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History
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Answer
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Who was the first emperor of a unified China?
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Qin Shi Huang
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What ancient law code is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world?
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Code of Hammurabi
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What country experienced the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century?
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Japan
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The 1994 Rwandan genocide was triggered by the assassination of which national leader?
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President Juvénal Habyarimana
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Which Byzantine emperor codified Roman law into the Corpus Juris Civilis (regnal number required)?
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Justinian I
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What is the name of the United Nations Command military post located 400 m south of the southern boundary of the Korean Demilitarized Zone?
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Camp Bonifas
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What uprising in India began after soldiers were issued cartridges rumored to be greased with animal fat?
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The Sepoy Rebellion (Indian Rebellion of 1857)
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Which Mughal emperor commissioned the Peacock Throne?
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Shah Jahan
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Who was the first woman ever elected head of government in modern history (in 1960)?
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Sirimavo Bandaranaike
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Which 1955 conference in Indonesia marked the emergence of the Non-Aligned Movement’s precursor?
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The Bandung Conference
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Politics
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Answer
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The concept of the “state of nature” as a pre-political human condition is most famously associated with which philosopher’s Leviathan?
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Thomas Hobbes
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Which economist and philosopher authored The Road to Serfdom (1944)?
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Friedrich Hayek
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Which African nationalist leader coined the concept of Ujamaa as part of his vision of African socialism?
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Julius Nyerere (Tanzania)
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Which U.S. Supreme Court case established judicial review in 1803?
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Marbury v. Madison
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What is the formal decision-making body of the European Union’s executive branch?
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The European Commission
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Antonio Gramsci used what term for the cultural dominance by which ruling classes maintain power?
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Cultural hegemony
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What is the Polish name for the trade-union movement that emerged in Gdańsk in 1980?
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Solidarność
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Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France founded which modern ideological tradition?
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Conservatism
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The “basic structure doctrine,” limiting constitutional amendments, originated in the jurisprudence of which country?
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India
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The Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) was led by a man who claimed to be the brother of whom?
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Jesus Christ
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Geography & Exploration
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Answer
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Which African lake other than Lake Tanganyika lies within the boundaries of four different countries?
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Lake Chad
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What narrow body of water separates the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa, thus connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden?
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Bab-el-Mandeb Strait
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Which explorer led the first circumnavigation of the globe after Magellan’s death?
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Juan Sebastián Elcano
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What is the world’s largest inland delta, found in Botswana?
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Okavango Delta
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What is the smallest independent state on the African mainland?
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The Gambia
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Which mountain range forms the natural boundary between Iran and Iraq?
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Zagros Mountains
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What is the third-tallest mountain in the world after Everest and K2?
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Kangchenjunga
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What is the largest tributary river in the world by water discharge?
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Madeira River
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Which country uses the currency called the Nakfa?
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Eritrea
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In what province, part of a country whose name means “land of many waters,” are the Kaieteur Falls located?
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Potaro-Siparuni
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Art & Literature
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Answer
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What Renaissance artist’s The Tempest has baffled interpreters for centuries with its stormy landscape and ambiguous human figures?
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Giorgione
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Which writer imagined a universe structured as an endless archive of hexagonal rooms, each containing every possible permutation of text?
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Jorge Luis Borges
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What modernist canvas, born from a European civil war, transforms the image of a town’s destruction into a monochrome scream?
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Guernica (by Picasso)
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What artist is known for drip painting techniques using enamel paint?
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Jackson Pollock
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Which Shakespeare play, one of his least performed, blends Roman politics, British legend, and themes of mistaken identity and reconciliation?
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Cymbeline
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Which French novelist’s unfinished work from 1913 is structured around involuntary memory and social decay?
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Marcel Proust
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What Italian architect designed the dome of Florence’s cathedral, considered the first great engineering achievement of the Renaissance?
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Filippo Brunelleschi
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Which Indian epic poem, traditionally attributed to Valmiki, tells the story of a prince’s exile and his quest to rescue Sita?
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Ramayana
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Which Egyptian novelist became the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1988)?
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Naguib Mahfouz
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What modern Japanese author wrote The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore, known for surreal blending of the everyday and the fantastic?
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Haruki Murakami
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Classical Music & Performing Arts
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Answer
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What 20th-century composer employed a 12-tone “tone row” technique first codified in his Suite for Piano, Op. 25?
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Arnold Schönberg
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Which French composer’s Modes de valeurs et d’intensités is regarded as a precursor to total serialism?
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Olivier Messiaen
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What form of Javanese court music features metallophones, gongs, and drums tuned in sléndro or pélog scales?
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Gamelan
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In Indian classical music, what term describes a melodic framework similar to a mode, governing improvisation and composition?
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Raga
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Which 20th-century American choreographer developed the “chance” method of composition in dance, paralleling John Cage’s music?
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Merce Cunningham
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In flamenco, what is the term for the rhythmic hand-clapping accompaniment?
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Palmas
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What is the name of the third of the Three Tenors (who isn’t Luciano Pavarotti or José Carreras)?
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José Plácido Domingo Embil
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Which composer’s Sinfonia (1968) for eight voices and orchestra quotes Claude Lévi-Strauss, Gustav Mahler, and Samuel Beckett, among others?
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Luciano Berio
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What is the name of the South African Zulu choral tradition in which male choirs sing homophonically in rhythmic unison?
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Mbube
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Which Korean music/narrative theater form requires two performers, the singer (sorikkun) and the drummer (gosu)?
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P'ansori
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Science & Technology
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Answer
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The first transistor ever built at Bell Labs in 1947 used what semiconducting material, before silicon became standard?
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Germanium
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What 19th-century mathematician wrote the first algorithm intended for machine execution, predating any physical computer?
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Ada Lovelace
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What material, discovered accidentally in 1938 by Roy Plunkett, is known for its extreme chemical inertness and low friction?
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Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon)
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What (arguably dead) principle describes the empirical trend of doubling of transistor counts roughly every two years
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Moore's Law
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What is the term for the smallest addressable unit of data storage on a magnetic hard disk?
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Sector
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What is the name of a spherical molecule consisting of 60 carbon atoms?
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Buckminsterfullerene / C₆₀ fullerene
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What mammalian hormone, produced mainly in adipose tissue, regulates energy balance by inhibiting hunger?
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Leptin
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What scientist is the transition between the Earth’s crust and mantle named after?
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Andrija Mohorovičić
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What property of superconductors is characterized by the complete expulsion of magnetic fields?
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Meißner-Ochsenfeld effect
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In orbital mechanics, the general term for the point in an orbiting satellite’s trajectory closest to the central body is called what?
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Periapsis
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Sports & Games
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Answer
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Who was the first athlete to win gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics?
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Eddie Eagan
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Which country hosted the first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991?
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China
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Who is the only male tennis player to have won each Grand Slam title at least twice in both singles and doubles?
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Roy Emerson
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Name one of the three only legal opening moves in chess that allows a player’s opponent to checkmate on their second move.
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f3 or f4 or g4
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In baseball, what statistical measure is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats?
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Slugging percentage
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In sumo wrestling, what title is given to the sport’s highest rank, held by only a few wrestlers at any time?
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Yokozuna
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What NFL franchise was the first to win five Super Bowls?
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San Francisco 49ers
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What is the penalty signal in handball for egregious unsportsmanlike conduct involving disqualification and a written report?
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Blue card
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Who was the first player in NBA history to record a quadruple-double officially recognized by the league?
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Nate Thurmond
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What team sport was only held in the Summer Olympics from 1900 to 1920?
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Tug of war
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Philosophy & Religion
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Answer
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The phrase “God is dead” first appeared in which of Nietzsche’s works?
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The Gay Science (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft)
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What 20th-century philosopher coined the phrase “existence precedes essence”?
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Jean-Paul Sartre
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In the Hebrew Bible, which book begins with the line “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”?
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Ecclesiastes
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In Islamic jurisprudence, what term refers to analogical reasoning used to derive legal rulings?
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Qiyas
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What Stoic concept refers to the rational order permeating the universe?
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Logos
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In Aristotle’s Metaphysics, what term denotes “the study of being qua being”?
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Ontology
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In Popper’s philosophy of science, what criterion distinguishes scientific theories from non-scientific ones?
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Falsifiability
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Aquinas’s “Five Ways” are arguments for what?
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The existence of God
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What is the central prayer and declaration of Jewish faith beginning “Hear, O Israel”?
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The Shema
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The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism culminate in what practical teaching?
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The Eightfold Path
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Pop Culture & Entertainment
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Answer
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In what film did the character HAL 9000 first appear?
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2001: A Space Odyssey
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The phrase “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” originates from which film?
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Jaws
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The stage musical Hamilton was based on a biography by which historian?
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Ron Chernow
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What 1994 Hong Kong crime drama directed by Wong Kar-wai features a melancholy cop and inspired later Western neo-noir romances?
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Chungking Express
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Which 2013 indie game by Lucas Pope requires players to inspect passports in a fictional Eastern-bloc nation?
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Papers, Please
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The U.S. version of The Office is set in which Pennsylvania city?
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Scranton
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Who created the Discworld comic-fantasy series beginning with The Colour of Magic?
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Terry Pratchett
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What filmmaker directed Pan’s Labyrinth and later won Best Director for The Shape of Water?
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Guillermo del Toro
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Who “wants a cracker” in a Nirvana song?
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Polly
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The 1982 film Blade Runner was based on which Philip K. Dick novel?
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Food & Culture
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Answer
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The Mexican sauce mole poblano traditionally includes what two main ingredients?
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Chocolate, chili peppers
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In Japanese etiquette, placing chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice is avoided because it resembles what?
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Funeral incense offerings
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The Maasai people of East Africa traditionally mix cow’s milk with what for ceremonial drinking?
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Cattle blood
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What is the Pinyin word for the Chinese festival which marks the lunar new year with the giving of red envelopes (hongbao)?
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Chūnjié
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In Islamic culture, the pre-dawn meal eaten before the daily fast during Ramadan is called what?
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Suhur
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The staple dish injera is a sour flatbread made primarily from what cereal grain?
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Teff
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The process of nixtamalization, crucial to Mesoamerican cuisine, chemically enhances what grain?
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Corn
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In Andean highland ritual, coca leaves are offered to which mountain spirits believed to guard communities?
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Apus
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The traditional Japanese tea ceremony derives from what Zen concept emphasizing transience and imperfect beauty?
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Wabi-sabi
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Which fictitious treaty about pufferfish, inserted as a prank by the Green Party in Hessen, Germany in 1984, went unnoticed in official records for years?
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The Shanghai Fugu Agreement
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Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, and Margaret Court have also won each Grand Slam multiple times in singles and doubles