Episode 34 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello, this match is the last of 10 quarterfinals.

Both of the night's teams

have won one quarterfinal match and lost another,

so whichever of them wins this match

will take the remaining place in the semifinals,

alongside Worcester College Oxford,

Pembroke College Cambridge and Manchester University.

And of course we'll be saying goodbye to the losers.

University College London have shown

a refreshingly cavalier attitude to what others might consider facts,

but even so, they've beaten York, Warwick and Manchester so far

but have lost one quarterfinal,

which is why they're here on the naughty step

for a last crack at the one remaining place in the semifinals.

Let's meet them again.

Hi, I'm Howard Carver from East Devon

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

I'm Patrick Cook from the Texas Hill Country

and I'm reading history.

-And their captain.

-Hello, I'm Jamie Karran from London and I'm reading medicine.

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

APPLAUSE

The team from Balliol College Oxford beat Homerton Cambridge in round one,

Merton College Oxford in round two

and Homerton Cambridge in the quarterfinals,

but only after losing a previous quarterfinal,

which is why they're here tonight, also fighting, do or die,

semifinals or oblivion.

Let's meet them again.

Hello, I'm Liam Shaw, I'm from Shropshire and I study physics.

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

and I'm working towards a doctorate in economics.

And their captain.

I'm Simon Wood, I'm from Surrey and I'm studying chemistry.

I'm James Kirby,

I'm from Warwickshire and I'm reading for a masters in history.

APPLAUSE

You know the rules, fingers on buzzers, here's your first starter for 10.

What single name

links the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1204,

the author of Go Tell It On The Mountain,

and the Prime Minister at the time of the General Strike?

-Baldwin.

-Baldwin is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, the first set of bonuses are on men born in 1770.

In each case, name the person from his works.

Firstly for five, the phenomenology of spirit and the science of logic

are among the works of which German philosopher?

-Hegel?

-Correct.

Known as The Ettrick Shepherd, which Scottish literary figure

wrote The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

and Scottish Pastorals, Poems, Songs, Etc?

I should know this.

It's not Burns?

THEY CONFER

I can't think, I can't think of anything.

Burns.

No, it was James Hogg.

Which composer's work includes

the Emperor Piano Concerto and the Egmont Overture?

-Beethoven.

-Correct.

Another starter question.

From a Greek word

meaning grace or favour,

what terms used in theology for a...

Charisma?

Charisma is correct, yes.

Right, your bonuses Balliol this time are on marketing.

Named after a microorganism, what strategy encourages individuals

to pass on a marketing message to others, for example,

via chain e-mails or YouTube videos, so creating the potential

for exponential growth in the message's exposure?

-Viral.

-Correct.

What term denotes the type of marketing in which a company

links itself to an event for which they're not an official sponsor

by means such as dressing those attending in branded clothing?

THEY CONFER

Is it guerrilla?

-Guerrilla?

-Guerrilla or ambush marketing is correct.

Finally, named after an artificial surface,

what technique relies on staff

posing as members of the public, and praising their own product,

for example, on internet message boards or in the press?

-Astroturf.

-Astroturf.

-As opposed to grassroots.

10 points for this.

"It's a woman so beautiful, so proud, so modest, so touching,

"so voluptuous, so chaste, so noble, so familiar, so mad,

"so wise that one loves her with all one's soul

"and is never tempted to be unfaithful."

These words, in translation,

are of a native speaker describing which language?

French.

Yes, or as we call it, guff.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on fictional countries. Which oppressive republic

is the setting for Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale

in which the only function of certain women

is to breed children for infertile, elite couples?

THEY CONFER

-God's Republic?

-Shall we say the God's Republic?

-God's Republic?

-No, it's Gilead.

To which hitherto happy Commonwealth in Africa

is the hero of Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop

the journalist William Boot sent to cover an expected revolution?

THEY CONFER

Abyssinia? Is that Tanzania?

I can't remember the name.

What's Abyssinia now?

It's a fictional place, I can't remember.

-Abyssinia?

-No, It's Ismailia.

In CS Lewis' novel for children The Horse and His Boy

which country was established in the Narnian year 204

and is found far to the south of Narnia, below Archenland?

THEY CONFER

-It's something, vaguely...

-I don't know.

Is it like, it's something Tolkien-esque, isn't it?

-Is it like Bree?

-Try Bree.

-That's from Tolkien,

-but Bree.

-No, it's Calormen.

Another starter question. Give the forename

and surname of the political theorist

born in Brussels in 1924 who escaped to Britain in 1940

and published his best known work Parliamentary Socialism in 1961?

His home in Primrose Hill became a meeting place...

-Ralph Miliband?

-Ralph Miliband is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on philosophy.

Firstly for five,

calling it cupiditas, what was described by Spinoza as

"nothing else than the very essence or nature of man"?

THEY CONFER

Cupidity love, or...?

Or morality, lost?

-Um...

-Material...

-Um...

-Material desire?

Material desire. Material desire?

It's just "desire", so I can't accept that.

It's title originally meaning drinking party,

in which work by Plato is Socrates able to lead Agathon

to concede that love or desire exists only in relation

to some object that it lacks?

THEY CONFER

Seminar?

-Symposium?

-Just try it.

-Symposium?

-Correct.

Which 17th-century French philosopher described desire

"as an agitation of the soul that disposes itself to possess things

"it sees as agreeable but does not possess"?

-Descartes?

-Correct.

We're going to take a picture around.

You'll see a map of Africa with a nation highlighted.

10 points if you can give me its name.

The Ivory Coast?

It is Cote d'Ivoire, yes.

Your starter highlighted the Cote d'Ivoire,

a member state of the international organisation of the Francophonie,

a group of nations with links to French language or culture.

For your picture bonuses, three more Africa nations highlighted

all members of that organisation, five points for each you can name.

THEY CONFER

-DIC.

-DIC.

Democratic Republic of Congo.

Correct. Secondly, B?

-What do you think, Chad?

-Chad.

-Chad?

-Correct. And finally, C.

-Mali.

-Mali.

-Yes.

APPLAUSE

10 points for this.

What uppercase letter is the symbol for black in dyestuffs...

-K.

-No, you lose five points.

And in physics is a symbol for entropy?

As a lowercase letter it is the symbol for distance

and for a specific...

-S.

-S is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on asymptotics in mathematics.

The relation that enfactorial is asymptotically equivalent

to n over e or to the power n

multiplied by the square root of 2 Pi n, is known by what name?

THEY CONFER

Stirling's formula, something like that.

OK. Stirling's formula or approximation.

That is correct, yes.

Secondly the prime number theorem states that the prime counting function Pi of x,

that is the number of primes less than x is asymptotically equivalent

to what ratio of functions of x?

I think it has ln(x) in it, but I don't actually know.

Ln(x), the natural log. I don't know.

Um, 5 ln(x)?

No, it's x over log(x) and finally,

which constant is

asymptotically equivalent to the difference in magnitude

between the sum of the harmonic series up to n

and the natural logarithm evaluated at n?

Er...

I think there is a Napier's constant.

Napier's constant.

No, it's a Gamma constant. 10 points for this.

What primate links a candidate put forward for election to Parliament

in Thomas Love Peacock's novel Melincourt,

the perpetrator of the crime in Edgar Allan Poe's...

-Orang-utan.

-Orang-utan is right, yes.

Your bonuses Balliol all are on a classical work.

"Of shapes transform to body strange, I purpose to entreat.

"Ye gods vouchsafe, for you are they wrought this wondrous fate to further this mine enterprise."

These lines are from Arthur Golding's 1567 translation of which classical work?

It could be anything, couldn't it? The Iliad?

No, it's Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Secondly for five, premiered in 1718, as a one-act mask

and later revised, which pastoral opera by Handel was based on

a story in Metamorphoses and concerns the love of a nymph

for a shepherd. The latter being murdered by the giant Polyphemus.

Any play, whatever it is, by Handel?

-What did Handel do?

-Something to do with Adonis? I don't know.

-Um. Any plays at all?

-Don't know.

A Midsummer Night's Dream?

No. It's Acis and Galatea. Finally,

which story in the Metamorphoses

concerns two lovers forbidden to meet by their parents so communicate

through a crack in the wall between their adjoining houses?

-Yeah, perhaps, Pyramus and Thisbe?

-Correct.

Another starter question. "The future belongs to socialism."

These are the words of which German political figure? The East German Head of State from 1976 until 1989.

-Honecker.

-Erich Honecker is correct. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses UCL are on French styles of cooking.

Firstly, for five points, meaning a garnish of lobster, truffles and mornay sauce,

a la waleska,

means in the style of a mistress of which military and political figure?

Napoleon? Yeah. Lobster Thermidor, right?

-OK.

-Napoleon.

-Correct.

Which area in south-west France now mostly in the Dordogne department

gives its name to a truffle-based sauce or truffle garnish?

Bearnaise? I was thinking Bearnaise.

-Bearnaise.

-No, it's Perigord.

And sharing its name with a film director,

which style is garnished with mushrooms and truffles?

-Trufallo. Truffaut?

-Truffaut.

It's a la goddard. 10 points for this.

Produced by most organisms, what globular protein consists

of 24 protein sub-units and acts as an intracellular iron store?

-Albumen?

-No. Anyone want to buzz from Balliol?

BUZZER

Myoglobin?

No, its ferritin. 10 points for this.

Luscinia megarhynchos, a lover of Cupid,

a mood disorder tending towards depression,

an ancient artefact, a season of the year,

and a lack of activity were linked in 1819 by the works of which poet?

BELL

-Keats.

-Keats is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on recent works of non-fiction, UCL.

In the 2009 book Sum, how many tales from the afterlives

are told by the US neuroscientist David Edelman?

Anyone give me an advance on 50?

50.

It's 40.

Which British professor of psychology is the author

of The Luck Factor, Quirkology, and most recently, 59 Seconds?

-Richard Wiseman.

-Richard Wiseman.

Correct. In his 2009 book Catching Fire, the British primatologist,

Richard Wrangham, argues human evolution

was driven by the invention of what?

Language? Yeah.

-I'm going to go with language. Language.

-No, it's cooking.

10 points for this. Originally with about 20% lead

but now with about 10% antimony and a small mind of copper, which blue/grey alloy of tin

is used chiefly for ornaments and utensils and was a popular...

BELL

Pewter?

Pewter is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses could give you the lead, national flags, UCL.

Similar to that of Texas, which country's flag consists of

two unequal horizontal bands of white and red?

-Chile?

-Chile is correct, yes.

The national flag of which Caribbean country

has blue and white horizontal stripes with a red triangle

at the hoist on which there is a white five-pointed star?

-Yeah, Cuba.

-OK. Cuba.

Cuba is correct.

And finally, resembling that of the United States, the flag

of which African country consists of

horizontal red and white stripes with a single white star

in a blue canton?

-Liberia.

-Liberia is right. Time for a music round.

For your starter, a piece of classical music.

10 points if you can name the composer.

PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

BELL

-Brahms.

-It is, Brahms. Yes.

APPLAUSE

That starter was Hungarian Dance No 5 by Brahms

which won the 1877 Royal Philharmonic Society's gold medal

for outstanding musicianship.

Your music bonuses are three more pieces

by other recipients of that award.

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

Firstly, this 1935 winner.

ORCHESTRA PLAYS

THEY CONFER

-Sousa?

-No, it's Sibelius. It's from his Karelia Suite.

Secondly, this 1975 winner.

PIANO PLAYS

THEY CONFER

..Trying to play the piano, it's quite a weird piano.

The piano sounds weird.

OK, we'll go with John Cage. It'll be the wrong answer.

-John Cage.

-No, that's by Messiaen.

And, finally, this 1947 winner.

ROUSING ORCHESTRA PLAYS

THEY CONFER

-Is that the right period? He wrote things for the Coronation.

-Sounds good.

-Vaughan Williams.

-No, that's William Walton. Spitfire Prelude and Fugue.

So, ten points for this.

Used from the 1920s onwards to describe art that incorporates movement

or gives the illusion of movement, what term is used in physics...

-Kinetic.

-Kinetic it's correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on scientific terms, UCL.

Dermatoglyphics used as a means of identification

and as a genetic indicator, is the scientific study of what?

Skin markings.

-Skin markings.

-Yes, fingerprints.

And, secondly, comprising two extant species and resident in Southeast Asia,

Dermoptera is an order of arboreal gliding mammals known by what common name?

Flying squirrel? Flying squirrels.

They're colugos or flying lemurs.

And, finally, dermatophytosis

is a clinical condition

caused by a fungal infection of the skin in humans and some animals,

and is commonly known by what name?

THEY CONFER

No, eczema isn't fungal.

What about that thing with the...leprosy?

-Maybe. Leprosy?

-You're going to be a doctor, aren't you? It's ringworm.

10 points for this. "The only thing that's certain

"is that the music then was better."

From the introduction to a work of 2009,

these of the words of novelist Jenny Diski

conclude a comparison of the present day with which decade?

BELL

The 1920s?

No.

You lose five points. Which decade, the title of the book?

BUZZER

1970s?

No, it was the 1960s. 10 points for this. In 1990,

the separatist region of Transnistria proclaimed its...

-Moldova.

-Moldova is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on an Asian country.

More than 5,600 metres high, Mount Damavand in the Alborz range

is the highest mountain of which Asian country?

-Is it Russia?

-I think it might be Armenia, but I don't know.

-Armenia?

Armenia.

No, it's Iran. Around 1,500 kilometres in length

and roughly correlating with its western border,

what is Iran's most extensive mountain range?

-The Urals?

-God, no. The Caucasus?

-The Caucasus.

-No, it's the Zagros.

Situated at the foot of the Zagros Mountains, which made a city of southern Iran shares its name

-with the grape variety from which red wine is made?

-Shiraz.

-Correct.

10 points for this. Used in mothballs,

which chemical comes between...

-Camphor.

-No. You lose five points.

Between benzene and anthracene in terms of molecular structure?

BUZZER

-Naphthalene.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on historic trials.

Sometimes called the Monkey Trial, the historic case tried in Tennessee in 1925

is usually named after which high school teacher

charged with teaching the theory of evolution?

-Scopes.

-Correct. The identity of which French peasant

was the central issue of a trial held in 1560 in the town of Rieux

in the South of France?

THEY CONFER

-Valjean.

-No, it's Martin Guerre.

And, finally, which locomotive won the Rainhill Trials

during the development of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1829?

-The Rocket?

-No, that wasn't... Sorry.

The Rocket?

Stephenson's Rocket. 10 points for this. According to EM Forster,

which French novelist altered his clocks hands so that his hero

was at the same period entertaining his mistress's supper and playing...

Dumas?

You lose five points.

And playing ball with his nurse in the park?

-Proust?

-Proust is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on the arts.

A mural called the Beethoven Frieze

and the painting Frau Adele Bloch-Bauer

are early 20th-century works by which Austrian artist?

-Gustav Klimt.

-Correct.

The works of which Austrian novelist include Young Torless,

1906, and the long modernist novel, The Man Without Qualities,

left unfinished on his death in 1942?

Um...

Berger?

Mural, or something like Muraz, or Mules, or, Mulaz...

-Mules.

-No, it's Musil.

And, finally, Resurrection Symphony, Ode To Heavenly Joy

and Symphony of a Thousand are popular names for orchestral works

by which composer who died in Vienna in 1911?

-Mahler.

-Mahler is right.

Time for another picture round, I think,

where your pictures starter is a 16th century painting.

10 points if you can identify the artist.

None of you look as if you're going to buzz.

It's Arcimboldo's The Librarian.

Picture bonuses in a moment. 10 points for this.

Used in the Atlantic Ocean

and in the Northern Pacific to the east of the International Date Line,

the Saffir-Simpson Scale measures what extreme weather phenomenon?

-Hurricanes.

-Hurricanes is right.

APPLAUSE

You get the bonuses. Following The Librarian,

there are more 16th century portraits depicting professional men.

In each case, give me the name of the artist.

Firstly, this painting entitled Portrait of a Lawyer.

That's a lawyer?

THEY CONFER

-Titian, Titian did that.

-Titian.

No, it's by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

And secondly, this portrait entitled Portrait Of A Procurator.

-Huh?

-Holbein?

-Holbein.

No, that's by Bellini.

And finally, this portrait of the doctor, Andreas Vesalius.

-This is going to be Holbein.

-No?

-OK, no idea.

-Judah?

-Sorry?

Caravaggio.

-Caravaggio.

-No, that's by Titian!

10 points for this. Once closely associated

with the Yale School of Deconstruction,

which US literary critic and philosopher is noted

for his Freudian-influenced theory of the anxiety of influence.

His works include the Western Canon.

Derrida?

-No, UCL?

-Harold Bloom.

Harold Bloom is right, yes.

These bonuses are on botanical terms.

Originally meaning a shoot or a twig, especially one cut to form a graft,

what word also means an heir or a descendant, particularly of a noble house?

-Scion.

-Scion?

Correct.

Used in electronics for a point in a circuit

where several conductors meet, what word is also used for the point

on a stem from which a leaf or branch grows?

-Node?

-Oh, node sounds good. I like node. Node.

Node is right. And finally,

used for the result of oxidation on iron,

what term is also applied to a fungal infection

causing reddish-brown spots on the leaves or stems of plants?

-Rust?

-Correct. 10 points for this question.

Born in Jerusalem in 1968,

which chef's writings include an eponymous volume in 2008,

Plenty in 2010 and a series of columns for the Guardian?

-Nigel Slater?

-Nope.

-Heston Blumenthal?

-No, it's Yotam Ottolenghi. 10 points for this.

What Greek derived term was coined in the 16th century

for the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms thought

to have existed in England...

-Heptarchy?

-Heptarchy is right. Your bonuses now...

-APPLAUSE

..are on a Russian writer, Balliol.

A poem based on a fairy-tale and adapted as an opera

by Rimsky-Korsakov, The Tale of Tsar Saltan was written by which

Russian literary figure, fatally injured in a duel in 1837?

-Pushkin?

-Pushkin.

Correct. Which Russian Tsar who ruled

from 1598 to 1605 is the subject

of a play by Pushkin and an opera by Mussorgsky?

-Ivan the Terrible.

-No, it's Boris Godunov.

The Bronze Horseman is a poem

by Pushkin about an equestrian statue of which Tsar?

It stands in the city he founded on the banks of the Neva in 1703.

-Peter?

-Peter the Great is correct.

Three-and-a-half minutes to go.

Taking its name from a county in Kentucky,

which variety of alcoholic spirit shares its name with a family...

-Bourbon?

-Bourbon is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on physical equations.

The orbital period of a planet depends on its semi-major axis

raised to what power?

Um... Last time it was three.

-Three.

-No, its three over two.

At long range, the field of an electric quadruple

depends on distance to what power?

The power of minus two.

The power of minus two.

It's the power of minus four.

And the radiated energy of a black body

is proportional to temperature raised to what power?

-Four.

-OK, yeah? Four.

Four is right. 10 points for this.

In March 1950, Thomas Holden became the first person to be placed

officially on which list in a programme implemented by...

-The sex offenders' register.

-No. Lose five points.

..In a programme implemented by J Edgar Hoover.

One of you buzz, Balliol, otherwise I'll tell you.

It's the most wanted list. 10 points for this.

The choice of Hercules, Liberty and The Age Of Terror...

-BUZZER

-AC Grayling?

AC Grayling is right.

Your bonuses this time are on the Napoleonic wars.

The Battle of Aboukir Bay, a decisive victory for

Nelson over Napoleon's fleet in 1798, is more commonly named

after which river, which opens into the bay?

-Nile.

-Correct.

The Battle of the Three Emperors,

a victory for Napoleon in December 1805 is

better known by what name after a town in Moravia?

-Austerlitz.

-Correct. A defeat for Napoleon,

the Battle of the Nations in October 1813,

-is also known by what name after a city in Saxony?

-Leipzig.

Correct. When OPEC was founded in 1960,

which country was the only South American member?

-Venezuela.

-Venezuela is right.

Your bonuses this time are on the solar system.

Which planet has an equatorial diameter close to twice that

of the Earth's moon?

-Mars?

-Yes, Mars sounds...

-Quickly!

-Mars.

-Mars is right.

Which planet has an equatorial diameter around one-tenth

that of Neptune?

Um...

-Come on.

-Uranus.

-No, it's Mercury.

With a difference between equatorial and polar diameters

almost as great as the diameter of Earth, which planet, by virtue

-of its size and rapid spin, has the largest equatorial bulge?

-Venus?

Saturn. 10 points for this.

A diminutive figure of English folklore, an island in the Dodecanese

and a fragment of snow-formed glacier floating in open water,

all share their names with varieties of what leaf vegetable?

BELL

-Lettuce?

-Yes!

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on aquatic birds, UCL.

Common, or foolish and black are the main species of which sea bird,

an auk with a long painted bill, its name derives from a French

or Welsh form of the given name William?

-Booby.

-No, it's a guillemot!

LAUGHTER

The northern gannet, Morus bassanus, derives the second

part of its binomial from Bass Rock, an island in which firth of the UK?

-The Firth of Forth is a firth.

-The Firth of Forth.

Correct.

Alca torda is an auk known by what common name

after the distinctive shape of its beak?

-Spoonbills?

-That sounds great. Spoonbill!

No, it's a razorbill. 10 points for this,

meaning "horizontal rope"

in Japanese what is the highest rank in sumo wrestling?

BELL

-Yokozuna?

-Correct!

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on place names. Give the name from the description.

All three names begin with the same letters.

A peninsula of south-east Mexico,

formerly a centre of the Maya culture.

-Yucatan.

-Correct.

A Chinese province that shares borders with Burma, Laos and Vietnam?

GONG SOUNDS

Balliol College, Oxford have 145.

University College London have 235.

You weren't really on song tonight, Balliol,

but no shame at all in going out in the quarterfinals

so we shall have to say goodbye to you and UCL,

despite booby and Uranus and the rest of it,

we shall look forward very much to seeing you in the semifinals.

Congratulations!

I hope you can join us for the first of the semifinals but until then,

-it's goodbye from Balliol College Oxford...

-Goodbye.

-..from University College London.

-Goodbye.

-And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

-APPLAUSE

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd