Gen Prelim

Long Tall Sally (PRELIMS)

1. In a lecture on September 18, 2007, X revealed that one of his childhood dreams was to write an article in the World Book Encyclopedia. Later in life, he was asked to write the world book entry for “Virtual Reality”, but when he submitted his entry, it was published verbatim, with no verifications. In his lecture he said ‘I now believe that Wikipedia is a perfectly fine source for your information, because I know what quality control is for real encyclopedias.’ Who’s X?

2. The _____ programming language was conceived by Walter Bright of Digital Mars, as a natural evolutionary successor to C++. It is designed with lessons learned from practical C++ usage rather than from a theoretical perspective. _____ has redesigned some C++ features and has been influenced by concepts used in other programming languages, such as Java, C# and Eiffel. A stable version, 1.0, was released on January 2, 2007. What’s the blank? Believe me, you can work this out.

3. In 2005, graphic artist Kentaro Nagai was struck

by the play on words between peace and piece in relation to global politics. He created this art exhibit called “Piece Together For Peace”, a series of 12 such images, using the continents as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. What are the 12 images collectively depicting?

Animals of the Chinese zodiac recreated from continents

4. X narrowly escaped being shot by Stalin's special police after his family was denounced as Kulaks in 1932, and exiled to Siberia. He later fought in WW2 in 1941. When battling the Germans on the Eastern Front, a Panzer shell blew him from his tank, yet he survived. He was later awarded the Hero of Socialist Labor medal for one of his inventions, of which about a 100 million are circulating around the world today, yet he never profited from, as the USSR had no patent system. X and his invention.

5. ____ Sings the Blues is an flash animated film by Nina Paley. It's a retelling of Y, featuring the 1920s jazz recordings of singer Annette Hanshaw, interspersed with the story of Nina's own troubled marriage. Paley wanted to envision what Y would look like told through the eyes of its much loved and much maligned female character, _____, and previous adaptations from this perspective have caused a lot of controversy, particularly in India. Until recently it's been languishing due to copyright issues surrounding the 80-year-old Hanshaw songs, but is now finally available online. What’s the blank?

• Sita sings the blues.

1.

________ syndrome is a psychiatric disorder in which the affected person exaggerates or creates symptoms of illnesses in themselves or their child/children in order to gain investigation, treatment, attention, sympathy, and comfort from medical personnel. In some extremes, people suffering from _________ Syndrome are highly knowledgeable about the practice of medicine, and are able to produce symptoms that result in multiple unnecessary operations. It is named after _________, a German who served in the Russian army in the 18th century, known for telling tall tales about himself, such as, riding cannonballs, travelling to the Moon, and escaping from a swamp by pulling himself up by his own hair

Munchausen

7. A _______ weighs 22.5 kg and has always-on lighting, a lock and a basket. The rates for using a ______ time 30 min 1 h 1 h 30 2 h

5 h 10 h

rate

31 € 71 € 151 €

free

1€

3€

7€

20 h

Number of deaths associated with ______ = 3

Fill in the blank. Really specific answer required.

Velib’ – the rent-a-bicycle scheme in Paris.

8.The official description of the Harry Potter edition of _____ reads : Dark magic has been performed at Hogwarts™! A fellow student has vanished from the famous School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…Play as Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna or Neville…Move around Hogwarts™ making suggestions- but watch out!… Wheels actually move to reveal secret passages, hidden staircases, and even the Dark Mark!…Go to Dumbledore’s office to make your final move and win!

Priced at $26.99. Ages 9+.

1. Stats about much hyped musical Y – Director – Julie Traynor Budget – 40 million USD Opening – Feb 28, 2010, Broadway. at the Hilton Theater. Music and Lyrics – Paul Hewson and David Howell Evans.

1. Some of the sources of inspiration for this song’s lyrics include – Hugh Mearns' nursery rhyme "The Psycho-ed" ("as I was going up the stair/I met a man who was not there,/he wasn't there again today,/I wish that man would go away") The artist’s well-documented concerns with splintered or multiple personalities, a science fiction novella by Robert A. Heinlein written in 1949 that follows the machinations of Delos D. Harriman, "the first of the new robber barons," who is determined to reach and control the Moon.

Which song?

11. In the first film he appeared in [1980], X looked like  Who’s X?

In the tenth film [2002] X looked like



Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th.

12. X was a DC comics character,

originally appearing in 1983, as an alien bounty hunter / mercenary. He languished in obscurity until his revival as an anti-hero biker in the early 1990s. This version of X was intended to be an overthe-top parody of Marvel Comics superhero Y. During the DC vs. Marvel crossover series, X fought Y and lost due to popular vote by reallife fans.

X and Y

Y

X

•

The term _________ from the French, first appeared in the 16th century and referred specifically to a rich, highly flavored soup that was advertised as an antidote to physical exhaustion and restorer of vitality. This soup was sold by street vendors. The term acquired it’s modern meaning when in 1765, a Parisian soup-seller named Boulanger, opened a shop to sell his soup. What’s the blank?

14. X

was recently offered one million dollars and health insurance by Vivid Entertainment to star in a pornographic film. However, rival adult film company Pink Visual, has offered X a years’ supply of diapers if the offer is turned down, fearing X “will become the subject of endless ridicule and scorn”. Who’s X?

Nadia Suleman aka OctoMom.

15.“He was giving voice in a rock 'n' roll setting to the Oedipus complex, at the time a widely discussed tendency in Freudian psychology. He wasn't saying he wanted to do that to his own mom and dad. He was reenacting a bit of Greek drama. It was theatre!” Which iconic event in rock ’n’ roll folklore is being defended thus?

‘the killer awoke before dawn’ spoken word middle section of The End by The Doors.

16. What is this?

Top gear racetrack

1.

The Coronado naval amphibious base, San Diego consists of 6 buildings constructed between 196770. The original plans submitted to the Navy for the project included the two central buildings which were intended to contain a boiler plant and a recreation room; and a single "L"-shaped 3-story barracks. The revised plan called for the "L" shaped building to be repeated three times more. It wasn't until after the construction was almost completed that Navy officials realized the blunder in their building layout plan, but they managed to hide it, pending more than $600,000 in the process. But the blunder became known to the public with the help of Google Earth. What was the architectural blunder?

•

The _____ _____ is a paperback by journalist Michael Leigh that reports on sexual paraphilia in the USA, published in September, 1963. Leigh investigates aberrant sexual practices between consenting adults such as husband and wife swapping, group sex, sex orgy parties, homosexual activities, sado-masochism. Experimental filmmaker Tony Conrad found a copy lying in the street, and gave it his friend, an English student at Syracuse University, who liked the name, considering it evocative of “avant garde cinema”, and named his band after it. Book/band?

1. X said to Peter Woodthorpe that he regretted calling the character ‘_____’, because of all the theories involving God to which this had given rise. “I also told [Ralph] Richardson that if by _____ I had meant God I would [have] said God, and not ______. This seemed to disappoint him greatly.” X claimed that the name _____ suggested itself to him by the slang word for boot, because “feet play such a prominent role”. All blanks are the same. Fill it.

20. When X first became an actor, he adopted the stage name “_____ Scott”. His agent soon informed him, however, that another actor was already using the same name, and that he had to come up with a new name immediately. Speaking to his agent from a telephone box in Leicester Square in London, X looked around for inspiration, noted that The X Mutiny was being shown at the Odeon Cinema, and decided to change his name to " ______ X". He has joked in interviews that had he looked the other way, he would have ended up as "______ – One Hundred and One Dalmatians". Which actor?

His actual given name was Maurice….WTF?

21. At least two founding myths have been proposed for this city by romantic historians since the fifteenth century. One attributes the foundation of the city to Hercules before the foundation of Rome. During the fourth of his Labors, Hercules joins up with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, traveling across the Mediterranean in nine ships. One of the ships is lost in a storm off this coast, and Hercules sets out locate it. He finds it wrecked off the Iberian coastline, by a small hill, but with the crew saved. The crew were so taken by the beauty of the location that they founded a city with the name _____ _____("Ninth Ship"). Another credits the Carthaginian general Hamilcar, father of Hannibal, with the foundation of the city around 230 BC, who named it after his surname. What’s the modern name of this city?

22. A _____ is a figure of speech in which – - a term denoting a part of something is used to refer to the whole thing - a term denoting a thing (a "whole") is used to refer to part of it - a term denoting a specific class of thing is used to refer to a larger, more general class, or vice versa - a term denoting a material is used to refer to an object composed of that material. The word ______ came back into prominence thanks to the world of entertainment in 2008. What’s this weird word?

23. _____ ___ ____ ______ ___ by Maurice Sendak is a children's picture book, first published 1963. The book is about the imaginary adventures of a young boy named Max, who is punished for "making mischief" by being sent to his room without supper. Max wears a distinctive wolf suit during his adventures and encounters various mythical creatures, who make him their king. The book is regarded as one of the greatest children’s books, and has inspired a series of US postage stamps, a Metallica song, and a 2009 liveaction-cum-CGI film adaptation is in the works. Which book?

Book

Film

24. The process starts with a dip in levels of an enzyme called catalase. That catalase shortfall means that naturally occurring hydrogen peroxide can't be broken down. No other enzymes exist that would repair the damage caused by unbroken hydrogen peroxide. What process is this?

25. ____ ____ is one of X’s most famous songs. Despite

the fact that the studio recording of the song lasted only 2:40, it was known for its lengthy live performances, in most cases running at around 22 minutes. In 1994 X approached music collage artist John Oswald to do a project with ____ ____. Using over a hundred different performances of the song between 1968 and 1993, Oswald built, layered, and "folded" all of them to produce one large, recomposed version spanning 103 minutes, as the definitive live version of the song. The project was called ‘Grayfolded’. It is the only record that features participation by every person who was ever in X between 1965 and 1995.

blanks, and X. Work it out – arbit style.

26. The earliest origins of this concept traces back to the year 10, in China. The modern version of the concept was first implemented in Britain by William Pitt the Younger to pay for weapons and equipment in preparation for the Napoleonic wars. He hoped to raise £10 million from wealthy Londoners but could only manage £6 million. Easy. What?

27. This woman was awarded an MBE on the Queen’s New Year Honors 2009, for her services to healthcare. Also on the same Honors list, this man, her son, received a knighthood. id the guy.

28. Pachygnatha _____ is a species of spider discovered around Mount Cameroon in 1983 by two Belgian biologists. They named it after ______ as “…not only are we huge fans of X, but we believe the dark gray mark on the ventral side of the abdomen of the female of this species strikingly resembles _____’s moustache.” Who?

You don’t mess with the Zappa

29. In 1858, the University of Pennsylvania published the first complete English translation of _____ ______. Three undergraduate members, Charles R Hale, S Huntington Jones, and Henry Morton, made the translation. The translation quickly sold out two editions and was internationally hailed as a monumental work of scholarship. The term ______ _____has become idiomatic as something that is a critical key to decryption or translation of a difficult problem. Fill in the blanks.

Rosetta stone

30. ______ was first observed by Giovanni Cassini in 1672. During 1761, it was seen a total of 18 times by five observers, including Joseph LaGrange. In 1766, the University of Vienna, declared that all observations of _____ were bogus. William Herschel searched for it 3 times in 1768 but failed to find it. But it was observed again by M. Hozeau, a Belgian, who named it, after the Egyptian goddess of War, and the Mother of Ra. It was observed only once more, On August 13, 1892, by Edward Emerson Barnard. What? Funda will do.

Neith, the hypothesized satellite of Venus.

31. Connect

32. Recently, the BBC announced that the band X is recording new material for the first time since 1992. They last reunited in 2007, playing the Live Earth concert at London's Wembley Stadium, where they played a new composition “Warmer than hell” A friend of the band reported that at the time of the Live Earth gig, the 3 members were respectively – a) raising miniature racing horses. b) recovering from an internet addiction. c) had become a hip-hop producer.

33.The ______ is rectangular in shape and red in colour (to symbolize labour) with three equidistant white vertical strips of equal width (stand for the three districts) next to the staff and a white plough in the middle with handle facing the strips. What am I talking about?

Because of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status accorded to it by the Constitution, Jammu and Kashmir the only Indian state that has its own official flag. This is the only state flag recognized by the Constitution.

34. Disneyland and the Death Penalty is an article written by X as the cover story of Wired magazine in September/October 1993. It was his first major work of non-fiction. It chronicles X’s horror at the strictly guarded sterility of Singapore, and his futile search at trying to find remnants of Victorian Singapore, of which few remained. “Singaporean society is a relentlessly G-rated experience, controlled by a Government akin to a megacorporation, fixated on conformity and behavioural constraint.” He concluded the article by calling Singapore a a singleparty state and capitalist technocracy. The Republic of Singapore responded to the publication of the article by banning Wired from the country. Who’s X?

35. John C. Odom was a minor league baseball player, who was in the centre of a news frenzy in June 2008, when he joined the Laredo Broncos. His new teammates took to calling him Bat-man, and considered what happened to him in June as ‘an embarrassment and a slap in the face’. But his former club, the Calgary Vipers saw it as ‘a bit of harmless fun’. Sadly, Odom committed suicide earlier this month, over the incident in question, and the baseball fraternity blame the Vipers for it. What was the frenzy all about?

36. This is the opening sequence used by the British run of a famous TV “game show” A.

The US version of the show started when the British show ended, in 1998. The host for the American version was B. C is a Canadian-American, who is the most prolific performer on the UK show, having appeared in 76 of the series' 136 episodes. C also appeared on every episode of the US version. B also starred in a sitcom that ran from 1995 to 2004, which was named after him. C also costarred in the show.

The only other person to appear in every episode of the US version was ScottishCanadian D. D went on to host the Canadian version of the game show ‘Are you smarter than a 5th grader?’ B took over as host of the game show E, after long-serving host Bob Barker retired in 2007. Entertainment Weekly rates E as the greatest game show of all time.

A – Whose Line is it Anyway? B – Drew Carey C – Ryan Stiles D – Colin Mochrie E – The Price is Right