Paranoid 6teen Trivia Quiz

Answer: No

While a dog or cat can live into its teens (although in the case of dogs, it depends on the breed as some large dog breeds are short-lived), hamsters are very short-lived pets. The average lifespan of a Syrian hamster is 18-36 months, so don't expect to see any teenage hamsters.

In fact, the Guinness World Record for the world's oldest pet hamster is held by a 4.5-year-old hamster who lived in the UK, while some wild hamsters have been reported as living up to the age of eight.

Answer: Tennis

The word 'sixteen' only has one N in it, while the word 'tennis' has two, so it is not possible to make the word 'tennis' from the word 'sixteen'.

Random tennis factoid: tennis balls used to be white until the colour was changed in 1986. The reason they're a bright yellow colour now is because yellow balls showed up more easily on television than white ones.

Answer: Lesley Gore

Lesley Gore was born Lesley Goldstein in New York in 1946 and had her first Number One hit with 'It's My Party' in 1963 while still in high school. She also recorded a follow-up of sorts, 'Judy's Turn to Cry', Judy being the girl who stole the singer's boyfriend Johnny in 'It's My Party'.

Her other hits include 'She's a Fool', 'Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows' and 'You Don't Own Me', and she also wrote songs for the soundtrack of 'Fame'. She came out as a lesbian in 2005, having been in a relationship with jewellery designer Lois Sasson for several years.

She died of cancer in 2015.

Answer: The Moon

Before Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon in real life, Hergé sent Tintin there nearly two decades earlier. 'Destination Moon' was serialised in 'Tintin' magazine from 1950 to 1952, and published as a volume in 1953. It is the first of a two-part arc about Tintin going to the Moon, accompanied by Captain Haddock, Snowy, Thompson and Thomson, Professor Calculus and Frank Wolff, a Syldavian engineer (and, unbeknownst to Tintin, Colonel Jorgen, his old enemy from 'King Ottokar's Sceptre'). In 'Destination Moon', Professor Calculus is commissioned to build a spacecraft by the Syldavian government, but the mission is delayed when Calculus is forced to destroy the original rocket after it is intercepted by a foreign power, and another one has to be built. The book ends with Tintin and the crew passing out on the rocket after it takes off.

'Explorers on the Moon' is the sequel, serialised in 1952 and 1953, and tells the story of the crew's exploration of the moon, Colonel Jorgen's spying attempts - having been brought on board by Wolff - and Wolff's subsequent heroic sacrifice to save oxygen for the return journey. A video game based on the books, 'Tintin on the Moon', was released in 1987.

Answer: 4

A square root is a number that is multiplied by itself in order to get a square. In the case of 16, it is 4 multiplied by 4, so 4 is the square root. 3 and 5 do not go into 16. 8 does go into 16, but you have to multiply it by a different number (2) to get 16, so it is not the square root of 16.

5 is the square root of 25, 3 is the square root of 9 and 8 is the square root of 64.

Answer: Wax

Although sixteenth anniversaries are less celebrated than other milestone years such as 25 (silver) or 40 (ruby), there is a type of gift associated with sixteen years of marriage - wax. The idea behind the wax anniversary is that the happy couple are 'still burning' for each other, like a wax candle.

Naturally, the most common wax gifts are candles or seals. Nowadays, silver holloware (vessels such as sugar bowls or milk jugs) is a modern alternative to wax for the sixteenth wedding anniversary.

Answer: Egypt

The sixteenth parallel is sixteen degrees north of the Equator, and runs through the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. One of the Asian countries it crosses is Vietnam; the parallel was used to divide the country in half after the Second World War, with the Chinese military administration claiming North Vietnam and the British claiming South Vietnam. In the Chadian-Libyan War of 1978 to 1987, the sixteenth parallel was known as the Red Line and used to divide Chad between the Libyan-controlled north and the Chadian and French-controlled south.

Egypt is further north than the other countries and lies above the sixteenth parallel.

Answer: Tennessee

Tennessee, originally known as the Southwest Territory, joined the Union on 1st June 1796. It is divided into three Grand Divisions: East, Middle and West. While Tennessee was on the Confederate side in the American Civil War, East Tennessee had a large Unionist contingent, and even petitioned to secede from Tennessee and become a state in its own right, via the East Tennessee Convention.

There had previously been an unsuccessful attempt to form a separate state in East Tennessee known as Franklin; one of the leaders involved was Andrew Johnson, who would later succeed Abraham Lincoln as president.

Answer: The Tower

The Tower is the sixteenth card of the Major Arcana, the picture cards. It is called the House of G-d in the Tarot de Marseilles, Misery or Prison in the Etteilla Tarot, and the Blasted Tower in the Golden Dawn Tarot. Some earlier tarot decks do not contain a Tower card.

It usually features a tower being struck by lightning (it is called 'La Foudre', or 'The Lightning', in some Belgian decks), sometimes with people falling out of it. It is commonly associated with upheaval, calamity and ruin, and in some media, a character drawing it means something bad will happen to them.

Answer: The Sound of Music

'Sixteen Going on Seventeen' is a song from 'The Sound of Music' that is sung by Liesl, the oldest of the von Trapp children, and Rolf, a messenger who is a year older. Rolf later becomes a Nazi, following the Anschluss with Germany. Liesl and Maria sing a reprise of the song in the second act, when they talk about Liesl getting married in the future.

In the film version, the song is filmed in a gazebo in Salzburg, Austria, and it is a popular tourist spot with 'Sound of Music' fans.

Answer: Sarah J. Maas

Sarah J. Maas is an American writer who started out writing 'Sailor Moon' fanfiction. 'Throne of Glass', originally titled 'Queen of Glass', is the first in the fantasy series of the same name and is based on 'Cinderella', with the heroine, Celaena Sandorien, being an assassin rather than a servant. Maas wrote most of it aged sixteen and posted the first few chapters on FictionPress, a writing website; it was removed once Maas published the novel. Maas' other series included 'A Court of Thorns and Roses', based on 'Beauty and the Beast', and 'Crescent City'.

Answer: Molly Ringwald

Molly Ringwald played Sam Baker, a teenage girl whose family ignore her sixteenth birthday because her older sister Ginny (Blanche Baker) is getting married. She has a crush on a senior, Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), whose girlfriend Caroline cheats on him with geek Ted (Anthony Michael Hall). Jake and Sam eventually get together and he gives her a cake with sixteen candles. The film caused some controversy due to the character Long Duk Dong, a Chinese exchange student played by Japanese-American actor Gedde Watanabe, as it was felt to be a racist stereotype.

Ringwald also appeared in 'Pretty in Pink' and 'The Breakfast Club'.

Answer: Panic at the Disco - 'A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me"'

'U16 Girls' is the second single from the Scottish band Travis' first album, 'Good Feeling'. 'Sweet Little Sixteen' is a 1958 song by Chuck Berry that reached Number 2 on the 'Billboard' Hot 100, and was also covered by the Beatles; the Beach Boys repurposed the melody for 'Surfin' USA'. 'Sixteen Tons' is an American folk song about coal mining, written by Merle Travis; the most well-known version is Tennessee Ernie Ford's 1955 version, which was actually a B-side for 'You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry'.

'A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me"' is actually by Fall Out Boy and is on their second album 'From Under the Cork Tree'.

Answer: France

Louis XVI of the House of Bourbon was the King of France at the time of the French Revolution, and married to the Austrian duchess Marie Antoinette, of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. He was crowned in 1774 and deposed in 1792, when he was arrested, imprisoned in the Temple fortress and stripped of his titles, and made to call himself Louis Capet. Louis was found guilty of treason and guillotined on 21st January 1793. Marie Antoinette was also tried for high treason and guillotined several months later.

Their daughter Marie-Thérèse, later Duchess of Angoulême, was the only one of their four children to survive the French Revolution; the other three died of various illnesses.

Answer: Zoroastrianism

In the Avesta, the Zoroastrian religious texts, there are sixteen good lands (asah) and countries (sōiθra) created by Ahura Mazda, the creator and god of the sky. They are Airyanem Vejah, Gava, Mouru, Bahdi, Nisai, Haroiva, Vakereta, Urva, Khnenta, Harakhvaiti, Haetumant, Ragha, Chakhra, Varena, Hapta Hendu, and Rangha.

In each good land or country, Angra Mainyu - Ahura Mazda's evil counterpart - created various pests, monsters and weather conditions, such as his son Azhi Dahaka, a giant serpent, locusts, winter and so on. Attempts have been made to map the good lands and countries onto real-world locations in western Asia, such as Margiana (in Merv, Turkmenistan) and Herat in Afghanistan.

Answer: Sulphur

Sulphur is a chemical element famous for its bright yellow colour and smell of rotten eggs; various nasty-smelling scents, such as skunk scent and halitosis, are caused by organosulphur compounds, and it is nicknamed 'the smelly' in Ayurvedic medicine.

In the olden days, it was known as 'brimstone', and in the Bible, Hell is strongly associated with the smell of sulphur. When it is burned, it gives off a dark red liquid and burns with a blue flame. In modern industry, it is mainly used to make sulphuric acid for oil refining and the production of fertilisers and pesticides; it is also used in skin treatments for humans and animals.

Answer: Sergio Aguero

Sergio Agüero came to Manchester City from Atletico Madrid in 2011 and stayed there for ten years. During that time, he became City's then all-time top goalscorer with 184 goals, including the goal against Queen's Park Rangers that won City the title at the last minute in 2012, when they went above Manchester United on goal difference. Sadly, after he signed for Barcelona on a free in 2021, Agüero's career was cut short due to heart problems, and he retired at the age of 33.

When Argentina won the 2022 World Cup, he came on the pitch with them in full kit to celebrate.

Answer: Treehouse of Horror

The first 'Treehouse of Horror' episode was the third episode of the second season, and the sixteenth episode overall. It has three mini-episodes: 'Bad Dream House', 'Hungry Are the Damned' and 'The Raven'. In 'Bad Dream House', the family move into a haunted house built on a Native American burial ground, and the house finds the Simpsons so unbearable it self-destructs. In 'Hungry Are the Damned', they are abducted by aliens and Lisa worries that the aliens will eat them, only for the aliens to reveal that they had genuinely invited the Simpsons to a feast and send them home in disgust. 'The Raven' is a reading of the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same name by Lisa, with Homer as the narrator and Bart as the Raven.

The 'Treehouse of Horror' Halloween specials would later become a regular 'Simpsons' fixture.

Answer: Final Fantasy

'Final Fantasy XVI' was initially released for the Playstation 5 and is set in the twin continents of Valisthea, home to six countries which each have their own Eikon (this game's name for summons, a recurring element of 'Final Fantasy' games). Clive Rosfield is the player protagonist and the older brother of Joshua, a Dominant (a human who acts as an Eikon vessel). Shiva, Ramuh and Bahamut are all Eikons in the game: Shiva, a pale woman in blue and white, is the Eikon of Ice; Ramuh, a skeletal old man in black, is the Eikon of Thunder; and Bahamut, a silver wyvern, is the Eikon of Light.

Although 'Final Fantasy XVI' had been in development since 2015, its development was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the game staff needed to work remotely.

Answer: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is one of the world's largest landlocked countries and has borders with China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It became independent from the USSR on 16th December 1991, and 16th December was subsequently designated as Independence Day, a national holiday.

The president awards distinguished Kazakh citizens with honours at the Aqorda Presidential Palace, and celebrations take place around the country, with fireworks, yurts serving local delicacies and parades. The Astana Opera also holds special concerts.