TRIVIA: Free QUESTIONS - Current Month

On this page we broaden our scope from the unusual aspects of Sydney geography to the unusual aspects of world geography and to quirky matters in general.

The free trivia questions are mainly about countries around the world. They are posted by Sunday each week.

Trivia questions for previous months are at Free Trivia Questions 2004 and at Free Trivia Questions 2005 and at Free Trivia Questions 2006 and at Free Trivia Questions 2007 and at Free Trivia Questions 2008

Free answers to the trivia questions for previous months are at Free Trivia Answers 2004 and at Free Trivia Answers 2005 and at Free Trivia Answers 2006 and at Free Trivia Answers 2007 and at Free Trivia Answers 2008

If you would like to cross-link trivia web sites with us or to talk trivia, please see Contact Us for the email address.

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 25 July 2008

A photo of the pope was projected onto a pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge each night during last week’s World Youth Day. The bridge is this week’s subject.

(1) Why is it necessary for the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons to tower above bridge roadway level?

(2) What is the cost of the clothing and equipment for each person on the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb? (a) nothing; it is sponsored by Nike (b) $5000 (c) $7000

(3) Did any workmen die during construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge?

(4) Why is the Sydney Harbour Bridge painted grey? (a) it is the closest colour to natural steel (b) grey is a practical colour because it doesn’t show the dirt (c) it would take years to change the colour

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 18 July 2008

The Catholic Church’s World Youth Day is celebrated in Sydney this week. The Catholic Church is also this week’s subject.

(1) For how long does this year’s World Youth Day last?

(2) For how long did Stephen II reign as pope of the Catholic Church? (a) two days (b) two weeks (c) 88 years

(3) How old was Archbishop Hugnes when he became Archbishop of Reims in the 10th century? (a) 5 (b) 85 (c) 105

(4) When was the last abdication of a pope? (a) in around 200AD (b) 1294 (c) 1994

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 11 July 2008

This week’s subject is Zimbabwe.

(1) What was significant about Australian Industrial Relations Minister Peter Reith’s comment that “waterfront productivity levels in Australia are not much better than in Zimbabwe”?

(2) Why is it more strenuous to walk to the shops in Zimbabwe than to walk back from them with your shopping?

(3) What was the inflation rate in Zimbabwe in June 2008? (a) reduced to 5.7% from 8000% the previous year (b) one million per cent

(4) How many people in Zimbabwe are millionaires in July 2008?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 4 July 2008

The last few weeks has seen lots of media comments about an Australian politician saying “Do you know who I am?” This week’s subject is politicians’ quotes from around the world.

(1) How did Winston Churchill reply when MP Nancy Asler said: “Winston, if I were married to you, I’d put poison in your coffee”?

(2) How did Winston Churchill reply when Labour MP Bessie Braddock said: “Winston, you’re drunk”?

(3) What French president, describing the difficulty of running France, said: “How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?”?

(4) Who said “I shall resign the presidency, effective noon tomorrow”?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 27 June 2008

The grand slam tennis championships with the fastest court surface, ie grass, is under way at Wimbledon. This surface favours strong servers, and serving at Wimbledon is this week’s subject.

(1) How many consecutive service games did Pete Sampras win in the 1997 Wimbledon men's singles? (a) 9 (b) 29 (c) 94

(2) How many consecutive service games did Victorian Wayne Arthurs win in the 1999 Wimbledon championships? (a) 55 (b) 66 (c) 111

(3) Wayne Arthurs beat Taylor Dent in four sets at Wimbledon in 2002. How many service games did Dent lose?

(4) English number one Tim Henman's great grandmother was the first person to do a certain thing at Wimbledon; his grandmother was the last person to do the opposite at Wimbledon. What did those ladies do?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 20 June 2008

We celebrated the Queen’s Birthday holiday last Monday, June 9. That holiday is this week’s subject.

(1) The Queen's Birthday is celebrated in most of Australia on the second Monday in June, ie on any date from 8th to 14th June. When is her actual birthday? (a) April 21 (b) June 8 (c) June 14

(2) How close to her real birth date do Western Australians celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s birthday? (a) on the Monday closest to her birthday (b) about as far from her birthday as possible

(3) How close to her real birth date do Falkland Islanders celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s birthday? (a) as close as possible (b) about as far from her birthday as possible

(4) Australians have a public holiday for the Queen's birthday. The United States, Japan and Singapore also have a holiday for someone's birthday. Whose birthday is it for each country?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 13 June 2008

Sydney has just had its driest May on record, yet it’s rained every day in June. What an ideal time to have the weather as our subject.

(1) When do the seasons start?

(2) Is a typhoon a hurricane?

(3) When reporting high temperatures, to what metal do journalists refer?

(4) What is the lowest temperature recorded in Hell?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 6 June 2008

With the French tennis championships ending, that grand slam event is this week’s subject.

(1) How many days in a fortnight in France? (The number of days of play in the fortnight of the French championships might help you.)

(2) In how many racquets did Bjorn Borg break strings in the fortnight of the 1979 French tennis championships? (a) none, for his first time ever in a tournament (b) 60 (c) he did not break any strings, but broke six racquets

(3) Of the 32 men who reached the third round of the 2007 singles, how many had English as their native language? (a) none (b) one (c) exactly half, ie 16

(4) This question is not of the French championships but of a French champion. Yvon Petra was the last Wimbledon men's singles winner to wear what?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 30 May 2008

This week’s subject is English pronunciation.

(1) Which two rhyme out of carton, package, contain and mountain?

(2) What do the following words have in common: orange, purple, plagued, film, month, bilge, bulb, warmth, scarce, spoilt, twelfth and silver?

(3) How many different ways are there of pronouncing the letters "ough"?

(4) What is the shortest sentence incorporating all the various pronunciations of “ough”?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 23 May 2008

This week’s subject is inventions.

(1) Which of the following first went on sale in Cuba in 2008? (a) microwave ovens (b) mobile phones (c) personal computers

(2) Although he is ranked as the seventh most influential person of all time, the name Ts’ai Lun is not well known. What did he invent? (a) handguns (b) paper (c) shoes

(3) What did a Massachusetts Institute of Technology survey show were the three most-hated inventions?

(4) Which of the following did the ancient Greeks invent? (a) democracy (b) coins

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 16 May 2008

This week’s subject is Antarctica

(1) Where is the world’s last unowned land?

(2) What size is Antarctica? (a) 3.2 million hectares (b) 6.4 million hectares (c) both of the above

(3) Why was Australia’s territory significantly reduced in size in 1997? (a) an iceberg broke off (b) Norfolk Island gained independence

(4) When was the South Pole last at the North Pole? (a) about 30 000 years ago (b) it’s a stupid question

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 9 May 2008

This week’s subject is snail mail.

(1) Other than royalty, who was the first living person to appear on an Australian postage stamp? (a) bushranger Ned Kelly (b) cricketer Sir Donald Bradman (c) prime minister Sir Robert Menzies

(2) How many two-cent stamps are there in a dozen?

(3) How many ponies were there in the Pony Express mail service?

(4) Who were the first three English men to be featured on US postage stamps? They come from this list: Alfred Hitchcock, King George VI, Winston Churchill, The Beatles (if you select this option, it just counts as one person), Jack the Ripper

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 2 May 2008

You’d like some more Olympic torch questions? These are from The Sydney Morning Herald:

(1) After being extinguished by rain, how was Montreal’s stadium flame relit? (a) by lightning (b) by electric power (c) by a cigarette lighter

(2) How many torches have been produced for the 2008 Beijing relay? (a) one (b) 20, but another 20 can be made within the hour if needed (c) 20,000

(3) Did the 2004 torch’s relay visit any previous Olympic cities? (a) no (b) yes, the previous three (c) yes, all of them

(4) Where is the Olympic torch normally housed overnight? (a) at the home of the day’s last runner (b) in its own five-star hotel room

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 25 April 2008

With all the publicity about the torch relay, this week brings our first lot of Olympic Games questions for the year.

(1) Who invented the Olympic torch relay? (a) the ancients Olympians (b) the Nazis

(2) What is the normal word for “torch” in America?

(3) At exactly what time do this year’s Olympic Games begin?

(4) Are Olympic gold medals made from gold, silver or bronze?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 18 April 2008

This week’s subject is food inventions

(1) What did Forrest Mars invent?

(2) Who invented frozen food?

(3) Who invented the sandwich?

(4) Which country invented French fries? (a) France (b) Belgium

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 11 April 2008

This week’s subject is demography

(1) What percentage of New Zealand’s animal population is human? (a) more than 95% (b) about 50% (c) less than 5%

(2) Which is or are true for New York? It has more (a) Irish than Dublin (b) Italians than Rome (c) Jews than Tel Aviv

(3) What independent state has the world’s lowest birth rate?

(4) What is the average age of the 10 million population of Senegal? (a) 18 (b) 28 (c) 38

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 4 April 2008

This week’s subject is the internet.

(1) The site www.shibumi.org/eoti claims itself to be the end of what?

(2) What common abbreviation takes three times as long to say as what it stands for?

(3) Of what is this quote a description? “Circulating items that aren’t relevant about things that don’t matter to people who aren’t interested”

(4) A report on which American president attracted the then record number of internet hits in one minute?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 28 March 2008

This week’s subject is world governments.

(1) What unusual gun law do Switzerland and Kennesaw county in the American state Georgia have?

(2) What was the first country to recognise the United States? (a) Canada (b) Great Britain (c) Morocco

(3) How many governments did Italy have from 1945 to 2001? (a) 5 (b) 9 (c) 59

(4) How many governments did Somalia have from 1991 to 2005?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 21 March 2008

This week’s subject is music.

(1) How many grooves did 33rpm records have?

(2) What are the three most frequently sung songs in English?

(3) When were the popular 19th century English morning concerts held?

(4) What is the oldest type of musical instrument known to have been used by man?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 14 March 2008

Following a spectacular score by South Africa this month, cricket is this week’s subject.

(1) Did South Africa’s opening batsmen establish much of a lead in their test against Bangladesh on 2 March 2008?

(2) How many consecutive sixes did South African cricketer Dudley Nourse hit in Egypt in 1943? (a) 3 (b) 6 (c) 9

(3) What is the highest number of runs scored from one over? (a) 36 (b) 48 (c) 286 declared

(4) Australia smashed the one-day innings record of 398 in the one-day match on 12 March 2006. How long did it take for that record to be broken again?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 7 March 2008

With the stepping down of Fidel Castro, Cuba is this week’s subject.

(1) For how many years has the US had sanctions against the Cuban government? (a) 10 (b) 20 (c) 40

(2) What did Cuban President Fidel Castro, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, French Presidents Charles de Gaulle and Francois Mitterand, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir, American President Ronald Reagan and Indonesian President Suharto have in common regarding their ages when their terms ended?

(3) Do all Morons live in Cuba?

(4) Since the US does not issue its citizens visas for travel to Cuba, how can they drive from New York to Cuba?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 29 February 2008

With Eamon Sullivan having broken a world swimming record on 17 February, that’s our subject this week¾world swimming records.

(1) Who is the world’s fastest swimmer ever?

(2) What does Poland’s Otylia Jedrzejczak do?

(3) How many breaths did former world 50m record-holder Brett Hawke take during his race?

(4) At what age did John Konrads hold all swimming records from 200 metres to 1500 metres? (a) 15 (b) 20 (c) 25

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 22 February 2008

This week’s subject is books.

(1) According to Guinness World Records, what is the world's best-selling non-fiction book?

(2) Most library book collections are arranged by subject, some by author or title. How are the millions of books, pamphlets and magazines of the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library arranged?

(3) What word begins the title of each of Francis Bacon's 58 essays?

(4) How many of his plays did William Shakespeare have published during his lifetime?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 15 February 2008

The world leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) died last month. Their church is this week’s subject.

(1) What was the average age of the last six presidents (also called prophets) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the end of their presidencies? (a) 91 (b) 66 (c) 34

(2) What is the average age of Mormon elders? (a) 20 (b) 65 (c) 75

(3) What group of people did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first allow to be members in the 1970s? (a) black people (b) homosexuals (c) women

(4) How can you be baptised after reaching adulthood and not know you have been baptised?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 8 February 2008

This week’s subject is cats.

(1) What are lions called in Swaziland? (a) maniacs (b) elevators (c) lions

(2) For how long do lions and tigers sleep each 24 hours? (a) about 3 hours (b) less than 5 hours (c) up to 17 hours

(3) From what distance can a cat detect its owner's individual footsteps? (a) 3m (b) 30m (c) 100m

(4) What type of cat was Benito Mussolini's pet and often travelling companion?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 1 February 2008

With the Australian Open tennis championships finishing, that is our subject for this week.

(1) Why did Michael Chang not play in the 1993 Australian Open Tennis Championships? (a) He was attending Bible class for the fortnight. (b) He injured his right wrist when he fell off a skateboard. (c) His passport was withheld by the US government pending investigation of allegations he had passed nuclear secrets to China.

(2) In the 2005 Australian championships, Joachim Johansson broke the record for the most aces in a professional match with 51. Did he win the match easily?

(3) Where was 1977 Australian Open champion Roscoe Tanner in 2006?

(4) At what time on the morning of 20 January 2008 did the Lleyton Hewitt-Marcos Baghdatis Australian Open match finish?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 25 January 2008

This week’s subject is boxing.

(1) What flamboyant sportsman first made the quote: "I am the greatest?"

(2) In what sport did heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali’s daughter excel?

(3) Which of his four sons did world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman name George?

(4) Why did champion Australian boxer Les Darcy not participate in any sport after the age of 21?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 18 January 2008

Following a week of excitement as India threatened to pull out of the test cricket series against Australia, this week’s subject is test cricket.

(1) In the second test against Australia in October 2002, Pakistan broke its lowest ever test innings score of 62 with a 59. What did it do in its second innings?

(2) Who did Australia’s Matthew Hayden beat when he scored a century in that second test against Pakistan in October 2002?

(3) Matthew Hayden scored a test record of 380 runs His test debut was in March 1994. What happened in the next 23 tests? (a) he did not miss one of those 23 consecutive tests (b) he was dropped for each of those 23 consecutive tests

(4) Which of the following has just honoured Shane Warne? (a) Telstra (b) Assemblies of God Church (c) Southampton Solent University

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 11 January 2008

This week’s subject is names and occupations.

(1) Who was the Catholic archbishop for Manila, Philippines, from the 1990s to his death in 2005?

(2) Who heads the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Safeliz Publishing House in Spain? (a) God (b) Jesus (c) Satan

(3) Is the spokeswoman for BP in New Zealand BP?

(4) Is Chris Lamb the spokesperson for Britain's Meat and Livestock Commission?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Quiz: Questions for week ending 4 January 2008

This week’s subject is seas and oceans.

(1) In what countries are the Black, Red, White and Yellow Seas?

(2) Is the area of the Pacific Ocean larger than the United States and Europe combined?

(3) Where does the Tasman Sea meet the Pacific Ocean?

(4) Victoria’s Great Ocean Road has stunning Southern Ocean scenery, including the island rock formations known as the Twelve Apostles. How many Twelve Apostles are there?

Here are the free triva answers to these trivia questions

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Trivia Collection

Trivia questions for previous months are at Free Trivia Questions 2004 and at Free Trivia Questions 2005 and at Free Trivia Questions 2006 and at Free Trivia Questions 2007 and at Free Trivia Questions 2008

Free answers to the trivia questions for previous months are at Free Trivia Answers 2004 and at Free Trivia Answers 2005 and at Free Trivia Answers 2006 and at Free Trivia Answers 2007 and at Free Trivia Answers 2008

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