Where can you find the protective ozone layer that surrounds Earth and absorbs ultraviolet rays from the sun and prevents them from reaching the surface?
stratosphere
Sol (Sun) and Mani (Moon) form a sister and brother pair in what mythology?
Norse
What does “mets,” as in New York Mets, stand for?
Metropolitan
When was Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgement” unveiled to the public in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City?
On October 31, 1541
What is Johannes Kepler best known for?
the laws of planetary motion
The largest colony of ants in the world stretches … km.
6,000 km from northern Italy, through the south of France to the Atlantic coast of Spain
What is any foodstuff that has been genetically modified called?
Frankenstein food
What people were the ones who decided on a seven-day week, and they named five of the days for planets, and one each for the sun and for the moon?
Babylonians
What type of novel is a story told exclusively through fictionalized letters, emails, newspaper articles, and other primary sources?
An epistolary novel
In Romanian Friday is vinery, the day of …?
Venus
How is the Monday after Thanksgiving is called?
Cyber Monday
Wednesday was named for the Germanic god Woden/Wotan also known as …?
Odin
A hummingbird can flap its wings about … times per second.
80
What term defines a familiar, pet, or derisory name given to a person, animal, or place?
nickname
What’s the term used for a word, phrase, or sentence formed from another by rearranging its letters?
anagram
To go from being poor to having a lot of money means ‘to go from …’?
rags to riches
What inspired the German National Socialism?
Italian fascism
Medieval narratives hailing from Iceland or Norway are called…?
sagas
Starting around 1965, Wednesday began being referred to as …?
Hump day
What is the term for a fictitious name used by an author to conceal his or her identity (pen name/ nom de plume)?
pseudonym
Before ending up in Los Angeles, the Lakers were named after what geographic region?
Minnesota – Land of 10,000 Lakes
The name Google is a play on the mathematical term googol, which is a one followed by…?
100 zeros
What does ‘a pretty penny’ mean?
A considerable sum of money
When was the web portal Yahoo created?
In January 1994
What does the “A” in the baseball team Oakland A’s stand for?
Athletics
What pseudonym/pen name did Mary Ann Evans use?
George Eliot
The vulgar term asshole is first recorded in the …?
in the 1400s
Who ascended to the throne around 800 and set about reforming education?
Charlemagne
What’s the name of the gaseous envelope that surrounds Earth?
atmosphere
In Romance languages, the name of Wednesday is derived from the Roman god …?
Mercury
Who was the Roman goddess that personified the moon?
Luna
What animal has the highest blood pressure?
giraffe
What 2 of the highest officials of Nazi Germany, besides Adolf Hitler, committed suicide before they could be brought to trial?
Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler
What did Albert Einstein win the Nobel Prize for in 1921?
the law of the photoelectric effect
What is the study of the movement of air and other gases called?
aerodynamics
One of New York’s basketball teams, the Knicks, is shortened from the word “knickerbocker,” which means what?
A New Yorker
The increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect is named…?
global warming
Freyja, goddess of fertility, gold, and death, rides a chariot driven by two …?
cats
Tuesday is named for a one-handed war god named …?
Tiw
What Scandinavian god is represented as riding a chariot drawn by goats and wielding the hammer Mjolnir?
Thor
Someone who comes from a wealthy and successful family is born with…?
A silver spoon in one’s mouth
When did Arthur Wynne, credited with inventing the crossword, publish his first puzzle?
1913
‘To sit tight’ means…?
To wait patiently and take no action until you hear otherwise
What type of fiction relates to the emotional awakening of a young character?
Bildungsroman
How many new species are discovered each year?
18,000
What is the largest of the great apes?
mountain gorilla
Who wrote the 1818-novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus?
Mary Shelley
Who is considered the founder of the modern science of genetics?
Gregor Mendel
What do vaccines stimulate?
The antibody production in the body
What had been the name of Augustus before he became emperor in 27 BC?
Octavian
How is the revision of the Julian calendar introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII called?
Gregorian calendar
What do we call the liquid part of blood and lymph?
plasma
What English writer coined ‘Yahoo’ in 1926 for Gulliver’s Travels?
Jonathan Swift
What is the capital city of the Norse gods?
Asgard
Who’s the chief of Tesla and SpaceX?
Elon Musk
What is the most abundant element in the Martian atmosphere?
The Martian atmosphere consists of approximately 96% carbon dioxide.
What planet has the highest density?
Earth
In legal proceedings, the pseudonyms John Doe, Jane Doe, Richard Roe, and Jane Roe are used in when …?
A person’s name is being kept anonymous
Which US state was the first state to give its women citizens the right to vote?
Wyoming
What do you call a device for making arithmetic calculations, consisting of a frame set with rods on which balls or beads are moved?
abacus
What Roman god was the messenger to the gods, along with being the patron of science, the arts, travellers, and athletes?
Mercury
A popular All Hallows' Eve ritual was mirror-gazing, as people hoped to catch a vision of …?
their future
How is the Friday before Thanksgiving called?
Black Friday
How many pencils could you produce from the carbon in the average human body?
9,000
What style of art and literature developed in the 20th century, stressed the subconscious or nonrational significance of imagery?
Surrealism
What term was applied by Nazis to the genocide of European Jews during World War II?
Final Solution
What hormone does the pancreas produce?
insulin
What term is used for an organization claiming to be an institution of higher learning but existing for profit only and granting degrees without demanding proper qualifications of the recipients?
Diploma Mill
What’s the meaning of mead?
honey wine
What term is used to define special protein molecules that the immune system produces in response to antigens?
antibodies
What is the Germanic correspondent to the Scandinavian chief god Odin?
Wotan
The F word was first recorded in…?
the 1500s
How many of the Nazi leaders were tried In Nuremberg?
22
What’s the capital of Norway?
Oslo
In what domain are the phrases ‘in the black’ and ‘in the red’ used?
business
What nomadic people originating between India and Iran migrated to Europe in the 14th or 15th century?
Gypsies
What is the eighth sign of the Zodiac?
Scorpio
What is the thinnest layer of the Earth?
The crust - less than 1% of our planet's volume
In 1974, one state had four rhyming team names, what was it? (Jets, Mets, Nets, and Sets)
New York
What does Thor mean in Old Norse?
thunder
What Norse god’s name does Thursday bear?
Thor
Finish the rhyme: April showers bring…?
May flowers
What does ‘to pinpoint’ mean?
to locate exactly
What popular board game was invented during the Great Depression by architect Alfred Mosher Butts who couldn’t find work?
Scrabble
The smile in Amazon’s logo refers to the fact that …?
They sell everything from A to Z.
What was Scrabble’s original name in the 1930s?
Lexiko
Why did Steve Jobs named the company Apple?
Because at that time he was on “one of [his] fruitarian diets.”
The Dodgers weren’t always in Los Angeles. What US city did they get their name from?
Brooklyn, New York
‘Hit the books’ means to…?
study/learn
Popular in Victorian times, the cheaply made ‘penny dreadful’, also called …, featured serialized tales of adventure, crime, and horror.
dime novels
Also called “The Land of the Midnight Sun,” Alaska is best known as …?
The Last Frontier
The term for a false name used to conceal one's identity or an assumed name is…?
alias
Which organ can account for up to 30% of a shark's total body mass?
liver
What is a misstep?
an error
What was Google’s original name?
BackRub
Which is the flattest of all the planets?
Saturn
What US state is also called “The Land of Lincoln” in honour of Honest Abe’s political career there?
Illinois
How many air signs are there in the zodiac?
3
What is another word used to refer to the white cells in a crossword puzzle?
lights
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