KREC QuizNet

Gayathri's Quiz - Feb 1998

Here are the Answers to the Quiz by Gayathri Raghavendra.

1. All these events happened on the same day in different years.. what day ?

a. William Herschel discovered Titania and Oberon, moons of Uranus.
b. The first pineapples were planted in Hawaii
c. Peoples's Republic of Albania was established.

ANS: The years are 1813, 1946 and 1963. Day - January 11th

2. Why are `saccades' so important to us ?

ANS: Saccades are small rapid movements of the eye - enables us to see objects that are still. If it were not for saccades, any object that wasnt moving would fade away slowly from our vision.

3. This word is coined from two words of Aztec origin - the words mean foam and water. What is it ?

ANS: The word is CHOCLOATE. The words from which it is derived are `choco' and `atl'. It has something to do with the appearance of chocolate when it is in the initial stages.

4. Name the two musicals that had these in common...
a. Director Victor Fleming
b. Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Special Effects in the 12th annual academy awards.

ANS: GONE WITH THE WIND & WIZARD OF OZ

5. Born Sara Buell, she authored several novels, all very much acclaimed in her days but forgotten over the years.. What she is remembered for however, is 8 lines she wrote in her `Juvenile Miscellany' [1830].. Can U guess what they might have been ?

ANS: Mary Had a Little Lamb .....

6. What is chromesthesia ?

ANS: A person who is endowed with chromesthesia sees a brilliant display of colours when he/she hears a musical composition. Beethoven for eg, identified D major with the color golden.

7. What is common between these words - woodpusher, fish and patzer ?

ANS: All these words [other than being english :-)] are terms for bad chess players.

8. This company was started in 1802 near Wilmington, Delaware by a French immigrant, to produce black powder to be used as blasting and gun powder. Name it.

ANS: DU PONT

9. On whose poems is the longest running Broadway show based ?

ANS: The longest running show is CATS with music by A L Webber. It just took over from A CHORUS LINE in June 97.

10. In `My Fair Lady' Prof Higgins talks of his intention to go to India.. What does he state as the reason for this ?

ANS: He says he wants to meet Col Pickering, the author of `Spoken Sanskrit'

All the following are some facts about people.. U have to figure out who is being talked about ...

11. Born on 29th Nov, 1832, her works have stayed on the bestseller lists for a 100 years after her death. She has a crater on Venus named for her. Her most popular novel is based on her own family life, her sisters, in particular.

ANS: Louisa May Alcott writer of "Little Women".

12. A pioneer in the field of Electrical Engg, in the last few years of his life, he was described as `a lonely egoist, intensely jealous of Edison, unwilling to shake hands for fear of contamination, frightened by round surfaces.. dissipated his great talent by trying to invent death rays and devices for photographing thoughts on the retina of the eye.'

ANS: Nicola Tesla

13. He said to his friend Chidananda Das Gupta, in 1948, `Someday, I'll make a great film'.

ANS: Sathyajit Ray

14. Born in 1937, in Mussorie, to a German mother and a Bengali father , she is the first person in over 20 years to receive a Professorial appointment in fiction writing in the Dept of Writing and Humanistic Studies in MIT.

ANS: Anita Desai

Return to QuizNet Home