A phantom’s author, a city of vice and the breaking of a wand – take the Thursday quiz

A fan holds a signed Phantom of the Opera mask in New York. But who wrote the original story? Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters

The Thursday quiz is here as a tiny glimmer of normality in a mixed-up world. You will laugh at the jokes. You will curse as you second-guess yourself about at least one of the questions, and then get it wrong. And you will recoil from the hideous AI art waiting for you at the conclusion. It is just for fun and there are no prizes, but let us know how you got on. And don’t forget, you can score bonus points for spotting hidden references to Doctor Who or making the quiz master laugh with your comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 74

1. 

   IN SLEEP HE SANG TO ME: The Phantom of the Opera musical is to close on Broadway after a run of approximately 1bn years. But who wrote the original Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, which was first published in 1909?

   1. Alphonse Daudet

   2. Alexandre Dumas

   3. Gaston Leroux

   4. Léon Colbert

2. 

   I'M SORRY DAVE, I'M AFRAID I CAN'T DO THAT: Which cryptocurrency changed the way it works in a software update known as "the merge" in order to reduce its hideously large carbon footprint?

   1. Bitcoin

   2. Ethereum

   3. Tsuka

   4. Ponzicoin

3. 

   DO YOU LIKE OUR OWL?: Amazon Prime is basing a TV series on Blade Runner. But which year is the original 1982 movie set in?

   1. 2015

   2. 2019

   3. 2022

   4. 2026

4. 

   RINGS AROUND THE WORLD: Scientists have proposed Saturn's rings formed when a moon got pulled too close and disintegrated between 100m and 200m years ago. What have they named that hypothetical moon?

   1. Chrysalis

   2. Charisma

   3. Chandos

   4. Polydor

5. 

   ON THIS DAY: Joseph Smith said he discovered what for the first time on 22 September 1823 in the hills near his home in Manchester, New York, which he would later claim to translate as the Book of Mormon?

   1. Copper plates

   2. Bronze plates

   3. Silver plates

   4. Golden plates

6. 

   HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND OBVIOUS DOCTOR WHO REFERENCE: It is the lovely Billie Piper's birthday today. Happy birthday, Billie! But what was the name of the character she played in Doctor Who, starting in 2005?

   1. Rose Tyler

   2. Martha Jones

   3. Donna Noble

   4. Gwen Cooper

7. 

   SPILL THE BEANS: A huge leak of data has revealed that the next version of Grand Theft Auto will once again be set in Vice City, as was the 2002 instalment. But Vice City is loosely based on which real US city?

   1. Chicago

   2. Miami

   3. New York

   4. Las Vegas

8. 

   BREAKING THE WAND: Even the Thursday quiz watched the Queen's funeral on Monday, so you knew there would be some questions about it. Who was in charge of one of the final ceremonial acts, the breaking of the "Wand of Office"?

   1. The earl marshall

   2. The lord chamberlain

   3. Rouge Dragon Pursuivant

   4. Merlin

9. 

   AVE ATQUE VALE: Also at the Queen's funeral at Windsor was one of her favourite horses, Emma (pictured), who was led out to watch the coffin pass by. But which breed of horse is she? The Queen was patron of the society dedicated to them.

   1. Shetland pony

   2. Suffolk Punch

   3. Exmoor pony

   4. Fell pony

10. 

    1966 AND ALL THAT: A series of questions not related to football leading up to the 2022 Fifa World Cup awarded to Qatar where thousands of migrant workers have died. The 1982 Fifa World Cup was held in Spain. But what is the opening line of the Spanish national anthem?

    1. "Life, life, future of the Fatherland!"

    2. "Command us, Spain, and united we will fight!"

    3. "Zoo time, is she and you time. The mammals are your favourite type, and you want her tonight!"

    4. There is no opening line, as it has no words

11. 

    SWEET BABY CHEESES: Which of the following options is NOT a variety of cheese produced in Italy?

    1. Cane Paratore

    2. Taleggio

    3. Stracchino

    4. Bel Paese

12. 

    TAMMY'S TEASER: Tammy Wynette had a hit single with D-I-V-O-R-C-E in 1968. But which C is one of the Latin names for the settlement the Romans lived in at the present-day location of Colchester?

    1. Corinium Dobunnorum

    2. Clausentum

    3. Camulodunum

    4. Cataractonium

13. 

    GCSE SCIENCE BUT WITH STEVIE NICKS: Stevie once said she wanted to go over and kill Lindsey Buckingham every time Fleetwood Mac played Go Your Own Way live. But which word describes an object that doesn't want to go its own way, and instead will return to its original shape when forces are removed?

    1. Elastic

    2. Hyperplastic

    3. Inelastic

    4. Over-dramatic

14. 

    MUSIC: Goldfrapp are absolutely ace and feature the talents of Will Gregory and which vocalist?

    1. Alison Goldfrapp

    2. Hannah Goldfrapp

    3. Elizabeth Goldfrapp

    4. Kate Bush

15. 

    NEW FACE IN AI HELL: What prompt did the Thursday quiz give to an AI drawing robot to produce this masterpiece?

    1. Matt Smith with a beard being menaced by Pat Butcher from EastEnders

    2. Bearded Gordon Ramsay laughs while Eddie Izzard looks on adoringly

    3. David Beckham accepting £10m to promote Qatar while Phillip Schofield tries to jump the queue

    4. Liam Gallagher with a fork in a world of soup

Solutions

1:C - It was first published as a serial in Le Gaulois from 23 September 1909 to 8 January 1910, and was released in volume form in late March 1910. Broadway’s longest-running musical actually lasted 35 years, not 1bn years. It just felt like it., 2:B - Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, estimated at one point to use as much electricity as Austria, will no longer be created by an energy intensive process known as “mining”, but move to a “proof of stake” system., 3:B - The original movie is set in Los Angeles in November 2019, and while it is brilliant, it definitely overestimates the number of flying cars in the city at that point., 4:A - Using data from Nasa's Cassini mission, they suggest that the destroyed moon theory explains why the rings are much younger than the planet itself, and also the tilt of Saturn's axis. All the options were, of course, also the names of British record labels., 5:D - Some "witnesses" claim that they were thin sheets of metal, engraved with hieroglyphics on both sides, and bound together with D-rings, but mostly we only have Joseph Smith's word for it., 6:A - She was initially companion to Christopher Eccleston when the show was revived in 2005, and has gone on to play the character on audio to the present day. And we have no idea why she looks so much like Nicole Kidman in that picture., 7:B - Set in 1986, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City saw you take the role of mobster Tommy Vercetti to build a crime empire. Based on Miami, it means you can walk down the real Ocean Drive listening to the game's soundtrack of brilliant 1980s tunes on your headphones while thinking: "Ooooh, there's a side mission down that alleyway. There's a hidden object behind that bin. That's the hotel where I used to live," as the quiz master once enjoyably spent a day in Miami doing., 8:B - The lord chamberlain breaks the symbolic "Wand of Office" to show that their service to the monarch has ended. The new monarch then appoints a new lord chamberlain at some point. The "rouge dragon pursuivant of arms in ordinary" is apparently a real thing, a junior officer of arms of the College of Arms, named after the red dragon of Wales. And it obviously couldn't be Merlin because he lives in the West Country and the funeral procession only went as far as Windsor., 9:D - Carltonlima Emma, to give her her full name, is a Fell pony that was listed as one of the Queen's all-time favourite horses in 2020 by Horse & Hound magazine. The late monarch was a patron of the Fell Pony Society, and continued to ride Emma even when the monarch was well into her 90s., 10:D - Spain's national anthem used to have lyrics, but it is now one of only four national anthems which is performed as an instrumental, causing at least one person to hilariously tweet: "Oh no, the whole Spanish team is refusing to sing the national anthem," every time they play a match. The picture incidentally, is of Paolo Rossi and Bruno Conti after Italy scored during their 3-1 World Cup final victory in 1982., 11:A - The Cane Paratore is a breed of herding dog from Italy. Taleggio is named after the Alpine valley of Val Taleggio in Lombardy where it is produced, Stracchino is softer and more spreadable Gorgonzola-type cheese from Northern Italy, and Bel Paese is a semi-soft cow’s milk cheese. And all of them more delicious than any cheese produced in the US., 12:C - Colchester used to market itself as the "oldest recorded town in Britain". Its official name was Colonia Claudia Victricensis, but it was known as Camulodunum, a Latinised version of its original Celtic name, which was derived from being the "stronghold of Camulos". Clausentum was near modern Southampton. Corinium Dobunnorum was at Cirencester. Cataractonium was at Catterick in North Yorkshire., 13:A - According to what pupils are taught at GCSE level by the AQA exam board in England and Wales, an elastic object will return to its original shape, and this occurs up to the limit of proportionality, which is no doubt a whole topic in itself which people will start arguing about in the comments., 14:A - It is the wonderful Alison Goldfrapp whose vocal range has veered from the operatic on debut album Felt Mountain to the out-and-out glam-pop of Supernature., 15:C - Indeed. Praise was heaped on David Beckham for queuing for hours to pay his respects to the Queen while TV presenter Phillip Schofield and his colleague Holly Willoughby faced criticism for allegedly short-cutting the queue. But then Phil and Holly haven't done an advert promoting Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal and thousands of migrant workers have died while building the venues for the next Fifa World Cup. So swings/roundabouts we guess.

Scores

1. 0 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 final, and you don’t want him to send Erik round now that he is unemployed.