Test your knowledge of news, sport and pop culture in Brainwaves, the SA Weekend quiz

What year did Michael Jackson die? What does a bibliophile collect? Take our Brainwaves quiz - 50 general knowledge questions and an interactive template that keeps score as you go.

Michael Jackson died in LA in what year? Photo by Vincent AMALVY / AFP.

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** Test your pop culture and current affairs knowledge with this week’s Brainwaves Quiz. Decide your answer then click on the answer button to see if you were correct. We’ll tally your score as you go. **

question: Name the winner of the Melbourne Cup.

option: Verry Elleegant

answer: 1

question: In the nursery rhyme The Farmer in the Dell, what does the farmer take?

option: A wife

answer: 1

question: Where do plantar warts usually occur?

option: Sole of the foot

answer: 1

question: The black swan is the bird emblem of which Australian state?

option: Western Australia

answer: 1

question: How old was media personality Bert Newton when he died on October ?

option: 83

answer: 1

question: What was the name of Shelley Long’s character in the US television situation comedy series Cheers?

option: Diane Chambers

answer: 1

question: What name is given to an arrangement of five things in a square or rectangle with one at each corner and one in the middle?

option: Quincunx

answer: 1

question: Over how many metres is the annual Stawell Gift, Australia’s richest footrace, contested?

option: 120

answer: 1

question: What is the middle name of former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd?

option: Michael

answer: 1

question: A lustrum is a period of how many years?

option: Five

answer: 1

question: Name the Puerto Rican gang in the musical West Side Story.

option: Sharks

answer: 1

question: Name the President of France.

option: Emmanuel Macron

answer: 1

question: Queen Anne’s Revenge was the flagship of which famous pirate?

option: Blackbeard

answer: 1

question: “Fax” is an abbreviated form of which word?

option: Facsimile

answer: 1

question: Beginning with D, which word is the direct opposite of utopia?

option: Dystopia

answer: 1

question: On the set of which film being made in New Mexico did actor Alec Baldwin recently fire a prop gun killing the cinematographer?

option: Rust

answer: 1

question: Mombasa is the chief port of which African country?

option: Kenya

answer: 1

question: Stop! In the Name of Love was a hit for which US group?

option: The Supremes

answer: 1

question: Name the four different swimming styles in a medley race.

option: Backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle

answer: 1

question: What was the surname of the title character in the US television series Ugly Betty?

option: Suarez

answer: 1

question: Who played Tony Manero in the film Saturday Night Fever?

option: John Travolta

answer: 1

question: What is the fifth sign of the zodiac?

option: Leo

answer: 1

question: In which Australian state is the tourist destination of Monkey Mia?

option: Western Australia

answer: 1

question: In which year did US singer Michael Jackson die in Los Angeles?

option: 2009

answer: 1

question: Which US rapper once said: “My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live”?

option: Kanye West (now known as Ye)

answer: 1

question: What does a bibliophile collect?

option: Books

answer: 1

question: The tumbrel, a conveyance which carried condemned prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution, had how many wheels?

option: Two

answer: 1

question: Who wrote the Inspector Morse books?

option: Colin Dexter

answer: 1

question: What is the capital city of Hungary?

option: Budapest

answer: 1

question: Which planet has the most surface gravity?

option: Jupiter

answer: 1

question: In which year was the United Nations founded?

option: 1945

answer: 1

question: Paddington Bear likes what kind of sandwiches?

option: Marmalade

answer: 1

question: On which day of the week does Christmas Day fall this year?

option: Saturday

answer: 1

question: Name the Governor of South Australia.

option: Frances Adamson

answer: 1

question: Most people have how many pairs of ribs?

option: 12

answer: 1

question: Who is the federal Minister for Health and Aged Care?

option: Greg Hunt

answer: 1

question: Alphabetically, which is the first of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

option: Donatello

answer: 1

question: Sn is the symbol for which chemical element?

option: Tin

answer: 1

question: Dexter was the robot in which Australian television game show?

option: Perfect Match

answer: 1

question: Mt Fuji, the tallest peak in Japan, is on which island?

option: Honshu

answer: 1

question: What is the middle name of Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter stories?

option: Bilius

answer: 1

question: Which US president was involved in the Watergate scandal?

option: Richard Nixon

answer: 1

question: How old was the Queen when she was crowned in ?

option: 27

answer: 1

question: In which year were postcodes introduced in Australia?

option: 1967

answer: 1

question: Who wrote the book The Da Vinci Code?

option: Dan Brown

answer: 1

question: What were the first names of oil tycoon J. R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, in the television series Dallas?

option: John Ross

answer: 1

question: How many sides of an isosceles triangle have equal lengths?

option: Two

answer: 1

question: What was the name of the command module during the Apollo moon mission in 1969?

option: Columbia

answer: 1

question: What is per cent of 9000?

option: 2700

answer: 1

question: How many syllables are in the word “superficiality”?

option: Seven

answer: 1