Lost papers, singing leaders and a not so little mermaid – take the Thursday quiz

The little mermaid statue in Copenhagen. But where is a new mermaid statue causing a stir? Photograph: Diego Grandi/Alamy

Welcome again to the Thursday quiz, accurately described in the comments last week by someone called “fishworld” as a test of “knowing stuff about things”. Unfortunately, while some of the stuff is topical news that you will have seen on the Guardian website, some of the things are completely obscure and entirely at the whim of a capricious nerdy quiz master. There are bonus points available in the comments if you can spot oblique references to Doctor Who, but beware, you can lose points for needless quibbling. And this week we are going to try leaving the comments open for a little longer, as due to something called “time zones”, there are some people for whom this is, essentially, the Friday quiz. Be kind to each other and have fun!

The Thursday quiz, No 106

1. 

   OOPS I DID IT AGAIN: It was reported that sensitive files about a Royal Navy submarine were found where …?

   1. On a USB stick left plugged in to a computer at a public library

   2. In the toilet of a pub

   3. In the back of a taxi

   4. In the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying: "Beware of the Leopard"

2. 

   IT'S A DOG'S LIFE: This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz, thinking about how she would get in trouble if she ate an artwork in a gallery. But a South Korean art student did just that. What was it they ate?

   1. A banana

   2. A kiwi fruit

   3. An apple

   4. A delicious sachet of Winalot dog food pouches mixed in gravy

3. 

   ONCE MORE WITH FEELING: Creator Phil Redmond is promising a film reboot of which beloved children's TV drama which he promises will feature some members of the original cast?

   1. The Tomorrow People

   2. Grange Hill

   3. Rentaghost

   4. The Stones of Blood

4. 

   GOING FOR A SONG: South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s White House visit ended on a high note when he sang what?

   1. American Pie by Don McLean

   2. Hound Dog by Elvis Presley

   3. Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel

   4. This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us by Sparks

5. 

   ADIOS BUEN VIAJE: Last week Spain’s parliament banned which traditional form of entertainment?

   1. Monkey tennis

   2. Cow hurdling

   3. Dwarf bullfighting

   4. Catalan's bee-stinging festival

6. 

   FISHY TALES: The voluptuous statue of a mermaid (not pictured) placed in a square in a seaside location has caused a stir for being “too provocative”. Where?

   1. Chania, Crete

   2. Dawlish, Devon

   3. Lloret de Mar, Catalonia

   4. Monopoli, Puglia

7. 

   THE LEFTWING ECONOMIC ESTABLISHMENT WITH LIZ TRUSS: The latest bunch of radical communists after the former PM are the Cabinet Office, who are trying to charge Liz Truss £12,000 for her use of the "grace-and-favour" home traditionally used by the foreign secretary. Which house?

   1. Chequers near Ellesborough

   2. Priory Mews near Denham

   3. Dorneywood near Burnham

   4. Chevening House in Kent

8. 

   THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS BULLIES, WITH DOMINIC RAAB: This week the former deputy PM would like to know the full name of Lucy, who spent five decades bullying Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic strip

   1. Lucy Van Pelt

   2. Lucy Van Breukelen

   3. Lucy Van der Linden

   4. Lucy Van Williamson

9. 

   THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE: A new series where we go through the periodic table until we all get bored. What is special about the boiling point of element number 2, Helium?

   1. Helium has the lowest known boiling point of any element

   2. Helium's boiling point has never been discovered

   3. Helium's boiling point was used to set zero in the Fahrenheit temperature scale

   4. Helium's boiling point was a vital plot device in the first Doctor Who episode to feature the Cybermen

10. 

    BACK TO NATURE: UK gardeners are being urged to let wildflowers and grass grow this month, in what is called …

    1. Mow-No No-No

    2. Marvellous "May"-hem

    3. No Mow May

    4. May The Grass Be With You

11. 

    WOMEN'S WORLD CUP 2023: A question about every country that will feature in the tournament. Roughly how many islands make up the Philippines, including the one in the picture?

    1. Between 1,000 and 2,000

    2. Between 3,500 and 4,500

    3. Between 7,000 and 8,000

    4. Between 11,000 and 12,000

12. 

    WOMEN'S WORLD CUP 2023: What is the currency of Costa Rica?

    1. Colón

    2. Carét

    3. Tílde

    4. Hyphén

13. 

    ROCKING ALL OVER THE WORLD: Leyton Orient are still the champions of League Two in the English Football League, and the quiz master is still literally in this photo. The club's crest features a wyvern. How many legs does a wyvern have?

    1. None

    2. Two

    3. Four

    4. Six

14. 

    ​​THE ULTIMATE TEST OF CEREBRAL FITNESS: Chess has a new world champion. Who is it?

    1. Pik-Sen Lim

    2. Hikaru Nakamura

    3. Ding Liren

    4. Viswanathan Anand

15. 

    MUSIC: Ed Sheeran has been appearing in court in the US in a lawsuit relating to his song Thinking Out Loud. The case claims it is too similar to a song by whom?

    1. Smokey Robinson

    2. Stevie Wonder

    3. Marvin Gaye

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:B - The Royal Navy is to investigate after official documents about one of its £1.3bn “hunter killer” submarines were reportedly found in the toilets of a Wetherspoons pub. Files carrying details about the HMS Anson were left in the Furness Railway in Cumbria. A Royal Navy spokesperson said: “These are generic training documents that carry no classified information. However, we take all security matters extremely seriously and will investigate the circumstances of their discovery.”, 2:A - Noh Huyn-soo was filmed brazenly removing the banana, which was duct-taped on to a wall at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, unpeeling it and eating it in front of stunned onlookers. It was part of a renowned installation by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, and he said he did so because he was “hungry”. Cattelan, a sculptor and performance artist based in New York, was reportedly informed about the incident and simply replied: “No problem.”, 3:B - Nearly half a century after it first aired on BBC One, a film adaptation of the classic children’s drama series Grange Hill has been confirmed. The series, which ran from 1978 until 2008, portrayed life in a typical British comprehensive school, and broke new ground over the years with storylines that covered racism, drug addiction and mental health., 4:A - Yoon belted out the first few lines of the song a cappella, triggering rapturous applause from the crowd and delighting the president,Joe Biden, and the first lady, Jill Biden. Biden told Yoon that McLean could not be at the White House to join them but had sent a signed guitar, which the US president gave to the South Korean leader., 5:C - Dwarves in Spain have long dressed as firefighters or clowns to chase bulls without killing them, at public spectacles designed to be humorous. The tradition stretches back decades, but has declined in popularity. The law approved on Thursday brings Spain into line with EU directives on discrimination against disabled people, and was hailed by campaigners, 6:D - The artwork, which is yet to be officially inaugurated, became a target of ridicule after photos taken during its installation were shared on social media. Adolfo Marciano, the headteacher of the Luigi Rosso art school behind it, defended the statue, saying it was a “tribute to the great majority of women who are curvy" , 7:D - The Prince of Wales initially accepted a nomination to occupy the house in 1974 but subsequently relinquished this. The house has since effectively become the country residence of the foreign secretary. Lord Carrington was the first holder of that office to occupy Chevening in 1981. Truss is disputing part of a £12,000 bill sent to her by the Cabinet Office. The bill mostly covered hospitality but also included missing items, such as some bathrobes. , 8:A - The older sister of Linus, Lucy is characterized as a crabby bossyboots who bullies most of the other characters in the strip, 9:A - At a staggeringly cold 4.222K ​(that is −268.9C or ​−452F) no element boils into its gaseous form at such a low temperature, 10:C - Nicola Hutchinson, the director of conservation at Plantlife, said “With an estimated 23m gardens in the UK, how lawns are tended makes a huge difference to the prospects for wild plants and other wildlife. The simple action of taking the mower out of action for May can deliver big gains for nature, communities and the climate, so we are encouraging all to liberate lawns as never before.”, 11:C - Most sources that the quiz looked at put the number between about 7,100 and 7,600, but due to the existence of fractals, tidal waters, and no fixed definition of what an "island" is, perhaps we'll never know the true number, 12:A - It was named after Christopher Columbus, known as Cristóbal Colón in Spanish. A colón is divided into one hundred céntimos. The plural is colones. It was introduced in 1896, replacing the Costa Rican peso, and yes, all the other options were typographical or punctuation marks with spurious extra accents, 13:B - Yes, one of the things that makes a wyvern a wyvern and not just a regular heraldic dragon, is that it only has two legs. Leyton Orient will remain League Two champions until next April, so you can look forward to many more weeks of questions tenuously linked to the champions. Here we go-oooo, rockin' all over the world!, 14:C - “This match reflects the deepness of my soul,” an emotional Ding said afterward. “I could not control my mood. I will cry. I will burst into tears". Alright, mate, steady on, 15:C - The 32-year-old is being sued by heirs of songwriter Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer on the 1973 song Let’s Get it On. Townsend’s heirs are seeking a share of profits from Thinking Out Loud, saying that the syncopated chord progression was copied.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments! (which will be open for longer this week!)

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 quiz master’s word is final, and he is quite busy getting ready to live blog something apparently called a “coronation” at the weekend. He probably should look up what one of those is.