Q 01/05

The landlocked Czech Republic borders Germany, Slovakia and which two other countries?

A) Austria and Hungary

B) Poland and Hungary

C) Hungary and Slovenia

D) Austria and Poland

Answer · why

D) Austria and Poland

Austria and Poland. Czechoslovakia also bordered Hungary until 1993, when Slovakia became independent and took that border with it.

Q 02/05

By what short name did the Czech foreign ministry recommend the country be called in English?

A) Bohemia

B) Czechia

C) Czechland

D) Moravia

Answer · why

B) Czechia

Czechia was the ministry's choice as early as 1993, yet it took until 2016 for the government to approve it and register it with the United Nations as...

Q 03/05

Silver coins known as thalers, struck in the Bohemian mining town of Jáchymov, gave their name to which currency?

A) The shilling

B) The dollar

C) The pound

D) The mark

Answer · why

B) The dollar

The dollar began as the Joachimsthaler, named for Joachimsthal, as Jáchymov was then known, and shortened to 'thaler'. American colonists used the wor...

Q 04/05

The 1989 protests that ended communist rule in Czechoslovakia are known as what?

A) The Velvet Revolution

B) The Prague Spring

C) The Orange Revolution

D) The Singing Revolution

Answer · why

A) The Velvet Revolution

The Velvet Revolution was a non-violent handover: after riot police broke up a student march in Prague on 17 November 1989, strikes and daily mass ral...

Q 05/05

Which playwright and dissident became the first president of the Czech Republic?

A) Miloš Zeman

B) Václav Klaus

C) Alexander Dubček

D) Václav Havel

Answer · why

D) Václav Havel

Václav Havel served four years in a communist prison for his human-rights work. As Czechoslovakia's president he resigned in 1992 rather than preside ...