Packet by Harvard (Bruce Arthur, Ted Gioia, Stephen Liu, Dallas Simons)

BARGE 2012

Edited by Chris Ray

Packet by Harvard (Bruce Arthur, Ted Gioia, Stephen Liu, Dallas Simons)

1. Rene De Costa has compared this poem's subject and function to the author's “Letter on the Road” and “Epithalamium” from Captain's Verses. This poem considers the image of “fruited boughs. . . pecked at by birds” before describing a “mad coupling of hope and force.” The speaker relates the “happy hour of assault and the kiss / The hour of the spell that blazed like a lighthouse” before reflecting “How terrible and brief was my (*) desire of you!” This poem repeatedly describes a “pit of debris” and punctuates a series of images of drowning with the refrain “in you everything sank!” Opening “The memory of you emerges from the night around me,” and featuring the repeated line “it is the hour of departure,” for 10 points, name this mournful poem by Pablo Neruda that concludes a collection beginning with twenty love poems.

ANSWER: “A Song of Despair” [or “Una canción desesperada;” prompt on Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair]

2. One form of this functional group is created when secondary amines replace primary amines in a pyridine ring-opening reaction. In the Oxo Diels-Alder reaction, a dihydropyran ring is formed when a diene reacts with one of these. The Tishchenko reaction disproportionates one of these compounds lacking an alpha-hydrogen in presence of an alkoxide to yield an ester; they are subjected to a similar base-induced procedure to yield an alcohol and carboxylic acid in the (*) Cannizzaro reaction. The Corey-Fuchs reaction produces alkynes from these compounds, whose simplest member is produced from the oxidation of methanol. Stuff will turn red when these compounds are exposed to Fehling's solution and other sugar tests; oxidation of these compounds similarly creates a “silver mirror” in the Tollens test. Consisting of a carbonyl bonded to an R group and a hydrogen, for 10 points, name this functional group contrasted with ketones whose simplest member is formaldehyde.

ANSWER: aldehydes (Accept ketones before “Oxo Diels-Alder” is read.)

3. This man's rise to prominence followed his defection from Joseph Foraker and was aided by his protégé Charles Dawes and a massive loan from high school buddy John D. Rockefeller. The organization created by this man attacked a Maine shipping magnate for being a devotee of Emanuel Swedenborg and published thousands of pamphlets attacking the value of 53 cents. He was depicted in a checkered dollar-sign suit in a series of cartoons by Homer Davenport, a hatchet-man for (*) William Randolph Hearst, who continually demonized this man's presence in politics. This man filled John Sherman's Senate Seat and spent eight years chairing the RNC after his most successful effort, which saw him raise millions around the country attacking the bimetallism of William Jennings Bryan while his candidate conducted a famed “front porch” campaign from Canton. Falling from power after Leon Czolgosz assassinated his friend and patron, for 10 points, identify this campaign manager for William McKinley.

ANSWER: Marcus Alonzo “Mark” Hanna

4. Tissue from one member of this class can be made into deliciously-named Keller explant sandwiches, which provide valuable insight into gastrulation. The fungal infection chytridiomycosis affects this class, whose Paleozoic origins are usually traced to the orders Temnospondyli and Lepospondyli. Important fossil members of this class include (*)Acanthostega, particularly in regards to its evolutionary relationship with the earlier Tiktaalik. Weird-looking members of this class include a burrowing order often mistaken for large earthworms, the caecilians, as well as the Axolotl and the order caudata, which unlike other vertebrates can regenerate lost limbs. First evolving during the Devonian from lobe-finned fish and including popular model organism Xenopus, for 10 points, name this class of chordates that includes salamanders, toads, and frogs.

ANSWER: amphibians [prompt on “tetrapods”; accept “frogs” until Temnospondyli]

5. Depictions of this object often include the twins Abtu and Anet and showed Pestu, representing time, coiled around a disk. Like the Milky Way, this object may be represented at the bottom of the Nebra Disk. The early god Aker, represented by two lions, is show in the Pyramid Texts allowing this object to enter Ur-Nes before reaching the snake-filled desert of Sokar. The activities of this object provided the structure for the twelve-section (*) Amduat, while the popular god du jure was often shown violently defending it from a demonic serpent; figures like Aten or Set are thus often depicted perched atop the front of this object. Opposed by Apep during its nightly voyages, for 10 points, identify this vehicle captained by Ra that carries a certain bright celestial object across the sky.

ANSWER: the solar barge or the solar ship [accept equivalents involving the sun and a boat; accept Ra's ship or equivalents before “Ra,” prompt afterward; be generous and prompt on “the Sun;” accept with some incredulity Mandjet or Mesektet]

6. One work on this concept discusses the “inward disunion” that results from rejecting the primacy of love, one of several fundamental contradictions. This subject was postulated as the direct measure of aesthetics in a tract by Chateaubriand on its “genius.” A critical examination of this concept attacks the idea of “perfect resignation” and begins by noting “we are Hyperboreans,” and was among the most controversial works of (*) Nietzsche. Sartre's “Existentialism is a Humanism” popularized the characterization of the author of The Mystery of Being, Gabriel Marcel, as this kind of “existentialist.” Its practitioners experience the “despair” encapsulated by the titular feeling according to Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death. John Locke wrote of the Reasonableness of, for 10 points, what concept whose “essence” was the subject of a work by Feuerbach, a religion that venerates Jesus of Nazareth?

ANSWER: Christianity [accept word forms/obvious equivalents; prompt on general answers like “religion;” anti-prompt on “Catholicism” or other specific denominations of Christianity]

7. This man used a flurry of drum beats to characterize a movement inspired by the Cavalry of Naples, which appears along with “Dance of the Axes” in a work based on a three-volume “instruction manual” created by Gaspar Sanz. This composer of Concerto for a Gentleman evoked the image of young musicians wandering down a street in a concerto written for Nicanor Zabaleta, for whom he also created a harp reworking of his best known work. That work's third movement alternates between 2/4 and 3/4 time, but is better known for its (*) second movement, which features an English horn in a “dialogue of instruments” that also features a soft guitar melody. A Gil Evans and Miles Davis collection samples both de Falla's “Will o' the Wisp” and this man's best known work, inspired by the gardens at one of Philip II's palaces. For 10 points, identify this blind Spanish composer of Concierto de Aranjuez.

ANSWER: Joaquin Rodrigo Vidre

8. This ruler captured Theobald I after invading Lorraine in support of Philip Augustus during the War of Succession of Champagne. The “Old Lord of Beiruit” opposed the forces of this man, who used his fluency in Arabic to negotiate a controversial treaty with the Ayyubid Al-Kamil which left this man as King of Jerusalem and plunged the Crusader States into the War of the Lombards. Pietro della Vigna figured in his court's cultural efforts, which centrally involved his son Enzio of Sardinia's kingdom in (*) Sicily. The Treaty of San Germano lifted one of Gregory IX's several excommunications of this ruler, who confirmed Teutonic Knight holdings in Prussia in the Golden Bull of Rimini. A failed siege of Parma ended the dominance of this ruler, which began after his uncle Otto IV of Brunswick lost at Bouvines. For 10 points, identify this last great Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperor, the second of his name after a grandfather known as “Barbarossa.”

ANSWER: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor [do not accept “Frederick the Great”]

9. This man compares himself to Lancelot and William Jennings Bryan after ordering a police unit to draw their guns on a terrified baker whose roommate is found hooking up in the next room. The criminal lawyer T. J. Rigg undermines Hettie Bowler’s attempt to blackmail this man, who is seen early on drunkenly brawling in defense of a fellow (*) Terwillinger College graduate. He sets up Floyd Naylor to be discovered affectionately comforting his mistress Lulu Baines and is contrasted with the upstanding Frank Shallard, whom he repeatedly gets fired. At a converted New Jersey pier dubbed the “Waters of Jordan Tabernacle,” this prolific secretary-banger tramples doomed admirers while fleeing a fire the claims the life of revivalist preacher Sharon Falconer. Eventually rewarded with a new Wellspring Church in Zenith, for 10 points, name this hypocritical Methodist preacher, the title character of a novel by Sinclair Lewis.

ANSWER: Elmer Gantry

10. The interpretation of a passage from this text eventually resulted in the creation of the Donmeh ethnic group in Anatolia after the acclamation of a man named Zevi sparked the Sabbatean movement. A tree and spring legendarily appeared to the compiler of this work, allowing him to live in a cave for thirteen years. Aegidius of Viterbo was much-enamored of this text, which is considered incomplete with appendices like the Raze de-Razin and the Idra. Analysis of this text was long concerned with the contrasting worlds of Chaos and (*) Rectification, or Tohu and Tikun, and culminated in the writing of Isaac Luria. It defines five realms emanating from the “infinite” embodied by God referred to as “Ein Sof,” which manifests in ten intertwined aspects. Attributed by Moses de Leon to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and describing the role of the Sefirot, for 10 points, name this book of Jewish mysticism, the foundational text of Kabbalah.

ANSWER: Zohar

11. One man was vaulted to this office after he responded to shots fired by failed and possibly fabricated assassin by screaming defiantly into the microphone during a radio speech, giving that man the political capital to arrest the author of Milestones and In the Shade of the Quran. The first holder of this office came to power following the mass-arsons of “Black Saturday,” riots sparked by the killing of 50 police officers in the Ismalia massacre. Another holder of this office was known as the (*) “Hero of the Crossing” and launched an economic liberalization called the Infitah, which triggered the Bread Riots. The Wafd Party was dissolved by Muhammad Naguib's successor in this office, who also banned the Muslim Brotherhood, formed the failed United Arab Republic with Syria, and nationalized the Suez Canal. For 10 points, identify this office held by Nasser, Sadat, and recently-ousted scumbag Hosni Mubarak, whose offices are located in Cairo.

ANSWER: President of Egypt [accept equivalents; accept Prime Minister of Egypt, as both positions were essentially synonymous until the 1960s]

12. One method of calculating these entities involves solving an integral form of the Schrodinger equation containing a Green’s function and then taking a sub-determinant of the resulting matrix to reduce infinite order. A similar method developed by Slater approximates the wavefunction as a superposition of augmented plane waves. Both of those methods utilize a potential which vanishes outside of a specific sphericalradius and is known as the muffin-tin potential. Another strategy for calculating these uses a Hamiltonian with terms describing the degree to which electrons (*) “hop” between neighboring atoms and is called the tight-binding model. The high conductivity of metals can be explained by the temperature-independent overlap of these entities while for insulators, the Fermi level is found between the conduction and valance types of these structures. For 10 points, identify these representations of the energy spectrum of solid-state materials in which excited states can be separated by namesake gaps.
ANSWER: energybands or electronicband structures

13. In one scene in this work, flying lights spell out a phrase meaning “Love justice you who judge the earth,” whose final letter transforms into the image of an eagle. One character outlines an experiment involving a light shining on three mirrors positioned in front of a viewer to explain the dark spots on the Moon, while later Charles Martel gives a speech about heredity on Venus. Its main character reaches the (*) “Primum mobile” after being tested for love, hope, and faith by James, John, and Peter. A giant rose shaped like an amphitheater with the petals as chairs is revealed in the Empyrean, where St. Bernard leads this poem's protagonist to a vision of “three circles of three colors with one circumference,” representing the Trinity. Beatrice guides the narrator through heaven in, for 10 points, what final canticle in Dante’s Divine Comedy which follows the Purgatorio?

ANSWER: Paradiso [accept Paradise; prompt on Divine Comedy or equivalent answers; do not accept Purgatorio or Inferno]

14. In this opera’s first act the baritone concludes, “I’m old, but I am alive” to explain his seductive prowess in “Dans les roles.” In the aria “Scintille, diamant” Dapertutto describes the diamond ring he uses to control a woman who helps him steal the protagonist’s reflection. A piece originally written as the “Elves Song” for another opera was included as “Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour” in its third act set in Venice. The soprano repeatedly pauses during the aria “Les oiseaux dans la charmille” to be (*) rewound by the inventor Spalanzani, explaining its common title of “The Doll Song.” Coppelius gives this opera's protagonist magic glasses that trick him into believing the automaton Olympia is a real person. In this opera’s epilogue the prima donned Stella leaves a tavern in Nuremberg with Councilor Lindorf after the title character’s friend Nicklausse unveils himself as the Muse in disguise and instructs him to be a poet. Featuring a famous barcarolle, for 10 points, name this opera by Jacques Offenbach inspired by the titular German storyteller who wrote “The Sandman.”

ANSWER: The Tales of Hoffman [or Les Contes d’Hoffmann]

15. In this poem’s first stanza, the speaker describes living “Here at the quiet limit of the world” appearing as a “white-haired shadow roaming . . . The ever silent spaces of the east.” The speaker of this poem asks, “How can my nature longer mix with thine?” before begging his lover “Release me, and restore me to the ground.” The speaker comments “mine asking” was granted “with a smile / Like wealthy men who care not how they (*) give” before lamenting that he has learned the meaning of the saying, “The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.” This poem begins with the assertion, “The woods decay, the woods decay and fall” before the speaker exclaims he is a “gray shadow, once a man” who watches as “after many a summer dies the swan.” For 10 points, name this Tennyson poem about the titular lover of Eos who was granted immortality but not eternal youth.

ANSWER: “Tithonus”

16. Increased amounts of the 47-kD protein are associated with neutrophil disorders involving this protein, whose depolymerization often involves cofilin. Adducin, Cap(G), and members of the gelsolin family are all used to disassemble this protein, and it shares genetic characteristics with the prokaryotic MreB, which adjusts cell width in rod-shaped bacteria. The seven-unit Arp2/3 complex regulates the polymerization of this protein, whose signal transduction involves WASp, named for a syndrome in which T cells fail to reorganize (*) structures composed of this protein. Prolifin is one of the major “binding proteins” associated with this protein, which is held in place by nebulin. A double helix of this highly-conserved protein forms the polymers comprising microfilaments in the cytoskeleton, and it binds to the globular heads of its counterpart when forming thin filaments in the sarcomere. For 10 points, identify this motor protein that drives muscle contraction along with myosin.

ANSWER: actin

17. Busts of this ruler are often authenticated by the presence of a crease on the earlobe. This man remade the frumentarii into a powerful secret police force to help support his frequent absences from Rome and employed Julius Severus as a military cure-all. This emperor secured power concurrently with the mysterious death of Lusius Quietus and the not-so-mysterious executions of four powerful senators. The historian Suetonius cuckolded this husband of Sabina, who (*) deified the Greek youth Antinous after he drowned in the Nile. This Emperor commissioned the massive Temple of Venus and Rome after exiling his predecessor's architect Apollodorus, and faced the Bar Kochba revolt in Judaea before stipulating that his successor adopt Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius. Ruling as the third Good Emperor between Antoninus Pius and Trajan, for 10 points, name this Roman Emperor who built a namesake stone wall across Northern Britain.