Tag Archives: quiz

memes

January Quiz Questions

Again this year, each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

General Knowledge (1)

  1. What type of clothing is a Glengarry?
  2. Which country features a shipwreck on its national flag?
  3. Which two months of the year are named for mortal men?
  4. Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire is famous for which two foods?
  5. Name the type of rigid airship, first flown commercially in 1910, and carrying many thousands of fare-paying passengers before WWI?
  6. Benjamin Disraeli once described William Ewart Gladstone as “A sophistical rhetorician, _____ with the exuberance of his own verbosity”. What is the missing word?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

amusements

Annual Impossible Exam 2024

As is traditional, once again we bring you this year’s King William’s College General Knowledge Paper 2024-25.

For over a century the College has set an annual general knowledge test, known as the General Knowledge Paper. The pupils sit the test twice: once unseen on the day before the Christmas holidays, and again when they return to school in the New Year – after spending the holiday researching the answers. The test used to be mandatory but these days participation is voluntary.

The quiz is well known to be highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers from the list of several hundred. The best scores are around 12% for the unseen test and about 70% for the second attempt – and of course the average scores are going to be very much lower than this.

The quiz is always introduced with the Latin motto Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est, “To know where you can find anything is, after all, the greatest part of erudition” – something my father always impressed on me as “Education is not knowing, it is knowing where to find out”.

You can find this year’s GKP on the King William’s College website at https://kwc.im/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GKP_2024_25.pdf.

I’ve not yet tried this year’s test myself, but unseen I don’t normally have many more clues that the KWC pupils!

Enjoy your Christmas!

amusements, memes

December Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Christmas

  1. In what country did Silent Night originate?  Austria
  2. In what country did the custom of putting up a Christmas tree originate?  Germany
  3. What plant based Christmas tradition did servants in 18th and 19th century England popularize?  Kissing under the mistletoe
  4. How many wise men does the bible say visited the baby Jesus?  It doesn’t mention a number.
  5. In which European country was the original St Nicholas born?  Turkey

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2023.

amusements, memes

December Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As before, they’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as having a bit of fun.

Christmas

  1. In what country did Silent Night originate?
  2. In what country did the custom of putting up a Christmas tree originate?
  3. What plant based Christmas tradition did servants in 18th and 19th century England popularize?
  4. How many wise men does the bible say visited the baby Jesus?
  5. In which European country was the original St Nicholas born?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

amusements, memes, science

November Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Physical Science

  1. What does a Geiger-Müller Counter measure?  Ionising Radiation
  2. Which British-Italian engineer obtained a patent for radio in London in 1897?  Guglielmo Marconi
  3. What man-made spacecraft is generally recognised as the first to leave the solar system?  Voyager 1
  4. What is the speed of sound in a vacuum?  Zero; sound cannot exist in a vacuum
  5. Who discovered that the earth revolves around the sun?  Nicolaus Copernicus

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2023.

amusements, memes, science

November Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As before, they’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as having a bit of fun.

Physical Science

  1. What does a Geiger-Müller Counter measure?
  2. Which British-Italian engineer obtained a patent for radio in London in 1897?
  3. What man-made spacecraft is generally recognised as the first to leave the solar system?
  4. What is the speed of sound in a vacuum?
  5. Who discovered that the earth revolves around the sun?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

amusements, history, memes

October Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Classical & Ancient World

  1. What is the 4th letter of the Greek alphabet?  Delta
  2. Which English city was once known as Duroliponte?  Cambridge
  3. What prized object comprises the coat of the winged ram that flew Phrixus to safety?  Golden Fleece
  4. Name the Sun-god of Ancient Egypt?  Ra
  5. In Greek mythology the Little Owl traditionally represents which goddess?  Athena

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2023.

amusements, history, memes

October Quiz Questions

2 Comments

Each month we’re posing five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As before, they’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as having a bit of fun.

Classical & Ancient World

  1. What is the 4th letter of the Greek alphabet?
  2. Which English city was once known as Duroliponte?
  3. What prized object comprises the coat of the winged ram that flew Phrixus to safety?
  4. Name the Sun-god of Ancient Egypt?
  5. In Greek mythology the Little Owl traditionally represents which goddess?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

amusements, books, memes, words

September Quiz Answers

Literature

  1. What is Shakespeare’s shortest play?  The Comedy of Errors, with 1,787 lines and 14,369 words
  2. The Chronicles of Narnia is a children’s book series written by which author?  CS Lewis
  3. What German loanword means a novel that focuses on the psychological and personal growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood?  Bildungsroman
  4. Who is the author of the play The Importance of Being Earnest?  Oscar Wilde
  5. Who wrote the line “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker”?  Ogden Nash

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2023.

amusements, books, memes, words

September Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As before, they’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as having a bit of fun.

Literature

  1. What is Shakespeare’s shortest play?
  2. The Chronicles of Narnia is a children’s book series written by which author?
  3. What German loanword means a novel that focuses on the psychological and personal growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood?
  4. Who is the author of the play The Importance of Being Earnest?
  5. Who wrote the line “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker”?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.