Episode 32 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge. Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Trinity College, Cambridge,

and Sommerville College, Oxford,

are through to the semifinal stage of this contest.

Both the teams playing tonight have already lost one quarterfinal match,

so whichever of them wins gets a final chance

to go through as well, and we'll be saying goodbye to the losers.

The team from Clare College, Cambridge,

beat Loughborough University and Christchurch, Oxford,

in closely fought matches in the first and second rounds,

but then lost their first quarterfinal match

against Somerville College, Oxford,

albeit by only a 35-point margin, but tonight they'll no doubt be

looking to recover their earlier form.

Let's meet the Clare College team again.

Hi. My name's Tom Watson,

I'm from Navenby in Lincolnshire, and I'm reading Chinese studies.

Hi. I'm Carys Redman-White,

I'm from Hampshire, and I read veterinary medicine.

-Here's their captain.

-Hello.

My name's Tom Wright, I'm from Sevenoaks in Kent,

and I'm reading theology.

Hi. I'm Mark Chonofsky.

I'm from Boston, Massachusetts, and I study physics.

APPLAUSE

Queen's University, Belfast,

are in the same boat as their opponents tonight.

They lost their first quarterfinal match, against Southampton,

by a 200-point margin,

so tonight they'll need to show the mettle

that saw them beat Aberdeen University in round one,

and Downing College, Cambridge, in round two.

Let's meet the Queen's, Belfast, team again.

Hi. My name's Suzanne Cobain,

I'm from County Down and I'm reading history.

Hello. I'm Gareth Gamble from Lurgan in County Armagh,

and I'm studying medicine.

-And here's their captain.

-Hello.

I'm Joseph Greenwood from Manchester,

and I'm studying for a PhD in Irish theatre.

Hi. I'm Alexander Green from Lytham in Lancashire,

and I'm studying for a PhD in plasma physics.

APPLAUSE

Shall we just rattle on with it? Fingers on the buzzers.

Your first starter for ten.

What surname links a major figure of the satire boom of the 1960s...

Cook.

How did you know what...? Yeah, you're quite...

You get the points - I'm just amazed you could get it so fast. Well done.

Right, Queen's, you get the first set of bonuses - they're on history.

"To be ignorant of what happened before you were born

"is to remain forever a child."

Who made that statement in a forensic statement of 46BC?

(Julius Caesar?)

(Cicero?)

-Cicero.

-Correct.

"The reign of Antoninus is marked by the rare advantage

"of furnishing very few materials for history, which is

"indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies

"and misfortunes of mankind."

Those words appear in a work of 1776, by which historian?

(1776...)

(Gibbon?)

-Gibbon?

-Correct.

And finally, for five points, "Universal history,

"the history of what man has accomplished in this world,

"is at bottom the history of the great men who worked here."

These are the words of which Scottish historian,

in a work of 1840?

McClow? McClowley, something like that?

No, it's Macaulay you're thinking of.

And it wasn't - it was Carlisle, I'm afraid.

Right, ten points for this.

Fehlleistungen or parapraxis are more formal names for what

error of speech, thought to reveal an aspect of the unconscious mind?

-Freudian slip.

-Correct.

Right, these bonuses are on the moons of Jupiter, Queen's, Belfast.

Which Jovian moon is named after the foster mother of Zeus,

who's sometimes represented as the goat that suckled the infant god

in a Cretan cave?

(Io.)

Io?

No, it's Amalthea.

Which Galilean satellite displays the most volcanic

activity of any body in the solar system

and is named after the priestess of Hera, who was loved by Zeus?

She was turned into a heifer to help her escape detection.

(I'm tempted to say Europa.)

-Europa?

-No, that WAS Io.

And finally, the smallest of those discovered by Galileo -

which moon is the named after the Venetian princess who bore

Zeus three sons, including Minos, king of Crete?

Europa?

It was Europa, yes.

Ten points for this.

What name links the ship that carried out the first major

oceanographic expedition in the 1870s,

NASA's second space shuttle, Orbiter, destroyed in 1986...

Endeavour?

No. You lose five points. ..and the diving submersible used by

James Cameron to reach the deepest known point on Earth in 2012?

Challenger?

Challenger is right, yes.

Right, these bonuses are on physics and human senses, Clare College.

The frequency range of a healthy young person's hearing stretches

roughly from 20Hz to 20kHz, an interval equal to how many octaves,

to the nearest whole number?

(Octave is doubling, so 20...

(40, 80,

(160, 320, 640...)

-(So ten-ish?)

-(Seven.)

Seven?

No, it's ten.

Secondly,

if the term octave is interpreted to mean

a factor of two in the frequency of any type of wave,

then what is the human eye's range of sensitivity

to electromagnetic waves, again to the nearest whole number of octaves?

(Oh, no, I...)

One?

Correct. If that visible range is said to

be between values of 400 at the red end of the spectrum,

and 800 at the violet end, what units of frequency are being used?

(Nanometres?

It is nanometres.)

Nanometres.

No, they're terahertz.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

In an article of April 2013, in the London Review Of Books,

it was noted that Shakespeare

and Freud were the most written-about people in its archive.

Which British political figure was third?

Churchill?

Clare, one of you buzz.

Margaret Thatcher?

Correct.

Clare, your bonuses this time are on historic buildings

in the words of the author Simon Jenkins.

Firstly, "Completed in 1588 for Sir Frances Willoughby -

"a fussy, learned and increasingly demented tycoon

"who'd made his fortune from local coal."

These words describe Wollaton Hall, in which English city?

(Coal...)

(Coal - it's going to be...somewhere.)

(It's going to be... 1588... York?)

York?

No, it's in Nottingham.

"The hall's interior is sensational.

"The uprights are beautifully moulded

"and the quatrefoils on the walls have an almost jazzy effect."

These words refer to the 15th- century Ordsall Hall in which city?

Is it Bradford?

No, it's in Salford. It's just over there, in fact.

And finally, "A place of which its city can be proud.

"It ranks among the great Jacobean houses of the North."

These words describe Temple Newsam, in which English City?

(..going to go with York again, but... Any better ideas?)

York?

No, it's Leeds. We're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter,

you'll see the route of a notable motorsport endurance event.

For ten points...

I haven't even put the picture up yet!

Le Mans?

Er, no, but how did you do that without...?

No, I didn't... It was just pre-emptive buzzing.

Oh, I see! Right.

You were very foolish, because I'm going to have to offer it

to them and they will see the map.

The Dakar Rally?

It is the Dakar Rally.

It used to be held near Dakar.

Now it's clearly in a different continent altogether.

Logically enough.

So you're going to see, for your bonuses,

more routes of longstanding motorsport endurances races.

Five points for each you can name.

Firstly...

The Mille Miglia?

It is indeed, yes, generally raced in classic cars,

from Brescia to Rome and back again.

Secondly, this route for 2013.

We don't know.

That's the Gumball Rally -

for people with more money than sense, I believe.

And, finally...

The Isle of Man TT.

It is indeed. For motorbikes, yes.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

Quote - "She will find a match in my son, the most pig-headed,

"stubborn boy who ever lived, and who has round his brains

"such a thick crust that I defy any man or woman

"ever to discover what is in them."

These words of his mother refer to the marriage of which future

king of Great Britain to...

Edward VII?

No. I'm afraid you lose five points.

..to Sophia Dorothea of Celle?

Edward VIII?

Edward VIII?! No. It was George I.

Right, ten points for this.

What unit of pressure is defined as 101,325 newtons per square metre?

It's equivalent...

The atmosphere?

Correct.

Clare College, your bonuses are on French utopian socialists now.

Born in 1760, an early proponent of economic planning,

which French thinker suggested that scientists should take

the place of priests in the social order of mankind?

(Is that Comte?)

Comte?

No, it's Saint-Simon.

In a work of 1834,

which follower of Saint-Simon stressed

the importance of philosophical triads,

asserting that man comprised sensations, sentiment and intellect.

He was one of the first to analyse socialism as a scholarly topic.

Chuck Norris?

No, I think he was a little later. It was Pierre Le Roux.

And finally, often credited with coining the word "feminism"

in the 1830s, which French social theorist advocated

the reconstruction of society into communal associations

and producers, known as phalanxes?

(I'm going to go with Comte again.)

Er, Auguste Comte.

No, it's Charles Fourier.

Right, we're going to take another starter question.

What four-letter suffix appears at the end of verbs meaning

to interrupt, to force a fluid into a passage or cavity,

and to cause an image to appear...

-ject.

-ject is correct. J-E-C-T.

So, these bonuses for you, Queen's, Belfast,

are on megafauna of the Pleistocene epoch.

Firstly, members of which extinct genus of predators

of the Pleistocene epoch are known collectively

by the term sabre-toothed cat?

(Just...pass.)

Raptor.

No, they're Smilodons.

Around the size of a modern elephant, the giant ground sloth

is known by what name from the Greek for "great beast"?

(Dinosaur...?)

(No, that's "terrible lizard".)

(Megalosaur...?)

-(Yeah.)

-(No, cos that'd be...)

(It'd be mega- something.)

(Megadon...?)

Megadon?

No, it's a Megatherium.

And finally, around the size of a rhinoceros,

the extinct Diprotodon is the largest known member of which

infraclass of mammals of the southern hemisphere?

-(It's got to be marsupi...)

-(Yeah.)

Marsupial.

Correct. Ten points for this.

" 'Ustopia' is a world I made up by combining Utopia and Dystopia,

"the imagined perfect society and its opposite, because, in my view,

"each contains a latent version of the other."

These are the words of which Canadian author, describing

three of her novels...

Margaret Atwood.

Correct.

These bonuses, Queen's, are on vulgarity.

"To be more interested in the writer than the writing is just

"eternal human vulgarity."

These are the words of which British novelist,

whose works include Yellow Dog and Time's Arrow?

(It's Amis, isn't it?)

Martin Amis.

Correct.

"Economy was always elegant and money-spending always vulgar

"and ostentatious. A sort of sour grapeism which made us

"very peaceful and satisfied."

These words appear in which novel of 1853 by Elizabeth Gaskell?

(North And South, is it? North And South?)

North And South.

No, it's Cranford. "She is hard upon vulgarity.

"Not, however, on good-natured vulgarity such as that

"of Mrs Jennings, but on vulgarity like that of Miss Steele."

These words refer to which novelist, born in 1775?

(Jane Austen?)

(Yeah.)

Jane Austen.

Jane Austen is right.

At this juncture, we're going to take a music round.

For your music starter,

you'll hear a piece of 20th-century classical music.

Ten points if you can give me the name of the Russian composer.

PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

Stravinsky.

No. Clare, you can hear a little more.

Rachmaninoff?

No, it's Prokofiev, his Piano Concerto No. 4 For The Left Hand,

so music bonuses shortly, fingers on the buzzers -

here's another starter question.

Beginning with the death of Alexander the Great

and ending with Rome's dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean,

the period when Greek power and cultural influence

were at their highest point is indicated by what specific term?

Hellenistic?

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Well, I don't know what good it'll do you,

but you get the music bonuses.

We heard Prokofiev's piece for the left hand,

written in 1931 for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein

who lost his right arm in the First World War.

Your bonuses are three more pieces intended

to be played with only the left hand.

In each case, I should like the name of the composer, please.

Firstly, for five, this German composer

who was also commissioned by Wittgenstein.

FAST PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

(Could guess that.)

We don't know, sorry.

-It's Richard Strauss!

-OK.

-You could've guessed him.

OK, secondly,

the Hungarian composer who wrote this study for the left hand.

DRAMATIC PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

(Do we have a better one?)

OK. Bartok?

Well done, yes.

Finally, this composer whose compositions

often favour the left hand.

PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

Ravel?

No, that's Chopin. Ten points for this.

Answer promptly when your name is called.

Of the original members of the European Economic Community,

give the number that have a flag that is a tricolour,

either horizontal or vertical.

Four?

Anyone like to buzz from Queen's?

Five?

No, it was all six of them. Right, ten points for this.

Listen carefully, by what factor does the wave velocity

in a string increase if its tension is increased

by a factor of two and its mass per unit length

is decreased by the same factor?

One?

Anyone like to buzz from Queen's?

Four?

No, it's two. Ten points for this.

What class of the filum chordate links the surnames of the authors

of Briggflatts, Usage And Abusage,

Gulliver's Travels and...

Swift?

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..and Notes On Nursing.

Birds?

-Birds is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses, Queen's, are on violin concertos.

First performed in 1806 to little acclaim,

which composer's Violin Concerto In D Major

was revived in 1844 by the virtuoso Joseph Joachim.

He described it as the greatest,

most uncompromising German violin concerto.

Beethoven?

Correct. His Opus 61.

Joachim's 1844 performance was conducted by which composer

whose own Violin Concerto in E Minor was described by Joachim

as "the most inward, the heart's jewel" of German violin concertos?

Schubert?

No, it's Mendelssohn.

Finally, born in Hamburg in 1833,

which composer dedicated his Violin Concerto In D Major to Joachim?

His other works include the German Requiem

and the Academic Festival Overture.

That might be Schubert.

We'll try Schubert again.

No, it's Brahms. Ten points for this, what eight-letter word

may precede "gauge" in railway engineering,

"model" in physics and in statistics...

Narrow?

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..and in statistics both "error" and "deviation".

Standard?

Standard is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on books about mathematicians.

The work of two Greek authors, the 2008 graphic novel Logicomix,

concerns the quest for logical certainty in mathematics

and has at its narrator which British philosopher?

-Bertrand Russell?

-Correct.

Which self-taught Indian mathematician who came to

Cambridge University in 1914 is the subject

of Robert Kanigel's 1991 biography, The Man Who Knew Infinity?

-I'll nominate Green.

-Bose?

No, it's Ramanujan.

Finally, The Music Of The Primes

sees its author Marcus du Sautoy attempt to solve which hypothesis

named after the 19th-century German mathematician who formulated it

and now listed as one of the Millennium Prize problems?

I stopped listening to the question.

Might be, but I don't think...

-I'll nominate Gamble.

-Riemann?

Correct.

We'll take another picture round now.

For your picture starter,

you'll see a painting by a French artist, born 1863.

For ten points, all you have to do is name him.

Van Gogh?

No. One of you may buzz from Queen's.

Cezanne?

No, it's Paul Signac's The Milliners.

So, picture bonuses shortly.

Another starter question in the meantime.

Fingers on buzzers, please.

Now, in the western part of the republic of Georgia,

which ancient region on the Black Sea

was in Greek mythology the home of Medea

and the destination of the Argonauts in their quest...

Sorry, if you buzz, you must answer. Clare, I'm offering it to you.

..in their quest for the Golden Fleece? You lose five points, too.

Cydonia?

No, it's Colchis.

Ten points for this.

What short, given name links three successive Holy Roman Emperors

from 962 to 1002, the head of the House Of Habsburg from 1922 and...

Justin?

No, you lose five points.

..and the Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890?

-Otto?

-Otto is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So, we go back now to the picture round.

You get the picture bonuses

following on from that painting by Paul Signac.

You're going to see paintings by three of his contemporaries,

all French, with whom he collaborated.

In each case, I just want you to name the artist, please.

Firstly, this artist, who was influenced by Signac's

treatise on divisionism, or pointillism.

THEY WHISPER

Seurat?

No, that's by Pissarro.

And, secondly, this artist whom Signac championed.

-Is that Seurat?

-That is Seurat.

And, finally, this artist, a profound influence on Signac.

-Monet?

-It is Monet, yes.

Right, ten points for this - what common six-letter word

is often used to indicate

the sudden damage to brain tissue known as CV...?

-Stroke.

-Stroke is correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on the year 1555, Queen's.

Name either of the two Anglican bishops who were burned at the stake

at Oxford in 1555 as part of the Marian Persecutions.

Latimer.

Latimer - Ridley was the other, yes.

Which Bavarian city gives its name to a treaty of 1555

that made the legal division of Christendom permanent

within the Holy Roman Empire?

Munich?

No, it's Augsburg.

In 1555, which ruler began abdicating his titles?

He retired to a monastery in Spain the following year.

Come on.

Philip.

No, it wasn't, it was Charles V.

Ten points for this - which city and port covers

most of a large island

at the confluence of the Ottawa and St Lawrence rivers,

as well as several other islands, including...?

Vancouver?

No, you lose five points.

..including Ile Bizard?

Montreal?

Montreal is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a 19th-century author, Queen's.

In 2009, the bicentennial of which author's birth

saw a war of words between Russia and Ukraine

with both countries claiming him as their own.

His works include the short story, The Overcoat.

Erm, Go-gol? Gogol?

Correct.

The title of which of Gogol's works was changed

to The Adventures Of Chichikov after Russian censors raised

religious objections to the author's original choice of title?

Nominate Gamble.

Instead, The Beatification Of?

No, it's Dead Souls.

And, finally, Gogol claimed that the plot of Dead Souls

was given to him by which poet and author,

who died of injuries sustained in a duel in 1837?

-Pushkin.

-Pushkin is right.

-APPLAUSE

-Two and a half minutes to go, ten points for this -

Dr Angelicus is by name of which theologian born in Sicily in 1224?

His works include the Summa Theologiae...

-Thomas Aquinas?

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

-These bonuses are on botany.

Pteridophyta is a division that comprises

which flowerless green plants and their relatives?

Quickly.

-Ferns.

-Correct.

Bryophyta, the plant division that includes mosses,

possesses what structure that functions like a root

in support or absorption?

-Holdfast?

-No, they're rhizoids.

The terms brassica and cruciferous denote plants

of a family with what common name?

-Cabbages.

-Correct.

Ten points for this - differing by only two letters,

what two names denote an Athenian statesman and lawgiver

born around 630 BC

and the son and successor of King David of Israel,

proverbial for his wisdom?

Solon and Solomon.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on rotten boroughs, Queen's,

that were disenfranchised by the Great Reform Act of 1832.

In each case, name the historical county

in which the following are located.

Firstly, for five points, Orford, Dunwich and Aldeburgh.

Let's have it, please.

-No, we don't know.

-It's Suffolk.

Secondly, Callington, Camelford and West Looe.

Come on, let's have it, please.

-Lancashire.

-No, it's Cornwall.

Finally, Hindon, Old Sarum and Wootton Bassett.

(Is it Berkshire?)

-Berkshire.

-No, it's Wiltshire.

Ten points for this -

Equal to 3.6 x 10(6) joules, what is the standard unit

used by the electricity supply industry for energy consumption?

British thermal unit?

No, you lose five points.

You don't need to buzz, you could have held the rest of it.

-Kilowatt-hour.

-Kilowatt-hour is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the King James Bible, Clare College.

In each case, identify the book of the old Testament

from verses taken from its opening chapter.

Firstly, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb

"and naked shall I returned thither.

"The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away."

-Song of Solomon?

-No, it's Job.

"A wise man will hear and will increase learning

-"and a man of understanding..."

-GONG

And at the gong, Clare College have 105,

Queen's Belfast have 125.

APPLAUSE

Well, bad luck, Clare.

You weren't on as good form today as you've been in the past,

and I'm going to have to say goodbye to you, I'm afraid.

Well done, Queen's.

You get to go through it all again, you lucky things.

I hope you can join us next time for another quarterfinal match,

but until then it's goodbye from Clare College, Cambridge.

ALL: Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Queen's, Belfast.

-ALL: Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE