King William's College's Diabolical Quiz...

[fajrdrako]

I passed this URL to the King William's College 2007 General Knowledge Paper on to josanpq and made a print copy for maaseru (which I must remember to give her) and then it occurred to me that I could post it here for your amusement and enjoyment, if not your edification.

King William's College is a school on the Isle of Man, which has been administering this quiz to students since 1904 - doubt changing the questions every year. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Since 1904, the College has set an annual general knowledge test, known as the General Knowledge Paper (GKP). The pupils sit the test twice; once unseen on the day before the Christmas holidays, and again when they return to school in the New Year, after having spent the holiday researching the answers. However, the test is now voluntary. It is well-known to be highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers from the list of several hundred. The best scores are 40 to 50 for the unseen test and about 270 out of 360 for the second sitting. Traditionally, the best scorers were given a free half day off school (not of bitter), while anyone doing particularly badly was given a detention.

The quiz is always introduced with the following Latin motto: "Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est", which translates as: "To know where to find anything is, after all, the greatest part of education."

...Today the GKP is sent home to parents, there being a prize of £100 for the winning family. There is great competition between the local Manx families over this competition.

Every year, a bunch of us on the Dorothy Dunnett e-mail lists work on this. Every year I start out thinking it's hopeless but every year I get... well... some of the answers. I've got more than two on first glance, not having had the chance yet to read the whole thing - that's a great start. A lot of it is British culture that I'm unfamiliar with, but that's no excuse! And I do, after all, have all of the Net at my disposal (not to mention several libraries) for answer-searching. Often the trick is knowing, or guessing, where to look. In a lot of cases, I think, "That's a familiar name...." but the brain goes no further. On the other hand, the question about the master of Thornfield Hall¹ is suspiciously easy. Perhaps it's a trick question? Then there's the one about the Lonely Heart's Club Band² - ridiculously simply. Of course, as with all such things, it's only easy when you know the answers. I think I can guess at 13-2, or at least narrow it down to one of two answers.³

I'll work on this and get back to you, okay? Assistance and encouragement would be gratefully accepted.

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Edit added later: I'm working on the answers here.

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¹ Question 10-3. "Who was the master of Thornfield Hall?" The answer is Mr. Rochester, hero of Jane Eyre. His full name is Edward Fairfax Rochester. It's easy because this is one of my favourite novels of all time and I have large lumps of it memorized.

² Question 13-1. "Who had a Lonely Heart's Club Band?" The answer is Sgt. Pepper.

³ 13-2, "Who hoodwinked Sir Percy at Laragne?" The only Sir Percy I can think of offhand is Sir Percy Blakeney (the Scarlet Pimpernel) which would fit with a French place-name, though I don't specifically remember Laragne from the books. Which means the answer is likely to be his arch-nemesis Chauvelin, though there's an off-chance it could be his wife Margeurite, and an even smaller chance it might be Robespierre - naw. Robespierre never hoodwinked the Pimpernel. It was always the other way round.