Q 01/05

Which is the world's smallest sovereign state by both area and population?

A) Vatican City

B) San Marino

C) Liechtenstein

D) Nauru

Answer · why

A) Vatican City

Vatican City: the 1929 Lateran Treaty that created it finally settled the long-standing 'Roman question' between the popes and Italy.

Q 02/05

Which river flows through four national capitals on its way to the Black Sea?

A) Elbe

B) Dnieper

C) Danube

D) Vistula

Answer · why

C) Danube

The Danube: in the early 1970s the Iron Gate dam flooded the island of Ada Kaleh, home to a Turkish Muslim community.

Q 03/05

Which city is the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state?

A) Helsinki

B) Reykjavík

C) Stockholm

D) Tallinn

Answer · why

B) Reykjavík

Reykjavík: Nuuk in Greenland lies a few kilometres farther north, but Greenland is an autonomous territory, not a sovereign state.

Q 04/05

Which country has a large share of its land lying below sea level?

A) Belgium

B) Lithuania

C) Latvia

D) Netherlands

Answer · why

D) Netherlands

The Netherlands lost a newly reclaimed polder to the St Elizabeth flood of 1421, and the drowned land became the Biesbosch.

Q 05/05

Which team, let into Euro 1992 only after Yugoslavia was disqualified, went on to lift the trophy?

A) Sweden

B) Denmark

C) Germany

D) Scotland

Answer · why

B) Denmark

Denmark entered as runners-up from Yugoslavia's qualifying group and beat a newly reunified Germany 2–0 in the final.