Roman rotters, river otters and a ridiculous way to get caught – take the Thursday quiz

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (63BC - 14AD), the adopted son of Julius Caesar. He isn’t one of the answers but he is Roman. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

It is time. Thursday lunchtime. Time to enjoy our cunningly titled Thursday quiz. Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical news trivia, laced with a few weird facts and some jokes. It is just for fun and there are no prizes, but let us know how you get on in the comments below.

The Thursday quiz, No 5

1. 

   GLOBAL NEWS: Which Pacific nation has seen dramatic scenes outside its parliament this week with a dispute about the swearing in of a new prime minister?

   1. Vanuatu

   2. Kiribati

   3. Samoa

   4. Fiji

2. 

   SPACE: How many moons of Jupiter have been discovered to date?

   1. 23

   2. 45

   3. 59

   4. 79

3. 

   NAME THE FLAG: Only one US state features the flag of a foreign nation on its own. Which state?

   1. Connecticut

   2. The Commonwealth of Virginia

   3. New England

   4. Hawaii

4. UK (AND ROMAN) NEWS: The British Museum is to open an exhibition on 27 May dedicated to which Roman emperor with an unsavoury reputation?

   1. Tiberius

   2. Nero

   3. Caligula

   4. Marcus Aurelius

5. COMPARATIVELY SPEAKING: The Volga and the Danube are considered to be the two longest rivers in Europe. But which of THESE four major European rivers is the longest of the four?

   1. Dnieper

   2. Rhine

   3. Elbe

   4. Tagus

6. 

   THE NATURAL WORLD: Talking of rivers, here is a blurry pic of a wild giant river otter. It has been spotted in a country where it had not been seen since the 1980s and was feared extinct. Where?

   1. Bolivia

   2. Ecuador

   3. Chile

   4. Argentina

7. 

   SPORT: Who won the Monaco F1 grand prix at the weekend to take the lead in the drivers' world championship?

   1. Lando Norris

   2. Valtteri Bottas

   3. Max Verstappen

   4. Charles Leclerc

8. 

   CITIES: Istanbul should have been hosting this weekend's UEFA Champions League final, not Porto. When did Istanbul first have its name changed to Istanbul?

   1. 1890s

   2. 1910s

   3. 1930s

   4. 1950s

9. MUSIC: Which of these female recording artists has won the most Grammy awards? Aretha Franklin, Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, or Kate Bush?

   1. 

      Aretha Franklin

   2. 

      Beyoncé

   3. 

      Whitney Houston

   4. 

      Kate Bush

10. 

    FROM THE AIR: Can you name this Spanish landmark?

    1. Santiago de Compostela Cathedral

    2. The Royal Chapel in Granada

    3. La Sagrada Família

    4. Seville Cathedral

11. LITERATURE: In the Asterix books, what is the name – in the English translation – of the druid with the long white beard?

    1. Vitalstatistix

    2. Unhygienix

    3. Fulliautomatix

    4. Getafix

12. KINGS AND QUEENS: Thieves this week broke into Arundel castle and stole what?

    1. Henry VIII's christening robe

    2. Mary Queen of Scots’ rosary beads

    3. A bible belonging to Elizabeth I

    4. A wig belonging to George III

13. 

    MARINE GEOGRAPHY: In which ocean is the Mariana Trench?

    1. Atlantic

    2. Pacific

    3. Indian

    4. Arctic

14. DIGITAL CULTURE: In December 2019, a WhatsApp message sent by 'Gibbo' to a bunch of army colleagues saying that the Queen had died went viral. Who were his mates in the WhatsApp group?

    1. Shaun, Mark, Paul, Gary, Dan and Bez

    2. Napoleon, Gordon, Chas, Buster and the Weasel

    3. Burnsy, Cheeks, Morty, Ricey and Josh

    4. Pogo Patterson, Grimbo, Roland, Tucker and Tegs

15. AND FINALLY: A court heard that police were able to identify a prolific drug dealer when he posted a picture of his hand holding what on the encrypted messaging service EncroChat?

    1. A business class ticket to fly to New York

    2. His ticket to see Liverpool's final game of the season at Anfield

    3. A block of M&S Mature Blue Stilton

    4. Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps

Solutions

1:C - On Monday MPs convened an ad hoc swearing-in ceremony outside parliament and declared their party’s leader the new prime minister after the caretaker government refused to convene parliament, locking the prime minister-elect Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and the chief justice out of the parliament building., 2:D - Yes, 79 moons have been discovered around Jupiter. Saturn is believed to have even more: 53 moons are confirmed and named and another 29 moons are awaiting confirmation of discovery and official naming, which would make a total of 82. Greedy., 3:D - It's been around in pretty much that format since 1845, and has continued in use even after Hawaii officially became the fiftieth US state in 1959., 4:B - The exhibition is dedicated to Nero, and scholars are arguing that he was the victim of a bad press from propagandists, and may not be the cruel horror we are familiar with., 5:A - It is the Dnieper, the fourth longest European river, behind the Volga, Danube and Ural. It rises near Smolensk in Russia and traverses Belarus and Ukraine before reaching the Black Sea. It lent its name twice to one of the finest-named teams in European football: FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, which became bankrupt in 2018., 6:D - Sebastián Di Martino, director of conservation at Fundación Rewilding Argentina said: "The closest known populations of giant otter, which is endangered globally, are in the Paraguayan Pantanal, which could connect with this river from a distance of over 1,000km. That’s the simplest explanation. The other possibility is that there’s a remnant population of the species in Argentina that’s gone undetected.", 7:C - The Red Bull driver now leads the reigning champion Lewis Hamilton by four points., 8:C - The name change was made in 1930, although it had been referred to as "Islambol" on coinage in the 1730s .Some say it derives from the Greek way of saying "To the city" and had been in use for centuries. Others argue it is just a corruption of Constantinople being pronounced with syllables missing. All I know is that every gal in Constantinople lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople., 9:B - As a solo artist, collaborator, and songwriter, Beyoncé has won 28 Grammy awards, the most for any woman. Alison Krauss is a close second with 27. Aretha Franklin netted 18 in her extraordinary career. Rather unjustly, perhaps, Whitney Houston has six wins from 25 nominations, and Kate Bush has been nominated three times but not won on any occasion., 10:A - Yes, it is the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, where the apostle Saint James the Great is reputed to be buried. It is a site of pilgrimage, whose construction was started in the late 11th century., 11:D - That's the one. In some translations he is known as Magigamix, and in the original French as Panoramix, both of which seem … funnier than a pun on "Get a fix"? Maybe just because they aren't as familiar to this English reader., 12:B - A set of “irreplaceable” gold rosary beads carried by Mary Queen of Scots to her execution in 1587 are among historic treasures worth more than £1m stolen in a raid at Arundel castle., 13:B - The Mariana Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean about 200km (124 mi) east of the Mariana Islands. It is so deep that if you dropped Chomolungma (Mount Everest) into it, the tip of the mountain would not emerge from the water. Presumably you'd get a hell of a splash, though., 14:C - Who could forget Cheeks? The other options were variously member so the band Happy Mondays, people involved in the Great Train Robbery, and Grange Hill characters, 15:C - Like many a 39-year-old man, his love of mature cheese was his downfall. Police say they were able to analyse the visible fingerprints in the post. He was sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison at Liverpool crown court on Friday. The story is quite funny because of the cheese angle – but hang on, the police were able to reconstruct fingerprints from a photo posted in an encrypted channel?

Scores

1. 6 and above.

   Well done – let us know how you got on in the comments

2. 0 and above.

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

3. 15 and above.

   A perfect score? Congratulations

• 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 him to have to tap the sign, do you?