Prelims

By
Arun A S
Major Chandrakant Nair

 30 Questions
 No negative marks
 Starred questions will be considered in case of a tie.

*1. He is a 1972 batch Kerala cadre officer of Indian
Administrative Service (IAS). He started his career
as the sub-collector of Thrissur District. Later he
became the Collector and spent his eight years of
career in Thrissur city. He was called the
second Sakthan Thampuran for his role in the
development of the Thrissur city. Apart from
serving in both, state and central governments, he
has been a Director on several Boards including
the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank,
Life Insurance Corporation of India and
Infrastructure Development and Finance
Company of India. Who?

Vinod Rai, the present Comptroller and Auditor
General of India

2. The Man Booker Prize is annually awarded to any
full-length novel, written by a citizen of the
Commonwealth or two other nations which were
previously part of the commonwealth. Name the
two countries.

Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe

3. The Shadman Chowk in Lahore was renamed in
whose honour recently, on his 105th birth
anniversary?

4. What was famously inspired by this magazine, which
was launched in 1920 by journalist H. L. Mencken and
drama critic George Jean Nathan?

It inspired the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp
Fiction. Originally, the title of the film was Black
Mask, before being changed.

6. Although this phrase has featured in politics since
antiquity, it is of relatively recent coinage;
the Oxford Dictionary identifies it as a French
expression meaning a “stroke of State”. It is
generally classified into three – Breakthrough,
Guardian and Veto. What?

7. Fondly referred to as the Enid Blyton of
Malayalam, Leela Nambudiripad has penned 37
books of which 23 are for children. She is the
recipient of many awards including the Kerala
Sahitya Akademi Award for the best work in
children's literature (in 1979) and the Bala Sahitya
Institute award for Lifelong contribution towards
children's literature (in 1999). She has also served in
the Public Relations Department of Kerala
Kalamandalam for 22 years. Under what pseudonym
does she write?

9. He had a catastrophic childhood. His parents divorced
when he was two. He was a juvenile delinquent. He threw
bricks at car windows. He went shoplifting in local
department stores. He stole bicycles. On one occasion he
stole a postman's bike, with the mail still in the bag.

His current post-tax salary of £11.3 million was deemed
disgusting by the French finance minister, Jerome Cahuzac.
'At a time when everyone around the world is tightening their
belts,' he said, 'these figures are not impressive, they are
indecent.' He simply replied: 'I don't understand all the
criticism. After all, the more money I earn, the more tax
France receives.'

Identify this man who is very much in the news.

* 10. This phrase was first used to represent the
doctrine proposed by V.K. Krishna Menon in 1953, at
the United Nations. According to the author Leo
Mates, there may have been an earlier usage of the
word when it was worked out, but in a Times of
India interview of 1968, Krishnamenon remembered
having used the term for the first time in 1950.
Which phrase?

Non-alignment / Non – aligned movement

11. Which is the only country in the world to
completely outlaw the cultivation, harvesting,
production and sale of tobacco and tobacco
products?

12. Acinonyx , the genus name of this animal
belonging to the cat species, comes from the Greek
words for “thorn” and “claw” and refers to its curious
semi-retractable claw, a feature they share with no
other cat. Which animal?

13. Bridgmanization or high pressure processing
(HPP) is a method of preserving and sterilizing food,
in which a product is processed under very
high pressure, leading to the inactivation of certain
microorganisms and enzymes in the food. The
technique was named after a 17th century scientist
whose work included detailing the effects of
pressure on fluids. During this process, more than
50,000 pounds per square inch (340 MPa) may be
applied for around fifteen minutes, leading to the
inactivation of yeast, mold, and bacteria. Name the
process or the scientist after whom it is named.

* 15. In 1986, this magazine published excerpts from
Other Shores from Vladimir Nabokov, which was the
first time Nabokov was published in the USSR.
Alexander Roshal, the co-founder and editor of the
magazine was punished for this. In 1992 the
magazine fell upon hard times and ceased
publication but Roshal privatized it and publication
was resumed. Name the magazine.

17. Mosaic of someone created using images of items
he is synonymous with.

 Who?

 Image in the next slide.

18. What is the lady trying to build from dominos
here?

19. Pictured is a type of alert area constructed by the
Strategic Air Command of USAF during the Cold War.
Initially, planes were parked on alert aprons at right
angles. However, the development of large aircrafts like
the B-52 Stratofortress created a problem in launching
aircraft efficiently. To fix this, aircrafts were repositioned
in herringbone configurations, which then allowed the
planes to pull out onto the runway as quickly as possible.

 What name was given to these alert areas (after their
resemblance to something)?


* 20. The World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates is an annual event
with attendees like Nobel Peace Laureates, high-profile leaders and
organizations from around the globe. The summit is a brainchild of
the Mikhail Gorbachev Foundation. At every summit, the delegates
honor people who have stood up for human rights and world peace
with the Peace Summit Award.
The 2010 recipient, a Roman Catholic turned Nichiren Buddhist,
was selected for the following contributions - raising money for
Haiti earthquake victims, pressing for the freedom of Aung San Suu
Kyi, fighting bird flu, and supporting the work of the United
Nations. In 1990, he was the central figure in a showdown between
his new and old employers and famously said, “Deep in my heart I
am always purple” to express solidarity with his previous employers
who were based in Florence.
 Just identify.

Roberto Baggio
Refused to take the penalty vs. Fiorentina after his transfer to Juventus in 1990 and
picked up a Fiorentina scarf thrown onto the field by fans and kissed it

21. In 1976, he was awarded
the Magsaysay Award for
International
Understanding in
recognition of his
contribution to India's
industrial development.

 Who? (Surname is
enough)

22. Pictured is the largest member of the family of
water lilies. The lily, named after a monarch, has
ribbed undersurface and leaves veining “like
transverse girders and supports” and was the
inspiration for a 1851 construction, a building four
times the size of St. Peter's in Rome.
 Name the plant. Also, identify the construction.

Victoria Lily (Victoria amazonica)
The Crystal Palace

23. The conservation of Angkor Wat in Cambodia is
perhaps one of the most outstanding projects of X. In
1982, a project report was prepared and an experiment
was carried out on the conservation project. A five-
member team visited Angkor Wat and incorporating few
observations in the report prepared earlier, prepared a
comprehensive conservation report. Consequently,
between 1986-1992 the missions lead by four officers of X
and their team have successfully completed the
conservation and restoration of the temple.

 Excerpt from the website of X, chronicling their
achievements. Just identify X.

24. Pictured is a cricket ground X, that hosted 3
matches (Pakistan vs Namibia, Bangladesh vs New
Zealand, West Indies vs Kenya) in the 2003 cricket
world cup. The ground is owned and named after a
company whose 1947 tagline Y, conceived by a
copywriter named Frances Gerety, was voted in 2000
as the best advertising slogan of the twentieth
century by the Advertising Age magazine.

 Identify X and Y.


X – De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley
Y – A Diamond is Forever

* 25. YouView is an IPTV television service formally
launched on 4 July 2012, and is a partnership
between four broadcasters (BBC, Channel 4,
Channel 5 and ITV). As a part of promotion of the
venture, a poll was undertaken to identify “The
moments that changed TV forever”.

 Which moment from 2012 topped the list?


James Bond and Her Majesty the Queen
at the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony

26. He joined Arrah Town School in 1922. The school had
two water pots, one for Hindus and another for Muslims.
When the young X drank water from the Hindu pot, the
matter was reported to the Principal, who placed a third
pot for “untouchables.” A scandalized X broke this pot
twice, eventually leading the school to abandon the third
pot.

 Excerpt from a The Statesman article titled ‘The man
who broke water pots to bring home a message.’

 Identify X.

27. Which English word
meaning ‘something or
someone regarded as an
essential or coordinating
element thereby holding
together parts that exist
or function together as a
unit’ is derived from the
contraption pictured?

28. Pictured is an instrument
used in geometry for angle
trisection. It consists of a
semicircle, with a line
segment the length of the
radius extending along the
same line as the diameter of
the semicircle, and with
another line segment of
arbitrary length
perpendicular to the
diameter.
 What is it called?

29. This is Elsa Lanchester with her iconic hairstyle
in Bride of Frankenstein.
 What inspired the hairstyle?

* 30. This pioneering translator of Edgar Allen Poe is
credited with coining the term "modernity" to
describe the life in an urban metropolis, and the
responsibility art has to capture that experience.
Many of his works were heavily influenced by his
voyage to and subsequent experiences in India in the
1840s. The protagonists of Lemony Snicket’s A Series
of Unfortunate Events were named after him. Also,
Ravi, the protagonist of OV Vijayan’s Khasakkinte
Itihasam, carries his works to Khasak.

 Who, dubbed by Arthur Rimbaud as ‘the king of
poets’?

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