Episode 17 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Of the 28 teams that qualified to take part in this contest,

only 16 now remain.

14 of them made it straight through to this second round.

Another two arrived here by the longer route

having survived the play-offs for the highest-scoring losers.

the team from the University of Bath,

who left the competition with prudent haste!

York were strong on food,

answering impressively on pork pies, figs, forced rhubarb and chicken tikka masala,

which suggests they enjoy a cutting edge cuisine in their halls of residence!

Let's meet the York team again.

Hi, I'm Greg Carrick, I'm from Hull and I'm reading Maths.

Hi. I'm Brian Morley, I'm from Liverpool and I'm studying History and English Literature.

And their captain. Hi, I'm Jeremy Harris. I'm from Droxford in Hampshire.

I'm studying an MA in Medieval History.

Hi. I'm Laura Kemp. I'm from Colchester in Essex and I'm studying Chemistry.

APPLAUSE

Now, the team from Somerville College Oxford

also had a comfortable win over Pembroke College Cambridge in their first round match.

Their score of 255 was only 15 behind their opponents tonight.

So on paper at least, we could be in for a close match.

Hi, I'm Zac Vermeer from Sydney Australia, and I study Law.

And their captain. Hi. I'm Michael Davies. I'm from Blackburn in Lancashire

and I'm studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

Hi. I'm Chris Beer. I'm from Blyborough in Lincolnshire

and I'm studying English Literature.

APPLAUSE

We're too far in to need recitation of the rules.

So fingers on buzzers. Here's your first starter for ten.

Meanings of what five-letter palindrome include

a small, silver Roman coin,

one-sixtieth of a fluid drachm,

a short, vertical stroke in calligraphy

and a musical note represented by a ring with a stem...

Minim. Minim is correct, yes.

The first set of bonuses are to you, Somerville.

They're on polemics. 15 points at stake. Five points for this first.

Subtitled Six Polemics on Religion and An Essay on Kindness,

Nominate Vermeer.

Enfrais? No, it's A.C.Grayling. Oh, sorry.

Which English poet was noted for his polemical writings,

particularly his Areopagitica of 1644 in which he attacks censorship?

Milton. Milton. Correct.

Best known for an 1854 work on self-sufficiency,

which US writer wrote Slavery in Massachusetts, a polemic against the Fugitive Slave law?

Thoreau. Thoreau is correct, yes.

A starter question. What is the common two-word name of the fish Rhincodon typus?

Unlike many of its related species,

it's not aggressive, feeds solely on plankton

and can reach lengths of more than 15 metres...

Basking shark. No. Somerville, you get the rest of it.

Jack Dorsey sent an automated message

followed by the two words, "inviting co-workers",

thereby inaugurating which social network site?

QUIET CONFERRING

Facebook. No, it's Twitter.

The message Merry Christmas, sent by the engineer Neil Papworth

to a colleague in the UK in December 1992

was the first sent in what form?

SMS. Text message is correct, yes.

The phrase "What hath God wrought",

transmitted from Baltimore to Washington DC in 1844

constituted an early message sent by what technology?

Telegraph. Electrical Morse telegraph is correct.

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

Take the word "machine", discount those letters that are not Roman numerals,

and tell me what four-digit decimal number is represented by the remainder.

Right. These bonuses are on eponymous shapes, Somerville.

A figure of eight shaped curve

with the polar equation R squared equals A squared cos two theta

is called the Lemniscate of which Swiss mathematician?

Euler. No, it's Bernoulli.

Curves defined by the bipolar equation R-R-Dash equals K squared

consisting of either two ovals or a single oval

are known as the Ovals of which Italian-born astronomer?

Galileo. No, it's Cassini.

A spiral with polar equation R equals A theta

is named after which Greek mathematician

who described it in his treatise on spirals in 225 BC?

"What it is to hold a leg at shoulder height or twist until your muscles nearly snap,

"this is what his images express."

These words from the Observer refer to an exhibition at the Royal Academy

of the works of which artist born in Paris in 1834?

Degas. Degas is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on a shared nickname.

Which US state was nicknamed The Baby State

because until the entry of Alaska and Hawaii in 1959,

it had been the last state to join the Union,

having done so in 1912?

Arizona. Correct.

Which US comic actor was often credited with the first name Babe,

Happy with that? Nominate Karbalai.

Fatty Arbuckle. No, it wasn't. It was Oliver Hardy.

And finally, the flowering plant popularly known as Baby's Breath

is also known by what name from the Greek for "chalk-loving"?

Gypsophile. No, it's not quite close enough, but you worked it out well. It's Gypsophila.

So we're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter you'll see a map of Northern Ireland

with a county highlighted.

For ten points, simply name the county.

County Fermanagh. Fermanagh is correct, yes.

So, following on from Fermanagh, you get for your picture bonuses

Secondly, B.

Armagh. Armagh is correct. And finally C.

Antrim. Antrim is right.

Another starter question now.

Fingers on buzzers. Give a complete answer when your name is called.

The largest land-locked countries in the world are Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

The next four largest are all in Africa.

Name two of them.

Somali. Two of them!

Sorry. I can't accept it, I'm afraid.

One of you buzz from Somerville.

Sudan and Chad.

No. Sudan is not one of them.

So, ten points for this one.

In a 1755 dictionary what four-letter word did Dr Johnson define as

"one who adheres to the ancient constitution of the state and..."

Arden. Correct. Who's the author of the 1997 novel Human Croquet

in which the narrator lives in a house called Arden

on the site of what was once a great forest?

Her other works include Emotionally Weird and Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

Margaret Drabble. No, it's Kate Atkinson.

Finally, which town in Kent appears in the title of the play sometimes attributed in part to Shakespeare

based on a real-life murder of the Tudor businessman Thomas Arden?

Hans Fallada. Correct, yes.

Right. These bonuses, Somerville, are on parasites.

Cestodiasis is a name given to an infestation of which parasitic flatworms,

often as a result of eating undercooked meat?

(Tapeworms?) Tapeworms. Correct.

Roundworms and threadworms belong to which phylum of parasitic worms

with tapering unsegmented bodies?

Nominate Karbalai. Nematodes. Nematodes is right.

Plaice. No, it's fluke! Ten points for this.

To the nearest billion years,

according to analysis of data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy probe satellite,

and also the formula known as Hubble Time,

what is the best current estimate...

13 billion.

No. And you lose five points.

..current estimate of the age of the universe?

14 billion.

14 billion is correct, yes.

It's 13.7 or 13.84.

You get a set of bonuses, now, York, on a European playwright.

Pelleas et Melisande is a work by which Belgian symbolist playwright

who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911?

Alban Berg? No, it's Schoenberg.

Finally, which French poet, artist and film-maker provided set designs and costumes

for a production of Pelleas et Melisande in 1963, the year of his death?

Pass. Jean Cocteau. A music round now.

For your music starter you'll hear an aria from a 19th-century opera.

Ten points if you can name the opera.

La Traviata. Yes.

We follow The Drinking Song from La Traviata with bonuses.

# Drink, drink, drink, drink

# Your lips they are red and sweet as the bloom on the tree

# Here's a hope that those bright eyes will shine

# Lovingly, longingly... #

The Student Prince?

The Student Prince. It is The Student Prince. Secondly, this 19th-century opera.

MAN SINGS IN GERMAN

Die Fledermaus. Die Fledermaus.

Indeed it is, "the champagne song".

And finally, this 18th-century opera.

MAN SINGS IN ITALIAN

what number is obtained by adding the number of vertices to the number of faces

and then subtracting the number of edges?

Two. Correct.

Your bonuses, York, are on a Scottish noble family.

James Hamilton, the first Duke of Hamilton

was defeated by Oliver Cromwell at which battle of August 1648?

He was executed for treason some weeks after King Charles I.

Dunbar?

No, it's Preston. James Hamilton's brother, the second duke,

died soon after the Scots' defeat by Cromwell at which battle of 1651

Which novelist used this event in his 1852 work, The History of Henry Esmond?

Thackeray? It was Thackeray. Ten points for this.

Introduced in 1966 by the African American activist Maulana Karenga,

which secular festival celebrates seven principles, including...

Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is correct, yes.

Somerville, these bonuses are on physicists born on 5 December.

Firstly, noted on his work on grand unified theories,

which US physicist won the Nobel Prize in 1979

for his contributions to the unification of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force?

Do we have any physicists that would fit?

Think of British physicists.

Rutherford. No. It's Cecil Powell.

Finally, which German physicist won the Nobel Prize in 1932

and is associated with uncertainty principles?

Heisenberg. Heisenberg is correct, yes.

Ten points for this. Introduced by the US cardiologist Meyer Friedman

and Ray H.Rosenman in 1959,

what term describes a personality type

characterised by hurried activity, impatience, ambition and competitiveness?

Type A. Type A is right.

Your bonuses, this time, you Type A's over in Somerville,

Taft. Correct.

Taft was forced to run against which former Republican president

who formed the short-lived Bull Moose Party

as an alternative to Taff's perceived anti-progressive policies?

Theodore Roosevelt. Correct. Ten points for this.

What name connects an English organist and composer born 1583,

the brother of Oliver in Shakespeare's As You Like It

and a novel by Virginia Woolf about a poet whose life spans...

Orlando. Orlando is correct. These bonuses are on island nations.

The last four letters of which island nation

spell the word for Earth, the planet, that is,

in German.

Cape Verde. Cape Verde is correct.

The last four letters of the name of which Indian island nation

mean "mountain" in Greek.

Grenada. Grenada is correct, yes.

A picture round now. For your picture starter,

you'll see a painting of a political figure and author.

For ten points, I simply want his name.

Machiavelli. It is Machiavelli, yes.

2013 marks the 500th anniversary of Machiavelli's The Prince.

For your bonuses, you'll see other powerful figures of the Italian Renaissance.

Five points for each you can identify. Who's this, born 1480?

Lucrezia Borgia. Correct. Secondly, both the given name and the family name

of the kneeling adult in blue, born 1452.

QUIET CONFERRING

Lorenzo Medici. Correct.

Ten points for this. In which US city is The Gateway Arch, a monument of the westward expansion...

St Louis. St Louis is correct.

These bonuses are on post-war British politics, York.

Later elevated to the peerage as Baroness Falkender,

Marcia Williams was the personal political secretary and close advisor

to which British prime minister?

I think we'd better have it, please.

Brown. No, it wasn't. It was Harold Wilson.

Who became a junior minister under Harold Wilson in 1966

and Shadow Home Secretary in 1971?

She was later one of the founder members of the Social Democratic Party.

Which two geological periods lie on either side of the event known as the K-T extinction,

at which non-avian dinosaurs disappeared?

It occurred around 65 million years ago.

Jurassic and Cenozoic.

No. Anyone want to buzz from Somerville?

Jurassic and Triassic?

No, it's cretaceous and tertiary. Ten points for this.

Which metallic element derives its name from an asteroid discovered in 1803

which in turn derives its name from an epithet of the goddess Athena?

Natorium?

No. Anyone want to buzz from York?

It's Palladium. Ten points for this.

Originally a Tamil word for drummer,

what term came to be applied to any castless Hindu,

hence its current usage in denoting a social outcast?

Henry V. No. Anyone buzz from Somerville?

King Lear. King Lear is correct.

These bonuses, Somerville, are on physics.

What isotope is used as the standard for the relative measurement of molecular masses?

Carbon 12. Correct. What name is given to the amount of a substance

which contains as many molecules as 12 grams of Carbon 12?

A mole. Correct.

To one significant figure, how many molecules are there in one mole of a substance?

Six times ten to the power of 23. Correct!

Ten points for this.

Introduced in 2011, the upper case PP logo shown at the start and end of relevant TV programmes

is a symbol denoting what?

and in each case name the organisation.

Firstly, Doha, Damascus, Riyadh and Khartoum.

The Arab League. Correct. Secondly, Perth, Port of Spain, Kampala, Valetta and Abuja.

We don't know. Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings.

And finally, Cannes, Seoul, Toronto, Pittsburgh and London.

G20. Correct. Ten points for this.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

If you add together the number of books in Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia series,

what number results?

14. Correct. You get a set of bonuses, Somerville, on fictitious US States.

The home town of which fictional family is sometimes claimed to be in the state of North Tacoma?

San Andreas and Alderney are fictitious states in which series of video games?

Grand Theft Auto. Correct. Ten points for this.

In 2012, Lord Dyson succeeded Lord Neuberger as the holder of what senior judicial office?

President of the Supreme Court.

No. Anyone to buzz from York?

Lord Chancellor. No, it's Master of the Rolls. Ten points for this.

After Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian,

which romance language has the most speakers?

Romanian. Romanian is correct.

These bonuses are on medical terminology.

In each case, I want to know what is signified by the following suffixes.

Asthenia.

It's a paralysis. Paralysis.

No, it's weakness, loss of strength.

Secondly dynia, or algia.

Pain. Pain.

In each case, name the director of the following.

GONG And at the gong, York University have 135,

Somerville College Oxford have 240.

We have to say goodbye to you, York.

You were on great form in the last match. You were on less good form tonight,

and you were beaten by a very, very good team.

Congratulations, Somerville. We look forward to seeing you in the next stage of the competition.

I hope you can join us next time. Until then, it's goodbye from York University.

Goodbye! It's goodbye from Somerville College, Oxford. Bye!

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.