Quotes Of The Year 2020 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Boris Johnson

Johnson was referring to the United Kingdom's impending departure from the European Union. A transition period was to take place in 2020, with the UK and the EU to negotiate a departure agreement. That process was to prove slow and seemingly interminable, but just before Christmas it was announced a deal had been done.

In the meantime along came the intervention of the Covid-19 pandemic. Johnson's government was to be slated for acting too ineffectively and too slowly. By the end of December, the UK had seen the second highest number of Covid deaths in Europe, 71,000, just a few hundred behind Italy. In terms of death per million people, the UK's rate was in the top six of countries worldwide.

Answer: Donald Trump

As was the case with the UK's leader, President Trump faced a barrage of accusations over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. At one stage he called it "a hoax". By the end of 2020 some 340,000 Americans had died and 20 million (that is 20 million) cases had been reported; a quarter of the world's total. On March 13, President Trump announced ""I am officially declaring a national emergency. Two very big words." Like the Prime Minister of the UK, he was to receive treatment for Covid-19.

Answer: James Blunt

The former army officer never seemed to take critical comments about his music too seriously. That music was derided for its blandness, particularly his huge breakthrough hit "You're Beautiful". In 2005 "You're Beautiful" topped the charts in the UK, USA, Canada, Holland and Ireland. Blunt later said "I never really set out to do anything in the charts with music.

It came as a total surprise that I did, and it's fun." (He also said "I try to tell one lie in every interview. It keeps people I know amused when they read the article.")

Answer: Greta Thunberg

The Swedish teenager provided a voice for those concerned about what humankind is doing to our planet. Two years earlier, at the age of 15, she had won a climate-change essay competition. Thunberg began to campaign for climate change in her native land; mounting a protest campaign outside the Swedish parliament. In 2019 she traveled by boat to New York - she refused to fly - to address the United Nations. Millions of people took part in a climate change strike in her support. Also in 2019 she was named "Person Of The Year" by "Time" magazine.

Not everyone was complementary about her campaigning. In 2019 she tweeted "When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know you're winning! I have Aspergers and that means I'm sometimes a bit different from the norm. And - given the right circumstances- being different is a superpower."

Answer: Pope Francis

In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first person from South America to become head of the Catholic Church. In September 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc worldwide, Pope Francis said: "Please, brothers and sisters, let's try to not gossip. Gossip is a plague worse than Covid".

It was not his first foray into the topic. He had previously said: "If one hears someone gossiping, stop them. Tell them 'here, there can be none of that'".

Answer: Jacinda Ardern

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reacted swiftly to the pandemic, shutting off her country's borders early. From that point, New Zealand had some of the lowest incidences of Covid-19. A combination of border closures and draconian lockdown rules helped New Zealand weather the storm of Covid-19. At the time this question was written in late December 2020, New Zealand had recorded just 25 deaths out of 2,151 cases.

In 2017 Ardern became Prime Minister of New Zealand. At the age of 37 she was the country's youngest premier in more than 150 years. Her leadership through difficult times for her country - including the 2019 bomb attack on a Christchurch mosque that claimed 50 lives and the White Island volcano explosion that killed 21 people that same year - earned her many plaudits.

Answer: Minneapolis, Minnesota

On May 25, 2020, footage of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of 44 year-old back citizen George Floyd while he was pinned to the ground emerged. The words in the quote were allegedly captured on the body-cam equipment of police officers. Mr Floyd's death led to protests and riots across the USA.

Answer: Joe Biden

By August of the year, Joe Biden had seen off the challenges of several others to become the Democratic Party's runner for the US Presidential Elections. In November of the year he was to win the popular vote and receive the endorsement of the US Electoral College to be declared president-elect. Mr Biden had served as vice-president to Barack Obama between 2009 and 2017.

He ran unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 1998 and 2008. At the age of 77, in November 2020, he became the oldest person to win a presidential election.

Answer: Queen Elizabeth II

During a television broadcast to the nation, Queen Elizabeth reprised the line "we'll meet again" from the anthem that Dame Vera Lynn sang to raise the spirits of people in Britain in the darkest days of World War 2. She was widely lauded for the sentiments she expressed when the United Kingdom was deep in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, a number of singers lined up to post their Facebook recordings of the song "Better Times Will Come" by the American songwriter and author Janis Ian:

"Better times, better times will come.
Better times, better times will come.
When this world learns to live as one,
oh, better times will come..."

Answer: Macauley Culkin

Culkin, who made the comment in August 2020, was often cited as an actor who made it too big, too young. He was just 12 when he starred in the hit movie comedy "Home Alone" in 1992. While he worked steadily thereafter, his career was one of solid rather than spectacular performances.

He was reported to have earned $23.5m between 1989 and 1994 and his net worth in 2020 was given as $15m. During his career, some $13m was allegedly ripped off from his accounts by close family.