Venus, Victoria and a very lucky pussycat – take the Thursday quiz

Photograph: NASA/Reuters

It is Thursday lunchtime and you know the drill – it is time for our exciting weekly quiz, newly christened “the Thursday quiz” after literally seconds of discussion in the office.

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical news trivia, laced with a few weird facts and some jokes – and this week there is a hint of Eurovision in the air. It is just for fun and there are no prizes, but do let us know how you get on in the comments below.

The Thursday quiz, No 4

1. 

   Ice cream cone

   UK NEWS: The UK is facing the devastating prospect of a shortage of the Cadbury 99 Flake that you pop into your ice-cream while standing unhappily in the biting wind at the beach. But what does the 99 stand for?

   1. The flakes were first introduced in the summer of 1969, with the slogan "Go 99 in 69"

   2. When first launched they originally weighed 99 ounces

   3. The original, long gone price point of the ice-cream with a chocolate flake in it was 99p

   4. Because there are 99 guards who protected the Italian monarchy

2. 

   Venus

   SPACE: Venus is the planet most easily and brightly seen in the night sky from Earth. How many moons does it have?

   1. None

   2. One

   3. Two

   4. Three

3. 

   Champions League

   SPORT: Which team won the Women's Uefa Champions League final at the weekend?

   1. Chelsea

   2. Paris Saint-Germain

   3. Barcelona

   4. Bayern Munich

4. COMPARATIVELY SPEAKING: It is the Eurovision song contest on Saturday. Yay! Which member of Abba, the Eurovision-winning superstars, is the oldest?

   1. 

      Benny

      Benny

   2. 

      Frida

      Frida

   3. 

      Agnetha

      Agnetha

   4. 

      Björn

      Björn

5. MUSIC: Which of these female artists was the last UK entry to win the Eurovision song contest? Katrina and the Waves, Jade Ewen, Bonnie Tyler or Kate Bush?

   1. 

      Eurovision

      Katrina and the Waves

   2. 

      Eurovision

      Jade Ewen

   3. 

      Bonnie Tyler

      Bonnie Tyler

   4. 

      Kate Bush

      Kate Bush

6. NAME THE FLAG: Finally on this theme, the Eurovision song contest is being held in Rotterdam. And you can easily spot the flag of the Netherlands, right?

   1. 

      A flag

      This one?

   2. 

      A flag

      This one?

   3. 

      A flag

      Or this?

   4. 

      A flag

      This one?

7. 

   Red wine and vineyard

   GLOBAL NEWS: 50 winemakers in the Basque province of Álava want to start labelling their produce as Arabako Mahastiak/Viñedos de Álava. It just trips off the tongue. What is it currently known as?

   1. Rías Baixas

   2. Jumilla

   3. Castrovalva

   4. Rioja

8. 

   Aerial view of a city

   FROM THE AIR: Can you name this British city?

   1. Glasgow

   2. Gateshead

   3. Swansea

   4. Worcester

9. CITIES: If you were travelling from the Peachtree Center to Oakland City, which US city's transport system would you be using?

   1. The Chicago "L"

   2. Atlanta's MARTA

   3. New York City subway

   4. Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco

10. 

    Queen Victoria

    KINGS & QUEENS: Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent was born in 1819. She grew up to be Queen Victoria. When did she ascend to the throne?

    1. 1833

    2. 1837

    3. 1856

    4. 1862

11. 

    Sylvester McCoy

    LITERATURE: Which of these ISN'T one of the children who went through the wardrobe to meet the lion and the witch in Narnia in the CS Lewis book?

    1. Barbara

    2. Susan

    3. Peter

    4. Edmund

12. 

    Fay Wray

    FILM & TV: Which famous American landmark did King Kong climb in his attempts to impress Fay Wray (pictured) in the 1933 movie?

    1. The Washington Monument

    2. The Golden Gate Bridge

    3. The Chrysler Tower

    4. The Empire State Building

13. 

    Darwin's Arch

    THE NATURAL WORLD: A famous rock formation known as Darwin's Arch has collapsed in one of the places that Charles Darwin visited on the HMS Beagle. Where?

    1. Mauritius

    2. Tahiti

    3. Falklands

    4. Galápagos

14. 

    Frustrated computer woman

    DIGITAL CULTURE: You'll be familiar with seeing the error code 404 on a website, saying "Page not found". What does error code 418 mean?

    1. Bad request

    2. Forbidden

    3. Unsupported media type

    4. I'm a Teapot

15. 

    Cat jumping

    WEIRD NEWS: A very lucky cat made the news when it survived after jumping out of a fifth-floor window to escape an apartment fire. In which city in the US?

    1. Denver

    2. Seattle

    3. Chicago

    4. Philadelphia

Solutions

1:D - Just baffling, but the company says: "The name was used to appeal to Italian expats living in the UK and Ireland who were active in the ice-cream trade.", 2:A - No moons of Venus have been discovered, making it and Mercury the only planets in the solar system we know of that do not have natural satellites. Minimal. , 3:C - Barcelona beat Chelsea 4-0 in Gothenburg on Sunday, racing to that score in the opening 36 minutes. It capped a disappointing weekend for the English club, who had intended to be one of the founding members of the European Super League. Its men's team lost the FA Cup final on Saturday., 4:D - Björn is the oldest. He was born in April 1945. Frida, aka Princess Anni-Frid, Dowager Countess of Plauen, was born a few months later. Who knew Abba included royalty? Agnetha is the baby of the band: she wasn't born until 1950., 5:A - Yes, Love Shine a Light won in 1997 and a UK entry has barely troubled the scorers since – the UK hasn't even finished in the top 10 since Jade Ewen in 2009. Bonnie Tyler competed in 2013. Kate Bush has not, to our knowledge, competed in the Eurovision song contest., 6:D - Easy, right? This is the Netherlands. The others, in order, are Russia, Slovenia and Costa Rica. And – exciting news, quiz fans – there will be a whole special separate Eurovision-themed quiz from us tomorrow., 7:D - The Rioja denomination currently embraces three regions: La Rioja, part of Navarra and the Basque province of Álava. The Basque government likes the idea of a Basque denomination, while local winemakers say cave paintings show they have been making wine in Álava for millennia and that their wines and the way they make them is distinct from their neighbours. It all tastes the same after a couple of bottles. , 8:A - That's the River Clyde running through Glasgow, with the Clyde Arc in the foreground, 9:B - Oakland City may have made you think of California, but the Peachtree Center hopefully clued you up that this is in Atlanta, Georgia., 10:B - The unexpected deaths of her father and her three surviving uncles – none of whom had legitimate heirs – propelled her through the royal ranks, so when William IV died in 1837 his niece came to the throne aged 18., 11:A - Lucy was, in fact, the somewhat annoying youngest child of the four. The picture isn't a mistake, by the way, that's the Doctor Who actor Sylvester McCoy playing Mr Beaver in a 2001 production of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Sadler's Wells., 12:D - The Empire State Building was completed just a couple of years before the film was made as the tallest building in New York City. It is now measured as the ninth highest., 13:D - Ecuador’s environment ministry said it had collapsed due to natural erosion, adding: "This site is considered one of the best places on the planet to dive and observe schools of sharks and other species." Darwin visited in 1835. It is not known how much diving he did., 14:D - Yes, for reasons best known to web developers, there's a whole series of in-jokes based around the concept of the "Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol", which means that error code 418 should return "I'm a Teapot". In 2017 some joyless wonder wanted to remove support for it from some applications, sparking the "save 418 movement". The picture is there to illustrate how we imagine you reacting to quiz questions like this., 15:C - The Chicago fire department was taking a video of the exterior of the building as firefighters were extinguishing the blaze when a black cat appeared through billowing smoke at a broken window. It jumped, missed a wall, landed on all four paws on a patch of grass, bounced once and ran away. As you do.

Scores

1. 15 and above.

   A perfect score? Congratulations

2. 0 and above.

   Not so good – maybe you’ll have better luck next week?

3. 6 and above.

   Well done – let us know how you got on in the comments

• If you think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quizmaster’s word is final and you don’t want him to come round to your house and insist you watch Eurovision together, do you?