Q20 · THE QUIZ POST
The Daily Quiz — 23 August 2026
Play the The Quiz Post quiz for 23 August 2026: 20 free general-knowledge questions covering Film & TV, Food & Drink, Science and Society & Culture, with explanations and crowd results.
About this edition
This 20-question The Quiz Post edition was published for 23 August 2026. Answer all four-option questions to reveal sourced explanations and see how other players answered.
Topics in this edition include Film & TV, Food & Drink, Science and Society & Culture.
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)
Film & TV · Easy
1. Which British film follows an illicit romance between Laura and Alec after a railway-station meeting?
David Lean's Brief Encounter stars Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.
UK · Medium
2. Who became the first woman to take her seat as an MP in the House of Commons?
Nancy Astor took her seat in 1919; Markievicz had been elected earlier but did not sit.
Food & Drink · Medium
3. In a Devon-style cream tea, what traditionally goes onto the scone first?
The Devon tradition puts cream on first, with jam on top.
Technology · Hard
4. Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web while working at which research organisation?
Berners-Lee proposed the Web at CERN in 1989 to help share information.
Science · Medium
5. The Mohs scale ranks minerals by their resistance to what?
Mohs hardness is a mineral's relative resistance to scratching. A harder reference material scratches a softer one, making the scale useful for field identification.
Nature · Medium
6. Axolotls can become reproductive adults while keeping larval features such as external gills. What is this trait called?
The trait is neoteny: an animal reaches reproductive maturity while retaining juvenile or larval characteristics rather than completing the usual metamorphosis.
Geography · Medium
7. Which sea is unusual because it has no land boundary and is defined instead by Atlantic Ocean currents?
The Sargasso Sea is bounded by major North Atlantic currents rather than coastlines, including the Gulf Stream to its west.
Technology · Easy
8. QR codes were first adopted widely by which industry in Japan?
DENSO WAVE released the QR Code in 1994. Its early large-scale adoption came in Japan's automotive industry, where it was used in electronic Kanban and production logistics.
Music · Easy
9. Which electronic instrument is played by moving your hands near two antennas without touching it?
The theremin is controlled without physical contact. One antenna controls pitch and the other volume as the player's hands move through their electromagnetic fields.
Arts · Medium
10. The French art term trompe l'oeil literally means what?
Trompe l'oeil means 'deceive the eye'. The technique uses convincing visual illusion to make painted objects or spaces appear real.
Literature · Medium
11. Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. introduced which now-common word for an artificial worker?
Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R. introduced the word 'robot' to a wide audience. The term came from a Czech root associated with forced labour or drudgery.
History · Medium
12. William Henry Perkin discovered the purple dye mauve while trying to synthesise which medicine?
In 1856, the teenage Perkin was attempting to synthesise quinine, then an important malaria treatment. His failed experiment unexpectedly yielded a purple dye, helping launch the synthetic dye industry.
Food & Drink · Medium
13. What gas forms the characteristic 'eyes' in Swiss-style cheese during fermentation?
In Swiss-style cheeses, fermentation produces carbon dioxide. Pockets of this gas form the round openings traditionally called eyes.
Business & Economics · Hard
14. Which inequality measure equals 0 under perfect income equality and 1 under perfect inequality?
The Gini coefficient summarises inequality on a scale from 0 to 1: zero represents perfect equality and one represents complete inequality.
Society & Culture · Easy
15. In Japan, a torii gate traditionally marks the entrance to a sacred area associated with which religion?
A torii is a gateway that marks entry into sacred space, most characteristically at a Shinto shrine, separating sacred precincts from the everyday world.
Sport · Medium
16. In épée fencing, which part of the opponent is a valid target?
Unlike foil and sabre, épée treats the entire body as valid target area, including the fencer's clothing and equipment.
Film & TV · Hard
17. The 'Rashomon effect', describing conflicting accounts of the same event, takes its name from a film directed by whom?
Akira Kurosawa directed Rashomon (1950), whose contradictory eyewitness accounts became so influential that 'Rashomon effect' entered use for conflicting versions of the same event.
Society & Culture · Hard
18. Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian all belong to which language family?
Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are all members of the Uralic language family, despite being spoken in geographically separated parts of Europe.
Current Affairs · Easy
19. Which rail brand gained approval in August 2026 for future international services from London?
The rail regulator announced pre-approval of Virgin Trains' international track-access agreement on 17 August.
Science · Medium
20. A late-stage trial announced on 19 August found a personalised mRNA vaccine plus Keytruda reduced recurrence and spread of which cancer?
Moderna and Merck reported that their personalised mRNA cancer vaccine, used with Keytruda, significantly reduced recurrence and metastasis in high-risk melanoma patients in a late-stage trial.