Episode 2 University Challenge

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman!

Hello. The Greek poet Archilochus wrote that

"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing".

We're hoping to see foxes tonight,

as two teams compete for a place in the second round.

Hedgehogs might also get to play again,

if their score is high enough.

St George's is a medical college of the University of London.

It was established in 1733 on Hyde Park Corner,

but is now based in Tooting,

and is one of the largest and oldest medical schools in the UK.

It shares its campus with the buildings of St George's Hospital,

so during lectures, students will often hear the sound of patients

being trolleyed to their wards and consultants

schedule their lectures around their daily surgeries.

Its alumni include Henry Grey, author of The Anatomy -

the medical manual, that is, not the TV series - Edward Jenner,

the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine, and the comedian Harry Hill.

With an average age of 23 and representing around 3,000 students,

let's meet the St George's team.

I'm Shashank Sivaji, originally from Southend-on-Sea in Essex, and I'm studying medicine.

I'm Alexander Suebsaeng, I'm from London, and I'm also studying medicine.

And their captain.

I'm Rebecca Smoker, from County Kildare, and I'm studying medicine.

I'm Sam Mindel, from London, also studying medicine.

APPLAUSE

Now, King's College, Cambridge was founded in 1441 by Henry VI,

and began life as The King's College of Our Lady and St Nicholas

for a Provost and 70 scholars from Eton, but those days are long gone.

Its world-renowned architecture may be one reason that students seem

to have some difficulty in tearing themselves away from the place.

The mediaevalist and author of ghost stories MR James

was a student there, and later became a Fellow and then its Provost.

Alan Turing was also a student and later a Fellow,

and EM Forster, another former undergraduate,

was elected an honorary Fellow in 1946,

and hardly budged from the place for the rest of his life.

Representing around 700 students,

and with an average age of 20, let's meet the King's team.

Hello, there. I'm Curtis Gallant, I'm from north London, and I'm a first-year Classics undergraduate.

Hi, I'm Amber Ace, I'm from Perthshire, and I'm also studying Classics.

And their captain.

Hi, I'm Fran Middleton, I'm from Chorleywood, in Hertfordshire,

and I'm also doing Classics, but to a PhD.

Hi, I'm James Gratrex, I'm from Leeds, and I'm reading Physics.

APPLAUSE

OK. It's too tedious to recite the rules, so let's just get on with it.

Here's your first starter for ten.

"They resisted to the last, with their swords,

"if they had them, and, if not, with their hands and teeth."

These words of Herodotus described the defeated Spartans

at which battle...

Thermopylae?

Thermopylae is correct, yes.

You're the one non-classicist on that team!

Right, your bonuses. They're on a preserve.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, which preserve

was originally a sweet, solid, quince jelly,

flavoured by rosewater and musk or ambergris, and cut into squares for eating?

Marmalade?

Any other ideas?

Marmalade?

Marmalade?

Correct. The name marmalade is derived from marmelo,

the word for quince in the language of which country, from which most of

the early imports of both the fruit and the preserve came to Britain?

Italy?

-Yeah, that's what I'd say. Unless it's Portugal. Italy.

-Italy?

No, it's Portugal.

The fruit Citrus aurantium, now most commonly used

in the manufacture of marmalade, is commonly known by what name?

-It's bitter orange, I think.

-Just orange.

Orange? Bitter orange? Oh, no.

Bitter orange I will accept. It's Seville orange, yes.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

Its name derived from an Arabic word meaning coastal,

and originally written in Arabic script,

what language is used as a lingua franca in much of East Africa,

and is an official language of Kenya and Tanzania?

Is it Swahili?

It is, yes.

Right, St George's. Your first bonuses are on French literature.

Born in 1533, Michel de Montaigne is generally credited with

the introduction of which literary genre?

Its name comes from the French for attempt.

The essay?

Correct.

Which 17th-century poet wrote Fables Choisies, Mises en Vers,

a work whose title was shortened to Fables in its 1804 English translation?

La Fontaine.

La Fontaine?

Correct. Denoting a form of epigram or aphorism,

what word appears in the title of a prominent 17th-century

collection by Francois VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld?

Maxim.

Maxim?

Correct. Right, that gives you the lead.

Another starter, now.

"Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing,

"why the universe exists, why we exist.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper

"and set the universe going."

Who made that claim in his 2010 book...

Is it Richard Dawkins?

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..in his 2010 book The Grand Design?

Stephen Hawking?

Stephen Hawking is correct, yes.

Right, your bonuses, King's, are on a shared name.

Which millenarian group of the 1650s believed that Christ's second coming was imminent

and took their name from the desire

for a successor to the four empires of Assyria, Persia, Greece and Rome?

No, I don't know.

Quad-something?

Quadrilets?

No, they were Fifth Monarchists.

Danaus plexippus, commonly called the Monarch

and noted for its lengthy migrations from Canada to Mexico, is a species of which insect?

-Butterfly.

-I think it's a butterfly, as well.

Butterfly?

Correct. Situated on the Continental divide at an altitude of more

than 11,000 feet, the Monarch Pass is in which US state?

I think it might be Texas, I'm not sure.

I don't know. Go for Texas?

Texas?

No, it's Colorado. Another starter question, now.

Having its origins as an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire,

which federal state of Germany, recreated in 1990 upon reunification,

has as its capital, Potsdam, and surrounds but does not include the city of Berlin?

Brandenburg?

Correct.

Right, these bonuses are on physics.

2,260,000 joules is the quantity of heat required to vaporise

one kilogram of what common fluid?

Water?

Correct. What is the saturated vapour pressure in pascals of water

at 100 degrees Celsius at standard atmospheric pressure?

You can have 2,000 either way.

It's 101,000, I think.

101,000?

Indeed, very good. 101,500, to be precise.

What property of water falls from a value of about

one millipascal second at 20 degrees Celsius

to less than 0.2 millipascal seconds at 100 degrees Celsius?

Come on, let's have it, please.

Permeability? I don't know.

Permeability?

No, it's viscosity, but those bonuses have given you the lead,

and we're going to take a picture round. For your picture starter,

you're going to see the route of one of the five world marathon majors.

Ten points if you can identify the host city from the route.

New York?

No. One of you want to buzz from King's?

Boston?

Boston is correct, yes.

For your picture bonuses, three more marathon routes,

this time all of cities in Europe.

Five points for each you can identify, then. Firstly...

Is that Berlin?

Konigsberg?

Have we got any other ideas?

Berlin?

No, that's Stockholm. Secondly...

What does that say?

I don't know, but...

It might be Amsterdam.

Amsterdam?

No, it's Rotterdam. And finally...

Somewhere in England.

Is it? Where is the Spree?

Could be London, actually.

No, it's not. It's...

Maybe try Dublin.

Dublin?

That's certainly not Dublin. No, it's Berlin.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

Although its origins can be traced to French doctors in the 1920s,

what term has also been credited to the New York beauty salon owner,

Nicole Ronsard, who, in 1973, wrote a book about diet-resistant

fat deposits that give the skin a dimpled appearance?

Cellulite?

Yes.

Right, these bonuses, King's, are on an office of state.

After the death of a British sovereign,

which of the great offices of state is responsible for arranging

both the funeral and the accession and coronation of the new monarch?

Yeah, that's plausible.

Do you have any ideas?

-Archbishop of Canterbury?

-No, it's the Earl Marshal.

Since 1672, the office of Earl Marshal has been a hereditary position

occupied by the holder of which dukedom?

It might be Clarence.

Kent?

Kent.

No, it's Norfolk.

And, finally, a former brother-in-law of Henry VIII,

which Lord Treasurer and Lord Protector of the Realm

held the post of Earl Marshal between 1547 and 1549?

-Former brother-in-law, so...

-Oh.

Would have been.

- Could be Thomas someone?

- Married to.

- Thomas? Thomas Parr?

Thomas Parr?

Come on, let's have it.

Thomas Parr?

No, it was Edward Seymour, Jane Seymour's brother. Ten points for this.

From the Greek meaning pure, what name was given to

the Christian sect which flourished in southern France...

Is it Cathars?

Cathars is correct, yes.

You can retake the lead with these bonuses.

They're on 20th-century novels, St George's.

What's the title of the semi-autobiographical novel

written by Sylvia Plath and published in 1963,

shortly before her death, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas?

The Bell Jar?

Correct. Of Human Bondage, published in 1915,

is a semi-autobiographical novel by which novelist and playwright?

Somerset Maugham.

Correct, and finally, which US author wrote the semi-autobiographical novel

The Dharma Bums, published in 1958,

a year after the novel for which he is best known?

Faulkner?

No, it was Jack Kerouac. Ten points for this.

Used in acoustics and telecommunications

to indicate the degree to which a sound or picture reproduced or

transmitted by any device resembles the original, what word is used...

Fidelity.

Correct.

Your bonuses this time, St George's, are on religious relics.

The church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, in Rome,

contains part of a panel reputedly once nailed to Christ's cross,

and bearing which word relating to his origins?

Inre?

No, it's Nazarene, written in Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

Secondly, "More valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold."

These words describe the remains of which saint,

a second century Bishop of Smirna, who was martyred at the age of 86?

-Pass.

-It's Saint Polycarp.

And finally, which Indian state is home to the basilica

of Bom Jesus, that contains the relics of St Francis Xavier?

Kerala.

Kerala?

No, it's Goa.

Right, we're going to take a music round.

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

Ten points if you can name the composer.

Dvorak.

No, you can hear a little more, King's.

Saint-Saens.

Saint-Saens is correct, yes.

He taught for four years at the Ecole Niedermeyer in Paris,

so for your bonuses, I want you to identify,

first, one of his pupils, then a pupil of that pupil, and so on.

Firstly, name this pupil of Saint-Saens, who was also French.

It's Faure, definitely.

Faure.

Correct. Secondly, this pupil of Faure, who was also French.

Berlioz is too early. It'll be Debussy, if anyone, but I don't know.

Debussy.

No, that's Ravel's waltz.

And finally, this pupil of Ravel, who was British.

-That's Vaughan Williams.

-Vaughan Williams.

Vaughan Williams' Fantasium, by Thomas Tallis.

Now, ten points for this.

Which Italian city achieved independence in 1183

and was ruled by the...

San Marino?

I'm afraid you lose five points.

..was ruled by the Sforza family from the mid-15th century?

The Habsburgs gained it in 1535, but lost it in 1796 to Napoleon,

who made it the capital of his Kingdom of Italy.

Milan.

Correct.

OK, so you get the bonuses. They're on Anglo-Saxon literature.

Meaning "knowing", what term denotes a type of metaphorical phrase often

used in Anglo-Saxon poetry, such as "The whale's-road", meaning the sea?

Ken? Kenning?

Kenning is correct, yes.

In Beowulf, the line

"that sword edge was not useless to the warrior now"

is an example of what figure of speech, defined as an ironic negative understatement?

Litotes.

Litotes?

Correct. Which English city gives its name to the book of Anglo-Saxon poetry

which includes The Wanderer and The Seafarer,

and also contains over 90 riddles?

Canterbury?

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

Launched by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai,

which mobile phone application is a social networking service

and geolocation game that, on October 8th, 2010,

awarded the UK's first Superswarm badge to 300 users who all checked into the...

Foursquare?

Foursquare is correct, yes.

St George's, these bonuses are on geometry.

What name is given to a set of points in the plane,

the sum of whose distances from two fixed points called the foci is a constant?

Ellipse.

Ellipse?

Correct. What name is given to a set of points in the plane which

are equidistant from a given line and a given point not on the line?

For example, the graph of the function Y = X squared?

Parabola.

Parabola.

Correct. What name is given to an ellipse whose foci coincide?

Circle.

Circle.

Correct. Another starter question.

What three-word term is used of an overall statement of a country's

economic transactions with the rest of the world over a given period...

Gross national product.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..with the rest of the world over a given period,

or the difference between total receipts

and expenditure in any category of payments?

Gross...

Gross domestic produce?

No, that is the wealth of the country. It's the balance of payments.

Ten points for this. Its first three letters denoting billion electron volts,

which particle accelerator...

Tevetron?

No, you lose five points.

..which particle accelerator at the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory

was used to discover antiprotons?

One of you may buzz from St George's.

Gigatron?

It's the Bevatron.

Ten points for this. Ending a record-breaking 541 days of political deadlock,

December 2011 saw the swearing in of a new government in which European...

Belgium.

Correct.

King's, your bonuses are on the arts.

In each case, give me the decade that links the following.

Holman Hunt's The Scapegoat, Flaubert's Madame Bovary,

and the first performance of Verdi's La Traviata.

1860s?

No, it's the 1850s.

Secondly, Manet's A Bar at the Folies Bergeres,

Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, and the first performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture.

1880s?

Correct. And finally, Picasso's blue period, EM Forster's A Room with a View,

and the premiere of Puccini's Madame Butterfly.

1920s?

No, it was the 1900s, between 1900 and 1910.

Right, ten points for this.

Etymologically unrelated, meanings of what three letter word

include fixed but unproductive behaviour pattern

and annual period of sexual activity in male deer and other mammals?

Rut.

Rut is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on astronomy, King's College.

The two most abundant gases in the tenuous atmosphere

of the Earth's Moon are hydrogen and helium.

Name either of the next two.

-In the Earth's atmosphere?

-No, the moon's atmosphere. What are the next two?

Come on.

Nitrogen?

No, it's neon or argon.

By contrast, the moon is one of the densest satellites

in the solar system, second only to which Jovian moon?

Io?

Correct. What name is given to the lunar soil, a blanket of

fragments up to ten metres thick, weathered by meteoroid impacts?

Moondust?

No, it's regolith. We'll take our second picture round.

For your picture starter, you'll see a close-up of the bark of a tree.

For ten points, I want the name of the tree's genus.

You can give the common English name or the scientific name.

Silver Birch.

Birch is correct, yes.

Following on from the Silver Birch,

your picture bonuses are three more photographs of tree trunks.

Again, all species are native to Britain.

I want the name of the tree's genus.

In each case, you can give me

the name either in common English or the scientific version.

Firstly, for five.

Pine?

No, that's the Hawthorn. Secondly.

Cedar?

No, that's the Yew. And finally.

Oak?

No, that's the pine.

They were difficult, though. Right, ten points for this.

Answer as soon as you buzz.

Give the dictionary spelling of the first half of the binomial E. Coli,

that is, Escherichia.

E-S-C-H-E-R-I-A.

No.

E-S-C-H-O-R...

No, it's E-S-C-H-E-R-I-C-H-I-A.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

Answer as soon as you buzz. What is the eighth prime number?

19?

Correct.

Your bonuses, King's College, are on place names in French.

The name of which historical region of France

appears in the French name for the Bay of Biscay?

Aquitaine?

No, it's Gascony.

Which department of Northern France shares its name

with the French name for the Strait of Dover?

Could be Calais?

Calais, yeah.

Calais?

No, it's the Pas de Calais. I needed the whole term.

And finally, which historical region of France appears

in adjectival form in the French name for the Channel Islands?

Could that be Normandy?

That's not an adjective. Normandy?

Normandy is correct, yes.

There's about four and three quarter minutes left,

and ten points for this.

The covers of which annual publication

carry a Latin inscription meaning

"The book of things past and the song of the future"?

It first appeared in November 2005.

The Guinness Book of Records?

No. St George's, one of you buzz.

It's Schott's Almanac.

Ten points for this. A consequence of Noether's theorem,

the conservation of what physical quantity is associated with time in variance?

Spin.

No. King's...

Hamiltonian?

Yes, or energy.

So, you get a set of bonuses now, King's College, on a US state.

Which Midwestern state gives its name to the battleship

known as Mighty Mo,

on which the Japanese surrender was signed on September 2nd, 1945?

-Do you guys have any ideas?

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

Kansas.

No, it's Missouri.

Lamar, Missouri was the birthplace of which US President in office at the time of the Japanese surrender?

That's Truman, isn't it?

Truman?

It was, indeed. That gives you the lead.

At Fulton, Missouri, in March 1946, a speech made by Winston Churchill

popularised what two-word term for a political boundary?

Iron Curtain.

Correct. Ten points for this.

The poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born during the reign

of which English king?

Henry II?

No. St George's, one of you like to have a try?

Henry I?

No, it was Edward III. Ten points for this.

Which of Shakespeare's tragedies links operas

by Bloch, Shostakovich and Verdi?

Macbeth.

Macbeth is correct. You get a set of bonuses on medical prefixes.

In each case, give the part of the body indicated by the following.

Firstly, orcheo, for example, in the term orchitis,

an inflammation of which organ?

Ear?

No, it's the testicle. Myelo, as in myeloma, a malignant disease of which tissue?

That's in the skin.

That's melanin.

-- Fat tissue? I don't know.

-Fat tissue.

No, it's bone marrow.

And finally, nephro, for example, in the term nephralgia, indicating pain in which organ?

Kidneys, I think.

Kidneys?

It is kidneys, yes.

Ten points for this.

In chemistry, what term denotes the direct change of state of a substance from a solid to a gas...

Sublimation.

Sublimation is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on member organisations

of the Trades Union Congress.

Firstly, in the name RMT, for what do the letters RMT stand?

Nominate Sivaji.

Er, railway and maritime transport?

Correct. In the name BALPA, for what do the letters ALP stand?

Pass.

It's airline pilots. In the name of the union BECTU,

the final three letters stand for Cinematograph and Theatre Union.

For what do the letters BE stand?

British Entertainment?

No, it's Broadcasting and Entertainment. Ten points at stake for this.

Vialone nano, carnaroli,

baldo and arborio are among Italian varieties of which...

Rice?

Rice is correct, yes.

These bonuses will give you the lead again.

They're on an Asian country, if you get them.

Which Asian country is bounded by Laos and Cambodia to the east,

by Malaysia to the south and by Burma to the west?

Thailand?

Correct. Which islands give their name to the sea off the west coast of Thailand and Burma?

Andaman?

Correct. Which major river rises on the Tibetan plateau

and forms much of the border between Thailand and Laos?

Mekong.

Correct. Another starter question.

Gap, Day Age, Old Earth and Young Earth are versions of what belief...

Creationism.

Creationism is correct, yes.

Your bonuses, this time, are on the French Revolution.

Give the year in which the following took place.

An armed Parisian mob stormed the Bastille on July 14.

1790?

No, it was 1789. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were both executed.

-1792.

-1792.

No, 1793.

The reign of terror ended with the fall of Robespierre in...?

1794.

Correct, yes. Another starter question.

The surname of which recent Booker Prize-winning author

means overcoat in German?

GONG

It was, of course, Hilary Mantel,

but you were just a split second too late, there, so, King's, 145,

it was a great game, actually.

It was very, very close,

much closer than a 30-point gap seems to suggest.

You might come back as one of the highest scoring losing teams, who knows?

But thank you very much for joining us,

and St George's, we look forward to seeing you in the next stage.

It was a great game.

I hope you can join us next time for another first round match,

but until then, it's goodbye from King's College, Cambridge.

Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from St George's, London.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

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