Episode 13 University Challenge

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello. 12 teams are already through to the second round

of this competition. Tonight's winners will join them.

The losers could get one more chance to qualify if their score

is among the four highest losing scores,

and we now know that a losing score of above 155 will guarantee

seats in the playoffs.

Now, the University of St Andrews last won this competition

back in 1982 - long before tonight's team was even born.

Founded in the early 15th century, it's fond of its traditions,

such as the wearing of red gowns for the perilous Sunday morning

pier walk after chapel.

And alumni who may have enjoyed such things

include the former SNP leader Alex Salmond,

the novelist Fay Weldon, the sports presenter Hazel Irvine

and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Representing around 11,000 students, with an average age of 20,

let's welcome the St Andrews team.

Hi, I'm Matt Eccleston.

I'm originally from St Helens in Merseyside and I'm studying

international relations and Spanish.

Hello there, my name's James Green.

I'm from Schaffhausen in Switzerland and I'm studying German and Persian.

And this is their captain.

Hi, I'm Toby Parker.

I'm originally from Bristol and I'm studying maths.

Hi, I'm Andrew Vokes.

I'm from Edinburgh and I'm studying chemistry.

APPLAUSE

Their opponents represent Worcester College, Oxford,

which was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of

Sir Thomas Cookes, a Worcestershire baronet.

It claims to be the only Oxford college to have

a lake in which students apparently immerse themselves after exams.

Alumni who may have done so include the media mogul Rupert Murdoch,

the actor Emma Watson and the newsreader Sir Alastair Burnet.

Representing around 580 students and also with an average age of 20,

let's meet the Worcester team.

Hi, I'm Sam Barnett.

I'm from Buckhurst Hill in Essex and I'm reading maths and philosophy.

Hi, I'm Rosemary Walmsley.

I'm from Solihull in the West Midlands

and I'm studying maths and philosophy.

And this is their captain.

Hi, I'm Nick Williams.

I'm from London and I'm also reading maths and philosophy.

Hi, I'm Dennis Wang. I'm from Manchester and I'm studying maths.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are unchanging, so fingers on the buzzers.

Here's your first starter for ten.

"Human history becomes more and more a race between

"education and catastrophe".

Which literary figure wrote those words in the 1920 work

The Outline Of History 25 years after the appearance of his

first novel, The Time Machine?

-HG Wells.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

The first set of bonuses are on forms of amusement,

Worcester College. Denoting satirical imitation,

what five-letter word has its origins in

a game involving trickery and nonsense, invented by

the British comedian Arthur Roberts in the late 19th century?

Satirical form of imitation.

-Charades? No, that's too long.

-Yeah. Oh.

-Five letters.

-Oh, five letters.

-Don't know.

-Don't know, charades.

That's not got five letters.

It's spoof.

Derived from an Italian word meaning "to load",

what term describes a picture or description that exaggerates

a person's peculiarities or defects?

-Caricature.

-Caricature.

-Correct.

John Gay's Beggar's Opera can be viewed as an example of what

literary or artistic form that ridicules by means of

grotesque exaggeration or imitation?

From the late 19th century, the term came to be applied to

an often risque form of stage performance.

Burlesque?

-I don't know.

-Risque.

Cabaret.

-Cabaret?

-No, it's burlesque.

Ten points for this.

From the Latin for "little affinity",

referring to its low chemical reactivity,

what term denotes a waxy, flammable solid consisting of a mixture of

hydrocarbons obtained as a residue from the distillation of petroleum?

It was also formally given to the series of saturated

hydrocarbons now usually called alkanes.

-Paraffin.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

For giving a right answer, you do look a bit miserable about it!

Here are your bonuses - they're on science on the 1870s.

In 1876, which British naturalist published

The Geographical Distribution Of Animals?

He gives his name to a hypothetical line that separates the fauna

of Australasia from that of Asia.

Alfred Russel Wallace.

..But I don't know.

Yeah, Wallace, yeah.

Alfred Russel Wallace.

-Alfred Russel Wallace.

-Correct.

In a work of 1875, the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess coined

which term for the region of earth where life can exist?

You can give the German term or the English version.

Is it, I don't know, I'd guess the Goldilocks zone?

The green border or something.

Oh, that might be a good guess, go for it.

I don't know.

The green border.

No, it's the biosphere.

In 1871, which British naturalist published

The Descent Of Man, And Selection In Relation To Sex?

That's Charles Darwin.

It is.

-Charles Darwin.

-Correct.

Ten points for this.

"He's got eyebrows that look surprised or cross,

"so that's how I found the voice.

"He talks up and down like that most of the time."

These words, of the actress Susan Sheridan,

refer to which fictional character whom she voiced in

a BBC television adaptation of works by Enid Blyton?

Noddy.

Noddy is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the works of Roald Dahl.

In each case, identify the story by the extract

from its opening paragraphs.

"It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers.

"Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister

"you could imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful."

-Is that Charlie And The Chocolate Factory?

-Yeah.

Erm, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

No, that's Matilda.

"Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker were selfish and lazy and cruel.

"They never called him by his real name,

"but always referred to him as 'you disgusting little beast'

"or 'you filthy nuisance' or 'you miserable creature'."

-James And The Giant Peach.

-Correct.

"'Be a good boy and don't get up to mischief'.

"This was a silly thing to say to a small boy at any time.

"It immediately made him wonder what sort of mischief

"he might get up to."

-George's Marvellous Medicine?

-I think so.

George's Marvellous Medicine.

That's correct, well done.

APPLAUSE

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

For your picture starter you're going to see

a map displaying the dioceses of the Church of England.

For ten points, I want you to identify the highlighted diocese.

Ely.

-Oh, Ely.

-Ely is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Picture bonuses are three more Church of England dioceses

for you to identify. Five points for each.

Firstly, diocese number one.

-Chester?

-No, cos that's Chester there. That's...

-It's not Hereford, is it?

-No, it's not.

-Shrewsbury?

No, Shrewsbury's in here.

Actually, Shrewsbury might not be a bad guess.

You think Shrewsbury? I don't know.

-Shrewsbury?

-No, it's Lichfield.

Secondly, diocese number two.

Southwark, I think.

Southwark, I think.

-Southwark.

-Southwark is right.

And finally, diocese number three.

-It's, erm...

-Is that Bath and Wells?

The baby-eating bishop of Bath and Wells!

It's certainly... Wells is in there.

Bath and Wells.

It is the diocese of Bath and Wells. Ten points for this.

Despite having earlier spent almost 20 years in exile,

which writer's body lay in state under the Arc de Triomphe

in 1885 before receiving a burial in the Pantheon?

Described as the most powerful mind of the Romantic movement,

his works include the verse drama Cromwell

and the prose play Lucrece Borgia.

-Victor Hugo.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on optics this time, St Andrews.

Which optical aberration in a lens is due to the different

focal lengths of rays of different orientations?

For example, those propagating in horizontal and vertical planes.

Just say something.

-Disjoint focus.

-No, it's astigmatism.

What optical aberration occurs when rays emanating from

an off-axis point do not quite converge at the focal plane,

creating a comet-like blur from the optical axis?

Would that be myopia or something?

-You can say...

-Myopia?

Can I say bokeh or something?

We don't know.

-A bokeh?

-No, that's comatic aberration.

And finally, named after the company in York where it was invented

in 1893, what type of compound lens is the simplest design

capable of correcting all of the seven Seidel aberrations

over a wide field of view?

Varifocal.

No, I only know one company in York and that's Rowntree's,

but it's not going to be that!

I don't know.

-Smithson's.

-No, that's the Cooke triplet.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

In telecommunications theory,

when converting analogue to digital signals,

the Nyquist interval states that in order to recreate

the original signal, the sampling rate must be at least how many times

the highest frequency in the sample?

Three?

No. Worcester, one of you buzz.

Two.

Two is correct. Twice is right.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a Governor-General of India,

Worcester College.

Which future Governor-General of India was defeated at Yorktown,

Virginia, in the last major campaign of the American War of Independence?

-Cornwallis.

-Cornwallis?

-Correct.

Known as the Tiger of Mysore, which Indian ruler was

briefly defeated by Cornwallis's forces in 1792

during the Third Mysore War?

Hyder Ali.

-Nominate Wang.

-Hyder Ali.

No, it was Tipu Sultan.

And finally, developed under Cornwallis's guidance in 1793,

the code named after him underpinned the administrative system of

British India for 40 years.

In which eastern Indian province was it first implemented?

-Eastern India.

-Eastern, erm...

-Assam or West Bengal or something.

-I'll nominate you again.

I don't know.

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

-Assam.

No, it was Bengal. Ten points for this.

Which major US city is named after a Franciscan friar

often invoked as a finder of lost property?

The mission founded there in 1718 was the sight of resistance to

a Mexican army in 1836 and is now...

-San Antonio.

-Correct.

That gives you the lead,

and you get a set of bonuses on Romantic poets, Worcester College.

Of which Romantic poet did William Hazlitt write "whatever he does,

"he must do in a more decided and daring manner than anyone else.

"He lounges with extravagance and yawns so as to alarm the reader"?

He's quite relaxed, I guess. Byron?

Correct.

Byron described which Romantic poet as "truth itself and honour itself,

"notwithstanding his out-of-the-way notions about religion"?

-Shelley. Shelley?

-Yes, he is.

-Shelley.

-Correct.

20 years his senior, which Romantic poet did Shelley describe as

"a cloud-encircled meteor of the air,

"a hooded eagle among blinking owls"?

Keats?

Who would be older?

Blake was quite late, wasn't he?

Blake was 18th century or something, wasn't he?

-I don't know.

-Try going Keats.

-Yeah, Keats.

-John Keats.

-No, it was Coleridge.

Ten points for this. Which mathematician was the first

person to formulate and solve an integral equation?

In 1824 he published a proof of the impossibility of solving

algebraically the general equation of the fifth degree

and died five years later...

Galois.

No, you lose five points.

And died five years later at the age of 26 in Southern Norway.

Abel.

Abel is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get three bonuses on historiography, Worcester College.

The historical work known in English as

The Universal Mirror To Aid Government

spans almost 14 centuries from 403 BCE and runs to more than

9,500 pages in the standard modern edition.

It was written in the 11th century in which language?

I was going to say Sanskrit. But is that a bit too late for Sanskrit?

I don't know.

-It could be Arabic.

-Erm...

Aramaic?

It could be Chinese, but I don't actually know.

Chinese?

It could be, or...

There's lots of Arabic writing, I don't know.

-Arabic.

-No, it's Classical Chinese.

Secondly, The Universal Mirror was compiled on the orders of Yingzong,

an emperor of which dynasty founded in 960?

-960 would be the Song, wouldn't it, I think?

-Yeah.

-Song?

-Correct.

During the last year of his life, spent largely in bed,

which political figure is said to have reread

the Universal Mirror for the 18th time?

He died in September 1976.

That's Mao, I think.

-Sorry?

-'76, yeah. '76 was Chairman Mao.

-Oh, Chairman Mao?

-It was Mao, yes.

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

For your music starter, you'll hear a well-known operatic overture.

For ten points, I want the title of the opera.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

Carmen.

-I'm sorry, Carmen.

-Carmen is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your music bonuses are three more classical works from outside

the Iberian Peninsula, inspired, nevertheless,

by Spanish folk melodies and dance forms.

Five points for each composer you can identify.

Firstly, for five, a Russian composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

-Nominate Green.

-Rimsky-Korsakov.

Correct. Secondly, another Russian composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

Tchaikovsky.

No, that's Glinka. Finally, a French composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

-Ravel?

-It is Ravel, yes.

Right, ten points for this.

Holyrood, to mean the Scottish Parliament,

and brass, to mean senior military officers,

are examples of what figure of speech?

The term is derived from the Greek for "name change".

-Metonym.

-Metonym is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on astrophysics, Worcester College.

In astrophysics,

the letters CO stand for what two-word term used for any

small, dense end product of stellar evolution, such as a white dwarf?

-Collapsed object?

-Yeah.

-Nominate Barnett.

-Collapsed object.

No, it's compact object.

What type of compact object might have a density of about

10 to the 17,

or 100 million billion kilograms per cubic metre?

-Neutron star.

-Correct.

Finally, what type of compact object can result from the further

gravitational collapse of a neutron star?

-Black hole.

-Correct.

Ten points for this.

Concatenate a short word meaning a subdivision of an aeon

in geological time and a three-letter suffix

denoting an angle in geometry.

This gives the six-letter title of which 2002 work,

the first in The Inheritance Cycle by...?

-Eragon.

-Eragon is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get three questions on the political campaigner

and anarchist Emma Goldman.

Firstly, Emma Goldman emigrated to the US at the age of 16,

having been born in 1869 in Kovno,

now known as Kaunas, in which present-day country?

-That's Lithuania.

-Lithuania.

Yes, it's right.

Lithuania.

-Lithuania.

-Correct.

Emma Goldman turned to anarchism

following the Haymarket affair of 1886,

when police opened fire on a workers' gathering in which US city?

I think it might be Milwaukee, but I'm not sure.

Milwaukee.

No, it was Chicago.

Claiming to have been inspired by Emma Goldman,

Leon Czolgosz assassinated which US president in 1901?

-William McKinley.

-Correct.

Ten points for this.

Covered by a sand dune for hundreds of years until it was exposed

by a storm in 1850, which Neolithic site in the Orkney Islands consists

of well-preserved stone dwellings connected by a series of passages?

-Skara Brae.

-Skara Brae is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the playwright Joe Orton.

Which 1965 play by Orton opens with a grieving Catholic widower

being ardently propositioned by his dead wife's nurse?

I don't know what it's called.

Try Loot, because that's a play by him.

-Loot, it's the only one I know.

-OK.

-Loot.

-Loot is correct.

The denouement of which play of 1964 sees

a middle-aged brother and sister negotiate to share the favours

of the eponymous amoral young man?

Mr Sloane.

Something Mr Sloane.

The Amazing Mr Sloane?

-I can't remember.

-Stupendous Mr Sloane?

-No?

-Something like that, but I can't remember.

Just try Mr Sloane.

Mr Sloane.

No, it's Entertaining Mr Sloane, the full title, so I can't accept that.

And finally, first performed in 1969, two years after Orton's death,

the play What The Butler Saw includes a climactic scene

featuring an intimate body part from a statue of which British statesman?

Churchill.

-Winston Churchill.

-Correct.

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

For your picture starter,

you are going to see a still from a recent award-winning documentary.

For ten points, I want the title of that documentary.

Selling Secrets.

No, anyone like to buzz from Worcester College?

Digital.

No, it's Citizenfour, Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald there.

So we'll take the picture bonuses in a moment or two.

Here's another starter question.

During the Second World War, the military forces of which

country were led by Field Marshal Mannerheim?

He's particularly associated with a defensive line bearing his name

that was employed...

-Finland.

-Finland is correct.

APPLAUSE

So you take the lead, St Andrews, you get the picture bonuses.

Laura Poitras's Citizenfour won both the Academy Award

and the Bafta for Best Documentary in 2015.

The picture bonuses are stills from three more recent

Bafta-winning documentaries.

In each case, for five points, I want the title of the documentary.

Firstly, for five...

-That's, erm...

-Something Sugar Man.

Searching For Sugar Man, I think, or something.

Searching For Sugar Man.

-Searching For Sugar Man.

-Correct.

Secondly...

-The war criminals.

-Yes.

-I don't know what it's called.

What's it about?

Indonesian war criminals.

Oh, it's the guy with the strange... The glasses.

I don't think we know...

Move on.

-40 Years Later.

-No, it's The Act Of Killing.

And finally...

That's Senna, isn't it?

-Senna.

-Senna is right.

Ten points for this.

In addition to the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

three countries have shorelines on Lake Tanganyika.

Name two of them.

Tanzania and Uganda.

Nope. Anyone like to buzz from Worcester?

-Tanzania and Burundi.

-Correct - the other one is Zambia.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Iraqi cities, Worcester.

Encircling the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh,

what is Iraq's second largest city?

-Mosul.

-Mosul.

-Correct.

Which city was the site of the battle of 680 that saw

the Shi'ite leader and grandson of Muhammad killed by

a force sent by the Umayyad Caliph Yazid?

Is it, erm...? Might be Qadisiyyah.

-Nominate Wang.

-Qadisiyyah.

-No, it's Karbala.

And finally, situated on the western bank of the Shatt al-Arab,

which city in southeastern Iraq is the country's principal port?

-Basra.

-Basra, yeah.

-Basra?

-Basra.

-Basra is right.

Five minutes to go, ten points for this.

Serialism is a technique of musical composition associated with

which composer born...?

-Schoenberg.

-Schoenberg is right.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on geology.

Which large group of minerals combine the two most

abundant elements in the earth's crust?

Feldspars are an example.

Silicates, I think.

-Silicanes.

-Silicates.

-Silicates.

I know, I'm sorry, I have to take the answer you gave and you

were given the right answer, but you misheard it, obviously.

Secondly, which group of silicates is characterised by the absence

of cleavage planes and a black to dark green colour,

owing to a high concentration of iron and magnesium?

Chrysolite is an example.

-I don't know.

-Those are just names of rocks, but...

I don't know.

-Flint?

-No, it's olivine.

Cleaving in thin sheets, which aluminium-containing

silicate category includes biotites and muscovites?

-What were you going to say?

-Mica.

-Yeah.

-Mica?

-Mica is right.

Ten points for this.

"The empty vessel makes the greatest sound."

In which of Shakespeare's histories does The Boy say those words

of Pistol, who has just departed with a French prisoner?

-Henry V?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

You will take the lead if you get these bonuses, they're on a sonnet.

Which poet's works include a sonnet of 1652 that begins with the words

"Cromwell, our chief of men"?

-Could it be John, um...?

-Milton?

No, no, the other - John Donne.

-Sorry?

-John Donne.

I don't know, but try it.

-John Donne?

-No, it was Milton.

Milton's sonnet mentions three of Cromwell's victories.

The first is the Battle of Preston in 1648.

Name either of the other two later battles.

-Naseby?

-Naseby will be one of them.

Naseby was before 1648, wasn't it?

Um...

Worcester?

-Worcester was one and Dunbar was the other.

-Well done.

And finally, Cromwell, Our Chief Of Men is the title of

a 1973 biography by which historian?

Her other works include...

-Antonia Fraser.

-Antonia Fraser is right.

Another starter question. Listen carefully.

Added together, how many stable isotopes exist of the first

two elements of the periodic table?

Three.

Anyone like to buzz from St Andrews?

-Four?

-Four is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

So you take the lead, your bonuses are on winners of

the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In each case, listen to the English title

and name the film's country of origin.

Firstly, the 2015 winner, Ida,

about a young nun in the 1960s who discovers a dark family secret

from the years of the German occupation.

Belgium, France? I think probably Belgium.

-It's not France.

-Belgium.

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

-Belgium.

-No, it's Poland.

The 2004 winner, The Sea Inside, the story of Ramon Sampedro's

30-year campaign for the right to end his life with dignity.

-Spain.

-Correct.

The 2008 winner, Departures, in which

a newly-unemployed cellist takes a job preparing the dead for funerals.

I don't know.

-Try Russian or something.

-Russia.

-Let's have it.

-Russia.

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

Pinus sylvestris has what two-word common name?

It is the only native British conifer to be grown

commercially for timber, yielding a wood often known as red deal.

-Scots pine.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a king of England, St Andrews.

Thought to have been murdered in captivity

after the Battle of Mirebeau, Arthur of Brittany was a rival

to the succession of which king of England,

who was also his uncle?

-King John.

-Correct.

In 1208, Pope Innocent III placed England under an interdict

when John refused to accept which prelate as Archbishop of Canterbury?

-GONG

-Stephen Langton.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

You were right,

-but you don't get the points because it was after the gong.

-Oh, well.

Worcester College, you led for much of the way.

I thought you were going to be storming through to the next round.

145, though, is not high enough to come back as one of

the highest-scoring losing teams,

so I'm afraid we're going to be saying goodbye to you.

St Andrews, congratulations to you, you go through to the second round.

I hope you can join us next time.

Until then, though, it's goodbye from Worcester College, Oxford...

-Goodbye.

-..it's goodbye from St Andrews University...

-Goodbye.

..and it's goodbye from me - goodbye.

APPLAUSE