Gen Quiz

2.
In the cricketing Caribbean West Indies, which
country though not an island forms part of this
group?

3.
In 2004, the European Space Agency launched the Rosetta probe
on a mission to chase down a comet and place a robot on its
surface. For nearly three years Rosetta had been hurtling through
space in a state of hibernation.
What was the “two word” tweet which came up on the Twitter
account on , after the probe woke up?

4.
In 1860, Henry Varnum Y published History of Railroads and
Canals in the United States, an attempt to compile
comprehensive information about the financial and operational
state of U.S. railroad companies.
In 1906, Luther Lee Blake founded the X Statistics Bureau,with
the view to provide financial information on non-railroad
companies.In 1941, they merged to become “X & Ys Corp”
In 1966,the company was acquired by the McGraw-Hill
Companies,and now encompasses the “Financial Services”
division.
Name the company

5.
• X and Y were two giant ocean liners named after two races
of Gods in Greek Mythology. While Y proceeded to go on
into legend in the most disastrous way possible, X had a
long and distinguished career which led her being
nicknamed “Old Reliable”.
• X, coincidentally, shares her name with a very famous
periodic series of games, the latest edition of which had
been marred due to a connection with one of the world’s
worst industrial disasters in 1984.
• Give me X and Y

6.
This region of South Sudan gets its distinctly western name because of its
position relative to a “geographical marker”. However this is odd considering
that the southernmost point of the region goes only up to 3 degrees N.
Name of the “geographical marker”

6.
Equator
The region is equatoria

7.
This standardization in India traces back to the Viceroy Lord Mayo, based on
calculations to allow 4 persons to sit comfortably abreast. This distance was
determined to be 3’3” but was modified slightly to take into account the change
to the new metric system. The first practical manifestation of this
standardization was in 1872 from Delhi to Farukh Nagar.
What was this (2-word answer).

8.
In Robert Heinleins "Have Spacesuit Will Travel", he includes these prices which are actually
representative of another value. What?
I want the specific term.
MERCURY $0.39
VENUS $0.72
EARTH $1.00
MARS $1.50
ASTEROIDS (assorted prices, unimportant)
JUPITER $5.20
SATURN $9.50
URANUS $19.00
NEPTUNE $30.00
PLUTO $39.508

9.
Out of all the original Sherlock Holmes stories, the
“Adventure of the Lion's Mane” and “The Blanched Soldier”
are unique.
Why? What other almost unique feature do these stories
share?

Both of these stories, which belong to "The Case
Book of Sherlock Holmes" cycle, are narrated by
Holmes rather than Watson. Watson does not
appear in them.

We’re interested in the name of this city,
photograph of which you see on your left.
The 2010 G-20 summit and the 2012
Nuclear Security Summit were held here.
If “someone” is believed, the city is home
to perhaps warm, humanly girls, some of
whom know how to enjoy a cup of coffee
or two.
Boys, too, in fact (yes, no “preversion”
implied), but those probably just drink their
coffee too quickly.
Anyway, name of the city
10

Red is a chaser, alternately called Macky, Shadow or Blinky. Pink is an
ambusher, also known as Micky,Speedy or Pinky. Cyan is fickle, nicknamed
Mucky, Bashful or Inky. Orange is stupid, a trait noticable by his slow
movement, and is affectionately referred to as Mocky, Pokey or Clyde.
They aren't really very helpful when you meet them, nor are they useful in any
way, except “4” times for about “10 seconds”
Collectively they are also called "ghosts","goblins” or "octopi". Man, you’ve
probably packed in at least a few hours with these guys.
Where?
11.

12.
What collective term were Yusuf Akçura, Ayetullah Bey, Osman Hamdi Bey,
Refik Bey, Emmanuel Carasso Efendi, Abdullah Cevdet, Ziya Gökalp, Talaat
Pasha and associates known by?

Which game, developed by Leslie Scott and marketed by
Parker Brothers, derives its name from the Swahili for
"to build" ?
13.

13th March 2013, the first was changed to the second. Why?
14.

15.
The district administration of Ahmedabad passed an unconventional order to
tackle swine flu?
What did they do.

16.*
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, _______represents a voiceless velar fricative.
In some languages, as a result of assorted phonetic changes, handwriting adaptations or
simply spelling convention, ________ has other pronunciations. However it is best known
for its metalinguistic usage.
X has the following wikipedia disambiguation
X (archaeology), a thick, shaped stone biface for refining into a stone tool
X(cartridge), a type of gun cartridge
X (Scrabble), a playing piece in the board game Scrabble
X (solution), a solution containing no analyte
A planchet or X, a round metal disk to be struck as a coin
Et cetera
FITB and id X?

17.
• This famous personality was given a hero’s welcome by the residents
of Manchester in 1962 after the achievement that made him famous the
world over.
• Coming at a year when his nation was feared and hated in the west,
his small stature, amiable personality and humble nature made him a
favorite of audiences the world over.
• Who was this man, and what was his out-of-the- world achievement?

The Quiz Mains
Aditya Kumar & Amur Ghose

Round 1
Pounce : +20/-20
Bounce : 10/0
Titles may be hints

Taken from Snopes
“Here is a true story someone found regarding exams at Cambridge University. It seems that during an
examination one day a bright young student popped up and asked the proctor to bring him ________
and ________. The following dialog ensued:
Proctor: I beg your pardon?
Student: Sir, I request that you bring me ________ and _________.
Proctor: Sorry, no.
Student: Sir, I really must insist. I request and require that you bring me ________ and ________. At
this point, the student produced a copy of the four hundred year old Laws of Cambridge, written in Latin
and still nominally in effect, and pointed to the section which read (rough translation from the Latin):
"Gentlemen sitting examinations may request and require ________ and ________."
Pepsi and hamburgers were judged the modern equivalent, and the student sat there, writing his
examination and happily slurping away.
Three weeks later the student was fined five pounds for not wearing a sword to the examination.”
Just fill in the blanks, which lend their name to the myth itself.

No, not the fruit
These are some Russian words written in the Cyrillic script(phonetics in brackets) :
толчок(tolčók)
девочка(dévočka)
друг(drug)
хорошо(xorošó)
маленький(málen’kij)
Where would you find these words, along with many other Russian words, together in a very
“anglicized” form ?
Hint : The first word means roughly “to hit”, while the second refers to a girl.

Not Sarah Palin
ID the speaker from his gaffes.
“Bobby Knight told me this: "There is nothing that a good defense—cannot beat a better offense." In
other words a good offense wins.”
“The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. [followup] No, not our nation's, but in
World War II. I mean, we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century, but in this century's history.”
“We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.”
“I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy, but that could change.”
“Mars is essentially in the same orbit. … Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is
very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water,
that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.”

In the medieval era, there were none so fearsome as the Mongols. Rulers of the largest land
empire ever to exist, they were a terror to the Persian and Middle Eastern rulers.
In line with their usual cruelty, the Mongols had a peculiar method for killing a king. First, they
would wrap him in a blanket, and then roll the king around as they kicked or trampled him to
death with their horses. This was not done to torture, but rather out of superstition.
Why?

Sinful to shed royal or noble
blood on the ground

Riding Dirty
X was a worldwide hit from the album Whenever You Need Somebody. The song’s fame, however,
only partially comes from its musical qualities. The first known instance of something else involving X
came from 4chan, and quickly spread virally, peaking all over youtube on April Fool’s day, 2008.
Wired magazine describes it as one of the better known beginner’s hoaxes on the interweb.
The original singer is rather pleased with his fame, he describes it as “hilarious”. The internet fame led
him to win MTV’s Best Act Ever award.
It’s become a common in-joke in tech circles, with Microsoft, Google among others using it to troll
people.
What ?

For an all-time classic, this book is elegantly short. It can be read through in less than half an
hour, each chapter lasting at most two pages, with 13 chapters.
Yet it has been called the definitive work in its field, and was known by name even to common
people in an era was illiteracy was common.
Japanese companies often make the book a reading requirement for their executives, for the
content can be applied outside the subject matter with ease.
It’s also found on the Marine Corps professional reading program, is required reading for CIA
officials, and was popular among KGB officials.
ID the book.

Why did India get independence at the
stroke of midnight of Aug 14, 1947 rather
than August 15?

15th august was
“Inauspicious”

These are specifications of the famous image “Lenna” :
Model : Lena Sodenberg
Photographer : Dwight Hooker
Appeared in the November 1972 issue of Playboy magazine. Resolution used : 512x512.
Lenna is one of the most widely used images in history, to the point where Soderberg has
become a guest of honour to conferences she’s not otherwise associated with in the least.
Accusations of sexism have marred its usage, terming it “unprofessional” and symbolic of the
sex ratio in the field of usage
(Hint, hint).
Put funda.

In the times of Soviet Russia, there were two principal newspapers : Pravda and Izvestia. Both were
mouthpieces of the communist party.
Russians find dark humor in all things, and so one of the most popular phrases of the time could be
translated as follows :
There is no Pravda in Izvestia, and there is no Izvestia in Pravda.
Of course, this isn’t really complete without the meanings of the word Pravda and Izvestia. Work out
based on the sentence above.

Truth and News. The phrase would read :
"There is no truth in News, and there is no news in Truth.“

Which “musical” painting is this?

Brahma, Daiva, Arsa, Prajapatya
Gandharva, Asura, Raksasa,Paisach
a
Mahabharata says that this is
ideal, but some people don’t like
it that way.
What are
these types
of?

May O Agni!, a suitor after our own heart come to us,
may he come to this maiden with fortune!
May she be agreeable to suitors, charming at festivals, promptly obtain happiness through
a husband!
As this comfortable cave, O Indra!, furnishing a safe abode hath become pleasing to all
life,
thus may this woman be a favourite of fortune, beloved, not at odds with her husband!
Do thou ascend the full, inexhaustible ship of fortune;
upon this bring, hither the suitor who shall be agreeable to thee!
Bring hither by thy shouts, O lord of wealth, the suitor
bend his mind towards her;
turn thou the attention of every agreeable suitor towards her!
Passage from atharva
veda describing
gandharva vivah.
Marriage

X axis is time.
Y- axis is the value in logscale.
X axis is time
Y axis is value in linear
scale
A BWhat are A and B?
Hint: they are separated by about 90 years. A was confined to a country; B
is a global phenomenon.

In Ancient Greco-Roman Mythology, Hermes or Mercury is the god of messengers, renowned for his
extreme speed - while Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty. They had a “son”.
Alas, Hermes was “too fast”, and he was born deformed – melded with a female in appearance,
possessing both masculine and feminine traits.
What was “his” name ?

X was founded in Chicago in the 50’s, by an alumnus of the University of Illinois. Authors who have
written stories in X include Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, Chuck Palahniuk, and
P.G. Wodehouse.
X is also well known for high profile interviews, famous ones being Stanley Kubrick, Roger Ebert,
Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, John Lennon and Ayn Rand.
X ?

Mark Spitz once replied to
question "No. It helps me in
streamlining and swim faster."
What was he being asked
about?
Yeah you are right, this is
Mark Spitz

In the month of May 2014, an alarming rise was
observed in suicides in rural China. However
they ceased after 1st June.
Funda?

Round 2: 8 questions
1st clue : +40/-40
2nd clue : +30/-30
3rd clue : +15/-15
This is merely a guideline,
which is another way of saying
that they are not followed in
any question.

Inexhaustive Specific Connection.+/-40
• An animal, specifically a small, carnivorous mammal. Commonly known as the dwarf leopard and
is the size of a small house cat. Endangered. Found all across North and South America.
• A speech condition, characterized by an inability to articulate sibilants – i.e. a problem with
pronouncing the letter s and similar letters. Sweet, for example, would become thweet.
• The literal Arabic translation would read as “Demon” or “Demon’s head”. This association comes
from its tendency to fluctuate. We are not interested in the object, however :P

Inexhaustive Specific Connection. +/-30
• It is the largest of its kind, but not the heaviest. The heaviest and the second largest is found in
South America and stars in many B-grade Hollywood films thanks to CGI. It is found in India,
Africa, as well as in many other regions. The African variant can be kept as a pet ! The largest
subspecies can weigh up to 150 kilograms.
• This is the most populous island on Planet Earth, located along a volcanic chain. It is the 13th
largest island in the world, and extremely densely populated despite its size, as you might have
figured out. In the past , it has served as a bastion of Greater Hindu culture, or if you please, Viraat
Hindu Culture, and so you can find Hindu temples on this now-Muslim island.
• The typical colour of this ranges from pink to blood red. Its name itself derives from the Latin for
red. The colour originates from the Chromium present within an alumina framework. Extremely
hard. Typically associated with its green , blue and white counterpart.

Inexhaustive Specific Connect.+/-15
• He was a French Mathematician who lived in the 17th century. Mostly known for his scientific and
mathematical works, he also wrote on religion, and proposed some arguments for the existence of
God. Physics remembers him well. He worked with fluid mechanics and also with the binomial
coefficients.
• According to wiktionary, it is an adjective form of an English word tracing its roots to Latin. The Latin
term roughly means “foundation” or “primitive root”. This Latin term as-is is extensively used in
mathematics, specifically linear algebra.
• It is a contracted form of a sensible five-letter word. As it is, the word doesn’t mean anything, but
the five-letter one does : It is a rather precious object, harvested the world over. Unlike most
precious things, this is an animal product – and India was one of the biggest producers of this in the
world in ancient times. Nowadays, production has shifted to China, Japan, and Indonesia, as well
as Australia and Philippines.

Programming Languages
• Ocelot
• LISP
• ALGOL
• Python
• Java
• Ruby
• Pascal
• BASIC
• Perl

Identify the singer
+- 50
Je ne sais quoi, mon ami

+-30
“Quelqu'un m'a dit” is her debut album, released in 2003.
Became very popular in second half of the previous decade.
Who?

“Quelqu'un m'a dit” is her debut album, released in 2003.
Became very popular in second half of the previous decade.
Google trends for her name
+-15

Connect
Identify the person(X) owner of organization(Y)
+-45

Connect
Identify the person(X) owner of organization(Y).
+-30

Connect
Identify the person(X) owner of organization(Y).
+-15
In 2010, X claimed that
purchasing Y was the biggest
investment mistake he had ever
made, and claimed that it had
denied him compounded
investment returns of about
$200 billion over the subsequent
45 years. He claimed that had he
invested that money directly in
insurance businesses instead of
buying out Y, those investments
would have paid off several
hundredfold.

Warren Buffet(X), Berkshire Hathaway(Y)

+-60
Not ice
Give me the specific connect

Put funda +-30
PHENOL
BROMINE MAGNESIUM

These three substances have a Dow extraction process.
Herbert henry Dow made his fortune off these chemicals, and the Dow Jones Index is
named in his honor.

This is a list, intentionally incomplete. +-
40
• Football coach
• Company owner
• Architect
• ________
• Garage Owner
• Advertising executive
Where will you find these people?

This is a list, intentionally incomplete. +-
30
• Football coach
• Company owner
• ________
• Painter
• Architect
• ________
• Garage Owner

This is a list, intentionally complete.
• Football coach
• Bank clerk
• Company owner
• Stock broker
• ________
• Painter
• Salesman
• Architect
• ________
• Garage Owner
• Watch maker
Hint : The list is complete now, despite the blanks. You may wish to count.
+-15

MANIAC (1956)
Harvard Cup (1989–1995)
______________
REBEL (1998)
Hydra (2005)
Rybka (2007–2008)
Only significant entries(read entries on wikipedia) have been listed in a chronological order. The most
famous entry is not there.+-40
More entries on subsequent
slides
What are these?

MANIAC (1956)
Cray Blitz (1981)
______________
REBEL (1998)
Deep Junior (2003)
X3D Fritz (2003)
Hydra (2005)
Rybka (2007–2008)
A few more
+-25
What are these?

Year has been given for the blacked out entry.
+-10
MANIAC (1956)
Cray Blitz (1981)
Deep Thought (1989)
______________(1996-1997)
REBEL (1998)
Deep Junior (2003)
X3D Fritz (2003)
Hydra (2005)
Deep Fritz (2006)
Rybka (2007–2008)
What are these?

What product ? +/-45
All these are variants of the same product. Overall share of the product vs others of its type has
stayed steady at between 1-2% of the total.
Market
share

Linux
Fedora Debian
Gentoo
OpenSUSE

Its name refers to a large
mammal, which incidentally
forms part of the name of the
connection as well. This
mammal is found all over Asia
and the Americas, and has
some herbivore-like features. It
is well-adapted to various
climates and has quite a few
subspecies.
It literally means
“loins of the first
element”.
It translates to
“thigh”, a name well-
suited given its
position in the set.
All names have arabic
etymology.
+-40
Connect.

mammal, which incidentally forms
part of the name of the connection
as well. This mammal is found all
over Asia and the Americas, and
has some herbivore-like features.
It is well-adapted to various
subspecies.
It literally
means “loins of
the first
element”.
It translates to
suited given its
It can be translated
to “root of the tail”.
Again this fits its
location in the set.
It is misnamed. The
name is a corrupted
version of the
“companion” of the
sixth “element.”
An unique one, for it has a
companion that is normally
not counted when counting
the set. Together with the
companion, the names
translate to “horse and rider”.
Literally named “end of
the tail”. Yet again, a
fitting name, given its
position.
All names have arabic
etymology.
+-30

mammal, which incidentally forms
part of the name of the connection
as well. This mammal is found all
over Asia and the Americas, and
has some herbivore-like features.
It is well-adapted to various
subspecies.
It literally
means “loins of
the first
element”.
It translates to
suited given its
It can be
translated to “root
of the tail”. Again
this fits its location
in the set.
It is misnamed. The
name is a corrupted
version of the
“companion” of the
sixth “element.”
An unique one, for it has a
companion that is normally
not counted when counting
the set. Together with the
companion, the names
translate to “horse and rider”.
Literally named “end
of the tail”. Yet
again, a fitting name,
given its position.
An eighth element is
commonly associated with
them, due to the peculiar
geometry of element 1 and
element 2. An auxiliary
construction made with these
gives the eighth element of
immense importance.
Unlike these seven, the eighth
element does not have an
Arabic name. Rather, its name
is Greek, as is the name of the
set, as well as the set the
eighth element belongs to.
+/-15

Poison
Pick a question. That becomes yours to attempt
on a direct, and then bounces. Upon picking,
others can pounce, but pouncing must occur
before the question is revealed.
Pounce +25/-15
Bounce 15/0

Selection:
Tech India Misc 1 MELA Quotes
Business Movies Misc 2 History

X was developed by IBM and named after IBM's first CEO and industrialist Thomas J “X”.
The computer system was specifically developed to answer questions on the quiz show Jeopardy!
In 2011, X successfully competed on Jeopardy! against former winners Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.
In acknowledgment of X's achievements, Jennings(himself a computer scientist) made an additional
remark in his Final Jeopardy! response: "I for one welcome our new computer overlords."
Id X

Elementary, my dear Watson.
Back to matrix

In 1972 Roy Raymond a Stanford B-School alumnus was
“embarrassed” while trying to buy a “gift” for his wife from a
department store.
To solve this problem Raymond studied the market for eight
years before borrowing $40,000 from his parents and $40,000
from a bank to establish X, now a big brand.

In 1936, Dr MV Gopalaswamy, a professor
of “philosophy”, Mysore installed a private
50 watt “radio transmitter” at Vittal Vihar, his
residence at Vontikoppal.
What did he call it?

Akashvani
It was later taken over by the Mysore City Corporation in 1941and then merged with AIR. Akashvani
was adopted as the official name of All India Radio in 1957.
Back to matrix

In the early stages of the air war in World War I the
problem of mounting a forward-firing machine gun on
combat aircraft was considered by a number of
individuals.
X used the so-called "interrupter gear" along with the
primitive “metal deflector” wedges to achieve the first
ever shooting-down of an aircraft by a fighter firing
through a tractor propeller.
He gained fame for making the first non-stop flight
across the Mediterranean Sea from France to Tunisia.
Among other things he has an international airport,
limited edition cars “named” in his honor.

2015 brings with it yet another James Bond film, Spectre. Forgetting Spectre for a moment, we pan
back across 2012 to Skyfall.
Even though Skyfall was a commercial success, this was not very sure before the film was released.
Major fan backlash had occurred, accusing the filmmakers of giving in to commercial greed and
destroying an iconic feature of the franchise to honor a $45 million deal with a Dutch business giant
in its own field.
Spectre will go back to the iconic feature, making Skyfall the only Bond film to keep this change.
What was the deal, and how would it irrevocably change something iconic ?

Heineken replacing the Vodka Martini
Back to matrix

The Judgment of Paris was a held in Paris on 24 May 1976. Held every 10 years, the next one is
scheduled in 2016.
Who or what is judged ?

These MELA quotes have
something in common. What ?
“It is not your place to deny ___________, steward!“ – Gandalf to Denethor
"I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I ever came across:
___________, eh?“ – Sherlock Holmes
"Frodo, _____________!“ – Pippin
"Your ___________ is revoked“ – M to James Bond
“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report
confined itself to the single sentence: _________________. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth
as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an
expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.” – Situation report from the frontline.
“Are these live rounds ?”....”7.62 millimeter.__________”. – Joker and Pyle
Note : Blanks not matched for size. Hint : None of the blanks is a single word. All phrases.

Title Drop.“It is not your place to deny The Return of the King, steward!“ – Gandalf to Denethor
"I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I ever came across: A study in
scarlet, eh?“ – Sherlock Holmes
"Frodo, Lord of the Ring!“ – Pippin
"Your Licence to Kill is revoked“ – M to James Bond
“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report
confined itself to the single sentence: All Quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on
the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face
had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.” – Situation report from the
frontline.
“Are these live rounds ?”....”7.62 millimeter. Full Metal Jacket”. – Joker and Pyle
Back to matrix

An old man revisits an attic , associated with trauma for his family. Who is he ? Photograph era is
about 50s to 60s.

FINAL ROUND
Long Non-exhaustive Connect
As we roll out parts, you may pounce for connect
anytime.
Bouncing for the connect will begin once all clues
are shown.
Also, the parts themselves are normal questions
with separate marks: +10/-5 on pounce and +10 on
bounce.

+30/-15
Id him. The city where he lived goes into connect

Euclid; remember the city goes into the connect

Connect : Alexander the Great
Aristotle
Alexander the great; a song in the album
The Man who would be king focuses on the Kalash people who claim descendance from
Alexander the great
Euclid lived in Alexandria
Kandhar

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