Boy bands, happy lands and Buffy’s deadly mate – take the Thursday quiz

With the quiz master’s holidays a distant memory in the rear-view mirror, it is time once again for the Thursday Quiz. Fifteen topical and general knowledge questions, with a smattering of jokes, and our ever-present friends Kate Bush and Ron from Sparks. There is a hidden Doctor Who reference to spot for a bonus point in the comments. It is just for fun, there are no prizes, but let us know how you get on.

The Thursday quiz, No 48

1. THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK: Sri Lanka had to cancel school exams for millions of students after running out of what?

   1. Invigilators

   2. Pencils

   3. Paper

   4. Questions

2. WEAVING ALL OVER THE ROAD: A Spanish man who had eaten hash cakes before he was pulled over by police for driving erratically used false ID to try to convince them he held diplomatic immunity from where?

   1. Wandering Republic of Yours Truly

   2. El Dorado

   3. Ratoncito Pérez

   4. The University of Life

3. FLAGS OF JOY: This is the sunny and joyful flag of which US state?

   1. Arizona

   2. Delaware

   3. Nevada

   4. Texas

4. HAPPY HUNTING GROUND: That's a 1975 song by Sparks where people 'don't talk or act like you do'. But that's not important right now. Which country has just been declared by a UN-sponsored happiness index to be the happiest country in the world for the fifth year running?

   1. Denmark

   2. Switzerland

   3. Iceland

   4. Finland

5. HAPPY EGG CHASERS: Italy won their first men's rugby union Six Nations match for absolutely donkey's years at the weekend, unexpectedly beating Wales in Cardiff. In which year did Italy last win a men's Six Nations match before that?

   1. 2015

   2. 2013

   3. 2011

   4. 2009

6. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It is Alyson Hannigan's birthday. Happy birthday, Alyson! But what was her character's name in the TV series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

   1. Cordelia Chase

   2. Anya Jenkins

   3. Willow Rosenberg

   4. Vivien Fay

7. ON THIS DAY: It also is the birthday of William Morris, British textile designer, poet, artist and socialist activist. But where in London is the William Morris Gallery?

   1. Walford

   2. Leyton

   3. Barnet

   4. Walthamstow

8. ENSEMBLE CASTS: Which classic 1970s British sitcom featured Pauline Yates, John Barron and Geoffrey Palmer in regular roles?

   1. Rising Damp

   2. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

   3. Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

   4. Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?

9. SCOTTISH THINGS: Bonnington Linn, Corra Linn, Dundaff Linn and Stonebyres Linn make up what in Scotland?

   1. The Fannichs

   2. The Falls of Clyde

   3. The Braes of Balquhidder

   4. 1960s singing act The Linn Sisters

10. OIL DISASTER: Where did the Exxon Valdez oil spill take place?

    1. Prince William Sound

    2. Chukchi Sea

    3. Deepwater Horizon

    4. Beaufort Sea

11. FIBONACCI NUMBERS: First described in Indian mathematics, and forming a sequence where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, F₅ is five. Boy band Five (often written as 5ive) had a string of hits in the late nineties and early 2000s. Which of these guys was NOT a member?

    1. Ritchie Neville

    2. Scott Robinson

    3. Sean Conlon

    4. Tony Mortimer

12. STATE THE OBVIOUS: Brazil consists of one federal district and how many other states?

    1. 8

    2. 13

    3. 26

    4. 33

13. ALLONS Y: Wikivoyage lists 23 locations visited by fictional Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. No 8 is Prayagraj, India. It sits on the confluence of the Yamuna and which major river?

    1. Brahmaputra

    2. Indus

    3. Krishna

    4. Ganges

14. WHEN IT IS AJAR: A court case in Ireland is debating whether the stained glass windows by the artist Harry Clarke are a movable work of art that can be sold, or an integral part of the structure, of which famous Dublin cafe?

    1. Bentley's Cafe

    2. Brady's Cafe

    3. Bowle's Cafe

    4. Bewley’s Cafe

15. MUSIC: Who recently won a £2.1m copyright appeal over her hit single Dark Horse?

    1. Taylor Swift

    2. Billie Eilish

    3. Katy Perry

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:C - Education authorities said the term tests were postponed indefinitely due to an acute paper shortage. Official sources said the problem could hold up tests for about two-thirds of the country’s 4.5 million students, 2:A - He showed them ID and a driving licence from República Errante Menda Lerenda, which has a website and claims to have been an independent republic since 1999 and appears to be one of those 'I've made no contract with you sovereign common law Magna Carta of the land' type scams, 3:A - It is Arizona, it was adopted in 1917 and according to the definitive source *checks notes* Wikipedia: 'In a 2001 poll conducted by the North American Vexillological Association, the Arizona flag was identified as one of the 10 best flags on the continent', 4:D - 'Experts' say social support, honesty and generosity are the key to wellbeing there. You can tell by his face that Ron from Sparks thinks you should have known that, 5:A - They had gone 36 consecutive matches without a win since beating Scotland 22-19 at Murrayfield on 28 February 2015, 6:C - Of course she was Willow, nerdy library-loving Willow who ended up as an all-powerful lesbian sorceress. As you do. She appeared in all 144 episodes of the show and this question was a lot easier if you read our piece about the 25th anniversary of the show the other week. Twenty. Five. Years, 7:D - The William Morris Gallery is located in a Georgian house built in the 1740s and set in Lloyd Park in Walthamstow. The grade II-listed building was the Morris family home from 1848 to 1856, and as befits the gentrification of Walthamstow, it now features an artisanal coffee bar, 8:B - That's Reggie's wife, Elizabeth, his boss, CJ, and his brother-in-law, Jimmy Anderson, to you. Bit of a cock-up on the quizzing front if you didn't get that one right, 9:B - The waterfalls are a site of special scientific interest, and of the four, Corra Linn is the biggest, with a fall of some 84 feet (that's 26 metres, before you all start moaning about measurements in the comments again), 10:A - The ship struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, causing what is generally regarded as the second-worst oil spill disaster in US waters, 11:D - Tony Mortimer wasn't in 5ive, he was one of the main men from East 17, who hail from the quiz master's hometown, and presumably now spend all their time in artisanal coffee bars, 12:C - There are 26 other states currently, although in 2011 there was an unsuccessful referendum about potentially splitting the state of Pará, 13:D - The city, also known as Allahabad, is consequently the site of the Prayag Kumbh Mela, where people bathe at the confluence of three rivers – the Yamuna, the Ganges and the spiritual river Sarasvati which they don't put on the maps, 14:D - Situated on Grafton Street, the cafe is nearly 100 years old and is one of the city's finest attractions. The legal case centres on whether the windows can be sold as art to safeguard the future of the cafe in the face of rising rents, 15:C - It was Katy Perry. The musician will no longer have to pay $2.8m to the rapper Flame who claimed that Perry's single plagiarised an eight-note ostinato from his 2009 song Joyful Noise

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – tell us how you got on in the comments!

• If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and he’ll have no truck with your nonsense.