The document discusses the Quiz Foundation of India (QFI), a non-profit organization that organizes quizzes in Chennai. It encourages readers to become members or support QFI to receive quizzes and help popularize quizzing. It provides a sample quiz question about the Battle of Marignano and its consequences, the origin of the name "Dalek," and the system used to name US military helicopters.

1. By Samanth Subramanian
The QFI
Grandmaster Quiz
2014

3. About QFI
• The Quiz Foundation of India is a non-profit
organization that aims to popularize quizzing.
• We at QFI Chennai organize quizzes throughout
the year including fortnightly informal quizzes
and annual events like the QFIesta Open
Quizzes, the QFI Grandmaster, the QFI Ender
Bender and the Avial Pursuit Open.
• We also set and conduct quizzes for school and
corporates in and around Chennai.

4. Become a QFI member
• You can support us by becoming a QFI member.
• QFI membership is open to all, irrespective of age or
geographic location.
• Subscribing members receive the quizzes conducted at
our fortnightly meetings and our annual events.
• Our membership is Rs. 500 per year and can be paid in
person or online or post.
• Email qfichennai@gmail.com for details.
• You can become a member and receive all the quizzes
for that year, irrespective of when you join in that year.

5. Support QFI
• QFI relies on your patronage and your subscription
would be a great way to support us.
• We have posted over fifteen sets of questions for this
year already and this presentation contains a sampler
from this year’s Grandmaster quiz, which will be
circulated on our mailing list shortly.
• Get this and other fantastic quizzes by subscribing today
and make sure you don’t miss out on some great
quizzing.
• Email qfichennai@gmail.com for details.
• Visit us at www.quizfoundation.com
• Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

6. The Battle of Marignano, fought in September 1515, pitted a powerful French
army against the Confederacy, on a battlefield near Milan. The French won
overwhelmingly, losing just 3,000 or so men, compared to 14,000 on the other
side.
The French gained Milan, ending forever the Confederacy’s aspirations in the
region.
What was the other long-lasting outcome of this battle?

8. Swiss neutrality.
The Swiss Confederacy in 1525 – a decade after the battle – declared its
neutrality, having “learned its lesson” about war from the Battle of Marignano.

9. Fill in the blank and explain these origin myths that were later called into
question:

11. Dalek, the villains from Doctor Who.
As Frank Baum once claimed that the name of Oz came to him from a filing
cabinet that ran from O-Z, Terry Nation, the Doctor Who writer, once claimed
that the word “Dalek” was taken from a volume of the dictionary that ran from
“Dal to Lek.”

12. This English word comes to us from an Arabic root word that means “holy site”
or “inviolate place,” signifying how entry to a sacred space is forbidden or
restricted.
Interestingly, while the Arabic root word has these connotations of the pure and
sacred, the English derivative is quite the opposite. The only common thread is
the fundamental reference to a space into which entry is restrcted.
What are the two words?

14. Haram and Harem

15. The birthplace of the US military aviation was Fort Sill, deep in Oklahoma – an
installation that dates back to the regional battles of the 1860s.
A particular unit of military aviation was born here as well, and to honour Fort
Sill’s location (and the people living in the vicinity), a system of nomenclature
was started.
The system is still in vogue today, although it’s often called into question,
simply because of the martial associations that come with the army / air force.
What system?

17. Military helicopters being named after Native American tribes / people: the
Apache, the Comanche, the Chinook, the Black Hawk, etc.

18. Before 1918, tsarist Russia permitted no Polish nationalism, so nationalist fervor
in Warsaw silently collected around this object in the Holy Cross Church. It was
nearly lost in the German occupation during World War II, but it found refuge
in the HQ of a brutal Nazi commander.
After the war, the commander made a show of returning the object to Polish
hands, hoping to earn some goodwill. At the key moment, though, the
spotlights failed, and the Nazi commander’s propaganda spectacle flopped.
What object was at the heart of all this propaganda?

20. CHOPIN’S HEART

21. Please subscribe to QFI!
Make sure you get great quizzes
like these as they happen
throughout the year.
Email qfichennai@gmail.com