HomeNewsMountain records, bartered art and brand new doctors – take the Thursday quiz

Mountain records, bartered art and brand new doctors – take the Thursday quiz

May 13, 2022

Welcome to the Thursday quiz, where each stab at humour is “even less funny than previous risible attempts” according to one satisfied customer in the comments the other week. You face 15 questions on topical news and general knowledge, with a side-serving of sarcasm and in-jokes. There are no prizes but let us know how you got on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 55

1.DOCTOR NEW: Ncuti Gatwa will take over from Jodie Whittaker as the Time Lord in Doctor Who. In which Netflix series does he star as Eric Effiong?

2.ART FOR ART’S SAKE: Irene Demas and her husband Tony, from Ontario, look set to be able to retire after putting up for auction a painting that they swapped with an artist for what in the 1970s?

3.FERAL HOGS: We regret to inform you that the wild boars of Rome have been at it again. What have been forbidden in a large swathe of northern Rome to help people avoid contact with the animals?

4.GCSE SCIENCE CORNER: What does a potometer measure?

5.LITERATURE: George Elliot’s Middlemarch is set between 1829 and 1832. But when was it first published?

6.AMATEUR HOUR: That is a 1974 Sparks song where she’ll let you know ‘when you turn pro’. But that’s not important right now. A Virgin Atlantic transatlantic flight had to turn back last week after what amateur shenanigans happened on board?

7.IT’S A DOG’S LIFE: A Massachusetts family got a surprise when they found a stray puppy and brought it home. What did it turn out to be?

8.ROAD SIGNS AROUND THE WORLD: This road sign from Brazil means what?

9.FIBONACCI NUMBERS: First described in Indian mathematics, and forming a sequence where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, F₁₂ is 144. But 144 is the square of which number?

10.CITIES IN DISGUISE: Which city in north-east England is based around settlements formerly known as Pons Aelius and Munucceaster, which is sometimes modernised as Monkchester?

11.WHY THE LONG FACE?: A standard 40m x 20m dressage arena has which letters clockwise around the edge of the arena, starting with the entrance?

12.HEAD FOR HEIGHTS: John Kelly, a 37-year-old data scientist, broke the record for scaling all Wainwright fells in the Lake District in five and a half days. How many are there?

13.ALLONS-Y: The website Wikivoyage lists 23 locations visited by fictional Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days, none of them by hot air balloon. Number 15 is Salt Lake City, Utah, US. But which year did Salt Lake City host the Winter Olympics?

14.ENSEMBLE CASTS: What is the name of the two old guys in the balcony who are always heckling Fozzie Bear in The Muppet Show?

15.MUSIC: Which artist celebrated their 60th birthday this week by putting £1,000 behind the bar for fans in 60 different pubs?

  • If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and you don’t want him to release the hounds.

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Erica Wang