Episode 3 University Challenge

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello. Two more student teams are preparing

to demonstrate a wisdom beyond their years

with a place in the second round for whichever is the more convincing.

The losers could play again

if their score is among the four highest losing scores

from these first round matches.

Now, the University of Bristol traces its origins

to a college which was established in 1876

and later endowed by the Wills and Fry families,

the manufacturers of cigarettes and chocolate respectively,

which led to it receiving its Royal Charter from Edward VII in 1909.

In more recent years, it's become known as the comedy university

which is not a reference to its academic standards

but to alumni who include David Walliams and Matt Lucas,

Simon Pegg and Marcus Brigstoke.

It's also the setting for David Nicholls' novel Starter For Ten

about a student who competes in a television quiz programme

and which contains salutary lessons for both teams playing tonight.

With an average age of 21,

representing about 19,000 students, let's meet the Bristol team.

Hello, I'm Lewis Rendell, I'm from Saffron Walden in Essex

and I'm studying Mathematics.

Hello, I'm Benjamin Moon

from Marksbury and Bath in north-east Somerset

and I'm studying for a PhD in Geology,

researching ichthyosaur systematics and taxonomy.

-And their captain.

-I'm Anastasia Reynolds,

I'm originally from East London and I'm studying Czech and Russian.

Hi, I'm Miles Coleman, I'm from North London

and I'm studying Spanish and Portuguese.

APPLAUSE

Now, the Courtauld Institute of Art

is making its first appearance on this series.

A small specialist college within the University of London,

it has around 400 students specialising in the History of Art.

The collector Samuel Courtauld provided much of the money from his family's textile business

to enable its foundation in Portman Square in 1932,

although a relocation in 1989

means that students are now in the enviable position of studying

in the north building of William Chambers' Neoclassical masterpiece,

Somerset House on the Strand.

Anthony Blunt served at its director from 1947 until '74,

during which time his pupils included the art critic Brian Sewell.

The broadcaster Andrew Graham-Dixon studied there,

as did the director of the Tate, Nicholas Serota,

the novelist Anita Brookner and the actor Vincent Price.

With an average age of 22, let's meet the Courtauld team.

Hi, I'm Annie Gregoire, I'm from the New Forest in Hampshire

and I'm studying History of Art.

Hi, I'm Matthew McLean, I'm from Lewisham in South East London

and I'm studying for an MA in the History of Art.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Anna Preston from Sandwich in Kent

and I'm studying History of Art.

Hi, I'm Thomas Bodinetz from Reading and I'm also studying History of Art.

APPLAUSE

OK, I guess you all know the rules.

10 points for starters, 15 for bonuses.

Starters are solo efforts, bonuses are team efforts.

Fingers on the buzzers, here's your first starter for 10.

According to a well known speech of 1946,

-what entity then stretched from Stettin in the Baltic to...

-BUZZER

-The Iron Curtain.

-Correct.

Right, Courtauld, your bonuses are on food names.

Firstly, which city in New York State gives its name

to a dish of deep-fried chicken wings coated in a spicy sauce

and served with blue cheese dressing?

INAUDIBLE

(Yeah, I think so.)

-Buffalo?

-Buffalo is correct, yes.

Which city on the island of Menorca gives its name to a condiment

made from oil, egg yolks and either vinegar or lemon juice?

WHISPERING

Mayonnaise?

No, the town is called Mahon.

It is mayonnaise, of course, so you can't get those points.

Around midway between Milan and Bologna,

which city gives its name both to a delicate dry-cured ham

and to a hard dry cheese?

-Parma.

-Correct.

10 points for this starter question, fingers on buzzers.

What 12-letter term denotes structures

of which the three largest examples in Europe are a ruin outside Capua near Naples,

the Roman arena in Verona and the Colosseum in Rome?

BUZZER

-Amphitheatre.

-Correct.

Right, your first bonuses, Bristol, are on masters and servants.

Firstly, the stock comic character of the servus callidus,

the servant who's cleverer than his master,

is particularly associated with which Roman playwright?

An example is his character Palaestrio in The Braggart Soldier.

Roman playwrights, anyone?

(Pass?)

-Pass.

-It's Plautus.

The servant Mosca outwits and usurps his eponymous master

in which comedy by Ben Jonson,

a satire on greed and lust, first performed in 1606?

(It's commedia dell'arte.)

(I did it in GCSE and it's just gone from my head.)

LAUGHTER

Oh, man, erm...

-Sorry, Mr Norton. No, nothing.

-We don't know.

It's Volpone.

Which servant admits to reading improving books

such as the works of Spinoza and Dostoyevsky

whilst finding Nietzsche "fundamentally unsound"?

He also takes exception to his employer wearing coloured spats

and playing the banjolele.

-That's Jeeves.

-It is Jeeves, yes.

10 points for this.

According to evidence announced by NASA in 2012,

which chemical substance falls as snow in the Martian atmosphere?

At standard atmospheric pressure on Earth,

-it sublimates at a temperature of minus 78...

-BUZZER

-Carbon dioxide?

-Correct.

Right, your bonuses, Bristol, are on Latin American rodents.

Firstly for 5 points,

after an even-toed ungulate and a historical region of Africa,

what is the misleading two-word common name of Cavia porcellus,

a domesticated South American rodent used as food?

-(Guinea pig.)

-(Guinea pig?)

-Guinea pig?

-Correct.

What short common name denotes species of the genus Octodon,

also known as brush-tailed rats?

Common in Chile, they're seen as a potential invasive species

and are prohibited as pets in some jurisdictions

including California and Alaska.

-(It could be chipmunk.)

-(Chipmunk?)

Chipmunk?

No, they're the degu.

And finally, also known as the carpincho or waterhog,

which semi-aquatic mammal is the largest living rodent?

Capybara.

-Capybara.

-Correct.

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

For the picture starter you're going to see a list

of Academy Award winners in a particular year.

For 10 points simply name the film that won Best Picture that year.

BUZZER

-Million Dollar Baby?

-Yes.

So, let's get your picture bonuses under way.

They're three more lists of Academy Award winners in recent years.

In each case, I simply want you to tell me

the film that won Best Picture in that year.

Firstly for 5...

I think it's The King's Speech.

This is King's Speech because Tom Hooper was the director.

-The King's Speech.

-Correct. Secondly...

-Uh...

-Is that The Queen?

-The Departed?

-No, no, that was The Last King Of Scotland.

-This is 2006.

Did The Last King Of Scotland win that year? I think it was called The Departed.

-Do you remember what won that year?

-I don't know.

Helen Mirren won Best actress. That was The Queen.

I think it was The Departed.

-The Departed?

-Correct.

And finally...

-Oh, it's the Coen brothers...

-That was...

-Oh, no, Marion Cotillard.

-She was Edith Piaf, wasn't she? La Vie En Rose.

-Yeah.

-So...

-That was...

Possibly Gangs Of New York but this isn't the question.

-Could be The Hurt Locker. Could be The Hurt Locker.

-Hurt Locker?

-Yes.

The Hurt Locker?

No, it's No Country For Old Men by the Coen Brothers.

10 points for this.

What three-word term denotes the theory

proposed by the US psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943?

-It's often illustrated as a five-layer pyramid.

-BUZZER

-Hierarchy of Needs.

-Correct.

Right, your bonuses this time are on British place names

with counterintuitive pronunciations.

In each case I need the spelling.

Spell the word beaver in the name of the castle in Leicestershire,

the ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland.

(B-E-V-E?)

Any thoughts, Miles?

HE LAUGHS

B-E-V-E?

No, it's B-E-L-V-O-I-R.

Oh, Belvoir, yes.

Secondly can you spell the word "chumley"

as it appears in the name of a castle in Cheshire

and the name of the literary award,

both linked with the title of nobility.

C...

H-O-L-M-O-N-D-E-L-E-Y.

Correct, yes.

And finally, can you spell the word Beauly

in the name of a palace house in Hampshire, home of the national motor museum?

B-E-A-U-L-I-E-U.

Correct.

Right, another starter question.

"The sun amid small stars not only among the Italians

"but all the painters in the world."

Paraphrasing Dante, these words of the art theorist Giovanni Lomazzo

-refer to which Venetian artist who died in 1576?

-BUZZER

-Titian.

-Titian is correct, yes.

-Your bonuses are on chemistry, Courtauld Institute.

-LAUGHTER

In the borax bead test, a metal salt is mixed with borax

and heated in an oxidising or reducing flame.

The colour of the bead may be indicative of the metal in the sample.

I want the metals that give the following colours, please.

Firstly, yellow in oxidising flame and bottle green in reducing flame.

Lithium?

No, it's iron.

Secondly, deep blue in both oxidising and reducing flames.

(Just say lithium for everything. Try potassium.)

Potassium?

No, that's cobalt.

And finally, violet in oxidising flame

and grey or red in reducing flame.

-Potassium.

-No, that's nickel.

Right, 10 points for this. Which country is this?

Though a major exporter of agricultural products,

around 90% of its 40 million inhabitants live in urban areas

including more than 13 million in its capital,

which was the first city in the southern hemisphere

to have an underground railway system?

BUZZER

-Argentina?

-Correct.

Bristol, these bonuses are on Mozart.

Mozart's Symphony No.35 In D Major is often known by the name

of which prominent Salzburg family by whom it was commissioned?

(I don't know.)

(A prominent Salzburg family. Can anyone think of it?) (Esterhazy?)

(Esterhazy?)

Esterhazy?

No, it's the Haffner Symphony.

Mozart's Symphony No.38 In D Major has what popular name,

after a present-day European capital?

(Is it... Is it Madrid?)

-(Madrid?)

-(I don't think so but it might be...)

The Madrid Waltz or something like that. You'd know more than me.

-(Yeah, maybe.)

-(Paris?)

-Yeah.

-Paris?

No, it's Prague. Paris is 31, I think.

After a Roman god,

what name is given to Mozart's Symphony No.41 In C Major?

-Jupiter?

-Correct. 10 points for this.

Listen carefully, answer as soon as your name is called.

A rigid boat floats in deep, fresh water at four degrees Celsius.

It has a constant horizontal cross-sectional area of 50 square metres.

If you add one metric ton of cargo,

by how many centimetres does the boat's draft increase?

BUZZER

12.5

-No.

-BUZZER

-40.

-40? No, it's 2.

Right, 10 points for this.

Which novel begins with a diary entry that reads

"Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight,

-"the last human..."

-BUZZER

1984?

No.

"1 January 2021..." You lose 5 points.

"..three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth

"was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires,

-"aged 25 years, 2 months and 12 days."

-BUZZER

-Is it Children Of Men?

-It is The Children Of Men, yes.

By PD James.

These bonuses, Bristol, are on writings by politicians.

Who published his first novel, Vivian Grey,

anonymously in 1826 and his last completed work, Endymion, in 1880,

having twice served as Prime Minister in the intervening period?

Viscount Palmerston?

No, it was the Earl of Beaconsfield, Disraeli.

Secondly, A Defence Of Philosophic Doubt

is a work of 1879 by which future Conservative Prime Minister?

Critics have claimed that the title summed up his approach to politics.

Campbell-Bannerman?

No, it was Arthur Balfour, "Pretty Fanny" as he was called.

Whose diaries of his time in Harold Wilson's cabinet

were published posthumously from 1975 and were so revealing

that the government took legal action

to try to prevent publication?

-I'm blanking.

-Sorry?

-No, no, no... Who served in Wilson's cabinet?

I don't know.

-We don't know.

-That was Richard Crossman.

We're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you'll hear a piece of music from an opera.

All you have to do is to name the opera.

# Sempre libera degg'io folleggiare di...

BUZZER

Nabucco?

Nope. Anyone want to buzz from Bristol?

# ..vo'che scorra il viver mio pei sentieri del piacer.

# Nasca il giorno, o il giorno muoia,

# Sempre lieta ne' ritrovi, a diletti... #

BUZZER

Aida.

No, it's La Traviata. You both had the right composer, but nonetheless,

we'll come to the music bonuses in a moment or two, first off,

somebody has to get a starter question right.

10 points for this.

The US engineer Percy Spencer is generally credited

with the discovery in 1945 that led to the development

-of which household appliance when...?

-BUZZER

-Microwave?

-Correct, yes.

Right, you heard for that starter which none of you managed to identify,

which was Sempre Libra from La Traviata.

That was Maria Callas.

It heads a list of the most regularly performed operas in the world

according to the website Operabase.

For your bonuses, three more arias sung by Maria Callas,

each from an opera in the top ten of that list.

I want the title of the opera in each case.

Firstly, number six on the list.

# ...questo avverra, te lo prometto...

(This must be...)

# ...Tienti la tua... #

Madame Butterfly?

Well done, yes.

Secondly, placing 7th on the list.

# Una voce poco fa

# qui nel cor mi risuono

(It's either The Magic Flute or The Marriage Of Figaro.)

# ...il mio cor ferito e gia...

(The Magic Flute, maybe.)

(I don't recognise it, so...)

(Or Marriage Of Figaro.)

# ...fu che il piago...

Marriage Of Figaro?

No, that is from The Barber Of Seville by Rossini.

And finally, at number two on the list.

# L'oiseau que tu croyais surprendere Battit d'aile et s'envola.

(That's Carmen.)

(Carmen.)

-Carmen.

-Correct.

10 points for this.

In heraldry, what four-letter term denotes a broad horizontal band

across the middle of a shield?

By a different etymology, it is an informal verb

-meaning "admit wrongdoing" and is often followed by the word "up".

-BUZZER

-Fess.

-Fess is correct, yes.

These bonuses, Bristol, are on mathematics.

How many real roots are there

of the polynomial x to the power 100 minus 2?

(Say two.)

-Two.

-Correct.

How many complex roots are there

of the polynomial x to the power 100 minus 2?

(100.)

-100.

-Correct.

And finally, how many rational roots are there

of the polynomial x to the power 100 minus 2?

(Zero.)

-Zero.

-Congratulations, yes.

-Well done, Lewis.

-Thanks.

Another starter question. Which city of central Italy

is known as the universities town

-from the number of its teaching institutions?

-BUZZER

Oh, no, it's not Bologna, is it?

Bologna, but it's not.

It's not, you're quite right. You're going to lose 5 points too.

From the number of its teaching institutions.

Based on the river Tiber, it is the capital of the region of Umbria.

BUZZER

Pisa?

No.

It's Perugia. 10 points for this.

Present Indicative and Future Indefinite

-are volumes of autobiography by which...

-BUZZER

-Noel Coward.

-Correct, yes. Well done.

Right, Bristol, these bonuses are on the words "I am."

In each case name the Book of the King James Bible in which the following lines appear.

Firstly "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee

"out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

(Exodus? Exodus.)

-Exodus?

-Exodus is correct.

"I am the way, the truth and the life.

"No man cometh under the Father but by me."

What's the one that we said it always is?

LAUGHTER

-Leviticus?

-It's not always Leviticus!

No, that's from John.

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending."

-Could that be Revelation?

-(Revelation?

-Revelation.)

Revelation?

Correct.

Time for another picture round.

You're going to see a self-portrait.

10 points if you can name the artist.

BUZZER

Frans Hals?

No. Anyone want to buzz from Bristol?

BUZZER Delacroix?

No, it's Joseph Ducreux.

So, picture bonuses shortly, 10 points at stake for this starter question, fingers on the buzzers.

In the periodic table,

which element appears above tungsten and below chromium,

with which it's often alloyed in steel?

BUZZER

Ruthenium?

-No, anyone like to buzz from the Courtauld?

-BUZZER

Thallium?

Valium?!

-Thallium!

-So sorry...

-LAUGHTER

No, it's molybdenum.

Right, another starter question for this.

Blood And Sand, The Eagle and The Son Of The Sheikh

are among the films of which silent movie star

-whose sudden death in 1926...

-BUZZER

-Rudolph Valentino?

-Correct.

So, we're returning then to self-portraits

you'll be pleased to hear.

Following on from that idiosyncratic and internet-renowned self-portrait,

three more unusual self-portraits to identify.

In each case, please name the artist.

Firstly this Italian artist, often posited as a double self-portrait.

(Caravaggio.)

Caravaggio.

Yes, of course. Secondly, this German artist.

WHISPERING

(He wasn't German.)

(I think maybe...)

(Do you think it's someone more obvious than that?)

-(Have you got any idea at all?

-No, I've got...)

(Try, erm, yeah, try Macher.)

Macher?

No, it's Ernst Kirchner. Maybe you've not got that far yet.

Finally, this Dutch artist performing Blue Steel

some centuries before it became popular.

(That's Rembrandt.)

-Rembrandt.

-It is Rembrandt, yes.

Right, 10 points for this.

Pie bavarde in French,

urraca in Spanish and gazza in Italian are among the common names

-of which bird of the crow family?

-BUZZER

The raven.

No, I'm afraid you lose 5 points. Known binomially as Pica pica.

BUZZER

Blackbird?

That's not in the crow family.

It's the magpie.

Right, another starter question.

Menelik II became ruler of which country in 1889?

He's noted for an extensive programme of modernisation

-and for his defeat of an Italian...

-BUZZER

-Ethiopia.

-Correct.

Right, these bonuses are on central Asia, Bristol.

Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan,

is less than 40km from the borders of which neighbouring country?

(Uzbekistan?) Is it Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan?

-It's that way so it's...

-I think it's Uzbekistan.

-Uzbekistan?

-No, it's Iran.

Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan,

is within 60km of the border of which neighbouring country?

That's Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan.

No, that's Uzbekistan.

And finally, two central Asian capitals are within 20km of the borders of Kazakhstan.

For 5 points, name either one.

-Tashkent and...

-We only need one.

Tashkent.

Tashkent. Bishkek is the other one.

5 minutes to go, 10 points for this. Listen carefully.

The use of computers to control production processes

is sometimes known by the acronym CAD/CAM.

-For what do the letters D and M in the acronym stand?

-BUZZER

-Design and Manufacture.

-Correct.

Right, these bonuses are on a playwright, Courtauld.

"A little child whom the gods have whispered to."

These words of Mrs Patrick Campbell refer

to which Scottish playwright, born in 1860?

(Don't know. Just pass, we don't know.)

-I'm sorry, we don't know.

-That's JM Barrie.

Secondly, used by Peter Pan to describe death,

what four words did Beryl Bainbridge use

for the title of a novel in 1989?

(Adventure. Great adventure? Great or big? You think it's great?)

-(I think it's "A very big adventure".)

-OK.

A Very Big Adventure?

Bad luck, it's An Awfully Big Adventure.

And finally, give the two words that complete this line

from Barrie's play The Admirable Crichton.

"I'm not young enough to..." What?

-(Do you know?)

-(I don't know, "to care?")

-("To die?")

-(Could be, could be.)

Die?

-No, it's "know everything."

-Oh!

10 points for this.

In which present day country is the inland city of Brest,

which gives its name to a peace treaty of March 1918?

BUZZER

-Belarus.

-Correct.

The treaty that took Russia out of the First World War.

Your bonuses are on biochemistry, Bristol.

Which functional group is added to a protein by the class of enzymes known as protein kinases?

-(Amiam.)

-(Amiam?) Amiam group?

No, it's phosphate.

Which two amino acids are phosphorylated by STK,

that is, specific protein kinases?

-(Alanine and... cysteine.)

-(Alanine and cysteine?)

-Alanine and cysteine.

-No, it's serine and threonine.

And finally, known by a three-letter abbreviation,

what molecule is the usual donor of the phosphate molecule

in protein kinase catalysed phosphorylation?

-I... (ATP?)

-(ATP.)

-ATP.

-Correct.

Two and a half minutes to go, 10 points for this.

The atomic spectrum of which gas is characterised by emission lines

known as the Balmer, Lyman and Paschen series?

BUZZER

Oxygen?

No, anyone want to buzz from Courtauld?

BUZZER

Sulphur dioxide?

No, it's hydrogen.

Right, another starter question.

Which two rivers have their confluence

at the promontory known as the Deutsches Eck

or German Corner in Koblenz?

BUZZER

The Rhine and the... Main?

-Anyone like to buzz from Bristol?

-BUZZER

The Rhine and the Rhone?

No, it's the Rhine and the Moselle. 10 points for this.

In 1613, which royal house was established

after the Time Of Troubles,

-during which several pretenders occupied the throne of Russia?

-BUZZER

-The Romanovs.

-Correct.

Your bonuses now are on British history, Bristol.

Ennobled in 1918, the Conservative, George Cave,

became the last member of the House of Lords

to hold which great office of state?

-(Shall we say the Chancellor?)

-(Chancellor?)

Chancellor.

No, he was Home Secretary.

Secondly, who was the last member of the House of Lords

to have been Foreign Secretary?

He resigned in 1982.

-(Foreign Secretary?)

-Foreign Secretary...

Oof, erm...

I'll know when I hear it. LAUGHTER

-We don't know.

-That was Lord Carrington.

Resigned over the Falklands.

Who was the last person to remain a peer

throughout his time as Prime Minister?

His last term was from 1895-1902.

(Lord...) (No. That was the... No. The Marquess of Salisbury.)

-The Marquess of Salisbury.

-Correct.

10 points for this, listen carefully.

The term interstadial

describes a minor period of less-cold climate during an ice age.

What term denotes a longer and more marked period between two ice ages?

BUZZER

-Interglacial.

-Correct.

You get a set of bonuses, this time...

..on an American novelist.

Telegraph Avenue is a novel of 2012 by which author

who won the Pulitzer Prize

for The Amazing Adventures Of Cavalier And Clay?

-GONG

-And at the gong, the Courtauld Institute of Art have 75,

Bristol University have 190.

The answer, incidentally, is Michael Chabon.

I think we're going to be saying goodbye to you, Courtauld,

but you were a very, very nice team. Thank you for joining us.

-And Bristol - actually, you're two nice teams!

-Thank you.

I must be getting soft.

Anyway, you were both an absolute delight to have

and we shall look forward to seeing you, Bristol,

in the next stage of the competition.

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

-but until then it's goodbye from the Courtauld Institute.

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Bristol University.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.