Giraffes, the Queen and caterpillar cake: take the new weekly quiz

It’s Thursday lunchtime, and what better time to tackle our new weekly quiz? It is made up of 15 teasing questions on general knowledge and topical news trivia. 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 1

1. 

   UK NEWS: Who did the former Conservative party leader William Hague this week describe as "a well-planned cyberattack in human form"?

   1. Vladimir Putin

   2. Dominic Cummings

   3. Tobias Vaughn

   4. Elon Musk

2. 

   SPACE: Which planet in our solar system looks like this?

   1. Uranus

   2. Saturn

   3. Jupiter

   4. Mercury

3. NAME THE FLAG: Kazakhstan launched its own home-developed Covid vaccine this week, known as QazVac. But can you spot the Kazakhstan flag among this selection?

   1. 

      This one?

   2. 

      This one?

   3. 

      This one?

   4. 

      Or this?

4. 

   FROM THE AIR: Which British city is this?

   1. Cambridge

   2. Oxford

   3. Salisbury

   4. Bath

5. 

   GLOBAL NEWS: Fifteen people have emerged from a cave in south-west France as part of an experiment to see how the absence of clocks, daylight and external communications would affect their sense of time. How long did they stay underground?

   1. 15 days

   2. 20 days

   3. 30 days

   4. 40 days

6. 

   SPORT: At the weekend, one of the the founding members of the aborted European Super League, Manchester City, lifted the EFL's Carabao Cup at Wembley. How many times have they now won it consecutively?

   1. 3

   2. 4

   3. 5

   4. 6

7. COMPARATIVELY SPEAKING: Which of these landmarks in India is older?

   1. The Amer Fort

   2. Lake Palace in Udaipur

   3. Taj Mahal

   4. Jama Masjid in Delhi

8. MUSIC: Which of these female solo artists had hits in the 1980s including Express Yourself, Dress You Up and Dear Jessie?

   1. 

      Janet Jackson

   2. 

      Madonna

   3. 

      Belinda Carlisle

   4. 

      Kate Bush

9. 

   KINGS & QUEENS: Queen Elizabeth II turned 95 last week, and is the monarch with the longest reign in the British Isles. Queen Victoria had the second longest reign. Who holds the record for third longest?

   1. George III of the UK

   2. James VI of Scotland

   3. Edward III of England

   4. Llywelyn of Gwynedd

10. CITIES: Which of these European cities is farthest south?

    1. Belgrade

    2. Sofia

    3. Bremen

    4. Seville

11. 

    FOOD & DRINK: M&S is suing what it says is a rival version of its Colin the Caterpillar chocolate cake. Which of these named supermarket chocolate caterpillars is in the dock?

    1. Curly

    2. Cuthbert

    3. Clyde

    4. Cecil

12. 

    TRUE OR FALSE: A human has the same number of bones in its neck as a giraffe. True or false?

    1. True

    2. False

13. FILM & TV: Which film has lost its coveted 100% rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes after the site added an 80-year-old negative review?

    1. The Great Dictator

    2. Citizen Kane

    3. Gone with the Wind

    4. The Wizard of Oz

14. ART: René Magritte's 1964 painting The Son of Man features a suited figure with their face obscured by what?

    1. A floating green apple

    2. A pipe

    3. Their hands

    4. A clock-face

15. AND FINALLY: Which tech company was left embarrassed this week after the designer Nicolás Kuroña was able to buy the domain name for its operations in Argentina for £2?

    1. Tesla

    2. Google

    3. Amazon

    4. MSN

Solutions

1:B - Yes, Hague warned that Cummings's future appearance at a parliamentary committee could see him "armed with audio recordings, screen grabs, email chains and other partial but revealing evidence" about Boris Johnson's behaviour., 2:C - It's not a Van Gogh, it's a 2020 Nasa picture of Jupiter doing its best Van Gogh impression., 3:D - Indeed. The sun's beams are actually grains, symbolising the abundance of the region, and the eagle flying underneath the sun has been on the flags of Kazakh tribes for centuries. The flag was adopted in 1992., 4:B - This view shows Oxford., 5:D - That is a long time to go with no contact with the outside world, no updates on the pandemic or any communications with friends or family. “It was like pressing pause,” said Marina Lançon, who took part. She said she did not feel any rush to do anything once she left and wished she could have stayed in the cave a few days longer., 6:B - Yes, it is their fourth consecutive victory – equalling a record held when Liverpool went on a winning streak in the early 1980s. The result means that whatever happens in the Premier League, they have qualified for Uefa's new Europa Conference League so will have European football next year without having to set up their own closed-shop competition., 7:A - The Jama Masjid was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan between 1650 and 1656. The Taj Mahal was finished slightly earlier, in 1643 – though some sources suggest work continued for a decade afterwards. Construction on the Lake Palace started in 1743. Work on the Amer Fort started before all of these though, in the late 1500s., 8:B - It was Madonna, well done. All three of them reached No 5 as their highest position in the UK official singles chart., 9:A - George III ruled for just over 59 years. He just pips James, who was James VI of Scotland for much longer than he was James I of England and Ireland – spending nearly 58 years on the Scottish throne. Edward III ruled for more than 50 years, and Llywelyn of Gwynedd is thought to have led Wales for about 45 years., 10:D - It's sunny Seville, which is a good couple of degrees of latitude farther south than Belgrade and Sofia. Bremen is near the north coast of Germany, so hopefully you didn't pick that., 11:B - Tesco has Curly, Asda has Clyde and Waitrose has Cecil, but it is Aldi that is being sued over its Cuthbert treat. Its social media managers have turned this to their advantage, though, launching a hugely popular #FreeCuthbert campaign. Also, the author feels obliged to point out for accuracy that despite the wording of the question, they don't actually put a chocolate cake in the dock during a copyright dispute, 12:A - It's true. Both humans and giraffes improbably have seven bones in their neck, despite our distinct lack of ability to reach the very tallest leaves in the tree. Pictured above is recent new arrival Margaret with her mum at Whipsnade Zoo. She was born the same day Margaret Keenan got the first British dose of a Covid vaccine and was named accordingly., 13:B - Yes, a 1941 negative review by the Chicago Tribune has done for Orson Welles's previously perfect score. Paddington 2 still has a 100% rating though, so all is well with the world., 14:A - Of the painting, Magritte said: "It's something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling." Which is all lovely but still doesn't really explain the floating apple, does it?, 15:B - Google’s domain name shouldn’t have been up for sale at all, but it was, and so after Kuroña's purchase all the traffic going to that domain ended up on the 30-year-old Buenos Aires designer's website.

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 – don't forget to let us know how you got on in the comments

• If you 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.