Individual Quiz Ghent December 4, 2004
Tiebreaker question
As tie breaker you will be asked to answer the years of birth of 3 famous people and add up the numbers.
At the bottom of your answer page, you find 3 spots to write down year 1, year 2 and year 3.
Next to Year 1 write down an estimate of the year of birth of the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn.
Next to Year 2 write down an estimate of the year of birth of the Spanish painter Diego Velazquez
Next to Year 3 write down an estimate of the year of birth of the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.
Once you’ve done that, now make the sum of the three numbers and try to be as close as possible to the real sum.
I’ll give you some seconds but you still think about it during the other questions of the first round.
Answer: 1732 + 1599 + 1473 = 4804
Round 1
1. Geography
The most northern point of mainland Africa can be found in which country?
Tunisia
2. Literature
In 1930 Marlene Dietrich became an international star over night with the movie ‘Der blaue Engel’ (‘The blue Angel’). It was the film version of the book ‘Professor Unrat’ ( or ‘Small Town Tyrant’) of which German writer born in Lübeck in 1871?
Heinrich Mann
3. Film
She starred with Lisa Cudrow in ‘Romy and Michelle’s High School reunion’ and with Val Kilmer in ‘At First Sight’ but will probably be best remembered for her Oscar-winning role as a prostitute and porn star in a 1995 Woody Allen film, featuring a Greek chorus. What actress?
Mira Sorvino
4. 20th century
The Renaissance Party was founded in 1943 in Damascus by Michel Aflaq. The party opposed imperialism and colonialism and attempted to ignore class differences. In 1963 the party seized power in Syria and in 1968 in Iraq where the power became concentrated in Saddam Hussein. Under what name, the Arab for ‘Renaissance’, is this party commonly known?
Baath (Ba’th) party
5. Sciences
Lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium and francium are all highly reactive elements that make up the first group of the Periodic Table of Mendeljev. How are these elements known together, in other words what is the other name given to the elements in the first column of the Periodic Table?
Alkali Metals
6. Lifestyle / Tourism
Right on the Arctic Circle in Finnish lapland you can find the ‘Santa Claus Village’, said to be the official address of Santa. There, he can be visited everyday, always as cheerful as ever. It is situated about 1 km north of what Finnish town?
Rovaniemi
7. Art
This French painter became leader of the French neoclassical painters after the death of Jacques-Louis David. He was especially noted for his female nudes. What was his name?
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
8. Life
We are looking for a nucleic acid that is biochemically very resemblant to DNA. One of its main functions is to transmit genetic information from DNA into proteins. Some virusses use it as their only genetic material and it is supposed that it was was the dominant or even the sole carrier of life before the emergency of the first cells. What is its name, the abbreviation is sufficient?
RNA (Ribonucleic acid)
9. Sport
Tennis. Who was the first South American to reach the number 1 spot in the ATP-ranking? This player from Chile however could only manage to keep the first position for 6 weeks in 1998.
Marcelo Rios
10. 2004
In February a Russian presidential candidate disappeared under mysterious circumstances, a day after he had accused the Putin administration of complicity in bomb attacks in Moscow. Five days later he appeared in Kiev and later withdrew from the presidential elections, which he called ‘a farce’. What was his name?
Ivan Rybkin
11. History
What American president was elected in 1816 and re-elected in 1820 and became especially famous for the doctrine that bears his name, stating that the Americas should be free from European intervention?
James Monroe
12. Miscellaneous
The kayak is a type of boat originally used by the Eskimo peoples for hunting and fishing, activities tradionally done by men. Another type of boat was normally used by Eskimo women for transporting possessions, the elderly and children. What’s the name of that type of boat?
Umiak
13. Culture
What holiday, sometimes also called ‘Day of Judgment’ or ‘Day of Remembrance’ is the Hebrew for ‘Beginning of the Year’ and is observed on the first day of the month Tishri (in September or October) and is thus the first day of the Jewish religious year?
Rosh Hashanah
14. Music
What group do you hear in this song?
The Psychedelic Furs
Round 2
1. Geography
What lake on the border of the American states Arizona and Nevada was formed in 1936 by the completion of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado river? It is one of the largest artificial lakes in the world.
Lake Mead
2. Literature
This Czech writer was one of the most prominent representatives of Czech realism. Born in Prague in 1834, his most important works included ‘Tales of the Little Quarter’ (1878). More famous than himself became another writer with as real name Neftali Reyes Basoalto, who took this Czech’s surname as a pseudonym before winning the Nobel Prize in literature. What was that Czech’s name?
Jan Neruda (pseudonym of Basoalto was Pablo Neruda)
3. Film
Finnish film-maker Aki Kaurismäki directed a couple of films about the exploits of 8 extremely inept but very dedicated accordian musicians (7 living plus 1 frozen corpse), billed as ‘the worst rock ’n roll band in the world’. By what name are these ‘artists’ known?
The Leningrad Cowboys
4. 20th century
Although a doctor by education, he was widely recognised as a gifted poet. Most of his works were however written in detention in Cape Verde and in Portugal. In 1962 he managed to escape to Morocco en was elected chairman of the MPLA. In 1975 he was proclaimed the first marxist president of his country, Angola. Only 4 years later he died in Moscow. What was his name?
Antonio Agostinho Neto
5. Sciences
In mathematics, a property of the multiplication is that x * y = y * x. How is that property called?
Commutativity or commutative law / Kommutatiivne
6. Lifestyle / Tourism
The caves of Lascaux, which contain stunning examples of prehistoric art, were discovered on the territory of a French town only 2 kilometers from its town centre and are the most important claim to fame of that French town. Although that last statement might be contested by weight watchers. What town?
Montignac (also known for the Montignac diet)
7. Art
What name is given to the exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every 5 years in Kassel, Germany? The next exhibition is scheduled for 2007.
Documenta
8. Life
Also called the ‘broad-horned antilope’ this animal roams the dense forests of central Africa. What is their name, they share it with a Sudanese tribe and a kind of Afro-Cuban drums?
Bongo
9. Sport
This basketball team won its domestic championship 44 times and a European Cup four times, the last time in 2004 when they beat Skipper Bologna in the final. The club is however more famous for its successes around 1980 when players like Tal Brody, Miki Berkovich and Aulcie Perry dominated the European Cups. What is the name of that team?
Maccabi Tel-Aviv
10. 2004
In August of this year, the Belgian brewer Interbrew became the largest brewer in the world after the acquisition of the Brazilian company Ambev, thereby pushing an American brewery consortium to second place. What is the double name of that American company, that is especially famous for producing beer-like substances such as Budweiser?
Anheuser-Busch
11. History
From 1641 to 1853 no foreigners except the Dutch were allowed to trade with Japan and the Dutch in Japan were not allowed to leave a little artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki. What was the name of that island?
Deshima
12. Miscellaneous
In 1950 two brothers from a small village near Silkeborg (Denmark) were cutting peat when they suddenly saw a face so fresh they could only suppose they stumbled upon a recent murder victim. Further examination however showed that the body was at least 2000 years old but was so well conserved that even a reconstruction of his last meal could be made. The man is named after the Danish village where he was found. What name?
Tollund Man
13. Culture
Classical music: from which opera will you hear a famous extract?
La Traviata (Verdi)
14. Music
Led by Pauly Fuemana, a Polynesian native, we are looking for a New Zealand-based urban soul group that relies heavily on Polynesian and worldbeat rhythms. Their American debut was released in February 1997. What is the name of the group?
OMC
Round 3
1. Geography
The name of what island country in the Persian Gulf literally means ‘two seas’ in Arabic?
Bahrain
2. Literature
What Romanian-born Jewish writer with as most notable work ‘Testament d’un poète juif assassiné’ (‘The Testament of a Murdered Jewish Poet’), written in French, won the Nobel Peace prize in 1986 and is believed to to have coined the word ‘Holocaust’?
Elie Wiesel
3. Film
In order to defend himself against the charge of being a racist because of apparant propaganda against the abolotion of slavery in his 1915 masterpiece ‘The birth of a Nation’, David Wark Griffith undertook an even more ambitious project in 1916. A 3-hour blockbuster that would cost a staggering 1.9 M$ (20x more than ‘Birth of a Nation’) and that told 4 parallel stories, ranging from the Huguenot persecution in France, the last days of Christ to the Babylonian defeat against the Persians. What was the title of this film?
Intolerance
4. 20th century
Under what abbreviation is the Greek socialist party better known? When you’re in Greece you can see it often being written on the houses there.
PASOK
5. Sciences
What Danish astronomer (1644-1710) demonstrated conclusively, by observing eclipses of Jupiter’s moons between 1672 and 1676, that light travels at a finite speed?
Ole Rømer
6. Lifestyle / Tourism
The Old City of Jeruzalem consists of 4 quarters: a Jewish one, a Muslim one, a Christian one and a fourth one named after the country that early in the 4th century was the first to adopt christianity as its state religion. What country / quarter?
Armenian quarter / Armenia
7. Art
What’s the name of the world famous photographic agency that was founded in 1947 by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson?
Magnum
8. Life
In 2003 a new species of mankind, remarkable for its small body and small brain, was discovered on a remote Indonesian island. These dwarf humans only reached heights of 1 meter but lived only 12000 years ago, so at the same time with homo sapiens. These humans are now nicknamed ‘hobbits’ but their official name is derived from the Indonesian island on which they were found. What is their name or the name of the island?
Homo floresiensis or Flores
9. Sport
In 2002 an American cyclist broke his shoulder in the Tour of Italy and in 2003 he broke his collar bone in the Tour de France. But that didn’t stop him from competing and eventually ending 2nd in Italy and 4th in France. What is his name?
Tyler Hamilton
10. 2004
In January of this year Michailo Michailovic was condemned by a Swedish court for the murder of what Swedish cabinet member?
Anna Lindh
11. History
Probably the oldest historical figure known by name, who was the first king of a unified Egypt who joined Upper and Lower Egypt into a single monarchy? He is credited with founding the city of Memphis and according to the historian Manetho he was killed by a hippopotamus after a reign of more than 60 years.
Menes (also called Mena, Meni, Min, Narmer or Aha)
12. Miscellaneous
This computer game held the title of best-selling computer game for much of the 1990’s. Released in 1993, this adventure game plays on different islands on different worlds, called ‘Ages’. To complete the game, the player has to solve puzzles and to decide what to do with the gathered clues. Several sequels were made, of which we mention ‘Riven’. What was the name of that computer game?
Myst
13. Culture
Languages borrow words from other languages all the time. Some languages manage to get one (and only one) of their words copied to nearly all other languages. For instance the Dutch word ‘apartheid’ or the Finnish word ‘sauna’. What is the only Polynesian word to be in common use in most languages, in Polynesian it just means ‘forbidden’?
Taboo
14. Music
From the film ‘Breaking Glass’, what singer had a minor hit in 1980 with this beautiful song?
Hazel O’Connor
Round 4
1. Geography
The north-western region of Namibia is called ‘Kaokaland’. The narrow coastal belt is often foggy and humid because of cool offshore currents and cold sea breezes. Those currents are so treacherous that the area is known for its many shipwrecks. Sailors that survived the impact, were welcomed by the Namib desert, one of the driest and deadliest places on earth. What fitting name is given to this coastal area?
Skeleton Coast
2. Literature
What Roman comic playright from the 2nd century BC is most famous for his ‘Heauton timoroumenos’ or ‘the self-tormentor’ (‘de zelfkweller’) and the quote ‘Homo sum; humani nil a me alienum puto’ (‘I am human and consider nothing human alien to me’ / ‘Ik ben een mens en niets menselijks is mij vreemd’)?