Saturday Quiz: Put Your Smarts to the Test

How much of common knowledge are you holding? Dive into the following set of questions to find out.

The Queries

1 What icon of country music had a close brush with death from an ostrich attack back in 1981?

2 Sarah Mullally has been appointed as the one hundred and sixth what?

3 Which initially met at Þingvellir in the nation of Iceland in 930?

4 Within the energy sector, what does EfW stand for?

5 Tears of Christ wine comes from vineyards on which mountain?

6 What British television comedy has been airing for nineteen years?

7 Which person's findings resulted in the implementation of all-seater stadiums in the United Kingdom?

8 What chess piece was originally known as the counsellor?

Common Connections

9 Brick; Chancery; Hangar Lane; Leather; Park; Pudding?

10 Urbión Range; Tordesillas; Zamora; Oporto?

11 Son of Cush; ninth musical variation; naval patrol plane; Iranian embassy siege?

12 Caldey; Denny; Flat Holm; Lundy Island; Stert Island; The Wolves Islands?

13 Boxing; chariot contests; discus; javelin throw; long jump; ancient combat sport; grappling?

14 Agent 007; Alec Leamas; Alden Pyle; Verloc persona?

15 Blanchett actress; Cruz star; Keaton performer; Mira Sorvino; Wiest thespian?

Feeling stumped by the Tordesillas question?

The Solutions

1 Johnny Cash.

2 Canterbury Archbishop.

3 Althing (parliament).

4 Waste-to-energy.

5 Mount Vesuvius.

6 Not Going Out (UK's second longest-running comedy)

7 Taylor Report (1990).

8 The queen piece.

9 London lanes.

10 Douro River: starts in Spain; flows through in Spain; reaches Atlantic.

11 Nimrod: in Book of Genesis; in Elgar's Enigma Variations; Nimrod aircraft; SAS operation codename.

12 Islands in the Bristol Channel.

13 Ancient Olympic events.

14 Title spies in novels: Ian Fleming's The Spy Who Loved Me; John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Graham Greene's The Quiet American; Conrad’s The Secret Agent.

15 Oscar wins in Woody Allen movies: film Blue Jasmine; Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Annie Hall; feature Mighty Aphrodite; Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway.