Episode 19 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. The second round matches continue tonight.

The winning team will join the universities of Edinburgh

and Birmingham in the quarterfinal stage of this contest,

and the losing team won't.

Now, making a rare appearance in this competition,

the University of East London had a close-run thing of it

in the first round, winning by 150 points to Glasgow University's 135.

Music by Ozzy Osbourne and Philip Glass left them cold,

but they were warmer on the religions of Iran,

the Bronte sisters, Roman towns, Coco Chanel and Paddington Bear.

With an average age of 41, let's meet the East London team again.

Hello. I'm Christopher Ducklin.

I'm originally from Eastbourne in East Sussex.

I'm studying civil engineering.

Hello. My name is Kelly Travers.

I'm from Westcliff in Essex and I'm doing a master's of research.

And their captain.

Hi, my name is Jerushah Jardine.

I'm originally from the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall,

and I'm studying for a PhD in peatland ecology.

Hello, my name is Rachel Evans.

I'm from Grays in Essex and I'm studying English literature.

APPLAUSE

The team from the University of Warwick

had a close first round match against Liverpool University

only up until the halfway point,

when they pulled their collective finger out

and raced ahead to be on 235 points at the gong to Liverpool's 95.

In doing so, they told us a lot about cooking rice,

truth tables, the planet Mercury, and the films of Marilyn Monroe.

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

Hello, I'm Sophie Hobbs.

I'm from Birmingham and I'm studying French and history.

Hi, I'm Sophie Rudd.

I'm from out Grimsby way and I'm reading for

a master's in computer science and its application.

And their captain.

Hello, I'm Giles Hutchings.

I'm from Farnham in Surrey and I'm studying maths.

Hello, I'm Thomas Van.

I'm from Geneva in Switzerland and I'm studying history.

APPLAUSE

Well, the rules never change in this contest,

so let's just crack on rather than my reciting them.

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

The mountain degu, the yellow-faced pocket gopher

and the Siberian chipmunk are among more than 2,000 species

belonging to which order?

It comprises around 50% of extant mammal species.

-Rodentia.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on a building, Warwick.

Standing on the site of an ancient edifice of the same name,

which ecclesiastical building in Rome had its foundation stone laid

in 1506 by Pope Julius II?

It took more than a century for it to be completed.

St Peter's Basilica.

Do you know?

Probably.

It was Rome, wasn't it?

Yes.

St Peter's Basilica.

Correct.

On the death of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in 1546,

whom did Pope Paul III appoint as chief architect of St Peter's?

Would it be Brunelleschi or Michelangelo?

I was thinking Michelangelo.

There's something in, like, the catacombs.

-I think the tomb of...

-Shall I go with that?

-Sure.

-Michelangelo.

-Correct.

In the 17th century, who designed the piazza and the

surrounding elliptical colonnade that lies

in the approach to St Peter's?

Bernini was a bit later, but I'm not sure if it was him.

Bernini, do you think?

Do we have any other leads?

-Bernini.

-Bernini is correct.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

Similar in form though not etymology to

a portmanteau of words for feeling and image,

what Japanese term means pictograph and indicates

a small digital symbol used to express an idea...?

Emoji.

Emoji is correct, yes.

These bonuses, Warwick, are on scientific nomenclature.

In each case, I need two answers.

In 1801, the first asteroid was discovered,

and two years later a rare Earth element was named after it.

Name both.

-It'll be Ceres.

-Caesium?

-I think it might be Ceres and Cerium.

-Oh.

-Ceres and Cerium.

Correct.

Another element first isolated in 1803 was named after the

second asteroid to be discovered.

Again, name both the asteroid and the element.

Sedna.

I can't think of any others.

Something beginning with... Eros. Doesn't have an element.

Eros and Erbium?

What element would it be?

Iridium?

Eros and Erbium?

No, it's Pallas and Palladium.

Finally, in 1940, the first transuranic element

to be produced artificially was named after an astronomical body.

Name both.

Would it be Neptunium? Or the next one. It might be Pluto.

It's either of those two, really. Neptune or Pluto?

I'm going to go with Neptune.

-Neptune and Neptunium.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

Which city was formerly known as Yuzovka

after the Welshman John Hughes,

who founded an ironworks there in 1872...?

Donetsk.

Donetsk in Ukraine is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on 19th century light verse, Warwick.

In each case, identify the author of the following lines. First...

They dined on mince, and slices of quince

Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

They danced by the light of the moon.

-Edward Lear.

-Correct, The Owl And The Pussycat.

There was a little girl,

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,

She was very, very good,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

-Do you know?

-I don't. I know the line.

Could it...? It might be Kipling.

-Do you want to go with Kipling?

-It's not Kipling.

-Go for...

-Brooke?

Brooke.

No, it's Longfellow.

Finally...

"The time has come", the Walrus said,

To talk of many things:

Of shoes - and ships - and sealing-wax -

Of cabbages and kings.

-That's Lewis Carroll.

-Correct.

Ten points for this.

The sound system of which EU official language has a distinctive

feature called "stod", also known as glottal catch or creaky voice?

It's used to differentiate, for example,

the words for "she" and "dog"

spelled "hun" and "hund".

German.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points respectively.

-Finnish.

-No, it's Danish.

Another starter question now. Fingers on the buzzers.

Descended from a family of English cotton manufacturers,

William Henry Waddington attended the Berlin congress

in 1878 as the foreign minister of which country,

becoming its prime minister the following year?

Canada.

No, anyone like to buzz from Warwick?

New Zealand?

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

The Segre, Cinca and Gallego are tributaries of which river?

More than 900km in length,

it flows into the Mediterranean between Barcelona and Valencia.

It's the Ebro. Ten points for this.

Which three letters begin the names of the largest city

of Jammu and Kashmir,

the patronymic of the Indian mathematician Ramanujan,

a Thai chilli sauce,

and the country whose cities include Kandy and Jaffna?

Sin?

-Three letters, I'm afraid.

-Oh, sorry.

Anyone like to buzz from East London?

S-R-I.

S-R-I is correct, yes.

Right, you get your first set of bonuses, East London,

on the journalist and author Shiela Grant Duff.

Firstly, for five points, as a journalist for the Observer in 1935,

Grant Duff covered a plebiscite in which region that had been

detached from Germany by the Versailles Treaty?

Nominate Travers.

Sudetenland?

No, it's the Sauerland.

In 1937, Grant Duff went to Malaga to investigate the condition of

which journalist imprisoned by Franco's insurgents?

His later works include The God That Failed

and Darkness At Noon.

Was Hemingway a journalist?

I may as well try it. Nominate Ducklin.

Hemingway.

No, it was Arthur Koestler.

Finally, Grant Duff opposed appeasement and published

a best-selling Penguin special defending which country

when it was threatened by Hitler in 1938?

It would need to be Austria.

Well, I don't know. Had they taken Austria by 1938 or was it...?

No, they took Poland in '38.

-Austria?

-Yep.

-Austria.

No, it's Czechoslovakia.

We're going to take a picture round now.

Fingers on the buzzers.

For your picture starter, you're going to see the title of an

English language novel that's been translated into Latin.

For ten points, I want you to give me the English title.

One of you buzz, come on.

Treasure Island.

Treasure Island. We'll see the whole thing in English now.

Wasn't very difficult.

I don't know why you took so long.

Treasure Island was translated into Latin

in the early 20th century

by the proponent of Living Latin, Arcadius Avellanus.

Your picture bonuses are three more titles of children's books that

have been translated into Latin to promote new study of the language.

I'd like the English title in each case.

Firstly, for five, this translation of a 1963 book.

I think Where The Wild Things Are. Where The Wild Things Are.

Yes, we'll see the whole thing in English. There we are.

Secondly, a translation of a 2007 book.

-Diary Of A Wimpy Kid.

-Oh, is it? That's probably, yeah...

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid.

Indeed it is, yes.

Finally, this translation of a 1902 work.

-The Story Of...

-Is that Peter Rabbit?

Probably.

-Tale of Peter Rabbit?

-The Tale Of Peter Rabbit?

The Tale Of Peter Rabbit.

Yes, it is. Well done.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

In astronomy, what three-word term describes the radiation field

emitted when the universe was about 380,000 years old?

It's often known by the abbreviation...

-Cosmic microwave background.

-Correct.

You get three bonuses on sewage.

What archaic dialect word for a peat bog precedes "pit"

and "pool" in terms for an underground sewage chamber?

Figuratively, both terms describe a foul or squalid place.

-Cess...

-A cesspool.

-Oh, yeah.

-Cess.

-Correct.

"The sun too visits cesspools and is not defiled."

To which Greek philosopher are those words attributed?

Notorious for his unclean habits,

he is credited with founding the Cynic school.

-Diogenes.

-I think it was.

-Diogenes.

-Correct.

In a work of 1887,

which fictional character describes London as,

"That great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers

"of the Empire are irresistibly drained"?

Is it Johnson or Bacon?

-1887.

-Oh...

-Which character?

Which character? Oh, is it a Dickens character?

Or maybe it's Sherlock Holmes or something.

Oh, it could be. Sherlock Holmes.

No, it was Dr Watson. Bad luck.

Ten points for this.

In its best-known formulation,

which formal moral law in Kantian ethics states that the maxim

implied by a proposed action must be such that one...?

The categorical imperative.

Correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on conformations of organic molecules.

All three answers are the names of everyday objects.

Firstly, the name of what item of furniture is used to describe

a nonplanar six-membered ring

in which the atoms are alternatively above and below their mean plane?

Is that the chair? It's chair or boat. I think it's chair.

-A chair.

-Correct.

What name is given to the less stable conformation

in which atoms one, two, four and five are essentially coplanar,

while atoms three and six extend on the same side of the plane?

I think that's the boat one.

-Boat.

-Correct.

The name of what item of stationery describes a five-membered ring

in which four atoms are coplanar and one atom projects out of the plane?

-I don't know. Compass.

-Compass, maybe.

-What other items of stationery are there?

-Pen. Pencil sharpener.

Compass.

No, it's an envelope.

Ten points for this.

From the Greek for "herald's staff," and associated with

the Greco-Egyptian figure Hermes Trismegistus

and the Greek god Hermes, what name denotes a staff entwined by two...?

Caduceus.

Correct.

Your bonuses this time are on medieval Europe, Warwick.

Ivaylo the Cabbage was a peasant leader who seized the throne

of which country after an uprising in 1277?

He won victories over the Mongols and Byzantines,

but was killed in 1280.

-So, like, East Europe?

-Bulgaria?

-Could be.

-Shall I say Bulgaria?

Bulgaria?

Bulgaria is right.

Coloman, known as the Possessor Of Books,

became king of which country in 1095?

He later also came to the throne of Croatia,

thus securing for his kingdom an outlet to the sea.

-It'll be bordering Croatia, then.

-Yeah. Could be...

-Does Serbia have a...?

-I don't think Serbia borders the sea...

Serbia?

No, it's Hungary.

And finally, Louis V of France,

known as the Do-Nothing or the Sluggard,

was the last ruler of which dynasty?

He died in 987, and was succeeded by Hugh Capet.

No, no, Merovingians were pre-Carolingian. So it'll...

Will it be the Carolingians?

Were Merovingians before or after Carolingians?

Merovingians before Carolingians. I'm sure.

-Merovingians?

-No!

No... No, I'm sorry, I've got to take your answer.

It was the Carolingians. Bad luck.

LAUGHTER

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

For your music starter, you'll hear part of the overture to an opera.

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

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

La Boheme?

Nope.

You can hear a little more, Warwick, if there's any left.

MUSIC CONTINUES

Carmen?

No, it's part of the William Tell opera.

So we're going to have another starter question,

and take the music bonuses in a moment or two.

Having hosted the Summer Olympics 14 years before, which city in 1938

became the first to host both the Summer Olympic Games

and the Fifa World Cup Final?

Munich?

Anyone like to buzz from Warwick?

Berlin?

No, it was Paris. Ten points for this.

Listen carefully, I need two answers here.

Four US states have a population

smaller than that of the city of Leeds.

Which two of these have an area larger than that of the UK?

Wyoming and Alaska?

Correct, yes.

So you get the music bonuses, you'll be pleased to hear.

You heard part of the William Tell Overture.

For your music bonuses, three more classical works

based on the exploits of folk heroes.

This time, for the five points in each case,

I just want the name of the composer.

Firstly, for five, this northern European composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

I feel like it's going to be Grieg or Sibelius...

THEY CONFER

Grieg?

No, that was Sibelius. Bad luck.

Secondly, this German composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

Maybe Wagner?

That is very... That is quite... That sounds like Wagner.

Wagner?

No, that was Richard Strauss.

And finally, this American composer's depiction

of a somewhat dubious folk hero.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

Dubious folk heroes...?

Kind of sounds a bit minimalist, maybe...?

I mean...

So, do you think Copland?

Copland?

It is Aaron Copland, his Billy The Kid Suite.

Plenty of time to get going, East London.

Ten points at stake for this, fingers on the buzzers.

Meanings of what eight-letter word include a type of optical lens,

a cartilaginous structure in the knee,

and the shape of a liquid surface determined by surface tension?

Meniscus?

Meniscus is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on place names, Warwick.

All three end with the same five-letter suffix.

Known as Cow Ford before it was renamed

after a 19th century president,

what is the largest city by population in the state of Florida?

-Miami? Or Orlando...?

-Jackson...?

-Jacksonville.

-Jacksonville.

-Probably.

-Because of the president.

-Yeah, cos then "-ville" will be the suffix.

-Yeah. Jacksonville?

Correct. The first French explorer

to lead a circumnavigation of the world

gives his name to both a purple tropical flowering plant

and to which island, located east of New Britain in the South Pacific?

So is that, like, Bougainvillea?

Oh, it might be, yeah.

-Do they want the name of... Is it, like, Bougain?

-Yes.

Bougain?

-No, it's Bougainville.

-Oh.

You were in the right area, but not precise enough.

Which coastal resort in Lower Normandy has held an

American Film Festival annually since 1975?

-This is in France?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, Normandy.

-Somewhere "-ville".

I don't know any...film festivals.

I don't know any Norman towns apart from Rouen.

Rouenville?

No, it's Deauville.

Right, ten points for this.

Born in Chicago in 1952,

which director is noted for visual innovations in films such as

Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump?

Robert Zemeckis?

Correct.

Right, your bonuses are on literary titles.

In each case, name both the authors of the following novels.

First, Agnes Grey and Charlotte Gray.

-Sebastian Faulks.

-Yeah, Agnes Grey.

It's one of the Brontes, isn't it?

-Yeah... Anne Bronte and Sebastian Faulks.

-Come on.

-Anne Bronte and Sebastian Faulks.

-Correct.

Secondly, Carrie and Sister Carrie.

Stephen King...

I don't know the other one.

-Any guesses?

-No, sorry.

Stephen King, and we don't know the other one, sorry.

You're right on Stephen King, the other one was Theodore Dreiser.

I can't give you the points, I'm afraid.

Finally, Mary Barton and Mary Poppins.

-PL Travers.

-PL Travers, right?

-We just need the second one.

Mary Barton, I don't know, I've never heard of that.

I'd guess one of the...

I don't know, one of the...

18th century, 19th century...

Mary Barton...

Try...

George Eliot or someone like that.

So PL Travers and...what are we going for?

-Let's just guess.

-Let's guess. Yeah.

PL Travers and George Eliot.

-No, it's PL Travers and Mrs Gaskell.

-Oh!

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

Prominent in the late 15th and early 16th centuries,

Jacob the Rich was a member of which German banking dynasty?

Rothschild?

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..German banking dynasty which provided financial support

for the Holy Roman Emperors Maximilian I and Charles V?

No-one's going to buzz from Warwick, by the look of it...

The Lombards?

No, it's the Fuggers, the Fugger family.

Right, ten points at stake for this.

Born in Bavaria in 1898, which dramatist wrote

Fear And Misery Of The Third Reich, a series of 24 sketches

that portray the way in which the lives of ordinary Germans

were affected by the events of the 1930s?

Is it Brecht?

It was Brecht, yes.

Right, these bonuses are on scientific discoveries, East London.

In 1894, Sir William Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh announced

the discovery of what atmospheric element?

Atmospheric element...

Nitrogen?

-Nitrogen.

-Nitrogen, you reckon?

Nitrogen?

No, it was argon.

Ramsay went on to discover the existence of helium

in radioactive cleveite.

Where had Pierre Janssen discovered helium decades before?

Janssen...

-Put... Say the sun?

-Seawater?

-Shall we say seawater?

-Yeah...

Seawater.

-No, it was the sun. ALL:

-Aww!

And finally, in addition to argon and helium,

which three other noble gases did Ramsay systematically discover,

guided by Mendeleev's period system?

OK, there's boron...argon... Xenon...

-We've already said argon.

-Oh, did we?

-Oh, we have.

-No... Xenon...

-Boron.

-Neon.

-Neon.

Xenon, boron, neon.

No, it was neon, krypton and xenon.

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

For your picture starter,

you're going to see a self-portrait by a British artist.

Ten points if you can identify the artist.

Joshua Reynolds?

It is Josh Reynolds, yes.

He was the first president of the Royal Academy,

and became a founder of its collection

by donating that self-portrait.

Since then, academicians have been required

to donate a diploma work on their election,

and your picture bonuses are three such works.

Name the artist in each case.

Firstly for five,

the painter of this work donated it to the Academy in 1900.

THEY CONFER

Nominate Travers.

Alfred Sisley?

No, it isn't.

It's John Singer Sargent, An Interior In Venice.

Secondly, a work donated in 1868,

five years after the artist's election.

I reckon it could be one of...

Yeah, I was going to say, one of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Who was the one who did the bubbles...?

I don't know.

Somebody else... Millais?

Does he have red hair? Yeah. That'll be Waterhouse.

Do we have a general consensus?

-Yeah.

-Waterhouse?

-Yeah.

Waterhouse?

You're too reasonable.

No, it was Millais, you were guessing right.

Finally, this work, donated in 1829.

-Constable.

-Constable.

-Constable, yeah.

Constable?

It is Constable, Boat Passing A Lock.

Right, ten points at stake if you can get your fingers

on the buzzers quickly enough.

"Science and letters are the nourishment of youth

"and the diversion of old age."

This is a translation of words

by which Roman philosopher and orator...?

Cicero?

Correct.

You get three bonuses, this time, East London,

on Canterbury Cathedral.

Which chapel of Canterbury Cathedral is named after

an archbishop who died in 1109?

He originated the ontological argument for the existence of God.

Thomas Becket.

No, it wasn't.

It was St Anselm.

Secondly, which composer was buried at Canterbury Cathedral

on the day after his death in 1625?

He's noted for keyboard works and madrigals,

including The Silver Swan.

Any ideas?

Um...

Thomas Tallis.

Thomas Tallis, yeah. OK, yeah.

Nominate Evans.

Thomas Tallis?

No, it was Orlando Gibbons.

And finally, who is the only king of England

to be buried in Canterbury Cathedral?

He lies alongside his Queen, Joan of Navarre,

who died in 1437.

Over to you.

Henry IV?

Henry IV.

Correct.

Right, ten points for this.

Answer promptly.

Name any one of the three Caribbean island nations

whose two letter internet codes consist solely of letters

that are also Roman numerals.

Virgin Islands?

Nope.

Dominica?

Dominica is one.

St Lucia is another. St Vincent is the third.

So you get a set of bonuses, Warwick,

on Japanese fiction.

Born in 1964, which novelist has been described as,

"The voice of young Japan"?

Her works include Kitchen, Amrita, Lizard and The Lake.

It's like...Banana.

It's... Tanizaki? Is that it?

Or Banana or something.

-There's a Japanese author that...

-Oh, yeah.

I think it could be...

-Shall we say Banana?

-I can't say that.

Tanizaki?

-No, it is Banana Yoshimoto.

-Oh, it is. Sorry.

And secondly, first published in book form in 1969,

Spring Snow is the first novel in a tetralogy by which Japanese author?

He completed the last novel in the series

shortly before committing ritual seppuku in 1970.

-Mishima.

-Correct.

Born in 1949, which Japanese novelist's works include

After Dark, A Wild Sheep Chase and Norwegian Wood?

Murakami.

Correct.

Ten points for this.

Abundant in the Earth's crust,

which element appears in the periodic table

between aluminium and phosphorus?

GONG

And that's the gong.

East London have 55,

but the University of Warwick have 195.

Well, East London,

I'm afraid you didn't get a chance to get going, really, did you?

But we're going to have to say goodbye to you, therefore,

as a consequence.

But thank you very much for joining us.

Warwick, 195, very impressive score.

We shall look forward to seeing you in the next stage of the contest.

I hope you can join us next time for another second-round match.

But until then, it's goodbye from the University of East London...

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

It's goodbye from Warwick University...

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.