Question: Aeschylus, Greek religious thinker and playwright, was killed when a tortoise hit him on the head. How did the tortoise land there?
Answer: It was dropped by an eagle

Question: A growth rate stated as 1 + half + a third + a quarter +... is what kind of growth?
Answer: Logarithmic

Question: Which English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose 20th-century fame established him posthumously among the leading Victorian poets, was praised because "his experimental explorations in prosody ... and his use of imagery established him as a daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse"?
Answer: Gerard Manley Hopkins

Question: Who did Rock Hudson play opposite in a series of romantic comedy films in the 1960s?
Answer: Doris Day

Question: What professional world sporting promotion was run in Australia from 1964-78?
Answer: World Championship Wrestling

Question: What name is given to the stage of a butterfly's life when it lives in a chrysalis?
Answer: Pupal

Question: Mascagni's one act opera Cavalleria Rusticana is often performed as a double bill with which other opera?
Answer: I Pagliacci

Question: In which year did the space shuttle Challenger explode 73 seconds after lift off?
Answer: 1986

Question: The Leakey family who concentrated their studies in Kenya were working in what area?
Answer: Paleoanthropology

Question: What is the principal language on the Galapagos Islands?
Answer: Spanish

Question: In Los Angeles, California, USA, African-American Rodney Glen King III was beaten severely by police after leading them on a high speed chase and resisting arrest, leading to massive rioting by African-Americans in the Los Angeles area when the police officers involved were acquitted. When did the beating happen?
Answer: March 3, 1991

Question: If someone is said to have "kissed the Blarney Stone" what qualities are they being described as having?
Answer: Eloquence, or skill at flattery

Question: The wife of Humphrey Verdon Roe, with whom she founded a ground-breaking clinic in Britain, was also an author, palaeobotanist and campaigner for women's rights. What was the field in which she is known for pioneering effective, widespread and consistent action?
Answer: Birth control

Question: He was a celebrated geographer, botanist, biogeographer (among the first) and explorer, and a scientist in the study of earth magnetism whose work led to the establishment of magnetic and meteorological stations across northern Asia. Who was he?
Answer: Alexander von Humboldt (17691859)

Question: The name of the Accademia della Crusca, formed in Florence in 1583, refers to what?
Answer: Winnowing grain

Question: Where would be the best place to see the Andean Condor in its native environment?
Answer: Peru

Question: What state, earlier known as the Bohemian Kingdom and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time of the Empire's dissolution at the end of World War I, was formed in 1918?
Answer: Czechoslovakia

Question: Zev Hoover, a Massachusetts schoolboy, had international recognition in 2014 for his Little Folk Project; what did the project involve?
Answer: Photography

Question: A genus of colourful flowering plants, whose name means "daughter of the wind" is called what?
Answer: Anemone

Question: Where in Europe was the Great February Flood of 1825, the worst natural disaster in its area in the 19th century?
Answer: North Sea coast of Germany, and The Netherlands

Question: In the 1960s Tom Elwes instituted which championship in Congham in Norfolk, England?
Answer: World Snail Racing Championship

Question: What is the technical term for measles?
Answer: Morbilli

Question: Which American produces consumer guides that influence buyer patterns on wine world-wide?
Answer: Robert Parker

Question: A famous round-robin chess tournament, one of the first super tournaments, was conducted in Hastings in England from August 5 to September 2 of what year?
Answer: 1895

Question: A spinoff from the BBC TV series In the Thick of It was which 2009 film, also starring Peter Capaldi?
Answer: In the Loop

Question: The National Gallery of British Art, built on the site of Millbank Prison and opened in 1897, became commonly known as the Tate Gallery. What was it officially renamed in 2000, and now displays only historical and contemporary British art?
Answer: Tate Britain

Question: What is the city, founded in the 8th century AD and for more than 400 years a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual centre for the Islamic world until it was destroyed by the Mongols in 1258?
Answer: Baghdad, Iraq

Question: Which country in Southeast Asia, and bordering Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei, consists of 13 states and 3 Federal Territories which are separated by the South China Sea into two regions?
Answer: Malaysia

Question: Ted Sorensen was an advisor, lawyer and writer, best known as special counsel and adviser, speechwriter and alter ego to which US president, whom he called his intellectual blood bank?
Answer: John F. Kennedy

Question: The musical "Calamity Jane" is set in which town?
Answer: Deadwood, South Dakota

Question: Where is the Bayerische Staatsoper's home base?
Answer: Munich

Question: If water is described as "brackish" it has a high concentration of what?
Answer: Salt

Question: Which film, directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift, was about a cattle drive to Abilene, Kansas?
Answer: Red River

Question: What did the Green March in 1975 precede?
Answer: The Western Sahara War 1975-1991

Question: What was the surname of 20th century authors Victoria and Edward, who were brother and sister?
Answer: Sackville-West

Question: Time magazine was founded in 1923 by whom?
Answer: Henry Luce

Question: From which sport do we get the expression "Getting to first base"?
Answer: Baseball

Question: The wine "Tokay" originated where?
Answer: Hungary

Question: What area became an independent country from Australia in 1975?
Answer: Papua New Guinea

Question: Where would you usually expect to find a neum?
Answer: Written music

Question: What function does glycerol ester of wood rosin perform in foods and drinks?
Answer: Stabilises flavouring oils to keep them in solution

Question: What is the aim of the game played in the UK called Bingo?
Answer: To mark off all numbers printed in one line on the player's ticket

Question: Who was on the British throne when Balmoral Castle was bought for their use?
Answer: Victoria

Question: The line "It did always seem so to us, but now in the division of the kingdom it appears not which of the Dukes he values most, for equalities are so weighed that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moiety" is spoken by which Shakespearean character?
Answer: The Earl of Gloucester in "King Lear"

Question: What is the capital of Nicaragua?
Answer: Managua

Question: Commercial extraction is being explored of an important large-scale source of natural gas, called what ?
Answer: Fire ice

Question: When is the Chinese New Year, and the Spring Festival, for 2015 as dated in the western Gregorian Calendar?
Answer: 19 February

Question: What submarine feature joins mainland Ecuador to the Galapagos Islands?
Answer: Carnegie Ridge

Question: Who published almost 100 books on many subjects, including his autobiography "My Life and Times" (10 vols, 1963-1971), "The Four Winds Of Love" (6 vols, 1937-45), "Whisky Galore" (1947) and "Monarch of the Glen" (1941)?
Answer: Compton MacKenzie

Question: What song contains the lyrics "Steak Knife, Caro Shark, Con Job, Boot Cut ", "Dog Town, Blood Bath, Rib Cage, Soft Tail", "Black Jack, Dope Dick, Pawn Shop, Quick Pick" and "Song Bird, Main Line, Cash Back, Hard top"?
Answer: """By The Way"" by Red Hot Chili Peppers"

Question: US basketballer LeBron James caused headlines in 2010 and 2014 by first leaving and then returning to what team?
Answer: Cleveland Cavaliers