Vance, video games and a very poor prediction: how well do you remember 2024? – quiz

Photographs: Getty Images; Shutterstock; Alamy; Simon Emmett; Warner Bros Composite: Getty Images; Shutterstock , Alamy , Simon Emmett, Warner Bros.

1. Incoming US vice-president JD Vance is the author of the bestselling Hillbilly Elegy. But which of these book titles was not written by a Republican VP?

   1. So Help Me God

   2. The Assault on Reason

   3. In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir

   4. A Time to Heal

   5. Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir

2. What was the reason for Brazil banning the social media network X in August?

   1. Elon Musk’s failure to pay millions of dollars worth of fines

   2. The site’s refusal to remove a parody account of President Lula

   3. Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump

   4. SpaceX’s plan to land part of an unmanned shuttle in the Amazon rainforest

   5. A competition ruling related to Tesla’s EV market share

3. The Paris Olympics and Paralympics were a triumph for France. Which pair of beloved athletes lit the flame at the end of the Olympic opening ceremony?

   1. Teddy Riner and Marie-José Pérec

   2. Zinedine Zidane and Rafael Nadal

   3. Léon Marchand and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot

   4. Yannick Noah and Marion Bartoli​​

   5. Nicolas Anelka and Patrice Evra

4. The men’s T20 cricket World Cup was notable for holding a series of matches in noted cricket stronghold the United States. Which former champions did the US defeat in the group stage?

   1. England

   2. West Indies

   3. Australia

   4. Sri Lanka

   5. Pakistan

5. On 2 June, Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico’s first female president. What was her career before she moved into politics?

   1. Host of Mexico’s edition of The Apprentice

   2. Climate scientist

   3. Human rights barrister

   4. Cardiac surgeon

   5. Golfer

6. On 19 July, an IT failure caused havoc across the world as millions of systems running Microsoft Windows crashed and couldn’t restart. What was the cause?

   1. A power cut at Microsoft’s HQ in Redmond, Washington

   2. A faulty software update

   3. A cleaner at a server farm accidentally kicked out a plug

   4. A rogue band of Brazilian hackers

   5. Suspicious damage to submarine optical communication cables in the north Atlantic

7. A Glasgow ‘immersive experience’ based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory became a global sensation in February for being … absolutely terrible. Which of these did it not inspire?

   1. A Channel 5 documentary, Wonka: The Scandal That Rocked Britain

   2. A recreation of the event in Los Angeles

   3. A parody musical at the Edinburgh fringe

   4. A rushed-into-production horror film

   5. A nine-part Netflix series

8. Keir Starmer became UK prime minister in July. His election campaign was marked by frequent references to his father’s career as a toolmaker. What was Starmer Sr’s first name? (Clue, it’s also Keir Starmer’s middle name.)

   1. Derek

   2. Rodney

   3. Albert

   4. Trigger

   5. Damien

9. DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis was awarded a share of the Nobel prize in chemistry for his work on artificial intelligence in October. Which classic video game was he the co-designer and chief programmer of in the 90s?

   1. Tomb Raider

   2. Sensible World of Soccer

   3. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge

   4. Theme Park

   5. Railroad Tycoon

10. Kemi Badenoch is the first UK Conservative party leader since Iain Duncan Smith not to have attended Oxford or Cambridge. She attended the University of Sussex, but what did she study?

    1. Computer systems engineering

    2. Politics, philosophy and economics

    3. International studies

    4. Chemical engineering

    5. Sociology

11. Why did US airline Delta schedule a special flight from Austin, Texas, to Detroit, Michigan, on 8 April?

    1. As part of a stunt for YouTuber MrBeast

    2. To promote the launch of a new Ford EV

    3. To fly a $50,000 Whataburger order to a Trump rally in Michigan

    4. To get Willie Nelson to a concert after his tour bus broke down

    5. To follow the path of a huge solar eclipse

12. What connects: a headless whale, a bear in Central Park and a spit-roasted dog?

    1. Anti-animal cruelty stunts by Peta

    2. Robert F Kennedy Jr

    3. Artworks longlisted for the 2024 Turner prize

    4. Costumes worn at Donald Trump’s pre-election rally at Madison Square Garden

    5. Plotlines in books shortlisted for this year’s Booker prize

13. Which country did not join the Brics alliance on 1 January 2024?

    1. Egypt

    2. Ethiopia

    3. Saudi Arabia

    4. United Arab Emirates

    5. Iran

14. In February, the United States returned to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years when a privately built spacecraft touched down near the moon’s south pole. After which Greek traveller was it named?

    1. Jason

    2. Odysseus

    3. Aeneas

    4. Theseus

    5. Orpheus

15. Which of these is not a real podcast on which Donald Trump appeared during the US election campaign?

    1. Bussin’ With the Boys

    2. This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von

    3. Miller Time with Stephen Miller

    4. Impaulsive with Logan Paul

    5. Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant with Akaash Singh

16. In late August, millions of UK fans were left disappointed after trying to get their hands on tickets for Oasis’s 2025 stadium shows. Which of these venues will the band not play next year as part of their sold-out comeback?

    1. Estádio do Morumbi, São Paulo

    2. Marvel stadium, Melbourne

    3. Aviva stadium, Dublin

    4. Rogers Centre, Toronto

    5. Rose Bowl, Pasadena

17. Chelsea’s Cole Palmer scored the equalising goal for England in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin. Which country does Palmer’s father’s family hail from?

    1. St Kitts and Nevis

    2. St Vincent and the Grenadines

    3. Nigeria

    4. Republic of Ireland

    5. Jamaica

18. Which of these Tory MPs hung on to their seat by the slimmest margin in July’s general election?

    1. Richard Holden, Basildon and Billericay

    2. James Cleverly, Braintree

    3. Jeremy Hunt, Godalming and Ash

    4. Alan Mak, Havant

    5. Kemi Badenoch, North West Essex

19. On the eve of the US election, which podcaster confidently declared, in a post on X: “Kamala Harris will win comfortably, because: • Biden’s admin has been solid • Trump’s lost ground since 2016 • The young Black male votes which Trump needs didn’t turn out in 16, 18, 20, or 22 • Young women like Kamala + vote * Ignore polls – they’re herding, after past misses”

    1. Justin Webb of BBC’s Americast

    2. Joe Rogan of the Joe Rogan Experience

    3. Jon Sopel of The News Agents

    4. Rory Stewart of the The Rest is Politics

    5. Max Rushden of Guardian Football Weekly

20. Music legend Quincy Jones died in November. In 2018, which band did he describe as "the worst musicians in the world"?

    1. The Monkees

    2. The Beatles

    3. New Order

    4. The Rolling Stones

    5. Oasis

Solutions

1:B - Quayle’s book didn’t sell like a hot potatoe, 2:A - Or name a local representative for the company. Though the backdrop, as the Guardian reported, was a long-running and politically charged battle between Musk and Brazil’s top court, which was trying to combat the dissemination of far-right misinformation and anti-democratic content. A supreme court judge lifted the ban in October., 3:A - Judo legend Riner’s fourth gold medal, in the +100kg final was one of the moments of the games. Sprinter Pérec won three golds at the 1992 and 1996 Games., 4:E - The US triumphed in a super over. Writing in the Guardian, Mark Ramprakash called it “an upset for the ages”. , 5:B - Sheinbaum contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The other old jobs are those of other election winners this year – Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. Finnish president Alexander Stubb left a golf scholarship in the US to focus on politics. , 6:B - Boringly, the security firm CrowdStrike distributed a faulty update to its Falcon Sensor security software. It was fixed within a few hours. , 7:E - But let’s not rule it out. Willy’s Chocolate Experience also inspired a Jimmy Kimmel Live! spoof starring Freddie Highmore and a barbed comment from Keir Starmer in the Commons. , 8:B - It’s Rodney (you plonkers)., 9:D - Released in 1994, Theme Park sold several million copies and won a Golden Joystick award. The game set players the task of building a successful theme park in the UK with just a few thousand pounds and a small plot of land. , 10:A - Computer systems engineering. Badenoch also did a master’s in the same subject before beginning her career as a software engineer. Fun, related, fact: she once admitted using these skills to hack Harriet Harman’s website to “say nice things about the Tories”. She apologised for the prank in 2018., 11:E - Demand was so high to follow the path of the eclipse, in which 32 million people were in the path of totality, that Delta added a second flight, though, as the Washington Post reported, “a glimpse of totality proved elusive for many of the people who had reserved a spot”. , 12:B - Donald Trump’s nominee to run America’s health system was beset by a series of bizarre animal-related stories during his abortive run for the White House. They include an investigation he beheaded a whale in 1994 (denied) and accusations, that he dumped a road-killed bear in central Manhattan (admitted) and allegations that he was photographed eating a barbecued dog (says it was a goat). , 13:C - The kingdom had, alongside Argentina, been due to join the alliance at the start of the year. Argentina pulled out after the election of Javier Milei in 2023; the Saudis are still considering joining. No one is yet calling it BRICSEESUI, sadly. , 14:B - Other crafts to complete the epic journey to the moon in 2024 were Japan’s Slim and China’s Chang’e-6. , 15:C - Trump’s tour of the pods was credited in part with his victory. Immigration hardliner Stephen Miller doesn’t have a podcast, but has been named as Trump’s deputy chief of policy. , 16:C - The Gallaghers will in fact play Croke Park, the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association, on 16-17 August. Liam Gallagher, whose parents are both Irish, is a fan of the Gaelic games, tweeting in 2020: “Gaelic football rules better than the shit I’ve been watching in the PL recently pure passion.”, 17:A - Palmer was one of the five (out of five) successful penalty scorers in the quarter-final penalty shootout win against Switzerland. Rio Ferdinand was among the voices hailing the success of the scorers, who all have Black heritage, after the racist abuse targeted at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after their misses in 2021. One of the other scorers, Jude Bellingham was one of five members of the England squad who could have played for Ireland. , 18:A - The then-Tory party chair faced criticism for landing a last-minute safe seat in Essex, having been the MP for North West Durham since 2019. It wasn’t that safe, though. Holden won by just 20 votes. Mak held on to his seat by 92 votes, Hunt by 891, Cleverly and Badenoch by a relatively comfortable 3,670 and 2,610, respectively. , 19:D - After Trump’s victory, Stewart clarified (as if it were needed … ): “For the record – I was completely wrong about Kamala Harris. It is heartbreaking that Trump is now the president.” , 20:B - It’s worth revisiting the full quote: “They were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard. And Ringo? Don’t even talk about it. I remember once we were in the studio with George Martin, and Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldn’t get it.”

Scores

1. 20 and above.

2. 19 and above.

3. 18 and above.

4. 17 and above.

5. 16 and above.

6. 15 and above.

7. 14 and above.

8. 13 and above.

9. 12 and above.

10. 11 and above.

11. 10 and above.

12. 9 and above.

13. 8 and above.

14. 7 and above.

15. 6 and above.

16. 5 and above.

17. 4 and above.

18. 3 and above.

19. 2 and above.

20. 0 and above.

21. 1 and above.

How did you do?

0-5 Time to stop looking at your phone and read more of the Guardian
6-14 You’ve obviously been reading a lot. Well done you
15+ Is your homepage the “Events in 2024” Wikipedia page?

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