Episode 12 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Wales plays England tonight for a place in the second round. Winners go through automatically.

The losers may get the chance to play again

if their score is among the four highest losing scores from these first-round matches.

Cardiff University traces its origins to the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire

which opened its doors in 1883.

It later became part of the federal University of Wales,

but gained independence in 2005 and now awards degrees in its own right.

The architect William Douglas Caroe designed many of its impressive buildings,

modelled on the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.

Alumni include the actors Sian Phillips and Philip Madoc

and the power and the glory of the 1980s Labour Party, Neil and Glenys Kinnock.

With an average age of 29, representing around 31,000 students, let's meet the Cardiff team.

Hi, my name is Eleri Evans. I'm in my final year studying Maths.

Hi, I'm Sara Caputo, I'm from Torino, Italy,

and I'm studying History.

Their captain. I'm Roderick Lawford, originally from Barking in Essex,

and I'm studying for a Masters in Music, Culture and Politics.

Noswaith dda. I'm Tom Parry-Jones from St Asaph in North Wales

and I'm reading Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies.

APPLAUSE

The University of Exeter received its royal charter in 1955,

although its origins lie in 19th century institutions founded

by educational reformers and philanthropists.

It is situated in grounds featuring sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore

and the team claim the university has the highest ratio of trees to students of any UK university.

What wild times they must have(!)

Alumni include the singer Will Young and the writer JK Rowling.

Its current Chancellor is Floella Benjamin

after whom the team's specially knitted mascot has been named.

The team say she offers each graduating student not just a handshake but a hug as well,

so heaven knows what she'll do to them if they win.

With an average age of 32 and representing around 18,000 students, let's meet the Exeter team.

Good evening. My name is Tom Nelson, I'm from London

and I'm studying French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Hi, I'm Finn Sharpe, I'm also from London and I'm reading English.

Their captain. Hello, I'm John Earle, I'm from Exeter

and I'm doing a PhD in History.

Hello, my name is Martin Gentile, originally from Taunton

and I'm studying for a PhD in Physics.

APPLAUSE

The rules are the same as ever - ten points for starters, 15 for bonuses,

five-point penalties for incorrect interruptions to starter questions.

Here's your first starter for ten.

"Power expands through the distribution of secrecy" are the words of which author

whose works include The Constant Gardener and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold?

John Le Carre. Correct.

You get the first set of bonuses, Exeter. They're on wedding music.

Popularly known in English as Here Comes The Bride,

Treulich Gefuhrt is the bridal chorus from which opera by Wagner?

CONFERRING

Tristan And Isolde. No, it's Lohengrin.

Jeremiah Clarke's Trumpet Voluntary is more properly known by what title after the husband of Queen Anne?

WHISPERING

King James' March. The Prince Of Denmark's March.

Mendelssohn's Wedding March In C Major was originally composed as part of the incidental music

to accompany a performance in 1843 of which play by Shakespeare?

- A Midsummer Night's Dream? - Yeah.

A Midsummer Night's Dream. Correct. Ten points for this.

555 in Thai, ASG in Swedish and MDR in French are equivalents of which...

LOL. Yes, "laugh out loud".

Apparently, "five" in Thai is "ha", hence 555. Well done.

Here are your bonuses. They're on 20th century Prime Ministers.

Which future Prime Minister entered Parliament in 1890,

winning a by-election at Caernarvon Boroughs?

Was that Winston Churchill? 1890?

Asquith? It might be a bit early.

Asquith?

Asquith? OK, go for it.

Asquith. No, David Lloyd George.

In an unopposed by-election in 1908, which future Prime Minister became MP for Bewdley in Worcestershire

after the sudden death of his father, the previous member?

1908? 1908...

Pitt the Younger?

No, 1908.

We don't know. That was Stanley Baldwin.

Finally, which future Prime Minister entered Parliament in 1945 as the MP for Ormskirk in Lancashire?

Which Prime Minister...

Ted Heath? Or is it too early? No, it's too early.

Let's think. '45...

Harold Macmillan?

No, it wasn't Macmillan. Any ideas?

Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home...

Alec Douglas-Home. I don't think he ever darkened the door of Ormskirk. No, it's Harold Wilson.

Another starter question. "A hideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-haired boy in a nightgown."

These words of Charles Dickens refer to the portrayal of Jesus in Christ In The House Of His Parents,

a work by which founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?

Hunt. No.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. No, it was John Everett Millais. Ten points for this.

The name of which Greek letter appears at the beginning of words meaning "millenarian",

"order of mammals that comprises bats", "capital of Moldova"...

Chiro. "Hand."

No. I'm afraid you lose five points.

..and "pulse from which hummus is made".

Mu. No, it's chi. Ten points for this.

"15 orang-utans that look like London Mayor Boris Johnson" is one of the viral features

of which self-styled "social news organisation",

created in 2006 by the MIT graduate Jonah Peretti?

Flickr. No. Anyone want to buzz from Cardiff?

The Huffington Post? No, it's BuzzFeed. Ten points for this.

Which sea of the south-eastern Pacific lies between Australia and New Caledonia?

It was the site of a major air and sea battle in 1942

and its name reflects the presence of marine animals of the class Anthozoa.

The Great Coral Sea. The Coral Sea is correct, yes.

Right, you get a set of bonuses this time, Cardiff,

on words that have recently been deemed obsolete by the Collins Dictionary

and are therefore omitted from smaller editions. In each case, give the word from the definition.

Firstly, a location from which flight operations take place.

Familiar to readers of the Biggles books,

it has been largely superseded by "airfield" or "airport".

Airstrip?

Aerodrome?

- Could be "aerodrome". - Is a velodrome...? No.

That's cycling.

Aerodrome? Aerodrome. Correct.

Secondly, a verb meaning "to do or perform more than is required".

In Roman Catholic doctrine, it means to do more than God commands,

thereby earning merit for others.

- "Sur" something? - Yeah, or something "super"...

We don't know. It's "supererogate".

Finally, from the French for "carriage with seats", an early form of bus,

often used for pleasure trips.

Seat is "chaise".

Sorry, no. That's a charabanc.

Right, time for a picture round. For your starter, you'll see the flag of an autonomous community of Spain.

Ten points if you can name the region.

The Basque region?

No. Anyone like to buzz from Cardiff?

Galicia?

No, the Canary Islands. Picture bonuses in a moment or two. Another starter question in the meantime.

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

In joules, what is the energy stored in an inductor with self-inductance of half a henry

through which a one amp current is flowing?

Two.

No. Anyone want to buzz from Exeter?

Half? No, it's a quarter.

Right, another starter question.

What did the German sociologist Max Weber define in 1919

as "that entity which upholds the claim of the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force

"in the enforcement of its order"?

The state. Correct.

You get the picture bonuses then, Cardiff. There were dogs on the flag of the Canary Islands that you saw.

They are, of course, a reference to the islands' Latin name.

Your bonuses are three more flags featuring animals.

In each case, simply name the nation or polity to which it belongs

and the animal that features on the flag.

Firstly, for five, this country and bird?

Is that Ecuador and a condor?

And a condor? I think it's a condor.

Ecuador and a condor? Correct, yes.

Secondly, this US state and mammal?

Alabama? No, sorry, Montana possibly?

Could be. Montana, Nebraska, somewhere in the north?

Nebraska and a bison. It is a bison. It's Wyoming though.

Finally, this country and bird?

That's Papua New Guinea.

WHISPERING

Papua New Guinea and... Bird of paradise? Come on, let's have it.

Papua New Guinea and a bird of paradise. Correct.

Right, another starter question.

The name of which planet of the solar system shares its spelling

with the third person, present tense singular of an English verb meaning "to spoil"?

Mars. Mars is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on solar eclipses in fiction.

"When I was 15 years old, I spent every penny I then had in the bank to fly across the continent,

"to Brandon, Manitoba, to witness a total eclipse of the sun."

These words appear at the start of which novel of 1991, subtitled Tales For An Accelerated Culture?

It's by, um...

It's Douglas Coupland, I think. Is it Generation X?

Generation X. Correct, by Douglas Coupland, yes.

A solar eclipse is a recurrent image in Eclipse and Shroud, works by which Irish novelist?

In 2005, he won the Booker Prize for The Sea.

- Roddy Doyle? - I don't know.

Roddy Doyle. No, John Banville.

Foreknowledge of a solar eclipse helps Allan Quatermain and his companions in which adventure story

of 1885 by Henry Rider Haggard?

King Solomon... King Solomon's Mines.

King Solomon's Mines. Correct. Ten points for this starter question.

Which decade saw the introduction of the Bessemer process of steel production,

the start of the Taiping Rebellion in China...

1840s. No. You lose five points as well because I hadn't finished reading the question.

You can get the whole thing, Exeter.

..the Presidency of Franklin Pierce and the publication of Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities?

1830s. No, it was the 1850s.

Ten points for this. What is the name of the mineral form of aluminium oxide...

Bauxite. No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..It's naturally clear, but with the presence of impurities may be called a ruby or sapphire

and has a hardness of nine on the Mohs scale.

Emerald? No, it's corundum. Ten points for this.

What general category of foodstuffs links the author of Queen Of The Dormitory and Jill's Jolliest Term,

the synth-pop duo Soft Cell

and the rabbit leader in Watership Down?

Cereals?

No. Anyone like to buzz from Cardiff?

Fibre? No, it's nuts - Angela Brazil, Marc Almond and Hazel, the rabbit. Ten points for this.

The isoperimetric problem of determining the greatest area

enclosed by a closed plane curve of fixed perimeter

is often named after which legendary figure,

the first Queen of Carthage?

Dido. Dido is right, yes.

That's her problem. These bonuses could put you on level pegging.

They're on religion and its parodies.

Firstly for five, Pastafarians are followers of which church?

The only dogma allowed in this US-based faith is the rejection of dogma.

Nominate Sharpe. The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Known by the initials IPU, the logo of which parody religion fuses the mathematical void symbol

with the stylised representation of a mythical animal?

What's the void symbol? Don't know.

I don't know.

No? Unicorn.

No, it's the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Invisible Pink Unicorn are regarded

as descendants of the analogy attributed to which British philosopher

in which a china teapot is claimed to be orbiting the Sun between Mars and Earth? Russell.

Yes? Bertrand Russell. Correct.

We're now going to take a music round. For your starter, you will hear a song from a musical.

10 points if you name the musical, its composer and its librettist.

# Oh, what a beautiful morn... #

Er, it's Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Correct, yes.

For your bonuses, three more well-known songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals.

In each case, I want the location in which the musical is set.

# Shall we dance

# On a bright cloud of music shall we fly

# Shall we dance

# Shall we then say goodnight and mean goodbye... #

Siam. Siam, as in The King And I. Or Thailand. Secondly, this US state.

# Walk on, walk on

# With hope in your heart

# And you'll never walk

# Alone

# You'll never

# Walk... #

Sorry, no. It's in Maine. It's You'll Never Walk Alone from Carousel.

Finally, this eponymous general location.

# There is nothing like a dame

# Nothing in the world

# There is nothing you can name

# That is anything like a dame... #

Over there? No, it's from South Pacific.

More than 2,000km long, which river rises in the Lesotho Highlands and flows through...

The Nile?

No, I'm afraid you lose five points. ..flows through the southern Kalahari region

before joining the Atlantic at Alexander Bay?

The Congo?

No, it's the Orange River.

Ahead of Ontario and Vermont, which Canadian province is the world's largest producer of maple syrup,

with around 70% of the world's total?

Quebec? Correct.

Right, these bonuses are on botany, Exeter.

What's the name for the structure that develops from the pericarp after fertilisation of the ovary?

Fruit?

Fruit. What term denotes an indehiscent fruit with a fleshy pericarp

and numerous seeds which are not surrounded by a stony layer? Tomatoes and grapes are examples.

That's like a berry, isn't it?

A berry. Correct. What term denotes dry indehiscent fruits usually shed as a one-seeded unit?

The pericarp is typically hard and lignified.

A nut. Correct. 10 points for this. What shape are the faces of a regular dodecahedron?

Er, 12-sided?

Anyone like to buzz from Cardiff?

Triangle? No, they're pentagonal. 10 points for this.

At Eden Gardens in Kolkata in December, 2012, who became the youngest man in cricket history

to reach 7,000 Test...

Alastair Cook. Correct.

These bonuses are on irrigation projects.

Begun in 1949, an irrigation project near Canberra in New South Wales

diverts water through which mountain range into the Murrumbidgee and Murray rivers?

Blue Mountains? The Snowy Mountains.

Designed to pump water from the Nubian sandstone aquifer system to cities on the northern coast,

the Great Man-Made River Project started in 1984 in which African country?

Sudan?

What river is there?

Sudan? Sudan. No, it's Libya. Formerly the world's fourth-largest body of inland water,

which saltwater lake has shrunk drastically since the 1960s due to Soviet irrigation projects?

The Aral Sea. Correct. We'll take a second picture round now.

You'll see a photograph of a politician. For 10 points, you just have to give me her name.

Indira Gandhi. It is Indira Gandhi, yes.

She was a recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize from 1983 to '84.

For your bonuses, three more people given Soviet Union awards for "strengthening peace among peoples".

Five points for each you can name. Firstly, this singer.

Harry Belafonte?

- It's not Nat King Cole... - Harry Belafonte?

Harry Belafonte. No, Paul Robeson. Secondly, this scientist.

No, we don't know. That's Dorothy Hodgkin. And, finally, this artist.

Picasso?

Pablo Picasso. It is Picasso. 10 points for this.

Completed in 1910, Treemonisha is an opera by which African-American composer,

better known for piano compositions such as Pineapple Rag and The Maple Leaf Rag?

Scott Joplin. Correct.

Your bonuses are on words that appear in the short English names of EU member states,

for example, "spa" and "pain" in Spain. In each case,

listen to the definitions and give the country in whose name the defined words appear.

A quality that, according to Shakespeare, is not time's fool, and small kiln or furnace.

Small kiln or furnace...

Sorry, we don't know. It's Slovenia. Love and oven.

Secondly, hot displeasure or rage and large African antelope of the genus Taurotragus.

Ire and something.

- Is there...Reland? - Ireland?

Ireland?

Yeah. Ireland and ire?

All I need is the country - Ireland. And your reasoning was correct, too.

Island in the Irish Sea and sultanate bordering Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the UAE.

- Oman? - That's not in Europe.

No, it's the sultanate.

What island in the Irish Sea?

Let's have it, please.

Germany.

No, it's Romania with Man and Oman. 10 points for this. Answer as soon as your name is called.

Ahead of Italy, which eastern Mediterranean country is the world's largest grower of hazelnuts,

with more than 70% of production?

Croatia. No.

One of you buzz from Cardiff.

Cyprus? No, it's Turkey. 10 points for this. The basilar membrane, tectorial membrane

and Reissner's membrane are all found in which vertebrate sensory organ?

The brain? Anyone like to buzz from Cardiff?

The ear? The ear is correct, yes!

Bonuses this time on mathematics.

Defined as the ratio between the length of an arc and its radius,

what is the standard unit of angular measurement?

Radian. Correct. How many radians are there in a right angle?

Pi over two. Correct. Which unit of angular measurement is thought to derive from the total number of days

in a Babylonian year, one unit corresponding to approximately 0.017 radians?

- Degree? - I don't know.

A degree. Correct. 10 points for this. Born in Geneva

in 1857, Ferdinand de Saussure is often described as the modern founder of which...

Semiotics?

No, you lose five points. ..of which field of study?

Linguistics? Correct.

These bonuses, Exeter, are on English towns whose names contain only four letters.

Name the town from the description.

A fishing port in south-east Cornwall, divided by a river of the same name.

Until 1832, these two rotten boroughs returned four members to Parliament.

Looe. Correct.

A town near Hertford that gives its name to a great bed now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Ware. Correct. A large town on the River Irwell, eight miles north of Manchester,

it was birthplace of Sir Robert Peel in 1788.

We don't know. It's Bury. 10 points for this.

In mathematics, what four-letter word denotes the hyperbolic function

given by the formula E to the Z plus E to the minus Z...

Cosh. Correct.

Your bonuses this time are on a novel by Virginia Woolf.

Before its publication, which of her novels was provisionally entitled The Hours?

- I don't know. - I think it's Mrs Dalloway.

Mrs Dalloway. "He looked so ordinary, you might have stood him behind a counter

"and bought biscuits." These words describe which of Mrs Dalloway's dinner guests, known by his office?

- I can't remember his name. - Known by his office.

He was...

Come on, let's have it, please.

Solicitor? The Prime Minister. What is the given name of the novel's eponymous heroine?

Em...

Laura...possibly. Let's have it, please.

Laura. Clarissa. 10 points for this.

What common four-letter word appears at the end of the names of rivers

that flow through Banbury, Ipswich and Manchester?

Ouse. No. Anyone want to buzz from Cardiff?

Well? Correct. Cherwell, Orwell and Irwell.

These bonuses are on the 15th century.

In 1412, which Tuscan family became the official bankers to the Papacy?

- Oh, the Medicis...? - Medici.

Medicis. Correct. In March, 1413, the King of England died

and his son succeeded him. For five points, name both monarchs.

1413...

- He was later... - Was it Richard?

Edward the Third and Richard the Second.

No! Sorry. Henry the Fourth and Fifth. Henry the Fourth and Fifth. Correct!

In 1414, a council was called... GONG

You never really hit your stride. Bad luck. We have to say goodbye.

Cardiff, 145. It's not a very high score, but it's good enough.

We'll see you in Round Two. Congratulations.

I hope you can join us next time. Until then, goodbye from Exeter University, goodbye from Cardiff,

and goodbye from me. Goodbye.

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