The Sunday Family Quiz
Have a go around the lunch table, or share with friends and relatives
Like a conversation around the table, the Family Quiz follows a thread and everyone can join in. We start with a question about this week, and then each question – sort of – leads to the next until we finish up (this week) on our own doorstep. Some questions suit younger quizzers, but really it’s a free-for-all. Don’t all shout at once!
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Shakespeare’s birthday was celebrated on April 23. According to the Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust, how many direct descendants of the Bard are alive today?
(a) Approximately 225,000
(b) Approximately 25,000
(c) None
Six signatures of Shakespeare survive in the playwright’s own hand. In how many ways does he spell his own name?
(a) Six
(b) Two
(c) One
Stefani Germanotta is better known by which name?
(a) Madonna
(b) Lady Gaga
(c) Katy Perry
Lady Madonna was a 1968 single by which successful British band?
(a) Pink Floyd
(b) The Rolling Stones
(c) The Beatles
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Which celebrated fictional character declares that “I have been a stone doomed to rolling”?
(a) Gandalf in The Return of the King (b) Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
(c) Tom Sawyer in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Number One Observatory Circle is the official residence of whom?
(a) The director of Nasa
(b) The Pope
(c) The vice-president of the USA
In technical terms, what kind of galaxy is the Milky Way, home to our solar system?
(a) Chocolate
(b) Barred spiral
(c) Flat disc
Spiral, which concluded earlier this year, was a hit police procedural show based in which country?
(a) France
(b) Turkey
(c) Jamaica
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Which monarch of France was known as le Roi Soleil (the Sun King)?
(a) Louis I
(b) Louis IV
(c) Louis XIV
What is this year, expressed in Roman numerals?
(a) MMXXI
(b) VVXXI
(c) XXMMI
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What was the name – in English translation – of the hefty, rock-carrying friend and ally of Asterix the Gaul?
(a) Getafix
(b) Obelix
(c) Needafix
The breakfast cereal known in this country as Weetabix was invented by Bennison Osborne as Weet-bix in the 1920s in which country?
(a) Canada
(b) England
(c) Australia
The leaf of which tree appears on the Canadian national flag?
(a) Oak
(b) Ash
(c) Maple
Waffles and Mochi, puppet characters from the “land of frozen food”, co-star in a new Netflix series with whom?
(a) Nigella Lawson
(b) Michelle Obama
(c) Prue Leith
Nigel Lawson, father of Nigella, was chancellor of the Exchequer under Margaret Thatcher. Prior to that, he had been editor of which publication?
(a) The Spectator
(b) The Economist
(c) The Sunday Telegraph