Prelims of the General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College, 2018

The College General Quiz at
Reverie, Gargi College
Abhinav Dhar
The Prelims (with answers)
30th of January, 2018

Acknowledgements
• A big thanks to Soumya Ranjan Mohanty for lending
me a funda and to Abid Abdulla and Prithvi Raj for
Guinea Pigging this quiz.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College

Note to the Quizzer seeing this:
• The image of a camera ( ) on the bottom of a slide
means an image follows on the next slide. If it is not
there, it means it is an answer slide.
• The font used is Candara, ‘for best experience’
download it before seeing.

Rules
• 26 Questions in this Prelims totalling 32 points.
• Questions 1 to 20 are 1 markers.
• Questions 20 to 26 are 2 markers.
• 8 teams of 3 members or lesser will make it to the finals.
• Question number 11 to 17 are star-marked, and will help resolve
ties, if any. In case of a tie persisting, sudden death resolves
ties.
• The prelims will be run twice, faster the second time.
• And most importantly, use of any electronic device during the
quiz will lead to immediate disqualification.

• This is the image of a publication by
Zlata Filipović, which she wrote from
1992 to 1993 during the Bosnian war.
• When the book was released in 1993,
it was an instant best seller, and
reporter Janine di Giovanni, who met
Zlata earlier that same year, and
wrote the introduction to the book,
dubbed her as “the ____ _____ of
Sarajevo,” due to the nature of the
work itself.
• Fill in the blanks.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College ONE

Anne Frank
• As it happens, Zlata
had read Anne
Frank’s diary before
Sarajevo was
engulfed by war and,
like Anne Frank, she
addressed her
thoughts and fears to
an imaginary friend,
Mimmy.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College ONE

• With the love for 2/3 line flash fiction, this AI bot has her
own Twitter page tweeting the beginning of a horror story
each hour, inviting readers to contribute the next sentence.
• A deep-learning powered artificial intelligence, her 3
designers programmed her in such a way that she absorbs
the most disturbing stories and uses them as inspiration for
her own macabre musings.
• The team behind this AI bot chose a famous surname
associated with horror writing, what is the name of this AI
bot?
• In the images you see the look of her website and a few of
her tweets.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWO

Shelley (as in Mary Shelley)

• Here you see the work area of a professional whose
work, in their own words, is organic with the use of
props, and done precisely for that particular project.
• Their work requires them to ingeniously use their sound
knowledge of the quality of a variety of materials like
wood, cement, sand, and even grass.
• The ultimate compliment is when the output is not
noticed at all, in what profession?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College THREE

Foley Artists
or Add sound effects to films (in post production)

• After its most public work was done, by the end of 1997,
reports of it (a part of it anyway) being sold to United
Airlines came, where it used its enormous power in the
ticket booking department, with the motive of generating
$50-$100 million in additional revenue for the airline.
• It was brought in to manage the enormous data associated
with the airline booking industry and maximise resources in
a line of business which saw about 28-30% of seats empty,
mostly because of connecting flights and surge or drop in
real time.
• What am I talking about?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College FOUR

IBM’s Deep Blue
• Now one of the two racks that made
up Deep Blue is on display at the
National Museum of American History in
their exhibit about the Information
Age; the other rack at the Computer
History Museum in the Artificial
Intelligence and Robotics gallery of the
Revolution exhibit.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College FOUR

• In a stressed situation, while experiencing the “fight-or-
flight” response, signals from the hypothalamus and
pituitary gland go to the adrenal glands, which sit on top of
each kidney.
The adrenal glands release adrenaline into your blood
stream causing rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure
and improved muscle circulation.
• At the same time that blood is flowing to your lungs and
muscles, less of it is reaching other organs including your
stomach. This and other hormonal changes may cause
nausea.
• How would a layman know this process as?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College FIVE

Butterflies in one’s stomach
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College FIVE

The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College SIX
• Here is a screenshot from an episode of the BBC show QI.
a) What does the schematic on the screen show the
progression over the years of? (0.5 point)
b) The reason for the change in shape in the year 1867
came about as a result of something signed by president
Andrew Johnson. Why the change? (0.5 point)
• The final adjustment came in 1995, and has remained so
since.

The International Date Line and the Alaska Purchase

• At birth, the defining feature is only a small ‘prebutton’,
firmly attached to the tip of the tail. With time, a new
section is added to this button, and as it develops, this
feature becomes more prominent, and is actually
composed of a series of hollow interlocked keratin
segments.
• As to why it evolved in this species, it is theorized
merely to be a warning system of the danger it
possesses.
• What do I speak of?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College SEVEN

The rattle of Rattlesnakes.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College SEVEN

• It was owned by King Charles I of England in the
mid-1600s and was used to settle a part of his
massive debt in 1649. It was auctioned by the son of
Duke of Buckingham in 1763, after which it went
missing till 1900.
• It reappeared in 1958 and sold for a paltry sum of
$60, and only resurfaced again in 2005, possibly only
to save the world.
• What am I talking about, in news 2.5 months ago?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College EIGHT

Salvator Mundi (Leonardo da Vinci) (na
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College EIGHT

• When Time magazine came out with a list of ‘15
Buildings That Don’t Look Like Buildings’, they had
the Indira Gandhi Planetarium in Lucknow, opened
in 2003, in the list.
• Mimicking Saturn, by incorporating a sphere of
diameter 21m, they pointed out a glaring error in the
design.
• What is wrong with the design?
• P.S. It’s not the colour of the building.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College NINE

Saturn has 7 rings, not 5

• What now common feature was first introduced
in 2003 in the Sony Ericsson Z1010 with the
intention of enhancing business meetings?
• This is seen as the watershed moment which
sparked a modern phenomenon, without any
intention to.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TEN

Front-facing camera (ushering in an age of selfies)
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TEN

Starred Marked Questions begin

• In the 3 generations since being founded in 1947, CD, Inc.
have used their innovation and expertise to make formulaic
arrangements with the main aim of minimising physical
damage.
• Their work requires a very planned and strategic use of
explosives like Nitroglycerine and dynamite, with projects
taking anywhere from a day for small scale ones, to 6
months, for the more complex ones, in the process saving
hundreds of millions of dollars and sometimes even months
of time, worldwide.
• What is CD, Inc. the market leader in? OR What is the full
form of CD?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College ELEVEN

Controlled Demolition, Inc.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College ELEVEN

• The 1932 Olympic track & field competition took place in the Los
Angeles Coliseum, a memorial to WWI veterans opening in 1923,
having the largest seating capacity of any Olympic Stadium to that
date, with over 100,000 spectators.
• These Olympics though were hampered by the long and difficult
travel for many countries to get their teams to the West Coast of
the United States, and coupled with the severe global economic
depression, caused attendance to falter.
• One of the stranger Olympic occurrences happened in the Men’s
3000m Steeplechase where, as you can see in the images which
follow, the timings in the finals increased.
• Why did the times increase in the finals, via no fault of the athletes?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWELVE

The runners ran an extra lap
•The lap counter had made a mistake, and all the
runners ran an extra lap, thus the race was actually
3,460 metres.
•That made no difference to Iso-Hollo, but the silver
and bronze medalists would have been different.
•At the end of the regulation distance, Joe
McCluskey was in 2nd place, but he was passed on
the last lap by Britain’s Tom Evenson, who won the
silver medal.

• Bellerby and Co., a studio based in London is one of the
only few establishments in the world which continue to
make these items with the complicated technique dating
back to the first known ones in 1492.
• Their life starts with a stiff paper being placed on a
surface, and then being coated with 9 layers of plaster.
The final step is the sticking of these eye-shaped paper
strips, called gores (images) perfectly on the surface
followed by a varnish for a protective shine, ending a 15-
hour process.
• The process of creation of what, the majority of which go
to schools?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College THIRTEEN

Globes

• Its history dates to a town in eastern Ottoman Turkey in the
13th century. Horsemen stored tough cuts of sheep or goat
meat under their saddles so that over the course of a hard
day’s riding or fighting, they would tenderize and take on the
salty flavor of horse sweat.
• When cooks learned to simulate a similar effect in the kitchen,
they gave it a name originating from the Turkish for pressed
meat, ‘bastırma et’. This recipe spread into Eastern Europe
through the Jewish community, who adapted the recipe to use
beef in order to keep with kosher laws from where it spread.
• The credit of making a sandwich out of it goes New
York’s Sussman Volk. What food item is this?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College FOURTEEN

Pastrami
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College FOURTEEN

• Until a few years ago its texture was so much like baby food
that some in the profession even thought that companies
such as Gerber made it.
• But the truth is that it is created in a special one-of-a-kind
facility in Natick, Massachusetts using a special method
which doesn’t puree the items to a pulp, as was previously
the case, but maintains a particle size such that individual
food items inside these can be tasted as well. As of now
there are 19 different food items which are manufactured
by this process, and a supply of 28,000 tubes annually.
• For whom are these tube food made?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College FIFTEEN

U.S. Defence Forces Pilots (specifically the Lockheed U-2)
Developed mainly because of the high amount of time they have to
stay in these flights, without much movement to do any activity.

• A great story about Mozart and his teacher Haydn goes like this:
• Haydn one day challenged his pupil to compose a piece of music
which he could not play at sight. Mozart accepted the banter, took his
pen and in 5 minutes dashed off a piece of music, and, much to the
surprise of Haydn, handed it to him, saying, “There is a piece of music
which you cannot play, and I can. You are to give it the first trial.”
• Haydn, surprised at its simplicity, he dashed away until he reached the
middle of the piece, when, stopping all at once, he exclaimed, “How is
this, Mozart? How is this? Here my hands are stretched to both ends
of the piano, and yet there’s a middle key to be touched. Nobody can
play such music – not even the composer himself.”
• Following this Mozart sat to play and complete the piece. How did
Mozart manage to play the piece?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College SIXTEEN

Let us look at the video:
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College SIXTEEN

• In 2006, Ryan Germick applied to only one company and was
hired as a web graphic specialist. Beginning his work under
the tutelage of Dennis Hwang, he now oversees a staff of a
dozen designers, who go through a huge list of thousands
of ideas each year and decide on a theme for the year.
• In his own words, his audience has grown from just his
parents and four siblings to millions of people each day.
• “We’re aware that we have to make it global, so we can’t use
language that wouldn’t make sense in one territory,” a team
member says. “It shows the human behind the machine.”
• Ryan Germick is chief of what presently?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College SEVENTEEN

Google Doodles (he is called the Chief Doodler)

Starred Marked Questions end

• They were first come up with 200 years ago as a solution to a
variety of problems vexing up and coming constructions, and
their basic premise has remained intact for those 2 centuries.
• They are responsible for the distribution of the load across the
foundation, allowing for ground movement and vibration,
thermal expansion and contraction and weight variance. It also
allows rain and snow to drain through, and inhibit the growth
of weeds and vegetation that would quickly take over, and in
addition stops precipitation build-up from rough weather
which could be damaging.
• Either give me the name of what is being talked about, or the
funda.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College EIGHTEEN

Ballast (the crushed stones) on railway tracks
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College EIGHTEEN

•With the development of the character, and her
growing more and more hysterical over time, her
outfits, which started with a light shade of pink, grow
hotter and hotter, according to costume designer Jany
Temime.
•On the other hand, it has been noted by some, that
another character’s clothing fades with each
subsequent life changing event to symbolise his
inevitable mortality.
•Give me both the characters. (0.5 point each)
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College NINETEEN

Dolores
Umbridge and
Lord Voldemort
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College NINETEEN

• Before technological revolution took over, there was a
thriving trade across the world, centering around the east
coast of the United States and Norway (exporting a million
tons (910 million kg) a year).
• This trade revolutionized and enabled significant growth
of many industries, with initially only people from
developing countries being able to afford the commodity.
• People in the industry transported them in wagons and
later, trucks and employed the use of saws, bars, tongs
etc., needing special storage.
• Which industry that still exists, though in a much smaller
form?
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY

Ice Trade

Start of 2 pointers

• Hamilcar was a Carthaginian general and statesman, whose
surname comes from brq meaning thunderbolt. He
commanded the Carthaginian land forces in Sicily from 247-
241 BC, during the 1st Punic War.
• It is said that Hamilcar made his 9-year old son oath that he
would never be a friend of Rome before he could agree to
take him to the Iberian peninsula. He apparently established
a city here which bore his family name, though it coming
from another Iberian term seems plausible too.
• Who was his rather more famous son? Which city did he
possibly establish? (1 point each)
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-ONE

Hannibal and Barcelona (This is Hamilcar Barca)
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-ONE

• Looking at the flags in these 3 slides, tell me what is
common to all of them. (As exhaustive as I could
make it).
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-TWO (a)
Afghanistan Bolivia

Ecuador El Salvador

Haiti Dominican Republic

All these flags contain a miniature version of the
flag inside them, a sort of a self-reference, recursion
• This is of course not counting flags which could be
cropped while maintaining the aspect ratio. Like Czechia
(Czech Republic):

• Though a few countries (1st slide) can lay claim to the fact,
and people may (mis)use it in everyday language, but
according to several authoritative sources, like the CIA
World Factbook, the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the
World and the US Department of State, only two countries
(2nd slide), can officially use it.
• Articulate.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-TWO (b)

Use of ‘The’ in the country name
• Officially, only The Gambia and The Bahamas can use the
definite article.
• The two Congos are officially Democratic Republic of the
Congo and Republic of the Congo. And the longer, official
name for Netherlands is Kingdom of the Netherlands.

• It cannot really be a coincidence that these 2 clothing
items’ names are derived from the Persian meaning a
dome and the Hebrew for a dome respectively,
because whoever uses this ‘dome’ acknowledges the
constant divine presence that covers them.
• Identify the 2 items in question, or for 1 point explain
what the items are.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-THREE

Taqiyah and Kippah
(The short, rounded skullcaps worn for religious purposes
in Islamic and Jewish traditions respectively.)
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-THREE

• Schaan, Liechtenstein is seen as the global nerve centre of
this industry, with Ivoclar making 60 million sets each year.
Over history dating back to the 7th century, a particular
offering from Ivoclar has seen the use of a variety of
different materials including bees wax, but now has
settled on powdered polymethylmethacrylate acrylic
(PMMA) (image) post necessary customisation.
• A decade after stepping into India, this company’s biggest
clients were a group who liked to remain anonymous,
possibly because of the nature of the product.
• What is this? Who are these clients? (1 point each)
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-FOUR

Dentures/Artificial/False Teeth and Bollywood
actors who use Ivoclar Vivadent’s cosmetic
dentistry

• In Germanic Italy, with earliest references pointing to Venice,
small balls were used for certain public selection purposes and
by 1776 these extended to tickets or sheets of paper used in
similar processes, and so a word came out of it, the Latin for
such balls.
• Another word, which was popularized by their use in the
Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) as the name for dispatches sent
from the front and meant for the home public, comes from
French via the Italian for ‘passport’ which again originates from
the aforementioned balls.
• What are the 2 word, the first of which might remind you of
India’s official entry to the Oscars this year? (1 point each)
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-FIVE

Ballots and Bulletin
• From Italian pallotte, diminutive of palla “ball,” for
small balls used as counters in secret voting.
• Bulletin is modeled on Italian bulletino, diminutive
of bulletta “document, voting slip,” itself a diminutive
of Latin bulla “round object”.
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-FIVE

• One will find this memorial in a town of about 30,000
residents, 30km from Amethi. Children now play cricket at
this rundown memorial that was built in 1988, during Rajiv
Gandhi’s time.
• It is said of him that: “Like Kabir, he got Hindus and Muslims
together, his creations vast, talking about the ordinary farmer,
the fishermen, the changing seasons.” He is seen by the locals
as the symbol of Amethi.
• Whose memorial is this? And name the express which
runs from Pratapgarh junction (65km from this town) to
Delhi through this town. (1 point each)
The College General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College TWENTY-SIX

Malik Muhammad Jayasi and Padmavat Express

List of answers
1. Anne Frank
2. Shelley
3. Foley Artists
4. IBM’s Deep Blue
5. Butterflies in one’s
stomach
6. International Date Line
and Alaskan Purchase
7. Rattle in Rattlesnakes
8. Salvador Mundi
9. Saturn has 7 rings, not 5
10. Front-facing cameras
11*. Controlled Demolition
12*. The runners ran an
extra lap
13*. Globes
14*. Pastrami
15*. Defence Forces Pilots
16*. With his nose
17*. Google Doodles
18. Ballast
19. Dolores Umbridge and
Voldemort
20. Ice Trade
21. Hannibal and
Barcelona
22. Recursive Flags and
Use of ‘The’ in Country
Name
23. Taqiyah and Kippah
24. Dentures/False Teeth
and Bollywood actors
25. Ballots and Bulletin
26. Malik Muhammad
Jayasi and Padmavat
Express

SEE YOU IN................
........THE FINALS

Prelims of the General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College, 2018

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Prelims of the General Quiz at Reverie, Gargi College, 2018