Episode 8 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

'University Challenge.

'Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.'

Hello. Tonight, two more student teams

are attempting to amaze and delight us with the extent of their general knowledge.

In half an hour, we'll let them know whether they've succeeded.

One of them will certainly have earned themselves

a place in the second round.

Keele University is based in Staffordshire. It was founded in 1949.

An early reputation for radicalism earned it the nickname The Kremlin On The Hill,

and from the outset, it was unusual in promoting study across different disciplines.

Even today, the majority of its 7,500 undergraduates

study for joint honours.

A team from Keele were series champions in 1968

and that team reunited in 2002

for our 40th anniversary series

to find the best of the best teams from the programme's history,

and on that occasion, they were runners-up.

With that impressive record to live up to

and with an average age of 27, let's meet the Keele team.

Hi, I'm Austin Haffenden, I'm from Eastbourne

and I'm studying for a PhD in computational ecology.

Hi, I'm Rob Croton, originally from Uttoxeter in Staffordshire

and I'm studying for an MRes in English Literature.

-And their captain.

-Hi, I'm Harriet Earle, I'm from Lincolnshire

and I'm studying for a PhD in American Literature.

Hi, I'm David Sharpe, originally from the Western Isles and I'm studying medicine.

APPLAUSE

Now, Liverpool University began life as University College Liverpool in 1881.

Its Alfred Waterhouse designed Victoria Building

was completed in 1892

and led to the coining of the term "red brick" for six civic universities founded in that period.

It received its royal charter in 1903.

It's now home to around 20,000 students

and out of a long, long list of alumni,

surely none are more distinguished than Frank Duckworth,

co-inventor of the Duckworth-Lewis method in cricket,

ITN's science editor Lawrence McGinty,

the head of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Frances Crook,

and the design guru Stephen Bayley,

all of whom entertained us over Christmas

by playing for Liverpool in our special series for grown-ups.

Tonight's team, by way of contrast, have an average age of only 20.

Let's meet them.

I'm Katherine Monks, I'm from Bolton and I'm studying Classics.

Hi, I'm Daniel Jenkin-Smith,

I do English and French and I'm from Birmingham.

-And their captain.

-Hi, I'm Chris Spencer, I'm from Salisbury

and I'm studying for a PhD in tropical medicine.

Hi, I'm Luke Nugent, I'm from Southport and I'm studying medicine.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are unchanging on this programme. I assume you know them.

In fact, I think most people can be assumed to know them in the entire country.

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

What two-digit number links the Capricci,

written by Paganini between 1801 and 1807 for unaccompanied violin,

the number of books in the Iliad...

-24.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on fictional universities, Liverpool.

Home to both the greatest library in the multiverse

and the Tower of Art, the oldest building in the Discworld,

which university sits at the centre of Ankh-Morpork?

-The Unseen University?

-Correct.

The sociology lecturer Howard Kirk is the title character of which 1975 novel by Malcolm Bradbury,

set in the University of Watermouth?

-Pass.

-That's The History Man.

The Yaxley Quadrangle and Palmer's Tower

form part of which fictional Oxford college in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials?

-Jordan College.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

What six-letter name links a routing protocol in computer technology,

a major tributary for the River Tigris,

and a British army officer's personal servant?

-Batman?

-Batman is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses, Liverpool, are on a 19th century journalist.

Published in 1867, the English Constitution

is a work by which journalist and essayist who was, for 17 years, the editor of the Economist?

-Pass.

-It was Walter Bagehot.

In the English Constitution, of what specific political institution

did Bagehot write that, "It prevents the rule of wealth, the religion of gold.

"This is the obvious and natural idol of the Anglo-Saxon"?

-Church Of England?

-No, it's the House Of Lords.

In the same work, what did Bagehot describe as, "a buckle which fastens the legislative part of the state

"to the executive part of the state"?

-Monarchy?

-Yeah. The monarchy.

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

"At the heart of an 18th century enlightenment devoted to reason and civilisation,

"this maverick intellectual spoke up for sentiment and nature."

These words of the critic Terry Eagleton refer to which philosopher,

born in Geneva in 1712?

-Jean Jacques Rousseau.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Liverpool, these bonuses are on a mathematician.

Born 1768, which French mathematician

developed the theory of infinite trigonometric sums which now takes his name?

He used his theory to study the diffusion of heat in a solid body.

-Pascal?

-No, it's Fourier.

In the theory of Complex Fourier Series, what is the third Fourier co-efficient of a constant function?

-One.

-No, it's zero.

From 1798, Fourier accompanied Napoleon on his expedition to which country,

where he carried out extensive research on local antiquities?

-Egypt.

-Correct. Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

On the surface of the Earth, consider the triangle inscribed by the equator,

the prime meridian and the 90th meridian west of Greenwich.

What is the sum, in degrees, of the three internal angles of this triangle?

-180 degrees.

-No. Liverpool, one of you buzz. You may not confer, one of you can buzz.

-270 degrees?

-Yes, 270 degrees is correct.

So, you get a set of bonuses this time on a philosopher.

Born in Prussia, the son of a Lutheran minister who died insane four years later,

which philosopher's first book, The Birth Of Tragedy, was published in 1872?

-Nietzsche?

-Nietzsche.

-Correct.

As well as inspiring the 1896 Concerto for Orchestra by Richard Strauss,

passages from Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra

appear in the Third Symphony, also written in the 1890s,

of which Austrian-born composer?

-Mahler.

-Correct. Sometimes translated as "Superman",

what German name did Nietzsche use to denote the powerful human being

whom Zarathustra announced as a goal to which humanity could aspire?

-Ubermensch.

-Ubermensch is right. Right, picture round.

For your picture starter, you'll see an outline of a swing state

in the 2012 US presidential election.

Ten points if you can name the state and the party for which the state voted in that election.

-Virginia, Democrat.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

So following on from Virginia, your bonuses are three more swing states

from the 2012 US presidential election.

Again, all you have to do is name the state and the party for which its electors voted.

Firstly for five, A.

New Hampshire. That's New Hampshire and it's Democrat.

-New Hampshire, Democrat.

-Correct. Secondly, B, please.

-North Carolina, Republican.

-North Carolina, Republican.

Very good. And finally, C.

They all went Democrat apart from North Carolina.

-Colorado, Democrat.

-Correct! Well done!

-APPLAUSE

Right, listen up for this for ten points.

Choledocholithiasis is a medical condition caused by the presence...

-Stones in the gallbladder.

-Yes, gallstones is correct, or calculi.

Right, you get a set of bonuses this time, Liverpool, on Renaissance artists.

Much reproduced on greetings cards and T-shirts,

the image of two cherubs apparently leaning on the base of the painting

and gazing at the figures above it

is a detail of the Sistine Madonna by which Renaissance artist?

Sistine, Michelangelo.

-Michelangelo.

-No, it's by Raphael.

The School of Athens was one of the frescos painted by Raphael

for which Pope's private apartments in the Vatican?

-Pius VI?

-No, it was Julius II.

And finally, the painting generally believed to be Raphael's last before his early death in 1520

depicts and takes its title from which event in the life of Jesus?

It took place on a mountain top in the presence of Peter, James and John.

THEY WHISPER

-Nominate Monks.

-Is it the calming of the storm?

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

Also known as the feast of dedication and the feast of lights,

which Jewish holiday...

-Diwali. I know.

-No.

You lose five points. ..which Jewish holiday begins on the 25th day of Kislev

and commemorates the rededication of the second temple in Jerusalem by the daily lighting...

-Hanukkah.

-Hanukkah is right, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Well done.

Diwali's a Hindu festival. Right, these bonuses, Keele, you're off the mark, they're on bacteriology.

Which widely-used staining technique for the initial identification of bacteria,

devised in 1884, is named after its Danish inventor?

-I have no idea.

-THEY WHISPER

-Gram staining?

-Correct.

In Gram staining, the bacteria are treated with a dye

which is retained by the Gram-positive bacteria.

What colour is the dye?

-I think it's purple.

-Purple?

-I think so.

-Purple.

-Purple is correct.

The bacteria are flushed with a chemical solution followed by an organic solvent.

What is the main chemical in the initial flushing solution?

-No. I can't remember.

-Guess. Make a guess, go on.

-Ammonia.

-Ammonia? No, it's iodine! You won't feel very well after that.

Right, ten points for this starter question. What is the common name of fish of the genus Anguilla?

The Sargasso Sea, south of Bermuda, is a major breeding ground.

Lavae then grow and migrate to rivers in Europe and North America.

-Salmon?

-No.

-Eel?

-The eel is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Liverpool, are on place names.

In each case, I'll describe a word or a name

that forms the first four letters of the English name of a European country.

For example, fortified wine gives port,

so the answer to the question would be Portugal.

Firstly for five points, the given name of the Hungarian composer whose works include

Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Cantata Profana.

-Belarus.

-Belarus is right, Bela Bartok.

Secondly, a market town in Flintshire, just east of the Clwyd Hills.

Since 1976, it's been the home of the Clwyd Theatre Cymru.

It's Welsh. What's Welsh with four letters?

Rhyl?

-Pass.

-It's Moldova, actually. Mold.

And finally, the Gaelic name for Scotland.

THEY WHISPER

-Albania.

-Albania's right, yes. Alba.

Ten points for this. Of which play by Shakespeare did Samuel Johnson write disparagingly of

"the folly of the fiction, the absurdity of the conduct

"and the confusion of the names and manners of different times"?

It derives in part from Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of a pre-Roman king of the Britons.

-King Lear?

-No, and I'm afraid you lose five points.

You get the rest of it, Liverpool. ..king of the Britons.

You may not confer, one of you may buzz.

-Cymbeline.

-Cymbeline is right, yes.

-APPLAUSE

-So these bonuses now are on a US statistician, Liverpool.

Which statistician, designer and emeritus professor at Yale University,

self-published his debut book, The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information, in 1983?

-Fisher?

-No, it's Edward Tufte.

What term did Tufte coin to describe unnecessary visual elements in slides and graphs,

the elimination of which is a key part of his theory of data graphics?

-Bombast.

-No, it's chart junk.

And finally, in an essay of 2003,

Tufte described which Microsoft presentation computer programme as "evil",

saying that "power corrupts, this corrupts absolutely."

-PowerPoint.

-Correct.

We're going to take a music question now. For your music starter, you'll hear a piece of classical music.

Ten points if you can name the German composer.

CLASSICAL CHOIR SING

-Bach.

-Bach is right, it's his Mass in B Minor, or part thereof.

-APPLAUSE

So following on from that, you'll hear three other classical pieces

with the word "Mass" in their title.

Five points for each composer you can name. Firstly, this Hungarian composer.

CLASSICAL PIANO MUSIC

THEY WHISPER

-Er, Liszt.

-It is Liszt, his Hungarian Coronation Mass.

And secondly, this Austrian composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC WITH VOCALS

THEY WHISPER

-Mozart.

-No, it's Haydn's Mass In Time Of War.

And finally, another Austrian composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC WITH VOCALS

-Mozart.

-No, it's Schubert's Mass No. 2.

Keele, there's still plenty of time to come back. Ten points for this.

What colour links the titles of a 19th century gothic tale by Charlotte Perkins Gilman...

-Yellow.

-Yellow is right, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses, Keele, are on history and poetry.

Which Buckinghamshire MP came to prominence following his refusal

to pay ship money in the 1630s.

He died of wounds after the Battle of Chalgrove in 1643.

-Nominate Sharpe.

-John Hampden.

-Correct.

In which work of 1750 does the poet speculate

that the area of which he speaks may contain

"some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast, the little tyrants of his fields withstood"?

THEY WHISPER

-Thomas Gray?

-No, sorry, you were asked for the name of the work,

which obviously you knew. It was by Thomas Gray. It's the Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard.

And finally, Gray's Elegy mentions two further historical figures. One is Hampden's cousin,

a military and political figure, the other is an epic poet.

For five points, name both.

THEY WHISPER

Thomas Fairfax and Virgil.

No, it's Cromwell and Milton. Bad luck.

Ten points for this. Probably born in the city of Miletus

and listed by Plato as one of the seven stages,

which mathematician, philosopher and astronomer was...

-Pythagoras?

-No, you lose five points. ..was, according to Aristotle, the founder of physical science?

-Archimedes?

-No, it's Thales. Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

If two capacitors of capacitance 12 microfarads and 4 microfarads

are connected in series,

what in microfarads is the capacitance of the combination?

-16?

-No. Anyone like to buzz from Liverpool?

-Eight?

-No, it's three. Ten points for this.

What three initial letters link the main demotic form of the Mongolian language,

the composer of the ballet Spartacus,

the island that is the site of Iran's largest deep-water oil terminal

and the capital of Sudan?

K-H-A?

-K-H-A is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Liverpool, are on the FIFA World Cup.

Three African nations have reached the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup. For five points, name two.

THEY WHISPER

-Cameroon and Senegal.

-The other one's Ghana. Correct.

Two of the four UK home nations reached the quarterfinals of the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

-For five points, name both.

-Not Northern Ireland.

-England and Scotland.

-No, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In 2002, which team became the first from the Asian Football Confederation

to reach the semifinals of the FIFA World Cup?

-Japan.

-No, it was South Korea, the Republic of Korea.

-Sorry. Sorry.

Ten points for this. Which year saw the birth of Lewis Carroll,

the death of Goethe, the end of the Greek War of Independence,

the foundation of the University of Durham and the passing of the Great Reform Act?

-1832.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses, Liverpool, are on The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

The name of which humanoid race in The Lord Of The Rings is a homophone

of that of a short-winged diving sea bird of the family Alcidae?

-Orc.

-Orc is correct.

The name of which race rhymes with the surname

of the English radical who founded the Political Register in 1802

and published the series of essays known as Rural Rides?

Nothing rhymes with Rohirrim, so...

-Try dwarf.

-Dwarf?

-No, it's Hobbit, to rhyme with Cobbett, of course.

The short name for a member of which race in The Lord Of The Rings

shares a spelling with the German word the number 11?

-Elf.

-Correct. We're going to take a second picture round.

For your picture starter question, you'll see an image representing one of the Canterbury Tales.

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

-The Knight's Tale.

-It is The Knight's Tale, yes.

-APPLAUSE

So, Keele, for your bonuses, you're going to see three more illustrations

from a 1904 edition of The Canterbury Tales.

For each one you can name, I'll give you five points.

I need the name of the tale. Firstly...

THEY WHISPER

-The Wife Of Bath's Tale?

-No, that's The Squire's Tale.

Secondly...

-The Wife Of Bath's Tale?

-No, that's from Pardoner's Tale. And finally...

THEY WHISPER

-The Reeve's Tale?

-No, that was The Wife Of Bath's Tale.

-LAUGHTER

-Right, ten points for this.

A useful tool for teaching algebraic group theory,

which puzzle toy was marketed from 1977 by...

-The Rubik's Cube.

-Correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses, Liverpool, are on Danish computer scientists.

Bjarne Stroustrup is best known as the designer of which general purpose programming language,

defined on his homepage as "a better C"?

-C-plus.

-No, it's C-plus-plus.

Secondly, named after a British mathematician,

which award, regarded as the Nobel Prize for computing,

was won in 2005 by Peter Naur

for his work on defining the ALGOL 60 programming language?

-The Turing Award.

-Correct.

The Danish-born Lars Rasmussen is a co-inventor of which free

browser-based software, launched in 2005?

-Firefox?

-No, it's Google Maps. Ten point for this.

"No example is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects."

These are the words of which French historian and politician

in his 1856 work The Ancien Regime?

-Alexis de Tocqueville.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Liverpool, are on actors born in 1913.

In each case, identify the person from the films in which they starred.

Firstly, Sons And Lovers, The Heart Of The Matter and Brief Encounter.

-John Wayne's of that period.

-No. Pass.

No, it's Trevor Howard. The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty,

The Court Jester and White Christmas.

No, it can't be Bing Crosby. Bing Crosby?

No, that's Danny Kaye. And finally, Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150AD,

The Curse Of Frankenstein, 1984 and The Brides Of Dracula.

-Nominate Monks.

-Bernard Cribbins?

No, it's Peter Cushing. Ten points for this.

MERLIN, now known as e-MERLIN,

is an array of radio telescopes distributed around the UK

and connected by an optical fibre network to which observatory in Cheshire?

-Jodrell Bank.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on French grammar, Liverpool.

Meaning "I shall do", what is the first-person singular simple future tense of the verb "faire"?

You may spell the words if you're unsure of the pronunciation.

-Nominate Jenkin-Smith.

-Je ferai.

-Je ferai is correct.

What is the past participle of the verb "boire", to drink?

-Bu.

-Correct.

And finally, "aller", "venir" and "tomber"

are among verbs that form the present perfect tense with which auxiliary verb?

-Etre.

-Etre is correct.

-APPLAUSE

-Four minutes to go. Ten points for this.

Meaning the backing or support of a person or body,

what five-letter word derives from the name of a protective device

borne by the Greek deities Zeus and Athena?

-Aegis.

-Aegis is right, yes.

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on dwarf planets, Liverpool.

Discovered in 2003 orbiting the sun beyond Pluto,

which dwarf planet is named after the Hawaiian goddess of birth and fertility?

-Er... Make-Make?

-No, it's Haumea.

And secondly, the dwarf planet Make-Make

is named after the creator god of the Polynesian inhabitants of which isolated Pacific island?

-Easter Island.

-Correct.

About the same size as its fellow dwarf planet, Pluto, which body, initially nicknamed Xena,

is now named after the personification of strife in Greco-Roman mythology?

-Eris.

-Eris is correct. Three minutes to go. Ten points for this.

"He was an adventurer into the vaults and cellars

"and horrible underground passages of the human soul."

These words of DH Lawrence refer to which US poet and novelist,

who died, aged 40, in 1849?

-Edgar Allan Poe.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Liverpool, these bonuses are on shorter words that can be made

using any of the seven letters of the word perjury.

In each case, give the word from the definition.

Firstly, an intransitive verb that according to Alexander Pope is human, while to forgive is divine.

-To err.

-To err is correct, yes.

Ruta graveolens, an evergreen shrub with bitter leaves used in herbal medicine.

By a different etymology, it means to wish an act could be undone.

-Can we get regret from those letters?

-No.

-Pass.

-That's rue. And thirdly,

in book four of Virgil's Aeneid,

the structure on which Dido ends her life as Aeneas sails away.

-Pyre?

-Pyre is right, yes. Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

The names of three counties of England and Wales appear in the names of UK national parks.

For ten points, name two of them.

-Yorkshire and Pembrokeshire.

-Yes, I can accept that.

Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland and Pembrokeshire were the three places in question,

so you get a set of bonuses this time on place names.

The last four letters of the name of which Commonwealth country

spell a word meaning "other things" in Latin?

Alia. A-L-I-A.

-A-L-I-A.

-No, the country.

Sorry, I needed the country, and it was Australia.

The last four letters of the name of which Eastern Mediterranean country spell an archaic word

meaning "soon" or "shortly" used, for example, in Shakespeare?

-Lebanon.

-Correct. And finally, the last four letters of the name of which Latin American republic

spell the Spanish word for "water"?

-Er...

-THEY WHISPER

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

-Paraguay?

Paraguay? No, it's Nicaragua. Ten points for this.

Etymologically unconnected, what initial four letters link words

meaning the physical science of soil and its formation

and a device for estimating distance travelled on foot?

-Pedology?

-No, I...

No, I can't accept that. First of all, you must answer as soon as you buzz,

-and secondly, I was asking for the four letters.

-Yeah.

Can you tell me, anyone at Liverpool? One of you may buzz.

-P-E-D-O.

-Correct.

Your bonuses this time are on physics.

What term denotes the piece of insulating material

inserted between the plates of a capacitor to increase its capacitance?

-Quickly.

-Resistor?

-No, it's dielectric.

-What name is given to the phenomenon of the redistribution of positive...

-GONG

And at the gong, Keele University have 40, Liverpool University have 295.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well, Keele, you were unlucky with how the questions fell for you, I think,

because on your test paper, you certainly deserved to do a lot better than that.

We shall have to say goodbye to you, I'm afraid. Liverpool, 295 is a very good score

and we shall look forward to seeing you in round two. Congratulations.

I hope you can join us next time for another first round match, but until then,

-it's goodbye from Keele University...

-ALL: Goodbye.

-..goodbye from Liverpool University...

-ALL: Goodbye.

-..and goodbye from me. Goodbye.

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