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1) While doing which of these would you be unlikely to shake your booty?
A) Twerking B) Fracking C) The Harlem Shake
2) On February 28, a man in Europe did something that hadn't been done for 719 years. What?
3) 2013 was the 500th anniversary of Portuguese mariner Jorge Alvares landing for the first time in China. Where did he arrive?
4) In June, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were found guilty of what?
A) Crimes against fashion B) Preventing Hongkongers from taking pictures of their Canton Road shop C) Having breached Russia's anti-homosexuality laws D) Failing to declare €1 billion (HK$10.7 billion) of income to tax authorities.
5) Which of these philharmonic orchestras did NOT tour China last year?
A) Munich B) Seattle C) Dresden D) Philadelphia
6) She used to be called Varyag but is now called what?
7) Which aptly named movie was nominated for 12 awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards last year but ended up winning none?
8) In October, The Last Supper sold at Sotheby's in Hong Kong for US$23.3 million, a record for a contemporary Asian artwork. Who was its creator?

9) "The Master brought a lot of happiness globally". "A deity". "I am going through cold turkey". To whom and what do these quotes from November refer?
10) In January, the White House, in the United States, said, "The administration does not support blowing up ..." What?
11) Which mainland princeling was made "chairperson for life", in absentia, of the brand-new, pro-socialist Zhi Xian Party.
12) Welshman Iain Inglis wowed the China's Got Talent audience in March with a rendition of which song?
A) Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Old Land of My Fathers) B) I Love Reading Chairman Mao's Books Most C) Humpty Dumpty D) Michael Jackson's Thriller
13) On January 19, Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel was beaming after having won in what sporting event for a record 11th time?
A) The Hong Kong marathon B) The Dakar Rally C) The Melbourne Cup D) The America's Cup
14) In May, the United Nations urged the world to eat more what?
A) Insects B) Stinky tofu C) Of a balanced diet
15) Put these men in descending order by number of South China Morning Post stories in which they were mentioned last year. 
A) Edward Snowden B) Barack Obama C) Leung Chun-ying D) Xi Jinping

16) Fiji won the Rugby Sevens in 2013, but who did they beat in the final?
17) She was described both as "a great Briton" who "saved our country" and as "a terror without an atom of humanity". Who was she?
18) After tests on "beef products" in the European Union found many contained horse meat, what did Icelandic officials discover that might have further shocked meat lovers?
19) Which rock band, no strangers to Hong Kong music venues, released an album on May 13 that had as its first and last tracks versions of the song 2013?
20) At the time of writing, which three countries had a black travel warning ("severe threat") against them on the Hong Kong Security Bureau's website?
21) What are the middle names of Prince George of Cambridge?

22) Which English Premier League football star can be said to have had an "appetite for the game" in 2013?
23) What was found floating in a tributary of Shanghai's river Huangpu in March?
A) A winning lottery ticket B) A child in a wicker basket C) 16,000 dead pigs D) Bo Xilai's chauffeur
24) Which American admitted taking drugs and broke down in tears on Oprah in January? OK, that doesn't narrow it down. Clue: he used to wear a lot of Lycra.
25) Who is the odd dead man out, and why?
A) Actor Paul Walker B) Ex South African president Nelson Mandela C) Actor Peter O'Toole D) Ex-North Korean No2 Jang Song-thaek
26) Lisa Kuo Yu-chin was given what punishment for having an illegal basement in her Kowloon Tong home?
A) The forfeiture of 110 bottles from husband Henry Tang Ying-yen's wine collection B) 110 hours of community service, counting protestors at anti-government marches. C) 110 dinner dates with Henry hosted by Leung Chun-ying D) A piffling fine of HK$110,000
27) A July 1 demonstrator was sentenced to six weeks in jail in March for "whistling loudly" at the 2012 protests, after a police officer claimed the noise had caused him to go deaf for how long?
28) In March, mainland visitors were forbidden from taking what out of Hong Kong?
A) More than two tins of baby milk formula B) Babies C) The mickey D) Live chickens
29) How many of the almost 3,000 National People's Congress delegates did not vote for Xi Jinping to be China's president?
30) Pro-democracy activist Koo Sze-yiu was sentenced to a nine-month prison sentence in February. What was his crime?
31) Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. Which two cities was it up against?
32) Last month, which country became the world's first to legalise both the sale and production of marijuana?
33) What sold for HK$260,000 at auction in Hong Kong in June?
A) Actor James Dean's watch B) Ten tickets for this year's Rugby Sevens C) Bruce Lee's nunchaku D) A complete set of Hong Kong McDonald's Snoopy figurines from 1998
34) Thousands flocked to Victoria Harbour last summer to ogle which unusual visitor?
35) A Brazilian man died in bed in July when what fell through the roof of his house?
A) A meteor B) A tractor C) His wife D) A cow
36) The Orthotomus chaktomuk species of bird was recently discovered in which Asian city? 
37) We learnt last year that 15-year-old tourist Ding Jinhao had left his mark where?
38) What are these?

39) Who are these bad boys?

40) Which court ruling in October was described by legal scholars as having the potential to improve the lives of millions of women in the mainland?
41) If your name was Tywin Lannister and you were plotting the (preferably gory) demise of Robb Stark and King Stannis, what game would you be playing?
42) Who received a chilly reception in the Pechora Sea in September?
43) The 120th anniversary of whose birth was celebrated, most enthusiastically in Shaoshan, Hunan province, on Boxing Day?
44) Who or what is Smaug?
45) "Nasal line glow" is an anagram of the name of which British celebrity chef? 
46) Which of these words did NOT make Oxford Dictionaries' shortlist for word of the year 2013?
A) Schmeat B) Showrooming C) Selfie D) Sexpanther
47) "It is just an old European country apt for travel and study." To which country was the Global Times referring to last month?
48) In August, authorities in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, said restaurants were to be fined for what?
A) Getting orders wrong B) Playing Britney Spears songs C) Having grubby carpets D) Allowing diners to order too much food
49) What unites Okinawa and Sardinia?
A) They are the only two islands in the world not claimed by China B) They are the last two nesting sites for the endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle C) They are blue zones, where people tend to live longer D) The Japanese emperor has a house on both
50) "Unbalanced, unco-ordinated and unstable": to what was Wen Jiabao referring, in March, in his outgoing speech as premier?
A) Hu Jintao, the outgoing president B) the country's economy C) His golf game D) The United States
51) A "famous Chinese writer" bidding by satellite telephone from Hong Kong paid HK$936,000 for what at an auction in Italy in November?
A) A pair of white truffles B) A pair of diamond earrings for his girlfriend C) A pair of David Beckham's football boots D) A pair of pandas
52) Which Hong Kong hotel did US whistleblower Edward Snowden briefly call home? 
A) The Peninsula B) The W C) The Mira D) The Ritz-Carlton
54) In September, Nikolaos Michaloliakos and other MPs from which Greek political party were arrested and charged with forming a criminal organisation? 
A) Golden Morning B) Golden Shower C) Golden Horde D) Golden Dawn
53) In a speech setting his stall against corruption in January, Xi Jinping referred to high-ranking and low-ranking officials as what?
A) Lions and lambs B) Tigers and flies C) Princes and frogs
55) An angry piece of language: which popular puzzle was generally recognised as being 100 years old in 2013?
56) What was controversially cut from Quentin Tarantino's film Django Unchained on its release in the mainland?

57) In 2010, she starred in the Jean-Luc Godard film Socialisme; now she's on the scrapheap after being led astray by the philandering Francesco Schettino. Who is she?
58) Complete the quote: "I knew something was wrong when a pretty little white girl ran into …" 
59) Manchester City football manager Manuel Pellegrini claimed his first victory against an English Premier League opponent in which stadium?
60) It recently came to light that Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife, Wendi Deng, had allegedly had a crush on which former political leader?
A) Silvio Berlusconi B) Hugo Chavez C) Tony Blair D) Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
 

 
QUIZ ANSWERS
1) B. 2) Benedict XVI voluntarily stood down as Pope. 3) Inner Lingding Island, in the Pearl River estuary. 4) D. 5) B. 6) Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier. 7) The Bullet Vanishes. 8) Zeng Fanzhi. 9) Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and his retirement from the game. 10) Planets. Science chief Paul Shawcross was rejecting a viral petition for the creation of a national defence "Death Star". 11) Bo Xilai. 12) B. 13) B. 14) A. 15) Leung, Xi, Obama and Snowden. 16) Wales. 17) Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who died in April. 18) Beef pies that contained no meat whatsoever. 19) Primal Scream. 20) the Philippines, Egypt and Syria. 21) Alexander Louis. 22) Liverpool's Luis Suarez, who sank his teeth into an opponent on the pitch in April. 23) C. 24) Lance Armstrong. 25) A: Paul Walker died on November 30; the others all passed away in December. 26) D. 27) Three seconds. 28) A. 29) Four; one voted against and there were three abstentions. 30) He had "desecrated" national and SAR flags during protests. 31) Istanbul and Madrid. 32) Uruguay. 33) A. 34) A giant yellow rubber duck. 35) D. 36) Phnom Penh. 37) Scratched into a 3,500-year-old wall carving at a temple in Luxor, Egypt. 38) The H7N9 virus; the Bitcoin logo; the South Sudan flag; and Fukuppy, a mascot designed to promote the company Fukushima Industries. 39) Rob Ford, Toronto's crack-smoking mayor; Dennis Rodman, Kim Jong-un's basketball-playing buddy; Thamsanqa Jantjie, South Africa's illiterate signer; Liu Zhijun, China's disgraced railways chief. 40) The 10-year jail sentence given to 17-year-old Li Tianyi for raping a bar hostess in Beijing. 41) Game of Thrones. 42) 30 Greenpeace activists arrested by Russia and accused of piracy. 43) Mao Zedong. 44) The dragon in The Hobbit book/films. 45) Nigella Lawson. 46) D. 47) Britain. 48) D. 49) C. 50) B. 51) A. 52) C. 53) B. 54) D. 55) The crossword. 56) Actor Jamie Foxx's genitals. 57) The Costa Concordia cruise ship. 58) "… a black man's arms": Charles Ramsey, who rescued Amanda Berry, one of three women held hostage for a decade in Cleveland, US. 59) The Hong Kong Stadium, where Manchester City beat Sunderland in the final of the Barclays Asia Trophy, in July. 60) C (We know! Weird).
 


A new year, a new quiz

Test your knowledge of all things 2013

A new year, a new quiz

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Test your knowledge of all things 2013

Test your knowledge of all things 2013