Q 01/05

What is the capital city of Australia?

A) Canberra

B) Brisbane

C) Sydney

D) Melbourne

Answer · why

A) Canberra

The purpose-built capital was a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne; Parliament moved there in 1927.

Q 02/05

Which country has the most pyramids?

A) Mexico

B) Sudan

C) Peru

D) Egypt

Answer · why

B) Sudan

The Kushite rulers of Nubia built around 255 steep-sided pyramids at sites such as Meroë, more than twice Egypt's total.

Q 03/05

According to NASA, how visible is the Great Wall of China to the naked eye from low Earth orbit?

A) Clearly, but only from as far as the Moon

B) Clearly, as a thin dark line snaking across China

C) Barely, and only in near-perfect conditions

D) Only at night when the wall is floodlit

Answer · why

C) Barely, and only in near-perfect conditions

The claim that it is the only human structure visible from space dates back to the 1700s, long before anyone had been there.

Q 04/05

Where does the image of Vikings wearing horned helmets mostly come from?

A) Excavated Norse graves

B) Viking Age sagas

C) Bayeux Tapestry embroidery scenes

D) 19th-century opera costumes

Answer · why

D) 19th-century opera costumes

Contemporary texts mention helmets often but never horns; the look was popularised by Richard Wagner's productions in the 1800s.

Q 05/05

Botanically speaking, the peanut is what kind of plant?

A) A legume

B) A tuber

C) A grass

D) A tree nut

Answer · why

A) A legume

Its pods develop underground, which is why it is also called the groundnut; true nuts like hazelnuts grow on trees.