This document provides instructions for an open quiz being held in January 2013 by KQA. It outlines some key details about the quiz such as there being 35 questions, points being awarded for correct answers and partial credit for some questions, and to take guesses. It then provides 20 sample questions and answers as examples of the type of questions that will be asked in the quiz.

1. KQA Open Quiz
January 2013
Prelims
Navin Rajaram

2.  35 Questions - very easy quiz.
 +1, No Negs
 11-20 * Questions
 Part points where applicable
 Take Guesses…all the best!

3. 1.
The answer to this oft repeated question is
that sun dials in the northern hemisphere
usually looked southward to track the motion
of the sun.
These early sundials then served as base
models models for the earliest prototypes
manufactured.
What is explained away thus?

4. ANSWER

5. Why does a clock track hours
‘clockwise’ from left to right?

6. 2. In July 2008, Dimitris Lambrou, on behalf of his
island, appealed to a court to ban the use of the word
in any other context but in reference to his fellow
islanders.
The court rejected the injunction saying the word
could be used in both contexts and does not
necessarily offend the residents.
Dimitris‟ response: “This offends our 3000 year old long
history. They can do what they want with their bodies.
And they can call themselves what they want, but not
_______.”
What island/term?

7. ANSWER

8. Lesbos/Lesbians

9. 3.
While the jinx legend associated with this monument
is widely held, most political big wigs feign
ignorance when questioned about it.
Both Indira Gandhi and MGR visited it in 1984 and
used the main entrance and disastrous consequences
followed with one being assassinated and the other
falling ill with a stroke.
In 2010 and 2012, the CM of the state used the side
entrance to visit the site for a dance program and
after a recent fire accident.
What monument?

10. ANSWER

11. Brihadeeshwara Temple

12. 4.
Excerpt from a piece called “2LO Calling” that was
composed by Damon Albarn (of band Blur).
The piece features chimes of Big Ben, sounds of the
blackbird and skylarks and special messages by
different people
3. The piece was released on the 90th anniversary of
which organization in 2012?
4. What is the significance of 2LO in 2LO Calling?
<audio removed>

13. ANSWER

14. BBC
2LO was the name of the first
transmitter from which the BBC
began services.

15. 5.
After the back to back deaths of Tony Greig and
Christopher Martin Jenkins, fan forums went into
discussions regarding a possible curse that might
connect the two deaths.
Curse theorists cited the fact that a certain
Desmond Tutu is currently still fighting prostate
cancer and may also become a part of this group.
What was cited as the reason for the curse?

16. ANSWER

17. Delivering the MCC Spirit of
Cricket Cowdrey Lecture

18. 6.
Sexual dimorphism in this creature, where males
are twice as large as females, is contributed by a
particular anatomical feature that evolved to be
larger as males used it as battering rams to
deliver blows and absorb shocks during duels for
damsels. Alternate uses for the feature such as
buoyancy and echolocation evolved over time.
The same feature also led to violent hunting,
driving these creatures to the brink of extinction.
What creature?

19. ANSWER

20. Sperm Whales (swollen heads for
spermaceti)

21. 7.
The Economist recently released this map of
warring tech giants in a piece titled „Game of
Thrones‟ .
They punned on a famous fantasy land using a
technology name in the blanked out text (A) And
used a geographical feature in the map
intelligently (B)
What are A & B?
Pic on next slide

22. B
A

23. ANSWER

24. Google Earth
Pirate Bay

25. 8.
Kits such as the ones shown below were quite
popular up until the early 1900s.
The sale and popularity of such kits was further
accelerated by their usage in very precise fashion
by a popular fictional figure of the time.
What were these called and which figure?
Pic on next slide

27. ANSWER

28. Syringe Kits,
Sherlock Holmes and his 7%
solution of cocaine

29. 9.
The weapon you are about to see is a firearm
which was breech loaded with a steel slide,
containing a number of chambers filled with
projectiles.
The idea is to fire from a chamber and then
release a lock to move the slide by hand and go
on to the next chamber.
Based on how they look, what were such guns
called?
Pic on next slide

31. ANSWER

32. Harmonica Gun

33. 10.
In sci-fi writer Suzette Elgin‟s Native Tongue trilogy,
the 19th Amendment has been repealed. This results
in a group of linguists, who facilitate communication
with alien races , creating a new language Láadan as
an act of resistance.
Beyond the book, Elgin says that Láadan was created
to test the Sapir Whorf hypothesis and challenge
biases in Western languages.
What is special about Láadan?

34. ANSWER

35. Only spoken by women/Designed
to express a woman’s point of
view

36. 11*.
Originally started on Tower Street as a meeting place
for mariners, ship‟s captains, merchants and dealers,
the building of this organization is called “The
Inside-Out” building.
Designed by Richard Rogers, the design innovates
by having staircases, lifts, power conduits and water
pipes on the outside, leaving uncluttered space
inside.
What organization, whose name must surely ring a
bell?
Pic on next slide

38. ANSWER

39. Lloyd’s

40. 12*.
Daily news site Spiegel Online, paid £3,350 on an
Ebay auction to gain possession of the artifact in the
picture.
Given the legendary status of the artifact, they
refurbished it for free and it was turned on again, to
supply coffee for the editorial team.
In responses to requests world wide, especially the
University of Cambridge, they did something
mimicking the technology that this artifact pioneered.
What technology?
Pic on next slide

42. ANSWER

43. Webcam – this was the Trojan room
coffee pot, first subject of a webcam
for people at Cambridge to see if the
coffee was going empty

44. 13*.
A mixture of Prosecco sparkling wine and peach
puree, this cocktail originated in Venice and is
credited to Guiseppe Cipriani, the founder of Harry‟s
bar.
The unique pink shade of the cocktail is said to have
reminded Cipriani of the color of a saint‟s toga in a
15th century Venetian artist‟s painting, naming it after
the artist himself.
What cocktail?
Pic on next slide

46. ANSWER

47. Bellini

48. 14.*
In American political jargon, if left-leaning politicians
are being unfairly attacked or smeared, they usually
refer to these attacks as ____ _____, a term that has
come into vogue since 2004, when a fringe group of
war veterans promoted anti John Kerry ads
criticizing his role in the Vietnam war.
The war veterans named their organization after the
amphibian craft they served on during the war,
giving further popularity to the term.
What two word term?
Pic on next slide

50. ANSWER

51. Swift-Boating

52. 15.*
To ancient Egyptians who saw a species of beetle roll
dung into a ball, the activity symbolized Khepri, the
early morning manifestation of the sun god Ra , who
would roll the sun across the sky.
This is supposed to have started the tradition of
Egyptian amulets shaped in the form of dung beetles,
used for good luck and as sealing weights or official
stamps.
The term for these amulets lives on in the species
name of the dung beetles. What term?
Pic on next slide

54. ANSWER

55. Scarabs

56. 16.*
On the occasion of his death centenary in 2011,
Kantsaywhere, his controversial novel was published
for the first time by the University College of
London.
The novel chronicles the struggles of a young man to
fit into a utopia where a religious order uses physical
and mental tests ensure the fittest men and women
breed and propagate.
Which unlikely author, whose niece burnt all other
copies of the novel offended by the love scenes and
concepts propounded?

57. ANSWER

58. Sir Francis Galton

59. 17.*
This phrase has nothing to do with Indian food
but instead comes from a French allegorical poem
Roman de Fauvel, where a horse named Fauvel
moves into his master‟s house and attracts people
from far and wide who wish to groom him.
As sycophants arrived to gain the horse and his
lord‟s attention, the term for grooming a horse,
_______, began to be used in the context of the
phrase which means “sucking up”.
What phrase?

60. ANSWER

61. Currying Favours

62. 18.*
Considered one of Australia‟s most important scientists,
he shared the 1945 Nobel in Physiology/Medicine and
was involved in converting a discovery into something
scalable and practically usable.
Extremely conscious about the global impact of his
methods, he said, “I am now accused of being partly
responsible for the population explosion, one of the most
devastating things the world has got to face for the rest of this
century.” going on to devote the rest of his life to
developing improved contraception methods.
Name him and what he worked with.
Pic on next slide

64. ANSWER

65. Howard Florey
Penicillium

66. 19.*
The more orthodox story behind the origin of
these people is that Brahma, having established
the 4 varnas, instructed Yama to keep track of
their deeds.
Overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task,
Yama asked for an assistant and Brahma, having
meditated produced Chitragupta from his arm to
scribe down mortal deeds.
Based on Chitragupta’s origins, what were his
descendants called?

67. ANSWER

68. Kayastha (born of Brahma’s arm)

69. 20.*
Green Shadows, White Whale is a
1992 fictional novel about the
author‟s journey to Ireland in
1953-54 to write a screen
adaptation of Moby Dick in
collaboration with a director.
Inspired by Katherine Hepburn‟s
similar experiences with the
director, the novel‟s title is a play
on Peter Viertel‟s novel White
Hunter, Black Heart, also about the
same director .
Name the author and director.

70. ANSWER

71. Ray Bradbury
John Huston

72. 21
NASA recently doffed its hat with this astronaut suit
design, drawing all kinds of cheer from fans. Tribute
to?

73. ANSWER

74. Buzz Lightyear

75. 22
Karl Lagerfeld revealed a new set of clutch handbags for his
Chanel Spring/Summer 2013 collection. What are the
handbags informally called, based on what inspired
Lagerfeld?

76. ANSWER

77. LEGO handbags

78. 23.
On being asked about this aberration, Walt Disney
explained it giving 2 reasons, one artistic and another
financial:
• It was too many and the character may have
looked weird and it would have looked like a
bunch of bananas
• If you multiplied the time that animators saved
not drawing it on every one of the 45,000
drawings that make up a 6 ½ minute short film,
the studio saved millions of dollars.
What aberration?

79. ANSWER

80. Mickey Mouse having only 4
fingers

81. 24.
Happy Farm is a Farmville-esque game released
by Peak Games, a firm based out of Istanbul.
They released an Arabic version of the game,
which had 3 significant differences from the
usual Farmville variant.
One relates to female farmhands wearing the
hijab. The other 2 farm features are notable in
their absence for reasons of Sharia compliance.
What features?

82. ANSWER

83. Pigs
Vineyards

84. 25.
Picture shows the drunken night in 1958 when the
group in the picture stormed the stage with
cigarettes and whiskey in tow and took over
proceedings, much to the delight of the audience.
Next year, they repeated their performance at the
request of the organizers and since then, this
tradition has ben followed.
What tradition changed because of these guys?
Pic on next slide

86. ANSWER

87. The Golden Globes were awarded
by journalists of the HFPA, since
this incident movie stars have
given away the awards.

88. 26.
Samosapedia wished its readers a Happy New Year with a
special entry that went:
“This movie, a standard masala potboiler with bad villains, worse
acting and the requisite Silk dance, would have been relegated to the
back shelves of history but for one small quirk of fate...There is a
standard disco number in the movie complete with flashing floor
lights, a sequined _____ and a bunch of extras squirming & gyrating
to Ilaiyaraja's pulsating beats that begins in this fashion - "Hi
Yuwrybady..Vishoo a Happy New Year.“
...and for some strange inexplicable reason this has become part of the
great Tamil zeitgeist much like the ball dropping in Times Square.
For the past 3 decades no self-respecting Tamil new year party either
at home, or on TV or amongst the vast diaspora is complete without
this number.”
Name the movie and the actor whose name has been blanked
out

89. ANSWER

90. Sakala Kala Vallavan
Kamal Hassan (or Ulaganayagan
if you prefer)

91. 27. A subtle tribute by who to whom?

92. ANSWER

93. Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses

94. 28.
The son of a black slave and a renegade French aristocrat,
born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), his uncle dealt in
sugar and slaves out of a little cove called Monte Cristo.
His father, sailed to France in 1775 to claim the family
inheritance and pawned his black son into slavery to buy
passage. Only after securing his title and inheritance did
he send for the boy, who arrived on French soil late in
1776, listed in the ship‟s records as “slave ______.”
At 24, he joined the army, was inspired by the French
Revolution‟s cause and marched with the German-
Austrian army on Paris in 1792. He served with
distinction in many campaigns, including one in Egypt
along with Napoleon Bonaparte before marrying an
innkeeper‟s daughter.
Who?

95. ANSWER

96. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, whose
exploits inspired his
son, Alexandre Dumas to pen
numerous novels

97. 29.
Two port cities with similar Greek links:
Originally these were 3 separate port cities called
Sabratha, Oea and Leptis Magna. The Greeks originally
referred to these with the word for „3 cities‟, which passed
on to the Romans. Eventually only the middle city Oea
was referred to by the name and it stuck.
If you got the first half above, think of the Greek word for
„in the city‟, which eventually got corrupted and that will
give you the other port city.
Name both cities.

98. ANSWER

99. Tripoli, from tri-polis
Istanbul, from eis tan polin

100. 30.
After 20 years when it last happened in 1992 with Ek
Doctor Ki Maut, it happened in 2012 with the movie
Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola.
While some have pointed out that the 1983 Shyam
Benegal film Mandi would also be a part of this list,
purists have said that this is not true because of
something that did not happen in Mandi..
What happened in all these films ?
Why do purists object to considering the film
Mandi?

101. ANSWER

102. Shabana Azmi and Pankaj Kapur acting in
the same film
They did not share the same scene frame in
Mandi.

103. 31.
The rituals for the Haj begin 4 days in advance
starting at Mina, a distance of 8 km from the mosque
in Mecca. On day 2, there is a journey to Arafat to
stand in the hot sun to be judged by Allah.
Before nightfall, pilgrims leave for Muzdalifah, a
place which is the designated spot to do something
prior to haj.
What do they do at Muzdalifah?
Pic on next slide

105. ANSWER

106. Collecting stones to throw at the
devil

107. 32.
At the 2013 Ballon d‟Or ceremony, Lionel Messi wore
a one-button black silk tuxedo with white polka dots
and black satin labels.
The suit, exclusively designed by Dolce and
Gabbana, is a departure from his previous 3 award
attires and is a supposed tribute to someone‟s
outrageous sense of fashion at the 1995 awards
ceremony.
Who?
Pic on next slide

109. ANSWER

110. Diego Maradona

111. 33.
Japanese legend says that a passing nobleman on the
road once saw it wave at him. As the nobleman
turned to approach it, a bolt of lightning struck the
ground he had been standing on. The story of this
miraculous savior of the nobleman‟s life spread
leading to Japan‟s most widely recognized symbol of
good fortune, the Maneki Neko.
So, what is a Maneki Neko, a good luck charm at the
entrance of most Japanese establishments?

112. ANSWER

113. Beckoning Cat

114. 34.
Traditionally, there were two kinds of hunters: the
sportsman who killed for the pleasure of killing, and
the hungry _____ hunter who killed to put animals in
his _____ to cook and eat them.
The despicable habit of the latter category of hunter
to kill all year caused the use of the phrase _____
____ to describe the gunfire aimed at the prey, later
evolving to any opportunistic bit of gunfire, or
attempt to capricious insult or heckle.
What phrase?

115. ANSWER

116. Pot Shots

117. 35.
To avoid external dependence, this smuggling contract
was put out by the Kew botanical gardens where a
struggling British explorer Henry Wickham was offered a
reward of £10 for every 1000 seeds that he could collect
from the Amazon basin.
Wickham smuggled out over 70,000 seeds right under the
Brazilian authorities noses. Around 10% of the seeds
germinated at the Kew, of which some 2000 were
transported to the British colonies of Ceylon and later to
Singapore and Malaya for cultivation.
What plant was thus cultivated, giving the British
Empire early leadership going into the 20th century?

118. ANSWER

119. Rubber

120. FINALS FOLLOW IN A WHILE..