1. On November 5, 1605, Guido Fawkes and a group of English Catholics planned to assassinate King James I of England by blowing up the House of Lords. Acting on an anonymous letter, the police searched the premises and discovered and captured Fawkes with enough gunpowder to destroy the building. Guido was the name he chose, but once his history came out, his real name, which had been a rarity till then, started trending. Now that name has become a common word and means ‘man’ or ‘person’. What word did Fawkes bring to English?
2. Charles Cunningham _____ (1832-1897) was a land agent for an absentee landlord in Ireland. He refused to conform to land reforms supported by the Irish Land League who wanted the Three Fs (fair rent, fixity of tenure, and free sale). The League acted against Charles by encouraging his employees to withdraw their labour and preventing his access to stores, postal service and other economic necessities. This action led to his name being used with reference to withdrawal from something as a form of protest and is usually an important tool in campaigns of passive resistance to unjust social conditions. What is his full name?
3. It is doubtful Nicolas _____ really existed, but the term that bears his name lives on. Nicholas was supposedly a soldier in Napoleon’s Army and known for his stubborn loyalty and devotion to the French Empire long after Napoleon’s defeat. The term broadly means ‘fanatical patriotism or an intense belief in the superiority of one’s own gender, group, or kind’. Today, the term is mostly used in context of the male gender. What was his last name to which ‘-ist’ is added to make it a noun?
4. Jean _____ was sent from France to Portugal in 1559 to negotiate the marriage of six-year-old Princess Margaret of Valois to five-year-old King Sebastian of Portugal. When he returned, he brought tobacco plants and presented them to the Queen Mother as cure for her migraines. It was a huge success and it became fashionable for the French to use the product. The plant’s scientific name, chosen in his honour, is ‘_____iana’ and the molecule derived from it is ‘_____ine’. What was Jean’s full name?
5. Rudolf Christian Karl _____ was a German inventor and engineer. He worked on refrigeration and was working on an engine that ran on ammonia vapours, when it burst and almost killed him. He shifted focus to designing an engine based on the Carnot cycle and eventually developed an internal-combustion engine that burns heavy oil. This quickly replaced steam piston engines and was used anywhere where high torque was required. Although his original engine ran on peanut oil, the special heavy fuel used for these engines now carry his last name. What is the name?
6. Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was an Iranian scholar in the 1st century. A prominent figure in the Islamic Golden Age, he was the first to teach algebra as an independent discipline and rightfully earned the title ‘father of algebra’. What word, which means ‘a set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations’, comes from the Latinisation of his name ‘al-Khwarizmi’?
7. Tadao K_____ was a Japanese engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. He started the company ‘_____ Computer Co.’ in 1946, just replacing the ‘K’ in his name with a ‘C’. Their first big hit was a cigarette which could be smoked without holding it. The profits from that went into making the first ever electronic calculator, which even today is one of their bestsellers. One of their products was also electronic pianos which became such a big hit in India that some still refer to any keyboard piano by the company’s name! What is Tadao’s last name?
8. John Montagu was the fourth earl of _____. According to legend, he was a compulsive gambler and hated taking breaks between games. To save time, he would order his servants to bring him slices of meat between two slices of bread. This soon caught on among his friends; they would say ‘Give me a _____’ in reference to his title. Which town in Kent was Montagu earl of?
9. _____ was an African elephant that lived in London Zoo for 17 years. His name probably came from ‘Hu_____’ which means ‘hello’ in Swahili. In 1882, circus showman P.T. Barnum bought him for 2,000 pounds and took him to the U.S. where he was displayed at Madison Square Garden, which earned him $1.7 million in just seven months. Clever advertising made his name trend as an adjective for ‘huge’. What was the elephant’s name?
10. Sir Edwin Mellor _____ is an English molecular biologist who invented the ‘_____’ blot’, a method for detecting a specific DNA sequence using a filter membrane and probe hybridisation. Subsequent methods which follow the same principle but for other substances, namely, proteins, RNA and lipids, are known as Western, Northern and Eastern blots as a reference to his name. What is Sir Edwin’s last name?
Answers
1. Guy
2. Charles Cunningham Boycott
3. Chauvin
4. Jean Nicot
5. Diesel
6. Algorithm
7. Kasio
8. Sandwich
9. Jumbo
10. Southern
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley