Weekly Quiz #11

A free weekly 20-question general knowledge quiz

Welcome to the eleventh weekly quiz!

As always, we’re aiming for interesting questions that could come up in future quizzes across a range of difficulties and topic areas: new stuff, traditional quiz areas, “I should know this but I don’t” questions. Enjoy.

Questions

In the news

1. Which Disney sequel recently surpassed Inside Out 2 to become the fastest Hollywood animated film to cross $1 billion at the global box office, doing so after 17 days?

2. Which president and CEO of Nvidia was one of eight “Architects of AI” named Time Magazine Person of the Year last week?

3. Set in a dark fantasy Belle Époque setting, which role-playing video game by French studio Sandfall Interactive won a record nine awards at the 2025 Game Awards, including Game of the Year?

4. Set to begin next week, the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations will be held in which country, who will also jointly host the 2030 FIFA World Cup?

5. “(n.) Online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account.” This is the definition of which two-word term, chosen as the 2025 Oxford Word of the Year?

6. Set for release on Christmas Day in the US, Song Sung Blue stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as Mike and Claire Sardina, members of Lightning & Thunder, a tribute band to which singer-songwriter?

7. Which professional wrestler, actor and Make-A-Wish world record holder officially retired from the WWE last weekend, wrestling his last match?

Mixed bag

8. Often associated with the Diwali festival, which Hindu goddess is the goddess of wealth, prosperity, fortune, fertility, abundance and beauty? Along with Parvati and Sarasvati, she forms the trinity of goddesses called the Tridevi.

9. In office from 1999 to 2008, Thabo Mbeki was the second president of which country?

10. At 3,798m, the Grossglockner is the highest mountain in which country?

11. Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Dear John, and The Notebook are among the novels of which American author?

12. On the Periodic Table, uranium is element 92 and plutonium is element 94. Which element is number 93?

13. The anthem Zadok the Priest has been sung at the coronation of every British monarch since George II in 1727. It was one of four anthems written for the 1727 coronation by which German-born composer?

14. What surname is shared by the only woman to score points in Formula One (in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix) and the winning coach of the first two Super Bowls?

15. Director Tom Hooper won the Best Director Oscar for the 2010 film The King’s Speech, and the Worst Director Razzie for which 2019 musical adaptation?

Pictures

16. The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles was designed by which Canadian-American architect who died last week, aged 96?

    

17. This is the logo of which Chinese AI company and its chatbot that launched in January this year?

    

18. This panel is from which four-letter serial webcomic created by Randall Munroe?

    

19. Seen below, which Czech former footballer (b. 1948) gives his name to a style of penalty kick in which the ball is gently kicked in the centre of the goal to take advantage of the fact that goalkeepers typically dive left or right in anticipation?

    

20. This is the pelagic species of which genus of sharks characterised by their exceptionally long caudal fins, which are used in a whip-like fashion to stun prey?

    

And that’s this week’s quiz! I hope you enjoyed it.

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Answers

1. Zootopia 2 (called Zootropolis 2 in UK, Ireland, Italy and Denmark, and Zoomania 2 in Germany). The fastest animated film to do so was Chinese film Ne Zha 2, in 12 days.

2. Jensen Huang. The head of the world’s largest market company by market capitalisation was honoured alongside Mark Zuckerberg, Lisa Su, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis, Dario Amodei and Fei-Fei Li. Amazingly, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su (CEO of AMD) are first cousins once removed.

   

3. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The first French-developed Game of the Year winner follows the volunteers of Expedition 33 as they aim to destroy the Paintress, an entity that paints an always decreasing number on a rock formation, leading all humans with an age equal to or above that number to disappear.

4. Morocco. Morocco, who made history in 2022 by becoming the first African country to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup, will jointly host the 2030 edition with Spain and Portugal.

5. Rage bait. The winner beat out two other shortlisted terms: aura farming and biohack. President of Oxford Languages Casper Grathwohl wrote, “The fact that the word rage bait exists and has seen such a dramatic surge in usage means we’re increasingly aware of the manipulation tactics we can be drawn into online.”

6. Neil Diamond. The film was based on a 2008 documentary of the same name, which almost never saw the light of day after filmmaker Greg Kohs was hit with a cease and desist letter, until he managed to get the film in front of Neil Diamond, via a phone call to Eddie Vedder. Diamond said he “loved-loved-loved” the movie and was honoured to be a part of it.

7. John Cena. The 48-year-old Cena, who stars in the HBO series Peacemaker and who holds the record for most Make-A-Wish wishes granted (over 650), wrestled Gunther in his final match, losing via submission.

8. Lakshmi. Lakshmi does not only signify material wealth, but also abstract prosperity and spiritual fulfilment. She is the consort of Vishnu, the Preserver.

9. South Africa. Mbeki was also one of two deputy presidents under Nelson Mandela, serving from 1994-1999.

10. Austria. The Grossglockner, or Großglockner, is the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Brenner Pass, which forms part of the border between Austria and Italy.

11. Nicholas Sparks. 11 of his 25 novels have been adapted into films, and 15 have been #1 New York Times Best Sellers.

12. Neptunium. Neptunium and plutonium were first isolated in 1940, and as the next two elements after uranium (named after Uranus), they were named after Neptune and Pluto.

13. George Frideric Handel. Handel, born Georg Friedrich Händel in Hamburg in 1685, settled in London at age 28 and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. Zadok the Priest was also adapted by Tony Britten in 1992 to become the UEFA Champions League Anthem.

14. Lombardi. Italian driver Lella Lombardi (1941-1992) participated in 17 Formula One Grands Prix from 1974-1976. Vince Lombardi coached the Green Bay Packers to five NFL Championships and victories in the first two Super Bowls in the 1960s. The NFL Super Bowl Trophy is named in his honour.

15. Cats. The widely panned live-action uncanny valley adaptation won six Razzies, including Worst Supporting Actor for James Corden and Worst Supporting Actress for Rebel Wilson.

16. Frank Gehry. Other famous buildings by the 1989 Pritzker Prize winner include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Dancing House in Prague, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.

17. DeepSeek. With training costs reportedly significantly lower than other LLMs, DeepSeek’s launch and success was a surprise to more established rivals, and was compared to the Sputnik Moment of the Space Race in the 1950s.

18. xkcd. The series has been running since 2005 and has over 3000 editions and six spinoff books. Of the title xkcd, Munroe says, “It’s not actually an acronym. It’s just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings.”

19. Antonín Panenka. Panenka famously used the technique, now known as a panenka, to score the winning penalty shootout goal in the Euro 1976 final against West Germany to win Czechoslovakia their only European Championship title.

20. Thresher shark. The caudal fin of the thresher shark can be as long as the body of the shark itself. They are generally timid and are not considered a threat to humans.