Latest questions: 7 July 2020

This week's questions have been gleaned from those set for use in Weeks 4 and 5 of the Interdivisional matches in the 2019–20 season in Stockport Quiz League, by the Wandering Star (Questions 1 to 13) and the Tame Valley (Questions 14 to 29).

Which historical figure was born in 1818 in Trier (tree–air – arguably Germany's oldest city), where his birthplace is now a museum?			Karl Marx
The chemical compound with the formula C2H4 is produced industrially, in greater quantity than any other organic compound. What is its chemical name?			Ethylene, or (more correctly) ethene
Who was the first Editor of Private Eye? He died in 2019, aged 81.			Christopher Booker
Give a year in the life of the Japanese artist and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai – best known for his 36 Views of Mount Fuji, the first and most famous of which is The Great Wave off Kanagawa.			1760–1849
Which European river is crossed by the Dom Luís I bridge – completed in 1886 and designed by a former associate of Gustav Eiffel?			The Douro (at Porto)
Who wrote the historical novels Fire from Heaven (1969), The Persian Boy (1972) and Funeral Games (1981) – all based on the life of Alexander the Great and his successors?			Mary Renault
The Battenberg Mausoleum is the tomb of Prince Alexander I (1857–1893), the first ruler of which modern European country?			Bulgaria
In poetry, what name is given to a metrical foot (i.e. a basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line) that has one stressed (or long) syllable followed by two unstressed (or short) ones?			A dactyl
Which BBC Newsnight presenter conducted an award–winning interview with Prince Andrew in November 2019, following the death by suicide of his friend Jeffrey Epstein, after which he resigned from all royal duties?			Emily Maitlis
In which English cathedral were the remains of St. Cuthbert reinterred in the year 1104, along with the head of St. Oswald?			Durham
Which King of Scotland married Margaret Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII – resulting in the claim of his grand–daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, to the English throne?			James IV
What was Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's memorable method of signing off in 2013 as Commander of the International Space Station?			A rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity
Which Irish writer settled in Paris in 1939 (aged 33) after falling out with his mother, and subsequently wrote all his works in French as well as English?			Samuel Beckett
Who committed suicide in 1941 by filling her overcoat pockets with stones and walking into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex?			Virginia Woolf
What name, from the Quechua meaning 'great hunting land', is given to the sparsely populated, hot and semi–arid lowland region of the Rí­o de la Plata basin, divided among Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil?			Gran Chaco
Who wrote the narrative poem The Eve of St. Agnes – set in the Middle Ages?			John Keats
Which poem, written by W. B. Yeats and now a standard in the Irish folk song repertoire having been set to music in 1909 by the Irish composer and folk song collector Herbert Hughes, was described by the poet as "an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballisodare, Sligo"?			Down by the Salley Gardens
What is the regulation weight of the men's discus, in Olympic competition?			2 kilograms (4.4 lbs)
In which film does Marilyn Monroe speak the immortal line, "Real diamonds? They must be worth their weight in gold!"?			Some Like It Hot
Who said, of whom, "Hasn't she kept it clean?!" – on collecting the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, in 1972?	Said by		Mary Peters
	Said of		Princess Anne
What is the real surname of the Scissor Sister and broadcaster, Ana Matronic?			Lynch
The 'front of house' staff of which British High Street business were known, from 1926 (according to Wikipedia) as 'Nippies', and before that as 'Gladyses'?			J. Lyons & Co.
Which Russian word for an official of the Soviet Communist Party has come to be used in English (and other languages) to mean any official or bureaucrat? It can also mean a Communist spy or agent.			Apparatchik
A bodger was originally a skilled craftsman, who made what specific objects from wood?			Chair legs
What name did Gerry Anderson coin for the puppetry technique that he used in his various television series?			Supermarionation
Sodium azide (formula NaN3 – manufactured from ammonia) is used in which parts of a car, now a standard safety feature?			Airbags
Which famous figure from the American Wild West refereed a boxing match between Britain's Bob Fitzsimmons and Irish–American Tom Sharkey, at San Francisco in 1896? He controversially awarded the fight to Sharkey by calling a foul against Fitzsimmons (which no one else saw) after Fitzsimmons knocked Sharkey down.			Wyatt Earp
Which album by Elbow (their fourth studio album) takes as its title the nickname of a character in one of Damon Runyan's stories of New York gangsters?			The Seldom Seen Kid
Whose autobiography, first published in 2006, was entitled Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl?			Grayson Perry

© Haydn Thompson 2020