ACF Fall 2006
Tossups by Illinois A (Kelly Tourdot et al) and Florida A (Travis Vitello et al)
1. The slave girl “Pink” is depicted crouching in front of the main figure in this man’s Henry Ward Beecher, and he designed the angelic choir in the St Savior Chapel and the statuary of the St Columba Chapel in New York’s Church of St. John the Divine. His Mares of Diomedes was the first American sculpture to be placed in the MetropolitanMuseum, but he is best known for his works of Americana such as his Sheridan statue in Chicago and the Abraham Lincoln statue in the Capitol rotunda. Best known for a work which he fought over with a local businessman, John Boland, and which was eventually finished by his son, Lincoln, FTP, name this American sculptor of Danish ancestry who designed the original Stone Mountain and the faces of four American presidents on Mt.Rushmore.
ANSWER: (John) Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum
2. A favorite scene among classical vase painters was the rape of this woman at the temple of Athena by Oileus’s son, the stepbrother of Medon. She was suited by Orthryoneus who had promised to rid Troy of the Greeks for her hand, but he was killed by Idomeneus. Instead, she was taken prisoner by a man who would father her twin sons, Teledamus and Pelops, though both she and her abductor would be murdered by his jealous wife, Clytemnestra. FTP, identify this lover of Agamemnon, a daughter of Priam who possessed the gift of prophecy.
ANSWER: Cassandra
3. Compounds of this element have been used for things as various as dyes for wallpaper and the pressure treatment of wood. A key component of Fowler’s Solution, it can exist as a tetramer of itself, and when bound with gallium, it is commonly used in semiconductors. Compounds of this element bind to lipoamide-containing enzymes, especially those responsible for bacterial respiration, so Paul Ehrlich used it as an early treatment for syphilis. Unfortunately, it also causes eczema, nausea, and aplastic anemia in humans, and may have killed Napoleon. FTP name this toxic metalloid known for polluting drinking water, number 33 on the periodic table.
ANSWER: Arsenic
4. In 1921, this object was determined to be expanding at approximately .2 arcseconds per year by comparing photographs of it from a decade apart. It is known for emitting synchrotron radiation across the entire measurable spectrum as a result of electrons traveling at high speeds through the intense magnetic fields generated by the pulsar at its center. Located in the constellation Taurus, this object is also notable for the event that created it, at the time called a “guest star” that was reportedly visible in daylight for 23 days in the year 1054 CE. FTP name this supernova remnant that holds the distinction of being the first entry in Messier’s catalog.
ANSWER: Crab Nebula [accept M1 before “first” is read]
5. This specific activity is mentioned in reference to Raven Simone in the Notorious B.I.G. song “Just Playin’,” and it is part of the title of an A Tribe Called Quest song in which Phife claims a woman is “hotter than Meshach, Shadrach and Abendego.” In a music video of this title, we learn that its perpetrator drives a van with license plate “stabbin’ cabin,” and Ron Jeremy appears as both a judge who sentences that criminal to 25 years and the “large inmate” who later sodomizes him. The titular offense takes place after an encounter at “a bar in downtown hell,” and the criminal, who has “light skin, light blue eyes, a double-chin and a plastic smile” claims that “if it weren’t for” it, he’d “never get laid.” FTP, the album 40 Oz. to Freedom contains what Sublime song denouncing a serious crime that often involves alcohol or rohypnol?
ANSWER: “Date Rape” [prompt on partial answer]
6. In one story by this author, Kasparson murders Cardinal Hamilchar von Sehestedt and steals his identity. That story, “The Deluge at Norderney,” is grouped with other works such as a story in which a young Dane eventually fights a duel, “The Roads Round Pisa.” Her most famous work concerns people such as Esa, a cook who is coerced into serving in World War I before being murdered; Denys Finch-Hatton, this author’s lover who dies in an airplane crash; and Chief Kinanjui, the ruler of over 100,000 Kikuyus. Short stories like “The Supper at Elsinore” and “The Old Chevalier” appear in the Seven Gothic Tales of, FTP, what author who wrote Shadows on the Grass and The Angelic Avengers in addition to describing her time on a coffee farm in the Ngong Hills of Kenya in her autobiographical Out of Africa?
ANSWER: Isak Dinesen [or Karen von Blixen-Finecke]
7. In humans, the largest cluster of genes for these proteins is found at locus 6p21, with several of the genes reiterated multiple times. They all share a similar structure of a long central helix flanked by a loop and smaller helix, and certain ones interact via a “molecular handshake” to form heterodimers. They are some of the most highly conserved proteins in eukaryotes, containing high percentages of arginine and lysine, which carry positive charges important for their major function, though namesake acetyltransferases block these charges to allow transcription. Type 1 is a linker, while types 2A, 2B, 3, and 4 form the core of nucleosomes.. FTP, identify these proteins that act as spools around which DNA is wound.
ANSWER: histones
8. Gil and Menga’s search for a missing one introduces the action in Calderón de la Barca’s The Devotion of the Cross, while Maillochon and Labouise shoot one in the head and sell its corpse to an idiot in a namesake Guy de Maupassant story. On a trip from Le Monastier to St. Jean du Gard, Robert Louis Stevenson is famously accompanied by one named Modestine. One of these creatures with a soft, silvery coat, is a title character of a work subtitled “An Andalusian Elegy,” Juan Ramón Jiménez’s Platero y Yo. A well-known example is the result of Fotis rubbing Pamphile’s magic ointment on Lucius, which turns him into one of these rather than an eagle. FTP, name this animal, examples of which include Sancho Panza’s lowly mount, Dapple, and the “golden” title character of an Apuleius work.
ANSWER: donkeys [accept asses]
9. This religion was attacked in a work that includes chapters such as “Opening Trunks” and “The Old Fisherman.” A figure associated with this religion once wrote about “being of two hearts” in a chapter entitled “Dispelling Blindness.” Its basic relationships, which includes father and son, friend and friend, and three others, are based on the principle of xiao [shaow], or filial piety. Another of its principles, li, refers to the rules of propriety, and jen is the ideal relationship among human betweens. Xun Zi and Mencius were famous followers of this religious system, founded around the 5th century B.C. FTP, name this ethical, religious, and philosophical system famously discussed in texts such as the I Ching and the Analects.
ANSWER: Confucianism or Kong jiao
10. Two of this man’s later works, Vital Involvement in Old Age and The Life Cycle Completed, were written with his son Jon. He collaborated with Alfred Kroeber on studies of the Yurok Indians, and he first studied cultural influences on psychological development among the Sioux Indians at Pine Ridge. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his historical work Gandhi’s Truth, and he applied his theories to explain how the titular figure was able to break with the religious establishment in Young Man Luther. Heavily influenced by Freud, his most famous theory said that each time division of a person’s life was dominated by a crisis, such as initiative vs. guilt and trust vs. mistrust. FTP name this author of Childhood and Society, in which he posited his eight stages of psychosocial development.
ANSWER: Erik Erikson
11. Blatchford Sarnemington is the imaginary alter-ego of Rudolph Miller, who habitually lies to Father Schwartz during confession in one of this man’s short stories. “Absolution” is more romantic than his best-known non-fiction work, which includes the articles “Pasting it Together,” “Handle with Care,” and the titular “The Crack-Up,” which details his nervous breakdown at age 39. His only drama, a tale of postman who becomes president entitled The Vegetable, was received poorly, and his later exploits as a screenwriter were fictionalized in works like “A Man in the Way” and “No Harm Trying.” Best known for characters like the screenwriter Pat Hobby, film producer Monroe Stahr, the young man Anthony Patch, and the psychologist Dick Diver, FTP, name this author of “Babylon Revisited,” The Last Tycoon, The Beautiful and the Damned, Tender is the Night, and the tale of Nick Carraway, The Great Gatsby.
ANSWER: F. Scott Fitzgerald
12. He left a gold cup in the town square of his capital with instructions that anyone could drink from the cup, but none could remove it. He also built the Poenari fortress with forced labor from naked noblemen and formed an alliance with his onetime enemy Janos Hunyadi. His younger brother Radu the Handsome spent most of his life as a hostage in Adrianople but returned to overthrow him in 1462, leading to his exile at the court of Matthias Corvinus until a later reconquest of Tirgoviste. This member of the House of Basarab was known by his enemies as Kaziglu Bey, by others with a surname derived from his father’s founding of the Order of the Dragon, and to others for an activity which often employed concentric circles and other large-scale patterns. FTP, name this prince of Wallachia known for sticking his enemies’ heads on pikes.
ANSWER: Vlad the Impaler [accept Vlad III; accept Vlad Dracula; accept Vlad Tepes; prompt on Vlad; do not accept Vlad Dracul]
13. Vinnie Ream sculpted a bronze statue of this man, for his namesake square in Washington, out of a propellor. At age twelve, he participated in the capture of Nuku Hiva under David Porter aboard the Essex. Later, he cut off the Port Hudson works in support of land troops and sent the Tecumseh and Brooklyn skirting past FortMorgan and the Tennessee from his flagship, the Hartford. He took DauphinIsland and New Orleans with his Gulf of Mexico-based squadron and later strapped himself to the rigging during the Battle of Mobile Bay, yelling “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” FTP, name this admiral of the Union army.
ANSWER: David Glasgow Farragut
14. One of the protagonists of this novel sees an improbable advertisement for “Scissors: for the man of action, satisfaction.” That protagonist becomes involved with the political activist Zeeny Vikal after losing his role on the TV show The Aliens. Another character disguises himself as Martin de la Cruz, the late husband of Rosa Diamond, and later kills his lover Alleluia Cone by throwing her from a high-rise roof. In the novel’s even-numbered chapters, Abu Simbel exhorts the prophet Mahound to uphold the worship of three goddesses, but Mahound revokes the deal when he removes the titular section from the Quran. FTP, name this Salman Rushdie novel which begins with Gabreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha surviving a plane crash over the English Channel.
ANSWER: The Satanic Verses
15. During the collapse of this campaign, Roy Urquart lost communication with his “Red Devil” troops, who had landed in the middle of a panzer division. In this offensive, the British under Brian Horrocks intended to link the 1st airborne and XXX corps with the 101st and 82nd divisions of American paratroopers to seize bridges at Eindhoven, Grave, and Nijmegen. It was the last attempt to win the war by Christmas and had a strategic objective of forcing a crossing of the Rhine at Arnhem. American commanders blamed British sluggishness for its failure, accusing their allies of “stopping for tea.” FTP, name this failed September 1944 offensive through the Netherlands.
ANSWER: Operation Market Garden
16. In a material with this property, the remanence refers to its magnitude in the absence of a driving force, while coercivity measures how strong a field is needed to remove this property. Its lack of retraceability is noted by a hysteresis loop, and this phenomenon can be attributed to the unfilled energy levels in the 3d level of certain elements. The susceptibility of materials possessing this property can be determined by the Curie-Weiss law beyond a specific point. It is a result of permanent unpaired dipoles within domains that line up with an imposed magnetic field due to long range ordering. Once materials exhibiting this property surpass the Curie temperature, they tend to behave as paramagnets. FTP, name this form of magnetism common to particular metals, most notably observed in nickel, cobalt, and iron.
ANSWER: ferromagnetism [accept word forms]
17. A Villa-Lobos Fantasia and a Milhaud work with “Vif” as the first movement were both adapted for a performer of this instrument with the nickname “Le Patron.” In Kodály’s Háry János Suite, this instrument has a solo at the end of the “Battle and Defeat of Napoleon” movement. In Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije Suite, the title character is depicted with this instrument in the “Romance” movement. Sidney Bechet was the basis for the Steppenwolf character Pablo, who played this instrument. Featured in Vaughn Williams’ Symphony No. 6 and Bizet’s L’Arlesienne Suite, it is found most prominently in the B-flat tenor and E-flat alto versions. FTP, name this woodwind instrument often featured in jazz bands, most notably played by Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker.
ANSWER: saxophone
18. His work in set theory included proving the consistency of the Axiom of Choice by analyzing the inner model of constructible sets, and in philosophy, he formulated a symbolic version of Leibniz’s ontological proof of God, though he is best known for his results in mathematical logic. He showed in his doctoral thesis that all true statements of first-order predicate calculus are provable, while his most famous result states that this is not the case for any logical system powerful enough to describe the Peano axioms of arithmetic. FTP, name this Eastern European mathematician, most well-known for his “Incompleteness Theorem.”
ANSWER: Kurt Gödel
19. He refers to the highway as “my chief Parnassus” in one of his poems, and he exhorts eternal love to “maintain thy life in me” in another. The poet hears the titular “Voices at the Window” in the dark night in a poem about a woman whose beauty “never…doth flourish/more than in my reason’s sight.” At the end of one of his best-known works he claims that “No Philosopher’s precepts can sooner make you an honest man, then the reading of Virgil“ before cursing the reader to ignominy for eschewing the title field. In the first poem of his best-known cycle his Muse instructs him to “look in thy heart, and write,” leading to 108 sonnets from Astrophil to Stella. FTP name this author of Defence of Poesie and Arcadia.
ANSWER: Sir Philip Sidney
20. Richard O’Connell postulates that the character Matilde in Manuel de Gorostiza’s Contigo, Pan y Cebolla is based on an heiress in this play. One character irrationally fears that that heiress’s cousin could be harmed by “the heat of noon” or “the dews of the evening,” and another makes reference to that cousin’s lovely vocal performance at Mrs. Piano’s concert. While the servants Lucy, David, and Fag tend to imitate their masters, Faulkland eventually overcomes his absurd fears and marries Julia Melville, and a duel is avoided when Bob Acres sees through the disguise of Ensign Beverley and Sir Lucius O’Trigger finds that he has been exchanging letters with Lydia’s aunt, a “queen of the dictionary.” FTP, name this play in which Captain Jack Absolute eventually wins the hand of Lydia Languish, a comedy by Richard Sheridan which famously features the mangled speech of Lydia’s aunt, Miss Malaprop.
ANSWER: The Rivals
TB. Common black and white photos of this man obscure the fact that he had red hair, which he attributed to his maternal grandfather, a white man who never knew his family. He attempted to dispatch “self-defense units” to Florida and delivered a speech reflecting his mature views entitled The Ballot or the Bullet after forming the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Earlier, he agreed to stop speaking for ninety days after fallout from his comment that he “never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon” in reference to John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Twenty years after his initial conversion by Elijah Muhammed, his move to orthodox Sunnism led to his replacement as mosque leader by Louis Farrakhan and eventually his assassination. FTP, name this leader of the Nation of Islam.
ANSWER: Malcolm X[accept Malcolm Little; accept El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz]
ACF Fall 2006
Bonuses by Illinois A (Kelly Tourdot et al) and Florida A (Travis Vitello et al)
1. In x-ray diffraction patterns, its structure is indicated by sharply defined spots and rings. FTPE: