| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| A character named Amaso Delano tours a slave ship, unaware that the slaves have taken control of it in one of this writer’s novellas. One of this writer’s title characters is a scrivener for whom “I would prefer not to” is a recurring refrain. For the point, name this 19th century American author, whose most famous novel is about a whale, entitled Moby Dick. | Herman Melville |
| A subset of this tribe, formerly led by Nicaagat, or "Captain Jack," perpetrated the Meeker Massacre. This tribe's reservation in the Mesa Verde region is found in Colorado's section of the Four Corners, and this tribe also occupies the Uinta and Ouray Indian Reservations. For the point, name this Native American tribe which lends its name to a U.S. state governed from Salt Lake City. | Ute tribe (or Ute people; accept White River Utes; accept Uncompahgre Utes; prompt on "Utah") |
| A character in this novel pours a bottle of water over a toad which is later found in the road by Angus. The protagonist of this novel breaks into a jail cell and swaps places with Mae, who killed the Man in the Yellow Suit. That man in this novel buys the Fosters' woods and plans on selling access to its central spring. The 104-year-old Jesse asks Winnie to marry him in, for the point, what Natalie Babbitt novel about an immortal family? | Tuck Everlasting |
| This man used swan neck flasks to disprove the miasma theory and the idea of spontaneous generation, supporting the germ theory of disease. This scientist founded a namesake institute which was the first organization to isolate HIV, and this man discovered the vaccine for rabies. For the point, name this French scientist who names a process in which milk and juice are sanitized through heating. | Louis Pasteur (accept Pasteurization; accept Pasteur Institute) |
| In the first century BC, these people formed a kingdom, ruled by the Artaxiad king Tigranes the Great, which was an important buffer between Rome and Parthia. The Lachin Corridor joins a state named for these people to a breakaway region controlled by this ethnic group in Nagorno-Karabakh. For the point, name this ethnic group who underwent a genocide at the end of World War One within the Ottoman Empire. | Armenians (or Hayer; accept Armenian Genocide; accept Republic of Armenia; prompt on "Hayastan" or "Hayastani Hanrapetut'yun") |
| A character in this novel is shot by the police after threatening them with an unloaded gun. That character previously hid this novel’s protagonist in a church following Bob’s death in a fight. At the church, Johnny breaks his back while rescuing children from a fire in this novel, and the protagonist of this novel recites the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” For the point, name this S.E. Hinton novel in which Ponyboy is a member of the “greasers.” | The Outsiders |
| The discovery of these particles by James Chadwick was the basis for Fermi's interaction, which explains how these particles can undergo beta decay. Extremely dense collapsed cores of supergiant stars are formed almost entirely of these particles, and isotopes differ in the amount of this particle present. For the point, name this neutrally charged particle, which forms atomic nuclei with protons. | Neutrons (accept Neutron Stars) |
| This city was the site at which Princess Imperial Isabel issued the Golden Law banning slavery. John the Fourth moved his court to this South American city in order to escape the Peninsular War, making it the base of the House of Braganza. Once the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal, for the point, what is this Brazilian city? | Rio de Janeiro |
| In an opera by this composer, a "Bridal Chorus" is the source of the march "Here Comes the Bride." A character in that opera by this composer inspired the name of Ludwig the Second's Neuschwanstein Castle. The twins Sieglinde and Siegmund have a child saved from Wotan by Brünnhilde in an opera by this composer of Lohengrin. For the point, name this composer who included The Valkyrie in his Ring Cycle. | Richard Wagner [[VAHG-nuh]] (or Wilhelm Richard Wagner; accept phonetic pronunciations) |
| A collection of letters from the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair to this writer's husband, Almanzo, were published posthumously in the collection West from Home. A series of books by this author, which began publishing in 1932, includes Farmer Boy and These Happy Golden Years. For the point, name this writer, known for her semi-autobiographical portrayals of pioneer life in the Little House on the Prairie series. | Laura Ingalls Wilder (or Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder; accept either underlined portion) |
| This rock can be classified into types, based on its parental rocks, in an alphabet classification system. This intrusive rock forms when magma, high in alkali metals and silica, slowly cools beneath the Earth’s surface. Small crystals of feldspars and quartz in this rock give it a distinctive, grainy appearance. For the point, name this intrusive igneous rock which makes up most of the continental crust. | Granite |
| This man, and his partner John Allen, successfully defended Aaron Burr in his trial for treason. This man, who coined the term "American System," was passed over at the 1840 Whig National Convention in favor of William Henry Harrison. For the point, name this member of the "Great Triumvirate," along with Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun, nicknamed "The Great Compromiser." | Henry Clay Sr. |
| One show about the history of this country was created for an amusement park and was part of an attraction with a theme composed by the Sherman Brothers titled Meet the World. Songs from a comic opera set in this country include "I've Got a Little List" and "Three Little Maids From School Are We." For the point, name this country, the setting of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures and Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. | Japan (or Nihon-koku; or Nippon-koku) |
| This city's former International Settlement was formed when its British and American exclaves merged in 1863. With a speed of 20.5 meters per second, this city's namesake tower has the world's fastest elevators. This city's commercial Bund district is located along its main river and is overlooked by the Oriental Pearl Tower. Located at the mouth of the Yangtze, for the point, what is this city, the most populous in China? | Shanghai (accept Shanghai International Settlement; accept Shanghai Tower) |
| Although they rose to prominence in Baghdad, the Barmakids were originally Buddhist leaders from this country’s city of Balk. This country was Islamized under Abdur Rahman Khan, and in 2002, Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of this country’s Bamiyan Buddhas. For the point, name this country, whose Buddhist heritage has been suppressed by the Taliban. | Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (accept Islamic Republic of Afghanistan; accept Jamhuri-ye Islami-ye Afghanistan) |
| One poem by this author states, "Sore must be the storm / That could abash the little bird / That kept so many warm." Another poem by this author describes passing "Fields of Gazing Grain" and the "Setting Sun" before stating, "Or rather -- He passed Us." An idea that "perches in the soul" is describe in this poet's "'Hope' is the thing with feathers." For the point, name this "Belle of Amherst" who wrote "Because I could not stop for Death." | Emily Dickinson (or Emily Elizabeth Dickinson) |
| Dimples on these objects counter-intuitively result in extended contact with turbulent airflows, thus reducing eddies and increasing flight time. The spin-induced Magnus effect causes these objects to experience their characteristic slice and hook motions. For the point, name these sports items which are made more aerodynamic by covering them in small indents, thus allowing professional athletes to drive them over 300 yards. | Golf balls (prompt on partial answers) |
| This country lost much of its territory in the Platine region under its President Francisco Solano López. Bernardino Caballero founded a right wing party in this country, known as the Colorados. Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay fought against this country in the War of the Triple Alliance. For the point, name this landlocked South American country whose capital is Asunción. | Republic of Paraguay (or Republica del Paraguay) |
| One specimen of this animal, named Staten Island Chuck, was dropped by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014. This animal, which is also known as a monax or woodchuck, became venerated in the town of Punxsutawney due to a ritual during Candlemas brought to Pennsylvania by Mennonite and Amish settlers. For the point, name this animal, which, by viewing its shadow, can supposedly predict the early coming of spring on February 2nd. | Groundhog (accept Monax or Woodchuck before mentioned; accept Groundhog Day) |
| In one story, this author wrote of an old man who has a blue eye "resembling that of a vulture" and a narrator who murders the old man at night before burying his dismembered body under the floorboards. In an early detective story by this author, the murder of Madame L'Espanaye by an orangutan is solved by C. Auguste Dupin. For the point, name this author of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." | Edgar Allan Poe |
| In the Codex Masudicus, Islamic scholar al-Biruni was one of the first people to conduct this task by using two simultaneous measurements at different locations. Another person to perform this task used the altitudes of the sun and the distance from Syene to Alexandria, where he was a librarian. For the point, name this mathematical task conducted by Eratosthenes, the answer to which is roughly 24,900 miles when measured using the equator. | Calculating the circumference of the Earth (accept clear-knowledge equivalents) |
| This artist included The Genius of Victory, alongside sculptures of a Dying Slave and a Rebellious Slave, for the tomb of Pope Julius the Second. This man depicted an extremely young Mary, symbolizing her purity, in a disproportionate sculpture in which she holds the body of Jesus, the Madonna della Pietà. For the point, name this Renaissance sculptor, who depicted a muscular man holding a sling in his marble David. | Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (accept either underlined portion) |
| Natural disasters occurring during the end of this period included the Bonneville Flood and the Missoula Floods. This period is geologically known as the Pleistocene, and this period also included the Quaternary extinction event, during which dominance of megafauna, such as the giant deer and saber- toothed tiger, ended. For the point, name this period, synonymous with the Last Glacial Period, which included greatly depressed temperatures. | Last Ice Age (accept Last Glacial Period before mentioned; accept Pleistocene before mentioned; prompt on "LGP") |
| One man from this country painted the god of time biting into a headless corpse in Saturn Devouring His Son. Another man from this country painted a goldfish swallowing a tiger in Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee, as well as a series of melted clocks in The Persistence of Memory. The site of the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, for the point, what is this country which is home to Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso? | Kingdom of Spain (or Reino de España) |
| One of these vehicles, before landing in "Yellowknife Bay," checked in via the mobile application Foursquare. 12-year-old Valerie Ambroise wrote a competition-winning paper in 1994 to choose the name of one of these vehicles after suggesting a woman born Isabella Baumfree was deserving of the honor. For the point, name these vehicles, which include Sojourner and Curiosity. | Mars Rovers (prompt on partial answers or descriptive answers) |
| In the 2020s, a lobbyist in this state named Michael McClain was indicted for corruption regarding the electricity provider ComEd and a former Speaker of the House. In part due to the alleged mishandling of police violence, a mayor of this state’s largest city, Lori Lightfoot, was defeated in a 2023 primary. For the point, name this state, in which Governor Rod Blagojevich was removed from office for trying to sell a Senate seat once held by Barack Obama. | Illinois |
| These animals were depicted with solar disks in the Uraeus symbol, found on the crowns of Egyptian pharaohs. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of these animals steals the herb of immortality from the title hero. The Ouroboros [[oh-roh-BOH-rohss]] symbol depicts one of these animals eating its own tail. For the point, name these reptiles, one of which convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in Eden. | Snake (or Serpent; accept Cobra; do not accept or prompt on "dragon") |
| Lady Bird Johnson sponsored a "beautification act" for the renovation of these things, the uses of which were limited during a 1973 energy crisis. "White flight" was accelerated by these things, which allowed for easier commutes. For the point, name these thoroughfares, an "Interstate" system of which was begun in the U.S. under Dwight Eisenhower. | Highways (accept Interstates; accept Freeways; accept either underlined portion of Interstate Highway System or Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways) |
| One cultivar of this crop, called Ambemohar, is grown in the Western Ghats and is known for its mango-like smell. Arkansas is the largest producer of this crop in the United States, and King Rama the Tenth released five cultivars of this crop to celebrate his coronation. Bangladesh has the world's highest per capita consumption of this crop, which can be grown in terraced paddy fields. For the point, name this staple grain of Asia. | Rice (accept varieties of rice) |
| Protestant immigrants in this city founded the pro-annexation Reform Party, commonly called the Missionary Party. This city’s Ala Wai Canal drained away its rice paddies, eventually leading to the creation of its cosmopolitan Waikiki Beach district. For the point, name this city, which was made a capital by king Kamehameha the Third. | Honolulu |
| This mountain, situated on the tri-point boundary of Chimbu, Jiwaka, and Madang provinces, was the site of a 1942 crash of an American bomber,. Excluding Puncak [[POON-chahk]] Jaya, and other Indonesian peaks, this mountain is the shortest of the Seven Summits and the tallest in Oceania. For the point, name this tallest mountain of Papua New Guinea, named for a son of Otto von Bismarck who shared his name with the last German kaiser. | Mount Wilhelm (or Wilhelmsberg; accept Wilhelm von Bismarck; accept Wilhelm the Second; do not accept or prompt on "William") |