Episode 29 University Challenge

University Challenge. Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. This stage of the contest is more marathon than sprint.

Both tonight's teams have a place in the semifinals in their sights

because they've already won one of the two quarterfinal victories

they need to go through to that penultimate stage of the contest.

University College, London appear to be enjoying themselves,

with performances that have seen off teams

from the universities of York and Warwick in rounds one and two,

and deprived Manchester of a quarterfinal win.

Let's see what form they're on tonight.

I'm Howard Carver, from East Devon,

and I'm doing a PhD in the modelling of blood flow.

Hi, I'm Patrick Cook, from the Texas Hill country,

and I'm reading History.

And their captain.

Hello, I'm Jamie Karran, I'm from London, and I'm studying Medicine.

Hi, I'm Tom Andrews, I'm from North Somerset, and I'm studying genetics.

APPLAUSE

Now, Worcester College, Oxford

beat Newcastle University in their first quarterfinal,

despite making it clear that the year 1829 was long before their time,

and shocking us with the revelation

that classicists aren't taught the Greek for "glue".

Despite these lacunae, they were 40 points ahead of their opponents at the gong.

Let's meet them again.

Hi, I'm Dave Knapp, I'm from Woking, and I'm studying Engineering.

I'm Jack Bramhill, from Colchester, and I'm studying Chemistry.

And their captain.

I'm Rebecca Gillie, from Weymouth, in Dorset,

and I'm reading French and Italian.

Hi, I'm Jonathan Metzer, from London, and I'm reading Classics.

APPLAUSE

OK, you all know the rules, so fingers on buzzers, here's your first starter for ten.

A splinter group of the Sierra Club,

the Don't Make A Wave Committee was formed in 1970 to protest against

US nuclear testing, and later became which environmental organisation?

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament?

Nope.

Greenpeace.

Greenpeace is correct, yes.

You get first blood on the bonuses, Worcester. They're on monarchs.

What name and regnal number was shared by

the first Bourbon King of France,

the third Franconian - or Salian, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire -

and the first Lancastrian King of England?

-Henry IV.

-Correct.

What name and number were shared by two rulers?

One in 13th-century Germany, nicknamed stupor mundi, or the wanderer of the world,

and the other in 18th-century Prussia, called the Great.

Frederick.

And number?

The first.

No, it's Frederick II.

What name and regnal number were shared by the Duke of Edinburgh's grandfather

and the Queen's great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather?

George III?

No, George I. Ten points for this.

Native to Oman, Yemen and Somalia, trees of the genus Boswellia

are the source of which resin, used by the ancient Egyptians

in their sacred rites, and according to St Matthew's Gospel...

Myrrh?

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

Frankincense?

Frankincense is correct.

Your bonuses, then, UCL, for the first time,

are on a play by Shakespeare.

The subject of which play by Shakespeare had,

according to Plutarch, composed for himself a gravestone inscription

that declared, "Here, having ended years of misery, I lie still.

"Ask not my name. Vile men, I wish you every ill!"

-Sounds like a great guy!

-It's not going to be...

-Coriolanus?

Yeah, it's going to be Coriolanus.

Coriolanus?

No, it's Timon of Athens.

Secondly, the title of which novel of 1962 by Vladimir Nabokov

is taken from a line spoken in Act IV of Timon of Athens?

-Try Speak, Memory.

-Not Lolita?

No, try Speak, Memory.

-Speak, Memory?

-Yeah.

Speak, Memory.

No, that was his memoirs. It's Pale Fire.

Which Canadian-born British vorticist exhibited a series of illustrations in 1912,

intended to accompany an edition of Timon of Athens?

I don't know what vorticist means!

Vorticists are like English futurists.

Pound was a vorticist poet.

Ok, er, Ezra Pound?

Interesting choice, but wrong. No, it's Wyndham Lewis.

Ten points for this. According to the Dictionary of National Biography,

which film of 1975 is "the best-informed of medieval films,

"and the most influential Arthurian one."

Its characters include the King of Swamp Castle,

the taunting French guard, and...

Monty Python and the search for the Holy Grail?

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is correct, yes.

Right, your bonuses this time, UCL, are on garden birds.

In each case, give the common name of the bird from the binomial and the description of its call.

Firstly, Parus major, whose distinctive two-syllable song

has been compared to the phrase, "Teacher, teacher" repeated at high speed,

or to the sound of a bicycle pump?

I can imagine a cuckoo sounding a bit like that.

Yeah? All right, then.

-What are you thinking?

-Say cuckoo, but if it's a thrush...

No, we'll say thrush, we'll say thrush. Thrush is funnier.

Thrush?

No, it's great tit.

Secondly, Prunella modularis,

whose call is a shrill and persistent seep, while its song is a high-pitched bubbling,

sometimes likened to a squeaking trolley wheel?

I don't know. Birds? Starling?

Starling's a bird.

-You could try finch.

-OK, finch.

Finch.

No, it's a dunnock, or hedge sparrow.

Finally, for a possible five, although unlikely, I admit,

Fringilla coelebs, whose alarm call is an insistent "pink, pink" sound,

its song sounds like the phrase,

"Chip, chip, chip, chewy, chewy, chew."

I think I hate birds!

Nightingales in literature kind of sound a bit like what he said.

OK, nightingales.

No, it's a chaffinch.

Ten points for this. "It is a fraud of the Christian system

"to call the sciences human invention.

"It is only the application of them that is human.

"Man cannot make principles, he can only discover them."

These are the words of which thinker in the 1784 work, The Age Of Reason?

Thomas Mann?

No. Anyone want to buzz from Worcester?

Kant?

No, it was Thomas Paine.

And ten points for this.

Answer as soon as you buzz.

What is the formula for the rate of conversion of electrical to thermal energy

in a resistor with resistance R in a circuit with current I flowing through it?

-I squared R?

-If you put that as an equation, what would you say?

Something equals?

-Oh, P equals I squared R.

-Exactly. OK.

Right, your bonuses now are on a science.

Which field of science, most commonly used as the sverdrup,

a unit of fluid flow equal to 1,000,000 cubic metres per second?

Aeronautics?

No, oceanography.

With an ultimate flow rate of up to 150 sverdrups,

which warm ocean current enters the Atlantic through the Straits of Florida at around 30 sverdrups?

That would be Gulf Stream.

-Gulf Stream?

-Correct.

A global system of ocean currents called the thermohaline circulation

is driven by differences in temperature

and in the concentration of what constituent of seawater?

-Salt?

-Correct. A picture round now.

For your starter, you'll see a traditional French riddle.

All you have to do is give me the answer

in either French or English.

Je ne comprends pas!

Worcester, one of you like to have a go?

Cauldron?

No. We'll see the whole thing now, probably in English,

which'll make it easier, so the answer to that is the nose.

So, picture bonuses shortly. Another starter question.

Designed by the neo-classicist architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot,

which Paris monument was commissioned as the church of St Genevieve by Louis XV,

and later became a mausoleum dedicated to great French citizens...

The Pantheon.

The Pantheon is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are three more short riddles in foreign languages, UCL.

All you have to do is give me the answer, which in each case,

is a letter of the alphabet. Firstly...

R?

R is correct. We'll see the whole thing in English

for the benefit of those who weren't quite as quick as you. Very good. Secondly...

M?

M is correct. We'll see it in English now. And finally...

A.

A is correct. We'll see it in English. There we are.

Ten points for this.

A direct descendant of Elizabeth I's ministers William and Robert Cecil,

who became Viscount Cranborne in 1865,

inherited the title by which he's best known on his father's death in 1868...

The Marquess of Salisbury.

Correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on figure skating, UCL.

In each case, name the jump from the description.

Firstly, the only jump that begins with the skater facing forward.

It's launched on the forward outside edge of the skate,

and landed on the back outside edge of the opposite foot.

A single variation involves the skater making one-and-a-half revolutions in the air.

Do we know anything other than triple Axel?

-No. Vasquez is...

-Sorry?

It could be a single Axel, if there is a variation where you do three turns.

-Did you have an idea before I said anything?

-No.

I think Vasquez is gymnastics, I don't know.

-Shall we go for triple Axel?

-No, single Axel.

-OK.

Single Axel.

Axel is correct, yes.

Considered one of the easiest jumps, a single variation of this move

involves the skater launching from the rear inside edge of one skate,

making one full turn in the air

and landing on the rear outside edge of the opposite skate.

Could it be a pirouette?

Do they do that in figure skating?

-Presumably. I've no idea.

-OK.

A pirouette.

No, that's a Salchow.

And finally, a counter-rotated toe jump from the rear outside edge to the opposite rear outside edge,

often preceded by a long, backward diagonal glide.

-I've totally seen that in the Olympics.

-Good work!

We don't have anything, do we? At all.

OK, I'm going to name a skateboard trick.

Pop shove-it.

No, it's a Lutz!

Ten points for this.

What planet of the solar system has an overall density of about 70% that of water, with a core...

Saturn.

Saturn is correct, yes.

Your bonuses, Worcester College, are on schools in the novels of Charles Dickens.

Firstly, for five points, which titled character is sent to school at Salem House, owned by Mr Creakle?

On arrival, he's made to wear a placard bearing the words "Take care of him. He bites".

David Copperfield?

Correct. The opening chapter of which novel is set in a school whose owner,

Mr Gradgrind, orders the teacher, Mr McChoakumchild to

"teach these boys and girls nothing but facts"?

-Hard times.

-Correct.

At which school owned by the brutal, one-eyed Wackford Squeers,

is Nicholas Nickleby briefly a teacher?

Dotheboys Hall?

That's correct. Ten points for this.

From the German for valley and way, what noun denotes a line

where opposite slopes meet at the bottom of a valley, river or lake?

In legal terminology, it indicates a boundary between states along the centre of a river.

Border?

No. Worcester College?

It's a thalweg. Ten points for this.

In music, what compositional technique was introduced in the 14th century

and generally employs imitative counterpoint?

JS Bach, Buxtehude and Handel were noted exponents,

and it takes its name from the Latin for flight.

Fugue.

Fugue is correct, yes.

UCL, your bonuses this time are on an artist.

The artwork depicting a view of Venice entitled "Giudecca, La Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio",

exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1841 and sold for over 35 million in New York in 2006,

is by which British artist?

-Constable painted a lot of those.

-Really?

Constable.

No, it's J. M. W. Turner.

Secondly, for five points, which Swiss mountain did Turner depict

in the series of works in which it is dubbed red, dark and blue?

In June 2006, the blue version became the most expensive British watercolour ever sold,

although it was bought back by the Tate after a public appeal.

-The Matterhorn.

-No, it's the Rigi.

Finally, now part of the Tate's collection,

Turner's 1812 painting of a snowstorm also depicts which military leader crossing the Alps?

Must be Napoleon.

Not Hannibal?

Hannibal did cross the Alps, right?

Hannibal.

Hannibal is right. A music round now.

For your starter, you'll hear a piece of classical music.

Ten points if you can give me the name of the composer.

Tchaikovsky?

No. UCL, you can probably hear a little more.

Mahler?

No, that was a piece from Franz Lizst's Hamlet.

Music bonuses in a moment or two.

Ten points, firstly, for this starter question.

Described by Henri Bergson in his 1907 work Creative Evolution,

what two-word French term describes the force

that drives the evolutionary process in all living things?

Elan vital?

Yes.

OK, you failed to identify that piece from Liszt's Hamlet,

which is a symphonic poem, a piece of music in a single movement

in which a piece of literature, poem, artwork or event is evoked.

Your bonuses, three more symphonic poems.

In each case, I want the name of the composer.

Firstly, the American composer of this.

Copeland was American, right? It sounds like Copeland.

If people start dancing, then it's Copeland, right? Come on, come on.

It could be Bernstein.

Is he the guy who wrote the thing with the Romeo and Juliet thing?

Yes, Bernstein wrote that. I would go with Bernstein.

OK. Bernstein.

No, it was Gershwin, it was from An American In Paris.

Secondly, the Belgian-born composer of this piece.

Come on.

Er, Bernstein again.

Belgian! Cesar Franck, Le Chasseur Maudit.

And finally, the French composer of this piece.

Oh!

Oh, damn.

-Oh, it's Saint-Saens, isn't it?

-Is it?

-Yeah.

Yeah, totally.

Saint-Saens.

Yes. Danse macabre. Ten points for this.

The symbol called a pilcrow, resembling a reversed uppercase letter P

was used in medieval manuscripts to mark a new train of thought,

and is now used in desktop publishing software

to mark the presence of what?

A new paragraph.

Correct.

UCL, these bonuses are on nutrition.

A lack of which trace element found in meat, wholegrains, legumes

and oysters can lead to impaired wound healing and loss of appetite?

Oh, man! I guess I should really know this.

All right, go for iron.

No, I'm going to go with vitamin B12.

No, it's zinc.

Secondly, Menkes syndrome is a genetic disorder

in which poor absorption of which element results in

progressive neurological degeneration, and brittle, twisted hair?

If you have hyperthyroidism, then you get brittle hair.

Yeah, go with iodine.

Iodine?

No, it's copper. Hypokalemia is a deficiency in which element,

vital for the transportation of ions across cell membranes,

and found in oranges, tomatoes and bananas?

-Potassium.

-Correct.

Another starter question.

Shared by two early 20th-century literary figures, what surname

concatenates the abbreviation of California's most populous city,

the architect of St Paul's cathedral and the UK's largest established church?

Lawrence?

Lawrence is correct, yes.

Worcester College, these bonuses are on unusual transportations.

In which Booker Prize-winning novel by Peter Carey did the title characters

enter into a wager to transport a glass church into the Australian bush?

Pass.

-No idea?

-No.

-It's Oscar and Lucinda.

Which German director made the 1982 film Fitzcarraldo,

in which the protagonist hauls a riverboat over a mountain in Peru

to finance the building of an opera house?

-Herzog.

-Correct.

Based on a novel of 1950, Henri-Georges Clouzot's film

The Wages Of Fear concerns an attempt to transport what substance by Jeep

across dangerous terrain in South America?

Nitroglycerin?

Correct. Another starter question now.

The term "dey", D-E-Y, was applied to the Governor of which Ottoman city,

captured by France in 1830, and now the capital of a North African republic?

Tripoli?

Anyone like to buzz from UCL?

Tunis?

No, Algiers. Ten points for this.

Which physicist's theoretical work in the mid-1930s predicted the existence of the mesons...

Dirac.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

The discovery of his predicted pion in 1947

led to him becoming, in 1949, Japan's first Nobel laureate.

No idea? It's Yukawa.

Ten points for this. A. S. Byatt and her sister Margaret Drabble,

Malcolm Bradbury, Roy Hattersley, Oona King and David Blunkett

are among literary and political figures born in which city?

Sheffield.

Sheffield is correct.

Your bonuses, Worcester College, are on island capitals.

Along with Principe, which island forms a small country in the Gulf of Guinea?

Its name, which is also that of the country's capital, means St Thomas.

-Sao Tome.

-Sao Tome?

Correct. St John's is the capital of which country in the Leeward Islands?

It comprises two major islands whose names in Spanish mean ancient and bearded.

-Antigua and Barbuda.

-Nominate Knapp.

-Antigua and Barbuda.

-Correct.

St Anne is the capital of which of the Channel Islands, the most northerly?

-Alderney.

-Alderney?

That's correct, level pegging.

We're going to take a second picture round.

For your starter, you're going to see a portrait of an English prince.

Ten points if you can name him.

Henry VI?

No. Anyone like to buzz from Worcester?

Is it the Black Prince?

No, it's Prince Arthur, the son of Henry VII, so picture bonuses shortly.

Ten points for this. Probably born in the first or second centuries before the common era,

Khalidasa is widely regarded as the foremost poet and dramatist in which language?

Sanskrit?

Correct.

That gives you the lead. So, your picture starter was an unidentified Prince Arthur,

the eldest son of Henry VII, who died before his accession to the throne.

Picture bonuses, three more heirs apparent who never acceded to the throne

for one grisly reason or another. Five points for each you can name. Firstly...

Prince Frederick?

No, that Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince James. Secondly...

James I's son, who was the elder brother of Charles I.

-I think he was called Henry.

-Henry?

-Henry Stuart.

-Henry Stuart.

Correct, well done. And finally...

-That could be the Black Prince, but I don't know.

-He acceded, didn't he?

No, I don't think he did. That's why he's called the Black Prince.

The Black Prince?

-Yes. His name?

-Edward.

-Edward.

Correct. Ten points for this. "There is nothing outside of the text."

Which French philosopher made this statement in the 1967 work Of Grammatology?

Lakanal?

No. Anyone to buzz from Worcester?

Jacques Derrida. Ten points for this. In contrast to molarity,

what term is used to characterise solutions,

and denotes moles of solute divided by kilograms of solvent?

-Molality.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on East Asian history, Worcester College.

The era of Japanese history known as the Heian,

after the city now known as Kyoto, began during which Chinese dynasty,

whose emperor-dominated political system it sought to emulate?

It could be the Han?

Han is the current Chinese one.

There's the Shang or the Qing.

Tang as well. It's all in there.

-Let's have it, please.

-Shang.

-Shang?

No, it's the Tang.

Which Chinese dynasty coincided with the Ashikaga shogunate and the Sengoku,

or Warring States Period, in Japan?

-Shang?

-No, that's Ming.

Finally, which Chinese dynasty was founded soon after the start of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan

and outlasted it by more than 40 years?

-That's the Han.

-Han, because it's still going?

Han?

No, the Qing. Ten points for this.

The birthplace of Immanuel Kant in 1724,

which city was the capital of East Prussia until 1945, when it was...

Leipzig?

No, I'm afraid you lose five points. ..when it was renamed Kaliningrad.

Koenigsberg.

Koenigsberg is correct.

These bonuses are on chemical compounds.

The word potash is often used to designate which compound?

Used as a fertiliser, it occurs naturally as the mineral sylvite?

BELL RINGS

No point in buzzing. It's a bonus set for over here!

Potassium carbonate?

No, it's potassium chloride.

Secondly, sylvinite, a source of potash, is a combination of sylvite and which compound mineral,

also called halite?

Sodium chloride?

Sodium chloride, or rock salt is correct.

Finally, anhydrous calcium sulphate commonly occurs with halite,

and when exposed to water transforms into what soft mineral,

used in the making of plaster of Paris?

-Gypsum.

-Correct.

Two and a half minutes to go, ten points for this.

If a = 1, b = 2, c = 3 and so on, which poet, born in 1865,

would have the initials 23, 2, 25?

Yeats.

W. B. Yeats is correct, yes.

Your bonuses, University College, London, are now on football.

Which club won the First Division Championship in the 1910/11 season?

-Aston Villa were runners-up, Sunderland third.

-It's all on you.

Give us a name.

Arsenal? I don't know.

-Arsenal.

-No, it was Manchester United.

Which Lancashire club won its first of two league championships

in the 1920/21 season? Manchester City were runners-up, Bolton third.

-Preston North End.

-No, Burnley.

Which London club won the First Division in both the 1950/51 and 60/61 seasons?

In the latter season, they also won the FA Cup.

-Tottenham?

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Which decade saw the discovery of argon, neon, krypton, polonium and radium?

The 1900s.

Anyone like to buzz from Worcester College?

-1890s.

-The 1890s is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on civil courts.

The civil division of which court is headed by the master of the rolls,

the second most senior judge in England and Wales?

The Crown Court?

The Crown Court?

No, it's the Court of Appeal.

Which specialised part of the County Court deals with low-value debt enforcement?

-Small Claims Court.

-The Small Claims Court?

Correct.

Which civil court was established as part of the Supreme Court in the 1870s,

and consists of the Chancery, Queen's Bench and family divisions?

-Come on.

-The High Court?

Correct. Ten points for this.

Which Roman god links the hymn tune Thaxted, composed by Gustav Holst...

Jupiter.

Jupiter is correct. Your bonuses this time are on rhyming words.

In each case, identify both words from the definitions.

Firstly, Pacific Island nation and constrictor snake.

Boa and Goa.

Goa is a province, not a state. Samoa and Boa. Samoa is the place I was looking for.

South American country and macropod mammal.

Kangaroo is macropod.

GONG

At the gong, University College, London have 120

but Worcester College, Oxford have 170, which means,

University College, London, you have now won one quarterfinal,

and lost one so you have to play again.

Worcester College, Oxford, you go through to the semifinals.

I hope you can join us next time for another quarterfinal.

-Until then, it's goodbye from University College, London.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye from Worcester College, Oxford.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

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