Quiz of the week's news

7 days 7 questions

It's the Magazine's 7 days 7 questions weekly quiz - a chance to find out how much news from the past week you've read, heard and watched... and how much has stayed lodged in the old grey matter.

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Info

Peggy Mitchell makes her final EastEnders appearance on Friday. But the feisty pub landlady, and matriarch of Albert Square, has been in the soap longer than Barbara Windsor. So our first question is....

Peggy Mitchell

1.) Multiple Choice Question

Who played the original Peggy Mitchell in 1991, three years before Windsor joined the cast?

Possible Peggys
  1. Sunglasses
  2. Glasses
  3. Black top
  4. Blue check

Info

And here's the evidence. Ricky and Sam's wedding day in 1991, with Frank and Pat Butcher, plus Peggy Mitchell on the right. Click NEXT

EastEnders in 1991

2.) Multiple Choice Question

Cambridge has ousted Harvard as the world's best university, with UK and US institutions filling the top 17 places. Which country, in 18th place, broke their stranglehold?

Cambridge University
  1. Switzerland
  2. Canada
  3. Australia

3.) Multiple Choice Question

"He's history." Who?

  1. Tony Blair
    Tony Blair
  2. The Stig
    The Stig
  3. Larry King
    Larry King

4.) Multiple Choice Question

Mr Blair's memoir A Journey has, however, officially become Britain's fastest selling political memoir since records began, beating...

Blair books
  1. Peter Mandelson's The Third Man
  2. Alastair Campbell's The Blair Years
  3. Bill Clinton's My Life
  4. Jeffrey Archer's Prison Diaries

5.) Multiple Choice Question

Who has NOT launched a perfume this week?

Perfume
  1. The Sun
  2. Iggy Pop
  3. Sex Pistols

6.) Multiple Choice Question

Bought for £1,645, sold for £1,700. What?

  1. Photos of Stan Laurel
    Stan Laurel
  2. A book on birds
    Section of book cover
  3. MP's duck house
    Duck house

Info

This is the duck house that sank the career of the former Tory MP. The floating Stockholm duck island came to symbolise the expenses scandal in 2009. But Sir Peter said his ducks had never liked it and proceeds from the sale went to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Duck island

7.) Multiple Choice Question

In his new book, Prof Stephen Hawking says the universe exists because of one all-encompassing hypothesis: M-theory. But what might M stand for, according to its originator?

  1. Master
  2. Mortality
  3. Matrix
  4. Map

Answers

  1. It's four, actress Jo Warne, who was Peggy for three months when daughter Sam eloped with Ricky. One is Annie Nightingale, 40 years a Radio 1 DJ this week; two is Anna Karen, who plays Peggy's sister Aunt Sal; three is Rita May, who plays Connie Rathbone in Coronation Street.
  2. It was Switzerland's ETH Zurich, placed 18th. McGill in Canada was next, then Australian National. The rankings are by QS academic advisory board, which said UK and US universities had an advantage because English was the language of academia.
  3. It's Top Gear's The Stig, according to host Jeremy Clarkson, who was critical of Ben Collins's legal fight to call himself The Stig. Tony Blair cancelled book signings due to protests and the successor to chatshow king Larry was named as Piers Morgan.
  4. Mr Blair's book sold 92,060 copies in its first four days, the strongest ever opening-week sale of a memoir since Nielsen BookScan records began in 1998, and beating Campbell's 24,000. However, Margaret Thatcher's The Downing Street years was estimated to have sold 120,000 copies in its first week - although this was before records were kept on the matter.
  5. It's Iggy Pop. The Sun launched its first perfume, called Buzz, while punk band the Sex Pistols also entered the market with a unisex fragrance that promises to "create mayhem". Iggy is to be the subject of a Jim Jarmusch documentary, but no smellies. Yet.
  6. It's the duck house, for which Sir Peter Viggers famously claimed £1,645 on expenses. He resigned as an MP and this week sold the house for charity. The Laurel photos fetched £8,000 at auction, while a £5m book called Birds of America is to go under the hammer.
  7. It's matrix, according to Edward Witten, who came up with the theory in 1995. He also said it could stand for "magic" or "mystery".

Your Score

0 - 3 : Mournful

4 - 6 : Mediocre

7 - 7 : Magnificent

For past quizzes including our weekly news quiz, 7 days 7 questions, expand the grey drop-down below - also available on the Magazine page (and scroll down). You can also do this quiz on your mobile device.

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