Quz 6

This months' quiz. A slightly uneven batch this time round: in general people found rounds 1, 2, 6 and GK fairly straightforward, but struggled with 3, 4 and 5. On the other hand, rounds 3 and GK were the only two where no team scored full marks, and the very last question in the quiz was the only one not to be answered correctly by anyone at all. The score to beat this week is 35.

Round 1: Words (each word contains an IATA airport code, e.g London Gatwick is LGW)

1 A family of small primarily insectivorous mammals which sport leathery armoured shells (Barajas International Airport, Madrid) ArMADillo

2 Subsequent to birth (London Stansted) PoSTNatal

3 A massive gravitationally bound system of stars and stellar fragments (Los Angeles International Airport) GaLAXy

4 A term meaning “Before the meal”, which refers to the first course of an Italian meal. (Tripoli International Airport) AnTIPasti

5 A lighter than air craft that is steered through the sky using a rudder and propellers (Gibraltar Airport) DiriGIBle

Round 2: Bears

1. From where in South America does Paddington Bear originate? Darkest Peru

2. From which American President do teddy bears take their name, after an incident on a hunting trip in which he demanded the mercy killing of a wounded black bear? Theodore Roosevelt

3. Which trilogy of books includes a talking polar bear by the name of Iorek Brynison? His Dark Materials

4. The constellation of Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear, contains within it which pattern of seven stars which is frequently informally considered a constellation itself, and which can be used to find the North Star? The Big Dipper/The Plough

5. More correctly known as “Symphony No. 82 in C Major”, “The Bear Symphony” was completed by which composer in 1786, making it the last of the so-called Paris Symphonies to be finished, despite it coming first in the collection? Joseph Haydn

Round 3: Clowns

1. How is Hershel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky better known? Krusty The Clown

2. Which serial killer, active between 1972 and 1978 and responsible for over 30 murders in Illinois, was given the moniker “The Killer Clown” because of the popular block parties he would throw for friends and neighbours whilst dressed as a clown to entertain children? John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

3. In which decade was Ronald McDonald first introduced to television in an attempt to market the fast food restaurant’s products to children? 1960's

4. In which Steven King novel is the town of Derry terrorised by a demonic clown named Pennywise? It

5. What object is used to record the individual face make-up of every clown that joins Clowns International? An egg

Round 4: UFOs

1. Which US band, who released their debut album in 1995, take their name from a nickname for strange glowing lights frequently witnessed by American pilots during the Second World War? Foo Fighters

2. Which television writer and director created the 70’s television series UFO, his first show to use live-action shots rather than Supermarionation puppetry? Gerry Anderson

3 In the summer of 1947 a UFO, later controvertially identified as a weather balloon, crashed on a ranch outside the American city of Roswell. In which state does Roswell lie? New Mexico

4. What name did the American military give to their study of UFO sightings between 1952 and 1970, in reference to the small booklets given to exam candidates in many colleges and universities? Project Blue Book

5. Which 1959 Ed Wood film,in which flying saucers resurrect the dead as violent zombies, includes a posthumous appearance by Bela Lugosi and has been described by multiple critics as “The worst film ever made“? Plan 9 From Outer Space

Round 5: Dice

1. Which Nobel laureate once said “God does not play dice”, in reference to his dislike of the idea that any event could be truly random? Albert Einstein

2. “Tumbling Dice” was the lead single from which Rolling Stones album released in 1972? Exile on Main St

3. Which is the highest value on a “doubling dice”, which is used to denote the current stake in backgammon and several other games? 64

4. What is the most likely value obtained by rolling two dodecahedral dice and adding their scores (the most likely score on two standard dice being 7)? 13

5. From which ancient civilisation have the first cubical dice been found, earlier gambling games having used instead the polished heel-bones of sheep? Egyptian

Round 6: Hearts

1. The human heart has four valves: the tricuspid, the mitral, the aortal, and which other valve? Pulmonary

2. In the card game “Hearts”, which is the only point-scoring card not belonging to the eponymous suit? Queen of Spades

3. Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novel “Heart Of Darkness” was adapted – albeit with significant revision – into which 1979 film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola? Apocalypse Now

4. Hearts of Midlothian FC “enjoys” a rivalry with which other football club which is also based in Edinburgh? Hibernian FC

5. Which game does Alice play with the Queen of Hearts, amongst others, in Alice in Wonderland, a game made difficult by its use of live hedgehogs, flamingoes, and the Queen’s own soldiers for equipment? Croquet

General Knowledge

1. (Lolita) Humbert ascribes his obsession with nymphets to the death of which childhood sweetheart? Anabel Leigh

2. In what year did the USSR launch Sputnik 1? 1957

3. Chartreuse, harlequin and veridian are all shades of what colour? Green

4. Which country abandoned its previous monetary unit last year after inflation rose during December of 2008 to an estimated six hundred million googlon percent? Zimbabwe

5. The existence of which subatomic particle was first posited by Gell-Mann and Zweig in 1961, and demonstrated to exist – though originally named “partons” – in 1968? Quark

6. Which poem contains the lines “Water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”? The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

7. Name either of the countries from which chorizo sausage originates? Spain or Portugal

8. The legendary “Mongolian death worm”, several feet long and the colour of blood, is alleged to haunt which Asian desert? Gobi

9. Who assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald at Dallas Police Headquarters in 1963? Jack Leon Ruby

10. What kind of an animal is a loa loa? A worm