On the Ning Nang Nong, The Cows Go Bong Quiz

Answer: Four

Although it's often said that a cow has four stomachs, that isn't strictly true. Rather, cows have one stomach with four compartments: the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum. The different compartments are needed to digest the plants cows eat, such as grass.

The rumen contains microbes that break the food down, and when the food passes into the reticulum, the acids inside it break down any foreign bodies that may have accidentally been mixed in with the food. The omasum absorbs the moisture from the food. Finally, the abomasum - which is the compartment with the function most similar to that of the human stomach - digests protein and starch.

Answer: Hereford

Hereford cattle are originally from the county of Herefordshire, on the border of England and Wales, but have spread all over the world as one of the most popular breeds of beef cattle. It was initially exported into Kentucky in 1817, before spreading across the US and then into Mexico and South America.

Hereford cattle are hardy beasts, thanks to being accustomed to the cold damp British climate; they have distinctive red coats and white heads, and a hornless variant called the polled Hereford also exists. ('Here' is the opposite of 'there' and the car manufacturer in question is Henry Ford.)

Answer: Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock has multiple film roles - and a few production jobs as well - to her name, including 'The Blind Side', 'Speed', 'Gravity', 'Miss Congeniality', 'The Heat', and 'While You Were Sleeping'. She won multiple awards for her role in 'The Blind Side' in 2010 as Leigh Anne Tuohy, the adoptive mother of American football player Michael Oher. Of German descent, she grew up in Germany and Austria due to her father being stationed there. 'Speed', in which she played Annie Porter, a passenger on a bus with a time bomb, was her breakthrough film in 1994.

She was given a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame in 2005.

Answer: Gary Larson

Gary Larson is the brains behind 'The Far Side', a surreal cartoon strip often featuring anthropomorphic animals, historical figures, and women with beehive hairdos and glasses. Many of his cartoons feature dogs, ducks and cows. His 'Cow Tools' cartoon, published in October 1982, depicted a cow standing in front of a table laden with unusual objects, one of which vaguely resembles a saw. Larson was inspired by the idea that the ability to use tools differentiated humans from other animals. Readers of newspapers featuring 'Cow Tools' were confused by the cartoon and wrote in asking Larson what it meant. Larson responded that there was no deep meaning to the cartoon; he was simply imagining the kind of tools a cow would make if it had the ability.

Answer: Ferdinand

Ferdinand is a young bull who would rather sit under a cork tree and smell flowers than fight with other bulls. He grows up to be big and strong, but unlike the other bulls, does not dream of fighting in bull fights in Madrid. However, when a bee stings him, he charges around snorting madly and some men take him to Madrid to a bullfight.

When women throw flowers into the ring, Ferdinand is delighted and smells the flowers, refusing to fight, much to the anger of the matador. He then returns to his pasture. Various readers read all kinds of political agendas into the book and it was banned in various countries, including Fascist Spain (where it remained banned after Franco's death) and Nazi Germany (Hitler called it 'degenerate democratic propaganda'), while in the US, it was made into a Disney film in 1938.

Answer: It will rain.

Reasons for this superstition include cattle detecting increased air moisture and lying down to secure a dry patch of grass, or lying down to ease their stomachs as their stomachs are supposedly sensitive to atmospheric pressure changes. However, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that if cattle are lying down, it is going to rain. Cattle spend half their time lying down while chewing the cud, regardless of the weather, and because they are herd animals, they have a herd mentality and will mimic each other's behaviour.

Other superstitions about cattle and weather include a belief that a cow hitting its tail against a fence post means the weather will be fine, as does cattle resting on high ground.

Answer: Isle of Wight

Cowes is linked to the town of East Cowes by the Cowes Floating Bridge, a vehicular ferry that acts as a bridge and transport across the River Medina. Cowes is also the home of Cowes Week, Britain's oldest regatta, presided over by the Royal Yacht Squadron; George IV, the Prince Regent, was a big fan of yachting and joined the Squadron in 1817, when it was known as the Yacht Club. Having an actual prince in its ranks caused the Club to become the Royal Yacht Club, then the Royal Yacht Squadron, and their first race took place in 1826. Nowadays, Cowes Week takes place at the beginning of August.

It includes the Fastnet Race, a biannual event (only held in odd years) which involves rounding Fastnet Rock near Ireland, a wide variety of races featuring various kinds of boats, and a firework display on the last Friday of the festival.

Answer: Hunkpapa

The Hunkpapa (or Húnkpapha) are one of the seven bands, or fires, of the Lakota tribe and their name means 'head of the circle'. They are based in North and South Dakota. Sitting Bull (Thathanka Iyotake in Lakota) was a tribal leader who fought alongside Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota, fellow Hunkpapa commander Gall, and Two Moons and Lame White Man of the Cheyenne in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his forces were defeated. Sitting Bull had had a vision of soldiers falling upside down like grasshoppers, which his people took as an omen of victory.

He later performed with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and was shot dead in 1890 during a standoff with Indian Service agents. ('Hunkpapa' is the name of a 1989 album by the American college rock band Throwing Muses.)

Answer: Beef bourguignon

Beef bourguignon is a French dish associated with the Burgundy region, although it actually became popular in Paris bistros in the 19th century. The red wine used for the sauce is usually Burgundy wine and as well as beef, the traditional recipe also contains carrots, onions, garlic and a collection of herbs known as a bouquet garni.

It is garnished with mushrooms, bacon and pearl onions, and served with pasta or boiled potatoes. Versions of the dish using a whole roast also include lardons, strips of pork fat, threaded through the meat.

Answer: Europa

Europa was a Phoenician princess who was seduced by Zeus while he was in the form of a bull, mingling with her father's herd. The continent of Europe is named after her. Fittingly, she was descended from Io, a princess from Argos who was another of Zeus's lovers, and was transformed into a white cow, either by a jealous Hera or by Zeus as an attempt to hide her from Hera. Europa met Zeus on a beach and was afraid of him at first, but the white bull was so friendly that she ended up playing with him and garlanding him with flowers, and climbing on his back.

He carried her across the sea to Crete, where she became queen, and gave her a set of gifts: a necklace made by the god Hephaestus, a hunting dog called Laelaps who caught whatever it chased, a mechanical giant called Talos, and a javelin that never missed. Zeus also created the constellation Taurus, based on the white bull.

He and Europa had three sons together, one of whom was King Minos.

Answer: Spike Milligan

Terence 'Spike' Milligan was one of the writers and actors in 'The Goon Show', a surreal radio comedy which also featured Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers (and, initially, Michael Bentine). He also wrote multiple books, some of which were for children, and nonsense poetry. 'On the Ning Nang Nong' was one such poem, featured in the 1959 book 'Silly Verse for Kids'.

It was set to music and performed on the children's TV programme 'Play School' in Australia', and was voted the UK's favourite comic poem in a nationwide poll in 1998.

Another classic poetry book by Milligan is 'A Book of Milliganimals', which features the epic tale of the Bald Twit Lion, who lost his hair and went to great lengths to grow it back. Milligan also provided the illustrations.

Answer: Jake LaMotta

'Raging Bull' is based on the memoir of Jake LaMotta, an Italian-American middleweight boxer who was also nicknamed 'the Bronx Bull' for his vicious fighting style and physical toughness. Joe Pesci played LaMotta's brother and manager Joey, and Cathy Moriarty played his wife Vikki.

The film starts and ends with LaMotta doing a stand-up comedy routine, showing his life and boxing career in between. Martin Scorsese directed the film and watched boxing matches at Madison Square Garden for research purposes, though he was not a fan. To play LaMotta, Robert de Niro trained to box with the man himself, and ate out in Paris to gain weight for the role when playing LaMotta after he retired.

Answer: Foo Fighters

'Foo Fighters' was recorded in 1994 and released in 1995, a year after the death of Grohl's former bandmate Kurt Cobain. Initially intended to be just for fun, 'Foo Fighters' was originally a pseudonym for Grohl's solo project, as he sang, produced and played all the instruments on the album, but they became a band in their own right after Grohl signed with Capitol and needed musicians to perform live.

While he was in Nirvana, Grohl had written songs but was too self-conscious to share them with the band, as he felt Kurt Cobain was far more talented as a songwriter. 'For All the Cows' was released as a single in the UK and the Netherlands in November 1995, the third from the album (the others being 'This Is a Call', 'I'll Stick Around' and 'Big Me').

Answer: Edward Jenner

It was all thanks to a cow called Blossom that Edward Jenner discovered the anti-smallpox vaccine. At that time, smallpox was a killer disease, and Sarah Nelmes, a dairymaid, visited Jenner in 1796 with a rash on her hand, which Jenner diagnosed as cowpox. Nelmes had caught cowpox from Blossom while milking her. Jenner had heard that dairymaids were protected against smallpox by being exposed to cowpox, and he decided to test this theory by scraping some pus from Nelmes' hand and rubbing it into a scratch on the arm of James Phipps, the son of his gardener.

This technique was known as variolation. Jenner then exposed the child to smallpox by scratching his skin with a smallpox scab. He survived, and the vaccine was born, the word coming from the Latin 'vacca' for 'cow'. Blossom's hide now hangs on a wall in the library at St George's Medical School at the University of London.

Answer: Shiva

Nandi is a white bull and the mount of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and one of the three gods making up the Trimurti (Vishnu and Brahma being the other two). He is also the guardian of Mount Kailash, Shiva's home, which is located in the Tibet Autonomous Region and is also a holy site in Buddhism, Bon and Jainism.

In the stream of Hinduism practised by the Cham people of Vietnam, Nandi takes the souls of the dead to India. Many sculptures of him depicted as a bull can be found throughout the Hindu world, although he is sometimes depicted as an anthropomorphic bull with multiple arms.

His white colour represents purity. As for the other answers, Kama aka Kamadeva, the god of lustful love, rides a parrot; Vayu, the god of wind, rides a gazelle; and Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu, rides a bird-man called Garuda.

Answer: Aldebaran

Aldebaran, aka Alpha Tauri, is the brightest star in the constellation and thought to be home to a massive exoplanet known as Aldebaran B. It gets its name from the Arabic 'al dabaran', or 'the follower', as it appears to be following the Pleiades. It lies between Earth and the group of stars that make up the stellar bull's head, and can easily be spotted by stargazers on a clear night.

It is one of the stars mentioned in the Blur song 'Far Out', the only song on 'Parklife' to be sung by bassist and physics enthusiast Alex James. (As for the other answers, Spica can be found in the constellation of Virgo, the virgin; Rigel is one of the stars in Orion, the hunter; and Antares is the brightest star of Scorpius, the scorpion.)

Answer: Basketball

With their super-serious red bull mascot and red strip, the Chicago Bulls are one of the NBA's most famous teams around the world, in no small part due to their success in the '90s when Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were on their roster. The eccentric Dennis Rodman was also on the squad from 1995 to 1998. Founded in 1966, the Bulls won their first Division Championship in 1975. Over the '90s, they won multiple trophies - six Division Championships, six NBA Championships and six Conference Championships - and racked up an astonishing 72 wins in the 1995-1996 season.

However, the team went into decline in 1998 after Pippen and Jordan left, although some of their former glory was restored in the 2010-2011 season, with Derrick Rose being a key player.

Answer: Cartman Gets an Anal Probe

'Cartman Gets an Anal Probe' was the first 'South Park' episode ever (not counting the unaired pilot). Eric Cartman has a nightmare about being visited by aliens, which turns out to be real, though he refuses to believe the other kids. A local farmer, Farmer Denkins, has had several of his cows turned inside out, though Officer Barbrady, the local policeman, doesn't see anything unusual about this. Visitors have also been trying to lure the cows away with straw. Kyle Broflovski's baby brother Ike is kidnapped by the aliens and while the kids try to get him back, Kenny McCormack is run over by Officer Barbrady after being trampled by a herd of cows (this being the first of many deaths).

The other kids use Cartman as bait to get Ike back and Ike escapes, while the aliens talk to the herd of cows and discover that the cows are the most intelligent lifeforms on Earth.

They apologise for the deaths of the other cows, saying it was the fault of Carl, who is new to the job. They give the cows a device that makes people sing, and the cows use it on Officer Barbrady.

Answer: Dragon Age

The Iron Bull (real name Hissrad) is a Qunari, a large horned humanoid with silvery skin, who originally appears in 'Dragon Age: Inquisition'. He is voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr, who wanted to make him sound like a cross between Winston Churchill and Goofy's nemesis Pete.

He can be romanced by both male and female protagonists. He leads a band of mercenaries called the Bull's Chargers, and is also a member of the Ben-Hassrath, a group of Qunari priests; he was recommended to join them as he was considered to have the wrong attitude for a soldier.

He is in the Warrior class and his specialisation is Reaver (basically a berserker). As a child, he was also named Ashkaari, or 'one who thinks'.

Answer: Birmingham

The Bull Ring was built on the site of Corn Cheaping, which was previously a site for bull baiting; the name 'Bull Ring' comes from the ring the bulls were tied to. In medieval times, the area was home to a market, initially for textiles before expanding to include food and animals.

In the 19th century, the area was also a popular meeting point for political activists and demonstrations. The original Bull Ring shopping centre was opened in 1964, and the current one in 2003. It is connected to Grand Central, the shopping centre above New Street Station, via a link bridge; the combined shopping centres make up the UK's biggest shopping centre.

The eye-catching wavy silver building is home to Selfridge's department store.