This match day pulled together a wide range of knowledge: the structure of the Hawaiian alphabet, a live unfolding constitutional crisis in Venezuela, early‑2000s diet culture, classic TV history, camera technology, and contemporary film casting. The ʻokina question pushes you into phonetics and indigenous language preservation—Hawaiian officially treats the glottal stop as a full consonant and one of 13 letters in its modern alphabet, which is why you see it in spellings like Hawaiʻi and Oʻahu.

On the current‑events side, the Venezuela item required distinguishing between the government‑announced winner and the candidate widely recognized abroad: Edmundo González Urrutia, a former diplomat, is acknowledged by the United States, the European Parliament, and several Latin American governments as having received the most votes in Venezuela’s disputed July 28, 2024 presidential election, even as Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a third term. The South Beach Diet question combined medical biography and local geography: cardiologist Arthur Agatston created a low‑glycemic diet in the 1990s in Miami Beach with dietitian Marie Almon, later branding it after the trendy South Beach neighborhood in front of his practice and turning it into a 2003 mega‑bestseller.

The arts and entertainment questions highlight how brands and characters become cultural shorthand. Leica, spun out of Ernst Leitz’s 19th‑century optics firm, popularized the compact 35mm Leica I at the 1925 Leipzig Spring Fair, creating a prestigious brand name (from “Leitz Camera”) that became synonymous with street photography for figures like Henri Cartier‑Bresson and Robert Capa. Gilligan’s Island hinged on listening closely to the theme song lyrics and knowing that in season one the Professor and Mary Ann were hidden in the phrase “and the rest,” then promoted to full mention from season two onward. Finally, the Oscar Isaac question rewarded you for tracking one actor’s career across franchises and festival films: the same Guatemala‑born performer who plays Poe Dameron in Star Wars and Duke Leto Atreides in Dune also takes on Dante Alighieri in In the Hand of Dante and Victor Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 Frankenstein.

If some of these felt outside your wheelhouse, that’s actually useful feedback: you can deliberately build “hooks” in memory by connecting things like diet fads to specific cities, or camera brands to famous images. This Study Guide focuses on those connections so that even if you missed a question this time, you walk away with multiple ways to recognize similar clues in the future.

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Study Notes

Question 1: Hawaiian ʻOkina and the Alphabet

Q1. LANGUAGE - A glottal stop known as ʻokina is one of the eight consonants in the alphabet of what language?

Core fact:
The modern Hawaiian alphabet officially has 13 letters: 5 vowels and 8 consonants, one of which is the ʻokina, a letter representing the glottal stop and treated as a full consonant in Hawaiian orthography. The ʻokina appears in words like Hawaiʻi and Oʻahu and marks a brief stop between vowels, similar to the break in the middle of “oh‑oh.”

Connections

  • Place names and signage in Hawaiʻi: Road signs, government documents, and university materials increasingly use ʻokina and macrons (kahakō) in official place names such as Hawaiʻi, Lānaʻi, and Oʻahu; the Hawaiʻi Board on Geographic Names has a formal style guide for when to add these marks.
  • U.S. coinage: The 2023 Edith Kanakaʻole quarter in the American Women Quarters program includes a Hawaiian inscription, “E hō mai ka ʻike,” and uses proper diacritics, so coin collectors and news coverage around the quarter often explain the ʻokina and kahakō.
  • Music and film: The classic song “Aloha ʻOe,” written by Queen Liliʻuokalani, uses the ʻokina in its title and lyrics and has appeared in numerous films and cartoons—including From Here to Eternity, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, and other pop‑culture depictions of Hawaiʻi—so the mark shows up in soundtracks and subtitles.
  • Travel and tourism websites: Many official and semi‑official Hawaii tourism and data sites include language disclaimers noting that ʻokina and kahakō are important for correct Hawaiian but sometimes omitted online for technical reasons, which can be a subtle clue that these marks are part of the language’s standard orthography.
  • Language resources: Online pronunciation guides and basic Hawaiian workshops emphasize that the ʻokina is counted as a consonant, describing it as an 8th consonant that looks like a small reversed apostrophe and represents a glottal stop.

Sources

Question 2: Venezuela’s 2024 Presidential Election

Q2. CURR EVENTS - Edmundo González claimed victory against Nicolás Maduro and was subsequently recognized by the United States as having received the most votes in the disputed 2024 presidential election in what country?

Core fact:
Edmundo González Urrutia, a former Venezuelan diplomat and opposition candidate, ran against President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela’s July 28, 2024 presidential election; although the government‑controlled electoral council announced Maduro as the winner, opposition tallies and independent polling indicated González had won, and the United States and several other governments publicly recognized him as having received the most votes and as Venezuela’s legitimate president‑elect.

Connections

  • Ongoing news coverage: Major outlets like CNBC, CBS News, the Washington Post, and the Guardian ran prominent stories when the U.S. State Department declared that “overwhelming evidence” showed González had won more votes than Maduro and recognized him as the winner or president‑elect, making this a recurring international headline.
  • International diplomacy stories: Reports on the European Parliament’s resolution recognizing González as Venezuela’s legitimate and democratically elected president, as well as statements from Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Canada, and others, extended the story beyond U.S. policy into broader coverage of democratic norms and sanctions.
  • Coverage of protests and repression: Wire‑service pieces from Reuters and AP detailed mass protests after the election, the large number of arrests, and González’s subsequent exile and diplomatic tour, so anyone following human‑rights or Latin America sections would repeatedly see his name in connection with Venezuela.
  • Legislative and diaspora angles: U.S. congressional press releases and local coverage in South Florida—home to a sizable Venezuelan diaspora—highlighted visits by González to Washington, D.C., where lawmakers referred to him as Venezuela’s president‑elect, giving the story visibility in American political news and ethnic media.

Sources

Question 3: The South Beach Diet

Q3. LIFESTYLE - A bestselling book that first appeared on the New York Times Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous list in 2003 was written by cardiologist Arthur Agatston, who described a diet he created with nutritionist Marie Almon while they worked at Greater Miami’s Mount Sinai Medical Center. What name did they give this diet (and book), taken from a fashionable neighborhood near Agatston’s practice?

Core fact:
Cardiologist Arthur Agatston developed a lower‑glycemic, “good carbs/good fats” weight‑loss plan in the mid‑1990s with Marie Almon, then chief dietitian at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach; originally called the Modified Carbohydrate Diet, it was renamed the South Beach Diet after the nearby South Beach neighborhood and published in 2003 as a book that became a New York Times bestseller and sold millions of copies.

Connections

  • Diet‑frenzy era media: In 2003–2004, The South Beach Diet topped advice and nonfiction bestseller lists tracked by the New York Times and regional newspapers like the Deseret News and Houston Chronicle, so anyone following book charts or talk‑show segments on dieting would have seen the title repeatedly.
  • Low‑carb craze context: Trade coverage in Publishers Weekly described South Beach alongside Atkins for Life and The Ultimate Weight Solution as dominant “low‑carb nation” titles, reporting millions of copies in print by late 2003, which cemented the brand’s visibility in publishing and news about obesity debates.
  • Celebrity endorsements and politics: Articles on diet trends noted that high‑profile figures like former U.S. president Bill Clinton reportedly used the South Beach Diet, making it fodder for political and lifestyle coverage beyond health sections.
  • The neighborhood itself in pop culture: South Beach—roughly from 5th to about 23rd Street in Miami Beach—is famous for its Art Deco Historic District, nightlife, and beaches and has been heavily featured in series and films like Miami Vice and Scarface, travel coverage, and Art Basel Miami Beach stories, so its name already signaled glamour before the diet adopted it.
  • Ongoing brand spinoffs: Later cookbooks and updated editions such as The South Beach Diet Cookbook and The South Beach Diet Supercharged, plus licensing the brand to Nutrisystem, kept the name in circulation on bookstore displays and diet‑program ads for years after the original book’s release.

Sources

Question 4: Gilligan’s Island Theme Song

Q4. TELEVISION - In the original version of the theme song for what sitcom, the lyrics referred to five of the show’s main characters by name or role, while lumping the other two (a Ph.D. and a farm girl from Kansas) into “and the rest”. It was changed to mention all seven in season two and onward.

Core fact:
Gilligan’s Island, the 1964–1967 CBS sitcom about seven castaways stranded on a desert island, originally used a theme song (“The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle”) whose first‑season lyrics named Gilligan, the Skipper, the millionaire and his wife, and “the movie star,” then grouped the Professor and Mary Ann under the phrase “and the rest”; from season two onward, the opening credits were reshot and the lyrics changed to list “the Professor and Mary Ann” explicitly.

Connections

  • Syndication and after‑school reruns: People who grew up in the 1970s–80s often saw Gilligan’s Island in daily syndication, and the catchy theme song (with its “three hour tour” setup) made the character listing and its later change highly memorable.
  • Lyrics breakdowns and nostalgia articles: TV history pieces and fan wikis detail how, in season one, the lyrics ended with “and the rest,” and how star Bob Denver reportedly lobbied the studio to have Russell Johnson (the Professor) and Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) named in the song, resulting in the revised second‑season version.
  • Pop‑culture parodies: Explainers of the theme point out that the closing‑credits lyrics about the castaways having “no phone, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury, like Robinson Crusoe” have been echoed and parodied, including in Weird Al Yankovic’s “Amish Paradise,” so even people who never watched the show might recognize the structure.
  • Character archetypes: Articles on individual characters such as the Professor and Mary Ann revisit their initially lower billing and later fan‑favorite status, which is often tied back to the “and the rest” quirk in the theme song.

Sources

Question 5: Leica and 35mm Photography

Q5. ART - A company founded by Ernst Leitz in Germany in 1869 released the first widely available 35mm camera in 1925, helping to popularize street photography and the 35mm format. This revolutionary camera established what prestigious brand name, by which the company itself is now known?

Core fact:
Ernst Leitz’s optics firm, founded in Wetzlar, Germany in 1869, eventually introduced the compact 35mm Leica I at the 1925 Leipzig Spring Fair; this was the first mass‑produced, commercially successful 35mm still camera, and its name—Leica, from “Leitz Camera”—evolved into the prestigious Leica brand under which the company now trades.

Connections

  • Iconic photojournalism: Histories of photography often note that the Leica I enabled candid “miniature” photography on 35mm film and that many famous 20th‑century images—Robert Capa’s Spanish Civil War pictures, the V‑J Day Times Square kiss, the “Napalm Girl,” and Alberto Korda’s Che Guevara portrait—were shot on Leica cameras, making the brand synonymous with decisive‑moment reportage.
  • Henri Cartier‑Bresson’s work: Profiles of Cartier‑Bresson describe how he adopted a Leica 35mm camera in the early 1930s, calling it an extension of his eye and using it for images like Behind the Gare Saint‑Lazare, a photograph taken with his portable Leica that became emblematic of street photography and is listed among Time’s most influential photos.
  • Camera‑geek and design media: Contemporary coverage of Leica’s high‑end digital cameras (such as the Leica Q3 Monochrom) and newly launched Monopan 50 35mm film emphasizes how the company trades on its 1925 heritage and enduring reputation for precision engineering and minimalist design, so tech and design readers frequently see Leica used as shorthand for luxury photography gear.
  • Museum and anniversary exhibits: Centenary retrospectives and museum collections (for example, the Science Museum Group’s Leica I, or Leica’s own “Century Time Travel” timeline) narrate how Oskar Barnack’s Ur‑Leica prototypes led to the Leica I and helped establish 35mm as the standard format for compact cameras, reinforcing the brand’s foundational role.

Sources

Question 6: Oscar Isaac’s Film Roles

Q6. FILM - Duke Leto Atreides, Poe Dameron, Dante Alighieri, and Victor Frankenstein are among the characters portrayed on film by what Guatemala-born actor?

Core fact:
Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada, known professionally as Oscar Isaac, is a Guatemalan‑born American actor (born in Guatemala City in 1979 and raised in the United States) who has played Duke Leto Atreides in Dune (2021), Resistance pilot Poe Dameron in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Dante Alighieri (alongside the writer Nick Tosches) in Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante, and Victor Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 film Frankenstein.

Connections

  • Franchise fandoms: Isaac’s turn as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker made him a major figure in Star Wars fandom; character pages and interviews repeatedly identify him as Guatemalan‑born and highlight his casting as a person of color in a flagship franchise.
  • Prestige sci‑fi and fantasy: In Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Isaac plays Duke Leto Atreides, head of House Atreides and father to Paul, giving him another high‑profile sci‑fi role widely discussed in reviews and awards coverage.
  • Festival and art‑house films: Trade coverage of In the Hand of Dante at the 2025 Venice Film Festival emphasizes that Isaac portrays both the 14th‑century poet Dante Alighieri and the contemporary writer Nick Tosches, making his dual role a key talking point in reviews and interviews.
  • Del Toro’s Frankenstein: Press releases, Netflix features, and festival reports for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein all foreground Isaac as Victor Frankenstein opposite Jacob Elordi’s Creature, so horror and awards‑season coverage has tied his name closely to this new interpretation of Mary Shelley’s novel.
  • Other pop‑culture roles: Isaac’s broader filmography—Inside Llewyn Davis, Ex Machina, X‑Men: Apocalypse, the Marvel series Moon Knight, the animated The Addams Family (where he voices Gomez), and the 2025 animated film The King of Kings where he voices Jesus—makes him a familiar face (and voice) across genres, so moviegoers might recognize him from several different contexts before linking all these quiz‑mentioned roles together.

Sources