Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

The desert that is also a continent

Antarctica is classified as a cold desert because it receives very little precipitation, and almost all of it falls as snow. It is the driest, windiest and coldest continent on Earth, and the vast majority of its surface is covered by ice. The Gobi and the Great Basin, by contrast, are examples of deserts shaped mainly by dryness rather than extreme cold.

A city of canals and sinking ground

Venice is nicknamed the Floating City because it is built across more than a hundred small islands in a lagoon, linked by bridges and canals rather than ordinary roads. Its buildings rest on wooden piles driven into the soft ground beneath the water. Flooding has long been part of life there, and the city has invested in barrier systems to hold back high tides.

Greenland and the question of scale

Greenland is the world's largest island, though Australia is often confused with it because Australia is treated as a continent rather than an island. Greenland's ice sheet covers most of its landmass, and its enormous size makes it a key subject in discussions of geography, climate and sea level. Its name is a historical curiosity, since much of the island is far from green.

Dickens and the novel as social portrait

Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield, published in instalments in the mid-nineteenth century. The novel is partly autobiographical, drawing on Dickens's own difficult childhood and his time in a factory. It follows its hero from boyhood to adulthood and offers a vivid picture of Victorian England, its class divisions, its institutions and its ordinary working lives.

The year the French Revolution began

The French Revolution began in 1789, a year that saw the meeting of the Estates-General, the storming of the Bastille and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It dismantled the old monarchy and reshaped French society along principles of citizenship and law. Its effects spread far beyond France, influencing political thought across Europe and beyond.