Episode 36 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello.

Welcome to the penultimate match in this year's University Challenge.

Last time, we saw Trinity College, Cambridge,

win the first place in next week's final.

Tonight, we'll discover who they'll be playing.

If one discounts the disdain with which they greeted a bonus set

on Keynesian economics,

which was clearly way too easy for them, the team

from Somerville College, Oxford, have an unblemished record so far,

with victories against Pembroke College, Cambridge,

and York University in rounds one and two and then

Clare College, Cambridge, and

Southampton University in the quarterfinals.

Let's meet them for the fifth time.

Hello. I'm Sam Walker from Stafford and I'm studying physics.

Hello. I'm Zack 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, Lincolnshire, and I study English literature.

APPLAUSE

The team from the London School Of Oriental And African Studies

have proved that being a specialist institution isn't necessarily

a handicap in this contest,

having beaten the universities of Southampton and Reading

in rounds and two

and Cardiff University in their first quarterfinal.

After a defeat against Trinity College, Cambridge,

they redeemed themselves with another win

over Queens University, Belfast, to secure their place here tonight.

Let's meet them for the sixth time.

Hello. My name's Maeve Weber. I'm from Knebworth in Hertfordshire

and I'm reading for a BA in Ancient Near East Studies.

Hi. I'm Luke Vivian-Neal from Lusaka in Zambia and I study Chinese.

This is their captain.

Hi. I'm Peter McKean. I'm from Wallington in south London

and I'm reading for an MA in African History.

Hi. I'm James Figueroa from Surrey and I'm reading African Studies

and Development Studies.

APPLAUSE

Shall we just do it and not recite the rules?

Fingers on buzzers, then. Here's your first starter for ten.

Originally signed by 12 countries, a treaty in force since 1961

guarantees the continuation of peaceful research and the banning...

CERN.

I'm afraid you lose five points. ..and the banning of military

and nuclear activity in which large area of the globe?

-Antarctica.

-Correct.

Antarctic Treaty.

The first set of bonuses are on an economist, SOAS.

Essay On Population is an influential work by which

political economist, born in Surrey in 1766?

-Malthus.

-Correct.

Malthus's views on population increase were used as

a justification for the harshness of the reforms of 1834 to which law?

THEY CONFER

Corn Laws.

No, it was the Poor Law.

And often incorrectly thought to refer to Mathus's

contributions to the thinking on population, the expression

"dismal science" was coined in 1849 by which Scottish-born historian?

Macaulay? Thomas Babington Macaulay?

-Macaulay.

-No, it's Carlyle.

Ten points for this.

A Danish play, withdrawn two months before it was due to open

in Copenhagen in January 2013, and a painting by the South African

artist Marlene Dumas, bought by the National Portrait Gallery

in London and displayed in November 2012,

both have as their subject which British singer who died aged 27...?

Amy Winehouse.

Correct.

These bonuses, SOAS,

are on much-quoted instances of the word "famous".

Firstly, for five points,

"Let us now praise famous men and our fathers that begat us."

These words appear in which book of the apocrypha,

also known as The Wisdom Of Sirach?

Ecclesiasticus?

Ecclesiasticus.

Correct. "Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial."

Which statesman says those words in

Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War?

-Pericles.

-You think Pericles?

-Pericles.

-Correct.

"In the future, everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

These are the words of which US artist, born in 1927?

-Andy Warhol.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

With the atomic number 24, which element is a hard, lustrous

metal that forms a tough oxide coat on...?

Sodium.

No. I'm afraid you lose five points.

It derives its name from the Greek for "colour",

because of the brilliant appearance of its compounds.

Chromium.

Chromium is correct, yes.

Right, your bonuses are on astronomy, SOAS.

The Helix Nebula, Saturn Nebula and the yellow supergiant Sadalmelik

are all found in which constellation of the zodiac?

Taurus?

Taurus.

No, it's Aquarius.

Serpentarius, meaning "snake holder",

is a former name of which constellation

that straddles the celestial equator?

It's the location of Barnard's Star.

You think what?

Sirius?

He said "constellation".

Yeah, but it's on the equator. That's how you work out dog days.

So it would be Cano Major or one of those ones?

Nominate you?

Sirius.

No. It's Ophiuchus.

And finally, Sagittarius A* is an astronomical radio source

in the centre of our galaxy

and is believed to be the location of what kind of object,

which, in this case, has a mass of between

two and five million times that of the sun?

Supermassive black hole.

Supermassive black hole.

Yes, it's a black hole - it's BELIEVED to be supermassive.

Ten points at stake for this starter question.

An example being the tiresome assertion that the word "posh"

is an acronym for "port out, starboard home"

on ships between Britain and India,

what two-word term is used in linguistics to denote

a pervasive belief in false word and phrase origins?

Urban myth.

No. Somerville, one of you buzz?

Fermi.

No. It's folk etymology.

Ten points for this.

"Memorable as the most characteristic incarnation

"of the secular spirit of the papacy of the 15th century."

These words from the 1902 Encyclopaedia Britannica

refer to which figure, born in 1431?

I'll accept his given name and surname,

or his regnal name and number as pontiff.

Alexander VI.

Correct. Rodrigo Borgia.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Somerville, are on a London churchyard.

Buried in St Pancras Old Churchyard,

what is the surname of the composer with the forenames Johann Christian,

known as the London member of his family?

He died in 1782.

-Bach.

-Bach.

Correct. The family tomb of which neoclassical

architect in St Pancras Old Churchyard is thought to have been

an influence on Giles Gilbert Scott's design

for the red telephone box?

Born 1753, he gives his name to a museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

It's a bit too late for Nash, I think.

-Just try Nash.

-Nash.

No. It's Sir John Soane.

Buried in the same churchyard, the sculptor John Flaxman was,

from 1775, a noted designer of jasperware for which English potter?

-Try Wedgwood.

-Wedgwood.

Wedgwood is correct. We're going to take a picture round.

For your picture starter, you'll see a hemicycle depicting the seats won

by the political parties at a recent European general election.

Ten points if you can name the country.

Spain.

Spain is right, yes.

That was the outcome of the 2012 Spanish general election.

Your bonuses are three more hemicycles showing the seats won

by political parties in recent European elections.

In each case, name the country.

Firstly, for five, from an election held in 2011.

Denmark?

Germany, maybe, with the Ds?

No. It's not Germany.

You think Denmark? I think Italy.

Zack, are you thinking Italy as well?

I really am not sure.

It's too small...

-Denmark.

-Denmark's correct.

Secondly, from an election in 2010.

THEY CONFER

The Netherlands? I don't know. I'm just guessing. Or Belgium?

There are lots of Vs - that sounds Dutch to me.

I'm thinking "E/G" is like Ecologists/Green.

Dutch. The Netherlands.

No. It's Belgium.

And finally, from an election held, again, in 2011.

Oh, this has got to be Ireland.

Yeah.

Yes. Ireland.

Yes, of course. Ten points for this.

Born 1878, which French chemist gives his name to a reaction

between protein and carbohydrate

that results in non-enzymic browning,

for example, in toasting bread?

Guingard.

Nope.

Maillard.

Maillard is right, yes.

Somerville, these bonuses are on a designer.

Born in Paris in 1949, which designer came to prominence

when he was commissioned in 1982

to refurbish the Elysee Palace apartments

of President Francois Mitterrand?

What you thinking?

-You've got to know designers.

-Why do I know designers?

You'd be round the right age. Saint Laurent?

We can try it. Yves Saint Laurent.

No. It's Philippe Starck.

Both designed by Starck, the Asahi Beer Hall,

topped with a 360-ton structure resembling a golden flame,

and the Nani Nani Building,

described by him as "a monster" are in which Asian capital?

Tokyo? Asahi's Japanese beer.

-Tokyo.

-Correct.

Starck designed the Hot Bertaa kettle

and the Max Le Chinois colander for which Italian kitchenware company,

noted for its use of pressed stainless steel?

-Alessi.

-Alessi?

-Alessi, yes.

-Alessi.

Alessi is correct.

Ten points for this.

What links words with the following meanings?

Closed, plain curve,

every point of which is equidistant from a given fixed point.

Mother of Edward VII.

Location of the Royal Academy.

Tube lines.

Yes.

London Underground lines. Yes.

Somerville, these bonuses are on the artist Ford Madox Brown.

Which English city commissioned Brown to paint murals

for the interior of its town hall?

Their titles include Crabtree Watching The Transit Of Venus,

and The Opening Of The Bridgewater Canal.

-I think this might be Manchester.

-Manchester.

Correct. The historian Thomas Carlyle

appears as an observer in which painting by Ford Madox Brown,

begun in 1852? Its central figures are muscular labourers,

digging a hole in a Hampstead street.

-Work.

-Work.

Correct. A closet drama by which Romantic poet inspired

Brown's Manfred On The Jungfrau,

in the collection of the Manchester City Art Gallery?

Its title character is depicted along with a chamois hunter

on a snowy Alpine peak.

It's inspired by Byron I think.

They want the poet, don't they?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, go for that.

-Byron?

Byron.

Byron is correct. Ten points for this. Listen carefully -

given a circle of diameter R,

inscribed a square of side length R,

what is the probability that a randomly chosen point in the square

will be contained inside the circle?

Two thirds.

Anyone like to buzz from Somerville?

Two thirds pi.

Pi over four. Ten points for this.

"Make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, make 'em wait."

This advice on writing fiction is often attributed

to which prolific author?

A frequent collaborator with Charles Dickens, he's best known...

Bulwer-Lytton.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

A frequent collaborator with Charles Dickens,

he's best known for novels of sensation

that include Armadale, No Name...

Wilkie... Wilkie Collins.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses, SOAS, on information dispersal.

Now used almost entirely in a derogatory sense,

what word for the spreading of information comes from

the name for a committee of cardinals

founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV?

Propaganda.

Correct. Who pioneered the field of public relations

and the manipulation of public opinion,

calling it the engineering of consent?

A nephew of Sigmund Freud,

he was the author in 1928 of the work Propaganda.

THEY CONFER

He was Minister Of Information in the First World War.

And he was...

Max Beaverbrook.

No. It's Edward Bernays.

Which 2002 television documentary series by Adam Curtis

explained how Bernays repackaged Freud's ideas

for the purposes of public relations in the US?

Documentary or programme?

It's not going to be Mad Men, then, is it?

Don't know.

Selling Politics.

It's The Century Of The Self.

Time for a music round.

For your music starter, you're going to hear a piece of classical music.

All you have to do to get ten points is give me the name of the composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

-Saint-Saens.

-It is Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre.

So that was based on a dance of death -

a dance led by skeletons or by Death himself.

For your bonuses, you'll hear three more pieces of classical music

intended to evoke the macabre, or which are associated with it.

For each one, I simply want the name of the composer.

Firstly, this composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

THEY CONFER

-Mussorgsky?

-I can't think of anything else.

Mussorgsky.

No. It's Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

Secondly, this composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Is it Rachmaninoff?

Rachmaninoff?

Rachmaninoff.

No. It's Liszt. It's part of Totentanz.

And finally, this composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

JS Bach.

It is - part of the Toccata and Fugue.

Ten points for this.

"The state is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class,

"used to break the resistance of adversaries of that class."

Which political figure made that statement in the 1924 work

Foundations Of Leninism?

Trotsky.

No. Anyone?

Joseph Stalin.

It was Joseph Stalin. Yes.

Somerville, your bonuses are on ophthalmology.

What term describes the adjustment of the refractive

power of the lens of an eye,

enabling images of objects at different distances to be focused?

THEY CONFER

Gren.

Gren.

No. It's accommodation.

Secondly, what is the name of the ring of striated smooth muscle,

whose contraction and relaxation controls accommodation?

Parts of the eye.

Cornea. Eyelash.

Erm...

You got any ideas?

Er...

I think it's down to a guess.

Ocular sphincter?

Ocular sphincter?

Very interesting idea! No. It's the ciliary muscle or body.

And finally, the focusing power of the lens

is measured as the reciprocal of its focal length in metres.

What is the unit of optical power called?

It's not focal length...

Afraid I don't know.

Any ideas?

R-Refractive index.

No. It's dioptre. Ten points for this.

Which mountain range gives its name

to a language family that includes Hill Mari...

The Caucasuses.

No.

..Hill Mari, Meadow Mari, Tundra Nenets, Finnish and Hungarian?

The range is one of the conventional boundaries between Europe and Asia.

The Urals.

Urals is correct, yes.

These bonuses, Somerville, are on squirrels in literature.

In Romeo and Juliet, which supernatural figure is described as

the fairy's midwife whose chariot is an empty hazelnut

made by the joiner squirrel?

Queen Mab.

It is.

Which historical figure wrote an epigraph in 1772

on the death of a pet squirrel, Mungo, given by him as a gift

to the young daughter of friends

while on a diplomatic journey from the colonies to Great Britain?

Thomas Gray wrote one about a cat.

I don't know.

Go for Thomas Gray. Gray.

No, Benjamin Franklin.

"Policemen, like red squirrels, must be protected."

These words appear in the 1967 play Loot

by which dramatist who died the same year?

-Joe Orton.

-Joe Orton.

Correct. Ten points for this.

Which five-letter adverb links the first word of a statement

by Winston Churchill on the Battle of Britain

and Urban Fantasy by Neil Gaiman...?

Never.

Never is right.

Your bonuses are operas inspired by Shakespeare's plays.

The only extant opera setting of Measure For Measure

is Das Liebesverbot, first performed in 1836.

An early work by which composer?

Wagner.

Correct. Which British composer's adaptation of The Tempest

premiered at Covent Garden in 2004 and won the Olivier Award

for Outstanding Achievement in Opera the following year?

Modern British.

I don't know, sorry.

Tippit, but he's dead, I think.

Tippit.

No, Thomas Ades.

With a final fugue based very loosely

on the Seven Ages Of Man speech from As You Like It,

Falstaff is a work of 1893 by which composer?

-Is that Verdi?

-Yeah.

Verdi.

It is, yes. Time for a second picture round.

For your picture starter, you're going to see a painting

by an Italian Renaissance artist.

Ten points if you can name the artist.

Raphael.

No, one of you buzz from Somerville.

Donatello.

No, it's by Botticelli, The Banquet In The Pine Woods.

So, picture bonuses shorty. Ten points for this starter question.

Associated with the Restoration, which figure was both

a dramatist whose works include The Relapse and The Provoked Wife?

Vanbrugh.

Correct, yes.

We go back to the picture round for the bonuses.

Three more Renaissance paintings depicting banquets.

In each case I want the name of the artist.

Which Italian artist painted this?

THEY CONFER

-Let's have it, please.

-Tintoretto.

No, it's Veronese.

Identify this Flemish artist.

Bruegel.

No, it's van Cleve.

And finally, another Italian artist.

THEY CONFER

Any ideas?

Tintoretto or Titian, I don't know.

-Tintoretto or Titian.

-No, I don't think it's Tintoretto.

OK. Try Titian.

Titian.

No, it's Tintoretto, The Wedding Feast At Cana.

Right, ten points for this.

Chiefly used in philosophy,

the inherent nature or essence of a person or thing

is known by what term derived from the Latin for what?

Qualia.

No. Anyone like to buzz from SOAS?

Entelechy.

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

Thought to be the subject of the only first-hand accounts

of the entry of a large meteoroid into the Earth's atmosphere,

what is the name of the event

that destroyed around 80 million trees over...?

Tunguska.

Correct.

SOAS, these bonuses are on a royal palace.

In Jerome K Jerome's Three Men In A Boat,

Harris proposes a visit to a tourist attraction

where the ill-founded words,

"We'll just walk round for ten minutes then go and get some lunch."

To which attraction at which royal palace was he referring?

The maze at Hampton Court Palace.

Correct.

In the Lower Orangery of Hampton Court, The Triumphs of Caesar

is a set of nine canvases by which Italian artist,

a court painter to Ludovico Gonzaga of Mantua?

Raphael.

No, it's Mantegna.

Which cardinal gives his name to a closet in the palace that carries

his motto, "Dominvs Michi Adjutor" - "the Lord is my helper"?

Wolsey.

Right. 3½ minutes to go. 10 points for this.

After the death in 1788 of Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender,

what name and number did his Jacobite supporters give

to his brother...?

Henry IX.

Correct.

Your bonuses, Somerville, are on words that can be typed using

only the middle row of characters on a standard QWERTY keyboard.

In each case, give the word from the description.

Firstly, the pure knight of Arthurian legend.

In Malory's work, he's the son of Lancelot and Elaine.

THEY CONFER

Galahad.

Correct. A leguminous fodder crop with clover-like leaves.

It's known as lucerne.

A-S-D-F...

G-H...

Come on, let's have it, please.

We don't know.

It's alfalfa.

And finally, the US state whose settlements include Sitka,

Ketchikan and Fairbanks.

Alaska.

Correct. Ten points for this.

Over 700km long, the Karun is a major river of which country?

It rises in the Zagros mountains west of Isfahan

and flows into the Shatt al-Arab.

Iran.

Correct.

This set of bonuses, SOAS, are on linear algebra.

In each case I want the name of the described scale or quantity

associated to the square matrix M.

A scala lambda for which there exists a non-zero vector V

such that M multiplied by V equals lambda times V.

Venezuela.

No, it's igon value.

The sum of the entries of the main diagonal of M.

-Come on, let's crack on.

-Pass.

It's the trace.

An alternating sum of products of entries of M,

which in the case of the two by two matrix with top row AB

and bottom row CD, is equal to AD minus BC.

Inverse.

No, it's the determinant. Ten points for this.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

When written in hexadecimal, the decimal number 251 spells

the abbreviation of which popular website?

BBC.

Anyone want to buzz from Somerville?

Facebook.

Right, yes.

Bonuses this time on members of the United Nations, Somerville.

In addition to Egypt,

three other African countries were original members of the UN.

Ethiopia and South Africa were two -

which West African country was the third?

Liberia.

Correct. Which original member of the UN held joint membership with

Egypt between 1958 and '61 before resuming individual membership?

Syria.

Correct. Formerly part of Malaysia, which country achieved independence

and became a separate member of the UN in 1965?

Singapore.

Correct. Ten points for this.

What sequential link is shared by the novels

Mr Midshipman Hornblower by CS Forester,

The Magician's Nephew...?

They were written after... They were first novels,

but they were written after... They weren't written first.

They're prequels. You get bonuses on the words of Franklin D Roosevelt.

In each case, give the three words that complete the following quotations.

-Firstly, from a speech of...

-GONG RINGS

The School of Oriental and African Studies have 105.

Somerville College, Oxford, have 190.

Well, there is absolutely no shame in going out in the semifinal.

Many congratulations to you, SOAS. We have to say goodbye to you.

Somebody had to win.

Somerville College, 190 - another pretty convincing

and entertaining performance from you.

We shall look forward to seeing you in the final.

Thank you, both of you, very much for joining us.

I hope you can join us next time for the long-awaited final.

Until then, it's goodbye from the School of Oriental and African studies.

ALL: Goodbye.

It's goodbye from Somerville College, Oxford.

-ALL: Goodbye.

-And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE