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Sad Fruits, Giant Pandas and Birthday Cheer – Take the Thursday Quiz | life and style

By Rodney Carter

Incredibly, the Thursday quiz turns one year old this week. A whole year! As usual, it consists of 15 questions that are either general knowledge or vaguely topical – but perhaps with a bit more of a birthday twist. I originally introduced it with the words, “I think we should start next week, then if after five weeks everything seems to be going well, I’ll do the next batch.”

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who took the quiz, and especially those of you who so consistently and happily joined in the comments. I hope you have fun today, but remember there is no prize. Let us know how you get on.

The Thursday quiz, n° 53

1.MUSIC: As this is an anniversary edition, we will start with an anniversary question. Which Beatles album contains the title Birthday?

2.ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND ALSO MUSIC: It’s Kim Gordon’s birthday today. Happy birthday, Kim! But for which iconic American alternative rock band did she brilliantly play guitar and bass?

3.AN EXERCISE BIKE FOR THE MIND: It would have been beloved author Terry Pratchett’s birthday today too. We miss you Thierry. How many Discworld novels by him have been published?

4.THE PLAY’S THE THING: What are the names of the two mysterious men who appear in Harold Pinter’s 1967 play The Birthday Party?

5.SCIENTIFIC CORNER BUT WITH PANDAS: Which of these families of mammals do giant pandas belong to?

6.TUTTI FRUTTI: Which world leader was inexplicably greeted in Japan by sadly dancing kiwis last week?

7.SECRETS OF THE STARS: A six-mile sculpture trail that models the solar system to scale called Our Place in Space opens where in the UK?

8.A BIG SURPRISE: This is a song by the Sparks from 1977 where “It’s a boy meets a girl and here we go again”. But that’s not important right now. ‘One-eyed Joe’, a Scottish cat who has been missing for five years, has been reunited with his owner after being found where?

9.STOP THIEF! : It was also Shakespeare’s birthday this weekend, and as a nice gift an academic presented new research claiming the bard stole the plot of which play from a now lost play by Sir Thomas North ?

ten.THE LIVES OF SAINTS: Saint Andrew is a patron saint of Barbados, Georgia, Cyprus and Scotland, among others. But traditionally what was he doing before becoming one of Jesus’ disciples?

11.FIBONACCI NUMBERS: First described in Indian mathematics, and forming a sequence where each number is the sum of the previous two, F₁₀ is 55. 55 is a triangular number. Which of these definitions best describes a triangular number?

12.WHY THE LONG FACE? : A horse’s respiratory system is described as exhibiting “obligatory nasal breathing”. What does that mean?

13.DEPARTMENT OF SCILLY LONG WALKS: Residents of the Isles of Scilly are facing a difficult, expensive and long journey for a vital public service now after the latest news of WHAT on the island was closing?

14.AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS: Wikivoyage lists 23 places visited by the fictional Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s novel, none of them in a hot air balloon. Number 13 is Yokohama, Japan. But in what year did Yokohama Stadium host the Rugby World Cup final?

15.AND FINALLY… SOME OLD NEWS: What was the main Guardian story on the day the Thursday quiz first appeared, April 29, 2021?

  • If you believe there has been a glaring error in any of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember that the word of the master of the quiz is still final, and he also wants to thank the production team for helping him avoid many more mistakes along the way.

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Rodney Carter
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