of four by the square of four?
39. In the Shrek films, what is the name of the princess that Shrek woos and marries?
40. What type of creature is a boomslang?
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1. In August 2009, the founders of the internet messaging service Twitter failed in their bid to have which English word officially registered in the United States as a trademark of their own?
2. In 1709 Abraham Darby first successfully smelted iron with coke, at his furnace in which Shropshire valley, off what is now called the Ironbridge Gorge?
3. What, when originally discovered in 1781 by Sir William Herschel, was given the name Georgium Sidus in honour of King George the Third?
4. Relapsing fever, trench fever and typhus are diseases transmitted by the parasitic insect Pediculus humanus corporis, which is more commonly known by what name?
5. Which city in the United States was devastated by a fire started on the 8th October 1871, supposedly by a cow kicking over a lantern and setting light to its barn?
6. The author of novels such as Cranford and North and South was often just known as Mrs Gaskell. What was her first name?
7. The species of which long-armed member of the ape family include the Siamang, the Black Crested and the Hoolock?
8. Which of the noble gases takes its name from the Greek for ‘something strange’?
9. What title, used by the hereditary spiritual leader of the Nizari sect of Ismaili Muslims, was first conferred on Hasan Ali Shah by the Shah of Persia?
10. The 56 pits known as the Aubrey holes are a feature of which English ancient monument?
11. Which best-selling children’s book, first published in 1960 and written using a vocabulary of no more than fifty words, features the persistently enthusiastic Sam-I-am?
12. After Everest and K2, which is the third highest mountain in the world?
13. How are Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve referred to in the title of a 1533 canvas by Hans Holbein the Younger?
14. With its origins in the southern states of the USA, zydeco is a traditional style of which art form?
15. Which Greek goddess, the daughter of night, was the goddess of divine retribution?
16. Which British Prime Minister spent his last years in a house called Arundells in Salisbury Cathedral Close?
17. The purplish-red fruits of which plant take their name from the American judge and horticulturist who first grew it in 1881?
18. Mensa was founded in 1946 as the society for people with high IQs. What does Mensa mean in Latin?
19. What name is given in art to a brown discolouring effect, caused by dampness, that causes a mottled, spotted appearance on prints and the pages of books?
20. Coming to prominence in the 2000 Presidential Election results in the state of Florida, which word was used for the ‘partially punctured holes in ballot sheets that were regarded as invalid’, variously referred to as hanging, dimpled or pregnant?
21. Which French term can be applied to both the main course or dish in a meal, or the most valuable item in a collection of artworks?
22. What is the modern name of the city known as New Orange from 1673 to 1674, following its temporary recapture by the Dutch?
23. Sir Winston Churchill had two other Christian names. What were they?
24. Paresthesiae – experienced usually after long periods of immobility or as a symptom of some neurological diseases – is a sensation commonly referred to by which name?
25. What word for a lamentation, or a warning against the morals of the times, is taken from the name of a Hebrew prophet?
26. Which British author, who died in 1992, wrote the story ‘The Company of Wolves’, which was adapted for the screen by the director Neil Jordan?
27. 210 mm x 297 mm are the standard dimensions of which common paper size?
28. Which Hollywood actor’s five wives were, in order, Margaret Sullavan, Frances Ford Brokaw (formerly Seymour), Susan Blanchard, Afdera Franchetti and Shirlee Mae Adams?
29. The French phrase tant mieux, often used to mean ‘I’m glad to hear that’, literally means ‘so much the better’. What is the converse phrase meaning ‘that’s too bad’, or ‘so much the worse’?
30. The Warwickshire town of Rugby stands on which river?
31. Tenochtitlán, located on the site of what is now Mexico City, was the capital of which ancient people?
32. Which gas, whose chemical formula is CH4, is also known as ‘fire damp’?
33. At the start of which fairy tale, collected by the Grimm Brothers, does a miller foolishly boast that his daughter can spin straw into gold?
34. Which term for the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear meaningfully related, but have no discoverable causal connection, was used in 1983 as the title for a bestselling album by the rock group The Police?
35. The flightless nocturnal bird the kakapo – Strigops habroptilus – is an endangered species belonging to which order of birds?
36. In 1712, Jane Wenham, of Walkern in Hertfordshire, is thought to have been the last person in England to be convicted of what?
37. Which institution, with its headquarters near the Tower of London, is responsible for lighthouses, light vessels, buoys and beacons around the coasts of England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar?
38. ‘Mountain of light’ is a translation of which Farsi phrase, most familiar as the name given to the diamond acquired by Britain in 1849 when the Punjab was annexed?
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