Episode 37 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

'Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman...'

Hello. Welcome to the final of this year's University Challenge.

Around 120 teams applied to take part in this series.

We've seen the 28 who qualified

compete over 36 matches,

attempting 3,080 questions,

and now only the best two remain.

Within half an hour, we'll see one of them lift the trophy

and earn the right to call themselves Series Champions.

Standing between both teams and the trophy

are another hundred or so questions

and, with this being the final, they aren't especially easy.

In fact, some of them are quite difficult!

University College London have arrived here after winning all their matches.

The institutions who had the misfortune to come up against them were...

..Exeter University, Jesus College, Oxford, New College, Oxford

and the team they face now, Manchester University,

whom they beat in their second quarterfinal.

No doubt hoping to replicate that victory and take the trophy,

let's meet them for the final time.

Hello, I'm Adam Papaphilippopoulos, I'm from London and I'm reading for an MA in philosophy.

I'm Tom Tyszczuk Smith, I'm from Cambridge and I'm studying medicine.

-This is their captain.

-Hi, I'm Simon Dennis, also from London

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

Hi, I'm Tom Parton, I'm from Penkridge in Staffordshire and I'm studying natural sciences.

APPLAUSE

And hoping a reversal of fortune puts the trophy in their hands,

the team from Manchester University have had victories

against Lincoln College, Oxford, Magdalen College, Oxford, Imperial College London

and the University of Bangor.

Let's meet them for their final appearance.

Hi, I'm David Brice, I'm from Kingston upon Thames in south-west London

and I study economics.

I'm Adam Barr, I'm from Muswell Hill in London

and I'm studying physics with astrophysics.

-And their captain...

-Hi, I'm Richard Gilbert,

I'm from Warwickshire and I'm studying linguistics.

Hello. I'm Debbie Brown, I'm from Buxton in Derbyshire

and I'm studying for a PhD in pain epidemiology.

APPLAUSE

If you don't know the rules, you shouldn't be here so let's dispense with the recitation.

Here's your first starter for 10.

Home to 54 cities, which island is described as being

"In the middle just 200 miles broad"

and having a figure "not unlike a crescent"

in a work of...?

-Hokkaido.

-No. You lose five points.

..a figure "not unlike a crescent" in a work of 1516 by Thomas More?

-Britain.

-No, it's Utopia.

10 points for this starter.

One - you cannot win, two - you cannot break even,

three - you cannot...

The laws of thermodynamics.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on Charles Dickens's opinions of tourist attractions in Rome.

Name the attraction as described by Dickens.

Firstly... "It had looked as yellow as it ought to look,

"and hurrying on between its worn-away and miry banks,

"had a promising aspect of desolation and ruin."

That'll be the Tiber.

The Tiber River because of the banks?

-The River Tiber?

-Correct.

"Its solitude, its awful beauty and its utter desolation

"strike upon the stranger the next moment, like a softened sorrow.

"To see it crumbling there, an inch a year...

"..to climb into its upper halls,

"and look down on ruin, ruin, ruin".

-The Coliseum, maybe? The Coliseum?

-Yes.

-The Coliseum?

-Correct.

"It's not religiously impressive or affecting.

"It is an immense edifice,

"with no one point for the mind to rest upon

"and it tires itself with wandering round and round".

The Pantheon?

-The Pantheon?

-No, St Peter's Basilica.

10 points for this. Answer as soon as you buzz.

Add together the number of letters in the surnames

of the prime minister who came to office after the 1945 general election

and his two successors.

What prime number results?

17?

Anyone like to buzz from Manchester?

19.

-19 is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on cycling.

Quote - "The man who's learning how to ride a bicycle

"has no advantage over the non-cyclist in the struggle for existence."

Which playwright made this assertion in "Back to Methuselah"?

I don't know.

Erm... We don't know, sorry.

It was George Bernard Shaw.

In the 1927 work, "An Outline of Philosophy",

which English philosopher compared the acquisition of speech

to learning to ride a bicycle?

-What year was it?

-1927.

-Russell, maybe?

-It could be.

-Bertrand Russell?

-Correct.

Commenting on a bicycle crash, that happened when Shaw collided with Russell in 1895,

the latter later suggested that he thought Shaw regarded the incident

as proof of the virtues of which dietary practice?

-Vegetarianism.

-Yes.

-Vegetarianism.

-Correct. 10 points for this.

One rises on Dartmoor, another in the Cairngorms,

a third flows into the Firth of Forth at Grangemouth,

while a fourth passes near Salisbury Cathedral.

Two more join the Severn near Bristol and the Tewkesbury.

What name do they all share?

Wye.

No.

One of you buzz from UCL.

-Avon.

-Avon is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your first set of bonuses are on geology, UCL.

What name is given to the assumption that natural processes and laws currently operating

have always operated in the same way in the past and are valid everywhere?

-Uniformitarianism.

-Correct.

Born 1726, which Scottish geologist

identified sites, such as Siccar Point in Berwickshire, as unconformities

which provided proof of the uniformitarian theory of geological change?

His work was later popularised by Charles Lyell.

-(Hamilton?)

-No.

Something with an "H". I can't think of his name.

-Come on.

-Sorry, I can't think.

-James Hutton.

What term is used for the contrasting idea that geological change on earth

has been driven by sudden, large-scale violent occurrences?

-Catastrophism.

-Correct.

Let's look at a picture starter. You're going to see a word cloud,

showing some of the most frequently occurring words in the works of an English poet.

10 points if you can identify the poet.

Milton.

-Milton is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Manchester, your picture bonuses are three more word clouds,

showing frequently occurring words in the works of major poets.

Five points for each poet you can identify.

Firstly...

-It's not Dylan Thomas?

-Dylan Thomas?

"Church, light..."

Oh, Sweeney. Eliot, maybe.

Sweeney, in the TS Eliot play?

-TS Eliot?

-Correct.

Secondly...

THEY MUMBLE

It's looks quite old. I'd say Donne or someone like that.

-Shakespeare.

-The spelling's too variable.

-Let's have an answer.

-John Donne.

No, it's Alexander Pope. And finally...

"Prison..." THEY MUMBLE

-It could be Wordsworth.

-I'm thinking of prison.

SHE MUMBLES

I was thinking maybe Wilde. What are you thinking?

-Maybe Wordsworth.

-Maybe Wordsworth.

-OK.

-Let's have it.

-Wordsworth.

-No, Oscar Wilde. 10 points for this.

Listen carefully. When read aloud,

the three words meaning "island whose capital is Douglas"

units of...

-Er, man...

-I'm afraid you lose five points.

..units of digital information

and common name of Canis lupus familiaris

form what improbable three-word headline, a well-known journalistic aphorism?

-Man bit dog.

-Or...

-Bites dog.

-Man bites dog, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a spice, Manchester.

Associated with Northern and Eastern Europe,

which biennial herb bears fragrant seeds,

often added to sauerkraut and rye bread?

They're used as the main flavouring in spirits such as aquavit and kummel.

Liquorice or fennel.

Capers?

-It's a leaf he's after, isn't it?

-Seeds. Rye breads.

-Erm...

-Aniseed!

-Caraway?

-Do you reckon aniseed?

-Go ahead.

-Aniseed.

No, it's caraway.

Caraway belongs to the apiaceae family.

This family is usually known by the name of which common herb,

used in salads, stuffings and bouquet garni?

-Sage?

-Sage?

-Sage.

-No, it's parsley.

Caraway is noted for its carminative properties,

meaning that it may relieve or prevent what condition,

often associated with the consumption of pulses or cruciferous vegetables?

-Flatulence.

-Do you reckon?

-Yes.

-Flatulence.

-Correct!

-LAUGHTER & APPLAUSE

10 points for this. Listen carefully.

Given a proposition P of N, concerning positive integers N,

if P of 1 is true

and whenever P of K is true, P of K plus 1 is also true...

Proof by induction.

-Indeed, it is induction, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, UCL, are on British prime ministers.

Give the surname of the father and son, who served as prime minister from 1763 to '65

and from 1806 to '07,

the latter succeeding William Pitt the Younger?

(I don't know.)

-No.

-It's Grenville.

Secondly, which duke succeeded Lord William Grenville as prime minister in 1807?

His name is linked to a fine example of Roman cameo glass, now in the British Museum.

-It's not Wellington?

-No, it's too early.

Newcastle?

Oh! Possibly, yes.

-Newcastle.

-No, it's Portland, the Duke of Portland.

Who succeeded the Duke of Portland as prime minister in 1809?

His surname is associated with a figure in Arthurian romance.

No. No, sorry.

That was Spencer Perceval. 10 points for this.

Formally subject to the Qing Empire when its name was preceded by the word "outer",

which modern Asian state...?

-Mongolia.

-Mongolia is correct.

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on literature and alcohol.

"Alcohol is seldom far from the reach of his characters

"and its influence was clearly some kind of daemon in his life".

Proposing whiskey fictions as a subcategory of his work,

these words of Christopher Hitchens refer to which British novelist, born in 1904?

Is that going to be...?

Orwell?

No.

-Come on!

-Kingsley Amis.

-Kingsley Amis?

-No, it's Graham Greene.

"Is this my milieu where I must

"How grahamgreeneish! How infra dig!

"Snatch from the bottle in my bag An analeptic swig?"

These lines are from "On the Circuit",

a 1963 work by which English poet?

Larkin?

-Larkin.

-No, it was WH Auden.

According to UrbanDictionary.com,

the name of which US novelist and Nobel Laureate may be used verbally

to mean "writing a paper under the influence of alcohol"?

THEY WHISPER

-Hemingway.

-Correct, yes!

"That's got to be done by tomorrow. I'm going to have to Hemingway it."

We're going to take a Music Round. You're going to hear a piece of classical music.

10 points if you can give me the name of the composer.

SWEEPING MUSIC

-Smetana.

-It is Smetana!

-It's from Ma vlast.

-APPLAUSE

Ma vlast was a set of symphonic poems,

inspired by the landscapes and legends of his native Bohemia.

Your music bonuses are three more examples of nationalism in classical music.

This time, I want you to tell me the native country of each composer

which inspired the piece.

-Firstly for five...

-DRAMATIC MUSIC

-It's Grieg. Grieg is Norwegian.

-Norway.

-Norway.

-Correct. Grieg.

Secondly...

FOREBODING MUSIC

MUSIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH

Is this Holst?

I thought it was Holst.

-Let's have it, please.

-Sweden, is he, originally?

-Sweden?

-No. That's from Sibelius's Finlandia.

-And finally...

-PLAYFUL MUSIC

That's Chopin. Poland.

-Poland.

-Poland - Chopin, yes.

Born 1905, which Dutch-American scientist gives his name to the region of the solar system

that stretches from the...?

-Kuiper.

-Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Manchester, are on two-word terms

that sound like a combination of an educational institution and a common surname,

so if they were starter questions,

could just possibly be answered by Roger Tilling, our voiceover man, alone.

For example, "Newcastle, Brown"

-or "Lincoln, Green". Got the idea?

-LAUGHTER

Associated with jewellery, an alloy in which element number 47

makes up at least 92.5 percent of the content?

-Sterling silver.

-Sterling silver?

-Sterling silver.

-Correct.

Secondly, the European Cup-winners in 1979 and 1980.

-'80, so Nottingham and...

-Forest?

-Nottingham Forest.

-Nottingham Forest.

-Correct.

A manufacturer of luxury sports cars,

especially associated with the 1964 film Goldfinger.

Aston Martin!

-Aston Martin.

-Yes!

-APPLAUSE

Right, a starter question.

What noun links the common name of the marine fish Naucrates ductor,

the juveniles of which swim alongside boats or larger fish, such as sharks,

and the common name of...?

-Pilot.

-Correct!

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on non-Euclidean geometry.

Name the non-Euclidean geometry in which the parallel postulate is replaced by the axiom

that any line has at least two parallels though a given point.

Spherical?

-Spherical.

-No, it's hyperbolic.

Name the non-Euclidean geometry in which every line has no parallels through a given point

and in which the sum of the internal angles of every triangle exceeds 180 degrees.

That might be spherical!

-OK. Spherical.

-That is spherical, or elliptical, yes.

And finally... "I have a Euclidean, earthly mind

"and how could I solve problems that are not of this world?"

These words appear in which work of 1880 by Dostoyevsky, his final novel?

I think that's The Brothers Karamazov.

-Yes?

-OK.

-The Brothers Karamazov?

Correct. Another starter question.

Consisting of a structure of fibroin,

surrounded by a matrix of sericin,

what protein fibre is produced by the larvae of the insect that...?

-Silk.

-Silk is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Manchester, are on operas and their eponymous heroines.

Name the opera from the description. First, an opera by Dvorak, whose heroine is a water nymph.

She falls in love with a prince and wishes to become human,

but, on doing so, loses the object of her affections to a foreign princess.

We could say The Little Mermaid as a joke answer!

The Little Mermaid?

-Is it the heroine?

-Yes.

Come on.

-Ariel?

-No, it's Rusalka.

An opera by Mark-Anthony Turnage next, that premiered in 2011.

It features sex, drug abuse and extreme language

and is based on the doomed life of a Playboy model.

Sarah Jessica Parker.

No, it's not. It's, erm, Anna Nicole Smith.

-Anna Nicole Smith.

-It's just called Anna Nicole. I needed the title of it.

Finally, based on a play by Oscar Wilde,

-an opera by Richard Strauss that features violent deaths...

-Salome.

..an erotic Dance of the Seven Veils and a heroine with necrophiliac tendencies.

-Salome.

-Salome is correct.

Ten points for this starter. Born 1931,

with which Soviet leader are the terms Glasnost, meaning open...?

Erm... Oh, Gorbachev.

Correct. Next time you buzz, please answer immediately.

Your bonuses are on US state capitals.

Portland is the largest city of which state

and was its capital from 1820, the year of statehood, until 1832?

1820...

So we're looking...

-It's going to be...

-Portland in...

-I can only think of Oregon.

-1820...

-Washington?

-No, it's too early. I reckon...

Let's have it, please!

-Maine?

-Try Maine.

-Maine.

Correct. Now reduced to a population of under 50, as a result of flooding of the Mississippi,

Kaskaskia was the capital of which territory

when it achieved statehood in 1818 and for a short time afterwards?

Louisiana. The Louisiana Territory.

-The Louisiana Territory?

-No, it's Illinois.

Savannah was the capital of which of the 13 colonies

and was its state capital until 1786?

-Carolina.

-Georgia.

-Georgia, yes.

-Georgia.

-Georgia is right.

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

A lottery draws three numbered balls from a selection of five.

What is the probability of guessing all three winning numbers?

-One in ten.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on chemistry. What name is given to the class of hydrocarbons

containing ring-like structures of carbon molecules

with alternating single and double bonds?

-Aromatic carbons?

-Yes.

-Aromatic.

-Correct.

Which functional group consists of a cyclic ring of carbon atoms

with the chemical formula C6H5?

I don't know.

-Benzyl, isn't it?

-Benzyl?

-Benzyl, yes.

-Benzyl.

-No, it's phenyl.

And finally, what broad term is used to denote all non-aromatic hydrocarbons?

-Aliphatic.

-Aliphatic?

-Definitely.

-Aliphatic?

-Aliphatic is correct, yes.

We'll take a second picture round. You're going to see a photograph of a prominent writer.

I want you to name him.

Hermann Hesse.

No. One of you may buzz from Manchester.

-Is it Kipling?

-It is Kipling, yes.

-APPLAUSE

For your picture bonuses,

you're going to see three illustrations by Kipling himself,

which he produced to accompany the first edition of his Just So Stories in 1902.

I want you to give me the precise name of the story depicted.

Firstly...

-ALL: How the Elephant Got Its Nose.

-Yes.

How the Elephant Got Its Nose.

That's what it's customarily referred to, but the proper name was The Elephant's Child, so no points.

Secondly...

How the Whale Got His Throat is what it's called normally,

but I'm not sure of the exact title.

-The Whale's Throat maybe?

-Yes.

I don't know, either.

Erm, The Whale's Throat.

-How the Whale Got His Throat.

-THEY GROAN

And finally...

THEY CONFER

-How the Leopard Got Its Spots maybe?

-Oh, yes!

How the Leopard Got Its Spots.

No, The Cat that Walked by Itself, about the domestication of animals.

10 points for this. Which month of the year does Shakespeare describe

as "well-apparelled" in Romeo and Juliet

and of "uncertain glory" in The Two Gentlemen of Verona?

In As You Like It...

-May?

-No. You lose five points.

In As You Like It, he compares it to "men when they woo".

-March.

-No, it's April. 10 points for this.

A contender for the unhyphenated word with the most occurrences of the letter "B",

what term indicates a frivolous, flighty or excessively talkative...?

-Flibbertigibbet.

-Yes.

CHEERING

Your bonuses are on classical terms and their anagrams.

In each case, give both words from the explanation or definition.

Relating to a Greek philosopher who died in 399 BC,

and a composition in which, for example,

the initial letters in each line together form a word.

Socratic and acrostic.

OK, Socratic and acrostic. Socratic and acrostic.

Correct. The intricate knot that Alexander the Great cut through with a sword,

and loving and respecting to the point of worship.

-Gordian and...

-Adoring.

-Gordian and adoring.

-Correct.

The cognomen of the Latin prose author Petronius,

and a dish of toasted cheese, often associated with Wales.

BOYS: Rarebit and...

Rarebit and...?

-Can you make an anagram?

-Let's have it.

-Rarebit and Tribare.

No, it's Arbiter.

About three-and-a-quarter minutes to go.

The four-letter surname of which US novelist

begins the name of a Latvian-born exponent of Colour Field Painting...?

-Roth.

-Roth is correct.

Your bonuses this time are on an author.

Accompanied by the documentary series "The Secret Rulers of the World",

"Them: Adventures with Extremists" is a 2001 book by which journalist?

(Jon Ronson?)

-Jon Ronson.

-Correct.

Adapted into a 2009 film starring George Clooney, which book by Ronson...?

-The Men Who Stare at Goats.

-Yes.

Which 2011 work examines the role of mental illness in our lives

and recounts how Ronson masters...?

-The Psychopath Test.

-Correct.

10 points for this starter question. In pharmacology, for what do the letters MLD stand

when indicating that measure of toxicity defined as "the dose required to kill half..."?

Mean lethal dose?

No. You lose five points.

.."the dose required to kill half the members

"of a sample population in a given time?"

Minimum lethal dose?

It's median lethal dose. 10 points for this.

Which cavities in the human head are blood-filled and called venous when found between...?

-Sinuses.

-Sinuses is correct. These are your bonuses. They're on the solar system.

Which planet of the solar system has the shortest rotational period of 9 hours and 55 minutes?

-Mercury.

-Mercury.

No, Jupiter. Which planet's orbital period

is closest to the average human life expectancy in the developed world?

-Uranus.

-Uranus?

Correct. Which planet orbits the sun roughly 1,000 times

during one complete orbit of Pluto?

Mercury?

-Quickly!

-Mercury?

-Mercury is right. 10 points for this.

To give an idea of relative land area,

the CIA World Factbook points out that the United Kingdom is slightly smaller

than which state of the Western United States?

-Texas.

-No.

Manchester, one of you buzz.

-Oregon.

-Oregon is correct.

-LOUD APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on place names in Turkish, Manchester.

In Turkish, Bulgaria is Bulgaristan and Armenia is Ermenistan.

Which of Turkey's neighbours is known as Yunanistan?

Yunnan Province... THEY CONFER

-Come on! Let's have it, please!

-Erm, Greece...

-Iraq? I don't know.

-We'll go for Iraq.

-Iraq.

-No, it's Greece.

Which European country is known in Turkish as Karadag,

meaning "Black Mountain"?

-Romania.

-Montenegro?

-Yes.

-Oh, yes, Montenegro.

-Montenegro.

-Correct.

Majarestan is the Turkish name of which EU member state?

-Hungary.

-Hungary is correct.

In organic chemistry,

how many carbon atoms are there in a benzene ring?

-Six.

-Six is right. Your bonuses are on sea areas in the shipping forecast.

Name the area whose name corresponds to the following...

Firstly, a creature that trapped and threatened Frodo and his companions

on the Barrow-downs in the Fellowship of the Ring.

-Wight.

-Correct.

The English photographer who observed, "Women love scallywags,

"but some marry them and then try to make them wear a blazer".

-Bailey.

-Correct.

Two unmanned space probes sent to Mars by NASA...

END-OF-QUIZ GONG

CHEERING & APPLAUSE

Well, at the gong, University College London have 140

and Manchester University have 190.

Well, bad luck, UCL. You at least have the consolation

of having beaten them earlier in the series.

It was a great performance from both of you. Thank you.

To present the trophy to our winning team

is one of our most distinguished scientists.

An honorary professor at Imperial College London and Leicester University,

he's also the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

As a cosmologist and astrophysicist,

he holds a post formerly held by John Flamsteed and Edmond Halley.

Please welcome the Astronomer Royal, Professor Martin Rees.

-Thank you for coming.

-Thanks.

Well, now, what do you think we learn from a display like that?

What's great, I think, is that even though all this stuff is on the internet,

it's in people's heads still and they're able to retrieve it,

because, of course, part of the game is being able to press the buzzer while you're still thinking,

and I thought we saw great success in doing both those things.

-Terrific match.

-Absolutely great. The amazing range is tremendous.

Can I ask you please to present the trophy

-to the winning team from Manchester University?

-All right.

APPLAUSE

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Congratulations.

-Thanks.

-Now, here...

CHEERING

CHEERING DROWNS OUT SPEECH

Thank you. CHEERING DROWNS OUT SPEECH

So it only remains for me to thank Professor Rees,

our teams who've entertained us over the past several months

and a big thank you to all of you for watching.

-Good night.

-APPLAUSE

CHEERING

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd