The Christmas quiz 2024
Test your grasp of current affairs and general knowledge with our festive quiz
How closely have you followed the news in 2024? And how's your general knowledge? Test yourself now – answers at the bottom…
Looking back on 2024
1. The Belfast-based shipyard that built the Titanic went into administration in September. Name it.
2. Whose resignation in January sent Liverpool fans into a tailspin?
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3. Which American was accused this year of "betraying the values that our father and family hold most dear"?
4. Samantha Harvey won this year's Booker Prize with her novel "Orbital". Where is it set?
5. Who published a memoir/manifesto entitled "Ten Years to Save the West"?
6. The former wife of a Beatle put her "love-triangle letters" up for auction in March. Who were the members of that love triangle?
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7. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from prison in June, as a result of a plea deal with the US. In which jail had he been held for the previous five years?
8. Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles won three Olympic golds in Paris this year. What was the name of the condition that had forced her to withdraw from the Tokyo Games in 2021? And who won the most gold medals in Paris, with four?
9. In the Tory leadership race, who was the first of the five candidates to be eliminated?
10. In November, Donald Trump's first choice for attorney general withdrew from consideration within days of being nominated. What is his name?
Places
1. Which stately home in Britain bears the name of a battlefield in what is now Germany?
2. What institution resides in the Peace Palace?
3. Where would you find a Sea of Tranquility and an Ocean of Storms?
4. If you wanted to see Armageddon, where would you need to go?
5. Which is the only English county with a geological era named after it?
6. If you travelled from Brighton Beach to Sheepshead Bay, where would you be?
7. Which country has the longest coastline on mainland Africa? And which country has the longest coastline in the world?
8. All the national flags in the world have four sides – bar one. Which country is the exception?
9. Which is the world's largest desert?
10. Before it achieved independence in 1971, by what name was Bangladesh known?
11. Which US state is home to the most live volcanoes?
12. Through which countries does the Orinoco river run?
13. Which river forms a natural border between Mexico and the US?
Literature and the arts
1. List the four Shakespeare plays that have the names of places in their main (commonly used) title. For a bonus point, name the three others that have place names in their full titles.
2. Who was "mad, bad and dangerous to know" – and who described them thus?
3. "Mad About the Boy" was famously recorded by Dinah Washington, but who wrote the song, in 1932?
4. By what names are the following writers better known?
a) David Cornwell
b) Helen Lyndon Goff
c) Cecil Smith
d) Marguerite Annie Johnson.
5. The following make up the last lines of which books?
a) "There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail. The three extra days were for leap years."
b) "It's funny. Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."
c) "And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea."
d) "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
e) "An excellent year's progress."
6. By what name was the artist Emmanuel Radnitzky better known?
7. "The Insulted and Humiliated" is a lesser-known work by which famous 19th century writer?
8. T.S. Eliot's line "April is the cruellest month", from "The Waste Land", is derived from (and a reference to) which earlier work?
9. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a book by Ernest Hemingway and a quotation from a meditation by which poet? And what is the first line of that passage?
10. By what name did the artists who called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers etc., become better known?
11. On which road in London did Andrew O'Hagan (mostly) set his most recent novel?
12. What do J.M.W. Turner's initials stand for?
13. The following fictional places feature in which novels?
a) Maycomb
b) Cittàgazze
c) Ishmaelia
d) Westeros
e) Galt's Gulch.
14. In "The Chronicles of Narnia", what is the name of the lush mountainous country to the south of Narnia?
Showbiz
1. Which film links the set designer Ken Adam and the writer Roald Dahl?
2. What is the only single where both the song title and the name of the band are palindromes?
3. In the Harry Potter films, Maggie Smith played Professor McGonagall. What was her character's first name?
4. On which street might you have met Bouncer, Charlene and Mrs Mangel?
5. Name the Italian-American director of "It's a Wonderful Life", "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", and "It Happened One Night". And while we're at it, name the actor who starred in the first two of these films, and the two stars of the third.
6. Which late actor, writer, comedian and satirist starred as Mr Sowerberry in the original West End production of Lionel Bart's "Oliver!"?
7. In the latest Paddington film, set in Peru, which actress took on the role of Mrs Brown? Which actor voiced Mrs Brown, and indeed all the characters, in the BBC's beloved animated series in the 1970s?
8. Of the top 10 grossing films of the 1980s, only two did not have sequels. Can you name either of them? (Clue: one of them is the only film from the 1980s that is among the top 200 highest-grossing films of all time. The other starred Tom Cruise.)
9. What is the name of The Beatles' debut album in the UK?
10. To which country do Robert Redford and Paul Newman's characters flee in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"?
11. In which films do the following famous lines appear – and for extra points, which actors spoke them?
a) "I'm walkin' here!"
b) "Get busy living, or get busy dying."
c) "A boy's best friend is his mother."
d) "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."
e) "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."
f) "The stuff that dreams are made of."
12. Who played General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's film "Dr. Strangelove"?
13. "Suicide Is Painless" is the theme tune to which 1970s film?
14. John Gielgud was the first British Egot (winner of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony). For which film did he win his Oscar?
Obituaries
1. This musician composed the music for "In the Heat of the Night", and for the opening scene of "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery". Who was he?
2. Which actor gave voice to both Darth Vader, in the Star Wars films, and Mufasa, in "The Lion King".
3. The entrepreneur Tony O'Reilly was associated with which brand of butter?
4. Four years after being acquired by the Tate in 1972, the artist Carl Andre's piece "Equivalent VIII" provoked a storm in the British media. What did the sculpture consist of?
5. Carl Weathers was deemed too sensitive to be a footballer, but then found fame playing which fictional boxer?
6. For whom was "life too short to stuff a mushroom"?
7. Shelley Duvall is best remembered for her role in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"; but before that, she had made six films with which other director?
8. In her 80s, Edna O'Brien travelled to Nigeria to research her book based on the Boko Haram school abductions. What was the book called?
9. Explaining that he had joined the middle classes, which politician said: "I've changed. I no longer keep the coal in the bath. I keep it in the bidet."
Science and nature
1. What is the collective noun for flamingos?
2. What is the hardest naturally occurring substance on Earth?
3. Roughly how long does it take for the Sun's light to reach Earth – eight minutes, eight hours or eight days?
4. Mycology is the study of what?
5. What name is given for the number of protons found in the nucleus of an atom?
6. What is the fastest land animal, with a top speed of up to 65mph? What is the fastest sea creature (up to 82mph)? And which bird is the fastest in horizontal flight (more than 100mph)?
7. For which contagious disease was the first vaccine developed, by Edward Jenner, in 1796?
8. Which is the only even prime number?
9. The skin is the largest and heaviest of the human organs, but which is the heaviest internal organ?
10. Which Polish-born scientist was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes?
History and politics
1. If I talk about 15 metopes, 27 pedimental figures and 75 metres of frieze, what am I most likely talking about?
2. Which 1739-1748 conflict was named after an anatomical feature? Which two nations fought it?
3. In US politics, who are donkeys and who are elephants? If that is too easy, name the cartoonist who made them so.
4. Aside from the King and Queen, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, there are seven working members of the royal family. Who are they?
5. To whom was the Action This Day memorandum sent?
6. Which political leaders match these dates of birth and death?
a) 1917-1963
b) 1889-1945
c) 1925-2013.
7. What is the name of the national holiday that commemorates the start of the 1789 Revolution in France?
8. What were the names of the final two imperial dynasties in China, ruling from the late 14th century until the early 20th?
9. Which great leader was nicknamed The Little Corporal?
10. Although they shared a name, the 26th president of the US was only distantly related to the 32nd president; however, he was quite closely related to the 32nd's wife. What was their relationship?
11. On what island was Mary Jo Kopechne left to die following a car accident in 1969?
12. What did Keir Starmer's father do for a living? (The official rules of The Week quiz state that any contestant who cannot answer this question is immediately eliminated.)
The answers
Looking back on 2024
1. Harland & Wolff
2. Jürgen Klopp
3. Robert F. Kennedy Jr
4. The International Space Station
5 Liz Truss
6. George Harrison, Pattie Boyd, Eric Clapton
7. HMP Belmarsh
8. The twisties; Léon Marchand
9. Priti Patel
10. Matt Gaetz
Places
1. Blenheim
2. The International Court of Justice (also accepted, because it's true: the Permanent Court of Arbitration)
3. The Moon
4. Israel
5. Devon
6. Brooklyn
7. Somalia; Canada
8. Nepal
9. Antarctica
10. East Pakistan
11. Alaska
12. Venezuela and Colombia
13. The Rio Grande
Literature and the arts
1. "Two Gentlemen of Verona"; "The Merchant of Venice"; "The Merry Wives of Windsor"; "Timon of Athens". "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark"; "Pericles, Prince of Tyre"; "The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice"
2. Lord Byron; Lady Caroline Lamb
3. Noël Coward
4. a) John le Carré b) P.L. Travers c) C.S. Forester d) Maya Angelou
5. a) "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" b) "The Catcher in the Rye" c) "Rebecca" d) "The Great Gatsby" e) "Bridget Jones's Diary"
6. Man Ray
7. Dostoevsky
8. "The Canterbury Tales"
9. John Donne; "No man is an island"
10. The impressionists
11. Caledonian Road
12. Joseph Mallord William
13. a) "To Kill a Mockingbird" b) "His Dark Materials" c) "Scoop" d) "A Song of Ice and Fire" e) "Atlas Shrugged"
14. Archenland
Showbiz
1. "You Only Live Twice"
2. Abba's "SOS"
3. Minerva
4. Ramsay Street
5. Frank Capra. James Stewart; Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable
6. Barry Humphries
7. Emily Mortimer. Michael Hordern
8. "E.T".; "Rain Man"
9. "Please Please Me"
10. Bolivia
11. a) "Midnight Cowboy" (Dustin Hoffman) b) "The Shawshank Redemption" (Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins) c) "Psycho" (Anthony Perkins) d) "Wall Street" (Michael Douglas) e) "All About Eve" (Bette Davis) f) "The Maltese Falcon" (Humphrey Bogart)
12. George C. Scott
13. "M*A*S*H"
14. "Arthur"
Obituaries
1. Quincy Jones
2 James Earl Jones
3. Kerrygold
4. A pile of bricks
5. Apollo Creed
6. Shirley Conran
7. Robert Altman
8. "Girl"
9. John Prescott
Science and nature
1. A flamboyance
2. Diamond
3. Eight minutes
4. Fungi (mushrooms)
5. The atomic number
6. Cheetah; black marlin; white-throated needletail (peregrine falcon is faster in dive)
7. Smallpox
8. Two
9. The liver
10. Marie Curie
History and politics
1. The Parthenon Sculptures/Elgin Marbles
2. The War of Jenkins' Ear; Britain and Spain
3. Democrats and Republicans; Thomas Nast
4. Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh; Princess Anne; Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; Duke of Kent; and Princess Alexandra
5. Winston Churchill
6. a) JFK b) Adolf Hitler c) Margaret Thatcher
7. Bastille Day
8. Ming and Qing
9. Napoleon
10. Theodore Roosevelt (Franklin D. Roosevelt's fifth cousin) was Eleanor Roosevelt's uncle
11. Chappaquiddick
12. Toolmaker