Prelims - The Shyam Bhatt Memorial Open Quiz 2013 at AFMC Pune
Feb. 25, 2013•0 likes•5,654 views
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Questions from the 2013 edition of the Shyam Bhatt Memorial Open Quiz held on 16 Feb 2013, at Armed Forces Medical College, Pune. This is also the oldest running Open Quiz in Pune.
Prelims - The Shyam Bhatt Memorial Open Quiz 2013 at AFMC Pune
1. The Shyam Bhatt
Memorial Open Quiz 2013
Researched and conducted for AFMC by:
Major Chandrakant Nair
2. 37 questions
Questions 11-20 are starred and will be used to resolve ties, if any
In case of questions with multiple parts (no question has more
than three parts in the prelims), nothing for getting a single part,
0.5 points for getting 2/3 and one full point for getting all three
Top 8 teams in the finals
5. Puerto Rico has been discussed widely as the potential 51st
state of the United States.
While campaigning in Florida in Jan 2012, Republican
presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called for the entry of
another region as the 51st state into the American Union - “I
think the number is 13,000 — when we have 13,000 Americans
living there, they can petition to become a state.”
Where?
7. Silver Nitrate, on exposure to NaCl and proteins with exposed
sulphur atoms, forms salts that are largely pale. But light soon
reacts with the silver and removes it from its compounds,
depositing it as a metal.
What is the most common application of this process?
9. This 1965 book was one of
the first self-defence books
aimed specifically at
women. It was put together
by X, using the knowledge
of martial arts and judo
learned for a 1961 project,
with help from X’s teachers
Joe Robinson and Doug
Robinson.
Just identify X.
11. It is a term for an unspecified but reasonably large number.
The OED dates its use back to 1918 and points to its
derivation from the term for “A fanciful verbal representation
of the dash (—) in Morse code.”
What term?
13. A Celtic God worshipped in ancient Gaul and Roman Britain,
his name means tribal protector/father of the tribe. In fact,
every tribe of these lands had their own version of the god.
He is also the subject of a famous catchphrase from the
Asterix comics.
For what other passing mention does he feature in this quiz?
Image in the next slide.
16. “I have carried the manuscript of these translations with me for
days, reading it in railway trains, or on the top of omnibuses and
in restaurants, and I have often had to close it lest some
stranger would see how much it moved me.”
Excerpt from the introduction to a book that was written at
the request of (and dedicated to) English painter William
Rothenstein, who also made a pencil sketch on the front piece
of the book.
Which book? Who wrote the introduction?
18. It happens around 20 times a year, spaced at 2 week intervals
usually, and is accompanied by a music excerpt from Georges
Bizet's Carmen suite #1.
What?
21. They are a small community physically divided between Israel
and Palestine. They are direct descendants of the Northern
tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh and take their name from an
ancient capital of Israel.
As of January 1, 2012, there were 751 of them divided between
four families, half of whom reside in their modern homes at
Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim which is sacred to them, and the
rest in the city of Holon, just outside Tel Aviv.
Identify this community whose name is today used in a popular
metaphor. Image in the next slide.
24. Arthur Mailey played 21 Test matches for Australia between
1920 and 1926 and holds the record for the best bowling figures
in an innings by an Australian cricketer with 9/121 against
England in February 1921.
Also, in a first-class match during the 1921 tour, he took all 10
wickets against Gloucestershire in the second innings.
He named his autobiography after his bowling figures in this
match and also as a reference to a famous work of parody.
Gimme his bowling figures OR Name the autobiography.
26. Pule or Donkey Cheese that sells for over $500/pound is deemed
the world’s most expensive cheese. The creation is intensive and
takes 25 liters of donkey milk for production of 1 kg of pule.
In late 2012, X bought the entire existing stock of Pule, produced
by a single farm in Zasavica, to ensure that it is served only in the
restaurant chain he was launching in his home country.
Incidentally, X also featured in a cameo role in the 2012 sequel to
a 2010 action movie, which was edited out in the final version.
Who is X?
29. Usually light green in colour, it primarily contains arkosic sand
composed of quartz grains and feldspar. Individual pieces are
usually 1 cm thick and weigh several gms. As a rule, one surface
is smooth while the other side has a highly irregular texture.
Available at only one location worldwide (much of which has
already been bulldozed), its collection from the source is illegal
at present. However, material that was taken prior to this
prohibition in the 1950s is still in the hands of collectors.
Images in the next 2 slides show the specimens and Aga Khan IV
with one such souvenir.
What is this material?
33. X is a 35 km long river which runs down from the southern
Highlands of Scotland to the River Clyde. The name X, which
runs very close to the campus of Glasgow University, was
adopted in 1892 by a professor who researched and taught
there. This name died with him, as he was survived by neither
heirs nor close relations.
The name was absolutely immortalized by Stanislaw Lem, who
named the protagonist of his most famous book after this
professor.
Name the river/professor/character.
35. Featured is a song from Blink 182’s 1997 album ‘Dude Ranch’.
The title and lyrics of the song are references to the 1958
Academy Award winning Walt Disney documentary ‘White
Wilderness’.
What is the lasting legacy of this documentary?
Audio Removed
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvCrNQGaZUQ
38. X is a location that owes its name to the martyrdom of a person
(after whom is named the place where the only stadium in the
world to have hosted both a Football World Cup final and a
Rugby World Cup final is located). There is also an alternate
theory that proposes the origin of name X to the temples of
two Roman gods located there.
Sculpting material Y (the active derivative of which is called
Modroc) gets its name from the fact that it was initially sourced
from mines in X.
Solve for X and Y.
40. Nilambur is a town in the Malappuram district of Kerala, and is
famous its teak plantations. The town is home to Conolly’s Plot,
the oldest teak plantation in the world and the Teak Museum, the
only one of its kind in the entire world.
The teak wood from Nilambur has traditionally been used by a
108 year-old company whose almost every product is made-to-
order. Wood from a single tree is used exclusively in a single
product so as to maintain uniformity of grain, colour and age.
Each item is said to feature up to 41 different wooden panels and
teak from a single tree pushes the price tag up by at least 2 lakhs.
What are these products?
42. Primarily a response to various audible stimuli, they are 10-100
metres long on an average, and rarely do reach 500 metres.
One such in northern Alberta, Canada, in 2010 was described to
be so large (spanning about 900 metres) that it was visible from
space, appearing in NASA satellite imagery from the 1990s.
What?
Image in the next slide.
45. The Five Obstructions is a 2003 experimental Danish film by Lars
von Trier and his friend-mentor-director Jorgen Leth. The
movie involves Lars von Trier setting a challenge for Leth: to re-
make Leth’s 1967 pseudo-anthropological short, ‘The Perfect
Human’, but with a certain number of ‘obstructions’ in place.
One of the obstructions was that Leth had to re-make the film
in the most dreadful place on earth, with von Trier starring in it
himself, and evoking the place without actually filming it. Leth
chose to set it in X and with re-enactment of a scene against a
translucent screen which allowed viewers to see the crowd of
women and children behind the screen.
Identify X. Image in the next slide.
48. Jalalpur Sharif is a small town in the Punjab district of
Pakistan, the sharif suffix coming from the Shrine of Pir Syed
Ghulam Haidar Ali Shah. The town is also close to Khewra
salt mines, the world's second largest. However, the town is
most famous as the burial place of X, famously distressed by
a shadow, and with a name meaning ‘ox-head’.
Identify X.
50. The National Health Service (NHS), the publicly funded
healthcare system of England, is the largest and the oldest such
system in the world. The “free at point of use” set-up, established
in 1948, is funded through the general taxation system.
The conception of this acclaimed model is attributed, to a large
extent, to a towering 1930s account by a young doctor that
exposed the severe inadequacies of health care in the country.
The doctor asked for a free public health service in order to beat
the wiles of doctors who “raised guinea-snatching and the
bamboozling of patients to an art form.”
Name this account. What connects this account to the coal mines
of Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh?
52. Soon after his death, a legislation was introduced to honor him.
The medium chosen for this purpose was selected to pay
tributes to his efforts in the founding of the late 1930s initiative
X that began with a request to children. X was named after a
1931-1945, 30-minute long, weekly US radio news series Y that
used material from the Time magazine and was described to be
“the first radio newsreel that dramatized news events, staged
with sound effects and music, put together like a newspaper.”
Who? Which medium? Also name X or Y.
54. Video of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics.
What is the stadium representative of in this segment?
Also, what is represented by the silver umbrellas (Image in
the next slide)?
Video Removed
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC-EemopkvU
(From 0:40 to 1:20)
57. Technically, they are seals generally bearing a coat of arms,
made by intaglio engraving either in metal or gemstones. Since
they are used to attest the authority of its bearer, they have
been traditionally seen as a symbol of his power, which explains
their inclusion in the regalia of many monarchs.
The distinctive appearance of the early stages of immature
trophozoites of the malaria parasite in the Red Blood Cells is
also named after them.
What are we talking about? Image in the next slide.
60. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, like its
predecessor, depicts artifacts at the Federal Archives at the
Smithsonian Institution coming to life during night.
The movie has a scene where the Larry Daley (played by Ben
Stiller) fends off fictional pharaoh Kahmunrah and his minions
using a three-pronged tool called a pitchfork used in the removal
of loose agricultural material like hay, leaves, and dung.
Where does Larry get this instrument from?
62. Named after Vittal Kini and his wife Rukmini Kini (in
recognition of the generous donation made by their
granddaughter Dhamya Ramadas Kini), it was inaugurated by
Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief of CNN-IBN on March 6,
2010 by unveiling a portrait of his father and eminent
cricketer, late Dilip Sardesai.
What?
Image in the next slide.
65. On the fourth anniversary of King Faruk's exile, Gamal Abdel
Nasser appeared in Muhammad Ali Square in Alexandria where
twenty months earlier an assassin had attempted to kill him.
An immense crowd gathered, and he began a three-hour
speech from a few notes jotted on the back of an envelope.
During his speech, Nasser uttered someone’s name that was a
code for an Army engineer named Colonel Mahmoud Yunis to
commence something that he was tasked with.
What was the code word? What did Yunis do?
67. X loved sports and was a die-hard fan of Muhammad Ali,
confessing on record that he dreamt of meeting Ali some day.
While on a 14-city-US tour in 1979, X took time out from his
schedule and took a flight to Kentucky along with his 18-year-
old-son and wife. The son recounts: “Ali was aware that my
father was a big man in India. He came and sat down. Maybe it
was exciting for him to meet my father and he said, 'I am the
great Muhammad Ali from America and you are the great X from
India'. My father wanted to remember this moment and Ali had
an idea. Ali said, 'We will pose like this. You punch me on the face
and I will punch you back'. And they laughed about it.”
Identify X. Image in the next slide.
70. There are only 3 individuals who have received the highest
distinction in the Soviet Union (Hero of the Soviet Union) as well
as the highest peacetime gallantry award in India (Asoka
Chakra).
Two of them are Yury Vasilyevich Malyshev and Gennadi
Mikhailovich Strekalov.
Who is the third person?
72. This term X is supposed to have originated from a Dutch word
spelled kwakzalver. The phonetic similarity of this word to Y,
slipped into counterfeit medications might suggest a connection
between the two, but there isn’t any recorded evidence that the
substance Y led to the name X.
What are X and Y?
74. The following are some examples that were nominated by the
media to help aid the mission to revive the language of Latin:
- LOL – Magna voce ride
- Lovin' it – Id amans
- Just do it! – Fac!
- Girl power – Puellae potestas
The process itself was set in motion by “Unitati christifidelium
integre studentes quid iubet Dominus? Orare semper, iustitiam
factitare, amare probitatem, humiles Secum ambulare”.
It was also pointed out that the above quote was, technically,
not the first instance of Latin used.
So, what was the first Latin word used?
76. “When I saw his condition, I couldn't say a word. He looked like a
skeleton of himself. I had tears in my eyes. You never have a
sense of the tallness of the man; he was 6-foot-5, with a huge
head, huge eyes, a boom-boom voice”, was how Dilip K Basu,
currently a Professor Emeritus at the History Department of
the University of Santa Cruz, CA, described the deathbed
appearance of someone. Mr. Basu was this person’s lifeline in
his last days, bringing him everything from bags of granola,
books, a VCR and finally something else, the delivery of which
was captured on video.
What was this last item that Mr. Basu delivered? For what
purpose was the video taken?
79. What is marked by this memorial?
What is marked by this memorial?
81. The Campeonato Paulista, established in 1902, is the top-flight
professional football league in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo.
However due to a difference in opinion, in 1913, the APEA
(Paulista Athletic Sports Association) was founded, where most
of the teams went to.
The depleted Campeonato Paulista was left with only
Americano, Germania and Internacional. However, they were
soon joined by Corinthians.
This fact is referenced in the mascot of Corinthians. Just identify
the mascot.
83. Johann Strauss II's stepdaughter, Alice von Meyszner-Strauss,
once asked Johannes Brahms to sign her an autograph.
He wrote down something that today is used as the interval
signal for its programs by Osterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), the
Austrian national public service broadcaster. He also added
“Leider nicht von Johannes Brahms” (Alas! not by Johannes
Brahms) to it.
What did he write down?
85. Which museum, constructed in the 1640s, is named after the
mythical dwelling of Avalokitesvara, the Buddhist bodhisattva,
that is first mentioned in the final chapter of the Flower
Garland Sutra, the Gandavyuha Sutra?
87. In the 14th century, ships visiting foreign ports, as a token of
friendship and as a display of the lack of hostile intent, used to
perform a certain gesture. For every gesture performed by the
ship (the sum total of which had astrological and Biblical
significance), the forts/people on the shore would repeat it
three times.
What did this evolve into?
89. The name of a 1987 innovation X was voted by the Oxford
University Press as their ‘2012 Word of the Year’.
Excerpt from a Jan 2013 Wired magazine article on the relevance
of this innovation: “Y showed it throughout the US and Europe,
and crowds loved it. They were particularly fascinated by how the
zoopraxiscope let them study a single movement over and over—
dogs racing, a man executing a somersault, wild bulls charging.
The zoopraxiscope captured evanescence, replaying tiny moments
of everyday life so we could see them in a new way……One
hundred and thirty years later, we’re still living in the age of Y.”
Identify X. Also name Y, whose work was brought to life by X.
91. During WW II, the British secret service hatched a master plan
to smuggle escape gear to captured soldiers inside Germany.
Since paper maps made a lot of sound when unfolded and fell
apart when wet, they turned to John Waddington Ltd, a
company that had recently perfected the process of printing on
silk and was already manufacturing silk escape maps for British
airmen to carry. Metal files, a magnetic compass, cash, a
regional silk escape map complete with marked safe-houses
along the way etc. were all smuggled through Waddington’s
products that masqueraded as Red Cross aid packages.
What were these products?