Hard Questions, Easy Answers. Trivia Quiz

Answer: Khan Tengri

Khan Tengri, 6,995 metres high, is a peak of the Tian Shan range. Tian Shan means "Celestial Mountains", and crosses Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan up to China. Mont Blanc is, as you know, the highest peak in the Alps; Aconcagua, in the Andes, is the highest peak in the Americas; Ben Nevis is the UK's top.

Answer: Aistulf

Aistulf was Ratchis brother. The Lombards or Langobardi were German "barbarians" who gave Lombardy its name. They invaded Italy in 568 and their domination lasted until 774, when they were driven out by the Franks.

Answer: Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno was an Italian thinker. For his cosmological theories with philosophical and theological implications, he was accused of heresy and burned at the stake in Rome, in 1600. No need to mention King and Shakespeare. Cate Tiernan is a star of Fun Trivia Literature quizzes: otherwise, I'd never known her name (a pen name: the real one is Gabrielle Charbonnet, even if it sounds much more like a pseudonym). She wrote "The Princess Trilogy", twelve novels in "The Disney Girls Series" and authored many other books for which she is listed along many Literature Classics in FT quizzes.

Answer: Giant Panda

Literally, the scientific name means "cat's paw black and white". The Panda is classified in the order Carnivora, when everybody knows he eats only bamboo sprouts. And his feet don't look feline at all, by the way. Taxonomy is strange: "Ailuros" means cat but the scientific name of the cat is "Felis catus".

Answer: Yttrium

Yttrium is a transition metal and the only element in the choices. The others are alloys (of course). The name derives from the Swedish village of Ytterby. Yttrium can be found in many electronic appliances: for instance, it's used to make the red color in cathode tubes and led TV screens.

Answer: Gerhard Schjelderup

Gerhard Rosenkrone Schjelderup (1859-1933) was a Norwegian composer and librettist. A pupil of Massenet, he was highly influenced by Wagner. Among other compositions: "Sonntagmorgen" (1893), "Frühlingsnacht" (1908), "Sturmvögel" (1926).

Answer: Umberto Boccioni

The painting (1910) depicts a crowd of people running towards two women fighting in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, a famous arcade were the most elegant cafés used to be. The sense of motion conveyed by the painting is typical of Futuristic style.

Answer: Peter Watkins

Culloden is a fine example of low budget Docu-Drama, in which historical event are narrated as if a TV crew were on the battlefield. Despite the small number of actors, costumes, props and everything, the result is stunning.
The battle of Culloden was fought in 1746. The Jacobite Army was crushed by the English, under the command of Hanoverian Duke of Cumberland and was followed by a terrible persecution against Highlanders and their customs.
Peter Watkins made many other docu-dramas like "The War Game" (1965), about the effect of the atomic bomb, and the recent "La Commune", running for 375 minutes in the full version. In French. I saw it. It was difficult.

Answer: Neptunus Rotterdam

Holland is, along with Italy, the baseball main force in Europe.
Neptunus won seven Championships in a row, 1999-2005: a sort of Dutch Yankees. In Europe a Continental Championship called European Cup is also played : Neptunus won it five consecutive times (2000-2004).

Answer: Gabrielle Drake

Probably you remember Gay Ellis also in "Crossplot", "All About Prima Ballerina" and "Commuter Husbands". You don't?
"UFO" was a wonderful (in my memories) sci-fi series: it was aired in UK and Canada in 1970, and in the US in '71-'72. The characters are members of a secret organisation called SHADO, manning a base on the Moon. Their mission was to "intercept" UFOs heading for the Earth, and destroy them. I recently saw a rerun: all the people, clad in pyjama-like overalls, kept on smoking all the time inside the sealed moonbase.