Q20 · THE QUIZ POST
The Daily Quiz — 18 August 2026
Play the The Quiz Post quiz for 18 August 2026: 20 free general-knowledge questions covering Geography, Science, Literature and Current Affairs, with explanations and crowd results.
About this edition
This 20-question The Quiz Post edition was published for 18 August 2026. Answer all four-option questions to reveal sourced explanations and see how other players answered.
Topics in this edition include Geography, Science, Literature and Current Affairs.
Questions and sourced explanations
This archive edition remains playable. The notes below contain spoilers and provide the question text, explanatory context and source used for each item.
Read this edition’s question notes (spoilers)
Geography · Easy
1. Oslo is the capital of which country?
Oslo is the capital and largest city of Norway.
Science · Easy
2. Alveoli are tiny air sacs found in which organ?
Alveoli are microscopic air sacs in the lungs where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged with the blood.
UK · Easy
3. Skye belongs to which Scottish island group?
Skye is one of the Inner Hebrides off western Scotland.
Geography · Easy
4. Reykjavík is the capital of which country?
Reykjavík is Iceland's capital and largest city.
Literature · Medium
5. Who wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray?
Oscar Wilde wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray, his only novel.
Current Affairs · Medium
6. Researchers from which country led the team that produced a highly complete genome map of an Antarctic flowering plant?
A Chilean-led team mapped the genome of Colobanthus quitensis, a flowering plant adapted to Antarctica's extreme conditions.
Geography · Medium
7. Dartmoor National Park is in which English county?
Dartmoor is a granite upland national park in Devon.
UK · Medium
8. How many sides does a British 50p coin have?
The 50p has a curved seven-sided shape designed to roll smoothly.
Geography · Medium
9. The Adriatic Sea lies between Italy and which broad region to its east?
The Adriatic separates Italy from the Balkan Peninsula, including countries such as Croatia and Albania.
Film & TV · Medium
10. Which actor portrayed Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour?
Gary Oldman played Churchill in Joe Wright's 2017 film Darkest Hour.
Nature · Medium
11. Which animals commonly flick their tongues to deliver scent particles to the Jacobson's organ?
Snakes collect chemical particles with their forked tongues and transfer them to the vomeronasal, or Jacobson's, organ.
Science · Medium
12. What is the scientific study of earthquakes called?
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and seismic waves.
Literature · Hard
13. Leopold Bloom is the central character of which novel?
Leopold Bloom is the central figure of James Joyce's Ulysses.
Science · Hard
14. Iapetus, a moon famous for its striking light-and-dark two-tone appearance, orbits which planet?
Iapetus is a moon of Saturn with one hemisphere much darker than the other.
Current Affairs · Hard
15. Researchers at which university led a brain-imaging study reporting that dogs can distinguish emotions in human faces?
Researchers at the University of Vienna used brain scans to study how pet dogs responded to different human facial emotions.
Arts · Hard
16. Who painted The Son of Man, showing a bowler-hatted man with an apple obscuring his face?
Belgian surrealist René Magritte painted The Son of Man in 1964.
Literature · Hard
17. Which British author wrote Brave New World?
Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World appeared in 1932.
Science · Hard
18. Which physicist introduced the word quark for the elementary particles in his model?
Murray Gell-Mann introduced the quark model and borrowed the word 'quark' from James Joyce.
Society & Culture · Hard
19. Which language served as a major administrative language of the Inca Empire and remains widely spoken in the Andes?
Quechua was spread widely under the Inca and remains a major Indigenous language family in the Andes.
Music · Hard
20. Who composed The Lark Ascending?
Ralph Vaughan Williams composed The Lark Ascending, inspired by George Meredith's poem.