CONQUISITION 2014Open Quiz Prelims - Answers

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What’s At Stake!

1st Place – Prizes worth INR 27,000/-

2nd Place – Prizes worth INR 18,000/-

Other finalists – Thunderous round of applause

Rules for the Preliminary Round

1. Total of 35 Questions; 40 points up for grabs

2. Starred questions from Qn. No. 11 to Qn. No. 20 will be used to resolve ties, if any

3. 5 ‘Doubles’ questions from Qn. No. 26 to Qn. No. 30, that count for two points each

4. No negatives, so please guess away!

5. Top 8 teams will qualify for the finals.

Figuratively, this expression refers to any task that is difficult or impossible to achieve. This expression ultimately derives from a fable, often attributed to Aesop. Historically, in 1482, at a meeting of nobles who wanted to hang Robert Cochrane, Lord Gray remarked, “Tis well said, but wha daur ____ ____ ____?” The challenge was accepted and successfully accomplished by the Earl of Angus. In recognition of this, he was given the nickname.

In recent years, a clever pun on this phrase has been used in the Indian context to refer to accomplishing something highly desirable. What phrase are we talking about?

Q1

Bell the Cat!

In 2012, on a particular day, Google released the following doodle, where it combined references to two occasions:

One was the 220th birth anniversary of the composer Rossini, as the frogs shown in the doodle, played ‘The Barber of Seville”.

What was the other reference? Alternatively, tell me on which particular day was the doodle released?

Q2

February 29, 2012.

Was to signify that it was a leap day / leap year.

In the book, “Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors”, Lizzie Collingham says,

“___1___ ___2___ originated in Persia. In Persian, the name implied a stew of meat cooked in butter in intense heat (since ___1___ in Persian meant ‘clarified butter’ and __2__ means ‘hot’)”

According to another interpretation, ___1___ is derived from the word meaning ‘red colour’, which is the same root for the French and Spanish word for ‘red’.

Which dish is this?

Q3

Rogan Josh

Listen to the audio.

Who is being incriminated as the person responsible for the death of John F. Kennedy?

Q4

Video

This was invented in the 1920s by Leo Gersentzang after he saw his wife use a toothpick and some cotton to accomplish a particular task. Initially, he named them ‘Baby Gays’, but later, in order to signify quality, he came up with a new brand name.

The name is often used as a genericised trademark in the United States (like ‘Xerox’ for photocopying).

What was the new brand name?

Q5

Q-Tip

Shown in the next slide, is one of the original storyboards from a 1965 movie obtained thanks to the “Drawing Board” column of the DGA Quarterly.

Which movie was this a storyboard for?

Q6

The central premise of the novel, “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman is that gods and mythological creatures exist because people believe in them.  

In the book, the character ‘Mr. Wednesday’  spends most of the story trying to get other old gods to join him in the inevitable war.

Which mythological character is ‘Mr. Wednesday’ a reference to?

Q7

Odin

Which word derives from the Latin word for ‘sand’?

In particular, the word refers to a particularly fine/smooth sand used to absorb blood in places like the Colosseum in Rome.

The term is sometimes used as a synonym for a very large venue, but such a facility is generally called a ‘stadium’, especially if it does not have a roof.

Q8

Arena, from the Latin ‘harenas’

Shown over the next few slides, are facilities built in the early 18th century by Maharaja Jai Singh II in various cities like Ujjain, Jaipur etc. The most famous one is in Delhi.

Name the building/facility.

Q9

In Ujjain…

In Jaipur…

In Varanasi…

Jantar Mantar

The idea for this book germinated with a decision to offer a graduate seminar at the University of California, Berkeley in 1998.

The book covers events from October 1869 till July 1914 and the author later revealed that it was revelation as to “How formative years in London and South Africa were, and how much he gained from these forgotten associates and collaborators. They are a fascinating cast of characters.”

Name the book.

Q10

Starred questions being now…

Developed under the codename ‘Picaboo’, by Stanford University students, it was first launched in July 2011 under this name in one of the founder’s (shown below) father’s living room. Rather appropriately, the mascot for this is called, ‘Ghostface Chillah’ inspired by the Wu Tang Clan song ‘Ghostface Killah’. What recently-in-the-news phenomenon are we talking about?

Q11*

Snapchat

What is this mock report referencing?

Video

Q12*

Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen

He began playing volleyball late in life (pictures follow), not until 1969 (when he was 32 years old).

He helped form the International Volleyball Association (IVA) in 1975 as a team owner. He ended up trying to keep the league afloat. His star appeal was great enough that he was able to get the IVA’s All-Star Game televised on NBC.

For his efforts, though, he was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame, and thus is one of the few people to be part of the Hall of Fame in two sports. Identify this person.

Q13*

Wilt Chamberlain

Paresthesia is a sensation of tingling, tickling or burning of a person's skin with no apparent long-term physical effect.

It happens when people have sat with legs crossed for too long, or fallen asleep with an arm crooked under their head, i.e. when sustained pressure is placed on a nerve, thus inhibiting its functioning. The feeling quickly goes away once the pressure is relieved.

Also referred to as a limb ‘falling asleep’, what tautological phrase is used to refer to this condition due to what the person feels?

Q14*

Pins and Needles

In December 2011, Google acquired a company named ‘Clever Sense’, the creator of an app that makes recommendations on where to eat based on places that the user already enjoy. Venturebeat.com perhaps appropriately calls the app, a ‘robotic concierge’.

Which fictional character is the app named after?

Q15*

Alfred

The Worshipful Companies of London are 108 professions which have been given the title that is added to their professions. Each of these companies has a motto. For example,

Worshipful Company of World Traders: Commerce and honest friendship with all

Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers: Truth is the Light

Which profession has the motto “Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt”?

Q16*

Bowyers / Bowmakers

Identify the water body, within Finnish territorial waters, and contains the largest island group in the world by the number of islands.

Q17*

Archipelago Sea

Which global investment company has the NYSE ticker symbol ‘BEN’?

It was chosen because the founder Rupert Johnson was an admirer of the person in question.

Incidentally, his name is also a part of the company’s name.

Q18*

Franklin Templeton Investments

In Athenian democracy, any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. In order for this to take place, citizens would vote by using broken sherds (pieces) of pottery as a voting token (since earthenware was easily available and papyrus was available only in Egypt).

The presiding officials counted the sherds submitted and sorted the names into separate piles. The person whose pile contained the most sherds would be banished

Which word derives from this broken pottery sherd that people used for voting?

Q19*

Ostracize, from ‘ostracon’

In 2002, San Jose-based company, ‘TiVo”, which allows users to pause and do instant replays of live television, started using its technology to measure audience behavior among 20,000 users.

In 2004, which incident was the most TiVo-ed piece of footage in that year, beating clips of the Summer Olympics held in Athens and other clips?

Actually, in the immediate aftermath of the incident 35,000 people are said to have enrolled for the TiVo service .

Q20*

Janet Jackson ‘Wardrobe malfunction’

This cultivar in the Gemmifera group of cabbages, were believed to have been cultivated in Italy in Roman times, and possibly as early as the 1200s in Belgium. The modern variety that we are familiar with was first cultivated in large quantities in Belgium as early as 1587. During the 16th century, they enjoyed a popularity that eventually spread throughout the cooler parts of Northern Europe.

The French coined the name for the cultivar in the 18th century as it was common to put a landmark on a food.

What are we talking about here? 

Q21

Brussels Sprout

Coal miners in Britain used to carry the object shown and its content(s) inside the pits.

Toxic gases such as Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide and Methane were quickly detected by the ‘content’. This helped the miners escape without getting affected. It has also given rise to a phrase to refer to something that gives an early warning to coming crisis.

What is the ‘content’ being talked about?

Q22

‘Canary’ and hence, ‘Canary in a coal mine’

Recently, the French ‘maintenance and hygiene’ company IPC-SA was in a huge scandal and retracted its line of detergents. Rabbi Menachem Margolin director general of the European Jewish Association (EJA) said, “This is doubtless the dirtiest name that a company could think of for a product aimed at projecting cleanliness and hygiene.”

Officially, the company said that they meant no offense and that they wanted the latter part of the name to represent the product's biologically friendly characteristics.

What was this rather ‘stormy’ affair all about?

Q23

This was the name of the product!

The producer, Ketan Maru says that the movie is named so because all the characters in the movie were “_____ Shaane” (someone who tries to act too smart).

Another unit member confesses to what is the most likely explanation for the name as he says, “Thoda different hai.”

Abhishek Chaubey on the other hand offers a very interesting explanation, stating, “The first was a 60ml drink, this is a Patiala peg.”

Which movie are we talking about?

Q24

In 1969, during civil unrest, he was driving his Volkswagen Beetle when he had to swerve to avoid a group of protesting students. He lost control of his car and it landed in a ditch, trapping him. He was freed out of the car but the accident left him quadriplegic.

He was operated on at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital (!) in England and his condition improved to paraplegic. At the insistence of his trainer, he took part in the 1970 International Paraplegic Games held at Stoke Mandeville (picture shown on next slide).

Who is this legend?

Q25

Abebe Bikila

Doubles Begin Now…

This Marathi poet (picture on next slide), writer and activist was born in 1949, in a village near Pune. He is a winner of the Padma Shri and the Sahitya Akademi Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1972, he founded an organization which according to him was meant to include all ‘oppressed people’. Later, he also held office in the Indian Republican Party.

a.) Identify this person.

b.) What did he found in 1972? Alternatively, name the revolutionary organization in the US active from 1966 to 1982 that inspired him.

Q26

a.) Namdeo Dhasalb.) Dalit Panther movement, inspired from the Black Panther movement

Dakshayani took birth at the bidding of Lord Brahma, whose wish was that she would please Lord Shiva and wed him. She was born as the daughter of Daksha Prajapati and Prasuti. Through intense penance, she managed to convince Lord Shiva to wed her. When she returned home to tell her parents the good news, Daksha Prajapati received her coldly and insulted Lord Shiva. She then called up a prayer that she would be born in her next birth to father whom she could respect

a.) Consumed by rage, what did Dakshayani do?

b.) What was she reborn as?

Q27

a.) She committed self-immolation, i.e. Satib.) Parvati

Shown in the next slide are pictures of La Pedrera, also known as Casa Mila, in Barcelona.

a.) Identify the architect.

b.) What, in the world of movies, did this inspire?

Q28

a.) Antonio Gaudib.) And it inspired this…

Q29

Which two capital cities from Africa were founded by:

a.) Slaves released from captivity by Britain

b.) Slaves released from captivity by France

The second city in fact was named as an imitation of the first.

a.) Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital cityb.) Libreville, Gabon’s capital city

In November 1996, in a duel that was billed as ‘Finally’, saw a much awaited match between two Americans. In the sixth round, a head butt from the challenger opened a cut over the champion’s left eye. The referee deemed this to be accidental. In the seventh round, there was a clash of heads which had the champion in agony, but again it was deemed accidental by the referee. The champion ultimately lost the bout and his title.

a.) Name the two boxers involved in the fight.

b.) What did the dethroned champion do in the rematch held in June 1997?

Q30

a.) Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfieldb.) The ear-biting incident

Which famous piece of music has been made use of, for this ad?

Video

Q31

‘O Fortuna’ from ‘Carmina Burana’

By Carl Orff

The Kray twins, Ronald and Reginald were two English gangsters who were the foremost perpetrators of organized crime in the East End of London during the 1950s and 1960s. They were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, assaults, and murders.

The story goes that in London, one didn't talk about them because retribution was so brutal and bloody. This inspired a certain practice followed with respect to a fictional character.

Name the fictional character / Identify the practice.

Q32

Lord Voldemort being referred to as ‘You Know Who’ or ‘He Who Must not be Named’

This person recently revealed to the media, that he has started to learn painting as a hobby. The painting shown in the next slide is of his dog, Barney, who died of lymphoma at the age of 12.

Who is the painter?

Q33

George Bush, the 43rd President of USA

James Watt formed a partnership with Matthew Boulton to capitalize on the improved steam process Watt had designed. The major use of steam engines was for the pumping of water, water from the mines around Cornwall, or to refill mill-ponds in dry summers, or to remove water from fields and canals.

However, the intended audience already had other means to do the same.

Watt came up with something else to overcome the same. What did James Watt come up with?

Q34

He invented the unit ‘horsepower’

In 1973, there was a news item widely reported in India and Britain that caught the attention of a famous Indian. The news item said that a young Englishman out shooting near Calcutta had been killed in a particular manner.

The victim was Hugh Munro, the only son of General Sir Hector Munro, who had commanded a division during Sir Eyre Coote’s victory at the Battle of Porto Novo in 1781.

Rather pleased at the turn of events, what did the Indian commission?

Q35

Tipu’s Tiger