Episode 15 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Proof there is life after death tonight,

in the first of two play-offs

between teams who lost their first round matches,

but did so with scores higher than the winning totals

in some other contests.

Now, in recent years, several institutions

have become series champions after surviving by this rule.

Lincoln College, Oxford, seemed dead certs to win their first-round match

when their opponents, Manchester University,

obliged them by spending the first few minutes in the minuses.

But victory was snatched away from tonight's four

by the narrowest, cruellest margin

of five points.

Still, their losing score of 175

is the highest of the four teams in these play-offs.

Let's meet them again.

Hi, I'm Victor Jones.

I'm from South Africa and I'm reading for a doctorate in Plant Sciences.

Hi, I'm Michael Hopkins, originally from Haywards Heath in West Sussex

and I'm reading Biochemistry.

-And their captain...

-Hi, I'm Jackie Thompson.

I'm from Orange County, California

and I'm reaching for a doctorate in Experimental Psychology.

Hi, I'm Hugh Reid.

I'm from Winchester and I'm reading for a doctorate in History.

APPLAUSE

The team from Lancaster University

were in contention for most of their first-round match

against Pembroke College, Cambridge,

but they faded towards the finish and came away with 140 points

to their opponents' 200.

Their strengths on that occasion included exhibits at Tate Modern,

obscure European ossuaries

and place names ending in "-stan".

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

Hi, I'm Alan Webster from Blackpool.

I'm reading for a Masters in Resource and Environmental Management.

Hi, I'm Ann Kretzschmar.

I originally come from Chesterfield in Derbyshire

and I'm studying for a PhD in Environmental Modelling.

-And here's their captain...

-Hello, I'm George Pinkerton.

I'm from Surrey and I'm studying History, Philosophy and Politics.

Hi, my name's Iain Dickson, I'm from Stirling,

I'm studying for an MSc in Ecology and the Environment.

APPLAUSE

OK. To say the rules are ossified would be to understate things.

So, you all know them, fingers on the buzzers,

here's your first starter for 10.

In March 2012, which reference work announced that it would stop...?

BUZZER

-Encyclopaedia Britannica.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your first set of bonuses, Lancaster, are on lost hands.

Firstly, for five points,

which major literary figure

lost the use of his left hand as a result of wounds sustained

during the Battle of Lepanto in 1571?

Ooh. Um.

Literary figure...

That's in about the 1500s, so...

-Cervantes or something?

-Uh, yeah.

Uh, Cervantes?

It was Cervantes, yes.

Lord Nelson's right hand and arm were amputated as a result of wounds

received during a landing in 1797 at which of the Canary Islands?

-Uh, I think it's Tenerife.

-It was Tenerife, yes.

And later a commander in the Crimean War,

which soldier's right hand was amputated after Waterloo

and gave his name to a type of sleeve

that was designed for him to wear after his injuries?

It was Lord...Lord Raglan.

-Correct. Right, ten points for this.

-APPLAUSE

Quote - "In adolescence, I hated life

"and was continually on the verge of suicide

"from which, however, I was restrained

"by the desire to know more mathematics..."

BELL

-Bertrand Russell.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the works of George Eliot.

In each case, name the novel from its closing lines.

Firstly, "Oh, Father, said Eppie, what a pretty home ours is.

"I think nobody could be happier than we are."

Do you know George Eliot?

-Mill On The Floss, did she write that?

-It's one of the obvious ones.

-Er, Mill On The Floss?

-No, that's from Silas Marner.

Secondly, "The growing good of the world

"is partly dependent on unhistoric acts

"and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been

"is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life

"and rest in unvisited tombs."

Middlemarch.

Middlemarch?

THEY WHISPER

-Middlemarch?

-That is correct.

And finally, "The tomb bore the names of Tom and Maggie Tulliver

"and below the names, it was written,

"In their death, they were not divided."

Adam Bede.

Adam Bede, or Mill On The Floss?

That is George Eliot, isn't it?

Mill On The Floss.

Correct. Ten points for this starter question.

Give me both of the following terms used in physics,

which differ by a single letter.

One refers to a process or medium that is not dependent on direction,

the other means pertaining to versions of an atom or nucleus

that contain different numbers of neutrons.

BUZZER

Er...isotope and speed?

No. Anyone like to buzz from Lincoln College?

BELL

Isotope and isotone.

No, it's isotropic and isotopic. Ten points for this.

Quote - "It consists in doing and saying things

"that cause shame to the victims, simply for the pleasure of it."

These words form part of Aristotle's definition of what six letter term?

In modern usage,

it describes an excess of pride or ambition that ultimately causes...

BUZZER

-Hubris?

-Hubris is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Second set of bonuses for you. They're on magnetism.

What name is given to the weak effect which consists of

the repulsion of magnetic flux away from the surface of the material?

Do we know at all?

-Repulsion?

-Guesses?

THEY WHISPER

Repulsion?

No, it's diamagnetism.

What term describes those materials attracted to the poles of a magnet

but which do not retain magnetisation in the absence of

an applied magnetic field?

Umm...

-Magnetic?

-No, it's paramagnets.

And finally, what term describes a material such as iron,

which can be permanently magnetised?

HE SIGHS AND CHUCKLES

Magnetic, again.

No, it's ferromagnetic. Ten points for this.

Which epic poem ends with these lines...

"The world was all before them, where to choose their place of rest,

-"and Providence..."

-BUZZER

-Paradise Lost.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on the Armed Forces, Lincoln College.

Firstly, for five,

often abbreviated to MID and ranking below the Military Cross,

what is the oldest commendation for gallantry

and other exceptional services in the British Armed Forces?

Mentioned in Dispatches?

Mentioned in Dispatches?

-Nominate Jones.

-Mentioned in Dispatches?

Correct.

Initially bronze, which emblem was introduced in 1920

to identify those who had been Mentioned in Dispatches

during World War I?

Is it some type of cross?

Military Cross?

-Military Cross?

-Don't know.

Military Cross?

-No, it was an oak leaf.

-Oh.

In the UK, names of those Mentioned in Dispatches will be published

in which journal, the official organ of the British Government

and appointed medium of various official announcements?

-Is it Hansard?

-Sorry?

-Is it Hansard?

-Hansard?

-Houses of Parliament.

Worth a shot, I guess.

Let's have it, please.

Nominate Hopkins.

Hansard?

No, that's the record of Parliament. It's the London Gazette.

We're going to take a picture round now,

with the scores very evenly matched.

Your picture starter is the title of a well-known

philosophical work in its original language.

For ten points, I want the English title and the author.

BELL

Uh... Critique Of Divine Reason, by Kant.

No. Anyone want to buzz from Lancaster?

You may not confer, one of you may buzz.

BUZZER

Is it the Critique Of Pure Reason?

It is the Critique Of Pure Reason, by Kant.

Here's the whole thing. Let's have a look.

So, we follow on from that starter question with picture bonuses.

Three more philosophical titles, all in the original language.

In each case, I want the English title and the author.

Firstly, for five...

Uh, The Politics, by Aristotle?

No, we'll see the whole thing.

It's Plato's Republic.

Second, this work of the first century BC.

Uh, I think it's Pliny the Elder's...

No, it's not. It's Lucretius's On The Nature Of Things.

And finally, this work...

The War of...

The War of Gulf is not a place?

-Do we know?

-The War of something...

Let's have it.

The... Uh...

Something about the Gulf War. We don't know.

OK, it's Baudrillard's The Gulf War Did Not Take Place.

Hmm. Right, ten points for this.

In sociology, what two-word term

describes the hierarchical arrangement of individuals

according to wealth, status and power

that was deemed necessary by such functionalists

as Talcott Parsons?

BELL

Caste system?

No. Lancaster, one of you buzz?

BUZZER

Social hierarchy?

No, it social stratification. Ten points for this.

Since 1961, the International Union Of Pure And Applied Chemistry

has defined the unified atomic mass unit

as the equivalent of one twelfth of the mass of an atom

-of which isotope?

-BELL

Carbon 12?

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

You will take the lead if you get these bonuses. They're on a play by Shakespeare.

Also the subject of a work by Chaucer, which pair of lovers

are the title characters of a play by Shakespeare,

set during the siege of Troy?

-Troilus and Cressida.

-Correct.

In the dramatis personae of Troilus and Cressida,

which character is described as "a deformed and scurrilous Greek"?

THEY WHISPER

Maybe Nestor.

Nestor?

No, it's Thersites.

Born 1631, which Poet Laureate rewrote Troilus and Cressida

intending, as he put it,

"To uncover the jewels of Shakespeare's verse,

"hidden beneath a heap of rubbish"?

-Is it Dryden?

-Dryden?

I think it's Dryden.

Dryden.

Correct. Ten points for this.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

The distinctive tricolour flag

of the liberation leader Francisco de Miranda

forms the basis of the national flags

of three Latin American countries.

Ten points if you can name two of them.

BUZZER

Venezuela and Colombia.

Correct. The other one is Ecuador.

Right, you get a set of bonuses. This time, back on level pegging,

they are on pairs of words whose spelling differs

only in the substitution of a final L for a letter R.

For example, brother and brothel.

In each case, give both words from the definitions.

Firstly, an item of movable property

and a verb meaning to engage in rapid, inconsequential talk.

-Chattel and chatter?

-Yeah.

-Chattel and chatter?

-Correct.

Secondly, a small or squalid dwelling

and the collective noun for a group of trout

or a verb meaning to rest on a cushion of air.

-Is it a hovel and hover?

-Yeah.

-Hover and hovel?

-Correct.

And finally, a divine messenger

and an abstract noun meaning hot displeasure, wrath or annoyance.

-Angel and anger.

-Correct.

-Ten points for this.

-APPLAUSE

Although actually fought on Breed's Hill, above Charlestown, Boston,

what name is...?

BUZZER

-The Battle of Bunker Hill?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on football.

In 1889, which Lancashire club became the first

Football League champions? The club were champions in the next season

and runners-up in the next three seasons.

-Is it Preston?

-Preston.

-Sorry?

-Preston North End.

-Preston North End?

-Correct.

In 1926, which Yorkshire club

became the first to win the English First Division championship

three times in succession?

They've not won a major trophy since.

-It's not Leeds, is it?

-No, they have.

Maybe Sheffield Wednesday?

-Right. Um...

-No, no, no.

-Huddersfield Town, maybe.

-Bradford.

-Or Bradford?

-Please.

-Uh, Bradford?

-No, it's Huddersfield Town.

Bradford would be mortified to hear you say that.

What was the next club to win it in three successive years?

I want the name of the club AND the decade in which they did so.

THEY WHISPER

-I'd say Wolves.

-Wells?

-Wolves.

-Oh.

-Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Wolves?

No, it was Arsenal, in the 1930s. Ten points for this.

In 1824, the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel

proved that there is no general formula involving radicals

for the solution of polynomial equations of which degree?

BELL

-Fifth?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

OK, these bonuses are on winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The 1973 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to

Le Duc Tho, who declined the prize,

and to which other recipient, who did accept it?

THEY WHISPER

-Uh, Kissinger?

-It was Henry Kissinger.

In 2010, Chinese state media censored news of the announcement

that which imprisoned dissident

was to be awarded that year's peace prize?

Was it Ai Weiwei?

-Ai Weiwei?

-Yeah, was he an artist?

-Yeah.

-Ai Weiwei?

-No, it was Lu Xiaobo.

And finally, "The Closest Of Strangers"

is how a headline in the Washington Post

described which two joint winners of the prize in 1993?

1993?

Could that be with, like, the Soviet Union? Gorbachev?

Gorbachev and Reagan?

Did he win it? I don't know.

Gorbachev and Reagan?

No. It was Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk.

Right, well, it's a pretty close match, this,

and we're halfway through it. We'll take a music round.

For your starter, you're going to hear a piece of popular music.

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

# Babe, you're getting closer

# The lights are going dim

# The sound of your breathing

# Has made the mood I'm in

# All of my resistance

# Is lying on the floor

# Taking me to places

# I've never been before... #

OK, I think we've heard enough now to establish

that no-one has the faintest idea what it is.

It was Elvis Presley, singing Way Down. So, music bonuses shortly.

Another starter question in the meantime.

In a well-known portrait by the photographer Robert Howlett,

which engineer is pictured in front of the giant...?

BUZZER

Brunel?

Correct.

APPLAUSE

So, Way Down, which we heard a moment or two ago,

was recorded at the Jungle Room Sessions

at Elvis Presley's residence, Graceland, in 1976,

a year before his death.

For your bonuses,

three more songs recorded at those same sessions at Graceland.

Simply name the song in each case. Here we go.

# Put your sweet lips

# A little closer

# To the phone

# Uh - huh

# Let's pretend

# That we're together

# All alone... #

Any song?

THEY WHISPER

Let's have it, please.

We don't know.

That's He'll Have To Go.

And secondly...

# Well, it's hard to be a gambler

# Betting on the number

# That changes every time

# When you think you're going to win

# You think she's giving in

# A stranger's all you find

# Yeah, it's hard to figure out

# What she's all about

# That she's a woman through and through... #

Uh...

-Let's have it, please.

-She's A Lady?

No, it's his last number one, Moody Blue. And finally...

# But come ye back

# When summer's in the meadow

# Or when the valley's hushed

# And white with snow... #

-We don't know.

-It was Danny Boy!

-LAUGHTER

-Right, ten points for this.

In the 19th century, which pair of writers wrote

both the German dictionary Deutsches Woerterbuch

and a series of stories published in the collection Household...?

-BELL

-The Brothers Grimm.

-Yes.

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Scottish literature, Lincoln College.

Subtitled A Life In Four Books and including his own illustrations,

Lanark is a work of 1981 by which author?

1981?

-I don't know any Scottish novelists.

-It's not Iain Banks, is it?

-Banks?

-No, it's by Alasdair Gray.

Secondly, for five points,

which Scottish writer and comedian won the 2007 Costa Prize

for the novel Day?

Her other works include On Bullfighting and Paradise.

-Mantel.

-No. That's A.L. Kennedy.

And finally, making her debut in 1997 with Like,

which Scottish writer's novel The Accidental

was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005?

Is that Sarah Waters?

Worth a shot.

Sarah Waters?

No, it's Ali Smith.

Ten points for this.

Based on a plot by the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette-Bey,

which opera was commissioned from Giuseppe Verdi...?

-BELL

-Aida.

-Yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on geometry.

In three dimensions, what operation takes two vectors as its input

and outputs another vector which is perpendicular to them?

THEY WHISPER

Cross product?

Correct. Cross, or vector, product.

What is the only dimension higher than three

in which a similarly defined vector product exists?

-Only dimension above three?

-I don't know.

Five?

Pick a number.

-Five?

-No, it's seven.

-Oh.

The magnitude of the cross product of two vectors

is the product of the vectors' individual magnitudes

and what trigonometric function?

It's either the Sine of the angle between them,

or the Cos of the angle. I can't remember which one.

The Sine of the...?

The Sine of the angle between them.

Between the two vectors, correct. Ten points for this.

Which nocturnal African mammal is the only extant animal

classified in the...?

BUZZER

Aardvark?

Aardvark is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

You retake the lead

and these bonuses are on Church of England dioceses.

During the 1540s, Henry VIII established five new dioceses,

two of these were in former Roman towns,

one on the River Dee, the other on the Severn.

For five points, name both.

-Chester.

-Did they have Aberdeen?

Chester's on the Dee.

Chester and...

On the Severn?

Maybe Shrewsbury or something?

-It might be Hereford.

-Don't know.

Shrewsbury. No, Hereford was probably...

Let's have it, please.

Chester and Hereford?

No, it's Chester and Gloucester.

Which city in North Yorkshire gives its name

to a diocese established in 1836,

the first since the 16th century?

Yes, it might be, actually. There's Ripon Cathedral, isn't there?

Uh, is it Ripon?

It is, yes.

Which diocese in Cornwall was created in 1877?

Truro?

Is there a Truro Cathedral?

-I don't... I'm not sure, but...

-Go for it.

-Truro?

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Founded in 1826 as a satirical weekly gossip sheet on the arts,

which newspaper is now France's oldest daily paper and is named...?

BUZZER

Le Figaro?

Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on botany, Lancaster.

In what specific part of a flowering plant

are the integuments, chalaza and nucellus found?

Uh, stamens? I don't know.

Uh, right, OK.

-No idea at all?

-No.

-Right, the stamens?

-No, it's the ovule.

Secondly, what term denotes the pore in the ovule

through which the pollen tube usually enters,

prior to fertilisation?

It's not something like the egg duct or anything? The seed duct?

No, I'm thinking of the stomata, but that's not it.

-Right, umm...

-Come on, let's have it, please.

-The egg duct, seed duct...?

-No, it's the micropyle.

And finally, from the Greek meaning to join or to yoke,

what term denotes the initial cell form from two haploid gametes?

Was that the zygote?

Or diploid.

-Right.

-Or zygote, maybe, actually.

Right. Diploid?

No, it's a zygote. Ten points for this starter question.

It's a picture question.

You'll see a photograph of a political figure.

Ten points if you can give me her name.

BUZZER

No, you buzz, you must answer. I'm sorry.

Lincoln College, one of you may buzz.

BELL

Christine Kirchner?

No, it's Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF. Ten points for this.

The Labour Party And Political Change In Scotland 1918-29 - The Politics Of Five Elections

is the title of the doctoral thesis submitted in 1981

by which public figure?

BELL

Er, Alex Salmond?

No. One of you buzz from Lancaster.

-Gordon Brown?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

So, we revert to the picture round.

Picture bonuses are on photographs of prominent women,

all voted into the top ten of the Forbes 2011 list

of the world's 100 most powerful women.

Five points for each person you can identify. Firstly...

THEY WHISPER

Right, Sonia Gandhi?

Correct. Secondly...

Argentina?

I don't think it is, but I don't have a better one.

What, Cristina Kirchner?

Is it Cristina Kirchner?

No, it's Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook. And finally...

Maybe that's her.

But it isn't. I don't think it is.

Any idea?

Let's have it, please.

Cristina Kirchner, again.

No, it's Bill Gates' Mrs, Melinda. Ten points for this.

Given a two by two matrix with top row AB

and bottom row CD,

what name is given to the associated quantity AD minus BC?

BELL

-The determinant?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on diseases in fiction, Lincoln College.

Set in a Congolese village, which novel by Graham Greene

has a title that refers in part to those suffering from leprosy?

Umm...

I don't know Graham Greene.

I think there's Heart Of The Matter.

It's in Africa, but not in the Congo. I think that's wrong.

The Heart Of The Matter.

No, that's not... That's completely wrong.

It's A Burnt-Out Case.

In which novel by Ian McEwan does the neurosurgeon Henry Peron

diagnose that Baxter, his assailant,

is suffering from Huntington's Disease?

-Ian McEwan?

-Is it Saturday?

-Sorry?

-Saturday.

-Saturday?

-I'm not sure.

Um, Saturday?

Saturday is correct.

In which novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

are the effects of love likened to and mistaken for

the symptoms of a bacterial...?

-A Hundred Years Of S... Sorry?

-Love In The Time Of Cholera.

-Love In The Time Of Cholera.

-Correct.

-Sorry.

Ten points for this.

Etymologically unconnected, meanings of what short word

include a culinary herb often used in infusions

and the place where money is coined?

BUZZER

Mint.

Correct. These bonuses are on one-act ballets.

The one-act ballet choreographed by Robert Helpmann

for the Sadler's Wells ballet in 1944

concerned a miracle in which area of Glasgow?

Gorbals?

Gorbals.

Uh, nominate Dickson.

-The Gorbals.

-Correct.

Les Patineurs, a plotless ballet with music by Meyerbeer, has

a demanding choreography which requires its dancers

to portray what eponymous activity?

-Any kind of activity that would be difficult...

-Let's have it, please.

-Come on.

-I don't know. Fighting?

No, it's skating.

Set to music by Tchaikovsky,

which ballet is based on Chekhov's play The Three Sisters?

-Uh, that would be The Nutcracker, or something.

-Yeah, go for it.

The Nutcracker.

No! Winter Dreams. Ten points for this.

What former industrial activity links the sites

of Eastlands in Manchester and the Stadium of Light...?

BUZZER

Gas works.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..and the Stadium of Light in Sunderland?

BELL

Ship works?

No, it's coal mining. Ten points for this.

The capital of Picardy until 1790,

which city on the River Somme

is home to the cathedral of Notre Dame, the largest church in France?

BELL

Reims.

No. One of you buzz, Lancaster.

-BUZZER

-Rouen?

No, it's Amiens. Ten points for this.

The daughter of which national leader

wrote the memoir Twenty Letters To A Friend,

first published in 1967 after her defection

from the Soviet Union to the USA, via India?

BUZZER

Joseph Stalin? Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on human anatomy.

In which bone is the Glenoid Cavity found?

THEY WHISPER

Come on, let's have it, please.

-Come on.

-The ankle bone?

No, it's the scapula, or shoulder blade.

The head of which bone articulates with the Glenoid Cavity?

-Uh, the humerus.

-Correct.

-GONG

And at the gong, Lincoln College, Oxford, have 120,

Lancaster University have 165.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well, it was a pretty close match.

Lincoln, we shall have to say goodbye to you, I'm afraid.

Lancaster, we look forward to seeing you in the next stage. Congratulations.

I hope you can join us next time for another play-off.

But, until then, it's goodbye from Lincoln College, Oxford.

ALL: Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Lancaster.

-ALL: Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

APPLAUSE

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