Who was known as the Queen of the Blues? Where are the branchy trees white with rime? And what truth was officially revealed on the anniversary of Marx's birth? Yes, it's that time of year for truly testing the grey matter

General knowledge paper 2012-2013, sat by the pupils of King William's College, Isle of Man

"Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est"

1.

1 What are diamonded with panes of quaint device?

2 What tale began with serious problems for a scorpion?

3 What made Diamond's eyes lustrous with desire in the Lodi Gardens?

4 What stolen Crown diamond was retrieved during a rendering of the Hoffman Barcarolle?

5 Who, in a way emulated Gibbon, but substituted a Third Chimpanzee for the Roman Empire?

6 What title embraced studies, amongst others, of a walking talking killing machine, a hell fighter, the time-warp tough guy and an honourable man?

7 What was queried as an alternative to suffocation with cassia or a fatal shooting with pearls?

8 What diamond was kept by the knight to the disadvantage of the rogue?

9 What blink like dull diamonds in the smog of Eastern Megalolopolis?

10 What was the eye in Aurangzeb's peacock throne?

2.

1 Who was known as the Queen of the Blues?

2 Who went from Hastings to Holland, and then to Cornwall?

3 Who retained the embalmed "capital" remnant of her executed husband?

4 Which corpulent lady was affectionately known by her family as Betty Humbug?

5 How is Tolhuys's creation bearing the inscriptions Victoria, Libertas and Scalda popularly known?

6 Which legendary serial gynaecocide was consigned to immurement, while her accomplices were burned at the stake?

7 Where is Whitehead's equine memorial to more than two and a half years of deadly conflict?

8 Who felt quickening at six months on receiving her cousin's good news?

9 Who lisped her threat to repeatedly scream to the point of vomiting?

10 Which relative called "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!"?

3. In what work:

1 does the clown inadvertently commit filicide?

2 is the two-timing stout knight emptied from a laundry basket into the river?

3 does a half-caste Peruvian gentleman twice change his name and become a monk?

4 does conflict between patricians and plebeians lead to poisoning of the chief magistrate?

5 does a nobleman unknowingly order the beheading of his brother, supposing that he was the son of a gypsy?

6 does the heathen King, like his real daughter, convert to Judaism, following a meteorologically induced period of insanity?

7 does jealousy over a military promotion lead to a contrived 'affair', followed by uxoricide and then suicide?

8 is the King assassinated at a festive occasion, following a prediction by a fortune-teller?

9 is a regicide conspiracy overheard in the great tomb in the Cathedral of Aachen?

10 does the love affair of a phthisical courtesan end in her premature death?

4. Who:

1 held exclusive dinner parties at Veere?

2 is remembered in Northland's most westerly point?

3 built an insular wooden cabin by a sea which took his name?

4 is famed for his chained fringillid and died in the devastating Thunderclap?

5 was a student of Brahe and later made diagrammatic representations for VOC?

6 was the father-in-law of a great painter and the guest of a quiet leader on the day of his fatal shooting?

7 was the ethical philosopher with an interest in optics who received a cherem?

8 stayed in Queens' and was Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity?

9 developed his own apparatus to study animalcules?

10 removed Royal Charles from Chatham?

5. Who:

1 put Fairfax on the map?

2 wrote of guinea pigs and moles?

3 supposedly came from Tappington?

4 won on a Rainbow (and also Florrie)?

5 modelled for The Pitcher Goes to the Well?

6 recognised his 20th-century Armageddon when elevated to the Lords?

7 was credited with the invention of IC?

8 shared with Eleanor at Plas Newydd?

9 was neither gossip nor breadbate?

10 surveyed Itseqqortoormiit?

6.

1 Whose first pseudonym was adopted from Billy Powell?

2 Who wrote morbidly of the dead stretched at the cross roads?

3 Who was successfully sued by Howe for patent infringement?

4 Who enjoyed cigale rôti with sauce à la coccinelle at Chez Pêcheur?

5 Whose contemplative discourse was prefaced with a quote from St John 21:3?

6 Who took unified joys from a multitude of tongues from words derived from a Patmos vision?

7 Who wrote about the wisdom of Acheson, Harriman and four others?

8 Who led the successful prosecution in a famous fly-paper case?

9 Who held a governorship and two bishoprics simultaneously?

10 Which member for Harwich, chose to sit for Youghal?

7. Where:

1 in reality, was Snowfield?

2 are the branchy trees white with rime?

3 may Robin Hood's lieutenant have been buried?

4 appropriately, did Vigar and Smith provide a final two ton twist?

5 might the splendour of St John the Baptist earn the village city status?

6 does the heroine who illuminated Üsküdar look down on London Road?

7 did an error with the eggs and almonds spawn a famous dessert?

8 does Lent kick off with a historic two day match?

9 does St Ann provide free drinks 24/7?

10 is the gate free from blame?

8.

1 Of what fishes was who declared the Triton?

2 Who likened the haberdasher's offering to a bivalve?

3 Who was likened to which dried clupeid without his roe?

4 Who reminded Goodfellow of hearing a mermaid on whose back?

5 Who suggested that land might be purchased as cheap as what malodorous fish?

6 Who intoned about whose jaws, mixed with a poisonous root and a lupine tooth?

7 Who, in alluding to age, refers to what creature progressing in reverse?

8 Who chose to play the fool and alluded to a small bait-fish?

9 Whose face had pimples, described as what gastropods?

10 Who found that what soused fish caused flatulence?

9. Who:

1 inspired Stravinsky?

2 described a raptor's daily meal of liver?

3 inspired the forester's son from Erasbach?

4 described a chaste form of mutual appreciation?

5 was acknowledged specifically by the binomial pioneer?

6 described by one writer as an "equine irritant", was the victim of Conium?

7 wrote about 10,000 involved in a fraternal conflict?

8 wrote of warring amphibians and rodents?

9 received a pattered mention by Stanley?

10 inspired a titled Austrian composer?

10. Where:

1 is there always snow?

2 did the hirsute hunter board the train?

3 is rail traffic enabled by a vertical descent of 41 m?

4 could you have chowder for breakfast, dinner and supper?

5 do Alvares and Rivera interchange with Abraham and Jacob?

6 did the finding of wild grapes prompt the explorer to name the island after his daughter?

7 does a 20th-century Stump also include features of St Giles?

8 did an ocular phenomenon exploit low temperatures?

9 were the cogs first motivated by Hero?

10 did two Starks idle down?

11.

1 Who shot Geoff Hammond?

2 Who, on his death bed, quoted from Goldsmith's Elegy?

3 To which firm of accountants was the club-footed orphan articled?

4 Whose seaside suicide was greeted by six slim splashing struggling sharks?

5 Who succumbed to uncontrollable diaphragmatic spasms in the Arabian Sea?

6 Which Russian libertine was lost in the Borneo jungle in pursuit of the Assistant Curator?

7 For what, in Mrs Hodges' own private opinion, was hoak preferable to helm?

8 Who, having left one painter for another, ended her life with Oxalic Acid?

9 Which diamond merchant spent £260 on a sable cape and muff?

10 Whose final ante-mortem word was "England"?

12. In 1912

1 who put phonetics on the stage?

2 who was promoted to glory at Hadley Wood?

3 who wrote finally "For God's sake look after our people"?

4 what truth was officially revealed on the anniversary of Marx's birth?

5 what Barkham Manor "discovery" was revealed in Burlington House?

6 which silver medallist was exonerated at inquiry, following an accusation of bribery?

7 in what were Austria, Bohemia and Luxembourg guilty of "no show"?

8 whose range of manual contact was reduced from 50-65 to 18?

9 what May Day gift was secretly erected overnight?

10 what addition followed Oklahoma?

13.

1 Who created a Circus with Dame Laura?

2 Whose work in Chelsea "never can happen again"?

3 What factory mark represents the Sound and two Belts?

4 Which Bohemian produced cabbage roses for whom in the Kingdom?

5 Who first placed designs in silver on green pottery for which company?

6 The Saxon Hercules was instrumental in the establishment of what factory?

7 Who famously painted great white birds in flight for which company?

8 Which Salopian firm illustrated bird-assisted Chinese fishing?

9 What French product is identifiable by a hunting horn?

10 Which Magyar product is literally eosinophilic?

14.

1 What is likened to a round goblet?

2 What does the Farmer carry in his boots?

3 Of what are Poetry and Religion a product?

4 What would Steffi weep to see, burst like a cave?

5 Which organ of the tobacconist is rotted, and which is spotted?

6 What might be excited by a bashful young potato or a not-too-French French bean?

7 What did the Robson brothers settle for the large Bostonian?

8 Where did my mother's life make me a man?

9 What is a smoky yellow like old vellum?

10 Wherein does Hope spring eternal?

15.

1 Who was the Bishop of Bishops?

2 Whose exploits at Estourmel earned him an award for valour?

3 Who likened Harry to an urtically sheltered ripening strawberry?

4 What disguise did Mazzini adopt when confronting the Rev Lord Henry?

5 Who might have included preaching to beefeaters and taking care of religious documents in his CV?

6 Who, following decapitation, picked up his head and carried it for 10 km, delivering a sermon as he walked?

7 Who was killed, together with his wife, by a collapsing chimney during the Great Storm?

8 Who was murdered in East Africa 16 months after his ordination?

9 Which Nordic Bishop was beheaded for opposing Lutheranism?

10 Which mounted warrior was recreated by Bissen?

16.

1 To whom were all places alike?

2 Who was rescued by Reino and revived by Helvi?

3 Which curious character would claim a preference for grouse?

4 Who pilfered and pillaged, and snitched and stole all over town?

5 What thought experiment questioned the Copenhagen interpretation?

6 Who was revived with rum and milk after rescue from flotsam off the Dutch coast?

7 Who was an impudent fraud that never had any financial backing?

8 Who learned, terminally, that "one false step is ne'er retrieved"?

9 Who was Mrs Ribston's cousin (who did not give credit)?

10 Whose pupils were lunar responsive?

17. Which spirited concoction of which House:

1 is an amaryllid?

2 is papaveraceous?

3 recalls pink-tipped pale hands?

4 recalls a Piedmontese foundation?

5 might have been named Jolly Roger?

6 shares its name with a Breton music festival?

7 might be translated as inconsistency?

8 might be derived from Taro root?

9 suggests a raptor's grasp?

10 is a riding-habit?

18.

During 2012:

1 justify 29-17-19-65.

2 which unifying Messiah has waned irreversibly?

3 whose passing recalled the development of an earlier 911?

4 what revealed Dunearnin', Indisarray, Inveruin and Rum deal?

5 what, among many others, might have reawakened the Cumbrian burghers?

6 what event has recalled one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind?

7 whose bigger and bigger and bigger creations have merited a bigger award?

8 how is sadness over Erithacus bringing happiness to Rebecca?

9 how did Rothesay deliver cold, wet and windy weather?

10 where was a flame seen on Saturn?

Answers will appear in the new year