W1: 13 July 2025

The oldest lawn tennis club in the world is located in a suburb of which of the following cities?

• Birmingham

• London

• Melbourne

• New York

Answer explanation

Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham, is the location of Edgbaston Cricket Ground, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society, the oldest lawn tennis club in the world.

A flash flood is defined as a flood of short duration with a relatively high peak discharge, where the time interval between the observable causative event and the flood is less than how many hours?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 6

Answer explanation

The terms 'Flash Flood' and 'Flash Flood Alley' have been in the news recently in connection with the Central Texas floods. The World Meteorological Organization defines flash flood as a flood of short duration with a relatively high peak discharge in which the time interval between the observable causative event and the flood is less than four to six hours.

Which of the following U.S. federal agencies was originally established in 1865 to combat widespread counterfeiting and help stabilize America's young financial system?

• Office of Homeland Security

• United States Secret Service

• Central Intelligence Agency

• Federal Bureau of Investigation

Answer explanation

By the end of the US Civil War, nearly one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit. To address this concern, the Secret Service was established in 1865 as a bureau in the Treasury Department to suppress widespread counterfeiting. Recently 6 U.S. Secret Service agents were suspended over security lapses during last year’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

An increase of one unit in earthquake magnitude (for example, from 4.6 to 5.6) corresponds approximately to how many times more energy being released?

• 10

• 20

• 30

• 50

Answer explanation

Magnitude is a measure of the strength of an earthquake or strain energy released by it, as determined by seismographic observations. The amplitude on a seismogram, the magnitude and the energy released are related through a loglinear  relationship, which was originally defined by Charles Richter in 1935. An increase of one unit of magnitude (for example, from 4.6 to 5.6) represents a 10-fold increase in wave amplitude on a seismogram or approximately a 30-fold increase in the energy released.

Which of the following companies traces its origins to a firm called Sogeti?

• Capgemini

• Unilever

• WNS

• Boeing

Answer explanation

On 1 October 1967, in Grenoble, in a two-room apartment converted into an office, Serge Kampf created Sogeti with three former colleagues. By 1975 it had an established presence in 21 countries, following the acquisition of two major IT services companies, CAP and Gemini Computer Systems. Capgemini recently acquired WNS for $ 3.3 billion