GEOGRAPHY
Mount Vernon - George Washington's family home - is located in which US state?
a.) Maryland
b.) Pennsylvania
c.) New York
d.) Virginia
e.) Massachusetts
d.) Virginia
Which of these is the correct description of what a router does?
a.) Corrects errors that are found in data packets
b.) Removes data packets from a network if it detects copyright infringement
c.) Forwards data packets along a network
d.) Calculates how much data your computer needs to connect to a network
e.) Encodes data packets along a network
c.) Forwards data packets along a network
Which Apache chief rode in US President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade in 1905?
a.) Sitting Bull
b.) Geronimo
c.) Crazy Horse
d.) Red Cloud
e.) Cochise
b.) Geronimo
What sporting feat did Sigourney Weaver achieve on camera while shooting Alien Resurrection?
a.) Swam two lengths of an Olympic swimming pool underwater
b.) Made the 7-10 split in tenpin bowling
c.) Netted a no-look, overhead basketball three-pointer
d.) Threw a javelin into a target 50 meters away
e.) Bench-Pressed 220lbs
c.) Netted a no-look, overhead basketball three-pointer
Weaver had practiced for a month and despite arriving on set to find she needed to shoot from much further away than anticipated, she made the shot on the first take. Fellow cast member Ron Perlman initially feared he had made the footage unusable as he broke character in response to it.
According to statistic published by the National Retail Federation in December 2023, approximately what percentage of Americans shoplift?
a.) Less than 1%
b.) 3%
c.) 6%
d.) 9%
e.) 12%
d.) 9%
9.09% of Americans shoplift. Juveniles aged 12-16 are most likely to shoplift (1-in-4).
Which U.S. city is known as the City of Bridges?
a.) Detroit
b.) St. Louis
c.) Pittsburgh
d.) San Francisco
e.) New York City
c.) Pittsburgh
Thanks to three major rivers and their tributaries, Pittsburgh boasts 446 bridges and more than earns its nickname.
Scientists in Germany have recently discovered in a special study that puberty makes teenagers’ armpits smell of what?
a.) Cheese, goat and urine
b.) Wet dog, spoiled milk and raw sewage
c.) Rotten fruit, potato peelings and faeces
d.) Onions, broccoli, and garlic
e.) Seaweed, jalapeno peppers and leeks
a.) Cheese, goat and urine
A fact that every parent of a teenager has also "discovered". Anyone with a teenager could argue answers B and C are also true, but in this specific study two steroids – 5-alpha-androst-16-en-3-one and 5-alpha-androst-16-en-3-alpha-ol – and six carboxylic acids are named as the culprits for smells of urine, musk, sandalwood, cheese, goat and wax between them.
Which infamous assassin hollered "Sic Semper Tyrannis" (Thus Always To Tyrants) as he made his escape?
a.) Lee Harvey Oswald (murdered John F. Kennedy)
b.) James Earl Ray (murdered Martin Luther King Jr.)
c.) Mark Chapman (murdered John Lennon)
d.) John Wilkes Booth (murdered Abraham Lincoln)
e.) Nathuram Godse (murdered Gandhi)
d.) John Wilkes Booth
The actor Russell Crowe has claimed that he is a direct descendant of a man named Simon Fraser who was...?
a.) The acting-lieutenant who led the mutiny on the Bounty
b.) The first actor recorded to have played the role of Hamlet
c.) The pirate better known as Captain Blackbeard
d.) The last man to be executed by beheading in England
e.) The explorer who mapped the east coast of Australia in 1770
d.) The last man to be executed by beheading in England
The New Zealand-born actor said research into his ancestry had revealed he was related to Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, who was executed aged 80 in 1747 at the Tower of London for high treason.
Which classic arcade game was the best-selling of all time?
a.) Space Invaders
b.) Pac Man
c.) Double Dragon
d.) Outrun
e.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
b.) Pac Man
It's creator, Namco, sold over 400,000 cabinets, and they raked in more than $3.5 billion after its 1980 release.
Which country started the tradition of building gingerbread houses?
a.) Germany
b.) Denmark
c.) Switzerland
d.) Poland
e.) Sweden
a.) Germany
What planet is the coldest in our solar system?
a.) Jupiter
b.) Uranus
c.) Saturn
d.) Mars
e.) Neptune
e.) Neptune
In what year was the US Social Security Act signed into law?
a.) 1865
b.) 1894
c.) 1920
d.) 1935
e.) 1965
d.) 1935
Which science fiction character’s hairstyle was inspired by Mexican revolutionary Clara de la Rocha?
a.) Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)
b.) Princess Leia Organa (Star Wars)
c.) Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games)
d.) Uhura (Star Trek)
e.) Ellen Ripley (Alien)
b.) Princess Leia Organa (Star Wars)
In March 2024, a 70-year-old Wisconsin man named Don Gorske extended his world record for most Big Macs consumed during a lifetime. How many Big Macs does Gorske - who has eaten at least one Big Mac a day for the last 50 years - claim to have eaten?
a.) 14128
b.) 24128
c.) 34128
d.) 44128
e.) 54128
c.) 34128
Gorske ate his first Big Mac on 17 May 1972. Not many people were betting on him to live into his 70s with his half-century-old habit of eating Big Mac hamburgers daily.
But cutting down his intake of the famous McDonald’s burgers to two a day (rather than his previous high of nine), skipping fries with his meals and walking six miles daily for exercise has helped him become a septuagenarian.
"Many people thought I’d be dead by now...But instead I’ve been … one of Guinness World Records’ longer-running record holders, so that’s pretty cool to me," Gorske said.
What river - which is also the name of a famous 1948 western starring John Wayne - defines the southern border of Oklahoma?
a.) Abilene River
b.) Red River
c.) Sawnee River
d.) Muskogee River
e.) Rio Grande
b.) Red River
What does the Kelvin scale measure?
a.) Altitude
b.) Mass
c.) Pressure
d.) Temperature
e.) Frequency
d.) Temperature
What famous American general was nicknamed "The Marble Man"?
a.) Dwight D. Eisenhower
b.) Andrew Jackson
c.) Ulysses S. Grant
d.) Robert E. Lee
e.) Colin Powell
d.) Robert E. Lee
Which of these was director Steven Spielberg's first feature film?
a.) Duel
b.) Jaws
c.) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
d.) E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
e.) Poltergeist
a.) Duel
Spielberg made Duel for Universal Pictures - starring Dennis Weaver - in 1971.
In the famous waiters' race held in Paris, France - known as the Course des Cafés - what must servers hold on a tray one-handed during the 2km race?
a.) A coffee, a croissant, and a glass of water
b.) A beer, some french fries, and a small dipping bowl of mayonnaise
c.) Two flutes of champagne
d.) A bottle of wine and two wine glasses
e.) Three double scoops of ice cream
a.) A coffee, a croissant, and a glass of water
The rules are simple: tray in one hand only; no running; and not a crumb or drop to be spilled. The race is open to professionals, apprentices and part-time trainee waiters and at the finishing line judges examine the trays to establish if everything has arrived intact.
The prize is a medal and a night’s stay in a swanky hotel.
Which strait separates the south of Italy and Sicily?
a.) Strait of Naples
b.) Strait of Bari
c.) Strait of Palermo
d.) Strait of Syracuse
e.) Strait of Messina
e.) Strait of Messina
What is dendrochronology?
a.) Speed typing
b.) The skill of identifying birds by sight and sound
c.) Tree ring dating
d.) The study of brain nerve impulses
e.) Establishing the time of death of a human corpse
c.) Tree ring dating
The term "fifth column" - meaning to have allies hidden within the enemy's ranks - originated in which conflict?
a.) Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815)
b.) American Civil War (1861-1865)
c.) Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)
d.) World War I (1914-1918)
e.) Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
e.) Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
The term "fifth column" originated in Spain (originally quinta columna) during the early phase of the Spanish Civil War.
In a secret telegram dated 30 September 1936 sent to Berlin, the German chargé d'affaires Hans Hermann Völckers claimed that fascist leader Francisco Franco had "four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid, and a fifth column waiting to attack from the inside."
Which 1984 adventure romantic comedy film - directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito - follows a romance novelist who must venture beyond her New York City comfort zone to Colombia in order to save her sister from criminals who are holding her for ransom?
a.) Crocodile Dundee
b.) Six Days Seven Nights
c.) The Rundown
d.) The Tourist
e.) Romancing the Stone
e.) Romancing the Stone
On 19 March 2024, the prime minister of Cambodia - Hun Manet - ordered a ban on what vehicle feature?
a.) Political stickers on the backs of cars
b.) Color-changing LED headlights
c.) Furry dice hanging from the rear-view mirror
d.) Musical vehicle horns
e.) Suspension Tuning
d.) Musical vehicle horns
The prime minister told police across the country to immediately take action against any vehicle whose normal horn has been replaced by a tune-playing one by ripping it out and restoring the standard honking type.
He commented on his Facebook page that recent social media posts had shown "inappropriate activity committed by some people, especially youth and children, dancing on the roadside to the musical sounds from trucks’ horns."
Hun Manet said such dancing affected public order and posed a traffic hazard that was a threat to life and limb, not least of all to the dancers themselves.