Animal music, broken bridges and amazing shoe designs – take the Thursday quiz

A dog listening to the Thursday quiz questions being read to them, and worrying if it knows the answers. Do you? Photograph: theVento/Alamy

In a gloomy week the Thursday quiz stands as an eternal beacon of joy, light, dog pictures and slightly frustratingly obtuse categories. Fifteen questions on quirky news, pop culture, general knowledge and some of the quizmaster’s weird obsessions await you. There are no prizes, as it is just for fun, but let us know how you get on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 129

1. 

   BOOKS BOOKS BOOK: Who won the 2023 Nobel prize in literature last week?

   1. Abdulrazak Gurnah

   2. Peter Handke

   3. Kazuo Ishiguro

   4. Jon Fosse

2. 

   DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER: Which bridge (not pictured) over the Thames is having to close for emergency repairs, causing artist Ben Wilson to lose all of his work?

   1. Tower Bridge

   2. Millennium Bridge

   3. Queen Elizabeth II Bridge

   4. London Bridge

3. 

   TO BE OR NOT TO BE: Boards believed to have been trodden by William Shakespeare have been discovered under layers of flooring at England’s oldest medieval guildhall as it undergoes refurbishment. Where?

   1. Chichester Guildhall in Chichester, West Sussex

   2. St Vastra's Guildhall in Mael, Hertfordshire

   3. Lydd Guildhall in Lydd, Kent

   4. St George’s Guildhall in King’s Lynn, Norfolk

4. 

   SHOE WOULD BELIEVE IT?: Which shoe manufacture has announced a new cowboy boot design complete with spurs?

   1. Doc Martens

   2. Crocs

   3. Converse

   4. Nike

5. 

   THE SHOES HAVE IT: Another week, another marathon record. Who pushed the men's marathon record even closer to potentially being sub-two hours in Chicago?

   1. Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya

   2. Bashir Abdi of Belgium

   3. Seifu Tura Abdiwak of Ethiopia

   4. Henry van Statten of the US

6. 

   HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It is Dave Vanian's birthday today. Happy birthday, Dave! Which punk band is he the lead singer of?

   1. Sham 69

   2. The Stranglers

   3. UK Subs

   4. The Damned

7. 

   HAPPY BIRTHDAY (SLIGHT RETURN): It is also Hugh Jackman's birthday today. Happy birthday, Hugh! He voiced a character called Roddy in which animated movie?

   1. Flushed Away

   2. Happy Feet

   3. Despicable Me

   4. Frozen

8. 

   MUSIC TO HER EARS: This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She knows that last week members of New Zealand’s symphony orchestra played a special piece composed to appeal to a particular type of animal. Which animals?

   1. Donkeys

   2. Chickens

   3. Cows

   4. 30-50 feral hogs

9. 

   TWEET TWEET: Who was named Australian bird of the year for 2023 on Friday?

   1. Gang-gang cockatoo

   2. Willie wagtail

   3. Swift parrot

   4. One very naughty miniature dachshund

10. 

    THE SKY MAY FALL ON THEIR HEADS TOMORROW: The next summer Olympics are in Paris. But which iconic Olympic venue is contemplating removing its roof due to safety concerns?

    1. Olympiastadion, Berlin

    2. Olympic Stadium Spyros Louis, Athens

    3. Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro

    4. Beijing National Stadium, Beijing

11. 

    NORTH OR SOUTH WITH THE POKÉMON MEOWTH: Which of these cities in Germany is farthest north?

    1. Bremen

    2. Hanover

    3. Dortmund

    4. Leipzig

12. 

    ODDS OR EVENS WITH SHAKIN' STEVENS: Hartshead Moor East, near Bradford, has been voted Britain’s worst motorway services for the second year in a row. But this week the Welsh rock'n'roll legend wants to know, which motorway is it on?

    1. Odds – the M59

    2. Evens – the M62

13. 

    MATHS WITH GOTHS: Carl McCoy from Fields of the Nephilim needs to factorise 6x + 3. Can you help him? Is it …

    1. 2(3x + 1)

    2. 3(2x + 1)

    3. 6(x + 1)

    4. 3(2x + 3)

14. 

    ARE 'FRIENDS' ELECTRIC: Which European capital announced this week it would ban petrol and diesel cars from its centre from 2025?

    1. Stockholm

    2. Prague

    3. Berlin

    4. Cardiff

15. 

    HANGNG ON THE TELEPHONE: Who did Harry Maguire say phoned him with advice after he was getting loads of stick from fans?

    1. Paul Gascoigne

    2. Stuart Pearce

    3. David Beckham

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:D - The Nobel prize in literature has been awarded to the 64-year-old Norwegian author Jon Fosse “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. The Thursday quiz thinks that sounds great, unless the unsayable things were pedantry, which we all frown upon., 2:B - Ben Wilson, nicknamed “the chewing gum man”, has been painting on pieces of chewing gum trodden into the bridge since 2013, and has been told most of them will be removed as part of the engineering work. Lots of people have laughed that the bridge needs repairs, entirely forgetting that "London Bridge is falling down" due to shoddy work is a well-rehearsed nursery rhyme for the ages. , 3:D - The 600-year-old oak floorboards are believed to be the only surviving stage from William Shakespeare’s time. In 1593, when London’s theatres were closed because of an outbreak of plague, Shakespeare and his company of actors were on tour in King’s Lynn. A note in the theatre’s account book shows Shakespeare’s company were paid by the borough to perform there., 4:B - In a press release, notably not issued on 1 April, the company said the shoes feature "a high shine croc-embossed texture and bold western-inspired stitching". Yee-haw!, 5:A - Thursday quiz's colleague Sean Ingle wrote: "As the 23-year-old ran the final few hundred metres along Columbus Drive, he even had time to blow kisses and wave to the crowd. His time not only took 34 seconds off Eliud Kipchoge’s old best, but was another staggering reminder of how much supershoe technology has changed the sport. It is surely a matter of time before the sub-two-hour barrier is broken in an official race.", 6:D - The Damned were formed in 1976, and Vanian has been the only ever-present member. The Damned's biggest UK hit was a fantastic cover of the song Eloise., 7:A - Jackman is the lead rat in the movie. , 8:B - The bespoke piece of music – Chook Symphony No 1 – was created specifically for the birds out of an unlikely partnership between the orchestra and an organic free range chicken farm which wanted a piece of chicken-friendly music to enrich its flocks’ lives., 9:C - After ranking around 10th place in the early days of voting, the swift parrot emerged as a frontrunner amid a grassroots campaign to raise awareness about its desperate situation – there are dwindling numbers due to the destruction of its habitat., 10:B - The Greek government announced last week that the 70,000-seat stadium would be closed “indefinitely” because of safety concerns over the distinctive steel canopy., 11:A - Immortalised in the song Bremen Nacht on the Fall's Frenz Experiment album about a ghostly experience that Mark E Smith had in the city – possibly under the influence of substances, who can say? – Bremen is the most northern city in that selection., 12:B - The site on the eastbound M62 between Manchester and Leeds was ranked the least popular service area out of 120 locations, after a survey of nearly 31,000 visitors., 13:B - If you break each side of the equation down to its factors – and remember that a prime number has itself and 1 as a factor, you get 6x + 3 is equivalent to 2 · 3 · x + 1 · 3. So you can see that 3 is on both sides of the equation, so shift that outside the brackets and you get 3(2x + 1). Moonchild … lure me down., 14:A - From 2025, 20 blocks of Stockholm’s inner city area, spanning its finance and main shopping districts, will be restricted to electric vehicle traffic only. A decision on whether to expand the zone will be made in early 2025., 15:C - That man can't keep out of the news at the moment.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – enjoy the rest of your day!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working – feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quizmaster’s word is final and he isn’t impressed by amateurs.