Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A dish that carries a city's name

Peking roast duck is tied so closely to Beijing that it is often called simply Peking duck abroad. The birds are traditionally roasted until the skin turns crisp and lacquered, then carved and served with thin pancakes, spring onions and a sweet bean or plum sauce. The dish has a long history in the city, and specialist restaurants have built entire reputations around it. It is a good reminder that some national dishes are really regional ones that travelled.

The peninsula that shaped a region

The Apennine Peninsula is the boot-shaped stretch of southern Europe that contains Italy, San Marino and Vatican City. Its spine is the Apennine mountain range, which gives the peninsula its name. Portugal, by contrast, sits on the Iberian Peninsula, alongside Spain. Two peninsulas, two very different histories, and a geography question that catches people who assume all of southern Europe is one block.

Cobalt and the trouble with old symbols

Cobalt's chemical symbol is Co, not the tempting Cb. The element takes its name from kobold, a German word for a goblin or mischievous spirit, because miners blamed the creature for the troublesome ore that yielded no useful metal. Today cobalt is essential in rechargeable batteries, magnets and alloys. Its symbol is a small lesson in how chemistry naming works: symbols often come from Latin or historical names rather than the modern English word.

A novel that almost had a different title

Of Mice and Men takes its title from a line in Robert Burns's poem To a Mouse, about how the best-laid plans of mice and men often go wrong. Steinbeck's short novel follows George and Lennie, two migrant workers chasing a farm of their own during the Great Depression. It is one of the most taught American novels, partly because its structure is so tight that almost every scene foreshadows the ending.

Fitzgerald, the chronicler of the Jazz Age

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote Tender Is the Night, a novel about a glamorous American couple drifting through Europe. He is best known for The Great Gatsby, but his later work often feels more personal and more melancholy. Fitzgerald's own life, with its sudden wealth, fame and eventual decline, became inseparable from how readers understand his fiction. His prose helped define the Jazz Age in American literature.