Episode 4 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello. Over the next 30 minutes,

we'll be testing the mettle of two more student teams with

a place in round two for whichever of them proves the stronger.

The losers might also play again if their score is

among the four highest runners-up from this first round.

The University of Durham is the third oldest in England after

Oxford and Cambridge.

It received its charter from William IV in 1837,

although both Henry VIII and Oliver Cromwell

had attempted to found a university in the city

to draw on the North East's centuries-old

tradition of theological teaching.

It's run on collegiate lines but because the majority of colleges

don't offer formal teaching,

instead concerning themselves with students' welfare and accommodation,

the university enters this contest as a single entity.

Alumni include the ex-England cricketers Andrew Strauss

and Nasser Hussain,

the novelists Pat Barker and Minette Walters

and the former Sunday Times editor Sir Harold Evans.

With an average age of 21,

representing around 16,000 students, let's meet the Durham team.

Hello, I'm Alex Richards, I'm from Breaston near Derbyshire

and I'm studying chemistry.

Hi, I'm Daniel Hulme, I'm from Staffordshire

-and I'm reading theoretical physics.

-And their captain.

Hi, I'm Matt MacKenzie, I'm from Gloucestershire, I'm doing history.

Hi, I'm Oliver Burnham, I'm originally from Hampshire

and I'm currently working towards a PhD in chemistry.

APPLAUSE

Queens' College, Cambridge is named after two queens of England,

Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, who founded the college in 1448

and Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV,

who re-founded it nearly 20 years later.

It's one of Cambridge's oldest

and largest colleges with buildings on both sides of the River Cam,

the elder half being known as the "Dark Side"

while the newer, western half is the "Light".

The two are connected by one of Cambridge's most photographed

curiosities - the Mathematical Bridge,

whose design is popularly attributed to Isaac Newton

despite being built some years after his death.

Alumni include the Renaissance humanist Erasmus,

the film director Paul Greengrass

and Simon Bird who played Will in The Inbetweeners.

With an average age of 20,

representing around 900 students, let's meet the Queens' team.

Hi, I'm Paul Merchant, I'm from Surrey

and I'm reading modern languages.

Hi, I'm Rachel Gregory, I'm from Sheffield

and I'm reading Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic.

Their captain.

Hi, I'm Rhys Jackson-Jones, I'm originally from London

and I'm reading astrophysics.

Hi, I'm David Phillips, I'm from St Albans in Hertfordshire

and I'm reading maths.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are constant as the northern star

so I won't recite them to you again, just put your fingers

on the buzzers and be ready to buzz for this starter for 10.

Euclid And His Modern Rivals, published in 1879, and a paper on

Zeno's paradoxes entitled "What The Tortoise Said To Achilles"

are works by which literary figure,

better known for his books for children?

AA Milne?

No, anyone like to buzz from Queens'?

Rudyard Kipling.

No, it's Lewis Carroll.

He was a mathematician. Ten points for this.

Originally intended to be disparaging, what two-word

term denotes a theoretical model of the universe which contradicted...?

-Big bang.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

So you get the first set of bonuses then, Queens' College,

they're on Oscar Wilde and cigarettes.

In 1892, a press furore resulted

when Oscar Wilde smoked a cigarette

while taking a curtain call after the first performance of which

comedy, subtitled A Play About A Good Woman?

(Lady Windermere's Fan.)

Nominate Merchant.

-Lady Windermere's Fan.

-Correct.

Which actress, for whom Wilde wrote the role of Salome,

is reputed to have replied to his asking whether she minded

if he smoked with the words, "Oscar, I don't care if you burn"?

THEY CONFER

-Em, no idea, sorry.

-It was Sarah Bernhardt.

And finally, in which work by Oscar Wilde does Lord Henry Wotton

observe, "A cigarette is a perfect type of a perfect pleasure.

"It is exquisite and leaves one unsatisfied"?

(It's probably The Picture of Dorian Gray.)

-Eh, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

-Correct.

Ten points for this.

The name of which cornflour-based dessert entered the English

language in the 14th century

when it denoted a savoury dish made with rice and chicken,

the name being derived from the French word for white?

-Blancmange.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses, Durham,

for your first set on US politics.

Which office is fifth in the line of presidential succession?

Recent holders include Larry Summers, Paul O'Neill

and Hank Paulson.

(Isn't it White House Chief of Staff, Vice President,

(Secretary of State...? That's as far as I know.)

Doesn't it then go into the Leaders of the Houses?

Oh, Leader of the House, Leader of the Senate.

And Speaker of the House?

No, that is...the Speaker of the House is the Leader of the House.

Treasury Secretary? It's going to be one of the older ones.

Yeah, go for Treasury?

-Secretary of the Treasury.

-Correct.

Who was Secretary of the Treasury during Roosevelt's New Deal?

He gave his name to an unrealised plan to turn

Germany into an agricultural state after 1945.

That was Morgenthau. Morgenthau. The Morgenthau Plan.

-Morgenthau.

-Correct.

Who was the first US Treasury Secretary?

Killed in a duel in 1804,

his image appears on the obverse of the 10 bill.

-Alexander Hamilton.

-Correct.

Ten points for this starter question.

What final two letters link words meaning European who amassed

a fortune with the East India Company,

chocolate substitute made from the fruit of the locust tree

and a giant spider in the Lord of the Rings trilogy?

-O-B.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

A set of bonuses now on oceanography for you, Durham.

Referring to a reduced level of oxygen in the water,

what seven-letter term denotes the precise scientific process

leading to a dead zone?

-Hypoxia.

-Hypoxia.

Correct.

In 2010, a conference in Stockholm supported an EU-led

initiative to revitalise which sea?

At that time, it contained seven of the world's ten largest

marine hypoxic zones.

-The Black Sea?

-You think it is?

-Is it the Black Sea?

No, it's the Baltic Sea.

Contamination, notably from fish meal production plants,

has created dead zones in Paracas Bay

on the coast of which country?

-Is it Chile?

-Could it be Chile?

-Is it Chile?

-No, it's Peru.

Right, we're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter, you'll see a map of Italy.

Ten points if you can name the region highlighted.

Lombardy.

It is Lombardy, yes.

APPLAUSE

Bonuses, three more Italian regions to identify.

In each case, name the region highlighted. Firstly, A, please.

-Is that Basilicata?

-Yeah, do you want to go with that?

-Go for that.

Basilicata.

No, it's Calabria. Secondly, B.

-Campania.

-Campania.

Correct. And finally, C.

-Is it Liguria?

-Liguria.

Correct. Ten points for this.

In mathematics, meanings of which six-letter word include the number

of coincident edges at a given vertex of a graph,

the highest power or sum...?

-Degree.

-Degree is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on unseen characters, Queens' College.

Not seen on stage

but alluded to by others in Thomas Morton's 1798 play,

Speed The Plough,

the name of which character has become a by-word

for a narrow-minded person who's censorious of breaches of propriety?

-Pass.

-It's Mrs Grundy.

Which of Shakespeare's unseen characters

moves her rejected suitor to lament,

"One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun

"Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun."

THEY CONFER

Cleopatra.

No, it's Romeo on Rosaline.

And finally,

"A kind of acquaintance" is one of the many references to the

title character of which tragi-comedy in two acts,

first performed in Paris in January 1953?

-(Waiting For Godot or something.)

-Godot.

-Waiting For Godot.

-Waiting For Godot.

-Correct.

Ten points for this.

Yellow Mountain Fir Peak, Spring Snail,

Big Red Robe, Dragon Well

and Iron Goddess are among names that appear in Chinese lists

of the ten most notable varieties of which agricultural product?

Rice.

No, anyone like to buzz from Durham?

Corn.

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

"My food is not that of man.

"I do not destroy the lamb and kid to glut my appetite,

"acorns and berries afford my sufficient nourishment."

These words are spoken by which character in a novel of 1818,

subtitled The Modern Prometheus?

Frankenstein. Oh, sorry, Frankenstein.

No. Anyone like to buzz from Durham?

Is it the monster?

It is the monster,

it's Frankenstein's creature, it's not Frankenstein.

Right, these bonuses, Durham, are on a spice.

The tropical evergreen Myristica fragrans yields two spices.

The dried outer covering is known as mace.

What name is given to its brown seed?

-Nutmeg.

-Nutmeg.

Correct.

A nutmeg appears on the flag of which Commonwealth state?

The southern-most of the Windward Islands,

it's situated between Trinidad and St Vincent.

Grenada?

Grenada.

Grenada is correct.

And finally, a mild hallucinogenic,

nutmeg is thought to have played a part in the composition

of the supposedly prophetic quatrains of which physician,

born in Provence in 1503?

THEY CONFER

-Oh, em...

-Nostradamus.

-Nostradamus.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, listen carefully for your ten points here.

Given two copies of the tesseract or four-dimensional hypercube,

one with side length twice of that of the other,

in what ratio are their volumes?

16 to 1.

Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses, Queens' College,

are on reviewese or terminology used in book reviews

in the words of the Times columnist Ben MacIntyre.

The reviewese word "detailed" means, according to MacIntyre,

that the work in question includes what additional

pieces of information, an almost universal requirement in academia?

-(Citations.)

-Citations.

No, I don't think I can accept that.

You were nearly there,

it's footnotes is what he's specifically referring to.

Referring to high or steep drops, which reviewese adjective

means so clever and showy that it made me feel a bit sick?

THEY CONFER

Nominate Gregory.

-Vertiginous.

-Correct.

According to MacIntyre, it is

a truth universally acknowledged that any review touching, however

tangentially, on the lifetime's writing or recipes of which

novelist must begin with this knackered introduction?

-Oh, it's Jane Austen.

-Jane Austen.

Correct. Ten points for this.

The colonial administrator Frederick Lugard is especially

associated with the creation of which major African state

where he served as Governor and Governor-General from 1912 to 1919?

-Zimbabwe.

-No.

Is it Sudan?

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

What common name is given to insects of the order Dermaptera?

They are distinguished by membranous wings folded under short

forewings and by pincer-like sensory appendages on the abdomen.

Praying mantis.

No, one of you buzz from Queens'.

Grasshopper.

No, they're earwigs. Ten points for this.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

Meaning the exercise of rigorous self-discipline and abstinence,

give the dictionary spelling of the word "ascetic".

A-S-C-E-T-I-C.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on telescope projects.

Firstly for five, July 2011 saw the launch of RadioAstron,

a Russian space telescope that will combine its signals with

those of ground telescopes to produce a single image.

How is this technique known?

THEY CONFER

-Interferometry.

-Correct.

Referring to the size of its collecting area, for what do

the letters SK stand in the context of the worldwide SKA project?

Its international headquarters is at Jodrell Bank.

THEY CONFER

-Nominate Richards.

-Super collecting?

-No, it's...

A very odd way of spelling collecting.

No, it's square kilometre as in Square Kilometre Array.

And finally, the Gemini 8-Meter Telescopes Project

saw an international partnership build two SKA-related devices.

One is on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the other is on Cerro Pachon,

a peak in which South American country?

-(Ecuador.)

-(I think it's Peru.)

Peru.

It's in Chile.

Right, we're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you'll hear a piece of classical music.

To get ten points, you just have to give me the name of the composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

Is it Brahms?

It is Brahms, yes, it's his Lullaby.

APPLAUSE

Now, his contemporary Tchaikovsky called him, "That scoundrel Brahms.

"What a giftless bastard."

For your bonuses,

here are three more pieces along with a searing peer review.

Firstly, who composed this piece?

Tchaikovsky said of him, "I acknowledge the greatness

"of some of his works but I do not love him."

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

-Nominate Gregory.

-Vaughan Williams.

No, it's Beethoven, that was from the No 6 Pastoral.

Secondly, name this composer whom Beethoven claimed would have been

a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on his backside.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

Rossini.

It is Rossini, yes, the William Tell Overture.

And finally, this composer of whom Rossini said,

"One can't judge his work after a first hearing and I certainly

"don't intend hearing it a second time."

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

Verdi.

No, it's Richard Wagner, The Bridal Chorus.

Ten points for this.

Which European language has co-official status alongside

the local language in Macau and East Timor?

-Portuguese.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses, this time,

are on pairs of words that differ only in the addition

of the letter B as the initial letter, for example, old and bold.

In each case, give both words from the definitions.

Firstly, pertaining to the opening at the end of the alimentary canal

and commonplace, trite or lacking in originality.

THEY CONFER

Come on, let's have it please.

-Anal and banal.

-Correct.

Trickle or seep out slowly and colloquially,

alcoholic beverages or to drink alcohol usually to excess.

-Ooze and booze.

-Correct.

And finally, imperial measure of approximately 28 grams and to move

quickly away from a surface after hitting it, for example, of a ball.

-Ounce and bounce.

-Correct.

Right, ten points for this.

"The only genuine consciousness-expanding drug."

These words of Arthur C Clarke refer to which precise genre of writing?

Science fiction.

Correct. Puts you in the lead.

And your bonuses are on things or people described as "iconic"

on the website of The Guardian newspaper in 2012.

In each case, give the answer from the description.

Firstly, the 2008 poster of Barack Obama,

created by Shepard Fairey, has as its title what short abstract noun?

-Hope.

-Correct.

In the design by Andy Warhol, what fruit

appears on the cover of the Velvet Underground's 1967 debut album?

-Banana.

-Correct.

The Member of Parliament for Chingford and Woodford Green

since 1992, described as having an iconic

status in the Conservative Party, he led the party from 2001 to 2003.

THEY CONFER

-Iain Duncan Smith.

-Correct.

Ten points for this starter question.

What eight-letter place name links museums dedicated to

William Wilberforce and Bob Marley with the starting point

of Jerome K Jerome's Three Men In A Boat?

-Kingston.

-Kingston is right.

Your bonuses, this time, are on marine mammals, Queens' College.

What is the common two-word name of Enhydra lutris?

Native to the North Pacific, it is

the only fully marine species of the mustelid or weasel family.

-Sea otter.

-Sea otter.

Correct.

The order Sirenia includes the manatees

and which herbivorous mammal?

It inhabits warm waters

and is distinguished by its broad snout and dolphin-like tail.

THEY CONFER

Come on, let's have it, please.

Porpoise.

No, it's the dugong.

The pinnipeds include seals, sea lions and which marine mammal,

the sole living member of the family Odobenidae?

(That could be dolphin.)

THEY CONFER

-Walrus.

-Correct.

Right, we're going to take a second picture round now.

For your picture starter, you'll see a photograph of a prominent US author.

Ten points if you can give me his name.

-Ernest Hemingway.

-It is Ernest Hemingway, yes.

APPLAUSE

OK, bonuses.

Ernest Hemingway's been credited with popularising the term

the "Lost Generation" to describe a group of American writers

active from the 1920s.

Your picture bonuses,

three writers regularly cited as being from the "Lost Generation."

All you have to do is to name the writer in each case.

Firstly, this poet.

THEY CONFER

Come on, let's have it, please.

No idea.

It's EE Cumming. Secondly, this novelist.

John Steinbeck.

No, that's Henry Miller. And finally, this novelist.

-F Scott Fitzgerald.

-Correct.

Ten points for this starter question.

Born in 1858, which German physicist gives his name to a length

of around...?

-Max Planck.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Good intervention. Right, bonuses, this time on medieval history.

From an old Norse term meaning "pledge",

what name was given to the bands of Scandinavian voyagers who

established the Rurik dynasty in Russia in the 9th century?

-Is it Vikings?

-No, it's Varangians.

From the reign of Basil II in the late 10th century,

-Varangians form the bodyguard of the ruler of which major polity?

-Byzantium.

-Byzantium.

-Correct.

And killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066,

which Norwegian king had served in the Varangian guard during...?

Harald Hardrada.

Harald Hardrada is correct, ten points for this.

Occurring widely in place names in Arabic-speaking countries,

what short word denotes a valley, channel or ravine...?

-Wadi.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on botany, Durham.

What's the common English name for the Hepaticophyta,

a division of non-vascular plants related to the mosses?

-Is it lichen?

-No, it's liverworts.

Considering the alternation of generations,

what is the dominant haploid generation of liverworts?

THEY CONFER

Dominant generation, I don't have a clue.

-Come on, let's have it, please.

-Nominate Burnham.

-First?

No, it's gametophyte.

What is contained in the base of the flask-shaped archegonium

which develops on the gametophyte phallus of liverworts?

-(Spores.)

-Spores.

It's eggs or female gametes. Right, there's about four minutes to go

and this is another starter question.

Fairyhouse, Naas and Leopardstown are among racecourses that

lie close to which European city?

-Dublin.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Queens' College,

are on Members of the Westminster Parliament.

In each case, I want the ceremonial county, for example,

Greater Manchester or West Sussex,

in which the following MPs were elected in 2010.

Firstly, for five points, Louise Ellman, Frank Field

and Esther McVey.

-Middlesex.

-No, it's Merseyside.

-Second, Damian Green, Helen Grant and Michael Fallon.

-Kent.

Correct. Finally, Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper and Philip Davies.

THEY CONFER

-Yorkshire.

-Specifically?

-West Yorkshire.

West Yorkshire, I will accept that,

but please be more precise next time.

OK, ten points for this.

The term Winter War is most commonly applied to the

conflict between which two countries...?

Russia and Germany.

No.

One of you may buzz from Durham. You lose five points, Queens'...

-Do you want the rest of the question?

-The USSR and Finland.

Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on Queen Elizabeth II, Durham.

Give the year and month in which Elizabeth II acceded to the throne.

THEY CONFER

-May '52.

-No, it was February '52.

Which US President was in office in February '52?

THEY CONFER

Quickly.

-Truman.

-It was Truman.

Who was the British Prime Minister

at the time of Queen Elizabeth's accession?

Churchill.

Churchill is right.

I'm sorry you were so dismissive, it was Churchill. Yes.

OK, another starter question.

Chernozem, terra rossa and loam are all types of what substance,

the study of which is called pedology?

-Soil.

-Soil is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on meteorology.

What quantity is defined as the ratio of the partial pressure

-of water vapour in the atmosphere to the saturated vapour...?

-Humidity.

-Relative humidity.

-All right, sorry.

-So I can't accept that.

What is the name of the instrument used to measure humidity?

-Hygrometer.

-Hygrometer is correct.

And finally, what precise name is given to the

temperature at which the relative humidity is 100%?

Dew point.

The dew point is correct. Ten points for this.

Born near Aberdeen in 1985, Pete Cashmore is the founder

of which news website described as a one-stop shop of social media?

The Huffington Post.

No. Durham, one of you buzz.

I'll tell you, it's Mashable. Ten points for this.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

What is the smallest prime divisor of the number 2013?

-Three.

-Three is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on geography, Queens' College.

In each case, name the country that shares land boundaries with

only the following.

Firstly, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Hungary and no others.

-Slovenia.

-Slovenia.

-Correct.

Secondly, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and no others.

THEY CONFER

-Come on.

-Angola.

No, it's Malawi.

-And finally, Colombia, Peru and no others.

-Ecuador.

-Ecuador.

Ecuador is correct, ten points for this.

In Greek mythology, which king of Thebes received

a warning from an oracle that his son Oedipus would destroy him?

GONG SOUNDS

APPLAUSE

And at the gong, Durham have 170,

Queens' College, Cambridge have 190.

Well, you led much of the way, Durham, and I would guess that 170

will be one of the highest scores of the losers in this first round.

I guess, with any luck, you'll come back.

Queens', well done, you left it a bit late but you did it

so that's good enough, eh? Round two for you.

I hope you can join us next time for another first round match

but until then, it's goodbye from Durham University...

-ALL: Bye.

-..it's goodbye from Queens' College, Cambridge...

ALL: Bye.

..and it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

APPLAUSE

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