Tuesday, December 25, 2012

King William's College General Knowledge Paper 2012

Enjoy.

8 comments:

  1. Bleedin' 'ell. De'know almost nuffink in this entire quizionaire.

    Tell you what tho, my sons'n'dough'ers: t'row summa dese in witch yer reglar fav brain teasers, cor the fur'll be flyin'.

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  2. "an average score of two."

    I'm not certain how much I can raise that; fairly certain 3.10 is La Boehme, and 3.7 looks like Othello, though I don't remember a suicide. (I would swear 12.1 is "George Bernard Shaw," but I could be wrong.) 14.10 seems worth a reasonable guess, but then we're already well past 100 questions.

    There are a few others that should be easy to a well-educated Brit (i.e., people forced to read Famous British Authors), such as 2.8 or 7.3, and probably even 11.3.

    But other than 18.6 being "the death of Neil Armstrong," would anyone other than a TLS editor bet they could accurately answer a couple dozen without looking them up?

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  3. The answer to the one about Howe's patent infringement suit is Singer.

    Other than that, without Googling, I'm stumped.

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  4. Anonymous9:28 AM

    I think 3 is all Verdi operas:
    1. Rigoletto 2. Falstaff 3. ?? 4. ??? 5. Trovatore 6. ?? 7. Otello 8. ballo in maschera 9. Don carlo (I think) 10. Traviata

    Not sure why, but I share Ken Houghton's sense that 12.1 is Shaw.

    15.6 is St. Denis, I believe.

    That's all I can figure off the top of my head.

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  5. Don't be modest, Anon. You've beat everyone.

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  6. I looked at the quiz. I'm gonna wait to see the published answers in the new year.

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  7. Mrs Tilton5:40 AM

    Here are my guesses. I'll be pleased if even half are correct:

    1.5 Jared Diamond
    2.6 Erszebet Bathory
    2.8 Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist
    3.2 Falstaff
    3.7 Otello
    3.10 La Bohème
    4.7 Benedict Spinoza
    4.9 Leeuwenhoek
    7.8 Ashbourne
    9.2 Hesiod (and Aeschylus, and many others!)
    9.4 Plato
    9.6 Socrates
    9.8 Pigres, attr. Homer
    13.6 Meissen Porcelain
    13.10 Zsolnay
    14.6 Your languid spleen
    16.5 Erwin Schrödinger
    18.6 The landing of Curiosity on Mars

    No googling, but I did wiki "Zsolnay" to check the spelling.

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