Odd books, Chess hooks and a very naughty worm – take the Thursday quiz

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?

Where would we be without the Thursday quiz? On one of the other days of the week I guess. All your favourites are here as you face 15 topical or general knowledge questions. Can you spot the hidden Doctor Who reference? Can you avoid the lure of answering Kate Bush to the music question? And will Ron from Sparks end up disappointed with you – yet again? It is not entirely serious, but let us know how you got on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 33

1. 

   Julia Donaldson

   LITERATURE: Julia Donaldson has revealed that publishers had a problem with her initial opening couplet for the book Superworm. How had she wanted to open the book for children?

   1. Superworm he likes to funk, Superworm is full of spunk

   2. Superworm wants you to know, if you touch him he can grow

   3. Superworm is long and pink, Superworm can grow and shrink

   4. Superworm he likes to tease, with his European Super League™

2. 

   Dhaka University's Central Library

   LITERATURE AGAIN BUT NOW EVER WEIRDER: Which book has won the public vote for the Diagram prize for 'oddest book title of the year' in 2021?

   1. How to Avoid Huge Ships

   2. Curves for the Mathematically Curious

   3. The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories

   4. Is Superman Circumcised?

3. 

   Fire

   OOOOOOOF: The other week a homeowner in Maryland tried to fight something with coal, only to burn their own house down, causing more than $1m in damage. What were they trying to fight?

   1. Racoons

   2. Wasp's nests

   3. A snake infestation

   4. 30-50 feral hogs

4. 

   Magnus Carlsen

   SPORT(-ISH): Magnus Carlsen has been embroiled in an epic battle for the World Chess Championship in Dubai, which has been racking up the page views on our live blogs. But who or what is he playing?

   1. Alireza Firouzja

   2. Ian Nepomniachtchi

   3. Liren Ding

   4. A chess-playing super-computer called Wotan

5. 

   David / Michael / Murray / Kate

   MUSICAL CHESS: Who had a worldwide hit in the 1980s with One Night in Bangkok, written by Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and taken from the musical Chess?

   1. David Essex

   2. Michael Crawford

   3. Murray Head

   4. Kate Bush

6. 

   Sparks

   LIGHTEN UP, MORRISSEY: That's a 2008 Sparks song where a man is complaining his girlfriend always compares him unfavourably to the Smiths singer. But that's not important right now. When did Morrissey first do a gig wearing a 'Fuck the Guardian' t-shirt?

   1. 1983

   2. 2013

   3. 2017

   4. 2019

7. 

   Science corner

   GCSE SCIENCE CORNER: Talking of bitter old things, in 1774 Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele is credited with the isolation of which element, to which he gave the catchy name 'dephlogisticated muriatic acid air'

   1. Chlorine

   2. Bromine

   3. Fluorine

   4. Nitrogen

8. 

   Old Tv

   ENSEMBLE CASTS: Which of these shows, which can be loosely grouped as 'Scandi noir' – featured a regular cast including Søren Malling, Lars Mikkelsen and Sofie Gråbøl?

   1. Midnight Sun (Midnattsol)

   2. The Killing (Forbrydelsen)

   3. Borgen (Borgen)

   4. The Bridge (Broen)

9. 

   A French overseas territory

   FLAGS OF JOY: This is the flag of a French overseas territory. Which one?

   1. Saint Barthélemy

   2. New Caledonia

   3. French Southern and Antarctic Lands

   4. French Polynesia

10. 

    Pontyclun train

    EVERY TRAIN GOES EAST FROM HERE: What is the westernmost passenger train station in Wales?

    1. Pembroke Dock

    2. Fishguard and Goodwick

    3. Milford Haven

    4. Holyhead

11. 

    A kid with a Wales flag

    FREE WELSH STUFF: Over the next year or so every household in Wales is to be offered something free as part of a Welsh government plan to fight against the climate emergency. What?

    1. Heat pump system

    2. Tree

    3. Composter

    4. Olly Murs face mask

12. 

    Swiss wedding cake

    ON THIS DAY: On 9 December 2017 the Marriage Amendment Bill received royal assent and came into effect, making Australia the 26th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. Which was the first country to do so, in 2001?

    1. Netherlands

    2. Norway

    3. Spain

    4. Belgium

13. 

    Caroline Lucas

    NEW GREEN REAL DEAL: It is the birthday of Green Party MP Caroline Lucas today. Happy birthday, Caroline! But the question is, how many times has she been elected MP for Brighton Pavilion?

    1. Two

    2. Three

    3. Four

    4. Five

14. 

    Judi Dench

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It is Judi Dench's birthday today too. Happy birthday Judi! But what was the first James Bond film in which she played M?

    1. GoldenEye

    2. The World Is Not Enough

    3. Casino Royale

    4. Die Another Day

15. 

    WHAM ! Promotional photo of George Michael for their their 1984 single White Christmas. Image shot 1984. Exact date unknown.
    B3JXD3 WHAM ! Promotional photo of George Michael for their their 1984 single White Christmas. Image shot 1984. Exact date unknown.

    WHAMAGEDDON: That's the game where people try to go from 1 December to 24 December without hearing Last Christmas by Wham!, one of the greatest Christmas singles of all time. But which year did it first become a No 1 hit in the UK singles chart?

    1. 1984

    2. 1992

    3. 2007

    4. 2021

Solutions

1:C - Regrettably the line was eventually replaced by 'Superworm is super-long, Superworm is super-strong', significantly reducing the amount of bedtime sniggering in the UK, 2:D - Both 'How to Avoid Huge Ships' – famously not purchased by the Suez Canal – and 'The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories' have previously won the award, but this year it was the turn of 'Is Superman Circumcised?' a study of the superhero’s Jewish influences. The Diagram prize is run by The Bookseller magazine. Other previous winners include 'The Dirt Hole and its Variations' and 'A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path: Animal Metaphors in Eastern Indonesian Society', 3:C - Montgomery county fire and rescue officials notified the public about the blaze describing a conflagration that left a 'large two-three-story single family house with heavy fire throughout structure and roof collapse' after the owner had tried to smoke out the wee beasties rather than just shouting 'Snakes in a basement' at them until they left, 4:B - There was a hoo-ha earlier in the series when authorities refused to let the 31 year old Russian display any kind of symbol of his nation, due to the same world anti-doping punishment that saw Russians competing at the Olympics as the Russian Olympic Committee rather than Russia, 5:C - Rather unfairly credited to Murray Head alone when the chorus is actually sung by Anders Glenmark, the single charted all over the world, except possibly in Bangkok, as it is actually quite derogatory about the attractions of the city compared to the excitement of playing chess, 6:D - Lighten up, Morrissey! You can tell by his face that Ron from Sparks thinks you should have known that, 7:A - It was chlorine. Earlier scientists including Jabir ibn Hayyan and Abu Bakr al-Razi appear from their writings to have also isolated it in their experiments without noting it, but Scheele produced chlorine by reacting MnO₂ with HCl. He did not establish that it was an element, which did not happen until Humphry Davy did so in 1810, 8:B - It was classic The Killing, which drove a brief global craze for chunky knit jumpers and being moody that the quiz master has never really grown out of, 9:D - It is French Polynesia. Tahiti, which is part of it, is slated to hold the surfing contest in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, which will be the first time that sports have been held in different hemispheres at the same Olympics since they did the equestrian events in Sweden rather than in Melbourne in 1956 because Australian authorities weren't mad keen on having the horses imported, 10:C - Although all the options given would be in contention, it is Milford Haven that is furthest west. Opened in 1863 as plain old Millford, it is the westernmost station in Wales – although there are stations in both England and Scotland which are further to the west. Also, strictly speaking, the line out of Milford Haven heads north, rather than east, but that would make for a confusing category name, 11:B - Lee Waters, the deputy minister for climate change, said the initiative was practical – a good way of getting more trees in the ground – but the aim was also to engage people and fire their imaginations by directly involving them in the battle against the climate crisis. The first trees will be available to collect from March from one of five regional community hubs, 12:A - Same-sex marriage became legal in the Netherlands on 1 April 2001, Belgium followed in 2003 along with Ontario and British Columbia. The next country-wide legal approvals were Spain and Canada in 2005, South Africa in 2006, and Norway and Sweden in 2009, 13:C - Lucas first contested the seat in 2010, when she won it from Labour's David Lepper. She has since defended it successfully in 2015, 2017 and 2019. She has increased her majority each time, 14:A - With her character loosely based on that of then head of MI5 Stella Rimington, Dench first played the role of Bond's boss in 1995's GoldenEye, which also marked Pierce Brosnan's debut in the role of 007, 15:D - It was earlier this year. In 1984 it spent five weeks at No 2, behind Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas which also featured the incomparable George Michael. With the introduction of streaming plays into the chart over recent years it has gradually charted higher and higher, and was No 1 for the first time in the chart that ran from 1-7 January 2021. You'll be singing it to yourself all day now. Huzzah!

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!

2. 4 and above.

   We hope you had fun – 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 quiz master’s word is always final, and you wouldn’t want him to notify Santa that you should be put on the naughty list