Bards, bears and broken things – take the new weekly quiz

The Beatles, a bard, a bear, and a broken thing. Composite: The Guardian Design Team

It is Thursday lunchtime, and do you know what that means? It means it is time once more for our exciting weekly quiz. Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical news trivia to tease your brain. It is just for fun and there are no prizes, but do let us know how you get on in the comments below.

The weekly Guardian quiz, No 3

1. UK NEWS: Sarah Clarke plays a role in the pageantry of the state opening of the UK parliament by summoning MPs to the House of Lords to hear the Queen. What is her title?

   1. Gold Stick and Silver Stick

   2. Usher of the Scarlet Rod

   3. Lady Usher of the Black Rod

   4. The Seal of Rassilon

2. COMPARATIVELY SPEAKING: Which member of the Beatles was the youngest? George, John, Ringo or Paul

   1. 

      George

   2. 

      John

   3. 

      Ringo

   4. 

      Paul

3. 

   SPACE: Which heavenly body in the solar system is this a photograph of?

   1. Uranus

   2. Mercury

   3. Mars

   4. Neptune

4. NAME THE FLAG: Which of these is used as a county flag for Northumberland?

   1. 

      This one?

   2. 

      This one?

   3. 

      This one?

   4. 

      Or this?

5. 

   GLOBAL NEWS: Archaeologists have unearthed the bones of nine Neanderthals who they believe were hunted and mauled by wild animals thousands of years ago. They were found about 100km from which European capital city?

   1. Madrid

   2. Paris

   3. Rome

   4. Berlin

6. 

   SPORT: Sergio Agüero made a terrible penalty miss at the weekend when his weak attempt to chip the goalkeeper was caught one-handed by Chelsea's Édouard Mendy. This type of penalty – when it goes in – is named in honour of a famous Czech player. Who?

   1. Zdenek Hruska

   2. Antonín Panenka

   3. Marián Masný

   4. Zdeněk Nehoda

7. 

   ART: This sketch of a bear is expected to fetch as much as £12m when it is auctioned later in the year. Who is it by?

   1. Leonardo da Vinci

   2. Michelangelo

   3. Rembrandt

   4. Vermeer

8. MUSIC: Which of these was the first solo female artist to score a No 1 album in the official UK charts? Barbra Streisand, Connie Francis, Bonnie Tyler or Kate Bush?

   1. 

      Barbra Streisand

   2. 

      Connie Francis

   3. 

      Bonnie Tyler

   4. 

      Kate Bush

9. 

   ALSO MUSIC: The Brits had a star-studded evening on Tuesday night with Dua Lipa and Little Mix making the headlines. But what year were the first Brits held?

   1. 1977

   2. 1987

   3. 1997

   4. 2007

10. 

    KINGS & QUEENS: When he died in 1135, King Henry I was mostly buried in Reading Abbey, but his entrails had their final resting place in which city in modern-day France?

    1. Le Havre‎

    2. Toulon

    3. Paris

    4. Rouen

11. 

    THE HORROR: A man was left stranded on a glass-bottomed suspension bridge this week after a sudden gale blew out some of the glass panels. Where?

    1. Vietnam

    2. China

    3. Cambodia

    4. South Korea

12. 

    TRAVEL: Talking of broken things, loads of trains in the UK had to be withdrawn because cracks were discovered in their bogies. What is a bogie though?

    1. The bit at the front that you can hook up to another train

    2. The bit on the top that connects to the wires

    3. The bit that connects two carriages together so you can walk between them

    4. The bit with the wheels and the axles underneath a carriage

13. 

    TRUE OF FALSE: Loch Ness in Scotland contains more water in it than all the freshwater lakes of England and Wales combined.

    1. True

    2. False

14. 

    LITERATURE: Which of these Shakespeare plays is generally believed to be the earliest?

    1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona

    2. Troilus and Cressida

    3. Timon of Athens

    4. Measure For Measure

15. 

    WEIRD NEWS: Elon Musk didn't get the greatest of reviews for his appearance on Saturday Night Live at the weekend. But which character did his partner, Grimes, play in a skit?

    1. Nurse Joy from the Pokémon games

    2. Princess Peach from the Mario games

    3. Princess Zelda from the Zelda games

    4. Gwen Stefani from No Doubt

Solutions

1:C - Two of the other options are actually real job titles. The current Usher of the Scarlet Rod is Major General James Gordon, and it is a position associated with the Order of the Bath. The Gold Stick and the Silver Stick are bodyguard positions in the British Royal Household., 2:A - George was born in 1943 and was the youngest. Paul was born in 1942, and both John and Ringo arrived on the scene in 1940., 3:B - This is Mercury - probably among the least photographed and explored planets in our solar system. Two probes due to visit it in 2024 will give us our best look yet at this hot barren world., 4:C - Correct. The others were Staffordshire (with the rope), Northamptonshire (with the flower) and Dorset (with the white cross)., 5:C - The Neanderthal remains, which include skullcaps and broken jawbones, were found in the Guattari cave, about 100km south-east of Rome. According to the researchers, most of the Neanderthals had been killed by hyenas and then dragged back to the cave., 6:B - In honour of the fact that he used it as the last kick in the tense 1976 European Championship penalty shoot-out between Czechoslovakia and West Germany, meaning the underdogs went on to defeat the World Cup holders 5–3. In truth, it's called a Panenka when it goes in, and called a "What the bloody hell were you thinking of, you weirdo?" when you miss it., 7:A - Ben Hall, the old master paintings chairman at Christie’s New York, described the drawing as “one of the most important works from the Renaissance still in private hands”., 8:A - 21 years after the official albums chart was established, Streisand became the first woman to top it on her own, with A Star Is Born in July 1977. Francis can feel slightly aggrieved – she topped the chart the following month – and it is only in retrospect that A Star Is Born has been re-classified as a solo Streisand album. It was originally marketed as an original soundtrack. Bonnie was No 1 in 1983 with Faster Than the Speed of Night. Kate has had two UK No 1 albums: Never For Ever in 1980 and Hounds of Love in 1985., 9:A - The first Brits were held in 1977 to mark the Queen's silver jubilee, and awards were for the whole history of British music, meaning that the Beatles, Queen, Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey and Benjamin Britten were among those who walked away from the Wembley Conference Centre with gongs. It wasn't held again until it became an annual event from 1982 onwards., 10:D - As the fourth son of William the Conqueror, Henry was also Duke of Normandy, and died there. His entrails were buried locally at the priory of Notre-Dame du Pré, before his embalmed body was ferried across the Channel to its final resting place., 11:B - The man was on the 100-metre-high bridge at Piyan Mountain in Longjing city, when it was hit by sudden strong weather, the local tourism department said. Gusts of up to 150km/h blew out several glass panels, trapping the tourist until he could be rescued by firefighters, police, and forestry and tourism personnel more than half an hour later. Bloody hell, as Chris Morris famously said., 12:D - Stop sniggering at the back. It is basically – in layperson's terms – the bit with the wheels. They are usually (though not always) connected to the carriage via suspension and often have the ability to swivel a bit as they go round bends. Hairline cracks were discovered in the bogies of several Class 800 trains supplied by Hitachi, leading to LNER and GWR services being withdrawn while the fleet was checked., 13:A - Or at least true enough that nobody can write about the loch without claiming it. It seems an odd thing for someone to have counted up, but not only is Loch Ness the most beautiful place in the UK: it's got a monster mystery, it has been in Doctor Who, *and* it has also got more water than all the freshwater lakes of England and Wales combined. , 14:A - Although there is no definitive chronology, the Two Gentlemen of Verona is thought to be from the 1589-1591 period. All of the other options given are generally agreed to have been written post-1600., 15:B - Yes, Grimes played the character in a sketch, which her child with Musk, X Æ A-Xii, can look forward to seeing once they are old enough to get into Nintendo games.

Scores

1. 15 and above.

   A perfect score? Congratulations

2. 0 and above.

   Not so good – maybe you’ll have better luck next week?

3. 6 and above.

   Well done – 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 you don’t want to make him cry at work.