PRELIMS

A quiz by Dhananjay, Tushar, and Aditya

Rules
● 20 questions, written
● Questions 1-15 are worth 1 point each
● Questions 16-20 are worth 2 points each
● Part points wherever applicable
● Cams on and hands visible at all times, please.
● QM is not god, consensus matters
An online quiz is like an
inexplicable health
symptom.
An online quiz is like an
inexplicable health
symptom.

Googling only makes it worse.

1.
The python package in question has a documentation that is filled with references
to a 1985 sci-fi movie, which provides inspiration for the name of the package as
well. The python package aims to simplify and increase convenience in handling
datetime related code in python. According to the documentation, what it does is
“Pretty much make you a badass, time traveller.”
Name the package (8).
2.
This is a movie that parodies musical biopics. The
title and a large amount of the plot are inspired by
the 2005 music documentary ____ ___ ____.
Which documentary?

This poster is a reference to the “young lion”

photographs of which American artist?
3.
Daryl Morey is the president of basketball operations
of the Philadelphia 76ers. His basketball philosophy
relies heavily on analytics and favors three-point field
goals and lay-ups over mid-range jumpers.

What is the portmanteau term for this style of his?

4.
In Computer Science, a _______ is a Turing
machine which has an orientation in addition
to a current state and a "tape" that consists of
an infinite two-dimensional grid of cells. They
were first investigated by scientist Greg Turk.

Due to the fact that these resembled little

insects, what was the portmanteau term given
to them?
5.
Shown here are images of a device called ‘Digioxide’, a sensor-based artistic
attempt to draw attention to a prevalent problem.

Based on the name, and the way the device is constructed, what kind of
parameters does the device measure and then convert into digital art?
6.
This particular Mercury7 capsule was given
a particular name due to its distinctive
shape. The line with white paint was also
added as an allusion to something that
happened after the death of Chief Justice
John Marshall in 1835.

What name?
7.
Loren Brichter, the creator of Tweetie - a client application for Twitter wanted to
add a ___ __ _____ function to the app. When asked about other mobile apps at
that time he said

“They all had to find a spot and just cram a _____ button somewhere. Usually in
one of the corners in a toolbar bordering a scrollable list. That was the most
valuable real estate for navigation and action UI, so using it up for something as
mundane as a _____ button just seemed wasteful.”

Now refined, this function finds itself on Twitter and multiple different mobile
apps across platforms.

What function?
8.
In GTA 1, running over a line of these people flashes the word Gouranga! on
screen. Antithetical to the group’s beliefs and tenets, they were shown as a gang in
GTA 2.

Stickers that say “Call out Gouranga and be happy!” have been seen on cars, and
members of the group have asked people in New York to say the word/teach them
to sing and dance to it.

Which group is being referred to here?

9
In the 1985 social science study The <> Corporate Empire, a university professor
from Utah talks about how they have no trouble placing people from a certain
demographic at these jobs. “Every year, they take almost anybody who applies,” he
says.
This group continues to be overrepresented within these ranks.
The disproportionate number is usually chalked up to three factors: they often
have strong foreign language skills, from missions overseas; relatively easy
background checks, given their habits (or lack thereof); and a willingness to work
in public service.
What am I talking about? (*group* in *organization*)
10.
Uttama Villain is a 2015 Tamil Comedy-Drama movie written by and starring
Kamal Hassan. It has an ensemble cast including K. Balachander, K. Viswanath,
Jayaram, and Urvashi.

Kamal Hassan plays a superstar, and Urvashi plays his estranged wife. At some
point in the movie, we are shown photographs/flashbacks of these characters
getting married, with the other characters being present at the wedding.

How was this achieved, without using any deaging technology?

11.
The loosu ponnu (“crazy girl”) is a stock character from Tamil cinema, often
regarded as a rough equivalent of the “dumb blonde” and “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”
tropes of Hollywood. The loosu ponnu is attractive, naive, unintelligent, and always
needs to be rescued/assisted by the hero.
Critic Baradwaj Rangan points out that the trope may have emerged because of
something about the actresses that were cast in these roles-
“They’d end up gesticulating wildly to make a point. Their emotional reactions
would be a bit 'off'. And all of this ended up making them look like mad people."
What fact about the actresses does he cite as a reason for this?
12.
NCT are a K-pop boy group whose name stands for Neo Culture Technology, a
term coined by their producer and SM founder Lee Soo-man to describe the
group's concept of having an unlimited number of members divided into multiple
sub-units based in various cities worldwide. The group consists of 21 members as
of January 2019, aged from their late teens to mid-twenties. Its three subdivisions
were NCT U, NCT 127 and NCT 2018.

The fourth and most recent sub-unit of NCT is based in China, and known as
WeiShenV. They very recently began uploading music videos to YouTube, with
their latest upload being an entirely English version of their song ‘Love Talk’ on
Nov 5. What are they more popularly called, if their name is a homophone and
anagram for a synonym of curly?
13.
Galileo was once invited to lecture at the Florentine Academy, a Medici creation.
His lecture described work done on a particular topic, a Florentine-favourite, by
Antonio Manetti, a former member of the Academy and Alessandro Vellutella, a
non-Florentine.

Manetti’s model is of a cone with its vertex at the Earth’s core and its base on the
surface. Vellutella’s model was much smaller, only about a tenth the radius of the
Earth. Galileo vigorously defended Manetti’s model in the lecture but realized, a
short time later, that it would have collapsed in on itself. He’d mistakenly assumed
scale invariance. This led to his discovery of the scaling laws.

What was the topic of the lectures?

14.
This BAFTA and Daytime Emmy-winning show stirred controversy in 1999 when
televangelist Jerry Falwell alleged that a certain character, known for carrying a
woman's handbag, was a “gay role model”. Falwell warned parents that the
character could be a covert symbol of homosexuality, being purple (the colour of
gay pride), and having a _____ in the shape of a triangle (the symbol of gay
pride). To this, the distributor of the show responded that the character was
simply “a sweet technological baby with a magic handbag”.

Which character?
15.
Read this poem, and give its exact title.
A hard, howling, tossing water scene.
For completeness’ sake, also explain
Strong tide was washing hero clean.
“How cold!” Weather stings as in anger. how you arrived at the answer.
O Silent night shows war ace danger!

The cold waters swashing on in rage. If it helps you, the answer is

Redcoats warn slow his hint engage. __________ ________ ___
When star general’s action wish’d “Go!”
________.
He saw his ragged continentals row.

Ah, he stands—sailor crew went going.

(no part points)
And so this general watches rowing.
He hastens—winter again grows cold.
A wet crew gain Hessian stronghold. Hint: A little bit of dyslexia would
George can’t lose war with’s hands in; help?
He’s astern—so go alight, crew, and win!
Two-pointers start here
16.
In Brazil, it is called janelinho (little window), tunnel in Sweden, Norway and

Denmark, petit pont (little bridge) in French, serwal (pants) in Morocco, and adma

(egg) in Tunisia.

Looking at the meanings and some of the countries, what is it called in English?

A suggested etymology for the English term places its origins in 19th c. East End London, and an
obvious anatomical connection. What?
17.
Solid Rock is a compilation album released by which band?

The title of another compilation album of theirs is Forty ____s. FITB with a word
whose meaning is slightly different from riff, which denotes a stock pattern or
phrase consisting of a short series of notes that is used in solos and melodic lines
and accompaniment. The word is also a clear visual reference to the band itself.
18.
____ ___ ______ _____: A Requiem in
Four Acts is a 2006 documentary film. It deals
with the devastation of New Orleans, Louisiana
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The title is a reference to a famous blues tune

about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927,
which was famously covered by a rock band in
their 4th album in 1971.

What is the title of the documentary?

Who was it directed by?
19.
This metaphor is widely attributed to a person who is believed to have used it while addressing a
well-known rival of theirs. Interestingly, it has recently been interpreted by a few writers as a
sarcastic remark directed at the rival's appearance (though they were on good terms at the time of
the exchange).

Ironically enough, the said person borrowed the metaphor from French philosopher Bernard of
Chartre. A commentary on Bernard’s usage reads,

[The phrase] is not a great claim; neither, however, is it an example of abasement before the shrine
of antiquity. It is a very shrewd and just remark, and the important and original point was the
_____ could see a little further than the _____.

What phrase, popularised by whom?

On what website’s homepage would you have seen this phrase displayed as a fitting motto?
20.
Pepsi advertisement which references a 1989 movie.
Which movie?

A large amount of the movie was shot in the Fenway Park stadium, situated in
Boston. The first game here was played on April 20th, 1912, with Boston beating
the NY Highlanders 7-6. However, newspaper coverage of the opening was limited
because of the focus on something that had happened a few days earlier. What had
happened?
Answers
1.
The python package in question has a documentation that is filled with references
to a 1985 sci-fi movie, which provides inspiration for the name of the package as
well. The python package aims to simplify and increase convenience in handling
datetime related code in python. According to the documentation, what it does is
“Pretty much make you a badass, time traveller.”

Name the package (8).

DeLorean
2.
This is a movie that parodies musical biopics. The
title and a large amount of the plot are inspired by the
2005 music documentary ____ ___ ____.
Which documentary?

This poster is a reference to the “young lion”

photographs of which American artist?
Walk the Line, Jim Morrison
3.
Daryl Morey is the president of basketball operations
of the Philadelphia 76ers. His basketball philosophy
relies heavily on analytics and favors three-point field
goals and lay-ups over mid-range jumpers.

What is the portmanteau term for this style of his?

Moreyball
4.
In Computer Science, a _______ is a Turing
machine which has an orientation in addition to
a current state and a "tape" that consists of an
infinite two-dimensional grid of cells. They were
first investigated by scientist Greg Turk.

Due to the fact that these resembled little insects,

what was the portmanteau term given to them?
 Turmite
“Dewdney reports that, casting about for a name for Turk's creatures, he
thought, "Well, they're Turing machines studied by Turk, so they should be
tur-something. And they're like little insects, or mites, so I'll call them tur-mites!
And that sounds like termites!" With the kind permission of Turk and Dewdney,
I'm going to leave out the hyphen, and call them turmites.”
5.
Shown here are images of a device called ‘Digioxide’, a sensor-based artistic
attempt to draw attention to a prevalent problem.

Based on the name, and the way the device is constructed, what kind of
parameters does the device measure and then convert into digital art?
Pollution -> Art
Digioxide measures instantaneous pollutant levels in the nearby air and uses an
arduino board to convert these data-points into a snapshot which can be printed
or used as part of a movie to show fluctuations in pollutant levels.

In the image, green denotes clear air and bright colours indicate higher
concentration of pollutant gases.
6.
This particular Mercury7 capsule was given
a particular name due to its distinctive
shape. The line with white paint was also
added as an allusion to something that
happened after the death of Chief Justice
John Marshall in 1835.

What name?
Liberty Bell
7.
Loren Brichter, the creator of Tweetie - a client application for Twitter wanted to
add a ___ __ _____ function to the app. When asked about other mobile apps at
that time he said

“They all had to find a spot and just cram a _____ button somewhere. Usually in
one of the corners in a toolbar bordering a scrollable list. That was the most
valuable real estate for navigation and action UI, so using it up for something as
mundane as a _____ button just seemed wasteful.”

Now refined, this function finds itself on Twitter and multiple different mobile
apps across platforms.

What function?
8.
In GTA 1, running over a line of these people flashes the word Gouranga! on
screen. Antithetical to the group’s beliefs and tenets, they were shown as a gang in
GTA 2.

Stickers that say “Call out Gouranga and be happy!” have been seen on cars, and
members of the group have asked people in New York to say the word/teach them
to sing and dance to it.

Which group is being referred to here?

ISKCON/Hare Krishna people
9.
In the 1985 social science study The <> Corporate Empire, a university professor
from Utah talks about how they have no trouble placing people from a certain
demographic at these jobs. “Every year, they take almost anybody who applies,” he
says.
This group continues to be overrepresented within these ranks.
The disproportionate number is usually chalked up to three factors: they often
have strong foreign language skills, from missions overseas; relatively easy
background checks, given their habits (or lack thereof); and a willingness to work
in public service.
What am I talking about? (*group* in *organization*)
Mormons in the FBI/CIA
10.
Uttama Villain is a 2015 Tamil Comedy-Drama movie written by and starring
Kamal Hassan. It has an ensemble cast including K. Balachander, K. Viswanath,
Jayaram, and Urvashi.

Kamal Hassan plays a superstar, and Urvashi plays his estranged wife. At some
point in the movie, we are shown photographs/flashbacks of these characters
getting married, with the other characters being present at the wedding.

How was this achieved, without using any deaging technology?

Footage from older movies
11.
The loosu ponnu (“crazy girl”) is a stock character from Tamil cinema, often
regarded as a rough equivalent of the “dumb blonde” and “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”
tropes of Hollywood. The loosu ponnu is attractive, naive, unintelligent, and always
needs to be rescued/assisted by the hero.
Critic Baradwaj Rangan points out that the trope may have emerged because of
something about the actresses that were cast in these roles-
“They’d end up gesticulating wildly to make a point. Their emotional reactions
would be a bit 'off'. And all of this ended up making them look like mad people."
What fact about the actresses does he cite as a reason for this?
They are North Indian and don’t speak Tamil
12.
NCT are a K-pop boy group whose name stands for Neo Culture Technology, a
term coined by their producer and SM founder Lee Soo-man to describe the
group's concept of having an unlimited number of members divided into multiple
sub-units based in various cities worldwide. The group consists of 21 members as
of January 2019, aged from their late teens to mid-twenties. Its three subdivisions
were NCT U, NCT 127 and NCT 2018.

The fourth and most recent sub-unit of NCT is based in China, and known as
WeiShenV. They very recently began uploading music videos to YouTube, with
their latest upload being an entirely English version of their song ‘Love Talk’ on
Nov 5. What are they more popularly called, if their name is a homophone and
anagram for a synonym of curly?
WayV
13.
Galileo was once invited to lecture at the Florentine Academy, a Medici creation.
His lecture described work done on a particular topic, a Florentine-favourite, by
Antonio Manetti, a former member of the Academy and Alessandro Vellutella, a
non-Florentine.

Manetti’s model is of a cone with its vertex at the Earth’s core and its base on the
surface. Vellutella’s model was much smaller, only about a tenth the radius of the
Earth. Galileo vigorously defended Manetti’s model in the lecture but realized, a
short time later, that it would have collapsed in on itself. He’d mistakenly assumed
scale invariance. This led to his discovery of the scaling laws.

What was the topic of the lectures?

Dante’s Inferno
14.
This BAFTA and Daytime Emmy-winning show stirred controversy in 1999 when
televangelist Jerry Falwell alleged that a certain character, known for carrying a
woman's handbag, was a “gay role model”. Falwell warned parents that the
character could be a covert symbol of homosexuality, being purple (the colour of
gay pride), and having a _____ in the shape of a triangle (the symbol of gay
pride). To this, the distributor of the show responded that the character was
simply “a sweet technological baby with a magic handbag”.

Which character?
Tinky Winky
15.
Read this poem, and give its exact title.
A hard, howling, tossing water scene.
For completeness’ sake, explain how
Strong tide was washing hero clean.
“How cold!” Weather stings as in anger. you arrived at the answer also.
O Silent night shows war ace danger!

The cold waters swashing on in rage. If it helps you, the answer is

Redcoats warn slow his hint engage. __________ ________ ___
When star general’s action wish’d “Go!”
________.
He saw his ragged continentals row.

Ah, he stands—sailor crew went going.

(no part points)
And so this general watches rowing.
He hastens—winter again grows cold.
A wet crew gain Hessian stronghold. Hint: A little bit of dyslexia would
George can’t lose war with’s hands in; help?
He’s astern—so go alight, crew, and win!
Washington Crossing The Delaware (each line is an anagram of this)
Two-pointers start here
16.
In Brazil, it is called janelinho (little window), tunnel in Sweden, Norway and

Denmark, petit pont (little bridge) in French, serwal (pants) in Morocco, and adma

(egg) in Tunisia.

Looking at the meanings and some of the countries, what is it called in English?

A suggested etymology for the English term places its origins in 19th c. East End London,
and an obvious anatomical connection. What?
Nutmeg, Cockney slang for “leg”
17.
Solid Rock is a compilation album released by which band?

The title of another compilation album of theirs is Forty ____s. FITB with a word
whose meaning is slightly different from riff, which denotes a stock pattern or
phrase consisting of a short series of notes that is used in solos and melodic lines
and accompaniment. The word is also a clear visual reference to the band itself.
The Rolling Stones, Forty Licks
18.
____ ___ ______ _____: A Requiem in
Four Acts is a 2006 documentary film. It deals
with the devastation of New Orleans, Louisiana
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The title is a reference to a famous blues tune

about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927,
which was famously covered by a rock band in
their 4th album in 1971.

What is the title of the documentary?

Who was it directed by?
When the Levee Breaks, Spike Lee
19.
This metaphor is widely attributed to a person who is believed to have used it while addressing a
well-known rival of theirs. Interestingly, it has recently been interpreted by a few writers as a
sarcastic remark directed at the rival's appearance (though they were on good terms at the time of
the exchange).

Ironically enough, the said person borrowed the metaphor from French philosopher Bernard of
Chartre. A commentary on Bernard’s usage reads,

[The phrase] is not a great claim; neither, however, is it an example of abasement before the shrine
of antiquity. It is a very shrewd and just remark, and the important and original point was the
_____ could see a little further than the _____.

What phrase, popularised by whom?

On what website’s homepage would you have seen this phrase displayed as a fitting motto?
Standing before the shoulders of giants, Isaac Newton
20.
Pepsi advertisement which references a 1989 movie.
Which movie?

A large amount of the movie was shot in the Fenway Park stadium, situated in
Boston. The first game here was played on April 20th, 1912, with Boston beating
the NY Highlanders 7-6. However, newspaper coverage of the opening was limited
because of the focus on something that had happened a few days earlier. What had
happened?
Field of Dreams, Titanic Sinking