Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A language that travelled with an empire

Spanish is the official language of Argentina, but the country's Spanish sounds noticeably different from the version spoken in Madrid. Argentine speech is shaped by a wave of Italian immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which left its mark on local intonation and vocabulary. The country's currency, the Argentine peso, has a long and turbulent history, having been redenominated and replaced several times during periods of high inflation.

Fog, hills and a harbour on the Pacific

San Francisco sits on the Pacific coast of California, on a peninsula beside a large natural bay. Its famous fog is a local weather pattern: cool ocean air meets warmer inland air, producing the low clouds that roll in through the Golden Gate. The city's steep hills and cable car system are a direct result of its hilly topography, which made ordinary streetcars impractical in the 19th century.

Bromine: a liquid element with a sharp smell

Bromine's chemical symbol is Br, taken from its name rather than its properties. It is one of only two elements that are liquid at room temperature, the other being mercury. Bromine has a deep red-brown colour and a pungent, irritating odour, which is reflected in its name, derived from a Greek word meaning "stench". It is used in flame retardants and was once common in photographic chemicals.

Desert life, and a bird that lives elsewhere

The Sahara is home to animals adapted to extreme heat and scarce water, including sand vipers and desert foxes such as the fennec. Macaws, by contrast, are parrots native to Central and South America, with no natural presence in the Sahara. Their bright plumage and loud calls belong to tropical forests rather than sand seas.

Latin names that still shape the map

In Latin, Egypt was called Aegyptus, a name that passed into many European languages and survives in words like "Egyptology". The other options in that question point to different places entirely: Transylvania is a region of Romania, and Helvetia was the Latin name for the land of the Helvetii, now associated with Switzerland.