LitSoc Travel and Living

QuizTHE MACRO POLO QUIZ

Gokul Murthy

Topics

World/Places

Culture

Food

Art

Architecture

History

Rules

1. The only being with authority greater than the Quizmaster is Harambe

2. No googling / binging / use of the force / telepathy to get answers.

3. Unless mentioned blanks are somewhat indicative of length. However, two word/three word terms may be represented by a single blank.

4. Negs to Krishna if he doesn’t answer any Japan related questions.

1.

The word X comes from the French word crispa meaning “curled”. In France , it is believed that, on the day of Candelamas , if you could catch an X in the frying pan after tossing it in the air with your right hand, while holding a gold coin in your left hand, you would become rich that year. While Xs are often associated with Brittany in France , their consumption is quite widespread in parts of Europe , northern Africa , and South America.

A popular Indian dish made out of fermented rice batter could also be called a/an X.

Give me X.

Ans : crepe

2.

If you were to take a flight from the Scottish island of Westray to the Scottish Island of Papa Westray , what unique aviation item would you have checked off your bucket list ?

Ans : World’s shortest commercial flight

3.

X is a Kenyan tradition of community self-help events eg : fundraising. X literally means All put together in Swahili ,and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms.

All of you have heard the word X , or a word sounding very similar to X in a very different context , in the past few months.

Give me X , or the similar sounding word.

P.S. : At least write a joke answer. You might end up being correct.

Ans : Harambee (Accept Harambe ) (R.I.P. <3 )

4.

“The Man From Earth” is a 2007 Indie film which tells the story of a man who claims to be thousands of years old. Among the many stories he tells, is of the one time he was a pig farmer in France , and an artist used to visit his farm because he found his fields beautiful and loved to paint them . The artist even gave him one of these paintings as a gift.That painting would probably be worth millions of dollars today.

Which artist?

Ans : van Gogh

5.

BioSphere two is a research facility at the University of Arizona and is the largest closed system ever built. It explores the use of closed biospheres in space exploration and allows the study of the manipulation of a biosphere. Where/What is Biosphere one ?

Ans : The Earth

6.

When Indian tribes such as the Comanche were stalking white men , they’d often use bird signs to call each other. The white men would mistake the bird calls for an actual bird and not suspect anything until it was too late.

How did the Indians ensure that other Indians did not mistake the calls for an actual bird ?

Ans : They simply used the call of a bird that was not local to the area.

7.

A bartender talking of something he created , what ?I initiated the ___________ of today," he told us. "Jessel said he created it, but it was really nothing but vodka and tomato juice when I took it over. I cover the bottom of the shaker with four large dashes of salt, two dashes of black pepper, two dashes of cayenne pepper, and a layer of Worcestershire sauce; I then add a dash of lemon juice and some cracked ice, put in two ounces of vodka and two ounces of thick tomato juice, shake, strain, and pour”

Ans : Bloody Mary

8.

In the summer of 1867 , local branches of this infamous organisation met in a general organizing convention and established what they called an “Invisible Empire of the South” . Which organisation ?

It is also an urban myth that the name is derived from the sound of a gun cocking .

Ans : Ku Klux Klan

9.

X started off as a small canteen and cafe in 1953 in the X movie theater in Hyderabad, serving Irani chai , coffee and snacks. It expanded to a 100 seater restaurant within a decade. The defining moment , was , however , when Mr . A Hemanti took over reins in 1978. Following his vision , they have now expanded considerably including a 1400 seater food court, that is , arguably , India’s largest sit-down restaurant.

They recently opened an outlet in Chennai .

Which brand am I talking about ?

Ans : Paradise Biryani

10.

If an alien were to visit the earth and travel around , he might think that X is a character that builds bridges , since a lot of Medieval and Roman-era bridges in Europe are named after him . This naming in part, could be attributed to the fact that most such bridges look incredibly difficult to build that they were proabably built by X.

Buidling bridges is probably the exact opposite of X’s usual work.

Who is X ?

Ans : The Devil

11.

Since 1930 , letters addressed to X, sometime 5000 a year , keep arriving in Via Cappello no.30 , an early 14th century house in Verona , Italy. The house is also a famous tourist attraction , famously letting people stand on a famous balcony .

Who is X /Who was this house’s most famous resident ?

Ans : Juliet

12.

Shown here is the Honolulu palace which is the Only actual palace in the United States .

Which state is it located in ?

Ans : Hawaii

13.

When N.T. Rama Rao , chief minister of Andhra Pradesh , he saw the statue of liberty and was inspired by efforts to restore it.

In his own words , “I wanted something like that … That would have been my contribution to society”

What did this lead to ?

Ans : The Buddha Statue of Hyderabad

The world’s tallest monolith of Gautam Buddha.

14.

The Xfruit also known as Chinese Gooseberry is oval and about the size of a large hen’s egg. The fruit has a soft texture and a sweet but unique flavour . It is a commercial crop in many countries.

In 1962 , New Zealand growers began calling it “Xfruit” to bolster sales, and the name stuck.

Which fruit ?

Ans : Kiwifruit

15.

The 86th floor observatory in the Empire state building is open till 2am every night. Thursday to saturday , 10pm to 1am , there is a jazz saxophonist doing the rounds. You can pay him extra and he’ll play your song. Why did the Empire State Building employ these folks ?

Ans : Proposals

16.

Ans : India , bangladesh

17.

These are the Absolute World skyscrapers in Mississauga, Onatario , Canada. One of the buildings, or sometimes both buildings are referred to as X tower/towers due to its curvaceous hourglass figure likened to X .

Give me X ?

Ans : Marilyn Monroe

18.What are these scenes in Poland all about ? #TCQ

Ans : Protest against ban on abortion

19.

This place was initially known as Kattalmalai meaning “the land between the mountain and the sea”. The second name , which is what it is known by today is X as it was ruled by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I , who is one of the few kings to have never lost on the battlefield. His passion for , and excellence in a sport earned him the name Y , after which X is named.

Which place ?

Ans : Mammalapuram / Mahabalipuram

20.

The Parthenon rose as a replacement for a predecessor that was burnt down by the Persians , and towered over a plaza where the footprint of the earlier structure had been deliberately left visible. Because of this, writer Daniel Mendelsohn compares the Parthenon with which modern structure ?

Ans : The One World Trade Center

21. ID the company from the logo ?

Ans : Thomas Cook

22.

Sumerian texts refer to three important centres with which they traded: Magan, Dilmun and X. Magan is usually accepted to be the Egyptian civilization while Dilmun is believed to have been the Persian Gulf civilization encompassing modern Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar among other territories. X is a reference to the Harappan civilization, items of which, including seals and artefacts, have been found in excavation sites at Ur. The word X could have originated from the Dravidian word for ‘High country’ or the Sanskrit word for ‘Barbarian, Foreigner’, something used also regularly in Vedic texts by Aryans to describe the lowest class of their Varna-based society. What name was the X known to the Sumerians back then?

Ans : Meluha

23.

The Needles of South Dakota are a region of eroded granite pillars and spires. To promote tourism , South Dakota historian Doane Robinson proposed something to improve tourism in the needles and in South Dakota. However , the person who he contracted to carry out this act , rejected the Needles because they were too thin and structurally weak for the purpose.

What am I talking about ?

Pic of the Needles on the following slide.

Ans : The original site for Mt Rushmore

24.

The X Charter

1. X belongs to nobody in particular. X belongs to humanity as a whole. But, to live in X, one

must be a willing servitor of the divine consciousness.

2. X will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never

ages.

3. X wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all

discoveries from without and from within, X will boldly spring towards future realisations.

4. X will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual

human unity.

Ans : Auroville