Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A sea ringed by more than twenty nations

The Mediterranean is often described as a sea between continents rather than within one. Its northern shore touches southern Europe, its eastern edge meets the Levant and Anatolia, and its southern coast runs along North Africa. That geography explains why so many countries - around twenty-one - hold a stretch of its coastline, from Spain and France to Libya and Lebanon.

The pop star who kept reinventing herself

Madonna's career spans four decades, and "Jump", "Give It 2 Me" and "Celebration" all belong to her later pop-dance era. What makes her unusual is not just longevity but her habit of reshaping her sound and image with each album, moving from early club pop through ballads, electronica and beyond. Few artists from the 1980s have stayed so consistently present on the charts.

Melville's whale and the whaling world behind it

Herman Melville drew on real experience for "Moby Dick": he had sailed on a whaling ship in the 1840s, and the novel reflects the industry's dangers and its strange, isolated culture. The book was not a success in his lifetime and was largely forgotten for decades before later readers reclaimed it as a landmark of American literature.

Morris dancing and the roots of English folk

Morris dancing is a traditional English folk form, performed with bells, sticks or handkerchiefs, often tied to seasonal festivals. Its exact origins are debated, but it has been documented in England for centuries and survives today through dedicated sides, or teams, who keep the dances alive in villages and towns across the country.

Tempura's unexpected origin story

Tempura is now a staple of Japanese cooking, but its name and technique are often linked to Portuguese and Spanish missionaries who arrived in Japan in the sixteenth century. They fried fish and vegetables in batter during periods of fasting, and the method took root and evolved into something distinctly Japanese.