Episode 19 University Challenge

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. More chaff to be sifted from the wheat tonight

with one of the eight places in the quarter-finals being the prize. The losers leave the contest.

University of Durham's score of 325 was the highest in the first round,

while their opponents, Plymouth, went out with hardly a whimper on 45.

Durham knew about mythological creatures and The Great Gatsby,

were worryingly au fait on the chemical structure of stimulants,

but the musical tastes of the Coalition Cabinet left them flummoxed, as well they might.

Teams from Durham have been champions twice. Let's meet them.

I'm Mark Rodgers from Staffordshire, doing a PhD in Physics.

-Hi. I'm Adam Robertson from Kent, studying History.

-Their captain...

Hi. I'm George Twigg from Grantham, reading English.

Hi. I'm Joe France from Lancashire, reading Chemistry and Biology.

APPLAUSE

Homerton College, Cambridge, lost their first round match,

but survived with a second chance for the highest-scoring losers.

They won their play-off with a score of 190 against the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

On that occasion, they were better on Norse history than Keats

and we'd bet they'll never again confuse carbonic acid with carbolic. Let's meet the Homerton team.

Hi. My name's Jack Euesden, from Sheffield, reading Natural Sciences.

Hi. I'm Frances Conner, from County Down, studying for a PGCE in Modern Foreign Languages.

-Their captain...

-Hello. My name's David Murray, from Ripon,

studying for an MPhil in European Literature and Culture.

I'm Thomas Grinyer from Southampton and I read Chemical Engineering.

APPLAUSE

You all know the rules. 10 points for starters, 15 for bonuses.

No conferring on starters. 5-point penalties for incorrect interruptions.

Here is your first starter for 10. Which English king was one of the few male members of his dynasty

to die of natural causes? His father died at the Battle of Wakefield and his two sons disappeared...

-Edward IV?

-Correct.

You get the first set of bonuses on a colour.

The yellow spot or macula lutea is a feature of which organ of the body?

The eye?

-Like macular degeneration. Go for the eye.

-The eye?

-Correct.

What is the Chinese name of the Yellow River, so-called because of all the yellow silt it carries?

Huang Kai?

-I'll go for Yangtze.

-It's not Yangtze.

-Nominate France.

-Huang Ki?

-It's the Huang He. I can't accept that.

What is produced by the corpus luteum, yellowish tissue in the ovarian follicle after ovulation?

-Progesterone.

-Yes. Another starter.

To what general profession is WH Auden referring in this observation?

"When I find myself in their company, I feel like a shabby curate

"who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes"?

-The law?

-No. Homerton? One of you buzz.

-The church?

-No, scientists. 10 points for this. From the Arabic for "authority",

what title was, until 1922, given to the ruler...

-Sultan.

-Sultan is correct, yes.

Your bonuses, Homerton, are on fiction.

Set in rural Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the 19th century, which trilogy of novels

by Flora Thompson was adapted for the stage by Keith Dewhurst?

-Lark Rise To Candleford.

-Correct. First published in 1959, which work recounts life in Gloucestershire

and is arranged in chapters whose titles include First Light, Village School and First Bite at the Apple?

-Was it the name of the author or the title?

-I think it was... I think was the title.

-Cider With Rosie.

-Correct. Which Irish author and journalist is best known for novels of everyday life

including Light A Penny Candle, Firefly Summer and Circle of Friends?

-Edna O'Brien?

-No, Maeve Binchy.

Which Czech American physicist gives his name to the nonSI unit used in radio-astronomy

to measure the flux density of radio signals from space?

It equals 10 to the minus 26 watts per square metre of receiving area per hertz of frequency band.

-Nikola Tesla?

-No. Anyone like to buzz from Homerton?

It's Jansky. 10 points for this.

What is the common name of marine crustaceans of the class cirripedia?

Adults attach themselves permanently to rocks...

-Barnacles?

-Barnacle is correct, yes.

OK, your bonuses this time are on early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Its name surviving in place names such as Wychwood and Wychavon,

the kingdom of Hwicce, that's H-W-I-C-C-E,

was approximately coterminous with which English diocese?

-Winchester?

-No, it's Worcester. Situated to the west and south of Hwicce, Magensaete was absorbed

into Mercia during the 8th century and was roughly coterminous with which diocese?

-Gloucester?

-No, Hereford. Its rulers described by one historian

as the obscurest English dynasty, Lindsey later gave its name to a sub-division of which county?

-Lincolnshire.

-Correct. A picture round now.

You'll see a series of flags arranged into two groupings to show the opposing sides

in a recent international conflict. 10 points if you can give me the name of the conflict.

-South Ossetia War.

-Correct. In 2008. Well done.

Right, your bonuses. Three more sets of flags representing belligerents in a war. Name the conflict.

Firstly, for 5 points...

Isn't that the Spanish Succession?

The War of the Spanish Succession? War of the Spanish Succession?

-The War of the Spanish Succession.

-No, the 7 Years War. Secondly...

-The Opium Wars, perhaps?

-Yeah.

The Opium Wars... No, they also took part...

Wait. That would have been later, so probably the Boxer Rebellion.

-The Boxer Rebellion.

-Correct. Finally...

-Oh, golly.

That's French Indochina. Whatever the wars were there.

-I can't think of anything.

-Just say something like Indochina War.

-An Indochina War.

-AN Indochina War(?)

-Sorry. THE Indochinese War.

-That's not specific enough.

-There are lots of wars there. Which one? Quickly, come on.

-The Second.

-The Second.

No, the French Indochina War.

10 points for this. A painting of 1859 by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez,

a work of 1908 by Romanian-French sculptor Constantin Brancusi and a marble sculpture of 1886 by Rodin...

-The Kiss.

-Correct, yes.

That gives you the lead.

Your bonuses are on writers and their pets. Firstly, "Near this spot are deposited the remains of one

"who possessed beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity

"and all the virtues of man without his vices." These lines from Epitaph To A Dog refer to Boatswain,

owned by which poet?

-Lord Byron.

-Correct. "Poor Matthias found him lying, fallen beneath his perch and dying, found him stiff,

"though warm, all convulsed his little form." Which poet wrote those lines on his canary

in the poem Poor Matthias?

-Keats?

-It's so not Keats.

-Just...

-Keats.

-No, that was Matthew Arnold. And finally,

which writer is the subject of the following lines? "I never shall forget the indulgence

"with which he treated Hodge, his cat, for whom he would buy oysters,

"lest the servants having that trouble should take a dislike to the poor creature"?

-He's the only person with a cat. Kit Smart?

-No. Samuel Johnson.

10 points for this. Having given its name to a concerto by Stravinsky, which mansion in Georgetown...

-Dumbarton Oaks.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on cities in Bavaria. Birthplace of Albrecht Durer and Hans Sachs,

which city 150 kilometres north of Munich is the main city of the historical region of Franconia?

-Nuremberg.

-Correct. In Lower Franconia, between Nuremberg and Frankfurt, which city's the location

of the residence of the former Prince Bishop, a striking example of late-Baroque and Rococo design?

-Wurzburg.

-Correct. Capital of Upper Franconia, which city gives its name to an annual festival

of the works of Richard Wagner?

-Bayreuth.

-Correct. Another starter.

Which Scottish engineer is commemorated by a plaque in his home town of Linlithgow,

despite the fact that he won't be born for over 200 years? He retired at the age of 72 in 2294

after 52 years of service in Starfleet.

-Scotty!

-Scotty is correct, yes.

Right, your bonuses this time are on a Dutch scientist, Durham.

Born in 1629, who gives his name to the principle that all points of a wavelength of light in a vacuum

are new sources of wavelets that expand in every direction?

-Huygens?

-Correct. Launched in 1997, the Cassini Huygens is a space mission to which planet,

subject of many observations by Huygens?

-Saturn.

-Yes. His interest in the accurate measurement of time led him to discover what device

as a regulator of clocks, an idea first explored by Galileo?

-Pendulum?

-Correct. Right, another starter question now.

Meaning "marked like a net" and referring to dark patches outlined in black on its skin,

what adjective describes a python of South East Asia...

-Reticular.

-Reticulated, yes.

Your bonuses are on eye rhymes, that is pairs of words that end in the same letters but do not rhyme.

For example, champagne and lasagne. In each case, give both words from the definitions, please.

Organ between the oesophagus and small intestine and leafy vegetable associated with Catherine de Medici?

-Stomach and spinach.

-Correct.

Biochemical compounds such as actin, keratin or collagen

and the title character of a novel by Mary Shelley?

-Protein and Frankenstein.

-Correct.

Finally, stanza or poem of four lines and rank between commander and commodore?

-Quatrain and...

-What is it?

-Quatrain?

- Is it midshipman? No... - Quatrain and captain!

-Quatrain and captain.

-Yes. 10 points for this.

Papillons and Kinderscenen are among the piano works of which German...

-Schumann.

-Schumann is right, yes.

Your bonuses are on floral symmetry.

What term derives from the Greek meaning "ray form" and is applied to flowers with radial symmetry?

-Louder.

-Actiform?

-Nominate Euesden.

-Actiform?

-No, it's actinomorphic.

Secondly, from the Greek meaning "yoke form", what name is given to flowers such as legumes and orchids

-which show bilateral symmetry?

-Zygomorphic.

-Zygomorphic.

-Correct. From the Greek for "monstrous", what aberration occurs when a plant

normally producing zygomorphic flowers develops actinomorphic ones?

-Tetromorphic.

-No, it's peloria. We'll take a music round now.

You'll hear a piece of popular music. 10 points for the title of the song and the band performing.

# The heart is a bloom... #

-U2, Beautiful Day.

-Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

That song was used to introduce the football programme The Premiership from 2001 to 2004.

Your bonuses are three pop songs that have been the opening music to a sports programme.

Give me the name of the band performing and the sport the song introduced.

First, this band and the sport?

MUSIC PLAYS

-Yes, OK. Fleetwood Mac and Formula One.

-Correct. Secondly, the band and the sport in this?

MUSIC PLAYS

What was the band?

Snooker and The Yardbirds?

It was snooker, but it was The Doug Wood Band. And finally?

MUSIC PLAYS

It's cricket.

-Cricket and UB40?

-No, cricket and Booker T & The MGs.

Ten points for this. In cell biology, what name is given to the final stage of mitosis...

-Telophase.

-Telophase is correct. Your bonuses now are on India.

Sharing a large common vocabulary with Hindi,

the name of which Indian language derives from a Turkish word meaning "camp" or "tent"?

WHISPERING

-Urdu.

-Correct. What is the name of the family of languages to which Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam belong?

-Dravidian.

-Correct. What is the meaning of "Nagari" or "Devanagari"

in relation to Sanskrit, Hindi and other Indian languages?

Is it a dash across a letter, above a letter?

-A dash above a letter?

-No, alphabet or name of the script.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully. Canada is one of three Commonwealth countries

to have an English name beginning with the letter C? Name either of the other two.

-Cameroon.

-OK, I'll accept that. The other one is Cyprus.

Your bonuses are on the films of the director Elia Kazan.

Name the film from the description. Firstly,

Marlon Brando stars in a film about organised crime and union corruption in the New York docks.

-On The Waterfront.

-Correct. Based on a novel by John Steinbeck,

James Dean and Richard Davalos play twin brothers on a California farm around 1917.

-East Of Eden.

-Correct. In a 1951 adaptation of a play by Tennessee Williams,

Vivien Leigh plays Blanche DuBois who decamps to her pregnant sister's home in New Orleans?

-A Streetcar Named Desire.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

You've taken the lead. Another starter question. You may answer this in English or in Newspeak.

In George Orwell's 1984, Oceania is governed by four ministries.

One is the Ministry of Love, or Miniluv. What are the other three?

Minitrue, Minipax and Minifood?

No. Homerton, one of you buzz?

I need an answer now.

-Minitrue, Miniluv, Minihealth.

-No, Minitrue, Minipax and Miniplenty. We've already had Miniluv.

Another starter question. From an old name for Prussia,

what is the common name of conifers of the genus Picea

whose species include Engelmann, Norway and Sitka?

-Spruce.

-Spruce is right, yes.

Your bonuses, Durham, are on Asian cuisine, spices therein.

Name the eight-pointed fruit of the Chinese tree, Illicium verum.

When dried, it is an ingredient of five-spice powder.

-Nominate Robertson.

-Star anise.

-Yes. An ingredient of Thai curry pastes,

which member of the ginger family comes in greater, lesser and Kaempferia varieties?

-Nominate Robertson.

-Galangal.

-Correct.

What is the common name of Curcuma longa, a member of the ginger family formerly known as "Indian saffron"?

Oh, um...

Is it turmeric? Turmeric?

-Turmeric?

-It is turmeric. Ten points for this starter question. Of the plays in Shakespeare's First Folio,

which is the only one to describe on its title page the scene as being "the Roman Empire"?

-Julius Caesar.

-Homerton, one of you buzz?

-Titus Andronicus.

-No, it's Antony And Cleopatra. Ten points for this.

The River Parana, the second longest in South America, rises in Brazil

and flows through two other countries. Name both.

-Paraguay and...Argentina.

-Correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on physics, Durham.

What is the linear speed of a particle rotating in a circle with radius R and angular velocity omega?

Er...

Nominate Rodgers.

-M omega R.

-No, it's R times omega or R omega.

What is the radial component of its acceleration?

Er...

Sorry. Omega squared R. Omega squared...R.

-Omega squared R?

-R times omega squared, yes.

Finally, if the particle has mass M, what is its moment of inertia about the axis of rotation?

-M R squared.

-M R squared.

-Correct. We're going to take our second picture round now.

For your starter, you will see a self-portrait by a 20th century artist. Ten points if you name him.

-Francis Bacon.

-Francis Bacon is right.

Your picture bonuses are three more 20th century self-portraits.

Five points in each case if you can give me the artist's name. Firstly for five?

WHISPERING

Nominate Robertson.

-Is it Kirchner?

-No, that's Edvard Munch. Secondly?

WHISPERING

-Kandinsky.

-No, that's Matisse.

And finally?

-Frida Kahlo.

-That is Frida Kahlo, yes. Right, ten points for this.

The tracks Freddie Freeloader, Flamenco...

-Kind Of Blue.

-Kind Of Blue is right, yes.

Your bonuses, Homerton, are on literary figures born in 1911.

In each case, identify the author of the works listed.

The Spire, Pincher Martin and Rites Of Passage?

-William Golding.

-Correct. Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone?

-Mervyn Peake.

-The Night Of The Iguana, The Rose Tattoo and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof?

-Tennessee Williams.

-Tennessee Williams.

-Correct. Another starter question.

Known in English as the Socialist Unity Party, the SED was the governing party...

-East Germany.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on political entities whose names begin with the word Northern.

Give the two-word name from the description.

A self-governing territory of the US in the Western Pacific, its largest island is Saipan?

-Nominate Grinyer.

-Northern Mariana Islands.

-Correct.

The name by which Zambia was known before independence in 1964?

-Northern Rhodesia.

-Yes. A de facto state established in 1974 after intervention by the Turkish army?

-Northern Cyprus.

-Northern Cyprus.

-Correct. Another starter question.

Also meaning a mixture used in making bricks,

what term denotes a soil composed of clay, silt and sand...

-Mortar.

-No, you lose five points. ..roughly in the ratio 20:40:40?

-Loam.

-Loam is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on chemistry.

Which alkaline earth metal has an isotope, molecular mass 90, produced as a by-product of nuclear fission?

WHISPERING

-Come on.

-Strontium.

-Strontium.

-Correct.

Strontium-90 presents a serious health hazard since it may substitute for what element in bone?

-Calcium.

-Calcium.

-Correct.

Strontium takes its name from the village of Strontian in Scotland

where it was first discovered in ores of what metal?

-Iron?

-Come on.

-Iron.

-Iron.

-No, it's lead.

Ten points for this. In zoology, what is the common name for the Cestoda, a class of animals

that includes Taenia solium, a parasite that may be passed to humans by eating infected...

-Mosquitoes.

-No, you lose five points. ..by eating infected pig meat? One of you buzz, Durham.

-Tapeworm.

-Tapeworm is correct, yes.

It gives you the lead. Your bonuses are on a shared name element.

John Nash, Edward Blore and Aston Webb were the three main architects who rebuilt which royal residence,

first acquired by George III in 1761?

WHISPERING

Let's have it, please.

-St James's Park.

-St James's Park.

-No, it's Buckingham Palace.

Buckfast Abbey, a Benedictine abbey founded in 1018, lies at the edge of which national park?

-Dartmoor.

-Correct. Buckland Abbey near Plymouth was the home of which Elizabethan explorer?

His drum, the subject of a poem by Sir Henry Newbolt, is on display there.

-Francis Drake.

-Correct. 3½ minutes to go. Ten points for this.

In which major Commonwealth city are the main campuses of the Universities of La Trobe and Monash?

-Is it Sydney?

-No. Homerton, one of you may buzz.

-Melbourne.

-Melbourne is correct, yes

These bonuses are on China.

More than 4,500 kilometres in length, China's longest land frontier is with which country?

-Let's have an answer, please.

-Kazakhstan?

-Kazakhstan.

-No, it's Mongolia.

China's shortest land frontier, around 76 kilometres in length, is with which Central Asian country?

- Is it Georgia? - No, it's not.

Quickly!

-Tajikistan.

-No, it's Afghanistan.

China shares borders of around 1,700 kilometres in total with which two landlocked Himalayan countries?

-Nepal and Bhutan.

-Nepal and...?

-Nepal and Bhutan.

-Quickly!

-Nepal and Bhutan.

-Correct.

Ten points for this. Containing no vowels, which six-letter word describes...

-Rhythm.

-No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..describes an alignment of three celestial objects, for instance, the Sun, the Earth and the Moon?

No conferring! One of you may buzz. It's syzygy. Ten points for this.

Peeping, Clever and Flash...

-Tom.

-No, you lose five points.

..are the names of which traditional threesome?

-Tom, Dick and Harry.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on love triangles in literature. I want the name of the third member of the triangle.

Quasimodo, Captain Phoebus and...?

-Esmeralda.

-Come on.

-Esmeralda.

-Correct.

Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan and...?

- Daisy... - Daisy!

-Just Daisy? Daisy.

-Correct. Mr Wickham, Mr Darcy and...?

-Elizabeth Bennet.

-Correct. Another starter. Answer as soon as you buzz.

What is the largest prime number less than 1,000?

-997.

-Correct.

Your bonuses this time, Homerton, are on dentistry.

The dentition of humans is said to be diphyodont. What does the term mean?

CONFERRING

Let's have an answer, please.

-That you have two sets of teeth.

-Yes, two successive sets of teeth.

What name is given to the chewing surface of bicuspid and molar teeth?

Let's have an answer. Come on!

-Crown.

-Crown.

-No, it's occlusal.

What is caused by the activity of the bacteria Streptococcus mutans in the oral cavity?

-Plaque.

-Plaque...? Plaque.

-No, tooth decay or caries or cavities. Ten points for this.

March 31st, 2010, saw which area of southern England become the UK's newest national park?

-The South Downs.

-Correct. Your bonuses this time are on a name, Homerton.

What name used in Germany as a title of nobility

is the title of a 1964 novel by Saul Bellow, consisting partly of letters written by the central character?

-Herzog.

-Correct. The author Emile Herzog is better known by what pen name

under which he wrote the 1923 book Ariel about the poet Shelley?

Come on, let's have an answer.

GONG

It was Andre Maurois. And at the gong, Durham have 190, Homerton College, Cambridge have 245.

We'll have to say goodbye to you, Durham. You're a very strong team

and up until the last three minutes, it could have gone either way.

We'll have to say goodbye to you and your splendid mascot.

Homerton, great performance again. We look forward to seeing you in the quarter-finals. Congratulations.

-I hope you can join us next time, but until then, it's goodbye from Durham.

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Homerton College.

-Goodbye.

-And it's goodbye from me.

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