Will Smith slaps Chris Rock onstage during the 94th Oscars in March
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)1. What was significant about July 19?
a) Temperatures in London reached 40C for the first time ever.
b) The population of the world exceeded eight billion for the first time ever.
c) Harry Styles allegedly spat in his co-star Chris Pine’s lap at the premiere of Olivia Wilde’s film ‘Don’t Worry Darling’.
2. Who or what is JWST?
a) Justin Welby’s Spunky Thermometer, a Liverpudlian neo-punk band bigged up by Paul McCartney from the Glastonbury stage.
b) Joint Web Stock Traders, a cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed costing investors millions.
c) The James Webb Space Telescope, which started capturing pin-sharp images of the universe (and was renamed The Jellyscope Wellyscope Spacey Telescope on Twitter).
3. In a bid to avert Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Emmanuel Macron sat down to a socially distanced meeting with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. How long is the table they sat at?
a) Four metres
b) Five metres
c) Six metres
4. Which sport star said, “it’s like a taboo topic. It comes up and I start crying. I think the only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist”, and about what?
a) Ronnie O’Sullivan, about equalling Stephen Hendry’s record of seven world snooker championship titles.
b) Serena Williams, about her retirement.
c) Chloe Kelly, about her shirtless celebration after scoring the winning goal for England’s Lionesses against Germany in the Euro 2022 final.
5. The UK had three prime ministers this year, who were respectively 1.75m, 1.70m and 1.65m in height. Who is the shortest?
a) Boris Johnson
b) Liz Truss
c) Rishi Sunak
6. What, respectively, did the Merriam-Webster and Collins English dictionaries choose as their words of the year?
a) “Gaslighting” and “permacrisis”
b) “Goblin mode” and “woke”
c) “Metaverse” and “Platty Jubes”
7. Who issued a public apology on TikTok, saying they were “so upset and embarrassed”, and for what?
a) Adele, for the delay to performances in her Las Vegas residency.
b) Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, for allegedly jumping the queue to witness the Queen lying in state.
c) Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.
8. Which fashion trend did Margot Robbie help to go viral this year?
a) Balenciaga’s $1,790 bin bag.
b) Coperni’s spray-on dress.
c) Barbiecore.
9. Why did Piet Mondrian’s 1941 painting New York City 1 hit the news?
a) Just Stop Oil protesters threw tomato soup over it.
b) It was auctioned for a record $149.24 million at Christie’s in the sale of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s art collection.
c) It had been hung upside down for 75 years.
10. Where was the phrase “hung like a small chipolata, shaved, slobbery, lasts five minutes” read out and to whom did it refer?
a) The Rooney v Vardy “Wagatha Christie” libel trial; Peter Andre.
b) The Johnny Depp/Amber Heard defamation trial; Elon Musk.
c) The Ghislaine Maxwell sentencing hearing; Prince Andrew.
11. Battersea Power Station opened as a leisure and shopping destination on October 14, 39 years after it ceased to produce electricity and 64 years after it was completed. How many bricks were used in its construction?
a) Five million
b) Six million
c) Seven million
12. Which of these women has Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson not dated (so far) this year?
a) Reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
b) Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski.
c) Finnish prime minister and dance fiend Sanna Marin.
13. How much has been spent on the UK government’s Rwanda policy without a single asylum seeker being deported there?
a) £120 million
b) £200 million
c) £37 billion
14. Which film released in 2022 featured an alternative universe where all the people had hot dogs for fingers?
a) Top Gun: Maverick
b) Downton Abbey: A New Era
c) Everything Everywhere All At Once
15. Which group of workers is striking because their demands for a 5% rise above the RPI measure of inflation has not been met?
a) Rail workers
b) Nurses
c) Postal workers
16. Women began cutting off their hair as a gesture of protest this year. Against what?
a) The US Supreme Court overturning the Roe v Wade ruling which gave federal protection to abortion rights.
b) Iran’s hijab laws and the death of Mahsa Amini while being held in custody at a “rehabilitation centre” by the country’s Morality Police.
c) The anti-feminist agenda of Yoon Suk-yeol’s government in South Korea.
17. What was the bestselling book of 2022?
a) It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover.
b) The Bullet That Missed: a Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman.
c) The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka.
18. What did Elon Musk carry into Twitter’s HQ on his first visit after buying the platform?
a) An air fryer
b) A sink
c) Monkeypox
19. What was the DART and why did it hit the news in September?
a) It was the brand of tractor that Tory MP Neil Parish claimed he was looking for on his phone which led to him “accidentally” watching porn in the House of Commons.
b) It was the spaceship that Nasa smashed into the asteroid Dimorphos 6.8 million miles from Earth to see if that would deflect its course (which it did).
c) It is the US government agency that recovered countless classified documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.
20. It’s expected that in the next year the UK will see 325,000 instances of… what?
a) Newspaper articles about Harry and Meghan’s Netflix series.
b) Tweets from Piers Morgan about Cristiano Ronaldo.
c) Sewage dumps by water companies on British beaches.
Answers:
1. A,
2. C,
3. C,
4. B,
5. B
6. A
7. A
8. C
9. C
10. A
11. B
12. C
13. A
14. C
15. B
16. B
17. A
18. B
19. B
20. C
