Podcast Script

Welcome back to the LearnedLeague Study Guide podcast. This is your quick, post‑match companion to help you turn each match day into a little learning session.

I’ll walk you through all six questions from today’s match, talk about the answers, and give you just enough extra context so they really stick. If you want deeper dives, links, and sources, all of that is waiting for you in the study notes on our website at llstudyguide.com.

Let’s jump right into Question 1.

Question 1 asked:

Q1. BUS/ECON - What two-word Latin term, seven letters in total, is used in business and finance (and elsewhere) to denote a proportionate allocation according to one’s share of the whole? One example is in the distribution of dividends to shareholders.

The correct answer is: PRO RATA.

Pro rata is Latin for “in proportion.” In business, law, and finance, when something is allocated pro rata, everyone gets a slice that matches their share of the total. So if a company pays out a dividend and you own 1 percent of the shares, a pro rata distribution means you get 1 percent of the total money being paid.

You’ll also see this in everyday situations: a pro rata salary when you start mid‑year, or a pro rata refund for a subscription you cancel halfway through the month. In American English, we often turn it into a verb, “to prorate” something.

In terms of patterns to notice, this is a nice example of Latin phrases living on in modern professional jargon. Think of cousins like “per diem” for daily pay, “per capita” for per person, or “pro bono” for work done for free. Any time a question mentions shares of a whole, proportional fairness, or textbooky language like “in proportion to one’s share,” your mind should jump to pro rata. If you want to see worked examples of pro rata calculations, check the study notes on the website.

Alright, let’s move from finance to video games with Question 2.

Question 2 said:

Q2. GAMES/SPORT - The smash 2025 hit Wilds is the fastest-selling entry in what Capcom action RPG series, surpassing 2018’s World and 2021’s Rise?

The answer is: MONSTER HUNTER.

Wilds here is a subtitle, not a standalone game name. The full title is Monster Hunter Wilds. It’s part of Capcom’s long‑running action role‑playing franchise that started back in 2004. The basic loop in Monster Hunter is: you hunt huge monsters, you carve materials from them, you craft better gear, and then you go after even bigger monsters.

Monster Hunter: World in 2018 really broke the series into the Western mainstream, and Monster Hunter Rise followed in 2021. Monster Hunter Wilds, in 2025, launched even bigger, becoming Capcom’s fastest‑selling title ever.

From a trivia pattern perspective, there are a few hooks here:

First, franchise subtitles. Wilds, World, and Rise all follow the same naming pattern. The question leans on you recognizing that World and Rise are Monster Hunter games, so Wilds must belong to that same series.

Second, pay attention to the pairing of publisher and genre. “Capcom action RPG” should narrow you quickly. Capcom is also behind Resident Evil and Street Fighter, but those aren’t action RPG hunting games.

And third, LearnedLeague loves “fastest‑selling” or “best‑selling” superlatives as clues that anchor you to specific entries in a franchise. The study notes go into the sales numbers and how Wilds compares to World and Rise if you’re curious about the business side of gaming.

Let’s shift gears now from video games to 19th‑century technology with Question 3.

Question 3 was:

Q3. WORLD HIST - In 1877, one of the first telephones in a private residence, and reportedly the first phone line outside the United States, was installed at a summer palace in a town called Petrópolis, for an enthusiastic supporter of science and technology who was emperor of what country?

The correct answer: BRAZIL.

The emperor in question is Pedro the Second of Brazil. He was famously obsessed with science and technology. In 1876, he visited the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in the United States, tried Alexander Graham Bell’s experimental telephone, and was absolutely delighted. Not long after, in 1877, a telephone line was installed linking his summer palace in Petrópolis to other imperial properties. Local histories love to call this the first telephone line outside the U.S.

So if you recognized Petrópolis as a Brazilian mountain town that served as the imperial family’s summer residence, that was your direct road to Brazil. Even if you didn’t know that, the combination of “emperor,” “1877,” and “early adopter of technology” really narrows the list of monarchs, and Pedro the Second stands out.

There are a few useful patterns here:

One is geography hiding in place names. Petrópolis literally looks like a Portuguese‑style name, which should steer you toward Brazil or Portugal. That’s a trick you can use all over world history and geography questions.

Another is personality descriptions as clues. Phrases like “enthusiastic supporter of science and technology” are rarely throwaway lines in LearnedLeague. They’re pointing at specific rulers like Pedro the Second, or, in other contexts, someone like Japan’s Emperor Meiji or Prussia’s Frederick the Great.

And third, big expositions as tech milestones. The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition shows up in trivia as an early showcase for the telephone. If that rings a bell—no pun intended—you can connect exposition, telephone, Petrópolis, and Brazil. If you’d like more detail on the Petrópolis line and on Pedro the Second’s science hobbies, the study notes on the website have a deeper write‑up.

Let’s move from early telephones to big cinema sound with Question 4.

Question 4 read:

Q4. FILM - The “Deep Note”, a distinctive synthesized and deeply resonant crescendo that glissandos from a low rumble to a high pitch, was composed in 1983 by Lucasfilm sound engineer Dr. James A. Moorer. It serves as the audio trademark for what three-letter sound system certification?

The answer is: THX.

If you ever sat in a movie theater and heard that enormous, swelling chord before the movie started—the one that almost vibrates your seat—that’s the Deep Note. It was created in the early 1980s as the audio logo for THX, a certification system born at Lucasfilm.

THX is not a sound format like Dolby Digital or DTS. It’s a quality standard. The idea is: if a theater is THX‑certified, the audio and video system meet certain technical specs so films sound and look the way the creators intended. The Deep Note plays at the start of THX trailers as an audio trademark, instantly telling you, “this room meets the standard.”

A few patterns to lock in here:

First, the phrase “three‑letter sound system certification” is doing a ton of work. That directs you away from five‑letter “Dolby” and toward something like THX, which is explicitly a certification brand.

Second, the connection to Lucasfilm and the year 1983. That lines up with Return of the Jedi and the creation of THX, which was originally developed to ensure that Star Wars and other Lucasfilm movies were reproduced faithfully in theaters.

Third, sound logos in general. These are becoming more common as trivia fodder: the THX Deep Note, the Netflix “ta‑dum,” the Intel bong tones, and so on. Questions might describe the sound instead of naming it, so mentally pairing “Deep Note” with THX is worth doing. If you’re curious about how the Deep Note is synthesized and how many voices it uses, we’ve got a bit more audio geekery in the study notes.

Now we’ll hop from high‑tech audio to classic Japanese literature with Question 5.

Question 5 said:

Q5. LITERATURE - Makura no Sōshi, a miscellaneous literary collection detailing court life in 10th-century Japan by lady-in-waiting Sei Shōnagon, is most often translated as The [REDACTED] Book, indicating its origin as a personal bedside book, like a diary. What word is redacted?

The answer is: PILLOW.

Makura no Sōshi is better known in English as The Pillow Book. It’s an early 11th‑century work by Sei Shōnagon, who served at the Heian court. The book is a mix of lists, brief essays, gossip, observations, and little scenes from court life—a classic example of the Japanese “zuihitsu” or “random jottings” tradition.

The title comes from the idea of a notebook kept near the pillow, a private bedside book where you jot down thoughts and impressions. So the question’s hint about “a personal bedside book, like a diary” is basically spelling out pillow for you.

Here are a few patterns that are handy:

First, recognizing Heian‑period literature pairs. There are two really famous female writers from that court: Sei Shōnagon with The Pillow Book, and Murasaki Shikibu with The Tale of Genji. Pillow Book is miscellany and lists; Tale of Genji is a long narrative often called the world’s first novel. Keeping those straight will help you on a lot of literature questions.

Second, title translation puzzles. “Makura” means pillow, and “sōshi” is roughly notes, scroll, or book. So “The Pillow Book” really is a direct translation. If you recognize even a bit of that vocabulary, it’s enough to get you home.

Third, genres as context clues. The question calls it “a miscellaneous literary collection” and compares it to a diary. That’s a big nudge toward zuihitsu, and specifically The Pillow Book, which is the archetype of that style. If you want sample passages or more detail on the lists—things like “Hateful Things” and “Elegant Things”—check the study notes in the show notes on the website.

Finally, let’s wrap up with some military geography in Question 6.

Question 6 asked:

Q6. GEOGRAPHY - What location with roughly 6,500 permanent residents is the functional American institutional equivalent to Britain’s Sandhurst and France’s Saint-Cyr?

The answer is: WEST POINT.

West Point is a small community on the Hudson River in New York State, best known as the home of the United States Military Academy, or USMA. That academy is the U.S. Army’s four‑year service academy, where cadets are trained and educated before being commissioned as Army officers.

The question is really about institutions. Britain’s Sandhurst is the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the main initial officer training center for the British Army. France’s Saint‑Cyr is the École spéciale militaire de Saint‑Cyr, the main officer school for the French Army. The American counterpart to those is West Point.

The population clue—roughly 6,500 residents—tells you this is a tiny place dominated by a single installation, which is a nice confirmation once you’re thinking in the right direction.

There are a few recurring themes here:

First, metonymy: using place names to stand in for institutions. Just like people say “Sandhurst” to mean the British officer academy, or “Annapolis” to mean the U.S. Naval Academy, “West Point” means both the place and the academy.

Second, matching service academies across countries. In the U.S., West Point is Army, Annapolis is Navy, Colorado Springs is Air Force. If a question mentions Sandhurst or Saint‑Cyr, that’s the army lane, so you should follow that to West Point on the U.S. side.

Third, population hints. A lot of LearnedLeague geography questions give you a rough population that points to “small town built around one institution” rather than a big city. That’s a mental file worth keeping: campuses, military bases, national laboratories, and small capitals often show up this way. You can find more comparative notes on Sandhurst, Saint‑Cyr, and West Point in the study notes if you want to solidify that web of connections.

So, stepping back for a second, today’s match day had a nice through‑line: it was all about names that encode concepts. Latin phrases like pro rata, franchise subtitles like Wilds, royal place names like Petrópolis, three‑letter audio brands like THX, metaphorical titles like The Pillow Book, and locations that double as institutions, like West Point.

If you train yourself to unpack those names—spot the language, the time period, the domain—you’ll start seeing these clues a lot faster, not just in LearnedLeague but in any quiz setting.

If you’d like to go deeper on any of these topics, the full study notes for this match day are up at llstudyguide.com. We’ve got short explanations, extra facts, and links you can explore when you have time.

Thanks for listening, and for fitting a little learning into your day. Come back next match day and we’ll walk through the next set of questions together.

Until then, happy quizzing.