King William College Quiz 2012

December 24, 2012 3:51 AM

Thank God its Christmas quiz time! Your annual dose of devilishly difficult quizzing, hot from the Isle of Man - the King William College Quiz.

Official answers in January, eyes down for a Metafilter full house ahead of that.

posted by biffa (102 comments total)

1.5 Jared Diamond. (I got one! This is about as good as it will get).
posted by Infinite Jest at 4:28 AM on December 24, 2012

2.1 Bessie Smith
2.8 Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist)
14.10 the human breast
posted by Infinite Jest at 4:45 AM on December 24, 2012

1.10 Koh-I-Noor
posted by infini at 5:00 AM on December 24, 2012

10.9 Ancient Greece (Athens?)
posted by infini at 5:05 AM on December 24, 2012

2.9 is Violet Elizabeth Bott. I'm concerned that out of all of these I know that one.
posted by emmtee at 5:06 AM on December 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

18.6 Neil Armstrong's death
posted by infini at 5:08 AM on December 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Incorrect, Infinite Jest; 2.1 is Elizabeth Montagu, and 'Elizabeth' must be the theme linking section 2:

2.5. Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol (cannon cast by Jan Tolhuys)
2.10. My son's fair wife, Elizabeth (from Jean Ingelow's poem 'The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire')
posted by verstegan at 5:28 AM on December 24, 2012

Can someone throw up a google spreadsheet with the answers as we go?
posted by empath at 5:36 AM on December 24, 2012

1.1) The line is from Keats' Eve of Saint Agnes
posted by bfranklin at 5:37 AM on December 24, 2012

12. In 1912
1 who put phonetics on the stage? George Bernard Shaw, in Pygmalion!

(I can't believe I actually knew an answer, holy shit!)
posted by iamkimiam at 5:37 AM on December 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

2.8 Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:39 AM on December 24, 2012

2.2 Elizabeth Báthory
posted by amy lecteur at 5:41 AM on December 24, 2012

Section 3 must be Verdi operas:

3.1 Rigoletto
3.2 Falstaff
posted by verstegan at 5:47 AM on December 24, 2012

3.5 Il Trovatore (also by Verdi)
posted by Luminiferous Ether at 5:50 AM on December 24, 2012

3.2 Is either Fallstaff or the merry wives of windsor
posted by cmfletcher at 5:51 AM on December 24, 2012

Section 4 is famous Dutchmen:

4.7 Spinoza
4.8 Erasmus
4.9 Leeuwenhoek
4.10 Cornelis de Witt
posted by verstegan at 5:53 AM on December 24, 2012

and 4.5 Johannes Kepler
posted by amy lecteur at 5:58 AM on December 24, 2012

Also 3.10 could be La Traviata
posted by Luminiferous Ether at 5:58 AM on December 24, 2012

No, amy lecteur, 4.5 must be Blaeu.
posted by verstegan at 6:02 AM on December 24, 2012

4.1 is Van Loon in his book Van Loon's Lives. My dad used to read me chapters from it when I was a kid.
posted by sciencegeek at 6:05 AM on December 24, 2012

11.3 Carter and Co (I'm pretty sure)
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:05 AM on December 24, 2012

No, amy lecteur, 4.5 must be Blaeu.

Ah, yes. Time for coffee #2.
posted by amy lecteur at 6:06 AM on December 24, 2012

3.7 Othello
posted by Hactar at 6:07 AM on December 24, 2012

All of Part 11 is stuff from Somerset Maugham
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:07 AM on December 24, 2012

Section 5 is names ending -by:

5.8 Sarah Ponsonby (Eleanor Butler's other half)
5.9 John Rugby (from Merry Wives, 'no tell-tale nor no breed-bate')
5.10 William Scoresby
posted by verstegan at 6:08 AM on December 24, 2012

18.6 Death of Neil Armstrong (feels too straightforward, anybody have any suggestions?)

(I usually don't get any of these. This is really exciting)
posted by Hactar at 6:16 AM on December 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

(I usually don't get any of these. This is really exciting)

There were a few where I was "Wow, I sort of know this one but can't quite remember the name. I ROCK!" The King William Quiz, where 99% abject failure makes your entire year.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:21 AM on December 24, 2012 [4 favorites]

Section 6 is people called Isaac:

6.3 Isaac Singer (inventor of the sewing machine)
6.5 Izaak Walton
6.7 Walter Isaacson (author of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World they Made)
6.9 Bishop Isaac Barrow
6.10 Isaac Butt MP
posted by verstegan at 6:21 AM on December 24, 2012

7 is Derbyshire

7.1 Wirksworth?
7.3 Hathersage
7.4 Queen's Park, Chesterfield when both Vigar and Smith got centuries playing for Derbshire
7.6 Florence Nightingale Statue at the London Road Community Hospital, Derby
7.7 Bakewell (as in the pudding)
7.9 Buxton ( St Ann's Well )
7.10 Repton School
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:41 AM on December 24, 2012

9 is Greeks

9.2 is a reference to Prometheus, whose liver was eaten by vultures daily as punishment for bringing fire to earth
9.4 Plato
9.8 Aesop
9.9 Aristophanes

16 is Cats.

16.1 The Cat who Walked by Himself
16.5 Schrodinger's Cat (that spelling looks wrong but Firefox says it's right...)
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:44 AM on December 24, 2012

9.5 Pythagoras, working of chesty_a_arthur's Greek hint.
posted by Hactar at 6:55 AM on December 24, 2012

Pretty sure 12.10 is New Mexico, admitted as a state that year before Arizona and after Oklahoma (which was 1907).
posted by inthelongrun at 7:06 AM on December 24, 2012

Oh, and 12.4 is the beginning of Pravda.
posted by inthelongrun at 7:10 AM on December 24, 2012

12.3 is Capt Robert Falcon Scott, fated Antarctic explorer.
15.6 is St. Dennis, Bishop of Paris
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 7:12 AM on December 24, 2012

1.2 could be The scorpion and the frog

9.6 is Socrates

For 9.4 the son of the forester from Erasbach is Gluck, and the person who inspired his Iphigénie en Tauride is Euripides.
posted by ersatz at 7:22 AM on December 24, 2012

If the 14s are indeed breasts, then 14.1 may be Marie Antoinette's or another 18th century French lady, several of whom have been historio-mythically compared to the champagne coupe.
posted by cobaltnine at 7:26 AM on December 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

9.7 is Xenophon
18.2 is Reverend Moon
posted by Copronymus at 8:03 AM on December 24, 2012

16 appears to be about cats.

16.1 is from Rudyard Kipling. Link

16.5 is Schödinger's Cat.

16.2 bothers me a little, since the two names in it are fairly common Finnish first names, but it doesn't ring a bell. (EDIT: Googling is cheating, but I found out it is from a book that I did not know about.)
posted by tykky at 8:05 AM on December 24, 2012

9.2 is a reference to Prometheus, whose liver was eaten by vultures daily as punishment for bringing fire to earth.

If Section 9 is Greeks, then 9.2 is Aeschylus (I couldn't figure out if it was him or Shelley based on the individual question.)
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:06 AM on December 24, 2012

16.8 is "the pensive Selima" from Thomas Gray's poem Ode on the death of a favorite cat.
posted by ersatz at 8:09 AM on December 24, 2012

10.6 is Martha's Vineyard.
posted by pentagoet at 8:10 AM on December 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

16.3 Rum Tum Tugger (From one of TS Eliot's cat poems)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:17 AM on December 24, 2012

10.5 is the Jewish Cemetery at Newport

(so Section 10 may be New England places?)
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:22 AM on December 24, 2012

10.9 is Alexandria and I think that section might be places named for people.
posted by Copronymus at 8:27 AM on December 24, 2012

10.4 is one of the Nantucket (?) inns/bars from Moby Dick, but I'm damned if I can remember the name.
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:30 AM on December 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

18.6 isn't Neil Armstrong's death, it's Felix Baumgartner's jump. (I think.)
posted by Lucinda at 8:42 AM on December 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

1.2 Diamonds Are Forever?
posted by Quizzical Hamster at 8:43 AM on December 24, 2012

11.7: Coffins (see Maugham's Liza of Lambeth)
posted by Iridic at 8:47 AM on December 24, 2012

2.1 Elizabeth Montagu (Queen of the Blues(stockings))
2.2 Elizabeth of Lancaster, Duchess of Exeter (She married John Hastings, John Holland and then John Cornwall)
2.3 Elizabeth Throckmorton, wife of Walter Raleigh
2.4 Princess Elizabeth (wife of Prince Frederick of Hesse-Homburg)
2.5 Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol
2.6 Elizabeth Báthory
2.7 The Horse Memorial at Port Elizabeth
2.8 Elizabeth, cousin of the Virgin Mary
2.9 Violet Elizabeth Bott
2.10 My son's fair wife, Elizabeth (from Jean Ingelow's poem 'The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire')


Including some that had already been answered for completeness
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:52 AM on December 24, 2012

Hm, 14 might just be normal body parts, actually. Also, I suspected 10 might be the Mt Washington railway but googling it (I know, cheating) does not bear that out.

10.4 would probably be the Try-Pots, where Ishmael stays overnight, as far as I can remember, because the pots are the pots of chowder.
posted by cobaltnine at 8:53 AM on December 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

11.1 Leslie Crosbie (of Maugham's The Letter)
11.2 Walter (of Maugham's Painted Veil.)
posted by Iridic at 8:54 AM on December 24, 2012

13 is pottery related
13.1 Clarice Cliff
13.2 William De Morgan
13.3 Skagen Designs?
13.4 Karel Nekola for Wemyss Ware
13.6 Meissen porcelain
13.10 kékfestés?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:18 AM on December 24, 2012

11 is all Somerset Maugham by the looks of it -

11.8 - Blanche Stroeve from The Moon & Sixpence
posted by DanCall at 11:57 AM on December 24, 2012

8.6 is about the witches from Macbeth, I think, but I can't remember what jaw is in their brew

18.3 probably has to do with the Porsche 911
posted by Copronymus at 12:15 PM on December 24, 2012

18.1 is Britain's Olympic medal count (gold-silver-bronze-total).
posted by troika at 1:03 PM on December 24, 2012

1.2 is The Wild Bunch (according to my boyfriend's dad), does that fit the theme?
posted by troika at 1:21 PM on December 24, 2012

1) is all diamond references.

1.1 The Casement window in Keats poem, "The Eve of St. Agnes"

1.2

1.3 Chipmunks that scurried up the trees (from the novel Diamond Dust)

1.4 I don't know if there was an actual event that happened during a performance? Or perhaps in a detective story? During Tales from Hoffman in the third act, Giulietta is promised a diamond by Captain Dapertutto if she seduces Hoffman.

1.5 Jared Diamond

1.6 Kate Kray wrote Naughty Bastards and the phrases listed are chapter headings. What this has to do with diamonds, I'm not sure.

1.7 Duchess of Malfi:
"What would it pleasure me to have my throat cut
With diamonds? or to be smothered 160
With cassia? or to be shot to death with pearls?"

1.8 From Alexander Pope's Moral Essays, Epistle III:
Asleep and naked as an Indian lay,
An honest factor stole a gem away:
He pledged it to the knight; the knight had wit,
So kept the diamond, and the rogue was bit.
Which is about Pitt's Diamond bought in India and sold to Napoleon and ending up in the Crown Jewels of France.

1.9 Norman Mailer: Philadelphia and Baltimore and Washington blink like dull diamonds in the smog of Eastern Megalopolis

1.10: The Koh-i-noor diamond
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:22 PM on December 24, 2012

15.1 Gregory the Great (?)
posted by Thin Lizzy at 3:24 PM on December 24, 2012

3) Verdi Operas

3.1 Rigaletto

3.2 Falstaff

3.3. La Forza del Destino

3.4 Simon Boccanegra

3.5 Il Travatore

3.6 Nabuccodonosor

3.7 Otello

3.8 Un Ballo in Maschera

3.9 Ernani

3.10 La Traviata
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:58 PM on December 24, 2012

18.2 death of Reverend Moon

18.6 death of Neil Armstrong
posted by jfwlucy at 4:12 PM on December 24, 2012

I'm working on 14 but I need to stop for awhile and give my eyes a rest. 14 is definitely body parts.

14.3 stomach

14.6 spleen

14.9 cerebellum

14.10 human breast
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:17 PM on December 24, 2012

12.5 is Piltdown Man.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 5:27 PM on December 24, 2012

> 1.6 Kate Kray wrote Naughty Bastards and the phrases listed are chapter headings. What this has to do with diamonds, I'm not sure.

The British publication had the title Hard Bastards, which has a little bit more to do with diamonds.
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 6:51 PM on December 24, 2012

1.2 is indeed Diamonds Are Forever, the book by Ian Fleming. Checked my copy!
posted by Quizzical Hamster at 10:07 PM on December 24, 2012

Section 15 is bishops:

15.2 Billy Bishop (WW1 flying ace)
15.3 The Bishop of Ely (in Henry V, 'the strawberry grows underneath the nettle')
15.4 An African bishop (Louis Mazzini's disguise in Kind Hearts and Coronets)
15.7 Bishop Richard Kidder (killed in the Great Storm of 1703)
15.9 Bishop Jon Arason (last Catholic Bishop of Iceland, beheaded in 1550)
posted by verstegan at 6:23 AM on December 25, 2012

Section 17 is difficult, but I think it's perfumes:

17.2 Opium by Yves St Laurent
17.3 Shalimar by Guerlain
17.5 Le Pirate by Lentheric
17.6 Blue Grass by Elizabeth Arden
17.9 Ma Griffe by Carven
posted by verstegan at 7:21 AM on December 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

15.6 Saint Denis (preached while walking 10 km after his decapitation)
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 8:06 AM on December 25, 2012

Good call verstegan. I couldn't get what 17 was all about. But now it makes perfect scents.

17.10 Chaps from Ralph Lauren
posted by marsha56 at 9:36 AM on December 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

Section 8 is fish-y references in Shakespeare:

8.1 Sicinius (in Coriolanus, 'Triton of the minnows')
8.3 Romeo (in Romeo and Juliet, 'without his roe, like a dried herring')
8.4 Oberon (in A Midsummer Night's Dream, 'And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back')
8.5 Falstaff (in 1 Henry IV, 'you may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel')
8.7 Hamlet (to Polonius, 'if like a crab you could go backwards')

16.9 Tabitha Twitchit (from Ginger and Pickles by Beatrix Potter)
posted by verstegan at 1:04 PM on December 25, 2012

6.8 Rufus Isaacs (in the Seddon poisoning case)
posted by verstegan at 1:19 PM on December 25, 2012

8.2 Petruchio from The Taming of the Shrew (he compares the hat the haberdasher has made for him to a "cockle", an edible, burrowing bivalve mollusk.)
posted by marsha56 at 6:39 PM on December 25, 2012

I think 14.1 is the navel from the Song of Solomon.

16.7 Puss in Boots
posted by julen at 8:48 PM on December 25, 2012

12.2 - William Booth was promoted to glory in Hadley Wood in 1912.
posted by marsha56 at 9:56 PM on December 25, 2012

12.7 - Tug of War competition at the Summer Olympics
posted by marsha56 at 10:26 PM on December 25, 2012

7.2 Matlock Bath (Betjeman poem)
7.7 Ashbourne (Shrovetide football match)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:14 AM on December 26, 2012

12.4: May 5, 1912 was the publication of the first issue of Lenin (and the Bolsheviks') newspaper, Pravda, or, The Truth.
posted by outlandishmarxist at 8:26 AM on December 26, 2012

Spreadsheet ahoy! It should be editable. I hope.
posted by rewil at 11:17 AM on December 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

6.2 Isaac Rosenberg (in his poem 'Dead Man's Dump')
9.1 Sophocles (inspired Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex)
16.6 Sinbad (in Arthur Ransome's We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea)
posted by verstegan at 11:57 AM on December 26, 2012

17.1: Chloe Narcisse? Or Narcisse Noir by Caron?
17.8: Poison by Dior
posted by rewil at 12:00 PM on December 26, 2012

11.7 for the making of coffins (from Liza of Lambeth)
posted by marsha56 at 12:23 PM on December 26, 2012

11.5 Mr Gallagher (from the short story P & O)
posted by marsha56 at 12:48 PM on December 26, 2012

7.5 Tideswell
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:18 PM on December 26, 2012

1.4: The Mazarin Stone
posted by rewil at 1:38 PM on December 26, 2012

4.2: Maria van Diemen
4.3: Willem Barentsz
4.4: Carel Fabritius
4.6: Rombertus van Uylenburgh
posted by rewil at 2:27 PM on December 26, 2012

11.4 Mackintosh (from the very end of the story titled 'Mackintosh' in the short story collection 'The Trembling of a Leaf')
posted by marsha56 at 2:56 PM on December 26, 2012

5.3 Thomas Ingoldsby (of the Ingoldsby Legends)
5.5 Trilby (in George du Maurier's novel)
posted by verstegan at 4:56 PM on December 26, 2012

5.4 George Formby (in the film No Limit)
posted by verstegan at 5:14 PM on December 26, 2012

9.8 is not Aesop but Homer (supposed author of the Batrachomyomachia)
posted by verstegan at 5:23 PM on December 26, 2012

11.6 Darya Munro (from the short story 'Neil MacAdam' or 'The Temptation of Neil MacAdam')
posted by marsha56 at 6:39 PM on December 26, 2012

13.3 - What factory mark represents the Sound and two Belts?

I think the answer is Royal Copenhagen, not Skagen Designs.

Category 13 is Porcelain. Skagen Designs doesn't make porcelain. Royal Copenhagen makes porcelain and says that the three waves in their mark symbolizes "Denmark’s beautiful straits: the Sound, the Great Belt and the Little Belt."
posted by marsha56 at 5:30 AM on December 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think the theme of 10 might be "X's Y" Martha's Vinyard, etc, 10.10 would be King's Landing
posted by empath at 8:34 AM on December 27, 2012

For 15.5 (Who might have included preaching to beefeaters and taking care of religious documents in his CV?), I'm looking at Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham.

First prisoner & escapee of the Tower of London would cover the first part of the question, but the second part makes me hesitate. He was involved with the Domesday Book, but I wouldn't count that as a religious document. Any thoughts?
posted by rewil at 8:56 AM on December 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

13.8 Caughley Porcelain
13.9 Chantilly
posted by rewil at 9:56 AM on December 27, 2012

I'm NOT claiming credit for the answers below, just recording them here because they were entered in the spreadsheet, but I haven't seen them mentioned yet in this thread. Hopefully the clever MeFites who knew them will come along sooner or later to claim proper recognition.

5.7 Jack Kilby
12.9 Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens
14.2 Heart
15.8 Bishop James Hannington
15.10 Absalon, Bishop of Roskilde
18.4 The Economist (14th April)
18.5 Queen's Jubilee beacons along Hadrians Wall (Carlisle/Skiddaw)
18.7 David Hockney, "Bigger Picture" exhibition and awarded O.M.
18.8 Robin (Erithacus) Gibb died but donations to be sent to Rebecca House, childrens hospice in IoM
18.9 Prince Charles (Rothesay) read weather report on BBC Scotland
18.10 Olympic flame on canal boat Saturn at Ponycysyllte Aquaduct
posted by marsha56 at 10:42 AM on December 27, 2012

Any thoughts?

rewil, my thought would be that the first part makes it a strong enough answer to be entered in the spreadsheet, and the second part means that I would add a "?" to the end of the answer to encourage others to do more research. And maybe add notes in the next column including what you mentioned in your post about why you think its the right answer but also why you're not entirely certain.
posted by marsha56 at 10:51 AM on December 27, 2012

rewil, upon further googling, I think the answer to 15.5 might be "Dr. Proudie, Bishop of Barchester", a fictional Bishop from the Trollope novel, Barchester Towers.

A quote:

He had been a preacher to the royal beefeaters, curator of theological manuscripts in the Ecclesiastical Courts, chaplain of the Queen's Yeomanry Guard, and almoner to his Royal Highness the Prince of Rappe-Blankenburg.
posted by marsha56 at 11:52 AM on December 27, 2012

Works for me!

I always like this quiz in that the right answers fit so well -- and if there's a part that doesn't seem to be clearly related, then you're on the wrong path.
posted by rewil at 1:03 PM on December 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

14.4 What would Steffi weep to see, burst like a cave?

I believe this is stomach.

From the poem Vergissmeinnicht (warning: graphic, disturbing descriptions) by Keith Douglas:

But she [her name Steffi is mentioned earlier in the poem] would weep to see today ... and the burst stomach like a cave.

But this means that 14.3 can't be stomach.

14.3 Of what are Poetry and Religion a product?

Secret Life of Gravy gave stomach as an answer to this, but I can't find anything to support this answer.

However, I did find a quote from Thomas Carlyle:

Poetry and Religion (and it is really worth knowing) are a product of the small intestines.

Based on all that, I changed 14.3 to "Small Intestines" and entered "Stomach" as the answer for 14.4.
posted by marsha56 at 9:33 AM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Secret Life of Gravy gave stomach as an answer to this, but I can't find anything to support this answer.

I must have got the number wrong because I did mean stomach as the answer to the burst cave.

I'm working on 14 but I need to stop for awhile and give my eyes a rest. 14 is definitely body parts...14.3 stomach

Whoops. My mistake. I have that as the answer to 14.4 on my answer sheet
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:53 PM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

But let me add that I found the Keith Douglas poem very evocative and surprisingly sympathetic. Well worth reading.

One question I have about this quiz that popped into my head the other day. The description: General knowledge paper 2012-2013, sat by the pupils of King William's College, Isle of Man. So the students who take the test are tested on famous perfume and Porcelain Houses? That seems like a really odd thing to test college students on-- I understand geography, history, and literature questions, but perfume? Are the students tested at the school or are they allowed to take the tests home over the hols to research?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:00 PM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

are they allowed to take the tests home over the hols to research?

I had been having guilty thoughts about whether or not it was okay to use Google, since every answer I've given here has been the result of extensive googling. There were only one or two that I knew on my own and others answered those before me.

Then, I discovered something that made me feel better. At the very top of the quiz, before the first question is asked, there is a Latin quote:

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

When I google-translated this, it came out roughly as:

To know where you can find anything, is precisely what makes the greatest part of learning.

I just now found this on wikipedia (see the section General Knowledge Paper) that answers some of the questions that you had. I'd been wondering about these very same things myself.
posted by marsha56 at 6:00 PM on December 28, 2012

The answers.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:49 AM on January 23