Strain your brain: take our quiz

1. Three books about President Thabo Mbeki — one in revision — were published in 2007. What are the titles?

2. Who are the authors of the books in question 1?

3. What make of car was Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata driving when he crashed into a wall in Hurlingham?

4. The government’s fledgling attempt at a second mass adult literacy campaign started wobbling late in the year when the country’s top adult education expert resigned from the campaign. Who is he?

5. What is the campaign in question 4 called?

6. Which Brazilian footballer, who plays for AC Milan, recently won the European player of the year award?

7. Who are the two main contenders in the Kenyan election?

8. Name the BBC correspondent who was held hostage for four months by the Army of Islam in Gaza.

9. Who is the new Anglican archbishop?

10. Who did the person in question 9 replace?

11. What will South Africa’s newest coal power station in Limpopo be called?

12. What is the name of the South African media company which recently bid for a stake in Johncom?

13. Name one of the co-owners of that company (in question 12) who has close ties to government.

14. Who received the first Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership this year?

15. What is the name of the Chinese bank that recently bought a 20% stake in Standard Bank?

16. More Than Just a Game, a film about an organised football league for prisoners on Robben Island, had its world premiere at the Fifa World Cup Draw in Durban recently. What is the name of the football association formed by the players and featured in the film?

17. What or who was the league named after?

18. Name the producer and director of the film in question 16.

19. Which apartheid activist celebrated her 90th birthday this year?

20. Who was voted international rugby player of the year by the IRB in 2007?

21. Which motoring manufacturer launched its first supercar in South Africa this year and what is it called?

22. University of KwaZulu-Natal head of communications Dasarath Chetty tried to sue for defamation twice this year. Who was he suing?

23. Bob Dylan has 64 cue cards in the video clip for Subterranean Homesick Blues. What does the first one say?

24. The United States’s deadliest shooting spree, involving gunman Seung-Hui Cho, took place at which university in April 2007?

25. Who was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki to investigate suspended NPA boss Vusi Pikoli’s fitness to hold office?

26. What is the most popular ringtone in Spain at the moment?

27. Which Afrikaans singer caused an uproar with his now infamous song about De la Rey?

28. What endangered and extremely rare animal was filmed recently in the Gobi desert for what scientists believe is the first time?

29. Which well-known restaurant in Franschhoek won the 2007 Eat Out Restaurant of the Year award in November?

30. This year marked the 40th anniversary of which Middle East war?

31. Who is the new director general of the department of arts and culture?

32. Which European head of state referred to ‘African peasants” and commented: ‘The tragedy of Africa is that the African has never really entered into history”?

33. Which African head of state subsequently sent the person in question 32 a congratulatory letter, published in Le Monde, which referred to him as a ‘friend of Africa”?

34. A provincial premier this year sanctioned human rights workshops for schoolchildren conducted by the controversial Church of Scientology. Who is he?

35. Which popular tele­vision celebrity is campaigning for US Demo­cratic presidential contender Barack Obama?

36. Which team won the T20 Cricket World Cup final and by how many runs did they win?

37. Which country was axed deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge visiting when she was informed that President Thabo Mbeki did not endorse the trip?

38. Following the success of the iPod, Apple unveiled which new gadget in January 2007?

39. Which British toddler disappeared from a hotel room in Portugal in May this year, sparking an international investigation?

40. Fill in the blank: If Lyon win the French premier football league this year, it would be for the _________ consecutive time.

41. Switzerland accidentally invaded which country in March 2007 after 171 of its infantrymen were lost during a training exercise?

42. Some newly declared no-fee schools in Gauteng adopted a surprising approach to this pro-poor government policy. What did they do?

43. Which F1 rookie driver came close to winning the driver’s championship this year?

44. Which veteran Rhodesian Front politician died recently?

45. Who was recently sacked as England’s football coach after the team failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament?

46. Who is the first woman speaker in the US House of Representatives, elected in January 2007?

47. Which Frank Zappa album cover parodied the Beatles’s Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band?

48. Which South African province recorded the highest number of murders per 100 000 people in the South African Police Service’s 2006/07 crime statistics?

49. What vehicles does footballer Wayne Rooney own?

50. Which English-born contrarian, infamous for sticking the boot into Mother Teresa, this year followed it up by publishing on ‘how religion poisons everything”?

51. Name the book in question 50.

52. The Shuttleworth Foundation strongly opposed a merger of two publishers that it said would push up school textbook prices. Who are the publishers?

53. Which Samoan rugby player got concussed while trying to tackle Springbok Andre Pretorius at the Rugby World Cup?

54. Who was appointed the new commissioner of correctional services in 2007?

55. Which millionaire adventurer went missing in September in a small plane over the Nevada desert?

56. Which award-winning SABC journalist resigned in 2007 to join Telkom Media?

57. One of Europe’s glamorous first couples announced their divorce this year. Who are they?

58. Which writer, journalist and boxing enthusiast, who is mentioned in the songs Get By by rapper Talib Kweli and Animal Bar by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, died this year?

59. What is the title of that writer’s first novel, set in WWII?

60. Who won the best actress Oscar this year and for which film?

61. Which French charity was charged with kidnapping after its employees attempted to fly 103 Chadian children to Europe?

62. This year marks how many consecutive years the Nobel prize for economics has gone to Americans?

63. Which university left its staff gobsmacked by unilaterally downgrading their posts? (Clue: the same university said it would slash ‘unprofitable” academic programmes, mainly in the humanities.)

64. What official car was Ekhuruleni police chief Robert McBride driving when he crashed near Hartebeespoort Dam?

65. What game was so popular that Mary, Queen of Scots, while awaiting execution in 1586, complained of being deprived of it?

66. The first flight attendants were required to be members of what profession?

67. What is the name of the drinking hole in Fulham, London, that is popular with homesick expatriate South Africans for having braais and selling Castle Lager and Klipdrift?

68. What well-known saying does satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys attribute to former apartheid-era cabinet minister Piet Koornhof, who died in November?

69. Who was this year’s recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize?

70. Who will be the University of Cape Town’s next vice-chancellor?

71. Who is he succeeding?

72. What is the title of Leonardo DiCaprio’s recently released movie about the environment?

73. In naming their debut album, the band Lark chose a ‘Russian” word that does not, in fact, exist. What is it and what did they claim it means?

74. Which author lived on the Jamaican estate Goldeneye?

75. This year’s conference of the Association of African Universities pondered the continent’s massive brain drain. Where was the conference held?

76. Who is the first woman president of Argentina?

77. Which playwright, novelist and Mail & Guardian columnist died unexpectedly on February 10 this year?

78. What is the name of the top South African choreographer accused by an autograph-seeking fan of sexual harassment and kidnapping?

79. Almost half of the roughly 76million people added to the world every year will be born in only six countries. What six countries are they?

80. Which country created its own time zone in early December to give its citizens an earlier sunrise?

81. Which local actor — who died in London on October 25 — was famous for his interpretation of Herman Charles Bosman’s character Oom Schalk Lourens?

82. What is the name of the UK’s chief scientific adviser who visited South Africa this year?

83. What is the title of former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein’s new book on the arms deal?

84. Decode these education acronyms: CEM, OSD, Hesa, Sarua.

85. Who opened for the Rolling Stones in 2007?

86. Who won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature?

87. When does the Kyoto Protocol end?

88. The DA’s Douglas Gibson takes up a new post in February. What is it?

89. What is the day job of Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan?

90. ‘Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.” Who said this?

91. What percentage of South Africa’s power supply comes from coal?

92. Who is the national deputy mini­ster of education?

93. Which two South African television series were nominated for Emmy Awards in November?

94. What shellfish landed Environmental Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk in hot water in November?

95. Which former vice-chancellor received a secretive R1,67million farewell bonanza on his retirement?

96. Which country was affected by a 10 500-ton oil leak in December after a barge carrying a crane punched holes in a crude oil tanker?

97. Who is John Samuel?

98. Fill in the blanks: America Ferreira was honoured in the Golden Globe and Academy awards this year for playing ____ in the comedy series ___.

99. What is the title of the movie directed by Oscar-winning South African Gavin Hood and starring Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep?

100. Which organisation claimed responsibility for two deadly blasts in Algiers on December 12?

101. For which film did M Night Shyamalan receive the 2007 Worst Director Razzie Award?

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