It Has to Be Silk Stockings Trivia Quiz

Answer: Galaxy

Galaxy brought back the famous slogan in 2012, and it was trademarked by Mars, who owned the brand. It is a chocolate bar with a very distinctive creamy texture and taste, and the chunks have a slightly rounded shape, rather than being blocky like Dairy Milk chunks. Caramel and cookie varieties have been on the market, as well as Minstrels (like giant brown Smarties made with Galaxy chocolate), and there is also Galaxy hot chocolate and ice cream.

Answer: King's/Queen's Counsel

A King's or Queen's Counsel (depending on the monarch in charge), or KC/QC for short, is a barrister appointed by the monarch to be 'His/Her Majesty's Counsel learned in the law'. They are senior barristers with many years of experience. 'Taking silk' comes from the silk gowns that the King's/Queen's Counsel wear in court.

They often deal with very high-profile cases in the High Court or Supreme Court.

Answer: Cindy Moon

Cindy Moon, aka Silk, is a Korean-American superheroine, created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. She first appeared in 'The Amazing Spider-Man' in 2014 and was part of the Spider-Army, a group of Spider-Men from various different timelines, and 'Agents of Atlas', along with fellow Korean-American superhero Brawn, and South Korean superheroes White Fox, Crescent and Luna Snow. Like Peter Parker, she gained her powers from being bitten by a radioactive spider.

She can shoot streams of silk from her fingers, and has a photographic memory and a powerful 'Silk Sense'. (All the other answers have been Spider-Woman at some point.)

Answer: White mulberry

The practice of breeding silkworms for silk, known as sericulture, has been going on for thousands of years, and originated in China. China is also the home of the white mulberry tree, or Morus alba, the silkworm's preferred leaf of choice, though they will eat the leaves of other mulberry trees.

As the production of silk has spread across Asia and then into other continents, so too has the cultivation of white mulberry trees. The leaves must be fresh as they are the silkworms' sole supply of moisture (they don't drink water). According to a 2009 study, it is a chemical smelling of jasmine emitted by the trees which attracts silkworms.

Answer: Sericin

The 'seri-' prefix in 'sericin' is a bit of a giveaway (think sericulture); it also contains an amino acid called serine. When a silkworm spins its silky cocoon, the silk thread is made from two proteins: fibroin, which makes up the lion's share of the material, and sericin, a gummy protein which allows fibres to stick to each other.

The elasticity and tensile strength of sericin make it handy for suturing wounds, and it is also used in cosmetics, as it is said to have good anti-ageing properties. (Pebrin isn't a real protein; it's a reference to pébrine, a disease found in silkworms.)

Answer: Samarkand

The Silk Road was not one big road, but rather, a network of routes stretching from East Asia to the Mediterranean. Samarkand was the former capital of Uzbekistan, and its location between Persia (now Iran), China and India made it an ideal trading point. Over the centuries, it passed through the hands of various conquerors, from Alexander the Great to the Turks to the Mongols. From the 6th century to the 8th century, it was also a heavily multicultural city, with Zoroastrians, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Hindus living side by side.

Incidentally, silk was not only traded on the Silk Road, it was also used as currency, due to being light and much easier to carry than heavy metal coins. Silk weaving is still a major industry in Samarkand today, and the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Answer: Dua Lipa

Dua Lipa was born in London to Albanian parents. She started out uploading covers to Youtube, and released her first single, 'Be the One', in 2015. Her self-titled debut album came out in 2017. In 2018, she teamed up with Silk City - a supergroup consisting of two producers, Mark Ronson and Diplo - to release 'Electricity'.

She has also collaborated with Sean Paul and Andrea Bocelli. (Bleta 'Bebe' Rexha and Amanda Koci, aka Ava Max, are Albanian-Americans; Rita Ora is from Kosovo.)

Answer: Jockeys

Silks are the colourful shirts and helmets worn by jockeys in horse racing. No two patterns are exactly alike, and each pattern is registered to an owner or syndicate. The British Royal Family's racing silks, for example, consist of a purple body with scarlet sleeves and gold braiding. Jockeys' uniforms, as the name suggests, were originally made out of silk, but the material was too fragile and high-maintenance, so modern racing silks are now made from nylon taffeta or nylon lycra.

Answer: Cigarettes

Silk Cut cigarettes were brought onto the market in 1964, and are known for their distinctive white packaging with a coloured box on it (usually purple, but varieties in other colours exist as well). They became popular in the '70s and '80s due to their low tar content, when warnings about the dangers of smoking became more commonplace.

A limited edition design was brought out in 2014 to celebrate the brand's 50th anniversary. Before tobacco advertising became illegal in the UK, Silk Cut also sponsored the Rugby League Challenge Cup for several years, earning it the name of the Silk Cut Challenge Cup, and Jaguar XJR sports cars.

Answer: Keira Knightley

'Silk' is set in Japan during the Bakumatsu period of the mid-19th century. It tells the story of Hervé Joncour (Michael Pitt), a French silk merchant who travels to Japan to purchase silkworms, as the silk mills owned by his boss, Baldabiou, have been hit by an outbreak of pébrine.

He falls in love with a concubine known as the Girl (Sei Ashina). Keira Knightley plays Joncour's wife Hélène, a teacher who wants a garden, and who later becomes ill and dies after sending Joncour a note begging him to come back or she would die.