Old dogs, funny names and fishy tales – take the Thursday quiz

This dog challenges you to the Thursday quiz! Photograph: Zoonar GmbH/Alamy

This week we had a weights and measures quiz. And we had a quiz about the Queen. And now we ask you to quiz again, as it is time for our regular silly topical news and general knowledge quiz. There are no prizes, but there are bonus points available in the comments if you can spot hidden references to Doctor Who, so please let us know how you get on. Enjoy!

The Thursday quiz, No 58

1. 

   EVERYTHING COUNTS: We sadly lost Andrew Fletcher of Depeche Mode last week. But where did Depeche Mode first form?

   1. Brentwood

   2. Billericay

   3. Braintree

   4. Basildon

2. 

   THIS IS A FAKE: Someone smeared the Mona Lisa with cake this week – but in which year was it actually stolen from the Louvre?

   1. 1862

   2. 1895

   3. 1911

   4. 1929

3. 

   IT'S A LONG DOG'S LIFE: Pebbles (not pictured), a toy fox terrier, has been awarded a world record as the world's oldest dog. But how old is he?

   1. 18

   2. 20

   3. 22

   4. 24

4. 

   NAME GAMES: Taiwan is considering a change in the law after a limit on the number of times people can change their name has left some people stuck with what as their name, after they changed it to get free sushi in a promotional event?

   1. Salmon

   2. Seaweed

   3. Crabmeat

   4. Wasabi

5. 

   LITERATURE: What was the name of Virginia Woolf's first novel, published in 1915?

   1. The Voyage Out

   2. To the Lighthouse

   3. The Waves

   4. The Stones of Blood

6. 

   FIBONACCI NUMBERS: First described in Indian mathematics, and forming a sequence where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, F₁₅ is 610. But which of these events happened in the Byzantine Empire in 610AD?

   1. Constantinus II dedicated the first church on the site of the Hagia Sophia – known then as the 'Megale Ekklesia'

   2. Sultan Mehmed II entered the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople for the first time, poured a handful of earth on his head, and declared it to be a Mosque

   3. Heraclius the Younger reached Constantinople, personally beheaded Emperor Phocas, and, taking his place, declared the official language of the empire to be Greek, not Latin

   4. Emperor Justinian I, on seeing how popular chariot races were with the public, declared the foundation of a European Super League™, but had to back down a few days later

7. 

   WATER WATER EVERYWHERE: Which of these Pacific Island states has recently declared 100% of the ocean in its exclusive economic zone as 'protected'?

   1. Solomon Islands

   2. Tuvalu

   3. Vanuatu

   4. Niue

8. 

   ENSEMBLE CASTS: Which popular British kids' cartoon features Richard Ridings, Morwenna Banks and John Sparks among its voice cast?

   1. Peppa Pig

   2. Numberblocks

   3. Hey Duggee

   4. Fireman Sam

9. 

   CULTURE VULTURES: Which city was this week announced to have won the competition to be named the UK's City of Culture for 2025?

   1. Coventry

   2. Wrexham

   3. Bradford

   4. County Durham

10. 

    WHY THE LONG FACE?: What was the name of the horse (not pictured) that gets lost in the Swamps of Sadness in the 1984 movie version of The NeverEnding Story?

    1. Alzarius

    2. Auryn

    3. Artax

    4. Atreyu

11. 

    WELSH THINGS: Local councillor Billy Gannon from Pembroke Dock, west Wales, has had to resign after repeated accusations he has a secret identity. As what?

    1. Undercover police officer

    2. The artist Banksy

    3. Latvian spy

    4. Motorcycle stunt driver

12. 

    CINEMA: Director Ruben Östlund won his second Palme d’Or at Cannes at the weekend. With which film?

    1. Triangle of Sadness

    2. The Entertainment System Is Down

    3. The Square

    4. Involuntary

13. 

    ALLONS-Y: Wikiyoyage lists 23 locations visited by fictional Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, none of them by hot air balloon. No 18 is Omaha, Nebraska, US. Omaha was one of the beach codenames on D-Day. Which of these four WASN'T?

    1. Juno

    2. Gold

    3. Sword

    4. Iowa

14. 

    NOW THAT I OWN THE BBC: That's a 1994 song by Sparks, but that's not important right now. The BBC has announced that BBC Four is to move to be online only, just like the Thursday quiz is. But when was BBC Four launched?

    1. 1997

    2. 1999

    3. 2002

    4. 2005

15. 

    MUSIC: Which artist this week had a 1985 single propelled to the top of the charts on iTunes and become their most streamed song ever on Spotify after it appeared in the new season of Stranger Things?

    1. Nik Kershaw

    2. Howard Jones

    3. Toyah

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:D - Andrew Fletcher, Vince Clarke and Martin Gore all lived in Basildon, while Dave Gahan came from Southend, 2:C - The theft was discovered in August 1911, and the painting was recovered in 1913 when Vincenzo Peruggia tried to sell it to an art dealer in Italy, 3:C - Pebbles is 22 years old. His owners put him forward for the award when they had heard it had been given to a 21-year-old whippersnapper. That is not Pebbles in the picture, by the way. That is the official dog of the Thursday quiz, who is called Willow, 4:A - 'After the salmon chaos incident some people had already changed their name three times and now have no way to change them back,' said New Power Party legislator Chiu Hsien-chih, suggesting other measures including fee changes and cooling-off periods for name changes, 5:A - Published when Woolf was 33, a reconstructed earlier version of the novel with its original title Melymbrosia is also available, 6:C - The Byzantine Empire label is actually an invention of historians – nobody called it that at the time, it was simply a continuation of the Roman Empire and the people considered themselves to be Roman. It sounds a bit harsh on Phocas, but it turns out he himself had seized the throne in a revolt eight years earlier, and had his predecessor executed. It sounds like there was a lot of it going about, to be honest, 7:D - Niue, a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand, announced in 2020 that it would protect 40% of its ocean. It now follows the Cook Islands in committing itself to 100% protection. The new policy came into force in April, 8:A - I would list who played each part but all of them seemingly double-up to play a whole host of characters, 9:C - It was Bradford, which will follow Coventry's current stint. County Durham, Southampton and Wrexham had all been shortlisted alongside Bradford, 10:C - It is an incredibly harrowing moment in the movie but then on the other hand if Atreyu still had the horse, would he have ended up flying on Falkor, hmmm?, 11:B - 'The problem I have is that when I say to people, "I am not Banksy," I can see this look in their eyes, and they say, "That’s what Banksy would say,"' says the 58-year-old, who has a point, 12:A - It was Triangle of Sadness, described by our Peter Bradshaw as 'derivative' and 'heavy-handed'. Ouch. The Cannes jury obviously did not agree, 13:D - It wasn't Iowa. Utah was the four letter US state name used on the day, 14:C - The channel was launched on 2 March 2002 and replaced BBC Knowledge. You can tell by his face that Ron from Sparks thinks more of you should have watched more of that and then they wouldn't be closing it down, would they?, 15:D - It was Kate Bush, whose brilliant Running Up That Hill features prominently in the soundtrack of the series. Thank you for your service to the Thursday quiz Kate Bush – after 57 previous attempts, the correct answer at last. We salute you, Kate!

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 always final, even when Thursday is a public holiday.