This Christmas quiz, which you can print off below, only has an initial flurry of questions with a Christmas
theme and there are picture clues for those whose festive brains are a little addled. It’s not about events of the past year, which I find rather dull. It’s more of a pub-type quiz to have a go at over the holiday with hopefully interesting questions, though on reflection there should have been some geography, history, science, or even maths questions. Next year perhaps.
It is not therefore the sort of impossible-to-answer general knowledge quiz like that set by King William’s College on the Isle of Man that is featured each year in the The Guardian. Since 1905, pupils at the college have been required to take this test, and until 1999 it was compulsory. That said, the average score of the 300 pupils aged between 11 and 18 that take the test each year is just two, out of 180 questions!
This is the cover of the Radio TimesChristmas Number published on 22 December 1956 priced 3d (about 1 and a half pence). There were only two TV channels then, BBC and ITA. The BBC’s programmes on Christmas Day started at 11am with a ‘Family Service’ from a church in Coventry, followed at 3pm with the Queen’s Christmas message, live but sound only.
This was preceded by a three-minute message from the Duke of Edinburgh who was on the Royal Yacht somewhere in the Pacific, but who could only be heard ‘imperfectly’.
This is not surprising as who knows ‘during 1915, what yarn revealed the murderous activities of the Black Stone?’ (question 1.8 in the 2015 quiz, the 111th issue). Nor ‘where does a 20 second cycle operate from an octagonal tower? (question 4.7). One wonders what is the point of it? It certainly provides some kudos for the college and it exemplifies perhaps the thirst for knowledge for its own sake. There’s a term for this: autotelic. I did like however Q16.5. ‘What was Tom’s intended fate prior to his rescue from beneath the attic?’. Answer: Roly-poly Pudding (Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Samuel Whiskers). For those who know Miss Potter’s books well, that’s not me, there is a give away in that this book has the alternative title of ….. The Roly Poly Pudding.
The answers to the two questions above are The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan, and North Foreland Lighthouse near Broadstairs in Kent. I’m surprised that the average score is as high as two.
As the King William’s College quiz is only published in the The Guardian on Christmas Eve you will have to wait until then. This year’s answers will be published in The Guardian in the New Year towards the end of January.
So, for a more relaxing and much less challenging quiz try my one: Christmas Quiz 2016 Questions. The quiz has 30 questions scoring a maximum of 38 points. Here are the answers: Christmas Quiz 2016 Answers. Any likes or comments would be welcome.
