Encyclopedic Knowledge Trivia Quiz

Answer: A vulcanologist

A caldera is a cauldron-like crater that can form following a volcanic eruption. If a large volume of magma is expelled the emptied chamber can no longer bear the weight of the rock above it. The rock then collapses into the magma chamber, leaving a large depression. Caldera formation is relatively rare, but was associated with the eruptions of Mount Tambora in 1816, Karakatoa in 1883 and Pinatubo in 1991.

Answer: Earl

"Earl" is the only title not derived from Norman French. The title predates the Norman Conquest in 1066 and originally described governors of regions such as Northumbria or East Anglia. It derived from the Danish word "Jarl", which meant chieftain.

Answer: New Mexico

The Pueblo peoples have long inhabited the South Western United States. "Pueblo" is Spanish for village and the peoples were so named when Spaniards moving into what is now New Mexico encountered complex villages made up of multi-storey buildings constructed out of adobe or local stone.

Answer: 12

The Muslim or Hijiri calendar is a lunar calendar. Each year lasts 354 or 355 days and consists of 12 lunar months. The calendar dates from 622CE, the year in which Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina and established the first Muslim community. Ramadan, the ninth month, is associated with fasting between dawn and sunset and Du al-Hijjah, the last month of the year, is the time for pilgrims to travel to Mecca.

Answer: Mozart

Set in Turkey, "Zaide" tells of the title character's attempts to save her beloved, Gomatz, from the Sultan's wrath. Mozart began working on the opera in 1779, but abandoned it soon afterwards. The remaining fragments were found after his death in 1791 but remained unpublished until 1838. The first performance took place in Frankfurt on the 110th anniversary of Mozart's birth.

Answer: 1969

The Lunar Module Eagle, crewed by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed in the Sea of Tranquility on 20th July 1969. Ten further Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon between 1969 and 1972.

Answer: Beethoven

Wordsworth and Beethoven's births were eight months apart. Both were associated with the European Romantic movement, as were Byron, Coleridge and Schiller, who were all giants of literature, not music.

Answer: Morning Glory

Katharine Hepburn won Oscars for all of these films. In "Morning Glory", made before the Hays Code came into effect, she played Eva Lovelace, a young woman making her way in the treacherous theatrical world. In total Hepburn received 12 Best Actress nominations, a record later surpassed by Meryl Streep.

Answer: Light in August

Published in 1932, "Light in August" is set in racially-segregated, Prohibition-era Mississippi. A violent psychopath, bootlegger Joe Christmas is an outcast, a fair-skinned man believing himself to have African-American ancestry. William Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.

Answer: It might have been!

The quotation is from "Maud Muller", an 1856 poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. Maud, a beautiful young woman working barefoot in the fields, meets an ambitious judge who stops for water. They are instantly attracted and wish ever afterwards that they could have married.