Episode 26 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge. Asking the questions - Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Last time, we saw Wolfson College, Cambridge

win the first of the two quarterfinal victories

our disobliging rules demand if a team is to take

one of the four places in the semifinal stage

of this competition.

Tonight's teams both aim to do the same.

Now, the team from the University of Bristol arrived here

by beating Sheffield University in round one by 210 points to 130

and followed it with an even more convincing performance

in round two, defeating Oriel College, Oxford

by 265 points to 70.

Making their third appearance, let's meet the Bristol team again.

Hi, I'm Joe Rolleston.

I'm from Tamworth in Staffordshire and I'm training to teach history.

Hi, I'm Claire Jackson, I'm from Carshalton in south-west London

and I'm studying for an MSci in palaeontology and evolution.

And this is their captain.

Hi, I'm Alice Clarke, I'm from Oxford and I study medicine.

Hi, I'm Michael Tomsett. I'm from Hinckley in Leicestershire

and I'm doing a PhD in organic chemistry.

APPLAUSE

The team from Corpus Christi College, Oxford

beat the reigning series champions, Peterhouse, Cambridge

by 175 points to 150 in their second round match

and that was after having defeated another Cambridge college, Jesus,

in their first-round match with the score of 200 to 175.

Let's meet the Corpus team making their third appearance.

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

OK, let's just crack on with it. Fingers on the buzzers.

Here's your first starter for ten.

Which system of Hindu philosophy teaches the suppression

of all activity of body, mind and will in order that the self

may realise its distinction from them and attain liberation?

It's name comes from the Sanskrit for yoking.

-Yoga.

-Yoga's correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You looked astonished the answer could be so easy.

Your bonuses are on Shakespeare and World War I.

Firstly, which capital city links the setting

of Shakespeare's Measure For Measure

with the first declaration of war on July the 28th 1914?

-Vienna.

-Correct.

Which French city links a battle of April 1917

with Polonius' hiding place in Act III of Hamlet?

-Can't remember.

-He was hiding in, like, the cupboard, right,

the closet or something, no?

So, it's...

We don't know. Battles, any First World War battles?

Erm... Verdun?

No, he was hiding behind the arras.

And, finally, which city links a character in As You Like It

with a battle of August 1918, known as the Black Day of the German Army?

-Battle of the Bulge?

-As You Like It.

No, that's the Second World War, isn't it?

As You Like It, who's in As You Like It? Come on.

Rosalind - that's not a city.

Rosalind.

Rosalind? Have you been there?!

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

During which century were Conrad II, Henry III and Henry IV

successive rulers of the Holy Roman Empire?

The latter's reign was marked

by the Investiture Controversy with the papacy.

15th century?

Nope.

12th century.

No, it's the 11th century.

Right, ten points for this.

What gigantic mythical creature gives its name

to the largest methane sea on Saturn's moon Titan?

Of Norwegian origin, its name also appears...

-Kraken.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Bristol, are on pirates.

Firstly for five points,

in the titles of recent non-fiction works by Susan Ronald,

which monarch is the Pirate Queen and the Heretic Queen?

The words "Dawn of Empire" appear in one subtitle.

-Elizabeth I, it must be.

-Right.

-Elizabeth I?

-Correct.

Treated favourably by Elizabeth during a visit to London in 1593,

Grainne O'Malley was the head of a powerful family in County Mayo.

She's sometimes described as "the pirate queen"

of which historical province of Ireland?

THEY CONFER

THEY CONFER

I've not heard of it, take a guess.

-Ulster?

-No, it's Connaught.

And Elizabeth is said to have pardoned Lady Killigrew

after she was implicated in acts of piracy in around 1580.

Lady Killigrew was a resident of Pendennis Castle in which county?

That sounds Cornish.

-Yeah.

-Cornwall?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

What adjective derives from the name of a popular Italian foodstuff

and denotes the verse form popularised in the 16th century...

Macaroni.

No, I can't accept that.

..verse form popularised in the 16th century

by the dissolute Benedictine monk Teofilo Folengo,

which combined Italian vernacular with absurd Latin endings?

Pasta?

No, it's macaronic. That's the name of the verse form.

Right, ten points for this.

For several decades, Porfirio Diaz was the president of which country?

-Mexico.

-Mexico is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on pairs of words that are anagrams of each other.

Give both words in each case, please.

Firstly, a piece of timber or stone supporting the masonry

above a fireplace and an adjective meaning "relating to the mind"?

-Mantel and mental?

-Mantel and mental. Mantel and mental.

-Correct.

Secondly, a grievance submitted to a court of law

for the purpose of obtaining redress

and an adjective meaning flexible or supple.

-Pliant and plaint?

-Oh, I like that.

-Pliant and plaint.

-Correct.

And, finally, a person responsible for leading the singing

in a church and a container made of light cardboard or plastic?

Crate and...

I don't know the singing one.

-Erm...

-Case.

Crate and...

Creat?

Crate and creat?

No, it's cantor and carton.

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

For your picture starter, I simply want you

to name the form given to this cross.

-Maltese.

-It is Maltese, that's right.

APPLAUSE

For your picture bonuses, three more symbols,

each of them a specific variant of the cross.

I want the name in each case. Firstly...

-Is it just orthodox?

-Has it got a special name?

-I don't know.

I wouldn't know anything else for it.

-Orthodox.

-It is orthodox, yes, or Byzantine. Secondly...

THEY CONFER

-St John?

-Yeah, it's Order of St John.

-Order of St John?

-No, it's the Jerusalem or Crusader's cross.

And, finally, this one.

THEY CONFER

-Is that a Russian one?

-It looks faintly Russian. I don't know.

I was guessing Gnostic.

-Gnostic.

-That's a papal cross.

Ten points for this.

What three-word expression did Jonathan Swift

coin in his satire The Battle of the Books to describe

what he called the two noblest things

that honey and beeswax were said to provide for mankind?

Today, it's often used in an ironic sense...

Sweetness and light?

Yes. APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on the League of Nations, Corpus Christi.

In the 1920s, the League of Nations intervened

in a dispute over the self-determination

of the Aland Islands, decreeing they should remain

an autonomous territory of which country?

-Finland.

-Yeah?

-Finland.

-Finland.

-Correct.

In 1923, the Council of the League of Nations recommended fixing

the north-eastern border of Poland near a demarcation line

known as the Foch Line in a dispute

over the control of which modern-day capital city?

-Vilnius.

-Yeah?

-Vilnius.

-Correct.

With the support of Brazil in the early 1930s,

the League of Nations resolved a dispute with the result

that the Amazon port of Leticia was restored to which country?

-Uruguay? I don't know, just shoot.

-Uruguay?

No, it's Colombia.

Another starter question.

In physiology, which chamber of the heart receives blood

from the inferior and superior venae cavae?

-Right atrium.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE Right, your bonuses

are on rain in the Bible.

In each case, identify the book of the Old Testament

in which the following words appear.

"I will cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights

"and every living substance that I have made

"will I destroy off the face of the earth."

If it's Noah, it's Genesis.

It's Noah so, yeah, yes.

-Genesis.

-Correct.

"Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away,

"for, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone."

-Song of Solomon, that kind of thing? The Song of Solomon.

-Yeah? Anything?

-The Song of Solomon?

-Correct.

"Hath the rain a father or who hath begotten the drops of dew?"

-Is it Job?

-Yeah, it could be. Yeah?

-Yeah, go for it.

-Job?

-Job is right.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this starter question.

"Our sympathy for her is like our sympathy for a bird

"the cat has brought in - it flutters and it will die."

These words of AS Byatt refer to the title character

of which novel of 1857?

It tells of the love affairs and suicide of a doctor's wife...

Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

Nope, you lose five points.

..doctor's wife in Normandy?

-Madame Bovary?

-It is Madame Bovary, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on infectious diseases, Corpus Christi.

Lymphatic filariasis causes abnormal enlargement of the limbs.

What is its common single word name?

-Is it elephantitis?

-Could be. I don't know this, yeah.

-Elephantitis?

Yes, I'll accept. Elephantiasis, it's more commonly known as.

Secondly, for five points, what is the common name

of the inflammatory infection caused by tinea species?

-Tinea, erm...

-Inflammatory, mumps... No.

Er, I've got no idea. I don't know.

Bronchitis?

No, it's ringworm of the scalp.

And, finally, which virus causes human chickenpox?

That's varicella.

Varicella.

Varicella is correct.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this.

"If it formed the one landscape

"that we, the inconstant ones, are consistently homesick for,

"this is chiefly because it dissolves in water."

Taken from a poem by WH Auden,

those words describe which sedimentary rock?

-Limestone.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on unnamed characters in literature.

In which novella of 1937 by John Steinbeck

is one of the central characters known only as Curley's Wife?

-Of Mice And Men.

-Of Mice And Men.

Of Mice And Men is correct.

In which short story by Franz Kafka are the four main characters

known only as the Officer, the Condemned,

the Soldier and the Explorer?

It's not The Trial because Josef K is in the Trial, so it's The Castle.

The Trial has Josef K in it.

Yeah, but it's not The Castle cos that's K as well.

Is it?

Erm, and it's not Amerika.

It's not The Trial.

-Well, go with The Trial.

-Yeah.

-The Trial.

-No, it's not.

It's In The Penal Colony.

And, finally, the two main characters

are referred to simply as the Man and the Boy

in which post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy?

-The Road.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE We're going to take a music round.

For your music starter,

you'll hear an excerpt from an opera by a German composer.

Ten points if you can identify the composer.

OPERATIC MUSIC PLAYS

-Richard Strauss?

-No. You can hear a little more, Corpus.

OPERATIC MUSIC CONTINUES

Beethoven?

No, it's Engelbert Humperdinck.

It's the Evening Prayer from Hansel and Gretel.

So, music bonuses in a moment or two. Ten points for this.

Dresden is the capital of which German federal state?

-Saxony.

-Saxony is correct.

APPLAUSE

So, you get the music bonuses.

You'll recall that we heard Hansel in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.

It is a trouser role or breeches role.

That is a male character written to be played by a woman en travesti.

Your music bonuses are three more trouser roles in opera.

Five points if you can give me the composer of the work.

Firstly for five, this German composer.

OPERATIC MUSIC PLAYS

THEY CONFER

It sounds Beethoven-y.

THEY CONFER

Beethoven.

No, that was Richard Strauss.

-Oh!

-From Der Rosenkavalier.

Secondly, this Italian.

OPERATIC MUSIC PLAYS

THEY CONFER

THEY CONFER

Verdi?

No, that's Bellini from I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

And, finally, this German-born composer.

OPERATIC MUSIC PLAYS

THEY CONFER

THEY CONFER

Handel?

It is Handel, yes. APPLAUSE

Right, ten points for this.

Published in 1980, Housekeeping was the first novel...

Marilynne Robinson?

Yes. APPLAUSE

Three questions on European royalty for your bonuses, Corpus Christi.

Who became the King of the Netherlands in 2013

on the abdication of his mother Queen Beatrix?

THEY CONFER

-Willem?

-It's Willem-Alexander.

I can't accept that.

Secondly for five points, give the name and regnal number

of the king of the Belgians who abdicated in 2013,

passing the throne to his son Crown Prince Philippe?

I don't know, no idea.

There could have been a previous Philippe.

Leopold IV?

No, it was Albert II.

And, finally, who acceded to the Spanish throne

on the abdication of his father Juan Carlos in 2014?

Again, I need both the name and the regnal number.

I thought it was still Juan Carlos. Is it another Juan Carlos?

-Is it Philip?

-I don't know which one.

-Philip the...

-There's definitely been a second.

We're definitely up to at least two.

LAUGHTER

-Philip III?

-No, it's Felipe VI. LAUGHTER

Ten points for this.

Named after a type of particle accelerator,

what term denotes the radiation emitted by a charged particle...

Synchrotron radiation.

Correct. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on geometry this time, Corpus Christi.

Algebraic, transcendental, open, closed

and plane are among the classifications

of what line, either straight or continuously bending without angles?

I don't know.

-A curve? Is that...

-No, they can't be straight.

-Oh, right.

A curve can be straight, yeah.

-A curve?

-Correct. LAUGHTER

What four-letter term denotes the point

at which two branches of a curve meet

or at which the moving point describing the curve

has its motion exactly reversed?

Is it the apex?

-That's just a random guess, but it could be.

-I like that.

-Apex?

-No, it's the cusp.

What type of curve is defined as a symmetrical open plane curve

formed by the intersection of a cone with a plane parallel to its side?

I think it's a parabola, maybe.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Parabola?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this.

Lorentz National Park, the largest protected area of south-east Asia,

is located in which country on the island of New Guinea?

-Indonesia?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on a plant family, Corpus Christi.

What is the common name of Anacardium occidentale?

It yields a distinctively flavoured nut

that is a common ingredient in Indian and south-east Asian cuisine.

Almonds, maybe?

There's certainly a lot of almonds

in Indian and south-east Asian cuisine.

-Hmm, could be, could be.

-Could be peanuts, also.

-Almond?

No, it's cashews.

The cashew family is sometimes named after a shrub

that yields which reddish purple spice,

widely used in Middle Eastern cuisine?

-Erm, reddish...

-Reddish purple... Sumac?

-Erm, I think that's a combination of spices.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

-Are you sure?

I wouldn't swear to it.

-Sumac?

-Correct.

And, finally, which member of the sumac or cashew family

is the national fruit of India?

-I should know this.

-LAUGHTER

The national... The national FRUIT?

Mango? No?

I feel like it's mangoes.

Mango.

You're right! APPLAUSE

We're going to take another picture round now.

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

of a poet. Ten points if you can identify him.

-Tennyson?

-It is Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

APPLAUSE

The picture was taken by the pioneering photographer

Julia Margaret Cameron in the 1860s.

Your picture bonuses are three more of her portraits

of 19th century artists and intellectuals.

I want you to identify the sitter in each case.

Firstly for five, this artist.

-Some Impressionist kind of character?

-Yeah.

-Degas?

-Maybe...

It could be Degas. There's no reason why it couldn't.

I feel like he had a beard.

THEY CONFER

-Yeah, OK.

-Pissarro.

-No, it's Holman Hunt.

-Oh, OK.

Secondly, this scientist.

THEY CONFER

No, isn't it, erm...

I don't know.

Rutherford?

No, it's Herschel.

And, finally, this novelist.

-That's Trollope.

-Yeah?

Trollope.

It is Trollope, yes. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this. The de facto mascot

of which film studio

is the character Totoro from an eponymous...

Studio Ghibli.

Studio Ghibli is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on literary titles, Corpus Christi.

In each case, I need the names of two authors.

Name the authors of Roxana, published in 1724,

and Romola, which appeared in the early 1860s?

THEY CONFER

If it's literary titles,

are they both going to be like Comte Something?

Yeah, the Duke of Something or the Comte de Something.

Give me titled writers.

-I don't know any.

-You just don't know?

-Got anything?

-No, I don't.

No, we've...

-Daniel Defoe and George Eliot.

-Oh, OK.

Give the two authors of the 1955 novel Lolita

and the ancient stage work Lysistrata?

Nabokov and who wrote Lysistrata?

Is that Sopho... Aeschylus, yeah, I think.

Aeschylus and Nabokov?

No, it's Nabokov and Aristophanes.

And, finally, who were the two authors of Shirley and Sybil,

both novels published in the 1840s?

-Shirley is, I think, Anne Bronte.

-Anne Bronte? OK.

Or maybe Charlotte Bronte.

-It's a Bronte!

-Say Bronte.

-Well, he's not going to give me Bronte, is he?

-No.

LAUGHTER

OK, go with Anne.

Anne Bronte and...

No, it was Charlotte Bronte

and Benjamin Disraeli.

Very entertaining, though. Ten points for this.

Which of Shakespeare's tragedies concludes with these words -

"The oldest hath borne most.

"We that are young..."

-King Lear?

-King Lear is right.

APPLAUSE

Albany's words.

Your bonuses this time, Corpus Christi, are on Argentina.

After Tierra del Fuego, what is the southernmost province of Argentina?

It shares its name with major cities

in the Canary Islands and in Bolivia.

Is it Las Malvinas?

No, it's not going to be a province, is it?

-La Paz?

-La Paz is certainly...

-La Paz?

-No, it's Santa Cruz.

Which province of western Argentina shares its name

with the autonomous community of northern Spain

whose capital is Logrono?

-Galicia?

-Galicia.

No, it's La Rioja.

And, finally, which province bordering Paraguay

shares its name with the historical Portuguese name for Taiwan?

-Formosa.

-Ah, yeah, I know that.

-Formosa.

-Formosa is right. APPLAUSE

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

Natasha Romanoff, Thor, Clint Barton...

The Avengers.

Indeed they are! APPLAUSE

In Marvel Comics.

Bonuses this time for you, Corpus Christi, on a field of law.

The Latin terms jus gentium and jus inter gentes

refer to two major aspects of what broad field of law?

THEY CONFER

It could be family law.

Family law?

No, it's international law.

Adopted by the UN General Assembly in Paris in 1948,

which declaration is also known by the abbreviation UDHR?

-The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

-Correct.

Which east Asian city gives its name

to a 1997 treaty committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

Kyoto?

-Kyoto.

-Kyoto is right,

two and a half minutes to go. Ten points for this.

In a plant cell, the membrane known as the tonoplast

surrounds which organelle?

-The vacuole?

-Correct.

You get a set of bonuses this time

on the international system of units.

In the 18th century,

there were two main competing definitions of the metre.

One was one ten-millionth of the length

of the Earth's meridian from pole to Equator through which city?

Paris or London?

-I feel like it's...

-Paris? They keep the kilometre in Paris.

-Paris?

-Paris is right.

The second definition was the length of a pendulum

having a period of what duration?

Is it going to be, like, one second or so? It's some other unit, yeah?

-Call it a second.

-One second?

No, it's two seconds.

The current definition of a metre is measured

as a length travelled by what?

-Light.

-It's light, yeah. Light.

Light in a vacuum is correct, yes. Ten points for this.

Which five-letter word is composed

of two personal pronouns -

the first-person plural objective

followed by the third-person singular feminine objective?

-Usher.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on men born in 1916.

In each case, name the person or people from the description.

Firstly, two British prime ministers -

both were in office in 1970 and again in 1974.

Wilson and Heath.

-Harold Wilson and Ted Heath.

-Correct.

Which New Zealand-born biophysicist

shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

with Crick and Watson?

-Franklin? Rosalind Franklin?

-Franklin?

-No, it was...

-No, the men.

No, no, she was a woman.

Maurice Wilkins.

Finally, which US actor won an Academy Award for his part

in the 1962 film version of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird?

-Oh, Gregory Peck.

-Gregory Peck.

-Correct.

Ten points for this. In genetics, what term defines a gene

whose phenotype is expressed in the homozygous state...

-Recessive.

-Recessive is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on an artist, Bristol. As a deputy of...

GONG And at the gong,

Bristol have 70,

Corpus Christi, Oxford have 250.

APPLAUSE

Well, Bristol, you're going to have to come back

and win two more matches to stay in the competition

and go through to the semifinals.

Corpus, you're going to have to come back

and win one match to go through to the semifinals.

Congratulations to you,

it was a storming performance, a well-balanced team.

Thank you all very much for playing, though.

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

-but, until then, it is goodbye from Bristol University.

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE