Episode 24 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. 28 teams qualified to appear in this series,

12 left with prudent haste after the first round, and so far,

seven have fallen by the wayside in round two, which ends tonight.

Whichever team wins this match

will take the last of the quarterfinal places.

The team from Peterhouse, Cambridge beat Queens' College, Cambridge

in the first round, but only by the skin of their teeth.

They had a comfortable lead for most of the match,

but then fell strangely silent for the final third,

allowing Queens' to come within ten points of them,

and they were doubtless relieved to hear the gong

silence their opponents during a bonus set on recent fiction.

With an average age of 19

and representing the reigning University Challenge champions,

let's meet the Peterhouse team again.

Hello, my name's Ephraim Jacob Jacobus Levinson.

I'm from North London and I'm reading English.

Hello, my name's Oliver Sweetenham.

I'm from Hinksey in Oxfordshire and I'm also reading English Literature.

-And this is their captain.

-Hello, I'm Natasha Voake.

I'm originally from New York and I'm reading Linguistics.

And I'm Xiao Lin. I grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne and Belfast,

and I'm reading Chemical Engineering.

APPLAUSE

Now, the team representing Corpus Christi College, Oxford,

had a close first-round match against Jesus College, Cambridge,

and were neck and neck until the final minutes

when they finally managed to pull into the lead

and keep it until the gong, winning by 200 points to 175.

With an average age of 21, let's meet the Corpus Christi team again.

Hello, I'm Tom Fleet.

I'm from Pendoggett in Cornwall and I study English.

Hi, I'm Emma Johnson. I'm from North London and I study Medicine.

-And this is their captain.

-Hi, I'm Nikhil Venkatesh.

I'm from Derby and I study Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Hi, I'm Adam Wright from Winnersh in Berkshire

and I'm studying for a DPhil in Physics.

APPLAUSE

Shall we skip the recitation of the rules? Fingers on the buzzers.

Here's your first starter for ten.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.

"The unreasonable one persists

"in trying to adapt the world to himself.

"Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Those words appear in a work of 1903 by which literary figure?

-George Bernard Shaw.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Maxims For Revolutionists.

You get the first set of bonuses, then, Corpus Christi.

They're on an animal.

In the monologue by Marriott Edgar recorded by Stanley Holloway,

Albert Ramsbottom falls foul of Wallace

after pushing his stick with its "'orse's 'ead 'andle"

into Wallace's ear. What species of animal is Wallace?

This is the lion, isn't it?

-Albert and the lion?

-I have...

-Go for it.

-Yeah, sounds plausible.

-A lion.

-Correct.

"If all evil were prevented,

"much good would be absent from the universe.

"A lion would cease to live if there were no slaying of animals."

Who wrote that in the 13th-century work Summa Theologica?

-Is that Aquinas?

-Aquinas sounds possible.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Aquinas.

-Correct.

In a work of 1513, who wrote that a ruler must be a fox

"to recognise the traps, and a lion to frighten the wolves"?

-Machiavelli.

-Yeah?

-Machiavelli.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this.

After Russia and Iran,

which country has the third largest natural gas reserves in the world?

In 2015, Swiss federal prosecutors implicated it in an investigation

relating to irregularities in the allocation of the 20...

-Qatar.

-Qatar is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on ancient Greek scientists.

Firstly, for five points, born around 310 BC,

Aristarchus of Samos was an early proponent

of what astronomical theory

later upheld by the models of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo?

-Heliocentrism.

-Correct - the earth orbiting the sun.

Secondly, using correct geometry but inaccurate data,

Aristarchus said that the sun was about 18 to 20 times

further away from earth than the moon.

What is the actual multiple? You can have 10% either way.

The sun's 93 million miles away,

but I don't how far away the moon is.

-Cheers, mate.

-I'd guess, like, ten. Something like ten.

-Ten? I thought it would be more.

-Oh.

-OK? No?

Try it. Try it.

OK, ten.

What a very odd world you live in.

LAUGHTER No, it's 390.

The main source for Aristarchus's heliocentric theory

is The Sand Reckoner,

a work by which Greek mathematician born in Sicily around 290 BC?

Who was born in Sicily? Was that...?

-Was Archimedes?

-Yeah. I think so, yeah.

-Archimedes.

-It was Archimedes, yes.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this.

Which three letters begin the names of an island

lying between North and South Uist,

a city in the Australian state of Victoria

that grew rapidly during the 1850s gold rush,

a region in the north-east of the Indian subcontinent,

and a tourist resort on the Costa Blanca?

-B-E-N.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on World War II propaganda posters.

Firstly, for five, what three words appear on a poster

depicting a booted foot pushing a spade into the earth?

-Dig for Victory?

-Dig for Victory.

-Dig for Victory.

-Correct.

According to numerous posters,

the influence of which maligned creature

could be averted by buying war savings?

He's often depicted as an imp-like being covered with swastikas.

-HE SIGHS

-Is it like...?

-It's the something bug.

-I don't know.

-Squander Bug - have I made that up?

-Try it.

-Oh, yes!

-Yeah? Is that a thing?

-I think that sounds right.

Is that from Dad's Army or...?

-The Squander Bug.

-That's correct. LAUGHTER

Give the two words that complete this inscription

on a public information poster.

"Hitler will send no warning, so always carry your..."

-Gas mask.

-Gas mask.

-Gas mask.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE Right, ten points for this

starter question.

"Only boys accepting feminism get kissed meaningfully",

is a mnemonic representing the seven letters

in the so-called Harvard system used in the classification of what?

-Stars.

-Stars is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your first bonuses, Peterhouse,

are on the French Revolutionary Wars.

Firstly, for five, following the Treaty of Tolentino in 1796,

a work known as The Transfiguration by which Renaissance artist

was taken from Pope Pius VI and exhibited in the Louvre?

It was returned after 1815.

I have no idea.

Oh, maybe della Francesca might have done The Transfiguration.

-Do you think?

-Piero della Francesca, maybe.

-Piero della Francesca.

-No, it was by Raphael.

Removed to Paris during the French occupation of Venice

and now displayed in the Louvre,

The Wedding Feast At Cana is a painting by which artist?

-Veronese.

-Correct.

Four bronze horses taken from St Mark's Basilica

were used in the design of a triumphal arch in Paris.

The Venetians had earlier stolen them

during a sack of which city in 1204?

-Constantinople.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE We're going to take a picture round.

For your picture starter, you're going to see a word cloud

with a selection of the most common words

in the speech of one of Shakespeare's characters,

with all proper nouns and their adjectival forms removed.

For ten points, I want you to identify the character.

-Shylock.

-Shylock is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

So, for your picture bonuses, I want you to identify

three more Shakespearean characters

from some of their most commonly used words.

All are title characters, and again,

names and place names have been largely omitted.

Firstly, for five...

THEY WHISPER

-Cheek...

-Eyes would make it Romeo, not Juliet.

-No...

Who talks about poisoning? Who's the one who does the poisoning?

-Isn't that Juliet?

-Um, yeah.

-You may be right.

-Actually, is there a female...?

-And "man". I think Juliet, maybe.

-I think...

-OK, yes, go for Juliet.

-Romeo or Juliet, but I'm not sure.

OK. Juliet.

No, it was Romeo. Bad luck. Secondly...

-Oh, it's Othello.

-Oh, yes, of course.

-Othello.

-Othello is right.

The handkerchief's the giveaway, of course. And finally...

-Could be Hamlet.

-It could probably.

Actually, "mother", so it's definitely Hamlet.

-Hamlet.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE Right, ten points for this.

What intense form of self-regard

derives its name from that of a Greek youth?

-Narcissism.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Corpus Christi, this time are on scientific units.

In each case, identify the unit from the description.

All three begin with the same letter.

Firstly, a unit of distance defined as the average distance

between the centre of the earth and the centre of the sun.

-Is that an astronomical unit?

-OK.

-An astronomical unit.

-That's correct.

Secondly, a unit of length equal to 0.1 nanometres

or ten to the minus 10m.

It's named after a 19th-century Swedish physicist.

-Angstrom.

-Correct.

Finally, give the two-word term for the unit of angular measurement

equivalent to 1/60th of a degree.

-Arcsecond.

-Oh, yeah.

-Oh, yeah, arcminute.

Yeah, say arcminute.

-Arcminute.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this.

Truth as subjectivity and the knight of faith

are among concepts associated with which Northern European philosopher

born in 1813? His works...

-Kierkegaard.

-Kierkegaard is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Peterhouse,

this time are on people buried in Highgate Cemetery.

In each case, name the person from the description.

Firstly, a Marxist historian who died in 2012.

His works include Industry And Empire

and The Age Of Extremes - The Short 20th Century, 1914-1991.

-Eric Hobsbawm.

-Correct.

Secondly, a novelist who died in 1882.

Her works include Daniel Deronda and Felix Holt, the Radical.

-George Eliot.

-Correct.

And finally, an English scientist who died in 1867.

He invented the first electric motor and discovered diamagnetism.

-Faraday?

-Maybe Faraday.

-OK.

-Faraday.

-Faraday is right.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this.

The French marquis Marie-Joseph Gilbert du Motier

is commonly known by what single-word name?

He fought in the American War of Independence,

commanded the national...

-Is it Lafayette?

-It is Lafayette, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on ships in literature, Peterhouse.

The experiences of the crew of HMS Compass Rose

and HMS Saltash during the Second World War

are the subject of which novel by Nicholas Monsarrat?

Um...

-Do we even know who Nicholas Monsarrat is?

-I've no idea.

-I don't know who he is, no. Just pass.

-Pass.

That's The Cruel Sea, first published in 1951.

And secondly, in a poem of 1841 by Longfellow,

which schooner is wrecked in a storm with the captain's daughter

tied to the mast to prevent her from being swept overboard?

-The Hesperus?

-I think so.

-I think the Hesperus, isn't it?

-The Hesperus.

-Correct.

HMS Bellipotent, Rights of Man, the Jeroboam and the Pequod

are ships in the fiction of which American novelist?

-Herman Melville.

-Herman Melville.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this. In physics,

which curve forms the solution

to the so-called brachistochrone problem

as the trajectory of a point of mass

moving between two fixed points under the influence of gravity?

It's also the curve...

-Parabola.

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

It's also the curve traced out

by a point on a wheel rolling on a flat surface.

-A circle.

-A cycloid. Ten points for this.

On January the 1st, 1876,

the registration of trademarks began at the UK Patent Office.

Which company's trademark was the first to be registered?

It appears on Edouard Manet's A Bar At The Folies-Bergere

on a beer bottle in the bottom right-hand corner.

-Is it Guinness?

-No.

One of you can have a punt.

Stella Artois.

No, it's the Bass red triangle from the Bass Brewery.

Ten points for this.

"If she had nothing more than her voice,

"she could break your heart with it."

Those words of Ernest Hemingway refer to which actress born in 1901?

She said of herself, "America took me into her bosom

"when I no longer had a native country worthy of the name."

-Marlene Dietrich.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on matriarchs, Corpus Christi.

The Dictionary Of National Biography gives the designation

Yorkist matriarch to two women.

One is Cecily Neville, the mother of which two kings?

Yorkists? It's Edward IV and V?

-Yeah, go for it.

-Yeah?

-I don't know, so...

Edward IV and V.

No, it's Edward IV and Richard III.

The second Yorkist matriarch is Margaret Tudor,

the daughter of Cecily Neville.

She's also known as Margaret of Burgundy,

after her marriage in 1468 to which duke?

The Duke of Burgundy, but I think he wants more than that. Er...

-I don't know.

-I've got no clue.

-I have absolutely nothing.

You're on your own. Say anything.

Henri of Burgundy.

No, it's Charles the Bold.

And finally, the DNB describes Margaret Beaufort

as a royal matriarch.

Born in 1443, she was the mother of which king of England?

-Henry the...

-Henry VII?

-Could be, yeah.

-Yeah?

-Yeah, go for it.

-Yeah, possible.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Henry VII.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

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

For your music starter, you'll hear a piece

of orchestral music by an American composer.

Ten points if you can identify the composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

Philip Glass.

No. You can hear a little more, Peterhouse.

MUSIC CONTINUES

Adams. John Adams.

No, it's not. It's Steve Reich,

so we'll get the music bonuses in a moment or two,

when someone's got a starter question right.

Fingers on the buzzers. Ten points for this.

Give the three precise words that complete this quotation

from St Matthew's Gospel in the King James Bible.

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle

"than for a rich man to enter into the..."

-Kingdom of God.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

OK, you'll recall, a moment ago, that we heard a piece

from Steve Reich's Different Trains,

a reflection on his travels across the US during World War II,

and on very different and enforced train journeys

being made in Europe at the same time.

Your music bonuses are three more classical pieces

inspired by railway travel.

Five points for each composer you can identify.

Firstly, for five, this French composer.

# C'est le grand jour, le jour de fete

# Jour du triomphe et des lauriers

# Pour vous ouvriers La couronne est prete

# La couronne est prete Soldats de la paix

# C'est votre victoire C'est a vous la gloire... #

-Bizet.

-No, that's Berlioz.

That was written for the opening of the line

from Paris to Lille and Brussels.

Secondly, this American composer.

DISCORDANT CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

THEY WHISPER

Copland.

It is Aaron Copland, his celebration of John Henry,

the Steel Drivin' Man.

And finally, this Austrian composer...

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

THEY WHISPER

-Mozart.

-No.

That's Strauss the Elder. That was his Railway Delight Waltz.

Right, ten points for this. Which decade saw the start

of the shipment of the Elgin Marbles from Greece to the UK,

the failure of Robert Emmet's rebellion in Ireland,

and the Louisiana Purchase in the United States?

-The 1800s.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on flowering plants, Peterhouse.

In each case, give me the common or the scientific name

of the family described.

Firstly, which family of shrubs and trees includes the poplars?

It's named after a tree whose British species include crack,

white, goat, grey and osier.

-Could it be...?

-Poplars?

-No, poplars are, like, bigger.

-Could it be hawthorn? No.

-Obviously not.

Could be. Shall we just go with that?

-Hawthorn.

-No, it's willow.

Secondly, which family includes the ashes and lilacs?

It's named after an important commercial tree

of the Mediterranean region.

-Olive trees?

-The cedar?

-Is that commercial?

-Oh, I've no idea.

-Palm?

It could be something that...

Cedar's more likely.

-Cedar.

-No, it's olive.

And finally, which family includes the alders and hazels?

It's named after a common tree

with light-coloured bark that sheds tissue-like layers.

-Birch. Silver birch.

-OK.

-Birch.

-Birch is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE Right, ten points for this.

What title was given to the work

first published in 1927

and compiled from a series of literary lectures by E M Forster?

The lectures covered seven...

-Aspects Of The Novel.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses could give you the lead if you get them.

They're on films depicting artists.

Firstly, for five, the title of the 2008 film Little Ashes

is a translation of the title Cenicitas,

a painting by which Spanish artist

played in the film by Robert Pattinson?

-Oh, it's, um...

-It's not Goya?

I don't know who it is, so it could be...

-Maybe Goya. He's not going to be Velazquez, so it may be Goya.

-OK.

-Goya.

-No, it's Dali.

-Oh.

In the 1956 film Lust For Life based on the novel by Irving Stone,

Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn play which two artists?

Lust For Life. What would that be?

HE WHISPERS

God! A pair of artists? That might be...

Maybe Gauguin and van Gogh or something.

-Go for it.

-Maybe Gauguin and van Gogh.

-Gauguin and van Gogh.

-Correct.

And finally, the role of which artist

is played by Jose Ferrer and John Leguizamo respectively

in the 1952 and 2001 film versions of Moulin Rouge?

-Oh, God, Toulouse...

-Yeah, it's Toulouse-Lautrec.

-Toulouse-Lautrec.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this. In physics,

what six-letter term denotes a rotating vector

that represents a sinusoidally varying quantity, such as...

-Cork.

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

..such as the electric field of a photon?

The term is a homophone of a device used

on the television series Star Trek.

-Phaser.

-Phaser is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

So, you've retaken the lead and your bonuses

are on German prepositions, Corpus Christi.

Adding the letter O to the end of the German word for after

gives the name of which Mexican food item?

-Nacho.

-Correct.

Adding the letter T to the end of the German word for at or to

gives which mild French expletive?

-It's zu, so zut - is that a French...?

-Zut, yeah.

Zut, definitely.

-Zut.

-Zut is right. And finally, adding the letter O

to the beginning of the German word for with

gives what English verb?

-Omit.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE We're going to take another

picture round. For your picture starter,

you'll see a portrait of a painter and writer.

Ten points if you can identify him.

-John Ruskin.

-It is John Ruskin, painted by Millais.

APPLAUSE He was involved

in the foundation of the Working Men's College,

still in operation today in Camden.

It's one of Britain's earliest adult

or continuing education institutions.

For your picture bonuses,

works by three artists who gave classes there.

I want the artist's name in each case. Firstly, for five...

-Is it one of the Pre-Raphaelites?

-This is Pre-Raphaelite, so...

-Holman Hunt?

-Ford Madox Brown?

We're just guessing Pre-Raphaelites.

Ford Madox Brown.

No, that is... You were in the right area.

It's Rossetti. It's Dante's Dream. Secondly...

Oh, this is another one. OK.

Yeah, that's not... No, it's not Waterhouse.

I thought it was, but I don't think so.

-Shall we try Brown?

-Do you want to go Brown?

-Really? Again?

-Yeah.

It might be a Waterhouse, but I don't think so.

-Ford Madox Brown.

-No, it's Burne-Jones,

The Beguiling Of Merlin. And finally...

-That looks like William Morris.

-Yeah.

-William Morris.

-It is.

His Acanthus design. Ten points for this.

Differing only in that the latter has a three-letter prefix,

which two words mean knowledge of spiritual mystery

and the likely course of a medical condition? Both can...

-Noesis and prognosis.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses, Corpus Christi,

are on ancient Mexico.

Located around 40 miles outside Mexico City,

the city of Tula was built by which civilisation

which flourished from around 900AD?

-It's not the Aztecs.

-Olmecs?

-Olmec? Olmec? Olmec?

All I know is it's not the Aztecs.

-The Olmec.

-No, it's the Toltec.

-Oh.

Thought to have been occupied by settlers from Tula,

Chichen Itza was originally constructed

by a subgroup of which pre-Columbian civilisation?

-Do you want to go Olmec?

-That could be it.

-I don't know.

-Yeah?

-Don't know.

-Olmec.

-No, it was the Mayas.

Toltec buildings at both Tula and Chichen Itza

were dedicated to the deity Quetzalcoatl,

usually depicted as a feathered manifestation of which animal?

-Oh, it's a bird.

-Was he a crocodile?

-I thought he was a bird.

-Oh.

-But it was feathered.

-Feathered.

-Like, a feathered crocodile?

-Feathered boa?

-Or snake?

-A feathered boa - is that a thing?

-A feather boa is a different thing.

Come on. LAUGHTER

Yeah, that's a different thing. That's a... Yeah.

-Is it a crocodile?

-No, it was a snake.

LAUGHTER Right, ten points for this.

Recalled To Life, The Golden Thread

and The Track Of A Storm...?

-A Tale Of Two Cities.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on zoology, Peterhouse.

Squids, octopuses and cuttlefish belong to which class of molluscs?

-Is it bivalves maybe?

-No, no, it's further up.

It's the other one. Begins with a C, I think.

-It's a class of mollusc?

-Cephalopods.

-Cephalopods.

-OK.

-Cephalopods.

-Correct.

In cephalopods, the structure known as the hectocotylised arm

is used for the transfer of what?

-Um...

-It could be sperm or something.

-Hectocotylised?

-I just don't know.

-Hectocotylised? Yeah, well, cotyl, yeah...

-The transfer of sperm, I suppose.

-OK. Do you think?

-Let's use it.

-Sperm.

-Correct.

In cephalopods, a statocyst is an organ that detects what force?

-Um...

-Thrust or something? Water pressure? Water pressure?

Well, stato could be electricity. Electric charge?

-Come on.

-What's the thing...?

-Water pressure.

-Water pressure.

-No, it's gravity. Ten points

for this. For what do the letters

LBJ stand when used...

-Lyndon Baines Johnson.

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

..LBJ stand when used by bird-watchers

to refer to small, non-descript, usually passerine species?

-Come on.

-Lark before June.

-No, they're little brown jobs.

Ten points for this.

Which Germanic people migrated to Northern Italy in the late...?

-The Lombards.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

So, you get a set of bonuses now on Burns Night.

The centrepiece of a Burns supper is the haggis,

or as Robert Burns described it, the great chieftain of what?

The pudding race. The pudding race.

-The pudding race.

-Correct.

Which town in the Scottish Borders gives its name to the grace

traditionally recited at a Burns supper,

as well as to a variety of bannock or fruitcake?

-No idea.

-Oh, Eccles.

-Eccles.

-No, Eccles isn't in Scotland.

-Just go for it.

-Come on.

-Eccles.

-No, it's Selkirk. Eccles is in Lancashire.

Taking its name from the cloth in which it is boiled,

according to the traditional recipe,

which dried fruit pudding often concludes a Burns Night supper?

I think we should pass.

-What's it called?

-Just pass. I don't know.

-Come on.

-Pass.

It's a clootie dumpling. Ten points for this.

Listen carefully. Which two distinct

square numbers between 100 and 500

have the property that the digits of one,

when read backwards, form the digits of the other?

-343.

-No.

169 and 196.

No, it's 144 and 441. Ten points for this.

What structure within some churches is often placed on top of a predella

in front of a reredos and beneath a baldachin?

-Tabernacle.

-No.

Anyone want to buzz from Corpus Christi?

-Pulpit.

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

Answer promptly.

Give the two seven-letter anagrams that mean regard or consideration

and a ceremonial staff carried by a monarch.

-Respect and sceptre.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses now are on science, Corpus Christi.

What is the predominant geometric...?

GONG

APPLAUSE And at the gong,

Peterhouse have 150, Corpus Christi have 175.

Well, it was pretty close.

We shall have to say goodbye to you, Peterhouse,

but thank you very much for being with us

and you certainly leave with a very respectable score.

Corpus Christi, we'll look forward to seeing you in the quarterfinals. Congratulations.

I hope you can join us next time for the first of the quarterfinals.

Until then, though, it's goodbye from Peterhouse, Cambridge.

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

It's goodbye from Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

-And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE