Reaction’s Christmas Quiz
Welcome to our annual Christmas Quiz, compiled by Adam Boulton. Take the quiz to test your recollection of the highs and lows of the last 12 months.
There are 34 questions with 5 multiple choice answers. Answers are at the bottom. Good luck, and no Googling…
Billionaires
In the rocket race who in the real world has spent the longest in “space”?
a. Jeff Bezos
b. Elon Musk
c. Richard Branson
d. William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek?
e. Bill Gates
Which island proved to be the superyacht mooring of choice for New Year 2022 revellers including Jeff Bezos, Len Blavatnik, Roman Abramovich and their hangers on such as Leonardo di Caprio and Mike Tyson?
a. Barbados
b. St. Barts
c. Mustique
d. St. Lucia
e. Isle of Man
According to Forbes, who was the richest person in the world at the start of this Christmas week?
a. Jeff Bezos
b. Elon Musk
c. Francoise Bettencourt Myers & family
d. Bernard Arnault & Family
e. Gautam Adani
With a US Dollar $ net worth of (to the nearest billion):
a. 72 bn
b. 164 bn
c. 181 bn
d. 111 bn
e. 134 bn
By how much has the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, seen his wealth drop during 2022?
a. 10 bn
b. 40 bn
c. 70 bn
d. 110 bn
e. 140 bn
Which is the biggest company in the world by market cap, according to Investopaedia?
a. Alphabet (Google)
b. Amazon
c. Apple
d. Saudi Aramco
e. Meta (Facebook)
Ukraine and the world
How long is the white beech wood table at which President Putin kept visitors at a distance, including President Macron?
a. 33 ft
b. 20 ft
c. 26 ft
d. 16 ft
e. 8 ft
Who is the tallest among the following leaders of past and present?
a. Rishi Sunak
b. Liz Truss
c. Volodymyr Zelensky
d. Emmanuel Macron
e. Napoleon Bonaparte
From his base in Kiev, President Zelensky delivered video addresses to all of the following forums and global events except
a. United Nations General Assembly
b. World Cup Final
c. Grammy Awards
d. United States Congress
e. House of Commons
Infosys, the Indian IT company controlled by Rishi Sunak’s father-in-law and from which the Prime Minister’s wife collects annual dividends of £11.5m was still operating in Moscow eight months after announcing it was to leave, but according to Statista, how many foreign companies have completely pulled out of Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine
a. 115
b. 225
c. 335
d. 445
e. 555
In his attempt to demonstrate the hypocrisy of western nations criticising Qatar as host of the World Cup, which of the following did FIFA President Gianni Infantino not list after saying “Today I feel… “
a. Qatari
b. Arabic
c. black
d. gay
e. disabled
Queen/Royals
What was the name of the Queen’s favourite mare who lined the long walk as the royal cortege passed?
a. Jane
b. Patsy
c. Emma
d. Fifi.
e. Gemma.
Which of these reined the longest?
a. Queen Victoria
b. Louis XIV of France
c. King Rama IX of Thailand
d. Queen Elizabeth II
e. Catherine the Great.
How many days did Queen Elizabeth II rein in total?
a. 15,782
b. 17,782
c. 21,782
d. 25,782
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s six-part documentary Harry & Meghan was part of a Netflix deal worth an estimated
a. $12,000,000
b. $36,000,000
c. $60,000,000
d. $84,000,000
e. $100,000,000
During his I’m A Celebrity appearance, Mike Tindall recalled how after accidentally revealing the slogan emblazoned his novelty boxer shorts his mother-in-law, Princess Anne read and then remarked
a. ‘The Boss? You’ll find that’s me around here!’
b. ‘Nibble My Nuts? I’d rather not!’
c. ‘The Crown Jewels? I’ve seen more impressive!’
d. ‘Hard Tackle? Looks anything but to me!’
e. ‘Scrum Down? Grow up, more like it!’
Tory Turmoil
Who said “At least I’ve been Prime Minister”?
a. Theresa May.
b. Boris Johnson.
c. Liz Truss.
d. Rishi Sunak.
e. Gordon Brown.
During this summer’s leadership campaign, according to The Times, a senior Truss ally claimed Rishi Sunak was behaving like what animal?
a. A cornered rat
b. A lemming
c. A bee-stung bear
d. A wounded stoat
e. A king cobra.
Which song by Taylor Swift, named by Liz Truss as her favourite, was used by Channel Four as for the soundtrack to its video montage of the Truss premiership?
a. Blank Space
b. Look What You Made Me Do
c. Bad Blood
d. Don’t Blame Me
e. I Knew You Were Trouble
There were six parliamentary byelections in 2022. Of the following who won the biggest majority in terms of votes?
a. Anna Firth who held Southend West for the Conservatives
b. Simon Lightwood who gained Wakefield for Labour from the Conservatives
c. Richard Foord who gained Tiverton & Honiton for the Lib Dems from the Conservatives
d. Sarah Dixon who held City of Chester for Labour
e. Paulette Hamilton who held Birmingham Erdington for Labour
The nations of the UK are represented by the Union leaders of the current strikes. Who is Welsh?
a. Christina McAnea of Unison
b. Mick Lynch of RMT
c. Pat Cullen of RCN
d. Dave Ward of PCU
e. Mark Serwotka of PCS
Dear Departed, As ever this year the obituary columns were busy…
Who was Leaving Cheyenne?
a. Larry McMurtry
b. Loretta Lynn
c. Sacheen Littlefeather
d. P J O’Rourke?
e. Ronnie Spector
Who was left breathless?
a. Jean Luc Godard
b. Robbie Coltrane
c. Hilary Mantel
d. Peter Brook
e. Jerry Lee Lewis
Who was oldest?
a. The Queen
b. Monica Vitti
c. Madeleine Albright
d. Angela Lansbury
e. June Brown
Who was youngest?
a. Tom Parker, band member of Wanted
b. Dame Deborah James, Journalist and bowel cancer campaigner
c. Technoblader, YouTube star
d. Kirshnik Khari Ball a.k.a Takeoff, Rapper
e. Aaron Carter, singer
Who won the most Oscars?
a. Peter Bogdanovich
b. William Hurt
c. Ray Liotta
d. Louise Fletcher
e. Olivia Newton-John
Podcasts
Hamlet said the rest is silence but not in the podcast era. Which of these is NOT a real podcast:
a. the rest is history
b. the rest is politics
c. the rest is music
d. the rest room
e. the rest is not worth listening to.
Match the ‘casters to their pods …
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s “podcast where we investigate, dissect, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back.”
a. Achievers
b. Archetypes
c. Architraves
d. Archipelagos
e. Argybargies
Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall “are not just here to tell you what’s happening, but why.”
a. The News Beat
b. The News Agents
c. The News View
d. The News Makers
e. The News Knowledge
The “most exciting and important things that have ever happened on the planet!” Dan Snow’s …
a. Time Tunnel
b. Decades Delve
c. History Hit
d. Past Pod
e. Centuries Search
Which episode of WORLDVIEW, the podcast Adam Boulton presents for Engelsberg Ideas, is the most listened to so far?
a. Andrew Roberts and Margaret MacMillan on Leadership
b. India and China
c. The Genome
d. The Book
e. Lawrence Freedman on the possibility of nuclear war
Culture & Sport
Who fell into the orchestra pit of the Buxton Opera House, crushing a cello?
a. Bryn Terfel
b. Pam Ayres
c. Nick Ferrari
d. Iain Dale
e. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
In October two protesters from Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers hanging in the National Gallery. Why did Phoebe Plummer say they had chosen to take that specific action? Quote;
a. “Because it’s an oil painting”
b. “fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup.”
c. “This picture is valued at $59 million. Life is worth more than art”
d. “Our purpose is to raise awareness and shock people.”
e. “F*** the National Gallery.”
What is/are the Oxford English Dictionary’s word/s of the year 2022?
a. Goblin mode – post lockdown self-indulgent behaviour
b. Fixed Term – as in penalty notice.
c. Kamikwasi – a coinage do denote Lis Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.
d. Entitled – believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges and power.
e. Crisis.
ANSWERS AND NOTES
1c 2b 3d 4c 5d 6c 7b 8e 9b 10c 11c 12c 13b 14d 15e 16b 17d 19a 20a 21e 22a 23b 24d 25c 16a 27e 26a 27e 29b 30c 31b 32a 33e 34a
Billionaires
c. Branson 15 mins approx. Bezos 10 mins approx. Musk 0. Shattner “just over” 10 mins. Bill Gates has kept his feet on the ground.
b. St. Barts
d. Bernard Arnault & family.
c. 181 bn. Musk 164, Bezos 111, Bettencourt Meyers (Richest Woman) 72 and not forgetting Gautan Adani 134
d. 110 bn
c. Apple (2.65 tn). Alphabet 1.54 tn, Amazon 1.42 tn, Saudi Aramco 2.33 tn. Not forgetting Microsoft 2.1 tn in third place, and Tesla 910 bn, Berkshire Hathaway 644 bn, Nvidia 457 bn, Taiwan Semin Conductor Manufacturing 456 bn and Meta (Facebook) 449 bn.
Ukraine and the World
b. 20 ft
e. Napoleon Bonaparte – in contrast to the propaganda woven around his supposedly diminutive stature, in 1815 an English captain described Bonaparte as ‘a remarkably strong, well-built man, about five feet seven inches high’. Truss and Zelensky measure in at 5 ft 5 in, while Sunak at 5ft 6 is pipped by Macron who is just under 5ft 7 in.
b. World Cup Final
c. 335
c. black
Queen/Royals
c. Emma
b. Louis XIV
d. 25,782
e. $100,000,000
b. ‘Nibble My Nuts? I’d rather not!’
Tory Turmoil
d. Truss
d. a wounded stoat
a. Blank Space
a. Firth 12,280. Dixon 10,974, Foord 6,144, Lightwood 4,925, Hamilton 3,266
e. Mark Serwotka, born in Cardiff
Dear Departed
a. Larry McMurtry wrote Leaving Cheyenne
b. Godard’s most famous film is A Bout de Souffle (Breathless)
d. Angela Lansbury, 96 years and 360 days (16 Oct 1925-11 Oct 2022). The Queen 96 years and 140 days (21 April 1926 – 8 Sep 2022). Vitti 90, Albright 84, Brown 95
c. Technoblader, 23. Parker 33, James 40, Takeoff 28, Carter 34
a. Bogdanovich 2, Hurt 1, Liotta 0, Fletcher 1, Newton John 0
Podcasts
e. the rest is not worth listening to
b. Archetypes
b. The News Agents
c. History Hit
b. India and China
Culture/Sport
a. Dale
e. “fuel is unaffordable…”
a. Goblin mode, [Yes really]