Episode 22 University Challenge

University Challenge. Asking the questions - Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. There are eight places in the quarterfinal stage of

this competition, and five of them have already been taken.

The sixth place will go to tonight's winners, while the losers

will be able only to dream of what might have been.

Robinson College, Cambridge, dispatched Wadham College, Oxford,

in round one, with a score of 155 points to a mere 95,

despite it being a close-run match until the halfway point.

After that, though, Wadham declined to dampen Robinson's

enthusiasm for telling us about oil of vitriol, Blanche DuBois,

and famous people buried in Venice.

They were also surprisingly well-informed about the

1918 general election, for a team with an average age of only 20.

Let's meet the Robinson team again.

Hello, I'm David Verghese.

I'm from Hertfordshire, and I'm reading English.

Hi, I'm Catherine Hodge. I'm from Birmingham, and I'm studying

Theology and Religious Studies.

And here's their captain.

Hi, I'm James Pinder. I'm from Emsworth in Hampshire,

and I'm reading Natural Sciences.

Hey, I'm George Barton, I'm from Buckinghamshire,

and I'm studying Physics.

APPLAUSE

Now, after a diffident start, the team from

Balliol College, Oxford, managed a virtual walkover in their

first round match, winning by 220 points, to Imperial College,

London's uncharacteristically low score of 55. Their strengths

included lonely 19th-century artists, historical relations

between Britain and Japan, and much else,

from Friedrich Engels to Taylor Swift. With an average age of 23,

let's meet the Balliol team again.

Hi, I'm Freddy Potts, I'm from Newcastle, and I'm reading History.

Hello, I'm Jacob Lloyd. I'm from London,

and I'm reading for a D Phil in English.

And this is their captain.

Hi, I'm Joey Goldman, and I'm from London, and I'm reading

Philosophy and Theology.

Hi, I'm Ben Pope. I'm from Sydney, and I'm doing a D Phil

-in Astrophysics.

-APPLAUSE

Now, you all know the rules, so let's just get on with it.

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

Islands In The Stream is a posthumously-published novel

by which writer? First appearing in 1970,

it consists of three related stories.

-Hemingway?

-Hemingway is correct. APPLAUSE

The first set of bonuses go to you, Balliol,

and they are on political insults.

"He can't see a belt without hitting below it."

To which politician do those words of Margot Asquith refer?

He succeeded her husband as Prime Minister in 1916.

David Lloyd George.

-Lloyd George.

-Correct.

"An empty taxi arrived at 10 Downing Street,

"and, when the door was opened, he got out."

To which Prime Minister was Churchill referring

with those words?

Could be Chamberlain, could be Baldwin.

Could it be Attlee, a later one?

-Let's go with Attlee.

-OK.

-Clement Attlee?

Correct. In reference to Michael Foot's description of him,

which Conservative politician included a polecat

on his coat of arms when he entered the House of Lords?

Tebbit? Was it Tebbit?

-Tebbit?

-Tebbit?

It was, the famous semi-housetrained polecat, Norman Tebbit.

APPLAUSE Right, ten points for this -

which greenhouse gas is often cited

as an example of tetrahedral molecular...?

-Methane.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on Nobel Prizes.

In 1903, Robinson, Marie Curie became the first woman to

receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.

In which decade did Maria Mayer become the second,

for discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure?

Nuclear shell was, like...

Roughly in the '10s, wasn't it?

-No, I'd have gone with...

-With the war, it would be after 1914.

-So would it be 1920s, then?

-I'd have gone '20s.

-OK, '20s, then, sure.

-1920s?

-No, it was the 1960s. It was 1963, to be precise.

Marie Curie was also the first female recipient of the

Nobel Prize in chemistry, in 1911.

What was the name of the second in 1935?

She shared the prize with her husband, Frederic.

-Name of the second?

-The second, in '53.

-I'm...

-I can't... I can't think of it.

-No.

-No, sorry.

-Unless it's Rosalind Franklin.

-No.

-It's not Lise Meitner either.

-I don't know.

-Erm, Dorothy Hodgkin.

No, it was Irene Joliot-Curie.

And, finally, in which decade did Gerty Theresa Cori become

the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine?

I've literally no idea.

'70s?

-'70s?

-'70s?

No, it was the 1940s. Right, a starter question now.

What four-letter prefix links an artwork by Robert Rauschenberg,

featuring a goat wearing a rubber tyre...

-Mono.

-Well done. APPLAUSE

For your bonuses,

Balliol, I want you to name the following authors cited by

Mahatma Gandhi as major influences on his writing and thinking.

Firstly, described by Gandhi as

"one of the three moderns who left a deep impress on me",

who was the author of Unto This Last?

He was a leading art critic during the Victorian era.

-Ruskin?

-Yeah, that was my thought.

-John Ruskin?

-Correct.

Secondly, a Russian novelist with whom Gandhi corresponded

and who advocated non-violent resistance in his book

The Kingdom Of God Is Within You.

Gandhi named an idealistic community in South Africa after him.

-Tolstoy.

-Correct.

And finally, the 19th-century American author and philosopher

whose works include On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience and Walden.

-Thoreau.

-Thoreau is correct. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

In astronomy, what six-letter term denotes a roughly

straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies...?

-Syzygy.

-Yes. APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on religious iconography, Balliol.

In the image known as Nataraja, or Lord Of The Dance, the uplifted

foot of which Hindu deity is said to represent freedom from illusion?

-Shiva.

-Correct.

Focus on, or the sole depiction of, the feet

is a characteristic of images of which event of the life of Jesus,

according to traditional Christian teaching?

As, for example, in a 1958 painting by Salvador Dali.

-Washing of the feet?

-Yeah?

Washing of the feet, by Mary Magdalene?

No, it's the ascension.

And, finally, the earliest phase of which religion is sometimes

said to have been aniconic, with footprints, an empty throne,

and a riderless horse symbolising its founder?

Oh, it's Buddhism.

Yeah. Buddhism?

Buddhism is correct. We're going to take a picture round now.

APPLAUSE Answer as soon as

your name is called. For your picture starter, you're going to see

a hypothetical concert programme, made up of three well-known works,

all roughly contemporary of each other. For the ten points,

I'll need the names of the three composers whose works are listed.

Schumann, Schubert, and Donizetti.

Nope.

One of you want to buzz from Robinson?

If you don't have an idea, we might as well just get on with it.

-Verdi, Strauss and Schubert.

-No.

It's Mendelssohn, Schubert and Rossini,

so picture bonuses in a moment or two.

We'll get another starter question in first.

"People obviously recognise him,

"but they assume he is a comedian playing a role."

These words refer to which figure, indicated in the title of

a 2012 novel, written in German by Timur Vermes?

-Adolf Hitler?

-Adolf Hitler is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So, picture bonuses - three more hypothetical concert programmes,

each made up of well-known works from three composers.

In each case, the three works listed were composed with ten years

of each other. Again, for the five points,

I'll need the names of all three composers.

Firstly, for five.

-Liebestraum is Liszt.

-Yeah.

La Donna E Mobile.

-Is THAT Verdi?

-Well, Verdi had a long career.

OK, so Les Troyens - any guess?

-What's your suggestion?

-Faure.

-OK - Liszt, Verdi and Faure.

-No, it's Liszt, Verdi and Berlioz.

-Oh, sorry.

Les Troyens. And, secondly...

-Pass.

-That's Richard Strauss,

Olivier Messiaen, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. And finally...

OK. So, Gymnopedie is Satie, Suite Bergamasque is, erm...

-Did we have Berlioz already? That's Berlioz, isn't it?

-Yeah.

And Che Gelida Manina - someone Italian, 20th century.

-Verdi, Puccini, erm...

-OK, OK. Puccini, Berlioz, Satie.

No, it's Puccini, Debussy, and Satie.

Right, ten points for this.

What five-letter surname links a protest singer

and campaigner for electoral reform, born in 1957,

the author and broadcaster whose works include The Adventure...

-Bragg.

-Bragg is correct. APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on railways in Africa, Balliol.

More than 1,800km in length,

the TAZARA Railway was built with Chinese aid in the 1970s.

It links Zambia with which East African port?

Dar es Salaam, maybe?

-Dar es Salaam.

-Correct.

A Chinese-backed project to restore the Benguela railway

was completed in 2015.

It runs from more than 13,000km through which country,

from Lobito on the Atlantic coast?

Angola?

-Angola.

-Correct.

In 2011, Chinese companies began building a new 756km standard gauge

railway connecting the Port of Djibouti and which inland capital?

-Addis Ababa?

-Yeah, that would make sense.

-Addis Ababa.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this. Answer promptly.

An ultra-high energy cosmic ray has a momentum

of ten to the minus eight kg metres per second.

To the nearest whole number, what is its energy in joules?

Seven.

No. Anyone like to buzz...?

Three.

Three is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, you get three bonuses on a solvent.

The cumene process is used in the commercial production

of phenol and which solvent,

an aromatic, flammable liquid that is the simplest saturated ketone?

Aromatic...

-Ketone.

-Aromatic, unsaturated...

Benzene?

Benzaldehyde?

No, it's acetone.

Now, acetone is found in the blood and urine of patients

suffering from starvation, and from which chronic metabolic disorder?

-Ketosis?

-Ketosis is when you stop digesting stuff, isn't it? So...

-Could well be.

-I think so.

Ketosis?

Yes, or diabetes mellitus, but I'll accept that.

Finally, for five points,

acetone was named in 1833 by the French chemist Antoine Bussy.

Five years earlier, he'd isolated which rare alkaline earth metal,

found in the gemstones aquamarine and emerald?

So, it's barium or beryllium, I think.

-Barium's the green...

-Barium's sort of green, yeah.

Barium?

No, it's beryllium, bad luck.

Right, ten points for this.

One of the longest of Central Asia,

which river flows northwest

to join the remnants of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan?

In ancient times...?

The Lena.

No, you lose five points.

In ancient times, it was known by a Greek name meaning sharp or acid.

-Oxus?

-Oxus is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses, Balliol, are on an actor.

Which British actor

was appointed manager of London's Haymarket Theatre in 1887?

He also helped fund the nearby Her Majesty's Theatre

and founded Rada in 1904.

No idea.

-I can't think of any 19th-century ones. Um...

-It's not David Garrick?

No, Garrick's 18th-century, you're way out.

Laurence Olivier.

Laurence Olivier?! LAUGHTER

Well, I might as well say something.

He was old, but he wasn't that old.

It was Sir Herbert Draper Beerbohm Tree.

Terrific name.

The first London production of which play by George Bernard Shaw

opened at His Majesty's Theatre in 1914,

with Beerbohm Tree playing opposite Mrs Patrick Campbell?

It opens with a group of people

sheltering from the rain in Covent Garden.

-Could it be Pygmalion?

-Yeah, that would make sense.

-Pygmalion.

-Correct.

His works including Oliver and The Third Man,

which film director was the illegitimate son of Beerbohm Tree

and his mistress, May Pinney?

-It wasn't Welles, cos Welles was in it.

-Yeah.

Um...

It's not Welles.

This is embarrassing.

Oh, no, no, no... It's...

-David Lean?

-Lean?

No, it's Carol Reed.

-Oh!

-OK, whatever.

Time for a music round. For your music starter,

you're going to hear a piece of popular music

from a notable musical duo.

Ten points if you can identify the band.

ELECTRONIC MUSIC

-Daft Punk.

-Daft Punk is correct.

APPLAUSE

So, Balliol, your bonuses are three more pieces by musical duos.

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

# I can make you mine

# Taste your lips of wine

# Any time of night or day. #

The Everly Brothers?

It is The Everly Brothers, yes. 1958.

Secondly, this band, please.

GUITAR MUSIC

# Flying, domestic flying

# And when the stewardess is near

# Do not show any fear... #

Oh, this is...

The Dresden Dolls.

# Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat... #

Nominate Pope.

Dresden Dolls?

-No, it was Sparks.

-Oh!

And finally...

# Red hair with a curl

# Mellow roll for the flavour and the eyes were peeping. #

Oh, The White Stripes.

The White Stripes.

It is The White Stripes, yes.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

What four-word phrase is the usual English translation

of the surname of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII...?

-"Born in the purple."

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Porphyrogenitus.

Your bonuses are on British ducks, Balliol.

In each case, give the common name of the species from the description.

Firstly, Anas platyrhynchos,

sometimes known as the wild duck,

a dabbling duck resident throughout the UK.

The male has a green head and a yellow bill.

-Mallard?

-Yeah.

-Mallard.

-Correct.

Secondly, Bucephala clangula, also known as the whistler.

It is a diving duck,

named after a particularly distinctive sensory organ.

Hornbill?

-Is that sensory?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Hornbill?

No, it's the goldeneye.

Lastly, Somateria mollissima,

a large sea duck resident in northern parts of Britain.

Its soft breast feathers are used to fill quilts and sleeping bags.

-Eiderdown.

-Yeah.

-So eider is the duck.

Eider?

Correct. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

The names of the capitals of the Dominican republic

and Tajikistan contain, in the local languages,

the names of which two successive days of the week?

-Sunday and Monday?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Do you know Tajik?

LAUGHTER

Right, your bonuses are on

the first millennium of the Christian or Common Era.

In each case, identify the century during which the named people

lived and died.

Firstly, the Sassanid Persian ruler Khosrow the Just,

the Chinese Buddhist reformer Tiantai,

and the Frankish historian Gregory of Tours.

Third.

Decade or century?

Tiantai...

Sassanids have to be before 600.

I think it's... I think it's probably...

Maybe the 500s? Because...

The 500s?

It is the 500s, or the sixth century, that's correct.

Secondly, St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan,

the Greek theologian Gregory of Nazianzus,

and the Roman Emperor Theodosius the great?

He is...

Is that the same as Theodosius? So definitely after the split.

Yeah. Quite late.

So he was Byzantine.

Fifth century?

I... Oh, I think it's...

So fourth or fifth.

I think Gregory was after...

So, yeah, fourth or fifth.

-Fifth, I think.

-OK.

Fifth century?

No, it was fourth century, or the 300s.

And finally, Emperor Taizu, founder of the Song Dynasty,

the historian Liutprand of Cremona,

and the Holy Roman Emperor Otto The Great?

Song Dynasty?

I think it's quite late. Otto...

THEY CONFER

Tenth century?

Correct. The 900s. Well done.

APPLAUSE

Another starter question.

From 1981 to 2010, the average annual rainfall

at Greenwich Park in London was 557 millimetres.

What was the comparable figure for Manchester? You can have...

1,000.

Nope.

That was an interruption, too.

You can have 50mm either way, I was going to say.

One of you buzz?

800?

You're just outside.

It's 867.

I'd have accepted anything from 817 to 917.

So, fingers on the buzzers, here's another starter question.

In chemistry, what term describes a compound

that contains only single bonds?

It may...?

-Saturated.

-Yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on

the standard abbreviations of the titles of Shakespeare's plays,

according to the handbook of the Modern Languages Association.

Firstly, the standard abbreviation of which play

is also a letter ISO code for the Welsh language?

-Cymbeline.

-Yes.

-CYM?

-Cymbeline.

-Oh, Cymbeline.

Cymbeline is correct, yes.

One of Shakespeare's less frequently performed works,

which play shares its standard abbreviation with that of a type

of French high-speed passenger train?

-Two Gentlemen Of Verona?

-Yeah.

Two Gentlemen Of Verona?

Correct.

And finally, which history play,

attributed in part to Shakespeare, has an alphanumerical abbreviation

used in text messaging for the word "hate"?

-Henry VIII?

-Correct. APPLAUSE

We're going to take a second picture round.

For your picture starter,

you're going to see a photograph of a historical figure.

Ten points if you can identify her.

Wallis Simpson?

It is Wallis Simpson, yes.

APPLAUSE

She was wearing a notable design by Elsa Schiaparelli,

a leading designer in the '20s and '30s

known for her collaborations with Dali, Cocteau and Giacometti.

Your picture bonuses are three more

of her famous clients wearing her designs.

Five points for each client you can identify.

Firstly, for five...

Marlene Dietrich?

-I don't know who that is.

-It could be...

-Marlene Dietrich.

-Yeah, I think it could be.

Marlene Dietrich?

No, that's Joan Crawford. Secondly...

Is that Marilyn Monroe?

-No!

-No! It's...

It could be... Is it Greta Garbo?

Greta Garbo?

- No, that was Marlene Dietrich. - AUDIENCE: Oh!

And finally...

Could that be, like, Maureen O'Hara?

Who?

Maureen O'Hara. She was in this film I watched the other day.

LAUGHTER

-Yeah, seems reasonable.

-No, clearly...

Maureen O'Hara?

-No, that's Mae West.

-Oh.

Ten points for this.

What film was based on Clare Boothe Luce's

play of the same name, and was directed in 1939 by George Cukor?

It was remade by Diane English in 2008,

with both film versions having an all-female cast.

It was The Women. Ten points for this.

After the sun and the three stars that form Alpha Centauri,

what is the next nearest known star to Earth?

A class M red dwarf about...

-Barnard's Star.

-Barnard's Star is correct.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on protein degradation.

Firstly, the primary function of what multi-catalytic enzyme complex

is to degrade proteins?

It's present in the nucleus and cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells.

Protease.

Protease.

No, it's proteasome.

Secondly, which small polypeptide

needs to be attached to a protein for recognition by the proteasome?

-Pass.

-It's ubiquitin.

And finally, inhibition of the proteasome pathway

can interfere with the ordered degradation of cell cycle proteins

and lead to programmed cell death. By what term...?

Apoptosis.

Apoptosis is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Four and a half minutes to go, ten points for this.

Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were cities of an ancient civilisation...?

Indus Valley.

Indus is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on places that delimit areas

of the BBC coastal weather forecast, for example, Whitby and Selsey Bill.

In each case, I'd like you to identify the place

from the description. Firstly, the most north-westerly point

of the island of Great Britain.

It takes its name from the Norse for "turning point".

-John O'Groats?

-It's not that, though, is it?

Stornoway?

Stornoway?

No, it's Cape Wrath.

Secondly, an inlet of the Atlantic

to the east of the Inishowen Peninsula.

The city of Derry stands just to the south on a river of the same name.

THEY CONFER

Pass.

Lough Foyle.

And finally, a railway and ferry terminus on Anglesey divides

the area between St David's Head and Morecambe Bay.

Pass.

It's Holyhead. Three minutes to go, ten points for this.

What short word links the second oldest university in Sweden,

founded in 1666, with the surname of the leading female detective

in the Danish police...?

Lund?

Lund is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Robinson College,

are on novels that won the Pulitzer Prize For Fiction.

Which novel by Philip Roth

won the Pulitzer Prize For Fiction in 1998?

I think it might be The Human Stain.

The Human Stain?

No, it was American Pastoral.

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao won the prize in 2003.

Who was the author?

Oh, I know...

I've got nothing.

Say something.

Jacob Hardman.

No, it was Junot Diaz.

And finally, which novel by Cormac McCarthy won the prize in 2007?

-The Road.

-The Road.

-The Road.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

Two minutes to go, ten points for this.

Inserting the letters I and A into the French word for "lover"

gives the name of which genus of sometimes toxic fungi

that includes fly, agaric and death cap?

Amiata?

No.

Amanita?

Yes, Amanita is correct. APPLAUSE

So you get a set of bonuses, now, on Anglo-Saxon coinage.

Firstly, for five points, an early major minting of the silver penny

appeared during the reign of which King of Mercia, who died in 796?

-Offa.

-Correct.

From 927, which grandson of Alfred The Great was styled

Rex totius Britanniae, or King of All Britain, on his coins?

-Athelstan, isn't it?

-Athelstan, yes.

-927?

-Yes.

-Athelstan.

-Correct.

In 973, which King of the English

established royal control over minting and regular recoinages

that ensured consistent quality?

973, was it?

Ethelred...?

-Could be.

-Just say Ethelred.

Ethelred The Unready?

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

Which Austrian born Holocaust survivor,

psychiatrist and founder of...?

Viktor Frankl.

Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on ecology, Balliol.

The term edaphic factor refers to what precise habitat?

THEY CONFER

-Er, studio.

-LAUGHTER

No, it's the soil.

What are the three mineral components of soil,

based on particle size?

I need all three.

Clay...

-Clay, sand...?

-Stone?

-What's the last one?

Gravel? I don't know.

Clay, stone and gravel.

No, it's clay, silt and sand.

Finally, what short term denotes a soil

in which neither clay, silt, nor sand predominates?

Aggregate? I don't know.

Aggregate.

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

GONG

And at the gong, Robinson College Cambridge have 90,

Balliol College Oxford have 210.

APPLAUSE

Well, you didn't really get a chance to get going, did you, Robinson?

But thank you for joining us. We shall have to say goodbye to you.

Balliol, we shall look forward to seeing you in the quarterfinals,

a very impressive performance,

we shall look forward to seeing more of you.

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

but until then, it's goodbye from Robinson College, Cambridge...

-Goodbye!

-..it's goodbye from Balliol College, Oxford...

-Goodbye!

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

APPLAUSE