Quiz #26
Quizzical education
Hello. Today’s quiz is a few hours later than desired due to having to do some other work. In a perfect world work would not interfere with quizzing.
This week’s effort should hopefully be straightforward, although it does finish with a ‘guess the year’ question, which I am led to believe is much hated by proper quizzers (everyone knows roughly when things happen, but the exact year, not so much).
Here is the link to the version with the answers:
Now, onwards to the questions, starting with the chance to pick up some cheap points in Round 1.
Round 1
Question 1
On a regular six-sided playing die, what is the sum of any two opposite sides - that is, the total when adding the dots on two opposite sides?
Answer:
1 point
Question 2
At the 2025 World Snooker Championship, ten of the 32 competitors come from which Asian country which has never had a world champion in the sport but has around 60 million active players?
Answer:
1 point
Question 3
What claymation children’s TV franchise originally saw one co-creator reticent to make the central character a penguin because he had already made a bunch of sea lions - although that sea lion shape did appear in the main character’s best friend, Robby the seal?
Answer:
1 point
Question 4
On April 17, TV channel Peacock announced it is developing a television series based on which 1995 high school comedy film, with Alicia Silverstone - now 48 - set to reprise the role of Cher Horowitz thirty years after it made her famous?
Answer:
1 point
Question 5
Easter Sunday 2025 fell on April 20, a date also associated with consuming what drug in US counter culture, reportedly due to a group of high school students in the 1970s meeting at 4.20pm to consume it?
Answer:
1 point
Question 6
The name of which dinosaur translates from Greek to English as ‘roofed lizard’ due to palaeontologist Othniel Marsh believing the plates on its back overlapped like roof tiles?
Answer:
1 point
Question 7
What two Welsh teams have played in the top flight of the English football league?
Answer:
2 points
Question 8
What are the respective symbolic national flowers for the four countries of the UK?
Answer:
4 points
Question 9
In education, for what five subject areas does the acronym STEAM stand?
Answer:
5 points
Question 10
Make the longest word possible from the following letters: AAGILLORT
Answer:
Up to 9 points
(*length of word equates to points awarded)
Round 1 points
(Maximum: 26)
Round 2
Question 1
At a panel discussion on the future of education held on April 8, a misunderstanding of how to read its common initialism led US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to repeatedly refer to artificial intelligence by the name of what leading steak sauce brand - including saying that kindergarten children could soon be studying it?
Answer:
1 point
Question 2
What Australian organisation, with tourist visitors experiences in Darwin, Alice Springs, Dubbo, Broken Hill, and Charleville, was founded in Cloncurry in rural Queensland in 1928 by Rev. John Flynn?
Answer:
1 point
Question 3
What colour completes the title of the influential video game compilation released by Valve in 2007, which included the hit games Half Life 2 and Portal: The _____Box?
Answer:
1 point
Question 4
Used as the logo of the sportswear brand he later founded, what was the nickname of the French tennis player Jean Lacoste?
Answer:
1 point
Question 5
In Greek mythology, Arachne was turned into a spider after defeating the goddess Athena in what type of contest?
Answer:
1 point
Question 6
Connected in a south-north line within the south of the country, Beja, Évora, and Santarém are the three largest geographic areas of which European nation?
Answer:
1 point
Question 7
Which two England international footballers’ wives were involved in the so-called ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel case, described by one journalist as ‘the most ill-advised defamation case since Oscar Wilde filed a libel suit against a man who called him a “posing sodomite.”’?
Answer:
2 points
Question 8
In which cities did the two official Live Aid concerts take place on July 13, 1985?
Answer:
2 point
Question 9
Who are currently the five people next in the line of succession to the UK throne?
Answer:
5 points
Question 10
What are the eight extant species of bear?
Answer:
8 points
Round 2 points
(Maximum: 23)
Total points
(Maximum: 49)
Round 3
Question 1
From 1998 to 2003, the ‘Great War of Africa’ saw militaries and armed groups from at least eight African nations engage in conflict in which present day country, with the fighting and attached infrastructure destruction resulting in three to five million deaths?
Answer:
1 point
Question 2
Director Tony Kaye said of his 1993 music video to ‘Runaway Train’ by US band Soul Asylum: ‘I’d argue it was the single most important thing that happened in the history of MTV’. The video featured 36 pictures of what, later adapted for UK and Australia releases, and followed a lead started by dairies in Des Moines in 1984?
Answer:
1 point
Question 3
The Skeleton Coast, famously littered with shipwrecks, sits on the edge of which desert?
Answer:
1 point
Question 4
With a circumference of 42m, ‘El Árbol del Tule’ is the broadest known tree in the world. A Montezuma cypress, in what country is it situated?
Answer:
1 point
Question 5
On 38 occasions since 2014, satirical website The Onion has published a near-identical article with the headline ‘'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens’. What recurring event in the US prompts each republishing of the article?
Answer:
1 point
Question 6
US band The Lemonheads, Barbadian singer Shontelle, and American singer Chelsea Cutler have all released songs in which they describe wearing what item of clothing belonging to an ex-partner?
Answer:
1 point
Question 7
On April 7 the price of stamps in the UK went up for the sixth time in a little over three years. How much do a first- and second-class stamp now cost?
Answer:
2 points
Question 8
What are the only two film sequels to have won the Academy Award for Best Film?
Answer:
2 points
Question 9
Although there is some variation - usually for the summer quadrant - what are the four ingredients used to represent the four seasons on a quattro stagioni pizza?
Answer:
4 points
Question 10
In the US stock market, which high-performing technology companies make up the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’?
Answer:
7 points
Round 3 points
(Maximum: 21)
Total points
(Maximum: 70)
Round 4
Question 1
In astrophysics, a Lagrange point is the point at which a celestial body finds equilibrium between the gravitational influence of two larger celestial bodies, thus keeping it at a constant distance between these objects. How many Langrange points exist in the gravitational relationship between the sun and Earth?
Answer:
1 point
Question 2
Which English palace is said to be haunted by the ghosts The Spectre of the Silverstick Stairs and The Scream Queen, believed to be Jane Seymour and Catherine Howard, the third and fifth wives of Henry VIII?
Answer:
1 point
Question 3
‘She had a heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad’ and ‘I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together’ are lines from which 19th century poem about a vindictive duke showing a visitor a painting of his former wife?
Answer:
1 point
Question 4
Known as 赤眉 (Chìméi) in Chinese, a 1st century rebellion against the Xin dynasty saw peasants paint what feature of their face red in order to better distinguish their own side on the field of battle?
Answer:
1 point
Question 5
To what items on men’s clothing does the ‘sometimes, always, never’ rule apply - although the rule is perhaps not as traditional as some advocates suggest, as it is believed to have started because Edward VII was too fat?
Answer:
1 point
Question 6
What household object was invented by magnetron engineer Percy Spencer, supposedly after he began investigating why his and colleagues’ chocolate bars kept melting? The investigation also included ‘popping’ corn and exploding an egg.
Answer:
1 point
Question 7
As a result of their parents’ marriage uniting the two families, the actresses Kate Mara and Rooney Mara are the great-granddaughters of the founders of which two NFL teams? The teams have ten Super Bowl titles between them and are both still owned by the families.
Answer:
2 points
Question 8
In the Book of Matthew in the Bible, in the passage commonly referred to as the three temptations, what were the three actions Satan asked Jesus to do during his 40 days in the wilderness that are said to have tempted him to break his devotion to God?
Answer:
3 points
Question 9
What are the four drums - one of which there are two - within a common five piece drum kit?
Answer:
4 points
Question 10
What are the seven types of jump in the sport of figure skating?
Answer:
7 points
Round 4 points
(Maximum: 22)
Total points
(Maximum: 92)
Round 5
In Round 5, there is only one answer. The less clues you need to get it, the more points you receive. If you need only one clue, you receive 10 points; if you require two clues, you will receive 9 points, and so on.
However, you may only answer once. If you answer incorrectly, you receive zero points for the round.
In what year did the following events all occur?
Clue 1 (10 points)
The Large Hadron Collider is officially launched.
Clue 2 (9 points)
Kosovo unilaterally declares its independence from Serbia.
Clue 3 (8 points)
An unidentified individual by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto launches Bitcoin.
Clue 4 (7 points)
Grand Theft Auto IV earns over $300m on its first day of release, making it the highest grossing launch of an entertainment product in history.
Clue 5 (6 points)
Novak Djokovic wins the Australian Open, claiming his first grand slam title, and Venus Williams wins her fifth Wimbledon, her seventh and final grand slam title.
Clue 6 (5 points)
Spain wins the European Championship, starting a run of three major tournament wins in row (it follows the success with victory at the World Cup and then retaining the European Championship).
Clue 7 (4 points)
An earthquake in Sichuan, China kills over 85000 people, nine days after Cyclone Nargis kills 130000 people in Myanmar.
Clue 8 (3 points)
Usain Bolt wins gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay at the Beijing Olympics, setting world records in the finals of each event.
Clue 9 (2 points)
Barack Obama is elected President of the United States of America, defeating John McCain in the presidential election.
Clue 10 (1 point)
A global financial crisis starts when, within the space of one week, the US Government is forced to rescue mortgage organisations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Bank of America buyouts the collapsing investment firm Merrill Lynch, and investment bank Lehman Brothers collapses.
Answer:
Round 5 points
(Maximum: 10)
Total points
(Maximum: 102)
If you are particularly proud of your score, do let me know. If not, more questions will be along soon. In the meantime, the share and subscribe buttons are below, and enjoy the rest of your Easter.
