Content from the Final Round of the General Quiz, LingQuizTics 2018, MIT Manipal.

1. The General Quiz, LingQuizTics 2018 - Finals
Crafted and hosted by – Lucky Kaul

2.  LDQ, MIT, Manipal
 Gaurav Haloi from BGQC and Ashish Singh, for contributing a question each to the
final

3.  Written Round I – 8 questions
 Clockwise IB/IP – 10 questions
 Only Connect Round – 4 questions
 Written Round II – 8 questions
 Anticlockwise IB/IP – 12 questions

4.  8 questions
 10 points for every correct answer, part points wherever applicable
 No negatives, feel free to guess
 Theme – Elements of the PeriodicTable
 The first and last letters of an answer will the first and last letters of a chemical
symbol

5.  Bhuvneshwar Kumar(Br = Bromine)
 Octopus (Os = Osmium)
 Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Kr = Krypton)
 Sierra Leone (Se = Selenium). For such answers that require you to write more than a word,
the first and last letter of complete answer fits
In the case of names, only surnames will fit the theme

7.  Photography sessions in space-related tours are scheduled events in a rigorous flight
plan where every step is designed carefully in order to make the whole mission a
success – thus even the amount of film is rationed and the cameras are to be used for
documentation purposes only. Astronauts are also told not to look out the window.
 However, back in Dec 1972, five hours into what was the last flight of its kind, its crew
comprising of Ronald Evans, Harrison Schmitt AND <someone else> violated the above
protocol and one of them, in excitement, took out the only camera that wasn’t stowed.
 Who was the third crew member? What resulted due to one of the other crew
member’s excitement? Need a specific answer on the second part.

10.  Few months earlier, multiple newspapers published articles regarding the
selection criteria of this group of 230 females that were mostly in their early or
mid 20’s. Chosen on the basis of appearance and ideology, most of these are
handpicked from students in universities, academies, etc. and have a thorough
background check done to ensure that they do not defect away from the
purpose for which they were to be sent. Since 1945, such a group has been
formed only thrice, the most recent one being earlier this year.
 What am I talking about?

12.  About half a decade ago, a bunch of people toured around Calgary, Canada to
meet Rick Sears, a cattle rancher. Sears lent 300 acres of this land and agreed
to farm on it as told - provided he was paid for it, and if this bunch of people
put it to good use, generating enough silage for his livestock, he promised to
pay them back.
 A year later, this investment turned out to be fruitful as a “side source of
revenue”, outside the money they were earning from their usual sources as a
part of recovering around 165 million dollars.
 What exactly am I talking about?

14.  In 1816, Mr. James Gillman was a young doctor practicing his craft in Highgate (a
northern suburb of London) when he received a proposal to take a 43-year old
gentleman under his care and effect a cure to his addiction to laudanum, a tincture of
opium widely used as an analgesic at that time.
 Mr. Gillman had no intentions of taking a stranger into his household. But within
minutes of meeting, he was completely captivated by the charm of his conversation
and agreed to put up with him till the gentleman was completely emancipated from
opium.The said gentleman moved into Gillman’s house immediately and didn’t move
out till his death.
 Who was this gentleman, whose "adventures with opium" came to light later that same
year, although guised as a cure for dysentery? Where exactly did it come to light?

18.  Back in 1971, when an accounting teacher at the Portland State University overheard
a design graduate say that she couldn’t afford to take oil painting classes, he offered
her a task to come up with “something that had to do with movement and swiftness”,
for which she put in over 17 hours of effort and thought to come up with the much
simplistic output.
 What did she come up with, that many believe is also a nod to one of the wings of an
ancient Greek religious figure, who represented similar virtues?

20.  It is interesting to note that the whole family of this person was into theatrics.
Junius, the patriarch of the family, saw his potential in acting and thus started
performing in London, before fleeing to the US in 1821.
 He bore three sons, all of whom performed together only once in a re-enactment
of Julius Caesar in the second half of the century, following which one of them had
his name on everyone’s tongues not much later.
 Who was this person, whose most famous theatrical performance ended with him
referencing an iconic quote supposedly attributed to his father’s namesake,
Marcus Junius Brutus?

23.  A late 1960s event that took centre stage in India did not end without its share of
controversies – one of them being that the host in question was conspiring with the
CIA – something which was believed by the Marxist MPs in the Lok Sabha. It was
alleged that the host’s quarters had become a hotbed of espionage and outrage was
expressed at the fact that the visitors were provided with comfortable living spaces.
 The party(ies) being targeted lashed back at the MPs for this thought, with one such
person going on to comment “Do you really think England is coming back to take over
India and we have to spy for it?”
 What well-known event am I talking about above?

26.  Richard J Daley was the mayor of a city for 21 years from 1955 to 1976. In 1962, he saw
that his city had a huge pollution issue to be addressed, the major contribution of which
was sewage dumped into water bodies passing through the city. So, he authorised the
usage of an oil-based fluorescein, an orange powder that changed colour when poured in
water, helping authorities know where this sewage was coming from.
 The above was observed by a Stephen Bailey , seeing which an struck an idea in his mind
– that is now implemented annually using an eco-friendly, vegetable-based alternative.
 What am I talking about?

28.  10 questions, Clockwise
 Pounce - +10/-5
 All parts to a question needed on pounce
 Bounce - +10/0
 We follow Bangalore Bounce, as always

30.  As we know, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner aboard the HMS
Minden in 1814 based on his sightings of the Battle of Baltimore. Interestingly, the
anthem has a slight Indian touch to it, thanks to the line –
 And the _____’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there – essentially a reference to a British weapon that was
developed by SirWilliam _______ in 1804, following a humiliating shock more than
a decade ago.
 What weapon was this ORWhat fills in the first blank?What shock was this, that
prompted William to come up with the same?

34.  Robert Bemer was a computer scientist who was known for his work on
the ASCII codeset – and is thus at times known as the father of ASCII.
 He had contributed several characters that were previously not used in
computers – including the ESCape character, the curly brackets, and the
_________, that was introduced so that it could be used along with the
already existing _____ in order to represent few basic Boolean
calculations on computers.
 What was this character that Bemer introduced? How did it help in the
cause mentioned?

38.  One of the earlier cricket matches in the 1946 English County Championship
was between Leicestershire andYorkshire, played between 25 and 28 May.
While this match was drawn, it was unfortunate that Len Hutton, who had
batted with great finesse in the first innings forYorkshire and had also gone on
to score a century, had fallen ill for a few moments, as told on BBC Radio.
 What was the cause for Hutton’s illness? How did Indians get to know of a
similar case four years ago, courtesy one Archana Dutta?

42.  It was reported in September 2016 that several British drivers were essentially
using a certain device to dodge speed cameras and parking tickets.
 Selling for about 70 pounds on eBay, it was remarked that while selling them
was not illegal, but possession and use of them certainly was. Some say that
this was a good move that would prevent a certain kind of theft and thus
ensure the driver is not blamed for no fault of his, but most go by the law
where performing such an action is illegal.This device itself was compared to
an innovation in the world of pop culture about five and a half decades ago,
where a similar technique was used to dodge potential dangers.
 What were the drivers doing?What was this device compared to?

47.  In 1959, a certain entity was decided to be set up near the Niagara Falls, but the
same was rejected as it was realised that it couldn’t be kept open the year-round
thanks to the frigid winters that existed there. It was hence decided to move
Southeast – specifically towards a region having Interstates. Hence, an area was
chosen where land was cheap. It also helped that the Interstate numbered 4 over
there was the cross point of two major thoroughfares near the city’s airport and
thus ensured easy access to the location for its audience. A lot of care was taken
while making the necessary land deals which were worth ~27000 acres.
 What exactly am I talking about?

50.  A few people have this habit of sporting a bumper sticker on their
cars that reads “0.0” – done with the intention of mocking those
having stickers that usually read values like “13.1”, “26.2”, “70.3” and
“140.6”, among others.
 Why?

53.  Wau is a type of intricately designed kite in a certain country.
 One of its types is theWau Bulan which means a ‘moon kite’. It has
inspired the logo of a prominent company in its country – that initially
was fully blue in colour but later was divided into red and blue halves.
 What exactly has it inspired

56.  Richard N. Williams was a noted tennis player of his time, who won the US Open
in 1914 and 1916 and the Wimbledon in 1920. Born in Switzerland, he was
coached by his father since he was 12 years of age. His acumen earned him
World number 2 in 1916, and World no 4 in 1923 – eventually going on to win
Gold in Mixed Doubles at 1924 Paris Olympics. However, at one time, his career
was at great risk, thanks to his legs turning purple as a result of restricted blood
supply to them – to an extent that doctors had considered their amputation. But
a determined Richard refused the same and told that he would walk regularly
until he was fine.
 What was the reason for this amputation that put his career in jeopardy at that
time?

58.  He got affected by frostbite thanks to the sinking – and today
remains the only survivor on the ship to win a grand slam

59.  This particular practice in the world of currency is believed to have
stemmed from the need of denoting shillings as a sub-unit of the
British Pound until around the 3rd quarter of the 20th century.
 As the abbreviation for shillings was an ‘s’, this character was
somewhat extended and had its curves slimmed into a “long s” –
which aided people in following this particular practice.
 What am I talking about, that is widely prevalent in India as well?

62.  It is said that something found its origins more than 100 years ago in a WW1
tale set in the Serbian town ofVrnjacka Banja.
 A local schoolmistress, Nada , fell for a Serbian officer named Raija. Later, the
man went to war in Greece, and in the process fell for another woman and then
never returned – leaving Nada heartbroken. As a result of the same, she died,
and on hearing the story, young women in the town started doing something
with a view to protect their male partners.
 What am I talking about, that was stopped three years ago, as it was posing a
threat to commoners’ safety?

65.  We play this round in R1 format
 4 questions, the answers to which are connected by a (logical) theme/sequence
 You only have to tell me what the logic / theme is
 5 points per correct answer outside the points for getting the theme
 Points for getting the theme on respective slides
 Meant to be a light-hearted, filler, scoring round

66.  If the answers are Mumbai Noir, Operation Polo and Quick Response
Code. Hence connect would be MN,OP,QR…..
 Another example. If the answers are Air Force One, MammyTwo
Shoes, Red Square and Blue Domes of Samarqand, the connection is
the book One Fish,Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

67.  Another simple example.
 If the answers are Mac, Ben, Short and BadWolf, then the connect is
they are all things that mean something when prefixed with Big
 Notice each and every thing you write in your answer sheet
 Ready?

69.  Name this book, about which Bill Gates
commented that it didn’t (literally) have
anything to do with <title>, but its title
will make you look super smart if you’re
reading it on a train or a plane.

71.  Which famous mountain in north India gets one of its words in its
name from Joy or Bliss?

73.  Identify this author whom you would have definitely read a LOT of.
(Only the first two words of his name go into the theme)

75.  In 1999, which actor (along with his director) was bestowed with the
Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest honour given by the US
Navy for his work a year ago?

78.  StringTheory – 1st
 Nanda Devi – 2nd
 Ravi Dutt Sharma – 3rd
 Tom Hanks – 4th

79.  4*2 questions
 10 points for every correct answer, part points wherever applicable
 No negatives, feel free to guess
 Theme – Opposites
 Every question has 2 (unrelated) sub-questions for 5 points each, the answers to
which are opposite in meaning OR have (at least) one word in one part that is
opposite to one word in the other part

80. Much Ado About Nothing
LittleWomen
Big Ben
Chota Rajan
Long Run (Economics)
Shortstop (A baseball position)

81.  A point in time during the NapoleonicWars saw French soldiers stationed in
an Italian chapel whose name translated to Holy Mary of Grace. As time
went by, soldiers staying there got bored and decided to practice shooting.
 For this purpose, they used a very unlikely target that was, however, readily
available on a wall inside the chapel – that today accounts for a certain
mutilation that could not be (fully) restored to its original condition.
 What was this target?

82.  The Aga Khan Museum inToronto is a museum dedicated to showing Islamic arts
and culture.
 It recently gained some popularity back home in India thanks to it being the venue of
acknowledging somebody’s masterful skills in a certain field on the world stage by
the Hyatt Foundation.
 Who was this person?What is his claim to fame?
 Image follows.

84.  In music, a breakdown is a part of a song where various instruments have their
own solo parts.
 Back in the late 1980s, when a band was composing what would go on to be one of
their more famous songs, they were in dire straits as they were not able to find
relevant lyrics to accompany the musical breakdown at the end. As a result, its
lead vocalist got worried and uttered a question that one might in such a situation
– which surprisingly went on to solve the above issue.
 Which well-known song is this?

85.  “If advertising didn’t work, we wouldn’t have it.We wouldn’t pay for it. So it does
work.The problem is that children and young adults are particularly susceptible to
advertising and peer group pressure.We hope [the decision] is related to an
understanding that ______ advertising and sport are not a good combination…”
 Above is a quote from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians with respect to
an iconic partnership in Australia marking its end after 20 years in 2017.
 Which were the two entities involved?

86.  This person came back into the news in early January 2017, thanks to her
receiving the final dose of free laser surgery that began in late 2015.The
patient who had gone through a lot of agony for a few decades, but then saw
the ads of a Dr. Waibel onTV , and immediately went to her –Waibel in turn
offering to treat for free, following which more than 50 lasers were used on
the patient’s skin to treat what Waibel called something “very severe.We
don’t call it that anymore, but it was a fourth-degree burn.”
 Who is the patient in question?

87.  This was a title that was earned by a scientist following his
devotion to research in optics – where he attempts to change the
refractive index of the human body to that of air, so that the body
neither absorbs nor reflects light.
 What moniker, that first made an appearance towards the end of
the 19th century?

88.  Seattle Scuba Schools is a chain of Scuba schools whose director is
Craig Gillespie.
 A few years before a quest-oriented early 2000’s project took centre
stage, its leader formed this team of a few members and started
hunting for an appropriate diving school, and chose the one in
question. Gillespie started giving seminars and diving lessons to this
team of members, who showed equally good levels of enthusiasm.
 With the project leader specially thanking Gillespie, how exactly did
these diving lessons prove vital to the same?

89.  Production houses often tend to change the names of movies in varied
localities to stuff that can be understood by the local audience.
 For example, Guardians of the Galaxy inTaiwan goes by Interplanetary Unusual
AttackingTeam. Similarly , in Russia, Silver Linings Playbook goes by My
Boyfriend is a Psycho.
 In this whole adventure of renaming movie titles, which 21st century movie was
titled Love in a Strange Place in Spain?The actual movie’s title would sound
ironic to you given the context of the question.

92.  A point in time during the NapoleonicWars saw French soldiers stationed in
an Italian chapel whose name translated to Holy Mary of Grace. As time
went by, soldiers staying there got bored and decided to practice shooting.
 For this purpose, they used a very unlikely target that was, however, readily
available on a wall inside the chapel – that today accounts for a certain
mutilation that could not be (fully) restored to its original condition.
 What was this target?

94.  The Aga Khan Museum inToronto is a museum dedicated to showing Islamic arts
and culture.
 It recently gained some popularly back home in India thanks to it being the venue of
acknowledging somebody’s masterful skills in a certain field on the world stage by
the Hyatt Foundation.
 Who was this person?What is his claim to fame?
 Image follows.

97.  In music, a breakdown is a part of a song where various instruments have their
own solo parts.
 Back in the late 1980s, when a band was composing what would go on to be one of
their more famous songs, they were in dire straits as they were not able to find
relevant lyrics to accompany the musical breakdown at the end. As a result, its
lead vocalist got worried and uttered a question that one might in such a situation
– which surprisingly went on to solve the above issue.
 Which well-known song is this?

99.  “If advertising didn’t work, we wouldn’t have it.We wouldn’t pay for it. So it does
work.The problem is that children and young adults are particularly susceptible to
advertising and peer group pressure.We hope [the decision] is related to an
understanding that ______ advertising and sport are not a good combination…”
 Above is a quote from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians with respect to
an iconic partnership in Australia marking its end after 20 years in 2017.
 Which were the two entities involved?

101.  This person came back into the news in early January 2017, thanks to her
receiving the final dose of free laser surgery that began in late 2015.The
patient who had gone through a lot of agony for a few decades, but then saw
the ads of a Dr. Waibel onTV , and immediately went to her –Waibel in turn
offering to treat for free, following which more than 50 lasers were used on
the patient’s skin to treat what Waibel called something “very severe.We
don’t call it that anymore, but it was a fourth-degree burn.”
 Who is the patient in question?

103.  This was a title that was earned by a scientist following his
devotion to research in optics – where he attempts to change the
refractive index of the human body to that of air, so that the body
neither absorbs nor reflects light.
 What moniker, that first made an appearance towards the end of
the 19th century?

105.  Seattle Scuba Schools is a chain of Scuba schools whose director is
Craig Gillespie.
 A few years before a quest-oriented early 2000’s project took centre
stage, its leader formed this team of a few members and started
hunting for an appropriate diving school, and chose the one in
question. Gillespie started giving seminars and diving lessons to this
team of members, who showed equally good levels of enthusiasm.
 With the project leader specially thanking Gillespie, how exactly did
these diving lessons prove vital to the same?

107.  Production houses often tend to change the names of movies in varied
localities to stuff that can be understood by the local audience.
 For example, Guardians of the Galaxy inTaiwan goes by Interplanetary Unusual
AttackingTeam. Similarly , in Russia, Silver Linings Playbook goes by My
Boyfriend is a Psycho.
 In this whole adventure of renaming movie titles, which 21st century movie was
titled Love in a Strange Place in Spain?The movie’s title would sound ironic to
you given the context of the question.

109.  12 questions, Anticlockwise
 Pounce - +10/-5
 All parts to a question needed on pounce
 Bounce - +10/0
 We follow Bangalore Bounce, as always

110.  GeorgeVoinovich was the Republican Governor of Ohio from 1991 to
1998. In 1996, he made a visit to an Indian state capital, following which
he wanted to inscribe on the Ohio Statehouse a motto that pointed out
that everything was possible with the help of the almighty. However, this
ensued a lawsuit against him and he lost the case because American law
did not permit state’s endorsement of religion.
 What exactly did he see in this capital, that prompted him to come up
with this motto?

113.  Jane Smith is a Scottish primary school teacher who, four years back in
an interview to newspapers explained how she finally got to know about
her father, John Harrison’s contributions toWW2.
 He said he had been drafted into _______ ___ after one of his university
lecturers asked him to quickly complete a tough newspaper crossword. But
we didn’t know for years how valuable his wartime work was.
 Where was Harrison drafted into? How did Jane get to know about her
dad’s contributions?Why did Jane have to wait for so long?

119.  The Fall is a not so well-known 2006 movie. Interestingly, it has a
huge diversity of shooting locations – as many as 65 of them with
major concentration of them in India.
 While the usual names likeTaj Mahal, et al. make a mention, one of
the shooting locations in the western half of the country functions as
a maze in one of its scenes – in what is a rare sight of this location
being used for filming.
 Which attraction, that does the job as expected of it even today?

122.  In October 2017, researchers at Cornell University came out with a paper
after having studied the impact of artificial light on migratory birds over
seven specific days for seven years (i.e. one particular, same day each
year). As per the paper, this light induced significant behavioural
alterations in birds even in good visibility conditions due to the heavily
photo-polluted environment, up to altitudes of 4km. It was also found
that if this light was removed, these disruptions did not occur.
 What exactly was the source of light used for this painstaking research?

127.  In a 2012 interview to TheTelegraph, Rudra Brahmin recounted one
experience of his father, Mitra Lal Brahmin in the late 1960s:
 “My father used to tell us that he had been strictly asked by the director not
to look back when driving the _____. One evening, on returning home after a
daylong shoot , he did tell us that he could not resist the temptation to look
back. However, my father could not see much except the fuming director.”
While the context behind the above story became memorable across the
country, sadly for Mitra Lal we could just see his back.
 Where exactly would you have seen Mitra Lal Brahmin?

130.  In a January 2018 article, Livemint dissected the valuation of Paytm and how
it stemmed – not from the profits that the company made but through
previous capital infusion, snowballing into future capital infusion and the
company burning through it all.
 The article said that Paytm’s challenge was not just staying relevant but
attractive in the cut throat marketplace and to do that they had to run at least
twice as fast, as at its current rate it would remain at its present situation. In
the process, Livemint ended up referencing a well known fictional episode.
 Which episode was this?

133.  Louise Sloan was an employee of Johns Hopkins University for more than 50
years. In 1959, she chose 10 sans-serif letters of the English alphabet, some of
which include D, K and Z, with each being put inside a square and having its
stroke width equal to one fifth of the letter height.
 One of the probable reasons for choosing the above was the high diversity of
verticals, horizontals and diagonals throughout the set, that would help in
better achievement of the intended purpose.
 What purpose was this?

136.  In early 2011, researchers at the Kansai University in Osaka came up with a
quirky solution to a common medical complaint made by patients.To address
this, they etched slices of silicon dioxide into a jagged shape and bonded them
together – the result being the achievement of a diameter of 0.1mm – implying
a smaller surface area of contact with <something>.
 As per the researchers, the solution itself was devised by taking inspiration
from a certain (well-known) action by an organism from the animal world.
 What was this solution?What was it inspired by?

139.  The Coronado Amphibious Base is a US Navy Base located in San Diego.
Consisting of six buildings in total, its original plans included two central
buildings which were intended to contain a boiler plant and a recreation room;
and a single L-shaped 3-story barracks. Somehow, the revised plan called for
the L shaped building to be repeated three times more.
 After all the above drama was done, suddenly the Navy realised a major
blunder in their layout plan and ended up spending about $600,000 to hide it –
before it got exposed to the public thanks to Google Earth.
 What exactly was this blunder?

142.  This economist used to mix small doses of poison in his advisee’s food in order
to build his immunity against poisoning attempts.
 One day, unaware of the fact that the food was poisoned, the advisee shared
his food with his pregnant wife, whose delivery was due in seven days.
Unfortunately, this was noticed by the economist only just after the lady had
had her food, and thus realised she was going to die – as a result of which he
cut open her womb and saved the child – however, in the process, a drop of
poison had made its way to the child’s head.
 Who was this child?Who is the economist in question?

145.  How ____ _____ helped RBS ____________ the taxman is a 2016 article
in The Guardian that talked about how the bank had used a series of
“sale and leaseback” deals with Hollywood in order to save more than a
billion dollars in taxes – where it bought the rights to a film and then
leased it back to its producers – something that RBS did starting from
1998 to 2006, until the laws changed – and thus ensured that the
authorities did not use their tools to tax them. As per the filings, among
other movies, RBS had the rights to two of the instalments of a popular
franchise that were released in 2004 and 2005.
 What charming title did this article have?

148. Thanks

149.  A July 2010 article in The NewYorkTimes authored by Jeremiah Moss talks about his
search for a real-life entity that inspired the creation of a similar-looking one in 1942 –
the same gaining worldwide acclaim and viewership.
 Believed to be inspired from one located in a triangular section of Mulry Square, NYC,
when Moss retrieved maps of the area, they showed that apparently there was no
such entity that really existed - instead, there was a gas station at that spot.The one
entity of the type in question that did exist in Mulry Square was castle-shaped and
not like the one created.
 What exactly was Moss trying to search or find evidence for? Image follows.

150.  The direction of the arrow
is intended to make you
think how you would look
at the gas station had you
walked from/in that
direction.