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ESL Medium Quiz - What Do You Know? - General Knowledge (Questions)

Build ESL Medium confidence with everyday facts, general knowledge, and question language, using clear English to understand information and talk about what you know.

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Fascinating Fact:

A leap year has 366 days, and it happens because Earth takes a little more than 365 days to go around the Sun.

In ESL Medium, learners practise English for understanding facts, answering knowledge questions, and explaining information clearly. This topic helps with common question forms, useful vocabulary, and language used when sharing what you know.

Key Terms

Fact: A piece of information that is true and can be checked.
General knowledge: Information about the world that many people learn through reading, study, or experience.
Question form: The structure used to ask for information in English.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

How do you ask for information in English?

You ask for information in English by using question words such as who, what, where, when, why, and how, followed by the correct sentence pattern.

Why is general knowledge vocabulary useful in ESL?

General knowledge vocabulary is useful in ESL because it helps learners understand quizzes, conversations, reading tasks, and everyday discussions about the world.

How can I improve my English for quiz and fact questions?

You can improve your English for quiz and fact questions by practising common question forms, reading short information texts, and learning useful topic vocabulary.

Try These Related Quizzes

1.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
Most British post-boxes are painted ... ... , but there are about a hundred across the UK that have been re-painted in ... ... to celebrate successful local athletes from the 2012 Olympic Games.

[ ]	... green ... / ... silver ...
[ ]	... bright red ... / ... gold ...
[ ]	... pale blue ... / ... bronze ...
[ ]	... white ... / ... black ...

2.

What do we put on the front of a building where a famous person has lived or worked?

[ ]	A gold star
[ ]	A red square
[ ]	A blue plaque (usually round)
[ ]	An orange sign

3.

The name of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 - 1859) is best remembered for his contribution to ...

[ ]	... transport and associated architecture (railways, ships, bridges, tunnels etc.)
[ ]	... the London theatre.
[ ]	... the development of chemistry.
[ ]	... British classical music.

4.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
There are ... ... 'pods' (= cabins) on the London Eye, to represent the number of Boroughs in London.
In fact there are 33 boroughs, but they left out the ... ... one because that number is said to bring bad luck.

[ ]	... thirty-three ... / ... seventh ...
[ ]	... thirty-two ... / ... thirteenth ...
[ ]	... twenty-five ... / ... eleventh ...
[ ]	... twenty-eight ... / ... seventeenth ...

5.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
Almost everyone must have heard of the Beatles, who 'shot to fame' in the 1960s. They came from ... ... on the ... ... .

[ ]	... Newcastle ... / ... River Tyne.
[ ]	... King's Lynn ... / ... North Sea coast.
[ ]	... Carlisle ... / ... Scottish border.
[ ]	... Liverpool ... / ... River Mersey.

6.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
You can always tell whether the King is at home, at ... ... , because ... ... .

[ ]	... Longleat Castle ... / ... the lions are standing to attention.
[ ]	... Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace ... / ... the Royal Standard (= flag) can be seen flying over the building.
[ ]	... Balmoral or Sandringham ... / ... it says so on her website.
[ ]	... Christmas or Easter ... / ... it is her duty to be there.

7.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
The counties of Cornwall and Devon (and, sometimes, Somerset and Dorset) are collectively known as ' ... ... ', while the group of counties including Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex are called ' ... ... '.

[ ]	... East Anglia ... / ... The West Country.
[ ]	... Western England ... / ... The South-East.
[ ]	... The Channel ... / ... The Wash.
[ ]	... The West Country ... / ... East Anglia.

8.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
It is against the law for a motorist in Britain to sound the ... ... on their vehicle, in a built-up area, between the hours of ... ... .

[ ]	... trumpet ... / ... midnight and eight in the morning.
[ ]	... horn ... / ... eleven-thirty at night and seven o'clock in the morning.
[ ]	... hooter ... / ... ten-thirty in the evening and seven-thirty in the morning.
[ ]	... whistle ... / ... midnight and six in the morning.

9.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
The British flag (often called the 'Union Jack'), is recognised all over the world, but it is rather harder to draw or copy than a simpler flag with just two or three plain blocks of colour. In fact it combines ... ... of the flags of the United Kingdom countries; the only country or province not represented is ... ... .

[ ]	... three ... / ... Wales.
[ ]	... two ... / ... Ireland.
[ ]	... three ... / ... Scotland.
[ ]	... four ... / ... Cornwall.

10.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
English is (of course!) very widely spoken, but a fairly recent analysis by the CIA in America reckoned that for every one speaker of English, there were about ... ...

[ ]	... twice as many speakers of Spanish.
[ ]	... three times as many speakers of Mandarin Chinese.
[ ]	... one-and-a-half times as many speakers of Arabic.
[ ]	... almost as many speakers of Hindi.

ESL Medium Quiz - What Do You Know? - General Knowledge (Answers)

1.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
Most British post-boxes are painted ... ... , but there are about a hundred across the UK that have been re-painted in ... ... to celebrate successful local athletes from the 2012 Olympic Games.

[ ]	... green ... / ... silver ...
[x]	... bright red ... / ... gold ...
[ ]	... pale blue ... / ... bronze ...
[ ]	... white ... / ... black ...

Yes ... and if you are living or staying here, we wonder whether you've seen any of them (and if so where, and in honour of whom?).

2.

What do we put on the front of a building where a famous person has lived or worked?

[ ]	A gold star
[ ]	A red square
[x]	A blue plaque (usually round)
[ ]	An orange sign

It would help you 'get a grip on our culture' if you managed to find some of these.

3.

The name of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 - 1859) is best remembered for his contribution to ...

[x]	... transport and associated architecture (railways, ships, bridges, tunnels etc.)
[ ]	... the London theatre.
[ ]	... the development of chemistry.
[ ]	... British classical music.

Brunel was a remarkable man. He master-minded the building of the Great Western Railway (westwards from London) to Bristol and Cornwall. At one point along the main route he designed the Box Tunnel, which at almost 3km was the longest tunnel ever built by that time (1841). The tunnel faces in a particular direction, and it is said that when the sun rises on Brunel's birthday (9 April), its light shines straight through the tunnel!

4.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
There are ... ... 'pods' (= cabins) on the London Eye, to represent the number of Boroughs in London.
In fact there are 33 boroughs, but they left out the ... ... one because that number is said to bring bad luck.

[ ]	... thirty-three ... / ... seventh ...
[x]	... thirty-two ... / ... thirteenth ...
[ ]	... twenty-five ... / ... eleventh ...
[ ]	... twenty-eight ... / ... seventeenth ...

Thirteen is considered to bring good luck in some cultures, but not in Britain, and the date 'Friday 13th' is considered especially unlucky by many people.
Meanwhile, the geometry involved in designing and building the big wheel is rather simpler using the number 32, which of course is in the binary series (1,2,4,8,16,32 ...).

5.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
Almost everyone must have heard of the Beatles, who 'shot to fame' in the 1960s. They came from ... ... on the ... ... .

[ ]	... Newcastle ... / ... River Tyne.
[ ]	... King's Lynn ... / ... North Sea coast.
[ ]	... Carlisle ... / ... Scottish border.
[x]	... Liverpool ... / ... River Mersey.

Yes, that's where the 'Fab(-ulous) Four' came from!

6.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
You can always tell whether the King is at home, at ... ... , because ... ... .

[ ]	... Longleat Castle ... / ... the lions are standing to attention.
[x]	... Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace ... / ... the Royal Standard (= flag) can be seen flying over the building.
[ ]	... Balmoral or Sandringham ... / ... it says so on her website.
[ ]	... Christmas or Easter ... / ... it is her duty to be there.

Whether or not your own country has a king or queen, Britain has had this tradition for hundreds of years, and on the whole, most British people are proud (or, at least, tolerant) of the Royal Family. The flag is used to mark the fact that the King is in residence at one of his big houses.
In common with many countries, we have the tradition of flying a flag 'at half-mast' (the Americans call it 'half-staff') as a mark of public respect when someone important has died.

7.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
The counties of Cornwall and Devon (and, sometimes, Somerset and Dorset) are collectively known as ' ... ... ', while the group of counties including Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex are called ' ... ... '.

[ ]	... East Anglia ... / ... The West Country.
[ ]	... Western England ... / ... The South-East.
[ ]	... The Channel ... / ... The Wash.
[x]	... The West Country ... / ... East Anglia.

These are the usual regional names; check them with an atlas, or online!

8.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
It is against the law for a motorist in Britain to sound the ... ... on their vehicle, in a built-up area, between the hours of ... ... .

[ ]	... trumpet ... / ... midnight and eight in the morning.
[x]	... horn ... / ... eleven-thirty at night and seven o'clock in the morning.
[ ]	... hooter ... / ... ten-thirty in the evening and seven-thirty in the morning.
[ ]	... whistle ... / ... midnight and six in the morning.

'Horn' is the right instrument (this word takes us right back, through the days when horse-drawn coaches had a metal horn or trumpet-like instrument to give a signal; to the days when people blew through an actual horn taken from a dead animal, because it was the right shape to make a clear sound).
Only the times in Answer 2 are correct, according to the Highway Code.

9.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
The British flag (often called the 'Union Jack'), is recognised all over the world, but it is rather harder to draw or copy than a simpler flag with just two or three plain blocks of colour. In fact it combines ... ... of the flags of the United Kingdom countries; the only country or province not represented is ... ... .

[x]	... three ... / ... Wales.
[ ]	... two ... / ... Ireland.
[ ]	... three ... / ... Scotland.
[ ]	... four ... / ... Cornwall.

The Welsh flag has on it a red dragon!

10.

Pick the best word/s to fill the gap and make a good true English sentence or statement.
English is (of course!) very widely spoken, but a fairly recent analysis by the CIA in America reckoned that for every one speaker of English, there were about ... ...

[ ]	... twice as many speakers of Spanish.
[x]	... three times as many speakers of Mandarin Chinese.
[ ]	... one-and-a-half times as many speakers of Arabic.
[ ]	... almost as many speakers of Hindi.

English may be a widespread language, but Mandarin Chinese is more common as a mother tongue.