Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A column with a view over the capital

Nelson's Column stands in Trafalgar Square, the London square named to commemorate Horatio Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument itself was completed in the early 1840s, with the statue of Nelson perched on top of a tall granite column. Four bronze lions, added later in the decade, guard the base. The square has long been a gathering place for celebrations and protests alike.

Prague's river and the Danube's long journey

Prague grew up along the Vltava, the river that curves through the city and is crossed by the famous Charles Bridge. The Vltava is a tributary of the Elbe, which eventually reaches the North Sea. The Danube takes a very different route: it flows through ten countries, including Hungary, where it splits Budapest into Buda and Pest. That makes it one of the most international rivers in Europe.

A chemical symbol hiding in plain sight

Yttrium is one of several elements named after Ytterby, a small village in Sweden where unusual minerals were mined in the 18th century. Its symbol is simply Y, which makes it easy to overlook on the periodic table. Yttrium is used in LED screens, lasers and superconductors, so it quietly turns up in everyday technology.

Two very different team sizes

Rugby league and rugby union look similar at a glance, but the codes differ in more than rules. A rugby league side fields 13 players, while rugby union fields 15. The split between the two codes dates back to 1895, when northern English clubs broke away over the issue of paying players for lost wages.

Dubliners and a city in words

James Joyce's Dubliners, published in 1914, is a collection of short stories about ordinary life in the Irish capital. Joyce wrote it while living abroad, yet he famously claimed that if Dublin were destroyed, it could be rebuilt from his books. The stories move from childhood to public life, closing with "The Dead", one of the most admired short stories in English.