World Quiz — 50 Questions with Answers

The Eiffel Tower stands in which city?

Answer Paris

It was built for a world's fair in 1889 and meant to come down after twenty years. What saved it was usefulness rather than beauty — it made an excellent radio aerial, and a group of prominent artists had petitioned against it in vain.

The shell-shaped Opera House is the icon of which Australian city?

Answer Sydney

The design came from a Danish architect and was pulled out of the rejected pile by one judge who arrived late. He resigned before the building was finished and never returned to see it.

The Taj Mahal is in which country?

Answer India

It is a tomb rather than a palace, built for one woman by her husband. The marble takes on different colors through the day because it is slightly translucent, which is a property of the stone rather than an effect of the light alone.

Machu Picchu was built by which civilization?

Answer The Inca

The Inca, and the stonework has no mortar — blocks were shaped to fit each other so closely that a blade will not pass between them. The Spanish never found the site, which is why it survived.

Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States?

Answer France

France, and it arrived in more than two hundred crates. The pedestal it stands on was paid for separately by small donations from newspaper readers, after the official fundraising failed.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is in which country?

Answer Italy

It began to tilt during construction, only a few years in, because the ground on one side was softer. Work stopped for most of a century, and that pause is probably what kept it from falling over.

Angkor Wat is in which country?

Answer Cambodia

Cambodia, and the temple appears on the national flag — the only flag in the world with a building on it. It was built as a Hindu temple and later became Buddhist without being rebuilt.

Who designed the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona?

Answer Gaudi

Gaudí, who worked on it for forty-three years and is buried in its crypt. It is still unfinished more than a century after it began, and he is said to have remarked that his client was in no hurry.

The moai statues stand on which island?

Answer Easter Island

Easter Island. The statues were moved upright rather than dragged — experiments have walked replicas across ground using ropes and rocking. Many also have bodies buried beneath the visible heads.

The rock-carved city of Petra is in which country?

Answer Jordan

Jordan. The carved facades are what people photograph, but the real achievement was water — the Nabataeans built channels and cisterns that let a city live in a desert canyon.

Pad thai comes from which country?

Answer Thailand

Thailand, and it is younger than it looks: a government campaign in the mid-twentieth century promoted it as a national dish, partly to shift consumption from rice to noodles. National cuisines are sometimes decisions.

Paella, the saffron rice dish, is from which country?

Answer Spain

Spain, specifically Valencia. The traditional version has rabbit, chicken and beans rather than seafood, and the version with prawns that spread worldwide is a coastal variant that came later.

Fish and chips is the classic dish of which country?

Answer Britain

Britain, and the two halves have separate histories — fried fish arrived with Jewish immigrants and chips came from elsewhere, and the pairing dates to the 1860s. It was deliberately left off rationing during the Second World War.

Pho, the beef noodle soup, comes from which country?

Answer Vietnam

Vietnam, from the north in the early twentieth century. One account traces part of it to a French stew, which would make the country's most identifiable dish partly a product of the colonial period.

Tacos and burritos come from which country?

Answer Mexico

Mexico. One of the best-known kinds is a direct descendant of shawarma, brought by Lebanese immigrants and adapted with pork and pineapple — the vertical spit gives it away.

Masala chai, the spiced milk tea, comes from which country?

Answer India

India, and tea drinking there was promoted by the industry that grew it under British rule. The spiced, milky version is the local answer to that campaign rather than the thing the campaign was selling.

Espresso was born in which country?

Answer Italy

Italy, and it is a method rather than a bean or a roast — pressure forcing hot water through finely ground coffee. That is the most common misunderstanding about it.

What is the green, sharp condiment served with sushi?

Answer Wasabi

Wasabi, though most of what is served under the name is horseradish with mustard and coloring. The real thing is a rhizome grated fresh, and its heat starts fading within minutes.

Borscht, the red beet soup, is a signature dish of which country?

Answer Ukraine

Ukraine, and in 2022 the dish was added to a list of cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding — an unusual case of a recipe being treated as something a war could destroy.

The kebab is generally credited to which country?

Answer Turkey

Turkey. The rotating vertical version has a name that simply means turning, and it traveled outward from there to become one of the most widespread street foods in Europe.

'Bonjour' is a greeting in which language?

Answer French

French. It is literally good day, and the parallel construction exists in most Romance languages — the greeting is a wish about the day rather than an address to the person.

What does the Spanish word 'gracias' mean?

Answer Thank you

Thank you. The word shares a root with grace and gratitude, which is why it looks familiar to speakers of several European languages who have never studied Spanish.

Which language has the most native speakers in the world?

Answer Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese, by native speakers. English has more speakers in total once second-language learners are counted, so the two questions have different answers and are often confused.

'Aloha' is the famous greeting of which place?

Answer Hawaii

Hawaii, and the word carries hello, goodbye and love at once. It is one of the more cited examples of a word whose meaning is a relationship rather than a message.

What is the official language of Brazil?

Answer Portuguese

Portuguese, and Brazil has far more speakers of it than Portugal does — the great majority of Portuguese speakers in the world are Brazilian, which is not what the name suggests.

'Danke' means thank you in which language?

Answer German

German. It is short for something longer meaning I thank, which is why the reply so often extends it rather than answering it.

Which of these is NOT an official language of Switzerland?

Answer Spanish

Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. The fourth is spoken by well under one percent of the population and is protected for that reason rather than despite it.

The greeting 'namaste' is accompanied by which gesture?

Answer Palms pressed together

Palms pressed together at the chest. The word itself means a bowing to you, so the gesture is not an accompaniment — it is what the word describes.

What is the official language of Egypt?

Answer Arabic

Arabic. The Egyptian variety is the one most widely understood across the Arab world, largely because of the reach of the country's film and television industry over the twentieth century.

'Arigato' means thank you in which language?

Answer Japanese

Japanese, and the word is a shortening of a longer phrase meaning something like this is difficult to exist — an expression of how rare the kindness was, rather than a direct thanks.

Rio de Janeiro's samba carnival is in which country?

Answer Brazil

Brazil. The parade is a competition between neighborhood schools with judges and scores, and a school can be relegated to a lower division — the festival has a league table.

Which Italian city of canals is famous for its masked carnival?

Answer Venice

Venice, where masks once allowed people to move between social classes anonymously for months at a time. That freedom is exactly why the practice was eventually restricted by law.

Oktoberfest celebrates what, above all?

Answer Beer

Beer, and the festival began in 1810 as the celebration of a royal wedding. Most of it now takes place in September despite the name, because the weather is better.

The Day of the Dead, with its painted skulls, belongs to which country?

Answer Mexico

Mexico, and it is not a variant of Halloween despite the timing and the skulls. The occasion is a welcome rather than a mourning: the dead are expected, and food is set out for them.

Songkran, the new-year water fight, is celebrated in which country?

Answer Thailand

Thailand. The water began as a gentle gesture of blessing poured over the hands of elders, and the citywide water fight is a recent amplification of something originally quiet.

Holi, the festival of colored powder, comes from which country?

Answer India

India. The colored powder is thrown by everyone at everyone, which is the point — the festival suspends the ordinary rules about who may approach whom.

Which rugby nation performs the haka before matches?

Answer New Zealand

New Zealand. The specific one performed before matches has a documented origin and a composer, which is often lost in the description of it as simply a war dance.

Flamenco is the signature dance of which country?

Answer Spain

Spain, from Andalusia, and it grew out of the Roma communities there in combination with several other traditions. The hand clapping is a percussion instrument rather than applause.

Tango was born in which country?

Answer Argentina

Argentina, though Uruguay has an equal claim and the two countries were jointly recognized when the dance was listed as cultural heritage. It began in port districts on both sides of the river.

What are the Russian nesting dolls called?

Answer Matryoshka

Matryoshka. The first set was made in the 1890s and may have been inspired by a nested Japanese figure, which would make the most Russian of souvenirs partly an import.

Which of these countries does NOT use the euro?

Answer Switzerland

Switzerland, which is not in the European Union and keeps its own franc. Several EU members also do not use the euro, so the two memberships are separate questions.

What is the currency of India?

Answer The rupee

The rupee, and several neighboring countries use a currency of the same name that is not the same money — Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal each have their own.

'Saudade', the famously untranslatable word for longing, belongs to which language?

Answer Portuguese

Portuguese. It names a longing for something absent that may never have existed, and its reputation as untranslatable is somewhat overstated — what is unusual is how central it is to the culture that has it.

Which is the largest country in the world by area?

Answer Russia

Russia, and by a wide margin — it spans eleven time zones. The second-largest country is less than half its size.

Which Japanese word for paper folding became a global term?

Answer Origami

Origami. The word joins folding and paper, and the classical tradition uses one uncut square, which is a constraint that turns the practice into a geometry problem.

What is the traditional Scottish men's garment called?

Answer The kilt

The kilt, and the pattern-per-clan system is largely a nineteenth-century invention rather than an ancient tradition. Highland dress was banned for decades after 1746 and revived as a fashion afterward.

Which country is called the birthplace of coffee?

Answer Ethiopia

Ethiopia, where the plant is native and where the story of a goat herder noticing his animals' energy is told — that story is folklore rather than record, and appears in writing only centuries later.

'Bollywood' refers to the film industry of which city?

Answer Mumbai

Mumbai, from its earlier name. The label is often stretched to cover all Indian cinema, which is misleading: India has several large film industries in different languages, and this is only the Hindi one.

The mirror-like Uyuni salt flat is in which country?

Answer Bolivia

Bolivia. When a thin layer of water covers it, the surface reflects the sky so completely that the horizon disappears — and satellites use it to calibrate their instruments because it is so flat.

Chess is generally traced back to which country?

Answer India

India, from a game whose name means four divisions of the army. The queen was originally one of the weakest pieces and became the strongest in Europe in the fifteenth century — the change was so noticeable that the new version was called mad queen chess.