Tricky Trivia Questions and Answers

Tricky Trivia Questions Part 1

1) In what year did the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occur?
Answer: 1979

2) In what country was supermodel Claudia Schiffer born?
Answer: Germany

3) All these countries are ruled by monarchs except:
A) Saudi Arabia
B) Austria
C) Bhutan
D) Spain
E) Jordan

Answer: B
This small European nation is governed by a president and parliament.

4) The Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland’s peace treaty, was signed in 1998 on what holiday?
A) Christmas
B) Good Friday
C) Easter
D) Boxing Day

Answer: B

5) Consort of Gaea and father of the Titans, he is the earliest supreme god of the Greeks:
A) Pluto
B) Jupiter
C) Uranus
D) Mars
Mercury

Answer: C
Uranus is the sky god, while his consort Gaea embodies the Earth.

6) Which term refers to a theory that living matter can develop from nonliving material?
A) Entropy
B) Abiogenesis
C) Anthropomorphic
D) Induration
E) Adiabetic

Answer: B
The other terms are from the fields of geology, physics or chemistry.

7) In architecture what do you call a beam that spans an opening supported by walls or columns?

Answer: Lintel (or header)

8) What do Istanbul, Constantinople, and Byzantium have in common?

Answer: They are three historical names for the same city – present-day Istanbul.

9) Rold Gold is the brand name of what type of snack food product?

Answer: pretzels

10) According to Greek mythology Demeter, the goddess of grain and the harvest, caused the first winter when:
A) She fell in love with her reflection in a frozen pond
B) She became angry at the hot sun after she flew too close
C) She neglected the land in grief after her daughter was abducted
D) She decided she needed a break from the harvest

Answer: C
When Persephone, daughter of Demeter, was abducted by Hades, god of the underworld, Demeter’s grief was so great that she neglected the land; no plants grew, and famine devastated Earth.

11) The art of illumination concerns:
A) Meditation
B) Designing stained glass
C) Balancing objects
D) Ornamenting sacred texts
E) Walking on hot coals

Answer: D
Monks used silver and gold leaves, painting and calligraphy to decorate manuscripts.

12) In art & literature which term that has been applied to Dali’s works was invented by the writer Guillaume Apollinaire?
A) Surrealism
B) Dadaism
C) Fauvism
Answer: A

13) In business, what table salt company features an image of a girl with an umbrella on its package?

Answer: Morton Salt

14) Which historical American was born Malcolm Little in 1925?

Answer: Malcolm X

15) What were the astronaut’s first words when he first stood on the moon’s surface?

Answer: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for Mankind.”

Tricky Trivia Questions Part 2

16) Who commanded the first expedition to sail around the world, but was killed in the Philippines?

Answer: Ferdinand Magellan

17) Which would be sung or spoken at a funeral?
A) Dogma
B) Diatribe
C) Diphthong
D) Dirge
E) Doggerel

Answer: D
A dirge is a lamentation composed for a funeral.

18) What color is the centre stripe on the German flag?

Answer: Red

19) What does the thyroid gland do?
A) Secretes a hormone related to metabolism and growth
B) Secretes iron
C) Secretes adrenaline

Answer: A
The thyroid gland is part of the endocrine system, which produces, stores, and secretes hormones. Located near the larynx, the thyroid secretes a hormone that controls metabolism and growth.

20) What is the world’s largest amphibian?

Answer: The Chinese giant salamander. This amphibian can live for as long as 50 years and has been reported to be 6m long.

21) Which country borders Eritrea?
A) Somalia
B) Ethiopia
C) Egypt
D) South Africa

Answer: B

22) What lake is the source of the White Nile?
A) Lake Victoria
B) Lake Chad
C) Lake Tanganyika
D) Lake Titicaca

Answer: A

23) The color of the hottest stars is:
A) yellow
B) blue
C) Red

Answer: B

24) Which metaphysician developed the theory of calculus at the same time as did Newton?

Answer: Leibniz

25) The caterpillar of the polyphemus moth can eat __________ times its weight at birth in a little less than two months.
A) 18,000
B) 42,000
C) 86,000

Answer: C

26) A thumbtack has a large flat surface and a pointed end. With the same applied pressure, which part will have the greatest pressure?
A) the pointed end
B) the large flat part where the finger pushes
C) they have the same pressure

Answer: A

27) In a chemical reaction, the chemicals one starts with are called the:
A) reagents
B) reacting chemicals
C) products

Answer: A

28) Proteins are made of:
A) amino acids
B) simple sugars
C) fatty acids

Answer: A

29) Whose albums include “Beggar’s Banquet” and “Exile on Main Street”?

Answer: The Rolling Stones

30) What is the normal temperature of the human body?

Answer: 98.4 degrees Fahrenheit; 37 degrees Celsius.

Tricky Trivia Questions Part 3

31) If a Rugby Union referee puts his arm straight up in the air and blows his whistle, what is he indicating?

Answer: A try has been scored.

32) Who was John F. Kennedy’s secretary of state?
A) Dean Rusk
B) John Dean
C) Averill Harriman
D) Robert Kennedy

Answer: A

33) What city is home to the historic Lomo House?

Answer: Melbourne

34) Which English town is renowned for lace, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco?

Answer: Nottingham

35) The name of the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine is Nautilus. True or false?
A) True
B) False

Answer: A

36) What do you call a grouping of jellyfish?

Answer: A smack of jellyfish

37) Who was the US president who had a second cousin later elected president?
Answer: James Madison

Madison’s second cousin was Zachary Taylor

38) What Florida port handles more cruise ship passengers than any port in the world?

Answer: Miami

39) The Liberty Party was an anti-slavery political party. True or False?
A) True
B) False

Answer: A

40) Why was Jewish monotheism a significant development in the religious history of early civilization?

Answer: Monotheism represented a significant departure from polytheism in its concept of ethics and ideas of justice and in the extent to which the world was viewed as orderly.