The World's Greatest Quiz

Every year, King William's College in the Isle of Man gives its students a General Knowledge Paper just before the Christmas holidays. The answers are released in late January of the new year. The paper is just about the hardest and most challenging trivia quiz you will see. It is also posted each year by the Guardian newspaper. The GoHeath family works on the quiz every year during Christmas break. I am posting it here as a service for any readers of the Heath Post who want to test their quiz mastery:

General knowledge paper 2010-2011, sat by the pupils of King William's College, Isle of Man

"Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est"

1. In the year 1910:

1 who was the victim of al-Wardani?

2 who began with Helen's letters to her sister?

3 what activity, where, was banned as a potential cause of delays?

4 which vessels were involved in a collision in la Manche costing 27 lives?

5 who ordered a large quantity of a muscarine antagonist from a shop at 2 Bucknall Street?

6 whose death in the stationmaster's house led to the station taking his name some years later?

7 who, having ruled which principality for 50 years, declared himself King?

8 whose memorial was placed behind the National Portrait Gallery?

9 which two unaccountable freaks went out together?

10 what was set alight on the Parisian stage?

2. Who or what:

1 blew hot and cool?

2 was Mad Jack's spouse?

3 was the stuff that Smith was made of?

4 is an expression of surprise or indignation?

5 did the Emperor reward with the Yellow Jacket?

6 started as the 100th, but became the 92nd and was later joined by the 75th?

7 is marked by the rarest dish in all the land?

8 did a wartime treble on a solar vehicle?

9 was Raymond's creation?

10 merged with Osborne?

3. Going out, what (numerically), where, suggests:

1 a clutch of curlew's eggs?

2 a beverage "Faithful to the original"?

3 an encounter on 13 September 1882?

4 an annual event initiated by James Stanley?

5 an earlier connection with the Morning Post?

And coming in:

6 is there a geographical misplacement from South Uist?

7 sounds like a resident of Puddleby-on-the Marsh?

8 is an apparent refuge for the bald?

9 follows Calamity?

10 finishes on time?

4.

1 Who demonstrated phonetic pronunciation?

2 Whose notes were worth one hundred crowns?

3 Who footed it in Italy, Spain, Japan and Holland?

4 Who sold Estonia and took a Baltic Island instead?

5 Who was first to cross the North-West Passage by dog-sled?

6 Who died during the wedding celebrations of Tove and Gythe?

7 Who was decorated for valour following the Amiens push?

8 Whose tale about a sixth daughter inspired Eriksen?

9 Who is especially associated with a supernova?

10 Who was cuckolded by the Royal physician?

5. Which independent school:

1 started in the Depot?

2 favours Malvolian hosiery?

3 is approached by the Hundred?

4 sold the site to Merchant Taylors'?

5 possesses a relic of an epic crossing of the Scotia Sea?

6 had in its statutes a cryptic acknowledgement of the final chapter of St John's Gospel?

7 owes its foundation to Salmonella typhi?

8 has a boomer in the chapel tower?

9 was pictured by a little canal?

10 replaced a lofty hermitage?

6.

1 What was updated by HG Wells?

2 What might be perceived as an apiary?

3 Which island is doubly recognised on 198?

4 Who left great designs in the Gulf and New South Wales?

5 Who, aided by wizardry, cuckolded his rival by impersonating him?

6 Who, being the son of Suzanne, changed his name through the benevolence of her friend Miguel?

7 What did hateful and rough weeds lose apart from beauty?

8 What was the native city of a unique pontiff?

9 What can be used instead of mahogany?

10 Who recruited Hare for Dad's Army?

7.

1 Who began with 7-43?

2 What excluded Hall in 1856?

3 What did Virginia adopt instead of Jones?

4 Who gained valuable experience from Gillespie?

5 Who knocked out Jackie to become undisputed flyweight champion?

6 Who looked into the disappearance of his West African GP's daughter?

7 What was judged to be a considerable distance from the Strand?

8 Which minstrel finished with Danny Boy?

9 Where is St James the highest of all?

10 What is a funny five-liner?

8.

1 Who benefited from projectile vomiting?

2 Who likened the messenger to fullers' soap?

3 Who was a fruiterer specialising in Ficus sycomorus?

4 Who placed the caterpillar at the end of the food chain?

5 Whose wife, a lady of ill-repute, bore him two sons and a daughter?

6 Whose narratives both start during the second year of the monarch's reign?

7 Who dreamed of a bear-like beast with three ribs between its teeth?

8 Whose broken yoke was replaced by one made of iron?

9 Who alluded twice to Leo becoming a vegetarian?

10 Who found himself in an open-air ossuary?

9. Who or what:

1 is Hazel's cousin?

2 was crowned in Dublin Cathedral?

3 eponymous water bird has long been bedded down?

4 gained the GC for heroism on the Ely-Newmarket line?

5 died in legal captivity of coronary thrombosis on 16 November, 1952?

6 wrote a risqué novel, which saw him tried but acquitted for irreligion and immorality?

7 carried on with George, regardless of Caroline, and later Frances?

8 put his name to a Top Secret Management Handbook?

9 tragically completed his fourth, but not his eighth?

10 created William and Maudie?

10. Which musician might have been:

1 in SW3?

2 a mongrel?

3 an ottoman?

4 a hurried exit?

5 a plumbous abdomen?

6 more specifically, Atropos?

7 emulsified by bile?

8 a fit of pique?

9 coniferous?

10 lignified?

11.

1 What was izzard?

2 When did Neptune begin?

3 What gave way to 18 in 83?

4 What is a feature of aerial punctuation?

5 Which food substance can adversely affect the embryo?

6 What convinced Benedict of the suitability of the Florentine master?

7 Where did Jane lodge for two guineas a week?

8 What, symbolically, melts at 3410ºC?

9 Who is a sharp know-all?

10 What is a zoonotic?

12.

1 What is perhaps the equal of roly-poly?

2 What epidemic was survived by Sarah and Emily?

3 What is made from hog's lard, mutton suet and quicksilver?

4 Upon whom had the captain's steward poured boiling jam juice?

5 Which ancient bibulous Dane with pale red-rimmed eyes, was presented with a case of Priorato?

6 Where, more than once, was a dead orphan child brought back for dissection and kept in a cupboard?

7 Where did the small apothecary display the skeleton of an aardvark in his window?

8 Translate 'Les bouts-dehors des bonnettes du petit perroquet'.

9 What was the ultimate fate of the Armenian polyglot?

10 Who found a Frenchman's ring finger in his bowl?

13.

1 Who rescued John Galt?

2 Who was No 1, of No 1 Company

of the XIVth Army?

3 What entitles Mrs Magnusson to add R af E after her name?

4 Who chased Ran Bagha and caused a bridge of boats over the Jumna to collapse?

5 Whose son had served the Indian government in every way for47 years?

6 Who was the favourite, and the only one of the 37, to survive the conflict with Scipio?

7 Who, being the gift of a Mesopotamian ruler, was to perish on Lüneburger Heide?

8 Who was presented to a Habsburg Prince by the King of Portugal?

9 Who was presented to a Pope by the King of Portugal?

10 Who set off for their honeymoon in a yellow balloon?

14. Which elevated conduit:

1 rotates for tall vessels?

2 might suggest marzipan?

3 is suspended from two open-web ribs?

4 is well seen 20 minutes after leaving Piccadilly?

5 features at the V&A museum, without its taller and younger companion?

6 although a few weeks younger than Holmes, proved greatly more durable?

7 took its name from the Honourable Member for Berkshire?

8 bears the inscription "To Public Prosperity"?

9 provides an outlet for Trevor?

10 straddles Watling Street?

15. Where:

1 does one come off the rails?

2 might there be a quarryman's shelter?

3 does the hairpin recall Loch and his successors?

4 must one look in vain for Noble's Peel and Derby?

5 does a dwelling at barely 30m seem seriously misplaced?

6 might one be excused for wrongly supposing a link with Camilla's great grandmother?

7 is there a possible source for the winner's garland?

8 did a party from Grange Hill cause a disturbance?

9 is there a suggestion of a subterranean spirit?

10 is there a fraction over the glass?

16. Where:

1 did Robinson settle for the elder sister?

2 was the master tailor interrupted in his reading of The Divine Comedy?

3 did apparent Benedictine hatred change, with assistance from friends, to love?

4 did the seemingly simple sister of the Hungarian Captain end up marrying his landlord?

5 did the beloved offspring of opposing feuding families commit suicidefollowing the Friar's ruse?

6 did a Sicilian knight defeat the Duke in a duel and learn from the Saracen that his loved one was innocent?

7 did the rejected hunchback reveal the identity of his wife's real lover to the troupe leader?

8 did the dragoon gain the innkeeper's daughter in spite of a diabolical intrusion?

9 did the accursed jester unexpectedly find that his daughter had been bagged?

10 did the General's wife stab herself after being ravished by the Prince?

17. Which author concluded what with these words?

1 "Assist."

2 "All the papers on the subject are there in my safe."

3 "As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on."

4 "At any moment, it seemed, there could be surprises, huge upsets, even the end of small lizard worlds."

5 "The sun dipped down from the great tower on to the upturned face, and his eyes were glistening through their tears."

6 "He remembered how Marie had said he was a man whom women loved easily, and he felt uncomfortable at being reminded of her."

7 "I can't reconcile my mind to their taking up with kanakas, and I'd like to know where I'm to find them whites."

8 "And I began to curse and swear under my breath, because I'd left my shoes in the Mayni Tunnel"

9 "Very lightly she slipped up into bed, and very soon she was asleep."

10 "'Steer north,' said he."

18. During 2010:

1 where did Joy uncover Fletch?

2 which city honoured a 1945 hero with its Große Siegel?

3 which Wizard Rose wilted towards the end of summer?

4 who finally achieved a victory by 417 days over Sinclair?

5 who was finally ousted by a Scottish philosopher and economist on 30 June?

6 which joint, showing a philatelic fracture, required a proper replacement before release?

7 where did Schadow's figure receive a multicoloured multiplication?

8 which leo-aquiline promoter missed out on afternoon tea?

9 who found that three coppers did not fool two coppers?

10 where did the tallest last the longest?