Quiz of the week, 17–23 October

1. The UK government currently gives out a £3,000 grant to motorists who buy the cleanest electric cars. By how much, according to a motor industry report released this week, would the price of the average electric car rise by in the event of a “no-deal” Brexit?

a. £1,500,

b. £3,000,

c. £5,000,

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d. £1,000

2. Thirteen people appeared in court this week for their connection with the theft of a £3.5m Cartier tiara. Who was the tiara made for?

a. Winifred Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland,

b. Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon,

c. Sophie, Countess of Wessex,

d. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

3. Payments group PayPal caused a stir in markets this week with what news?

a. It urged its users to vote for Joe Biden,

b. It will enable users to buy and sell bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,

c. It announced a huge share buyback,

d. It launched its own currency

4. Banksy’s reinterpretation of French impressionist painter Claude Monet’s Water Lilies sold for over £7.5m at an auction this week. Show Me The Monet is the second most expensive Bansky sold at auction after Devolved Parliament. How much did the latter sell for?

a. £8.2m,

b. £9m,

c. £7.8m,

d. £9.9m

5. The Church of England made headlines this week for co-owning what?

a. Starbucks coffee farms,

b. Rights to Beyonce’s Single Ladies,

c. The New England Patriots,

d. The O2 arena

6. In 1957, the city of Lakeland, Florida, was gifted a pair of swans by Queen Elizabeth II. They have bred so successfully over the years that the city is now looking to sell around 30 swans, as there are too many living on the local lake. How much is the city charging per swan?

a. $1,000,

b. $250,

c. $400,

d. $700

7. Retail sales in the UK increased for the fifth consecutive month, boosted by what?

a. Loungewear,

b. Groceries,

c. Home improvement goods,

d. Glasses and contact lenses

8. Which social media platform saw its shares leap this week after reporting a significant increase in users?

a. Snapchat,

b. Facebook,

c. Instagram,

d. TikTok

9. Star Pubs was fined £2m this week after forcing tenants to sell “unreasonable levels” of its own brand beers and ciders. Who owns Star Pubs?

a. Carlsberg Group,

b. Asahi Breweries,

c. Anheuser-Busch,

d. Heineken

10. China’s online payments group Ant is set to debut on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stockmarkets in what is expected to be the world’s biggest-ever initial public offering. Which company currently holds the title?

a. Saudi Aramco,

b. Alibaba,

c. SoftBank,

d. Visa

Answers

1. b. £3,000. According to a study by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, failure to strike a deal with the EU would mean trading under World Trade Organisation tariffs, which would add around £2,800 to the cost of an electric car, reports Graeme Paton in The Times. Researchers reckon that would cut demand for plug-in cars by a fifth in 2021.

2. a. Winifred Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. The 6th Duke of Portland commissioned Cartier to create the £3.5m headpiece in 1902, which she later wore to Edward VII’s coronation. The tiara was stolen from a gallery in Nottinghamshire in November 2018.

3. b. It will enable users to buy and sell bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. PayPal will allow users to trade bitcoin and other digital currencies, and use them to buy goods. The service will be rolled out in the US shortly, then expanded elsewhere early next year.

4. d. £9.9m. Banksy’s depiction of the House of Commons filled with chimpanzees sold for £9.9m in 2019.

5. b. Rights to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”. The Church invests in Hipgnosis, a company that has spent more than $1bn buying the rights to thousands of hit songs. Rihanna’s Umbrella, Justin Timberlake’s SexuyBack, and Whitney Houston’s Im Your Baby Tonight are also co-owned by the Church. When the songs appear in a TV show, on radio or in a film, Hipgnosis makes money “and so, by association, does the Church of England”.

6. $400. The queen gifted the city a pair of swans after a Lakeland woman, who was living in England at the time, wrote to her asking for them as a gift to repopulate Lake Morton. Proceeds from the sale will go towards the city’s $10,000 annual swan feed budget, reports the BBC.

7. c. Home improvement goods. Non-food items such as DIY and garden supplies boosted retail sales, which went up by 1.5% between August and September, the Office for National Statistics said.

8. a. Snapchat. The network’s daily active users jumped by 18% year-on-year to 249 million.

9. d. Heineken. The Pubs Code Adjudicator said Star Pubs and Bars, owned by Heineken, broke rules for three years after it told several pubs 100% of the keg beer they sold had to be Heineken brand.

10. a. Saudi Aramco. Ant’s $30bn IPO is expected to surpass last year’s listing of Saudi Aramco at a record $25.6bn.