Barry’s island, Mario’s voice, and a badly valued auction – take the Thursday quiz

Stuffed Mario toys on display. But who is his new voice? Photograph: Irene Wang/Reuters

It is time once again to test your mettle against the notoriously erratic difficulty levels of the Thursday quiz. Will it be like last week, when everybody boasted of high scores? Or the week before, when it was so tricky people vowed en masse to never do it again? Who can tell until you take it on – 15 questions on general knowledge and topical news, with a few in-jokes along the way. It is just for fun. Let us know how you got on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 77

1. 

   OOOH LA LA: Which French author picked up the Nobel prize for literature last week?

   1. Patrick Modiano

   2. Annie Ernaux

   3. Vanessa Springora

   4. Yasmina Reza

2. 

   WELSH THINGS: Barry Island is named after which Welsh saint (not pictured)?

   1. Saint Baruc

   2. Saint Budoc

   3. Saint Berach

   4. Saint Manilow

3. 

   ON THIS DAY-ISH: On 13 October 54AD the Roman Emperor Claudius (not pictured) died. Who succeeded him?

   1. Tiberius

   2. Nero

   3. Caligula

   4. Galba

4. 

   SHADDAP YOU FACE: It is Joe Dolce's birthday today. Happy birthday, Joe! In 1981 his single Shaddap You Face was a No 1 in the UK charts. Which eighties classic did it famously prevent from getting to No 1 in the UK?

   1. Vienna by Ultravox

   2. Stand and Deliver by Adam and the Ants

   3. Ghost Town by the Specials

   4. Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie

5. 

   IT'S-A ME, MARIO! Talking of terrible Italian impressions, the new trailer for The Super Mario Bros film dropped and nearly everybody on the internet laughed at Mario's voice in it. Who is "playing" Mario?

   1. Chris Pine

   2. Chris Hemsworth

   3. Chris Pratt

   4. Chris Eubank

6. 

   IT'S-A ME, NOSTRADAMUS: Talking of terrible things in general, the ramblings of Nostradamus (not pictured) are back in the book charts because you can make any of his vague poems be about anything if you try hard enough. When was Michel de Nostradame born?

   1. 1303

   2. 1403

   3. 1503

   4. 1603

7. 

   1966 AND ALL THAT: A series of questions not related to football, leading up to the 2022 Fifa World Cup awarded to Qatar by several people who subsequently got banned from football. The 1990 Fifa World Cup was in Italy, but who wrote the aria Nessun Dorma which became associated with the tournament?

   1. Giuseppe Verdi

   2. Claudio Monteverdi

   3. Carlos Scarlioni

   4. Giacomo Puccini

8. 

   2022 AND ALL THAT: Talking of football, European football champions England had the fastest-selling England football match ever – men's or women's – at the new Wembley stadium last week. They were playing the current world champions. Who?

   1. USA

   2. Japan

   3. France

   4. Canada

9. 

   TWO WHEELS GOOD: Cities around the world are being offered the chance to compete for $1m funding as well as expertise to build new cycling infrastructure by whose charitable foundation?

   1. Bill Gates

   2. Warren Buffett

   3. Phil Knight

   4. Mike Bloomberg

10. 

    TAMMY'S TEASER: Tammy Wynette had a hit single with D-I-V-O-R-C-E in 1968. This week's letter is I. Which state in the US has the state capital Boise?

    1. Illinois

    2. Indiana

    3. Idaho

    4. Iowa

11. 

    HAPPILY EVER AFTER: Talking of US states, a legal quirk has been allowing gay couples who live in China to get married in which US state?

    1. Utah

    2. Nebraska

    3. Wyoming

    4. North Dakota

12. 

    IT'S A DOG'S LIFE: The is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. The Kennel Club in the UK claims to be 'the oldest recognised kennel club in the world', but when was it founded?

    1. 1873

    2. 1893

    3. 1903

    4. 1923

13. 

    GCSE SCIENCE BUT WITH OMD: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – or at least some of them – had a hit with Sailing on the Seven Seas in 1991. But at GCSE level, pupils are taught that one of these things is NOT an advantage of using water energy. Which one?

    1. Water power in its various forms is a renewable energy resource and there are no fuel costs

    2. Rotting vegetation under water power installations can also release methane

    3. No harmful polluting gases are produced

    4. Tidal barrages and hydroelectric power stations are very reliable and can be easily switched on

14. 

    SCREWED UP: That is a 1976 song by Sparks where you are going 'down, down, down'. An expert at a French auction house screwed up when something they valued at €2,000 eventually sold for €7.7m. What?

    1. A Chinese vase

    2. A Roman bust

    3. An Egyptian tablet

    4. A signed copy of Kate Bush's single Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)

15. 

    NEW FACE IN AI HELL: What prompt did the Thursday quiz give an AI drawing program to make it draw this hateful sight?

    1. Stephen Fry admiring some ham

    2. Jacob Rees-Mogg leaving notes on desks

    3. Lord Elgin stealing marbles

    4. Liam Gallagher with a fork in a world of soup

Solutions

1:B - The 82-year-old French writer is only the 17th woman out of 119 laureates in the award’s history. Her works include Les Armoires vides (Cleaned Out), Ce qu'ils disent ou rien (Do What They Say or Else) and L'Occupation (The Possession)., 2:A - It was Saint Baruc, who was drowned in the Bristol Channel after he had been sent back to the mainland because the monks had forgotten a particular book. The book was later miraculously said to have been found perfectly safe inside a salmon that was caught following his death. The Thursday quiz is not 100% convinced by the details of this tale to be honest., 3:B - It was the adopted son of Claudius, known as Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus and born as Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, who became emperor, not Claudius's own son Britannicus, who died mysteriously not long after Nero came to power. Spooky coincidence, huh?, 4:A - Vienna spent five weeks at No 2, and for three of those weeks Shaddap You Face, credited to Joe Dolce Music Theatre, was in the top spot with its hideous Italian racial stereotypes that would have been considered a bit harsh on 'Allo 'Allo. All the other answers were No 1 hits in the UK during 1981, which looks like quite a good year for music in retrospect, 5:C - Pratt had promised his voice would be “unlike anything you’ve heard in the Mario world before” and certainly none of the video games have sounded like Chris Pratt talking very slowly and occasionally briefly pretending he was in The Sopranos. Charles Martinet, who voices Mario in the games, has taken it all very gracefully., 6:C - Michel de Nostradame was born in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in 1503, which makes him French and so the "It's-a me" joke doesn't quite work, but let's roll with it. It is as geographically accurate as one of his predictions. In 1554, he started writing Les Prophéties, in which he aimed to set out the future history of the world in 1,000 quatrains, arranged in 10 “centuries”. For example, bits of quatrain 10/78 are clearly about the Thursday quiz: "Sudden joy to sudden sadness … Grief, cries, tears, weeping, blood, excellent mirth.", 7:D - From the final act of Turandot, "the unknown prince" is singing about how he is determined he will win the heart of the titular princess. As it is an opera, after this people are tortured and then someone stabs themselves, although it does ultimately have a happy ending if you consider someone being coerced into marriage via riddles a satisfying turn of events. You should also check out Barney Ronay's superb look back at who was in the room when Qatar was awarded the World Cup, and what happened to them next., 8:A - Tickets went on sale on 2 August, two days after England’s victory over Germany in the final of the Euros, and sold out in less than 24 hours. Those in charge of ticketing for the USA game described the speed of sales as similar to a major concert. England won., 9:D - It is Bloomberg Philanthropies, who say that 10 cities will be awarded up to $1m each to create safe cycling routes, and will also be given help designing the schemes and on engaging with residents and potential opposition., 10:C - The settlement was founded in 1863 on land inhabited by the Shoshone and Bannock tribes, and has a present day population of about 235,000., 11:A - At least 200 Chinese couples have married in Utah, which has no residency requirements for marriage licences and allows international Zoom weddings. The marriages have no legal weight in China, where same-sex marriage is illegal, but couples are nevertheless eager to demonstrate their love and commitment to each other., 12:A - The Kennel Club was founded on 4 April 1873 by SE Shirley and 12 other gentlemen who wanted to have a consistent set of rules for governing dog showing and field trials., 13:B - Yes, one of the by-products of installing water power infrastructure can be the increased production and release of methane, which is a greenhouse gas. , 14:A - It was indeed a Chinese vase, in which clearly some people spotted something the experts hadn't. Faced with overwhelming interest, auctioneers limited the number of bidders to 30 with each required to pay a €10,000 deposit to take part. The Guardian's report from Kim Willsher included this poignant line: "The expert, who was sacked and has not been named, is reported to be standing by his original valuation." You can tell by the look on his face that Ron thinks they shouldn't have said that., 15:C - It is indeed Lord Elgin stealing marbles. The Thursday quiz is at pains to point out that this is a work of AI fiction, and any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, involving any specific marbles in particular, is purely coincidental.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun. Let us know how you got on in the comments!

The Thursday quiz, No 77

If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final, and definitely worth €7.7m not €2,000.