Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A capital that sits high above the rest

Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, lies on the Caledon River, right on the border with South Africa. What makes it unusual is its altitude: the city sits at roughly 1,600 metres above sea level, making it one of the highest capital cities in the world. Lesotho itself is entirely surrounded by South Africa, one of the few countries in the world that is completely landlocked within a single other nation.

The river that drains a continent

The Amazon carries more water than any other river on Earth, and its basin covers a vast share of South America. French Guiana, an overseas department of France, lies on its northern coast and forms part of the river's wider region. The river's many tributaries spread across several countries, which is why questions about it rarely have just one simple answer.

Atwood's dystopia that keeps resonating

Margaret Atwood published The Handmaid's Tale in 1985, imagining a theocratic United States renamed Gilead. The novel has never really left the cultural conversation: it became a celebrated television series decades later, and its themes of power and bodily autonomy still spark debate. Atwood has long resisted calling it pure science fiction, noting that every element has a real-world precedent.

Shakespeare, and the stories he borrowed

Othello was written by William Shakespeare, probably around 1603, and draws on an Italian tale by Cinthio. Like many of his plays, it transforms an existing story into something far richer, adding the scheming Iago and the tragic downfall of a noble general. Shakespeare rarely invented plots from scratch; his genius lay in the language and psychology he layered onto familiar material.