1. If Li Jinping is the current President of the People’s Republic of China who was the first president?
2. The Japanese called it zori. They adopted these because it was easy to get rid of beach sand from it. They took these to the South Pacific islands in the 1940s. An English businessman John Cowie made the first plastic version. He moved to New Zealand, the country that can be credited with really starting the global desire for plastic or rubber versions of the zori. It is popularly named after the sound they make while being used. What are they?
3. What is the two-word Indian name for zori? The first word is Hindustani for ‘air’ and not as some suspect from the South Pacific islands where it was used.
4. Among the ten full members of the International Cricket Council, the governing body of cricket in the world, which countries were the three founding members in 1909 and which was the latest in 2000?
5. What object in the centre of the national flag of India was replaced upon Independence by the Ashoka Chakra?
6. What academic term derived from the Latin words meaning ‘six months’ refers to a portion of an academic year?
7. This business community is historically associated with Kathiawar but also includes those from Kutch and Sindh. Their lineage traces back to the Lohanas of Multan, Sindh and the origin of their name evolved from Maumin meaning ‘believer’.Although chiefly Sunni Muslim many continue to follow Hindu common law in matters regarding property inheritance and community leadership structure. Which community is this whose name was in the news due to a recent judicial execution?
8. What word describes the verses composed by saint Kabir. Hint: Capital of a Middle East country?
9. In September 2015 which German car maker was found to have used software to fraudulently pass US emissions tests for 11 million of its diesel engine cars sold between 2009 and 2015.
10. At 1349 pages and 591,552 words, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth is one of the longest novels ever published in a single volume in the English language. A humorous ‘Word of Thanks’ at the beginning of his book conveys the size of this huge work in verse, And, Gentle Reader, you as well, / The fountainhead of all remittance. / Buy me before good sense insists, / You’ll strain your purse and ______ ____ ______. Fill in the blanks with a creative three-word rhyming ending!
11. In September 2015 a US federal judge declared that the Warner/Chappell music company’s copyright claim for one of the world’s best known songs was invalid, ruling that the copyright registration only applied to a specific piano arrangement of the song and not to its lyrics and melody. Which song is this? It was written by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill in 1893.
12. Which organisation is the largest employer of people in India?
13. What terms describe the two words used to name any living object while classifying it?
14. What is the name of the educational system founded by German educationist Friedrich Frobel, and means ‘children’s garden’?
15. Which stately monument is sometimes described as the ‘Taj Mahal of the British Raj’?
Answers
1. Mao Zedong
2. Flip flops
3. Hawai chappal
4. Founding: England,Australia, and South Africa.Latest: Bangladesh
5. The charkha or spinning wheel
6. Semester
7. Memon
8. Doha
9. Volkswagen AG
10. sprain your wrists!
11. Happy Birthday to you
12. Indian Railways
13. Genus and Species
14. Kindergarten
15. Victoria Memorial