Episode 35 University Challenge

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello. 28 teams qualified for this contest,

16 made it to the second round,

and eight have been through the mill of the quarterfinals.

Now only the four best remain,

competing in two semifinal matches, the first of which is tonight.

The winners will, of course, go through to the final.

The team from Emmanuel College, Cambridge

have a flawless record so far.

The opponents whose hopes they so cheerfully dashed were

Nottingham University, the School of Oriental and African Studies,

and in the quarterfinals,

the University of Warwick and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

With an average age of 22, let's meet the Emmanuel team again.

Hello, I'm Tom Hill, I'm from London, and I'm reading History.

Hello, my name's Leah Ward,

I'm originally from Oxfordshire, and I'm studying Maths.

And this is their captain.

Hello, my name's Bobby Seagull.

I'm from East Ham in the London Borough of Newham.

I'm studying for a Masters in Education, specialising in Maths.

Hi, I'm Bruno, I'm from Wandsworth in south-west London,

and I'm studying Physics.

APPLAUSE

The team from Wolfson College, Cambridge, also had a victory

against the School of Oriental and African Studies,

and then beat Jesus College, Cambridge,

followed by Balliol College, Oxford,

although Balliol are also through to this stage.

They then lost to Edinburgh University

before redeeming themselves with a win over the University of Warwick.

With an average age of 25, let's meet the Wolfson team again.

Hi, my name is Justin Yang, I'm from Vancouver, Canada,

and I'm studying for a PhD in Public Health and Primary Care.

Hi, I'm Ben Chaudhri, I'm from near Cockermouth in Cumbria,

and I'm studying Natural Sciences.

And this is their captain.

Hello, my name is Eric Monkman, and I'm from Oakville, Canada,

and I'm studying Economics.

Hi, I'm Paul Cosgrove. I'm from Cookstown in Northern Ireland,

and I'm doing an MPhil in Nuclear Energy.

APPLAUSE

Well, you all know the rules.

Fingers on the buzzers, here's your first starter for 10.

The discovery of a lost will at the end of a novel

is an example of what plot-resolving...?

BELL RINGS

Deus ex machina?

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, the first set of bonuses in this contest, Emmanuel,

are on the German-born art historian Erwin Panofsky.

Firstly, for five points,

Panofsky was a major exponent of which field of art history,

defined as the identification and interpretation of

the subject matter of the figurative arts?

Subject matter, what...?

-I actually don't know.

-No idea.

-Subject matter.

-Say realist.

-Realist.

-Just like some random "ist!"

Yeah, erm, realist.

No, it's iconography.

Secondly, in an essay of 1934,

Panofsky made a noted analysis of the symbolism of which

15th-century painting in the National Gallery, identifying it as

a visual contract testifying to an act of marriage?

Is it the Arnolfini...?

Of course it is, yeah. The Arnolfini Portrait.

That's correct. And, finally, in 1943,

Panofsky published a work on which artist of the Northern Renaissance?

His prints include Melencolia and Knight, Death and the Devil.

Of course. Durer.

Correct. 10 points for this.

Holbeche House near Dudley is now a nursing home.

In the early 17th century it was surrounded by

a posse led by the Sheriff of Worcestershire.

Robert Catesby and several others were killed in the ensuing...

BUZZ

The Gunpowder Plot?

Correct. APPLAUSE

So, your first bonuses, Wolfson, are on property.

"So long as the great majority of men are not deprived of

"either property or honour, they are satisfied."

Which political philosopher made that statement in a work of 1513?

-Oh, is...?

-Hobbes?

-No, it can't be Hobbes, it's too early.

-I would say Thomas More.

-Yeah.

-Thomas More?

No, it was Machiavelli.

"The great and chief end of men's uniting into commonwealths is

"the preservation of their property."

Who wrote this in his Second Treatise of civil government?

-Locke.

-Locke.

-Locke.

John Locke is right.

Finally, "There is something that governments care far more for

"than human life, and that is the security of property,

"and so it is through property that we shall strike the enemy."

Who said that in a speech at the Albert Hall in 1912?

1912, Albert Hall? Erm...

-Some communist?

-That's probably...

-Lenin?

-No, it's probably Lloyd George.

Lloyd George? The Slimehouse Speech? Lloyd George?

No, it wasn't, he was a victim of it, actually.

It was Emmeline Pankhurst. 10 points for this.

What name was shared by the NASA space probes designated 1 and 2,

and launched in 1977 within...?

BUZZ

Er, Voyager.

Voyager is correct.

APPLAUSE

You take the lead, and you get a set of bonuses on terms

that begin with the same Greek prefix.

In each case, give the term from the definition.

Firstly, an informal term for extreme anger.

Formerly it served as a generic term for

a cerebro-vascular accident or stroke.

-Trauma?

-Extreme anger, er, Greek term, so...

Erm, extreme anger, erm...

-Extreme anger...

-Apoplectic.

-Apoplexia.

Apoplexia?

I'll accept that, yes.

Apoplexy is what we normally render it in English.

So, secondly, for five points,

a grammatical term for the main clause of a conditional sentence.

For example, the last two words of the sentence,

"If you want to please the viewers, confer audibly."

-Is this apostrophe?

-No, I think it's an appositive.

-OK.

-Nominate Yang.

-Appositive?

No, it's an apodosis.

Finally, a term for the New Testament Book of Revelation

from its opening words in the Vulgate.

Is it Apocalypsis Johannis?

Apocalypsis Johannis?

Apocalypse was all I wanted, that's correct.

Right, 10 points for this.

In a phrase coined by G.E. Moore

in his 1903 work Principia Ethica,

what adjective is used to describe the fallacy of treating

the term "good" as if it were the name of an...?

BELL RINGS

Naturalistic fallacy?

Correct. APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Emmanuel, are on Davis Cup tennis.

France won six consecutive Davis Cup titles from 1927-32

through the combined efforts of the so-called Four Musketeers.

Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet, and which player,

nicknamed "the Crocodile"?

Is it Lacoste, like, you know the crocodile on the shirts?

-I've no idea.

-Lacoste?

It was Jean Rene Lacoste.

Before Andy Murray in 2015,

who was the last player to win three live rubbers in a Davis Cup final?

He achieved this feat in 1995 when the United States played Russia.

-So it's either going to be Sampras or Agassi.

-Yeah.

-More likely to be...

-Sampras?

-Yeah, Sampras, yeah. Sampras?

Pete Sampras is right.

When Great Britain won the Davis Cup in 2015,

it did so for the first time since what year?

-You can have a year either way.

-So it'd be like the...

-'30, Fred Perry.

-'36, '37, like, around Austin, Perry, '36?

-I reckon '36.

-'36, yeah?

Er, 1936?

-That's correct.

-Oh!

APPLAUSE

Right, 10 points for this starter question.

Using Planck's Quantum Theory,

which French physicist proposed in 1923 that electrons exist...?

BUZZ

De Broglie.

De Broglie is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

That puts you on level pegging again, and you get a set of

bonuses on a scientific constant and a list of units of measurement.

You should answer with the numerical exponents of the units

used to measure the constant.

So, for speed of light, metres and seconds, you would answer

one, minus one, corresponding to metres per second.

-Understand?

-It's in the dimensions...

-Good, OK.

Firstly, the ideal gas constant, joules, kelvins and moles.

It's joules per mole per kelvin, so it's one, minus one, minus one.

-Can I nominate you?

-Yeah, sure.

-Nominate Cosgrove.

One, minus one, minus one?

Correct. Secondly, the Stefan-Boltzmann constant,

watts, metres and kelvins.

It's temperatures...

Watts per metre, or is it per square metre,

-per kelvin to the four?

-Yeah.

So it's one, minus one, minus four.

Yeah, one, minus one, minus four.

-Plus four.

-No, minus four, cos it's...

-You're getting watts at the end.

-OK.

-Nominate Cosgrove.

One, minus two, minus four.

That's correct, yes, you caught yourself there, well done.

And finally the Planck constant, joules and seconds.

-It's joules-seconds, so it's one, one.

-Yeah.

-Nominate Cosgrove.

-One, one.

One, one is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

We're going to take a picture round. For your picture starter,

you'll see a map of the world with two cities marked.

For 10 points, what is the single English word that translates

the name element that these cities have in common?

BUZZ

Peace?

Peace is right, yes, it's La Paz and Dar es Salaam.

So you get picture bonuses. They are three more maps,

this time with three cities or towns highlighted,

all of which have names whose meanings or etymological roots

when translated into English have a word or concept in common.

You have to identify them for five points apiece. Firstly...

Erm, that's, that's...

Capital city, capital city and capital...

-It's Amsterdam.

-Amsterdam. That's Vladivostok, and...

-Is that Kyoto?

-Kyoto? That's probably, like, Belgium, Brussels.

-No, Tokyo, sorry.

-Er...

-What do you think?

-Vladivostok?

That isn't what I asked you for.

-What I asked you for was the concept they had in common.

-Oh, east.

Well, east is right,

-but that isn't the answer you gave me first off, I'm afraid.

-OK.

So it was Vladivostok, Ostend and Tokyo. So, secondly...

-Is that Rome?

-Rome. No, it can't be, it's Addis...

-It's not?

-St Petersburg, is it, erm...?

I think that's St Petersburg, so is it, erm...

-I mean, Rome is like the eternal city.

-Eternal city? Eternal?

Yeah, eternal? Eternal city?

No, that's Naples, in fact, anyway.

-It's new.

-Oh.

-Oh!

Novgorod, Naples and Addis Ababa. And finally...

OK, so that's...

Hull or something?

Erm... Sarajevo?

-Marrakech?

-Marrakech? It's like...

Market town? Market town?

-I think just say market.

-Market?

No, it's white.

They were in fact Casablanca, Belgrade and Whitby in the UK.

Right, 10 points for this.

I need a precise seven-letter name in this answer.

What is described on its official website as

"neither tower nor pyramid, a little bit cubic,

"a little bit spherical, halfway between sculpture and architecture"?

102 metres high and made of steel,

it was designed by Andre Waterkeyn for the 1958 World Fair in Brussels.

BUZZ

The Atomium?

That is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on stained glass in north-west England.

Firstly, for five points, St Leonard's Church in Middleton,

near Rochdale, has an early 16th-century window,

once thought to be an early war memorial depicting a row of archers.

It's popularly named after which battle of 1513,

at which James IV of Scotland was killed?

-Flodden Field?

-Yeah.

Flodden Field?

Flodden is correct, yes.

Lauded by Nikolaus Pevsner,

the windows of St Martin's Church in Brampton, Cumbria,

are a collaboration between Sir Edward Burne-Jones

and the firm of which artist, the founder of the Kelmscott Press?

-Is this, erm, is this, like, Morris?

-William Morris?

-Morris?

-Sure, go for it.

-Morris?

It is William Morris, yes.

And finally, All Saints' Church in Daresbury, Cheshire, has a stained

glass memorial of which writer, born in the village parsonage in 1832?

Its images include a rabbit, a dodo, and a stylised royal figure.

Lewis Carroll.

Correct. 10 points for this...

APPLAUSE

Lady Of Quality, Venetia, and Regency Buck...

BELL RINGS

Georgette Heyer?

Yes. APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on silent comedy now, Emmanuel College.

Which prominent star of the silent era is noted for the 1923 film

Safety Last, in which he is seen hanging from a clock

several storeys above a city street?

-Buster Keaton, yeah?

-Yeah.

-Er, Buster Keaton.

No, that was Harold Lloyd.

Released in 1931, after the arrival of films with sound,

which silent romantic comedy stars Charlie Chaplin as the Little Tramp,

and Virginia Cherrill as the flower girl he befriends?

Er, so it's not Modern Times. What's the other one? Er...

-I can't remember.

-Oh, I can't remember.

-Say Modern Times, then.

-Modern Times?

No, it's City Lights.

Who starred in and co-directed the 1920s silent comedies

Our Hospitality, The Navigator and The General?

His deadpan expression earned him the nickname "the Great Stoneface".

I guess you've got to say Buster Keaton this time.

Yeah, go for it? Buster Keaton?

Buster Keaton is correct. 10 points for this.

Fully assembled by the early Permian period about 290 million years ago,

which super...? BELL RINGS

Pangaea.

Pangaea is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on criticisms, Emmanuel College.

The Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski

was a fierce critic of which body of doctrine named in the title of

his three-volume work first published in 1976,

and described by him as "the greatest fantasy of our century"?

I don't know, like, is it a political movement?

-Communism, or...?

-Doctrine like communism, maybe?

You know, '76, communism was still around then? Communism?

No, it's Marxism.

Distrusting the official Marxism of theorists such as

Louis Althusser, which French thinker attacked classical Marxism

in his 1973 work The Mirror Of Production?

-French thinker.

-We don't know this.

-You don't know this, yeah?

-No.

No, nothing?

Er, Henri.

No, that was Jean Baudrillard.

And finally, which Russian anarchist believed that Marxist regimes

would lead to what he called "the despotic control of the populace

"by a new and not-at-all numerous aristocracy"?

-So, is this, like...? Russian, is it? Lenin? No, anarchist.

-Anarchist.

-Chomsky, but...

-Is he...?

-No, he's not Russian.

-Was Tolstoy kind of anarchist?

-Tolstoy, yeah, let's go for that?

-He was kind of like... It's not really anarchist, but...

-Tolstoy?

No, it was Bakunin. Mikhail Bakunin.

We're going to take a music round. For your music starter,

you're going to hear part of a song cycle by a British composer.

10 points if you can identify the composer.

# In the third class seat

# Sat the journeying boy... #

BELL RINGS

Britten?

It is Benjamin Britten, yes.

APPLAUSE

Midnight On The Great Western.

It was a setting by Britten of a poem by Thomas Hardy.

Your music bonuses are three more settings by Britten

of well-known poems. This time, in each case,

I want the name of the poet whose work has been set.

Firstly, for five...

# Death be not proud... #

Oh, er, Death Be Not Proud.

So, that's Donne. Donne.

John Donne is right. Secondly...

# I wander thro' each charter'd street

# Near where the charter'd Thames does flow... #

Near where the what?

# And mark in every face I meet... #

Oh, yeah. It is Blake, definitely. No, it's, "In every...

-"Signs of weakness, signs of woe."

-Yeah, I...

-Is that Blake?

-I don't know.

Blake? We'll just have to... Blake.

-It was William Blake, yes.

-Excellent, Bruno.

-Finally...

# What passing bells for these who die as cattle?

# Only the monstrous anger of the guns

# Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle... #

-I don't recognise it at all.

-Shakespeare?

No, it was Wilfred Owen, part of his Anthem For Doomed Youth,

in his War Requiem, Britten's War Requiem. 10 points for this.

Often known by a three-letter abbreviation,

what term denotes the area roughly 240km long and 4km wide,

lying roughly along the 38th parallel...?

BUZZ

The demilitarised zone?

Correct, the DMZ, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses on early 20th-century Nobel laureates.

In each case, I need the specific prize

and the nationality of the recipient.

Firstly, Baroness Bertha von Suttner, the winner in 1905.

-She was from Austria-Hungary and she won it for Peace.

-Yeah.

She was from Austria-Hungary and she won it for Peace.

That is correct.

Secondly, Selma Lagerlof, the winner in 1909.

-I don't know whether that would be Literature.

-I think she's, erm...

-Swedish?

-I think she's Swedish.

-OK. Literature and Swedish?

Correct. And finally Grazia Deledda, the winner in 1926.

-Not Peace.

-No, no, I think this... Physiology?

-Italian and Medicine?

-I think it was... I think so.

-Italian and Medicine?

No, it's Literature and Italian. 10 points for this.

Because of its ease of cultivation and anatomical simplicity,

which transparent soil nematode has been used...?

BUZZ

C. elegans.

C. elegans is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on mathematics, Wolfson.

What is the name of the two-dimensional cellular automaton

invented by John Conway

and popularised by Scientific American magazine in 1970?

Game of Life?

Correct. In the Game of Life, what is the two-word term for

a pattern that does not change from one generation to the next?

-Oh...

-Stable pattern? Cycle?

-No, no.

-Stable pattern?

-Er...

Extinction? I don't know. I'll say stable pattern, maybe?

Stable pattern?

No, it's still life.

And finally, again in the Game of Life,

a life pattern with no father pattern is known by

what three-word term referring to a concept in Abrahamic religions?

No father? Erm...

-Adam and Eve.

-Oh, yeah, sure.

-Adam and Eve?

No, it's the Garden of Eden. 10 points for this.

From an Italian form of the name John,

what short word does Shakespeare use in Love's Labour's Lost

to indicate an assistant clown or buffoon?

BUZZ

Er, zany?

Yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses this time on hill forts

in Britain, Wolfson.

Overlooking the Vale of Edale,

Mam Tor is a hill fort in which national park?

-Dartmoor?

-Dartmoor?

-Don't know.

Dartmoor?

No, it's the Peak District.

Secondly, Uffington Castle and Ivinghoe Beacon hill fort

both lie on or close to which national trail?

Is it, er, the Scottish...? It's the Scottish, erm...

Would there be a hill fort up there? Scottish northern trail?

-It could be the West Highland Way.

-West Highland Way?

West Highland Way?

No, it's the Ridgeway.

And, lastly, Hod Hill, Maiden Castle and Badbury Rings are hill forts

-in which English county?

-Could it be Wiltshire?

That's where a lot of the....

-OK.

-Wiltshire?

No, it's Dorset. We're going to take a second picture round now.

For your picture starter you'll see a painting by a Dutch artist.

10 points if you can identify the artist.

BUZZ

Er, Rembrandt.

No. Anyone...? BELL RINGS

Hooch?

No, it's by Franz Hals.

So, picture bonuses in a moment or two,

10 points at stake with this starter question.

Listen carefully, I need two answers here in the given order.

Give the standard five-letter English spelling

first of the capital of Senegal, then of the capital of Bangladesh.

BELL RINGS

D-A-K-A-R.

D-H-A-K-A.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

You'll recall a moment ago that we saw a painting by Franz Hals.

It's one of many works of art mentioned in Proust's

In Search Of Lost Time.

Your picture bonuses are three more works that are substantially

referenced in that novel sequence.

I want the artists in each case - all are Italians.

-Firstly, for five...

-Oh, is that...?

Is that what's-his-name, the one who did The Birth of Venus?

-Botticelli.

-Botticelli?

Botticelli is right. The Youth of Moses. Secondly...

Ooh. Is that...? Could it be, like, Raphael? No, I don't think...

-Er...

-Erm... Oh, I don't know...

-I've no idea.

-Oh, I don't know, Giotto...

Raphael?

No, it's Giotto. And finally...

Is that, like, is that Michelangelo, one of the sculptors?

-Oh!

-Oh, horned Moses, that's Michelangelo!

-Michelangelo.

Michelangelo is right, yes.

Right, we're going to take another starter question now.

Rendered in German, an inscription meaning "We must know, we will know"

appears on the tombstone of which mathematician who died in 1943?

He gives his name to a vector that's used in functional analysis.

BUZZ

Hilbert?

Hilbert is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on contemporary figures who appear

in Byron's poem Don Juan.

Whom does Byron call firstly "the best of cut-throats", observing

that "war's a brain-spattering, windpipe-slitting art"?

Napoleon, maybe?

-Sure.

-Napoleon? Napoleon?

No, it was Wellington, Arthur Wellesley.

Which politician does Byron call an "intellectual eunuch"

and a "tinkering slave maker" who became Foreign Secretary in 1812?

-Charles James Fox?

-Fox, yeah.

Charles James Fox?

No, it's Castlereagh.

Which literary figure does Byron dismiss as "quaint and mouthy"?

He was Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death in 1843.

-That's Wordsworth.

-Wordsworth?

-Yeah.

-Wordsworth?

No, it's Southey. Four minutes to go, ten points for this.

The team captain, a fair-minded person,

readily accepted the referee's decision.

From the Latin for "placing beside," what term describes the phrase

"a fair-minded person" in this sentence?

BUZZ

Apothe... Apostrophe.

No, you lose five points. One of you may buzz from Emmanuel.

BELL RINGS

Apposite?

It's apposition.

Right, we're going to take another starter question now.

"Like my cat, I often simply do what I want to do.

"I am not then using an ability that only persons have."

Which British philosopher wrote those words to introduce

his 1984 work Reasons and Persons?

BUZZ

Berlin?

No. Anyone like to buzz from Emmanuel...?

Freddie Ayer?

No, it was Derek Parfit. 10 points for this.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

How many millimetres of water would you add to a 100ml

0.5 molar solution to make a 50-millimolar solution?

BELL RINGS

100?

Anyone like to buzz from Wolfson?

BUZZ

50!

No, it's 900.

Right, 10 points for this.

Which English National Park is the location of noted caves

including Stump Cross, White Scar, Gaping Gill, and...?

BELL RINGS

The Yorkshire Dales.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, Emmanuel College,

these bonuses are on the Galilean moons of Jupiter.

Firstly, slightly larger than Earth's moon and noted for its

unusually smooth surface, which is the smallest of the Galilean moons?

-Ooh...

-Galileo?

-So, it's Europa, Io, Callisto, Ganymede, right?

-So, Callisto is smooth?

-I think Ganymede is the smallest.

-Ganymede's the biggest.

-Ganymede's the biggest. Try Callisto.

Callisto?

No, it's Europa. Secondly, the most volcanically active body

-in the Solar System...

-Io!

Io is correct.

Which of the Galilean moons

is the only moon known to have its own magnetosphere?

Would that be Ganymede because it's so big?

-Er, yeah, go for it.

-Yeah? Ganymede?

Ganymede is right. 10 points for this.

Which film of 1950 by Akira Kurosawa gives its name to an effect

in which the same event...? BUZZ

Rashomon.

Rashomon is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Wolfson College, are on Latin terms.

All three include a verb in the present subjunctive.

Firstly, a safeguard against arbitrary imprisonment, which law

of 1679 requires a defendant to be brought physically before a court?

-Habeas corpus?

-Yeah.

-Habeas corpus?

Correct. Widely used in mottos by educational institutions,

which two short Latin words from the Vulgate

are rendered in the King James Bible as "Let there be light"?

-Fiat lux?

-Yeah.

Fiat lux?

Correct. Used as a direction in a proof or manuscript,

-what short single word means "let it stand"?

-Stet.

-Yeah.

-Stet. Stet.

Stet is correct. 10 points for this.

In what was his most sustained effort on a single site, from 1892,

Claude Monet painted more than 30 views of which French cathedral?

-BELL RINGS

-Rouen.

Rouen is right.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the Second South African War.

All three answers can be found in UK street names.

Firstly, the Boer siege of which diamond mining centre,

now in Northern Cape,

was relieved by General John French in February 1900?

Is that Kimberley or Mafeking? Mafeking?

No, it was Kimberley.

Named after the wife of the Governor of Cape Colony,

which town in KwaZulu-Natal...?

GONG

And at the gong, Emmanuel College have 140,

Wolfson College, Cambridge have 170.

APPLAUSE

Well, I will say only that you guys, all of you,

of whatever gender, you're very, very clever.

And it was a pleasure to watch this match. Thank you very much indeed.

Emmanuel, sadly you have to go home now.

Wolfson, congratulations, you're now through to the final.

We'll look forward to seeing you there.

And I hope you can join us next time for the second semifinal,

but until then it's goodbye from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

-ALL:

-Bye.

It's goodbye from Wolfson College, Cambridge.

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.