The Quiz Thread

[HanoiVillan]

I'm a bit late to the 'setting questions' discussion, and maybe not adding much new, but I kind of wanted to add agreement to those saying that teams scoring 0, 1 or 10 / 10 on a round are all big problems. I don't think they're quite equal, though, because an occasional 10 might just be someone very very good or getting the luck of the draw, but 0's and 1's come from a] 'unguessable' questions, and/or b] obscure topic choices, and/or c] showing off on the part of the quizmaster, all of which are a bit unappealing. I used to co-host a quiz night in Hanoi for expats (just for beer and quesadilla), and you soon learn that teams that consistently get very low scores don't come back to be humiliated again next week. The other reason 'too easy' and 'too difficult' are not equal is that you would have to make a conscious effort to do stupid questions to make it too easy, whereas making them too difficult is easily done by accident. My experience is that most people setting quizzes are beset by the 'wrong' fear, that it will be too easy rather than that it will be too hard.

[Stevo985]

6 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I'm a bit late to the 'setting questions' discussion, and maybe not adding much new, but I kind of wanted to add agreement to those saying that teams scoring 0, 1 or 10 / 10 on a round are all big problems. I don't think they're quite equal, though, because an occasional 10 might just be someone very very good or getting the luck of the draw, but 0's and 1's come from a] 'unguessable' questions, and/or b] obscure topic choices, and/or c] showing off on the part of the quizmaster, all of which are a bit unappealing. I used to co-host a quiz night in Hanoi for expats (just for beer and quesadilla), and you soon learn that teams that consistently get very low scores don't come back to be humiliated again next week. The other reason 'too easy' and 'too difficult' are not equal is that you would have to make a conscious effort to do stupid questions to make it too easy, whereas making them too difficult is easily done by accident. My experience is that most people setting quizzes are beset by the 'wrong' fear, that it will be too easy rather than that it will be too hard.

I went to one at my secondary school once. Aimed at the parents but most tables had a kid with them. It was a quiz and curry night with like a curry buffet.

It was ridiculously hard. My parents weren't geniuses in terms of education but they both loved quizzes so they had a LOT of general knowledge between them. They brought their two friends too. They'd regularly be in the top 3 of normal quizzes.

First couple of rounds we barely got a question right. Teams around us were openly laughing at the difficulty of the questions, and by the 3rd or 4th round half the room (and it was a big room) were at the buffet and ignoring the quiz.

Quite funny looking back but at the time my mom was livid  bless her

[HanoiVillan]

A recent attempt at an 'easy to difficult' quiz round, which was a bit difficult on the social Zoom call but might be a bit easy on this thread:

1) In which TV show can I find Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton being written by Julian Fellowes?

2) What poison was Socrates sentenced to drink?

3) I am an American painter noted for my ‘drip technique’, in which I pour or splash liquid household paint onto a canvas. My painting titled number 17A fetched around $200m in private auction. Who am I?

4) I come from Iceland, and every kilogram of me has the Icelandic government’s seal of approval. I am made from feathers. People sleep with me. I cost around 1,400 euros per kilo. What am I?

5) Which Australian prison-based soap opera was an early hit for Channel 5, where it was sponsored by Pot Noodle?

6) Which band had a hit called ‘I Ran So Far Away’ in Australia and the USA, where it reached number 1 and number 9 on the charts respectively, but not in their native UK, where it failed to make the top 40?

7) What do the RSPB, United Utiities, the Ministry of Defence and Danish retail magnate and richest man Anders Holch Povlsen have in common?

8] In geography, what do Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein have in common, that is unique to these two countries?

9) Which percussion instrument, not part of a standard drum kit, can be heard on ‘The Spirit of Radio’ by Rush, ‘Born to Run’ by Bruce Springsteen, ‘Sloop John B’ by The Beach Boys, and ‘No Surprises’ by Radiohead?

10) I played football with Paul Ince, Franck Queudrue, John Oster, James Milner, Ricardo Vaz Te and Lewis Holtby. I played 35 times for England, the last of which was Roy Hodgson’s first match in charge. Who am I?

11) What do the answers to the above have in common?

[tonyh29]

33 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

4) I come from Iceland, and every kilogram of me has the Icelandic government’s seal of approval. I am made from feathers. People sleep with me. I cost around 1,400 euros per kilo. What am I?

 

[mjmooney]

43 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

you soon learn that teams that consistently get very low scores don't come back to be humiliated again next week.

There's an element of this in our pub quiz (I'll be posting last night's here shortly) - casual visitors are often bewildered by the nature of the questions, and walk out shaking their heads. But there is a core of regulars who've been coming for years and love it the way it is. 

[chrisp65]

Ah the school fund raising quiz.

I turned up once as a late sub, persuaded by my missus as they were a man down. It was basically me and a table of actual qualified people, a couple of GP’s a head teacher from another school, an architect.

Had I not been there, they’d have won the night by 2 clear points. But thanks to my powers of persuasion and absolute conviction I was right on a few subjects, they managed a very creditable 2nd place.

 

[mjmooney]

Actually, thought it was a lot more 'populist' than usual last night: 

1 On May 18th 332 the Emperor Constantine the Great announced free distribution of food to the citizens of which city? 
A)Athens      
B)Babylon    
C)Constantinople        
D)Dole

2 The May 18th 1291 capture and Fall of which city marked the end of Crusader presence in the Holy Land and of crusades to the Levant?
A)Acre   
B)Byblos   
C)Corinth   
D)Derbe 

3 The Napoleonic Wars began on May 18th1803 when the UK declared war on France by revoking the Treaty of?  
A)Amiens        
B)Bordeaux        
C)Calais        
D)Dijon

4 On this date in 1811 the Battle of Las Piedras saw the first great military triumph of the revolution of the Río de la Plata in Uruguay led by José Gervasio...who? 

A)Artigas        
B)Bolivar        
C)Cortuna        
D)Desparos

5 The currency of Uruguay is known as The Uruguayan what? 

6 Which river 180 mi long and 140 miles wide at its mouth forms part of the border between Argentina and Uruguay? 

7 The Fray Bentos brand is derived from Fray Bentos in Uruguay where the products were processed and packaged until 1960’s. In what UK country are they now made? 

8 Uruguay won the only FIFA World Cup not to have a final - the winner was determined by a final group stage in what year? 

9 Which European team was the first to win a FIFA World final outside of Europe? 

10 Brazil are the only non-European side with a FIFA World Cup title in Europe, they defeated which national team 5-2 in the 1958 final in Sweden? 

11 How many times have Brazil won the FIFA World Cup? 

12 Only 2 World Cups have been held outside of Europe and the Americas, South Korea and Japan served as co-hosts in 2002, followed by which country in 2010? 

13 After an abortive attempt on 20th BBC2 launched on 21st April in what year? 

14 The Two Gentlemen of Verona is the only Shakespeare play to feature a dog. It belongs to Launce who calls it by the name of what creature? 

15 The 2CV, English nicknames include "Flying Dustbin", "Tin Snail", "Dolly", and "Tortoise", an economy car introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial de l'Automobile and produced until 1990 by which company?  

16 After City of London which is England's 2nd smallest city by area and population? 

17 William Patrick Stuart-Houston (née Hitler; 1911–1987) the half-nephew of Adolf Hitler was born in which English city? 

18 Letters Patent issued by King John in 1211 created which English city that lost its city status in 1998 due to the council’s failure to appoint Charter Trustees?

19 Which is the first English city alphabetically? 

20 How many English cities begin with the letter ‘C’? 

21 The first Indian feature film ‘Shree Pundalik’ was released in Mumbai on May 18th 1912 -  Ramchandra Gopal Torne was given what byname? 
A)Abbamaha    
B)Badasaab    
C)Capogurujee        
D)Dadasaheb

22 May 18th 1872 saw the birth of philosopher, mathematician and Nobel Prize recipient, Bertrand Russell, one of the founders in 1960 of an anti-war group advocating nuclear disarmament known as the Committee of what?    
A)10    
50        
C)100    
D)250

23 On May 18th1991 Helen Sharman became the first Briton to go into space. In 1984 she received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sheffield in what discipline? 
A)Aeronautics           
B)Biology           
C)Chemistry          
D)Drama

24 Which British/Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biologics on May 18th 2014 rejected America company Pfizer's final offer of £63bn? 
A)AstraZeneca
B)Beiersdorf UK 
C)Chugai Pharmaceutical Co.   
D)DuPont Pharma.

25 In what year did ABBA win the Eurovision song contest with Waterloo? 

26 Which Swedish Prime Minister was assassinated on 28th Feb 1986? 

27 Which dramatist born in Stockholm in 1849 (d. 1912.) wrote the play Miss Julie in 1888? 

28 The Gulf of Bothnia separates Sweden from which country?

29 The combat phase of the Persian Gulf War was known by what codename? 

30 The U.S. states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas border which Gulf? 

31 Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe in Gulf of Guinea became independent from which country in 1975? 

32 The Gulf of Carpentaria a large shallow sea bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea and enclosed on the East, West and South sides by which Commonwealth country? 

33 Which Commonwealth nation is home to the fiord Milford Sound? 

34 Brazil, Suriname and Venezuela border which Commonwealth country?  

35 The Commonwealth Games take place every four years in 2018 they were held in City of Gold Coast in Australia which city will be host in 2022, virus permitting?  

36 Which continent is home to the largest number of Commonwealth countries? 

37 Diez, Tio, Zehn, and Zece mean what in Spanish, Swedish, German and Romanian respectively? 

38 How many red balls are on a snooker table at the start of a championship frame? 

39 Paul Hardcastle had a 1985 UK No1 hit with what number? 

40 Violent storm wind speed 103-117mph is number 11 on what 1805 created scale? 

Tie break -The Gulf War was waged against Iraq by coalition forces from how many nations led by the United States? 

[mjmooney]

Answers: 

1 C)Constantinople 

2 A)Acre  

3 A)Amiens

4 A)Artigas         

5 Peso

6 River Plate

7 Scotland

8 1950

9 2014

10 Sweden

11 Five - 1958-1962-1970-1994-2002

12 South Africa

13 1964 

14 Crab

15 Citroën 

16 Wells

17 Liverpool

18 Rochester

19 Bath

20 Seven -  Cambridge, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chelmsford,  Chester, Chichester & Coventry

21 D)Dadasaheb

22 C)100 

23 C)Chemistry 

24 A)AstraZeneca 

25 1974

26 Sven Olof Palme

27 Johan August Strindberg

28 Finland

29 Desert Storm  

30 Gulf of Mexico 

31 Portugal 

32 Australia 

33 New Zealand

34 Guyana

35 Birmingham

36 Africa

37 10

38 15

39 19

40 Beaufort

Tie break - 35

 

 

[Seat68]

Populist. I could get a handful guessing and maybe 3 with certainty. 

[mjmooney]

6 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

Populist. I could get a handful guessing and maybe 3 with certainty. 

It had some football questions! 

We (a team of 4) got 26, and finished 4th (we did win it last week, though). 

Edited May 19, 2020 by mjmooney

[HanoiVillan]

I got 14 with certainty and might have guessed three or four others. In combination with a team, would have probably got 25 or so. Think that's a good level.

[chrisp65]

I guess as well as ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ there’s also the knowledge of whether your score will be broadly equivalent to the others.

I’ll happily play along with a quiz of 40 questions if I think my 4 has a chance of being the top score. If I was to score 4/40 and the winner got 8/40 then I’d be back next week. If I scored 4/40 and the next lowest was 32/40 well then I probably wouldn’t bother again.

Which is why as a family we still play University Challenge against each other, because some weeks, 4 is a winning score.

Being an old school snob, I’d rather get 4 on UC than 39/40 in TV Quick Celebrity Quiz

Edited May 19, 2020 by chrisp65

[mjmooney]

Top four scores were 33, 31, 26, 26 (we were 4th, losing on the tie break). 

[Seat68]

26 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

I guess as well as ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ there’s also the knowledge of whether your score will be broadly equivalent to the others.

I’ll happily play along with a quiz of 40 questions if I think my 4 has a chance of being the top score. If I was to score 4/40 and the winner got 8/40 then I’d be back next week. If I scored 4/40 and the next lowest was 32/40 well then I probably wouldn’t bother again.

Which is why as a family we still play University Challenge against each other, because some weeks, 4 is a winning score.

Being an old school snob, I’d rather get 4 on UC than 39/40 in TV Quick Celebrity Quiz

4 is about right outside of questions that start “you will hear a piece of popular music”

[chrisp65]

2 hours ago, Seat68 said:

4 is about right outside of questions that start “you will hear a piece of popular music”

That string of questions on english cities and commonwealth stuff did for me, a blind spot I didn’t realise I had.

So, I guess that’s why very often it’s a good team game, providing next week it’s flags of the world, or Welsh history or the Ankst record label or 1970’s terrorist organisations or 17th century gravestone symbolism.

[Paddywhack]

I don't want to brag but there's a question on this page I think I know the answer to.

[Seat68]

13 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

I don't want to brag but there's a question on this page I think I know the answer to.

The 2cv question right?

[Xela]

21 on @mjmooney's quiz (assuming question 9 is what I think it is - the answer/year doesn't make sense - the year should be 4 years previous)

A good 5 or 6 were guesses though so more luck than knowledge!

 

[mjmooney]

1 minute ago, Xela said:

21 on @mjmooney's quiz (assuming question 9 is what I think it is - the answer/year doesn't make sense - the year should be 4 years previous)

A good 5 or 6 were guesses though so more luck than knowledge!

That's a good score, doing it on your own. 

I can make these a regular Tuesday thing if you like. 

[Xela]

1 minute ago, mjmooney said:

That's a good score, doing it on your own. 

I can make these a regular Tuesday thing if you like. 

Yeah it would be good. I did very well on the multiple choices, which was more luck than anything. Also complete guess on Abba's Eurovision. I knew the era so took a punt. 

As as only child I used to study a lot. World Cup history i'm good at as I used to pore over the stats and figures. Always been decent at countries/flags/geography due to having a globe and many atlases in my room as a kid! 

My blind spot is modern pop culture and science. Hated science at school.