Twenty questions to get you thinking. The answers are below
1. Acer saccharum is the appropriately sweet name of which tree?
2. In 1931, which Indian scientist calculated that a black hole must have a radius of zero?
3. Opened in 2002, the Bawabet Dimashq in Damascus is the world’s largest what?
4. Which Graham Greene novel centres on deputy commissioner of police, Henry Scobie?
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5. Which Nepalese mountain’s 41 per cent fatality rate makes it the world’s deadliest for climbers?
6. Which Colombian “King of Cocaine” is regarded as the richest criminal in history?
7. The US jazz musician Charlie Haden (1937-2014) played which musical instrument?
8. Which shark species is the second largest fish?
9. The civil execution of which man remains the only time Israel has enacted a death sentence?
10. Chrysaor and Pegasus sprang from the blood of which gorgon when her head was cut off?
11. Derived from the Latin for “compliance”, what are obsequies?
12. Which German painter (1876-1907) depicted herself pregnant in Self-Portrait on Her Sixth Wedding Anniversary?
13. Paso de Mercedes, Lomas Valentinas and Tuyutí were battles in which 1864-70 war?
14. The building of the Waldschlösschen Bridge resulted in which Unesco world heritage site being delisted?
15. Reese Witherspoon played the ambitious high school student Tracy Flick in which film?
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16. The best-selling manga in history, which series follows Monkey D Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates?
17. Rolex calls which of its products “the iconic divers’ watch since 1953”?
18. Which golfer designed Augusta National with course architect Alister MacKenzie?
19. The 11cm-high Ashes urn is made of which clay-based ceramic?
20. Which famous racehorse is pictured?
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Answers
1. Sugar maple or rock maple
2. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
3. Restaurant
4. The Heart of the Matter
5. Annapurna
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6. Pablo Escobar
7. Double bass
8. Basking shark — after the whale shark
9. Adolf Eichmann
10. Medusa
11. Funeral or burial rites
12. Paula Modersohn-Becker
13. War of the Triple Alliance or Paraguayan War
14. Dresden Elbe Valley
15. Election
16. One Piece
17. Submariner
18. Bobby Jones
19. Terracotta
20. Arkle