

Ghana - Kofi Annan - 1997-2006

South Korea - Ban Ki-Moon - 2007-2016

Portugal - António Guterras - 2017-Present

500

This colonizing European nation formally apologized in 2002 for its role in the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the initial prime minister of the First Congolese Republic and pan-African independence leader. 

Belgium

500

The U.S. State Department's School of Language Studies classifies languages in Tiers based on their difficulty level for native English Speakers. What are the 4 major languages that are considered Tier IV (most difficult to learn for English speakers)?

Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean