A lovely fleece, a hip priest and the number of the beast – take the Thursday quiz

Oooooooh baby sheep. Photograph: Eureka/Alamy Stock Photo

We meet again. I’ve got 15 questions about topical news and general knowledge with some jokes and weird facts thrown in, and you’ve got a desperate desire to find something that will kill exactly two minutes and fifty-seven seconds of your Thursday. And then you will get cross because one of the questions unexpectedly involves anagrams. Let us know how you get on in the comments, but remember, it is just for fun and there are no refunds.

The Thursday quiz, No 11

1. 

   GLOBAL NEWS: The ship that gained notoriety for blocking up the Suez canal earlier in the year is being released by Egyptian authorities who have held it since it was dislodged on 29 March. But what was its name?

   1. Evergreen

   2. Ever Given

   3. Ever Ready

   4. Ever Clear

2. 

   SPORT: Emma Raducanu withdrew from her Wimbledon fourth-round match on Monday. But who was her opponent?

   1. Ajla Tomljanović

   2. Ashleigh Barty

   3. Karolína Plíšková

   4. Aryna Sabalenka

3. FATE & FORTUNE: 10-year-old Irish lad William Woods won €1,000 (£860) in a prize draw at Christmas. This week he was interviewed about how he'd spent the money. What did he buy?

   1. €1,000 worth of Lego because "I can't get enough Star Wars sets"

   2. €1,000 worth of sweets because "I wanted the world's biggest pick'n'mix"

   3. Invested €1,000 in Tesla shares because "Elon Musk is a super-villain"

   4. €1,000 worth of baby cows because "I missed my friends so much"

4. 

   ON THIS DAY: It is the anniversary of the day that Roswell army airfield issued a press release reporting the recovery of a "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, sparking the Roswell UFO incident and a million conspiracy theories. Which year though?

   1. 1942

   2. 1947

   3. 1953

   4. 1961

5. 

   AD ASTRA: Today also marks the anniversary of the 135th and final launch of a US space shuttle by Nasa, 10 years ago. Which shuttle flew the last mission?

   1. Atlantis

   2. Discovery

   3. Endeavour

   4. Enterprise

6. 

   YET MORE SPACE: This week Chinese astronauts performed a space walk outside their new space station – called Tiangong station. But what does the name mean in English?

   1. Heavenly Questions

   2. Goddess of the Moon

   3. Heavenly Palace

   4. Storm

7. 

   LOVELY FLEECE: The 1963 movie Jason and the Argonauts depicts the quest for the "Golden Fleece". In Greek myth, what was the name of the legendary golden-woolled winged ram that was the source of the fleece?

   1. Pegasus

   2. Chrysomallos

   3. Telos

   4. Charybdis

8. 

   HIP PRIEST: Mark E Smith once famously said: "If it's me and yer granny on bongos, it's the Fall." But according to the Wikipedia timeline of members of the Fall – the official source for the Thursday quiz – how many permanent members of the Fall were there over the course of the band's history?

   1. 28

   2. 36

   3. 43

   4. 79

9. 

   TURBULENT PRIEST: While on the subject of priests, history records that the archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket met his end after an English king exclaimed "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" and some over-enthusiastic aides obliged. Which king?

   1. Edward II

   2. Henry VIII

   3. Richard I

   4. Henry II

10. 

    NUMBER OF THE BEAST: Earlier this year #TimsTwitterListeningParty held their 666th event. Which LP did everyone listen to along with the artist?

    1. Iron Maiden's Powerslave

    2. Slayer's Reign in Blood

    3. Black Sabbath's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

    4. Kate Bush's 50 Words For Snow

11. SCIENCE: What is the chemical symbol for silver?

    1. S

    2. Si

    3. Ag

    4. Ar

12. 

    KIDS TV: Disney's Donald Duck has a ludicrous middle name. What is it?

    1. Eggbert

    2. Artemis

    3. Lysander

    4. Fauntleroy

13. 

    MOVIES: The Cannes film festival opened with the new Leos Carax movie – Annette – starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. But which lovable but arty pop duo have supplied the music?

    1. Sparks

    2. Erasure

    3. Pet Shop Boys

    4. Daphne & Celeste

14. 

    MONEY: The BBC published its annual list of its highest-paid stars, with Gary Lineker top of the pile. But who was the highest-paid woman? Plot twist – it's anagram time…

    1. Fae Rubicon

    2. Ann Euler Laver

    3. Lola Zeb

    4. Evans Fez Slat

15. ONLY IN AUSTRIA: A 65-year-old man “felt a ‘nip’ in the genital area” shortly after sitting on the toilet at his home in Graz just after 6am on Monday, according to a statement from police in Styria province. He then looked into the toilet and discovered … what?

    1. A baby alligator!

    2. A python!

    3. A rat!

    4. A beaver!

Solutions

1:B - The ship did have "Evergreen" emblazoned down the side, but that was the name of the shipping company. The vessel itself was named Ever Given. As for the cause of the incident, let he who has never lodged a massive cargo ship sideways across one of the world's most important commercial waterways cast the first stone. Ever Ready is a battery, and Ever Clear is exactly what the Suez canal was not, 2:A - Raducanu said she had withdrawn from the match following medical advice, which didn't stop Piers Morgan (who once stormed out of his own TV show), Kevin Pietersen (who stormed out of the England cricket set-up) and John McEnroe (who shot to fame for being unable to control himself on the tennis court) having a go at her and saying she had to toughen up. *eye_roll emoji*, 3:D - Yes, William, who is the son of a farmer, bought himself six calves like any normal 10-year-old would. "Now the calves have sort of become my friends – I’ll laugh with them in the field, they’re funny," he said touchingly, before adding: "What should I do with the money, should I save for college or for calves? I saved for calves and I’ll rear these and sell them and make a profit." Oh., 4:B - It was 1947, and they quickly retracted the statement and said it was just a weather balloon, but the damage had been done. In 1994 the United States Air Force published a report identifying the crashed object as a nuclear test surveillance balloon from "Project Mogul". A likely story., 5:A - It was the 33rd and final mission for the orbiter Atlantis, which had first flown in October 1985. It is named not after the legendary lost city destroyed multiple times in different Doctor Who stories, but actually after RV Atlantis, a two-masted exploration ship from the early 20th century. Although that presumably WAS named after the legendary lost city destroyed multiple times in different Doctor Who stories. Incidentally, in something that suddenly appears extremely topical, engineers at the time had nicknamed the Atlantis "Britney" as she was considered to be the most unreliable and temperamental of Nasa's shuttle fleet. Hmmmmm., 6:C - In Chinese the name is 天宫 which means "Heavenly Palace". Not that you imagine the living quarters in a space station are that heavenly after a few days. Heavenly Questions was an interplanetary mission to send a robotic spacecraft to Mars. China's lunar programme is named Chang'e after the goddess of the moon. Storm is a translation of the name of Feng Bao 1, a rocket used by China in the 1970s and 80s., 7:B - Chrysomallos was the golden-fleeced flying ram sent by the cloud-nymph Nephele to rescue her children Phrixus and Helle when they were about to be sacrificed to the gods. Not entirely sure how reliable sheep are at carrying out heists, but there you go. Charybdis was a sea monster, Pegasus was the flying horse, and Telos was a home for the Cybermen., 8:C - The core of the final line-up – Dave Spurr, Pete Greenway and Keiron Melling – was one of the most stable, lasting around a decade. After Mark E Smith's death they formed Imperial Wax together, who are well worth checking out. Did you press 79? Then you must have been thinking of Fleetwood Mac., 9:D - This tradition may have been passed down, but historians don't generally think that the king actually said this. It may be that four knights interpreted as a royal command Henry II expressing his violent displeasure with the cleric, leading to his martyrdom, although some historians think it just makes a fine and handy cover story for a king., 10:A - It was Iron Maiden with Powerslave, and the event quickly became the most replayed #TimsTwitterListeningParty of all time. The Brexit-supporting lead singer of Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, recently complained at the impact of Brexit on musicians trying to tour the EU from the UK. If only somebody had mentioned this in advance, eh?. Iron Maiden will be doing another #TimsTwitterListeningParty on Friday 9 July when Seventh Son of a Seventh Son will be the LP and it is sure to be rollicking good fun., 11:C - It stands for the Latin name for the metal, argentum. But without the 'r', obviously, because argon had already got in first and nabbed Ar. S is for sulphur and Si is for silicon., 12:D - The name Fauntleroy was introduced onscreen in a 1942 cartoon when it was shown on the duck's papers as he was called up to fight in the second world war. It is possible that "Fauntleroy" isn't the most unlikely bit of that sentence., 13:A - Yes, Ron and Russell Mael are the marvellous septuagenarian musical driving force behind the movie. We'd love to see a Daphne & Celeste film though., 14:C - It was indeed the lovely Zoe Ball, who trousered £1.13m. Your other options were Fiona Bruce (Fae Rubicon, £405,000), Lauren Laverne (Ann Euler Laver, £395,000) and Vanessa Feltz (Evans Fez Slat, £390,000), 15:B - It was a python. The snake apparently had escaped unnoticed from the apartment of the man’s 24-year-old neighbour. Police said the younger man kept 11 non-venomous constrictor snakes and a gecko in his apartment, in terrariums and drawers. He faces an investigation on suspicion of causing bodily harm by negligence. It's New York where alligators live in the sewers.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!

2. 9 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!

• If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quizmaster’s word is always final and he will never, ever, ever back down.