Weekend Quiz: Put Your Smarts to the Test

What amount of common knowledge do you possess? Dive into this set of questions to find out.

The Questions

1 What country music legend had a close brush with death by an ostrich back in 1981?

2 Sarah Mullally has been appointed as the 106th what?

3 What initially met at Thingvellir in the nation of Iceland in 930?

4 In the power industry, what does EfW stand for?

5 Lacryma Christi wine originates from vineyards on what mountain?

6 What BBC sitcom has been airing for nineteen years?

7 Which person's report led to the adoption of stadiums with only seats in the United Kingdom?

8 What piece in chess was initially called the counsellor?

What Links

9 Brick Lane; Chancery Lane; Hangar; Leather; Park; Pudding Lane?

10 Sierra de Urbión; Tordesillas; Zamora; Porto?

11 Son of Cush; ninth musical variation; naval patrol plane; Iranian embassy siege?

12 Caldey; Denny; Flat Holm Island; Lundy Island; Stert; The Wolves Islands?

13 Pugilism; chariot racing; discus throw; javelin throw; long jump; pankration; wrestling?

14 James Bond; Alec Leamas; Pyle figure; Adolf Verloc?

15 Blanchett actress; Cruz star; Keaton performer; Mira Sorvino; Wiest thespian?

In deep water over the Tordesillas clue?

The Solutions

1 Johnny Cash.

2 Canterbury Archbishop.

3 Althing (Icelandic assembly).

4 Energy from waste.

5 Mount Vesuvius.

6 Not Going Out (second longest-running UK sitcom)

7 Taylor Report (1990).

8 The queen piece.

9 Lanes in London.

10 Douro River: rises in Spain; flows through in Spain; reaches Atlantic.

11 The name Nimrod: in Book of Genesis; in Elgar's Enigma Variations; Nimrod aircraft; SAS operation codename.

12 Islands in the Bristol Channel.

13 Events in the ancient Olympics.

14 Spy titles in books: Fleming’s The Spy Who Loved Me; John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Greene’s The Quiet American; Conrad’s The Secret Agent.

15 Oscar wins in Woody Allen movies: film Blue Jasmine; movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Annie Hall; feature Mighty Aphrodite; Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway.