Episode 26 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

'Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman...'

Hello. Last time, we saw Manchester University

earn the first of the two quarterfinal victories they'll need

if they're to qualify for the semifinals.

Tonight, two more teams embark on their journey

through the labyrinthian third round.

University College London had a very convincing win

against Exeter University in their first round-match,

but a much closer fight in the second round against Jesus College Oxford.

The lead changed hands several times

but UCL were 35 points ahead at the gong,

helped by the knowledge of Paul Dirac, the Cape Verde Islands

and the industrialisation of bread-making.

Let's meet them for the third time.

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, from Cambridge. I'm studying medicine.

-Here's their captain.

-I'm Simon Dennis, also from London,

and I'm studying the history and philosophy of science.

Hi, I'm Tom Parton, originally from Penkridge in Staffordshire,

and I'm studying natural sciences.

APPLAUSE

Now, the team from the University of Bangor beat St Andrews in the first round,

and Durham University in the second, in a closely-fought match which saw them ten points ahead at the gong.

They showed us that they can find their way around the Peloponnese,

they know the works of Voltaire, the human eyeball

and they relieved the entire population of the principality

by recognising the writers of the Welsh national anthem.

Let's meet the again.

Hi, I'm Adam Pearce, I'm from Barry in South Wales,

and I'm studying for a PhD in translation studies.

I'm Mark Stevens, from Cheshire and I'm studying environmental science.

-This is their captain.

-Hi, I'm Nina Grant from London

and I'm studying for a degree in French and linguistics.

Hi, I'm Simon Tomlinson, originally from Manchester,

and I'm studying for a PhD in neuropsychology.

APPLAUSE

OK, let's crack on with it. Fingers on the buzzers. Here's your first starter for 10.

Mark Twain wrote that "A young lady has no sex, while a turnip has.

"Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip,

"and what callous disrespect for the girl."

Which language was he describing, on account of the difficulty he had in learning it?

-German?

-German is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

The first set of bonuses, Bangor, are on a 16th-century treatise.

"All states, all powers that have held or hold rule over men

"have been and are either republics or principalities."

Which treatise of 1532 begins with those words?

(The Prince by Machiavelli.)

-The Prince by Machiavelli.

-Correct.

Machiavelli wrote "The Prince" whilst in exile

and dedicated it to Lorenzo di Piero, the ruler of Florence from 1513,

and a member of which family?

-The Medici family.

-Correct.

"Though some speak openly against my book,

"Yet will they read me and thereby attain to Peter's chair."

Which play by Marlowe has those lines in its prologue,

spoken by Machievel?

THEY WHISPER

-Dr Faustus.

-No, it's The Jew of Malta.

10 points for this. In 1937, WB Yeats, as editor of the Oxford Book of Modern Verse,

decided to omit the work of which poet from the anthology,

commenting that "Passive suffering is not a theme for poetry"?

The poet in question had been killed in action

in the last week of the First World War.

-Wilfred Owen.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on 19th-century periodicals, Bangor.

Which novelist launched the weekly Household Words in 1850

and used it to serialise much of his later writing?

(Charles Dickens?)

-Charles Dickens?

-It was.

Established by John and Leigh Hunt in 1808,

what was the name of the Reformist weekly periodical

that championed the work of poets including Shelley and Keats?

-The Edinburgh Quarterly?

-No, it was The Examiner.

Founded in 1843 by James Wilson and still in print,

which periodical was launched in an attempt to advance the repeal of the Corn Laws?

It described itself as a "Political, Literary and General Newspaper".

(The Manchester Guardian?)

-The Manchester Guardian?

-No, The Economist.

10 points for this. Which is the only group of the periodic table

to include elements existing in the form of all three states of matter

at standard pressure and temperature?

-The halogens.

-Yes, indeed. Group 17.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, the first set for you, UCL, are on a Greek philosopher.

Born in Sicily around 490 BC,

which philosopher taught that everything in existence

is composed of the four underived and indestructible roots

of fire, water, earth and air?

THEY WHISPER

-Demosthenes.

-I'm not sure.

-Demosthenes?

-No, it's Empedocles.

And secondly, in his poem "On Nature",

Empedocles argued that the four elements mingle and separate

under the influence of which two opposing forces?

No. Pass.

That was Love and Strife.

Empedocles leapt into the crater of which volcano

in order that he might be thought a god?

-Etna.

-Correct.

10 points for this. Which national newspaper established itself in the market in the 1850s

by undercutting other dailies in price

and becoming London's first penny daily newspaper?

-The Times.

-No. You lose five points.

Its political views were radical, and only later did it come to be regarded

as embodying the outlook of Conservative Middle England.

You may not confer. One of you may buzz.

-The Daily Telegraph.

-The Daily Telegraph is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on place names in England, Bangor.

Your answer will be two towns or cities

whose names share a common suffix,

for example, London and Swindon.

Firstly, the town that gives its name to a treaty of 1328 confirming Scottish independence,

and the port of departure of the RMS Titanic in April 1912?

THEY WHISPER

-Northampton and Southampton?

-Correct.

Two English cities, ones of which is home to the National Media Museum,

and the other to the Mappa Mundi, probably the largest medieval map still in existence?

-Bradford and Hereford.

-Correct.

Two cathedral cities, around 30 miles apart,

on the River Severn?

-Ludlow?

-Bristol?

-Bristol, no.

THEY WHISPER ..on the Severn...

Shrewsbury and...

Canterbury! No.

THEY WHISPER

-Shrewsbury and...?

-Come along!

-Shrewsbury and Salisbury?

-No.

It's Gloucester and Worcester.

Time for a picture round.

You are going to see a passport issued by an EU member state, the name of which has been removed.

10 points if you can identify the country of issue.

-Austria.

-Austria is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Picture bonuses are three more passports issued by EU member states.

All you have to do is to identify the country of issue,

the name having been removed in each case.

Firstly, for five...

-(Hungary.)

-THEY WHISPER

-Hungary.

-It is Hungary.

Secondly...

(That's the Czech Republic.) Agreed.

-Czech Republic.

-Correct. And finally...

(Is that Malta? It's got a Maltese Cross.)

-Malta.

-It is Malta, yes.

-APPLAUSE

10 points for this starter question. Quote,

"You see in me the Chief Minister of Police in Europe.

"I keep an eye on everything. My contacts are such that nothing escapes me."

Mycroft Holmes?

No. You lose five points.

These are the words of which Austrian statesman

who was Head of Government from 1815 to '48?

Metternich. Metternich is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on works of the French Enlightenment.

From around 1745 to 1772,

which philosopher served as chief editor of the work known as the "Encyclopedie",

an unofficial manifesto for the Enlightenment?

(Is it Voltaire?)

-Voltaire?

-No, it's Diderot.

Born 1689, which novelist's best-known contribution to political theory

was the work of 1748 "On the Spirit of the Laws"?

THEY WHISPER

-Maupassant?

-No. That was Montesquieu.

Starting with a pledge to hide nothing,

which work of 1782 by the Swiss-born thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau

is regarded as a significant development in the genre of autobiography?

-The Confessions?

-Correct.

10 points for this starter question.

Meanings of what five-letter word include

"the membrane joining the cap to the stem of an immature mushroom,

"the margin of the bell of a jellyfish that helps in propulsion,

"and the retractable..."

-Gill.

-No. You lose five points.

"..and the retractable fabric awning

used to shelter the audience in Roman theatres"?

None of you is going to buzz from UCL? It's the velum. 10 points for this...

"Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom,

"and a great empire and little minds go ill together."

These are the words of which Irish politician, speaking in parliament in 1775?

Jonathan Swift?

No. You lose five points.

He was later the author of "Reflections on the Revolution in France".

-Edmund Burke.

-Of course.

15 points for these bonuses.

They're on physics. The sentences: "Smart People Don't Fail" and "Silly People Drive Fast"

are mnemonics to help to remember the identification of what?

(S-P-D-F.)

THEY WHISPER

-(Force, speed and direction...)

-Methods of heat conduction?

Methods of conversion?

Come on!

I don't know.

-Methods of heat conduction?

-No. They're atomic or molecular orbitals.

In the SPDF Notation Scheme,

for what does the letter "S" stand?

-Standard or Specialist.

-Standard?

-Standard?

-No. It's "Sharp".

-For what does the letter "F" stand?

-(Flat?)

-Flat?

-No. It's "Fundamental"!

-LAUGHTER

10 points for this. Deriving from a Latin word meaning "Mother Church",

what term denotes secular vocal music compositions of the Renaissance and Baroque eras?

-Madrigal?

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on novels of the 1960s, UCL.

In each case, identify the work from its opening lines.

"All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true.

"One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn't his."

-Slaughterhouse-Five.

-Correct.

"She was so deeply embedded in my consciousness

"that for the first year of school I seem to have believed

"that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise."

That's not "The Catcher in the Rye", is it?

I'm not sure.

-The Catcher in the Rye?

-It's "Portnoy's Complaint".

Finally, which British novel of 1962 begins with the words

"What's it going to be then, eh?"

-Brighton Rock.

-Hm?

-Brighton Rock.

-Brighton Rock.

-No. It's "A Clockwork Orange".

10 points for this...

What natural insecticide is obtained from the flowers of chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium?

It is neurotoxic for insects and, whilst toxic to other animals,

is considered one of the safest insecticides for use in food plants.

-Paraquat?

-Certainly not!

Bangor?

One of you buzz. It's pyrethrin or pyrethrum.

10 points for this...

Words meaning "one who refused to attend services of the Church of England"

and "legendary figures, half-man, half-horse"

are anagrams of the name of which ancient Italian civilisation?

-Etruscan.

-Etruscan is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, UCL, are on an art gallery.

Established in 1897, the collection of which London gallery includes

"The Laughing Cavalier" by Frans Hals

and Poussin's "A Dance to the Music of Time"?

It could be The Wallace Collection, but I don't know.

The Wallace Collection.

Indeed. The Wallace Collection includes a number of works by which artist,

active in Paris in the first two decades of the 18th century

and often credited with the invention of the genre known as Fetes Galantes?

-Pass.

-That's Watteau. And finally, both in the Wallace Collection,

"Perseus and Andromeda" and "The Rape of Europa"

are works by which Venetian artist, born around 1488?

Titian.

-Titian.

-Titian is correct, yes.

We're going to take a music round now.

You'll hear the final moments in the lives of two operatic characters.

10 points if you can name both characters.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

-Romeo and Juliet.

-Indeed! Gounod's rendering thereof, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, for your bonuses, some more operatic characters on the point of death.

All three are based on figures in works of literature.

I want the name of the character. Firstly for five...

SOMBRE MUSIC

-Is it the character name?

-It's the character.

THEY WHISPER

-No? No, pass.

-That's Othello. And secondly...

DRAMATIC MUSIC

Sorry. Pass.

That's Tristan from Richard Wagner. And finally...

SOMBRE MUSIC # When I am laid... #

It's Dido.

-Dido.

-It is Dido,

from "Dido and Aeneas" by Purcell. Well done. 10 points for this...

What is the English title of the memoir of the French journalist and stroke victim Jean-Dominique Bauby?

-The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

-Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on a name, UCL.

Which is the largest of Neptune's moons

and is the only large satellite in the solar system to move in a retrograde orbit?

-Triton.

-Correct.

A triton is a sub-atomic particle composed of one proton and two neutrons,

and is the nucleus of Tritium,

a radioactive isotope of which element?

Hydrogen.

-Hydrogen.

-Correct.

Triton cristatus is a crested species of which amphibian, native to Britain?

-Is it a newt?

-Newt.

-Newt.

-Correct.

The efficiency of cooking achieved by hexagonal close-packing

in a four-plus-five-plus-four arrangement

is thought by some to be the origin of what two-word term, dating to the 13th century?

Hotch-potch.

No.

Mass production?

No. It's baker's dozen.

10 points for this... In terms of population,

what state is to the USA as Uttar Pradesh is to India,

Sao Paulo to Brazil and New South Wales to Australia?

-California.

-Correct.

-The most populous, of course.

-APPLAUSE

If you get all these bonuses, you're level-pegging.

Which organisation was formed at a conference in Cairo in March 1945

by representatives of seven countries?

It currently has 22 member states.

-The Arab League.

-Correct.

When Egypt was suspended from the Arab League for 10 years

after the signing of the Camp David Agreement,

to which country were the headquarters relocated?

Syria, I guess. I'm not sure.

-Syria.

-No. Tunisia.

Which island nation, lying in the Indian Ocean to the northwest of Madagascar,

is the only member of the Arab League to lie wholly within the Southern Hemisphere?

Seychelles? Or Mauritius?

I don't know.

Mauritius... THEY WHISPER

-Er, Mauritius.

-No. It's the Comoros.

10 points for this... In fine art, the rubbing technique known as frottage

is particularly associated with which German-born Dada and Surrealist artist,

who used it extensively in his 1926...

Hans Jean Arp.

No. You lose five points.

..used it extensively in his 1926 portfolio "Histoire Naturelle"?

-Gustav Klimt.

-No. It was Max Ernst. 10 points for this...

One of the Archimedean solids, a cuboctahedron,

has six equal square faces joined at the corners

and connected by eight of which plane figure?

-Triangles.

-Triangle is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Spanish wine, UCL.

According to a widely-circulated remark, Sir Alexander Fleming said

"If penicillin can cure those that are ill"

which Spanish drink can "bring the dead back to life"?

Sherry.

-Madeira, maybe? That's Portuguese.

-Let's have it, chaps.

-Sherry.

-Sherry.

-Correct.

Sharing its name with a elevated plateau in the centre of the country,

which Spanish wine region is said to be the world's largest continuous vine-growing region?

La Mancha.

-La Mancha.

-That gives you the lead.

Which region's wineries are divided into the three districts of Alavesa, Alta and Baja?

-Rioja.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

With the scores on 110 and 100, we take our second picture round.

Your picture starter is an illustration of a 19th century poem.

10 points if you can identify the poem and its author.

BUZZER

Is it The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson?

-It is indeed, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Get these, you'll retake the lead.

Following on from that painting by Walter Crane,

your bonuses are three more 19th-century paintings of The Lady of Shalott.

Five points for each artist you can identify.

Firstly, for five...

THEY WHISPER

(Rossetti.)

-(Holman Hunt.)

-Huh?

-Holman Hunt.

-Come on.

-Nominate Tomlinson.

-Holman Hunt.

-It is indeed, yes.

Secondly...

THEY WHISPER

No? OK.

-Rossetti?

-No. That's John Atkinson Grimshaw.

Finally...

THEY WHISPER

-Waterhouse.

-It is Waterhouse, yes.

10 points for this... "The liberties of England

"and the Protestant religion I will maintain."

Which royal figure made that claim when...

-I was going to say Elizabeth I, but no...

-You lose five points.

..when he landed at Brixham in Devon in 1688?

William I.

No!

William I? I'm sorry, that's the wrong answer! You know it's very wrong!

It's only out by about 600 years or so!

It's William of Orange. William III.

Another starter question now. Around 200 kilometres southeast of Delhi,

which former Mughal capital is best known as the site of the Taj Mahal?

-Agra.

-Agra is correct.

You get a set of bonuses,

having retaken the lead, on a physicist.

Who was awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics

for the "invention and development of the holographic method"?

I don't know.

-No. Pass.

-Dennis Gabor.

The initial experiments in basic holography

were an attempt to improve what laboratory apparatus for resolving atomic lattices?

Electron microscope.

OK. Electron microscope.

Correct. Gabor took British citizenship in 1946,

and in 1958 was appointed Professor of Applied Physics at which institution?

Maybe Manchester.

Manchester's pretty hot on physics.

-Manchester University?

-No, it's Imperial College London.

Five minutes to go.

Born near Paris in 1882,

which artist is regarded to have been the co-founder, with Picasso, of the Cubist Movement?

-Georges Braque.

-Yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on northern England.

At an altitude of 893 metres, what is the highest point on the Pennine Way

and the highest in England, outside the Lake District?

Erm...

Kinder Scout, maybe.

-Kinder Scout.

-No. It's Cross Fell.

The western slopes of Cross Fell are the source of which strong wind,

occurring particularly during the spring?

Mistral wind!

-No idea.

-That's the Helm Wind.

Rising near the summit of Cross Fell, which river flows east for more than 80 miles

and reaches the North Sea, south of Hartlepool?

The Trent.

I'm not sure. The Trent?

It's the Tees. Four-and-a-bit minutes to go.

10 points for this... In physics, force divided by acceleration,

or momentum divided by velocity, gives what...?

-Mass.

-It does give mass, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, UCL, are on novels whose titles include one or more points of the compass.

In each case, give the title from the description.

Firstly, a 1952 work by John Steinbeck,

the film version of which starred James Dean in his first major screen role?

-East of Eden.

-Correct.

Secondly, a 1992 novel by Haruki Murakami

in which Hajime, a successful jazz bar owner,

tries to decide between an enigmatic childhood friend and his wife?

THEY WHISPER

Let's have it, please!

-We don't know.

-South of the Border, West of the Sun.

Finally, an industrial novel of 1854 by Elizabeth Gaskell,

its characters include Margaret Hale and John Thornton?

-North and South.

-Correct.

Another starter question.

"Twelve Angry Men", "Serpico",

"The Fugitive Kind" and "Dog Day Afternoon"

are among the films of which prolific...?

Sidney Lumet.

-Sidney Lumet is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on botany. Name all three structures that form the carpel

of a typical angiosperm.

-I don't know.

-No?

-Mm...

Come on!

-Pass.

-It's the stigma, the style and the ovary.

After fertilisation, which part of the carpel

develops into the pericarp of the fruit?

THEY WHISPER

Come on.

-The ovary.

-Specifically?

I don't know.

I'm sorry, I need a precise answer. It's the ovary wall, the outer layer of the ovary.

Finally, what short term denotes a dry indehiscent fruit,

usually containing a single seed with lignified pericarp?

Is that a nut?

-A nut.

-Correct. 10 points for this...

The one-word name of which south-east Asian country

is an anagram for a common word meaning "in addition"?

-Laos.

-Correct.

These bonuses are on place names.

All three answers begin with the same two letters.

One of the shallowest in the world, which sea is linked to the Black Sea by the Strait of Kerch?

-Azov.

-Correct.

What is the modern name of the village in the Pas-de-Calais

that is the site of a battle of October 1415?

-Agincourt?

-Erm...

But it's got to be "AZ", because the first two letters..

Agincourt?

It was Azincourt.

Which group of islands includes Graciosa, Pico and Sao Miguel?

-Azores.

-Correct.

Another starter question. In optics, what is the focal length of a perfectly planar mirror?

-Zero.

-Anyone like to buzz from...?

-Infinity.

-Infinity is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Bangor, are on people born in the city of Rouen.

"Le Cid", "La Veuve" and "Cinna" are among the tragedies of which dramatist,

born in Rouen in 1606 and a rival of Racine?

-Moliere?

-No. It's Corneille.

Born 1791, which influential painter's work includes "The Charging Chasseur",

"Portrait of a Kleptomaniac" and "The Raft of the Medusa"?

-Erm...

-(Delacroix.)

-Delacroix.

-Gericault.

Born in Rouen in 1864, the author Maurice Leblanc

created which gentleman thief,

sometimes seen as a counterpart to Sherlock Holmes?

-(Raffles?)

-(Yes.)

-Come on.

-Pass.

-It's Arsene Lupin. 10 points for this...

In the subtitle of a 1947 book,

what was defined by Stephen Potter as "The Art Of Winning Games Without..."

-END-OF-QUIZ GONG

-And at the gong,

Bangor University have 125,

University College London have 190.

For much of that, it looked as if you were going to win, Bangor!

Congratulations to you, University College London.

Terrific score, after you finally woke up!

We shall look forward to seeing you, for sure.

Bangor, you will have to come back and win twice more to go through to the semifinals.

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

-Until then, it's goodbye from Bangor University...

-ALL: Goodbye.

-..it's goodbye from UCL.

-ALL: Goodbye.

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

-APPLAUSE

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd