Tossups
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Question 1. What war did Billy Yank and Johnny Reb fight?
Answer: Civil War
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Question 2. A piece of wire 37 inches long is bent successively in the shape of an equilateral triangle, a square, a regular hexagon, and a circle. The plane surface of the largest area is included when the wire is bent into which shape?
Answer: circle
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Question 3. A board of inquiry blamed the Columbia shuttle accident on bad management at NASA as well as what physical cause?
Answer: A 1.67-pound chunk of foam insulation that hit the shuttle's wing
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Question 4. What country celebrates Bastille Day?
Answer: France
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Question 5. The three secondary colors are orange, green, and purple. What are the three primary colors?
Answer: Red, yellow, blue
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Question 6. "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker." Was it Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Ogden Nash, or Dean Martin, who penned this line?
Answer: Ogden Nash
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Question 7. What country will become the world's first to make cannabis available for the chronically ill through pharmacies? The nation had already become the first to legalize physician-assisted suicide.
Answer: The Netherlands
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Question 8. The GNP is the market value of all goods and services produced by a nation in a given year. What does GNP stand for?
Answer: Gross National Product
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Question 9. "Old Marley was dead as a doornail." This quotation is taken from what book?
Answer: A CHRISTMAS CAROL
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Question 10. LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI is a novel which recounts the experience of river-boating in the 19th century. What famous American author wrote this book?
Answer: Mark Twain
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Question 11. In what city is Disneyland located?
Answer: Anaheim
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Question 12. American soldiers at the Shkin airbase in Afghanistan, located just two miles from the border with what country, are targets for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters who launch frequent attacks from the neighboring country?
Answer: Pakistan
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Question 13. If someone has a "Cockney" accent, where was he likely born?
Answer: England
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Question 14. The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding that what country halt construction of a barrier intended to cut it off from the West Bank and dismantle the portion already built?
Answer: Israel
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Question 15. What is the sum of 10 1/8 and 3 1/3? Reduce your answer to its simplest terms.
Answer: 13 11/24
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Question 16. The sister of actress Joan Fontaine is a two-time Oscar winner for TO EACH HIS OWN and THE HEIRESS. She also starred as Melanie Wilkes in the classic movie GONE WITH THE WIND. Name her.
Answer: Olivia de Havilland
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Question 17. The first and last letters of our alphabet are A and Z. What are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet?
Answer: Alpha and omega
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Question 18. Omar Khayyam was a Persian astronomer and poet of the Middle Ages. His most famous volume of poetry was translated into English in 1859. What is the title?
Answer: THE RUBAIYAT
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Question 19. What does invulnerable mean?
Answer: Indestructible; cannot be harmed
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Question 20. In how many different ways can you arrange five different books on a shelf? You can work out this problem by multiplying 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1.
Answer: 120
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Question 21. In 1848, Brigham Young founded this state capital as the center of the Mormon community. Name this city in Utah.
Answer: Salt Lake City
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Question 22. What communications giant had acquired 1,200 American radio stations by 2002, to control 60% of all rock music programming?
Answer: Clear Channel
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Question 23. Which chemical element has the highest melting point?
Answer: Tungsten (3,417 degrees Centigrade)
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Question 24. Shakespeare was born in what country?
Answer: England
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Question 25. The ship of Spaniard Ferdinand Magellan was the first to circumnavigate the globe. Who was the first English captain to sail around the world?
Answer: Sir Francis Drake
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Question 26. Which is the largest bird?
Answer: ostrich
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Question 27. Akron is known as the Rubber Capital of the World. Which Ohio city is called the Glass Capital of the World?
Answer: Toledo
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Question 28. "The problem with [it] isn't just its price or its bulk or its battery life -- it's the irrefutable argument that when one rides [it], one looks like a major dork." That was Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun Times, giving what may be a eulogy for what two-wheeled technological wonder that suddenly isn't so wonderful. What?
Answer: The Segway (Sometimes the batteries run down and you just... fall over. Which makes you look even less cool.)
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Question 29. 2 1/2 divided by 5 = ?
Answer: 1/2
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Question 30. What's the capital of Indiana?
Answer: Indianapolis
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Question 31. Of cirrhosis, meningitis, cystic fibrosis, and multiple sclerosis, which disease is an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain or spinal cord, and caused by virus, bacteria, yeasts, fungi, or protozoa?
Answer: Meningitis
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Question 32. Who was the ruler of the underworld?
Answer: Pluto or Hades
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Question 33. Dozens of U.S. Marines who were in Liberia in support of a West African peacekeeping mission contracted what disease?
Answer: Malaria
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Question 34. Julia Child is a winner of Emmy and Peabody awards. In what field has she achieved prominence?
Answer: cooking
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Question 35. A triangle with all three sides congruent is called an equilateral triangle. What do we call a triangle with no sides congruent?
Answer: Scalene
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Question 36. To rid their nation of the monarchy during the Reign of Terror, French revolutionaries used what popular mode of execution?
Answer: Guillotine
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Question 37. Forbes magazine released its annual ranking of the nation’s 400 wealthiest individuals and the top three spots remained the same. Name two of the top three.
Answer: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Paul Allen
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Question 38. In 1922, an English archeologist named Howard Carter and his patron Lord Carnarvon discovered one of the richest finds in history. What did these two men find?
Answer: The Tomb of King Tutankhamen
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Question 39. Which of these capital cities is the northernmost: Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, or Stockholm?
Answer: Helsinki
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Question 40. When a person gives false testimony under oath in a court of law, it's called what?
Answer: Perjury
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Question 41. THE 500 HATS OF BARTHOLOMEW CUBBINS, HORTON HEARS A WHO, and THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS, are among the books of what author?
Answer: Dr. Seuss
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