Weekly Quiz #7
A free weekly 20-question general knowledge quiz
Welcome to the seventh 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
Each week I include a few questions about recent events that are likely to come up in some way soon in the world of quiz. I personally find it helpful, as they’re frustrating to miss in quizzes.
“Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you can always be better.” These were the closing words of the final CEO letter to shareholders from which 95-year-old American investor?
Premiering earlier this month, which American legal drama series created by Ryan Murphy follows Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts and Niecy Nash as the founders of an all-female divorce law firm?
The 2011 memoir In My Time was written by which former US vice president who died this month? In it, he writes, “From day one George Bush made clear he wanted me to help govern.”
The 20th G20 Summit will be held on November 22-23 in which city? It will be the first time a G20 Summit has been held in Africa.
Which Japanese LA Dodgers pitcher won the 2025 World Series MVP award? He shares his surname with an admiral who commanded Japan’s Navy during World War II, and an architect who won the 2024 Pritzker Prize.
Ten years after the first unsuccessful iteration, which gaming company announced this week that a new version of the Steam Machine gaming console will be released in 2026?
Published in late October, We Did OK, Kid is a memoir by which 87-year-old Welsh actor who has won two Best Actor Oscars?
In the film Nuremberg, set for release this month, Russell Crowe plays which high-ranking Nazi official, who committed suicide by ingesting cyanide the night before his scheduled execution?
Mixed bag
The nephron is the structural and functional unit of which organ in the human body?
In his 19-year singles career at the French Open, Rafael Nadal only ever lost matches to three people. Name any one of them.
The Waikato is the longest river in which country?
What five-letter word precedes Solo in the title of an autobiographical book by Roald Dahl, Infinite in a 2023 book by Michael Lewis, and Clear in a 2013 book about Scientology?
The name Bharat refers to which modern-day country?
Which two-word term coined by psychologist Martin Seligman refers to a state where individuals no longer try to escape painful or unpleasant stimuli, even if it is possible to do so? It was coined after experiments involving dogs who stopped trying to avoid electric shocks.
What word does the letter C stand for in the organisation UNICEF?
Pictures
Pictured below, the Banpo Bridge is known for its daily Moonlight Rainbow Fountain shows and holds the record for the longest bridge fountain in the world. The bridge is a major landmark in which capital city?
This 1914 cubist painting Two Women (Dos Mujeres) is by which Mexican painter? The painting depicts the artist’s first wife, Angelina Beloff, and their close friend Alma Dolores Bastián.
Which seven-time Grammy Award-winning musician and composer is pictured below? He also co-wrote the score for the Pixar film Soul and was featured in the 2023 documentary American Symphony, which followed the composition of his first symphony and his wife’s struggle with leukaemia.
This is part of the logo of which Italian luxury fashion house?
Also sometimes called a wheel fiddle, what hyphenated rhyming name is given to this instrument? It produces sound by a hand-cranked wheel which rubs against the strings, while melodies are played on the keyboard.
And that’s this week’s quiz! I hope you enjoyed it.
Answers
I include a little bit of extra info with the answers. I find this extra detail helps me anchor the relevant information in the question in richer context, and thus helps me remember answers that I missed when they come up next time.
Warren Buffett. The Omaha-born Buffett is stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year.
All’s Fair. Despite overwhelmingly negative reviews, the show was the most-watched scripted show debut on Hulu in the past three years. A Guardian review opened with, “I did not know it was still possible to make television this bad.”
Dick Cheney. Cheney smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for almost 20 years, and had his first of five heart attacks in 1978, aged 37(!).
Johannesburg. The US, who will host the 2026 G20 summit, will not send any delegates to this year’s summit.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He is the first player in baseball history to win a World Series, a World Baseball Classic, and an Olympic gold medal. The admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto, was the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The architect, Riken Yamamoto, is known for “blurring the boundary between public and private…to enable community.”
Valve. The company behind the PC gaming platform Steam says the console is “a powerful gaming PC in a small but mighty package”, with a plan to bring PC gaming to the TV and living room.
Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins won Oscars for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, and a man suffering from dementia in 2020’s The Father.
Hermann Göring. Crowe stars as the Luftwaffe chief opposite Rami Malek as US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley.
The kidney. There are around a million nephrons in each kidney. Inflammation of the kidneys is called nephritis.
Robin Söderling, Novak Djokovic, or Alexander Zverev. Djokovic was the only player to beat Nadal twice at the French Open. Nadal won 14 of 14 finals he made at the tournament, and the only other time he did not win was in 2016, when he was forced to withdraw before his third round match because of a wrist injury.
New Zealand. Waikato translates from Māori as flowing water, and it has its source in Lake Taupō, the largest lake in the country by surface area.
Going. Going Solo is Dahl’s continuation of his earlier book Boy. Going Infinite is Lewis’s book about Sam Bankman-Fried and the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and Going Clear is the book, later adapted into an HBO documentary, which explored Scientology and its relationship with Hollywood, highlighting stories of ex-members and the abuse and exploitation they witnessed and experienced.
India. Article 1 of India’s Constitution lists “Bharat” as a coequal official name of the country, alongside “India”. Bharat originates from Sanskrit and is found in ancient Hindu texts, where the land that comprises India is referred to as Bhāratavarṣa.
Learned helplessness. While conducting research on classical conditioning, Seligman discovered that dogs that had received unavoidable shocks failed to avoid later shocks even when it was possible.
Children’s. Originally the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, since 1953 it has been officially United Nations Children’s Fund.
Seoul. Between April and October, the bridge fountain has a 20-minute water and light show 5-6 times per day, weather permitting.
Diego Rivera. Perhaps best known today for his volatile relationship with Frida Kahlo and his murals, Rivera spent a decade in France from 1911-1921, where he experimented with cubism, post-impressionism, and the style of Cezanne.
Jon Batiste. The singer-songwriter, musician, composer, bandleader and more has been nominated for 25 Grammy Awards, and has won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for Soul. He met his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, when they were teenagers at band camp.
Giorgio Armani (or just Armani). The logo was first used for the Emporio Armani range. Armani designed the logo himself: “It was born by chance. I still remember the moment I drew it, while I was on the phone with my business partner, Sergio Galeotti, who urgently needed me to decide on a logo.”
Hurdy-gurdy. The hurdy-gurdy dates back to the 10th century and is often used in baroque and renaissance music, as well as Mediterranean, Slavic and Hungarian folk music. Most have multiple drone strings which give a constant drone pitch under the melody that sounds similar to the bagpipes.
