A speeding fine, a baby donkey and a tram ride – take the Thursday quiz

A road sign indicating a warning – but which country just fined somebody €121,000 for speeding? Photograph: David Sillitoe/The Guardian

Is it really Thursday again? Fifteen questions of varying degrees of difficulty, topicality, and downright silliness await you. Along the way there may be some jokes, some political mischief, and even the quiz master’s miniature dachshund. You can score bonus points in the comments by being funny, or if you spot anything related to Doctor Who.

However, you can get points taken off for smugly pointing out something which had already been mentioned in the answer text, which you clearly hadn’t read. Several people did just that on last week’s quiz, in a question about the song Wagon Wheel. Tut tut. Very naughty. Don’t do it again.

The Thursday quiz, No 111

1. 

   DID THE EARTH MOVE FOR YOU?: Japanese vending machines in the coastal city of Ako are being programmed to do what in the event of detecting an earthquake?

   1. Emit a warning siren

   2. Dispense free food

   3. Seal themselves shut against looters

   4. Only offer terrible cheese from the US

2. 

   SCARAMOUCHE, SCARAMOUCHE, WILL YOU DO THE FANDANGO?: An early draft of the lyrics for the Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody that went up for auction show that Freddie Mercury nearly called it what?

   1. Mongolian Rhapsody

   2. Prussian Fantasy

   3. Bohemian Tragedy

   4. The Devil's Fandango in B♭ Major

3. 

   FAST AND NOW FURIOUS: A multimillionaire businessman has been hit with one of the world’s highest speeding fines – €121,000 (£104,000) – for driving 30km/h (18.6mph) over the limit in a country where tickets are calculated as a percentage of the offender’s income. Where?

   1. Finland

   2. Denmark

   3. Latvia

   4. Saudi Arabia

4. 

   IF YOU WANT IT, KERBLAM IT: Amazon’s main UK division paid how much corporation tax for the second year in a row?

   1. £1,057

   2. Absolutely none. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

5. 

   GOING, GOING, GONE: Which British publication available since the 1800s is to be put up for sale by auction after a dispute with Lloyds Banking Group?

   1. Encyclopædia Britannica

   2. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

   3. The Daily Telegraph

   4. The Guardian's Thursday quiz

6. 

   THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS BULLIES, WITH DOMINIC RAAB: This week the former deputy PM would like to know the name of the bullying sergeant who was a major character in Stanley Kubrick's 1987 movie Full Metal Jacket.

   1. Sergeant Richards

   2. Sergeant Rowlands

   3. Sergeant Hartman

   4. Gavin Williamson

7. 

   THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE: Element number 7 in the periodic table is Nitrogen. In the periodic table it belongs to group 15. What is another name for group 15 of the periodic table?

   1. Pyroviles

   2. Pnictogens

   3. Polyphenylenes

   4. Prostaglandins

8. 

   IT'S A DOG'S LIFE: Willow, the official dog of the Guardian's Thursday quiz, has been worrying about the baby donkey stolen from Miller’s Ark Animals in Hook, Hampshire, so was pleased it has been reunited with its mum, Astra. Even if she doesn't look pleased in this picture. But what is the baby donkey's name?

   1. Sun

   2. Star

   3. Moon

   4. Raxacoricofallapatorias

9. 

   FAKE OR FOR REAL: You could spot three of these headlines on the Guardian website in the last seven days. Which one appeared somewhere else?

   1. Spine-chilling recording catches 'ghost crying for help' in 12th-century castle

   2. I tried to ban Facebook – but my husband won’t give up his meat videos

   3. I was so proud of my Sea-Monkeys – until their orgies repulsed me

   4. Barbie film ‘required so much pink paint it contributed to worldwide shortage’

10. 

    WOMEN'S WORLD CUP 2023: Non-football questions about every country at this year's Fifa Women's World Cup. Mainland Italy has two enclaves within it. Vatican City and …?

    1. Andorra

    2. Reggiana

    3. Mandragora

    4. San Marino

11. 

    WOMEN'S WORLD CUP 2023: It will be China's eighth visit to the women's world cup. Which of these is one of the names for the currency of the People's Republic of China?

    1. Yen

    2. Renminbi

    3. Dong

    4. Grotzit

12. 

    WOMEN'S WORLD CUP 2023: Norway were champions in 1995. But true or false – brigadier of the Norwegian King's Guard, Nils Olav III, lives in Edinburgh?

    1. True

    2. False

13. 

    BON VOYAGE: That is a 1974 Sparks song that they played live at Primavera Sound in Barcelona at the weekend. But speaking of Edinburgh, people are enjoying a 'bon voyage' on the city's tram system which has at last fully opened its long-delayed extension. So the line now runs from where to where?

    1. Edinburgh Airport – Port of Leith

    2. Edinburgh Park Central – Foot of the Walk

    3. Edinburgh Airport – Newhaven

    4. Edinburgh Gateway – Newhaven

14. 

    FOR THE LONGEST TIMES WITH DARREN GRIMES: This week Darren wants to know which is longer – the amount of time Liz Truss was prime minister, or the amount of time that British manufacturing exports have been declining according to the latest figures?

    1. Liz Truss as prime minister

    2. British manufacturing exports declining

15. 

    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 DJ at Orient plays the song Rockin' All Over The World after a home win. It is famous for opening the 1985 Live Aid concert at Wembley. Who wrote it?

    1. Dave Edmunds

    2. Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt

    3. John Fogerty

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:B - The machines, which contain about 300 bottles and cans of soft drinks and 150 emergency food items, including nutritional supplements, have been installed near buildings that have been designated as evacuation shelters. They are designed to “unlock” and make their contents available free of charge in the event of a heavy rain warning, or an evacuation order., 2:A - On one of 15 pages of early drafts for the anthem, songwriter Freddie Mercury wrote the words “Mongolian Rhapsody” near the top – but crossed out the first word and wrote “Bohemian” above it., 3:A - “I really regret the matter,” Anders Wiklöf, 76, told Nya Åland, the main newspaper for the Åland Islands, an autonomous Finnish region in the Baltic Sea. “I had just started slowing down, but I guess that didn’t happen fast enough. It’s how it goes". The businessman was fined €63,680 in 2018, five years after being hit with a €95,000 ticket for the same offence. Oh well, at least you've learned your lesson., 4:B - Amazon UK Services, which employs more than half of the group’s UK workers, received a tax credit of £7.7m in the year to the end of December, according to accounts filed at Companies House. Pretax profits at the main division rose about 9% to almost £222m in 2022 as sales rose by nearly 8% to £6.56bn. It is understood that Amazon’s main UK division paid no corporation tax, but other parts of the group’s UK business did pay an undisclosed amount., 5:C - Lloyds Banking Group is understood to have appointed AlixPartners as the official receiver to seize the shares owned by the Barclay family in the holding company that ultimately controls the national newspapers and the Spectator magazine. To be clear, the Guardian Thursday quiz is not up for sale., 6:C - Ronald Lee Ermey played the role. A former US marine drill instructor as well as an actor, he got to shout at extras for ten hours a day on set., 7:B - Also known as the nitrogen group or nitrogen family, group 15 consists of nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth and moscovium., 8:C - The farm posted a video on its Facebook page showing owner Elizabeth Miller hugging and kissing Moon, who is wagging her tail. “We are beyond thrilled and mum and foal are finally back together,” the Facebook post said. “Moon appears to be in good health, thank heavens, and we will make sure that Moon and her mum, Astra, get lots of love and care as they rediscover each other.”, 9:A - Yes, this was from the Mirror's Weird news section, where the quiz master used to ply his trade, in a story which rather frustratingly didn't actually appear to include a way to play back the recording, making it difficult to judge the extent to which it would chill the spine., 10:D - It is one of Europe's smallest countries, and it claims to be the world's oldest sovereign republic., 11:B - It is often called the yuan in the west, but it is an odd one, very likely to cause pedantry in the comments. One article explains: "The People’s Bank of China introduced the renminbi and yuan in 1948, with each term referring to a different part of the Chinese monetary system. While the two are often used interchangeably, the renminbi is the official currency of China and refers to the value of the Chinese currency while the yuan is the unit of account and is used to denote the amount of money being exchanged.", 12:A - It is true. Nils Olav III is a penguin in Edinburgh zoo and he is the mascot of the Norwegian King's Guard with the title of brigadier. There are statues of him (or his predecessors Nils Olav or Nils Olav II) in both Edinburgh and Oslo. , 13:C - The final 4.6km long section was opened nine years after the first section from the airport to the city centre went into operation. The project has been beset by multiple delays, legal battles, and conflicts between its contractors and the council. For the last nine years, those controversies have been investigated by one of the UK’s longest-running public inquiries. Its final report, produced at a cost of £13m, is imminent., 14:B - British factories have reported a 16th consecutive month of falling exports, much longer than the 44 or 49 days Liz Truss was prime minister depending on how you count it. Manufacturers warned that obstacles to trade since leaving the EU are undermining business relationships with firms on the continent. Well, well, well, Darren, if it isn't the consequences of your own actions etc etc., 15:C - It first appeared on John Fogerty's second solo album, after the former frontman had severed ties with Creedence Clearwater Revival. Status Quo recorded the song in 1977 and it has become an enduring anthem for them, and was the first song played by them when they opened the UK leg of the Live Aid concert.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – and read all of the answer text before commenting!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, and you swear that you’ve actually read the quiz in full, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and you wouldn’t want to be left out in the cold.