Episode 4 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge.

Asking the questions - Jeremy Paxman.

Hello.

Two more teams of almost irritatingly clever young people

are playing each other tonight, with a place in the second round

for whichever team can outwonk the other.

The losers may earn the chance to play again if they are among the

four highest-scoring losing teams from these first round matches.

Now, St Edmund's College, Cambridge,

hasn't been seen in this competition since 2004.

It was founded in the late 19th century after the repeal of the

Universities Tests Act in 1871, which allowed Roman Catholics

to take up fellowships for the first time since the Reformation.

The team modestly tells us that no-one of any note goes to

St Edmund's, but research reveals that previous Eddies include

the former Leader of the House of Commons, Norman St John-Stevas,

and Father Georges Lemaitre,

widely acknowledged as the father of the Big Bang theory.

The college has a policy of taking students over the age of 21,

and tonight's team has an average age of 25,

representing around 470 students.

Let's meet the St Edmund's team.

Hi, I'm Zou Tangsheng from Singapore,

and I study Chemical Engineering.

Hi, I'm Alex Knight-Williams from Putney,

and I am studying Mathematics.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Seb Motala from London,

and I'm reading Economics.

And I'm Ryan Blank, from San Jose, California,

and I'm reading History.

APPLAUSE

Now, Magdalen College, Oxford dates back to the mid-15th century,

and at the time of its foundation,

it was the largest College in Oxford.

The author and the theologian, CS Lewis,

and the historian AJP Taylor were fellows there, and former students

include Oscar Wilde, John Betjeman, and more recently, Ian Hislop.

The team tell us their selection process involved blind auditions,

a gruelling boot camp,

and a gladiatorial death match on the buzzer.

Let's see if it pays off for them.

With an average age of 20, representing around 570 students

at an institution which has won this competition four times,

let's meet the Magdalen team.

Hi, I'm Winston Wright from Seattle, Washington,

and I study Computer Science.

Hi, I'm Christopher Stern from Dulwich in London,

and I'm reading chemistry.

And this is their captain.

Hello there. I'm Johnny Gibson.

I'm from Glasgow in Scotland, and I'm studying history.

Hi, I'm Sara Parkin, I'm from Hinckley in Leicestershire,

and I'm reading English and French.

APPLAUSE

Well, you all know the rules, of course.

Ten points for starters, 15 points for bonuses,

starters are individual efforts, bonuses are team efforts.

Ten points at stake, then, for the first starter for ten.

Fingers on the buzzers.

More than 1,500km in length, Rio Solimoes is a name given to

the upper portion of which major river?

Its brown, muddy waters join the darker waters of

the Rio Negro near the city of Manaus.

-Amazon.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

St Edmund's, you get the first set of bonuses.

They're on educational philosophy.

Firstly, in 1837, the German educator, Friedrich Frobel,

founded what type of infant school,

now the first unit of elementary school in the US?

Kindergarten.

-Kindergarten?

-Correct.

Born in the Austrian Empire in 1861,

which philosopher founded the Waldorf School movement,

based on his ideas of anthroposophy?

Any philosophers?

No. We'll just pass.

That was Rudolf Steiner.

And finally, born in 1870, which Italian educator originated

an eponymous educational system that uses self-directed activities

and self-correcting materials?

Nominate Zou.

Montessori.

Maria Montessori is correct.

Ten points for this. APPLAUSE

Sometimes described as the most famous Kurd in history,

which Muslim ruler overthrew the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt,

and in 1187, recaptured Jerusalem after...?

Saladin?

Saladin is right, yes. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Magdalen College, are on sleep in Shakespeare.

Firstly, for five, the final speech of which play by Shakespeare

invites the audience to consider they may have been asleep

rather than watching a stage production?

-Is it A Midsummer Night's Dream?

-Yeah, it must be.

-A Midsummer Night's Dream.

-Correct.

Shakespeare used the word sleep most frequently in A Midsummer

Night's Dream, and in which of his tragedies, in which it is

said to knit up the ravell'd sleeve of care?

Macbeth.

Correct - who murders sleep, of course, famously.

In which of Shakespeare's tragedies does the main antagonist describe

"a kind of men so loose of soul, that in their sleeps

"will mutter their affairs?"

Othello, maybe? Could that be something...?

I don't recognise that verse.

OK, erm, Othello?

Othello is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

Born in Vienna in 1902, who proposed the paradox of tolerance,

namely that unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance

of tolerance? The argument appears in the 1945 work,

The Open Society And Its Enemies.

Karl Popper.

Karl Popper is correct.

APPLAUSE

A set of bonuses on physics in the 1970s for you guys.

The 1971 Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to the Hungarian-born

Dennis Gabor for his invention of what technique?

It utilises the interference between two parts of a split laser beam

to produce a photographic image without a lens.

-Holography.

-Correct.

Burton Richter and Samuel Ting shared the 1976

Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the J/psi particle.

This heavy particle proved the existence of what?

I think it's the charm quark. Charm quark.

-Charm quarks.

-Charm quark is correct.

In 1974, the first Nobel Prize in physics to be given for

astronomical research was awarded jointly to Anthony Hewish

and which fellow radio astronomer?

He held the post of Astronomer Royal at the time of the award.

Erm... I'm lost.

-Martin Reece.

-No, it's Sir Martin Ryle.

-Oh!

-Ten points for this.

Reconstructed in 1907, the Great Mosque of Djenne is part of a

World Heritage site in which West African country?

Mali.

Mali is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on fathers and sons in Greek legend, St Edmund's.

In different accounts, who was variously killed, lamed,

or struck blind by a thunderbolt, for revealing

that the goddess Aphrodite was the mother of his son, Aeneas?

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Anchises.

OK.

-Anchises.

-Correct.

Which sea takes its name from the father of Theseus? He flung himself

from the Acropolis when Theseus forgot to raise a sign

to show he had returned alive from killing the Minotaur?

-Aegean Sea.

-Correct.

And finally, for five points, during The Sack of Troy, which son of

Achilles and Deidamia killed King Priam at an altar?

He later took Hector's wife as his concubine.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Ayat.

No, it's Pyrrhus.

Ten points for this.

In logic, the symbol of a double-headed horizontal arrow,

or three horizontal lines, indicates...

Congruence.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..a bi-conditional logical connective between statements,

also represented by the written abbreviation, IFF.

For what does the abbreviation stand?

If and only if.

If and only if is correct.

APPLAUSE

Another set of bonuses for you, St Edmund's.

They are on birdsong in music.

Born in 1908, which French composer and ornithologist is noted

for incorporating birdsong into many of his compositions?

Examples include Chronochromie and Catalogue d'oiseaux.

-Messiaen?

-What's that?

-Messiaen.

Messiaen.

Messiaen is correct.

Described as "A concerto for taped birdsong and orchestra,"

Cantus Arcticus is a 1972 work

by which composer, born in Helsinki in 1928?

-Sibelius.

-No, it's Rautavaara.

First performed in 1808, which symphony includes a cadenza

in which woodwind instruments are used to represent

the calls of the nightingale, the quail, and the cuckoo?

Beethoven?

Are we going with Beethoven?

-Beethoven.

-Beethoven's...?

Which one? Come on.

-Sixth Symphony.

-Sixth Symphony.

Sixth is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

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

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

in French. For ten points,

please tell me the philosopher to whom it is attributed.

-Voltaire.

-Voltaire is correct.

"If God did not exist, then we would have to invent him."

APPLAUSE

Right, three more short quotation from French philosophers for

your bonuses, then, Magdalen, all in the original language.

In each case, for five points,

simply identify the philosopher in question.

Firstly, for five, who wrote this?

Oh, was that Pascal?

-Pascal.

-It is Pascal, Blaise Pascal,

"If you win, you win everything, if you lose, you lose nothing."

That's his wager, famously. Secondly...

-"When I play with my cat..." Who played with cats?

-Who was that?

Who knows...?

-STERN:

-I've no idea.

-PARKIN:

-It's not Sartre.

Descartes.

No, that was Montaigne.

"When I play with my cat, how do I know she is not playing with me?"

Finally, who is this?

-Oh, that's Simone de Beauvoir.

-Oh, yes, of course it is.

-Simone de Beauvoir.

-It is, yes. "One is not born,

"but rather becomes a woman. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

Which lower case Greek letter represents in biochemistry

a protein implicated in neurodegenerative diseases

like Alzheimer's, in particle physics, a charge lepton

with a mass of 1,700...?

-Vu?

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

..1,777 mega electron volts, and in mechanics, torque?

-Tau.

-Tau is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, a set of bonuses this time

on the Mayfair district of London, Magdalen.

Based in Mayfair, which organisation was founded in 1799 for diffusing

the knowledge and the application of science

for the common purposes of life?

-Royal Society?

-Go for it, might as well do.

-Royal Society.

-No, it's the Royal Institution.

The Royal Society is a 17th century foundation.

Secondly, supposedly located in Mayfair's Dover Street,

which members-only club appears in novels by PG Wodehouse, and has

been described as "Arguably the best-loved London club in fiction"?

-The Drones Club.

-Correct.

And finally, which area of central Mayfair features in the title of

a popular romantic song, covered by, among others,

Vera Lynn and Nat King Cole?

Berkeley Square, A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square.

Berkeley Square.

Berkeley Square is correct - a nightingale sang there.

APPLAUSE

Right, ten points for this.

From the tenth century, Fulk the Red, Fulk the Good, Fulk the Black,

and Fulk the Surly were among counts

of which historical region of France?

A term derived from the region's name was later given to

the empire ruled by Henry II of England.

Er... Anjou?

Anjou is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Here are your bonuses - they are on stereoisomers in chemistry.

Firstly, what term is commonly used for each of the two stereoisomers

that are mirror images of each other,

but are non-superimposable, and thus not identical?

-Enantiomers.

-Sorry?

-Enantiomers.

Nominate Zou.

-Enantiomers.

-That's correct, yes.

What term describes an equimolar mixture of two enantiomers,

that does not exhibit optical activity?

Racemic.

-Racemic.

-Racemic mixture, correct.

And depending on how they rotate, plain polarised light,

enantiomers may be classified as D or L isomers.

For what to the letters D and L stand?

Dextro- and levoro-.

Dextro- and levoro-.

It's dextro- and levo-rotatory.

-Is that what you said?

-No, I just gave the prefix.

OK, fair enough. I can't give you the points, then.

Ten points for this.

Of interest in part because they can be used to constrain the change

of fundamental constraints over time, examples of what type of

power source, operated at over 15 separate sites,

about two billion years ago, within oil deposits

in Oklo in Gabon?

Nuclear fission.

Nuclear fission reactors is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Spanish cities and their patron saints.

Firstly, martyred in the third century, Justa and Rufina

are the patron saints of which Andalusian city?

They are often depicted with the city's Giralda Tower

as one of their attributes.

Seville? Might be Seville.

-I was thinking Grenada.

-That would make sense.

-Could be...

-Go for what you said.

-Seville.

-Seville is correct.

The Cathedral of which Mediterranean seaport is dedicated to

St Eulalia, who was martyred in around 300

during the last wave of Roman persecution?

Could be, like, Cadiz, that's a seaport.

Is that Mediterranean? I thought it was the south coast.

Oh... Do we have anything better?

-Cadiz?

-No, it's Barcelona.

St Leocadia is a patron saint of which city in Castille,

at one time the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom?

Oh, wait... What would that have been?

-It is relatively central.

-Segovia?

-Go for it.

-Segovia?

-No, it's Toledo.

Right, we are going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you're going to hear an excerpt

from a film score. Ten points if you can identify its composer.

EERIE MUSIC PLAYS

Is it Maurice Jarre?

No. You can hear a little more, St Edmund's.

MUSIC BUILDS

Hans Zimmer.

No, it's John Barry.

We are going to take the music bonuses in a moment or two, then,

and ten points at stake for this starter question.

What common surname links the first US president to be impeached,

the first female pilot...?

-Johnson.

-Johnson is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So, lucky old you, Magdalen - you get the music bonuses.

That music you heard was by John Barry.

It was the theme to Out Of Africa.

He is the only composer to have won a Golden Raspberry Award for

the Worst Musical Score, and then gone on to win the Academy Award

for the Best Original Score for a different film.

All three composers coming up have also been nominated for

a Golden Raspberry, but you will hear an excerpt from the score

which won them an Oscar.

Firstly, who composed this, from a film released in 1976?

OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS

Oh, that's from The Omen.

Is it by...? It might be Jerry Goldsmith.

-If you say so.

-Is it Julie Goldsmith?

It is Jerry Goldsmith - that was from The Omen, yes, well done.

Secondly, who was the composer for this film, released in the 2010s?

EXCITING MUSIC PLAYS

MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH

THAT could be Hans Zimmer.

Possibly? Yeah?

-Hans Zimmer?

-No, that is Ennio Morricone.

That was the theme from Quentin Tarantino's 2015 film,

The Hateful Eight.

And finally, who composed this, from a film released in 1978?

DISCO MUSIC PLAYS

-What film is this?

-I don't know.

I've no idea.

Not a clue.

Erm... What was that?

Kraftwerk.

No, that's Giorgio Moroder.

That was from Midnight Express.

So, ten points at stake for this starter question.

Listen carefully, then answer promptly.

"My brother is an aficionado of oolong tea."

Give the dictionary spelling of the word...

O-O-L-O-N-G.

No, you lose five points.

..of the word "Aficionado" in this sentence.

LAUGHTER

One of you buzz, come on!

A-F-F-I...

No, it's one F.

Aficionado.

Oolong, you are quite right.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

After the English calico printer, who discovered it in 1844,

what term denotes the process in which cotton yarns and fabrics

under tension are treated with aqueous sodium hydroxide

in order to increase their lustre?

Bleaching?

No - anyone like to buzz from St Edmund's?

Immersion.

No, it's mercerisation.

Ten points for this, then.

What initial letter links the names of countries that border Azerbaijan,

Pakistan, Kuwait, Papua New Guinea, and the United Kingdom?

I.

I is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on music, St Edmund's.

Which US composer's landmark 1964 work, In C, has no fixed duration,

and starts with the note C played repeatedly in a steady rhythm?

-Cage?

-Who's this?

John Cage.

-John Cage.

-No, it's Terry Riley.

Terry Riley is among those to have written works for

which influential string quartet, founded by

the violinist David Harrington in Seattle in 1973?

Emerson String Quartet?

-You happy with it?

-Sure.

Emerson String Quartet.

No, it's the Kronos Quartet.

And finally, the Kronos Quartet's 1988 album, Winter Was Hard,

includes works by Terry Riley and a recording of the

1977 composition, Fratres,

written without fixed instrumentation, by which composer?

-Stockhausen.

-Nominate Zou.

-Stockhausen.

-No, it's Arvo Part.

Right, another starter question now.

The only words uttered by the title character

of which narrative poem of 1842 are,

"I am half sick of shadows, and the curse is come upon me"?

The Lady Of Shalott.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Magdalen, are on British armies in India.

In 1751, Robert Clive captured the Fortress of Arcot

on the route between Bangalore and which other

present-day Indian state capital on the Coromandel Coast?

-How are you on state capitals?

-Not too good.

Oh, it could be. Possibly.

Hyderabad.

No, it's Chennai, or Madras, as it was then.

Secondly, the capital of Uttar Pradesh,

which city was the scene of a notable siege of 1857

during the Indian Rebellion or Mutiny?

It's possible that could be Hyderabad.

Oh, no. I tell you what it is - it's Lucknow.

Lucknow.

Lucknow is correct.

The capitals of Nagaland and Manipur gave their names to battles of 1944

that became a springboard for the 14th Army's reconquest of Burma.

Name either battle.

THEY CONFER

We don't know.

They're Kohima and Imphal.

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

For your picture starter, you'll see a distinctive cultural artefact

made during which particular Chinese dynasty?

Ming.

Ming is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Following on from that Ming vase,

three more iconic cultural artefacts from particular Chinese dynasties.

Again, simply name the relevant dynasty.

You may give the usual English spelling

if you're unsure of the pronunciation.

Firstly, this object.

I think it's quite modern.

-No, I think it's quite old.

-Old.

THEY CONFER

-Nominate Blank.

-Oh, dear!

Han.

Han is correct. Yes. The Eastern Han.

Secondly, this ritual vessel.

THEY CONFER

We'll go for the Qing dynasty.

No, it's the Shang dynasty.

And finally, during which dynasty were these objects made?

THEY CONFER

Nominate Zou.

Qin.

That is the Qin dynasty, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, ten points for this.

What five-letter word was used in the mid-19th century

to mean a lucky stroke in billiards,

and can now mean a parasitic flatworm,

a part of an anchor,

or a surprising twist of fortune?

Fluke.

Fluke is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, which could give you the lead, are on chemistry.

Firstly, also known as the oxo process,

hydroformylation involves the addition

of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to an alkene

to form what organic compounds?

Alcohols.

Alcohols.

No, it's aldehydes.

Secondly, an aldehyde reacted with a Grignard reagent

will produce an alcohol.

What metal is used to make a Grignard reagent?

Magnesium.

No, wait...

-I did this last year.

-LAUGHTER

Magnesium.

Magnesium.

Magnesium is correct.

What alcohol would be formed by the oxidation of formaldehyde?

Ethanol.

Ethanol.

No, it's methanol. Four and a half minutes to go.

Ten points for this. In astronomy, what two-word term

denotes the time taken for the sun

to return to the same position in the sky...?

Sidereal day.

No. You lose five points.

..to return to the same position in the sky

with reference to the background of fixed stars?

Solar year.

It's a sidereal year.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

The third meridian west crosses the Firth of Forth

just to the east of Edinburgh.

In which county does it meet the English Channel

at a point on the Jurassic coast?

Dorset.

Anyone like to buzz from St Edmunds'?

East Sussex.

No, it's Devon.

It is next door to Dorset, of course.

Right, another starter question now.

A little larger than Scotland,

what is the most sparsely populated US state east of the Mississippi?

Its highest point is Mount Katahdin,

the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

Maine.

Maine is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses now are on Italian neorealist cinema, Magdalen.

Directed by Vittorio De Sica,

which 1948 film concerns a father and son's search for their...?

Bicycle Thieves.

Bicycle Thieves is correct.

Which director's war trilogy

began with a 1945 film - Rome, Open City - followed...?

-Rossellini.

-Rossellini is correct.

And finally, Luchino Visconti's 1942 film Ossessione

was an adaptation of which novel by James M Cain?

The Postman Always Rings Twice.

The Postman Always Rings Twice is right.

APPLAUSE Another starter question.

Used in photography, which yellowish, light-sensitive compound

has the chemical formula...?

Silver iodide.

No, you lose five points.

..has the chemical formula AgBr?

Silver bromide.

Silver bromide is correct, yes.

Your bonuses this time, Magdalen, are on human physiology.

Noted for its great functional complexity,

what is the largest gland of the human body?

THEY CONFER

Thyroid?

No, it's the liver.

The metabolic pathway known as GNG occurs mainly in the liver.

For what term do these letters stand?

-Gluconeogenesis.

-Nominate Stern.

Gluconeogenesis.

Correct. Which two vessels supply blood to the liver?

THEY CONFER

OK. Nominate Stern again.

Hepatic portal vein and hepatic artery.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

Which artist painted the early 14th-century frescoes

of the lives of Jesus and the Virgin Mary

that covered the internal walls of the Arena Chapel in Padua?

Giotto.

Giotto is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are all on Russia and the United States.

The reign of which Russian tsar

spanned the presidencies of Cleveland, McKinley,

Theodore Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson?

THEY CONFER

Oh, wait it'll be Nicholas II, won't it?

Nicholas II.

Correct. Who acceded to the Russian throne

when Thomas Jefferson was in office,

and died during the presidency of John Quincy Adams?

This is early 1800s.

Do we have any names?

I don't think we do.

She was slightly later.

When did they get Alaska?

Catherine the Great.

-No, it was Alexander I.

-Oh, yeah.

Who was the only US president during the reign of Catherine the Great?

THEY CONFER

Washington, then?

No, she was...

When did the US get Alaska?

THEY CONFER

Come on.

Washington.

It was George Washington, yes. Ten points for this.

Beset by war,

tropical storms, and plagues of insomnia,

the fictional town of Macondo is a central...?

Colombia.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..is a central location in which...? GONG

And at the gong...

APPLAUSE

..St Edmund's College, Cambridge, have 105,

but Magdalen College, Oxford, have 185.

Well, bad luck. You had some really good answers there, St Edmund's,

but not enough of them to come back as the winning team -

and, probably, I suspect, not as one of the four highest-scoring losers,

but we'll see.

Magdalen, 185 - well done.

We shall look forward to seeing you in round two.

I hope you can join us next time,

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

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Magdalen College, Oxford. ALL:

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me - goodbye.

APPLAUSE