Episode 25 University Challenge

Asking the questions - Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Around 130 teams applied to take part in this contest.

28 have done so and now, as we begin the quarterfinal round,

only the best eight remain.

They are Imperial College London, Newcastle University,

Nuffield College - Oxford, Liverpool University,

St Catherine's College - Cambridge, St John's College - Oxford

and the two competing tonight, the University of York

and Peterhouse - Cambridge.

To progress to the semifinal stage,

our Byzantine rules demand a team must win two quarterfinal matches.

A team that loses two matches, therefore, leaves the contest

and a team that wins one match but loses another

must play and win again to go through.

To add even further to the teams' happiness,

from now on, the questions get harder.

Now, the team from the University of York

got here by beating Manchester University in round one

and Christ College - Cambridge in round two.

Their accumulated score is 490

earned with an impressively broad range of knowledge

and, of course, whatever intellectual comfort

comes from their plastic duck.

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

Hello, my name is Barto Joly de Lotbiniere.

I'm from London and I'm studying history.

Hello, I'm Sam Smith.

I'm from Guernsey and I study chemistry.

And this is their captain.

Hello, my name's David Langdon Cole.

I'm from Yeovil in Somerset and I'm studying politics.

Hi, I'm Joseph McLoughlin.

I'm from Oldham in Lancashire and I'm studying chemistry.

APPLAUSE

Now, the team from Peterhouse - Cambridge

beat the University of Glasgow in round one

and the medics of St George's, London in round two

with an accumulated score of 380.

They've probably learned by now not the base their answers

on snippets of information from High School Musical

but, that aside, they too have impressed in both their matches

with the breadth of their knowledge.

With an average age of 20, let's meet the Peterhouse team again.

Hello. I'm Thomas Langley.

I'm from Newcastle upon Tyne and I'm reading history.

Hello. I'm Oscar Powell.

I'm from York and I'm reading geological sciences.

And this is their captain.

Hi, I'm Hannah Woods.

I'm from Manchester and I'm studying for a PhD in history.

Hello. I'm Julian Sutcliffe.

I'm from Reading in Berkshire and I'm also reading history.

APPLAUSE

Well, I'm sure you know I'm supposed to recite the rules at this point

but let's not bother. Let's just get on with it.

Ten points at stake for this. Fingers on the buzzers, please.

What term was used in the title of a book of 2014 by Owen Jones,

subtitled...

The Establishment.

The Establishment is correct. Yes.

Right, you get the first set of bonuses, York. They're on a museum.

Firstly, for five points,

opened to the public in 1759,

which museum was located in Montagu House in Bloomsbury

until it was demolished in the 1840s

to make way for the present-day building?

-The British Museum?

-I presume so.

The British Museum.

Correct. The British Museum was established in 1753

as a result of which physician and naturalist

having bequeathed his collection to the nation

in return for a payment of £20,000 to his heirs?

-Sir Hans Sloane.

-OK.

Sir Hans Sloane.

Correct. In 1972, an exhibition that proved to be the most popular

in the museum's history, with over 1.5 million visitors,

displayed artefacts from which country?

-I'm guessing Egypt.

-Yeah, it's Tutankhamen, isn't it?

-Yeah?

Egypt.

Egypt is correct. It was the Tutankhamen exhibition.

Ten points at stake for this. Fingers on the buzzers

"Its five square miles have defined

"what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West."

These words of a film critic refer to which national park

on the borders of Arizona and Utah?

Monument Valley.

Monument Valley is correct. Yes.

These bonuses are on excess in classical literature, York.

A plate bearing 12 dishes, each based on a sign of the zodiac,

and a wild boar stuffed with live blackbirds

are among the dishes served during the feast given

by which character in the Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter?

Is that the Roman emperor who...? Nero or...

-Famously over-ate but...

-Nominate Smith.

Elagabalus.

No, it's Trimalchio.

And, secondly, the Emperor Vitellius enjoyed a dish of pike liver

with the brains of pheasants and peacocks and the tongues of flamingos

according to which Roman historian in The Twelve Caesars?

Is that Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars?

Maybe. No, no, it's...

Suetonius.

Suetonius is correct.

And, finally, having indulged to excess,

Aristophanes suffers an attack of hiccups

which causes him to miss his first turn to speak

in which work of the 4th Century BC?

So...Dialogues or something?

Dialogues.

No, it's The Symposium of Plato. Ten points for this.

In topology, what five-letter term denotes the Cartesian product

of two circles, while, in three-dimensional geometry,

it describes the shape of the tokamak confinement vessel

used in some experimental...

Torus.

Torus is right.

Your bonuses, York, this time are on planned astronomical instruments.

In each case, I would like to have

either the full name or the abbreviation.

Firstly, on completion in around 2020,

what will be the world's largest radio telescope by collecting area?

Its headquarters are at Manchester University's Jodrell Bank Observatory

with locations in both Australia and South Africa.

The Square Kilometre Array.

Square Kilometre Array.

Correct. To be sited on Cerro Pachon in Chile,

which optical telescope, with a wide field of view

and a large primary mirror, is designed to provide

a detailed 3-D map of the universe?

That could be the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope.

We think this may be the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope.

It may well be overwhelmingly large

but it's called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

And, finally, a successor to Hubble and named after a NASA official,

which instrument is due for launch in 2018

and will be largest infrared telescope in space?

Is that Goddard?

-OK.

-Anyone? I don't know.

Goddard.

No, it's the James Webb Space Telescope. Ten points for this.

Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Leven were two of the commanders

who were victorious over Prince Rupert at which battle...

Marston Moor.

Marston Moor is correct.

Right, first set of bonuses, Peterhouse, are on a French thinker.

Who wrote Les Provinciales in 1656-57 in defence of Antoine Arnaud,

a Jansenist put on trial before the Faculty of Theology in Paris

for his controversial religious works?

Pascal.

Correct. Including humorous attacks on casuistry,

the Provinciales are a series of 18 letters that deal with divine grace

and the ethical code of which religious order?

Jesuits.

Jesuits.

Correct.

The necessity of the wager on whether to accept the Christian faith

is perhaps the best known chapter

of which collection of writings by Pascal?

-Is it Pensees?

-Yeah, it's Pensees.

Er, can I nominate you?

-Nominate Langley.

-Pensees.

Pensees is correct, or Thoughts. Yes.

We're going to take a picture round.

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

with two notes representing a harmonic interval.

For ten points, I want the two-word name

by which the interval between those notes is known.

Dominant fifth.

No. Anyone like to buzz from Peterhouse?

Augmented fifth?

No, it's a perfect fifth.

We'll take the picture bonuses in a moment or two

and we get another starter question in the meantime.

Nominated in 2011 for the Grammy record and song of the year,

which song by the group Bon Iver is named after the epoch

that's the latest interval of geological...

Holocene.

Holocene is correct, yes.

Right, so you get the picture bonuses, then, York.

There are three more musical staves with harmonic intervals represented.

Five points in each case if you can give me the name of the intervals.

Firstly...

That is a minor third.

Minor third.

Correct. Secondly, by what name are these two equivalent intervals known?

They are augmented fourth or diminished fifth.

Augmented fourth or diminished fifth.

Or a tritone, yes.

And, finally, how is this interval commonly known?

-That is an octave.

-An octave.

Correct.

Ten points for this starter question.

Fear no more the heat o' the sun

Nor the furious winter's rages

Thou thy worldly task hast done

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.

These words appear in which play by Shakespeare,

variously classified as both a tragedy and a romance?

Romeo And Juliet.

No.

Antony And Cleopatra.

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

Introduced by the US physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon,

what phrase denotes a physical response that is mobilised

by the secretion of adrenaline after an organism is confronted

with a situation...

Fight and flight.

Fight or flight is correct, yes.

You get this set the bonuses on the plays of Richard Bean.

Firstly, One Man, Two Guvnors was Richard Bean's 2011 adaptation

of the Servant of Two Masters,

a comedy of 1746 by which Italian playwright?

I knew the play but not the author.

Do we know any Italian playwrights?

I don't think we can...

Pass.

That was by Carlo Goldoni.

Secondly, first performed at the Royal National Theatre in June 2014,

which work concerns the press, the police

and the political establishment and centres on the activities

of a tabloid newspaper known as The Free Press?

-Shall I just guess something?

-Yeah.

Hacked.

No, it's Great Britain.

Also first performed in 2014, which play is Bean's retelling

of the colonisation of an eponymous island

by Fletcher Christian and the Bounty mutineers?

-Pitcairn.

-Pitcairn?

Pitcairn.

Correct. Ten points for this.

John F Kennedy is one of only two US presidents

to be buried in Arlington Cemetery. Who's the other?

He served as Secretary for War under Theodore Roosevelt

and, following his presidency, became Chief Justice of the Supreme...

Taft.

Taft is right. William Howard Taft.

These bonuses are on graph theory, Peterhouse.

Firstly, a simple graph is defined as a set of vertices

interconnected by edges.

What term is used for the number of edges incident to a given vertex?

Something like degree or order.

-Order!

-Order.

Order.

No, it was degree.

What name is given to a simple graph

in which every vertex has the same degree?

Maybe it's homogeneous. I don't know. I don't know but go for it.

Homogeneous.

No, it's regular.

Often denoted by a capital letter K with a numerical subscript,

what name is given to a graph in which every vertex

shares an edge with every other vertex?

So, is that...

I really don't know.

I mean, graphs couldn't count as polygons...

Just try polygon. It's completely wrong but...

Polygon.

No, you're quite right. It is completely wrong.

It's complete. Ten points for this.

Created as an alternative to the Prix Goncourt,

which literary prize has been awarded to a French novel

every year since 1933?

It takes its name from the Paris cafe noted for the patronage of...

Le Deux Magots.

Prix des Deux Magots. That's correct.

You get a set of bonuses this time on a novel, Peterhouse.

Published in 1818, which novel opens with a letter

written in St Petersburg addressed to a Mrs Saville in England?

Do we know? 1818?

I can't even think.

It's not going to be something like Crime and Punishment.

It's English.

Oh. I don't know. St Petersburg.

1818.

-When's Vanity Fair?

-Yeah, go for it. I don't know.

Vanity Fair.

No, it's Frankenstein.

Frankenstein was conceived during the much-cited sojourn in 1816

of Mary Shelley and four others at the Villa Diodati

on the shores of which lake?

Was it Como?

Yeah.

Or was it Garda?

-Como or Garda?

-I don't know.

-Shall we try Como?

-Yeah.

Lake Como.

No, it's Lake Geneva.

Quote - Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mould me, man?

Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me? - Unquote.

These words appear on the original title page of Frankenstein

and are taken from which epic poem?

-Paradise Lost?

-Shall I try that?

-Yeah.

Paradise Lost.

Correct. Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

The name of the university based at New Haven, Connecticut,

the name of the unit of pressure of around one atmosphere

and a word meaning sooner than expected...

Bar. B-A-R.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

May all be made using letters of the name of which food grain?

Wheat. No, it's not.

No, it's barley, as in Yale, bar and early.

-Oh, of course it is!

-Ten points for this starter question.

According to ancient tradition,

Pyrrho of Elis was the first philosopher to take on the view

that nothing can be known with certainty.

From the Greek for enquiring, what term describes this?

Solipsism.

No. Peterhouse.

One of you buzz, come on.

Scepticism.

Scepticism. Sceptics is correct. Yes.

Just a slip of the tongue, I think, York,

but it's cost you the points and the opportunity of these bonuses

which are on Greek mythology and British opera, Peterhouse.

Based largely on Homer's Iliad, King Priam premiered in 1962

and was the second major opera by which British composer,

also known for The Midsummer Marriage and The Knot Garden?

I really don't know.

-Is that too late for Britten?

-Yes.

I don't know any more composers.

Can we make a guess?

We don't know.

That was by Sir Michael Tippett.

First performed in 1988, Greek is an opera

based on Steven Burkoff's reworkings

of Sophocles's tragedy Oedipus The King

and is set by which British composer?

-Do we have any idea?

-I can't think of anyone.

-We don't...

-We could guess one.

-It could be Vaughn Williams or Elgar...

-It's too late.

-It's too late for those.

-Oh, I don't know then.

We don't know, sorry.

Oh, dear! It's Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Which British composer's works include the operas

The Mask Of Orpheus in 1986 and The Minotaur in 2008?

I mean, some things... We just don't know.

We don't know.

It's getting a bit familiar, this lament. LAUGHTER

It's Harrison Birtwistle. Ten points for this, answer promptly here.

In the 200 years before the accession of Henry VII,

six kings of England were deposed or killed in battle.

Name three of them.

Richard, James IV...

-Richard who?

-Richard III.

-Yes.

-James IV...

-Nope.

-Ah.

Anyone like to buzz from Peterhouse?

Richard III, Henry VI and Edward II.

That's correct, yes, well done. APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses on biochemistry, Peterhouse.

LAUGHTER

Members of which major group of biological molecules contain

an amine group - a hydrogen atom and a carboxylic acid group

attached to a tetravalent carbon atom?

They're amino acids.

-Amino acids.

-Correct.

Which amino acid contains two aromatic rings

and is a precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin?

-Is a tryptophan?

-Shall I try that?

Oh, no, it is! It is tryptophan.

-Tryptophan.

-It is.

What is the seven-letter name

of the only cyclic proteinogenic imino acid - that is I-M-I-N-O -

specified in the genetic code?

-Only cyclic?

-I don't know.

-No, I do, I do.

Proline, I think it's proline. I don't know, but... Try it.

-Proline.

-Proline is right.

We're going to take a music round.

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

Ten points if you can give me the name of the British composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

-Vaughan Williams.

-It is Vaughn Williams, yes.

APPLAUSE Part of his Symphony Number Six.

So that was from the first recording of Vaughan Williams'

sixth symphony, conducted by Leopold Stokowski, renowned for his concert

and recording premiers of many 20th-century works.

For your bonuses, three more pieces of work conducted by Stokowski,

each being the first recording made of that piece.

For five points each, I want the name of the composer, please.

Firstly, this Russian composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

-Prokofiev.

-No, that's Shostakovich's sixth.

And, secondly, this French composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Nominate McLoughlin.

-Messiaen.

-Correct.

And finally, this Nordic composer:

CLASSICAL MUSIC

-Sibelius.

-Correct, well done.

OK, a starter question now.

In degrees, at what angle off the axis of sunlight

is a rainbow formed?

-42.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get three bonuses on language families, Peterhouse.

Firstly, Turkic and Mongolian are two branches of which

broad language family, named after a range of mountains on the borders

of China, Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan?

No, no, they're in...

Uralic? Would it? China, Russia...

-I liked Altaic.

-What...? Yes.

-I'll try that.

-Altaic.

-Correct.

Extending north/south through Russia,

which mountain range gives its name to a family whose languages

include Hill Mari, Meadow Mari, Finnish and Hungarian?

-Urals.

-Correct.

Georgian, Abkhaz and Chechen are languages belonging to

families with names referring to which mountain range?

Caucasus?

-Caucasus.

-Correct.

Ten points for this.

In the title of a work first published in 1905,

the German sociologist Max Weber related

the Protestant ethic to the spirit of which...?

-Capitalism.

-Correct

APPLAUSE

So you get a set of bonuses now on World War II, Peterhouse.

In August 1942, which country became the first in South America

to declare war on the Axis?

It later sent an expeditionary force to fight in Italy.

-I really don't know. Can we make an educated guess?

-Argentina?

No, it won't be Argentina. Because they were a refuge for the Nazis.

-Yeah, they were..

-Erm...

-Brazil?

We've just offended a lot of Argentinians.

I'll make a random guess, unless anyone can make an educated one.

-Chile, Brazil?

-Brazil.

Brazil.

Very educated guess, it's right.

The Firestone plantation in which African country

was a major supplier of rubber to the Allies?

The country in question declared war on Germany and Japan in January 1944.

-I'd assume the Congo if it's rubber.

-Yeah.

Congo?

-The Congo.

-No, it was Liberia.

As a precondition for participation in the United Nations conference,

which Mediterranean country declared war on Germany in February 1945?

There was no military involvement.

I don't know things about history, so...

-Italy?

-Italy?

February 1945? No, that'd be too early.

There was no military involvement with this country.

Not Spain, not Greece...

Possibly... Oh! Maybe Turkey?

Turkey.

Turkey's correct.

Right, another picture round.

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

Ten points if you can name the subject depicted.

-Cardinal Richelieu.

-It is Cardinal Richelieu, yes.

APPLAUSE

Now, for your picture bonuses, York,

you're going to see portraits of three more cardinals

of the Roman Catholic Church, this time, all Englishmen.

Five points for each you can name. Firstly...

That's John Henry Newman.

-Newman.

-That is Newman, yes.

Secondly, who's this?

That's De la Pole.

I don't know his first name. Pole.

Just say Pole?

-Pole? Cardinal Pole?

-Cardinal Pole is right.

And finally, who's this?

Wolsey.

-That's Wolsey.

-It is Cardinal Wolsey, yes. Right.

Ten points for this.

What common unit corresponds most closely to two microyears?

-A minute.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on

Areas Of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Peterhouse.

In each case, name the AONB from the list of locations.

All three answers have two-word names that include the name of a county.

Firstly - Farway, Otterton, Budleigh Salterton and Newton Poppleford?

-Do we have any...?

-I think that's one of the moors.

Do we know the county that they're near?

-The Yorkshire Moors...

-Otterton rings a bell.

-The North Yorkshire Moors are three-word names...

-Yorkshire Dales?

-Yorkshire Dales? I don't think those places sound...

-I don't know.

Go for the Yorkshire Dales, but I should know it, really.

-Go for it.

-We're going to try Yorkshire Dales.

Nowhere near, it's East Devon.

Secondly - Wormshill, Chevening, Blue Bell Hill and Sevenoaks Weald?

-Kent?

-That's Kent.

-Downs?

-Is there a Kent Downs?

I don't know, marshes?

Try it. No, it won't be marshes, I don't think.

Say Kent Downs.

The Kent Downs...

Correct. RELIEVED LAUGHTER

And finally, Craster, Beal, Seahouses, Alnmouth and Bamburgh?

The Norfolk Broads hasn't come up yet.

-They're there in the North, they're North East.

-Yeah.

-Northumberland what? Moors?

-Norfolk Broads. Broads.

-They're in Northumberland.

-Oh.

-Just say Northumberland.

-It's a two-word thing.

-Northumberland Dales.

-Come on.

-The Whitby Dales.

-Hills.

-Northumberland Moors.

-No, it's Northumberland Coast.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully -

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address of 1863

could have opened with the words, "87 years ago."

Instead, he chose specifically...?

-Fourscore and seven.

-Fourscore and seven, correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Peterhouse, are on South Korea.

What is the second-largest city of South Korea?

It's situated on the south-eastern tip of the Korean peninsula,

around 300km from Seoul.

-Do you know any other cities apart from Incheon?

-No.

Nominate Sutcliffe.

-Incheon?

-No, it's Busan, or Pusan.

80km north of Busan,

which city was the capital of the Silla Kingdom

for almost 1,000 years until 935?

Its historic areas are inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

That might be Incheon.

I don't know, I don't know many cities in South Korea.

Incheon.

No, that's Gyeongju.

And finally, which city at the mouth of the Han River

is the main seaport of Seoul?

In 1950, UN forces landed there

in an attempt to turn back the Communist invasion.

-We think that IS Incheon.

-That was Incheon, yes.

With three minutes to go, ten points for this.

What two-word English name is often given to Plattduetsch,

a vernacular language spoken...?

-Low German.

-Low German is right. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on botany, York.

Specifically the floral formula which records

the structure of a plant by means of symbols, letters and numbers.

Firstly, in a floral formula, what is represented by the letter A?

Type of flower?

Colour of flower?

-Colour of flower.

-No, it's the androecium, the stamens.

What is represented by the letter K?

So it begins with a K?

Carpel?

No, it's the calyx, or sepals.

And what is represented by the letter C?

-Carpel?

-No, that's the corolla, or petals.

Ten points for this.

In astronomy and calendar studies, what five-letter word commonly

follows Metonic, Callippic, Sothic and Saros?

-Scale.

-No, anyone want to buzz from Peterhouse?

Quickly.

-Orbit?

-No, it's cycle. And I have to fine you five points, York,

because that was an incorrect interruption.

So, another starter question.

How many years separate the start of the Seven Years' War

from the beginning of the Suez Crisis?

Six.

Oh, gosh, no!

-200.

-200 is correct!

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses, York, on invertebrate physiology.

Firstly, found in the plasma of many molluscs and crustacea,

hemocyanins are metalloproteins transporting what substance?

-Oxygen?

-Oxygen, yeah.

-Oxygen.

-Correct.

What metal atom in hemocyanin binds to oxygen?

-Copper.

-Correct.

What colour is hemocyanin when oxygenated?

-Er, blue.

-Blue.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Which US state is bordered by Washington and Oregon to the West,

and Montana and Wyoming...?

-Idaho.

-Idaho is correct, you get a set of bonuses,

this time on novels with narratives confined to a single day.

Firstly, taking place on a single day in June 1923, which novel opens with

its title character announcing that she would buy the flowers herself?

-Mrs Dalloway.

-Correct.

Taking place on a single day in January 1951, which novel opens

with reveille being sounded at 5am by a hammer hitting a length of rail?

-No, just pass it.

-Don't know.

That was One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich.

And finally, taking place on February the 15, 2003,

which novel opens with a neurosurgeon rising from bed at 3:40am?

-Don't know.

-That was Ian McEwan's Saturday. Ten points for this.

In physics, what character in upper case can represent

a constant energy density in empty space,

while in lower case it can represent wavelength?

F.

Anyone like to buzz from York?

-Nu.

-No, it's lambda.

Ten points for this:

What anglicised form of the name of the city of his birth

appeared in the title of John, Duke of Lancaster, the father of Henry IV?

-Gaunt.

-Gaunt is correct.

APPLAUSE

GONG

And at the gong, York have 165, Peterhouse have 185.

APPLAUSE

I thought you were going to pull off a sensational recovery there, York.

But 165, you'll be coming back anyway.

But next time you come back, you will have to win.

Peterhouse, congratulations to you, you've got to win one more to stay

in the contest and go through to the semifinals, that's all.

I hope you can join us next time for another quarterfinal match,

-but until then, it is goodbye from York University.

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Peterhouse - Cambridge.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

APPLAUSE