Episode 26 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello.

Last time, we saw Peterhouse - Cambridge win the first

of the two quarterfinal victories our insufferable rules demand

before a team can take a place in the semifinals.

Tonight's teams aim to do the same.

St Catharine's College - Cambridge arrived here by beating

the University of Southampton in Round One

and Nottingham University in Round Two,

with an accumulated score of 375.

Viewers baffled by their choice of mascot will remember that

St Catharine of Alexandria, after whom the college is named,

was martyred on a wheel.

In the absence of a handy torture device or firework,

they've brought a ship's steering wheel instead.

Let's hope such impeccable logic helps them

with the questions that lie ahead.

With an average age of 19, let's meet the St Catz team again.

Hi, I'm Callum Watson, I'm from Stirlingshire

and I'm studying maths.

Hi, I'm Ellie Chan.

I'm from Brighton and I'm reading for a PhD in history of art.

-This is their captain.

-Hello, I'm Callum Bungey.

I'm from London and I'm reading chemistry.

Hi, I'm Alex Cranston.

I'm from London and I'm reading for a degree in biological

natural sciences.

APPLAUSE

Now, the team from St John's College - Oxford

beat Bristol University

in Round One and Queen's University - Belfast in Round Two.

And their accumulated score is 435.

Last time, their strengths included adaptations of Shakespeare's Macbeth,

US panhandles and the kind of thing

that Tilda Swinton's likely to get up to.

Also with an average age of 19, let's meet the St John's team again.

Hi, my name is Alex Harries.

I am from South Wales and I'm reading history.

Hello, my name is Charlie Clegg, I'm from Glasgow

-and I'm reading theology.

-And this is their captain.

Hi, my name is Angus Russell.

I'm from Mill Hill in North London and I study history and Russian.

Hi, I'm Dan Sowood.

I'm from Uxbridge in Middlesex and I'm reading chemistry.

APPLAUSE

OK, let's crack on with it then.

Fingers on other buzzers, here's your first starter for ten.

Based on an old name for Sri Lanka,

what word is thought to have been coined by...?

-Serendipity.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on clergymen in 19th-century literature, St John's.

"My mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh,

"to teach them to clothe themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety."

In which novel does the clergyman Mr Brocklehurst say this

to the superintendent of a girls' school?

Is this Jane Eyre? I've got a feeling.

OK, yeah, yeah.

-Jane Eyre.

-Correct.

The ambitious young clergyman Mark Robarts is the central character

of which novel by Anthony Trollope?

-Oh, is it Barchester Towers, maybe?

-Shall we go...?

-Chronicles of Barchester, is that...?

-Um...

-Barchester Towers?

-OK. Barchester Towers.

No, it's Framley Parsonage.

Described by the author as "not a sensible man,"

the clergyman Mr Collins is a character

in which of Jane Austen's novels?

-OK?

-Pride And Prejudice.

-Pride And Prejudice.

Correct. Ten points for this.

In pure mathematics, what six-letter term denotes

the set of elements that are mapped to the zero element under a given...?

-Kernel.

-Kernel is correct, yes.

You get a set of bonuses on the composer Claude Debussy.

Puck's Dance and Homage to S Pickwick are among the titles

in two collections of impressionistic piano pieces by Debussy.

These bear the name of what specific musical form,

also associated with JS Bach and Chopin?

Um, what music...canon? I'm not sure.

-Canon, prelude.

-A prelude!

Prelude is more associated with Chopin as well.

-Because... I wouldn't have thought a canon is associated with Chopin.

-No.

-Prelude.

-Prelude is correct.

What goat-like being of Greek myth appears in the title

of Debussy's symphonic poem of 1894 inspired by a work by Mallarme?

-Yeah.

-Satyr.

-No, it's a faun.

And finally, a stylised interpretation

of Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa

appears on the cover of the 1905 first edition

of which symphonic sketch by Debussy?

You can give me the short title in French or English.

BUNGEY SIGHS

Oh...

-Can you think of anything by Debussy?

-What? Clair De Lune.

It's Clair De Lune.

No, it's La Mer, The Sea.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

An internet meme begins, "If you ever feel bad about procrastinating..."

It then refers to the story that the overture to an opera bouffe of 1787

was composed on the morning of its first performance.

-Don Giovanni.

-By?

-Mozart.

-Correct.

Your bonuses this time, St Catharine's, are on philosophy.

"The thoughts that I publish in what follows are the precipitate

"of philosophical investigations that have occupied me

"for the last 16 years."

These words in translation appear in the preface to a work

by which philosopher, published posthumously in 1953?

-Wittgenstein.

-Pardon?

-What do you think?

-Who are you saying?

-She's saying Wittgenstein.

-What did you say?

-No, it's fine.

-No, no.

-What was your idea?

-Camus cos he died about then.

-Camus?

-Cam-oo?

-Sorry!

-Um...

Ugh, can't decide!

-Wittgenstein.

-It was Wittgenstein, yes.

Wittgenstein originally moved to England to study

aeronautical engineering.

During this time, he became profoundly influenced by which

British philosopher's Principles Of Mathematics?

Russell.

Oh, yeah. Um, Russell.

Correct.

During his time in a POW camp, Wittgenstein completed

and sent to Russell a draft of the work first published in English

in 1922 under what three-word title?

Is that the semanticy one?

-Um...

-Hmm... Like, Meaning Of Words...?

-And...no.

-No. Um...

-Oh!

-Something with logic.

-Oh, um... Of logic?

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

-Um, Meaning Of Words.

No, it's the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

Ten points for this.

With Leland Hartwell and Tim Hunt,

which British biochemist jointly received the Nobel Prize in...?

-Gordon.

-No, you lose five points.

..jointly received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2001

for discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle?

He was elected president of the Royal Society in 2010.

One of you may buzz, St John's.

-Martin Rees.

-No, it was Sir Paul Nurse.

Martin Rees is an astronomer.

Ten points for this.

In Aristotle's Politics, what term denotes the oppressive rule

of one person that's the degenerate form of monarchy?

In Plato's Republic, it's described as arising naturally

from tendencies inherent in democracy.

-Tyranny.

-Tyranny is correct, yes.

That puts you on level pegging.

Bonuses will give you the lead, if you get them. They're on astronomy.

A diagram that plots the absolute magnitude of stars

against their temperature or spectral type was independently

developed in the early 20th century

by the American Henry Norris Russell and which Danish astronomer?

-That's...

-Don't know.

-Go.

-Hertzsprung.

Hertzsprung is correct.

What two-word term denotes the diagonal band that runs from

the upper left to the bottom right of a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram?

The sun is an example of a star that lies in this region.

-Was it the axis?

-What's the axis called, what's it called?

-Um, um...

The ideal belt or something, I don't know.

-Red zone.

-Yeah, OK. Red zone.

No, it's called a main sequence.

In an advanced stage of stellar evolution,

Sirius B is an example of what type of astronomical object

which lies beneath the main sequence on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram?

Sirius B? Sirius is...

-It's going to do with a red giant or white dwarf or something.

-OK.

-Red giant?

-Definitely red giant.

-OK, all go for red giant.

-I...

-OK, if you want, yeah.

-Red giant.

-No, it's a white dwarf.

-Oh.

-Bad luck.

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

For your picture starter, you're going to see an image

of a £2 coin with some text removed.

The coin commemorates a major anniversary.

Given this, I want you to work out the year in which it was

released in the UK.

2011.

Correct, let's see the whole thing.

Yes, it's the anniversary

of the King James Bible.

So, you get a set of bonuses now on more £2 coins

from the last ten years.

Again, each was released to commemorate a major anniversary.

Again, from this,

I want you to work out the year of their release in the UK.

Firstly, for five?

-This is Darwin...

-18...

2009. Because it was 150 years

since Origin Of Species.

That's 1859 and 200 years

-since his birth.

-Yes. 2009.

That is correct. We'll see

the whole thing, there it is.

And secondly...

-That's the union.

-2007?

-Yes, 2007.

-2007.

Indeed, commemorating

the Act Of Union. And finally?

That's Magna Carta.

-2015.

-2015.

-Yes, 2015.

It is, commemorating

the Magna Carta in 2015, yes.

Right. Another starter question.

Which year saw the return of Erik Eriksson as King of Sweden,

the Mongol conquest of the Chinese Jin Dynasty

and the start of the personal rule of King Henry III of England?

It was also the last time the year number formed a consecutive

and ascending sequence?

-1234.

-Correct.

Your bonuses, St Catharine's, are on recognition scenes in Shakespeare.

In each case, name the play in which a parent says these words

to a child thought dead or lost.

First, "To deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind.

"Methinks I should know you."

-I know that's not...

-I think it could be The Winter's Tale.

-The Winter's tale.

-No, that's King Lear to Cordelia.

"Thou that was born at sea, buried at Tarsus and found at sea again."

-Pericles.

-Pericles to Marina, yes.

And, "If this prove a vision of the island,

"one dear son shall I twice lose."

-The Tempest.

-Tempest.

-It is,

Alonso of Ferdinand. Another starter question now.

Also called a spheroidal joint, what name is given in anatomy...?

-Ball and socket.

-Correct.

These bonuses, which will give you the lead,

are on pairs of names, if you get them.

For each pair, the internet country code

of the first name is the same as the UK postcode of the second.

For example, Nepal and Newport,

both share the abbreviation NP.

I want you name both places from the descriptions.

Firstly, a self-governing commonwealth in the Greater Antilles

and a city in Lancashire -

the birthplace of the cricketer Andrew Flintoff

and the animator Nick Park.

HE MUMBLES QUIETLY

Um, I think that was Lesser Antilles.

So it's not Montserrat.

Aren't those on different...?

Turks and Caicos.

Maybe, TC. And then town in Lancashire.

Uh...

-Morecambe and Montserrat.

-Pardon, sorry?

Morecambe and Montserrat.

-I can't quite hear you...

-Morecambe and Montserrat.

-Morecambe and Montserrat.

-No, it's Puerto Rico and Preston.

And secondly, a small Pacific island country that grew wealthy

from its phosphate deposits and a city on the River Wensum

noted for a Norman cathedral with one of the tallest spires in England.

-Um, Wensum.

-Which would it be?

-Seems pretty...

-In England?

-Oh, yeah.

-What was the first one?

-Nauru.

-And Norwich?

-Nauru and Norwich.

Correct.

And finally, an island state in the Gulf of Guinea

and the urban area known as The Potteries.

-Sao Tome and Principe is...

-OK.

Um... And then...

Where are The Potteries? It's not Sheffield.

-I don't know.

-Is it in Nottinghamshire?

-Maybe, but what town?

-Yeah.

Come on.

Sao Tome and Principe and Sheffield.

No, it's and Stoke-on-Trent, so you can't get that, I'm afraid.

Right, ten points at stake for this starter question.

Now in the Louvre, Michelangelo's sculptures of

The Dying and The Rebellious Slave were originally intended for the tomb

of which Pope, who had earlier...?

-Julius II.

-Correct.

Uh, St John's, your bonuses are on US presidents

in the words of Alistair Cooke's America.

In each case, name the 20th-century president from the description.

"Neither Britain nor France envisioned the peace settlement

"quite as he'd led the American people to see it

"as a kind of moral Olympiad

"at which the United States would be the host nation."

That seems to be Wilson.

-Woodrow Wilson.

-Correct.

"But now he was simply the football coach whose players lost

"the big game, and his bitter memorial was the shantytowns

"of the unemployed down by the rivers of scores of cities."

-That would be Hoover.

-Yeah, Hoover?

-Hoover.

-It was Herbert Hoover.

And finally, "He brought national relief to national employment.

"He conserved the soil of the worn-out South,

"he established once and for all the federal government's right

"to plan economic and social welfare on a national scale."

-It's FD?

-FDR, yes.

-Franklin Roosevelt.

-Franklin D Roosevelt is correct, yes.

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

For your music starter,

you'll hear an excerpt from an opera.

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

ITALIAN OPERA MUSIC PLAYS

Verdi?

No. You can hear a little more, St Catharine's.

MUSIC CONTINUES

-Bizet.

-No, it's Rossini.

That was from Moses In Egypt.

So, music bonuses in a moment or two

when someone gets a starter question right.

Ten points at stake for this.

What two-word term was coined in a work of 1904 by O Henry

to describe the small maritime fictional country of Anchuria?

It has since come to refer generally...

-Banana Republic.

-Correct.

So, we follow on from Rossini's Moses In Egypt's with music bonuses.

Three more operatic pieces inspired by the Bible.

This time, all first performed in the 20th century.

In each case, I want the name of the composer for five points. Firstly...

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYS

-It might be...

-What's it?

-Yeah, I think it's...

-Berg?

-I think Berg.

Shall we go with that? Berg.

No, that's by Richard Strauss, it's from Salome. Secondly...

GERMAN OPERA MUSIC PLAYS

I think Berg fits this. I...

-It's atonal, it's...

-Yeah, shall we go with that?

-Yeah.

Berg again.

No, that's Schoenberg from Moses And Aaron. And finally...

ENGLISH OPERA MUSIC PLAYS

-Steve Reich. I'm fairly sure it's him.

-I'll nominate you, OK?

-Nominate Clegg.

-Steve Reich?

Correct, yes. From The Cave.

Right, ten points at stake for this.

In the 1956 novel Homecomings,

CP Snow popularised which three-word expression to refer to the scene of

high-level governmental decisions?

He later used it for the title of a novel published in 1964.

-Corridors of power.

-Correct.

St Catharine's, these bonuses are on physics.

In each case, I want you to give me

the broad band of the electromagnetic spectrum

that would include radiation of the indicated wavelength.

For example, the average height of a human being

would fall in the radio wave band.

Five points for this.

First, where would you place the diameter of a typical human hair?

Um, yeah. Infrared.

Correct.

Secondly, the radius of a carbon atom?

Um, that's a couple of angstroms.

-So, X-ray.

-Correct.

And finally, what wave band encompasses the typical scale

of a common cold virus?

Virus is the... Hundreds and then...

Are they nanometres or micrometres?

Well, it's not going to be as large as infrared, so visible.

-No, it's ultraviolet.

-Oh!

-Ten points for this.

What given name links the authors of the 1802 work Dejection - An Ode,

the diabetic romance Rasselas, Prince Of Abissinia,

and the epistolary novels...

-Samuel.

-Samuel is correct, yes.

Your bonuses, St John's, this time are on the films of David Cronenberg.

In each case, name the film from the description.

Which film of 1991 had the tag line, "The book was banned,

"the film should never have been made. Too late."

The novel in question was by William Burroughs.

-Naked Lunch.

-Sex, Lies And Videotape. Oh?

-Naked Lunch was...

-Oh, is that the film?

-Naked Lunch is the book, yeah.

-I'm fairly certain, yes.

-OK, go on. Go for it.

-Naked Lunch is the name of the book and film.

-Oh, OK.

-Naked Lunch.

-Correct.

In 2005, a film based on a graphic novel of the same name

by John Wagner and Vince Locke.

It's tag line was,

"Tom Stall had the perfect life...until he became a hero."

Is that A History Of Violence?

May very well be, I have no idea.

Yeah, let's go History Of Violence.

-History Of Violence.

-Correct.

A 2011 film, thirdly, based on a play by Christopher Hampton.

Its tag line is, "Based on the true story of the Jung, Freud

"and the patient who came between them."

-Dangerous Method.

-Yeah.

Dangerous Method.

A Dangerous Method is correct.

Ten points for this.

In a poem first published in 1921,

to what event is WB Yeats referring in the lines,

"All changed, changed utterly, a terrible...?"

Is it the Easter Rising of 1916?

It is indeed the 1916 Easter Rising.

These bonuses, St John's, are on African languages.

Bambara is the lingua franca of which landlocked West African country?

The official language is French

and other languages include Tamasheq, Fula and Hassaniya Arabic.

Um, so it's going to be like Mali or Mauritania.

-I think Mauritania might have...

-Mauritania is not landlocked.

-It's going to be Mali then.

-Mali?

Mali is correct.

Bemba is the most spoken indigenous language

of which landlocked African country?

The official language is English.

-Um... Um...

-Could be Uganda?

-No, that's...

-It's going to be like Uganda or...

-Chad is a French colony, so...

-Tanzania?

-Tanzania has got a coastline. It's probably...

-Uganda.

-Uganda, yeah.

-Uganda.

No, it's Zambia.

Hausa is a major lingua franca of West and Central Africa

with at least 30 million speakers, mainly in which country?

-West and Central?

-So, it's going to be like...

Nigeria, then down to Cameroon.

So it's going to be somewhere, like, in that sort of region.

-Nigeria?

-I'd go Nigeria, yeah.

-Nigeria.

-Correct.

We're going to take a second picture round now.

For your picture starter,

you'll see a portrait.

For ten points, I'd like you to identify both the artist

and his subject.

-Van Dyck, Charles I.

-Correct.

Van Dyck spent almost ten years as court painter to Charles I.

Your picture bonuses are portraits of their royal patrons

by three more artists who worked as court painters.

Again, in each case, I want you to identify both the artist

and the subject.

Firstly, for five?

-Is this Charles V? And...

-Yeah, could be.

-And did Charles...?

-I don't know.

He... Titian painted his portrait,

but I don't think he was court painter.

-We could go with Titian.

-Charles V and Titian.

-Charles V and Titian.

-Correct. Secondly?

-That's...

-Marie Antoinette and...

-Is that...?

-No, I suppose it's...

Marie Antoinette, Boucher was briefly court painter.

-That was more Louis XV.

-Boucher?

-Boucher.

-Boucher.

Marie Antoinette and Boucher.

No, it was Marie Antoinette, but the painter was Vigee Le Brun.

And finally?

-This was Velazquez.

-I think Charles II of Spain?

-OK, possibly.

-Charles II?

-Charles II and Velazquez.

-It was Velazquez,

-but it's Philip IV

-Oh!

-Ten points for this.

If Jupiter and Saturn

are hydrogen and Mars and Venus are carbon dioxide,

what is Earth in terms...?

-Nitrogen.

-Correct.

Principal constituent of planetary atmospheres.

And you get a set of bonuses on spectroscopic techniques.

In each case, listen to be acronym and give me any word

other than spectroscopy that's represented in it.

For example, in the case of TOCSY, T-O-C-S-Y,

standing for total control spectroscopy,

I would accept total or control. OK?

First, SECSY. S-E-C-S-Y.

Well, something that's X? Or a Y?

-Um, X is going to be X-ray.

-It's S-E-C.

-Oh, sorry.

-So, based on... If T-O-C-S-Y is a T, total.

Could S be like semi or...?

-Shall we go with that?

-Could X not stand for X-ray?

-There's no X in it, it's a C.

-OK.

So, it could be like semi or complete.

-Go for complete.

-Complete.

No, it's spin echo correlated.

And secondly, CARS. C-A-R-S.

So, C-A-R...

-That would be complete?

-Complete.

-R might be radio.

-Radio?

-Or A might be amplitude or something.

-Go for radio?

-Yeah.

-Radio.

-No, it's coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy.

And finally, REELS. R-E-E-L-S.

Elect...?

-Elongated, elevated...

-I think the E...

-E might be just elect...

-Electro?

-Electron because...

OK, electron? Electron.

You got it, yes.

Well done, it was reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy.

So you get it, well done. Ten points for this.

Developed from a collection of villages when the East India Company

established a trading post on an arm of the Ganges, which...?

-Kolkata.

-Kolkata is correct.

You get a set of bonuses on geographical exclaves,

that is territories that are not contiguous with the larger part

of the country to which they belong.

Firstly, formed following the disintegration of East Prussia

at the end of the Second World War, the Kaliningrad Oblast

is an exclave of Russia that's bordered by Poland

and which other country?

-Yeah, Lithuania.

-Correct.

Bordering Armenia, Iran and Turkey,

the region of Nakhchivan is an exclave of

which former Soviet republic?

-Azerbaijan.

-Azerbaijan.

-Correct.

The Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are entirely surrounded

by which country?

-Morocco.

-Correct.

Three minutes to go, ten points for this.

Listen carefully,

answer as soon as your name is called.

What is 86 centimetres expressed as a percentage of four metres?

-21.5.

-Well done!

These bonuses are on a surname, St Catharine's.

Under the employment of George, Prince of Wales, Henry Holland

was from 1786 the original designer of which building on the south coast?

It was later substantially rebuilt by John Nash.

Is that Brighton Pavilion?

-No.

-Wait, what...?

-Come on, we need to crack on.

No idea but George would...?

-Go Brighton Pavilion.

-Brighton Pavilion.

-Correct.

Thomas Holland, the First Earl of Kent, was the first husband

of which royal figure who later married Edward, the Black Prince,

and was the mother of Richard II?

-Just say, what is it?

-I was thinking Margaret Beaufort or... No.

Give me an answer because we need to get on to the next question.

-Margaret Beaufort.

-Margaret Beaufort.

No, it was Joan of Kent, the Fair Maid of Kent.

Cyril and Vyvyan Holland, born in the 1880s,

were the two sons of which literary figure?

-Oscar Wilde.

-Correct.

Ten points for this starter question.

Ralph Vaughan Williams's musical work The Lark Ascending

took its name from a poem by which literary figure?

Born 1828, his novels include

Diana Of The Crossways and The Egoist.

It's Meredith. Ten points for this.

What term denotes the paraphyletic group of non-vascular land plants

that includes mosses, liver warts and...?

-Bryophytes.

-Bryophytes is correct.

You get a set of bonuses, this time on world rulers, St Catharine's.

I will read a list of rulers who were on the throne

or in power during the first year of a century of the Common Era.

In each case, I simply want the century.

Firstly, Tiridates III of Armenia and the Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian?

-Fourth century.

-Fourth.

-Correct.

Kavadh I of Sassanid Persia and Clovis I of the Franks.

-Sixth.

-Sixth.

Correct.

And finally, the Emperor Ningzong of the Southern Song dynasty

and Philip II of France?

-Philip II?

-Second of France?

-Yeah.

-12th.

-No, it's the 13th. Ten points for this.

Rarotonga, a mountainous volcanic island in the South Pacific

is the chief island of which group?

-The Cook Islands.

-Correct.

You get a set of bonuses on abstract algebra.

What mathematical structure is defined as a commutative ring

-in which every non-zero element is invertible?

-Field.

-Field.

-Correct.

What term is used for the additive order of the unit element of a ring?

In arithmetic, the same word refers to the integer part

of a logarithm in base ten.

-Don't know.

-Um, what was the first half of the question?

-Tenth...

-Come on, let's have it quickly.

-Um, order...

-Come on!

-Generator.

-No, it's characteristic.

The characteristic of every finite field is equal to

a member of which set of integers?

-The prime numbers.

-Correct. Ten points for this starter question.

Littlewit, Grace Wellborn...

GONG Morose and...

At the gong, St Catharine's have 170,

St John's - Oxford have 175.

APPLAUSE

Well, you gave them a run for their money, St Catharine's. Well done.

You'll be coming back anyway to play another quarterfinal.

Which you will have to win to stay in the contest.

St John's, congratulations. You have to win one more.

But on today's form, that shouldn't be too difficult for you.

Congratulations to you.

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

Until then, it's goodbye from St Catharine's College - Cambridge.

-TEAM:

-Goodbye!

-Goodbye from St John's College - Oxford.

-TEAM:

-Goodbye.

-And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.