Q 01/05

Which country's Monte Carlo casino forbids its own citizens from entering the gaming rooms?

A) Monaco

B) Liechtenstein

C) Andorra

D) Luxembourg

Answer · why

A) Monaco

Monaco's ban on Monégasques gambling or working at the casino was the idea of Princess Caroline, who amended the rules on moral grounds; the casino lo...

Q 02/05

Which city has banned the sale of chewing gum since 1992, with a 2004 exception for therapeutic gum?

A) Gibraltar

B) Singapore

C) Vatican City

D) Macau

Answer · why

B) Singapore

Singapore outlawed gum sales in January 1992 under its new prime minister Goh Chok Tong; since 2004, dental and nicotine gum can be bought from a doct...

Q 03/05

Which city's name means 'fragrant harbour', possibly from the incense factories that once lined its coast?

A) Macau

B) Guangzhou

C) Hong Kong

D) Shenzhen

Answer · why

C) Hong Kong

Hong Kong translates as 'fragrant harbour' or 'incense harbour', a name that may also recall the sweet freshwater the Pearl River once pushed into the...

Q 04/05

Which capital's Red Square owes its name to an archaic word meaning 'beautiful', not to the colour?

A) Minsk

B) Moscow

C) Sofia

D) Bucharest

Answer · why

B) Moscow

Moscow's Red Square was first recorded under its krasnaya name in 1661–62, when the Russian word still meant 'beautiful' rather than 'red'.

Q 05/05

Which Russian city, Petrograd from 1914 and Leningrad from 1924, voted in 1991 to restore its original name?

A) Yekaterinburg

B) Saint Petersburg

C) Nizhny Novgorod

D) Kaliningrad

Answer · why

B) Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg got its name back in a June 1991 referendum, months before the Soviet Union dissolved; Tsar Nicholas II had dropped the German-soundi...