Literature Quiz

Finals
The Team

Siddharth Singh
Kushagra Agrawal
Suchit Kar
Viswanath Kasyap Pasumarthy
Our Sponsors
Format of the Finals

 The finals consists of 5 rounds – 3 written and 2 dry

rounds.
 Dry rounds shall proceed by infinite bounce and
pounce, clockwise in one round, anti-clockwise the
other.
 Scoring for the dry rounds –
+10 on a correct bounce or pounce
-5 on an incorrect pounce
 Scoring for written rounds will be given before the
round.
ROUND 1 – DRY ROUND

 Infinite bounce and pounce.

 +10 on correct bounce or pounce.
 -5 on incorrect pounce.
 12 questions.
 Clockwise
Q1
 According to various character histories, he obtained an item
from his abusive father that would employ it in a perverse
nightly ‘game’ that always ended with a beating. This would
instill in him, his lifelong struggle with free will and his eventual
inability to make choices on his own. This reflected in other
facets of his life as he staged events to happen at 10.22 pm.

 Contrary to his depiction in film, this character was ‘created’

due to acid and not oil.

 Which character?
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Twoface, or Harvey Dent
Q2
 Following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's December 26 visit
to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, the Chinese ambassador to the United
Kingdom wrote in an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph: "If militarism is
like the haunting X of Japan, the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo is a kind
of Y, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul.“
 It was followed by another published by his Japanese counterpart,
Keiichi Hayashi, in the same newspaper, headlined: "China risks
becoming Asia's Y".
 ID X and Y.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- X=Voldemort, Y=Horcrux.
Q3
 X watched his father, formerly in the Army, grow weak and frail
with old age. Thus, the speaker in his poem tries to convince his
father to fight against imminent death. The speaker addresses
his father using wise men, good men, wild men, or grave men
as examples to illustrate the same message: that no matter how
they have lived their lives or what they feel at the end they
should die fighting.
 Give me the poem.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans-
Q4
 Her first novel, ‘Stillborn’, a medical thriller, was published by
Penguin Books. In 2008, she anchored a television show called
Uncommon Ground for NDTV, in which created a rare dialogue
between top leaders of the corporate and social sectors in
India. Penguin Books India has released a book based on the
show. She is the Founder-Chairperson, ARGHYAM and Pratham
Books. Identify her and her famous husband, whom she met at
a quizzing event at IIT.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Rohini Nilekani, Nandan Nilekani.
Q5
 Train number 17303/4, an Express of the Indian Railways, plies
between Yeshwantpur (Bangalore) and Mysore in Karnataka.
This comes under the SouthWestern Railway.

 In 2011, this train was given a more endearing name,

something fitting to that particular section of the country.
Perhaps a tiger or M.K.Gandhi will one day board the express.

 What name?
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Malgudi Express.
Q6

 They occur as a series on the River Aar in Bern canton.

Tourists visit this place by climbing the path to the top and
then crossing a bridge and following a trail down the hill
which leads to the actual ledge. The actual place is marked
by a plaque written in English, German and French which
explains the event that occurred there.
 What place is this?
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- The Reichenbach Falls.
Q7 FITB.
"You mean there's a _____?"
"Sure there's a _____", Doc Daneeka replied. "_____-__. Anyone who wants
to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."
There was only one _____and that was _____-__, which specified that a
concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and
immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be
grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no
longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy
to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to
fly them. If he flew them, he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't
want to, he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by
the absolute simplicity of this clause of _____-__ and let out a respectful
whistle.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Catch-22.
Q8
Someone had to clarify this on repeatedly as to who or what is X:
“….if by X I had meant God I would [have] said God, and not X.
“It would be fatuous of me to pretend that I am not aware of the
meanings attached to the word ‘X’, and the opinion of many that it
means 'God'. But you must remember – I wrote the play in French,
and if I did have that meaning in my mind, it was somewhere in my
unconscious and I was not overtly aware of it.”
Give me X.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Godot. Samuel Beckett
Q9
In times when TB was rampant, a family was very hard hit by it. The parents in the
family succumbed, leaving their children, a brother-sister pair to fend for themselves.
The brother heard that TB could be cured on moving to warmer climates. Desperate,
he went to warmer zones and sometimes later, returned healthy. Just days after his
return, his sister died of TB.
By coincidence, winter had struck his town hard at the time. People realized that
corpses were not decaying. Erroneously, of course, they came to the conclusion that
the dead were sucking on the life of the living (It would explain the freshness of the
corpses and the sorry state of the living).
People asked the brother to dig up his sister’s coffin to check whether this theory was
true. He did, and to his horror, found the corpse surprisingly well preserved. This
finding emboldened the theory.
A dramatist was visiting the town at the time of these happenings. He heard the tale
and came upon an idea for a character.
What did he thus create? Who was he?
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans-Dracula. He was Bram Stoker.
Q10

Early in 1843, as a response to a government report on the abuse of

child laborers in mines and factories, the author of Y vowed he would
strike a “sledge-hammer blow on the behalf of the Poor Man’s Child”.
The blow was in the form of the book Y.

Before deciding on the name X for a character in the book, he

considered a host of other names including Little Larry, Small Sam and
Puny Pete.

Give me X and Y.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- X= Tiny Tim, Y= A Christmas Carol
Q11
Emily Moreau, a French author, during his visit to Allahabad
observed the reading habits of the English. Noticing an opportunity
for a profitable business, he co-founded, with help from TK
Banerjee, an entity X that would become an iconic hotspot for the
reading enthusiasts in times to come.
Moreau, realizing the suitability and impact of having a famous
name associated with his firm, sought out the help of a Mr. Arthur
Henry, an established figure in England.
Mr. Henry obliged.
Thus was found X. Give me X.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Wheeler(A.H. Wheeler and Co.)
Q12

Raghava Yadaviyam (Ram Krishna) by Venkatadhvari, written in the

17th century is an anulom-vilom kavya (backward and forward
poetry). It showcases ‘the encryption capabilities of Sanskrit’ and the
verbal ingenuities of the poet’.

Only 30 slokas long, it is a short work, but is a very noteworthy work.

Why?
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Read forward, it’s the story of
Ram. Backward, it’s Krishna’s story.
ROUND 2 – MINIMALIST POSTERS
ROUND
 The Following Slide contains minimalist posters of
some famous and some not so famous books.
 Your job – Guess the underlying book.
 +5 for correct . +10 for all correct
 No negatives. Guess away
 Written round, so ask for sheets
 9 Questions in total
MINIMALIST 1
MINIMALIST 2
MINIMALIST 3
MINIMALIST 4
MINIMALIST 5
MINIMALIST 6
MINIMALIST 7
MINIMALIST 8
MINIMALIST 9
EXCHANGE SHEETS
ANSWER 1 Soulless by Gail Carriger
ANSWER 2 – 1984 by George Orwell
ANSWER 3 The Golden Compass
ANSWER 4 THE TIME MACHINE HG
WELLS
ANSWER 5 – TWENTY THOUSAND
LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA JULES
VERNE
ANSWER 6 – ROBIN HOOD
ANSWER 7 – GONE GIRL, Gillian Flynn
ANSWER 8 – Divergent Veronica Roth
ANSWER 9 – COUNT DRACULA By
BRAM STOKER
ROUND 3 – DRY ROUND

 Infinite bounce and pounce.

 +10 on correct bounce or pounce.
 -5 on incorrect pounce.
 12 questions.
 Anticlockwise
Q1
An eight page comic strip parodying popular characters of their
day in various sexual escapades, Xs were published without any
consent and with utter disregard to copyright and legal issues.
One featured Snow White with each of the 7 dwarves featuring in
his own X-rated episode.

Stereotypes were repeated with utter disregard, and popular

figures were lampooned without mercy. The authors and artists
remain anonymous and the publishers too are mostly unknown.

Identify X.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Tijuana Bible
Q2
 With the advent of the 16th century, England witnessed an upsurge in rationalist
thought and the concept of ‘absolutism for the sovereign’. X was a famous
proponent of the movement and X’s atheistic views began to be denounced by
society and the House of Commons alike. Much so, ‘X’ism came to be viewed as
blasphemous, in a sense.

 Later, in 17th century France, another influential person Y, proposed Reformist

changes in popular Christian doctrines and his views still continue to move large
parts of the West.

 In honour of X and Y, an insanely famous literary series was initiated in the late 20th
century, with the views of X and Y conveyed to the audience in a humorous
fashion.

 What is the series in question?

Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Calvin and Hobbes.
Q3
 X was an event that shook America in 1938, and has ever since been
etched in pop-culture history. Possibly the reason why X happened is
because, in an attempt to make the show more appealing, the producer
included a last-minute change that involved including a speech from ‘The
Secretary of the Interior’ that seemed to lend credibility to what was to
ensue. In addition, a certain Kenneth Delmar, was roped in, to lend his
services in impersonating Franklin D. Roosevelt; and in the process
produced a never-forgettable event.

 What is being talked about here?

Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Orson Welles’s ‘War of the
Worlds’ radio broadcast.
 Q4
 In an experiment conducted, different groups of participants were asked
to recall a good or bad past deed, after which they were asked to fill in
the letters of three incomplete words: "W_ _H", "SH_ _ER" and "S_ _P".
Those who had been asked to recall a bad deed were about 60% more
likely to respond with cleansing-related words like "wash", "shower" and
"soap" instead of alternatives such as "wish", "shaker" or "stop". The
choice of alternatives draws parallels from a famous episode in the world
of literary fiction; so much so that the priming effect described above
derives its name from the work of fiction.

 The effect, please.

Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans-The Lady Macbeth Effect.
Q5

 Shown on the next slide are pictures of a certain

Tower that has now been converted into a museum,
to honour the author who spent six nights therein,
cooking up his award-winning novel. The museum
houses some ephemera related to the author,
including empty pots, toy panthers and the like.

 ID the author.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- J.D. Salinger.
Q6

 The inspiration for the title of this book stems from the Biblical story
of the brothers ___________. Interpretations of ‘Genesis 4’ by ancient
and modern commentators have typically assumed that the motives
for the crime committed by one of the brothers (that of making his
brother a martyr) were jealousy and anger. As retribution, all his
descendants perished in the Great Deluge.

 What is the book being spoken about?

Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- ‘Kane and Abel’.
 Q7
 The answer to the famous riddle in question had people on
tenterhooks ever since it first appeared in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in
Wonderland’. Several possible answers have been suggested, including
ones like ‘Poe wrote on both’ and ‘Because there is a 'b' in both and an
'n' in neither’. Fed up of being bugged by people to reveal the answer,
Carroll himself came up with the solution – ‘Because it can produce a
few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is neve(a)r put with the wrong
end in front.’

 Which riddle is being spoken about here, which also catapulted the
Mad Hatter to fame for its inception?
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans-‘Why is a raven like a writing
desk?’
Q8
 X was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist,
and balloonist (or more precisely proponent of manned flight).
 In 1863, X commissioned the prominent balloonist Eugène Godard to
construct an enormous balloon, 60 metres (196 ft) high and with a
capacity of 6,000 m3 (210,000 cu ft), and named Le Géant ("The
Giant"), thereby inspiring Jules Verne's Five Weeks in a Balloon.
 Later, "The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by
Means of Heavier than Air Machines" was established, with X as
president and Verne as secretary. X was also the inspiration for the
character of Michael Ardan in Verne's From the Earth to the Moon.
 ID X, widely regarded as inspiration for Jules Verne’s works.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans-Felix Nadar.
 Q9
What is being talked about here?

In the debut, X chose _____ for the Y because he wanted a colour that did
not suggest any particular ethnic group. Colourist Z, however, had problems
with the _____ colouring, resulting in different shades of _____, and even
______, in the issue. After seeing the first published issue, X chose to change
the skin colour to ______. ______ was used in retellings of the origin, with even
reprints of the original story being recoloured for the next two decades,
until Y vol. 2, #302 (December 1984) reintroduced the _____ Y in flashbacks
set close to the origin story. Since then, reprints of the first issue have
displayed the original _____ colouring, with the fictional canon specifying
that the Y's skin had initially been _____.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans-How the Hulk was supposed to be grey
originally but was changed to green.
 Q10 ID X
 Succinctly put: “X” is when female characters suffer and even die in
superhero comics. Most of the time it is because of their relationship to
the male hero.
 “X” appears in many comics and comic adaptations. For example, in the
recent Christopher Nolan film The Dark Knight, the Joker forces Batman to
choose between saving Harvey Dent and Rachel, and through trickery,
murders Rachel. The moment is truly shocking because the viewer expects
Batman to save her. In most cases, “X” works to provide emotional shock
value. We anticipate salvation and instead must deal with death.
 On the surface level, “X” comes off as a misogynistic violence fantasy. I’m
not going to refute that altogether, but the problem feels more specific
than that. The problem occurs because the comic infrastructure is largely
patriarchal.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Gwen Stacy Syndrome
 Q11

 When quizzed about his out-of-the-blue revelation in August 2015, X

had the following to say: “In late 1968, a member called Ronnie sought
me out. The Nigeria-Biafra conflict had been ongoing for 15 months,
and Ronnie needed ’an asset deep inside the Biafran enclave’, what he
termed ‘someone in on the ground’”. However, X was not paid for his
services, but returned in kind, with passages about ‘The Firm’ in his
novels, which are known for their authenticity.

 Who is X and what was his revelation?

Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- X=Frederick Forsyth
The revelation was that he was an MI6
agent for almost two decades.
Q12
 _____________ analysis is an essential tool in Natural Language Processing.
The typical algorithm for processing them goes as follows:
 “When computing the _________ you typically move one word forward
(although you can move X words forward in more advanced scenarios). For
example, consider the sentence "The cow jumps over the moon". If N=2,
then the _________ would be”:
 the cow
 cow jumps
 jumps over
 over the
 the moon
 ________ are now being used in supervised machine learning designs.
 FITB.
Slide for Nefarious Purposes
Ans- Ngram
 ROUND 4 – GUESS THE BOOK FROM
THE SONG
 The following slides contain the lyrics of the songs by various bands
which are inspired from famous literary works.
 Your job should you choose to accept it ( You don’t have a choice
anyway) is to give me the literary work
 7 lyrics follow
 +5 for each correct
 +15 if you get all correct
 No negatives. Guess freely
1-Barefoot Children in the Rain by Jimmy Buffet
Scratch my back with a lightning bolt
Thunder rolls like a bass drum note
The sound of the weather is Heaven's ragtime band
We all fell down from the Milky Way
Hangin' round here till Judgment Day
Heaven only knows who's in command

Barefoot children in the rain

Got no need to explain
We'd be swingin' on a ball and chain
It's always understood by those who play the game
Barefoot children in the rain

Show me yours and I'll show you mine

Take me back to days full of monkeyshines
Bouncin' on a bubble full of trouble in the summer sun
Keep your raft from the riverboat
Fiction over fact always has my vote
And wrinkles only go where the smiles have been
 Lyric 2– The Scentless Apprentice by
Nirvana
Like most babies smell like butter
His smell smelled like no other
He was born scentless and senseless
He was born a scentless apprentice

Go away - get away, get a-way

Every wet nurse refused to feed him

Electrolytes smell like semen
I promise not to sell your perfumed secrets
There are countless formulas for pressing flowers
Lyric 3 - Calypso by Suzanne Vega
My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone
I live on an island
And I waken to the dawn
A long time ago
I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning
And I brought him into me
Now today
Come morning light
He sails away
After one last night
I let him go.
Lyric 4 -Home by Breaking Benjamin
I've got a little red bow
And I bought it for you
'Cause I know you're not fair
I don't get it, oh well
And you color my skin
And the colors don't blend
'Cause I'm gonna get you
And your little dog too
There's a yellow brick road
That we follow back home
'Cause I know you can't wait
Your belligerent hate
There's no place like home
There's no place like home
Lyric 5 - The End of The Universe by S.P.O.C.K
 I've got a head with a very special brain
enough to drive me insane

analyzing everything inside and out

until there is no doubt

Now I know the truth, I've been fortunate

it's a good time to quit

Then right ahead of me:

the final mystery!
Can't make up my mind
as I see the sign
"The End of the Universe"

Should I go ahead
or am I dead
at the end of the universe
Lyric 6 - Holland,1945 by Neutral Milk Hotel
And now we ride the circus wheel
With your dark brother wrapped in white
Says it was good to be alive
But now he rides a comet's flame
And won't be coming back again
The Earth looks better from a star
That's right above from where you are
He didn't mean to make you cry
With sparks that ring and bullets fly
On empty rings around your heart
The world just screams and falls apart

But now we must pick up every piece

Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on
Lyric 7 - Fable by Gatsby’s American Dream
Landed in this place
Tried to make this island more like home
But there are some things
Better left behind
We came here on a plane
Just a bunch of little boys
Oh oh oh ooooo
Dance around the fire
And we strike him down
Never going home
Not really
We'll take this island everywhere we go
EXCHANGE SHEETS
1 - Huckleberry Finn
2- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by Patrick Suskind
3 – Odyssey by Homer
4 – The Wizard Of Oz
5 - The Restaurant at the End of the
Universe by Douglas Adams
6 - The Diary of Anne Frank
7 - Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Round 5- Etymology
 Following are some common literary phrases, terms or
words that we’ve come to use irrelevant of their actual
roots. Guess the roots or sources of these phrases/
terms in the slides that follow.
 6 questions follow.
 +10 for every correct answer.
 +20 if you get all correct.
 No negative marking.
Q1
The Latin phrase, “______ et Circenses”, meaning, ‘Bread and
circuses’ (or bread and games; ) was coined by Juvenal. It
refers to a superficial means of appeasement. In politics,
the (English) phrase is used to describe the generation of
public approval, not through public service but through
diversion, distraction, or by satisfying shallow
requirements.

As written by the author, in the third instalment of this

highly successful franchise (which itself is heavily inspired
from the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur), what gets its
name from the blank?
Note – The answer asks for the English phrase.
Q2

 Rene Descartes is said to be the first to use this. Arabic sounds

were difficult to pronounce in the European countries and is
said to be the reason why it is used ubiquitously now. The
word for "thing" or "object" in Arabic - which was the principal
language of sciences during the Islamic civilization - is "shei"
which was translated into Greek and shortened to X, and is
considered by some to be the reason for using X. The Greek
word Xenos which could mean stranger or foreigner is also said
to be the origins of X. What is X?
Q3

 In the Cornish mines in the 18th century, pumps were installed

to drain floodwater. When working at their full capacity, these
pumps could drain 19,000 gallons of water for every 12
bushels of coal that powered them. This gave rise to a popular
phrase meaning ‘going very fast’.
 Identify the phrase.
Q4
Also known these days as the name of a comedy website,
this word originated in Lewis Carol’s poem “Jabberwocky”,
which was included in the 1871 book ‘Through the Looking
Glass’.
The word is a blend of “chuckle and snort”, describing the
noise made somebody who manages to laugh while
utilizing their nose in the process.
Give me the word.
Q5
The word Y is eponymous with Captain Charles Y, who managed Irish
estates in County Mayo, Ireland. In September 1880, tenants and
labourers were demanding reduced rents, and he evicted them. In
response, the Irish Land League organized the tenants and neighbours
to resist the evictions, refuse to rent a farm from which someone had
been evicted, refuse to work on the estate Y managed, and even to
refuse to deliver the mail to Y.

The word was evidently coined by one or more of the local protesters.
The first recorded use of the verb is in the Glasgow Herald of 1
November 1880. The noun appears in the Times (London) on 9
December.

Give me Y.
 Q6
 Even though this guy(X) is the origin of many oft-repeated
allusions and phrases( butterfingers, boredom, flummox, and
about a 1000 others), he’s not the source of this polite way to say
“hell”.
 As far back as the 16th century, “devilkin” meant “devil”, and it was
pronounced phonetically similar to X’s surname.
 This misleads load of people who think that X is somehow the
source of the phrase.
 Give me the phrase.
Ans-The Hunger Games
Ans- X.
Sometimes the question can be answer
too. :P
Ans-Nineteen to the dozen.
Ans- Chortle
Ans- Boycott.
Ans-
The End