Vandalised paintings and newly found planets – take the Thursday quiz

An artist's impression of a new planet. Photograph: European Southern Observatory/AFP/Getty Images

Once again the task that lies before you is 15 vaguely topical and general knowledge questions, littered with repetitive in-jokes that long since stopped being entertaining. You will meet Ron from Sparks. You will meet Kate Bush. You will have several Doctor Who references to spot. And after the fuss everybody made about the Eiffel Tower question last time around, this week you will not have to measure anything in feet. There are no prizes, it is just for fun. Let us know how you get on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 43

1. 

   EYES TO THE RIGHT: As soon as you saw this story you knew it was an absolute Thursday quiz shoo-in. A bored security guard drew eyes on this painting called Three Figures in a Russian gallery. Who was the painting by?

   1. Anna Leporskaya

   2. Sara Alexandri

   3. Nadia Popov

   4. Elena Kostenko

2. 

   AYES TO THE RIGHT: The Sénat is the upper chamber in France's parliamentary democracy. How many senators are there?

   1. 212

   2. 348

   3. 415

   4. About 800 – the same as the number of people able to sit in the House of Lords in the UK

3. 

   YOUR CALL'S VERY IMPORTANT TO US: That's a 2002 song by Sparks where 'then she said: Please hold'. But that is not important right now. Last week a woman in Canada contacted the wrong police force 3,000 miles away during an emergency. Which English constabulary did she contact?

   1. Cheshire

   2. Durham

   3. Hampshire

   4. Norfolk

4. 

   TO BOLDLY GO: Scientists have announced that they have discovered a third planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the solar system. What have they called it?

   1. Proxima c

   2. Proxima d

   3. Terrus Proxima

   4. Bob

5. 

   GCSE SCIENCE CORNER: Three of these options are the names of hormones in the human body. One of them is the name of a hormone in plants. Which is the plant hormone?

   1. Triiodothyronine

   2. Thyroxine

   3. Amylin

   4. Auxin

6. 

   ENSEMBLE CASTS: Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande starred together in which of these Nickelodeon shows?

   1. Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures

   2. Bella and the Bulldogs

   3. Sam & Cat

   4. Kenan & Kel

7. 

   ¡AY, CARAMBA!: A combination of a poor harvest, price inflation and activity by criminal gangs is reported to have led to a shortage of which important ingredient at restaurants in Mexico?

   1. Tomatoes

   2. Limes

   3. Rice

   4. Refried beans

8. 

   LITERATURE: Harper Lee made her name with her novel To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960. In 2015, a second book with her name on it was published. What was it called?

   1. What Real Courage Is

   2. Go Set A Watchman

   3. Go See Eddie

   4. Nightmare of Eden

9. 

   HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It was Christopher Eccleston's birthday yesterday. Happy birthday, Chris! But where was he born?

   1. Salford

   2. Stockport

   3. Rochdale

   4. Warrington

10. 

    WHO AM I? I started my professional career as as a radio sports commentator, before becoming a union leader. I then went on to become the oldest person – at the time – to become president of the US. Who am I?

    1. Jimmy Carter

    2. Harry S Truman

    3. Ronald Reagan

    4. Lyndon B Johnson

11. 

    HE WAS A GOOD BOY: Norwegian ship's dog Bamse became a heroic mascot of the Free Norwegian Forces during the Second World War. When his time was over, he was buried with full military honours in which Scottish port town?

    1. Stornoway

    2. Rosyth

    3. Leith

    4. Montrose

12. 

    SPOT THE BALL: The Winter Olympics continue and so does our exciting new round. Where was the curling stone in the original picture?

    1. A

    2. B

    3. C

    4. D

13. 

    ALLONS-Y: Wiki Voyage lists 23 locations visited by fictional Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. No 3 is Turin, Italy. But when did Turin host the Winter Olympics?

    1. 2014

    2. 2006

    3. 1994

    4. 1992

14. 

    FIBONACCI NUMBERS: First described in Indian mathematics, and forming a sequence where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, F₀ is zero. But what is the Celsius equivalent of absolute zero in Kelvin?

    1. −173.15 °C

    2. −273.15 °C

    3. −373.15 °C

    4. −473.15 °C

15. 

    MUSIC: In 1989 Pet Shop Boys wrote the song Nothing Has Been Proved for the movie Scandal. Who sang it for them?

    1. Liza Minelli

    2. Marianne Faithful

    3. Dusty Springfield

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:A - Anna Leporskaya’s Three Figures was painted between 1932 and 1934, and had been insured for 75m roubles (£740,000). It was on display as part of an abstract art exhibition at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center in Ekaterinburg when the guard drew eyes on it using a ballpoint pen on his first day on the job, 2:B - There are 348 sénateurs and sénatrices, who are elected, in part, by the country's local councillors in indirect elections, 3:B - The English force passed the messages from the woman who lives in Ontario on to the Durham regional police service in the Canadian province. You can tell by his face that Ron from Sparks thinks you should have known that, 4:B - I have literally no idea why they named the third planet after the fourth letter of the alphabet. I guess maybe they decided Proxima a was difficult to pronounce? Anyway the three planets are called Proxima b, Proxima c and Proxima d, 5:D - Auxins are a group of plant hormones that regulate growth, particularly by stimulating cell elongation in stems. Some auxins influence the growth of stems toward the light and against the force of gravity. Clever, eh?, 6:C - A spin-off from both iCarly and Victorious, it saw the pair of them as roommates running "Sam and Cat's Super Rockin' Funtime Babysitting Service", and much hilarity ensues, 7:B - Aggressive price-fixing by criminal groups has sent prices soaring and the harvest in Michoacán in December was down 26% from the month before. The issue is also said to be affecting the supply of avocados, 8:B - Controversially published a few months before Harper Lee died, what was originally billed as a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird is now generally accepted by literary experts to be a first draft of her landmark debut novel, 9:A - He was born in Langworthy, Salford. As the ninth Doctor once observed when questioned about his accent: "Lots of planets have a north!", 10:C - It was Ronald Reagan. Before becoming an actor he had been a sports commentator for WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa. He then went on to lead the Screen Actors Guild, before moving full-time into politics, 11:D - Bamse's ship Thorodd was sometimes based in Montrose, where the dog became a local celebrity, and there is a statue of him today located near the harbour. He was also said to sometimes catch buses to go to the pub to round up sailors who were late back to their ship, which people seem to think was cute but sounds infuriating , 12:D - It was D – the stone hadn't travelled that far yet and the curlers always try and stay close to it, but there was no broom to help you this week. The Winter Olympics finish this weekend and I think that is probably enough of these, 13:B - It was in 2006. Italy will be hosting the Winter Olympics again in 2026, with Milan–Cortina d'Ampezzo as host venues, 14:B - We are often taught to believe that all molecular motion ceases at absolute zero, although that isn't quite strictly true. The lowest temperature achieved in experiments has apparently been 50 picokelvin, and who knew they were even a thing?, 15:C - It was their second single together after they'd had a hit with What Have I Done To Deserve This

Scores

1. 0 and above.

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

2. 5 and above.

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

• 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 always final, and he is too busy writing about the Winter Olympics to reply anyway.