This fine test comes from
King William's College, which was founded in 1833 on the Isle of Man. The quiz itself has been given annually for over a century (this year's being the 104th); students take it twice, once immediately before Xmas, cold, and again after the Xmas holidays, after having researched the answers. A good score may be 20 correct answers on the first try; an average score, it seems, is more like two (out of 180!).
* It has also become quite popular with non-students, and since 1951 has been published in
The Guardian.
In its present form, the "quiz" consists of 18 sets of ten questions each. All the questions in a set have a common theme, which may or may not be given. The last set consists of questions about events of the current year, and the first set asks about events which happened 100 years ago; the remaining 16 sets may cover literature, history, geography or other subjects.
In 2004, the year of the 100th quiz,
The Guardian also published an interview with the current writer, Dr Pat Cullen (a retired GP who began compiling the quiz in 1997), under the heading
'I like to irritate' - apparently he is good at it.
Here it is: The 105th edition of the King William's College General Knowledge Paper.
Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est
1. During 1909:1. what hidden addiction was revealed in Munich?
2. what was founded at the southern tip of Kinneret?
3. who filed a patent for a hermetically sealed burial casket?
4. which youngsters received numbered anklets by the Aberdeenshire seaside?
5. who, contrary to generally accepted opinion, may have reached where after Cook?
6. whose gallinaceous offering was held up by the censors and emerged posthumously?
7. who was rewarded for lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception?
8. which Portuguese island colonies lost their Quaker customers?
9. whose unscheduled dip in La Manche cost him a grand?
10. which negative logarithm came from Carlsberg?
2. Which politician:1. was brought down by arachnoid largesse?
2. was expelled as Speaker following bribery by the Corporation?
3. in a constituency renowned for its RHS Show, succumbed to
Campanula vestimenta alba4. enriched himself as PMG and provided a suitable surname for one of Disraeli's fictional characters?
5. was impeached, but not convicted, for allegedly accepting a bribe of 5,000 guineas from the East India Company?
6. continued to draw an annual income of £25,000 from moneys which were not his, for 15 years after resigning as PMG?
7. transferred his nontransferable vouchers for his wife to travel from Glamorgan on the Great Western Railway?
8. similarly provided, inappropriately, first-class tickets for his mistress to travel to Yorkshire?
9. was impeached on bribery charges shortly after his elevation to a viscountcy?
10. used a Guest List for awarding Orders and other honours?
3. In which city:1. did Dizzy Mabel get drunk on gin?
2. did George confuse the words for cushion and kiss?
3. did Peregrinus bring Christmas presents to the poor bookbinder's family?
4. did the enormous Olga address her guest, inappropriately, as her little turtle-dove?
5. was the Cardinal encouraged to forsake celibacy in favour of a Lutheran union to solve a financial crisis?
6. did the dinner guests of the extended family include poet, physician, broker, wine-merchant, lumber-merchant and pastor?
7. did the disguised head groom cause a fire to reduce 42 houses to rubble and ashes?
8. was the annual subscription for the Blue Diamond 175 (in pre-euro money)?
9. was the bearer of a pound of Raven mixture expected at 9.34pm?
10. did the people proclaim their Mayor a noddy?
4. In the finals of the AELT & CC's championships:1. which runner-up won 29 games?
2. which match was decided after 12 games?
3. who required 40 games for his three-set victory?
4. which two-set match was decided after 46 games?
5. which champion is now remembered for his predatory reptile motif?
6. in which match did the runner-up win as many games and sets as the victor?
7. which titled finalist was imprisoned by the Gestapo?
8. what was the role of Brooke's grandfather?
9. who was the only victor to lose a set 0-6?
10. who defeated his brother three times?
5.1. Where did 13 go to the scaffold on Friday 13th?
2. Who carried out the last public execution in Britain?
3. Whose controversial execution by firing squad was alluded to by Voltaire?
4. Which tailor, under sentence of death, was reprieved and elevated to Headsman?
5. Which sexagenarian was chased around the scaffold and needed 11 blows with the axe?
6. Which teenager was hanged for rape and murder, but revived while being prepared for dissection in Surgeons' Hall?
7. Who was burned alive, without prior garrotting, owing to bungling by the executioner?
8. Which trooper's swollen purple throat and stark and staring eyes were mocked?
9. How was the poisoner cook from John Fisher's household executed?
10. Who survived three attempts at hanging at Exeter?
6. Who or what:1. are endocrine?
2. invested in the Goat?
3. is overlooked by Calum's Hill?
4. is repetitious (and inspiring) at Cardiff?
5. is neither brightly coloured nor feathered?
6. were placed in 774 pots, 39 tubs and 24 boxes?
7. nickname has been applied to the Ukraine?
8. emphasises enthusiasm for a new idea?
9. is flavoured with cloves?
10. is palindromic?
7. Who or what:
1. was watched at eye level?
2. found room at one end for Victoria?
3. is not trusted for the way he parts his hair?
4. tale was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker?
5. painted an ecclesiastical decoration for a Flanders-based Florentine banker?
6. under a changed name, was allegedly instructed to include all facial blemishes?
7. turned to architecture following a relapse and provocation of the wife?
8. took his name from the city of Sint-Janskathedraal?
9. had a costly wetting in the Barry Burn?
10. revealed lives by invitation?
8. Who or what:1. is tragelaphine?
2. is also a humming bird?
3. was considered better than best?
4. has a contrary reaction to that of litmus?
5. reverted to its former name following caprine slaughter?
6. retained his virtuosity despite accidental conversion to syndactyly?
7. had a facial expression likened to a fireside utensil?
8. is garnished with eggs and crustaceans?
9. is black and fork-tailed?
10. stepped out from BA?
9. Where does the brewer:1. recall 4468?
2. produce a preserved gamebird?
3. start his product with a silent "P"?
4. provide a label for a hirsute cage bird?
5. remember the birthplace of 007's adventures?
6. remind us of a battle with a heptacephalic rodent?
7. produce evidence of canine appreciation?
8. commemorate Joanna Maria Lind?
9. appear to condone avian greed?
10. recognise a recurved bill?
10.1. Who did Paul much evil?
2. Who extended his realm into the Irish Sea?
3. Who attributed the cold winter wind to the Almighty?
4. Who confused
rubrum and
notatum when making his epic discovery?
5. Who shot himself following annihilation of the Second Army by the Eighth?
6. Who, following his death, may have re-emerged as a hermit, living for a further 39 years?
7. Which monarch was shot, together with the French foreign minister?
8. Who perceived his life as a protracted period of infirmity?
9. Who was challenged by Gray over his patent?
10. Who was mistaken for a match?
11. Which ordinal:1. is metronomic?
2. is liable to neuralgia?
3. was secured by MacArthur?
4. may forecast persistent precipitation?
5. was applied to Sarto, the village postman's son?
6. recalls tearful memories of the Tigris and Euphrates?
7. is associated with an annual brainteaser?
8. was used by Wraysford in his Diary?
9. signalled a peaceful trio?
10. was applied to Lime?
12. Which Queen of England or Great Britain:1. battled for Lancaster?
2. was the first to be kissed by Pepys?
3. was the consort of two Kings of England?
4. made a posthumous journey to London leaving her viscera at Lincoln?
5. numbered two archbishops and one bishop among her maternal uncles?
6. on first meeting her future spouse had prompted him to order a glass of brandy?
7. escaped in a hurry from a Cambridge Hall, before it was burned down?
8. died following surgery for an umbilical hernia?
9. regretted the jettisoning of
this for
that?
10. corresponded with Mrs Freeman?
13. Which English cathedral:1. is built on the highest ground?
2. has both a Bishop and a Dean with a glass eye?
3. contains a medieval lectern representing a large water bird?
4. has accommodated a pilgrim and his family annually since 2002?
5. achieved its current lofty status through meteorological intervention in 1584?
6. has a gallinaceous motif commemorating the founder of a Cambridge college?
7. possesses a plurality of plumbous receptacles for baptismal water?
8. houses the tomb of the founder, in 1264, of an Oxford college
9. has a pulpit accessed by an intramural staircase?
10. houses the only equestrian statue?
14. Name the venue and the activity:1. Royal flood-plain.
2. A half of cuckoo pint.
3. The headsman's victim.
4. Simmonite, lacking a vowel.
5. A
glorious shire relocated
by the sea.
6. A shortened and outdated underground carriage.
7. The chiropteran hang-out of the eccentric.
8. Milne's joey by the river.
9. Calverley's alternative.
10. An ox cart perhaps.
15. Who or what:1. is perifoveal?
2. is bridged by a memorial to Pepi?
3. was a notoriously cruel Wallachian prince?
4. overlooks the burial ground of Anne, Catherine and Jane?
5. was thought, through its bite, to cause an extreme impulse to dance?
6. was a probable tuberculous infection, so named after a breeding sow?
7. is an abnormal passage connecting two epithelial surfaces?
8. broken bone is associated with an unspoken wish?
9. was Linné's name for the sea parrot?
10. is the Hill of the Fords?
16. Having got into the red, complete:1. B-dul Carol – ........... – B-dul Eroiler.
2. Holmens Kanal – ........... – Torvgade.
3. Robinson Road – Shenton Way – ...........
4. Sancová ulica – Vajnorská ulica – ...........
5. Strandvägen – Kungsträdgårdsgatan – ...........
6. ........... – Boulevard Malesherbes – Avenue Henri-Martin.
7. Plaza Urquinaona – ........... – Ronda San Pedro.
8. ........... – Tartu maantee – Pärnu maantee.
9. ........... – Capel Street – Henry Street
10. Lönnrotinkatu – ........... – Simonkatu.
17. What eponymous word owes its origin to:1. F René?
2. JD Scotus?
3. HP Mitchell?
4. Gerhard Kremer?
5. Charles de Rohan?
6. RV Shepherd and HJ Turpin?
7. John Montague?
8. Haile Selassie?
9. C Cardoni?
10. M Tracy?
18. During 2009:1. who mischievously rocked the boat?
2. whose victory in Bavaria has recalled I Samuel XVII?
3. which Hat-maker has become the first female to be so honoured?
4. what left Lavender Hill intact but sustained a rupture at Langhorn Drive?
5. who, in disgrace, became Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead?
6. which vessel's sinking with the loss of all 36 lives has been recognised philatelically
7. what non-event at Fort Collins recalled a fictional disaster in the Chilterns?
8. who has provided extremely interesting reading matter for rail travel?
9. who will never stir again, however much he is shaken
10. what, according to Unesco, has risen from the dead?
* On the first look through, I knew (or think I knew) the answers to 10 of the questions.
