X Marks the Bond Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hawkins

Besides playing the mother of the family Brown, who befriend a talking bear from darkest Peru in the London train station for which he is named, Sally Hawkins has appeared in numerous movies. She was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Blue Jasmine" (2013) by the nominating bodies for the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA. Her performance in "Happy-Go-Lucky" (2008) won her the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical.

Jack Hawkins had a long career in movies, from the 1930s into the 1970s. Besides his role in "Ben-Hur", he is remembered for "The Cruel Sea" (1953) and "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957). He was also one of the "Four Just Men" in the television series of that name (1959-60), amongst a long list of acting credits. His autobiography is titled "Anything for a Quiet Life."

Answer: Hispaniola

The two countries are French-speaking Haiti and Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic, though both languages may be quite different to those spoken in their European birthplaces. The name given to it by Christopher Columbus in December 1492 was La Isla Espanola, meaning the Spanish Island. Over the years it was corrupted to its present form.

Of the incorrect choices, Canada's Baffin Island is the world's fifth largest. Borneo, which is shared by Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia, is the third largest island in the world. Honshu is Japan's largest island, and seventh on the world list.

Answer: Long johns

Long johns can be worn by anyone - male or female, child or senior citizen - who needs to be outside in cold winter weather for any length of time. The design can be simple long leggings, or can be a "combination" with the upper body also fully encased in warm material, underneath one's regular clothing. Woollen long johns can be itchy, so other materials or blends are also often used, for comfort's sake.

The incorrect choices are all types of undergarment, but warmth is not often considered in their manufacture.

Answer: Silver

Silver's chemical symbol, Ag, comes from its Latin name "argentum". It is a metallic element often used for jewellery, coins, eating utensils and serving vessels and much more. The word silver is also used to describe a colour which is essentially a shinier version of grey, especially when used to describe the hair of a senior citizen.

Carbon (C) has an atomic number of 6. Krypton (Kr) is 36 and radium (Ra) is 88.

Answer: Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates are one of the "classic eight" teams of major league baseball's National League, being part of the octet that remained unchanged from 1900 until 1952. The team first existed as the Alleghenys, being formed in 1882. Clemente starred for the Pirates from 1955-72 and was World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1971, before his untimely death whilst on a humanitarian mission in the 1972 off season. Willie "Pops" Stargell was a career Pirate (1962-1982) and famously distributed "Stargell stars" to his team mates during the last few seasons of the 'seventies, including their World Series winning year of 1979. Barry Bonds made his major league debut with the Pirates in 1986, and played for them until moving to the San Francisco Giants in 1993.

The Steelers are Pittsburgh's National Football League team and the Penguins play in the National Hockey League. The Thunderbirds are a pro Ultimate Frisbee team playing in the American Ultimate Disc League.

Answer: Bones

Boreanaz played Agent Seeley Booth in "Bones" (2005-17), in which his character first partnered professionally and later married Dr Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel). Booth nicknamed Brennan "Bones" because her specialty was obtaining evidence from the bones of murder victims. Boreanaz also directed several episodes of the series.

His character in both "Buffy" (1997-2003) and "Angel" (1999-2004) was the vampire with a soul known as Angel. His next project after "Bones" was to play Jason Hayes in "SEAL Team".

Answer: parrot

Parrots are birds of the order Psittaciformes which includes nearly 400 different species, many of which are brightly coloured, and some of which can imitate their human companions. Some types of parrot are the African grey, various types of macaw and Amazon parrots.

An example of parrotting in the verbal sense would be a student who has learned a list of dates, and rattles them off for the teacher without giving much thought to their significance.

Answer: Flint, Michigan

While Flint is the county seat of Genesee County, the state capital of Michigan is Lansing. Flint is less than a hundred miles from Detroit, on the Flint River. The city hit the news in 2014 when a switch to obtaining drinking water from that river resulted in residents being exposed to high levels of lead and (possibly) an outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease.

Answer: Robert Louis Stevenson

Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1850 and suffered from frequent illnesses as a child, and again as an adult. He studied Law, but never practiced as a lawyer, choosing to become a writer instead. His first short stories were published in 1875, and were followed by poetry, travel stories and novels. He was only 44 years old when he died at Vailima, Samoa where he had settled after travelling in the South Pacific.

Incidentally, Robert Galbraith is neither Scottish nor a male, being J.K. Rowling's "other" pen name.

Answer: Treasure Island

Jim Hawkins (Q1) is the youthful hero of our tale, who sets out in the ship Hispaniola (Q2) with his friends the squire and the doctor, in search of a treasure of which they have heard news. Long John (Q3) Silver (Q4) is the ship's cook, and proves not to be the friend he first appears. Instead he is one of the pirates (Q5) who are also after the treasure. Other characters include Billy Bones (Q6) and Silver's parrot (Q7) Captain Flint (Q8). (Flint was also the name of the pirate captain whose treasure is sought.)
"Treasure Island" has been noted as the first major success for its author, Robert Louis Stevenson (Q9).

The clue in the quiz title is the allusion to the oft-repeated phrase "X marks the spot" with regard to treasure maps, or indeed the location of anything one might be looking for in the area depicted.