Quiz #48

Which Sesame Street character once hosted a children’s talk show on HBO Max called The Not-Too-Late Show?

Question 2

At the start of a game of chess, how many total pieces start on black squares?

Question 3

According to the digital law and policy journal Just Security, there are currently over 350 open lawsuits filed against actions taken by governing body, either individually or collectively?

Question 4

Although the winter solstice, December 21, is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, with London due to receive 7 hours, 49 minutes and 41 seconds of daylight in 2025, its sunset of 3.53pm will not be the earliest sunset of the year. Will the earliest sunset of the year, at 3.51pm in London, be in the days before or after the solstice?

Question 5

Although not currently formally recognised in a standard dictionary, what name is given to a person who eats meat – alongside other foodstuffs – but not seafood?

Question 6

In 2015, British high street bakery chain Greggs stopped selling what product in many of its stores?

Question 7

In 2021, drinks company Robinsons launched a ‘fruit and barley’ range of wellness drinks, in which barley is mixed with fruit squash flavours such as apple and pear, pink grapefruit, and summer fruits. What two single-fruit flavours of barley-based drinks did the company already sell – and still markets separately as ‘barley water’ – which were widely known from Robinsons’s sponsorship of the Wimbledon tennis championship between 1934 and 2022?

Question 8

The children’s television show Play School, which ran from 1964 to 1988 in the UK and was adapted into an Australian version which continues to be made, originally featured what three shapes of window, with viewers invited to guess ‘through’ which window the show was going each episode to see a filmed clip?

Question 9

Who are the four leaders of the so-called CRINK alliance, four autocratic countries deemed to be anti-west and which have been given the nicknames ‘the quartet of chaos’ and ‘axis of upheaval’? All four were present at some point during the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting and subsequent military parade held August 31-September 3.

Question 10

Make the longest word possible from the following letters: DEFGIILOR

Round 1 points
(Maximum: 24)

Round 2

Question 1

Often used in Jamaican jerk seasoning, what type of chilli pepper is so named because of its supposed resemblance to a form of hat?

Question 2

What event that lasted from 1845 to 1855 led to Ireland’s population falling from over 8m to approximately 6.5m?

Question 3

The addition of what sort of bread is one of the key differences between an English breakfast and an Irish breakfast?

Question 4

Described by The Times newspaper as ‘the most irritating slogan in the history of British transport’ – possibly due to some railway stations being found to announce it twice as often as required – what five word British Transport Police slogan is to receive a new logo, due to be rolled out across transport hubs across the next year?

Question 5

A former doctor and novice actor who had never previously been in a film, Haing S. Noor became the first – and so far only – person from which Asian country to win an Oscar when he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1985 for his portrayal of real-life journalist and interpreter Dith Pran?

Question 6

Coin slot, Torx, Bristol, Robertson, and Phillips are all types of what?

Question 7

Prompted by Russian drones entering their airspace, which two members of NATO have activated Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty in September, which asks that NATO member nations meet to discuss security threats without triggering an automatic military response?

Question 8

Who were the three presenters of the motoring television series The Grand Tour, shown on Amazon Prime Video, who had previously presented the BBC show Top Gear before one was dismissed for getting into a physical fight with a producer after finding there was no hot food available at the hotel in which they were staying?

Question 9

What are the five possible calls a player may make during a round of betting in a poker hand?

Question 10

Based on global sales income, the top five selling prescription drugs sold in 2024 were Keytruda, Eliquis, Ozempic, Dupixent, and Biktarvy – or, by scientific name, pembrolizumab, apixaban, semaglutide, dupilumab, and a combination of bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide. What five different medical issues do these drugs target?

Round 2 points
(Maximum: 21)

Total points
(Maximum: 45)

Round 3

Question 1

Planned by engineer Thomas Telford and taking its name from the Roman word for western and central Scotland, what is the name of the cross-country canal that stretches from Corpach, outside Fort William on Scotland’s Atlantic coast, to Inverness on its North Sea coast?

Question 2

Which famous English situation comedy, of which only twelve episodes were made, was first broadcast on September 19, 1975?

Question 3

In 1971 one of the largest mass evacuations in human history saw 10m people move to avoid a conflict that would eventually lead to the formation of what nation?

Question 4

Reports of extreme animal cruelty on the set of 1980 film Heaven’s Gate, including blowing up a horse with dynamite, disemboweling cows, decapitating chickens, and staging genuine cockfights, are believed to have been the catalyst for better animal protection on film sets and the appearance of what line in film credits?

Question 5

What animal-friendly architectural feature is recorded as having existed at Chetham’s Library in Manchester since medieval times, and at Exeter Cathedral since 1598, while a Grade-1 listed example is located in Oxford University’s Oriel College and one carved into the 15th-century Madonna della Gattaiola painting can be found at the Church of San Giorgio in Tuscany?

Question 6

Developed by 18th-century geologist James Hutton, what two-word term is used to describe geological time far beyond human experience, incorporating aspects such as the formation of the celestial objects and evolution on earth?

Question 7

Which two men, via their lawyers, both filed patents for the invention of the telephone on February 14, 1876, and have been the subject of a lasting debate over which is the true inventor, with speculation that the man generally credited with the invention actually stole elements of the design from the other?

Question 8

Which three male footballers have been top scorers in the top division of English football – now the Premier League, and previously the First Division – in consecutive seasons but for different teams – that is to say the player finished top scorer, was transferred, and finished top scorer again in their first season with their new club? One instance was 1984-85 and 1985-86, the second was 1995-96 and 1996-97, and the third was 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Question 9

What are the four main airline alliances operating in the world as of 2025, three of which each serve over 1000 destinations, plus a fourth which operates solely around the Indian Ocean and is named for a spice grown in the area?

Question 10

What five films directed by Christopher Nolan have had the highest box office takings – with two of the five being part of a franchise trilogy?

Round 3 points
(Maximum: 20)

Total points
(Maximum: 65)

Round 4

Question 1

The repetition of what single word completes this quote attributed to Henry James: “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be ___; the second is to be ___; and the third is to be ___.”

Question 2

Which American boxer defeated Canelo Álvarez on September 13 to claim all four super middleweight title belts, and thus became the first man since 1938 to have been undisputed champion in three different weight classes?

Question 3

One of the world’s great lost treasure mysteries, the decadent 17^th-century room of the Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg that was dismantled by Nazi soldiers but then lost during World War II was named for which colour, a reference to the shade of its walls on which gold and mirrors were placed?  

Question 4

What is the only US state capital that does not share any letters with the name of the state for which it is the capital?

Question 5

Although anecdotal evidence of their existence had existed for hundreds of years, on January 1, 1995, the Draupner Platform in the North Sea was the first place to record with scientific instruments what ocean phenomenon?

Question 6

What element within a wave determines the sound it makes when breaking?

Question 7

In physiology, Lombard’s paradox is when two muscles that are usually an antagonistic pair – meaning one relaxes when the other tenses – both tense at the same time. What two antagonistic leg muscles form a Lombard paradox when a person stands up from a sitting position?

Question 8

In the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, what are the three names – all common Russian names – of the Brothers Karamazov?

Question 9

Who were the four original members of rap group Public Enemy, who had wide success in the late 1980s and 1990s with songs including Don’t Believe the Hype and Fight the Power, and whose album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was number 15 in Rolling Stone magazines latest Best Albums of All Time list?

Question 10

The extant flying birds with a wingspan of over 3m belong to the genera Diomedea, Pelecanus, Vultur, Leptoptilos, Aegypius, Gyps, Cygnus, and Gymnogyps. As the members of Aegypius and Gyps are commonly referred to by the same name, as are the members of Vultur and Gymnogyps, by what six names are these types of birds commonly known?

Round 4 points
(Maximum: 21)

Total points
(Maximum: 86)

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.

On the banks of which river are the following places located?

Clue 1

Clue 2

Clue 3

Clue 4

Clue 5

Clue 6

Clue 7

Clue 8

Clue 9

Clue 10

Round 5 points
(Maximum: 96)

Total points
(Maximum: 98)