GSAC XXIII
Head Edited by Will Overman, written by members of Maggie Walker Quizbowl
Packet 2
1. The tombstones of two characters in this work read “A return after long wanderings” and “He wanted the kingdom of God on earth.” A character in this novel dreams that her husband is shot on an airfield and turns into a rabbit. One character in this novel dies in Cambodia after having participated in a (*) Grand March. That character had earlier had an affair with Sabina. Tereza takes pictures of the invading Soviets in this work that chronicles her and Tomas’ life around the time of Prague Spring. For 10 points, name this novel by Czech author Milan Kundera.
ANSWER: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
2. General Güemes was instrumental in the liberation of this nation, whose independence was formalized in the Congress of Tucumán. HipólitoYrigoyen led this nation through World War I, during which this country experienced a boom in its (*) beef industry. In 1955 this nation’s navy bombed its own Plaza de Mayo; the resulting military government later conducted the Dirty War against dissidents. The descamisadossupported this country’s president Juan Perón. For 10 points, name this nation with its capital at Buenos Aires.
ANSWER: Argentina [accept Argentine Republic]
3. Brouwer proved that every smooth vector field on one of these objects has a singular point. The Banach-Tarski paradox concerns the decomposition of one of these objects and reassembly into two identical copies. The complex plane plus a point at infinity is represented on one of these objects named for (*) Riemann. The azimuthal angle, polar angle, and radial distance are the three components to their namesake coordinates. Their surface area is given as 4 pi r squared. For 10 points, name these three dimensional analogues of circles.
ANSWER: spheres
4. One member of this group asks “Please, no tricks” to avoid being hit with a stick. Another member is allowed to join this group after sounding a false alarm. One member of this group rescues a baby who loses its mother from a mill and claims the same thing happened to him. At the end of the (*) film that this group appears in, that character gets shot by a guy hiding in a hut but is able to kill him before dying. Six circles, a triangle, and a character symbolizing farmers comprise the flag of this group. For 10 points, name this numbered group of warriors from an Akira Kurosawa film.
ANSWER: the Seven Samurai[accept things like “characters from Seven Samurai, ” prompt on “samurai”]
5. Aconitase catalyzes the isomerization of one molecule involved in this process. The addition of two hydrogens to FAD oxidizes succinate in one step of this process. The addition of a hydroxyl group to fumarate converts it to malate in one step of this process. (*) Oxaloacetate is regenerated at the end of this process so that it can be reused in the first step of this cycle that sees it react with Acetyl-CoA. Glycolysis often precedes this process that occurs in the mitochondrial matrix. For 10 points, name this biological process sometimes named for a German.
ANSWER: Krebs cycle [also accept “citric acid cycle” or “TCA” cycle]
6. This country’s northern neighbor possesses five enclaves within this nation, including the disputed islet of Perejil. The Rif Mountain Range from its northeast to its southwestern borders. While this nation has a primarily hot and arid climate, the Middle (*) Atlas Mountains in this country are home to the coldest recorded temperatures in Africa. The mountain of Toubkal is this nation's highest peak.Since 1994, it has closed its Eastern border with Algeria. For 10 points, name this North African country, whose border with Spain is created by the Strait of Gibraltar.
ANSWER: Kingdom of Morocco
7. This man used the Sinking Fund Commission to manage a crisis caused in great part by William Duer. In a “logrolling” bargain, this man persuaded Northern states to support a capital on the Potomac River to receive support for the (*) Funding Act of 1790. This man advocated for the promotion of a factory system in his Report on the Subject of Manufactures. He authored 51 of the Federalist Papers and advocated for the first National Bank. For 10 points, name this first Secretary of the Treasury who will soon be replaced on the $10 bill.
ANSWER: Alexander Hamilton
8. This man rejected Franz Berbanto’s treatise on Aristotle’s different uses of the word “being” as lacking unity. In his lecture Die Sprache, he coined the phrase “language speaks.” His view of the essence of technology as an undifferentiated energy reserve for human use is termed Gestell,and is part of a major shift in his thinking called (*)“kehre.” This philosopher’s first work was heavily influenced by Edmund Husserl, with whom he lost contact after joining the Nazi party. For 10 points, name this philosopher who introduced the concept of “Dasein” in Being and Time.
ANSWER: Martin Heidegger
9. A character in this work covers a lightbulb with a Chinese lantern so others don’t see her in an unflattering light. A blue piano appears frequently in the stage directions of this play. One character in this play avoids another’s(*) advances by screaming “Fire!” This play features a former English teacher who loses her plantation, Belle Reve, and comes to Elysian Fields to live with her sister, Stella Kowalski. For 10 points, name this Tennessee Williams play in which Blanche Dubois claims that she has “always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
ANSWER: A Streetcar Named Desire
10. In a short story set during this war, a man condemned to death by firing squad gives out what he thinks to be false information about the location of his friend. Kashkin blows up a train during this war, and Hemingway’s only play is set during it. This setting of “The Wall” and (*)The Fifth Column also sees the lover of Maria, Robert Jordan, attempt to blow up a bridge. For Whom the Bell Tolls is set during this war, and George Orwell wrote his personal account of it in Homage to Catalonia. For 10 points, name this war that saw the death of Federico Garcia Lorca.
ANSWER: Spanish Civil War
11. This piece in E flat major borrows a melody from the composer’s earlier opera The Voyevoda and it uses chromatic runs during the repetition of the piece’s motifs. The folk-tune “At the Gate” is reprised several times in this piece and its finale sees the entrance of a brass band. Solo violas and cellos play the (*) Russian hymn “O Lord, Save Thy People” in this piece. As the French national anthem “La Marseillaise” is overtaken by the Russian anthem, live cannons are called to fire. For 10 points, name this piece that commemorates Napoleon’s retreat in the title year, a piece by Tchaikovsky.
ANSWER: “1812 Overture”
12. A small raft is shrouded by small bushes on the right of this painting. The original title of this painting was “Landscape: Noon.” This painting takes place in Flatford Mill and its left side features Willy Lott’s cottage. In its foreground, a small black and white (*) dog walks on the edge of the River Stour. In the center of this painting, there are two black horses pulling the title agricultural tool. For ten points, name this painting by John Constable.
ANSWER: The Hay Wain
13. The third installment in this series was recalled after players discovered an explicit sex scene that had not been reviewed by the ESRB. Game Theory host Matthew Patrick accused game developers of coding police officers to racially profile players in one of this series’ installments. This series was originally created by DMA Design before being acquired by(*)Rockstar in 2002. Major settings in this series include Vice City, Liberty City, and San Andreas. For 10 points, name this game series that has caused controversy over its depiction of violence and car robberies.
ANSWER: Grand Theft Auto
14. A theory explaining one of these events proposes that widespreadArchaeopteris forests may have contributed to acceleratedpedogenesis leading to eutrophication. Positive HICE values support the continental glaciation theory for another of these events. Black shale often acts as the marker for these events. (*) Recent publications indicate that the Earth has entered the sixth of these events, often referred to as the Holocene one. For 10 points, name this type of event, the fifth of which occurred 65 million years ago because of an asteroid impact.
ANSWER: mass extinction [accept “extinction event” or “biotic crisis”]
15. This ruler inscribed the world’s first charter of human rights onto a clay cylinder. This man first saw action against the Kingdom of Lydia, but sent his general Harpagus to finish the conquest. This man’s Edict of Restoration established a policy of religious tolerance in his empire, and as a result, is the only non-Jew in the Tanakh to be named a (*) Messiah. In 539 BCE, this man peacefully occupied Babylon, but died nine years later fighting near the Caspian Sea. For 10 points, name this Persian king, founder of the Achaemenid Empire.
ANSWER: Cyrus the Great [accept “Cyrus II of Persia” or “Cyrus the Elder”]
16. After Coatlicue was decapitated, two of these creatures sprung from her neck to form her new head. During the Equinox, the descent of a shadow down the steps of El Castillo represents one of these creatures called Kukulkan. The Aztecs conflated (*) Hernan Cortes with their god of this form. Some of these creatures sent by Poseidon killed Laocoon and his sons. As a baby, Hercules strangled two of these creatures. For 10 points, name these creatures, an example of which is the feathered wind deity, Quetzalcoatl.
ANSWER: feathered serpents [accept equivalents such as snakes]
17. The son of a nobleman in this play keeps him from committing suicide by leading him over an imaginary cliff. A man in this play who pretends to be a beggar named Poor Tom kills Oswald. In this play, Edmund tries to trick his father, (*) Gloucester, into believing that Edgar is planning to kill him. A character in this play tells her father that she cannot “heave her heart into her mouth,” which makes it seem like she loves her father less than her older sisters do. For 10 points, name this Shakespeare play in which the title king gives his land to Regan and Goneril instead of Cordelia.
ANSWER: King Lear
18. When Planck’s law is stated as a function of temperature and this quantity, it appears raised to the fifth power in the denominator. The maximum value for this quantity is inversely proportional to temperature according to Wien's law. Constructive interference is greatest at angles theta such that 2d times the sine of theta is equal to an (*) integer multiple of this value according to Bragg’s law. This quantity, usually symbolized lambda, is equal to velocity divided by frequency. For 10 points, name this quantity equal to the distance between two identical points on a wave.
ANSWER: wavelength
19. In the war described in this story, one warrior’s chariot levitates a few inches off of the ground because he had never told a lie. This ends when that character tells a partial truth to Dronacharya in order to kill him. The five central characters of this work share (*) Draupadi as a wife after a prince shoots a moving fish through the eye by looking at only its reflection in oil. During this epic, Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna at the battlefield of Kurukshetra. For 10 points, name this long poem, which along with the Rāmāyaṇa makes up the two great Hindu epics.
ANSWER: Mahābhārata
20. One political cartoon depicts this ruler smoking hookah with Sultan Abdul Hamid II. E.D. Morel became famous for discovering that trade ships were primarily shipping weapons and ammunition to this man’s colonies instead of actual supplies. Robert Casement’s namesake report first drew accusations that this man’s (*) Force Publique had been cutting off the hands of field workers who failed to meet their quotas. For 10 points, name this Belgian king who became known for the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State.
ANSWER: King Leopold II [prompt on just “Leopold”]
TB. One political cartoon of this ruler depicts him as the king of Brobdingnag. John Wilkes criticized one of this man’s speeches in The North Briton. John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute, was one of this monarch’s trusted allies. This man’s reign saw the appointment of William (*) Pitt the Younger as Prime Minister. Parliament passed the Stamp Act under this monarch. This king experienced bouts of madness caused by porphyria. For 10 points, name this British king under whom the Thirteen Colonies gained independence.
ANSWER: GeorgeIII [prompt on “George”]
1. This man compared the British Liberal government of 1872 to a range of “exhausted volcanoes.” For 10 points each:
[10] Name this Conservative Prime Minister who succeeded Lord Derby. A bitter rival of Gladstone, this man purchased stocks of the Suez Canal from the Khedive of Egypt.
ANSWER: Benjamin Disraeli
[10] Disraeli bestowed Victoria with the title “Empress of [this nation].” This colony was known as the jewel in the crown of the British Empire.
ANSWER: British India [accept British Raj, Empire of India, or Indian Empire]
[10] Disraeli was a strong supporter of these laws, which kept the price of imported grain high to favor farmers. The repeal of these laws came after the efforts of Robert Peel.
ANSWER: Corn Laws
2. Mathematicians love prime numbers. Hopefully you do too. For 10 points each:
[10] This ancient Greek mathematician proved that there are infinitely many primes, though he may be better known for his seminal text on geometry, Elements.
ANSWER: Euclid of Alexandria
[10] In 2013, Yitang Zhang gained mathematical fame for establishing a finite bound on these values. This value is equal to six for sexy primes and equal to two for twin primes.
ANSWER: prime gaps [generously accept things like “distance between consecutive primes,” 11 and 13 are twin primes for reference]
[10] This mathematician led the Polymath group that cut down the bound that Zhang established. This 2006 Fields Medal recipient proved that sequences of prime numbers contain arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions with Ben Green.
ANSWER: Terence Tao
3. This piece, influenced by Zen Buddhism, instructs the musician not to play their instrument, allowing ambient sound during the performance. For ten points:
[10] Name this three-movement piece whose title indicates the total duration of its performance in minutes and seconds.
ANSWER: 4’33”
[10] This avant-garde composer of 4’33” also composed Imaginary Landscapes and As SLowaS Possible, which is currently being played by an organ in Germany for a duration of 639 years.
ANSWER: John Milton Cage, Jr.
[10] Cage was a student of this composer of Transfigured Night and the prelude to Genesis Suite. This 20th century composer also created the twelve-tone system.
ANSWER: Arnold Schoenberg
4. The two characters in this play argue over the distinctions between “light the kettle” and “put on the kettle.” For 10 points each:
[10] Name this play in which a whistle down the title contraption indicates to Ben that he is supposed to kill Gus.
ANSWER: The Dumb Waiter
[10] This other play by the same author sees a pianist living in a boarding house taken away by Goldberg and McCann after the title event.
ANSWER: The Birthday Party
[10] The Dumb Waiter and The Birthday Party were both written by this British playwright.
ANSWER: Harold Pinter
5. Diane Arbus photographed a “Jewish” one of these figures visiting his parents and a street art campaign declares that one of them “has a posse”. For 10 points each:
[10] Identify these figures that include Eddie Carmel and one whose face appears in posters with the word “OBEY”.
ANSWER: giants [accept sufferers of gigantism or equivalents; prompt on descriptions solely of height]
[10] The OBEY Giant series was created by Shepard Fairey, who is most famous for his portrait of this leader in blue, beige, and red with the slogan of “HOPE”.
ANSWER: Barack Obama
[10] This magazine used a revised version of Shepard Fairey’s portrait of Barack Obama for their 2008 Person of the Year cover and later commissioned Ai Weiwei for the cover of their issue, The World According to China.
ANSWER: Time
6. The main character of this novel was born from a stone egg, has a weapon that weighs 17,550 pounds, and meditated in Laozi’s furnace. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this 16th-century Chinese novel in which Sun Wukong, Pigsy, and Sandy accompany the monk Xuanzang to atone for their sins.
ANSWER: Journey to the West [accept XīYóuJì, prompt on just Monkey]
[10] The gang leaves China and goes to retrieve sutras from Buddha on Vulture Peak, which is in this modern-day country.