Episode 34 University Challenge

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Eight teams have been stretched on the rack of the quarter-finals of this contest.

Three could take no more and have gone home. Another three are through to the semi-finals -

University College, London, New College, Oxford, and Manchester.

For tonight's two teams, the torment is almost over.

They each have one quarter-final victory as well as one defeat.

Whichever of them wins tonight will take the one remaining place.

The last time a team from Bangor made the semi-finals was in 1999,

but this team has made a valiant attempt to emulate that achievement.

They beat St Andrews in Round One, Durham University in Round Two

and Imperial College, London, in one quarter-final match, but they lost to University College, London,

so a win tonight is essential if they're to go any further. Let's meet the Bangor team again.

Hello. I'm Adam Pearce from Barry and I'm studying for a PhD in Translation Studies.

Hi, I'm Mark Stevens from Cheshire, studying Environmental Science.

-Their captain...

-Hi. I'm Nina Grant from Enfield, studying for a degree in French and Linguistics.

Hello. I'm Simon Tomlinson, originally from Manchester, studying for a PhD in Neuropsychology.

The team from King's College, Cambridge, are almost part of the furniture now.

This is their sixth appearance. They lost their First Round match,

but survived as highest-scoring losers, then won their play-off and Second Round match.

In the quarter-finals they lost to New College, Oxford, but then beat - just - Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Let's have the pleasure of seeing them again.

Hi, I'm Curtis Gallant, from North London, studying Classics.

Hello. I'm Amber Ace, from Crieff, and I'm also studying Classics.

-And this is their captain...

-Hi, I'm Fran Middleton and I'm doing a PhD in Classics.

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

Right, let's crack on with it. Here's your first starter.

The UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992

and its successors in 1997 and 2002 are commonly known by what two-word name?

-Kyoto Accord?

-Nope.

-Rio Summit?

-No, Earth Summits. 10 points for this.

Eryhtro-, leuco- and cyano- are prefixes denoting which triplet of colours?

-Er, red, yellow and blue? The primary colours.

-No. Bangor?

-Red, white and black.

-No, red, white and blue. 10 points for this.

What six-letter word can precede bagger, bombing and shark...

-Carpet.

-Carpet is correct, yes.

So the first set of bonuses are on existentialism.

Which French philosopher's maxim, "Existence precedes essence," has been described

as the most succinct statement of existentialism?

-Sartre.

-Sometimes described as one of the founders of existentialism,

which German philosopher's works include Reason And Existenz?

Persecuted by the Nazis, he remained in Germany until after the war.

-Nominate Stevens.

-Heidegger.

No, Karl Jaspers. Born in Copenhagen in 1813,

who is the first modern philosopher to be commonly described as an existentialist?

-Kierkegaard.

-Correct. 10 points for this. Which French scientist's law of fluid pressure states

that the pressure in a fluid exerts a force of constant magnitude on...

-Pascal.

-Pascal is correct.

These bonuses are on a Greek island.

According to Herodotus, which Aegean island was notable for its temple of Hera and tunnel of Eupalinos,

an early aqueduct? Both now form part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

-Crete?

-No, it's Samos. A native of Samos, which third century astronomer

anticipated Copernicus by asserting that the Earth moves around the Sun?

-Heraclitus?

-..No.

It's Aristarchus. Finally, born in Samos around 570 BC,

which scientist and mystic founded a religious colony in South Italy

and is credited with a large number of mathematical discoveries?

-Pythagoras.

-Correct. 10 points for this.

Proust's A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu and other series of novels linked by common characters

are sometimes referred to by what two-word French term, literally meaning "river novel"?

-Roman fleuve?

-Correct.

These bonuses are on the documentaries of Werner Herzog.

The 2010 3D film Cave of Forgotten Dreams saw Herzog gain exclusive access

to which cave in southern France, discovered in 1994?

-Lascaux.

-No, the Chauvet cave.

Environmentalist and bear activist Timothy Treadwell is the title subject of which 2005 documentary?

-Grizzly Man.

-Correct. The 1999 documentary My Best Fiend concerns Herzog's relationship

with which German actor, reputed to be somewhat difficult?

He played the title roles in Fitzcarraldo and Nosferatu.

-Fritz Lang?

-Fritz Lang?! No, it's Klaus Kinski.

A blending of two Latin words meaning boundary and threshold,

what term denotes a horizontal piece of timber or stone placed over a door, window or fireplace

to discharge the weight on it?

-Lintel.

-Lintel is correct.

These bonuses are on 20th century US Presidents.

After his second term, who retired to Missouri to write his memoirs?

He received the first Medicare card when the scheme began in 1965.

-Eisenhower.

-Harry S Truman. Eight years after his term of office,

which former President became Chief Justice of the US, the only person to have held both offices?

-Woodrow Wilson.

-No, William Howard Taft.

More than 20 years after his presidency, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work

on conflict resolution and human rights?

-Jimmy Carter.

-Correct. We're going to take a picture round.

You will see a stylized version of the Beatus Map, an influential 8th century mappa mundi,

drawn by the Spanish monk Beatus of Liebana. For 10 points, give me the modern English name

of the highlighted river.

-The Nile.

-It is the Nile, yes.

For your picture bonuses, three more areas highlighted on that map.

Simply identify the place Beatus located at each point.

Firstly, I want the name of this city.

-Jerusalem.

-Correct.

Secondly, I want the name of this country.

-India?

-Correct.

Finally, please, the name of this island.

-Britain.

-Correct!

Begun during the reign of Vespasian in around AD 70-72,

which elliptical structure is said to have taken its name from the giant statue of Nero...

-The Colossus.

-No, lose 5 points.

..from the giant statue of Nero that stood nearby in the Via Sacra?

-The Colloseum?

-Colloseum is correct.

Your bonuses are on asexual reproduction in plants.

I will describe three vegetative structures. I want the botanical term for each.

The horizontal underground stem seen in stinging nettles. It grows in soil, rooting at nodes

to produce new plantlets.

-Rhizomes.

-Correct. The bud-like masses of cells, often in the form of cups or discs,

that become detached and grow into new plants, characteristic of liverworts or flowering plants,

for example, sundew.

-Nominate Stevens.

-Are they saurae?

-No, they're gemmae. And finally,

horizontal stems arising from axillary buds seen in plants such as strawberries.

They grow along the surface of the ground and new plantlets arise from nodes.

-Nominate Stevens.

-Mycorrhiza?

-No, they're runners or stolon.

10 points for this. From a verb meaning to thrash or beat, what adjective is applied to extra weight

carried in horseracing and to a boxer or wrestler who is between a lightweight and a middleweight?

-Welter.

-Welter is correct.

These bonuses are on a car manufacturer. One of the biggest flops in motor industry history,

the 1958 Edsel car was named after the son of which manufacturer?

-Henry Ford.

-Born 1891, which Sardinian Marxist coined the term Fordism

to illustrate how new American production techniques meant a new epoch in capitalist development?

-Pass.

-It's Antonio Gramsci. Finally, the jungle city of Fordlandia was Ford's attempt

to create small-town America and secure cheap rubber in the rainforest of which country?

-Indonesia?

-No, it was Brazil.

Maths - what describes real numbers with terminating or eventually periodic decimal expansion?

In everyday language, the same word...

-Rational?

-Correct!

Your bonuses are on artists born in the 1880s.

Active mainly in Paris, which Italian artist is noted for portraiture

characterised by asymmetrical compositions and elongated figures?

His dissolute lifestyle contributed to an early death from tuberculosis.

-Klimt?

-No, it's Modigliani.

Noted for depictions of Montmartre, which French artist received his name from a Spanish art critic

who recognised him as his son in order to help him?

-Montmartre?

-Yeah.

-I think that's Toulouse-Lautrec.

-Toulouse-Lautrec?

-No, Utrillo.

Which Russian-born artist is noted for his illustrations of La Fontaine's Fables

and for stained glass such as that in Tudeley Church in Kent? He gives his name to a museum in Nice.

Chagall?

Nominate Gallant.

-Chagall?

-It IS Marc Chagall!

Yes!

10 points for this. Which city in the French Basque country is noted for a sweet liqueur, Izarra,

and an air-dried salted ham,

and is believed to have given its name to an edged weapon usually fixed...

-Bayonne.

-Bayonne is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on game designers.

"The father of computer gaming", which creator of "god games" is noted for Civilization

and Railroad Tycoon?

-Nominate Pearce.

-Sid Meier.

-Correct.

The "father of modern video games", which Japanese designer created the Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong

and Legend of Zelda franchises?

Miyazaki?

No...

-Pass.

-That's Shigeru Miyamoto.

Creator of a gaming style that emphasised learning and invention, US designer Will Wright developed

which 1989 game that let players build their own virtual urban world?

SimCity is the first.

-SimCity.

-Correct.

We're going to take a music round.

You'll hear an excerpt for your starter from a classical oratorio.

Ten points if you can give me the Biblical figure after whom the oratorio is named.

ORATORIO PLAYS

Jesus the Messiah?

No. You can hear a little more, King's College.

ORATORIO CONTINUES

Bathsheba?

No, it's St Matthew. It's part of Bach's Matthew Passions.

Music bonuses shortly. Ten points for a starter question.

Listen carefully. Answer as soon as your name is called.

If a ball is cast straight up at 20 metres per second

and the acceleration due to gravity is ten metres per second squared,

then what is the maximum height of the ball?

-Two metres.

-No. King's, one of you buzz?

-One metre.

-One metre?!

No, it's 20 metres. So another starter question.

Which Russian-born poet was sentenced to internal exile for "social parasitism" in 1964

and moved to the United States in the 1970s

where he published collections such as A Part Of Speech?

He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 19...

-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

-No, you lose five points. ..the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978?

-Bakhtin.

-No, it was Joseph Brodsky.

During the 1980s, which Cabinet post was held by Lord Carrington,

Francis Pym, Geoffrey Howe...

-Defence Secretary or Minister for Defence.

-No, you lose five points.

..Geoffrey Howe, John Major and Douglas Hurd?

-Home Office.

-No, it was Foreign Secretary. Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

The SI unit of time, the second, is defined in reference to the transition between two...

-Caesium.

-Caesium is correct, yes.

Right, we go back to the music questions we were looking at earlier, I'm afraid to tell you.

Following on from that starter from St Matthew's Passion, your bonuses are three more classical pieces,

all inspired by Biblical figures. In each case, I want you to name the figure or figures singing.

Firstly for five, the name of these two figures singing after whom the work is named?

OPERATIC ARIA

-Samson and Delilah?

-It is, yes.

By Saint-Saens. Secondly, the name of this figure singing after whom the work is named?

ORATORIO PLAYS

Elijah?

Is that opera?

-Elijah.

-It is Elijah, yes.

Finally, the name of these two Biblical figures singing?

ORATORIO PLAYS

CONFERRING

-Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

-Solomon and the Queen of Sheba?

No, it's Adam and Eve from Haydn's Creation. Ten points for this.

"I have lost my eldest son, but I am glad."

Referring to their mutual hostility, these were the words of which British monarch

on receiving the news of the death of his son Prince Frederick, the Prince of Wales?

George III.

Anyone want to buzz from Bangor?

-George II.

-It was George II, yes.

Your bonuses are on an economist.

The Canadian-born US economist Myron S Scholes shared the 1997 Nobel Prize with Robert C Merton

for a new method of determining the value of which financial contracts,

their name being a generic term for futures, options and swaps?

-Derivatives.

-Correct. Along with Scholes, who gives his name to an options pricing model

that led to the development of a major new financial market? It enables traders to diversify risk.

WHISPERING

-An open market?

-No, it's Fischer Black, the Black-Scholes Formula.

Finally, Scholes has been called the "intellectual father" of which instrument,

an insurance-like contract that will cover losses on certain securities in the event of a default?

-The hedge fund?

-No, it's a credit default swap.

Ten points for this. Richard Wagner was inspired to create which opera of 1843

by his experience four years earlier of a dangerous sea crossing from Riga...

-The Flying Dutchman.

-Yes.

These bonuses are on geometry, King's College.

What formula gives the volume of a ball of radius "r" in three dimensions?

- Four-thirds pi r-cubed. - Just nominate him.

-Nominate Gratrex.

-Four-thirds pi r-cubed.

-Correct.

Which two names are associated with the paradox proving a ball of radius one can be decomposed

into a finite number of pieces

which can then be re-assembled to form two new balls of radius one?

I know of the paradox, but it's gone

WHISPERS

-It's a modern paradox. I don't know.

-Smith-Wilson.

-No, it's the Banach-Tarski paradox.

The Banach-Tarski theorem relies on which axiom of set theory

which, to paraphrase Russell, is necessary to select one sock

from each of infinitely many pairs, but not necessary for shoes?

-Axiom of choice.

-Axiom of choice.

-Correct.

Ten points for this starter question.

In human anatomy, what part of the upper respiratory tract is posterior to the buccal and nasal cavities

and superior to the oesophagus and larynx?

-The pharynx.

-Correct.

These bonuses are on French detectives, Bangor.

In each case, I want the surname of the fictional character described and his creator.

A character who made his first appearance in the 1841 short story Murders In The Rue Morgue

before the word "detective" existed? His surname relates to a pine tree or trees.

WHISPERING

-Come on.

-Dupont and Edgar Allan Poe?

It's Dupin and Edgar Allan Poe. Bad luck.

A detective who appeared in more than 70 novels from 1931 to '72? His surname means "thin person".

Maigret.

-Maigret.

-And?

-Georges Simenon.

-Georges Simenon.

-Correct. Finally, a detective who made his first appearance in a film of 1963?

The two elements of his surname mean "nail" and "bucket".

-Clouseau.

-And who created it?

WHISPERING

No, no, no. Blake? What was the name? Blake...?

The director, Blake...?

-Let's have it, please.

-Clouseau, but we can't remember the creator.

-Blake Edwards.

-Edwards!

-Can't give you the point, I'm afraid. Another picture round.

You'll see a portrait of a scientist. Ten points if you can tell me her name.

-Marie Curie.

-No.

Can anyone tell me from King's?

Ada Lovelace.

No, it's Caroline Herschel. We'll take another starter question and pick up the picture bonuses shortly.

South Sudan became the world's newest nation in July 2011

with an independent ceremony in which city...

-Juba.

-Juba is correct, yes.

You saw the astronomer Caroline Herschel who was named one of the most influential British women

in the history of science by Fellows of the Royal Society in 2010.

For your bonuses you'll see three more British scientists on that list.

Five points for each you can identify. Firstly for five, this crystallographer?

-Rosalind Franklin.

-No, Kathleen Lonsdale.

Secondly, this physician?

-Harriet James.

-No, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. And finally, this chemist?

WHISPERING

Do we have any names?

-Sorry. We don't know.

-That's Dorothy Hodgkin. Right, ten points for this.

Also known as the Cryptozoic, what term, deriving in part from a Latin name for Wales,

denotes the span of geological time that...

-Cenozoic.

-No. ..that preceded...

-Cambrian.

-No, Precambrian. You shoul have let me finish the question.

We'll carry on with another starter question.

Customs In Common, Whigs And Hunters and The Making Of The English Working Class are among the works

of which historian who died in 1993?

Eric Hobsbawm.

No. Anyone want to buzz from King's College?

Toynbee?

No, it was EP Thompson. Ten points for this.

Founded in 1971 by Michael Stern Hart, which internet project provides free online access

to thousands of e-books and is named after a German...

-Project Gutenberg.

-Correct.

Right, these bonuses, Bangor, are on the works of Thomas Paine.

An expression of republicanism, which 1791 work was Paine's answer to Edmund Burke's attack

on the uprising of the French people in Reflections On The Revolution In France?

WHISPERING

-Common Sense.

-No, it was The Rights Of Man.

Published in Philadelphia in 1776,

which anti-monarchical pamphlet by Paine sold more than half a million copies within a few months?

-Common Sense.

-Correct. Deistic in its political philosophy,

which 1794 pamphlet was his last major work and was an exposition of the place of religion in society?

It contributed to his notoriety as an atheist.

-Sorry. Pass.

-The Age Of Reason. Ten points for this.

Appearing in the dictionary between "sublunary" and "sub-machine-gun",

what medical term denotes a partial dislocation or displacement...?

-Subluxation.

-Correct. These bonuses are on physics now, Bangor.

A particle whose position x obeys the differential equation:

d2x/dt squared, equals minus omega squared x, is said to be executing what kind of motion?

-Speeding up? Slowing down?

-Acceleration?

-Let's have it, please.

-Acceleration?

-Simple harmonic motion. In terms of omega,

what is the frequency of oscillation of the particle?

-Pass. Sorry.

-It's omega/2 pi.

Finally, an oscillator which is not oscillating in simple harmonic motion is known as what?

- Stationary? - Try it.

-Stationary.

-No, it's...

-LAUGHTER

It's an anharmonic oscillator. Ten points for this.

What adjective may describe a star with an unusually high velocity

and an electron that acquires energy from an electric field at a greater rate...

-Free.

-No, you lose five points. ..at a greater rate than it loses through particle collision?

I'll tell you. It's "runaway". Ten points for this.

Subtitled "The London Charivari", which illustrated weekly...

-Punch.

-Punch is correct, yes.

Bonuses this time on Man Booker Prize-winning novels by Indian authors.

Which novel tells the story of the twins Rahel and Estha

and their return to their family home after having been apart from one another for 25 years?

Come on, let's have it, please.

-A Suitable Boy.

-No, it's The God Of Small Things.

The action of which novel takes place in the mid-1980s in a Himalayan town and New York?

WHISPERING

Have you read it? Let's have it, please.

-We don't know.

-The Inheritance Of Loss. Which novel is written in the form of a series of letters

to the Chinese premier by the son of a rickshaw puller who becomes a businessman?

-We don't know.

-The White Tiger. Ten points for this.

In mathematics, "vigesimal" means related to, based on or proceeding by intervals of what number?

-20.

-Correct.

Your bonuses now are on rivers and their fauna.

Which major river gives its name to a species of antelope, crocodile, perch and monitor lizard?

-Nile.

-Which river in China gives its name to a species of dolphin known as baiji?

-Yangtze.

-GONG

-Yangtze is correct, yes.

King's College, I'm afraid it's goodbye, but considering you lost your first-round match,

it's a terrific achievement to get as far as the quarter-finals. You go with your heads held high.

Bangor, 195, terrific score. We shall see you in the semi-finals. Well done.

Join us next time for the first semi-final,

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

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Bangor.

-Goodbye.

-And goodbye from me. Goodbye.

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