1. The logo for which Indian initiative features eight children with a plate in front of them arranged in a circular manner, with an open book below?
2. The British in India were fond of houses that were built in a traditional ‘Bengali style’ — small, only one storey, detached, and with a wide veranda. The name of these detached homes is now part of the English language and means ‘house in the Bengali style’. What were these houses called?
3. There are some characters who appear in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata such as Narada, Durvasa and Parasurama. However there are a pair of siblings (one from each epic) who confront each other in the Mahabharata. Name the brothers.
4. What one word describes the rearing of silkworms?
5. Who is the Leader of the Opposition in the present TN Legislative Assembly?
6. If you have to visit this institution in Chennai you can ask the auto driver for ‘Aalamaram Society’ since that is how most of them know it. Which institution is this?
7. Which animal is the world’s deepest diving mammal – 3000m below water surface. It also has the largest brain in the animal kingdom.
8. In biology our genetic ancestors are given the names Adam and Eve with an additional specification. They are called: (a) __________ Adam (Blank refers to nuclear genetic material); (b) ___________ Eve (Blank refers to a component within the cell).
9. What human quality did Ernest Hemingway describe as “grace under pressure”?
10. Alben Barkley was the 35th Vice President of the United States (1949–1953). Sworn in at age 71, Barkley is the oldest vice president to date. He served under President Harry S Truman as a member of the Democratic Party, but he’s not widely known for his political accomplishments. Rather, Barkley’s legacy is in a nickname. What was it?
11. The genetic code was deciphered by Marshall Nirenberg in 1961. A young and unknown researcher at that time, Nirenberg shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two others for this work. One was Robert Holley. Who was the other?
12. What term used in mathematics and computing science originated from an inaccurate rendering of the author’s name while translating into Latin the Persian astronomer and mathematician Al-Khwārizmī’s book, On Calculation with Hindu Numerals?
13. Annadurai once made a comment, “Why should Hindi should be our national language? Is it because the majority speak Hindi? Then why is the peacock our national bird and not the _____ despite it being in majority?” Fill in the blank.
14. This word originally described the sound of a functioning sonar system. It was however adopted by computer geeks to test the reachability of a host or IP by sending out a message and measuring its round trip time. What word is this which is famous for being part of a favourite method of attack by hacker groups?
15. What medical procedure do the Germans call the kaiser-schnitt, or ‘emperor’s cut’?
Answers
1. Mid Day Meal Scheme
2. Bungalow
3. Bhima and Hanuman (sons of Vayu)
4. Sericulture
5. Vijayakant
6. Theosophical Society
7. Sperm whale
8. Y-Chromosomal Adam and Mitichondrial Eve
9. Courage
10. Veep
11. Har Gobind Khorana
12. Algorithm
13. Crow
14. Ping
15. Caesarean Section (The word Kaiser is Caesar in German)