Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A language that circled the globe

Spanish is an official language in 21 countries, a number that reflects centuries of Spanish colonial expansion, first in the Americas and later elsewhere. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers of any country, while Spain itself ranks lower on that list. In the United States, Spanish is by far the most widely taught second language, and its influence shows in place names from Los Angeles to Florida.

Faulkner and the American South

William Faulkner set much of his fiction in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional place modelled on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where he spent most of his life. "The Sound and the Fury", published in 1929, tells the story of the Compson family in four sections, each with a different narrator. The novel's title comes from a line in Shakespeare's "Macbeth", in which life is described as "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury".

Miso, a fermented staple

Miso paste is made from soybeans fermented with salt and a mould culture called koji, sometimes with rice or barley added. The result is a savoury, salty paste that gives miso soup its characteristic flavour, dissolved into dashi stock along with ingredients such as tofu and seaweed. Miso has been part of Japanese cooking for centuries, and different regions produce distinct varieties, from pale, mild shiro miso to dark, robust aka miso.

The Komodo dragon's island home

The Komodo dragon is a monitor lizard found on a handful of Indonesian islands, including Komodo, Rinca and Flores. It is the largest living lizard, with adults commonly reaching around two to three metres in length. Komodo dragons are carnivores and ambush hunters, and their bite delivers venom as well as bacteria-laden saliva. Because their range is so small, conservationists keep a close watch on wild populations.

A Roman numeral worth remembering

Roman numerals still turn up on clock faces, film credits and monument inscriptions. The system uses seven letters - I, V, X, L, C, D and M - with C standing for 100. When a smaller numeral appears before a larger one, it is subtracted, so CM means 100 before 1,000, or 900. The same logic explains IV, IX and XC.