Fifty questions. What answers?

Bumper quiz for long winter nights – with easier questions as requested!

1. Which country has the largest registered merchant shipping fleet?
2. Which singer was nicknamed ‘The Empress of the Blues’?
3. Taking its name from the Chinese for doctor, which brand of tea carried the advertising
slogan, ‘Putting the ‘T’ back into Britain’?
4. What was the name of the Scottish king killed by Macbeth?
5. Who co-starred with Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise in the film “A Few Good Men”?
6. Easyjet’s headquarters are based in which airport?
7. Who was the original presenter of Sunday Night at the London Palladium?
8. What invaluable aid to motorists was invented by Percy Shaw?
9. How many years does a crystal wedding anniversary celebrate?
10. Which zodiac sign is represented by a goat?
11. Which two metals are combined to make the alloy bronze?
12. Which canal in Scotland links the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea?
13. Who had a hit in 1972 with “I Can See Clearly Now”?
14. Who was the ‘King of the Cowboys’, who died in 1998?
15. What is the common name for sodium hydroxide?
16. Who was the last wife of Henry VIII?
17. Who referred to the English as ‘A nation of shopkeepers’?
18. What great landmark was built for the Paris Exhibition of 1889?
19. Louis Washkansky was the first person to undergo what in 1967?
20. In politics, what was the name of the forerunners of the Liberal Party?
21. In which English daily newspaper would you find Fred Bassett?
22. What is a young hare called?
23. Which Washington (USA)-born bandleader had the signature tune ‘Take The A Train’?
24. By what name is the former country of East Pakistan now known?
25. Who won snooker’s World Professional Championship in 1979?
26. What is the name for two words with the same meaning?
27. What is raku?
28. In which field of the arts were Norman Parkinson and Cecil Beaton famous?
29. If you are eating something en croute what would it be like?
30. In America what does a realtor sell?
31. On which British TV programme is the American series “All in the Family” based?
32. Where can the Venus de Milo be seen?
33. Which region of New Zealand’s South Island has Christchurch as its main city?
34. Which musical features Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit?
35. For whom was Michael Jackson making a commercial when his hair caught fire?
36. What is the world’s largest breed of hound?

37. What is the world’s largest breed of terrier?
38. What is another name for the Chinese gooseberry?
39. Where would you find the Sea of Tranquility?
40. Which novel begins, ‘Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan,
Edmund and Lucy’?
41.The first outlet of which fast-food chain opened in, perhaps surprisingly, South Salt Lake, Utah, in 1952?
42. Faith, Hope and Charity was the name given to the three Second World War Gloster
Gladiator biplanes that helped defend which island in 1940?
43. Who designed the Menai Suspension (Road) Bridge?
44. The musical “West Side Story” is based on which Shakespeare play?
45. In May 1991, Édith Cresson became which country’s first woman Prime Minister?
46. Which actress shaved her head before playing Lt Jordan O’Neil in “GI Jane”?
47. In a court of law, what “O” word is usually used for an expressed disagreement with an
argument set out by the opposing side?
48. Which London borough features in a cockney rhyming slang phrase for hair?
49. What term for the trade route between Xi’an in China and Asia Minor did German
geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen first coin in 1807?
50. On the site of which prison does the Old Bailey stand?

Answers :

1 Liberia
2 Bessie Smith
3 Typhoo
4 Duncan
5 Demi Moore
6 Luton airport
7 Tommy Trinder
8 Cat’s Eyes
9 15
10 Capricorn
11 Copper and tin
12 The Caledonian Canal
13 Johnny Nash
14 Roy Rogers
15 Caustic soda
16 Catherine Parr
17 Napoleon Bonaparte
18 The Eiffel Tower
19 A heart transplant operation
20 Whigs
21 The Daily Mail
22 A leveret
23 Duke Ellington
24 Bangladesh
25 Terry Griffiths
26 Synonym
27 Japanese pottery
28 Photography
29 Enveloped in pastry
30 Property (real estate)
31 Till Death Do Us Part
32 The Louvre, Paris
33 Canterbury
34 Guys and Dolls
35 Pepsi-Cola
36 Irish Wolfhound
37 The Airedale
38 Kiwi fruit
39 On the Moon
40 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (by C S Lewis)
41 Kentucky Fried Chicken
42 Malta
43 Thomas Telford
44 Romeo and Juliet
45 France’s
46 Objection
47 Demi Moore
48 Barnet (Fair)
49 The Silk Road
50 Newgate

Image Credits: Nick Forman , J. Minter , Rye News library .