Christmas quiz round four: Test your general knowledge

Flex your fact-retaining muscles with this quickfire round from Chris Maume

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1. Four sovereign nations have names beginning with “V”. Which flag belongs to which country?

2. Where would you study Greats, and what would you be studying?

3. Babbo Natale, La Befana, Deushka Moroz, Kris Kringle: what’s the link?

4. “Now I wanna dance. I wanna win. I want that trophy, so dance good!” Lines said by whom to whom in which 1994 film?

5. Name the British 400m and 800m runner who died on Boxing Day 50 years ago, two years after winning an Olympic silver medal and the year after becoming a double world champion.    

6. What was the intention of Nazi Germany’s Operation Sealion?

7. Which opera had its first performance in Cairo on Christmas Eve 1871?

8. What did Reg Varney do at the Enfield Town branch of Barclays in June 1967?

9. She was born in July 1996 in Midlothian, where she spent her entire life. She died aged only six in 2003. Who was she?

10. The 1966 World Cup final is the most-watched television programme in the UK, with 32.3 million viewers, followed by the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the 1969 Royal Family documentary. In fourth place is the Apollo 13 splashdown; which football match a fortnight later is at No 5?

Tap here for answers

1. Clockwise from top left: Vanuatu, Vatican City, Vietnam, Venezuela.

2. Oxford University; it is the traditional name for the Classics course there.

3. They are all rough equivalents of Father Christmas. Babbo Natale is the Italian version; in Italian folklore there is also La Befana, an old woman who delivers presents on Epiphany Eve. Deushka Moroz is a Santa Claus-type figure, usually clad in blue and rooted in Slavic paganism, who delivers presents on New Year’s Eve. Kris Kringle is also known as Christkindl – the Christ Child - the Austrian and German Christmas gift-bringer.

4. Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) to Vince Vega (John Travolta) in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. 

5. Lillian Board, who died of cancer aged 22.

6. The invasion of Britain.

7. Aida by Verdi.

8. He made the first withdrawal from an ATM in front of photographers as part of a campaign to publicise the new facility.

9. Dolly the cloned sheep.

10. Chelsea’s victory against Leeds United in the 1970 FA Cup final replay, which was watched by nearly 28.5 million viewers.

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Click here for round five: can you spot the link?