Q 01/05

Angela Merkel earned a doctorate in which scientific field before entering politics?

A) Quantum chemistry

B) Nuclear physics

C) Molecular biology

D) Applied mathematics

Answer · why

A) Quantum chemistry

Quantum chemistry was the subject of Merkel's 1986 doctorate. She spent a decade as a research scientist at an East Berlin academy and entered politic...

Q 02/05

Nelson Mandela spent 18 prison years on which island?

A) Saint Helena

B) Robben Island

C) Gorée Island

D) Zanzibar

Answer · why

B) Robben Island

Robben Island held Mandela from 1964 to 1982. He was freed from another prison in 1990 and four years later was elected South Africa's first Black pre...

Q 03/05

A journalist from which country gave Margaret Thatcher the nickname 'the Iron Lady'?

A) The United States

B) The Soviet Union

C) France

D) Argentina

Answer · why

B) The Soviet Union

The Soviet Union's army newspaper, Red Star, coined 'Iron Lady' in 1976 as a jab at her hard line on Moscow. Thatcher liked the insult so much that sh...

Q 04/05

Winston Churchill won a Nobel Prize in 1953 in which category?

A) Peace

B) Economics

C) History

D) Literature

Answer · why

D) Literature

Literature, not Peace: the 1953 prize honoured Churchill's histories and biographies and what the citation called his brilliant oratory in defence of ...

Q 05/05

Which leader holds the record for the longest speech to the UN General Assembly, at nearly four and a half hours?

A) Nikita Khrushchev

B) Muammar Gaddafi

C) Hugo Chávez

D) Fidel Castro

Answer · why

D) Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro spoke for four hours and 29 minutes in September 1960. Gaddafi's 2009 address, given a 15-minute slot, ran past an hour and a half and wa...