52 weeks 52 questions, part one

Quiz of the year's news

'Tis the season to sit back and cast an eye over 2008. But how much do you remember? Test yourself with the Magazine's four-part compilation of the best of the year's quizzes. First up, January - March. PLUS a special bonus question each day - see below for details.

1.) Multiple Choice Question

What the blue blazes is this mystery object, discovered at the end of January?

1. Asteroid 2007 TU24, which passed close to the Earth
   
2. Cotton wool bud stuck in a boy's ear for nine years
   
3. Droppings of elusive Arctic wolf, filmed swimming for the first time
   

Info

Jerome displays the offending cotton bud (left), and the pixelated object on the right is Asteroid 2007 TU24, which passed just outside the Moon's orbit in January. Click NEXT to continue.

2.) Multiple Choice Question

It emerged in February that Prince Harry had been in Afghanistan since Christmas, fighting the Taleban and acquiring pseudonyms. Which was he NOT known as?

1. Bullet Magnet
   
2. Harry Houdini
   
3. Budgie
   
4. Widow Six-Seven
   

3.) Multiple Choice Question

"I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake." Who kicked off the New Year with this admission?

1. Gordon Brown, confessing he'd blundered over the "will-he, won't-he" election last year
   
2. Jeremy Clarkson, who lost £500 by printing his bank details in a bid to rubbish the lost data discs furore
   
3. Sam Allardyce, replaced by Kevin Keegan at Newcastle United after just eight months
   

4.) Multiple Choice Question

It's March, and Russia has elected a new president - Dmitry Medvedev (centre). But what is the accepted BBC pronunciation of his surname? (Capitals indicate the stressed syllable.)

1. muhd-VYED-uhff
   
2. MED-vuh-dev
   
3. mid-VHOY-duv
   
4. meed-viyd-OV
   

5.) Multiple Choice Question

When Jeremy Paxman griped about the state of M&S pants in January, the chief executive waded in. But the BBC presenter also grumbled about its socks, saying they wear away too quickly at the big toe and ...

1. ...wear at the heel
   
2. ...shrink in the wash
   
3. ...are no longer ribbed around the top
   

6.) Multiple Choice Question

Which Katie embarrassed Home Secretary Jacqui Smith after she said she didn't feel safe walking alone on London's streets at night?

1. Her aide, who told the media Ms Smith had "bought a kebab in Peckham" at night
   
2. Katie's Kebabs and Burgers in Peckham, the establishment where Ms Smith purchased said kebab
   
3. Katie Price, aka Jordan, wading into the debate with a comment on the minister's oft-discussed cleavage
   

7.) Missing Word Question

Bogota museum celebrates *

1. happiness
   
2. sadness
   
3. laziness
   

8.) Multiple Choice Question

Grange Hill's last ever school bell sounded in September. But news of the axing came in February. Which other TV show did it share its original theme tune with?

1. Terry and June
   
2. Junior Kickstart
   
3. Kenny Everett Video Show
   
4. Give Us a Clue
   

9.) Multiple Choice Question

The McCartney-Mills divorce was settled in late March. What was the difference between what Heather Mills estimated she needed for living costs and what the judge awarded?

1. £2.65m per year
   
2. £2.85m per year
   
3. £3.05m per year
   

Info

Kosovo declared its independence from the former Yugoslavia in February - and unveiled a new flag. It's pictured here WITHOUT its outline map of Kosovo...

10.) Multiple Choice Question

....so which of the following maps is Kosovo?

1. Map 1
   
2. Map 2
   
3. Map 3
   
4. Map 4
   

Info

And here's the finished article. Click NEXT to continue.

11.) Multiple Choice Question

"The Tripod" - a nickname for who or what which emerged in early March?

1. Three Lib Dem MPs - Alistair Carmichael, Tim Farron and David Heath - who resigned from the front bench
   
2. Duchess of York and her princess daughters Beatrice and Eugenie
   
3. Mick Jagger, according to his FBI codename, after a 1969 plot to kill him was unveiled
   

12.) Multiple Choice Question

And finally, who was seen dueting with ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash?

1. Bruce Springsteen
   
2. Bill Gates
   
3. Republican presidential hopeful Mick Huckabee
   

Info

Here they are, laying down some riffs - or such like - ahead of Bill Gates's keynote speech in Las Vegas.

Answers

1. It's the cotton bud. Jerome Bartens was diagnosed as deaf in his right ear aged two - but his hearing suddenly returned when the wax-encrusted bud popped out. Click NEXT to reveal.
2. It's Harry Houdini. Bullet Magnet is self-explanatory, Widow Six-Seven his call sign and Budgie "was [a commanding officer's] joke," said the prince, "stringing it in with the air thing. But the first morning I was flapping like a budgie."
3. It's Clarkson. A reader used his bank details to create a £500 direct debit to the charity Diabetes UK. Brown admitted he had blundered over the will he/won't he election, the same week Allardyce lost his job managing the Premiership club. He was replaced by Kevin Keegan, who didn't last out the year.
4. It's number one, muhd-VYED-uhff, according to the BBC Pronunciation Unit.
5. It's that M&S socks are no longer ribbed around the top. "These are matters of great concern to the men of Britain," Paxman said in his complaint.
6. It's the name of the kebab house - the owner has said that he didn't call it that in honour of any particular Katie, he just liked the name.
7. It's laziness. A museum in the Colombian capital has held a week-long event encouraging people to indulge in that maligned trait, and reflect on its opposite - extreme work - to find a happy medium.
8. It's Give Us a Clue. The tune is called Chicken Man by Alan Hawkshaw, and was used by Grange Hill from 1978-90. The BBC swung the axe in February - its 30th anniversary.
9. It was £2.65m. Ms Mills had wanted £3.25m per year, including £500,000 for holidays, but the judge said £600,000 would be adequate.
10. It's Map 1. Map 2 is Belgium; Map 3 is Estonia and Map 4 is Finland.
11. It's the duchess and her daughters. Princess Eugenie told the Tatler "Mummy, Bea and I call ourselves 'the Tripod' - they are my best friends in the world."
12. It's Gates, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Click NEXT to reveal all.

Your Score

0 - 4 : Welcome to the Jungle

5 - 10 : Chinese Democracy

11 - 12 : Paradise City

In addition to the 12 questions above, there was also a bonus question for each of the four parts of this quiz. That's how we reached the magic total of 52 questions.

52 weeks, part two 52 weeks, part three 52 weeks, part four

With each part of the quiz we published a photograph (the full set is on the right). The link between them is Barack Obama. The pictures represent three lesser-known things about him, and one better-known.

*The first was that when as a boy his family moved into their new house on the outskirts of Jakarta, he was amazed to find the house had a collection of exotic animals, including a monkey, birds of paradise, a cockatoo and even several baby crocodiles.

*The second is a belief by some amateur genealogists that Obama and Mark Twain are distantly related through Obama's great-great-great-great grandmother, Eliza Jane Clemmons.

*The third is his stated youthful affection for Earth, Wind and Fire; he and friends would drive around in a two-tone VW Kombi van with a cassette of the band blaring out - an indication perhaps of a future affinity with Chicago?

*And the final picture, the better-known thing about Obama, of course, is his Hawaiian birthplace.

For a complete archive of past quizzes and our weekly news quiz, 7 days 7 questions, visit the Magazine page and scroll down.