Reverberate 2017 Open General Quiz Finals by Abdul Vahid

Sincere thanks to
 Rajesh Mohanan
 Abhijeet Balakrishnan
 Roshan Zain

Round 1
 Written Round: 6 Questions
 Topic: Nobel Laureates
 +10 for each answer.
 All the best.

1
Out of curiosity to find out the reason for a phenomenon he
observed, he did some experiments, the results of which
earned him a Nobel Prize.
In Munich, the physicists were unable to reproduce the
results, leading to skepticism. Later, Peter Pringsheim became
the first German to reproduce the aforementioned results
successfully. It was Pringsheim who named the property after
the scientist.
Who was this scientist? OR What term did Pringsheim coin?

According to David Wilson, the biographer of Rutherford,
Otto Hahn was the greatest collaborator to the scientist ever.
Hahn has discovered several isotopes of radium and thorium.
Once, Rutherford suggested a particular name for one such
isotope, meaning parallel to radium. But Hahn rejected the
name saying that it was reminiscent of a military activity.
What name?
2

Martin Luther King Jr. asked his followers to abstain from
using the products of a company in his last speech, as a
protest to the company’s discrimination against black workers.
When King won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964, the white
elites in a particular city refused to support a dinner to honour
him. Quite ironically, the aforementioned company, having
their headquarters in the city, threatened that they would move
out of the city if the dinner does not become a reality. This
silenced the conservatives and King was honoured.
Which company was this? Which city is it headquartered in,
which also hosted the centennial of an event to which the
following monument is a tribute? Image follows
3

The Market for Xs: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism is
a 1970 paper by George Akerlof, who won Nobel Prize for
Economics in 2001. It examines how the quality of a good
degrades when one party has better information than the
other, leaving only Xs behind.
X is an American slang term for a car with a manufacturing
defect. The term was used in the 19th century to describe a
stupid person. The first recorded instance of it being used to
refer to a defective car is from 1931. The reason for the usage
may be because of the cheeky and fresh appearance of X
though it is actually sour in taste.
X?
4

Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon and biologist who won the
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering
vascular suturing techniques.
He co-authored The Culture of Organs with X, and worked with
him in the 1930s to create a perfusion pump which helped to
keep living organs safe outside the body during transplantation
surgeries.
In Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie fictionalizes a
controversial incident related to X, which was even called as the
greatest story since resurrection by a journalist.
Who? What incident?
5

After the announcement of Tomas Transtromer’s Nobel Prize
for Literature in 2011, an Indian author, in a statement to the
press, noted that the former had rushed to India following a
devastating incident to pay tribute to the victims. Transtromer,
with other Indian poets, attended a poetry reading session that
commemorated the dead, which was organized by the Indian
Council for Cultural Relations. Which incident?
The Indian author mentioned here was himself nominated for
the prize the same year, but lost it to Transtromer. An author
of several poems, he has also written 2 plays; one on Gandhi
and the other on the founder of a well known festival in his
state. Who?
6

Out of curiosity to find out the reason for a phenomenon he
observed, he did some experiments, the results of which
earned him a Nobel Prize.
In Munich, the physicists were unable to reproduce the
results, leading to skepticism. Later, Peter Pringsheim became
the first German to reproduce the aforementioned results
successfully. It was Pringsheim who named the property after
the scientist.
Who was this scientist? OR What term did Pringsheim coin?
1

Charles Lindbergh
Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping
5

Round 2
 13 Questions: Clockwise
 Bounce and Pounce
 Bounce: +10/0
 Pounce: +10/-5
 All the best.

1
Abraj Al-Bait is a government-owned complex of 7 skyscraper
hotels in Mecca. At the centre of the complex is a clock tower
which is the highest and largest clock tower in the world.
There is a giant crescent at the top of the clock tower. For its
construction, a group of 68 workers were brought in from an
overseas location who belonged to a group known to have
shown considerable courage in taking up riskier tasks apart
from their primary area of expertise.
Who were this group of people? Images follow

 Bishop’s Hat
 Candle
 Diagonal Pocket
 Dress Shirt
 Envelope
 Fan
 Fleur-de-lis
These are some of the styles of something which has also
inspired a mathematical problem which examines whether
this activity results in an increase of perimeter.
What are we talking about?
2

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this term was
used for the first time by Francis Scott Fitzgerald in his novel
This Side of Paradise (1920). In the novel, it is said that the
protagonist Amory sets out for New England, provided with
many kinds of ________, including X.
Thought to have named so because of its shape, it became
popular among the workers during Great Depression. Now
quite a common thing, it is also being used for propaganda.
3

A Munro is a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3000 ft.
Named after Sir Hugh Munro who created the first list of
such hills, a popular practice among the hill-walkers is to try
climbing all of them. This is called Munro bagging.
Similarly, a X is a mountain or hill in the UK, Isle of Man or
Republic of Ireland, with a height over 150m (492 ft.). Some
hill-walkers attempt to climb all of them, a practice known as
peak bagging.
Identify X.
4

In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the character Mike Clerk,
a tugboat Captain, reveals to Benjamin Button that he had
originally wished to be a tattoo artist. He also shows Button
the tattoo of a bird on his chest.
Which bird? Why was the selection of the bird so apt while we
consider the theme of the film?
5

Humming Bird
(only bird that can fly backwards)
5

This method was first proposed by Mikhail Neiman about 5
decades ago and is sometimes called mneimonics. With this
method, it is theoretically possible that all information humans
have ever recorded till now can be stored in a space roughly
the size of a double garage. However, it is currently a slow
(100 bps) and a costly process. Scientists have demonstrated
that 215 PB (215 million GB) of data can be stored using a
single gram of the medium used in this method.
Recently, Microsoft announced that they would slowly move
to this data storing technique and will try to advance its speed
to about 100 mbps.
What is the medium used in this data storage technique?
6

The granite for making it comes from two sources, the Ailsa
Craig, an island off the Ayrshire coast in Scotland, and the
Trefor Granite Quarry in Wales.
It requires a weight between 38 to 44 pounds, a minimum
height of 4.5 inches and a maximum circumference of 36
inches. The running surface that comes into contact with the
floor must be about 5 inches in diameter.
7

Sam Roddick is the daughter of Anita Roddick, the founder
of the cosmetics and skincare brand Body Shop.
In 2001, she launched a lingerie brand which was named after
a largest of its kind in the world, said to resemble a woman’s
buttocks.
Name the brand.
8

Coco de Mer
(It is the largest seed in the world)
8

One of the growing addictions in Pakistan, especially in the
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region, is the smoking of X. It requires
drying of X in sunlight or coal, followed by burning it on a
stove. The smoke coming out is inhaled which would help
the doer go high, as long as 10 hours.
Identify X, that gives them a sting of pleasure.
9

In the medieval times, it was a dangling strip of cloth or ribbon
used as an ornament in dress, and was also sometimes attached
to a document to hold the seal.
Later, the word was also used to denote a circular piece of
paper in the centre of a gramophone record.
Which word?
10

This product was invented by an MIT professor in 1919 in a
bid to reduce the discomfort caused by the existing products.
Later, he started his own company to sell it.
Towards the end of the century, it was famously put to use in
an iconic movie as a disguise to smuggle certain things, by a
character who was bribed by a rival of its original possessor.
Which movie? Which brand?
What was the design of the container inspired by, something
closely associated with one of the prominent sections of its
users?
11

Barbasol
(used to smuggle dinosaur embryos from Isla Nublar in
Jurassic Park)
11

X is an individual having two or more populations of cells with
different genotypes, who has developed from a single fertilized
egg.
Y is an individual with a similar trait, but here, the genotypes
arise due to the fusion of more than one fertilized zygote,
rather than mutation. This condition is seen more in animals
than human beings.
While X owes its name to decorative art, Y owes its name to
mythology. Identify both.
12

Kalbelia is a dance form from Rajasthan having the UNESCO
Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage status. It is a main source
of income for the Kalbelia community.
This was not the condition four and a half decades ago. They
were practicing a profession which they were best at, but had
to abandon it and think about other ways of living.
What was their original profession? What compelled them to
abandon this profession?
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2sdZuRBfZU
13

Catching Snake & Trading Snake Venom

Round 3
 Written Round: 6 Questions
 Topic: Amateur Painters
 +10 for each answer.
 All the best.

While studying at Cambridge, he designed the stage décor for a
few plays, including Idomeno, an opera from Mozart.
He was also a prolific painter. In 1941, the person portrayed in
the next slide introduced him to an Indian audience as the
modern equivalent of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Who? Images follow
1

Some paintings from a gem that the world missed in 2016.
Who? Images follow
2

God Bless You, X is a collection of short fictional interviews by
Kurt Vonnegut. The title parodies that of Vonnegut’s 1965
novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. He employ’s X to give him
near-death experiences, allowing him access to heaven and
those in it for a limited time. Thus, Vonnegut interviews those
like Hitler, Shakespeare, Asimov etc. in afterlife.
X, an occasional oil painter, created grotesque and macabre
paintings and sometimes painted with his own blood.
Who? Images follow
3

An action carried out at his behest has been immortalized in
the world of art, but his connection to paintings does not end
there.
Take a look at some of his paintings and identify him.
Images follow.
4

Apart from his career for which we know him, he also earned
repute as a practitioner of homeopathy and is even said to
have brought miracle cures for patients facing terminal cancer.
He was also a prolific painter, excelling in mediums ranging
from oil to charcoal and watercolour.
During his heydays (in the 1940s), if he paid a visit to any
place, fans would flock to see him so much so that the police
most often needed a lathi-charge to disperse the crowd.
Who? Images follow
5

Some of his paintings were shown to van Gogh and Delacroix;
both of them appreciated his skill, with the later opining that
if he had actually decided to become a painter, he would have
outshone the artists of their country.
However, he kept his artwork out of public eye, fearing it
would overshadow his career for which we know him.
Identify this artist who has produced more than four thousand
paintings. Also connect the first image with Delacroix.
Images follow
6

Francisco Franco
(it is said that he personally ordered the bombing of
Guernica)
4

The first image was of Gavroche, a character in Les
Miserables that inspired the pistol-wielding boy in
Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix.
6

Round 4
 13 Questions: Anticlockwise
 Bounce and Pounce
 Bounce: +10/0
 Pounce: +10/-5
 All the best.

Though this novel was completed in 1958, some incidents in
the international politics changed the author’s mind. He was
largely concerned by the Soviet intervention in Hungary and
the execution of Imre Nagy in 1958. A subsequent change in
his ideology also prompted him to make significant alterations
in the novel which eventually came out in 1969.
Which novel?
1

Different versions say different theories about the end point
of their trip, be it Koppenberg Mountain or Transylvania.
However, what is certain is the source of their journey. They
set off from a place which got the nickname ‘Gibraltar of the
South’ as it was surrounded by four fortresses. The place shot
to fame several centuries ago thanks to the efforts of a man
who has been considered as a symbol of hope for the people
here, who drove away a deadly epidemic that had once graced
the place.
Where did they start from?
3

Downtown Abbey is a British historical period drama TV series
created by Julian Fellowes. Set between 1912 and 1925, it
essays the lives of the fictional Crawley family, the hereditary
earls of Grantham.
Fellowes has admitted that the character Lady Grantham was
inspired by someone and her three daughters, particularly in
respect to the inability to produce a male heir, and the
importance of a woman’s virtue.
William Eleroy Curtis dedicated his book Modern India to her.
Who is this, who was also the American woman to hold the
highest official title in the British empire up to that time?
4

In 2014, India became the first country to ban the import of
X, thanks to Animal Equality, a UK based activist group.
The reason for the ban is a process called gavage, a practice
of force-feeding the creatures used to make X, which may
even make them unable to walk. Many animal-rights activist
groups, including PETA, continue their efforts to put an end
to this cruelty, resulting in a ban on X in many parts of the
world.
Identify X.
5

Foie Gras
(it is a dish prepared from the liver of a goose or a duck)
5

Though this English word may seem to be a combination of
two words (and may seem that the word originated so), it is
actually derived from the Tamil word kitanku or Telugu word
gidangi.
Which word?
6

This is a phrase popular in English football which refers to a
generous or excessive amount of injury time allowing a team
more time to score a late equalizer or winner. Named after a
person, though the club which is accused to be at the receiving
end of this advantage have maintained that this is a hoax, a
study commissioned by BBC discovered that this is true.
What is it called? OR Who is it named after?
7

In board games, this term refers to the act of chatting and
bantering to distract the opponent.
By extension, in a game of Contract Bridge, the term refers
to the act of improper remarks to mislead the opponents, or
asking improper questions designed to suggest a defensive
play.
What term is this, which you may also relate with a venture
started with the patronage of a famous Malayalee?
8

He started his career as a theatre artist, often doing female
roles. Also a professional footballer, he went on to become
one of the prominent actors of his time.
His role in the Pamman movie Missi was well appreciated and
he expected a state award that year. However, the award went
to Bharat Gopi for Kodiyettam. He believed that he lost the
award due to some backstage drama which prompted him to
send a letter to the award committee, refusing to accept the
award when he was being considered the following year. Thus,
he can be considered the first actor in Malayalam cinema to
refuse a state award.
Who?
9

Described as one of the best English novels from 20th century,
it took its name from this famous soliloquy in Shakespeare’s
Macbeth. Which novel?
 Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of _____ and ____,
Signifying nothing.
10

After failing his exams in school, Ibrahim’s father shipped him
off to Bombay, seeing his son distracted by something else.
While living in Bombay, a hotel waiter influenced him to meet
Venu. V. Desom, who has translated the novels of authors like
Dostoevsky, Schopenhauer, Tolstoy, Khalil Gibran etc. to
Malayalam.
How do we better know Ibrahim? What genre was Venu. V.
Desom the first Malayalam author to venture into, following
his meeting with the former?
11

In 1961, she visited a monument in France along with her
husband. This served as an inspiration for her to request the
installation of something after his death. This is believed to
be a first-of-a-kind instance and went on to become imitated
throughout the world.
The monument in question was inspired by a similar structure
in Italy, which was established by Emperor Domitian after the
death of his brother to commemorate the latter’s victories,
including the Siege of Jerusalem (AD 70).
Which monument? What first-of-a-kind instance?
12

Arc de Triomphe, Paris
(inspired by the Arch of Titus, Rome)
12

First eternal flame honouring an in
individual – JFK
12

13
In Walking With Lions – Tales from a Diplomatic Past, K Natwar
Singh recounts a meeting with Chandraswami in which he and
his wife were nearly convinced by the godman of his powers.
Following this, Chandraswami asks Singh to arrange meetings
for him with two famous people. One of them refused to meet
Swami as he was leaving for a holiday within a day. This person,
with a significant connection with India, was killed 4 years later
by a paramilitary organization. The other person met Swami,
and was also convinced by his powers as Singh was. This led
her make Swami certain predictions regarding her future. She
asked Swami whether something would happen in her life.
Swami’s reply was that this would happen in 3 or 4 years and
would last 9, 11 or 13 years. This did happen in her life and
lasted for 11 years. Identify both the people in question.

Reverberate 2017 Open General Quiz Finals by Abdul Vahid

Reverberate 2017 Open General Quiz Finals by Abdul Vahid

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