Witch trials, angels’ weight and Huw’s Bond cameo – take the Thursday quiz

The Angel of the North – but how much does it weigh? Photograph: Matt Keeble/Getty Images for Birmingham 2022 Queen's Baton Relay

The quiz master is away, but the moment has been prepared for. Before he left, stone tablets etched with strange markings were delivered to the Guardian offices in London, and after weeks of intrepid hard work, they have been deciphered into 15 questions that are slightly less topical than usual. There are no prizes. It is just for fun. Be kind to each other in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 69. Nice.

1. 

   HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It is Huw Edwards' birthday today. Happy birthday, Huw, you news-reading guru! In which James Bond film did he make a cameo appearance as himself, reading a news story relevant to the plot of the movie?

   1. Quantum of Solace

   2. The Living Daylights

   3. Spectre

   4. Skyfall

2. 

   WE MISS YOU, PATRICK: It would have been Patrick Swayze's birthday today. Nobody puts baby in a corner, but what was the name of the character *he* played so brilliantly in Dirty Dancing?

   1. Jake Houseman

   2. Johnny Castle

   3. Max Kellerman

   4. Ronald Mael

3. 

   ON THIS DAY: On 18 August 1612 one of England's most famous witch trials began – pitting the Demdike and the Chattox families against each other. What was the name of the Lancashire hill that lends its name to the trial?

   1. Ward's Stone

   2. Pendle Hill

   3. Fair Snape Fell

   4. Devil's Hump

4. 

   SWEET BABY CHEESES: The US produces more cheese than any other country in the world, despite being completely terrible at it. Which of these options is NOT a variety of cheese produced in the US?

   1. Humboldt Fog

   2. Cougar Gold

   3. Monterey Jack

   4. Missouri Fox Trotter

5. 

   SECRETS OF THE STARS: Pisces is one of the signs of the zodiac, but there is a southern hemisphere constellation featuring fish that was known as Ichthus Notios to Ptolemy. What is the official name of that constellation now, according to the International Astronomical Union?

   1. Piscis Austrinus

   2. Piscium

   3. Piscis Notius

   4. Piscis Meridanus

6. 

   MUSIC: Depeche Mode's first single was little-known Dreaming of Me. Their second single reached No 11 in the UK singles chart. What was it?

   1. See You

   2. Just Can't Get Enough

   3. New Life

   4. Everything Counts

7. 

   TAMMY'S TEASER: Tammy Wynette had a hit single with D-I-V-O-R-C-E in 1968. But which D is the capital of Senegal?

   1. Dakar

   2. Dar es Salaam

   3. Dodoma

   4. Djibouti

8. 

   GCSE SCIENCE WITH STEVIE NICKS: In the Fleetwood Mac song Dreams, Stevie Nicks claims that thunder only happens when it is raining. Is that true or false?

   1. True

   2. False

9. 

   1966 AND ALL THAT: A series of questions that aren't about football leading up to the 2022 Fifa World Cup which was awarded to a country too hot to host it. The 1962 Fifa World Cup was in Chile. But what is the present day currency of Chile?

   1. Chilean peso

   2. Chilean escudo

   3. Chilean dollar

   4. Chilean livre

10. 

    WEIRD WORDS: What, according to the Collins online English dictionary, does 'kippage' mean?

    1. The dried leaves and bark of certain plants, sometimes with tobacco added, formerly smoked by some indigenous Americans

    2. Old-fashioned Scottish dialect for a state of anger or excitement

    3. A small brown rat, Rattus exulans, native to New Zealand

    4. A measurement of how long an afternoon nap has been

11. 

    ENSEMBLE CASTS: Ricky Wilson, Rita Ora and Boy George have all been judges on which UK talent show?

    1. Britain's Got Talent

    2. X-Factor

    3. The Masked Singer

    4. The Voice UK

12. 

    YOU CAN CHANGE THE US CONSTITUTION AFTER ALL: On this day in 1920 the 19th amendment to the US constitution was ratified. How many amendments are there in total that have been ratified?

    1. 21

    2. 23

    3. 25

    4. 27

13. 

    TRUE OR FALSE: This is Willow, official dog of the Guardian's Thursday quiz. This week she wants to know, is it true that one of the famous inventing Wright Brothers was killed in the first fatal powered air crash, while flying their own plane?

    1. True

    2. False

14. 

    THEM HEAVY PEOPLE: How much, according to the factsheet about it from the local government, does the Angel of the North statue weigh?

    1. 2.8 tonnes

    2. 28 tonnes

    3. 208 tonnes

    4. 2,080 tonnes

15. 

    THIS WOMAN'S WORK: Kate Bush enjoyed her well-deserved two UK No 1 singles 44 years apart. Which of these pairs of events was also 44 years apart?

    1. The Beatles play their last ever US concert and the iPhone is released

    2. The Beatles play their last ever US concert and the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force

    3. The Beatles play their last ever US concert and the Occupy Wall Street protests begin

    4. The Beatles play their last ever US concert and Spain win the men's Fifa World Cup

Solutions

1:D - Edwards appears reading a story about how MI6 is in crisis because nobody is quite sure what to do with the James Bond franchise anymore, or something like that., 2:B - Of course it was Johnny, pictured here opposite Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman., 3:B - The two families lived near Pendle Hill. Of the 11 people who went to trial – nine women and two men – 10 were found guilty and executed by hanging. Thomas Potts' contemporary account of the trial, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, survives. The trials have left a mixed legacy, as both an interesting tourist attraction in the area and a cause for people who still seek to get those convicted a posthumous pardon, due to the obviously ludicrous nature of the charges and evidence., 4:D - The Missouri Fox Trotter is a horse breed developed in the Ozark Mountains. Monterey Jack comes from California using sheep's milk, Cougar Gold is a cheddar made in Washington state and sold exclusively in tin cans – shudder – and Humboldt Fog is a goat milk cheese named after the local ocean fog which rolls in from Humboldt Bay., 5:A - That is the name settled on in 1930 and used since then, although pedantry fans will delight to know that it has at times been called both Piscis Notius and Piscis Meridanus., 6:C - It was New Life, written by Vince Clarke. They followed it up with Just Can't Get Enough which reached No 8 in the UK charts, and then Vince Clarke left and was never heard from again. Only joking, he went on to have decades of success with Yazoo and Erasure., 7:A - The city has a population of around one million, and has been capital of Senegal since 1960. This is an exciting new round as we intend to ask a question about one letter from D-I-V-O-R-C-E every week until we get bored of it., 8:B - It is false. The University of Melbourne wrote about this in 2018, and concluded that it would be more accurate to say 'Thunder can occur in instances of precipitation or as an evaporative effect on cloud condensation', which they admit is nowhere near as catchy., 9:A - Since 1975 Chile has used the Chilean peso. Before that it was Chilean escudo. The picture shows Italy's captain being sent off in the famous 'Battle of Santiago' at the 1962 World Cup., 10:B - It is the old Scots. The smoking material is known as kinnikinnick, and the rat is a kiore., 11:D - All of them have appeared on The Voice UK, which is derived from a TV format invented in the Netherlands and only bearable when Kylie was in it. , 12:D - There are 27 amendments that have been ratified, although the 18th amendment, which attempted to enforce the prohibition of alcohol, has since been repealed. The last amendment was ratified on 5 May 1992., 13:B - It is false, although Orville Wright was injured in a crash in 1908, which killed Signal Corps Lt Thomas Selfridge, who is generally accepted to be the first person killed in a powered air flight. Some balloonists had previously suffered fatalities., 14:C - According to Gateshead council it weighs 208 tonnes, will last for more than 100 years and can withstand winds of up to 100mph., 15:D - That is 1966 and 2010.

Scores

1. 0 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 genuinely, he is on holiday, so we might all have to just live with it.