2020: the quiz of the year

It was the TV hit of the year, but which accessory went on to become an auction success? See Question 3. Photograph: Enda Bowe/BBC/PA

1. In May, which Co Durham attraction was momentarily the UK’s most reviewed tourist spot?

   1. Durham Cathedral

   2. The world’s oldest working railway, at Tanfield

   3. Barnard Castle

   4. Teesdale Alpaca Farm

2. In November, the Russian state aviation authority recommended that Aeroflot immediately sack an executive of their budget airline Pobeda. Why?

   1. The airline transported a live bear in the flight compartment

   2. The airline advertised a discount for gay and lesbian passengers, in protest at homophobic legislation

   3. The airline produced an instructional video for staff showing them how to make homemade PPE out of serviettes, vodka and shoelaces

   4. An airplane carrying 102 passengers deviated from its route to trace a flight path which resembled a scrotum on a flight-tracking app

3. The BBC’s adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People was one of lockdown’s biggest TV hits. Following its success, which item fetched a reported €70,000 (£63,700) in a charity auction in June?

   1. Connell’s neck chain

   2. Marianne’s notebook

   3. A vial containing both their tears

   4. A generalised sense of horny ennui

4. 

   John Banville courted controversy this year by saying authors like him are unlikely to win the Booker prize because the “woke religious cult” within the literary establishment is suspicious of straight, white men. Perhaps confirming that bias, which former Booker prize winner has called Banville’s collected works “an embarrassment and a deep source of shame”?

   1. Hilary Mantel

   2. Bernardine Evaristo

   3. Roddy Doyle

   4. John Banville

5. In September, American teacher Wesley Barnes was arrested in Koh Chang, Thailand, charged with what offence?

   1. Impersonation of a police officer, after he attended a fancy dress party as the T-1000 cyborg from the Terminator movies

   2. “Criminal defamation,” after he left a negative review on Tripadvisor for a resort hotel

   3. “Romantic fraud”, after he misled his former fiancée about his salary and career prospects

   4. “Possession of arson equipment”, after he was found to have a liquid fuel cigarette lighter in his possession shortly after their proscription

6. Brazilian senator Chico Rodrigues was arrested in October, when, during a raid on his property, police allegedly discovered:

   1. Diamonds worth $25,000 (£18,700) hidden in his cat’s collar

   2. Cocaine and amphetamines worth $5,000 hidden in a fake lighter like you used to see on sale in gadget shops

   3. Almost 30,000 reais (£4,100) in cash hidden “inside his underwear, near his buttocks”

   4. A version of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, which was stolen in Oslo in 2016, and thought lost

7. 

   Keeping Up with the Kardashians ended after 19 seasons this year. Which unlikely talent does star Kim Kardashian West claim to possess?

   1. She can see other people’s “emotional energy”

   2. She can smell people’s dental cavities

   3. She can hear dogs’ thoughts

   4. She can taste rainbows

8. How was a serious train crash averted in Rotterdam in October this year?

   1. A train crashing through a stop barrier came to rest on a conveniently placed sculpture of a whale

   2. A train hit a car deliberately abandoned on the track, which prevented it from derailing

   3. An engine fire was extinguished by convenient torrential rain

   4. A runaway train was halted by a helicopter using a winch

9. Conservative MP Gary Sambrook hit the headlines when he complained about which unkind graffiti in his constituency?

   1. Gary Sambrook claps when the plane lands

   2. Gary Sambrook eats big dinners

   3. Gary Sambrook sells Avon round the doors

   4. Gary Sambrook likes Bounties

10. Which of the following real politicians is the Ukip candidate in the 2021 London Mayoral election?

    1. Dick Braine

    2. Peter Gammons

    3. Mark Reckless

    4. Pat Mountain

11. Giovanna Fletcher won this year’s I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here which, due to Covid-19, was moved to Wales. Coincidentally, Wales has long been used as a reference measurement for deforestation. At 12m hectares, how much rainforest is destroyed every year?

    1. An area half the size of Wales

    2. An area twice the size of Wales

    3. An area six times the size of Wales

    4. An area exactly the size of Wales

12. In June, Liverpool became the champions of England for the first time since the 89-90 season. Which of these players in their title-winning squad was not alive when they last won the top division title?

    1. Dejan Lovren

    2. Adam Lallana

    3. James Milner

    4. Jordan Henderson

13. 

    2020 saw the death of cinema legend Sean Connery. Before starring as James Bond and becoming one of the world’s best-known actors, he had a varied career path. Which of the following is not a job that he previously held?

    1. Soldier

    2. Coffin polisher

    3. Milkman

    4. Nude model

14. Taylor Swift had this year’s highest-selling albums with Folklore and Evermore and garnered critical plaudits for her tender, emotional and introspective songwriting. As a child, growing up on her parents’ Christmas tree farm, Swift displayed particular tenderness to which unusual pet(s)?

    1. Several hermit crabs

    2. Three bees

    3. One two-toed sloth

    4. An entire nest of carpenter ants

15. The infamous “R number” became a household initial this year, but what does it actually stand for?

    1. Replication

    2. Reproduction

    3. Rate (of propagation)

    4. Rise

16. 

    All Blacks forward Ardie Savea was in trouble with his team doctor in January over fears he could exacerbate his knee injury by doing what?

    1. Entering the New Zealand version of Strictly

    2. Posting dance videos on TikTok

    3. Taking part in a motorcycle human pyramid

    4. Jumping from Auckland Harbour Bridge in a wingsuit, which is exactly what it sounds like

17. Inventor “Mad Mike” Hughes died in February after he did what?

    1. Crashed his steam-powered home-made rocket attempting to prove the world is flat

    2. Deliberately infected himself with Ebola in order to prove the efficacy of his UV light cure

    3. Jumped into the Grand Canyon to test his Mandalorian-style jetpack

    4. Leapt from the top of the Luxor Las Vegas casino to promote his wingsuit

18. Bite-sized streaming service Quibi shut down after just six months and $1.75bn worth of investment raised by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg. Viewers complained its 15-minute long offerings were mystifying and unwatchable. Which of the following is not a real Quibi show?

    1. Gayme Show – a LBGTQ-friendly quiz in which non-gay celebrities compete to be crowned “Queen of the Straights”

    2. Dishmantled – a cookery show where chefs are shot in the face with food cannons

    3. Golden Arm – a thriller directed by Sam Raimi in which Rachel Brosnahan falls in love with her golden prosthetic

    4. Dustin for Prince – a music show in which Dustin Hoffman shares highlights from the life and times of The Artist Formerly, and later presently, Known As Prince

19. The daughter of which notorious criminal launched a fashion line and craft ale in January, named after her notorious father?

    1. Pablo Escobar

    2. Alejandro “El Chapo” Guzman

    3. John Gotti

    4. Christy “the Dapper Don” Kinahan

20. 

    AC/DC made a triumphant comeback in 2020. Along with guitarist Malcolm Young’s passing, several other things have changed for the band. Which of the following things has not happened since the band last reformed?

    1. Singer Brian Johnson went deaf

    2. Rhythm guitarist Angus Young paid a $500,000 ransom for his trademark school uniform which was stolen in a burglary in the band’s offices

    3. Guns N’ Roses’ frontman Axl Rose performed lead vocals for numerous tour dates

    4. Drummer Phil Rudd was charged with attempting to procure a murder, and later convicted of making threats to kill

21. What was remarkable about the Oxford English Dictionary’s announcement of its Word of the Year for 2020?

    1. The word was actually a graph showing how best to “flatten the curve”

    2. It was spelled wrong

    3. It was a number

    4. It was a list of entries, as “2020 has been filled with new words unlike any other”

22. Cinema had a desultory year in 2020. Last year’s bestselling movie Avengers: Endgame is the number one highest-grossing film of all time. The previous year’s Avengers: Infinity War is fifth. Where does 2020’s highest grossing movie, the Chinese war epic, The Eight Hundred, sit on the all-time rankings list?

    1. 20

    2. 54

    3. 166

    4. 247

23. Scots Wikipedia – the Wikipedia for speakers of the Scots language – was embroiled in controversy this August when what was discovered about 120,000 edits on its pages?

    1. They were actually written in Irish

    2. They were made by an American teenager who cannot speak Scots

    3. Every single one consisted of changing the name Rabbie Burns to “Big Billy Bawbag”

    4. They contained secretly coded anti-English messaging

Solutions

1:C - One reviewer called it a ‘beautiful place to visit with a dry cough’, 2:D - The scrotum was drawn by pilots in support of the Russian football captain, Artem Dzyuba, who had been suspended from the national team after footage of him masturbating was leaked to the public, 3:A - The thin silver chain Connell (played by Paul Mescal) wears in the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People set many hearts fluttering, has its own Instagram account and, yes, sold for €70,000., 4:D - In 2009, Banville told The Paris Review that he hated his own books. “They’re an embarrassment and a deep source of shame,” he said, and then added: “They’re better than everybody else’s, of course, but not good enough for me.”, 5:B - Barnes avoided a prison sentence in the end. Defamation is a criminal offence in Thailand, carrying a maximum sentence of two years in prison, along with a 200,000 baht (£4,915) fine., 6:C - The raid at the home of Bolsonaro ally Rodrigues was part of an operation against the suspected misappropriation of public funds for fighting Covid-19., 7:B - As superhero powers, this one is an odd one., 8:A - The sculpture, constructed 19 years ago, is titled ‘Saved by the Whale’s Tail’, 9:B - The MP said the graffiti was left after he voted against a Labour proposal to extend free school meals over a half term holiday, 10:B - That’s Dr Peter Gammons to you, whose website claims he has ‘spoken to the largest crowds in recorded history, including an event in Manila, Philippines, attended by over four million people’. Which would be 44 times the size of LiveAid., 11:C, 12:D - Jordan Henderson was born six weeks later, 13:A - Though never a soldier, he was a sailor in the navy as a teenager., 14:A, 15:B, 16:B - Savea said: "I'm doing all these TikToks and people are saying 'um aren't you supposed to be injured?' But it's just fun. It takes me like a minute and it's just get on there, have some fun, cater to the younger generation.", 17:A - A video posted on social media showed a rocket being fired into the sky and a parachute – apparently deployed too early – trailing behind it, before it plummeted to the ground nearby., 18:D - Indeed, the others are all real., 19:B - The fashion line El Chapo 701 is named after the kingpin’s highest position on the Forbes Rich List, 20:B, 21:D - Among the words cited by the OED were “circuit breaker”, “lockdown”, “shelter-in-place”, “bubbles”, “face masks” and “key workers”., 22:D - The movie grossed around $423.2m. The Avengers: Endgame grossed $2.8bn by comparison., 23:B - The 19-year-old North Carolinian, who edits under the username AmaryllisGardner, responded to criticism by saying that he was “devastated” at the reaction “after years of my thinking I was doing good”.

Scores

1. 23 and above.

   Quiz superstar! Give yourself a big round of applause

2. 22 and above.

   Quiz superstar! Give yourself a big round of applause

3. 21 and above.

   Quiz superstar! Give yourself a big round of applause

4. 20 and above.

   Quiz superstar! Give yourself a big round of applause

5. 19 and above.

   Quiz superstar! Give yourself a big round of applause

6. 18 and above.

   Quiz superstar! Give yourself a big round of applause

7. 17 and above.

   Quiz superstar! Give yourself a big round of applause

8. 16 and above.

   Quiz superstar! Give yourself a big round of applause

9. 15 and above.

   Well done! You pass the 2020 test

10. 14 and above.

    Well done! You pass the 2020 test

11. 13 and above.

    Well done! You pass the 2020 test

12. 12 and above.

    Not bad for 2020

13. 11 and above.

    Not bad for 2020

14. 10 and above.

    Not bad for 2020

15. 9 and above.

    Not bad for 2020

16. 8 and above.

    Not bad for 2020

17. 7 and above.

    Not bad for 2020

18. 6 and above.

    Not bad for 2020

19. 5 and above.

    Uh oh! Try again in 2021

20. 4 and above.

    Uh oh! Try again in 2021

21. 3 and above.

    Uh oh! Try again in 2021

22. 2 and above.

    Uh oh! Try again in 2021

23. 1 and above.

    Uh oh! Try again in 2021

24. 0 and above.

    Uh oh! Try again in 2021