Prelims

THE KQA FEBRUARY OPEN

• 30 questions• Some questions have multiple parts. 0.5 points for each

part• Starred questions will be used to break the tie

The image shows the Adyghe people or the Circassians commemorating their banishment from their homeland in

1864. An estimated 1.5 million of their population was deported to Turkey in that year. Which city do they consider

as their capital?

1

ANSWER

Sochi

Kenya took the first major stand on this issue back in 1989 by torching 12 tons of

this material. The country's president, Daniel Arap Moi, lit the flames himself. It

was November, 2013 when the United States finally got into the act. It pulverized

six tons of this material, a stock pile accumulated over 24 years. China soon

followed suit and it is expected that Hong Kong will also destroy its stock pile (at 28

tons, it is the largest stockpile known).What material?

*2

ANSWER

In 2013, actress Linda Gray, a popular model in the 1960s, best known for role in the long running

CBS show Dallas, made a surprising revelation. She revealed that the leg seen in the iconic poster

belonged to her and not _____ as is popularly believed. She told a TV show host that 'I think

_____was absent that day... I don't know. I got paid $25, one leg.‘

What did she get paid to do

*3

ANSWER

It wasn’t Anne Bancroft, after all.

*4

The next slide shows a map of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Name the district who’s

name has been blanked out. The place name is known to Indians for literary reasons.

ANSWER

Her name was Cynthia. She was one of the most sought after celebrities in the 1930s USA. She

was invited to the most elite parties, including the posh wedding of Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII

of England. She received freebies from Tiffany and Cartier. She had box seats to the

Metropolitan Opera. She was featured in LIFE.  Who exactly was Cynthia?

5

ANSWER

A mannequin. Created by the sculptor Lester Gaba,

Cynthia took the party scene by storm.

6

Identify the club from the logo. Also identify the image depicted on the logo.

ANSWER

A S Roma.

The logo features the Capitoline wolf feeding Romulus and Remus.

7.

Built in the 8th or 9th century CE, under the patronage of a Nikhumba Rajput king, this structure is considered to be the largest step well in India. It shot to fame, thanks

to a prominent appearance in a 2012 movie.

Name the structure and the 2012 movie.

ANSWER

Chand Baori/Chand Baoli, built by Raja Chand.

It was converted into the pit where Bruce Wayne escapes from, in “The Dark Knight

Rises”.

The Azure Window (see pic next slide), near Dwejra in Malta is a natural arch, made of limestone. This stunning structure attracts many tourists to the locality every year. In 2010, controversy arose, when a sand-like substance made from powdered hard stone was coated over the protected fossil-rich site. It was expected to be a temporary change that could be quickly cleaned up. But environmentalists feared that it had damaged the micro habitat and caused irreversible damage to the ecosystem. The people who had unintentionally caused this damage were forced to deal with the fall out and decided to move away.This probably caused significant damage to Malta's tourism. The city of Dubrovnik in Croatia was an unexpected beneficiary of this. How?

8

ANSWER

The shooting of “Game of Thrones” was shifted from Malta to Dubrovnik.

The month long activity got its name from a quote by Paul Cezanne –

"All pictures painted inside, in the studio, will never be as good as those done outside."

The first one went up on October 1 and was titled "The Street is in play". What are we talking

about?

*9

Banksy, “Better out than in”, the residency in New York.

10

On 11 July 1791, a Birmingham newspaper announced that on 14 July, the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, there would be a dinner at the local Royal Hotel to commemorate the outbreak of the

French Revolution. The invitation encouraged "any Friend to Freedom" to attend.

Around 90 British sympathizers of the French Revolution gathered at the hotel on July 14th. Most of them were religious dissenters who opposed

the King and the Anglican church that he backed. A rioting mob attacked them and sacked the hotel. The rioting soon spread across Birmingham

and several dissenting chapels were burnt.

One of the prime targets of the attack was the scientist ___, who happened to be the minister of the dissenting "New Meeting Chapel". The mob burnt

his house down, but he managed to escape with his family. He was well known for his scientific contributions, but was also controversial for his

political and religious views. The riots came to be known as the ____ riots after his name.

Who?

ANSWER

Joseph Priestley, credited with discovering Oxygen.

The riots were called “the Priestley riots”.

Only two of these statues were made by the author’s step daughter. One of them is at the

author’s memorial museum in Springfield, Massachusetts. The other is in the garden of the author’s widow. After the release of a 2012 film

featuring the character, the statue in the garden was stolen. The police later recovered the item,

after an anonymous tip.Name the character and the author.

11

ANSWER

**12

This structure on the banks of Lake Zurich in Switzerland, lends its name to a poetry award, currently administered by

Yale University. Identify the structure and the eminent personality who lived here.

ANSWER

Bollingen Tower, C G Jung.

What “material” was used to make this New Yorker cover ?

13

ANSWER

Emoji

It was one of the two swords captured from the temple of Pagan God Manat and Mohammed gave it to Ali and it went on to become one of the symbols of Shias. The name of this sword and its phonetic variations have been popular given

names, as with one of the Prime Ministers from the subcontinent. What?

**14

ANSWER

Zulfiqar

In 1966 it was patented as a "Device for Measuring and Indicating Changes in the Resistance of a Human Body". By

inducing a tiny electrical current, the device measures changes in the human body's electrical resistance.

According to the doctrine, the resistance corresponds to the "mental mass and energy" of the subject's mind, which are claimed to change when the subject thinks of particular

mental images. It is believed that the device has such sensitivity that it can be used to determine whether or not

fruits can experience pain, as in a 1968 assertion written by the inventor that tomatoes "scream when sliced". Who was

this inventor?

15

ANSWER

L Ron Hubbard

Trinny Woodall is an English fashion advisor and designer, television presenter and author who is currently seeing

Charles Saatchi the ex-husband of Nigella Lawson. The two women appeared to have got into an online spat recently after Woodall took potshots at Lawson in a blog marking

her 50th birthday. Soon after, Nigella tweeted her 560,000 Twitter followers a #recipeoftheday asking "Do I need to say anything more?" The "people" for whom the dish is

named don't go to market to get their ingredients fresh, but are happy to use stuff out of jars and tins and the it is

prepared with such ingredients. What recipe?

16

ANSWER

She tweeted the recipe of Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

known as the Slut’s Spaghetti

A barbute is a visorless war helmet of 15th-century Italian design, often with distinctive "T" shaped or "Y" shaped

opening for the eyes and mouth. The name is first recorded in an inventory made for the Gonzaga family of Mantua in

1407. It can be considered as a specialised form of the sallet (see next slide). The barbute resembles classical

Greek helmets and may have been influenced by a renewed interest in ancient artifacts which was common in this

period. Where have we seen this headgear in recent times?

17

ANSWER

Nicknamed Doobi, Hebrew for Teddy Bear, they have served IDF in many wars. During Yom Kippur War D9 they opened routes to Israeli forces, clearing landmines and other anti-tank obstacles. In the southern front, D9s towed bridges

and breaching equipment and helped General Ariel Sharon to cross the Suez canal and determine the war with Egypt. In the northern front, it was the first motorized vehicle to

reach the summit of Mount Hermon as it paved the way for IDF Engineering Corps, Golani Brigade and Paratroopers Brigade to claim the summit and prevent it from falling in the hands of Syria. During the Second Intifada they gained

notoriety as being an effective tool against Palestinians militants, as they were almost impervious to Palestinian

weapons and withstood even RPGs and Belly charges with more than 100 kg and even half a ton of explosive. What?

18

ANSWER

Armored Bull Dozers

The next slide depicts a comic version of a man and his work. Who and what work?

*19

ANSWER

Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass

The next slide shows a mash-up of Tintin with works of another writer. Who?

**20

ANSWER

HP Lovecraft

It was designed after spending three months of research in anatomy, surgery, medicine, criminal history, criminology, ancient and modern burial customs, and electrodynamics. It was assumed that since the protagonist was a scientist but no practicing surgeon, he would take the simplest surgical way to cut the skull. And further that he would

cut the top of the skull off straight across like a pot lid. The end result was a head which looked flat like a shoe box.

They also placed wire clamps over the lips and painted the face blue-green so that it looked corpse-like grey in black and white. Two

electrodes were also glued to neck for the added effect. The eyes were waxed to make them look heavy and half-seeing. An undersized suit was used to make the limb look longer and finally heaving boots weighing 13 pounds each were worn to produce the lurching walk.

What is being described here?

21

ANSWER

Boris’ Karloff’s Frankenstein

If he was in No.2 who was in No.1?

22

ANSWER

James Whistler’s Mother. The paintings were originally titled Arrangements in Black and White No. 1 and 2

It is a reddish-brown phosphate mineral containing rare earth metals. It occurs usually in small isolated crystals. There are at least four different kinds of X, depending on

relative elemental composition of the mineral:

X-Ce (Ce, La, Pr, Nd, Th, Y)PO4

X-La (La, Ce, Nd, Pr)PO4

X-Nd (Nd, La, Ce, Pr)PO4

X-Sm (Sm, Gd, Ce, Th)PO4

The abundance of these minerals was supposed one of the main reasons why a princely state refused to join the Indian

union, which state? What mineral?

23

ANSWER

Kingdom of Travancore. The mineral was monazite. One of the combinations of Monazite was with Thorium.

In a bid to do away with the problematic pronounciation involved with umlauts, what product is being marketed in

China as Ye Ge meaning “wild boy”?

24

ANSWER

Jagermiester

The next couple of slide shows a sequence of images. Please follow them. The question is on the 2nd slide.

25

And then a urban legend was born, what?

ANSWER

And then Clark Gable killed the Undershirt.

Id the actress and the film/director

26

Arundhati Roy and Pradeep Kishen/Massey Sahib

The kit contained the following things show here and listed on the next slide.

The pistol was intended to scare off "wolves, bears, tigers, etc." These kits also featured a special "combination gun"

(a rifle, shotgun and flare gun)

What was this kit used for?

27

• pistol and ammunition • wrist compass • 18 waterproof matches

with striker • machete; fishing kit • strobe light with spare

battery • 8 fire starters • folding knife • antenna • 3-pair wool gloves • signal mirror

• NAZ-7M type medical kit • penlight • R-855-YM or R-855-A1

radio • two “Priboy 2S”, radio

batteries • three wool balaclava

hoods.

ANSWER

Survival kit for Soyuz Astronauts

The eighteen disciplines were first stated in the scrolls of Togakure-ryū. Subsequently they became the definitive

curriculum followed schools by providing total training of the warrior in various fighting arts.

28

1. Seishinteki kyōyō (spiritual refinement)2. Taijutsu (unarmed combat)3. Kenjutsu (sword techniques)4. Bōjutsu (stick and staff techniques)5. Sōjutsu (spear techniques)6. Naginatajutsu (naginata techniques)7. Kusarigamajutsu (kusarigama techniques)8. Shurikenjutsu (throwing weapons techniques)

1. Kayakujutsu (pyrotechnics)

2. Hensōjutsu (disguise and impersonation)

3. Shinobi-iri (stealth and entering methods)

4. Bajutsu (horsemanship)

5. Sui-ren (water training)

6. Bōryaku (tactics)

7. Chōhō (espionage)

8. Intonjutsu (escaping and concealment)

9. Tenmon (meteorology)

10. Chi-mon (geography)

ANSWER

Ninjistu

In 1919-1920 this person employed by the OED, for researching etymologies of the Waggle to Warlock range.

This person later went on to parody the principal editors as "The Four Wise Clerks of Oxenford" in a story titled

"Farmer Giles of Ham" a comic Medieval fable published in 1949. The story describes the encounters between Farmer

Giles and a wily dragon named Chrysophylax, and how Giles manages to use these to rise from humble beginnings to

rival the king of the land. Who?

29

ANSWER

J.R.R. Tolkien

This romantic composer is considered an emblematic figure of the reunification process of the Italian peninsula, the

Risorgimento.

After Italy was unified in 1861, many of his early operas were re-interpreted as Risorgimento works with hidden

Revolutionary messages that probably had not been intended by either the composer or librettist. Beginning in Naples in 1859 and spreading throughout Italy, the slogan

"Viva _____" was used as an acronym for Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia. Who?

30

ANSWER

Guiseppe Verdi

END OF PRELIMS