Siddharth's Quiz, November '08

QUIZ

Siddhartha Gorantla

Question 1

How do we better know Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh?

Answer 1

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Question 22 He made his first fortune as President

and CEO of Y, which he famously purchased after his wife bought him an electric shaver. His catch-phrase, “I liked it so much, I bought the company!” made him a household name. The phrase, “doing a XXX” has now become a term for a customer who becomes the owner of the company. Give me the company, Y.

Answer 2

Remington

Question 3 It is the most accurate and

comprehensive record of past climate on the planet. It provides information from the last 150000 years of CO2 levels, temperature changes, volcanic activity and solar flares as also unique data on the consequences of human activity since the Industrial revolution. What am I talking about?

Answer 3

Antarctic Ice

Question 4 The origin of this phrase, which

means ‘to make up one’s mind to go through with an unpleasant situation or experience’ dates back to the days when the wounded had to be seen without the benefits of anesthetics or painkillers. The victim would be given an object that would help him brace himself against the coming pain. Which phrase?

Answer 4

Biting the bullet

Question 5In a letter to who in

1926 did Albert Einstein make his famous remark,

“God does not play dice with the universe”?

Answer 5

Max born

Question 6 Contrary to popular myth, the

deciding factor that won him the prized seat ahead of five other candidates was not his physical toughness, his psychological resilience or his credentials. Instead, it was the fact that he took off his shoes when visiting a prototype for a look around that earned him this coveted position. Who was the man?

Answer 6

Yuri Gagarin

Question 7 Patients suffering from a rupture

of the biceps tendon may develop a bulge in their arm. This is the retracted muscle bunched up in the arm, and is sometimes referred to as a “______ muscle” in medical circles because it is more pronounced than normal. Fill in the blank.

Answer 7

Popeye

Question 8 A company called De La Rue Identity

systems , based in Basingstoke, UK, makes a lot of money periodically out of a product named ES/A purple, containing silver nitrate and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol. The product has been marketed as far afield as India, Burundi, Rwanda and Bosnia. What is ES/A Purple used for?

Answer 8

Voter’s Ink

Question 9

The initial proposed name was “Laboratory for the Development of Substitute Materials”. Leslie Groves, mindful of such a name attracting undue attention changed it to a more innocuous one. What?

Answer 9

Project Manhattan

Question 10 In a certain village there is a man,

so the paradox runs, who is a barber; this barber shaves all and only those men in the village who do not shave themselves. “Does the barber shave himself?” is an example of a concept in set theory named after which British nobleman?

Answer 10

Russell's paradox, named after the

legendary Sir Bertrand Russell.

Question 11

Identify this famous entomologist.

Answer 11

Vladimir Nabukov

Question 12

The man below wrote a whole bunch of soppy letters to the woman. These letters were all made public sometime last year. Identify both of them.

Answer 12

Ernest Hemingway and Marlene Dietrich

Question 13Identify the company.

Maximum capital to be raised – $2718281828 (reference to Napier’s

constant e = 2.718281828)

Shares floated during IPO – 14142135 (reference to Square Root of 2 =

1.4142135)

Shares floated during secondary offering – 14159265 (reference to Pi = 3.14159265)

Answer 13

Google

Question 14 Following is an excerpt from the preface of

'Every Man His Own Broker' written by Thomas Mortimer and published in 1775. Complete the lines.

“ An act for the better preventing the infamous practice of Stock-jobbing; by which the most palpable and glaring frauds then in vogue, were indeed suppressed: the Bubbles burst, and the Racehorses of Exchange Alley, expired with the date of that act; but _____________ still exist in full vigour."

Answer 14

Bulls and Bears

Question 15

He once explained his unusual surname thus: "To take one's ___ is to take on a certain mystery, a certain possibility of power in the eyes of one's peers and one's enemies ... The ___ announced what you had been and what you had become: Ex-smoker, Ex-drinker, Ex-Christian, Ex-slave." Who?

Answer 15

Malcolm X

Question 16 In the 1800's, Charles was an

Irish real estate manager who refused to lower rents in hard times; the tenants retaliated by refusing to do business with him thus creating the popular term __________?

Answer 16

Boycott (Charles’ surname)

Question 17

How did the death of this man alter Indian history?

Answer 17

The man is Potti Sriramulu, whose death by starvation during a hunger strike led to the

formation of Andhra Pradesh as a state and of states based on language in general in India.

Question 18X and Y were rivals in a sport for a long time. After retirement X came up with Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grill machine which went on to earn $100 million in sales since 1995. Now Y who had defeated X to become the world champion has come out with a brand called Real Deal grill to rival X's product. Identify X and Y.

Answer 18

X-George ForemanY-Evander Holyfield

Question 19 The formal name for this derives from the

Greek for `ribbon’. It was introduced by John Wallis in a book in 1655. The work was so brutally abstract that Thomas Hobbes complained of it being a “scab of symbols”.

It is the Cartesian plane curve that satisfies the equation:(x^2 + y^2) = a^2(x^2 - y^2)I do not need the formal Greek name. What is being referred to?

Answer 19

The symbol for infinity

Question 20

What is happening here?

Answer 20

Javed Miandad trying to hit Dennis

Lillee after the latter kicked the former’s bottom during a match.

Question 21•Studied acting at the Yale school and has been nominated for Best Actor Oscar award 9 times and finally won it at the age of 61. • Is a successful professional car race driver despite being colour blind. At the age of 70, he became the oldest driver to be part of a winning team in a major sanctioned race.• Married to one of the most beautiful Hollywood actresses, his wife is also an Oscar winner for best actress. • One beneficiary of his philanthropy is the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a residential summer camp for seriously ill children.• Lee Strasberg (The guru of "method acting"), who trained him at the Actor's Studio, said that he would have been as

great an actor as Brando if he hadn't been so handsome.

Answer 21

Paul Newman ( may his soul rest in peace)

Question 22

In march 2007, Mexico, in an attempt to lower the amount of weapons on the street, offered an X to anyone who turned in a weapon. What?

Answer 22

X-box

Question 23

When Henry Ford died, amongst his last possessions was a test tube. What did it supposedly contain?

Answer 23

Thomas Edison’s final breath!

Question 24 "I was waiting for my team

mates to embrace me, and no one came...I told them, ‘Come hug me, or the referee isn’t going to allow it.’"

Whose words about what?

Answer 24

Diego Maradona on the Hand of God

Question 25 The 35SQ Astron was unveiled in

Tokyo on December 25, 1969. With a limited production of just 100 pieces, they sold at a price of 450000 yen ($1250), roughly the same price as a Toyota Corolla. Which company and what?

Answer 25

Seiko; The world’s first ‘quartz’ wristwatch.

Question 26 According to X, this is how a real conversation went:

X: Listen, Josef. I think I have an idea for a play.Josef: What kind?

(X told him as briefly as he could.)Josef: Then write it.X: But, I don’t know what to call these ___________. I could call them Labori, but that strikes me as a bit bookish.

Josef: Then call them ________.

Who is X and what word was coined?

Answer 26

X: Karel Capec. The term Robot was coined.

Question 27

In Formula 1 parlance, what is a Grand Chelem (French for Grand Slam)?

Answer 27

Leading the entire race from pole and clocking the fastest time.

Question 28

Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena is an indoor arena in Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China. To host which prestigious event was this stadium constructed?

Answer 28

The Shanghai Masters

Question 29

For what cricketing achievement does the ICC award the “Gold bails” and the “Bronze bails” awards?

Answer 29

Golden bails: 100 test appearances as umpire

Bronze Bails: 100 ODI appearances as umpire.

Question 30

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know __________ ; ________________

Answer 30

For Whom the Bell Tolls (the next line is, “the bell tolls for thee”)