ANSWERS – 2015 PAPER
1. Since when has the colour orange existed in England?
Since before 1512, by which time the orange fruit had arrived in the UK from Spain (or
thereabouts) and supplanted ‘red’ as the more general descriptor―hence the term, “redhead”.
2. How many legal wives did Henry VIII have? The answer is not 6; show your reasoning.
There is no single universally-accepted answer: reasoning varies according to interpretation and
faith. Protestants might consider three legitimate (Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard and
Catherine Parr), with the other three annulled (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn―also
beheaded, for terrible completeness; Anne of Cleves). Roman Catholics might only recognise one
in the first place, since the annulment of his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon would not be
recognised. However, some of the four marriages after her natural death could then be construed
as legitimate. Well-reasoned answers were accepted.
3. How many ghosts appear in Shakespeare’s plays? Account for each of them.
At least 18. In RIII: Prince Edward, King Henry VI, Clarence, Rivers, Gray, Vaughan, the young
princes, Hastings, Lady Anne, and Buckingham. In Macbeth: Banquo. In Hamlet: Old H. In JC
– Caesar. In Cymberline: Sicilius; Mrs Sicilius; Posthumus’s two brothers. Apparitions such as
those in Macbeth don’t count because they are not ghosts of people – although the number rises if
you include ‘spirits’ in the term ‘ghosts’.
4. What goes to link Coventry and an East London borough?
LTC, maker of the most common model of the Hackney carriage ‘black cab’, is based in Coventry.
5. Why would Lavoisier be fundamentally popular with those on a diet?
Two of his 'elements' on his original periodic table were called 'light' and 'caloric'. Also of
interest to the health conscious would be his calorimeter, measuring the energy of foods as burnt.
6. How did the construction of the Eiffel Tower allow us to get a better picture of the sun?
The lifts were built by William Hale, who funded his son, George Hale, the astronomer, who
determined that the sunspots were magnetic. Note that the question asks about the construction
of the tower, not simply the tower’s existence.
7. What makes the human hand unique in the animal kingdom?
It is not opposable thumbs―some apes have those too―but the ability to rotate the ring and
smallest finger across the palm to reach the thumb, called ulnar opposition. This is the start of
making a proper fist, the fingers following a spiral pattern. We do it in spite of having no muscles
in our fingers (those that move the fingers are in the palm and wrist; fingers have only tendons).
8. And related to that, what is the handy connection of the fist to Gandhi, and to Fibonacci?
Each bone of your index finger, from the tip to the base of the wrist, is larger than the preceding
one by (almost exactly) the Fibonacci ratio of 1.618, a.k.a. the Golden Ratio. Gandhi once said:
"You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist".
9. Cereal grains: their uses in food and drink are obvious, but what are the connections to
our hearts, and to our feet?
Connection to the feet: British shoe sizes differ from one another by the length of one barleycorn
(1/3 of an inch). The original barleycorn was 1/108 of the length of a bronze bar held by the King.
To the heart: the Countryman’s Favour (a straw ‘Harvest Knot’) is related to the corn dolly, made
from the final sheaf harvested and designed as a home to keep the spirit of the crop safe until
replanted in the Spring. The knot resembles a heart, presented as a love token by young men at
harvest time to their loved ones. If she was wearing the favour next to her heart at the harvest
dance that night, his love was returned.
10. How did BP and butterflies combine to aid the military?
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouts, was an intelligence officer before World War I, sent to
Austria and Turkey as Mediterranean spy chief. With a butterfly net and sketchbook, he climbed
the walls of an Adriatic fort. Austrian Guards caught him. Expecting military notes but seeing
butterfly drawings, they laughed and sent the ‘English eccentric’ on his way, not realising his
drawings were coded diagrams of gun emplacements disguised as butterflies―see figures below.
11. How did the Fraser sisters, Mr Wright and yang tao help us enjoy the green and
flightless?
Isabel Fraser, a New Zealand Headmistress, visited her missionary sister, Kate, in Yichang,
China, in 1904 and brought home the seed of Actinidia chinensis. In China, these were called
yang tao. From these, NZ horticulturalists developed the first-ever commercial kiwifruit plants.
Notable was Aucklander Hayward Wright, whose vines grew best. The cultivar named after him,
var. deliciosa ‘Hayward’, became the global export trade standard for kiwifruit. A ‘kiwi’, on the
other hand, is no fruit at all but a native, endangered, flightless bird; the symbol of New Zealand
and her inhabitants. Eating one will earn you a hefty spell locked up at Her Majesty’s pleasure.
12. Jellicle is to feline as what is to canine?
Pollicle. The name “jellicle”, in The Song of the Jellicles, from Old Possum’s Book of Practical
Cats (later adapted into the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber) comes from a previously
unpublished poem by TS Eliot entitled Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats, where “jellicle cats” is a
corruption of “dear little cats”, and “pollicle dogs” is a corruption of “poor little dogs”.
13. Which branch of the military uses “port” and “starboard” for left and right on its planes?
Actually, all branches of the military do, except the Royal Navy. They land their planes on
aircraft carriers, which already have port and starboard sides. If the planes had to be landed, or
even parked, at an angle, or facing the other way from the bow-stern orientation of the carrier,
dangerous confusion could reign. So the RN use “left” and “right” instead for their planes, and
keep"port" and "starboard" for their ships.
14. What do rubber ducks, ice hockey gloves and Nike shoes currently have in common?
Curtis Ebbesmeyer is an American oceanographer who studies the movement of ocean currents by
tracking buoys and markers dropped at sea, and also flotsam. The best-known flotsam he has
monitored are The First Years' rubber ducks (actually Friendly Floatees), a consignment of bath
toys washed into the Pacific Ocean in 1992. He has also followed 34,000 ice hockey gloves washed
off the Hyundai Seattle in 1994; and in May 1990 also 80,000 Nike sneakers that were released
from a container washed off the ship Hansa Carrier.
15. How did a red-haired Danish actor end up starring in over 200 million books?
A Danish newspaper held a Jules Verne centennial contest in 1928, open only to teenage boys.
The winner was to recreate Phileas Fogg’s voyage from Verne’s Around the World in Eighty
Days, circling the globe unaccompanied within 46 days, using any transport except by air. From
several hundred applicants, the newspaper chose Palle Huld, a 15-year-old Boy Scout working as
a clerk, who later became an actor. Hergé, creator of Tintin, apparently used him as the basis for
the hero. Like his alter ego, Huld had freckles, a snub nose, unruly red hair and wore plus-fours.
16. Which English adjective can best describe the architectural style of St Martin-in-theFields, Trafalgar Square, London?
Palladian: the adjective adapted straight from the Italian.
17. 4884 5642 5896 6190 8850 6980 4892―What am I on?
The summit of the highest mountain on each continent (by altitude).
18. Which monster painter unleashed a scream of nature?
Edvard Munch (as in, Monster Munch …).
19. Which author wrote in his diary “Gardening. No hope for the future”?
Franz Kafka.
20. Which assassinated aristo can be made from conjoining the first person to
circumnavigate the earth with the author of “The Trial”.
Franz (Kafka) Ferdinand (Magellan).
21. What animal might Rudolph Dirks have in common with an infamous keyboard?
The cat. The cat piano, or ‘katzenclavier’, was an invention whereby cats caged in an instrument
had their tails struck to make them meow a certain note. It was, fortunately, never built.
Rudolph Dirks wrote a famous turn-of-the-century comic strip, The Katzenjammer Kids: a
‘katzenjammer’ meaning an uproar likened to the sound of distressed cats.
22. My father was a noble poet; my co-worker, an analytical mathematician. Who am I?
Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815–72), the gifted ‘first computer programmer’. She was also the
daughter of Lord Byron and worked with Charles Babbage, the ‘father of the computer’.
23. Which English word can be (unchanged) a noun, a verb, an adjective and an adverb?
Fast (and if you count ‘fast’, as in ‘fast by’, it could also be a preposition: a moot point). Also
accepted were various others, including ‘well’, which may be 5 parts of speech.
24. Which letter of the English alphabet boasts its source from Egyptian hieroglyphs?
Explain your answer.
Answer = N; the pictogram for N is a continuous WWWWW, like the waves of the Nile. Various
other letters are related to hieroglyphs, too, and credit was given for direct descendants – although
note the watery ‘source’ clue in the question.
25. Choose loud new lessons initially: revolutionary place of learning. (6,6―cryptic.)
A cryptic crossword clue: ‘revolutionary’ is an anagram pointer. Anagramise ‘choose’ and ‘loud’
with the first letters―initially―of ‘new’ and ‘lessons’ to find the name of a ‘place of learning’:
Oundle School.
26. On whose behalf do we enjoin Someone to frustrate knavish tricks?
On behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, in the lesser-known second verse of our National Anthem
we ask God to: “Scatter her enemies, / And make them fall: / Confound their politics, / Frustrate
their knavish tricks, / On Thee our hopes we fix: / God save us all.”
27. If you dream of smelly cows while weeping on a stone, how will you differ from your
friend who cries on a rock while pondering odorous beef?
Your word origins would betray you to be an Anglo-Saxon; your friend, Norman French.
Respectively: cow/beef; dream/ponder; smell/odour; weep/cry; stone/rock.
28. Was she endlessly sore as the final DNA link? (8,8―cryptic.)
Rosalind Franklin: anagram of ‘sor’ (sore without its end) and ‘final DNA link’. She was a
famous DNA scientist and is the lady after whom one of Oundle’s biology labs is named; she is
also the sister of Colin Franklin (OO, Sc), still an eminent private collector.
29. Name the Old Oundelian who links Julian Huxley and Edward Max Nicholson? What is
their connection?
Sir Peter Scott―three of the founders of the WWF.
30. Because of what likeness might the sons of Kathleen and Fiorini be confused?
A sculpture at Oundle School. Kathleen Scott was a famous sculptress and mother of Sir Peter
Scott (Old Oundelian and founder of the WWF). She made the statue of the boy with his arm
raised, Here am I; Send Me, the understated war memorial outside Oundle School’s Yarrow
Gallery. The plinth quotes Isaiah, where a young child has to give battle in place of older men: an
apt recall of World War I. The boy on whom the statue is modelled is not, as often believed, Sir
Peter, but the young son of Fiorini―the Italian caster of many of Kathleen Scott’s bronzes.
31. Who is imprisoned, but no longer guarded by the police?
Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder and alleged traitor, who took refuge in the Ecuadorian
Embassy in London, which was then guarded by police in case he tried to leave. The police guard
has just been disbanded, but Assange remains (at time of writing) resident under pain of arrest.
32. What does Australian rhyming slang for “look” have to do with a psychiatrist's
diagnostic manual?
Captain Cook (“look”) recorded an incident of amok―homicidal and subsequent suicidal
behaviour of mentally unstable individuals―in Malaysia during his around-the-world voyage in
1770. Amok was classifed as a culture-bound syndrome in the DSM-IV.
33. Which city is famous for its link with a group of Mohawk Indians who took matters into
their own hands?
Boston, USA
34. Who branded the lovers of liberty as traitors for demanding it?
George III
35. In which famous painting does a wet and belligerent British Empire turn and fade?
The Fighting Temeraire―Turner.
36. How did 18 become 19 earlier this year?
For reasons known best to them, Lithuania has just decided to join the Eurozone: the group of EU
countries using the Euro, taking the total from 18 countries to 19.
37. If you lived amongst rum, fish, morphine and compilations, which Frenchmen might
worry you?
Asterix and his village: the four Roman garrisons surrounding them are called Totorum (tot o’
rum), Aquarium (fish), Laudanum (an alcoholic solution containing morphine extract) and
Compendium (a compilation of knowledge). However, credit was also given to one highly
inventive reference to Jacques Cousteau involving the Thistlegorm wreck, 98,000
capsules of morphine and a Calypso cocktail.
38. Where might Einstein and some soldiers both be found towering over the city?
Potsdam, Germany. The “Potsdam Giants” was a Prussian infantry regiment founded in 1675;
its minimum height requirement meant all the soldiers were very tall. In Potsdam there is a
beautiful observatory tower, the “Einsteinturm”, which is named after the scientist, was
constructed in Expressionist architecture and built 1919 – 1921.
39. Who is the Angel of the North?
Anthony Gormley, the artist, uses his own body casts to create his work, so it is effectively him.
Also accepted was the scriptural answer, (Archangel) Michael.
40. How many times does Diana appear in Titian’s painting “Diana & Actaeon” and where?
Twice. She can be seen running with her hounds in the distance and again in the centre of the
action (at right) wearing her ‘moon crown’.
41. Why does artist Polly Morgan need to make sure she pays her electricity bills on time?
Polly Morgan works with the bodies of dead animals. She stores them in her freezer. Where else?
42. If a 6-foot man is standing on the seashore, how far is it from where he is standing to the
horizon?
Distance to horizon in miles = square root(height in feet x 1.5); sqrt(6 x 1.5) = 3 miles.
43. What is the fastest thing in nature?
While in the conceptual realm of physics, light is fastest; in the realm of nature, the pollen of the
white mulberry (Morus alba) takes the prize: it is shot out of the anther at 0.5 mach.
44. What is the connection between La Traviata and a cuppa?
La Traviata, the opera by Giuseppe Verdi, is set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave.
That is based on La Dame aux Camélias, a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas,
fils. The tea leaf comes from the plant Camellia sinensis, the same genus as the Camellia flower.
45. Why might a brassic fridge freezer be forced to take a Shanks’ pony home?
For lack of money. Decode with Cockney rhyming slang and colloquialisms as follows; brassic:
boracic lint = skint; fridge freezer: geezer = man; Shanks’ pony: from the Scottish “shank’s nag”,
meaning the legs―the shank being the lower part of your leg, on which the rest of you ‘rides’, i.e.
the act of walking. The idea being that one who cannot afford a cab must resort to walking.
46. Name the flying island in Swift’s book of 1726.
Laputa, which flew above Balnibarbi and served as a satiral comment on British politics.
47. What family name might you have, long lost in the taiga?
Lykov(a). This Old Ritualist Russian family fled the persecution of Communist patrols in the
1930s and ended up living in complete isolation in the freezing forests (taiga) of southern Siberia.
They were only discovered again in the late 1970s by a chance helicopter expedition. One
daughter survives, still living hundreds of kilometres from the nearest settlement.
48. Why might Wednesday be one-eyed?
One of the main Old Anglo-Saxon gods, Woden (also known as Odin or Óðinn) gave his name to
our day of the week: Woden’s Day. He is usually thought of as one-eyed, and sporting a beard.
49. What is greatly to his credit?
“That he is an Englishman!” That is, according to William S. Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan),
who in the 1870s wrote the libretto for the operetta, H.M.S Pinafore, which contains these lines.
50. Where might you hear the three Estates speaking in the United Kingdom?
Westminster, at Parliament. All sections of society under the monarch are said to be represented
by the three mediæval Estates of (in order) clergy, nobility and commoners. The House of
Commons represents the third estate, holding most practical powers of lawmaking. The first two
estates sit in the House of Lords to offer experience to, and review of, proposed laws. ‘Parliament’
means ‘speaking’, as in the French verb, ‘parler’. There is also the unofficial ‘Fourth Estate’,
usually used―wryly―to refer to the Press, who consider themselves outside societal convention.
51. How might the master of Bilbao be known in Seattle, Prague, L.A. and New York?
By his buildings: Frank Gehry is best-known for his masterpiece of architecture, the Guggenheim
Museum at Bilbao, but has also designed iconic buildings in the other cities (and elsewhere).
52. Because of what moniker might a Mary Ann be mistaken for a man?
George Eliot was the (male) pen-name of leading Victorian writer, Mary Ann Evans.
53. Which primate wished for strawberries, but received prunes instead?
A ‘primate’ (of the non-ape kind) is the title of a senior archbishop. Former Archbishop of
Canterbury, Lord Coggan, often told the tale of how he was once lured to a garden party on the
delicious promise of a lavish strawberry and cream tea. Yet as he approached the house on the day,
he was handed a disheartening note, informing him: “Owing to the unseasonable unavailability of
strawberries, prunes will be served.”
54. Which leader did not, in fact, announce himself to be a jam doughnut?
In a 1963 Speech in (West) Berlin, U.S. President John F. Kennedy said “Ich bin ein Berliner”,
meaning “I am a citizen of Berlin”―an example of freedom in the midst of the Cold War. He is
often mocked for his language: by inserting "ein," the meaning could change to “I am a jam
doughnut." However, linguists point out that he was not actually in error: it could mean both.
Whatever the case, the crowd understood the meaning perfectly and the speech is seen as historic.
55. Where might a Lord be laughing in the sun?
Upon the Golden Horn in Turkey, or at Lepanto (Naupactus). G. K. Chesterton’s poem, Lepanto
(1915), contains these evocative, rhythmic lines: “The cold queen of England is looking in the
glass; / The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass; / From evening isles fantastical rings
faint the Spanish gun, / And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.”
56. Give one example of a henge.
Not Stonehenge, which, having its ditch outside the bank on which it is built makes it not, in fact,
a henge, even though the word is effectively named after it. Actual ‘henge’ examples include the
stone rings at Avebury (Wiltshire) and Brodgar (Orkney) etc.
57. Where might you find an altar, a heel and slaughter?
Stonehenge: these are the names of three of its stones.
58. Which celebrated lady might John Piper and Benjamin Britten have in common?
Myfanwy Piper. John Piper is the famous artist who made the stained-glass windows at the East
End of Oundle Chapel―the nine figures of Christ―as well as those at Coventry Cathedral and
elsewhere. His wife, Myfanwy Piper, was a celebrated art critic and long-time collaborator with
Benjamin Britten as librettist for his operas (including The Turn of the Screw, Owen
Wingrave and Death in Venice).
59. What is said to be faster than the speed of light?
Nothing. Well, almost nothing … well, probably. Various claims are made, and research into the
quantum entanglement of electrons and their spin rate (where changes occur instantaneously at a
distance) has sparked a great deal of debate on the question. Wittily facetious answers gladly
accepted, too, including “Kingons/Queenons” from the work of Terry Pratchett, and “bad news”
from Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.
60. What might you find in Vault 713?
Nothing. Or, the Philosopher’s Stone. Vault 713 is in Gringott’s Bank, from the Harry Potter
series. You would find nothing: the stone was removed in the course of the story.
61. Where might you see Beaverbrook’s knights by the thousand?
Printed on the masthead of the Daily Express newspaper is the figure of a crusading knight. Lord
Beaverbrook, the paper’s owner for many years, added the figure in the 1920s to echo his
controversial political views on imperial free trade.
62. Plantagenet is to Bosworth as what is to July?
Bourbon. A tale of deposition: the House of Plantagenet ruled England until the defeat of Richard
III at the Battle of Bosworth. The House of Bourbon ruled in France until the French Revolution,
but then enjoyed restoration until a definitive ousting in the “July Revolution” of 1830.
However, unlike the Plantagenets, the Bourbons retain several kingdoms, including Spain (under
the current King, Felipe VI).
63. What links an obstruction in Oz with a destruction at Humen?
Opium/poppies. The field of poppies obstructs Dorothy & co. in the Wizard of Oz, making them
sleepy: poppies are used to produce the narcotic drug. At Humen in June 1839, the Qing Chinese
destroyed stocks of (illegal) British opium, which led to the First Anglo-Chinese Opium War.
64. Of what single form of story―true or otherwise―is each of the following an example?
Rangi and Papa; Popol Vuh; Marduk and Tiamat; Kumulipo; Ainulindalë.
Creation stories: how the world was (figuratively) created. Respectively, they are from the New
Zealand Maori; the ancient Guatemalan culture; Mesopotamia; Hawai’i and, different from these,
JRR Tolkien: his narrative is intended as fictional/imitative; the others are ancient sources.
65. Whose G-string creation, later adapted, was first aired in the 1720s?
J.S. Bach’s Air on a G String, so-named after a later transposition, was written as the second
movement of the Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068, between 1717 and 1730.
66. Why might someone called Magnus be a good spin bowler?
The Magnus Effect causes a rotating ball to drift off the trajectory it would have were it not
spinning, thus confusing the batsman.
67. Why might Miss Goulden approve of broken windows?
Emmeline Pankhurst (née Goulden) was a leading campaigner and suffragette who fought for the
right to vote and women’s rights in general. Her organisation (the WSPU) used controversial
and aggressive tactics, including breaking windows at 10 Downing St. Whether such tactics were
effective or not in themselves, their cause was happily successful in the end, with women finally
extended the right to vote in 1918.
68. Why did Stephenson build his Rocket?
To win the Rainhill Trials, in 1829. Rocket was one of the early steam locomotives built, and is
regarded as a prototype for most later steam train engines of the 19th Century.
69. Which American First Lady received a medal from the President in 1992, was homeless
at one point, and never lived at the White House?
Ella Fitzgerald, called the “First Lady of Song”, grew up poor but became an international
superstar vocalist for decades. Among many awards, she received the U.S. Presidential Medal of
Freedom, that country’s highest civilian honour.
70. In the wake of a wild Winter, a conservative chemist and a communist collier pit private
and public purse against each other: what year is it?
1984(-5). Margaret (later Baroness) Thatcher was the long-serving Prime Minister who defeated
Arthur Scargill, union leader of the NUM who called coal miners out on strike for many months.
The events embody the political tensions of the 1980s: privatisation against nationalisation.
Many thanks to all staff who contributed questions,
and to all pupils for their sterling efforts by house to complete them.
—Mr Gunson (WDG), November 2015, Oundle.