Episode 8 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Christmas University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello.

14 teams of alumni and staff old enough to know better

bravely accepted our invitation to sprinkle a little stardust

over the festive season by competing in this one-off series.

All of them achieved respectable first-round scores

in three figures, rather to their own surprise in some cases.

Now the four winning teams with the highest scores

compete in two semifinal matches.

Whoever wins tonight is in the final.

The team from New College Oxford were trailing against the LSE

early in their first-round match but found their form

after their captain's rallying cry of,

"Remembering the answers is key!"

They are no mugs, you see!

Between them this team of three writers

and one scientist scored 240 points, the highest in the first round.

Let's meet them again.

I'm Rachel Johnson, I read Classics, now I'm a journalist and novelist.

I'm Patrick Gale, I read English

and now I'm the westernmost novelist in the country.

And their captain.

Hello, I'm Kate Mosse, I read English

and I'm now a novelist and a playwright.

Hello, I'm Yan Wong, I read biological sciences

and now I'm a researcher and science broadcaster.

APPLAUSE

The team from Liverpool University scored 165

against Cardiff University's 140 in their first-round match

in which they reassured us that they can spell panettone,

that they know about the babes in the wood,

and that they are familiar with the drawbacks of celibacy.

Let's meet again a foursome who have redefined general knowledge.

I'm Lawrence McGinty,

I graduated in zoology in 1969

and now I'm medical and science editor for ITV News.

I'm Frank Duckworth, I graduated in physics in 1961

and I'm now a statistician and I'm one of the inventors

of the Duckworth Lewis method in one-day cricket.

Their captain.

Hi, I'm Stephen Bayley, I was allowed to get away with

a Masters degree from Liverpool School of architecture in 1974

and I then descended into becoming a design guru.

Hello, I'm Frances Crook, I took a degree in

mediaeval and modern history and I'm now the chief executive

of the Howard League For Penal Reform.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are the same as ever so let's just get on with it.

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

What given name links the military commander who appeared on

the Your Country Needs You poster of 1914,

a fictional naval hero created by CS Forester,

and a friend and confidante of Shakespeare's Hamlet?

Kitchen...er!

Sorry!

One of you buzz, you may not confer.

-Horatio.

-Correct!

APPLAUSE

Right, the first set of bonuses are on a photographer, Liverpool.

"Her work falls metaphorically between Marlene Dietrich's legs

"and the bitter lives of migratory potato pickers."

These words of Robert Capa describe which US photographer

who died at the age of 99 in 2012?

Dorothea Lange.

No. You can confer.

We don't need to, he is the only one that knew.

-It wasn't, it was Eve Arnold.

-Oh!

Secondly, Eve Arnold was particularly associated

with which actress whom she photographed over a ten-year period

including noteworthy shots on the set of her last film The Misfits?

Marilyn...Monroe.

Correct. Quote. "Eve Arnold photographed four Prime Ministers.

"Alec Douglas Hume carried her equipment into the house,

"Ted Heath went swimming to evade her and John Major gave her a hug."

Which Prime Minister, according to the obituary in the Daily Telegraph,

was the only one who told her how to take her pictures?

It must be Margaret Thatcher.

WHISPERING

It must have been Margaret Thatcher.

Yes, of course!

Now, ten points for this.

Disbanded at the end of 1944,

which volunteer organisation was originally known as

the local defence volunteers?

The Home Guard.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your first bonuses are on novels.

Sergeant Lamb Of The Ninth

is a novel of 1940 by which literary figure,

perhaps best-known for his poetry?

His other prose works include Goodbye To All That

and The White Goddess.

-Robert Graves.

-Correct.

Sergeant Cuff is a major character in which work of 1868,

often described as the first detective novel in English?

-It's The Moonstone.

-Moonstone?

-Moonstone.

-The Moonstone.

-Correct.

Described as a dashing but heartless cad,

Sergeant Troy marries Bathsheba Everdene in which novel of 1874?

Far From The Madding Crowd.

Correct. Ten points for this starter question.

The 1974 play Absurd Person Singular,

featuring three couples in three kitchens on three...

-Alan Ayckbourn.

-Correct.

Your bonuses, New College, are on Christmas mathematics.

What in centimetres squared is the minimal area of paper required

to wrap a cube-shaped present of side length ten centimetres?

Ten centimetres, ten squared, 100...

600...

-Nominate Wong.

-600.

600 is correct, yes.

To the nearest 100 cubic centimetres,

what volume of icing is required to produce a layer one centimetre thick

on the uppermost surface of a flat circular Christmas cake

of radius ten centimetres?

- It's pi. - It's going to be pi.

-Yes. 361.

-361.

No, it's 300.

Finally, if a Christmas pudding is to be completely covered

in a coating of brandy butter of uniform thickness,

what shape should the pudding be

to minimise the amount of butter required?

You want to nominate? Sphere.

-Nominate Wong.

-Sphere.

Spherical is correct. Yes.

Ten points for this.

Bigamous heroine deserts her child,

pushes husband number one down a well,

thinks about poisoning husband number two,

and sets fire to a hotel

in which her other male acquaintances are residing.

These words describe the plot of which novel of 1862

by Mary Braddon?

Lady Audley's Secret.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, New College, these bonuses are on a geographical expression.

Referring to its extensive fortifications,

the Gibraltar Of The North was an epithet given

to which present-day capital city? The fortifications themselves

were dismantled following an international crisis of 1867.

1867? What was going on?

Let's have it, please.

-Trondheim.

-No, it's Luxembourg.

-Oh!

The scene of a massacre by Royalist troops in 1644,

which Lancashire town was known as the Geneva Of The North

because of its austere puritanism?

In recent years it's applied unsuccessfully for city status.

-Preston?

-Preston?

Yeah. Preston.

-No, it's Bolton.

-Bolton.

The Champagne Of The North was reputedly an appellation

given by French troops to the tart, straw-coloured wheat beer

of which capital, occupied after the Battle of Jena in 1806?

THEY WHISPER

Eastern Germany, isn't it?

-Leipzig? Do you know?

-Amsterdam?

It's going to be Eastern Germany.

Shall we go for that? Leipzig.

No, it's Berlin. We're going to take a picture round.

For your picture starter,

you'll see a map showing the location

of a prestigious Boxing Day horse race meeting.

ten points if you can give me the name of the racecourse.

No-one confer, please.

Epsom?

No, anyone like to buzz from Liverpool?

Ascot.

No, so I'll tell you. It's Kempton Park, so picture bonuses shortly,

but ten points for this starter question in the meantime.

So named because an invasion by Allied forces in April 1915,

Anzac Cove is a coastal feature

of which Peninsula in western Turkey?

-Gallipoli.

-Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So you failed to identify Kempton Park racecourse

-which was the picture starter...

-Well, I did get Gallipoli.

Well, you did, but the person who buzzed didn't.

You'll see for your picture bonuses three more racecourses

holding Christmas holiday meetings.

Firstly, for five, where is A,

which hosts races on December 27?

Chepstow.

That is Chepstow. You don't need to buzz, you can confer.

-But I like buzzing!

-You are a very cocky fellow, aren't you?

It is Chepstow.

Secondly, where is B, which hosts a racing festival

from the 26th to the 29th of December?

Leopardstown? It's the only Irish racecourse I know.

What do you say?

-Don't know.

-That's Leopardstown.

Finally where is C, which hosts racing on New Year's Day?

Okehampton?

Or Tiverton? Okehampton.

-Okehampton.

-No, that's Exeter.

Ten points for this.

Meanings of which five-letter word include

an arc with angle less than 180 degrees,

the determinant of a matrix obtained by deleting one or more rows

and columns, and the smaller of two differently derived versions

of the same musical interval?

Acute?

No. New College, one of you buzz?

Chord.

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

What is the usual English name for the annual event

known in many parts of Europe as St Sylvester's Night?

You may not confer, one of you may buzz.

Is it New Year's Eve?

It is, yes!

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on medicine, New College.

In each case give the arthropod vectors

of the following infectious diseases. Firstly bubonic plague.

It's caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

What insect is responsible for carrying it

from its reservoir in rats to humans?

-Fleas.

-Fleas. Fleas.

-The rat flea.

The rat flea is correct.

Lyme disease is caused by a species of Borrelia.

What small arachnids transmit the bacteria

from their rodent host to humans?

-Ticks.

-Correct.

Which large fly acts as both host and vector of Trypanosoma brucei,

causing African sleeping sickness in humans?

Tsetse fly.

Correct.

Ten points for this. Answer as soon as your name is called.

Give the dictionary spelling of the un-segmented gliding

speech sound known as a diphthong.

D-I-P-H-T-H-O-N-G.

Correct!

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on a city, New College.

Which city was founded in 331 BC by an eponymous conqueror

and was by 200 BC one of the largest cities in the world?

It was devastated by a tsunami in July AD 365.

-Alexandria?

-Alexandria. Yes?

Alexandria.

Correct.

Born around 276 BC, which head of the Alexandrian library

measured the Earth's circumference

to an accuracy that is within 1% of the modern figure?

-Nominate Wong.

-Eratosthenes.

Correct.

Finally, which Macedonian Greek dynasty

took its name from a general of Alexander

who moved the Egyptian capital from Memphis to Alexandria?

-Philip of Macedon.

-Nominate Johnson.

Philip of Macedon.

No, it's the Ptolemies. The Ptolemaic dynasties

Ten points for this.

What name links the title character who is waiting to die

in a novel of 1951 by Samuel Beckett, Hector the American...

-Malone.

-Malone is right.

-These bonuses are on the solar system, New College.

-We didn't...

Solar system.

-I beg your pardon?

-We didn't hear.

-We didn't hear the question.

-I haven't asked the question yet!

-We didn't hear what you said.

You gave the correct answer, I am now giving you a set of bonuses.

Calm down, Johnson!

Johnson! Shush!

On the solar system, I think.

Your bonuses are on the solar system.

In 2011, NASA's Messenger spacecraft sent back images

of bright pits or hollows unknown elsewhere in the solar system

and possibly formed by vaporising volatile elements

on the surface of which planet?

-Mars.

-No, it's Mercury.

Before the arrival of Messenger,

Mercury had been visited by only one space probe

which first flew by in March 1974. Give its name.

-- '74, it could be Voyager, I guess. - Go for Voyager.

-Voyager.

No, it was Mariner 10.

Mercury's rotation is prograde with a period

exactly 2/3 of its orbital period around the sun.

This means that a day on Mercury lasts how many years?

I don't know. Is 200?

Do we know? You don't want to be nominated?

-Guess.

-100.

No, it's two.

Oh!

Plenty of time to go, Liverpool, we are only about halfway.

We are going to take a music round.

You will hear an excerpt from a ballet.

For ten points I want the name of the ballet and the composer.

The Nutcracker, and the composer is Tchaikovsky.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

As you of course know, the Nutcracker is set on Christmas Eve.

In act two, dances are performed at the behest of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

These ethnic dances represent sweets or drinks from around the world.

For your bonuses you are going to hear three pieces of music

that represent some of them.

Five points for each you can identify.

Firstly, the drink represented in this dance.

Coffee. Coffee.

Coffee.

Correct. Arabian coffee.

Secondly the sweet or confectionery associated with this dance.

Chocolate!

It is. It is the Spanish chocolate dance.

Lastly, the drink represented in this dance.

Tea.

It is the Chinese tea performers.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

In the words of the well-known Christmas song,

if gold rings multiplied by French hens is 15,

what is geese a-laying multiplied by swans a-swimming?

42.

42 is correct. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, Liverpool,

these bonuses are on names of countries that become another word

by the substitution of the initial letter,

for example Niger and tiger.

In each case, give both words from the descriptions.

Firstly, a land-locked, West African country

and a language of early Buddhist texts, closely related to Sanskrit.

Chad could be the African country.

No idea. Absolutely no idea.

No.

It is Mali and Pali.

Secondly, a South American country noted for grape production

and a verb meaning to pass time in a leisurely...

Chile and while.

While and Chile is correct, you don't need to buzz, you can confer.

I told you I like buzzing!

LAUGHTER

Your colleagues might want to proffer their wisdom!

We are perfectly happy!

Finally the country to the east of Ghana

and a symbol used to identify an organisation or its products.

Togo. Togo and logo.

Togo and logo.

Yes. You managed that without buzzing, didn't you?

LAUGHTER

-I've had my fun now.

-Right, ten points for this.

You can buzz on this, all of you.

In words such as chrysanthemum

and chrysalis the Greek prefix chrys refers to which metal?

-Gold.

-Gold is correct.

Your bonuses, New College, are on the year 1783.

Designed by the Montgolfier brothers, the first manned version

of what device was launched in Paris in November 1783?

Balloon.

Correct, hot air balloon.

From June 1783, gases released by eruptions of the volcano Laki

killed most of the livestock and, in the resulting famine,

around 20% of the population of which island?

Do we know?

St Helene? No?

It wasn't one of the ones off Sicily?

- Stromboli? - Yes.

Stromboli.

Come on, let's have it.

Say Stromboli.

Laki.

No, it's Iceland.

The Peace Of Paris in 1783 concluded which conflict?

Franco-Prussian war?

No, that's later, wasn't it?

Do we know this? No?

Franco-Prussian war.

No, it was the American War Of Independence.

-Of course!

-Ten points for this.

From words meaning "glaze" and "to grill",

what term in Japanese cookery describes a dish

basted with soy sauce and rice wine...?

-Teriyaki.

-Correct. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on spices, Liverpool.

I want the part of the plant from which

the following spices are obtained.

Firstly, for five points, nutmeg.

-The shell.

-Shell.

No, it's the seed. Secondly, cloves.

It's a flower.

-It's a flower.

-Flower is correct, flower buds. Finally cinnamon.

The pistols of a crocus.

Oh, cinnamon!

-I thought you said saffron! Sorry. Can we go back?

-No, you can't!

LAUGHTER

If you have conferred you might not have made that mistake!

It is from the bark. Ten points for this.

The psychologist Philip Zimbardo is best known for a simulated

prison experiment carried out in 1970...

-Stockholm syndrome.

-No, you lose five points.

In 1971 in which US university?

You may not confer. One of you can buzz.

-Chicago.

-No, it's Stanford.

Right, you got off lightly there, New College.

Ten points for this starter question.

In George Orwell's 1984, two of the party slogans are

War Is Peace and Freedom Is Slavery.

What is the third?

Is it Property Is Theft?

No.

One of you buzz.

Truth Is Falsehood?

No, you should know this.

It is Ignorance Is Strength. Ten points for this.

Of the 12 months of the Gregorian calendar,

two are named after historical figures.

For ten points name both months.

-July and August.

-Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on clouds this time, New College.

In each case identify the cloud type from the two letter

abbreviation used by the World Meteorological Organisation.

-Firstly, CU?

-Cumulus. Cumulus.

Cumulus.

Correct. Secondly, CC?

-Cirrus.

-Cirrus.

Cirrus.

No, it's cirrocumulus. Finally, AC?

- Altocumulus. - Altocumulus.

-Altocumulus.

-Altocumulus.

Correct.

We are going to take a picture round.

You will see a detail from a well-known painting.

For ten points all you have to do is name the artist.

Raphael.

Raphael is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So, following on, your bonus questions, Liverpool,

are three more paintings by early 16th-century Italian artists

depicting angels or putti.

In each case I simply want you to name the artist.

Firstly.

WHISPERING

Pick one.

-Botticelli?

-No. No.

-Goya.

-No. No, it's not.

We'll have to pass.

OK, that is by Titian. Secondly, who is this?

-Pick one.

-Um...

No idea?

No.

That is by Rosso Fiorentino. And finally.

Oh, Leonardo.

Indeed, yes. Right, ten points for this.

What structure opened in 2000

and shortly afterwards required a further £5 million to be spent...?

-The Millennium Bridge.

-Correct.

These bonuses, New College, are on US presidents.

Who was the first US president to be targeted by an assassin,

when the unemployed painter Richard Lawrence tried to shoot him

as he left a funeral in 1835?

1835?

Was it Roosevelt?

1835?

-1835.

-Washington?

-Could have been.

-Washington.

No, it was Andrew Jackson.

An assassination attempt by the mentally disturbed

saloon keeper John Schrank was foiled by a spectacle case

in the pocket of which former president? At the time

he had decided to run for another term against William Taft.

-Roosevelt?

-Which one?

-No, you can't...

-Theodore!

Yes, you are correct,

but next time please give the answer straight away.

And finally, in 1950, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola

attempted to kill Harry S Truman to bring attention to

the case for the independence of which US territory?

Do you know that?

New Mexico? New Mexico?

-Come on!

-New Mexico.

No, it's Puerto Rico.

Ten points for this. Which country shares land frontiers with

Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen and Qatar?

-Saudi Arabia?

-Yes!

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on Iranian languages.

Firstly for five points, including Persian and Kurdish,

the Iranian languages are a sub-branch of which large language family?

-Do you know?

-Finno-Hungarian?

No? Do you know?

-Semitic languages.

-Semitic languages.

No, they are Indo-European.

The national language of which former Soviet republic

is closely related to Persian?

Turkmenistan?

Hungary.

- Former Soviet... - Hungary.

-No, no. Turkmenistan.

-Maybe. Is that a real place?

Kazakhstan?

-Let's have an answer, please.

-Turkmenistan.

No, that's a Turkic language, I think. Its Tajikistan.

Finally, also closely related to Persian, Dari,

along with Pashto, is a national language of which country?

-Afghanistan? I didn't hear the question.

-Afghanistan.

Correct. Ten points for this.

Which play by Shakespeare includes the words,

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on"?

-The Tempest.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

New College, these bonuses are on physics.

Diurnal, semi-diurnal and mixed are different

local manifestations of what phenomenon,

whose course was first correctly explained by Isaac Newton

in his Principia Mathematica of 1687?

Trajectory of the Sun? The moon?

It's got to be an orbit of some sort.

-Orbit of the Sun?

-The orbit of the sun.

No, they are tides.

As a residual gravitational effect,

the tidal force exerted on the Earth by a distant body

depends inversely on approximately what power of the distance?

-Square.

-Square.

No, it's the third power. The cube.

Finally, what specific four-letter term describes the tides

of smallest range, occurring at intermediate phases of the moon?

-Neap.

-Neap.

-Neap.

-Neap.

Neap is correct. Three minutes to go, ten points for this.

What two-word term denotes the physical quantity that

relates the flow of heat to the temperature gradient

in a material and is measured in Watts per metre per Kelvin?

Conductivity?

Anyone like to buzz?

Thermal conductivity.

Thermal conductivity is correct, yes.

This set of bonuses are on royal dynasties.

In 1995, Sheik Hamad seized control of which Middle Eastern state

from his father and became the 8th member of the Al Thani dynasty

to rule the country?

Egypt?

No, it's Qatar.

Emirs from the Al-Sabah dynasty first became rulers of which

Middle Eastern state in 1756?

Kuwait?

-We've just done Kuwait.

-No, that was Qatar. Kuwait?

Kuwait is good.

Finally, in 1783, the Al Khalifa family became the ruling dynasty

of which island country in the same region?

-Bahrain?

-Bahrain?

Bahrain is correct. Yes. Ten points for this.

In 1917, 1944 and 1963

the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to which organisation?

-International Red Cross.

-Correct.

Your set of bonuses this time...

This is a gift for you, they're on statistics.

What word of four letters denotes the asymmetry

of the distribution of a dataset

and may also refer to lines that are neither parallel nor intersecting?

-Skew.

-Correct.

Coined by RA Fisher in 1935, what term denotes the statistical

hypothesis which assumes the differences in observed outcomes

are due solely to experimental error and chance?

Null hypothesis? Null hypothesis?

Correct.

What statistical term describes a scatter diagram where

one variable tends to decrease as the other increases,

for example snowfall versus temperature?

Oh... Um...

A scatter diagram?

No, it's a negative correlation or an anti-correlation.

Ten points for this.

Linguistically speaking, what links the place names

Pendle Hill, Isle of Sheppey and River Tyne?

The first word is the same as the second word.

Yes, tautological, repetition of the name. Yes.

Right, your bonuses this time, New College, are on the colour purple.

A purple and green Sisserou parrot appears on the flag of

which Caribbean island state?

-Anybody know?

-No. St Lucia?

St Lucia.

No, it's Dominica.

A horizontal band of the heraldic colour murrey,

or reddish purple, appeared at the bottom of the flag

of which republic, overthrown by force of arms in the late 1930s?

Come on, let's have it, please.

GONG

And at the gong, Liverpool University have 125.

New College Oxford have 220.

APPLAUSE

Well, it doesn't look good to lose by 100 points, almost,

but you were a great team and we thoroughly enjoyed having you

-and you were great fun.

-We enjoyed being here.

-Thank you very much.

New College, we look forward to seeing you in the final.

-Many congratulations to you.

-Thank you.

I hope you can join us next time for the second semifinal,

-but until then, it's goodbye from Liverpool University.

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from New College Oxford.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

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