An unusual arrest, a very old dog and a dead woodchuck – take the Thursday quiz

This delicious looking goat doesn’t feature in the questions – but some of its brethren do. Photograph: Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP/Getty Images

Yet again, having lazily asked an AI chatbot to write the intro blurb to the Thursday quiz, we are delighted to welcome you to a quiz which is apparently “perfect for you whether you’re a trivia expert or just looking to brush up on your general knowledge”. Clearly ChatGPT has never done the Thursday quiz, as the only things you get to brush up on here are a tired set of in-jokes. Fifteen questions await you, some sillier and more obscure than others. There are no prizes, but let us know how you got on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 94

1. 

   ANYTHING YOU DO SAY MAY BE GIVEN IN EVIDENCE: Devon and Cornwall police posted a picture of an unusual prisoner in a police car in Plymouth. Who?

   1. A swan

   2. A miniature donkey

   3. A pig that had escaped from a farm

   4. Ron from Sparks

2. 

   TASTY: The former director of a zoo killed four of the zoo’s pygmy goats and served them up at a Christmas-season party, authorities have alleged. Where?

   1. El Salvador

   2. Honduras

   3. Nicaragua

   4. Mexico

3. 

   WELL, THAT'S AWKWARD: Just hours before he was due to predict spring’s arrival, Fred la Marmotte the woodchuck was found dead in Val-d’Espoir, Quebec (not pictured – this groundhog has just hilariously fallen over in front of the cameras). What did the town do instead?

   1. A pet hamster belonging to the mayor's nephew was press-ganged into service – and predicted more winter.

   2. A child wearing a groundhog hat was called up to the stage, handed a stuffed toy groundhog and asked for his prediction.

   3. A man wearing a top hat was invited to toss a coin to decide whether spring would come.

   4. A man wearing a full groundhog costume acted out the ritual on all fours and predicted an early spring.

4. 

   WELL, THAT'S AWKWARD (BORIS JOHNSON EDITION): On approximately 1,057 occasions including the 2019 election manifesto, former British prime minister Boris Johnson, whose political career has been dogged by accusations of inaccuracy, claimed the Conservatives would build 40 new hospitals. It has emerged that how many of them currently have planning permission?

   1. None

   2. Ten

   3. Twenty

   4. Forty

5. 

   ON THIS DAY: Giuseppe Verdi's final opera was premiered at La Scala, Milan (not pictured) on 9 February 1893. What was it called?

   1. Falstaff

   2. Rigoletto

   3. Othello

   4. Orcini and Bostock

6. 

   ON THIS DAY (SLIGHT RETURN): On 9 February 1907 the United Procession of Women – or the Mud March, as it came to be known because of the weather on the day – organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) took place in which British city?

   1. Manchester

   2. Liverpool

   3. Edinburgh

   4. London

7. 

   HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It is Joe Pesci's birthday today. Happy birthday, Joe! You wouldn't say it to his face but clearly his greatest role is Harry Lyme in the Home Alone series. How many Home Alone movies did Pesci appear in?

   1. One

   2. Two

   3. Three

   4. Four

8. 

   ODDS OR EVENS WITH SHAKIN' STEVENS: Iceland only has two levels of administration, the national government and how many municipalities?

   1. Odds – 63

   2. Evens – 64

9. 

   GET THE REMOVAL VANS: Talking of cold places, for complicated reasons the town of Kiruna (not pictured) is being relocated due to subsidence and the commercial development of rare metal deposits. Where?

   1. Sweden

   2. Finland

   3. Norway

   4. Greenland

10. 

    THINGS THE ENGLISH ACTUALLY LEFT BEHIND: Knossos Palace is being celebrated in a new exhibition in Oxford looking at how Minos Kalokairinos and Sir Arthur Evans rediscovered it and didn't immediately transport it to the British Museum in London. Where is Knossos?

    1. Cyprus

    2. Crete

    3. Corfu

    4. Cephalonia

11. 

    SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT: Which of these is the correct order of the first four albums released by the band New Order in the UK?

    1. Low-Life; Power, Corruption & Lies; Brotherhood, Technique

    2. Low-Life; Movement; Power, Corruption & Lies; Technique

    3. Movement; Low-Life; Brotherhood; Power, Corruption & Lies

    4. Movement; Power, Corruption & Lies; Low-Life; Brotherhood

12. 

    IT'S A DOG'S LIFE: This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian's Thursday quiz. She was delighted to find out that at the age of 30, Bobi has become the oldest living dog in the world. But she is worried she has forgotten where Bobi lives. Where does he live?

    1. Spain

    2. Portugal

    3. Morocco

    4. France

13. 

    MATHS WITH GOTHS: Everyone knows that B stands for Bauhaus. Or sometimes Balaam and the Angel. But what does the B stand for in Bidmas/Bodmas when used in GCSE maths?

    1. Base

    2. Binary

    3. Binomial

    4. Brackets

14. 

    FORTY LOVE: The first iteration of what would become known as the Davis Cup in tennis started in 1900 with the International Lawn Tennis Challenge. Who won?

    1. The United States of America

    2. The British Isles

15. 

    THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME: Who set a new record at the Grammys, becoming the artist with most awards?

    1. Bonnie Raitt

    2. Beyoncé

    3. Adele

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:A - The swan wasn't having a great day. Before being apprehended, it had apparently been removed from Plymouth harbour by a drunken man, and then been hit in a road accident. The police took it to the vet, not for a night in the cells. To the best of the Thursday quiz's knowledge, Ron from Sparks has never been involved in any incident with Devon and Cornwall police., 2:D - Rubén Nava had been replaced as director of the local zoo in the city of Chilpancingo, southern Mexico, on 12 January after the death of a deer there. But officials said last week that an investigation found some animals in the zoo had allegedly been sold, traded or eaten under Nava’s orders., 3:B - He forecast a lengthy winter, no doubt making himself super popular in the process. The groundhog had showed “no vital signs” when the organizer of the annual 2 February tradition tried to wake him from hibernation. After some 40 minutes of festivities, including singing and dancing, organiser Roberto Blondin told waiting spectators that Fred had passed away., 4:B - Well, well, well., 5:A - With a libretto by Arrigo Boito, it was adapted from the William Shakespeare play The Merry Wives of Windsor and some of the scenes from Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2, which featured Falstaff, the popular comedy franchise. He was certainly the first Shakespeare character where people demanded a "what happened next?" follow-up, anyway., 6:D - More than 3,000 women marched from Hyde Park Corner to the Strand in support of women's suffrage in an event timed to coincide with the opening of parliament., 7:B - He appears in both Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, but was missing from *checks notes* Home Alone 3, Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House, Home Alone: The Holiday Heist, and Home Sweet Home Alone. Who knew there were that many? Home-Straight-to-DVD more like., 8:B - According to the Icelandic Association of Local Authorities, the number of local authorities areas has fallen recently as they have been combined to form larger administrative units. In the year 2000 the number of municipalities in Iceland was 124 but in June 2022 the number is down to 64. , 9:A - The work may not be complete until 2035 and the town has not received any security that future mining may not lead to further changes. That picture isn't Sweden, by the way. It is removal vans outside Downing Street in London. A regular occurrence in 2022., 10:B - Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality, which opens on 10 February at the Ashmolean Museum, will feature more than 100 objects on loan from Athens and Crete, all seen for the first time in a century together with Oxford’s unique archive, documenting the 1900–05 uncovering of the palace., 11:D - Their first four albums spanned from 1981 to 1986, and all hit the No 1 spot in the UK indie charts, and all made it to the top 30 of the grown-up proper charts as well., 12:B - Colleague of the Thursday quiz Maya Yang reported that two weeks ago, Spike, an Ohio-based chihuahua-mix rescue dog, was crowned the world’s oldest dog. But last Thursday, Bobi, a dog that guards livestock in Portugal, grabbed the title faster than a string of sausages. At 30 years and 267 days old as of 2 February, Bobi is recognised by the data keepers as the oldest dog on record. , 13:D - It is the order of operations: brackets, order, division/multiplication, addition/subtraction (sometimes given as brackets, of, division/multiplication, addition/subtraction) for Bodmas; or brackets, indices, division/multiplication, addition/subtraction for Bidmas. Real maths nerds know that actually these mnemonics can be misleading in some circumstances, but they are good enough for Nick Cave and Siouxsie, we are sure., 14:A - Dwight Davis, Holcombe Ward and Malcolm Whitman beat a team representing the British Isles made up of Ernest Black (England), Arthur Gore (England) and Herbert Roper Barrett (England), 15:B - Beyoncé has become the most awarded artist in Grammys history. The 41-year-old singer won for best R&B song, best dance/electronic recording, best dance/electronic album and best traditional R&B performance. She has now won 32 Grammy awards.

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 quizmaster’s word is final, and he doesn’t work Thursdays in February.