Answers to the general knowledge paper 2014-2015, sat by the pupils of King William’s College, Isle of Man
“Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est”
1
1 Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie of Hohenburg (assassinated in Sarajevo) 2 Prestwick (Harry Vardon, British Open Golf championship) 3 Ivor Novello’s (Keep the Home Fires Burning) 4 St Louis Blues (WC Handy) 5 Venus (Velasquez painting, the Rokeby Venus, slashed by the suffragette, Mary Richardson) 6 Hellmuth von Mücke (after loss of SMS Emden, Direction Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands) 7 The Curragh (Co Kildare. Re possible action against Ulster Volunteers) 8 HMS Pathfinder (sunk by U21, the first British submarine casualty) 9 Henriette Caillaux (wife of French finance minister, shot Gaston Calmette, editor of Le Figaro) 10 First British civilians to die from German fire (Hartlepool)
2
1 Blue Shadow Virus (Star Wars) 2 The Shadow of a Gunman (Sean O’Casey) 3 Vincent HRD Black Shadow motorcycle (1948) 4 The Woman Without a Shadow (Hugo von Hofmannsthal/Richard Strauss opera) 5 In the Shadow of the Glen (JM Synge) 6 The very shadows of the clouds (William Wordsworth – The Affliction of Margaret) 7 A walking shadow (Shakespeare – Macbeth 5, 5:23) 8 A Magic Shadow-show (Edward Fitzgerald – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, 46) 9 Shadows on the Grass (Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen) 10 Moonlight Shadow (Mike Oldfield 7in single, 1983)
3
1 Lenski (Eugen Onegin) 2 Edward Sackville, Earl of Dorset (killed Edward Bruce, Lord Kinloss, 1613) 3 George Frederic Handel (Johann Mattheson, 1704) 4 Sir Kenelm Digby (Baron Mont le Ros, Paris, 1641) 5 Hornblower and Simpson (CS Forester – Mr Midshipman Hornblower) 6 Stephen Maturin (Patrick O’Brian – HMS Surprise) 7 Andrew Jackson (killed Charles Dickinson, 1806) 8 Tommy Barban and Albert McKisco (Scott Fitzgerald – Tender is the Night) 9 Edouard Manet and Louis Edmond Duranty (1870) 10 Lady Almeria Braddock and Mrs Elphinstone (1792)
4
1 The ear of jealousy (The Wisdom of Solomon 1, 10) 2 Esdras 3 Razis (II Maccabees 14, 46) 4 Baruch (Baruch 6, 70) 5 Eleazar (I Maccabees 6, 43-47) 6 Bel (Bel and the Dragon) 7 Jesus/Joshua ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus 44, 1 – book by James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men) 8 Susanna (The History of Susanna) 9 Holofernes’s (Judith 10, 11) 10 Tobit (Tobit 2, 10)
5
1 Blind Man’s Buff 2 Three blind mice 3 Bartimaeus (El Greco painting) 4 “Blind” Lemon Jefferson 5 Milton’s (Delacroix. Paradise Lost) 6 Mr Dance, Pew’s (RL Stevenson – Treasure Island) 7 Rodrigo’s (Marqués de los Jardines de Aranjuez) 8 Primary Club charity 9 Any noonday owl (Tennyson – Idylls of the King “The Holy Grail”) 10 Odysseus/Ulysses (Polyphemus, Cyclops. Homer – The Odyssey)
6
1 May and Baker (Sulphapyridine) 2 Debenham and Freebody 3 Russell and Bromley 4 Marshall and Snelgrove (334-348 Oxford Street) 5 Fortnum and Mason 6 Lea and Perrins (Worcestershire sauce) 7 Berry Brothers and Rudd 8 Lyle and Scott (Golden Eagle logo) 9 Justerini and Brooks 10 – Swan and Edgar
7
1 Xan Fielding (book title) 2 Xebec (Patrick O’Brian, The Hundred Days) 3 Xenon 4 Xenophon (Anabasis) 5 Xanadu (Coleridge, Kubla Khan) 6 Xerxes I (Thermopylae and Salamis) 7 Xanthelasmata – subcutaneous cholesterol deposits) 8 Xanthippe (Petruccio in The Taming of the Shrew) 9 Xanthophyll 10 Xylophone (Saint-Saens, The Carnival of Animals)
8
1 Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur (Entrapment – 1999 film) 2 F Spencer-Chapman (The Jungle is Neutral) 3 Sir Henry Gurney’s (British high commissioner assassinated at the Gap, 1951) 4 Oil Palm (Henri Fauconnier, Tennamaram, Selangor, 1917) 5 Chin Peng 6 Fraser’s Hill (CJ Ferguson-Davie, Bishop of Singapore 1917) 7 Penang, 1791 8 JWW Birch (Resident of Perak, 1875) 9 Melaka/Malacca (British/Dutch exchange of Bencoolen/Bengkulu – 1824) 10 Frank Athelstane Swettenham (Footprints in Malaya, 1942)
9
All Châteaux 1 Giscours (Bordeaux Giscours Cricket Club) 2 Margaux (Ernest Hemingway –The Sun Also Rises) 3 Léoville Barton (Label shows Château Langoa Barton) 4 Clerc Milon 5 Cheval Blanc 1961 (Miles Raymond in film, Sideways) 6 Haut Brion (Samuel Pepys – The Diary, Friday 10 April 1663) 7 Mouton-Rothschild (labels) 8 Angélus (film, Casino Royale) 9 Lafite 76 (Dorothy L Sayers – Unnatural Death) 10 Pape Clément (1300, Bertrand de Got, later became Pope Clement V)
10
1 General Władysław Anders (1942) 2 Tadeusz Kosciuszko 3 Ignacy Jan Paderewski 4 Eligiusz Niewiadomski (shot Gabriel Narutowicz, 16 December 1922) 5 Marie Curie née Manya Sklodowska (discovery of polonium and radium) 6 Maria Clementina Sobieska (future wife of James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender) 7 Nicolaus Copernicus/Mikołaj Kopernik (Fruebugo Prussiae/ Frauenburg/Frombork) 8 Bishop Stanisław of Kraków, Archbishop Karol Wojtyła (became pope) 9 Chopin 10 Władysław Sikorski (died in aircraft accident off Gibraltar, 1943)
11
1 Erebus (robot) 2 Vesuvius 1906 (Olympic Games 1908) 3 Mount Rainier 4 Tristan da Cunha (1961 eruption of Queen Mary’s Peak, evacuation of entire population to Cape Town by MS Tjisadane) 5 Stromboli (Jules Verne – Journey to the Centre of the Earth) 6 Iztaccíhuatl and Popacatépetl (Mexico – Nahua romance – Paso de Cortés) 7 Etna (The Death of Empedocles) 8 Krakatoa on 27 August 1883 9 Teide (1492) 10 Mount Yasur (Tanna Island, New Hebrides/Vanuatu, 1774)
12
1 The Maggie (renamed Calvin B Marshall – 1954 film) 2 Princess Margaret Rose, Countess of Snowdon 3 Meg Merrilies (John Keats) 4 Margaret, Maid of Norway’s (Orkney, 1290) 5 Margot Beste-Chetwynde (Evelyn Waugh – Decline and Fall) 6 Margaret of Anjou (Shakespeare – 3 Henry VI, 1, 4, 68 and 177) 7 Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy (Perkin Warbeck) 8 Mad Margaret (WS Gilbert – Ruddigore) 9 Lady Margaret Beaufort (fourth husband was Thomas Stanley, last King of Mann) 10 Maggie Tulliver (George Eliot – epitaph to The Mill on the Floss)
13
1 Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790) 2 Marat’s (according to Charlotte Corday) 3 Foulon (Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities) 4 River Loire at Nantes (drownings – 1793) 5 Lantenac’s (Victor Hugo – Quatrevingt-treize/Ninety-Three) 6 Muzillac (CS Forester – Mr Midshipman Hornblower) 7 Sir Percy Blakeney (Baroness Orczy – The Scarlet Pimpernel) 8 The Comte de Montesson and the Marquis de Vassé (Daphne Du Maurier – The Glass-Blowers) 9 Andre-Louis Moreau/Scaramouche (Rafael Sabatini – Scaramouche) 10 Marie-Antoinette’s number, when a prisoner in La Conciergerie
14
1 Haggis (Robert Burns) 2 Clonakilty black pudding 3 Literaturwurst (Iceland 1961) 4 Usban/Osban (Tunisia and Libya) 5 Chorizo 6 Andouillettes (Troyes speciality) 7 Mustamakkara (Finland) 8 Belle de Morteau 9 Deutsches Currywurst Museum 10 Lincolnshire sausage
15
1 North Korea (chon coin) 2 Gibraltar (penny coin) 3 Bangladesh (taka bank note) 4 Lithuania (lita bank note) 5 Malaysia (ringgit bank note) 6 Finland (markkaa coin) 7 Gambia (dalasi bank note) 8 Ireland (pingin coin) 9 Estonia (kroon bank note) 10 Surinam (gulden bank note)
16
1 Robert Cohn (Ernest Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises) 2 Meyer Wolfshiem’s (human molars – F Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby) 3 Tubal (Shakespeare – The Merchant of Venice) 4 Sir Reuben Levy’s (Dorothy L Sayers – Whose Body?) 5 Isaac of York (Sir W Scott – Ivanhoe) 6 Dr Amos Jacob (Patrick O’Brian – The Hundred Days) 7 Barabas (Christopher Marlowe – The Jew of Malta) 8 Jack Robin (The Jazz Singer – 1927 musical film) 9 Solomon Riah (Charles Dickens – Our Mutual Friend) 10 Alvy Singer (Woody Allen – Annie Hall - film)
17
1 King Edgar (Magnus Barefoot, 1098) 2 Glenshiel (10 June 1719) 3 Duncan by Macbeth (Mormaer of Moray, 1040) 4 Northampton (1328) 5 Pope Celestine III 6 Winnie Ewing (SNP member elected to Westminster, 1967) 7 James VI (Bishop Williams of Lincoln) 8 Prestonpans (Robert Burns – Johnnie Cope – 2 September 1745) 9 King Henry IX (Henry, younger brother of Charles Edward Stuart) 10 Robert Bruce (Dumfries, 1306)
18
1 Replaced by the euro (Latvian currency) 2 Destroyed in storm (50ft stack off Portland – 7 January) 3 Hobie Alter died, (designer of the Hobie Cat catamaran) 4 Adam Lyth and Alex Lees (Yorkshire opening batsmen) 5 Cheating at bridge (final of d’Orsi World Senior Bowl – Doctors Michael Elinescu and Entscho Wladow) 6 Death of Lauren Bacall 7 Successful nesting of a pair of bee-eaters on the Isle of Wight 8 Scored his side’s only run when Wirral were dismissed for 3 by Haslington 9 Mount Kilimanjaro (highest ever cricket match between Heather Knight’s Gorillas and Ashley Giles’s Rhinos (26 September) 10 Sir John Houblon, (£50 bank notes on which he featured, withdrawn on 30 April).
The answers also appear on the King William’s College, Isle of Man, website
- This article was amended on 12 February to change the reference in answer 18:8 from Haslingden to Haslington
