Episode 23 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. It's the penultimate match

in the second round of this contest tonight,

with a place in the quarterfinals for the winners.

The team now from University College London

started their first round match

with a score in the minuses,

and then trailed for a few minutes,

before they remembered why they were there.

But once they'd done that,

they dominated the rest of the contest,

and at the gong, had 260 points,

the highest score in the entire first round

against a team from Exeter University,

whose almost Trappist reticence left them with a paltry 85.

With an average age of 25, let's meet the UCL team again.

Hello, again. I'm Adam Papaphilippopoulos.

I'm from London, and I'm reading for an MA in Philosophy.

Hi, I'm Tom Tyszczuk Smith.

I'm from Cambridge, and I'm studying Medicine.

-This is their captain.

-Hi, I'm Simon Dennis.

I'm also from London,

and I'm studying the History And Philosophy Of Science.

Hi, I'm Tom Parton.

I'm originally from Penkridge in Staffordshire,

and I'm studying Natural Sciences.

APPLAUSE

The team from Jesus College, Oxford,

had a similar experience in their first-round match,

when a little confusion over Sherlock Holmes

put them in the minuses, but they, too, quickly rallied

and prevented their opponents, Queen Mary, London,

from having much of a look-in for the rest of the match.

By the gong, they were ahead by 150 points to 120.

With an average age of 20, let's meet them again.

Hi, I'm Matt Hitchings from London,

and I'm reading for a Masters in Mathematical Modelling.

Hi, I'm Frankie Goodway, also from London, and I'm reading English.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Guy Brindley from Worcestershire,

and I'm reading Classics.

Hi, I'm Johnny Woodward, and from Manchester,

and I'm studying Engineering.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are the same as ever, so fingers on the buzzers.

Here's your first starter for ten.

Often featuring in photographic illusions

caused by forced perspective,

which structure was begun in 1173

as the third and final structure of its city's cathedral complex?

Designed to be 56m high, improvements to the foundations

since 1990 have diminished its distinctive aberration.

BUZZER

-The Leaning Tower Of Pisa.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

The first set of bonuses are on US history, Jesus College.

From 1804-06, which two men

led a journey of exploration across the American continent,

helping to establish the US claim to the Louisiana Purchase?

-Clark and Johnson.

-No, it was Lewis and Clark.

Secondly, first appearing in print in 1845,

what two-word phrase invoked the idea of divine sanction

for the territorial expansion of the United States?

-Manifest destiny.

-Correct.

President James Knox Polk oversaw a great expansion

of the territory of the United States,

partly as a result of the war of which country from 1846-48?

-Mexico.

-Correct.

Another starter question now. Listen carefully.

Which three successive letters of the alphabet follow the letter O

in forming the ancient name of the Amu Darya River,

bivalve molluscs, devoured by The Walrus And The Carpenter,

and a toxic gas formed from oxygen by electrical discharges.

BUZZER

-X, Y and Z.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Oxus, oysters and ozone.

And your bonuses this time are on classical music, Jesus College.

Meaning "sung" in Italian, what term describes a musical composition

often using a sacred text,

comprising recitatives, arias, and choruses?

-Canto?

-It's cantata.

Which scenic cantata was based on texts from the Middle Ages

that were rediscovered in a Bavarian monastery in 1803?

It opens with the movement, Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi.

-Carmina Burana?

-Correct.

With words by Walt Whitman,

which English composer wrote the 1907 cantata,

Toward The Unknown Region?

His other cantatas including Willow-Wood.

-Elgar.

-No, it was Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Ten points for this.

The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo

is a 2009 biography of which English scientist,

who applied Einstein's theory of relativity

to quantum mechanics...?

BELL

-Paul Dirac.

-Paul Dirac is correct.

APPLAUSE

So you're off the mark,

and your first bonuses are on physics,

University College London.

Firstly, what adjective describes the optical property

of a substance such as tourmaline,

which polarises light waves

by absorbing one component of the wave's electric field?

-Translucent.

-No, it's dichroic.

What two-word term describes a substance such as quartz,

that can rotate the plane of polarisation

of light passing through it?

-Optically polarising.

-No, it's optically active.

And finally, what precise term

describes a substance such as calcite,

that has different refractive indices in different directions,

and which can therefore produce a double image?

-Dispersive.

-No, it's birefringent.

Right, ten points for this.

Sometimes confused with an expression of surprise or horror,

for example, on finding a cockroach and a bag of crisps,

which three-letter palindrome

means to make something last longer by supplementing it...?

BUZZER

-Eek.

-Eek is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on internet deception, Jesus College.

After a type of toy,

what name is given to internet users who, for deceptive purposes,

log on to a messageboard or other web community

under an assumed name?

-Troll.

-No, it's a sock puppet, or sock puppetry.

Widely reproduced since its 1993 publication in the New Yorker,

a cartoon by Peter Steiner states that,

"On the internet, no-one knows that you're..." What?

In your underpants.

LAUGHTER

I don't want to think about that! No, it's a dog.

It's a dog at a keyboard, you see, and he's on the internet.

-That's the joke.

-LAUGHTER

Five points for this.

Author of A People's Tragedy: A History Of The Russian Revolution,

which historian admitted posting

anonymously written derogatory reviews

of his rivals' books on Amazon in April 2010?

Orlando Figes, however you pronounce it.

You've got the right person. Orlando Figes.

Right, we're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter,

you're going to see a flag of a non-sovereign territory.

Ten points if you can identify the territory.

BUZZER

-No, sorry.

-Anyone like to buzz from UCL?

BELL

-Greenland.

-It is Greenland, yes.

APPLAUSE

That's a non-sovereign territory,

under the administration of Denmark as you know, of course.

So your picture bonuses are three more flags

of non-sovereign territories, all of them also islands.

In each case, I want the name of the territory

AND the administering country. Firstly...

THEY MUMBLE

The Galapagos Islands and Ecuador.

No, it's New Caledonia, which is administered by France. Secondly...

THEY MUMBLE

Guadalupe and France.

No, that's Christmas Island which is administered by Australia.

And finally...

Cook Islands and New Zealand.

No, that's Guam, administered by the United States.

Right, another starter question now.

Sao Vicente, Boa Vista and Santiago

are among the islands of which republic?

It gains its independence from Portugal in 1975,

has a population of around half a million,

and is situated 600km from the coast of West Africa.

BELL

-Cape Verde Islands.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on a poet, UCL.

When in 1601, his secret marriage to Anne More became known,

which poet and clergyman was briefly imprisoned

and dismissed from his role

as secretary to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal?

-Milton.

-No, it was John Donne.

Which insect is the title of a poem by Donne,

in which the speaker tries to convince his lover

that by crushing the insect, she commits,

"three sins in killing three?"

-The Flea.

-Correct.

Which five words from a meditation by Donne

did Ernest Hemingway take as the title

of a 1940 novel set in Spain?

-For Whom The Bell Tolls.

-Indeed.

Ten points for this starter.

Its results variously described by his detractors as,

"flabby, squishy, pappy and tasteless,"

the Chorleywood process...

BELL

Bread.

Bread is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, University College London,

are on a historical event.

"We are doing all this alone, except for France,

"opposed by the world, in defiance of the world."

These words of the Labour leader, Hugh Gaitskell

refer to which event of 1956?

-The Suez Crisis.

-Correct.

The name of which French entrepreneur,

a chief instigator of the Suez Canal,

was used as a code word by the Egyptian Premier, Nasser,

in the speech that gave orders

for Egyptian forces to take control of the Canal zone?

-Nominate Parton.

-Lesseps.

De Lesseps is correct, yes.

Later Chancellor of the Exchequer under Harold Macmillan,

who was Foreign Secretary at the time of the Suez Crisis?

-No, pass.

-It was Selwyn Lloyd.

Ten points for this.

Born near Nantes in 1079,

which philosopher provided

the initial programme for the scholastic method...

BELL Thomas Aquinas.

I'm afraid you lose five points.

..for the scholastic method in his work, Sic Et Non,

and is also remembered

for an ill-fated romance with his student, Eloise?

BUZZER

-Abelard.

-Abelard is correct.

-Peter Abelard, yes.

-APPLAUSE

So you get another set of bonuses, Jesus College, on comets.

Which year saw the first sighting of The Great Comet,

believed by some to have been

a portent of Napoleon's invasion of Moscow?

-1812.

-No, it was 1811.

Which Italian astronomer gives his name

to the comet he first observed on June the 2nd, 1858,

the first to be photographed

and the most brilliant since that of 1811?

-Pass, I'm afraid.

-It was Donati.

And finally, around 1,000 times brighter

than Halley's Comet at the same distance,

what is the most distant comet ever discovered by amateurs?

It was clearly visible in the night sky in 1996 and 1997.

-I'm afraid we don't know, sorry.

-That was Hale-Bopp.

Another starter question now.

"In the darkening twilight, I saw a lone star,

"hovered gem-like above the bay."

This was the last diary entry of which explorer

written on January 5th, 1922 at Grytviken...?

BUZZER

-Ernest Shackleton.

-Yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Jesus College, are on the films of Stanley Kubrick.

The 1957 film, Paths Of Glory,

was based on a novel by Humphrey Cobb,

which took its title from an elegy of 1751 by which English poet?

Gray. It is.

Which film of 1975 by Stanley Kubrick

is based on the novel by Thackeray,

about the life and exploits of an 18th-century Irish adventurer?

-Barry Lyndon.

-Correct.

Born in 1862, the Austrian author, Arthur Schnitzler's short story,

Traumnovelle, or Dream Story, was the basis for which film,

the last Kubrick completed before his death?

-Eyes Wide Shut.

-That's correct.

We're going to take a music round,

it being about halfway through the contest.

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

Ten points if you can name the singer.

# Would you know my name... #

BELL Eric Clapton.

It is Eric Clapton.

APPLAUSE

It was a song by him about the death of his four-year-old son,

Tears In Heaven.

It was an entry in a poll for the world's saddest music

on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

For your bonuses, you're going to hear

three more pieces of music

which made it into that unhappy top five.

First, I want the German composer of this piece.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

Mendelssohn.

No, that's by Richard Strauss. It's his Metamorphosen.

And secondly, this American artist singing.

# Gloomy is Sunday

# With shadows I spend it all... #

-Billie Holiday.

-It is indeed.

The Hungarian Suicide Song.

And finally, the Austrian composer of this piece.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

-Mahler.

-It is Mahler, yes. Well done. Right, ten points for this.

In cytogenics, what term describes

the entire chromosomal complement of a cell

which may be observed during mitotic metaphase?

-Karyotype?

-Correct!

APPLAUSE

Get these bonuses, you'll take the lead. They're on desert vegetation.

The name of what wood preservative

is also part of the common name of Larrea tridentata,

a shrub of the US south-west,

because of the acrid smell it gives off after rain?

-Creosote?

-Correct.

What is the common name of Artemisia tridentata,

an aromatic shrub found throughout the US south-west?

-Wintergreen?

-No, it's sagebrush.

What common two-word name

is given to various tropical cacti of the genus Opuntia,

which grow in clumps of spiny paddles?

-Prickly pear?

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Another starter question now.

What two-word term

describes the petition passed by Parliament in November 1641

that listed the alleged misdeeds of the reign of Charles I?

Grand Remonstrance?

-Yes!

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses will give you back the lead if you get them.

Firstly, what ratio is measured

by centrifuging blood in a graduated capillary known as a haematocrit?

Volume of red blood cells?

-To...?

-Percentage of volume of blood.

-That's correct.

Which cells are used to classify blood groups

by the presence or absence of particular surface antigens?

-White blood cells?

-No, they're erythrocytes. Red blood cells.

In the ABO blood group system,

what is the blood group of a universal recipient?

AB positive?

-Correct!

-APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

The name of which symbol of the French Republic is an anagram

for an inhabitant of the west Asian country whose capital is Yerevan?

-Marianne.

-Marianne is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Anagram of "Armenian".

Right, these bonuses, which could give you the lead, if you take them,

they're on Scottish traditions.

Up Helly Aa is the annual Viking fire festival

that takes place in the Shetland capital, Lerwick,

on the last Tuesday of which month?

-February.

-No, it's January.

Recalling the lawlessness of local life in earlier times,

which summer tradition takes the form of mass rides on horseback

in several towns in the Scottish Borders?

-No, pass.

-They're Common Ridings.

And finally, held every August, the Cowal gathering at Dunoon

is one of the largest events of what type in Scotland?

-Highland games?

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Gives you the lead. Ten points for this. Answer as soon as you buzz.

Two of the seven SI base units are named after scientists.

Kevin and newton?

Nope. You can hear the rest of it, too. ..named after scientists.

For ten points, name both, Jesus College.

Newton and pascal?

No, it's kelvin and ampere, or amp.

Right, level pegging again. Ten points for this.

Who comes next in this list of German chancellors,

given in reverse chronological order?

Angela Merkel, Gerhard Schroeder and...?

-Helmut Kohl.

-Correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Bonuses on literature this time, UCL.

His name an anagram of that of the author,

Vivian Darkbloom is a minor character in a novel of 1955

by which Russian-born novelist?

-Nabokov.

-Correct.

The six-letter name of a legendary French chivalric figure

is an anagram of the surname of the English poet who wrote Rose Aylmer.

Give both names.

Roland and Orland.

No, it's Roland and Landor, Walter Savage Landor.

And finally, Martianism is a term

applied to a movement in British poetry in the 1970s and '80s.

The term's also an anagram of the name of which of its practitioners?

-Martin Amis?

-Correct, yes!

-APPLAUSE

-Second picture round now.

For your starter, you'll see a photograph

of a species whose habitat and therefore survival

is threatened in the UK. Ten points if you can name the species.

-Natterjack toad.

-It is a natterjack road, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your picture bonuses are three more photographs of species

which are the subject of UK Biodiversity Action Plans,

the same conservation concerns, therefore, in each case.

Five points for each species you can identify.

Firstly, the two-word common name of this insect.

-Stag beetle.

-Correct.

The two-word name of this bird?

-Turtle dove?

-Correct.

And finally, the name of this mammal?

-Dormouse?

-Dormouse is correct. Hazel dormouse, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, another starter question.

The Neolithic settlement of Choirokoitia

and the necropolis known as the Tombs Of The Kings

are among the archaeological sites on which Mediterranean island,

a major source of copper in Roman times?

-Crete.

-No. One of you buzz.

-Cyprus.

-Cyprus is right. Of course, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on scientific terms beginning with the prefix syn-.

In each case, give the word from the definition.

Firstly, in geology, a trough or fold of stratified rock

in which the strata slope upwards from the axis.

-Let's have it, please.

-Er... We don't know, I'm afraid.

It's a syncline.

In automotive engineering, a system of gear changing

in which the driving and driven gear wheels

revolve at the same speed during engagement

by means of friction clutches.

-Synchromesh?

-Correct.

In anatomy, a junction between two nerve cells

in the form of a minute gap across which impulses can pass.

-Synapse.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Ten points for this starter question.

Footnotes in Gaza is a 2009 graphic novel

by which Maltese-born American cartoonist and reporter?

-Joe Sacco.

-Joe Sacco is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on geography, University College London.

In each case, name the peninsula

whose bounds include the following bodies of water.

First, for five points, the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.

The Indo-Chinese?

No, it's the Malay or Thai-Malay.

Secondly, the Bay of Campeche and the Gulf of Honduras.

-The Yucatan.

-Correct.

Finally, the Gulf of Suez, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.

-Arabian Peninsula.

-Sinai. Ten points for this.

In geological time, what is the third and most recent epoch

of the Palaeogene period,

following the Eocene and preceding the Miocene?

-Oligocene.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on winners of the Man Booker Prize.

In each case, name the country of birth

that links the authors of the following novels.

Firstly, Vernon God Little, Schindler's Ark

and Oscar and Lucinda.

-The United States?

-No, it's Australia.

Secondly, The Sea, The Gathering and The Sea, The Sea.

-The UK.

-No, it's Ireland.

And finally, The Inheritance Of Loss, The God Of Small Things

and The White Tiger.

-India.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Which element has a name deriving from the Greek meaning "artificial"

because it was the first to be prepared synthetically?

-Technetium.

-Technetium is right.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, UCL, are on US universities.

In each case, I want the city and state

in which the following are based.

Firstly, Johns Hopkins University, founded 1876.

-Baltimore, Maryland.

-Correct.

Duke University, founded 1838.

Let's have it, please.

-Come on!

-Charlotte...

No, it's Durham, North Carolina.

And finally, Brown University, founded 1764.

-Providence, Rhode Island.

-Correct.

-Ten points for this.

-APPLAUSE

Which sport is the subject of the books Paper Lion by George Plimpton,

Friday Night Lights by HG Bissinger...

-American football.

-Correct.

You get a set of bonuses this time on a physicist.

Five points for this. In reference to the fact

that it can be characterised by only three parameters,

namely mass, spin and charge,

what, according to the US physicist John Archibald Wheeler, has no hair?

-Come on!

-An electron?

No, it's a black hole.

In addition to popularising the expression "black hole",

what term did Wheeler coin

for a hypothetical topological structure in space

first proposed by Hermann Weyl in 1924?

-A singularity?

-No, it's a wormhole.

Wheeler co-authored the 1939 paper The Mechanism of Nuclear Fission

with which European physicist?

Come on.

-Bohr.

-It was. Two-and-a-half minutes to go. Ten points for this.

Which London landmark appears in the title of the sonnet

that begins "Earth hath not anything to show..."

-Westminster Bridge.

-Lines Composed Upon... Yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on EU member states.

In each case, give the English name for the following.

What EU member state is known as Paises Bajos in Spanish?

-The Netherlands.

-Correct.

What country is referred to as Lettonie in French?

-Estonia.

-No, it's Latvia. And finally,

the name of which EU member state is in German Vereinigtes Koenigreich?

Come on, let's have it.

-The UK.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

If Cuba is copper and Canada is calcium, what is Australia?

-Gold.

-Gold is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

It's internet addresses and chemical symbols.

Your bonuses now are on flame tests in chemistry.

In each case, tell me what colour's expected

in the presence of the following elements.

Firstly, for five points, copper.

-Green.

-Blue-green or green is correct.

Second, calcium.

Come on!

-Yellow.

-No, it's red. Brick red.

Finally, sodium.

-Orange.

-Yes, yellow. Orange or yellow, yes.

-APPLAUSE

-Ten points for this.

Which modern four-string orchestral instrument

is, unlike other members of that family, normally tuned in fourths?

-The double bass?

-It is, yes.

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Irish literature, UCL.

The Cattle Raid of Cooley and Bricriu's Feast

are found in which cycle of stories, sometimes called The Ulaid,

about the heroic age of the people of north-eastern Ireland?

-Come on.

-No. No, pass.

They're The Ulster Cycle.

Born 1865, which Irish poet

wrote the verse plays Deirdre and The Death of Cuchulain,

both drawn from The Ulster Cycle?

-Yeats?

-GONG

It was, yes. And at the gong, Jesus College, Oxford have 180,

University College London have 215.

APPLAUSE

Well, it started better than it finished, really,

for you guys at Jesus, didn't it? Thank you very much for joining us.

UCL, 215 is another terrific score from you.

We shall look forward to seeing you in the quarterfinal stages.

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

but until then, it's goodbye

-from Jesus College, Oxford...

-ALL: Goodbye.

..it's goodbye from University College London...

-ALL: Goodbye.

-..and it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE

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