Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A god with two very different sides

Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and festivity, was far more than a patron of parties. He was also associated with theatre, ecstatic ritual and the unsettling idea of losing oneself completely. His followers, the maenads, were said to dance themselves into a frenzy. The Romans adopted him as Bacchus, and his double nature - joy and chaos - has fascinated artists from Euripides to Nietzsche.

Why blue and yellow make green

Mixing blue and yellow paint gives green because pigments work by subtraction: each pigment absorbs some wavelengths of light and reflects others. Blue paint reflects mainly blue light, yellow paint reflects mainly yellow, and together they leave green as the dominant reflected colour. This is why green is so easy to mix but so hard to match exactly - a tiny shift in proportion changes the shade noticeably.

The Sahel: a belt of transition

Sudan lies partly within the Sahel, the semi-arid strip that runs across Africa between the Sahara desert to the north and the savannas to the south. The word comes from Arabic and means "shore" or "coast", evoking an ocean of sand. Rainfall in the Sahel is highly variable, and the region has experienced severe droughts, making it a focus of study on climate, desertification and human adaptation.

The ears do more than hear

The sense of balance is located in the ear - specifically in the inner ear, where the vestibular system sits. Three fluid-filled semicircular canals detect rotation of the head, while other structures sense gravity and linear movement. The cerebellum also plays a key role in coordinating balance and movement, but the sensory organs themselves are in the ear. This is why inner ear infections can cause dizziness and vertigo.

Zodiac animals that did not make the cut

The Chinese zodiac consists of twelve animals, including the monkey and the dog, but not the turtle. According to the traditional story, the animals raced across a river, and the order in which they finished determined their place in the cycle. The turtle is absent, though it appears frequently in Chinese art and mythology as a symbol of longevity and wisdom - just not in the zodiac itself.