BBC Radio 4 Brain of Britain Ultimate Quiz Book. Russell Davies

Cecelia Kalogeropolous in the USA in 1923?

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Quiz 7

      1. Which wall, that marked the northern limits of Roman Britain, was abandoned near the end of the second century AD?

      2. The Scotland international Billy Bremner is associated with which then-top-flight football club in the English league, which he captained during the late 1960s and early 1970s?

      3. Of which iconic household item, chiefly associated with the 1960s, did its inventor once say, ‘If you buy [it] you won’t need drugs’?

      4. According to the Book of Genesis, what was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high?

      5. Which clergyman, known to posterity through his diaries, lived at Clyro in Radnorshire during the 1870s?

      6. At the end of 2012, BBC Radio 2 conducted a poll among its listeners to find out which was their favourite no.2 hit of all time – in other words, the best record ever to stall at no.2 without reaching no.1. The triumph of ‘Vienna’ by Ultravox in the poll may have owed a lot to a ‘sympathy vote’ – because it was denied the no.1 place at the time by a record many felt didn’t deserve to be there. What song was it that held ‘Vienna’ down at no.2?

      7. Which viral disease is known in France as ‘La Rage’?

      8. Strygidae and Tytonidae are the two major families of which order of birds?

      9. In a sporting context, the letters E.C.B. are the usual abbreviation for the England & Wales Cricket Board. But if a current news report about the financial world refers to the E.C.B., what do the letters stand for?

      10. At a height of 893 metres or 2,930 feet above sea level, the summit of which hill in Cumbria is the highest point on the Pennine Way?

      11. Which standard unit of energy traditionally represents the amount of heat required to warm one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit?

      12. The white wines of the appellations Vouvray, Saumur and Sancerre are all produced in the valley of which French river?

      13. Which remote location in Russia suffered an enormously powerful unexplained explosion, possibly from some form of incoming cosmic fragment, in 1908?

      14. The Vitruvian Man, a drawing showing the proportions of the human body, is often reproduced and was used for many years in the title sequence of the Granada TV programme World In Action. Which artist did the drawing?

      15. In the study of grammar, when you list the different forms of a verb according to person and tense, you are said to ‘conjugate’ it. What do you do to a noun, when you list its various forms according to case and number?

      16. Which BBC television reporter’s dispatches from famine-torn Ethiopia in late 1984 prompted Bob Geldof to write and record the song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’?

      17. The abbreviation ULCC is used for an ocean-going oil tanker measuring around 415 meters in length. What do the letters ULCC stand for?

      18. ‘I now pronounce you men and wives’ is the closing line of which 1954 film musical?

      19. Who, at Tokyo in 1964, became the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal in a track and field athletics event?

      20. What was Che Guevara’s Christian name?

      21. ‘Woolsorters’ disease’ is a term first recorded in around 1880, to describe a form of which bacterial infection?

      22. Which Russian physiologist wrote ‘Conditioned Reflexes’ published in 1927, and ‘Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes’ of 1928?

      23. What sort of underwear, first introduced to the UK in 1938, was advertised with the slogan ‘Like the Spitfire – scientifically built to fit the man’?

      24. Dunmore Park in Stirlingshire contains a large folly in the shape of which fruit?

      25. ‘When the blazing sun is gone, / When he nothing shines upon, / Then you show your little light.’ These are the opening lines of the little-known second verse of which familiar nursery rhyme?

      26. Born Saloth Sar in the 1920s, how is the notorious former leader of the Khmer Rouge known to history?

      27. The Brynmor Jones Library, where the poet Philip Larkin worked for thirty years, is at which university?

      28. In Greek legend, Pygmalion was the king of which island?

      29. Gaping Ghyll, White Scar Cave and Malham Cove can all be found in which of England’s National Parks?

      30. Fuelling conspiracy theories of a ‘curse’ of sorts, especially among rock stars, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse were all the same age when they died. What age?

      31. In music, what does the Italian instruction da capo mean?

      32. Which acclaimed film director first came to prominence as the only American-born member of the Monty Python comedy team?

      33. The name of which alkaline earth metal derives from the mining location in Scotland where the mineral was discovered?

      34. The seaside resort of Brighton was known by what name in the 18th century, the name being shortened following the growth in its popularity after regular visits by the future George IV?

      35. ‘We have lingered in the chambers of the sea / By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown / Till human voices wake us, and we drown.’ These are the closing lines of which poem by T. S. Eliot?

      36. The constellation Crux is more commonly known by which two-word English name?

      37. Which term, derived from the Italian for ‘shoulder’, refers to ‘a line of fruit-trees whose branches are pruned and trained into formal patterns against a wall or fence’?

      38. Which traditional Japanese ceremonial activity is known by the name Cha-no-yu?

      39. What is the name of the geological period during which the coal measures were laid down?

      40. Which characteristic essentially distinguishes those mammals known as monotremes?

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Quiz 8

      1. The phrase ‘BRIC nations’ refers to a group of countries whose economies and influence are growing, and predicted to keep growing, during the 21st century. What do the letters BRIC stand for?

      2.