JV-NKC SAT NOV 17--3rd place
VAR-NKC SAT JAN 19 7:30 am bus
JV-SAVANNAH SAT FEB 2 7:30 bus 3rd place
VAR AND JV--ST JOSEPH CHRISTIAN LION LEGACY TOURNAMENT BUS 7:30 3rd place
JV & VAR-MEC SAT FEB 23 @
VAR-MAPLE WOODS TUES MAR 4
JV--LEXINGTON JV RESCHEDULED DATE [BUS 7 AM]
VAR-SAVANNAH SAT MAR 15 7:30 am bus
VAR-LEXINGTON VARSITY MAR 29 7 am bus
1. As a first year, he played “the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in
many years.” As a sixth year, he dated Lavender Brown. As a second-year, his wand
while “borrowing” his father’s flying car. What character in the Harry Potter series
is the former owner of Scabbers the rat and the constant companion of Hermione (her-
MY-oh-nee) and Harry?
ANSWER: Ron Weasley (prompt on partial answer)
2. What SI unit for frequency was named after the German discoverer of radio
waves?
ANSWER: hertz
3. He grew up in Ohio, in a town named for one of his ancestors. He dropped the
“Pearl” from his name and wrote about big-game fishing for several years before turning
to Western writing with 1910’s The Heritage of the Desert. What writer’s best-known
novels include Lone Star Ranger and Riders of the Purple Sage?
ANSWER: Zane Grey
4. This phrase was on Timothy McVeigh’s shirt when his mug shot was taken. John
Wilkes Booth’s last line on stage was this, delivered on April 14, 1865, after
assassinating Lincoln. Brutus, after assassinating Caesar, supposedly said what phrase
that means, “Thus always to tyrants,” that is the motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia?
ANSWER: sic semper tyrannis
5. Talon is the official mascot of this team that won both the U.S. Cup and its league
championship in its inaugural season. Bruce Arena once managed which Major League
Soccer team currently headed by Peter Nowak that features players such as Jaime (HYmay)
Moreno and teenager Freddy Adu (ah-DOO)?
ANSWER: D.C. United
6. Systolic and diastolic are the parts of what circulatory statistic that is normally
120 over 80?
ANSWER: blood pressure
7. In the sentence, “I win every prize there is to win,” what is that sentence
rephrased in the present perfect tense?
ANSWER: I have won every prize there is to win
8. A line has no end in either direction; a line segment has two defined endpoints.
What term describes something that has one endpoint but no end in the other direction,
and comes to us every day from the sun?
ANSWER: ray
9. It started on April 6th, 1994, allegedly after the radio station RTLM gave a coded
message to start it, when a plane carrying the president of the affected country and
neighboring Burundi was shot down. It ended in July when the RPF took over the
country. What genocide claimed the lives of nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus?
ANSWER: Rwandan genocide (accept Rwanda by itself, or clear-knowledge equivalents
like “killings in Rwanda”)
10. Scientists in Ethiopia recently discovered fossils from this genus. The anamensis
(ah-nah-MEN-sis) fossils serve to provide an evolutionary link between the earlier
ramidus species and the later afarensis species in what genus of ancient hominids?
ANSWER: Australopithecus (aw-strah-loh-PIH-theh-cus)
11. In the mid-1870s, his size attracted the notice of Yale’s football team. He
graduated Cincinnati Law School, then served as Governor of the Philippines and
Secretary of War. As President, he lowered tariffs and vigorously pursued anti-trust
lawsuits, but alienated some more progressive Republicans. What 27th President, also the
10th Chief Justice, served between 1909 and 1913?
ANSWER: William H. Taft
12. A prominent one is located on the top of Mount Mazama in Oregon, and one can also be found on top of
Olympus Mons on Mars. Most of North America was covered in two meters of debris following an ejection of debris
from one in Yellowstone. What are these crater-like features, most often formed following a volcano's collapse on
itself, and can be seen in Crater Lake, Oregon?
ANSWER: caldera (prompt on “crater” before it is said in the question.)
13. He fought on two fronts: for Tarentum (tah-REN-tum) against the Romans, and
for the Sicilian Greeks against Carthage. After the battle of Beneventum (beh-neh-VENtum)
in 275 BC he left Italy, although he had defeated Carthage at Eryx and Rome at
Heraclea (heh-rah-KLAY-uh) and Asculum (ah-SKOO-lum). What king of Epirus (eh-
PEE-rus) lends his name to a victory that is so costly as to nearly be a defeat?
ANSWER: Pyrrhus (PEE-russ)
14. Characters this children’s writer has created include the twins Sara Louise and
Caroline Bradshaw, and the friends Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke. What writer has won
Newbery Medals for her novels Jacob I Have Loved and Bridge to Terabithia?
ANSWER: Katherine Paterson
15. She travels to the ice planet of Ilum to help rescue Jedi Master Luminara in the
Cartoon Network series on the Clone Wars. The daughter of Ruwee and Jobal Naberrie,
she is first seen on-screen as a 14-year old. Who was this Queen of Naboo who first met
Anakin Skywalker when he was nine, and was played by Natalie Portman in the “Star
Wars” films?
ANSWER: Padme (PAD-may) Naberrie Amidala (or Queen/Senator Amidala)
1A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. A ratings point represents 900,000
households. How many more households watch a show that gets 24 points than one that
gets 18 points?
ANSWER: 5,400,000
1B. Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley meet on the Italian Front of World War I in
what Ernest Hemingway novel?
ANSWER: A Farewell To Arms
2A. Dodge City, Kansas, was the site of what TV show that featured Miss Kitty,
Chester, Doc Adams and Marshal Dillon?
ANSWER: Gunsmoke
2B. Islamic law refers to any interest as what term that in the Western world today
applies to excessively high interest rates?
ANSWER: usury
3A. What former Governor and U.S. Senator from Winchester ran the “Organization”
that dominated Virginia Democratic politics between the 1930s and 1960s?
ANSWER: Harry F. Byrd, Sr.
3B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Brody’s group has 20,000
members on the 1st of a month. If it doubles every two days, on what day will it have
640,000 members?
ANSWER: the 11th
4A. What base is in DNA but not in RNA?
ANSWER: thymine
4B. What word was coined in the 1970s to describe the slow economic growth and
high increases in prices that occurred during most of that decade?
ANSWER: stagflation
5A. What word, taken from Greek words meaning “against” and “position,” refers to
the direct opposite of something, such as what “stupidity” is to “intelligence”?
ANSWER: antithesis (an-tih-THEH-sis)
5B. What is the third-lightest noble gas?
ANSWER: argon
6A. You won't find any of what features in Siberia, because there is too little
precipitation to form permanent ice?
ANSWER: glaciers
6B. What UNIX command allows the user to move a file?
ANSWER: mv
7A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the area of a triangle in
square inches if its height is 3 feet and its base is 1 yard?
ANSWER: 648 square inches
7B. A.P., Sara, and Maybelle were first-generation members of what country music
family from Maces Springs, Virginia featured in the movie “Walk the Line”?
ANSWER: Carter family
8A. What architect of the Watergate break-in appeared in several episodes of Miami
Vice and is now a right-wing radio talk-show host?
ANSWER: G. Gordon Liddy
8B. What Byzantine Emperor that ruled between 527 and 565 is famous for marrying
the actress Theodora and for reforming the old Roman law code?
ANSWER: Justinian
9A. Controversy arose in February after President Bush agreed in principle to sign
over control of six US ports to a firm based in what country?
ANSWER: United Arab Emirates or UAE
9B. What language based on Dutch gives us words such as commando, aardvark and
apartheid?
ANSWER: Afrikaans
10A. What English poet gained the favor of Queen Elizabeth I with his epic poem, The
Faerie Queene?
ANSWER: Edmund Spencer
10B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Solve for x and y. 3x minus 4y
equals 1 and 3x plus 4y equals 17.
ANSWER: x equals 3 and y equals 2 (either order is acceptable)
1. This element is used in the Statue of Liberty and in pennies made before 1982.
Name this element with average atomic mass 63.55, atomic number 29, and symbol Cu.
ANSWER: copper
2. This game traces its history back to 1904, when Lizzie Magie (mah-GHEE)
published The Landlord’s Game. In 2000, FAO Schwartz sold a “One-of-a-kind” edition
with real US currency instead of the colored notes. Rich Uncle Pennybags is what game’s
informal mascot, as seen on its Community Chest and Chance cards?
ANSWER: Monopoly
3. Robert Hubert, a French watchmaker, confessed to starting it on Pudding Lane as
part of a Catholic plot and was hanged. Despite 100,000 people being left homeless, only
six deaths were verified. An outbreak of the bubonic plague was stopped, and
Christopher Wren was appointed to oversee reconstruction. What disaster started on
September 2, 1666, and lasted for three days, burning much of England’s biggest city?
ANSWER: Great Fire of London (accept “Great Fire of 1666” before 1666 is said in the
question)
4. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the average of 37, 26, 93,
and 44?
ANSWER: 50
5. This novel, like its sequel That Was Then, This Is Now, is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
At the end, there is a big “rumble” between the Greasers and the “Socs” (soh-shes).
Robert Sheldon, Dallas Winston, Johnny Cade, and the three Curtis brothers – Darry,
Sodapop and Ponyboy – feature in what novel written by S.E. Hinton?
ANSWER: The Outsiders
6. It is made up of a stigma, style, and ovary. What is the female flower reproductive
organ?
ANSWER: pistil
7. He won a gold medal in rowing at the 1924 Olympics and ran for President on the
People’s Party ticket in 1972. Critics claimed that he advocated permissiveness, which
led to problems for children later in life. What pediatrician used psychology to analyze
children’s needs in his classic book, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care?
ANSWER: Dr. Benjamin Spock
8. This element has the largest specific heat of any solid and is used to treat bipolar
disorder. Name this lightest metal with average atomic mass of 6.94, atomic number 3,
and symbol Li.
ANSWER: lithium
9. This D-shaped track is only three-quarters of a mile in circumference, but is the
host to three major races: the SunTrust Indy Challenge, the Crown Royal 400, and the
Chevy Rock and Roll 400, the last race before the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Identify this
race track located in Henrico County, Virginia.
ANSWER: Richmond International Raceway (or Speedway)
10. One member of this homophone pair comes to us from Spanish and refers to a
member of an irregular fighting force. What word’s other spelling refers to the largest of
the primates?
ANSWER: guerrilla or gorilla
11. He studied under Francisco Pacheco when he was a teenager, and married
Pacheco’s (pah-CHAY-kohs) daughter. He won a competition that involved painting the
best scene of the expulsion of the Moors, sponsored by King Philip IV, but that painting
was destroyed in a palace fire. Who was this Spanish painter of The Forge of Vulcan,
The Surrender of Breda,(BRAY-dah) and Las Meninas (may-NEE-nahs)?
ANSWER: Diego Velazquez (vel-AS-kez)
12. She disguised herself as an old woman named Doso when she visited King Celeus
(SEE-lee-us) of Eleusis (eh-LOO-sis), who treated her with hospitality. As a reward, she
taught Celeus’s son Triptolemus the basics of agriculture. Identify this Olympian
goddess of the harvest, the mother of Persephone (pur-SEH-foh-nee).
ANSWER: Demeter (deh-MEE-tur) or Ceres
13. He published half of his mathematical writings, including Elements of Algebra,
despite being nearly blind. His formula states that for a convex polyhedron, faces, minus
edges, plus vertices, is two. What mathematician solved the seven bridges of Konigsburg
problem and was the first to use the letter e to describe the base of natural logarithms?
ANSWER: Leonhard Euler (OY-ler)
14. Ka’ena is on this island’s western end and Makapu’u is on its eastern end. Other
landmarks include Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, the North Shore and Waikiki. What
Hawai’ian Island has the most population and contains Pearl Harbor and Honolulu?
ANSWER: O’ahu
15. This man and the number 24601 (2-4-6-0-1) are associated. He promises Bishop
Myriel to become an honest man, becomes a factory owner after assuming the name of
“Pere Madeleine” and takes in Fantine’s daughter Cosette, dying shortly after Cosette and
Marius get married. Who saves the life of police Inspector Javert despite being on the run
from the law and is the central character of Les Miserables?
ANSWER: Jean Valjean
1. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Simplify the quantity x squared
plus x minus 42 end quantity divided by the quantity x plus 7 end quantity.
ANSWER: x minus 6
2. Its five lobes are the insula, frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital. What is the
largest part of the brain?
ANSWER: cerebrum (prompt on “brain”)
3. It is the name shared by the author or authors of three namesake New Testament
epistles and the author of the Book of Revelation. What common New Testament name is
also shared by the author of the fourth Gospel and the person who baptized Jesus?
ANSWER: John (the Evangelist, the Presbyter, of Patmos, the Apostle and the Baptist)
4. This desert is bordered by the Altay Mountains on the north and the Tibetan
plateau on the south. One Chinese name for it is han-hai, or “dry sea.” What desert’s
name means “very large and dry” in Mongolian?
ANSWER: Gobi Desert
5. He wrote the fairy tale collections The Happy Prince and Other Tales and A
House of Pomegranates. He penned The Ballad of Reading Gaol (red-ding jail) after
serving prison time for homosexual acts. What writer is best-known for works such as
Lady Windemere’s Fan, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian
Gray?
ANSWER: Oscar Wilde
1. An adult one has 44 teeth and is in the family Talpidae. Name this burrowing
mammal that is also a term for a colored spot on the skin or a type of spy that hides in the
enemy’s organizations.
ANSWER: mole
2. His lines of poetry include “Malt does more than Milton can / To justify God’s
ways to man” and “The time you won your town the race / We chaired you through the
market-place,” from the poems “Terence, this is stupid stuff” and “To an Athlete Young.”
Whose poem, “When I was one-and-twenty,” is in his collection A Shropshire Lad?
ANSWER: A.E. Housman
3. It lost $200,000 during its 19-month existence; its remnants were sold to Wells
Fargo in 1866. The words “Orphans preferred” appeared in an advertisement for what
delivery service that ran between St. Joseph, Missouri, and San Francisco, that was
closed when a transcontinental telegraph line was established in November 1861?
ANSWER: Pony Express
4. It can be built using two switches in series which creates the main feature, and can
supply a “one” only if both switches are on. On paper it is shown as a mound with two
leads and an output. Name this logic gate that states zero if one switch is off.
ANSWER: AND Gate
5. Many in the Eastern Orthodox church believe he was married previously, thus
explaining the passage in Matthew 13:56 where James, Simon and Judas are mentioned.
He last appears towards the end of Chapter 2 of Luke. Who was told in Matthew 1:20,
“Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,” and then raised Jesus Christ to
manhood?
ANSWER: Saint Joseph of Nazareth
6. Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi's observations of it in 964 went un-credited by Charles
Messier (messy-eh). Catalogued as NGC 224, it is one of the few blue shifted galaxies
observed; estimates state that a collision is not guaranteed, but if it does, it could
potentially happen in approximately 3 billion years. Also listed by Messier as M31 is
what spiral galaxy, the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way?
ANSWER: Andromeda
7. This city was founded in 1565 by Estacio (ay-STAH-see-oh) de Sa and it was
known as Sao (SOW) Sebastian for centuries. Its landmarks include Sugar Loaf
Mountain and the Maracana (mah-rah-KAH-nah) soccer stadium. Cariocas (kah-ree-OHkahs)
are residents of what second-largest city in Brazil famous for beaches such as
Ipanema (ee-pah-NAY-mah) and Copacabana (koh-pah-kah-BAH-nah)?
ANSWER: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
8. Dan Duquette said he was “in the twilight of his career” and traded him to the
Blue Jays, where he won two straight Cy Young Awards. What pitcher then played for
the Yankees, retired twice, most recently signing a contract in May to allow the Houston
Astros to have on their staff what right-hander, known as “The Rocket”?
ANSWER: Roger Clemens
9. This city, the home of Sankore (san-KOH-reh) University, was founded in the
10th century by Tuareg traders and became a great world city under the Songhai Empire.
Its influence declined as trade along the Atlantic coast proved easier than trans-Saharan
trade, and it was captured by Morocco in 1591. What city, today in Mali, is a synonym
for somewhere extremely remote?
ANSWER: Timbuktu
10. This play’s events center around three “games”: “Humiliate the Host,” “Get the
Guests” and “Bringing up Baby.” Two unhappily married couples, the older George and
Martha and the younger Nick and Honey, are the main characters in what Edward Albee
play where no one is frightened of the author of To the Lighthouse?
ANSWER: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
11. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Multiply the binomials x plus 12
and x minus 7.
ANSWER: x squared plus 5x minus 84
12. They can be held anywhere, as long as a court reporter is present. The defendant
usually has a chance to cross-examine the person taking one. Examples might include
getting testimony from a hospital-bound patient, or someone under police protection. In
the US, what type of pre-trial evidence gathering occurs outside a courtroom setting?
ANSWER: deposition
13. This type of exothermic reaction occurs only when heat or light are given off.
What reaction involves a substance reacting with an oxidizer and is often accompanied
by burning, such as that in a car’s engine?
ANSWER: combustion
14. This philosophical concept includes three parts: ad bellum, in bello and post
bellum, relating to conduct before, during and after its waging. Saint Augustine fused
Christian thought with those of Cicero and Aristotle to form what theory of the “right”
reasons to enter and conduct armed conflict?
ANSWER: just war theory (prompt on “war”)
15. This short story contains the line, “You bring Johnny home and pay me two
hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands.” Two fugitives,
Bill and Sam, are forced to cough up the money after attempting to kidnap the mayor’s
son in what story by O. Henry?
ANSWER: “The Ransom of Red Chief”
1A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the diameter of a circle
whose equation is x squared plus y squared equals 225?
ANSWER: 30
1B. Rodrigo Diaz del Bivar was the given name of what 11th century hero of the
Spanish Reconquista (ray-kohn-KEE-stah)?
ANSWER: El Cid
2A. In the Shakepeare play Julius Caesar, Marc Antony begin his funeral oration for
Julius Caesar with what seven words?
ANSWER: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”
2B. A lawyer uses this verb to refer to a voluntary stop in presenting evidence. A
musician uses the word to refer to an interval of silence that lasts for the length of a note.
What word does a physicist use to refer to a state that is the opposite of being in motion?
ANSWER: rest
3A. A normal human has how many cervical vertebrae?
ANSWER: seven
3B. Which children of Tiamat were the guardians of the sun god Shamash, and had
the head and torso of a man and the lower body of a stinging animal?
ANSWER: scorpion men
4A. Pop Culture, Darts, and Poker all have championships with what name, associated
most with baseball?
ANSWER: World Series
4B. Examples of them include aluminum hydroxide, zinc oxide, and water. Name this
term for a substance that can react as either an acid or a base.
ANSWER: amphoteric
5A. What Apache chieftain surrendered to Nelson Miles in 1886 and was the last
major Native American leader to surrender to the US government?
ANSWER: Geronimo
5B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Convert the Roman numeral
MCCLXIX into an Arabic numeral.
ANSWER: 1269
6A. What compound with an iron atom at the center links to oxygen atoms, allowing
red blood cells to carry oxygen?
ANSWER: hemoglobin
6B. What four words are expressed by a “biconditional” statement or by the three-
letter word “iff” (spell it out)?
ANSWER: if and only if
7A. What art term denotes the attempt by artists to make a flat picture appear three-
dimensional by using foreshortening to a vanishing point and making figures in the
background smaller?
ANSWER: linear perspective
7B. What aviation pioneer developed the first four-engine airplane and the first
helicopter to use a conventional rotor layout?
ANSWER: Igor Sikorsky
8A. Perkin Reveller is the main character of what Canterbury Tale that is famously cut
off after only 58 lines?
ANSWER: The Cook’s Tale
8B. Walter Mitty is the most famous character of what American humorist?
ANSWER: James Thurber
9A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Convert the Roman numeral
MCMXXIX into an Arabic numeral.
ANSWER: 1929
9B. Harriet died in June of a heart attack at the Australia Zoo. Harriet was not a
human, but one of what kind of animal, who lived to be 176 years of age and was brought
to Australia by Charles Darwin?
ANSWER: Galapagos tortoise (Also accept giant tortoise, prompt on just tortoise)
10A. He listened to the stories of Friar Marcos de Niza and an Indian known as the
Turk, and bankrupted himself searching for the golden cities of Quivira (kee-VEE-rah)
and Cibola (SEE-boh-lah). What conquistador explored the American Southwest between
1540 and 1542?
ANSWER: Francisco Coronado
10B. What is the unit of currency used in the Russian Federation?
ANSWER: ruble
1. Ja Rule helped which pop singer reach #1 with remixes of the 2001 song “I’m
Real” and the 2002 hit “Ain’t It Funny”?
ANSWER: Jennifer Lopez (prompt on “J-Lo”)
2. The April 25, 1915, anniversary of this battle’s amphibious landings are
celebrated on ANZAC Day. By January 1916, it became obvious that no progress could
be made against the defenders led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and the British withdrew.
What battle was a failed attempt to knock the Ottoman Empire out of World War I?
ANSWER: Gallipoli or Dardanelles
3. The national flower of Iran and Turkey, what perennial bulbous plant is also
associated with the Netherlands?
ANSWER: tulip
4. Word pairs such as “both … and”, “not only … but”, and “either … or” are what
type of conjunctions?
ANSWER: correlative pairs
5. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is 6 cubed?
ANSWER: 216
6. Two moons circling Pluto were named by the IAU in June, one after Nyx, the
Greek goddess of darkness, and the other after this monster. This monster, who is also
the namesake of the largest of the constellations, is what multi-headed water creature
from Herculean myth?
ANSWER: Hydra
7. Obtained mainly from cassiterite, it is used to coat lead and also used in bronze.
Name this silvery element with ten stable isotopes, average atomic mass 118.7, atomic
number 50, and symbol Sn.
ANSWER: tin
8. He hopes to marry Agnes Wickfield and steal Mr. Wickfield’s fortune, and his
insincerity is revealed by constant references to “Master Copperfield” and constant
mentioning of his “’umble ways.” What villain in David Copperfield is stymied by Mr.
Micawber, who calls him, “You HEEP of infamy!”
ANSWER: Uriah Heep (accept “Heep” before “HEEP” is said.)
9. This Spanish word comes from the Medieval Latin words for “calm sea” and
refers to a rich vein of precious ore or a sudden source of good luck or prosperity. What
word was also a TV western set on the Ponderosa Ranch?
ANSWER: bonanza (boh-NAHN-sah)
10. What neighborhood of Northwest DC is a popular shopping area, was once a
separate town within the District and is the namesake of a prestigious university?
ANSWER: Georgetown
11. She has been married to co-Saturday Night Live alum Brad Hall since 1987. A
regular on the short-lived series Day by Day, that show’s failure allowed her to contact
Larry David, whom she also met while working on SNL. Name this comedienne who
starred for nine years on Seinfeld as the very poor-dancing Elaine Benes.
ANSWER: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
12. The Younger was Prime Minister twice, between 1783 and 1801 and once more
between 1804 and 1806. The Elder was Prime Minister between 1766 and 1768, and as
Secretary of State had brilliantly planned victory in the French and Indian War. What
name is shared by this father and son pair?
ANSWER: William Pitt
13. This four-letter word is used in British slang to mean firing from a job. Would-be
barbarians use it to describe the process of robbing all the valuables from a city after they
capture it. What is this word used to describe a bag of cloth, paper or plastic used to carry
things, such as groceries?
ANSWER: sack
14. Mass wasting is one form of this, where gravity pulls rocks and sediment
downwards. Drumlin and moraine are both aftereffects of sediment being transported by
ice, though most soils are moved and deposited by water in a process known as what?
ANSWER: erosion
15. Its first game for the Famicom system was 1983’s Antarctic Adventure. In the
1980s Nintendo of America limited it to publishing five new titles per year, but this
company circumvented that rule by founding a subsidiary, Ultra Games. What company
published the games Castlevania, Life Force, and Contra, where you could use the code
“Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left Right, B, A, start” to gain 30 lives?
ANSWER: Konami
1. On April 15, 1920, a Massachusetts shoe factory was robbed of over $15,000 and
a paymaster and security guard were killed. Although Celestino Madeiros claimed guilt,
trial judge Webster Thayer dismissed his testimony in a trial that attracted international
attention. What two Italian anarchist immigrants were then executed on August 23, 1927?
ANSWER: Fernando “Nicola” Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (prompt on either)
2. This novel’s main character has a short affair with Eleanor Ramilly after he is
dumped by Rosalind Connage due to his family’s poverty. After America enters World
War I, he leaves Princeton to serve, and his mother, Beatrice, passes away. What first
novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald centers around the life and love of Amory Blaine?
ANSWER: This Side of Paradise
3. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the circumference of a
circle with an area of 121 pi square feet?
ANSWER: 22 pi feet
4. This equation sets the value of lambda-sub-two. Name the effect that won its
namesake the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics and is the decrease of x-ray energy and
wavelength change when interacting with matter.
ANSWER: Compton scattering or effect
5. The second of this work’s five movements has a waltz theme, as it intends to
depict a ball. The last movement can be played standalone as a tone poem; it describes a
witches’ Sabbath. The next-to-last movement depicts execution by hanging in what 1830
symphony, the foremost by Hector Berlioz (BEAR-lee-oz)?
ANSWER: Symphonie fantastique
1. His power ended in 1954 after the Watkins Committee recommended censure,
which the Senate did by a 67 to 22 vote. A famous episode of Edward Murrow’s See it
Now and a crucial hearing with the Army were associated with the career of what
Wisconsin Senator famous for accusing political opponents of being Communists?
ANSWER: Joseph McCarthy
2. When this English modal auxiliary verb is in the first person, it indicates the
future indicative tense. When it is used for other people, however, it indicates the future
imperative tense – as in, “You (BLANK) do your chores!” What helping verb is often
associated with “will”?
ANSWER: shall
3. His Quintet, formed in 1955, featured Paul Chambers on double bass and John
Coltrane on tenor saxophone. That same year, he released the album ‘Round About
Midnight, while in 1959 he released Sketches of Spain. Name this great jazz trumpeter
best known for the albums Kind of Blue and Bitches’ Brew.
ANSWER: Miles Davis
4. Give the shared last name. Virgil took over the town marshal position from Fred
Sippy. Morgan was assassinated in March 1882, spurring a three-week vendetta launched
by his brother against the Clanton family. Virgil, Morgan and his brother, Wyatt, were all
members of what family associated with the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral?
ANSWER: Earp brothers
5. Evidence of their existence comes from three jet events in particle accelerators.
Name these carriers of the color force that holds quarks together.
ANSWER: gluons
6. After the Pugachev rebellion, this Russian ruler quickly became more
conservative. After overthrowing Peter III, attempts were made to put in place
Enlightenment principles. Paul I was the successor of what Russian ruler that reigned
between 1762 and 1796 as czarina?
ANSWER: Catherine the Great or Catherine II of Russia
7. Invented by Roy Plunkett in 1938, its official name is po-ly-te-tra-fluor-o-e-thylene.
Name this material of very low friction that is often used on cooking pans since
things don’t stick to it.
ANSWER: Teflon
8. This first name comes to us from a place in the Old Testament that meant “forest”
and gives itself to a plant mentioned in the Bible that many scholars think is a crocus. It
appears in the name of the Joad family’s oldest daughter in The Grapes of Wrath. What
name is also the last name of a former Israeli Prime Minister?
ANSWER: Sharon
9. They entered the league in 1969, the same year as the Seattle Pilots, San Diego
Padres, and Kansas City Royals. Named after a World’s Fair, they played in Olympic
Stadium beginning in 1976; top players in their history included Gary Carter, Tim
Raines, and Andre Dawson. Identify this Canadian baseball franchise that moved to
Washington D.C. in 2005.
ANSWER: Montreal Expos (accept either) (prompt on “Washington Nationals” until
“World’s Fair”, and do not accept “Washington Senators”)
10. What trig ratio is equal to opposite side over adjacent side?
ANSWER: tangent
11. Laika (LIE-kuh) was the first passenger in this program, and as the designers
failed to accommodate the safe return of the craft, also the first casualty. All five were
launched by a vehicle originally designed to carry nuclear warheads. What was this
space program, begun in 1957, whose name translates in Russian as "satellite"?
ANSWER: Sputnik
12. In the movie Dogma, Salma Hayek’s character Serendipity claims that this
director sold his soul to make Home Alone one of the 20 highest grossing films of all
time. What writer and director of Planes, Trains and Automobiles is also responsible for
1980s classics such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club?
ANSWER: John Hughes
13. He founded his theory on granite deposits he discovered in the Scottish
Highlands, theorizing that the granite must have cooled from molten rock, as opposed to
have precipitated from water. Who wrote a two-volume Theory of the Earth and worked
with John Playfair and Charles Lyell to found the theory of uniformitarianism?
ANSWER: James Hutton
14. This poem’s last scene is in a Philadelphia charity hospital, where the title
character has met her lover, Gabriel Lajeunesse (lah-ZHOO-ness), after she had spent
years traveling across America looking for him. What Longfellow poem is set during the
Great Expulsion of Acadians from Canada?
ANSWER: Evangeline
15. When they occur, human liability can still be assessed – such as against the
designer of an unsafe dam or a camp counselor who allows campers to swim in a just-
flooded river. What legal and insurance term applies to situations such as lightning or
floods that are outside of any possible human control?
ANSWER: act of God or acts of God
1A. Who led the Kuomingtang after the death of Sun Yat-sen and fled to Taiwan after
the rest of China fell to the Communists under Mao Zedong?
ANSWER: Chiang Kai-shek or Jiang Jieshi
1B. What battle in the War of 1812 was fought, unknown to both sides, after the
peace treaty had been signed?
ANSWER: Battle of New Orleans
2A. A botanist and first American ambassador to Mexico is the namesake of what red
flower that goes into bloom around Christmastime?
ANSWER: Poinsettia
2B. What color light has the longest wavelength?
ANSWER: red
3A. It first appeared in the novel Lost Horizon. What harmonious Himalayan valley
that had English-speaking monks and flush toilets is today a synonym for utopia?
ANSWER: Shangri-La
3B. What five-letter word meaning, “to make a smooth transition” or “to proceed
without interruption,” comes to us from the Latin word for “to follow”?
ANSWER: segue (seh-GWAY)
4A. Which Frenchman created paintings of water lilies at his garden in Giverny (zhee-
VAIR-nee), as well as the work Impression: Sunrise, for which the Impressionist
movement is named?
ANSWER: Claude Monet (MOH-nay) (Do not accept “Manet”, that is a different artist.)
4B. What man was killed by his twin brother Romulus when he mocked the height of
the walls in the city that they founded?
ANSWER: Remus
5A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Let A be equal to 26, B be equal to
25, C be equal to 24, and so on – all the way down to Z equals 1. What is the numerical
value of F times R?
ANSWER: 189
5B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. The line x plus y equals 5 does
NOT go through which quadrant?
ANSWER: 3
6A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the volume of a cone with a
base radius of 5 feet and a height of 15 feet?
ANSWER: 125 pi cubic feet
6B. What English poet, permanently stunted due to catching tuberculosis as a young
man, is best-known for the mock epic The Rape of the Lock?
ANSWER: Alexander Pope
7A. Katrina was one of the five hurricanes whose names were “retired” from the 2005
Atlantic hurricane season. Name any two of the other four retired hurricane names.
ANSWER: Dennis, Rita, Stan and Wilma
7B. The largest state capital in terms of population is what city in the Southwest?
ANSWER: Phoenix, Arizona
8A. What type of nerve cells have axons and dendrites?
ANSWER: neurons
8B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the prime factorization of
561?
ANSWER: 3, 11, 17 (can be said in any order)
9A. What dynasty ruled France between 987 and 1328?
ANSWER: Capet (kah-PAY) or Capetian (kuh-PEE-shun)
9B. On what body part is a rhinoplasty performed?
ANSWER: nose
10A. In what short story by Shirley Jackson is the winner of the title contest put to
death by stoning?
ANSWER: “The Lottery”
10B. What band, whose members are of Armenian descent, released the paired albums
Mesmerize and Hypnotize in 2005?
ANSWER: System of a Down
1. Typical flowers have six of these inside the perianth. More advanced flowers
feature fewer, but are positioned so as to not reduce pollination’s effectiveness. A
filament and an anther make up what male flower reproductive organ?
ANSWER: stamen
2. He is the most-cited living author in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, due to
scholarly works such as The Sound Pattern of English and Aspects of the Theory of
Syntax. What MIT linguistics professor is also known for films such as Manufacturing
Consent and for his criticisms of the US government?
ANSWER: Noam (NOH-um) Chomsky
3. What poet wrote the lines, “Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo /
Shovel them under and let me work / I am the grass; I cover all,” “The fog comes / on
little cat feet” and “Hog butcher for the world / Tool maker, Stacker of Wheat” in his
poems “Grass,” “Fog” and “Chicago”?
ANSWER: Carl Sandburg
4. This country is unusual in that it contains two other nations entirely within its
borders – a “most serene” republic that did not join when it was created in 1862, and a
nation that the Lateran Treaty created in 1929. What country’s 20 regions include Apulia,
the Aosta Valley, Liguria, Piedmont, Calabria and Tuscany, contains San Marino and the
Vatican City, and has a capital of Rome?
ANSWER: Italy
5. This man, despite being able to leg lift 2000 pounds, has lost his re-election bid
for the presidency of the National Religious Broadcasters. He ran for President in 1988
and is currently president of Regents University and the Virginia Beach-based Christian
Broadcasting Network. Who came under fire this year for comments made on his 700
Club show regarding Hugo Chavez and Ariel Sharon?
ANSWER: Pat Robertson
6. Matt Groening (gray-ning) has never confirmed that she was written out due to a
dispute over money with the voice actress who played her. Wikipedia argues that Homer
cannot be blamed for the incident, as he did find a bobby pin. Her ghost was summoned
in Treehouse of Horror XIII, and her last appearance showed her looking down on her
sons from Heaven. What mother of Todd and Rod is the deceased wife of Ned Flanders?
ANSWER: Maude Flanders
7. One character with this name was forced to marry Linton, but then fell in love
with Hareton. What name is also the name of Edgar’s wife that is also Heathcliff’s
beloved in the novel Wuthering Heights?
ANSWER: Catherine
8. For carbon dioxide, it’s at 5.2 atmospheres and minus 57 degrees Celsius. For
water, it’s at .006 atmospheres and .01 degrees Celsius. Name this point at which vapor,
liquid, and solid states of a substance are in equilibrium.
ANSWER: triple point
9. This playwright was elected as one of Athens’ ten generals in 441 BC, and
showed his literary merit by winning twenty Festivals of Dionysus. His plays that survive
in fragments include The Tracking Satyrs and The Progeny. What ancient Greek
playwright also wrote Ajax, Electra and the three plays of the Oedipus cycle?
ANSWER: Sophocles
10. In 1800, they received one-fifth of the United States’ annual budget. When
Jefferson stopped paying them, they declared war on the US, which ended in a US
victory. They fought the US once again, and lost, in 1815. The phrase, “the shores of
Tripoli,” refers to a battle fought against what group of North African pirates?
ANSWER: Barbary Pirates (accept Barbary States)
11. Service Release 2 of Windows 95 included its 32-bit version, which allowed a
maximum file size of 4 gigabytes and partition sizes of 2 terabytes. Newer versions of
Windows included the New Technology File System. Name this system used to organize
data between the hard disk and the operating system, that despite its name, had problems
with heavyweight files.
ANSWER: File Allocation Table or FAT
12. Before 1991, the symbol of Raelism (RAIL-iz-em) was a mix of this symbol and
a swastika. Despite its name, it seems to have gotten widespread use only during the
Renaissance, most infamously during Nazi rule, when a yellow badge of this symbol was
used. The Israeli flag has in its center what symbol named for a Biblical king?
ANSWER: Star of David or Magen David (MAW-gayn DAW-veed) (accept
“hexagram” or “Solomon’s seal”)
13. It was founded in 330 AD and was nearly destroyed in the Nika riots of 532 AD.
An Arab attack in 717 AD was repulsed, and it was sacked during the Fourth Crusade in
1204 before being conquered by the Ottomans in 1453. What city on the Bosporus Straits
was the capital of the Byzantine Empire and is now called Istanbul?
ANSWER: Constantinople (prompt on “Istanbul” if said before it appears in the answer)
14. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. A cargo container is 12 feet wide
by 20 feet long by 9 feet high, and the ceiling and floor are covered in a protective
coating. How many more square feet of protective coating would be needed to cover the
inside of the container?
ANSWER: 576 square feet (108 + 108 + 180 + 180)
15. He has two brothers, D.B. and Allie, and two sisters, Viola and Phoebe. He has a
disastrous date with an old girlfriend, Sally Hayes, and turns down the advances of a
prostitute named Sunny and an old teacher, Mr. Antolini. What 16-year-old protagonist
has been expelled from Pencey Prep before the start of the novel, The Catcher in the Rye?
ANSWER: Holden Caulfield (prompt on partial answer)
1. Traders speaking this language influenced the spelling system used in
Vietnamese. Its alphabet is noted by putting tildes over vowels that are nasalized. It
influenced languages such as Galician and Ladino (lah-DEE-noh), which was spoken by
Iberian Jews. What language is spoken in the region of Macao (mah-COW) and countries
such as the Cape Verde Islands, Angola and Brazil, and in cities such as Lisbon?
ANSWER: Portuguese
2. In an episode of That 70s Show, Fez plays this game by himself. Rosario Dawson
plays it with the Worm Guys in Men in Black 2, while Bill and Ted defeat the Grim
Reaper in this game in order to save their souls. Four colors are featured in what game
where a spinner causes players to wrap around each other like a pretzel?
ANSWER: Twister
3. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Even-numbered doubles occur if
you throw a pair of twos, fours or sixes. On a pair of fair six-sided dice, what is the
probability of throwing three consecutive even-numbered doubles?
ANSWER: 1/1728
4. It was created in 1915 by a merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the US
Lifesaving Service, and it absorbed the US Lighthouse Service in 1939. During
peacetime, it operates as part of the Department of Homeland Security, but during
wartime, what smallest branch of the US Armed Services becomes part of the Navy?
ANSWER: United States Coast Guard
5. Discovered by John Bell Hatcher in 1888, it is the official state fossil of South
Dakota. They had a “frill” on the back of their skulls, a single horn above their noses and
a pair of yard-long horns above their eyes. Name this herbivorous dinosaur whose name
is Greek for three-horned face.
ANSWER: triceratops
1. He left Rome at age 20, allegedly owing 250 talents to his creditors, but returned
to become Julius Caesar’s Master of the Horse and read Caesar’s will to the Roman
people. His fall occurred after the disaster at Actium, where he was defeated by Octavian.
Who committed suicide in 30 BC, after hearing of the suicide of his lover, Cleopatra?
ANSWER: Marc Anthony (or Marcus Antonius) (NOTE: One talent is believed to be
about 110 pounds, and talents were usually measured in gold.)
2. Despite the fact that she averaged a WNBA record 25.3 points per game, and
scored 47 points in a game against the Houston Comets, her team just missed the 2006
playoffs. Name this shooting guard for the Phoenix Mercury who also won three straight
titles while at the University of Connecticut.
ANSWER: Diana Taurasi (tar-AH-zee)
3. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the product of (x squared
plus 3x plus 5) and (x plus 1)?
ANSWER: x cubed plus four x squared plus eight x plus five (x3 + 4x2 + 8x + 5)
4. In the sentence, “The award was split between the two of you,” which two words
can be changed to increase, by one, the number of award winners?
ANSWER: between and two (to “among” and “three,” respectively)
5. Four pi times 10 to the minus seven tesla times meters per ampere is the value of
what constant with symbol mu sub zero?
ANSWER: permeability of free space