Rare Metals, Strange Words, and Well-Dressed Teen Minions: Take Thursday’s Quiz

Photograph: Illumination Entertainment/AP

It’s the seventh day of the seventh month, and what better way to celebrate than by taking a quiz written by the seventh son of a seventh son? Unfortunately, we don’t have one of those, so you’ll have to settle for the normal Thursday quiz. Fifteen vaguely topical and general knowledge questions with a few jokes along the way. You’ll meet Ron from Sparks, Kate Bush, and of course you’ve got a hidden Doctor Who reference to spot. There are no prizes. It’s just for fun. Please don’t check the facts.

Thursday’s contest, nº 63

1. BOBSPEED YOU GENTLEMINIONS – Teenagers are being shunned from the movies for dressing too fancy as part of the baffling #Gentleminions trend, but what’s the correct name of the movie they’re trying to watch?

   1. Minions: Gru’s Threat

   2. Minions: Gru’s Awakening

   3. Minions: Gru’s Revenge

   4. Minions: The Rise of Gru

2. 

   WE’RE OUT OF CASH, SORRY: What central bank of an African nation is introducing a new gold coin called the Mosi-oa-Tunya, named after the famous waterfall that also bears the colonial name of Victoria Falls?

   1. Zambia

   2. Botswana

   3. Zimbabwe

   4. malawi

3. 

   X MARKS THE PLACE: What is on offer for young people in Japan this week to encourage them to stand for election?

   1. free noodles

   2. A free pet goldfish

   3. free pens

   4. free condoms

4. 

   MONA HAMMOND: Described as a ‘trailblazer’ and ‘trailblazer’, we lost Mona Hammond this week. Her best known role was that of Blossom Jackson in EastEnders, but what was the name of the Channel 4 sitcom that she starred in as Aunt SuSu?

   1. No problem!

   2. The Fosters

   3. Cook!

   4. desmond

5. 

   APPLIED MATHEMATICS, BUT TO PIZZA: A thread about the relative areas of pizza went viral on Twitter last week. Which of these purchases gives you the most pizza per area?

   1. Buy a 10″ pizza

   2. Buying two 8″ pizzas

   3. Buying three 6″ pizzas

6. 

   GCSE SCIENCE CORNER: Which of these metals can be found abundantly on planet earth in its elemental metallic state?

   1. Lithium

   2. Prayed

   3. Potassium

   4. Calcium

7. 

   WHY THE LONG FACE?: Black Beauty was an instant success when it was published in 1877 and is considered a forerunner of the ‘pony book’ genre. But who wrote it?

   1. anna sewell

   2. Nesbit

   3. Gwendoline Pritchard

   4. Enid Blyton

8. 

   STRANGE WORDS: According to the Collins Online English Dictionary, what does ‘octothorp’ mean?

   1. A symbol used in printing, mathematics, and commonly on a telephone keypad, also known as the hash sign.

   2. A term used in heraldry for a double four-leaf clover.

   3. A word used in bookbinding as another term for eighteen months.

   4. A spinning machine for wool or cotton in which eight fibers are continuously twisted and wound

9. 

   THE DICTATOR’S SON: That’s a 2015 song with Sparks where one day he’ll “return with a rogue force.” But that is not important now. Ferdinand Marcos Jr praised his dictator father as he was sworn in as president of the Philippines. In what year was his father deposed?

   1. 1978

   2. 1986

   3. 1991

   4. 1999

10. 

    FERRIC RUST: What, according to a leaked report this week, is riddled with rust and in need of repair?

    1. Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, USA

    2. Eiffel Tower in Paris, France

    3. Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    4. Ronald Mael in Sparks

11. 

    EURO 2022: The Uefa women’s European football championship has started in England. The Netherlands are the reigning champions. But in what year was the first official UEFA Women’s Championship final held?

    1. 1968

    2. 1978

    3. 1984

    4. 1992

12. 

    1966 AND ALL THAT: A series of non-soccer questions ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which will take place in a country that won’t be safe for LGBTQ+ fans. The 1938 FIFA World Cup was held in France. But which of these is the original title of the French national anthem before it became known as La Marseillaise?

    1. Chant de guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin (War Song for the Army of the Rhine)

    2. La Madelon (I will be faithful to the whole regiment)

    3. Le Régiment de Sambre et Meuse (Sambre-et-Meuse Regiment)

    4. Marche Lorraine (March of Lorraine)

13. 

    MANET OR MONET: Who painted this?

    1. Edouard Manet

    2. Claude Monet

14. 

    ALLONS-Y: The Wikivoyage website lists 23 places visited by the fictional Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days, none of them by hot air balloon. Number 23 is Liverpool, England. In 2008 it was named as what?

    1. The UK’s green champion eco-city

    2. A UNESCO world heritage site

    3. European Capital of Culture

    4. The new home of the Canal 4 television channel

15. 

    THIS WOMAN’S WORK: Kate Bush’s two well-deserved UK No. 1 singles were 44 years apart. But which of these pairs of events was also separated by 44 years?

    1. The Suez Crisis sees Israel, the UK and France invade Egypt, and the impeachment trial of US President Bill Clinton ends in acquittal.

    2. The Suez Crisis causes Israel, the UK, and France to invade Egypt, and the launch of Apple’s iTunes software

    3. The Suez Crisis sees Israel, the UK and France invade Egypt, and the crash of Concorde Air France Flight 4590, which takes place shortly after takeoff in Paris.

    4. The Suez Crisis causes Israel, the United Kingdom, and France to invade Egypt, and Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Golden Jubilee.

the story continues

Solutions

1:D: The kids dress up in formal clothes, go to see the movie, and then chatter like the minions themselves would. The minions’ official TikTok account seemed to encourage the trend, sending “Bobspeed you gentleminions” messages at one point. , 2:C – Zimbabwe’s central bank will start selling gold coins this month as a store of value to control runaway inflation, which has significantly weakened the local currency. The coins can be converted into cash and traded locally and internationally, the central bank said. , 4:D – Desmond’s was broadcast on Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994 and at 71 episodes is among the channel’s longest-running sitcoms. Her character’s real name was Doreen Wilma Pleshette, 5:B. Kind of like 12″ singles used to give you more music than one 7″, two 8″ pizzas will give you about 100 square inches of pizza area. The 10″ pizza gives you about 78 square inches, and three 6″ pizzas will give you a little more than that, about 84 square inches. A pizza sold as ‘an ancient Sumerian elbow’ would be the largest by far, 6 :B – Potassium is dissolved in water and is a common component of granites and other igneous rocks. Lithium is found in ocean water, and calcium is found primarily as calcium carbonate and in limestone. Gold, interestingly enough, is lying around , 7:A – It was Anna Sewell, who sadly died a few months after publication and thus never got to see how beloved her book became, 8:A – In fact, it’s another name for the humble symbol # or hashtag, 9:B – Corazon Aquino ended the two-decade rule of President Ferdinand Marco s in the People Power Revolution in February 1986. You I can tell by the look on his face that Ron thinks you should have known, 10: B-When it was completed in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was expected to last 20 years before being dismantled. One hundred and 33 years later, the tower is still standing, but conservation work planned for the 2024 Olympics has been delayed, 11:C – Sweden beat England on penalties in the first official final, which was played over two legs in 1984. There were arguably two previous competitions that could be considered precursors but are not considered official because they were not sanctioned by UEFA. They took place in 1969 and 1979, 12:A – The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after France declared war on Austria. It gets its nickname La Marseillaise after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching towards the capital. The image, by the way, is from the 1938 World Cup semi-final, where Hungary beat Sweden 5-1, 13:A. That’s The Masquerade Ball at Édouard Manet’s 1873 opera. It’s hanging in the National Gallery. in Washington DC, who say that Manet painted several of his friends, including prominent writers, artists and musicians, and even included himself in the crowded scene, 14:C-He shared the honor with Norway’s Stavanger. Attractions in Liverpool that year included a Gustav Klimt exhibition, a tall ship race, a huge mechanical spider dubbed The Princess, and Ringo Starr of the Beatles performing live on top of St George’s Hall, 15:C – The Crisis from Suez was in 1956. The Concorde had an operational life of 27 years and commercial service was resumed after the accident on July 25, 2000, but in 2003 all Concordes were retired.

scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun, let us know how it went in the comments!

• If you think there has been a glaring mistake in one of the questions or answers, feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember, the word of the quiz master is always final, and you get enough trolling already. . .