Hello to all and August.
This week I hosted a pub quiz on South Uist, which was fun. Fun enough that nobody booed and I have been invited to do so again next month.
But as this isn’t South Uist or next month, let us do some questions here and now.
Firstly, the version of the quiz which contains the answers is, as always, stored over at the AB51 Quiz website, which is reached by pressing this big button:
For those wishing to continue without the answers, on we go to the easiest round, Round 1.
Round 1
Question 1
In the children’s nursery rhyme, to which English city did Dr Foster travel?
Answer:
1 point
Question 2
What item on the menu of fast food outlet McDonald’s is manufactured in four shapes, called the bell, the boot, the ball, and the bone, supposedly to make them easier for dunking?
Answer:
1 point
Question 3
Filmmaker Malia Ann, who made the 2023 short film The Heart and was a staff writer on the Donald Glover series Swarm, is the daughter of which former US President?
Answer:
1 point
Question 4
Sad Cypress, Five Little Pigs, Cat Among the Pigeons, and And Then There Were None are amongst the novels written by which English murder mystery writer?
Answer:
1 point
Question 5
What number between 0 and 9 requires the use of an umlaut when written in German?
Answer:
1 point
Question 6
In 1976, in the first example of using a computer to prove a mathematical theorem, mathematicians Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken showed that the minimum number of colours needed to create a map in which no two adjacent territories used the same colour was how many?
Answer:
1 point
Question 7
Both over 200km long, Eighty Mile Beach and Praia do Cassino have claims to being the longest uninterrupted sandy beach in the world. In which two countries, both famous for sandy shores, are these two beaches?
Answer:
2 points
Question 8
All three-letter acronyms, all containing the letters B and C, what were the three most watched television networks in the US in 2024?
Answer:
3 points
Question 9
In his 2025 self-help bestseller ‘The Five Types of Wealth’, content creator Sahil Bloom presents methods for readers to get ‘rich’ in what five different life areas in order to ‘design your dream life’?
Answer:
5 points
Question 10
Make the longest word possible from the following letters: AEILMNOOT
Answer:
Up to 9 points
(*length of word equates to points awarded)
Round 1 points
(Maximum: 25)
Round 2
Question 1
The two main offices of what agency are based at opposite corners of the British Isles, with a £80m purpose-made building in Exeter and an office in Dyce in Aberdeen, which in turn are complemented by over 200 manned and unmanned stations across the country plus 18 more observation points offshore?
Answer:
1 point
Question 2
Which European city served as home to both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven during their lives, although it is unclear whether they ever met?
Answer:
1 point
Question 3
What collective name is given to the 30000km of roads that connect Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to Ushuaia in Argentina?
Answer:
1 point
Question 4
In wool processing and wholesale, what simple descriptive term is used to describe raw sheep wool that has not been washed or treated, the term relating to the presence of oils and suint (sheep sweat)?
Answer:
1 point
Question 5
In literature, musical theatre, and film, who was prisoner 24601?
Answer:
1 point
Question 6
According to Christian folklore, what animal has a cross marking on its back due to it being present at the crucifixion of Jesus, with the shadow of the cross marking its back as a sign of its loyalty?
Answer:
1 point
Question 7
The traditional sweet-and-sour syrup acetomel is a combination of what two other liquids commonly used in cooking?
Answer:
2 points
Question 8
What are the three components of the Canadian dish poutine?
Answer:
3 point
Question 9
What are generally considered to the be the four sections in an orchestra - although other instruments, such as keyboards, can be added?
Answer:
4 points
Question 10
Although several of his works have titles that include surnames, what are the six first names - all male - that appear in the titles of novels by Charles Dickens?
Answer:
6 points
Round 2 points
(Maximum: 21)
Total points
(Maximum: 46)
Round 3
Question 1
Composer Gustav Holst’s classical suite The Planets consists of seven movements. Which planet in the solar system was not given a movement?
Answer:
1 point
Question 2
What is the name given to the long-term relationship between two living organisms of separate species, usually with mutual benefit, as seen in the relationship between insects and particular plants, or clown fish and sea anemones?
Answer:
1 point
Question 3
Known as boto in Portuguese, the river dolphins of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers of South America are most associated with being what colour, a colour that becomes darker and more distinct as they age?
Answer:
1 point
Question 4
In English law, the 1977 case Miller v Jackson ruled that a local club playing what form of sport was negligent and liable for its repeated sending of balls into a neighbour’s garden?
Answer:
1 point
Question 5
Which country is estimated to produce over 90 per cent of the world’s saffron crop, but loses on much of the supply chain profit due to sanctions and smuggling, with the product often repackaged as coming from Turkey, Afghanistan, or Spain?
Answer:
1 point
Question 6
Musician Joe Hisaishi and The Royal Shakespeare Company are the co-producers of what stage show that has been running in London since 2022 and was adapted from a Japanese animation film for which Hisaishi wrote the original score? In 2023 the show led all productions when it picked up six Olivier Awards and five WhatsOnStage Awards.
Answer:
1 point
Question 7
The French Revolution of 1848 was named for which month, in which it occurred? And by what month of the year was the monarchy it removed known due to its own earlier victory over republicans in 1830?
Answer:
2 points
Question 8
After initial diplomatic efforts had failed when the Netherlands refused to sign the 1831 Treaty of the Eighteen Articles, the 1839 Treaty of London created formal independence for which two western European nations - albeit one of the newly recognised nations lost over half its territory to the other newly recognised nation?
Answer:
2 points
Question 9
Since the English Premier League was founded in 1992, who are the only four managers - none of whom are English - to have won the competition more than once?
Answer:
4 points
Question 10
What are the five largest whale species in the world?
Answer:
5 points
Round 3 points
(Maximum: 19)
Total points
(Maximum: 65)
Round 4
Question 1
Due to large producers such as the US, China, and India mostly selling their product to their internal market, and Europe having multiple nations within a short distance, 12 of the top 13 ice cream exporters in the world are European. Which country is the largest ice cream exporter, as well as the second largest importer?
Answer:
1 point
Question 2
Legend says that Greek dramatist Aeschylus was killed in the 5th century BC when a lammergeier - or bearded vulture - dropped what type of animal from the sky onto his head, mistaking the man for a rock?
Answer:
1 point
Question 3
What metamorphic rock, generally seen with coloured banding, follows the words Acasta, Lewisian, and Peninsular in the names of ancient rock formations in Canada, the UK, and India? It also follows Facoidal to refer to a type of ‘heritage’ stone used to build much of Rio de Janeiro, as defined by the International Commission on Geoheritage in 2024?
Answer:
1 point
Question 4
Which French composer, father to another famous French musician, won three Academy Awards for Best Original Score, all for films directed by David Lean: Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and a Passage to India?
Answer:
1 point
Question 5
What is the name of the fictional company from which the Warner Brothers cartoon character Wile E. Coyote purchases outlandish gadgets to aid his attempts to capture Roadrunner - only for the devices or his plans to inevitably backfire?
Answer:
1 point
Question 6
What country has the longest total coastline in Asia?
Answer:
1 point
Question 7
Before 1966, the leader of China’s Communist Party, Mao Zedong, celebrated five ‘red’ categories - namely workers, peasants, soldiers, party members, and martyrs - while attacking five ‘black’ categories: landlords, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries, right wingers, and ‘bad elements’ (criminals). With the start of the Cultural Revolution, which ran from 1966 to 1976, four further categories were added to the black list - two were the vague catch-all terms ‘spies’ and ‘traitors’, alongside which other two more specific groups deemed enemies of the revolution?
Answer:
2 points
Question 8
At the Ryder Cup golf competition played every two years between Europe and the US, what are the three types of matchplay in which players compete?
Answer:
3 points
Question 9
Who are the four different artists or musical acts that have taken the song Unchained Melody, written by Alex North and Hy Zaret, to number 1 in the UK singles chart? The years of topping the charts were 1955, the year it was first released; 1990, when it was used in the film Ghost; 1995, when it was recorded by two actors who had been signed by record executive Simon Cowell; and 2002, when it was released by the runner-up in the inaugural series of talent show Pop Idol, again under the management of Simon Cowell.
Answer:
4 points
Question 10
The January 1990 cover of British Vogue magazine, shot by Peter Lindbergh, is often cited as the beginning of the 1990s supermodels era. Which five models appeared on the cover, alongside the heading ‘The 1990s: What Next?’?
Answer:
5 points
Round 4 points
(Maximum: 20)
Total points
(Maximum: 85)
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 which city are the following places all located?
Clue 1 (10 points)
NEMO Science Museum
Clue 2 (9 points)
Natura Artis Magistra
Clue 3 (8 points)
Jordaan
Clue 4 (7 points)
A’DAM Lookout
Clue 5 (6 points)
Vondelpark
Clue 6 (5 points)
Royal Concertgebouw
Clue 7 (4 points)
Rijksmuseum
Clue 8 (3 points)
Schiphol Airport
Clue 9 (2 points)
Anne Frank House
Clue 10 (1 point)
Van Gogh Museum
Answer:
Round 5 points
(Maximum: 10)
Total points
(Maximum: 95)
好了. That is today’s quiz all done.
I hope you scored well, or at least defeated any previous effort or workplace adversary.
Should you desire to press more buttons, the share and subscribe buttons are below, alongside the PDF version of the questions.
But until next time: bye bye everybody.
