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1) What did the mainland authorities ban from prime time television this year?
A) The news
	B) Adverts
	C) Cantonese
	D) Jimmy Savile's Jim'll Fix It show

	 
2) Which "war criminal" gave a talk on faith and globalisation in Hong Kong in June?
 
3) Who called ping-pong "wiff-waff" before issuing this challenge: "And I say to the Chinese, and to the world, that Ping-pong is coming home!"?
 
4) In August, how much money did Standard Chartered pay a New York financial regulator after being accused of illegally processing US$250 billion in payments for Iranian financial institutions?
A) Nothing
	B) US$340 million
	C) US$3.4 billion
	D) More than HSBC had to pay this month to settle a money laundering investigation.
 
5) In May, what was sold for HK$135 million?
A) The Martian Pink diamond
	B) A car parking space in Central
	C) A pair of Mao Zedong's underpants
	D) Naming rights for the proposed new beach at Lung Mei
 
6) What percentage of school-leavers in Asian cities were found to be suffering from short-sightedness in a study published in May?
 
7) Who topped the China Daily's monthly "tool and pawn of American politicians" list in May? 
 
8) What was a Beijing official referring to when he said, in June, that the US had acted in a way "not in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations"?
A) The US embassy in Beijing publishing data about Chinese air quality
	B) US demands for a statue of George Washington to be erected near Tiananmen Square
	C) Unflattering comments about Hu Jintao's wife on the Shanghai US consulate's Weibo account
	D) US officials drinking Taiwanese beer
 
9) The first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, died this year. If the next man to step on to the moon was helped in getting there by a Unha carrier rocket, from which country would he most likely have come?
	 
	

	 
10) In October, actor George Clooney (right) failed to appear as a witness at the trial of which alleged sex offender?
 
11) Hong Kong won the global Best City Contest, organised by the Economist Intelligence Unit and the BuzzData software firm, based on what criteria?
A) By counting the number of 7-Eleven stores per head of population
	B) By looking on Google Earth and the OpenStreetMap website
	C) Bribery
	D) By measuring acreage of air-conditioned shopping malls
 
12) The world record for the number of water skiers pulled by a single boat was set in February, with how many skiers?
A) 87
	B) 145
	C) 2,569
 
13) A number of Asians risked "falling into the clutches of Satan" this year, according to Catholic Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of the Philippines. Who were they?
 
14) Who lost seven yellow jerseys this year when his dirty laundry was aired in public?

	 

15) In June, Liu Yang (left) became what?
 
16) In May, Chinese physicists set a new record of 97 kilometres for what?
 
17) The Beach Boys, who played in Hong Kong in August, invented surf rock - but how many of the original five members could actually surf?
 
18) "Shut it now, honey" and "Oh s**t, why no tune?" are anagrams of which late singer's name?
 
19) What are the absolutely right and proper names for the islands known by grossly presumptuous foreigners as ...
A) The Spratlys?
	B) The Senkakus?
	C) The Paracels?

	 

20) Wang Lijun (right), once the best-dressed man in Chongqing, paid an unexpected visit on whom, in February?
 
21) What or who was blamed for the city's second-highest recorded pollution level on August 1?
A) Mainlanders, mainlanders and more mainlanders
	B) Scholarism, the anti-national education protest group
	C) Typhoon Saola
	D) Container ships' dirty fuel
 
22) He's armed himself with grenades and says things like: "The [Hong Kong] authorities should stipulate what issues people can protest over and on what issues it is not allowed." Who is he?
 
23) Who won the 2012 Oscar for best actress?
 
24) Rights campaigners criticised the compilers of the latest edition of the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary for excluding which meaning of the word "tongzhi".
 
25) Tokyo wrested Mercer's title of most expensive city in the world for an expat - based on the price of housing, transport, food and clothing - from which other metropolis?
 

A) Moscow, Russia      B) Luanda, Angola         C) Hong Kong       D) Yangon, Myanmar
 
26) Who said: "I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that's the America millions of Americans believe in. That's the America I love."?
 
27) Which controversial company reported a whopping US$127 billion in revenue for 2011?
 
28) The Hollywood sign was given a clean this year - perhaps as a result of something left next to it in January. What?
 
29) On February 27, an engine-room fire ended a cruise for 636 passengers onboard the Costa .......?
 
30) Which "Madchester" band reformed in January?
 
31) He was in China this year and plans to exhibit in our fair city next year. Just who is the King of Kitsch?
 
32) What does a 2,400 sq ft basement consisting of a wine cellar, a wine-tasting room, a home theatre and a Japanese bathroom suite cost?
 
33) In August, Executive Council members declared details of their property portfolios. Li Kwok-cheung (right), a non-official member, had the largest. But what does it consist of?
A) Three houses in Hong Kong, two in Singapore and one in London
	B) A room and kitchen in Sham Shui Po and a locker at the swimming baths
	C) Thirty-one properties, eight car-parking spaces and two lots under development
	D) Half of Kowloon Tong and a castle in Bavaria
 
34) What do (below from left) Wayne Rooney, Elle Macpherson and Britain's Prince Harry have in common?
 

 
35) On March 3, the village of Wukan (population 13,000), in Guangdong province, got something Hong Kong hasn't. What?
 
36) Which Australian has, without doubt, not visited the pub for six months?
 
37) Which former football player and drug addict said in an interview "I am very eager to coach a Chinese team", but still hasn't?
 
38) A Chinese University survey in August found what percentage of Hongkongers recycled their old mobile phones?
 


	 
39) What did tiny former French president Nicolas Sarkozy (right) admit to lying about after a trip to Japan?
 
40) What is "space milk"?
A) Milk obtained from cows reared on the moooo-n
	B) A hallucinogenic liquid imbibed by youths in Hong Kong
	C) Special purified milk given to Chinese astronauts
	D) Mainland "milk powder" with zero milk content


	 
41) Queen Elizabeth (left) marked the 60th anniversary of her becoming the monarch of the United Kingdom and how many other independent countries?
 
42) What song, banned by the BBC in 1997, was re-released in time for the queen's diamond jubilee?
 
43) What did DHL accidentally deliver to the United Nations headquarters in New York in January?
A) A casket of enriched plutonium
	B) Two sacks of cocaine
	C) Ban Ki-moon's spare hairpiece
	D) 100 cartons of space milk
 
44) Which artefact from the Cultural Revolution sold for 7.3 million yuan (HK$8.9 million) at an auction this year? 
 
45) These women were each involved in the affairs of a powerful man this year. Match them up.

	
 
46) "What IS it with all the face fungus?" a Clockenflap Festival goer was overheard asking, rather incredulously. What was he talking about?
 
47) Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen rules which North African republic?
 
48) Who said it? "If I assigned her to swim 10,000 metres, she would not swim 9,999 metres." [Clue: she might even do it faster than Michael Phelps.]
 
49) Who or what is Fobos-Grunt?
A) A space probe
	B) An anal probe
	C) The man who designed the Ford Probe


	 
50) Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (right) was handed a life sentence in a US court on February 16. By what name is he also known?
A) The underwear bomber
	B) The underwire bomber
	C) The underwater bomber
	D) The under-pressure bomber
 
51) Which of the following is the odd one out? 
A) Ai Weiwei and friends
	B) Eton schoolboys
	C) a group of convicts from the Philippines
	D) the Politburo Standing Committee
 
52) What world record title did Guinness bestow upon Chandra Bahadur Dangi (left) this year?
 
53) In a study published in May, what did scientists blame for a period of climate warming some 140 million years ago?
A) Dinosaur flatulence
	B) Volcanic eruptions
	C) CY Leung's illegal trellis
	D) Forest fires
 
54) What beasties did a group of Hongkongers use to depict mainlanders in a campaign against the latter?
A)Elephants
	B) Locusts
	C) Ticks
	D) Pandas
 
55) A plot to kill Pope Benedict (right) was alleged in Italy. Who were the would-be killers?
A) Atheists
	B) Cardinals
	C) Islamic fundamentalists
	D) Long Hair Leung Kwok-hung and his Social Democrats
 
56) How many times did the couplet "illegal structures" appear in SCMPheadlines between January 1 and November 30? 
A) 14
	B) 140
	C) 1,400
 
57) What did the North Korean media call for to protect new Supreme Leader Kim jong-un (left)?
A) A magical invisible forcefield
	B) An enlarged military
	C) Human shields
	D) Space milk
 
58) Did the world end on Friday, as the ancient Maya of Central America did NOT predict?
 


 
1) D – well, kind of; the ban covered all foreign programmes, which would include Jim’ll Fix It 
	2) Former British PM Tony Blair
	3) London Mayor Boris Johnson
	4) B
	5) A
	 6) 90 per cent
	7) Blind activist Chen Guangcheng
	8) A
	9) North Korea
	10) Italian stallion Silvio Berlusconi
	11) B
	12) B
	13) Fans of Lady Gaga
	 14) Cyclist Lance Armstrong
	15) The first Chinese woman in space
	16) The quantum teleportation of photons
	17) One: Dennis Wilson
	18) Whitney Houston
	19) A: The Nansha Islands B: The Diaoyu Islands C: The Xisha Islands
	20) The US consulate general, who happened to be out at the time
	21) C
	22) Jackie “the Chinese people need to be controlled” Chan
	23) Meryl Streep, for Iron Lady
	24) “Gay”
	25) B – yes, Luanda
	26) Mitt “Mr America” Romney
	 27) Apple Inc
	28) A severed head, hands and feet
	29) Allegra ... not the Concordia
	30) The Happy Mondays
	31) Artist Jeff Koons
	32) The chief executive job
	33) C
	34) They were all victims of phone hacking by the News of The World
	35) Democracy
	36) WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange
	37) Diego Maradona
	38) A pathetic 1 per cent
	39) Visiting Fukushima, which he didn’t
	40) C
	41) Six: Australia, Canada, Ceylon, New Zealand, Pakistan; South Africa. 
	42) God Save the Queen, by the Sex Pistols
	43) B
	44) A large, un-issued “The Whole Country is Red” postage stamp
	45) 1) Nafissatou Diallo and C) Dominique Strauss-Kahn; 2) Severine and D) James Bond; 3) Paula Broadwell and A) David Petraeus; 4) Rebekah Brooks and B) Rupert Murdoch
	46) The moustaches of Movember
	47) The fictitious Republic of Wadiya; Aladeen is played by Sacha Baron Cohen in the film The Dictator
	48) Wei Wei, former coach of Olympic swimming wunderkind Ye Shiwen
	49) A
	 50) A
	51) D – the others have all recorded Gangnam Style YouTube videos
	52) The shortest human adult ever recorded
	53) A
	54) B
	55) B
	56) A – astonishingly enough 
	57) C
	58) It’s unlikely, isn’t it?
 
 
There will be no Post Magazine next week. We wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we will return on January 6.
 
 


The quiz, 2012

Photos: Shutterstock; AFP; Sam Tsang; Simon Song; Edward Wong; Reuters; EPA; Bloomberg; Columbia Pictures; Nora Tam; AP

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Scandals, space milk, Mayan doom-mongering, wiff-waff … Test your mental mettle - or at least your powers of recollection - against the best our team of trivia monkeys can muster


Scandals, space milk, Mayan doom-mongering, wiff-waff …Test your mental mettle - or at least your powers of recollection - against the best our team of trivia monkeys can muster. 
