Yale BoB 2007.
Packet by UCI and UCLA (Ray Anderson, Jeffrey Buenaflor, Marcus Luna, Ray Luo, Chris Ngoon, Tirth Patel, Seema Ullal, Dwight Wynne)
Edited by Aaron Sin
Tossups:
1. Despite being assured that “his genius and education qualify him to take part in any speculation”, one character in this work speaks only once about how enthusiastic he is that a discussion is about to take place. That character, Hermocrates, introduces a story told by the great-grandson of Dropides, who relates a story an Egyptian priest told to Solon. After that, a fellow from Locris gives some mathematical nonsense involving powers of 2 divided by powers of 3 and powers of 3 divided by powers of 2, and a claim that the Sun, Mercury, and Venus move at the same rate. The beginning of this work recapitulates a previous discussion of the perfect State, while the end discusses the nature and creation of the Universe. FTP name this Platonic dialogue featuring the myth of Atlantis.
Answer: Timaeus
2. She took the Blue Riband trophy one month after journeying from Liverpool to New York City. Almost saved due to the efforts of Charles Voegele, she was commemorated in a medal crafted by Karl Goetz. Financed by Lord Inverclyde, she encountered fog at CapeClear on her 201st voyage before heading for Old Head of Kinsale. Her master, Captain William Turner, ignored British Admiralty’s instructions to zigzag along her eastward course for safety concerns, justifying his actions by citing that she could exceed a submarine’s maximum speed by ten knots. FTP,name this sister ship of the Mauretaniathat was attacked by the German U-20 on May 7, 1915,an attack which killed almost 1,200 people on board.
Answer: RMS Lusitania
3. In the opening of this novel, the six-year-old protagonist is described as “olive-skinned, dark-haired, and black-eyed”. His name is never revealed, but other characters who are revealed include Marta and “stupid Ludmilla.” As a young girl, Ludmilla was raped, but she still has sexual desire and temporarily leaves her boyfriend, Lekh. Lekh befriends the unnamed narrator and vents his sexual anger over Ludmilla’s leave by releasing the titular object out in the open forest, which would then try to befriend members of its own species before they attack it because of its wild color variations. Followed by the author's Steps and Being There, FTP name this dialogue-lacking novel, about the experiences of a Jewish child during World War II by Jerzy Kosinski.
Answer: The Painted Bird
4. They possess V-class pumps that build up an ionic gradient without producing an electrical potential, and in Tay - Sachs disease, they are enlarged as gangliosides accumulate in them. Taking in cargo in the form of clathrin-bound vesicles, and are known to engulf bacteria and food particles into their 4.8-pH interior, though they also play a crucial rule in autophagic cell death. Mannose-6-phosphate tagged packages bound for them have membranes which prevent self-destruction from within. Discovered by Belgian cytologist Christian de Duve, FTP name these organelles that digest phagocytosed particles.
Answer: lysosomes
5. They famously appeared in the Hadrian villa at Tivoli, as well as the propylon at Eleusis. Some of the earliest known examples were found in the treasuries of Delphi, dating from the 6th centrury BC, and used to hold entablatures. One of these figures consists of the several marble sculptures collected by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s. Known for being the prominent features on the south side of a Greek temple built by Mnesicles, their male counterparts are called atlantes or telamon. Referred to as the "porch of maidens," FTP name these supporting columns that depict female figures, which the south side of the Erechtheion possesses.
Answer: caryatids
6. He writes of the titular character "making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place" and notes that "others abide our question; thou art free," in a poem addressed to "Shakespeare." In one poem, he compares the titular addressee as a "young Daphnis with his silver voice," and has him say "why faintest thou? I wandered till I died." His "Cromwell" won the Newdigate prize at Oxford, and he rejected "Hebraism" for spontaneous "Hellenism" in one of his essays, authoring On Translating Homer and Literature and Dogma. Son of a headmaster of Rugby, he became a school inspector, writing Merope, "The Strayed Reveler," and "Empedocles on Etna." He urged literary education for the "Philistine" middle class in Culture and Ancarchy. FTP name this English poet who composed "Thyrsis" and "DoverBeach."
Answer: Matthew Arnold
7. The Republican National Convention in Dallas was the scene for the beginning of this landmark Supreme Court case. Judges that sided with the majority included Marshall, Blackmun, and Kennedy, while those that dissented includedStevens and White. The 1990 case of U.S. vs. Eichman reaffirmed the decision, which was based off of an incident involving a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party shouting , “America, the red, white, and blue, we spit on you” while performing the questionable action. Fortunately, the incident did not lead to any severe burn injuries in the surrounding area. This is, FTP what 1989 case which declared the unconstitutionality of laws prohibiting the desecration of the American flag?
Answer: Texas v.Johnson
8. Father of a consort of Aphrodite, his pupil, he is often depicted holding a staff and wearing a chiton, with weeds replacing body hair. The husband of Doris, this shapeshifter was the son of Pontus and Gaea, and because he was so wise and infallible, Heracles once wrestled with him to ask for directions to Hesperides. Father of the fifty Nereides, this titan is contrasted with Triton and Poseidon as the so-called "Wet One." Claiming his dominion of the Aegean Sea, this is, FTP what sea god, called "Old Man of the Sea" by Homer.
Answer: Nereus
9. Article two of this agreement sets forth five objectives including movement towards a common defense policy, institution of supra-national citizenship, free internal movement of people, and promotion of stable and sustainable development to achieve economic and social benefits through elimination of customs between members and the development of a single currency. Defections from the Conservative Party over this agreement nearly caused the collapse of John Majors' government while Denmark initially rejected and then later approved it. FTP identify this agreement named after a city in the Netherlands that was ratified in 1993, leading to the formation of the European Union.
Answer: Maastricht treaty; accept Treaty on European Union before "city"
10. In the experiment that its formulator developed with James Carlsmith to test this theory, one subject demanded the phone number of a female confederate, while data from another five subjects had to be thrown out when they were suspected of inferring the true goal of the experiment. A lack of significance meant that the experimenters could not confirm the theory’s main hypothesis that those paid twenty dollars to make a boring and repetitive task sound fun should be more convincing than those paid one dollar, because the competing incentive is higher. FTP name this theory proposed by Leon Festinger in which people change their private opinions to rationalize them in line with a coerced public opinion.
Answer: cognitive dissonance
11. C. O. Alley confirmed this effect using atomic clocks. It is proportional to the sum of the metric flux and the Minkowski metric, although it can also be shown to derive directly from conservation of energy, and thus is not actually a prediction of the theory with which it is most associated. A cobalt-57 doped iron-57 sheet and the Mossbauer effect were used to confirm it in Pound and Rebka’s “HarvardTower” experiment. Affecting all polarization states equally, it is thought to be the cause of anisotropies in cosmic microwave background radiation. Leading to a prediction of a form of time dilation, FTP name one of the three major predictions of general relativity, an effect in which the wavelength of light increases when originating from a stronger field of mass.
Answer: gravitational red shift
12. Dams on this river, including the Conowingo Dam, disrupt the migration of American Shad, but are important sources of hydropower for the EasternU. S. In 2005, the group American Rivers named it America's most endangered river due to phosphorus runoff from livestock and urban sources. One branch of it starts at a lake in Cooperstown, New York and flows south, passing Harrisburg and Three-MileIsland. Following the last glaciation, CheasapeakeBay was created by the flooding of its lower valley. FTP name this longest river in the Eastern United States that drains much of central Pennsylvania.
Answer: Susquehanna river
13. This song was first released digitally through the iTunes Music store, but became popularized after its use in a widely-watched television commercial. It peaked at #2 on the U.S. digital song charts, and reached #10 on the U.S. pop music charts. The song features the lyrics “money can't buy you back the love that you had then” and “sweetheart, bitter heart, now I can’t tell you apart.” It ends with the repeated lyrics “For the teenage boys, they’re breaking your heart,” and features a variety of instruments including the banjo and trumpet. FTP name this song by Leslie Feist that was featured prominently in an iPod nano commercial.
Answer: "1234"
14. He received his first defeat at the battle of Catalaunian plains, and according to some accounts, he claimed Honoria, the sister of Roman emperor Valentinian III, as his wife. Soon after his withdrawal following defeat under Aetius and Theodoric I, his armies attacked Italy in 452, and he was planning to invade the Eastern Roman Empire in 453 when he died in his sleep. FTP name this barbarian king from Central Asia whose gigantic empire stretched from the Urals to France, and was called the Scourge of God after he came to power by killing his brother Bleda.
Answer: Attila the Hun
15. A notable record breaking performance for someone playing for this team was Elmore Smith’s 17 blocks against the Portland Trailblazers in 1973. A member of this team also made 9 three pointers in a row in 2003 against the Seattle Supersonics. Their second round picks in this year’s NBA draft for this team were Sun Yue out of China, and Marc Gasol out of Spain, along with their first round pick of Javaris Crittenton. This team may be just as famous for their defeats as their victories as they were the recipients of Willis Reed’s “magical” comeback, and Don Nelson’s shot off the back of the rim. FTP name this franchise that is second in NBA championships to the Celtics and whose notable players include Jerry West, James Worthy, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant.
Answer: Los AngelesLakers
16. Unlike the Knoevenagel reaction, the double bond does not move into another position, even if it's more stable. The same product can be reached using a trimethylsilyl compound in the Peterson reaction, while the Schlosser modification of it was extended by Corey and Yamamoto to create a stereoselective synthesis, and results in an E-alkene as opposed to the Z-alkene that is primarily produced by the traditional variety of this chemical reaction. It is widely applicable and most ketones and aldehydes are generally effective reagents. FTP name this common organic chemical reaction in which a phosphonium ylide reacts with an aldehyde or ketone to form an alkene.
Answer: Wittig reaction
17. He criticized the allocation of spectrum licensing and suggested that allocating spectrum to users should be based on property rights in his article The Federal Communications Commission. His namesake conjecture argues that monopolists of durable goods don't have market power, and he suggested that business firms existed because they could avoid bargaining, acquisition of information, and effort in keeping trade secrets, and still internalize their production in his essay The Nature of the Firm. He invalidated Pigou's theorem in stating that optimal allocation of property ownership can be achieved in an economy with externalities and no transaction costs. FTP name this economist who won the 1991 Nobel prize for describing in the paper The Problem of Social Cost his eponymous theorem.
Answer: Ronald Harry Coase
18. After recognizing a song from an earlier opera by the composer, the protagonist hears a profession of love in the aria "L'ultima prova dell'amor mio," sung by Elvira. When the common people were told to go away to a chateau, Masetto sings "Ho capito, signor si" in understanding of what the protagonist is up to. At the end of the first act, the title character seduces the already-engaged Zerlina and then blames it on his servant, who earlier sung "Madamina, il catalogo e questo." In the final scene, a statue of the Commendatore comes to life and carries the fabulously villainous title character below the Earth with him. FTP name this opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart about the legend of Don Juan.
Answer: Don Giovanni
19. The Assyrians used this rock mostly in official seals, while Cleopatra used the powdered variety for her eye shadow. Contrary to popular belief, it is a rock and not a mineral, because it often contains calcite, sodalite, pyrite, and its namesake silicate. The most valuable color is green with gold pyrite. However, a rock that contains too much pyrite is less valuable. It was originally pale when it was primarily mined in Ovalle, Chile, and Badakhstan, Afghanistan where during the Russian invasion of the 1980s, Afghan forces mined the rock for their own resistance efforts. FTP name this semi-precious rock that in ancient times was known erroneously as sapphire, but is now named for its colored silicate lazurite.
Answer: lapis lazuli
20. Carl Michael Ziehrer’s “Night Swallows” and many of Joseph Lanner’s waltzes used these objects as a theme. Boris Eifman used one of these as a recurrent theme in his balletic adaptation of a Tchaikovsky work. Heitor Villa-Lobos’s “Bachianas Brasileiras” depicts a “little” one “of Caipira”. One of these is the focal point of a J.M.W. Turner work also featuring a hare and a boating party, and in a Rene Magritte painting one comes out of a fireplace. The ending shot of North by Northwest features one of these as a phallic symbol. FTP name this mode of transportation depicted in Honegger’s Pacific 231 as well as the paintings Time Transfixed and Rain, Steam, and Speed.
Answer: train; or steam locomotive; or equivalents
Extras:
One example of this phenomenon was visible in the Apple logo welcoming in the year 2007. Sir Edmund Halley originally observed this in 1715, but an event of 1836 led to its namesake founding. The horns of the illuminated crescent against the darkened sky begins to converge until they form a large “diamond,” which is then propped against the now visible solar atmosphere, which forms the “diamond ring” preceding this event. The diamond then breaks up to form discontinuous pieces of light, caused by the rough mountainous topography of the moon. This is, FTP what natural phenomenon taking place during a total solar eclipse in which a crescent of sunlight is broken by irregularities on the moon's surface, resembling jewelry pieces.
Answer: Baily’s beads
Spinoza interprets it as the word of man, and upon deciphering Abraham ibn Ezra, claims that verses were added to by Joshua. Divided into Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, and Devarim, this section of the Tanakh is given in a weekly printed form as the Chumash. Followed by the Nevi'im and the Kethuvim, it also terms an oral form written down as the Mishnah, a part of the Talmud. FTP name this body of Jewish teaching comprising the first five books of the Bible as revealed to Moses by God.
Answer: Torah
Bonuses:
1. Identify the following Presidents pro tempore of the Senate. FTPE.
[10] This former President pro tempore served as the first President pro tempore emeritus when that position was first created in 2001. He was replaced by Robert Byrd after the 2002 congressional elections.
Answer: Strom Thurmond
[10] During the 62nd Congress, he served as President pro tempore for one day. He is noted for his objection to Article X of the League of Nations and for preventing the Treaty of Versailles from being ratified in the Senate.
Answer: Henry Cabot Lodge
[10] This former New Hampshire governor served as the first President pro tempore of the Senate. He was a member of both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
Answer: John Langdon
2. Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley from first lines. FTPE.
[10] "I met a traveler from an antique land / Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,"