Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A franchise that grew up alongside its fans

When Nintendo released the first Pokémon games in Japan in 1996, they arrived on the ageing Game Boy handheld. The concept of collecting, trading and battling creatures was the brainchild of Satoshi Tajiri, who had been inspired by insect collecting as a child. What began as a pair of modest cartridges - Red and Green - grew into one of the best-selling media franchises in history, spanning games, trading cards, an animated series and films.

The vitamin that does more than fight colds

Vitamin C is best known for its role in the immune system, but it also matters for wound healing. The body needs it to produce collagen, the protein that gives skin, blood vessels and connective tissue their structure. A severe shortage of vitamin C leads to scurvy, a disease once common among sailors on long voyages without fresh fruit or vegetables.

A novel that gave a voice to a generation

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun, published in 2006, is set in Nigeria during the Biafran War of the late 1960s. The novel follows several characters whose lives are torn apart by the conflict, and it won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007. Adichie has since become one of the most widely read African writers of her generation, known for both fiction and her essays on feminism and identity.

A rock ballad with a long shelf life

Guns N' Roses released November Rain in 1992, on the album Use Your Illusion I. At over eight minutes, it is one of the longest songs to have been a major chart hit, and its orchestral arrangement and elaborate music video made it a defining power ballad of the era. The song remains a staple of the band's live shows decades after its release.

A composer who defined Italian opera

Giuseppe Verdi wrote La Traviata in 1853, with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on a play by Alexandre Dumas fils. The opera tells the story of Violetta, a courtesan in Paris, and it is now one of the most performed operas in the world. Verdi's name became so associated with Italian opera that the phrase "Viva Verdi" was once used as a coded patriotic slogan during the movement for Italian unification.