Free Quiz Questions
From time to time, the Avengerpenguins compose and run quizzes for charity. We’ve helped to make a good few thousand pounds over the years.
Here are some questions (and answers) that we’ve used in the past. Feel free to copy them if you’re creating a quiz of your own. If you find them useful, send us a few of your own questions that we can use ourselves in the future. We’ve tried to research all the answers, but some can go out of date, so be careful.
We’ll add some rounds from time to time. There will be a number of different types of rounds, some with themes, some which get harder as the round progresses and so on. There are also tie-breakers that might be useful if you’re quiz has a winner for each round, culminating in a grand final with all the round winners. You should easily be able to adapt the rounds to the more traditional pub quiz format though.
Drop us a line at quiz@avengerpenguins.com if you find these useful. Who knows, we might even come along to your quiz!
So far ………………
#QUIZ_1
#QUIZ_2
Quiz 1
Round 1
1. Ventriloquist Keith Harris is probably best known for his partnership with a nappy-wearing duck. What was the duck called?
A. Orville.
2. True or false – a coconut is not really a nut?
A True – it is classified as a Drupe, which is a fruit with an outer fleshy part surrounding a hard inner shell that contains the seed. Nuts are one-seeded (rarely two) simple dry fruit in which the exterior wall or part of it becomes very hard at maturity.
3. Naomi Campbell, Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier are names associated with which industry?
A. Fashion.
4. True or false – a peanut is not really a nut.
A. True – it’s classed as a legume, related to peas and beans.
5. What does an ammeter measure?
A. Electric current.
6. Which of the Wright Brothers was the pilot of the ‘Flyer’ when the first powered flight was recorded on 17th December 1903?
A. Orville
7. In 2003 Brit Jonathan Brown, a museum worker living in Chicago built a robot out of Lego, equipped with a camera, that could solve a well known puzzle in about 10 minutes. What was the puzzle?
A. Rubik’s Cube. Brown had previously built a Lego dog that could fetch a ball and a robot juggler that could keep three foam golf balls in the air at once.
8. Which specialist Italian workers stopped work on Sunday September 5 in what was described in the press as ‘perhaps the most elegant strike in history’?
A. The gondoliers of Venice, who occupied the Bacino Di San Marco in protest at the problems caused by the use of motorised boats in the city.
9. The last surviving absolute monarchy in Africa south of the Sahara is ruled by King Mswati III. Which county is it?
A. Swaziland
10. Which American author has had many of his novels, including “Get Shorty”, “Jackie Brown” and “Hombre” turned into successful movies?
A. Elmore Leonard
11. The autobiography of William Melville, to be published in October, reveals him as the likely inspiration behind which well-known figure of literature and cinema?
A. James Bond’s boss ‘M’
12. The Kritikos Ixnilatis is considered by many experts to be the oldest European breed of what domestic animal?
A. Dog
Round 2 - Vive la France
1. What do the initials of France’s high-speed train, the TGV, stand for?
A. Train de Grande Vitesse.
2. Completed at a cost of about $4.4 billion and after 5 years of work, what tourist attraction was opened in 1992, 32 kilometres east of Paris?
A. EuroDisney/Disneyland-Paris
3. What is the name of the mountain chain that runs along the border between France and Spain?
A. The Pyrenees.
4. The second largest city in France has long been renowned as a centre for refugees and immigrants and has been the birthplace of such notables as Zinedine Zidane and Charles Azanavour. What is the name of this city?
A. Marseille
5. For what sort of product is the town of Grasse in the Alpes-Maritime renowned?
A. Perfume
6. Which author created “The Three Musketeers”?
A. Alexandre Dumas.
7. “Jean de Florette”, based on the work of writer Marcel Pagnol was one of the most successful French films of all time. What was the name of the film’s sequel?
A. Manon des Sources
8. In 1783 the Montgolfier Brothers launched the first hot air balloon. Its three living passengers had eight legs between them. What were the passengers?
A. A sheep, a chicken and a duck.
9. What widely used fabric probably derives its name from the city of Nimes?
A. Denim – which was originally known as Serge De Nimes. Oddly enough a similar fabric that originated from Genoa in the 16th century, around the same time as denim appeared, was known as “jean”.
10. What is the name of the cemetery in Paris that contains the graves of, amongst many others, Chopin, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and perhaps most famously, 1960s rock star Jim Morrison?
A. Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise.
11. For what grisly purpose was the open space now known as the Place de la Concorde used during the period from 1793 – 1795?
A. It was the site of the public guillotine. 1344 people including Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were beheaded there.
12. A large population of the world’s second largest mammal makes its home off the south-east coast of France. What is the name of this giant of the sea?
A. The Fin Whale – a close cousin of the Blue Whale, they can grow up to 25 metres long. About 1500 are thought to be resident in the Mediterranean off the Cote d’Azur.
Tiebreaker – to the nearest million, how many people worldwide speak French as their 1st language?
A. 122 million
Round 3 – Chain Letter (the last letter of the answer is the 1st letter of the next question’s answer)
1. What “R” is England’s national bird?
Robin
2. What 9-letter word can be used to describe animals that are mainly active at night, or flowers that are open at night and closed in the daytime?
Nocturnal
3. Which metallic element is represented on the Periodic Table of Elements by the letters Pb?
Lead
4. What word, often used for brown sugar is taken from the name of a river in Guyana?
Demerara
5. Which town in Devon is particularly associated with the manufacture of carpets?
Axminster
6. What is the common name for the various North American pit vipers that are normally venomous and have a series of loose, rigid tail segments that produce a buzzing or whirring sound when shaken?
Rattlesnakes
7. Which English town did poet laureate John Betjeman famously suggest should be bombed because it was no longer “fit for people”?
Slough
8. What 7-letter word was the nickname of Sir Henry Percy, who was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury?
Hotspur
9. What 7-letter word describes an oblique-angled parallelogram with four sides of equal length?
Rhombus
10. Which Scottish soccer team play their home games at Stairs Park?
Stranraer
11. What name, taken from the Greek word for root, is given to a thick underground plant stem from which new plants can develop?
Rhizome
12. What in Greek mythology was the name of the dwelling place of the blessed after death, being a place of perfect bliss?
Elysium (preferred answer – accept Elysian Fields).
Tiebreaker 1: In what year was Stranraer FC formed? 1870, making it Scotland’s 3rd oldest senior team.
Tiebreaker 2: In which year was Sir Henry Percy (see Q8) born? – 1364
Tiebreaker 3: Stranraer FC’s record victory was in 1965 against Brechin City. What was the score? 7-0
Round 4 - First letter – all the answers begin with the letter C
1. What is the colloquial name of the Large White butterfly commonly found in British Gardens?
Cabbage white
2. Who was Mary in 'There's Something about Mary'
Cameron Diaz
3. What is the name of the geological theory that the earth's land masses move in relation to each other over the surface of the planet.
Continental drift
4. Who was John Lennon's assassin?
Mark Chapman
5. What school of painting was founded by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque?
Cubism
6. What was the ancient Roman name for Scotland?
Caledonia
7. What name was shared by the pirates of the Barbary Coast and a model of car produced by Ford Motors in the UK from 1963 - 1970
Corsair
8. What was super spy James Bond’s naval rank?
Commander
9. Who directed the films “Terminator” and “Aliens”?
James Cameron
10. What is the scientific name for the family of shelled-reptiles that include tortoises and turtles?
Chelonia/Chelonians
11. What name is given to a fracture of the radius bone just above the wrist, characterised by a backward and outward displacement of the hand?
Colles fracture
12. Who in Greek mythology who sowed dragons teeth from which sprang soldiers who proceeded to kill each other?
Cadmus
Tie-breaker - in what year was the school of painting referred to in
question 5 founded? 1907.
Tiebreaker 2 – according to James Bond’s obituary, that appeared in the book “You only live twice”, in what year was Bond married to Teresa Draco? 1962.
Round 5 – General Knowledge
1. Who was the President of the National Union of Mineworkers during the Miners Strike in 1984/85?
Arthur Scargill.
2. Which birthday did Cherie Blair celebrate in 2004?
50th.
3. True or False – the Sahara desert is larger in area than the Gobi desert.
True.
4. Who, appropriately, is the patron saint of mountaineers?
St. Bernard
5. Which car was driven by Caractacus Potts?
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
6. Of what African country is Banjul the capital?
The Gambia
7. You can probably recall that an isosceles triangle is one with two sides of equal length, but do you spell the word isosceles?
I S O S C E L E S
8. Which house in Hogwarts School does Harry Potter belong to?
Griffyndor.
9. In the UK, on average, who talks more, men or women?
On average, men in the UK speak about 2000 words a day, women rather more than that, so the answer is women. This quiz contains rather less than 2500 words so I might get the day off talking tomorrow.
10. In which English county is Western Europe’s largest on-shore oil drilling operation?
Dorset – Wytch Farm.
11. On what date IN 2003 was the ill-fated Martian probe Beagle 2 due to touch down on Mars?
Christmas Day – December 25th at 2:54 GMT
12. What is California’s Pleasanton-Livermore #6 Firestation’s claim to fame? a) it is the home of the world’s oldest functioning light bulb, b) it has the world’s highest paid fire-fighters, c) it is the world’s busiest Firestation or d) the station mascot is thought to be the world’s oldest parrot?
It is the home of the world’s oldest functioning electric light-bulb. Visit it at www.centennialbulb.org where the bulbcam photo is updated every 30 seconds.
Tiebreaker – on which date was Beagle 2 launched? June 2nd, 2003.
Another extra tiebreaker – in what year was the Pleasanton-Livermore lightbulb first installed? 1901
And another – in what year did Arthur Scargill become President of the NUM? – 1982.
Final round – MOSTLY difficult questions suitable for a final – or just use them at random – this round would be a bit difficult for an average pub quiz, though.
1. What is the only month in which there might not be a full moon?
February – it happens about once every 20 years.
2. Which country’s flag was first on the moon?
The Soviet Union – miniature flags were dropped from the spacecraft Luna II in 1959.
3. In literature, whose father was Mudjeekeewis, The Spirit Keeper of the West?
Hiawatha.
