Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

The planet with a deadly embrace

Venus is often called Earth's twin because the two planets are similar in size and mass, but the resemblance stops there. Its atmosphere is almost entirely carbon dioxide, and the surface pressure is roughly 90 times greater than at sea level on Earth - comparable to being about a kilometre deep in the ocean. Soviet Venera probes that landed there in the 1970s and 1980s survived only about an hour before being crushed or cooked.

Olympus Mons and the limits of geology

Mars is home to Olympus Mons, the tallest known volcano in the solar system. It rises roughly 22 kilometres above the surrounding plains, making it about two and a half times the height of Everest. Because Mars has no plate tectonics like Earth, the same volcanic hotspot kept erupting in one place for millions of years, allowing the mountain to grow to a size that would be impossible on our own planet.

A short, violent novel that gave English a new word

Anthony Burgess published "A Clockwork Orange" in 1962, narrated by a teenage delinquent named Alex in a invented slang called Nadsat. The book's title and its central idea - that forcing someone to be good may destroy their capacity to choose - turned "clockwork orange" into a phrase for something organic made mechanical. Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film adaptation made the story famous, and controversial, far beyond its original readership.

The vegetable dish that changes with the season

Ratatouille comes from Provence, in southern France, and is essentially a summer vegetable stew. Classic versions combine tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, onions and garlic, often cooked separately before being brought together so each vegetable keeps its texture. The dish is sometimes served hot, sometimes at room temperature, and the 2007 Pixar film of the same name introduced it to a whole new audience.

The Yeti: folklore, footprints and evidence

The Yeti belongs to Himalayan folklore, where it is described as a large, ape-like creature said to live in the high mountains. Western interest exploded in the 1950s after reported sightings and photographs of large footprints, and expeditions have since recovered hair and bone samples. Genetic testing of those samples has so far identified known animals such as bears, leaving the Yeti firmly in the realm of legend rather than zoology.