Episode 36 University Challenge

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Tonight is the penultimate match in this competition.

Last time we saw University College, London, beat New College, Oxford, to take their place in the final.

Tonight we'll discover who they'll be facing.

Manchester University had victories against two Oxford colleges in rounds one and two

and won their first quarter-final against Imperial College, London.

They came a cropper in their second quarter-final, when they lost to University College, London,

but redeemed themselves with a convincing win against St George's to earn their place here tonight.

Let's meet them for the sixth time.

Hello. I'm David Brice and I study Economics.

Hi, I'm Adam Barr from Muswell Hill, studying Physics with Astrophysics.

-And their captain...

-Hi, I'm Richard Gilbert from Warwickshire and I'm studying Linguistics.

Hello. I'm Debbie Brown from Buxton and I'm studying for a PhD in Pain Epidemiology.

The team from Bangor University have a rather similar history,

beating St Andrews and Durham in the first two rounds

and losing their first quarter-final to University College, London.

They got back in with a win over Imperial College, London,

and nailed the second quarter-final, beating King's College, Cambridge.

Let's meet them as they also make their sixth appearance.

Hi, I'm Adam Pearce, from Barry, studying for a Phd in Translation Studies.

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

-And their captain...

-Hello. My name's Nina Grant, from Enfield, studying French and Linguistics.

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

Right, get those fingers on the buzzers. Here's your first starter.

"The translators sought to find in our language words that would pass on the almost unbearable weight

"of divine intelligence and love pressing down on those who first encountered it

"and tried to embody it in writing."

Those words of Dr Rowan Williams are from a sermon of 2011

marking the 400th anniversary of...

-The King James Bible.

-Correct.

The bonuses are on a 19th-century writer and diplomat.

Sir John Bowring was the literary executor of which utilitarian philosopher

whose radical journal, The Westminster Review, he edited from 1824?

-John Stuart Mill?

-Jeremy Bentham.

In 1854, Bowring became the fourth governor of which British colony?

His policies contributed to the outbreak of the conflict sometimes known as the Second Opium War.

-China...

-No, India.

-India?

-No, Hong Kong.

He gives his name to a treaty of 1855 negotiated with King Rama IV,

that opened which country to western influence and trade?

-Thailand?

-It is Thailand, yes. Whose grave is marked by a tombstone

recently placed behind protective glass by the Irish Government

to prevent it from "lipstick erosion"...

-Oscar Wilde.

-Correct.

These bonuses are on a journalist and critic. Known as the Sage of Baltimore,

who compiled examples of local usage and idioms in his 1919 work The American Language?

-Merriam?

-No, it's HL Mencken.

Which two-word alliterative term did Mencken coin to describe those sections

of the American south and midwest practising Protestant fundamentalism?

-The Bible Belt.

-Which form of government did he say was the theory that the people know what they want

and deserve to get it good and hard?

-Democracy?

-Correct. Work this out before you buzz.

If an ideal gas at zero degrees Celsius is heated steadily at constant pressure,

at what temperature, to the nearest degree, will it occupy twice its original volume?

-Ten degrees.

-Nope.

-273 degrees?

-Correct!

These bonuses are on thermometry.

After a scientist born in 1564, what name is given to a thermometer that indicates the temperature

based on the motion of a collection of weights of varying densities, suspended in a transparent liquid?

-Nominate Barr.

-Torricelli?

-No, it's a Galilean thermometer.

What is the name of the upward force exerted by a fluid opposing the weight of a body suspended in it?

Buoyancy, isn't it? Buoyancy.

-Buoyancy.

-Yes. To what temperature on the Celsius scale does 50 degrees Fahrenheit correspond?

16 Celsius is 61.

- Maybe...10. - 12 and a half maybe.

-12 and a half.

-No, it's 10 degrees.

Quote: "Shadows, ghosts, ruins and doppelgangers. A madwoman emerging from a Hampstead fog.

"The villain, Count Fosco, who keeps white mice in his pocket.

"Marian Halcombe, an intrepid heroine with, of all things, a light moustache..."

Those words of the author Nicci French describe which 1860 novel?

-The Woman In White.

-Yes!

Your bonuses are on the essays of Henry James.

First performed in 1777, of which play by Sheridan did James write,

"The main idea is that gossips and backbiters are brought to confusion and that hypocrisy is a nasty vice"?

School For Scoundrels?

-School For Scoundrels?

-No, it was School For Scandal.

Which 19th-century poet did James describe as possessing, "an acute perception of everything in nature

"that may contribute to his fund of exquisite imagery, his refinement, his literary tone,

"his aroma of English lawns and English libraries"?

-Browning?

-No, it's Tennyson.

"The study of an exasperated woman," was how James described which late-19th-century play

whose heroine was, he said, "Various and sinuous and graceful, complicated and natural;

"she suffers, she struggles, she is human"?

-Hedda Gabler.

-Correct.

We'll take a picture round now. You're going to see a national flag. For 10 points, identify the country.

-Is that Central African Republic?

-It is indeed, yes.

So that is one of only ten national flags that have five colours in their primary design.

Your picture bonuses are three more five-colour flags. I simply want you to identify the country.

All three are members of the African Union.

Firstly, for five...

-Seychelles.

-Correct. Secondly...

-Comoros.

-Correct. And finally...

-Is that Ethiopia?

-No...

No, it's...not Uganda. It's...

Oh, crikey.

Let's have it, please.

-South Sudan.

-No, Zimbabwe. Another starter question now.

"For young people in our country, the internet is...more than a service -

"it's a symbol of democracy and freedom." These words refer to which EU member state, noted for its...

-Sweden?

-No, lose 5 points. ..noted for its high rate of internet penetration and usage?

-Spain?

-No, it's Estonia. Meaning "in the chapel style",

what term evolved...

-A cappella.

-A cappella is correct, yes.

This set of bonuses are on album cover artists.

Firstly, which pioneer of pop art, who died in 2011, created the cover for The Beatles' White Album?

-Sorry, pass.

-Richard Hamilton.

Created by the German artist Gerhard Richter, a work called Kerze meaning Candle, formed the cover

of which 1988 album by Sonic Youth, one of the few rock albums

to be preserved by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry?

-Sorry.

-Daydream Nation. Finally, since the 1995 album The Bends,

Stanley Donwood has produced all of the artwork for which British band?

-Radiohead.

-Correct. Which part of the peripheral nervous system

is divided into sympathetic and para-sympathetic fibres...

-Autonomic.

-Autonomic is correct, or visceral.

Manchester, these bonuses are on paradoxes.

The paradox of self-reference, or the Liar Paradox, is expressed in what statement

attributed to Epimenides the Cretan, usually expressed in four words?

I always... I never tell the...

This statement is false?

-This statement is false.

-All Cretans are liars. Named after a British logician,

Jourdain's Paradox has a two-sided card. On one side are the words,

"The statement on the other side of this card is false." What's written on the other side?

-The statement on the other side is false.

-No, it's true!

Finally, what two-word term indicates a situation in which a statement is shown to entail

its negation and vice versa?

It's also used where an action and reaction intensify each other with unfavourable results.

Positive feedback?

-Positive feedback?

-Vicious circle.

In the Oxford Dictionary of English, the words "duumvirate" and "duvet" come immediately before and after

the surname of which two former Haitian dictators...

-Duvalier.

-Duvalier is right.

These bonuses, Bangor, are on organic chemistry.

What is the functional group consisting of an atom of carbon double-bonded to an atom of oxygen?

-A ketone?

-No, a carbonyl group. The presence of the carbonyl group is tested through the use

of 2,4-di-nitro-phenyl-hydrazine or DNPH.

How is this re-agent more commonly known?

-Grignard?

-Brady's. Which re-agent is used to distinguish between ketones and aldehydes

through the precipitation of elemental silver?

-Silver nitrate?

-Tollens' re-agent.

Give the name of the metal whose chemical symbol forms the first part of words meaning

an official inspection of accounts...

-Gold.

-Gold is correct, Au.

Your bonuses are on pre-Columbian Meso-America. In each case, name the civilisation from the description.

From a Nahuatl word meaning "inhabitants of the rubber country",

a civilisation that flourished on the Mexican Gulf coast around 1200 to 600 BC?

-Nominate Tomlinson.

-Olmec.

-Correct.

From a Nahuatl word meaning "people from a cloudy place",

a people of Southern Mexico noted for their skill in metallurgy and ceramics?

-Nominate Pearce.

-Toltecs?

-No, it's Mixtec.

From a Nahuatl word meaning "person from Tula", the last dominant culture before the Aztecs?

-Toltecs.

-The Toltecs.

-It was, yes.

Time for a music round. You'll hear a piece of classical music. 10 points if you name the composer.

MUSIC PLAYS

-Mozart?

-It is. It's his Clarinet Concerto in A Major.

Your music bonuses are three more clarinet concertos.

In each case, name the composer. Firstly for five, this Italian composer?

GENTLE CLARINET MUSIC

WHISPERING

-Is it Clementi?

-No, it's Donizetti.

Secondly, this Danish composer?

CLARINET MUSIC

-Nielsen.

-It is Nielsen, yes.

And finally, this American composer?

DRAMATIC CLARINET MUSIC

WHISPERING

It sounds like Copland.

-Copland?

-It is Copland. That gives you the lead.

"If we beat the King 99 times, yet he is King still, and so will his posterity be after him,

"but if the King beat us once, we shall all be hanged and our posterity made slaves."

To which British monarch do these words of Edward Montagu, Earl of Manchester, refer?

-Charles I.

-Correct.

You re-take the lead and you get a set of bonuses on computer science.

What low-level programming languages provide a symbolic representation of machine code,

particular to a specific computer architecture?

WHISPERING

Assembly language maybe?

-Assembly language.

-Correct.

Including Fortran, BASIC and C,

what class of languages describe step-by-step the routines to be followed

to achieve a desired program state?

-Formula-based maybe?

-Yeah, formula processes maybe.

-Formula-based?

-No, they're imperative languages or procedural languages.

What kind of languages may include features such as polymorphism, inheritance and messaging?

Examples include C++, Java and Python.

I don't know.

-Stackless maybe?

-Stackless?

-I've heard it connected with computing.

-Stackless.

-No, they're object-oriented languages.

Ten points for this. Answer as soon as your name is called.

In terms of pi, what is the angular frequency of an oscillating spring with period four seconds?

-One over pi.

-Nope.

Two over pi.

No, it's pi over two. Ten points for this starter question.

Adulterine or unauthorised private castles, built by barons,

are particularly associated with the reign of which 12th century monarch? His...

-King John.

-No, you lose five points.

His civil war with his cousin Matilda...

-Stephen.

-Stephen is correct, yes.

Right, these bonuses are on French magazines.

Founded in 1951, which film journal featured Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol

as writers before they began their careers as film directors?

-I know the name of a few movements, but...

-Just name one.

-The Nouvelle Vague.

-No, it's Cahiers Du Cinema.

Modelled on Time magazine, which publication became France's first weekly news magazine

on its creation in 1953?

-Paris Match?

-Paris Match? No?

Paris Match?

No, it's L'Express. And finally, in 2011,

Emmanuelle Alt succeeded Carine Roitfeld as editor-in-chief of which magazine?

-Is it a fashion magazine?

-Might be.

-Fashion magazine?

-I don't know.

-Can you think of a French fashion magazine? What's that one? Vogue?

-Maybe.

-Vogue?

-It is Vogue, yes.

Ten points for this. Answer as soon as your name is called.

What number results when you multiply the numbers in the titles

of the first and second albums by Adele, released in 2008 and 2011?

401.

Manchester, one of you buzz? We can't hang around...

-380.

-No, it's 399 - 19 by 21. Ten points for this.

The victim of a 2010 hoax that saw an anonymous prankster set up a fake Twitter feed in his name...

-Rick Santorum?

-No, you lose five points.

..which German philosopher is noted for the 1981 work The Theory Of Communicative Action?

It's Jurgen Habermas. Ten points for this.

The tusks of elephants are elongated teeth that grow continuously at about 20 centimetres a year.

Which teeth are modified to form...

-Canines.

-No, you lose five points.

..modified to form elephant tusks?

-Incisors.

-Incisors is correct, yes.

Your bonuses this time are on the binomial theorem.

In the polynomial expansion of the expression X plus 1 all raised to the power 5,

what is the coefficient of X-cubed?

WHISPERING

It's giving me a headache just watching you!

-We're going to go for 10.

-Correct!

What is the sum of the binomial coefficients "N choose K", as K ranges from zero up to N,

a quantity equal to the total number of subsets of an N-element set?

It's N factorial over N minus K.

-N factorial... N minus K factorial.

-Do I have to say that?

-I'll say it.

-Can I nominate Barr, please?

-N factorial over N minus K factorial.

No, it's 2 to the power N.

Finally, from the numbers 1 to 1,000, how many sets consisting of 999 numbers can be formed?

1,000? Does zero count?

-Two, surely?

-Yeah, just two.

-Two, surely?

-Isn't it a thousand? It's 999 numbers by missing out any one of them.

-Oh, yeah, maybe.

-That would have to be continuous. How many? A thousand, you think?

-Yes.

-One thousand?

-Correct.

-Yes.

We're going to take a picture round.

For your starter, you'll see a painting. Ten points if you name the mythological figure on the right.

Is that Aeneas?

Anyone like to buzz from Bangor?

-Hephaestus.

-No, it's Hercules.

So, picture bonuses shortly. Ten points for this.

Fingers on the buzzers. "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." These words form...

-The Myth Of Sisyphus by Camus?

-No, you lose five points.

These words form one of the inscriptions on a memorial in Washington DC

to which campaigner, assassinated in 1968?

You may not confer! One of you may buzz.

-Martin Luther King.

-Correct.

You'll recall that we had a painting of Hercules fighting Cerberus for our starter.

You'll see three more paintings of the Labours of Hercules.

In each case, give the two-word name of the creature Hercules is facing.

Firstly for five, the name of the creature Hercules is grappling with here?

WHISPERING

-What's the significance of the leopard?

-I don't know.

-Pass, sorry.

-You either know it or you don't. That's the Nemean lion.

Secondly, the name of the creatures on the left?

WHISPERING

No, it's got to have two words.

-They're from somewhere.

-We don't know.

Sorry, we don't know that either.

This is the Stymphalian birds.

And finally, the two-word name of this creature?

-Is that the Hydra?

-Yes, but it's got two words.

Lydian Hydra?

-The Lydian Hydra?

-No, it's the Lernean Hydra. Ten points for this.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the historic centre of which city may be viewed in its entirety

from the surrounding hills, especially Piazzale Michelangelo or Fiesole?

-Rome.

-No.

-Florence.

-Florence is correct, yes.

Right, your bonuses are on artists and ballet, Manchester. Which artist designed and wrote the libretto

for the ballet Bacchanale, depicting the hallucinations of Ludwig II of Bavaria

and featuring dancers with giant fish heads and a corps de ballet on crutches?

WHISPERING

That sounds like Dali, doesn't it? Someone like Dali.

-Dali?

-Correct. Which artist created designs for the 1945 version of the ballet The Firebird,

including a frontispiece depicting the eponymous character?

Kandinsky maybe.

He was working in Paris. I'd imagine a French artist...

Come on, let's have it, please.

-Kandinsky.

-No, that's Marc Chagall.

Finally for the 1919 ballet Le Tricorne by Manuel de Falla,

which artist designed a pale ochre backcloth to suggest the arid plains of the composer's native Andalucia?

What year was it?

-1919.

-Someone like Breton?

-Come on!

-Go for it.

-Andre Breton.

-No, Pablo Picasso.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

What is the limit of the sequence N to the power 10 all divided by 10 to the power N,

as N tends to infinity?

-Zero.

-Correct.

Your bonuses this time are on British monarchs.

In each case, state the position in line to the throne that each of these monarchs held at their births.

Edward VIII when he was born, firstly, in 1894?

WHISPERING

-Edward, George V...

-Come on.

-Third then.

-Yes.

-Third in line to the throne.

-Third is correct.

Queen Victoria when she was born in 1819?

CONFERRING

Come on, let's have it, please!

-Second.

-No, fifth, after her father, the Duke of Kent, and his three brothers.

Elizabeth II when she was born in 1926?

George was still on the throne, so George, then Edward, then George.

-Fourth?

-Yes.

-Fourth.

No, she was third after Edward VIII and George VI. Right, ten points for this.

Living in exile during the reign of Mary I, who became Elizabeth I's Secretary of State in 1573

and was known as the Queen's...

-Walsingham.

-Walsingham is correct, yes.

Your bonuses now are on wit, Bangor.

"True wit is nature to advantage dressed, what oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed."

Which poet wrote those words in the 1711 work Essay On Criticism?

Come on.

-Samuel Johnson.

-No, it was Pope.

"The man I thought had been a lord among wits, but I find he is only a wit among lords."

Which literary figure said that of Lord Chesterfield in 1754?

Come on.

-Samuel Johnson.

-That was Samuel Johnson.

"Brevity is the soul of wit." In which play by Shakespeare do those words appear?

King Lear?

No. Is it Hamlet?

-Hamlet.

-Correct. Ten points for this starter. The English opera King Arthur was a collaboration

between the poet John Dryden and which composer?

-Purcell?

-Correct.

Manchester, these bonuses are on Africa.

Who was President of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo,

for 32 years before being overthrown in 1997? He died in exile the same year.

Do you know any Congolese dictator types?

Let's have a go, please.

-I don't think we know that.

-It's Mobutu.

Who was the leader of the rebellion that overthrew Mobutu?

He died in 2001 and was succeeded by his son Joseph.

-GONG

-And at the gong, Bangor University have 95,

Manchester University have 160.

APPLAUSE

Bad luck, Bangor. I thought you'd have broken 100, but you were up against very strong opposition

and this is the furthest, I think, Bangor has ever been in this contest. Congratulations.

Manchester, many congratulations to you. We'll see you in the final.

-I hope you can join us for the final next time, but until then, it's goodbye from Bangor.

-Hwyl fawr.

-Goodbye from Manchester.

-Goodbye.

-And it's goodbye from me.

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