Oasis Quiz Lonewolf Edition - 2011

Name: ____________________________________________________________

Category: College Open

Institution: _______________________________________________________

Phone No.: _________________ Email: ________________________________

 90 minutes, 120 questions
 *s settle ties
 No negative marking
 No electronic media, phones OFF

Total: *s:

In the DC Multiverse, the Riddler has an antimatter counterpart who
1. makes up for his lack of superpowers with his incredibly high IQ
and knowledge of almost all disciplines. What‘s he called?
It used to be the principal port for Yemen's capital Sana'a and
famous for being the major marketplace for coffee. Coffee beans
2.
from here continue to be prized for their distinctive flavor—and
remain so even today.
In 1998, Page & Brin went to attend the Burning Man festival. What
3.
did they do to indicate their absence from office?
4. Campanology is the study of which musical instrument?
She was the personification of memory in Greek mythology. This
titaness was the daughter of Gaia and Uranus and the mother of the
5.
nine Muses by Zeus. Either name her or a word she has given us.
You surely remember this.
This book, the sequel to the famous Three Men in a Boat, brings
back the three companions, this time on a bicycle tour through the
6.
German Black Forest. It is called Three Men on the ________. A
German word please.
The Greeks referred to this Indian region as Pentapotamia. In the
7. sacred text of Zoroastrians, this region is associated with the ancient
Land of Seven Rivers. The British called it "Our Prussia."
What dish takes its name from the past participle of a Spanish word
8.
meaning "season (or decorate) with chili"?
A pun on a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage
9. from 264 to 146 BC is used to describe the rivalry between two adult
magazines during the 60s and 70s. Name both.
He was born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants. He
was raised on the family's farm. He grew up to become the largest
10.*
milk producer in Sullivan County, New York. Famous for an
important contribution (literally so) in the music field. Identify.
This poet makes an appearance in the 1990 alternative history novel
The Difference Engine, which also features Charles Babbage and
Ada Lovelace, who also happens to be his only legitimate child in
11.
real life. In a Britain powered by the mechanical computers of
Charles Babbage, he is leader of the Industrial Radical Party,
eventually becoming Prime Minister.
What word, common in Bharatanatyam, comes from Tamil for
12.
climbing a raised platform?
This film begins with images of camera equipment and projectors
lighting up and projecting brief cinematic glimpses, including a
crucifixion, an erect penis, clips from a comedic silent-film reel and
13.
the slaughter of a lamb. The last glimpse features a boy who wakes
up in a hospital, reading Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, and
caressing the blurry images of two female faces.
Give one word that connects:
 A taxon that disappears from one or more periods of a fossil
record, only to appear again later.
14.  The phenomenon of seeing an unusable semiconductor
detector fix itself at cryogenic temperatures.
 The unexpected return of spontaneous circulation after
resuscitation has been abandoned.

English Language Activities Society – BITS Pilani
1

When Robert Clive wished to pay thanks for his victory in the Battle
of Plassey, he was unable to do so in a Church because the only
church in Calcutta at that time was destroyed by Siraj-ud-Daulah.
15.
What was organised for the first time by Raja Nabakrishna Deb of
the Shobhabazar Rajbari of Calcutta in honour of Lord Clive in the
year 1757?
When he was thirteen, his mother committed suicide by drowning in
the river. It is claimed that he was there when her body was retrieved
16.*
and saw her face covered by her dress, which is believed to have
inspired one of his famous paintings.
It is a 1953 Merrie Melodies cartoon by Chuck Jones, featuring Bugs
Bunny and Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. It is widely considered
among Jones' best and most important films. Its naming is possibly
17.*
inspired by a concept made famous by philosopher Ludwig
Wittgenstein, illustrating the difference between ‗Seeing that‘ and
‗seeing as‘.
This game uses a special glove that extends into a long pointed
curved basket. Hence it is called cesta-punta in Spanish meaning
18.
'edged basket'. It is considered the fastest sport in the world because
of the ball speed. It features in the 1982 cult film Tron.
This animal has the largest brain among all animals. It gets its name
19. from a milky-white waxy substance found in its head, which is used
in cosmetics, leatherworking, and lubricants.
X was a gaily decorated cap, usually with a number of loose peaks
tipped with bells, formerly worn by court jesters and clowns. In the
20.
18th century folio-sized paper had a watermark of an X on it, and
thus a paper of that size has now come to be known as Y. Give Y.
The ending of the Tintin comic The Castafiore Emerald is inspired
21.
by the name of which Rossini opera?
X is a cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture,
popular as an inexpensive substitute to cigars. The word X comes
22. from Tamil ‗shuruttu‘- meaning roll. This word was absorbed into
the French language from Tamil during the 18th century and thence
into English. Identify X.
What was the name given to the supposed sunken landmass
connecting Madagascar, South India and Australia which has been
23. identified by some historians with ‗Lemuria‘, a hypothetical lost
continent posited in 19th century to account for biogeographical
discontinuities?
She was a mathematician, physicist, and author most famous for
translating Newton's Principia into French. She predicted the
existence of infrared radiation and also showed that the energy of a
24.*
moving object is proportional to the square of its velocity. Voltaire,
one of her lovers described her as ―a great man whose only fault was
being a woman.‖
X was a 1966 movie by Y about a photographer who accidentally
photographs a murder in a park. This plot element was repeated in
25.
the Hindi movie Jaane bhi do yaaron, and in tribute to X the park
where the murder happens was called Y Park. Gimme X & Y.

2

_______ is a Russian wartime song, composed in 1938, about a girl
longing for her beloved, who is away on military service. _______ is
26. a tender diminutive from the female name Ekaterina. ________ also
gave its name to the BM-8, BM-13, and BM-31 rocket launchers
that were fielded by the Red Army in WWII.
Born in Germany, his father was a prize-winning gymnast of Greek
ancestry, and his mother worked as a naturopath. His surname led to
27. him being taunted at school for killing Christ. He developed what he
called Contrology, a method which he believed uses the mind to
control the muscles.
It is an alternative alphabet for the English language that is used
primarily on the Internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII
28. characters to replace Latinate letters. One theory is that it was
developed to defeat text filters created to discourage the discussion
of forbidden topics, like cracking and hacking.
This surname usually refers to members of the Kshatriya caste from
the hills of Nepal. They are the largest caste group in Nepal,
29.
comprising about 15.5% of the total population. It is a colloquial
derivative of the word kshatriya.
X is a food spread made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer-
brewing. The product took its name from the French term for a large,
30. covered earthenware or metal cooking pot. X was originally supplied
in earthenware pots, but since the 1920s has primarily been sold in
glass jars that approximate the shape of such pots.
Hemlock water dropwort was a neurotoxic plant used for the ritual
killing of elderly people in pre-Roman X. These people were
intoxicated with this herb and then dropped from a high rock or
31.
beaten to death. Y is a commonly used two word phrase, which was
apparently used to describe their countenances when this happened.
X is a present day Italian province. Give Y.
This German mathematician is credited with the modern formal
definition of a function, apart from other achievements. His surname
32.
is derived from French for "the youth from Richelette" as his family
was from a small community called Richelette in Belgium.
Martin Lahart, Samuel Seager, Bernard Cloonan, Lyle Chapman,
William Gardner and others, led by X were charged with bringing
33.
down Al Capone. They came to be known as ‗Y‘ for their legendary
courage and incorruptibility. Identify X and Y.
This was an extremely sought-after role during this movie‘s making
with even Eleanor Roosevelt writing to David Selznick to let her
34.
maid play the role. The woman X who played it won an Oscar for it,
thus achieving a certain first. Identify X.
This club is based in the capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan.
Due to Islamic insurgency, the players train in Moscow and have to
35.
travel 2,000 km to play their home games. It has come into the
spotlight with the recent signing of Samuel Eto'o. Name.
It is one of the Mahavakyas in Vedanta. It originally occurs in the
Chandogya Upanishad in the dialogue between Uddalaka and his
36. son Śvetaketu. It can be translated as ‗Thou art that‘ and influenced
the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and is mentioned throughout
his book, The World as Will and Representation.

3

Extract from the song ―Skull Beneath The Skin‖
‖Prepare the patients scalp
To peel away
Metal caps his ears
He'll hear not what we say
37.
Solid steel visor
Riveted across his eyes
Iron staples close his jaws
So no one hears his cries‖
Who is being described here?
X is a method of extraction, by boiling, of dissolved chemicals, or
herbal or plant material. It involves first mashing, and then boiling in
38. water to extract chemical substances. X is also the name for the
resulting fluid. In South India, this word is used for a certain drink
prepared in a certain manner.
The Island of Port Lligat is located at the entrance of a small bay in
Catalonia, Spain. A famous painter lived here and both the bay and
39.
the island have been represented in several of his paintings as a
rocky landscape background. Identify painter.
This educator and librarian was a supporter of spelling reform. He
was also active in arranging the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake
40. Placid. Most famous for introducing a new system for something,
which he devised by improving on something first outlined by Sir
Francis Bacon.
She was the last of the postwar conventional aircraft carriers
commissioned into the Royal Navy. Served as one of four Royal
41.* Navy strike carriers mainly in the Indian Ocean area until 1970 and
was made the flagship of the British forces during the Falkland wars.
Paid off in 1985 and refitted and sold to another navy.
This word derives from the inaccurate reading of the Arabic
expression samt ar-ra's, meaning ―direction of the head‖, by
42. Medieval Latin scribes. It was incorrectly reduced to ‗samt‘
("direction"), and later, via Old French and Middle English, gained
its current form. What's the word?
In ocean lore, the sight of this phantom ship is a portent of doom.
This legend has influenced various works, including supposedly
43. Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and the opera X by
Richard Wagner. X is also a nickname given to various
sportspersons from a particular country.
In 1742 Pierre Martel visited a valley in the Alps. He attributed the
dispersal of erratic boulders to the fact that the glaciers had once
44. extended much farther. This was followed by research expeditions
by various scientists and eventually led to Louis Agassiz's ___ ___
theory.
This word, now used mainly in an informal context to mean intense
criticism, is an abbreviation from the German ‗Flugabwehrkanone‘
45.
meaning (anti-)aircraft defense cannon, possibly as a metaphor
derived from intense bursts of fire from the same. Identify
It is a medium blue-green color. It is named after a member of the
duck family, whose eyes are surrounded by the color. The post-2004
46.
redesigned version of the United States $100 bill features this as its
primary background color.

4

Before he was born, his parents had three sons and a daughter, with
all three boys dying in their infancy. Fearing a curse that targeted
male children, he was brought up as a girl for the first few years of
47.
his life, including being made to wear a nose-ring, because of which
he came to be called by a certain nickname. This nickname stuck and
he is still famous by this name. Who?
Also known as Japanese horseradish, this plant is a member of the
family which includes cabbages and mustard. Its root is used as a
48. condiment and has an extremely strong flavor which is a result of
complex chemical mixtures from the broken cells of the rhizome.
What is it commonly known as?
It is a term for a motivating element in a story that is used to drive
the plot and serves no further purpose. The term was popularized by
49.* Alfred Hitchcock, who described it as ―In crook stories it is almost
always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers".
A Scottish name gives you the answer.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
50.
And the mome raths outgrabe.
The first stanza of which famous poem of nonsense verse written by
Lewis Caroll as part of his novel ―Through the Looking Glass‖?
―________ charges‖ was the term applied to human wave attacks by
the infantry of the losing Imperial Japanese Army during the WWII
51. when surrender or death were the only options. The Japanese word
________ literally means ―Ten thousand years‖ and is a common
exhortation of long life or celebration in Japan.
This word is the feminine passive past participle of a French verb
meaning ―to melt‖. It is used as a noun and was first attested in
52. French in 1735, in Vincent la Chapelle‘s ―Cuisinier Moderne‖.
Today used to describe dishes where food is dipped into a communal
pot of hot liquid.
He was a general of the Russian army during the Napoleonic Wars.
He features in Tolstoy‘s War and Peace. He led the left wing at the
Battle of Borodino, where he constructed a number of fleches. He
53.*
was mortally wounded in this battle. An operation in WW2 which
cleared the German forces from Belorussian SSR and eastern Poland
is named after him.
The term "XY" might have originated in Pennsylvania in 1888,
when an Act raised the state's fee for a saloon license. Kate Hester
refused to pay the new license fee and wanted to keep from drawing
54.
attention to her illegal business. So when her customers got too
rowdy, she would hush them by whispering, "X Y, boys! X Y!".
Give XY.
Give one word for:
 The British English term for a high spiral slide
 A song from the album ―The Beatles‖ (better known as The
55.
White Album)
 The term given by Charles Manson for an apocalyptic war
which he believed would arise between whites and blacks.

5

The ______ effect refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the
expectation placed on people, often children or students and
56. employees, the better they perform. It is named after a Cypriot
sculptor in a narrative by Ovid in Greek Mythology who fell in love
with a female statue he had carved out of ivory. Fill in the blank.
This animal, colloquially called the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian
Wolf, was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern
57.* times. Native to continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, it
is thought to have become extinct in the 20th century. It was one of
only two marsupials to have a pouch in both sexes.
X is a 1973 American sci-fi film directed by Richard Fleischer. It is
set in a dystopian future. Much of the population survives on
58. processed rations including X, which, advertised as being produced
from "high-energy plankton" turns out to be processed human meat.
Identify X.
X, German for ‗Night of (broken) Glass‘ was a pogrom against Jews
throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on November 9–10,
59. 1938 and was triggered by the assassination of German diplomat
Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew
in Paris, France. Give X.
"Little twines", "Little worms", "Rifles", "Cooking Pot", "Large
60.
canes", "Pens" and "Squashed" are some of the famous types of?
He was the inventor of the first portable fully automatic machine
gun. He also laid a claim to inventing the light bulb and
61.
experimented with powered flight. He is also the inventor of the
ubiquitous mousetrap.
X's wheel was invented in 1150 by Indian mathematician X, in an
attempt to create a perpetual motion machine. The wheel consisted
62. of curved or tilted spokes partially filled with mercury. Once in
motion, the mercury would flow from one side of the spoke to
another, thus forcing the wheel to continue motion.
He was the son of Helios and Clymene. Seeking assurance that
Helios was indeed his father he obtained his father's permission to
63. drive the sun chariot as proof. He failed to control it and the Earth
was in danger of burning up when he was killed by a thunderbolt
from Zeus to prevent further disaster.
When the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to see the far
64. side of the moon in late 1968, they were tempted to radio back the
discovery of a large, black _______.
He was called the "Atom Smasher", and the man who "held the key"
to atomic energy. The invention that brought X to international fame
65. started out when X was once intrigued by a diagram which proposed
to produce very high-energy particles by means of a succession of
very small "pushes."
This indigenous tribe is found mostly in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Their name is derived from a word meaning "piece of land" or
66. "field". Their mural paintings are famous and similar to those done
between 500 and 10,000 BCE in the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, in
Madhya Pradesh.

6

X emerged as the lead character in Hogan's Alley, drawn by Richard
F. Outcault. X was a bald, snaggle-toothed boy who wore a
67.
nightshirt and hung around in a ghetto alley filled with equally odd
characters, mostly other children.
Which webcomic generally characterized by the juxtaposition of
whimsical childlike imagery or fantasy with morbid, sudden or
68.
unexpected surreal humor, takes its name from the name of a church
in Maine?
The author of this book has emphasized that the book is not about
mathematics, art, and music but rather about how cognition and
69.
thinking emerge from well-hidden neurological mechanisms.
Identify the book.
While with the French Resistance during World War II, this director
adopted a pseudonym as a tribute to his favorite American author.
Jean-Luc Godard used him as a minor character in Breathless. When
70.
Godard was having difficulty editing the film, he suggested that he
just cut directly to the best parts of a shot, which inspired Godard to
use the extremely famous jump cuts.
It is the practice of having more than one intimate relationship at a
time with the consent of everyone involved. The infinity heart, a red
and white heart combined with a blue infinity is often used as a
71.
symbol by people who practice this. The French philosophers Jean
Pierre Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were famously involved in
such a relationship.
In 1726, Jonathan Swift described tensions in Lilliput and Blefuscu:
whereas in Lilliput people cracked open a soft-boiled egg at the
72.
small end, inhabitants of the rival kingdom of Blefuscu cracked it at
the other end. What term, used in computing, derives from this?
Marcus Garvey, Jr. was a 20th century Jamaican journalist and
orator. A staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-
Africanism movements, he founded a shipping line which promoted
73.
the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands. This line
derived its name from a well-known shipping line, whose success
Garvey felt he could duplicate. Name the line.
In music, X is a motif or phrase which is persistently repeated in the
same musical voice. X is to classical music what a riff is to popular
74. music, though a riff doesn't necessarily have to repeat. The term X
comes from the Italian word for "obstinate", owing to the phrase's
unwillingness to leave.
Xs are referred to by the Chinese as Yuan-yang, where yuan and
yang respectively stand for male and female Xs. In the eyes of the
75. ancient Chinese, Xs form a life-time couple, unlike many other
species. Hence they are frequently featured in Oriental art and are
regarded as a symbol of conjugal affection and fidelity.
X was a French-Italian cardinal, diplomat, and politician. He was a
noted collector of art and jewels, particularly diamonds, and he
76.
bequeathed the "X diamonds" to Louis XIV in 1661, one of which
featured in a Sherlock Holmes case.
He is a great King of the nagas and is known in Chinese and
Japanese mythology as being one of the "eight Great Naga Kings".
77.
During Samudramanthan, he was used as the churning rope to
extract the ambrosia of immortality from the ocean of milk.

7

In an 1865 speech in Oakland, California, Rev. W. B. Brown of New
Jersey, in a satirical reference to a famous phrase, quipped that the
78.
reason the ___ ___ _____ ___ __ ___ ______ was that God did not
trust the British in the dark. Gimme a seven word phrase.
X and Y were both authors and lifelong friends. X based the
character of Idabel in Other Voices, Other Rooms on Y, and was in
79. turn the inspiration for a character in Y‘s 1960 Pulitzer Prize
winning novel. Y was also X‘s research partner in X‘s most famous
book, a journalistic work about the murder of a Kansas farm family.
This Australian came to Mumbai to meet Parveen Babi whilst
awaiting a work permit to work in Muscat. He got his first break as a
type-cast villain in the Hindi movie Abdullah in 1980. His film
80.
career restricted him to be typecast and portray stereotypical roles
such as a henchman, prisoner, the villain's sidekick or a British
officer in pre-war related movies.
He studied medicine and worked at the Department of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology at the University of Kiel, where he published papers
81.
on cancer metastasis and the physiology of egg implantation. He
also developed the first intrauterine device in 1929.
Give one word:
 a historical term for pawn shops or moneychangers in the
Middle Ages
 a musical rhythm, especially used in Baroque music
82.  a phenomenon in which a speaker or singer involuntarily
raises his or her vocal intensity in the presence of high levels
of sound
 a medieval alliance of some 30 cities in Northern Italy
formed to counter the Holy Roman Empire's Frederick I
_______ (hate), Akheron (sorrow), Kokytos (lamentation) and
83.
Phlegethon (flaming), Lethe (forgetfulness). Just fill in the blank.
This British actor won the academy award for best supporting actor
twice – for Spartacus and Topkapi. He was unintentionally a part
84. witness to the assassination of India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
She was on her way to be interviewed by him for a documentary for
Irish television when she was assassinated.
A X, also known as a X helmet or ski mask, is a form of cloth
headgear that covers the whole head, exposing only part of the face.
85.
The name comes from a Ukrainian town of the same name. It‘s
commonly called a monkey cap in India. What is it?
A fellow of the Royal Society, he made pioneering studies in
anthropometry in India. He founded the Indian Statistical Institute,
86. and contributed to the design of large scale sample surveys. He is
perhaps best remembered for a multivariate distance measure, named
after him, which is independent of measurement scale.

He is one of the earliest Indian playwrights in Sanskrit. His works
were discovered in 1912 by Ganapati Shastri, a Sanskrit Scholar in
Kerala. His plays do not follow all the dictates of the Natya Shastra,
87.
which has been taken as a proof of their antiquity. His plays are still
very much popular in Kutiyattam, the only surviving Sanskrit drama
tradition in Kerala.

8

An army of 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150
cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits, was
88.
discovered by farmers in 1974. The purpose of this army was to
guard an emperor in his afterlife. Which army?
The name of this town is an Iroquois word, meaning either "two
moccasins tied together", "bag tied at the middle", "where the fish
are taken out" or "jumping fish." It lent its name to an adult
89.
education movement featuring lectures, plays, and musical
performances, which Theodore Roosevelt described as "the most
American thing in America."
Norris McWhirter came to particular public attention while working
for the BBC as a sports commentator. On 6 May 1954, he kept the
90.
time when Roger Bannister ran the four-minute mile. Which famous
publication did he go on to co-write with his brother?
____ is a strategic board game, invented by French film director
Albert Lamorisse and originally released in 1957 as La Conquête du
91. Monde ("The Conquest of the World") in France. The object of the
game is "to occupy every territory on the board and in so doing,
eliminate all other players." What is it?
Once popular throughout the North American region, its numbers
declined rapidly owing to the bio-magnification of DDT in its prey.
92. The DDT resulted in abnormally thin egg shells. However, with
restrictions on DDT use, its population has stabilized once again.
What creature are we talking about?
He was a Spanish priest who wrote one of the first definitive books
about modern chess in Europe. Considered by many to be the first
93.* unofficial world chess champion, he is today remembered as having
studied in detail an extremely popular chess opening, named after
him. Who?
Connect with a word: Potatoes, Tomatoes, Eggplants, Tobacco and
Belladonna. Most likely, albeit ironically, the name comes from the
94.
perceived resemblance that some of the flowers bear to the sun and
its rays.
Give two words for:
 Indian Cobra, Russell‘s Viper, Krait and Saw Scaled Viper
 Deloitte Touche (M.E), Ernst & Young, PwC, KPMG
95.
 Alberta cattlemen Patrick Burns, George Lane, A. E. Cross
and Archie McLean who together founded the Calgary
Stampede
The term __________ (Greek for "having four letters") refers to the
name of the Lord of Israel, YHWH, used in the Hebrew Bible.
96.
Observant Jews write it down but do not pronounce it as it is
considered too sacred to be used for common activities.

The etymology of this phrase, used as a euphemism for having died
in war is unclear, but it has been theorized that the death benefits
97. paid to the beneficiaries of soldiers who died in battle were often
enough to pay off the mortgage of the family home or farm, hence
the deceased was said to have "________ the ______".

9

Probably the greatest Brazilian footballer to have never won a World
Cup, he was described as the most rugged footballer of the Cold War
era. Name this attacking midfielder who was noted for being an
98.
intellectual, and was a co-founder of the Corinthians Democracy
movement, wherein the players took over the management of the
club.
X was formed in 2001, and based in Moyock, North Carolina as a
company that would train US Navy SEALs for combat. X later
99.
evolved and diversified, and claims to have been absolutely
successful in certain theatres. ID X.
Which famous book has chapters such as "On the Arrangements of a
House, and Household Furniture", "Of Different Kinds of Gain",
100.
"How to Begin and How to End the Congress" and "On Pressing or
Marking with the Nails"?
X: They came in or, you know, told him or they must have spoken to
him and Prime Minister spoke to him.

Y: No. Prime Minister did not. I was the one who was talking with
101. him. I was on the phone and he – Prime Minister said a few words,
that‘s all. And see, Prime Minister can‘t talk on a phone to dad and
convey, there is obviously… Prime Minister is also, you know, very
soft spoken and dad can‘t hear that clearly also.
Just gimme Y.
This drink is believed to get its name because it was made for the
workers in a steel works in Glasgow. These workers were dying
102. from the large amounts of beer drunk to quench their thirst from the
heat of the steel works and this was introduced as an alternative by
A.G. Barr.
X, sometimes called "the father of algebra", was an Alexandrian
Greek mathematician and the author of a series of books which deal
103.
with solving algebraic equations. It was while studying these that
Pierre de Fermat formulated the famous Fermat‘s Last Theorem.
When Erle Stanley Gardner created this fictional attorney, he
borrowed the name of the company which published his favorite
104. childhood magazine. Name this fictional character, who famously
described himself as "I'm a specialist on getting people out of
trouble".
_______ _____ is a common name for over 1,000 species of
flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae. The seeds of many
of these contain alkaloids such as the hallucinogenic ergonovine and
105.
ergine (LSA). The seeds of at least two species are used as
psychedelics and can produce a similar effect to LSD when taken in
the tens.
This animal was brought to prominent European attention by
speculation on its existence in popular press reports, where it was
106. called the ‗African unicorn‘. Remains of a carcass were later sent to
London by the English adventurer Harry Johnston and became a
media event in 1901.
X was a Parisian punch-cutter and publisher. He was one of the
leading type designers of his time. The French court adopted X‘s
107.*
Roman types for their printing and their influence spread across
France and Western Europe. Give me X.

10

A photo album with pictures of X was recently discovered in Y‘s
compound. During X‘s visit to Y‘s country, Y presented X with a
diamond ring, a lute, a locket with an engraved likeness of himself
108.
inside and an inscribed edition of "The Green Book," a personal
political manifesto that explains his "Third Universal Theory for a
new democratic society." Gimme X and Y
A controversial figure among cricketers, he was well known for his
dislike of Australian players and crowds and was unpopular in
109.
Australia. He was the captain of the English team during the 1932-
33 Bodyline series. Who?
Sir Francis Galton defined it as "the study of all agencies under
human control which can improve or impair the racial quality of
110. future generations". It advocates the use of practices aimed at
improving the genetic composition of a population. It has been
called ―the self-direction of human evolution‖. What?
He is one of the Trinity in Carnatic music. At a young age, he was
also exposed to the music of the Western bands at Fort St. George.
111. He composed some forty songs to several western folk tunes. This
corpus is now known as Nottuswara Sahitya. The influence of Celtic
and Baroque styles in these compositions is quite evident. Who?
This astronomer, according to legend, died of complications
resulting from a strained bladder at a banquet as it was considered
bad etiquette to leave the table before the meal was finished. This
112.
version of events has since been brought into question as other
causes of death (murder by Johannes Kepler, suicide, and mercury
poisoning among others) have come to the fore.
He was the father of the Devas, Asuras, Nagas and all of humanity.
He married Aditi, with whom he fathered Agni, the Adityas, and
113. also Vamana. With his second wife, Diti, he begot the Daityas. He
received the earth, obtained by Parashurama's conquest of King
Kartavirya Arjuna.
The Sealed Air Corporation was founded in 1960 by inventors
Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes. Their most famous product
114.
was created by sealing two shower curtains together, which they
originally tried to sell as wallpaper. What product?
In psychology, the X effect is a demonstration of the reaction time of
a task. When the name of a color is printed in a color not denoted by
the name, naming the color of the word takes longer and is more
115.
prone to errors. The effect has been used to create a psychological
test (X Test) that is widely used in clinical practice and
investigation. What is X?

Sarah "Saartjie" Baartman was a Khoikhoi woman who became
famous after being exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th
century Europe under the name ________ _______, owing to the
116.*
unusual bodily features she possessed. Since 1994, Baartman has
become an icon in South Africa as representative of many aspects of
the nation's history. Fill in the blanks.

11

Give one word:
 In Cambridge, a student who has completed the third year of
the mathematical tripos with first-class honours
117.  a profession of handling animals, especially horses and cattle
 a clothing brand owned by the VF Corporation
 an SUV and off-road vehicle manufactured by Chrysler
under its Jeep marquee.
______ ______ is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. Its
eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of
118.
Russian literary heroes (so-called superfluous men). The novel
served as the basis for Tchaikovsky‘s 1879 opera of the same name.
X is an early electronic musical instrument named after its Russian
inventor. It consists of two metal antennas which sense the position
119.* of the player's hands. So it can be played without being touched. It
features in soundtracks of movies like Spellbound, The Machinist,
The Day the Earth Stood Still among others.
It is a form of propaganda where a few people attempt to give the
impression that mass numbers of enthusiasts advocate a specific
120.
cause. It gets its name from the fact that it is often in support of a
political or corporate agenda but is designed to give the appearance
of a "grassroots" movement.

12

This quiz is conducted by the English Language Activities Society, BITS Pilani.

Quizmasters: Srisha Haridas, Nachiketa Adhikari, Pavan Bharadwaj, Mayank Kowshik

We would like to express our immense gratitude to the following people:

 Dr. Anurakshat Gupta, International Quizzing Association
 Karnataka Quiz Association
 Odisha Quiz Association
 The Coimbatore Quiz Circle
 QFI, Chennai
 Kutub Quizzers, Delhi
 SEQC, Goa
 IIT Kharagpur Quiz Club
 Mr. Gautam Ghosh, Kwizmaniax, Kolkata
 Quizzing Commoners, Lucknow
 The Bombay Quiz Club
 Mr. Ramanand of the Boat Club Quiz Club, Pune and Mr. Amit Patil

About OASIS and the Theme:
As the clock strikes 2:00, the texture of the winter sky gets murkier, but faces are still spotted entering through the rusty gates
into the hallowed portals of BITS Pilani. You might mistake them for lost wanderers attracted to the azure oasis in the middle of
the unforgiving desert, but not when there’s so many of them. The chilly wind blows sand into their faces, but they aren’t really
bothered, partly because they have already fistfuls of it in their shoes and on their skin, but mostly because they have been
through a thoroughly exhilarating experience during their drive to the shanty town of Pilani. And the road trip is just the start of
it.

October is as good a time as any to be in Pilani. The sun looks down with considerably less fury, the pesky insects that came with
st
the rain are all gone, and then there’s Oasis. Oasis, the annual cultural festival of BITS Pilani, now in its 41 edition, is one of the
most eagerly anticipated college festivals in the country. It’s 96 hours of unadulterated thrill, a ceaseless euphoria that
overwhelms every being at hand to witness it.

Oasis ’11 – The Roadtrip, as the theme goes, is about capturing and preserving the endless sense of motion that comes with a
long hard trip on an alien path, with briskly changing landscapes, with a heart yearning in the expectancy of something grand
awaiting us at the end of the road. The feeling of being in constant motion does not stop there, though, as the following 96
hours are best spent mindlessly roaming around every nook and corner of the historic yet majestic campus, which is typically
bursting with activity at this time. Academics are on hold, classrooms serve as rehearsal spots, and every student is busy adding
sheen to the grandeur of the college festival, with nothing but a sense of fulfilment to expect in return. Oh, that and a whole lot
of fun. Students are busy with their work, looking after every aspect of the fest, right from gathering sponsors to setting up
stage lights, and also organizing events for the outstation participants to relish. Yes, Oasis is a completely student-organized
cultural fest, and every member of the BITS Pilani fraternity takes tremendous pride in that fact.

The places and events for you to indulge yourself in are aplenty. There is always something or the other going on in pretty much
the entire campus. Rock concerts, plays, mime, street dance, workshops, music competitions, spoofs, quizzes, cyber gaming
wars, solo guitar challenges, talent hunts, a DJ night, a mock parliament, games, a treasure hunt, photography contests,
journalism events, writing challenges, exhibitions, oratory jams, debates and fashion parades: basically, if you can think up of an
interest, we will have an event lined up for you.

Visit us at:

www.bits-oasis.org
Keep up with the latest goings-on at:

www.facebook.com/OasisTheRoadtrip

Contact:

For Publicity: Saurabh Sachdeva saurabh[at]bits-oasis.org Ph:+918890407860
For Participation: Rohit Garg pcr[at]bits-oasis.org Ph:+91-9928460668
For Sponsorship: Sachin Sethi sachin[at]bits-oasis.org Ph:+91-9772975338
Events and Misc.: Arunav Kanoria arunav[at]bits-oasis.org Ph: +91-9772976161

Oasis Quiz Lonewolf Edition - 2011

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Oasis Quiz Lonewolf Edition - 2011