General Knowledge 18

Question 1

Which Swiss sculptor, born in 1901, is best known for his works in bronze depicting rough-textured free-standing human figures with extremely thin and elongated limbs?

Answer 1

Alberto Giacometti

Question 2

Which island group in the Indian Ocean, a popular tourist destination, has the city of Victoria as its capital?

Answer 2

The Seychelles

Question 3

Now considered a classic of cookery writing, the 1984 book An Omelette and a Glass of Wine is a collection of articles by which food writer?

Answer 3

Elizabeth David

Question 4

Which British rock group, formed in the late 1960s, was named after an agriculturalist of the 18th century whose principal work was entitled Horse-Hoeing Husbandry?

Answer 4

Jethro Tull

Question 5

Which Dublin-born actor played the role of Philip E. Marlow in Dennis Potter’s television serial The Singing Detective?

Answer 5

(Sir) Michael Gambon

Question 6

Which organisation had its origins in Pulaski, Tennessee, founded there by Confederate Army veterans in the late 1860s?

Answer 6

The Ku Klux Klan

Question 7

Vanessa and Jesse, the children of Lorna Luft, are the grandchildren of which singer and actress who died in 1969?

Answer 7

Judy Garland

Question 8

In 1911, the American politician, explorer and archaeologist Hiram Bingham discovered which lost Inca city, on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru?

Answer 8

Machu Picchu

Question 9

Which spice is derived from the plant whose Latin name is Crocus sativus?

Answer 9

Saffron

Question 10

According to the prison warder Mr Mackay in the classic TV comedy series Porridge, ‘In this prison there are only two rules. One is, you do not write on the walls.’ What is the other?

Answer 10

You obey all the rules

Question 11

Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea are four novels written by Lawrence Durrell in the 1950s, which are known by what collective title?

Answer 11

The Alexandria Quartet

Question 12

Ultra-violet radiation in sunlight helps convert ergosterol, a substance present in the skin, into a form of which vitamin?

Answer 12

Vitamin D (specifically D2)

Question 13

Which of the American ‘Ivy League’ universities has its campus in the city of New Haven, Connecticut?

Answer 13

Yale

Question 14

What name is given to the gold-coloured alloy of copper, zinc and sometimes tin, which is used to decorate furniture and ornaments?

Answer 14

Ormolu

Question 15

By what name do we know the undesirable condition known medically as Pityriasis capitis?

Answer 15

Dandruff

Question 16

Can you name the music-hall star born Matilda Alice Victoria Wood in 1870, who first appeared as Bella Delmere before taking the stage name by which she is best known?

Answer 16

Marie Lloyd

Question 17

Having formulated a law for the polarisation of light, which is named after him, the 19th century Scottish physicist David Brewster also invented a scientific instrument that became popular as a child’s toy. What was it?

Answer 17

The kaleidoscope

Question 18

The 1930s children’s books Peter Duck and Pigeon Post are sequels, featuring the same characters, to which highly successful novel?

Answer 18

Swallows and Amazons – by Arthur Ransome

Question 19

In chemistry, what name is given to different forms of the same substance which may have different properties – such as carbon in the forms of diamond and graphite?

Answer 19

Allotropes

Question 20

Which much-recorded country song, composed by Kris Kristofferson, has a refrain which begins with the words ‘Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose’?

Answer 20

‘Me and Bobby McGee’

Question 21

Which highly respected broadcaster, born in 1933, came to prominence as one of the regulars on television’s Late Night Line-Up in the 1960s, and presented the ethical investigative series Heart of the Matter for many years?

Answer 21

(Dame) Joan Bakewell

Question 22

In which Hindu text, part of the Mahabharata, does Lord Krishna instruct Prince Arjuna on the importance of absolute devotion?

Answer 22

The Bhagavad-gita

Question 23

The novel sequence entitled Gargantua and Pantagruel, famously long and rambling and bawdy, is the work of which French Renaissance medic and satirist?

Answer 23

Francois Rabelais

Question 24

Which Scottish Premier League football club plays its home games at Tynecastle?

Answer 24

Heart of Midlothian/Hearts

Question 25

In the animal kingdom, the family Leporidae consists of which common British mammals?

Answer 25

Rabbits and hares

Question 26

What word is used in physics to describe an ionised gas produced at extremely high temperatures and, in biology, to the liquid component of the blood?

Answer 26

Plasma

Question 27

A psychopathic killer named Michael Myers is the central villain of a celebrated horror movie of 1978, and its series of sequels. Can you name that original movie?

Answer 27

Hallowe’en

Question 28

Famously celebrated in music, Fingal’s Cave is a rock formation to be found on which uninhabited Hebridean island?

Answer 28

Staffa