QUIZ - 140

How well do you know the events of 2014? Take these 14 questions to find out.

1)      Year 2014 will be most remembered for 2 types of crashes – airplanes and crude price. Malaysian Airlines lost 2 planes, one mysteriously and the other shot down by Russian supported Ukrainian rebels. Air Asia lost a plane in a thunderstorm. Crude oil price plummeted by more than 50% to $60 per barrel. The two came together in a deadly cocktail when the CEO of an oil refining company was killed in an air crash in Russia. Name the company and the CEO.

2)      The deadly Ebola virus scared the guts out of people, as the toll mounted in the impoverished West African country of Sierra Leone. While doctors and nurses fought the virus valiantly and earned the “Person of the Year” accolade from Time magazine, it was another rare and less known disease that captured people’s imagination in Social Media through the Ice Bucket challenge. Name this disease.

3)      The sporting spectacle of the year was undoubtedly the Football world cup in Brazil. While eyebrows went up when the host nation got a 1-7 thrashing of their lives at the feet of Germany in the semifinal, what set the tongues wagging was the bite of Uruguayan Luis “Dracula” Suarez. Name the Italian player he bit on the shoulder.

4)      Uber, the ride-sharing service, which threatened to disrupt the way people hire taxis fell afoul of regulators across the world as it got its wheels mired in one controversy after another. Name the CEO of the company, valued currently at over $40 billion, and whose top executive famously threatened to dig up dirt of its critics.

5)      Outer Space was back in the news in 2014 as NASA successfully tested Orion, which will be the forerunner of manned space exploration in future. But what took our breath away was the mathematics behind the precise landing of European Space Agency’s probe on a comet, 10 years after leaving the Earth. Name the probe and the comet.

6)      Ferguson, a small town in Missouri, USA, burned when a white police officer fatally shot down a black teenager. Riots broke out again when the jury refused to indict the cop, who finally quit. Name the cop and the victim.

7)      #BringBackOurGirls was a twitter campaign to express widespread condemnation and outrage against the kidnapping of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls by an armed group Boko Haram. While a little more than 50 girls escaped from their abductors, many continue to languish in captivity. Name the northeastern town of Nigeria, where this shocking incident happened.

8)      2014 was the year when the US economy staged a smart recovery. Name the first woman chief of the Federal Reserve who is widely being given credit for this bounce back.

9)      A gigantic cruise liner that ran aground in 2012 was refloated this year as part of a salvage operation that is the largest ever attempted costing $1.5 billion. Name this Italian cruise ship.

10)  Russian President Vladimir Putin earned the wrath of Western Europe and USA by annexing Crimea from Ukraine after a sham referendum. Name the capital and the largest city of Crimea.

11)  The gentle world of cricket was plunged into profound grief as a young and upcoming Australian cricketer, Phillip Hughes, was fatally felled on the field by a ball that struck him behind his ear. Who bowled this lethal ball?

12)  2014 was a bloody year with escalating conflict in Gaza and Al-Shabab massacres in Kenya. But the Jehadi group of ISIS took barbarism to new lows by beheading journalists. Name the first such US journalist to be beheaded.

13)  Hackers, allegedly backed by North Korea, unleashed a cyberwar on Sony following their production of a movie showing the assassination of the North Korean dictator. Sony initially backed off, but at the behest of President Obama, the film “The Interview” was released on Christmas Day. Who directed this film?

14)  2014 had its fair share of the adventures and misadventures of celebrities. Nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence were leaked and Kim Kardashian posed nude for a magazine cover. But which celebrity movie star made our jaws drop by her facelift?