LitSoc Main Quiz 2014

PRELIMS

Jayadev ‘Fufa’ Bhaskaran

Kavin ‘Coimbatore Kaatan’ Aadithiyan

Prateek ‘Patrick’ Vijayavargiya

Swaroop ‘Chipko’ Ramaswamy

Rules for the prelims

• 40 questions in the prelims

• Here’s the twist: Please abandon your teams and write the prelims on your own

• Top 24 people will be made to form 8 teams of three members each – more on that later

• Questions 11 – 20 are starred and will be used to break ties

• This was a hastily set quiz, so please bear with us

• All the best!

LET’S BEGIN!

Ready?

1

• In 1959, it was inaugurated by Prof.Humayun

Kabir, Union Minister for Scientific and

Cultural Affairs.

• Dr.A.Lakshmanaswamy assumed office as the

first Chairman of the Board of Governors and

Dr.B.Sengupto as the first Director.

• Which ‘Institute of National Importance’ is

this?

2

• Osamu Suzuki, the Chairman of Suzuki Motor

Corporation, is a connoisseur of alcohol.

• In his personal bar, he has a bottle of what he

believes is the ‘best alcohol brand’ from each

country, with a total of 192 such brands.

• Which popular drink represents India in this

collection?

3

When I find my code in tons of trouble,

Friends and colleagues come to me,

Speaking words of wisdom:

"Write in C.“

As the deadline fast approaches,

And bugs are all that I can see,

Somewhere, someone whispers:

“Write in C."

Write in C, Write in C,

Write in C, oh, Write in C.

LOGO's dead and buried,

Write in C.

I used to write a lot of FORTRAN,

For science it worked flawlessly.

Try using it for graphics!

Write in C.

Parody of what?

4

• The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe.

• The League was created to protect economic interests and diplomatic privileges in the cities and countries and along the trade routes the merchants visited.

• Which present day entity derives its name from the league, taking its legacy from the trade routes that the Hanseatic League symbolised?

5

• Identify the currency and the element used as

the red anti-counterfeit tracer.

6

• This court in front of the Panch Mahal at

Fatehpur Sikri is paved with large square slabs

of red sandstone. According to legend, this

grand court was used by Akbar to play a game,

which continues to be played in modern times.

• Which game? [IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

7

• Identify the two rivers merging near

Khartoum in Sudan.

8

•The 1828 presidential election between Republican John Quincy

Adams and Andrew Jackson was one of the dirtiest presidential

elections ever. Adams supporters called Jackson a ______ -

comparing him to a stubborn, dumb ______.

•Jackson was a populist was his slogan “Let the people rule”

reinforced this. Republicans claimed that if the people ruled, it

would be a bunch of _____ ruling the country.

•But Jackson being the savvy politician use this insult and extolled

the virtues of a ______, persistence, loyalty, and the ability to

carry a heavy load.

•What did this lead to?

9

• Delhi: A Novel

• The Company of Women

• A History of the Sikhs

• The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculous

• Whose works?

10

• In March this year, the city of Simferopol

shifted its time forward by two hours.

• Why was this shift necessitated?

STARRED QUESTIONS....

11 – 20

11

• Red on black, friend of Jack; Red on yellow, kill a

fellow.

• In North America, what is this mnemonic used

for?

12

• Originally named Hindustan Machine Tools, this entity was started in 1953 by the Government of India as a machine tool manufacturing company.

• Starting with tractors, printing machinery, bearings and so on, the company diversified to a different field through a collaboration with a Japanese company in 1961, thereby becoming the first manufacturer of this product in the country.

• How is the company known today, and which product did it become the first manufacturer of in India?

13

• Born in 1953, David Rudder is a popular

calypso artist.

• This song is one of his most popular ones.

Apart from being a popular calypso song, it has

also been used for another purpose, through

which it became famous.

• What is the song, or where would we have

heard it? [AUDIO]

[AUDIO]

14

• A _______ is a type of wrathful deity in

Tibetan Buddhism. The term literally means

‘Protector of the Law’.

• Principal _____s include Mahakala, Yama,

Yamantaka, Hayagriva and Vaisravana.

• FITB.

15

•Although this movie was made when talkies were beginning to take a hold in cinema, the decision was made to make it as a silent film.

•The primary reason for this decision was that the lead actor was required to wear a pair of dentures pulling back the corners of his mouth. These dentures did not allow him to speak and therefore the director thought it would be pointless to make it as a talkie.

•Which film?

16

• The centre of which national flag bears the

country’s emblem, the Eagle of Saladin?

17

• After coming to power, he made a change to

the situation in the state in 1972.

• When asked why he did it, he said, "Tamil

Nadu cannot serve as camphor in the midst of

raging fire."

• Who?

• What was the change?

18

•There have been many scientific rationalizations of this mythical creature. Some say that the origins may lie in embellishments of the often-witnessed power of the eagle that could carry away a newborn lamb.

•Another possible origin of the myth originated from the enormous Aepyornis elephant bird, hunted to extinction by the 16th century.

•Recently a giant subfossil eagle identified from Madagascar was suggested as a possible origin.

•Which mythical creature?

19

•“It was Pradeepji, the poet, who wrote the immortal lyrics, who came to me and asked me to sing the song. I declined, because there was no time to rehearse. You see, at that time I was working round-the-clock. To give special attention to one song seemed impossible. But Pradeepji insisted. My regret is that Pradeepji had not been called for the Republic Day function where I sang the song. If he was there, he would have seen with his own eyes what impact it had”

•Who on what?

20

•The Navajo name of this place literally means “Valley of the Rocks”. According to Keith Phipps, “Its five square miles have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West”.

•It is most famous for its use in many John Ford films and some fairly recent movies like Forrest Gump.

•What place?

END OF STARRED QUESTIONS

21

• The first in this list assumed office on 21st

March 1950, and left on 19th December 1958.

• The current person assumed office on 10th

June 2012. He is a 1973 batch IAS officer from

the Andhra Pradesh cadre.

• Which post?

• Who was the first person?

• Who currently holds the post?

22

•He was the first legislator of Athens in Ancient

Greece. Little is known about his life. He may have

belonged to the Greek nobility of the Attica.

•He replaced the prevailing system of oral law and

blood feud by a written code to be enforced only

by a court. His written law became known for its

harshness.

•Who was he or how do we remember him today?

23

•____ ____ is a genericized trademark that derives from the German town _____, which is renowned for its mineral springs.

•Naturally carbonated water has been commercially bottled and shipped from this town since the 18th century or earlier. Generally, ____ ____ has no added sodium salts.

•Fill in the blanks.

24

• Conrad, a French professor, first conceived the idea of using electrical conductivity of ore rocks in order to distinguish them from surrounding rocks.

• After conducting a series of trials in various countries, Conrad and his brother Marcel (later joined by his brother in law) started a company and named it after their family.

• Which company’s origins?

25

•After the Fukushima disaster, there were

widespread blackouts in Tokyo and other

areas on the eastern side of Japan, though

the western side was unaffected.

•However, surplus power from the west

could not be pumped into the east,

because of a unique problem.

•What?

26

• In this photo, Sachin Tendulkar can be seen

attending the muhurat of a Bollywood movie.

Which movie, which recently completed

twenty years of its release?

27

•A land animal is kosher if it has spilt hooves and chews its cud.

•The Torah lists 24 non-kosher bird species - basically all predatory and scavenger birds. All other birds are considered kosher.

•A water creature is kosher only if it has fins and scales.

•All reptiles, amphibians, worms and insects - with the exception of four types of locust - are not kosher animals.

•Which is the only non-kosher animal product to be considered kosher?

28

• In the 2005 World Championship of his sport,

held in Malta, he became the first player to

complete a grand double by winning both the

point and the time formats in the same world

championship.

• Which player, and which sport?

29

•Riku, Antti and Matti are a team of engineers at

Codenomicon. They were improving the

SafeGuard feature in Codenomicon's Defensics

security testing tools when they discovered X.

•At the same time, Neel Mehta, a Google

researcher, independently discovered X and

reported it to the Y team.

•Identify X.

30

• Reference to what? [GIF]

31

•Abacá is a species of banana native to the Philippines, grown as a commercial crop in the Philippines, Ecuador, and Costa Rica.

•The plant is of great economic importance, being harvested for its fiber. The fiber was once generally called ____ hemp.

•This fiber was originally used to make a certain product. The product is now made from a variety of fibers but its name derives from the fact that it was originally made from ____ hemp.

•What product?

32

• It is the lowest pass through the Western Ghats. It is also the only break in that stretch of the Ghats that otherwise runs along the entire eastern edge of Kerala, isolating the state from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

• It acts as a corridor between the two states and has served as a vital part of the important trade route between the East and West coasts of peninsular India since ancient times.

• It has also played a major role in enabling migrations into Kerala from other parts of India.

• What?

33

• For the 100th anniversary of FIFA, Pele

released his list of 125 all time greats from all

over the world.

• Germany had two goalkeepers on the list –

Oliver Kahn and Sepp Maier.

• Which was the only other country to have

two goalkeepers on the list?

• Who were the goalkeepers?

34

• Leon Giglio, known better by his stage name

Leon _______, was an Italian – American

illusionist and stunt performer.

• The name as well as the physical appearance

of a particular fictional character was inspired

by this man.

• Who? [IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

35

• The name of which dog breed is derived from

a French term meaning ‘rather low’, due to its

short stature?

36

• _______ _______ is a Rajput epic composed

by Chand Bardai.

• The story describes the adventures of the

titular protagonist, and how he elopes with

Sanyogita (known as Samyukta in some

versions), the daughter of Jaichand of Kanauj.

• FITB or name the protagonist.

37

•These objects can be broadly divided into two categories X and Y.

•X's were historically made of X and Y's were historically made of Y.

•Today, X's are no longer made of X but are made of titanium, carbon fiber or scandium.

•Y's continue to be made of an alloy that is largely comprised of Y.

•Identify X and Y. What are the objects being referred to?

38

• On 6th February 1952, the following changes

took place.

• ‘Him’ became ‘her’.

• ‘He’ became ‘she’.

• The order of words in the penultimate line

was changed.

• What are we talking about?

39

• During the summer, workers of this make a beeline for the banks of the Krishna at Srikakulam in Krishna district, as the water here is crystal clear without effluents, to wash textiles.

• They undertake the 40-km journey from their hometown Pedana every day during the summer to reach Srikakulam. The fabrics are laid in flowing water to get the perfect colour. It brings out the perfect concentration of colour.

• Name this textile fabric, from Machilipatnam and Kalahasti. [IMAGE]

40

• Song from Kochadaiyaan.

• Identify the two singers.

ANSWERS FOLLOW

Exchange sheets…

ANSWERS

1

• In 1959, it was inaugurated by Prof.Humayun

Kabir, Union Minister for Scientific and

Cultural Affairs.

• Dr.A.Lakshmanaswamy assumed office as the

first Chairman of the Board of Governors and

Dr.B.Sengupto as the first Director.

• Which ‘Institute of National Importance’ is

this?

1

• IIT Madras

2

• Osamu Suzuki, the Chairman of Suzuki Motor

Corporation, is a connoisseur of alcohol.

• In his personal bar, he has a bottle of what he

believes is the ‘best alcohol brand’ from each

country, with a total of 192 such brands.

• Which popular drink represents India in this

collection?

2

• Old Monk

3

When I find my code in tons of trouble,

Friends and colleagues come to me,

Speaking words of wisdom:

"Write in C.“

As the deadline fast approaches,

And bugs are all that I can see,

Somewhere, someone whispers:

“Write in C."

Write in C, Write in C,

Write in C, oh, Write in C.

LOGO's dead and buried,

Write in C.

I used to write a lot of FORTRAN,

For science it worked flawlessly.

Try using it for graphics!

Write in C.

Parody of what?

3

• Let it be

4

• The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe.

• The League was created to protect economic interests and diplomatic privileges in the cities and countries and along the trade routes the merchants visited.

• Which present day entity derives its name from the league, taking its legacy from the trade routes that the Hanseatic League symbolised?

4

• Lufthansa

5

• Identify the currency and the element used as

the red anti-counterfeit tracer.

• Euro, Europium

6

• This court in front of the Panch Mahal at

Fatehpur Sikri is paved with large square slabs

of red sandstone. According to legend, this

grand court was used by Akbar to play a game,

which continues to be played in modern times.

• Which game? [IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

6

• Pacheesi or Ludo

7

• Identify the two rivers merging near

Khartoum in Sudan.

7

• Blue Nile, White Nile

8

•The 1828 presidential election between Republican John Quincy

Adams and Andrew Jackson was one of the dirtiest presidential

elections ever. Adams supporters called Jackson a ______ -

comparing him to a stubborn, dumb ______.

•Jackson was a populist was his slogan “Let the people rule”

reinforced this. Republicans claimed that if the people ruled, it

would be a bunch of _____ ruling the country.

•But Jackson being the savvy politician use this insult and extolled

the virtues of a ______, persistence, loyalty, and the ability to

carry a heavy load.

•What did this lead to?

8

•The donkey being adopted as the symbol of the

Democratic Party

9

• Delhi: A Novel

• The Company of Women

• A History of the Sikhs

• The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculous

• Whose works?

9

• Khushwant Singh

10

• In March this year, the city of Simferopol

shifted its time forward by two hours.

• Why was this shift necessitated?

10

• Crimea shifted to Moscow Time because of

annexation

STARRED QUESTIONS....

11 – 20

11

• Red on black, friend of Jack; Red on yellow, kill a

fellow.

• In North America, what is this mnemonic used

for?

11

• Differentiating venomous coral snakes from

similar – looking harmless snakes

12

• Originally named Hindustan Machine Tools, this entity was started in 1953 by the Government of India as a machine tool manufacturing company.

• Starting with tractors, printing machinery, bearings and so on, the company diversified to a different field through a collaboration with a Japanese company in 1961, thereby becoming the first manufacturer of this product in the country.

• How is the company known today, and which product did it become the first manufacturer of in India?

12

• HMT

• Watches

13

• Born in 1953, David Rudder is a popular

calypso artist.

• This song is one of his most popular ones.

Apart from being a popular calypso song, it has

also been used for another purpose, through

which it became famous.

• What is the song, or where would we have

heard it? [AUDIO]

[AUDIO]

13

• Rally round the West Indies

• Used as the ‘West Indies national anthem’ at

all ICC events

14

• A _______ is a type of wrathful deity in

Tibetan Buddhism. The term literally means

‘Protector of the Law’.

• Principal _____s include Mahakala, Yama,

Yamantaka, Hayagriva and Vaisravana.

• FITB.

14

• Dharmapala

15

•Although this movie was made when talkies were beginning to take a hold in cinema, the decision was made to make it as a silent film.

•The primary reason for this decision was that the lead actor was required to wear a pair of dentures pulling back the corners of his mouth. These dentures did not allow him to speak and therefore the director thought it would be pointless to make it as a talkie.

•Which film?

15

• The Man Who Laughs

16

• The centre of which national flag bears the

country’s emblem, the Eagle of Saladin?

16

• Egypt

17

• After coming to power, he made a change to

the situation in the state in 1972.

• When asked why he did it, he said, "Tamil

Nadu cannot serve as camphor in the midst of

raging fire."

• Who?

• What was the change?

17

• M Karunanidhi

• Repealing of prohibition in TN

18

•There have been many scientific rationalizations of this mythical creature. Some say that the origins may lie in embellishments of the often-witnessed power of the eagle that could carry away a newborn lamb.

•Another possible origin of the myth originated from the enormous Aepyornis elephant bird, hunted to extinction by the 16th century.

•Recently a giant subfossil eagle identified from Madagascar was suggested as a possible origin.

•Which mythical creature?

18

• The Rukh/Roc bird, seen in Sindbad the Sailor

19

•“It was Pradeepji, the poet, who wrote the immortal lyrics, who came to me and asked me to sing the song. I declined, because there was no time to rehearse. You see, at that time I was working round-the-clock. To give special attention to one song seemed impossible. But Pradeepji insisted. My regret is that Pradeepji had not been called for the Republic Day function where I sang the song. If he was there, he would have seen with his own eyes what impact it had”

•Who on what?

• Lata Mangeshkar

• Ae mere watan ke logon

20

•The Navajo name of this place literally means “Valley of the Rocks”. According to Keith Phipps, “Its five square miles have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West”.

•It is most famous for its use in many John Ford films and some fairly recent movies like Forrest Gump.

•What place?

20

• Monument Valley

END OF STARRED QUESTIONS

21

• The first in this list assumed office on 21st

March 1950, and left on 19th December 1958.

• The current person assumed office on 10th

June 2012. He is a 1973 batch IAS officer from

the Andhra Pradesh cadre.

• Which post?

• Who was the first person?

• Who currently holds the post?

21

• Chief Election Commissioner

• Sukumar Sen

• VS Sampath

22

•He was the first legislator of Athens in Ancient

Greece. Little is known about his life. He may have

belonged to the Greek nobility of the Attica.

•He replaced the prevailing system of oral law and

blood feud by a written code to be enforced only

by a court. His written law became known for its

harshness.

•Who was he or how do we remember him today?

22

• Draco, lends his name to the word ‘draconian’

23

•____ ____ is a genericized trademark that derives from the German town _____, which is renowned for its mineral springs.

•Naturally carbonated water has been commercially bottled and shipped from this town since the 18th century or earlier. Generally, ____ ____ has no added sodium salts.

•Fill in the blanks.

23

• Seltzer water

24

• Conrad, a French professor, first conceived the idea of using electrical conductivity of ore rocks in order to distinguish them from surrounding rocks.

• After conducting a series of trials in various countries, Conrad and his brother Marcel (later joined by his brother in law) started a company and named it after their family.

• Which company’s origins?

24

• Schlumberger

25

•After the Fukushima disaster, there were

widespread blackouts in Tokyo and other

areas on the eastern side of Japan, though

the western side was unaffected.

•However, surplus power from the west

could not be pumped into the east,

because of a unique problem.

•What?

25

• One side of Japan was on a 50 Hz grid, while

the other side used a 60 Hz grid.

26

• In this photo, Sachin Tendulkar can be seen

attending the muhurat of a Bollywood movie.

Which movie, which recently completed

twenty years of its release?

26

• Andaaz Apna Apna

27

•A land animal is kosher if it has spilt hooves and chews its cud.

•The Torah lists 24 non-kosher bird species - basically all predatory and scavenger birds. All other birds are considered kosher.

•A water creature is kosher only if it has fins and scales.

•All reptiles, amphibians, worms and insects - with the exception of four types of locust - are not kosher animals.

•Which is the only non-kosher animal product to be considered kosher?

27

• Honey

28

• In the 2005 World Championship of his sport,

held in Malta, he became the first player to

complete a grand double by winning both the

point and the time formats in the same world

championship.

• Which player, and which sport?

28

• Pankaj Advani

• Billiards

29

•Riku, Antti and Matti are a team of engineers at

Codenomicon. They were improving the

SafeGuard feature in Codenomicon's Defensics

security testing tools when they discovered X.

•At the same time, Neel Mehta, a Google

researcher, independently discovered X and

reported it to the Y team.

•Identify X.

29

• Heartbleed

30

• Reference to what? [GIF]

30

• Taxi Driver

31

•Abacá is a species of banana native to the Philippines, grown as a commercial crop in the Philippines, Ecuador, and Costa Rica.

•The plant is of great economic importance, being harvested for its fiber. The fiber was once generally called ____ hemp.

•This fiber was originally used to make a certain product. The product is now made from a variety of fibers but its name derives from the fact that it was originally made from ____ hemp.

•What product?

31

• Manila envelopes

32

• It is the lowest pass through the Western Ghats. It is also the only break in that stretch of the Ghats that otherwise runs along the entire eastern edge of Kerala, isolating the state from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

• It acts as a corridor between the two states and has served as a vital part of the important trade route between the East and West coasts of peninsular India since ancient times.

• It has also played a major role in enabling migrations into Kerala from other parts of India.

• What?

32

• Palghat/Palakkad gap

33

• For the 100th anniversary of FIFA, Pele

released his list of 125 all time greats from all

over the world.

• Germany had two goalkeepers on the list –

Oliver Kahn and Sepp Maier.

• Which was the only other country to have

two goalkeepers on the list?

• Who were the goalkeepers?

33

• Italy

• Dino Zoff and Gianluigi Buffon

34

• Leon Giglio, known better by his stage name

Leon _______, was an Italian – American

illusionist and stunt performer.

• The name as well as the physical appearance

of a particular fictional character was inspired

by this man.

• Who? [IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

34

• Mandrake the Magician

35

• The name of which dog breed is derived from

a French term meaning ‘rather low’, due to its

short stature?

35

• Basset hound

36

• _______ _______ is an epic poem

composed by Chand Bardai.

• The story describes the adventures of the

titular protagonist, and how he elopes with

Sanyogita (known as Samyukta in some

versions), the daughter of Jaichand of Kanauj.

• FITB or name the protagonist.

• Prithviraj Raso, Prithviraj Chauhan

37

•These objects can be broadly divided into two categories X and Y.

•X's were historically made of X and Y's were historically made of Y.

•Today, X's are no longer made of X but are made of titanium, carbon fiber or scandium.

•Y's continue to be made of an alloy that is largely comprised of Y.

•Identify X and Y. What are the objects being referred to?

37

• Wood and Iron (golf clubs)

38

• On 6th February 1952, the following changes

took place.

• ‘Him’ became ‘her’.

• ‘He’ became ‘she’.

• The order of words in the penultimate line

was changed.

• What are we talking about?

38

• God save the king became God save the queen

after Elizabeth II’s coronation.

39

• During the summer, workers of this make a beeline for the banks of the Krishna at Srikakulam in Krishna district, as the water here is crystal clear without effluents, to wash textiles.

• They undertake the 40-km journey from their hometown Pedana every day during the summer to reach Srikakulam. The fabrics are laid in flowing water to get the perfect colour. It brings out the perfect concentration of colour.

• Name this textile fabric, from Machilipatnam and Kalahasti. [IMAGE]

39

• Kalamkari

40

• Song from Kochadaiyaan.

• Identify the two singers.

40

• AR Rahman

• AR Raihanah

FINALS IN A WHILE

Top 24 people in the finals, teams will be formed soon…..