Each week, quiz obsessives and Only Connect champions
Jamie Karran (@NoDrNo) and Michael Wallace (@statacake) take on the pub quizzes of the world.
Find out every Friday if you could have helped with the questions they got wrong.
Thursday 10 September 2015
If Edward VIII hadn't abdicated, Elizabeth II would still be the monarch
Your targets this week:
1+ out of 8: Well done, you beat us! 2+ out of 8: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The programmer 4) The misandrist
The ones that got away 1) What are the three largest continents by land area? You get 1 point for getting all three, and 2 points if you can put them in descending order of size. 2) Which three countries share a border with Finland? 1 point for getting all three. 3) How tall is the queen (in feet and inches)? 4) What major London building is located on Ludgate Hill? 5) Which British bridge became a UNESCO World Heritage Site this year? 6) Who is the restaurant critic for the Sunday Times? 7) 'How to be a Better Cook' is a 2014 book by which TV chef?
The answers
1) Asia (1st), Africa (2nd), North America (3rd) 2) Norway, Sweden and Russia 3) 5 feet 4 inches 4) St. Paul's Cathedral 5) The Forth Bridge 6) A. A. Gill 7) Lorraine Pascale
Our excuses
1) We had Asia and Africa, but massively overestimated the size of Antarctica for number three (North America is almost twice its size). I suspect I was also partly affected by the tendency for Antarctica to be a 'surprise' answer on any continents quiz question. 2) Sweden and Russia were the obvious two answers, and knowing Norway shared a border with Russia I was relatively sure that was the third, but the programmer talked me into Estonia. Sadface. 3) Haha, no. Maybe a fun guessing game for some teams, but not my cup of tea at all. We averaged everyone's guesses and wound up with a close(ish) 5 foot 2. 4) While I'm firmly playing the "I don't live in London any more" card on this, the doctor's 20-odd years calling the city home somewhat undermines us. 5) Having coincidentally looked at a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites shortly before the quiz, I knew the Forth Bridge was on the list but not how recently it had been added. This was actually written on our sheet for most of the round before we switched to Ironbridge. Argh. 6) The programmer provided quite a surprising amount of input on this, but while we could name a few plausible options (include the correct answer) we had little to choose between them and ended up going with Giles Coren. 7) Continuing the foodie theme, and I hadn't even heard of the answer. This time I think Canada takes some of the blame, with most of her televisual exploits seeming to have happened since we moved away.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 point or more)? Would you have helped us win (2 points or more)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions
Question 3
1) If we use the seven-continent model, which continent has the highest population density, and which has the lowest population density? (1 point for each) 2) Russia's border with Norway is its second-shortest, at 196km. With which country does Russia share an approximately 20km border - by far its shortest? 3) The Queen employs various 'royal standards' depending on which realm she is in. In which country does she use this particular royal standard? 4) Give a year in which St. Paul's designer Sir Christopher Wren was alive. 5) Upon 'inscription' (i.e. becoming recognized as such) UNESCO World Heritage Sites are given a reference number. Which Ecuadorian archipelago, described as a "living
Question 7
museum and showcase of evolution", boasts reference number 1? 6) Which Scottish-born restaurateur did A. A. Gill once describe as "a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being"? 7) Pictured are rows zero to five of Pascal's Triangle, which is a pretty fun thing in mathematics. Can you work out what number has been replaced by a question mark?
The answers
1) Asia has the highest, Antarctica has the lowest 2) North Korea 3) New Zealand (the stars are hopefully the giveaway) 4) 1632-1723 (he was heavily involved with the reconstruction of London after the Great Fire in 1666) 5) The Galápagos Islands 6) Gordon Ramsay 7) 10 (each number is equal to the two numbers above it added together)
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
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