Society & Culture questions

Fashion, Design and Literature Life in the UK Test Questions

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Question 1 Medium

Who is the author of the famous play ‘Macbeth’?

William Shakespeare

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, written around 1606 and set in medieval Scotland.

Correct answer

Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh was a 20th-century novelist known for Brideshead Revisited, not a playwright from the Elizabethan era.

Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter was a 20th-century British playwright known for The Birthday Party, not Macbeth.

Alexander Thomas

Alexander Thomas is not a notable figure in British literary history and wrote no famous plays.

Explanation

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, written around 1606 and set in medieval Scotland.

Question 2 Medium

The Elizabethan period is known for the richness of its poetry and drama, especially for the plays and poems of which playwright?

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's plays and poems defined the richness of the Elizabethan age of drama.

Correct answer

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was a Victorian novelist, writing two centuries after the Elizabethan period.

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy was a Victorian and Edwardian novelist and poet, not Elizabethan.

Alexander Dumas

Alexander Dumas was a French novelist of the 19th century, unconnected to Elizabethan England.

Explanation

The Elizabethan period is also remembered for the richness of its poetry and drama, especially the plays and poems of William Shakespeare.

Question 3 Medium

Which Anglo-Saxon poem is about a hero’s battle against monsters and has been translated into modern English?

Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is a medieval poem by Chaucer, not Anglo-Saxon.

Braveheart

Braveheart is a 1995 film about William Wallace, not an Anglo-Saxon poem.

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is a 17th-century epic by John Milton, not Anglo-Saxon.

Beowulf

Beowulf is the Anglo-Saxon epic poem about a hero's battles against monsters, still translated today.

Correct answer

Explanation

The Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf tells of its hero’s battles against monsters and is still translated into modern English.

Question 4 Medium

Who wrote "The Daffodils"

Robert Browning

Robert Browning wrote Home Thoughts from Abroad ('Oh, to be in England now that April's there').

Lord Byron

Lord Byron wrote She Walks in Beauty ('She walks in beauty, like the night...').

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth wrote The Daffodils ('I wander'd lonely as a cloud...').

Correct answer

William Blake

William Blake wrote The Tyger ('Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright...').

Explanation

William Wordsworth wrote The Daffodils.

Question 5 Medium

Which book written by JRR Tolkien was voted the country’s best-loved novel in 2003?

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is by Jane Austen, not JRR Tolkien.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is by Jane Austen, not JRR Tolkien.

The Lord of the Rings

JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was voted the UK's best-loved novel in 2003.

Correct answer

Harry Potter

Harry Potter is by JK Rowling; Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings.

Explanation

In 2003, The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien was voted the country’s best-loved novel.

Question 6 Easy

What song is sung by people in the UK and other countries when they are celebrating the New Year?

Jingle Bells

Jingle Bells is associated with Christmas, not New Year.

White Christmas

White Christmas is a Christmas song, not a New Year tradition.

The British Anthem

The national anthem (God Save the King) is played at formal occasions, not typically at New Year.

Auld Lang Syne

Auld Lang Syne, written by Robert Burns, is sung in the UK and many countries to celebrate New Year.

Correct answer

Explanation

The song Auld Lang Syne, which is sung by people in the UK and other countries when they are celebrating the New Year (or Hogmanay as it is called in Scotland).

Question 7 Easy

The Man Booker Prize is awarded in which of the following categories?

Literature

Awarded for the best fiction novel by a Commonwealth, Irish or Zimbabwean author; first awarded 1968.

Correct answer

Music

The Mercury Prize covers music; the Brit Awards cover music categories too.

Sport

Sports honours include BBC Sports Personality of the Year, not the Booker.

Films

BAFTA covers films; the Booker is for fiction novels only.

Explanation

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded annually for the best fiction novel (literature) written by an author from the Commonwealth, Ireland or Zimbabwe. It has been awarded since 1968. Past winners include Ian McEwan, Hilary Mantel and Julian Barnes.

Question 8 Medium

What do Ian McEwan, Hilary Mantel and Julian Barnes have in common?

They won a Nobel Prize in Literature

UK Nobel laureates in literature include William Golding, Seamus Heaney and Harold Pinter.

They were awarded with the Mercury Music Prize

The Mercury Prize is given each September for the best album from the UK or Ireland.

They were awarded with the Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Awarded annually for the best fiction novel by a Commonwealth, Irish or Zimbabwean author; first given in 1968.

Correct answer

They are British sports players

McEwan, Mantel and Barnes are novelists, not sports players.

Explanation

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded annually for the best fiction novel written by an author from the Commonwealth, Ireland or Zimbabwe. It has been awarded since 1968. Past winners include Ian McEwan, Hilary Mantel and Julian Barnes.

Question 9 Medium

Which famous poem tells the story of the knights at the court of King Arthur?

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval poem about one of King Arthur's knights.

Correct answer

King Arthur and his knights

No medieval poem has this exact title; the correct work is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is a 17th-century epic by John Milton, not a medieval poem about King Arthur.

Beowulf

Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon poem about a monster-slaying hero, not set at King Arthur's court.

Explanation

Poems which survive from the Middle Ages include Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and a poem called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, about one of the knights at the court of King Arthur.

Question 10 Easy

Who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon?

Charles Dickens

Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812; Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Thomas Hardy

Hardy was born in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset; Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in 1564.

Correct answer

Jane Austen

Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire; Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Explanation

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

Question 11 Medium

Which stories are associated with Geoffrey Chaucer?

The London Tales

No work called The London Tales is associated with Chaucer; his collection is The Canterbury Tales.

The Westend Tales

No work called The Westend Tales is associated with Chaucer; his collection is The Canterbury Tales.

The Eastend Tales

No work called The Eastend Tales is associated with Chaucer; his collection is The Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, poems about pilgrims travelling to Canterbury and the stories they told.

Correct answer

Explanation

In the years leading up to 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a series of poems in English about a group of people going to Canterbury on a pilgrimage. The people decided to tell each other stories on the journey, and the poems describe the travellers and some of the stories they told. This collection of poems is called The Canterbury Tales.

Question 12 Easy

What flower did William Wordsworth write about?

Daffodil

Wordsworth's most famous poem, The Daffodils, begins 'I wander'd lonely as a cloud'.

Correct answer

Shamrock

The shamrock is Northern Ireland's national flower, not associated with Wordsworth.

Thistle

The thistle is Scotland's national flower, not a subject of Wordsworth's poetry.

Rose

The rose is England's national flower; Wordsworth wrote about daffodils.

Explanation

William Wordsworth wrote ‘The Daffodils’.

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