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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Martin Belam

Spicy noodles, seismic fans and falling stars – take the Thursday quiz

The Perseid meteor shower is observed over Red Church and Guzelyurt Monastery Valley in Turkey. But which star had a fall from the stage this week?
The Perseid meteor shower is observed over Red Church and Guzelyurt Monastery Valley in Turkey. But which star had a fall from the stage this week? Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The Thursday quiz has gamely managed to mostly remain free of UK general election related questions, although you will get a question about Euro 2024 this week. Aside from that interloping sport question, there are 14 others about topical news, general knowledge, trivia, and another shot at earning a point towards your fictional computer science GCSE. There are no prizes, but we love it when you share your scores in the comments. Have fun!

The Thursday quiz, No 165

  1. Noodles

    Which European country has recalled three products from the Samyang instant ramen line arguing the South Korean noodles are dangerously spicy?

    1. Poland

    2. Norway

    3. Denmark

    4. Andorra

  2. Taylor Swift

    Seismologists in Edinburgh – bless them they can't be that busy usually – found Taylor Swift's fans triggered spikes in their earthquake-reading equipment. But she didn't beat their measurement record, which was caused by fans of …

    1. Katy Perry

    2. Rod Stewart

    3. Harry Styles

    4. Bombalurina ft Timmy Mallett

  3. Police

    Surrey police have suspended an officer after video emerged showing them appearing to ram which type of animal that was at loose on the road?

    1. A horse

    2. A deer

    3. A cow

    4. A very naughty miniature dachshund

  4. Box office sign

    Theatregoers got a shock this week when which much-loved actor fell off the stage while playing John Falstaff during a Monday evening performance of Player Kings?

    1. Patrick Stewart

    2. Ian McKellen

    3. Jeremy Irons

    4. Richard Mace

  5. Willow the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz

    This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian's Thursday quiz. She knows that a Great Dane from Iowa has been named as the world's tallest dog. He measures 3ft 2in (0.97 metres) from his feet to his withers. But what is his name?

    1. Kevin

    2. Roland

    3. Curt

    4. Ronald

  6. Ballet shoes

    Who played the lead role of Victoria Page in the iconic ballet movie The Red Shoes (very much not pictured) in 1948?

    1. Jean Short

    2. Irene Browne

    3. Elizabeth Shaw

    4. Moira Shearer

  7. Television

    It is the lovely Wendy Craig's birthday today. She'll be 90! Happy birthday Wendy. What was the Carla Lane penned sitcom she starred in from 1978-1983?

    1. To the Manor Born

    2. Butterflies

    3. The Good Life

    4. Rings on Their Fingers

  8. Senegal flag

    One of a new lengthy series of questions about countries that aren't appearing at Euro 2024. What is the capital of Senegal?

    1. Bamako

    2. Lomé

    3. Abidjan

    4. Dakar

  9. Uefa logo

    And then a question about Euro 2024. Which country this week scored the fastest ever goal at a men's European Championship finals?

    1. Albania's Nedim Bajrami scored after just 23 seconds against Italy

    2. Poland's Adam Buksa scored after just 23 seconds against the Netherlands

    3. Spain's Álvaro Morata scored after just 23 seconds against Croatia

    4. Syldavia's Vladmir Muskar scored after just 23 seconds against Borduria

  10. Statue of Queen Victoria

    On this day in 1837 Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent became Queen Victoria when who died?

    1. William III

    2. William IV

    3. William V

    4. William VI

  11. David Bowie

    In memory of Thursday quiz regular Marv, this week your album task is to put the first four solo studio albums by David Bowie into the correct chronological order of release. Which one is it …

    1. David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

    2. David Bowie, David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory

    3. David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World

    4. David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie

  12. ZX Spectrum

    You've always wanted to pass GCSE computer science, right? Try this one. Children are taught that one of the these statements about Boolean logic is untrue. Which statement?

    1. Boolean logic can process up to five different states of input

    2. Truth tables can be used to represent logical expressions

    3. Boolean logic can be used by databases

    4. Computers use Boolean logic because as electrical devices they can only interpret data in two states

  13. Electric telegraph

    It is the anniversary of Samuel Morse being granted a patent for the telegraph. In Morse code, a dash or dah is how many times longer than a dot or dit?

    1. A dash is twice the length of a dot

    2. A dash is three times the length of a dot

    3. A dash is four times the length of a dot

    4. A dash is 30-50 times longer than a dot

  14. Wine

    Archaeologists have discovered the world's oldest surviving sample of liquid red wine (not pictured). Where?

    1. Corsica

    2. Northern Egypt

    3. Southern Spain

    4. Southern Turkey

  15. The Sphinx on the Giza plateau

    Doctor Who this week revealed a series arc villain linked to Egyptian mythology, but who is the Egyptian god of funerary practices?

    1. Horus

    2. Thoth

    3. Ra

    4. Anubis

Solutions

1:C - The Thursday quiz's Guardian Australia colleague Elias Visontay claimed "I can see through time" after taste-testing the spiciest version, 2:C - They recorded a maximum of 23.4 nanometres (nm) of movement at Taylor's show, but Harry Styles fans managed to generate 30.9nm – the highest reading since BGS’s records for Murrayfield concerts began, 3:C - Hugh Broom, the chair of the National Farmers’ Union’s livestock board east has defended the officer, saying although the footage looks "horrendous", the animal could have severely injured someone, 4:B - McKellen was said to be “in good spirits” and expected to make “a speedy and full recovery” after the accident, which caused the performance to be cancelled, 5:A - Willow would still bark at him, however tall he is, 6:D - The astonishing performance made her name, and was her film debut, as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger mainly cast dancers for the film rather than established actors, 7:B - Geoffrey Palmer and Nicholas Lyndhurst also starred, 8:D - It was first settled in the 15th century and has a population of 3.9 million , 9:A - The previous record was set by Dmitri Kirichenko, who scored after 65 seconds for Russia against Greece in Euro 2004, 10:B - He reigned for seven years and had no surviving legitimate children at the time of his death, so was succeeded by his niece, 11:B - David Bowie came out on Deram in 1967, then he released a different album in 1969 also called David Bowie with Space Oddity on it, and the rest, as they say, is history, 12:A - You can build massive chained circuits and process loads of things, but all of them have to be one or zero, or off and on. Well done if you picked this option – you've got one point towards your fictitious computer science GCSE, 13:B - All of the timing in Morse code is based on multiples of the dot, 14:C - Analysis shows it is a local sherry-like wine that was poured into a funeral urn with the cremated bones of a Roman man. Mmmm delicious, 15:D - Linked to mummification and the afterlife, the jackal-headed Anubis performed the weighing of the heart ceremony, which decided whether or not a person could pass into the afterlife. As will your quiz scores

Scores

  1. 0 and above.

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

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working – feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and he is away today, so why not instead watch the long-lost video of Sparks-written Dancing Is Dangerous by Noël.

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