Episode 3 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge. Asking the questions,

Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Two teams of students

face another 30 minutes of general knowledge pick and mix

for a place in the second round

for whichever of them comes out the stronger.

Wadham College, Oxford, was founded in 1610

by Dorothy Wadham, administering the estate of her late husband, Nicholas, a Somerset landowner.

Under her original and somewhat stringent statutes,

the college was famously forbidden from employing any women

except those laundresses of such unbending morals

and forbidding appearance as to pose no threat

to the chaste slumbers of an all-male student body.

But when the mountain of dirty socks grew too great,

a mere 364 years later,

the college started admitting women as undergraduates.

Not that you'd guess it from tonight's team!

Alumni include Christopher Wren, the libertine poet, the Earl of Rochester,

the diarist, Francis Kilvert, the politician, Michael Foot

and the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

Tonight's team is one of the youngest in the competition,

with an average age of 19,

playing on behalf of around 600 fellow students.

Let's meet them.

Hi. My name's Alistair Smout,

I'm from Harpenden in Hertfordshire

and I'm reading politics, philosophy and economics.

Hi, I'm Jonathan Hall, I'm from Sheffield

-and I'm studying physics.

-And their captain.

I'm Jonathan Stanhope from Durham, reading history and politics.

Hi, I'm Oliver Forrest, originally from London and I'm reading English.

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The University of Bristol dates back

to the 1870s and is the brainchild

of John Percival, the headmaster of Clifton College.

He got the support of Benjamin Jowett of Balliol College, Oxford,

and a donation from the Fry family of chocolate manufacturers

to see University College Bristol established in 1876.

A further donation from the Wills family of tobacco magnates

secured the establishment of the university in 1909.

Alumni include the physicist Paul Dirac

and, more recently, comedy actors David Walliams and Matt Lucas.

The author David Nicholls was a student there

and drew on his experiences for his pleasingly-titled novel

Starter For Ten.

Representing a student body about 30 times the size of their opponents

and with an average age of 26,

let's meet the Bristol team.

Hi. My name is James Xiao.

I'm from Hampshire and I'm studying chemistry.

My name's Andy Suttie, I'm originally from Kelso in the Scottish Borders

and I'm studying for an MA in history and philosophy of science.

-And their captain.

-Hi, I'm Will Brady,

I'm from Hertford and I'm studying maths.

Hello, my name is Madeline Fforde, I'm from Wiltshire

and I'm studying for an MA in classics and ancient history.

APPLAUSE

The rules are the same as they have been for 50 years,

but I'll remind you. Starter questions are worth 10 points,

bonuses are worth 15 points.

Here's your first starter for 10.

"No praise is too high for him in my view

"and no celebration of his genius, excessive."

These words of the Booker prize-winner Howard Jacobson

refer to which novelist on the bicentenary of his birth...

Charles Dickens?

Correct. So, you get the first set of bonuses, Wadham College.

They are on quotations about money.

Firstly, for five points, the sentence -

"Stealing money is wrong has no factual meaning,

"that is it expresses no proposition which can be either true or false" -

these are the words of which English philosopher in a work of 1936?

-Bertrand Russell?

-No, it's A.J. Ayer.

"From virtue comes money and all other good things to man, both to the individual

"and to the state" - these words

are attributed to which Greek philosopher?

THEY WHISPER

-Aristotle?

-No, it's Socrates.

In his essays of 1625, what did Francis Bacon compare to money,

saying that it is not good except it be spread?

THEY WHISPER

Is it love?

No, it's muck. 10 points for this. What's being described?

Building on models in place since 1939,

it came into force in the UK on January 1, 1949.

It was increased to a two-year commitment in 1950...

-National service?

-Correct, yes.

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So, your first bonuses, Bristol,

are on a 19th-century literary figure.

"Beneath the rule of men entirely great,

"the pen is mightier than the sword."

These are the words of which literary figure

in the 1838 stage work, Richelieu?

I don't know. I don't know.

-Pass.

-They were Edward Bulwer-Lytton's words.

What is the opening line of Bulwer-Lytton's novel Paul Clifford?

It's since become synonymous with cliched writing

in horror or thriller fiction.

-It was a dark and stormy night.

-Correct.

"Out-babying Wordsworth and out-glittering Keats."

Of which 19th century poet laureate did Bulwer-Lytton say those words?

(Tennyson?)

-Tennyson.

-Correct.

Ten points for this starter question.

An hepaticostomy

is a surgical operation in which an opening is made into the main duct

carrying which thick, alkaline fluid that helps...?

-Bile.

-Bile is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses this time are on elements discovered

in 1817, Bristol.

Experimenting on zinc compounds in 1817,

the German chemist Friedrich Stromeyer found an impurity

in zinc carbonate that he identified as which new element?

A toxic, silver-white, ductile metal.

-Thallium.

-No, it's cadmium.

Also credited with having devised

the modern system of chemical symbols and formulae,

which Swedish chemist discovered silicon,

cerium, thorium and, in 1817, selenium?

(S-C-H-something.)

-Come on.

-Nominate Xiao.

-Scheele.

-No, it's Berzelius.

Discovered by one of his students in 1817,

which element was named by Berzelius from the Greek for stone?

-Lithium.

-Correct.

Ten points for this. What surname links the authors

of Missionary Travels And Researches In South Africa published in 1857

and If Voting Changed Anything, They'd Abolish It,

published in 1987?

-Benn?

-Anyone like to buzz from Wadham?

It's David and Ken Livingstone. Ten points for this.

Named after the Pyrenean town where they were discovered in 1904,

the Homilies of Organya date to the late 13th century

and are one of the earliest texts of which romance language?

-Basque, I was going to say.

-Anyone like to buzz from Bristol?

-Catalan.

-Catalan is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses this time, Bristol, are on US place names.

Founded by William Penn, which major city shares its name with that

of a community in Asia Minor, the sixth of the seven churches,

according to the Book of Revelation,

to receive letters containing messages from God?

Syracuse.

No, it's Philadelphia. For five points,

its name derived from the place in Ephraim, where,

according to some sources, the Ark of the Covenant was once kept.

Which church meeting house in Tennessee gives its name

to a battle of 1862, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing?

(Memphis.)

(Memphis? Gettysburg?)

-Gettysburg.

-No, it's Shiloh.

And for a possible five points further,

which city is the largest in Tennessee and takes its name

from that of an ancient capital also known as Noph mentioned

by Isaiah, Jeremiah and other prophets in their condemnation

of Israel's misplaced trust in Egypt?

-Memphis.

-Correct.

We'll take a picture round now. For your picture starter,

you'll see a representation of a national flag.

Ten points if you can give me the name of the country, please.

-Libya.

-Yes, it is, yes.

APPLAUSE

The flag of the former Kingdom of Libya,

the design was re-introduced as the official national flag

in August 2011.

For your bonuses, you're going to see three more national flags

of African countries,

all of which have been introduced in the last decade.

In each case, I want you to name the country, please. For five,

this flag, introduced with a new constitution in 2006.

-(Democratic Republic of Congo.)

-Democratic Republic of Congo.

Correct. Secondly, this flag, introduced in 2006

to celebrate 40 years of independence.

-(Erm. Malawi has a new flag, but I'm not sure if that's it.)

-Malawi.

No, that's Lesotho.

And, finally, this flag.

(South Sudan, maybe.)

South Sudan.

It is South Sudan, yes.

APPLAUSE

Very recently invented country.

Right, ten points for this. His seven opponents,

having devoted much of their campaigns to praising his rule,

President Berdimuhamedov captured 97% of the vote in an election

of February 2012 to win a new five-year term as ruler

of which Central Asian state?

Uzbekistan.

No. Anyone want to buzz from Bristol?

-Kazakhstan.

-No, it's Turkmenistan.

Ten points for this - Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York,

was executed during the reign of which king?

He criticised the King's taxation of the clergy

and joined the Percy rebellion after the Battle of Shrewsbury.

Henry VI.

Anyone like to buzz from Bristol?

-Henry VIII.

-No, it's Henry IV. Ten points for this.

Roquet, peel and cannon are strokes and the...?

-Croquet.

-Croquet is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Bristol, are on female prophets.

Executed at Tyburn in 1534 for prophesying against Henry VIII,

Elizabeth Barton was known as the Nun of which county?

-Lancashire.

-No, it's Kent.

Which prophetess is commonly identified

as the woman born as Ursula Southiel

in around 1488 near Knaresborough in Yorkshire?

-Margaret Shipton.

-No, it's Mother Shipton of well fame.

And finally, Good Omens: The Nice And Accurate Prophecies

Of Agnes Nutter, Witch is a collaborative novel of 1990

by Terry Pratchett and which other British fantasy writer?

-Neil Gateman.

-I can't accept.

Neil Gaiman is his name, I can't accept that, I'm sorry.

Right, another starter question.

Noted for an early statement of the principle of the conservation of energy,

which German chemist, born in 1806, gives his name

to a balance used to determine density by weighing a solid...?

Bulsman.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points. ..when suspended in air

and to the salt ferrous, ammonium sulfate?

-Hess.

-No, it's Mohr.

Ten points for this.

Narrated by the subject's servant Tiro,

Impirium and Lustrum are the first and second novels...?

Robert Harris.

No, you lose five points. ..second novels in Robert Harris's trilogy

about which Roman statesmen, writer and orator?

-Cicero.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses, Wadham, are on the Nobel Prize.

Firstly, for five, a joint recipient with Oliver E Williamson,

the US academic Elinor Ostrom became, in 2009,

the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in which field?

-(Economics, I think.)

-Economics.

-Correct.

Who became the first US Nobel laureate in economics in 1970?

He published the best-selling textbook Economics in 1948.

Oh, Solow, Solow.

-Solow?

-Yeah.

Solow.

No, it's Paul Samuelson.

And finally, the first Asian recipient of the award,

which Indian pioneer in welfare economics is the author of

On Economic Inequality And Development As Freedom?

-Amartya Sen.

-Nominate Smout.

-Amartya Sen.

Amartya Sen's correct.

That puts it on level pegging, 50 points a piece

and ten points for this.

Named after a Pacific atoll that had been the site

of nuclear testing a few days earlier...?

-Bikini.

-Bikini is correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on Danish scientists, Bristol.

In 1676, the astronomer Ole Christensen Roemer used eclipses

of Jupiter's moon to make what is generally regarded

as the first reasonable approximation

of what physical constant?

-The speed of light.

-Correct.

Secondly, born 1777, which pioneer of electromagnetism

gives his name to the CGS unit of magnetic field strength?

Come on.

-Faber.

-No, it's Hans Christian Oersted.

And finally, born in 1853, which biologist gives his name

to a staining technique for the preliminary identification

of bacteria?

-Gram.

-Gram is correct, yes.

Right, a music round now.

For your music starter, you're going to hear an extract from an opera.

Ten points if you can give me

the name of the character singing.

# Finch'han dal vino calda la testa una gran festa... #

-Figaro.

-No, you can hear a little more, Wadham.

#..qualche ragazza teco ancor quella cerca menar... #

-Don Giovanni?

-Don Giovanni is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your music bonuses are three more operatic arias sung by the eponymous character

each of whom is also known by the title, "Don".

I simply want the character's name in each case. Firstly, for five points.

AN ARIA PLAYS

Don Juan?

Er, Don Juan?

No, it's Don Quixote in Massenet's version of the story. Secondly:

AN ARIA PLAYS

Er, Don Carlos?

No, that's Don Pasquale in Donizzetti's opera. Finally...

AN ARIA PLAYS

Er, Don Juan.

No, that WAS Don Carlos!

Ten points for this. Words meaning ungrateful person,

Moroccan port on the straits of Gibraltar,

an act of ripping or rending

are all anagrams of the name of which igneous rock?

-Granite.

-Yes, the anagrams are ingrate, Tangier and tearing.

Your bonuses now are on authors and their pleasures.

"I'm entitled to my share of lightheartedness

"and there is nothing wrong with enjoying oneself simply like a boy."

This remark of Leo Tolstoy

refers to his learning to do what at the age of 67?

-Ride a bike.

-Correct.

Taming the Bicycle is the title of an essay by which US humorist and author?

It describes his attempts to master the vehicle

during the early 1880s

around his home town of Hartford, Connecticut.

THEY WHISPER

-Walt Whitman?

-No, it was Mark Twain.

Hoop Driver, a draper's assistant and Jesse, a young lady in grey,

share cycling idylls in The Wheels of Chance,

an 1896 work by which prolific novelist?

-Edgar Allan Poe.

-No, it's HG Wells. Ten points for this.

Three alumni of both Harvard University

and its long-running humorous periodical

were the founders in 1970 of which US magazine...?

The Onion.

No, you lose five points. It ceased publication in 1998.

The New Yorker.

It's The National Lampoon. The Onion's still going. Ten points for this.

In oil refining, what term describes the process by which heat, catalysts and often pressure...

-Cracking.

-Cracking is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Bristol, are on recent non-fiction works.

Under what title has Tim Hartford written a column for The Financial Times,

the title also being used for his bestselling book of 2005,

which explains the fundamental principles of the modern economy.

-The Lex column.

-No, it's The Undercover Economist.

Secondly, for five points, what type of person defined by food choice

is named in the title of the 2006 work by the US journalist and academic, Michael Pollan,

that studies the systems and processes behind modern-day eating?

-The Vegetarian.

-No, it's an omnivore. The Omnivore's Dilemma.

What tool commonly used in the building industry and DIY

gives its name to the title of the 2009 book by the epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett,

a study of the social effects of inequality?

-Hammer.

-No, it's the spirit level.

Ten points for this. An attempt to create a privatised form

of international censorship

was one verdict on a bill introduced into the US Congress...

-SOPA.

-No, you lose five points.

..in late 2011 and known as SOPA.

For what do the letters SOPA stand?

-Stop Online Piracy Act.

-Correct.

So you get the bonuses, Wadham.

APPLAUSE

These are on households pests.

In each case, give the common name of the following insects. For five points -

Blattaria, an order of large exopterygote insects,

they're dorsoventrally compressed and hide in crevices during daytime.

Woodlouse.

No, they're cockroaches.

Secondly, Lepisma saccharina, about one centimetre long

with a shiny metallic appearance and prominent antennae,

they feed on food scraps, especially carbohydrates.

-Woodlouse?

-No, those are silver fish.

And finally, the larvae of Tineola bisselliella, regarded as a pest

since they feed on the fibrous protein keratin,

traditionally naphthalene has been used as a control measure.

THEY WHISPER

Lice.

No, they're clothes moths.

We're going to take a second picture round now.

For your starter, you're going to see a photo of a fortified city.

10 points if you can give me its name.

Heidelberg?

No. Bristol, one of you buzz?

I need a buzz or I'm going to tell you.

I'll tell you, it's Carcassonne.

Picture bonuses shortly, another starter question in the meantime.

Flannel, flummery, penguin,

crag, coracle and corgi

are among modern English words

that are thought to derive from which language?

-Welsh.

-Welsh is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

OK, you'll recall that for the picture starter,

you were shown a photograph of Carcassonne.

You're going, for your bonuses,

to see three other notable fortified cities in Europe.

For five points, I want you to name the city

and the country in which it's located.

Firstly...

-Looks like southern Spain.

-Yeah, oh, what's the...

Granada?

Granada, in Spain.

It IS Spain, but it's Avila. And, secondly...

Cannons... A famous place with cannons.

-A French one?

-Is it Toulon?

-Toulon in France.

-No, that's Valletta in Malta.

And finally...

Let's have an answer, please.

Toulon, in France.

No, Dubrovnik in Croatia.

10 points for this, fingers on buzzers, please.

Ruby and sapphire are gemstone varieties of which mineral?

-Corundum.

-Corundum is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Bristol, this time, are on battlefields in Scotland.

The site of a decisive defeat for Edward II's English army in 1314,

Bannockburn is a village immediately south

of which city of central Scotland?

-Stirling.

-Stirling is right.

The site of a battle during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1689,

the Pass of Killiecrankie is around 30 miles north

of which Royal Borough on the River Tay?

THEY WHISPER

-Dundee.

-No, it's Perth.

Giving its name to the final battle of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-46,

the village of Culloden is a few miles east of which city?

-Inverness.

-Inverness is right.

Four and a half minutes to go, 10 points for this.

Answer as soon as you buzz.

What is A if G is 289,

F is 169 and E is...

One.

No, you lose five points.

..and E is 121?

49.

No, it's four. It's squares of primes in descending order.

10 points for this starter question.

Two former American presidents died on July 4th 1826,

the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

For 10 points, name either of them.

-Thomas Jefferson.

-Thomas Jefferson is right. John Adams was the other.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on oddities of English spelling, Wadham.

The Gaelic derived name of which member of the grouse family

is spelt with an initial silent letter

originally added to suggest Greek etymology.

-Ptarmigan.

-Correct.

Which short word has a silent third letter inserted

to link it to a Latin word with the same meaning?

It's rendered as "trespasses" in some versions of the Lord's Prayer.

THEY WHISPER

Sin.

No, it's debts.

And finally, what common geographical term has, since the 15th century,

been spelt with a silent letter after the first vowel

to make it resemble Latin and French words with the same meaning?

(Mountain?)

-Let's have it, please.

-Pass.

It's island. 10 points for this -

which three letters, referring to a property of fractions,

also denote a technology used in image projection or display.

-LCD.

-Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Bristol, are on mountains.

On which large island is Puncak Jaya,

also known as Carstensz Pyramid?

4,884 metres in height, it is the highest point

between the Himalayas and the Andes

and the highest island peak in the world.

THEY WHISPER

-Java?

-No, it's on New Guinea.

On which island is Mauna Kea, the second highest island peak?

THEY WHISPER

-Hawaii.

-Correct. Finally, on which large island is Mount Kinabalu,

just over 4,000 metres in height?

THEY WHISPER

Madagascar.

No, the answer's Borneo. Right, another starter question.

Of the landlocked countries of Europe, which is the largest,

being around four-fifths of the size of the UK?

-Austria.

-No, Bristol?

Romania.

No, it's Belarus.

10 points for this - what short botanical term

links a mass of crystals forming from a solution,

the directory or folder structure of the hard drive and a genealogical...

-Tree.

-Tree is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Wadham,

are on scientific terms with the same Greek prefix.

Give the term from the definition.

In botany, the type of flowering plants

characterised by the presence of one food-storing leaf in the seed.

Monoclamideas.

-Monoclamideas.

-No, monocotyledon.

In astronomy, an inconspicuous constellation

on the celestial equator near to Orion and Canis Minor.

Nominate Hall.

-Monoceros.

-Correct.

In mathematics, an algebraic expression

consisting of only one term.

GONG

And at the gong, Wadham have 105, Bristol University have 120.

APPLAUSE

The algebraic expression, by the way, is monomial.

Wadham, I think we're going to have to say goodbye to you,

but thank you very much for joining us

in this first round of this latest series

and Bristol, many congratulations to you,

we look forward to seeing you in stage two.

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

-Goodbye from Wadham College Oxford.

-ALL: Goodbye.

-Goodbye from Bristol University.

-ALL: Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

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