1. Only one person in history has received the Nobel Prize in different scientific fields. Who was this person?
a) Albert Einstein
b) Linus Pauling
c) Mahatma Gandhi
d) Marie Curie
e) Stephen Hawking
Correct answer: d) Marie Curie
Scientist Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. She was responsible for developing the theory of radioactivity and for discovering two chemical elements (Radium and Polonium).
See too: Marie Curie
2. What is the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction?
The) The Scream by Edvard Munch
B) Exchange by Willem de Kooning
ç) The dream by Pablo Picasso
d) The Persistence of Memory of Salvador Dali
and) Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci
Correct answer: e) Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci
The Salvator Mundi painting, known as “the last da Vinci”, was bought by an Arab prince in an auction for the value of 450.3 million dollars, around 2.4 billion reais.
This is the most expensive work ever sold. An interesting curiosity is that the authorship of the painting is discussed. According to specialists at the Louvre Museum (France), da Vinci only helped with the production of the painting, and it is likely that the work was painted by an assistant in his studio.
See too: Leonardo da Vinci
3. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic. It is the first time in the history of the modern Olympics that there is a postponement, however, three other editions were cancelled, which were they?
a) Berlin 1916, Tokyo 1940 and London 1944.
b) Berlin 1916, Paris 1940 and London 1944.
c) Antwerp 1920, Berlin 1936 and London 1948.
d) Stockholm 1912, Antwerp 1920 and Berlin 1936.
e) Tokyo 1916, London 1940 and Berlin 1944.
Correct answer: a) Berlin 1916, Tokyo 1940 and London 1944.
The VI Olympiad, which was to be played in Berlin in 1916, was canceled because of the First World War. The conflicts of World War II were the reason for the cancellation of two editions of the Games Olympics, the XII Olympiad, which would be played in Tokyo (1940) and the XIII Olympiad would be played in London (1944).
London remained the site of the XIV Olympiad, the first after World War II in 1948.
See too: Olympics
4. Where is this flag from?
a) Sergipe
b) Maranhão
c) Goiás
d) Piauí
e) Solomon Islands
Correct answer: e) Solomon Islands
Despite looking like the flag of a Brazilian state, the flag above belongs to the Solomon Islands, a country in Oceania.
See too: Oceania countries
5. What is the youngest country in the world?
a) East Timor
b) Kosovo
c) Montenegro
d) South Sudan
e) Palau
Correct answer: d) South Sudan
South Sudan became independent in 2011 and represents the youngest country in the world. The other alternatives also represent young countries:
East Timor (2002)
Kosovo (2008)
Montenegro (2006)
Palau (1994)
See too: African countries
6. Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson are the actress and actor with the most Oscar nominations. How many indications does each one have?
a) 10
b) 11
c) 12
d) 13
e) 14
Correct answer: c) 12
Both were nominated 12 times. Katharine Hepburn is the most won actress with 4 Best Actress Awards, while Jack Nicholson has received three awards, twice Best Actor and one Best Supporting Actor award.
See too: Cinema's history
7. The largest military operation in history involved the deployment of 3.8 million soldiers. What was this operation?
a) Operation Desert Storm (United States Army in the Gulf War)
b) Operation Overlord (Allies in World War II)
c) Operation Barbarossa (Axis Countries in World War II)
d) Operation Michael (German Empire in World War I)
e) Operation Downfall (Allies in World War II)
Correct answer: c) Operation Barbarossa (Axis Countries in World War II)
Hitler-led Operation Barbarossa was the greatest military action in history. The objective was the invasion of the Soviet Union, but the Red Army, under Stalin's command, managed to contain the invasion and impose the first major defeat of the Nazis in World War II.
See too: Main Battles of World War II
8. Who was the first woman to travel into space?
a) Sally Ride
b) Valentina Tereshkova
c) Kathryn D. Sullivan
d) Svetlana Savitskaya
e) Mother Jemison
Correct answer: b) Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Tereshkova was the first cosmonaut (Soviet equivalent of an astronaut) to travel into space on June 16, 1963. The others are also pioneer women:
- Sally Ride - First woman to travel into space by NASA, the United States space agency.
- Kathryn D. Sullivan - First American to walk in space.
- Svetlana Savitskaya - First woman to fly on a space station.
- Mae Jemison - First black woman to travel into space.
See too: Space race
9. Who was the first woman to be elected president of a country?
a) Dilma Rousseff
b) Cristina Kirchner
c) Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
d) Margareth Thatcher
e) Jacinda Ardern
Correct answer: c) Vigdís Finnbogadóttir.
Iceland was the first country in the world to elect a woman president. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was elected in 1980 and ruled the country for 16 years (1980-1996).
See too: Extraordinary Women Who Made History
10. Who was the black woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, in violation of the law, and marked the struggle for civil rights for blacks in the United States in 1955?
a) Rosa Parks
b) Angela Davis
c) Elaine Brown
d) Jo Ann Robinson
e) Kimberlé Crenshaw
Correct answer: a) Rosa Parks
The act took place in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. Rosa Parks was arrested, but her disobedience served as an example and was important in the fight against racial segregation in the United States.
See too: Inspiring black women
11. What is the name of the painting by René Magritte on which the inscription is read ceci n'est pas une pipe ("this is not a pipe") ?
a) The Lost Jockey
b) The Search for the Absolute
c) The False Mirror
d) Prohibited Reproduction
e) The Betrayal of Images
Correct answer: e) The Betrayal of Images
The work The Betrayal of Images (La trahison of images in French) was painted in 1929 by the Belgian artist René Magritte. In it, we read the sentence that indicates that what the spectator sees is not a pipe (ceci n'est pas une pipe), but an image, a representation of a pipe.
See too: René Magritte
12. What was the famous invention made by Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf?
the television
b) Internet
c) Cell phone
d) Radio recorder
e) Headphones
Correct answer: b) Internet
Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf created TCP/IP, which allows the communication and exchange of documents between different computers.
See too: Internet history
13. Who were the first climbers to conquer the peak of Everest?
a) Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
b) Hans Meyer, Ludwig Purtscheller and Johannes Kinyala Lauwo
c) Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli
d) Erwin Schneider and Arnold Awerzger
e) Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal
Correct answer: a) Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) were the first climbers to reach the top of the highest mountain in the world, Everest, at an altitude of 8,848 meters.
See too: Mount Everest
14. What is the deepest place in the oceans?
a) Bentley Pit
b) Tonga Trench
c) Java Pit
d) Sandwich Islands Trench
e) Mariana Trench
Correct answer: e) Mariana Trench
The Marianas Trench is the deepest place on the planet, its depth reaches 10 984 meters.
See too: Tectonic plates
15. How long did the apartheid regime in South Africa last?
a) 51 years old
b) 46 years old
c) 37 years old
d) 28 years old
e) 22 years old
Correct answer: b) 46 years old
The racial segregation regime known as apartheid in South Africa lasted from 1948 to 1994. On May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected president, decreeing the end of the regime.
See too: Apartheid
16. What is the name of the astronomical event responsible for the longest day of the year?
a) Autumn Equinox
b) winter solstice
c) Summer Solstice
d) Spring Equinox
e) autumn solstice
Correct answer: c) Summer Solstice
On the summer solstice the planet reaches its maximum inclination relative to the sun. Due to the direct incidence of the Sun on the tropics, on that day, the hemisphere spends a longer time receiving sunlight, marking the beginning of summer and the biggest day of the year.
See too: Summer Solstice
17. In the novel Dom Casmurro, by Machado de Assis, what is the name of the friend that Bentinho imagines to be the father of his son?
a) Escobar
b) Scholar
c) Spinoza
d) Esteves
e) Stephen
Correct answer: a) Escobar
Machado de Assis' work is responsible for one of the greatest controversies in Brazilian literature: “Capitu betrayed Bentinho?”.
Ezequiel de Souza Escobar he was Bentinho's best friend from the time they were in the seminary. The controversy over Capitu's alleged betrayal follows the book in which Bentinho (Dom Casmurro) is the main character and narrator. For him, his son, Little Ezekiel, had many similarities to his friend who had died.
In one of his reflections, Bentinho states:
It was the very one, the exact one, the real Escobar. He was my combo; he was his father's son.
See too: Dom Casmurro
18. In 2020, who was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and the 16th woman to receive the award?
a) Virginia Woolf
b) Wislawa Szymborska
c) Louise Gluck
d) Olga Tokarczuk
e) Alice Munro
Correct answer: c) Louise Gluck
The American poet Louise Glück was laureate for her body of work, the justification of the commission was:
his unmistakable poetic voice which, with austere beauty, makes individual existence universal.
See too: O is poetry?
19. How many pairs of ribs does a human normally have?
a) 5
b) 8
c) 10
d) 12
e) 15
Correct answer: d) 12
A normal person has 12 pairs of ribs, but 0.5% of people have an “extra” pair of ribs, the 13th pair.
See too: Curiosities about the human body
20. In addition to the rotation movement (on its own axis) and translation (around the Sun), what other movements does planet Earth perform?
a) Chandler Precession, Nutation and Oscillation
b) Solstice and Equinox
c) Nutation, Gravitation and Revolution
d) Nutation and Retrograde
e) Precession, Nutation and Solstice
Correct answer: a) Chandler's Precession, Nutation and Oscillation
- Precession of the Equinoxes - movement that takes 25 800 years to complete. In it, the terrestrial axis makes a circle.
- Nutation - Influenced by the gravity of the Sun and Moon, the Earth oscillates its axis up to 700 meters and returns to its original position. Each cycle of this movement lasts 18.6 years.
- Chandler oscillation - A movement that lasts 433 days where the poles make a circular movement as an effect of the planet's mass distribution and the Earth's internal movements.
See too: Earth Movements
21. Which planets in the solar system rotate in a clockwise direction?
a) Saturn and Jupiter
b) Venus and Uranus
c) Earth and Mars
d) Mercury and Saturn
e) Venus and Neptune
Correct answer: b) Venus and Uranus.
It is common for planets to rotate counterclockwise. In our solar system only Venus and Uranus rotate in the opposite direction.
See too: Planets of the Solar System
22. What Greek philosopher who, when asked by Alexander the Great what wish he would have liked, asked only to get the emperor out of the sun?
a) Epicurus
b) Diogenes
c) Epithet
d) Socrates
e) Heraclitus
Correct answer: b) Diogenes
Diogenes of Sinope (413 - 323 a. C.) was a philosopher representative of the Cynics. At one point in his life, he abandoned his possessions and went to live in a barrel in the company of dogs.
Diogenes was considered very wise and had many admirers, among them the Emperor Alexander. His philosophy was based on the refusal of material goods and the search for self-knowledge.
See too: Diogenes
23. Which animal produces the loudest sound?
a) Howler monkey
b) Lion
c) blue whale
d) Hyena
e) African elephant
Correct answer: c) Blue whale
The sound produced by the blue whale reaches 188 decibels and can be heard at a distance of about 800 km.
The second noisiest animal is the howler primate, with 130 decibels.
See too: Blue Whale
24. At work The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, one morning Gregor Samsa awoke from uneasy dreams metamorphosed into which animal?
Blind love
b) Wolf
c) insect
d) Serpent
e) bird
Correct answer: c) Insect
The first sentence of the work A Metamorfose (1915), by Franz Kafka, gives an account of the event that guides the entire plot:
When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself in his bed metamorphosed into a monstrous insect.
See too: fantastic tale
25. The term CPI, used to refer to investigations carried out by the legislature, means:
a) Parliamentary Investigation Committee
b) Research Policy Committee
c) Political Inquiry Coordination
d) Parliamentary Inquiry Committee
e) Public Investigation Coordination
Correct answer: d) Parliamentary Inquiry Committee
The parliamentary inquiry commission (CPI) is an instrument of senators and deputies to monitor and investigate possible crimes committed in the public administration.
See too: Acronyms
26. What famous work in Brazilian literature begins with a dedication to the first worm that gnawed at the corpse of the character who narrates the story?
a) The Sad End of Polycarp Lent
b) The Death and Death of Quincas Berro d'Água
c) Posthumous Memories of Brás Cubas
d) Memoirs of a Militia Sergeant
e) Dry Lives
Correct answer: c) Posthumous Memories of Brás Cubas
To the worm that first gnawed the cold flesh of my corpse I dedicate these Posthumous Memories as a longing memory
Thus begins the work Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, by Machado de Assis, published in 1881.
See too: Summary and analysis of Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
27. Which athlete holds the Olympic medal record?
a) Mark Spitz
b) Michael Phelps
c) Usain Bolt
d) Carl Lewis
e) Larissa Latynina
Correct answer: b) Michael Phelps.
American swimmer Michael Phelps is the record holder for Olympic medals. He is also the record holder for the most gold medals in a single edition (8 gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics).
In his participation in the Olympics, Phelps won a total of 28 medals, being 23 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze.
See too: Swimming
28. Pamela Rosa, Rayssa Leal and Letícia Bufoni are Brazilian athletes in which Olympic sport?
a) Synchronized Swimming
b) Rhythmic Gymnastics
c) Artistic Gymnastics
d) Athletics
e) Skate street
Correct answer: e) Skate street
Pamela Rosa, Rayssa Leal and Letícia Bufoni are among the best street skate athletes, defined as an Olympic sport in 2016, debuting at the Tokyo Olympics.
See too:
29. Who was the inventor of the vaccine?
a) Edward Jenner
b) Louis Pasteur
c) Albert Sabin
d) Jonas Salk
e) Robert Koch
Correct alternative: a) Edward Jenner.
British physician Edward Jenner created the first vaccine in 1796 as an experiment based on observations of smallpox contagion and its bovine variant. Hence, the term vaccine, which originates from the Latin vaccinus and it means "derived from the cow".
See too: Smallpox
30. What is the first film to represent Brazil in the Oscar dispute for best foreign film?
a) Central do Brasil
b) The Promise Payer
c) Black Orpheus
d) City of God
e) What is It, Mate?
Correct answer: b) The Promise Payer.
The film The Promise Payer, by Anselmo Duarte, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1963, losing out to the French film Semper aos Domingos, by Serge Bourguignon.
Brazil only returned to the dispute in 1996 with the film O Quatrilho, by director Fábio Barreto.
The film Black Orpheus was the winner of the Oscar, in the category, in 1960. However, the work represented France through director Marcel Camus.
See too: History of Brazilian cinema
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