Easy General Knowledge 41 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Elton John

'Rocket Man' (I Think Its Going To Be A Long Long Time) was a British Hit single in April 1972 and reached Number 2 in the singles chart. Ronnie O'Sullivan is the 2004 World Snooker Champion and is known as 'The Rocket'. Other snooker characters include Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins and Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White. With my snooker ability I would be called 'Sea breeze' Inquizition.

Answer: Des Moines

Iowa lies between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in North Central USA and is nicknamed the Hawkeye state.

Answer: Geranium

All the above words can be located in the periodic table with the exception of geranium which is a plant. Germanium could have been included in the group. Elements that end in 'ium' are groups that form positive ions. Other examples are beryllium, selenium and yttrium.

Answer: Slade

'Coz I Luv You' and 'Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me' were both British Number One hit singles in October 1971 and June 1973 respectively. The group must have invested in a dictionary after December 1973 when 'Merry Xmas Everybody' was a Number One hit single although, there again, Xmas is an abbreviation for Christmas.

Answer: Safari

The word 'safari' is a Swahili word derived from the Arabic word 'safara' meaning to travel or 'safar' a journey. Other words that are derived from Italian
include 'alfresco', 'ballerina', 'incognito', 'piano', 'regatta',
'scenario', 'terracotta' and 'virtuoso'.

Answer: The Moon's a Balloon

David Niven was an international star who was born on 1st March 1909 and died on 29th July 1983 because of a motor neurone (wasting) disease. It is not certain to whether he was born in Belgrave Mansions, London or Kirriemuir in Scotland. He was noted for playing the character of Phineas Fogg in 'Around the World in Eighty Days' in 1956.

He won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a fake major in 'Separate Tables' in 1958. 'Bring on the Empty Horses'(1975) was his other autobiography.

Answer: Scooby Doo

Scooby Doo was a Joseph Barbera and William Hanna production whose story writers included Ken Spears, Joe Ruby and Bill Lutz. The television programme title, 'Scooby-Doo, Where are You?', is said to have originated from a line in the song, 'Strangers in the Night', sung by Frank Sinatra (scooby-dooby-doo).

Answer: Lies, damned lies and statistics

Benjamin Disraeli was the British Prime Minister in 1868 and between 1874-80. He was also the author of the novels 'Coningsby' in 1844 and 'Sybil' in 1845.

Answer: Limelight

Sir Charles Edward Spencer Chaplin was born in London on 16th April 1889. He was regarded as one of the great comedians of the silent movie era and he married four times. His first wife was Mildred Harris followed by Lita Grey, Paulette Goddard and finally Oona O'Neill to whom he had eight children. Paulette Goddard is probably the most well known as she starred with him in the movie 'Modern Times'(1936) but despite being married to him between 1933 to 1942, they never had any children.

In 1952 he left America for Switzerland as he was attacked for his political views. On Christmas Day, in 1977, he died peacefully in his sleep.

His movies include 'The Gold Rush' (1925) and 'The Great Dictator' (1940).

Answer: Charles Atlas

Angelo Siciliano was born in 1893 and was a mentor for men who wanted to increase their muscular masculinity. When young, he was a target for local bullies as he was very puny and was a ninety-seven pound weakling. In later life he made sure he never got sand kicked in his face from bullies. Lou Ferrigno played television's 'Incredible Hulk' co-starring Bill Bixby as Dr David Bruce Banner.

Answer: Michael Caine

Shakira Caine nee Shakira Baksh came third in the 1967 Miss World competition which was held in London when she was 19 years old. Michael Caine became aware of her when she appeared on a coffee commercial on television and they married in 1973.

Answer: Galatea

Pygmalion was smitten by the figure whom he called Galatea (sleeping love). Once Galatea was made into flesh he was able to marry her and live happily ever after.

Answer: Charles Conrad

Charles Conrad was an American astronaut who commanded the Apollo 12 flight to the moon in November 1969. His crew included Richard Gordon and Mr Bean, not the character played by Rowan Atkinson, but astronaut Alan Bean. Their lunar module landed on the moon's Ocean of Storms and there, Charles Conrad and Mr Bean spent almost eight hours on the lunar surface.

Answer: Corsica

The mountainous island of Corsica is situated about 100 miles away from the French coast. Its average altitude is 1864 feet above sea level with Monte Cintu being the highest point on the island at 8878 feet.

Answer: Guitar

Bo Diddley was born on 30 December 1928 in Mississippi, USA. His nickname is the 'Originator' as he modified a Fender Stratocaster guitar with a built-in drum machine and was associated with his trademark square guitars. Some schools of thought say he acquired his stage name from the diddley bow, a one stringed African guitar but today his name is often used to describe a badly behaved child in Southern USA.

Answer: Paddington Bear

Paddington Bear was created by Michael Bond who told his readers how Paddington stowed away in a ship's lifeboat to reach England from Darkest Peru. His adventures were told to his Aunt Lucy in Peru via a postcard.

Answer: Flanimals

Flanimals is Ricky Gervais' first children's book and features grotesque and unusual creatures such as Munge Fuddler and Munty Flumple. These are the sort of characters one would doodle or draw aimlessly on a notepad but are brought to life by way of Gervais' imagination.

Answer: meg ryan

Meg Ryan was born as Margaret Hyra on 19th November, 1961 in Fairfield, Connecticut in USA. She became well established as an actress with the movies 'When Harry Met Sally' (1989) and 'Sleepless in Seattle' (1993) co-starring Billy Crystal and Tom Hanks respectively.

She married Dennis Quaid in 1991 having starred together in the movies 'Innerspace' (1987) and D.O.A. (1988) but were later to divorce.

Answer: New Dollar

The rupee is the unit of currency in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, India and Bhutan which uses both the Indian rupee, and the ngultrum monetary unit since 1974. China and South Korea use the 'yuan' and the 'won' respectively.

Answer: King Kong

Willis O'Brien (1886-1962) was an American special effects wizard who created monster animals in animation using stop-motion techniques. He was a sculptor and cartoonist and 'King Kong' was actually a small model but by moving small figures a fraction of an inch and photographing each frame, he brought creatures to life.

In the 1933 movie, 'King Kong', Fay Wray plays the character Ann Darrow. The giant gorilla, King Kong, lived on a tropical island whose main feature is Skull Mountain. It is a misnomer that the island is called Skull Island as it was never mentioned in the movie.

Answer: Bangkok

The people of Thailand name the city 'Krung Thep' which means the 'City of Angels'.

Answer: Condor

The Andean condor which resides in the Andes mountains, weighs between 20-27 pounds, however according to the 2004 edition of 'The Guinness Book of Records', a Californian condor weighed 31 pounds although normally these birds rarely exceed 23 pounds.

They prefer to eat carrion but have been known to attack animals as big as deer. Having said that, our local nun, Sister Mary, is a bird of pray, who weighs a lot more than 31 pounds!

Answer: Absinthe

Absinthe is a potent green alcoholic liqueur which gets its green colour from the presence of chlorophyll. Its extracted from herbs and wormwood to give a bitter taste. It is said that the drink is so potent that in 1905 a Frenchman killed his wife after only consuming two glasses of absinthe.

Other stories say that Jean Lanfray, a Swiss farmer, shot his entire family whilst mixing absinthe with other alcoholic drinks. Dr Pierre Ordinaire mixed wormwood and other herbs with alcohol to administer to his patients.

This claimed to have remarkable healing power and was called a cure-all giving rise to absinthe being called the Green Fairy. Dubonnet is usually a sweet red wine flavoured with cinchona which yields quinine.

Answer: Sean Connery

Sir Sean Connery was born on the 25th August 1930. He first played the part of James Bond in the movie 'Dr No' in 1962. He was knighted in the year 2000 and is the father of actor Jason Connery.

Answer: Sylvester Stallone

George W Bush was born on 6th July 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut whereas Sylvester Stallone was born in the quarter of Hell's Kitchen, New York on the same day. Both George and Sylvester excel in public speaking but there the similarity ends as only one of them has played a 'Rocky' character and only one of them is known to his friends as 'Sly'. John Wayne lived from 1907 to 1979. Clint Eastwood was born in 1930 and Sir Michael Caine in 1933.

Hope you enjoyed the tongue in cheek (with insincere or ironical intent) quiz but above all learnt something new.