Episode 27 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions - Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello, under the rule apparently devised by Kafka on one of his off-days,

we've already seen Manchester University and University College London win the first

of the two quarter-final victories they need to qualify for the semi-finals.

Tonight, two more teams are looking for their first quarter-final win.

With only 20 points between their accumulated scores so far, they could have a pretty close fight.

Pembroke College, Cambridge, were runners-up last year and made a good start in this year's bid

to go one step further with a comfortable win over Lancaster in Round 1

and a pushover against Bath in Round 2.

With an average age of 19, let's meet the Pembroke team for the third time.

I'm Robert Scanes, I'm from London and I'm studying Natural Sciences.

Hello, I'm Emily Maw from Oxford and I'm studying Maths.

-And their captain.

-I'm Tom Foxall from Birmingham, studying Classics.

I'm Jemima Hodkinson from Portsmouth and I'm studying Natural Sciences.

APPLAUSE

The more senior of tonight's teams with an average age of 23 is the team from St George's, London,

who proved that being science specialists need not be a handicap in this contest

with a close win over King's College, Cambridge, in Round 1,

then in Round 2 they too beat Lancaster University. Let's meet the St George's team again.

Hello, I'm Shashank Sivaji from Southend-on-Sea

and I'm studying Medicine.

I'm Alexander Suebsaeng from London and I'm studying Medicine.

-Their captain.

-I'm Rebecca Smoker from County Kildare

and I'm studying Medicine.

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

APPLAUSE

The rules are the same as ever. Fingers on the buzzer, your first starter for ten.

Which regnal name links the last Bourbon King of France, the last Habsburg King of Spain,

the man who was crowned Holy Roman Emperor...

-Charles.

-Charles is correct, yes.

The first set of bonuses are on British currency, St George's.

In 1696, which architect, a founder of the Royal Society,

proposed a decimal coinage based on a silver noble divided into ten primes and one hundred seconds?

WHISPERING

-Wren.

-It was Sir Christopher Wren.

Equivalent to one tenth of a pound and named ultimately after an Italian city,

which coin was introduced in 1849 as a tentative step towards a decimal currency?

-Florin.

-Correct.

In which decade was full decimalisation finally introduced in the United Kingdom?

-1970s.

-Correct. Ten points for this starter question.

"The basis of his attacks on Shakespeare is really the charge, quite true, of course,

"that Shakespeare wasn't an enlightened member of the Fabian Society."

These words of George Orwell refer to which Irish playwright...

-George Bernard Shaw.

-Correct.

These bonuses are on a 16th century publication, St George's.

Although aided by several contributors, which 16th century English chronicler gave his name

to The Chronicles Of England Scotland And Ireland, used as a source by Shakespeare?

Geoffrey of Monmouth? I think he might be earlier. He was earlier.

It's one of these things I used to know, but...

-Try Geoffrey of Monmouth. I think it's wrong.

-Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Raphael Holinshed. Holinshed had access to the manuscripts of which chaplain to Henry VIII

who acted as the King's antiquary? His papers can now be seen in the Bodleian and British Museums.

I have no idea.

-No idea.

-Pass.

-That was John Leland.

Holinshed's Chronicles give details of an uprising of Kentish rebels against Henry VI.

Who was its leader?

- I think that was Wat Tyler. - Maybe it's later.

WHISPERING

It could be Wat Tyler.

-Wat Tyler?

-No, Jack Cade. Ten points for this.

Known as Kelvin's Wedge, the angle enclosed by the wake of a vessel travelling in deep water

is theoretically constant regardless of the velocity of the vessel.

To within five degrees, what is the numerical value of this angle?

-90 degrees.

-No. Pembroke, one of you buzz?

-45 degrees.

-No. I'd have taken 44 because the real answer is 39.

Ten points for this. The author of the 1944 work Full Employment In A Free Society,

which economist gives his name to the curve that is a graphical depiction of the relationship

between the level of unemployment in an economy and the level of vacancies?

-Keener... Keynes, sorry.

-No. One of you buzz from Pembroke?

-The Laffer curve.

-No, that's to do with taxation and income. It's William Beveridge I was looking for.

In a 1954 book on The Nature Of the eponymous subject,

what did the US psychologist Gordon W Allport describe as "a feeling, favourable or unfavourable,

"toward a person or thing prior to, or not based on, actual experience"?

-Prejudice.

-Correct.

These bonuses are on US Presidents.

As the candidate of the Free Soil Party, which former President won 10% of the popular vote

at the 1848 Presidential election, thus swinging the victory to the Whig, Zachary Taylor?

-Andrew Jackson.

-Andrew Jackson?

-No, it's Martin Van Buren.

Who acceded to the Presidency on the death of Zachary Taylor in 1850?

At the 1856 Presidential election he was the candidate of the American or Know Nothing Party

and polled 22% of the vote.

-Try John Quincy Adams.

-John Quincy Adams.

-No, it was Millard Fillmore.

In the Presidential election of 1912, which former President ran as the Progressive Party candidate,

attracting 27% of the popular vote?

-Theodore Roosevelt.

-Correct. We're going to take our first picture round.

For your starter, you'll see a set of flags.

Ten points if you can work out the sequence they represent from 1972 to the present day.

Declarations of independence?

No. Pembroke College, one of you may buzz.

-Secretaries of the United Nations.

-I'll accept that.

Secretaries-General of the UN, the last five nationalities thereof.

Following on from that sequence of flags, your bonuses are three more sets of flags,

representing sequences in world current affairs.

Five points if you can work out the sequence they represent. Firstly...?

WHISPERING

World Cup winners?

It could be, yeah.

-World Cup winners.

-No, nationalities of the last five Presidents of the European Commission.

Secondly...?

WHISPERING

-Heads of the World Bank.

-No, the locations of the last five G8 summits. And finally...?

-Any ideas?

-No.

-We don't know.

-Last five countries to join the United Nations, South Sudan being the most recent.

Ten points for this. Founded in 1638 as Fort Christina by Swedish settlers,

which city in Delaware is the largest in the state and shares its name with a village in East Sussex,

famed for the giant figure of a Long Man carved into the South Downs hillside?

-Wilmington.

-Correct.

Right, your bonuses are on biochemistry. I want the name of the class of enzyme,

allocated by the Enzyme Commission of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,

for the following reactions. Firstly, for five points,

what are enzymes EC number 1.1?

They transfer hydrogen and oxygen atoms or electrons from one substrate to another,

for example, dehydrogenases and oxidases.

-Oxo-reductases?

-Oxo-reductases?

-Shall we go with that?

-Try that.

-Oxo-reductase?

-No, they're oxido-reductases.

What are enzymes EC number 4? They catalyse the removal or addition of groups without hydrolysis,

often forming a new double bond. Decarboxylases are examples.

-Transferase.

-Transferase.

-No, they're lyases.

What are enzymes EC number 6? They join together two molecules forming new bonds,

while simultaneously hydrolysing ATP, for example, synthetases?

-Ligase?

-Ligase?

-Yeah, try it.

-Ligase?

-Yeah.

-Ligase.

-Ligase is correct. Ten points for this.

According to details on packaging, which common cleansing agent may contain ingredients including:

aqua, hydrated silica, sodium bicarbonate, propylene glycol,

pentasodium triphosphate, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, sodium lauryl sulphate, sodium...

Soap.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..sodium saccharin and calcium peroxide?

-Toothpaste.

-Toothpaste is correct, yes.

15 points for these bonuses. They're on columns in The Economist newspaper.

Covering British current affairs, which column is named after the figure who became editor in 1861

and later published The English Constitution?

-Bagehot.

-Bagehot.

-Correct.

Which column on public policy is named after a Biblical metaphor for the absolute power of the state,

envisaged in an eponymous work of 1651?

WHISPERING

- Public policy. - It's not Leviathan?

Yeah, it could be Leviathan.

-Leviathan.

-Correct. Named after a tree that stores water in an unusually thick trunk,

the Baobab column is concerned with which continent?

-Africa.

-Africa.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Which year saw the birth of the mathematician Alfred North Whitehead,

the death of Albert, the Prince Consort, the abolition of serfdom in Russia

and the start of the American Civil War?

-1861.

-Correct.

These bonuses are on the Venetian School of Renaissance artists.

Firstly, who painted St Francis In Ecstasy, now in New York's Frick Collection,

and the portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan in the National Gallery?

-Bellini.

-Correct. The Tempest, The Three Philosophers and Sleeping Venus

are among the rare surviving works of which of Bellini's pupils?

I thought Titian, but it's not rare, so it can't be Titian.

There are lots of them.

-Crivelli?

-Crivelli?

No, Giorgione. Left unfinished on Giorgione's untimely death,

the landscape in the Sleeping Venus is thought to have been added by which painter,

considered to be the greatest of the Venetian School?

-Titian.

-Titian is right, yes. We're going to take a music round.

For your starter, you'll hear an excerpt from an 18th century song.

Ten points if you can tell me who's singing.

# Plaisir d'amour

# Ne dure... #

-Charlotte Church.

-It is Charlotte Church, yes.

She won the British Artist of the Year Award at the Classical Brit Awards in 2000.

For your bonuses, music from other recipients of the Classical Brit Awards. Five points for each one.

Firstly, the soloist here who was winner of the Male Artist of the Year Award in 2003?

CLASSICAL VIOLIN MUSIC

-We don't know.

-It took a long time to come to that conclusion! It's Nigel Kennedy.

Secondly, this Composer of the Year winner in 2009.

MUSIC: "Red Dwarf" THEME

-John Rutter.

-No, that's Howard Goodall, from the Red Dwarf Series One opening.

And, finally, these performers who won Album of the Year in 2010.

CHOIR: # In fields of sacrifice

# Heroes paid the price... #

-Il Divo?

-No, it's Only Men Aloud. Ten points for this. In ecology,

what five-letter word describes the role or functional position of a species...

-Niche?

-Niche is right, yes.

These bonuses are on epidemiology.

In which type of retrospective epidemiological study is the exposure of a certain risk factor

compared between two groups of individuals, who either have or do not have the outcome of interest

at the present time?

-Cohorts?

-No, a case-control study.

In which type of prospective epidemiological study is a group of subjects specified in advance

and followed up in the future to determine which individuals develop the outcome of interest?

-Cohorts.

-Correct. Which type of epidemiological study uses population groups,

such as those in different countries, rather than individuals as the basic unit of comparison?

Population study? I don't know.

-Population study?

-Ecological study.

10 points for this starter. What is the largest integer n

for which the Fermat equation x to the n plus y to the n equals z to the n

possesses a solution in positive integers?

-Two.

-Two is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on pilgrims' paths.

The 130-mile ancient trackway called The Pilgrims' Way leads to Thomas A Becket's shrine at Canterbury.

In which cathedral city does it begin?

Norwich?

To Canterbury. Could be.

-Yeah.

-Norwich?

-No, it's in Winchester.

The Edge of Wales Walk follows an ancient pilgrimage route to which Welsh island,

the site of a religious house founded by Saint Cadfan in the 6th century?

-Anglesey.

-No, Bardsey Island. St Cuthbert's Way begins at Melrose

and finishes on which island, where the Saint was a bishop from 685?

-Lindisfarne.

-Correct. 10 points for this. Expressed in a book with the translated English title

Classic of the Way, which philosophy, stressing the unity of humanity and the universe,

was founded more than 2,000 years ago by Lao-Tzu?

-Daoism?

-Daoism or Taoism is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on world capitals.

In each case, name the city and also tell me the independent sovereign country of which it is the capital.

Which city appears in the title of a 1985 film directed by Woody Allen?

It concerns a fictional character who steps out of a cinema screen to enter the real world.

Try Paris, France.

That's a good guess.

-Paris, France?

-No Cairo, Egypt, as in The Purple Rose of Cairo.

Secondly, along with the title of a novel by Vladimir Nabokov,

which city appears in the title of a 2003 memoir by Azar Nafisi?

Anyone know Nabokov?

-Nabokov. Shall we try Moscow?

-Come on.

-Moscow, Russia?

-Tehran, Iran, as in Reading Lolita In Tehran.

Finally, the given name of the popular music performer who married David Beckham in 1999?

-Victoria. Where's that the capital of?

-Where's Victoria?

- Is it a Caribbean state? - It could be.

-St Lucia?

-Let's have it, please.

-Victoria, St Lucia?

-No, Victoria, Seychelles. 10 points for this.

At the crossing point of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the River Ob,

what is the largest city of Siberia and third-largest of the Russian Republic?

-Yakutsk?

-No. Anyone like to buzz from Pembroke College?

-Nizhny Novgorod?

-No, Novosibirsk. 10 points for this.

What word may precede "fracture", an injury where a broken bone pierces the skin,

and "eye" in the name of a sight organ, composed...

-Compound.

-Compound is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on vertebrate bone structure.

From the Greek meaning "growing through", what term denotes the mid-section of long-limb bones?

In adults, their central medullary cavities are filled with yellow marrow.

-Metatropic?

-No...I don't know.

-Metatropic?

-No, diaphysis. What term denotes the expanded ends of limb bones?

They contain red marrow and articulate with adjacent bones to form joints.

-Foot.

-All the other team know! It's epiphyses.

What connective tissue forms the smooth articulating surface of the epiphyses of long bones?

-Cartilage.

-Correct. We'll take our second picture round.

For your picture starter, tell me the name of this object.

-The Hubble Space Telescope?

-It is, yes!

It was launched into orbit in 1990. Your bonuses are three stellar objects photographed by the Hubble.

Firstly for five, what term denotes a galaxy of this type?

It's not a quasar, I don't think, but it's tempting to say quasar.

- It could be... - Is it a spiral galaxy?

It doesn't look like a spiral.

-OK, try it.

-Quasar or spiral?

-Not a quasar.

-Spiral.

No, it's a starburst galaxy. Secondly, the popular name of this nebula?

Something eye nebula. What is it?

Let's have it, please.

-Owl's Eye?

-No, Crab Nebula. And finally...

-That's Mars.

-Mars?

-That is Mars, yes.

Right, 10 points for this.

In 2003, Paul Crake of Australia set the record of 9 minutes 33 seconds for running a vertical distance

of more than 300 metres up the 1,576 steps and 86 storeys of which landmark?

-The BT Tower.

-No. Anyone want to buzz from St George's?

-Empire State Building?

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on politicians. A Labour MP from 1987 to 2010,

who published the novel A Very British Coup in 1982?

His third volume of diaries, entitled A Walk-On Part, came out in 2011.

- Tony Benn? - That's what I thought.

- 2010 seems a bit late. - I think he'd left by then. Try it.

-Tony Benn?

-Tony Benn? No, he's not so modest. It's Chris Mullin.

Who was elected Conservative MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire in 2010? She previously published works

in the chick-lit genre, including Sparkles, Glamour and The Devil You Know.

-Louise Mensch?

-Correct. Who published her debut novel The Clematis Tree in 2000

-when she was Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald?

-Could that be Ann Widdecombe?

-Ann Widdecombe?

-Correct, yes. 10 points for this.

In chess, a position in which every legal move gives a clear advantage to the opponent

is known by what German term, literally meaning "move obligation"?

It's Zugzwang. 10 points for this. Varroa Destructor is a parasitic mite on the larvae of which species

of the genus apis, an insect...

-Wasps.

-No, you lose 5 points. ..an insect important both economically and ecologically?

-Honey bee.

-Honey bee is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on a composer. Which Hungarian composer and pianist received minor orders

in the Catholic Church in 1865? His religious works include Christus.

-Liszt.

-Correct. Liszt had three children by the Comtesse d'Agoult,

one being their daughter Cosima who, in 1870, became the wife of which German composer?

-Come on.

-Wagner.

-Correct. Which Chinese concert pianist marked the bicentenary of Liszt's birth

with the release in 2011 of his album Liszt: My Piano Hero?

-Lang Lang.

-Correct. 10 points for this.

The Welsh word for "small" shares a spelling with the surname of which family of composers?

Its best-known member was born in Eisenach in 1685.

-Bach?

-Bach is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on fictional architects.

Gary Cooper played the architect Howard Roark in a 1949 film adaptation of The Fountainhead,

a novel by which author?

-Pass.

-Ayn Rand. Architecture is a talent of Erik, title character of which 1910 Gaston Leroux novel,

adapted for the stage and screen on numerous occasions?

-Phantom of the Opera?

-Correct. Halvard Solness is the title character in which play by Ibsen?

Try... Oh, The Master Builder.

-Yeah.

-The Master Builder?

-Correct. 10 points for this. What designation links

Leamington Spa in 1838, Tunbridge Wells in...

-Royal.

-Royal is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on organic chemistry. The symbol R is used for which group, formed from an alkane

by the removal of a single hydrogen atom?

-Alkyl?

-Correct. What name is given to the simplest alkyl group, also known as the CH3 group?

-Methyl.

-Correct. Which methyl is a flammable toxic liquid used as a solvent and anti-freeze?

It can be catalytically converted to petrol and has the formula CH3OH.

-Methanol?

-Correct. 10 points for this. In physics, an alpha particle is what kind of atomic nucleus?

-Hydrogen.

-No. Anyone buzz from Pembroke?

-Helium.

-Helium is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on novels whose titles are taken from plays by Shakespeare.

Cakes and Ale, taken from a line in Twelfth Night, is a novel of 1930 by which author?

-Come on.

-Somerset Maugham?

-Correct. Which novel of 1827 by Thomas Hardy takes its title...

-Far From The Madding Crowd.

-No. From As You Like It, it's Under The Greenwood Tree.

Finally, forming the title of a 1968 novel by Agatha Christie, which six words precede,

"Something wicked this way comes," spoken by a witch in Macbeth?

-By the pricking of my thumbs.

-Correct. Censured in 2004 for referring to the Queen...

GONG

You didn't seem to be on song, Pembroke, but never mind.

We'll see both of you again. I hope you can join us next time for another quarter-final match.

Until then, goodbye from Pembroke College, goodbye from St George's and goodbye from me. Goodbye.

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