Quiz

1. The December ‘12
Monthly
QM: Ameya
(Remember the trailing ‘a’?)

2. ●
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BASE jumping, also sometimes
written as B.A.S.E. jumping, is an
activity where participants jump
from fixed objects and use a
parachute to break their fall.
"BASE" is an acronym that stands
for four categories of fixed
objects from which one can
jump. What is stands for?
Buildings, Antennas, Spans
(bridges), and Earth (cliffs)

3. ●
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There is talk of internet
censorship in the Muslim world.
However simultaneously there is
a school of thought for setting up
of a religiously acceptable
internal network isolated from
the World Wide Web. Its
purpose, they claim, would be to
provide national cyber security
and promote Islamic moral
values. What is it referred to as?
Halal internet

4. ●
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Gambler and other "lowlifes",
also messengers
City guard or policeman
Innkeeper
Merchant/Moneychanger
Doctor
Weaver/Clerk
Blacksmith
Worker/Farmer
These are the professions of
certain something, as
considered in medieval days.
What?
Pawns in the game of chess

5. ●
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The tread bands on its wheel are
not simple straight lines. They
are embellished with cut-outs of
different sizes that correspond to
the dots and dashes of Morse
code. In dot-dash notation, each
wheel carries three characters
(•–––/ •––•/ •–••). Whose
wheels and what this refers to?
It spells out "JPL." Those letters,
are the acronym of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif., which manages
the rover mission for NASA.

6. ●
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India has moved onto EVMs for
polling. However the traditional
ballot system is used at times.
Why?
Each EVM can accommodate 16
candidates. Such 4 EVMs could
be connected together thus
accommodating maximum 64
candidates. However in the
event that the candidates exceed
64 the traditional ballot system
is used.

7. ●
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If it was Auto Shankar in 1995
and Dhananjoy Chatterjee in
2004, then who was it in 2012?
Ajmal Kasab
People to be hanged. Since 1995
it has been used only three times

8. ●
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This hotel chain founded in
1934, owns and/or operates 28
hotels and three cruisers in five
countries. It remains one of the
most decorated hotel chains in
the world with many of its
group hotels bagging various
awards and accolades from
Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast
Traveler, Forbes and Galileo.
Some of the hotel names it runs
include Vanyavilas, Amarvilas,
Rajvilas, Udaivilas and so on.
Oberoi

9. Connect these logos:

10. ●
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There was a move in 2005 to
modify the Indian national
anthem to make it more ‘apt’ in
present day context. Better
sense prevailed and Supreme
court struck down the case.
What modifications were
sought?
Change ‘Sindh’ with ‘Kashmir’

11. ●
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This eponymously named city was
founded on 18 November 1727 by
Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler
of Amber. The city today has a
population of 3.1 million. Also known
as Paris of India, the city is remarkable
among pre-modern Indian cities for
the width and regularity of its streets
which are laid out into six sectors
separated by broad streets 34 m
(111 ft) wide. The urban quarters are
further divided by networks of gridded
streets. In 1853, the entire city was
painted to welcome the Prince of
Wales.
Jaipur

12. ●
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This is the flag and coats of arms
of which princely states?
Hyderabad

13. ●
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They were English
schoolmaster, educationalist
and academic.
X was a science master at Eton
College from 1923 to 1932.
Y had previously taught at
Harrow School in England
In 1935, X & Y were invited to
India to head a newly opened
all-boys boarding school, where
they became the first
headmaster and deputy from
1935 to 1948.
Foot & Martyn

14. ●
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The original name lists of 1953
featured only women's names. In
1979, men's names were
introduced and they alternate
with the women's names. Six
lists are used in rotation. Thus,
the 2012 list will be used again in
2018.
The names used this year
include: Alberto, Beryl, Chris,
Debby, Ernesto, Florence,
Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce,
Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine,
Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Tony,
Valerie, William.
Naming systems for Hurricanes
in the US

15. ●
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Connect these words:
Guet-apens - a device in which something (usually an animal) can be
caught and penned
Pococurante - a careless or indifferent person
Guerdon - a reward, recompense, or requital
Laodicean - a person who is lukewarm or indifferent, especially in
religion
Milieu - surroundings, especially of a social or cultural nature
Logorrhea - pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech.
Words that won the Indian-Americans their respective Scripps National
Spelling Competition
Recent winners include Snigdha Nandipati (guetapens), Sai R. Gunturi
(pococurante), Sameer Mishra (guerdon), Shivashankar (Laodicean),
Balu Natarajan (milieu), Nupur Lala (logorrhea)

16. ●
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A rare phenomenon was witnessed
by sky aficionados on the night of
31st August 2012. The last time this
event occurred in December 2009.
The next will occur only after three
years on July 31, 2015. The reason
behind this phenomenon occurring is
the cycle which is 25.53 days long.
What do we call this phenomenon,
which occurs much more frequently
in literature and daily speech than in
reality?
‘Blue Moon’.
When a second full moon in a
calendar month appears in the night
sky, the occurrence is known as a
‘Blue Moon’. That is why there is one
full moon once a month, but a ’Blue
Moon’ happens once in every two

17. ●
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It is the criminal practice of using
social engineering over the
telephone system, most often
using features facilitated by
Voice over IP (VoIP), to gain
access to private personal and
financial information from the
public for the purpose of
financial reward. What word?
The term is a combination of
"voice" and phishing. Now?
Vishing

18. ●
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What thing traded in the market
are classified into following:
A, B, T and Z
Group A for top ranked shares
Group Z for penny stocks
Group T for those under
surveillance or facing restricted
trading
Group B for all others.

19. ●
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How do we better know
Sudhanshu Pandey, Sherrin
Varghese, Siddharth Haldipur
and Chaitanya Bhosale and
Karan Oberoi together?
Band Of Boys

20. ●
The birds represented in here are the Wood Breaker, Parabeak,
Glass Jaw, Egg Beater, Maching, Kamikaze bird. Connect:

21. Identify the painter who collection basically include of these ‘flower, shoots,
leaves’ painting.

22. ●
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This obituary in a British
newspaper, The Sporting Times,
in 1882 led to something been
known thus ever since. What had
died thus/Whose obituary?
English Cricket

23. ●
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These freshwater darter fish has
distinctive bright orange and
blue colours and is generally
found in fast-flowing rivers
around America. What connects
these fish?
Species named after Barack
Obama, Teddy Roosevelt,
Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and
vice president Al Gore
Etheostoma Obama was
discovered just couple of days
back

24. ●
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Nicole Scherzinger, formerly of
Pussycat Dolls fame, stepped out
wearing an electronic-powered
frock containing 2,000 LED lights
and 3,000 Swarovski crystals, the
dress was created by fashion
technology company CuteCircuit.
What was unique about this
dress?
a Twitter Dress, an electronicpowered frock that displayed
real tweets in real time.

25. ●
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This is an abandoned swimming
pool complex located Paris. It is
near Stade Roland Garros. Built
in 1929, the pool is known for its
Art Deco designs and the popular
introduction of the bikini by
Louis Réard on July 5, 1946. The
pool was classified as a French
monument historique on March
27, 1990, after having fallen into
disuse and closing in 1989. Why
is it in news in recent time?
The title character in the novel
Life of Pi is named after this
pool—"Pi" is short for "Piscine

26. ●
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Formal upright or chokkan,
Informal upright or moyogi,
Slant-style or shakan,
Cascade-style or kengai,
Semi-cascade-style or han kengai,
Shari or sharimiki,
Root-over-rock or sekijoju,
Growing-in-a-rock or ishizuke style
Forest (or group) or yose ue
Multi-trunk or ikadabuki
Raft-style or netsuranari
Literati or bunjin-gi
Broom or hokidachi
Windswept or fukinagashi
What are these different forms of ?
Bonsai

27. ●
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The person shown in the picture
made his boxing debut at the age
of 34 on 30 November against
American pro Richard "Big Bad"
Dawson. In the bout at the
Manchester Arena yesterday, he
beat his opponent 39-38. Who is
this ‘gentleman’ who is known
for his exploits in some other
field?
Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff

28. Comic strip depicting what?
Hotel California

29. ●
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This girl formerly know as ‘Mona’
was born in Hyderabad to a
Muslim mother and Christian
father. She attended Stanley
Girls High School and Saint Ann's
College for Women in
Mehdipatnam. It was during
college that she entered and
won Miss Andhra, a local beauty
pageant. However, last month
she was ‘honoured’(?) be the
first to do something. Who is she
and what first?
Sherlyn Chopra. She is the first
Indian model to pose nude on
the cover of Playboy magazine

30. ●
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Identify this doctor whom
will all know and probably
even taken help to cure
broken things at home.
Dr. Fixit

31. ●
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Flag and coat of arms of Syldavia
(featuring a pelican)
Flag of San Teodoros
(Green/Black with red circle)
Flag of Borduria (black with red
circle and “moustache of
Marshal Kurvi-Tasch” device)
Where you must have visited the
countries?
These are all symbols of fictional
nations from the Tintin universe.

32. ●
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Identify this batchmate of
Nandan Nilekeni.
Manohar Parrikar

33. ●
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This new species of iron-oxide
consuming bacteria Halomonas
________ belonging to the family
Halomonadaceae was discovered on
the rusticles. It sticks to steel
surfaces creating knob-like mounds
of corrosion products that have
contributed to the deterioration
process of the metal. This bacterium
is used in studies related to the
disposal of old naval and merchant
ships that have sunk in the deep
ocean. It gets its name from the
location where it was discovered.
Where was this bacterium
discovered?
Halomonas titanicae bacterium on
rusticles in the wreck of the RMS
Titanic.

34. ●
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On 10th April 2012, the F.B.I.
finally added Eric J. Toth to its 10
Most Wanted list. Toth is a
schoolteacher from the
Washington area accused of
possessing child pornography. It
was the first time since 2009 that
the F.B.I. had added a fugitive to
the list. What makes his inclusion
significant?
His inclusion filled bin Laden’s
place on the list which had fallen
vacant post his death

35. ●
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It is a spacecraft that deflects
another object in space, typically
a potentially hazardous asteroid
that might impact Earth, without
physically contacting it, using
only its gravitational field to
transmit the required impulse. It
could either hover near the
object being deflected or orbit
near it. What are such
spacecrafts referred to as?
Gravity Tractor

36. ●
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Brian Battistone turned heads at the US
Open with a bizarre contraption.
Witnesses compared it to hedge-clippers
or a divining rod. The nature of his X
allows the right-handed Battistone to
play a left-handed forehand, while still
controlling the shot with his stronger
arm. X was first created by inventor
Lionel Burt for fitness reasons: to allow
users to play the same strokes on both
sides of their bodies, and so develop all
their muscles at the same rate. But
Battistone uses it because he thinks it
benefits him tactically. What is this
special contraption?
Double handled Racket

37. ●
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It was the first Space Shuttle orbiter
built for NASA as part of the Space
Shuttle program to perform test flights
in the atmosphere. Designated OV101, it was originally planned to be
named Constitution and unveiled on
Constitution Day, September 17, 1976.
A letter-writing campaign by Trekkies
to President Gerald Ford asked that
the orbiter name be changed. To
what?
It was named after the Starship X,
featured on the popular television
show.
Enterprise

38. ●
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At "New Dimension of Google
Maps" event, Google preannounced several new features
planned for the Google Maps
and Earth for mobile and
desktop platforms. Over the
coming months, Google rolled
out this new feature for its maps,
generated via
stereophotogrammetry from
aerial imagery. It is been tagged
to be known as Google 45°. What
new feature?
3D Maps

39. ●
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What did this cheque for an
amount of $7.2 million, buy for
its issuer?
Alaska

40. These are memorial for what?

41. What is unique about these serials?

42. ●
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Nevada DMV director Bruce Breslow
issued the first vehicle licence plate
– AU-001 with an infinity symbol
and a red background – and
described such vehicles as the “car
of the future”. The landmark
decision came after the department’
s Review Committee tested the
Toyota Prius-based Car on freeways,
highways and local roads, including
the busy Las Vegas Strip, and
approved driver training, and safety
and accident reporting plans. What
special about this vehicle?
Google’s Autonomous/Self-driving
car

43. ●
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This island nation formed by a double
chain of 26 atolls oriented northsouth, between Minicoy Island and
Chagos Archipelago and stands in the
Laccadive Sea. Located on top of the
Chagos-X-Laccadive Ridge, the atolls
of X encompass a territory spread
over roughly 90,000 square kms,
making it one of the world's most
geographically dispersed countries.
Its population of 328,536 (2012)
inhabits 200 of its 1,192 islands. It is
the smallest country in its continent
in both population and land area.
With an average ground level of 1.5
metres (4 ft 11 in) above sea level,
Name this planet's lowest country.
Maldives

44. ●
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The cranes, raised in captivity, did
not know how to fly south, and
environmentalists had to devise an
imitation lead bird to show them
the way. The exercise in the Yamal
peninsula was aimed at prompting
the birds to follow the plane and
hence prepare them for their
migration route - part of the 'Flight
of Hope' project to protect the
endangered species. Hang-gliding
over Arctic Siberia this week, this
action man donned a baggy white
costume with a spacious helmet in
a bid to fool the birds, and flew in a
motorized delta plane light aircraft
surrounded by several of the
young cranes. Who is this ‘Alphacrane’?
Former KGB spy And Russian
President Vladimir Putin

45. ●
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They set a world record, when Jyoti
Amge, who turned 18 last December,
from Nagpur met Chandra Dangi from
Nepal to pose for the 2013 edition of
the publication. There might be a huge
generation gap between 72-year-old
Chandra and Jyoti but they were joking
and laughing as they posed for photos
with the new book, both dressed in
traditional outfits from their native
countries, earlier this year. What was
special about this meeting?
The meeting of the two set another
record as this was the first time the
world’s smallest man and woman have
met in recorded history. Pictures of the
union will be featured in the soon-tobe-released ‘Guinness World Records
2013’ book.

46. ●
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63-year-old Japanese engineer
Jinichi Kawakami claimed is the
21st and final head of the Ban
family, a Japanese clan dating
back to the 16th century, thus
making him the last true-blue
_____ .
Ninja

47. ●
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Although all 3 finished on the
same height of 1.74m Iliesa
Delana of Fiji won the gold, while
Lukasz Mamczarz of Poland
settled for bronze. The silver
medalist had used scissors
technique in the final of the
event to finish second in the
presence of an 80,000 capacity
crowd. Name the silver medalist.
What first? And the basis for
medal allocation?
The 24-year-old from Karnataka,
who has an impairment in his
left leg, Girisha Hosanagara
Nagarajegowda gave India its
first medal at the Paralympic
Games after bagging silver in the
men’s high jump F42 event in
London.
The medals were decided on the
basis of taking less jumps.

48. ●
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Avtaar Veenit Kishan was born in a
Kashmiri Pandit family in Sialkot
(Pakistan) and came to the city of
dreams — Mumbai — at the age of
21, with Rs 20 in his pocket. He
initially worked as a tailor and had
customers like the Nawab of
Pataudi and Britishers and was paid
Rs 500 per month. He was
honoured with the Padma Bhushan
for his contribution to his field in
2006, was in the news last year for
living a life in penury. Before his
death, he happened to face the
studio lights for TV series
Madhubala. How do we better
know this comrade?
A K ‘Ramu Kaka’ Hangal

49. What are these symbols of?

50. ●
Arjun Bhika Jadhav (74), a native of
Solapur-Maharastra, retired from
public service in 1996 and was the
last one in that particular
profession in the state of
Maharashtra. Though in his 33year-old career he claims having
done ‘the service’ 101 times, Jadhav
had shown keen interest to come
out of retirement to perform it one
more time. What last was he? What
has he has prompted him to come
out of retirement?
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The last Hangman. To hang Kasab.

51. ●
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Connect:
The five places of prime
importance to the Sikhism are
the Five Takhts or seats of
authorities.
Akal Takht, Amritsar
Sri Hazoor Sahib, Nanded,
Maharashtra
Sri Keshgarh Sahib, Anandpur
Sahib, Punjab
Damdama Sahib, Bhatinda,
Punjab
Patna Sahib, Bihar

52. ●
Recently many of us must have
seen 65-year-old Peter Deary
riding the derny, a two-stroke
motorized bicycle. His pedaling
speed is glacial, his attire is all
black with a decidedly nonaerodynamic helmet and most
remarkably a absolutely
expressionless face. Deary
manually controls the bike’s
speed, following a strict regimen,
increasing it by a few more miles
per hour each lap, beginning
about 15 m.p.h., and eventually
hitting 30. Where, who?
●
Motor-pacing keirin races

53. ●
Who is the man Bill Clinton is
embracing?
●
Bill Clinton
●
In 1998, then U.S. president Bill
Clinton met a baby who was
named after him in a village in
Uganda. According to the Clinton
Foundation's website, the baby
was named Bill Clinton because
he was born in the same month
the American head of state first
arrived in the African nation. The
teen’s full name is Master Bill
Clinton Kaligani.

54. ●
What comes in the different
specifications as listed in the
table and is packaged as shown
in the diagram?
●
SIM card

55. ●
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Andorra, Belarus, Bolivia,
Burundi, Central African Republic
Chad, Congo, Republic of
Guatemala, Ivory Coast,
Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Mali, Marshall
Islands, Monaco, Mongolia,
Paraguay, Sao Tome and
Principe, Sweden, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, Vatican City. These
countries (marked in white on
the map) haven't experienced it
ever.
What does this map depict? Thus
giving rise to a famous saying.
All these countries ruled by the
British Crown.
‘The Sun Never sets on the British
Empire’

56. ●
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Di corp. is a mid-sized Korean
semiconductor firm, with Park Wonho as its chairman and main
shareholder, that makes products
with distinctly un-sexy names like
“Monitoring Burn-in Tester” and
“Wafer Test Board”. It has lost
money in each of the past four
quarters and there have been no
changes to its fundamentals.
However its share price should shoot
up from 2,000 to 5,700 won (from
$1.80 to $5.12) in the space of just
three weeks—including another 15%
gain in one day. What recent
‘phenomenon’ has turned DI into a
latest example of Korea’s “theme
stock”?
Park Won-ho is the father of Park
Jae-sang, better known as PSY

57. ●
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This is the list of VVIPs/VIPs
exempted from the preembarkation security checks at
all Indian Civil Airports. All these
are mentioned as designations
except the person at #22 on this
list who is mentioned by his
name. Who?
Robert Vadra

58. ●
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What are these type of?
Normal, X-Pro II, Earlybird, Lo-fi,
Sutro, Toaster, Brannan,
Valencia, Inkwell, Walden, Hefe,
Nashville, 1977 and Lord Kelvin.
Instagram Effects

59. ●
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There are approximately 350
millions of these produced 1980,
with more than 1/5th of the
globe having used it. The biggest
of this in the world, on display in
Knoxville-Tennessee, is 3 meters
tall and weighs over 500kg, while
the smallest been just 10mm
wide. Also, there are over
180000 videos about it on
YouTube. What is this thing with
43 quintillion (i.e.
43000000000000000000)
possible looks?
Rubik’s Cube

60. Connect:
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Gary Johnson, Virgil Goode, Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson
Candidates at the United States presidential election, 2012 besides Mitt Romney and
Barack Obama

61. ●
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The angel at the church of the
Gesu in Rome guards a 506 years
old relic that is of significance to
a large section of Goans among
others. What am I talking about?
Right Fore-arm of St. Francis
Xavier