Episode 11 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. The price of wisdom may be above rubies

but it can also earn you a place in the second round of this competition

to find the cleverest student quiz team in the UK.

Tonight's winners will go through automatically.

The losers could also play again if their score is among the four

highest losing totals from this stage of the contest.

Now, UCL is the largest college of the University of London

and was established in 1826 to extend higher education

to students, regardless of race or religion.

The driving forces behind its foundation are regarded

as being two Scots, the poet Thomas Campbell and the statesman

Henry Brougham, a follower of the utilitarian principles

of Jeremy Bentham, who's often regarded

as the college's spiritual father.

An eclectic mix of architecture in and around Bloomsbury

includes the imposing Senate House,

supposedly an inspiration for the Ministry of Truth in Orwell's 1984.

Alumni include the inventor of the telephone,

Alexander Graham Bell, the pioneer of birth control,

Marie Stopes, the journalist Walter Bagehot and more recently,

the film director Christopher Nolan, plus all the members of Coldplay.

With an average age of 22

and representing around 25,000 students, let's meet the UCL team.

Hello, I'm Bethany Drew, I'm from Surrey

and I'm currently in my first year studying English literature.

Hi, I'm Andrew Brueton, I'm from London

and I'm studying law.

-And their captain.

-Hello, I'm Thomas Halliday, I'm from Edinburgh

and I'm studying for a PhD in vertebrate palaeontology.

Hello, my name is Harold Gunnarsson

and I'm doing a PhD in geomatic engineering.

APPLAUSE

Now, some students choose to attend a university close to the

parental home, handy for taking home washing at the weekends.

Others prefer to be a long way from the parental eye

and it is rumoured this is among one of the attractions

of Exeter University, which is based around three compasses,

two of them in the city and one in Cornwall.

It too has 19th-century origins and received its Royal Charter in 1955.

It expanded rapidly in the 1960s, almost doubling its student numbers.

It has recently developed a considerable reputation

in Arab and Islamic studies.

Alumni include the author of the bestselling book series in history,

JK Rowling, the playwright, Robert Bolt,

and the pop idol and actor Will Young.

With an average age of 33 and representing around 18,000,

let's meet the Exeter team.

Hello, I'm Harry Heath,

I'm Bromsgrove in Worcestershire and I'm studying history.

Hello, I'm Katie Barry. I'm from Epsom in Surrey

and I'm studying biochemistry.

And this as their captain.

I'm Jeffrey Sage, I'm from Louisville, Kentucky

and I'm studying for a PhD in Arab and Islamic studies.

Hi, I'm Rick Harmes. I'm from Looe in Cornwall

and I'm working on a PhD in politics.

APPLAUSE

OK, the usual rules. Ten points for starter questions,

which you have to answer on your own, and 15 points for bonuses,

which are team efforts.

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

What concept is described in 1984 as "not a means but an end to..."?

Power.

Power is correct, yes.

Your bonuses, UCL, are on culinary plants.

The three are unrelated but begin with the same three letters.

Firstly, which spice

is known as adrak in Hindi and shoga in Japanese?

Its edible rhizomes can be used as an accompaniment to sushi

or as a flavouring in parkin.

Ginger.

Correct. Similar to some Jurassic fossils,

which tree is also known as the maidenhair in China,

where it's used to flavour a number of traditional dishes.

Its name means silver apricot.

Ginkgo.

Correct. Used for its restorative effects,

which plant of the genus panax derives its name in part from the

Chinese for "man" because the roots are thought to resemble human legs?

Ginseng.

Correct. Another starter question.

Which company was chartered by Elizabeth I in 1600 to challenge...

The British East India Company.

Correct.

These bonuses, Exeter, are on member states of the Nordic Council.

In 2013, for the fifth successive year, the World Economic Forum's

Global Gender Gap Report ranked which Nordic country number one

in terms of narrowing inequality between men and women?

Sweden.

No, it's Iceland. Secondly, which is the only Nordic country

whose majority language is non-Germanic?

Finland.

Correct. Which is the only country in the Nordic Council that is

a member of both the European Union and NATO?

Denmark.

Denmark is correct. Ten points for this.

Born in 1788, the French mining engineer, Claude Burdin,

is generally credited with coining what word for a rotary device turned

by a liquid or gas, used in jet engines and electricity generators?

Turbine.

Turbine is right.

These bonuses are on British wading birds, UCL.

Having distinctive black and white plumage and a long,

up-curved beak, which wading bird became the emblem of the RSPB

following the marked success of projects to conserve it?

Avocet.

Correct. What is the six-letter common name of Calidris alpina?

The commonest small wader found along the coast,

it has a slightly down-curved bill and in breeding plumage,

a distinctive black belly patch.

Plover.

No, it's a dunlin. From its evocative call,

what is the common name of Numenius arquata,

found in winter estuaries and summer moorland?

It has brown plumage and a long down-curved bill.

Curlew.

Correct. Ten points for this.

"If the book of Job was partly its model, it was Job retold

"for a godless world that offers no final consolation or redress."

These words from Claire Tomalin's 2006 biography of Thomas Hardy

described which of his later novels?

Jude The Obscure.

Correct.

Right, your bonuses, Exeter, are on scientific epiphanies.

Firstly, which inventor claimed to have visualised

the principle of the rotating magnetic field

while walking through a park in Budapest in 1882?

Gauss.

No, it's Tesla.

Secondly, in the 1994 work the Quark And The Jaguar,

which physicist and pioneer of complicity detailed how

an encounter with a wildcat in Central America resonated

with his thinking about the notion of individuality?

-Pass.

-That was Murray Gell-Mann.

And finally, as he walked to his job at the Swiss Patent Office,

Albert Einstein made the imaginative leap that which non-spatial

continuum cannot be absolutely defined?

It led to the special theory of relativity.

Time.

Time is correct, yes. Time for a picture round.

For your picture starter, you'll see part of a national coat of arms.

Ten points if you can identify

the country it represents.

Peru.

Anyone like to buzz from UCL?

Chile.

No, it's Bolivia. We'll see the whole thing now.

That apparently is a llama in the middle of it.

So, picture bonuses in a moment or two. Ten points at stake.

Figures on buzzers, please. Here's a starter question.

Listen carefully.

Charles Babbage called his first calculating machine

the difference engine. What name did he give to his second machine...

Analytical engine.

Correct.

Right, your picture bonuses, then.

There are three more countries depicted in stylised landscapes

on their national emblems or coats of arms.

Five points for each country you can identify. Firstly, please.

Nepal.

Correct. Here is the whole thing. There we are.

And secondly.

(Burma, Cambodia? Like a Burmese temple.)

Burma.

No, it's Laos. We'll see the whole thing.

And finally.

(North Korea?)

North Korea.

It is indeed the People's Paradise of North Korea.

Yes. Ten points for this.

Give your answer by using

a spelling alphabet such as that used by NATO.

For example, A for alpha.

In English, what letter of the alphabet is most commonly

used to represent the sound known in phonetics

as voiceless alveolar plosive?

Tango.

Correct, yes, T.

Right, your bonuses are on the so-called "noughties" or

the first decade of the 21st century.

Simply name the year in which the following events took place.

Firstly, the Tate Modern opened,

Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth was published

and Vladimir Putin became president of Russia for the first time.

THEY CONFER

-Maybe 2001?

-Early...

-He was prime minister before...

OK. So 2001?

-2001.

-No, it's 2000.

Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico, Prince Charles married

Camilla Parker Bowles and Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go was published.

-2005.

-Correct.

JK Rowling's Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows was published,

Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union

and Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister.

2007.

Correct. Ten points for this.

"If you're not able to sketch a man falling

"out of a window in the time it takes him to get from the fifth

"floor to the ground, you'll never be skilful enough to produce monumental work."

These words are attributed to which French artist, born 1798,

his works include Women of Algiers?

-Brueton.

-Pissarro?

-No, anyone like to buzz from Exeter?

-Harmes.

-Delacroix.

-Delacroix is correct. Yes.

Now, Exeter, these bonuses are on Shakespeare's history plays.

In each case, identify the play from its closing lines.

"I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land to wash this

"blood off from my guilty hand. March sadly after,

"grace my mournings here in weeping after this untimely bier."

No, it's a history play.

Henry IV Part Two?

SHE WHISPERS

No, it's a pilgrimage.

I don't know.

Henry IV Part II.

No, it's Richard II.

Secondly, "my tongue is weary, my legs are too, I will bid you good

"night and so kneel down before you, but indeed to pray for the Queen."

I did Shakespeare... This is all sort of...

-Henry VI Part I is what comes to mind.

-Go with it.

Henry VI Part I.

No, it's Henry IV Part II that time.

And finally, "now civil wounds are stopped,

"peace lives again that she may long live here. God say amen."

Richard III?

-Richard III.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Give me two answers as soon as your name is called.

Imagine that the periodic table is a chessboard, the King is on oxygen.

It has five possible moves, two are chlorine and nitrogen,

give me two of the others.

Gunnarsson.

-Nitrogen, sorry...

-I'm sorry.

-Barry.

-Fluorine and phosphorus.

Correct. The other one is sulphur.

Right, your bonuses are on chemistry this time.

The Arrhenius equation describes how the rate constant

of chemical reactions changes with temperature and what other variable?

I need the precise two-word term, please.

THEY CONFER

..I can't even think of it!

-Ideas?

-Temperature and...

-No, it's two words.

-Yeah. Erm...

-Relative temperature.

-No, it's activation energy.

The Arrhenius equation was first proposed by which Dutch

chemist in 1884, five years before Svante Arrhenius provided physical evidence for it?

Any idea?

I think it begins with A, but I might be completely wrong.

Pass.

That was proposed by Van 't Hoff.

Finally, in the Arrhenius equation,

the rule of thumb is that the rate of reaction almost doubles

for a temperature increase of how many degrees Celsius?

Yeah, it's got a log in it, so ten.

-Ten.

-Ten is correct.

Right. We'll take a music round.

For your starter, you'll hear an excerpt from the piece of classical music.

Ten points if you can name the composer.

MUSIC PLAYS

Brueton.

-Holst.

-Holst is correct.

It's Mars the Bringer of War, from The Planets.

He had been declared unfit for military service

but he worked as a music teacher for troops during the First World War.

Your music bonuses are three more composers who served in some

way in the First World War.

Five points for each you can identify.

Firstly for five, this French composer.

LIVELY MUSIC PLAYS

THEY CONFER

Poulenc.

No, that's Maurice Ravel. Secondly, this German composer.

DRAMATIC SINGING

-Carl Orff.

-Correct.

Finally this British composer.

LANGUID MUSIC PLAYS

-Vaughan Williams.

-That's Ralph Vaughan Williams, yes.

Ten points this.

Founded by Bruno de Zabala in 1726, which capital city links

a 1933 convention that discusses the definition

and rights of statehood, the sinking of the Graf Spee...

Brueton.

-Montevideo.

-Correct.

These bonuses, UCL, are on a sport.

The Brotherhood of St Mark was founded in Frankfurt in 1478

to control the instruction of which future Olympic sport?

THEY WHISPER

-Fencing.

-Correct.

According to the official Olympic glossary of fencing terminology,

what's the name of the defensive action used

when a fencer blocks the opponent's blade?

-Parry.

-Correct.

In fencing, what name is given to the flexible or weaker

half of the blade between the middle and point.

In more general speech it denotes a feeling or weakness of character.

-Foible.

-Correct. Well done.

Another starter question.

In different colours, what distinctive symbol links

the flags of the breakaway republic of Abkhazia

on the Black Sea and the historical province of Ulster?

-Brueton.

-Hands.

Correct. White and red respectively.

These bonuses are on Soviet leaders.

"An erratic and at times jarringly outspoken leader whose tenure

"was marked by dramatic de-Stalinization", these words from

the Washington Post described which Soviet leader on his death in 1971?

-Khrushchev.

-Correct.

In power for a brief 13 months before his death in 1985, which Soviet

leader was described by Time Magazine as "the caretaker from Siberia"?

-Andropov then Chernenko.

-He was second. So...

-He comes after Andropov.

-So which one?

I'm guessing Chernenko.

-Chernenko.

-That's right.

"Revealed, red cabbage ruled Russia", was the Sun newspaper's

headline in 1982 on the death of which Soviet leader?

Referring to his deteriorating mental

and physical condition in the last weeks of his life.

-Andropov.

-No, that was Brezhnev.

Another starter question.

What given name links the author of How Mumbo-Jumbo

Conquered The World, the spymaster of Elizabeth I,

and the name adopted by Jorge Mario Bergoglio when he assumed off...

Brueton.

-Francis.

-Francis is quite correct, yes.

Right, bonuses are on depictions of Socrates.

Which comedy by Aristophanes portrays Socrates as a charlatan

working in the tradition of the sophist with his Academy

teaching how to make wrong arguments sound right?

-The Clouds.

-Correct.

Purchased by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1931, the

Death of Socrates is a major work by which French Neoclassical painter?

I really don't know but he did Cicero.

-And a lot of things.

-French Revolution is...

Davide.

Davide is correct.

In which film of 1989 is Socrates described with some degree

of accuracy as, "the most bodacious philosophiser in ancient Greece"?

Back to the Future?!

Trainspotting.

No, it's Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Ten points for this. Constructed on the orders of Mehmed II,

after he seized Constantinople in 1453...

Sage.

The Hagia Sophia.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..which palace was the primary residence of the Ottoman sultans?

-Brueton.

-Topkapi Palace.

Topkapi Palace is correct, yes.

You get three bonuses on physiology, UCL.

The vagus and hypoglossal are three of the 12 pairs

of nerves that perform sensory or motor functions.

By what collective name are they known?

-The cranial nerves.

-Correct.

Invertebrates, which of the cranial nerves is the olfactory nerve?

I want its number, please.

-Four.

-No, it's the first.

Olfaction is an example of chemoreception - what is the other

sense of chemoreception in humans?

-Taste.

-Correct.

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

In a moment, you'll see a painting of a wedding celebration.

For ten points, please give me the Spanish artist's name.

Velazquez?

No. UCL, one of you buzz.

-Goya?

-Goya is right.

Your bonuses are three more paintings of wedding celebrations,

I want the name of the artist in each case, please.

Firstly, this Flemish artist.

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

-Bruegel.

-Yes, it was Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Secondly, this Italian artist.

-Early one. So maybe Titian.

-Titian?

Or Piero della Francesca.

-I don't know!

-It doesn't look quite like Titian.

-OK, so...

-I like Piero della Francesca.

-Piero della Francesca.

-No, it's Sandro Botticelli.

-Oh!

-And finally, this English artist.

-It looks like...

-Pre-Raphaelite.

I think it might be Dante Gabriel Rossetti

-but I'm not entirely 100%. Gustave Dore did do...

-Rossetti.

It is Rossetti, yes. Ten points for this.

Which star comes next in this sequence

given in ascending order of brightness?

Alpha Centauri, Arcturus, Canopus, and...

-Sirius?

-Correct.

Right, these bonuses, Exeter, are on a historical region.

The name of which region of south-eastern Europe

derives ultimately from the German for "duke",

a reference to the Duchy that preceded the 15th century Turkish conquest?

Its name forms part of that of a country

that proclaimed independence in 1992.

-Herzegovina.

-Herzegovina?

-Yeah.

-Herzegovina.

-Correct.

Herzegovina is home to one of its country's best-known structures,

the Old Bridge built by the Ottomans in the 1560s in which city?

-Mostar. Mostar.

-I'm going to nominate you. Nominate Heath.

-Mostar.

-Correct.

Herzegovina has a short coastline on the Adriatic

surrounded on both sides by the territory of which country?

-Croatia.

-Croatia.

-Correct, well done.

For this starter, listen carefully.

Of the four European capitals on the River Danube,

which is the furthest upstream?

-Vienna?

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on prime ministers and feminism.

In each case, name the premier in office

when the following were first published.

Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman.

-1808.

-Do you know when that was?

-1808 or so.

-I'd say early 19th century.

-I'm not sure then. Peel?

-Peel?

Peel?

Too early for him, it's Pitt the Younger.

John Stuart Mills' The Subjection Of Women.

1850, 1860, something like that.

-Any thoughts?

-Palmerston?

Melbourne?

-Melbourne?

-Yeah.

-Melbourne?

No, it was Gladstone, it was later than that.

Finally, which Prime Minister came to power in the year in which

Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch was first published?

INDISTINCT

-Ted Heath, it was.

-Heath?

-Heath?

-It was, yes, in 1970, well done.

Ten points for this.

Who is the eponymous heroine of the 1871 opera

whose other characters include Amneris, Amonasro, and...

-Aida?

-Aida is correct, yes.

These bonuses, UCL,

are on official languages of India other than Hindi and English.

In each case, give the official language of the state

in which the following major cities are located.

First for five points, Kolkata.

-Bengali?

-What's that, is it Bengali?

-It's in the west, Bengali, isn't it?

OK. Bengali.

Correct. Secondly, Bangalore.

That's probably Tamil.

It's in the south-east, so it's either Tamil or Telugu.

-Tamil is more common.

-Tamil.

No, it's Kannada. And finally, Chennai.

-Oh, that's...

-That's Tamil.

-No, Chennai is...

-Punjabi?

-Oh, could be.

-Is it on the western coast?

-Punjabi.

No, it's Tamil.

-Sorry!

-Less than four minutes to go, ten points for this.

Work this out before you buzz.

Give the result in binary of adding the binary numbers 110 and 11.

11000.

Nope.

UCL? One of you buzz.

-1001.

-Correct.

These bonuses are on a name, UCL.

Umberto or Humbert II was the last king of which European country,

reigning for little more than a month in 1946?

-Italy?

-Wait, wait, wait...

-1946.

Umberto, that sounds...

1946.

It sounds Italian, Italy became a republic after the Second World War.

-OK. Italy.

-Correct.

The title of which novel by Umberto Eco refers to a device

named after a physicist and designed to demonstrate that the Earth rotates?

-Foucault's Pendulum.

-Correct.

The obsessions of a middle-aged professor, Humbert Humbert,

are the subject of which novel of 1955?

-Lolita.

-Correct, ten points for this.

Listen carefully.

Words meaning Polynesian language of New Zealand, capital of Latvia...

Uh, A?

I'm afraid I'm going to fine you five points.

..capital of Latvia and former currency of Germany,

may all be made using letters of the name of which SI base unit?

-Metre?

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

"I have laboured carefully not to mock,

"lament or execrate human actions, but to understand them."

These are the words of which Dutch philosopher

in his 1677 political treatise?

-Spinoza?

-Correct.

These bonuses are on astronomy, Exeter.

What name is given to the great circle on the sky

on which the value of declination is everywhere zero?

-The horizon?

-Go for it.

-Horizon?

-No, it's the celestial equator.

Which other major great circle lies at an angle of roughly

63 degrees to the celestial equator?

Celestial meridian?

Celestial meridian.

No, it's the galactic equator.

Finally, what name is given to the third major great circle

at an angle of 23.4 degrees to the celestial equator?

Tropical?

Tropical something.

-Tropical sphere?

-No, it's the ecliptic. Ten points for this.

Secured in November 1943, which atoll in the Gilbert Islands

was the site of a major island attack by US forces in World War II?

It's now the site of the capital of Kiribas.

-Yap?

-No, anyone like to buzz from...

Sorry! Tarawa.

Tarawa is correct, yes.

Your bonuses, Exeter, on political slogans.

In each case, I want the party that used the slogan

and the year of the UK election with which it's associated.

Firstly, "Labour isn't working."

Conservatives, '79?

Conservatives, 1979.

Correct. "Britain deserves better."

-Pass.

-It's Labour in 1997.

And finally, "We can't go on like this. I'll cut the deficit, not the NHS."

-Cameron.

-Conservatives, 2010.

-Conservatives, 2010.

-Correct.

Ten points for this. According to Julius Caesar,

territory within which present day country was inhabited by...

-France.

-No, you lose five points.

GONG

And at the gong, Exeter have 140, UCL have 230.

Well, you were right to go for it, Exeter.

But I think we're going to be saying goodbye to you

on that sort of score. You never know.

UCL, many congratulations to you,

we look forward to seeing you in the second stage of the contest.

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

-but, until then, it's goodbye from the University of Exeter.

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from University College London.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

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