ADULT LEARNERS WEEK – THE GREAT LIBRARY QUIZ
Get those “Little Grey Cells” working and see how good your general knowledge is.
This quiz consists of 10 rounds covering a wide range of topics. The questions range from easy
to very hard in each category. Write your answers on this sheet and send your completed quiz
to:
Fliss Clooney
Learning Development Librarian
North Devon Library & Record Office
Tuly Street
Barnstaple
Devon
EX31 1EL
The last date for entries will be June 6th 2008. The winners will be notified by June 20th
2008.
Please complete your own details here:
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SECTION 1 – FOOD AND DRINK
1. What is Laver Bread made from?
2. Which Australian Opera Singer had a dessert and a kind of bread named after
her?
3. How many normal size bottles of champagne are there in a Jeroboam?
4. What type of pulses are used to make humous?
5. Is Amontillado a sweet, medium or medium-dry sherry?
6. What is the Indian dish Dhal made from?
7. In a Japanese restaurant, diners may order a dish of thinly sliced beef and raw
vegetables which would be stir fried at the table, what is it called?
8. What type of bean is used to make baked beans?
9. Which part of the English breakfast was known derisively in Victorian times as little
bags of mystery?
10. Which brewery brews a beer called Old Peculiar?
SECTION 2 – GEOGRAPHY
1. What is the capital of the US state of Massachusetts?
2. Which Chinese river is also known as the Hwang Ho?
3. On which island is the resort of Cowes?
4. Which country flies the Viasa airline?
5. What is the highest point in France?
6. Which river flows for 1,500 miles through Venezuela and partly defines the border
with Colombia?
7. In which American city can the Liberty Bell be seen?
8. Which North African country uses the Dirham as its unit of currency?
9. Which Italian city, famous for its art and architecture is the capital of Tuscany?
10. Which sultanate is bordered on all sides by the Sarawak territory of Malaysia?
SECTION 3 - FILMS
1. Who played Galadriel the Eleven Queen in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy?
2. In which James Bond film did actress Lana Wood play the character Plenty
O’Toole?
3. Which film starring Robert Redford & Mia Farrow was based on a novel by F Scott
Fitzgerald?
4. With which Life of Brian song did the Monty Python team reach Number 3 in the
UK charts in 1991?
5. What is Hugh Grant's occupation in the film Notting Hill?
6. Who directed Death in Venice?
7. Which Woody Allen film starring Peter Sellers had Tom Jones singing the theme
song?
8. Which song played each morning as Bill Murray’s character was forced to relive
the same day over and over in the film” Groundhog Day”?
9. Name this film - Russell Crowe takes revenge for his enslavement and the murder
of his wife and son?
10. The 1985 film "The Color Purple" won no Oscars, but how many nominations did
it receive?
SECTION 4 – SPORTS
1. Field Marshall B. L. Montgomery was the honorary chairman of which football club
?
2. In which month does the grouse-shooting season start in Britain?
3. In which sport is it forbidden for anyone to play left handed?
4. Who bit a chunk out of Evander Holyfield’s ear in 1997?
5. How many players are there in a Hockey team?
6. Which athlete won the gold medal for the 100 metres at the 1924 Olympic
Games?
7. Which golf course is the home of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club?
8. Who, in 1980, was the first overseas player to win the World Snooker
Championship?
9. How old was Lester Piggott when he won his first Epsom Derby on Never Say
Die?
10. In golf what is the name given to the grassed area between the tee and the
green?
SECTION 5 – FAMOUS FIRST LINES
The title and author of the books that start with………
1. It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in
love with him.
2. James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure
lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death.
3. Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western
Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
4. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good
fortune must be in want of a wife.
5. It was a pleasure to burn.
6. I have just returned from a visit to my landlord--the solitary neighbour that I shall
be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe
that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society.
7. The primroses were over.
8. Dr Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or
got any worse.
9. The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible
lizards had long since ended. Here on the Equator, in the continent which would one
day be known as Africa, the battle for existence had reached a new climax of ferocity,
and the victor was not yet in sight.
10. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it
was the age of foolishness,…….
SECTION 6 – NATURE & ENVIRONMENT
1. Which tree do we get turpentine from?
2. Convocation is the collective noun for a group of which bird?
3. Which very large powerful brownish-yellow bear inhabits the highlands of western
North America?
4. Which part of the human anatomy shares its name with a punctuation mark?
5. What is the otter’s home called?
6. Charles Darwin described this carnivorous plant ‘the most wonderful plant in the
world’. What is the name of this plant?
7. Which plant takes its name from the Italian phrase for Beautiful women?
8. Which part of the atmosphere screens out the harmful radiation from the sun?
9. What is the name of the device fitted to car exhausts to reduce pollution?
10. What is the study of birds' eggs called?
SECTION 7 - HISTORY
1. What was the name given to the members of the league of women who
campaigned for the rights of women to vote?
2. Who invaded England in 55 B.C. and in 43 A.D.?
3. What was the name given to the Factory workers who in the years from 1811
onwards broke and smashed new machinery because they feared unemployment
might ensue?
4. In which building was Thomas a Becket murdered in 12th Century?
5. Which war lasted sixteen years longer than its name implies?
6. Macbeth claimed his kingdom by murdering which Scottish king in 1040?
7. Which 17th century pirate was knighted and made Lieutenant Governor of
Jamaica?
8. From which country did Norway secure its independence in 1905?
9. From which British port did the Titanic sail on her maiden voyage?
10. In which year was the great fire of London?
Section 8 – GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
1. Which political leader was executed alongside his wife on Christmas Day 1989?
2. Which town in Australia was the site of one of the earliest gold strikes, and has
subsequently had a beer named after it?
3. What title should you use when talking to a Cardinal?
4. What is the name of the large area of temperate grassland in the Soviet Union?
5. Walter Gropius was the founder of which school of Architecture?
6. Which North American city is served by Louis Armstrong International Airport?
7. Keno is the American casino version of which game?
8. Which James Bond film was made predominantly in and around the city Udaphur?
9. What is the singular of Scampi?
10. Which car company produced the "Renown" and the "Mayflower" models?
SECTION 9 – ART & LITERATURE
1. What is the heraldic term for blue?
2. In which Dickens’s novel did Uriah Heep appear?
3. Crockfords is a reference book relating to which group of people?
4. Which poet laureate died in 1984?
5. In ballet, what term is given to a complete turn on one leg, performed either on the
ball of the foot or on the toes?
6. Which surrealist artist created the Lobster Telephone, owned by the Tate Gallery?
7. Who wrote 'The Man in the Iron Mask'?
8. Who designed the fountains in Trafalgar Square?
9. Which prize-winning British artist is famous for her unmade bed?
10. What name is given to the famous statue located at the entrance to Copenhagen
harbour?
SECTION 10 – MUSIC
1. How many strings are there on a double bass?
2. Which London theatre was home of Gilbert & Sullivan’s operas?
3. Which famous American jazz pianist was known as "The Duke"?
4. Who had their first British hit record in 1984 with ‘Relax’?
5. "The Shoop Shoop Song" was heard at the end of which Cher film?
6. The song “You’ll never walk alone” comes from which musical?
7. Which 1990s pop group are named after a hit record by Bernard Cribbins?
8. Which composer of over 400 concertos was nicknamed ‘The Red Priest’?
9. Who wrote the lyrics to the musical Starlight Express?
10. Who wrote Madame Butterfly and La Boheme?