WORLD QUIZ LEAGUE

1. Famously mentioned in a 1982 song by The Clash, what name is given to the walled citadel of many North African cities and towns, specifically the one in Algiers?

2. Mensa’s second president, who is the only architect to have a family of molecules named after him?

3. Along with the Philippines, which is the only predominantly Roman Catholic country in Asia?

4. According to Islamic tradition, the Quran, the holy book of Islam, was revealed to Muhammad by which archangel?

5. What replaces white wine to transform the cocktail Kir into a Kir Royal?

6. Traditionally, if a Jewish man earned his living as a “Mohel”, what “sacred” act would he be performing as part of his work?

7. She has modelled for Victoria’s Secret; what is the Czech supermodel Karolina Kurková lacking that almost all of the rest of us have?

8. Receiving a flurry of Academy Award nominations in 2009, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on a short story by which acclaimed author?

9. In 1994, who founded the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation to videotape and preserve testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses?

10. Which island nation’s name derives from the Spanish for “Ancient and Bearded”?

11. What is the northernmost capital of all the world’s independent nations?

12. The name of which battle, fought in 490 BC between the Persian army of Darius I and the Greek army lead by Miltiades, became a word in most languages of the world?

13. Which Dutch company, established in 1602, was regarded as the first multinational company in the world and was the first company to issue stock?

14. Which is the only predominantly Muslim city to have been the host of an Olympic Games?

15. Faster than trot but slower than the gallop, what do we call the three-beat gait of a horse, with speed varying between 16-27 km/h?

16. It had never won a gold medal in it is Olympic history until… Which country won not one but two gold, on consecutive days, in the tennis at the Athens Olympics in 2004?

17. Which specific animal is known for performing a ‘waggle dance’ or a ‘round dance’ to indicate the distance and direction of food?

18. The castle of Dürnstein near Vienna, held which famous prisoner from December 1192 to early 1193?

19. He announced his retirement in April 2009. During his career he won 10 world titles in six different weight classes, and an Olympic title. Which boxer is a co-owner of the MLS soccer Houston Dynamo through his company Golden Boy Promotions?

20. Which historic leader was the founder of the Persian Empire’s Achaemenid dynasty and is remembered for his lasting legacy to the Jewish religion through his Edict of Restoration?

ANSWERS

1. Casbah

2. Richard Buckminster Fuller (molecules being Fullerenes or Buckyballs)

3. East Timor

4. Jibril

5. Champagne

6. Circumcision

7. Belly button or navel

8. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

9. Steven Spielberg

10. Antigua and Barbuda

11. Reykjavik, Iceland

12. Marathon

13. Dutch East India Company

14. Sarajevo

15. Canter

16. Chile

17. Bees

18. Richard Lionheart

19. Oscar de La Hoya

20. Cyrus the great