(Current Affairs questions are from the period January 1st to 15th. Questions 11 to 20 pertain to Chennai and Tamil Nadu.)

1. Name the tallest structure ever built that opened to the public in Dubai recently.

2. Which Asian country has taken over the mantle of the world’s top merchandise exporter in 2009, displacing Germany, according to Global Trade Information Services, a Geneva-based centre.

3. What sporting distinction did Magnus Carlsen achieve recently?

4. Which country’s football team suffered casualties after gunmen attacked the team bus when it entered Angola for the Africa Cup of Nations?

5. The United Nations said a recent disaster is the worst it has ever dealt with. What disaster?

6. Name the country’s latest indigenously developed air-to-air beyond visual range (BVR) missiles test-fired on January 11th.

7. In a poll conducted by Cricinfo and a jury comprising former and current players and cricket writers, which cricketer was voted ‘Player of the Decade’?

8. One more on cricket. Which team retained the Ranji Trophy at Mysore recently?

9. Which country is endeavouring to become the world’s first nation to build a nuclear-powered spacecraft for interplanetary flights?

10. Miep Gies, who passed away recently, was preserving a diary, which told the horrors of World War II, for posterity. Name the diarist.

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11. In which non-Chennai location did the Madras State Assembly meet for nine days in 1959?

12. What distinction did C.V. Thilagavathi achieve in the history of Indian Railways recently?

13. Who won his second Sahitya Akademi award for his poetry collection Kaioppam (Signature)?

14. Which classic MGR film drew inspiration from the novel Vengeance by Marie Correlli and the legend of Robin Hood?

15. According to the recent G.O., the City Corporation area would be increased from 174 sq km to…?

16. What institution synonymous with Mylapore came up on a small piece of land gifted by Akul Kondiah Chettiar, a devotee of Sashi Maharaj?

17. When the Madras Presidency became Madras State, to which districts were the princely states of Sandur and Pudukottai merged?

18. Fill in last name of a chieftain who attained legendary status for his opposition to the British: Veemaraja Jagaveera Pandiya Subramania ...?

19. Which seminal work of Tamil literature derived its name from the words reflecting ancientness and literature?

20. At which place was Sri Ramanujar given the ‘Pancha Samska ram’ (Sramasayanam) by his acharya Peria Nambigal?