Shipwrecked treasures, stolen art and a Chinese chess disgrace – take the Thursday quiz

A diver exploring the shipwreck Cedar Pride – but which famous wreck is Colombia planning to exploit? Photograph: Nicosbs/Alamy

Nobody knows what day of the week it is between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, but here is the Thursday quiz, like a comforting beacon in a storm of pseudo Sundays. Fifteen questions of varying degrees of topicality and obscurity await, followed by a quick nap and more TV and chocolates, probably. Have fun and let us know how you got on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 140

1. 

   This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz, who had a great Christmas, thanks for asking. But she is looking worried after health authorities launched an inquiry into a mass outbreak of gastroenteritis among a reported 700 employees of which company after a Christmas party?

   1. Lockheed Martin

   2. Airbus

   3. Boeing

   4. Magpie Electricals

2. 

   Xiangqi, sometimes known as Chinese chess, has been engulfed in scandal as Yan Chenglong, 48, had his 'Xiangqi King' title revoked after he did what?

   1. Spray-painted swearwords across the walls of his hotel room

   2. Threw a bed out of a hotel window

   3. Defecated in a hotel bathtub

   4. Released 30 to 50 feral hogs into the streets of Zhuhai.

3. 

   What was the most watched television programme in the UK on Christmas Day this year?

   1. Doctor Who

   2. The King's speech

   3. Strictly Come Dancing

   4. Call the Midwife

4. 

   A new Banksy (an artist's impression of the artist is pictured) artwork went up on Friday, and then appeared to be promptly stolen, in which part of London?

   1. Peckham

   2. Tooting

   3. Balham

   4. Walthamstow

5. 

   It is the anniversary of the death of Mary II of England (not pictured). We are sorry to hear about that, Mary. When did she die?

   1. 1594

   2. 1694

   3. 1794

   4. 1894

6. 

   It is also the anniversary of the terrible Tay Bridge disaster, which occurred during a violent storm on 28 December 1879. Who wrote the notoriously terrible poem about it?

   1. Marriott Edgar

   2. Christopher Murray Grieve

   3. Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings

   4. William McGonagall

7. 

   The Premier League's first female referee made history when she took charge of which match (not pictured) just before Christmas?

   1. Fulham v Burnley

   2. Luton v Newcastle

   3. Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth

   4. Fulchester United v Melchester Rovers

8. 

   The Colombian government has announced it will attempt to raise objects from the 1708 shipwreck of a famous galleon, believed to contain a cargo worth billions of dollars (seen here modelled by some other coins). What is it called?

   1. San Fernando

   2. San José

   3. San Enrique

   4. San Taclaus

9. 

   An exciting new weekly series that will last 24 weeks until the summer and will feature one geography question a week about one of the countries taking part in the Euro 2024 finals. This week, a gentle start. What is the capital of Albania?

   1. Skopje

   2. Pristina

   3. Pogradec

   4. Tirana

10. 

    It is Linus Torvalds' birthday today. Happy birthday Linus, you computer genius, you. Ctrl-Alt-T and all that. But where is he from?

    1. Sweden

    2. Denmark

    3. Finland

    4. Iceland

11. 

    The celebrity TV chef Nigella Lawson has confessed she is too self-conscious to say what, after a clip of her mispronouncing it went viral?

    1. Air fryer

    2. Microwave

    3. Dishwasher

    4. Uranus

12. 

    Why not pretend you are taking your GCSE biology exam on a Thursday in December? Which of these is an adaptation of a palisade mesophyll cell?

    1. They contain many chloroplasts to carry out photosynthesis

    2. They open and close to allow gases to enter a leaf.

    3. They transport the products of photosynthesis around a plant.

    4. They contain a horde of very naughty miniature dachshunds.

13. 

    What was Rasputin's first name? Yes, the famous one who was shot in 1916, not just any old Rasputin.

    1. Pjotr

    2. Vladimir

    3. Grigori

    4. Ra-Ra

14. 

    Wham!'s Last Christmas finally made it to the UK No 1 spot at Christmas, 39 years after it was released. But who was the UK Christmas No 1 in the year it was first released?

    1. Shakin' Stevens with Merry Christmas Everyone.

    2. Band Aid with Do They Know It's Christmas?

    3. The Flying Pickets with Only You.

    4. Sparks with This Sleigh Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us.

15. 

    The family living there thankfully escaped safely, but which singer's childhood home in Houston (not pictured) caught fire early on Christmas morning?

    1. Katy Perry

    2. Taylor Swift

    3. Beyoncé

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:B - The festive feast under suspicion was organised and provided by the company’s own restaurant at its site at Montoir-de-Bretagne in the Loire-Atlantique region of western France. Ouch., 2:C - In an unlikely turn of events, the Chinese Xiangqi Association said Yan 'consumed alcohol with others in his room on the night of the 17th, and then he defecated in the bathtub of the room he was staying in on the 18th, in an act that damaged hotel property, violated public order and good morals, had a negative impact on the competition and the event of Xiangqi, and was of extremely bad character'. We've all done it. Especially Willow., 3:B - It got 5.9 million viewers, down on last year's 8.1 million, leading to fans calling for a return of the old format, old showrunner, old cast and … oh … hang on … no, that is Doctor Who fans, sorry. Strictly was second with 5.3 million viewers, Doctor Who was third and, quite rightly, the most popular scripted drama of the day with 4.7 million viewers, and the lovely Call the Midwife had 4.4 million., 4:A - The artist confirmed the piece – a traffic stop sign covered with three aircraft said to resemble military drones – was his in a social media post shortly after midday on Friday. And then it vanished. Good old Peckham, never change., 5:B - Her coronation was April 1689 and she died on 28 December 1694, and the Thursday quiz knows nothing else about her at all except that she was also queen of Scotland and Ireland, and her husband was known as William III or William II depending on whereabouts in the British Isles he was hob-nobbing, and loads of people are going to point these things out in the comments because they didn't read this bit., 6:D - As McGonagall put it: 'Beautiful railway bridge of the silv'ry Tay!/Alas! I am very sorry to say/That ninety lives have been taken away/On the last sabbath day of 1879/Which will be remember'd for a very long time.' , 7:A - Welch was also the first woman to referee an English Football League match, when she carried the whistle in a League Two game between Harrogate Town and Port Vale in 2021. , 8:B - The Colombia culture minister, Juan David Correa, said the first attempts would be made between April and May, depending on ocean conditions in the Caribbean. Correa pledged it would be a scientific expedition. The Thursday quiz is stroking its chin., 9:D - The area has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times, and the present city is considered to have been founded in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha Bargjini., 10:C - The creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel was born in Helsinki., 11:B - A clip of the celebrity cook pronouncing 'microwave' as 'meecro-wah-vay' while talking about heating milk was shared widely online in 2020, resulting in much hilarity., 12:A - They have lots and lots of chloroplasts, which is where photosynthesis occurs. Good stuff, you little palisade mesophylls., 13:C - He was born Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, and to Moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear, hence the picture., 14:B - Which of course, also featured George Michael., 15:C - Beyoncé Knowles’s family bought the home on the 2400 block of Rosedale in 1982 and Beyoncé lived there until she was five years old. That picture is actually a live feed of the quiz master's laptop writing these red hot questions for you.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working – feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and he doesn’t really know what day of the week it is at the moment.