Quote:
What about hip and knee, are they both correct?
Oops, I missed that one.
Full set of questions and answers follows:
1. On which island was Nelson Mandela incarcerated for 27 years, from 1962-90?
Robben Island
2. Pertussis is the medical term for which childhood illness?
Whooping Cough (Latin, per means extreme, tussis means cough)
3. In which European country are the Altamira cave paintings?
Spain (Altimira, Spanish for high view, is a World Heritage site - near Santillana del Mar, Cantabria about 20 miles west of the northern port city of Santander - the paintings are 25-35,000 years old)
4. Who unexpectedly beat Jimmy Connors in the 1975 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final?
Arthur Ashe (as at 2010, Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr., 1943-1993, is the only African American man to win the Wimbledon, US Open, and Australian singles titles - Yannick Noah of France is the only other man of black African ancestry to win a Grand Slam singles title, the French Open in 1983)
5. What is a musical composition for nine voices or instruments?
Nonet
6. In 1994, the USA lifted a nineteen year trade ban for which country?
Vietnam
7. By what name did the 1932-33 England-Australia cricket series become known, after the visiting English team, notably fast bowler Harold Larwood, employed controversial tactics of bowling at batsmen's heads and chests, rather than the wicket?
Bodyline (the ploy was developed mainly against the prodigious run-making of Donald Bradman - England won the series 4-1, regaining the Ashes, but created huge controversy, bad feeling, and prompted rule changes to limit such methods in future)
8. Abhorson is an executioner in which Shakespeare play?
Measure For Measure
9. In which ocean is the island of Madeira?
Atlantic (an autonomous region of Portugal and of the EU, 520 km from Africa and 1,000 km from Europe - from where Madeira wine originated, a fortified wine, discovered and developed due to long-term storage at sea - Maderia cake however is a traditional English light sponge, so called because it was commonly served with Madeira wine)
10. Who is generally considered to have invented the first electric battery cell in 1800?
Alessandro Volta (Italian physicist, 1745–1827, after whom the unit of electromotive force, the volt, and voltage, are named)
11. What Japanese expression derives from two colloquial Japanese words meaning 'belly cutting'?
Hara-Kiri (loosely meaning suicide in Western language, it refers in Japanese more precisely to ritual disembowelment with a sword, traditionally practised by samurai warriors as an honourable alternative to disgrace or execution)
12. In which country was escapologist Harry Houdini born?
Hungary
13. How many Oscars did the 1994 film 'Forrest Gump' win?
Six
14. In geology, a coomb or combe is a type of what?
Valley (technically a dry valley in a chalk or limestone escarpment, which is a sort of wedge-shaped hill formed by faults or erosion between layered rock formations)
15. Put these UK police ranks in order, lowest to highest: Superintendent; Chief Constable; Chief Inspector; Sergeant; Detective Constable?
Detective Constable, Sergeant, Chief Inspector, Superintendent, Chief Constable (the term detective indicates training and departmental assignment not rank; UK police detective and uniformed titles are generally equal rank)
16. What is the main ingredient of the Italian dish frittata?
Eggs (fritatta is a deep fluffy omelette, variously including meat, cheese, herbs, vegetables, etc - the eggs are initially beaten to lighten the mixture with air)
17. What is the capital of Latvia?
Riga
18. What word generally referring to a type of slave or servant, and used figuratively for an ineffectual or powerless man, derives from Greek words meaning 'bed' and 'hold' or 'keep'?
Eunuch (eunuchs were castrated men, typically castrated as boys so as to prevent normal masculine development through puberty, to be suitable for certain duties in ancient societies, typically protecting females in the harem of a wealthy and powerful man - hence the name)
19. Plew is a term for the pelt of which animal?
Beaver (from 19th century Canadian French pelu, hairy, and French poil, bristle)
20. Which is the largest joint in the human body?
Knee
21. Which designer is famous for his/her red-soled footwear?
Christian Louboutin (he was born in France 1964 - his red sole design is subject of trademark protection)
22. How many separate terms did William Gladstone serves as Prime Minister of Britain?
Four (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94)
23. How many stars are on the national flag of China?
Five (one big one, top left, and four smaller ones in a vertical arc to its right, all golden/yellow on a red background)
24. Scottish mathematician and scientist John Napier (1550-1617) pioneered the use of what?
Logarithms and the decimal point
25. A miller's thumb is what type of creature?
Fish (more formally known as the European bullhead, and also called a tommy logge, it is a freshwater fish found widely in Europe)
26. What was Alexander the Great's famous horse, whose Greek name translates to mean 'ox-head'?
Bucephalus (or Buchephalas)
27. Which spice comes from the rhizome (root-stalk) of the plant Zingaber Officionale?
Ginger
28. During which month is Republic Day in Italy?
June
29. From the Greek 'pro' meaning 'before' and 'gignoskein' meaning 'know', what medical term refers to the predicted course and outcome of an illness, and increasingly to forecasting other complex situations?
Prognosis
30. What trade is the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme intended to regulate?
Diamond (established by the United Nations in 2003, following meetings in Kimberley, South Africa, a major city in diamond mining and trading - the scheme seeks to prevent diamonds financing wars and also implicitly the trade in 'blood diamonds', being stones resulting from or associated with violence/crime/conflict)