HERE ARE THE ANSWERS TO OUR FESTIVE QI QUIZ ON PAGES 46-47

ROUND ONE

January .................. A February .............. B March ....................... A April ......................... C May ........................... A June.......................... C July ........................... B August .................... C September ........... A October .................. B November............. A December ............. C

ROUND TWO

1. True, 2. True, 3. False, it smells of popcorn, 4. True, 5. False, 6. True, 7. False, they were originally called ‘bangs of expectation’, 8. False, 9. True, 10. False, although Katy Perry does have a cat called Kitty Purry.

ROUND THREE 1. A, 2. B, 3. C, 4. B, 5. A, 6. C, 7. A, 8. A, 9. C, 10. B

ROUND FOUR 1. Silent Night 2. White Christmas 3. Blue Christmas 4. Let It Snow 5. Frosty The Snowman

ROUND FIVE

1: There are just over 7,100. Because as well as losing languages, we are finding many more. [Forfeits: 6,000; 6,100; 6,200; 6,300; 6,400; 6,500]

2: 56. A study of famous musicians found that the most common age of death was 56. Despite the myth, there was nothing statistically special about 27. [Forfeit: 27]

3: Netherlands. Swiss geologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure climbed Mont Blanc and cut off the top. It’s now in a museum in the Netherlands. [ Forfeits: France, Switzerland]

4: The Philippines. Call centres employ about 1.2 million people in the Philippines and account for about eight per cent of the country’s GDP. 26 per cent of the world’s call centres are in Philippines; compared with 24 per cent in India and 12 per cent in Western Europe. [Forfeit: India]

5: The Cascadia Subduction Zone. This fault has the potential to release a massive earthquake, with magnitude 9.2. San Andreas can cause an earthquake with a magnitude of ‘only’ 8.2. [Forfeit: San Andreas]

6: It’s milk-coloured. The factoid that hippos have pink milk comes from the fact that their sweat looks reddish, and that it sometimes mixes with their milk which is just the same colour as most other milk. [Forfeit: Pink]

7: Milan (which took over from Rome), also Nicomedia (which is close to Istanbul), and Trier in Germany and Sirmium, which was in what is now Serbia. [Forfeit: Rome]

8: Singles Day. The busiest online shopping day every year is Singles Day – a day dedicated to people not in relationships in China. In 2015, $14.3 billion worth of shopping was done on the website Alibaba – more than on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. [Forfeit: Black Friday; Cyber Monday]

9: The Scots. In 2016, researchers cataloguing different Scots words for the white stuff officially logged 421, including the most obvious ‘snaw’ but also ‘sneesl’ to begin to rain or snow, and ‘skelf’ a large snowflake. [Forfeits: Eskimos; Inuits]

10: Tartan Day, April 6, is a day celebrated by the Scottish diaspora around the world, but isn’t really a thing in Scotland. The only place where it is endorsed by the government is America. [Forfeit: Scotland]

ROUND SIX

1: Snowflakes 2: Bull 3: Meteorite 4: Brussels sprouts 5: A mass-brawl 6: Venomous snake 7: Big left toe 8: Penguin 9: Gloves 10: Oxygen