Episode 26 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions - Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Last time, we saw University College London win their first quarter-final match,

but they'll need a second win to make it to the semi-finals.

The same dispensation goes for tonight's teams.

Balliol College, Oxford beat Homerton College, Cambridge,

then survived an Oxford derby against Merton College by 10 points.

On that occasion, they recognised the Book of Revelation, the Pensees of Pascal,

the demands of the Chartists and the layout of Toad Hall. Let's meet them again.

Hi, I'm Liam Shaw, I'm from Shropshire and I study Physics.

Hi, I'm Andrew Whitby from Brisbane, Australia,

doing a doctorate in Economics.

-Their captain.

-Hi, I'm Simon Wood from Surrey, studying Chemistry.

Hi, I'm James Kirby, I'm from Warwickshire.

I'm reading for a Masters in History

APPLAUSE

Pembroke College, Cambridge beat St Anne's College, Oxford in round one,

then the University of Nottingham in the second round.

Strengths included pioneering women scientists, religious clothing, the Hawaiian islands

and interpolating sea monsters into the works of Jane Austen. Let's meet them again.

I'm Ed Bankes from Sevenoaks, reading English.

I'm Ben Pugh from London, reading German and Russian.

-Their captain.

-I'm Bibek Mukherjee from Canterbury

and I'm reading Economics.

I'm Imogen Gold from London and I'm reading Engineering.

APPLAUSE

The rules are constant as the Northern Star, so fingers on the buzzers, your first starter for ten.

Sarah Siddons, Sarah Bernhardt and Frances De La Tour have played which of Shakespeare's title characters,

who in the First Act has the line, "Frailty, thy name is woman"?

-Is it Gertrude?

-No.

Anyone want to buzz from Balliol?

Ophelia from Hamlet?

No, it's Hamlet! Ten points for this.

Marking the emergence of a political voice from the unenfranchised,

the London Corresponding Society was founded to promote parliamentary reform

after which event in continental Europe?

-The 1830 Revolution?

-Anyone like to buzz from Pembroke?

-The French Revolution?

-The French Revolution is correct.

The first set of bonuses are on a royal office.

Which royal office was created with the appointment of Nicholas Lanier in 1626

during the reign of Charles I?

-Astronomer Royal?

-Astronomer Royal?

-No, it's Master of the King's Musick.

In 2004, the tenure of the Master of the King's Music was reduced from life to ten years

to give more composers the opportunity to take up the position. Who was appointed that year?

-Peter Maxwell Davies.

-Peter Maxwell Davies.

-Correct.

In 1985, the Master of the Queen's Music, Malcolm Williamson, composed Songs For A Royal Baby

in honour of whose birth?

-William or Harry.

-William.

-No, Prince Harry. Bad luck.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

If the time elapsed since the extinction of the dinosaurs is one unit,

what to the nearest 100 units is the currently accepted time since the Big Bang?

-2,000?

-Anyone like to buzz from Oxford?

-1,500?

-No, it's 200.

Ten points for this.

John Heartfield's 1935 photomontage entitled Hurrah, The Butter Is Gone

was a satirical response to which Nazi leader who proclaimed that "iron ore..."

-Hermann Goering.

-Correct, yes.

Your bonuses this time are on error.

First used by US astronauts to describe problems with electronic instruments,

what slang term for a malfunction is thought to be derived from a Yiddish word for "a slip"?

WHISPERING

- Yiddish...? - A bug or something?

-Bug.

-No, it's glitch. What word for a social blunder or faux pas

is taken from a specialised use of a French word

meaning an iron hook with a handle, used for landing large fish?

- "Faux pas" is French. - It's some sort of word for "faux pas". I can't think of anything.

-Pass.

-It's gaffe. What term has come to be applied to a software error

and comes from an incident involving a technician extracting a moth from a US Navy computer in 1947?

-Bug.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

The band leader and broadcaster Victor Silvester, who died in 1978,

was associated with which catchphrase relating to the tempo of a dance

which can be abbreviated to S, S, Q, Q, S?

-Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow.

-Yes.

Your bonuses are on post-war British Prime Ministers

in the words of AN Wilson in his 2009 work, Our Times.

Identify the Prime Minister from the description.

"Beside him, Stanley Baldwin was a giant. He was little better than a party hack.

"He always voted at his party's call and never thought of thinking for himself at all."

-Chamberlain?

-No, it was James Callaghan.

"Here was no stereotype. Indeed, the Dickensian family background was something no-one would have guessed

"from the grey suit and the demeanour which was that of a friendly bank manager."

-John Major.

-Correct. "He approved a new set of coins that sent Britannia packing. It was a small thing,

"but it signalled the end which any observer had seen coming,

"the strange dissolution of Britain itself."

-Heath.

-No, that was Gordon Brown.

-Gordon Brown.

A picture round. For your starter, you'll see a cross-section

of the interior of a planet in the solar system. Ten points if you can name the planet.

-Venus.

-Venus is right, yes.

Your picture bonuses - three more cross-sections of planets' interiors.

In each case, name it from its constituents. Firstly for five?

WHISPERING

- That's a good core. - Mercury?

Shall we go with Mercury?

It's one of the rocky ones.

-Shall we go with Mercury?

-Yeah, maybe Mercury.

-Mercury.

-Correct. Secondly?

Two ice... This is Mars.

CONFERRING CONTINUES

-Two ice caps, yeah?

-Yeah, it'd be Mars.

-Mars.

-Mars is right. Finally?

That one must be Earth.

-Earth.

-That is Earth, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Right, ten points for this starter question.

In Greek mythology, which daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra was offered as a sacrifice...

-Iphigenia.

-Iphigenia was right, yes.

Your bonuses are on scientific terminology.

"I have taken your advice and the names used are 'anode', 'cathode', 'anions', 'cations' and 'ions'."

These are the words of which English chemist and physicist in 1834

to acknowledge terms suggested by the philosopher William Whewell?

-Faraday?

-It could be, yeah.

-Faraday?

-Correct.

In 1832, Whewell coined the terms Uniformitarians and Catastrophists for those

with contending viewpoints in which science?

-Formation of the Earth perhaps?

-Yeah, but what's the science?

-If it's Catastrophists...

-Yeah, so which science?

-Geology or something.

-Geology.

-Correct. Also in 1834, Whewell wrote of "the want of any name

"by which we can designate the students of the knowledge of the material world collectively".

What term, now in universal use, did he coin to address this lack?

-Metallurgy?

-No, it's scientist. Ten points for this.

The birthplace of Hans Holbein the Younger, which city north-west of Munich gives its name

to a Lutheran Confession of 1530...

-Augsburg.

-Augsburg is correct, yes.

Your first set of bonuses are on a name, Balliol College.

What word for a gentle breeze derives from the name given

in Greek mythology to the personification of the west wind?

-Zephyr.

-Correct. In one version of the Greek myth,

Zephyrus and Apollo competed for the affections of which youth?

Discovering that he preferred Apollo, Zephyrus killed him

and from his spilled blood grew the flower named after him.

- Hyacinth? - Yeah, try it.

-Yes, I think it is.

-Hyacinth.

-Correct.

In July 2010, the UK-built Zephyr, described as the first "eternal plane", broke the record

for an unmanned aerial vehicle when it flew non-stop for over a week by what means of power?

WHISPERING

-Solar?

-Solar is correct, yes.

Here's another starter question.

Which of Verdi's operas was based on Victor Hugo's verse drama Le Roi S'Amuse,

inspired by the amorous exploits of the French king Francis I?

It deals with the escapades of the Duke of Mantua, aided by his hunchback jester,

and includes the aria La Donna E Mobile.

-Rigoletto.

-Rigoletto is correct, yes

Your bonuses are on literature.

Newland Archer, a young man in 19th century New York society,

is the protagonist of which novel of 1920 by Edith Wharton?

-The Age Of Innocence.

-Age Of Innocence.

-Correct.

William Blake's Songs Of Innocence were first published in 1789

and then re-published in 1794 in a volume with which other collection?

-Songs Of Experience.

-Correct.

In which novel of 1954 does the protagonist weep

"for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart

"and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy"?

-Lord Of The Flies.

-Correct.

Another starter question.

Which three consecutive letters of the alphabet begin the surnames

of the philosophers who wrote Sense And Sensibilia, Matter And Memory and The System Of Positive Polity?

-A, B, C.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on functional human anatomy, Balliol College.

What term denotes those muscles which perform movements

away from the sagittal or mid-line plane of the body?

WHISPERING

-Transverse?

-No, they're abductor muscles. Which muscles work antagonistically to abductors?

-Adductors.

-Adductors.

-Correct.

What is the principal extensor muscle of the elbow joint?

-The tricep?

-Correct. Another starter question.

Which European microstate gives its name to a declaration of 2008

at which more than 150 scientists voiced their concerns about the threat to marine ecosystems

from the acidification of the world's oceans?

-Andorra?

-No. Anyone like to buzz from Pembroke?

-Monaco.

-Monaco is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on Ancient Greece this time. In each case, name the person described.

To make it easier, all three names begin with the letters L-Y.

Firstly, an Athenian statesman born around 390 BC.

A supporter of Demosthenes, he was noted both for sound financial administration

and for his public architectural works.

-Lysander?

-No, it was Lycurgus.

Secondly, an orator born around 540 BC and noted for his clarity of thought and expression,

for example, in his speech against the Athenian tyrant Eratosthenes?

WHISPERING

Nominate...

Lycidas, do you think maybe?

-Lycidas.

-OK, Lycidas.

-No, it's Lysias.

Finally, the Spartan commander who defeated Athens at the Battle of Aegospotami

in 405 BC and captured Athens the following year?

-Lysander.

-Correct. We'll take a music round now.

For your starter, you'll hear a piece of music from a film of 2008. Ten points if you can name the film.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

-Quantum Of Solace?

-No.

Balliol, one of you like to buzz? You can hear a bit more music.

MUSIC CONTINUES

-The Bourne Ultimatum?

-No, it was The Dark Knight, so music bonuses shortly. Another starter question.

Listen up. Fingers on buzzers. What 12-letter word is a concatenation of the Greek for "same" and "shape"

and is used in abstract algebra to denote a structure-preserving map?

-Isomorphous?

-No. Anyone like to buzz from Pembroke College?

It's homomorphism. 10 points for this.

What five-letter word comes from the Russian acronym for Chief Administration for Corrective...

-Gulag.

-Gulag is correct, yes.

So you get the music bonuses. You heard music from The Dark Knight, co-written by Hans Zimmer.

Three more excerpts of film scores by Hans Zimmer. 5 points for each.

First for 5, the name of this film from 2010.

DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS

-Inception.

-It is Inception. Secondly, this film from 2006.

SWEEPING MUSIC PLAYS

I think it's Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't know.

-Pirates of the Caribbean?

-No, The Da Vinci Code.

Finally, the full and specific title of this film, also from 2006.

- Yeah, Pirates of the Caribbean. - Which one?

The last one.

-Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End?

-No, bad luck. It's Dead Man's Chest.

10 points for this. Later a Roman province, the ancient kingdom of Numidia overlapped the territory

of two present-day Mediterranean countries. Name either.

-Tunisia.

-Yes. The other one was Algeria.

Your bonuses are on terminology.

Popularised from the 1950s, what two-word term refers to the disorientation experienced

by those who move from one environment or country to another that's markedly different?

-Culture shock?

-Culture shock.

-Correct.

Popularised by US historian Theodore Roszak in the title of a 1969 work,

what term describes the lifestyle and approach of those who reject dominant values of society?

Beatnik...

Maybe counterculture? It could be.

-Counterculture.

-Correct. Which historian emphasised culture as the way groups handle

the raw material of social and material experience in 1963's The Making of the English Working Class?

-Hobspawm?

-Hobspawm.

-No, EP Thompson. 10 points for this.

How many valence quarks are present in a particle of alpha radiation or a nucleus of Helium-4?

Two?

-Anyone from Balliol?

-12?

-12 is correct, yes.

Right, these bonuses are on geography. Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world.

Which landlocked Asian country is ninth?

-Mongolia.

-No, it's Kazakhstan.

The two countries with area closest to that of the UK are in Africa.

The Republic of Guinea is a little larger. Which landlocked country in East Africa is slightly smaller?

-I think we'll have an answer, please.

-Ethiopia?

-No, Uganda.

Of the 27 EU member states, which has a total area closest to that of the UK?

-Try it? Italy.

-No, it's Romania.

10 points for this. The surname of which poet is an anagram of words meaning establish a claim,

thick slice of meat or fish...

-Keats?

-Keats is right, yes.

Your bonuses this time are on a part of the body. Plantar fasciitis is a painful inflammation

of a thick, fibrous band of connective tissue in what part of the human body?

- Did he say plantar? - Plantar.

Foot or something?

-Foot?

-Correct. Other than bursitis, what name is commonly given to an inflamed foot swelling,

-especially of the bursa on the ball of the big toe?

-Bunion?

-Or corn.

-Yeah...

-Bunion.

-Correct. Gout, which most commonly occurs in the toes, is caused by which acid in the blood?

It crystallises and is deposited in joints, tendons and surrounding tissue.

-Uric acid.

-Uric acid, correct, yes. 10 points for this. The name of what musical genre is formed

by concatenating the symbols for the SI base units of time, temperature and electric current?

-Ska.

-Ska is right.

These bonuses are on Australian marsupials.

Inhabiting the coastal scrub of both Australia and New Guinea,

a pademelon is a small species of which marsupial?

-Kangaroo? A kangaroo?

-No, it's a wallaby.

Which large, nocturnal marsupial has three species - common and southern and northern hairy nosed?

-The wombat.

-Correct. In 2010, Australian scientists announced they had taught the quoll,

an endangered cat-sized marsupial to suppress its instinct to eat which invasive toxic amphibians?

Toads? Cane toads?

-Is it cane toads? Cane toads.

-Cane toads is right. We'll take a second picture round now.

You'll see a postage stamp. 10 points if you can identify the scientist depicted.

-JJ Thompson?

-No.

Pembroke, one of you buzz.

-Rutherford.

-It is Rutherford, yes.

That was part of the Royal Mail's collection of Fellows of the Royal Society, issued in 2010

to mark the Society's 350th anniversary. Three more stamps featuring prominent Fellows.

5 points for each you can name. Firstly...

Is that Benjamin Franklin?

-Was he a member? Benjamin Franklin?

-Correct.

Secondly...

What is that?

The DNA one?

-Rosalind Franklin?

-No, that's Dorothy Hodgkin. And finally...

Might be Jenner.

-I think it might be Jenner.

-Jenner?

Yes, it is. The inventor of vaccination. 10 points for this.

Built between 1825 and 1827 to the designs of John Nash,

which royal residence is named after the dukedom of Prince William Henry, who lived there as King William IV?

-Clarence?

-Clarence House is right.

Your bonuses this time are on chess terminology.

A deliberate sacrifice, usually of a pawn in return for an advantage in position, is known as what?

-Gambit.

-What French term is spoken by a player to indicate that he or she intends to correct the position

of a piece on the board without performing an actual move?

It's...

En passant is something different.

It's "pas" something.

-Pas jeu?

-Come on!

-Pas jeu.

-Pas jeu?

-No, it's "j'adoube". I adjust.

Along with a queen, which chess piece is considered to be a major piece?

-Rook?

-Correct.

10 points for this. Linked to the Mediterranean at Toulouse by the Canal du Midi,

which river rises in the Pyrenees and joins the Dordogne to form the Gironde Estuary?

-The Garonne.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on the films of Billy Wilder.

In each case, identify the film.

A 1950 film named after a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, it stars Gloria Swanson

as a faded silent movie star.

-What were you going to say?

-Rodeo Drive. Oh, Sunset Boulevard.

Correct. An Oscar-winning film of 1960 in which CC Baxter

lends his flat to company superiors for extra-marital liaisons.

He is seen using a tennis racket to strain spaghetti.

I've no idea.

-Er, pass.

-That's The Apartment. And, finally, a 1959 film starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis

on the run after witnessing the St Valentine's Day Massacre.

-Some Like It Hot.

-Correct. Another starter. With Niles Eldredge,

which US scientist, born 1941, developed the theory of punctuated equilibrium in evolution?

-Stephen Jay Gould.

-Yes!

These bonuses are on people whose names begin with the name of a Greek letter.

For example, Rhodes begins with Rho. In each case, give the letter.

The authors of The Tale of Genji, An Unofficial Rose and Para Handy and Other Tales?

Any ideas?

-Mu? Er, Mu?

-Correct.

The artists who painted The Baptism of Christ, The Boulevard Montmartre by Night and Child With A Dove?

-Picasso, so Pi.

-Pi?

-Correct.

Finally, the wife of King Edward III and the husband of Queen Mary I?

PH-I, so Phi.

-Phi.

-Phi is correct. From the Greek for joined or yoked,

what term in biology means the diploid cell formed by the fusion of two haploid gametes?

-Zygote?

-Zygote is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on large numbers in the short-scale terms now commonly used in the UK.

In each case, give the exponent of 10 in the following quantities. Firstly, one billion.

-Is that nine? Nine.

-Correct. Secondly, one billion billion.

-18?

-Correct. And, finally, one billion raised to the power one billion.

One billion...and nine.

-No, nine times...81. No...

-Come on.

-It's nine billion.

-Just nine billion? Nine billion.

-Yes! 10 points for this.

2011 and 2017, 461 and 467, and 13 and 19

are among pairs of primes known by what term, said to be derived from a Latin cardinal number?

-Mercian?

-No. Anyone like to buzz from Pembroke?

-Primal?

-They're sexy primes. 10 points for this.

What name from the Spanish indicates the flat intermontane area lying at an elevation of more than 3,000m

in Bolivia and southern Peru?

-Altiplano?

-Correct! Bonuses are on the history of Afghanistan.

I want the decade in which the following began. Firstly, the first Anglo-Afghan War,

in which a British force was destroyed at the Khyber Pass.

-1870s?

-No, the 1830s. The third Anglo-Afghan War in which an Afghan attack on British India

-achieved the formal recognition of Afghanistan's sovereignty in international law.

-1870s?

No, that's 1910s. The Soviet War in Afghanistan, which supported the government at its own request.

-1970s.

-Correct. 10 points for this. Three countries have a coastline on the Arafura Sea.

One is Papua New Guinea. Name both the others.

-Australia and East Timor?

-No. Pembroke, one of you buzz.

-Australia and Indonesia?

-Correct. That is right.

East Timor's on the Timor Sea, immediately to the west.

Your bonuses are on British seafood. The invention of which fish delicacy is credited to John Woodger,

who accidentally discovered the process in 1843?

-Sorry?

-Come on!

-Nominate Banks.

-Tinned sardines?

-No, it's kippers. Secondly, the Norfolk village of Stiffkey is noted

for which bi-valve molluscs? The shells get their blue tinge from the sea beds they colonise.

-Whelks?

-No, cockles. Partly named after a fishing village in Moray,

which rich soup is made with chopped potatoes, milk and flaked smoked haddock?

-It's not cock-a-leekie...

-Come on!

-GONG

-Too late.

Bad luck, Balliol. We will be seeing you again, though, on which occasion you must win

if you're to stay in the competition. Well done, Pembroke.

You're one step closer to the semi-finals. One more victory means you'll definitely be there.

Thank you both very much. I hope you can join us next time for another quarter-final match.

Until then, goodbye from Balliol, Oxford, goodbye from Pembroke, Cambridge,

and goodbye from me. Goodbye.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media - 2012

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