Afternoon Trivia Quiz

Afternoon Trivia Quiz Part 1

1) What capital of French Guiana was originally a source of red pepper?

Answer: Cayenne

2) Which flowering plant is the source for the heart stimulant, digitalis?

A) Poppy
B) Foxglove
C) Lily of the Valley
D) Rose
E) Nasturtium

Answer: B

It is extracted from the dried leaves of the purple foxglove.

3) What edict, decreed by Constantine in 313, legalized Christianity?

A) Edict of Byzantium
B) Edict of Nantes
C) Edict of Milan
D) Edict of Emancipation

Answer: C

At the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, Constantine defeated Maxentius and became the ruler of the Western Roman Empire. Constantine believed the Christian God had guided him to victory.

4) This person is considered the founder of the science of microbiology. Can you name the scientist?

A) Louis Pasteur
B) Linus Pauling
C) Frederick Banting

Answer: A

5) Which explorer wrote Two Expeditions into the interior of Southern Australia?

Answer: Charles Sturt

6) Which amphibian’s skin has enough neurotoxin in it to kill approximately 30 humans?

Answer: The rough-skinned newt. The common garter snake is one of the few animals that can ingest this highly poisonous creature and survive. The rough-skinned newt is commonly found in North America.

7) In which country does the Indus rise?

Answer: Tibet

8) What was the first permanent English settlement in the United States?

Answer: Jamestown

9) Caligula, the Roman emperor, gave a consulship to his horse, Incitatus.

A) True
B) False

Answer: A

10) Which European ruler made a pope his prisoner?

A) Ivan the Terrible
B) Attila the Hun
C) Napoleon Bonaparte
D) Adolf Hitler
E) Alexander the Great

Answer: C

Pius VII excommunicated Napoleon. The emperor retaliated by taking him to France as a prisoner.

11) What do you call a grouping of foxes?

Answer: A skulk or leash of foxes

12) In basketball, which former coach of the Los Angeles Lakers trademarked the word “Three-Peat”?

Answer: Pat Riley

13) Who were the only two US presidents to also have their sons serve as president?

Answer: John Adams and George Herbert Walker Bush

14) Which of the following religions follows the teachings of a 19th-century Persian nobleman?

A) Shinto
B) Sikhism
C) Christian Science
D) Baháʼí

Answer: D

15) In terms of revenue, what package delivery firm is the US nation’s largest transport company?

Answer: UPS, United Parcel Service

Afternoon Trivia Quiz Part 2

16) Where are the “Thousand Islands” located?

A) English Channel
B) Red Sea
C) Panama Canal
D) St. Lawrence River
E) Florida Straits

Answer: D

They are a popular resort area between New York and Ontario, east of Lake Ontario.

17) After the battle of Saratoga,

A) France entered the revolution on the Patriots’ side
B) General Howe surrendered
C) The war ended
D) The British took the Hudson river

Answer: A

18) What happens to Oedipus in the Greek tragedy “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles?

A) Slays minotaur
B) Finds golden fleece
C) Marries his mother
D) Goes on an odyssey
E) Wounds his heel

Answer: C

Oedipus was a victim of fate. Fate also possessed him to kill his father.

19) What is the architectural name given to a wooden or stone support built against a wall?

Answer: Buttress

20) In what year was gold first discovered in California’s Sutter’s Mill?

A) 1848
B) 1838
C) 1858
D) 1868
E) 1878

Answer: A

On January 24th of that year, James Marshall panned the first gold nuggets there. By 1849, 80,000 prospectors had arrived in the territory. Within a few years, more than 500,000 people had migrated to California.

21) In history, the desk of what thirty-third U.S. president featured a sign reading, “The Buck Stops Here”?

Answer: Harry S. Truman

22) Find the Famous First Words

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”

A) Double Indemnity, James M. Cain
B) The Two Towers, J. R. R. Tolkien
C) A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
D) All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque

Answer: C

The litany of high-flown dualisms (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … “) in the opening lines of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is parodied nearly as often as Paul Clifford’s “It was a dark and stormy night … ” Still, this story of a man who discovers his conscience amidst the chaos of the French Revolution has remained one of Dickens’s enduring classics.

23) Which fictional pirate commanded a ship named “The Jolly Roger”?

A) Captain Cook
B) Captain Bligh
C) Captain Blood
D) Captain Kidd
E) Captain Hook

Answer: E

In J.M. Barrie’s classic “Peter Pan,” Hook is the danger lurking in Never Never Land.

24) What style of art’s better-known examples include New York’s Radio City Music Hall?

A) Art Deco
B) Art Nouveau
C) Dada

Answer: A

25) Named in honor of Antoinette Perry, what annual award is given for excellence in the theater?

Answer: The Tony Award

26) The Charge of the Light Brigade was a battle fought during which war?

Answer: Crimean War

27) Some fish have cartilage for support, others have skeletons. What fish is the largest bony fish?

Answer: The world’s largest bony fish is the ocean sunfish, also known as the mola mola, which can grow to ten feet in length and weigh as much as 3000 pounds. There are larger fish, including sharks, but they have cartilage for support, rather than bones.

28) Who was the first English printer?

Answer: William Caxton

29) Chinese Communists took over this country in 1950:

A) Mongolia
B) Afghanistan
C) Burma
D) Tibet
E) Pakistan

Answer: D

The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, fled to India after a failed 1959 uprising.

30) What British territory got its name from the Arabic words Jabal Tariq?

Answer: Gibraltar

Afternoon Trivia Quiz Part 3

31) This scientist is most famous for studying reflex behaviors, especially in dogs. Can you name the scientist?

A) Barbara McClintock
B) Carolus Linnaeus
C) Ivan Pavlov

Answer: C

32) What stocky and muscular predator, also known as a carcajou, closely resembles a small bear and is found in the Northern Hemisphere?

Answer: The wolverine.

The wolverine is not related to the wolf. It has a reputation for exhibiting strength out of proportion with its size. A female wolverine gives birth to 1-6 kits per litter. Interestingly, each newborn of the same litter may have a different father.

33) What was the largest naval battle in world history?

Answer: Battle of Leyte Gulf

34) Who was the author of the book The Golden Notebook?

Answer: Doris Lessing

35) Which of these comedians played the film role of “Fletch”?

A) Bill Murray
B) Steve Martin
C) Jim Belushi
D) Chevy Chase
E) John Candy

Answer: D

Chevy Chase plays the investigative reporter and master of disguises.

36) India and which other country share the Mouths of the Ganges?

A) Bangladesh
B) Nepal
C) Pakistan
D) Myanmar

Answer: A

37) In geography, Tasmania is a state belonging to which country?

Answer: Australia

38) In what year did man first land on the moon’s surface?

A) 1960
B) 1969
C) 1980

Answer: B

39) Which of the following is most likely to power a sailboat?

A) Sunshine
B) Wind
C) Hail
D) Bravado

Answer: B

40) The Glomeruli and hilum are parts of the:

A) Liver
B) Ear
C) Kidney
D) Lung

Answer: C

41) Which river forms the border between Myanmar and Laos?

A) Yenisei
B) Mekong
C) Irrawaddy
D) Yellow
E) Orinoco

Answer: B

This 2,600-mile river begins in the Tibetan plateau and flows into the South China Sea.

42) If a car speeds up from a standing start to 100 m/s in 5 seconds, what is its acceleration (in m/s/s)?

A) 500
B) 4
C) 20

Answer: C

43) Which is not associated with the 1920’s?

A) Lindbergh’s flight
B) Dance marathons
C) Sinking of Titanic
D) King Tut’s tomb found
E) The Charleston

Answer: C

The Titanic sunk in 1912 with the loss of over 1,500 lives.

44) A glass with a large amount of cordial in a small amount of water is said to be:

A) Concentrated
B) Dilute
C) Strong

Answer: A

45) What Latin name is given to an inner courtyard that is open to the sky or covered by a skylight?

Answer: Atrium

46) The scientific name for the skull is the:

A) Cerebrum
B) Clavicle
C) Cranium

Answer: C

47) What year did the great San Francisco earthquake strike?

A) 1906
B) 1876
C) 1886
D) 1896
E) 1916

Answer: A

On April 18, 1906, San Francisco suffered its worst seismic upheaval. This quake and the fires and aftershocks that followed left 503 dead and caused $350 million in damages.

48) What are performed at La Scala, Milan and at the auditorium in Covent Garden, London?

Answer: Opera

49) Mia Farrow appeared on the very first cover of what U.S. periodical launched by Time magazine?

Answer: People

50) “The Curtis Cup” is awarded for which sport?

Answer: Golf