KIRKCALDY QUIZ LEAGUE
1. Where would you find a fresco? ON A WALL
2. What was the name in Greek legend of the 9-headed monster, killed by Hercules.
THE HYDRA
3. What was the name of the Home Secretary who had the Metropolitan
Police Force formed in the 1820s? (SIR) ROBERT PEEL
4. What’s Andorra’s official language? CATALAN
5. What was the earlier name of the island of Taiwan, which meant ‘beautiful’ in
Portuguese? FORMOSA
6. Which famous ballerina, who died in 2006, was born in Dunfermline?
MOIRA SHEARER
7. How many claws are there in total on a domestic cat? 18
8. It’s called La Torre Pendente in its home town’s language. How do we know it?
THE LEANING TOWER (of Pisa)
9. On which Mediterranean island is Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ set?
SICILY
10 How many white keys are there on a standard piano? 52
11 What is pomology a study of? FRUIT
12 The author of ‘Dracula’ was Bram Stoker. What was his proper first name?
ABRAHAM
13 What is the proper anatomical name for your thumb? POLLEX
14 In legend, when Pandora had let out all the evils of the world out of her jar
what was the only thing left in it? HOPE
15 What was the flight number of the Malaysian airliner which went missing in
March of this year (2014) and is still missing? MH370
16 What was the nationality of the explorer who gave his name to the Bering
Strait between Alaska and Russia? DANISH (born there; lived in Russia)
17 The old Gaelic name for Edinburgh is the same as which New Zealand town?
DUNEDIN
18 Malus pumila is the proper name of which common fruit? APPLE
19 Which politician renounced his title of Viscount Stansgate so that he could serve in
the House of Commons? TONY BENN / ANTHONY WEDGEWOOD-BENN
20 Which sportsman is nicknamed ‘The Manx Missile’? MARK CAVENDISH
21. Which English county is Holland a part of? LINCOLNSHIRE
22. Which 1951 US novel gets its title from a Burns poem? ‘CATCHER IN THE RYE’
23. Which English painter’s middle names were Mallord William? TURNER
24. What is digamy? A SECOND (legal) MARRIAGE
25. What word connects a 1970s computer program language and the SI unit of
pressure? PASCAL
26. Which American President had a suite permanently reserved for him in
Ayrshire’s Culzean Castle as a ‘thank-you’ from the British people?
EISENHOWER
27. What do you call the board on which an artist would mix their colours? A
PALETTE
28. Who is the reigning European Poker Tour champion who doubles as a BBC2
quiz presenter? VICTORIA COREN MITCHELL
29.The River Danube rises in Germany; which 2 countries adjoin its delta (2-parts)
ROMANIA and UKRAINE
30 How often would a hebdomadal magazine be issued? WEEKLY
31 Which Scottish town is overlooked by McCaig’s Tower? OBAN
32 Which Mercury Prize nominated rap act was Mike Skinner behind? THE
STREETS
33 In which century was St Andrew’s University founded? 15TH CENTURY (1413)
34 Which gritty late-1950s play was set in Salford and features Helen and her
daughter Josephine (Jo)? ‘A TASTE OF HONEY’
35 The world’s first club for which winter sport was established in Edinburgh in
1742? FIGURE SKATING (Accept ‘ice skating’)
36 Which Victorian Gothic tale was supposedly inspired by the dark history
surrounding Slains Castle near Cruden Bay? ‘DRACULA’
37 In America, what is the state capital of Ohio? COLUMBUS
38 Which Nobel Prize was first awarded in 1969? ECONOMICS
39 What, according to the saying, will never win a fair lady? A FAINT HEART
40 What was constructed in Scotland under the supervision of Quintus Urbicus?
THE ANTONINE WALL