FUNDAMENTALS
Some fictional ships are more famous than real ones. Today’s theme is a special on ships from the world of fiction. Write in with your suggestions, questions ( with answers) to senjam@ gmail. com.
FICTIONAL SHIPS
1. Most of the characters of Moby Dick are crew members of a whaling ship. Name the ship.
2. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne features a submarine named Nautilus that undertakes an underwater journey. The crew however originally embark on an expedition from a US navy ship. Which one?
3. In which work does the following steamer ships feature — The Mongolia, The Rangoon, The Carnatic, The General Grant and The China?
4. Fuwalda is the name of an ill- fated sailing vessel that set sail from Dover and is shipwrecked in the African coast. Which legend grew from this?
5. The second largest island in the West Indies and the ship that set off for the Treasure Island in R. L. Stevenson’s book share the same name. What?
6. The centerpiece of the Pirates of the Caribbean
series is the “nigh uncatchable” ship because of the speed that it can attain. Name it. 7. Joseph Conrad’s Heart
of Darkness tells the story of a voyage up the Congo river. The story is however narrated on a boat anchored on the River Thames in London. Name this boat in London.
8. The movie Captain Phillips was inspired by a real life story of a cargo ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009. Name this ship that still sails the high waters.
ANYTHING GOES
1. Which region of Afghanistan was earlier known as Kafiristan
( practiced land of Infidels) a form as they of ancient Hinduism? They got the present name which means land of the enlightened after they converted to Islam in the 1890s. ( Dee Surendranath, Hyderabad)
2. The flag of which country features an agricultural hoe crossed with an AK- 47 rifle with a yellow Marxist- style five- point star as a background? ( Clue: you could find all the five vowels in this country!) ( Partha Sarkar, Kolkata)
3. Which 1987 movie about a financial broker torn between his aircraft mechanic father and his hero, features Gordon Gekko, the scheming megalomaniac? ( Md. Asif Ahmed, Bengaluru)
4. Businessman Roger Babson wrote an essay in which he declared this phenomenon as enemy number one and even established an organisation to study this and organised an annual contest rewarding work by researchers on this topic. What is the topic? ( Aadisht Grover, Kolkata)
5. In telecommunications ‘ this’ is an automated process between two communicating participants. It is also used in aviation to get into contact with an aircraft which lost contact or unable to contact an Air Traffic Control ( ATC) or went missing. What is ‘ this’ word? ( UN Murthy, Secunderabad)
6. Airtel mobile services are available in 15 countries in Africa. These operations were acquired by Airtel in 2010. By what brand name was it known before 2010? ( Dipankar Roy Choudhury, Kolkata)
7. Denis Atkinson and Clairmonte Depieza from the Caribbean established a record in Test cricket 63 years back, which has not been equaled so far. What record?