The Wild Headlines Quiz: Six Questions on the Week's Weirdest News

Welcome to the wild headlines quiz, a six-question check on the strangest true stories of the week. In this edition of the wild headlines quiz, a retired painter in England turns attic dust into a fortune, a festival elephant shrugs off a golden shrine, an October storm buries part of Phoenix in ice, a court hands Meta one of the largest penalties in tech history, Nigeria restricts travel over an Ebola scare, and Pitbull finally explains an old viral photo. Six questions, four options each, answers at the bottom, and no searching before you commit.

The scoring for this wild headlines quiz stays simple. Six out of six means the week was spent reading actual news. Four or five means the headlines mostly landed. Three or fewer means it is time to start reading past the headline, beginning with the stories below. No group chat lifelines, and no claiming you knew the answer after checking the key.

The questions

Same rules as every wild headlines quiz. Choose an answer before scrolling to the reveals. Every question in this wild headlines quiz comes from a story that actually broke or surfaced this week.

One. A retired painter and decorator in Woking, England, sold his forgotten Pokémon card collection at the Ewbank's auction house on Wednesday for about one point five six million pounds, roughly two million dollars. The collection had sat in his attic for fifteen years. What made him dig the cards out and check what they were worth? A) His son asked for the cards back. B) He read in his local newspaper that a single card had sold for more than six thousand pounds. C) An auctioneer knocked on his door. D) He saw a documentary about trading cards.

Two. During the Dasara procession in Shivamogga, Karnataka, the elephant Somanna threw off a six-hundred-fifty-kilogram golden howdah carrying the idol of the goddess Chamundeshwari, flipped a car, and damaged nearby buildings before officials sedated him. No deaths or injuries were reported. Why was Somanna carrying the howdah in the first place? A) He was selected from thousands of elephants to lead the main procession as a last-minute replacement for an injured elephant. B) He was the oldest elephant at the temple. C) He had carried the howdah every year for a decade. D) He was chosen by public vote.

Three. A rare October storm slammed North Phoenix on Wednesday with hail ranging from golf ball to baseball size, shattering windshields and dimpling cars across the area. According to the Phoenix Focal, a local repair shop owner estimated that fixing one hail-battered twenty twenty-three Ford Explorer would cost nearly what amount? A) Two thousand dollars. B) Five thousand dollars. C) Ten thousand dollars. D) Twenty-five thousand dollars.

Four. A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay twenty-five billion dollars in civil penalties after a jury found the company committed more than forty-three million violations of the state's consumer protection laws in connection with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. According to TheWrap's reporting, where does the penalty money go? A) It is split among Facebook users nationwide. B) It goes to New Mexico's public education system. C) It funds the state attorney general's office. D) It is returned to advertisers.

Five. Nigeria's aviation minister directed the authorities to bar forty-six people linked to the country's confirmed Ebola case from flying for how long, as reported by Vanguard? A) Seven days. B) Fourteen days. C) Twenty-one days. D) Thirty days.

Six. Pitbull finally addressed the viral twenty-eleven photo of himself and Jennifer Lopez, explaining himself in a recent interview that drew backlash online. According to Bored Panda's coverage, what did he joke that Lopez and Shakira owed him? A) A Super Bowl in Miami. B) A duet on his next album. C) An apology for twenty-eleven. D) Tickets to the World Cup.

The answers

The answers to this week's wild headlines quiz are below, with a note on where each story came from. If this wild headlines quiz leaves you wanting more, try The Word Game Quiz: Six Questions on a Wild Wordle Day, according to our earlier reporting.

One. B. The man said he had no idea the cards held any value until he read in his local paper that a single card had sold for more than six thousand pounds, Kotaku reported, citing the BBC. He had bought many of the forty-two complete sets on eBay in the late nineteen nineties, and one set he paid about three hundred pounds for fetched roughly seventy-five thousand pounds.

Two. A. Somanna was a last-minute replacement for the lead tusker Sagar, who pulled out with a leg injury, according to Zot News. It was the thirty-five-year-old elephant's first time carrying the howdah, and Karnataka's forest minister later ordered twenty to thirty days of compulsory training for elephants in future processions.

Three. C. Steve Gaines, owner of GB Service Center, told the Phoenix Focal the Explorer's repairs could approach ten thousand dollars and take about two weeks, potentially exceeding the vehicle's value. He called it some of the worst hail damage he had seen in about fifteen years. Related reading: The Sydney Wedding Hailstorm That Guests Fought With Chairs, according to our earlier reporting.

Four. B. Under New Mexico law, fines for consumer protection violations go toward public education, TheWrap reported. Meta says it will appeal the order. Related reading: The Meta Muse Launch Is What Moving Fast Looks Like Now, according to our earlier reporting.

Five. C. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo ordered the twenty-one-day flight restriction after a virtual meeting with the health minister, Vanguard reported, with the window matching the period when symptoms would normally appear. High-risk contacts were also placed under quarantine in a facility.

Six. A. Pitbull joked that Lopez and Shakira owed him a Super Bowl in Miami, signing off with his signature "Dale!", Bored Panda reported. The confession left some fans wishing he had kept the story to himself.

That is the full wild headlines quiz for this week. Six stories, six questions, and at least one reason to check the attic before the weekend. The wild headlines quiz returns next week with six more stories and one more chance to prove the week was spent paying attention.