Penn Bowl 2017 Packet 1
Editors: Jaimie Carlson, Jason Zhou, Jordan Brownstein, and Eric Mukherjee
Writers: Jaimie Carlson, Jason Zhou, JinAh Kim, Paul Lee, Nathan Weiser, Eric Mukherjee, Samir Khan, Sam Rombro, Ankit Aggarwal, Athena Kern, Lam Tran, Samantha Claypoole, Gabe Ajzenman, Sam Winikow, Joey Goldman, Liam Weiss
Tossups:
1. Edmund Wilson wrote that this author had “something like a great style, if there could be such a thing as a great style which was … not … applied to any subject at all.” This author wrote about the “inevitable thumb” that “slowly chafes its puckered index toward us” and “a kitten in the wilderness” in one poem. This author criticized The Waste Land as “so damned dead,” and attempted to write an epic positive counterpart to it. This poet of (*) “Chaplinesque” described his lover’s “argosy of bright hair” in a cycle of poems dedicated to Emil Opffer. He wrote about bells that “swing I know not where” and “the matrix of the heart” in his last poem, “The Broken Tower.” This poet described a seagull “Over the chained bay waters Liberty” in a ‘proem’ that opens his magnum opus. For 10 points, name this author of Voyages, “At Melville’s Tomb,” and The Bridge.
ANSWER: Hart Crane
2. This person argued for using volunteer work to foster unity between the leader and the masses in a campaign to create the “New Man.” This person’s failed attempts to assist Laurent-Desire Kabila led him to call Kabila not “the man of the hour.” This person died while leading the Nancahuazu fighters with Tania against Rene Barrientos. This person spearheaded the creation of (*) “literacy brigades” during the “year of education.” A famous photograph of this person after the La Coubre explosion was taken by Alberto Korda. This man wrote a memoir of his travels with Alberto Granado called the Motorcycle Diaries and a manual on guerrilla warfare. Along with a future head of state, this person launched a revolution after travelling on the “Granma” to help topple Fulgencio Batista. For 10 points, name this comrade of Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolution.
ANSWER: Ernesto “Che” Guevara [accept either underlined portion]
3. This poem’s author later disavowed it as “trash” and altered its meaning by changing “or” to “and” in its most famous line. This poem’s narrator wants to “undo the folded lie” of the “sensual man-in-the-street.” This poem’s narrator highlights “ironic points of light wherever the Just exchange their messages” and describes himself as “Eros” and “dust.” This poem says that (*) “exiled Thucydides (thu-SID-id-ees) knew all that a speech can say about Democracy” before dismissing “the windiest militant trash.” This poem describes its audience as “children afraid of the night who have never been happy or good.” This poem’s narrator sits “in one of the dives / on Fifty-second Street / Uncertain and afraid” and concludes “We must love one another or die.” For 10 points, name this W. H. Auden poem named for the date World War II began.
ANSWER: “September 1, 1939”
4. Algorithms for finding these things are tested on OptBench, which includes the LJ38 and Heptamer Island test cases. The “climbing image” method is a modification of an algorithm used to find these things which adds spring forces along a pathway. Lorquet’s nonadiabatic theory of these things allows for nonrelativistic coupling to cause mixed states. They are most commonly found using the synchronous transit or (*) nudged elastic band methods, and they resemble the end state closest in free energy to them according to Hammond’s postulate. They correspond to saddle points on a PES and are designated by a double dagger. The Arrhenius equation is used to find the energy of these things, which is called the activation energy. For 10 points, name these locally-maximal energy intermediates in a chemical reaction.
ANSWER: transition state [or activated complex]
5. An aria by this composer was the inspiration for the lyrics of “O Superman” by Laurie Anderson. In one of this composer’s operas, a man demands that the protagonist dispose of a statuette of Eros before they are nearly stoned to death. In another of this man’s operas, three actresses reappear in various scenes, including a night of gambling that goes awry. The protagonist of that opera sings “Adieu, notre petite table” when she decides to betray her lover. That opera by this man ends with the death of a young woman in the arms of her former lover, (*) des Grieux, before she is to be deported. For the intermezzo of one of his operas, this composer symbolized the thoughts of a titular courtesan on the verge of conversion in an oft-performed concert piece called Meditation. For 10 points, name this composer of operas such as Thais (ta-is) and Manon.
ANSWER: Jules Massenet
6. During worship of Shiva, devotees often anoint themselves with this substance over parts of their body where the chakras are located; in that context, this substance is called vibhuti. Vaishnavites may use sandalwood paste in place of this substance to smear a “U” pattern. Kumkuma is a common red variety of this substance made from turmeric and slaked lime. Married women may adorn their (*) hair partitions using a form of this substance called sindoor. Shaivites form three white horizontal lines with this substance, which is smeared onto a person’s forehead to form a tilaka or tika(TEE-ka). In a legend that explains one use of this substance, Krishna used it to darken Radha’s fair skin, which later evolved into gopis festively spraying water containing this on each other. For 10 point, name this substance people throw at each other during Holi.
ANSWER: powder [be generous with accepting answers as long as they describe something that resembles powder, like dust; accept ash; accept colors; accept kumkuma before mention; accept sindoor before mention; accept vibhuti before mention; prompt on “paint” or “pigment”]
7. After a politician with this surname was punched in the bathroom of a Long Island country club, Collier's Magazine created a golden “Toilet Seat Medal” to celebrate the anonymous assailant. The “pea patch politics” of a man with this surname are the subject of a book by his former crony Bill Dodd. A politician with this surname was opposed by a group of Standard Oil-backed legislators known as the “Dynamite Squad.” The stripper (*) Blaze Starr was the mistress of a politician with this surname who continued to serve as governor despite being committed to the state mental hospital by his wife. A politician with this surname was assassinated by the dentist Carl Weiss shortly after writing My First Days in the White House, a book that explains his populist “Share Our Wealth” ideology. For 10 points, give this shared surname of Louisiana governors Earl and Huey.
ANSWER: Long [accept Huey Long or Earl Long]
8. In June 1982, the corpse of Banco Ambrosiano chairman Roberto Calvi was found hanging from a bridge over this river. Children nicknamed “mudlarks” would enter this river at low tide to scavenge its garbage. According to a John Burns quote, the “Mississippi is muddy water, but [this river] is liquid history.” This river regularly froze over during the Little Ice Age, allowing peasants to hold (*) “frost fairs” on its frozen surface. During the mid-19th century, a disease- and waste-infested portion of this river emitted a scent referred to as the “Great Stink.” George Frideric Handel composed the Water Music for a monarch’s pleasure barge outing on this river. Viking attacks on this river’s banks are the possible inspiration for a folk song that describes a bridge over it as “falling down, falling down.” For 10 points, name this river that flows through London.
ANSWER: the River Thames
9. A family of receptors for this compound also contains members that bind to adiponectin and are called PAQRs. Ulipristal acetate is a selective inhibitor of this compound’s receptors. This compound is converted to deoxycorticosterone by 21-alpha-hydroxylase and is synthesized by 3beta-HSD after side-chain cleavage of cholesterol. Devices called Skyla, Liletta, and Mirena elute an analog of this compound called levonorgestrel. A combination of a prostaglandin and an antagonist of this hormone’s receptor, (*) mifepristone, is used as emergency contraception. This hormone induces the formation of secretory endometrium after it is secreted by the corpus luteum post-ovulation. For 10 points, name this hormone found in combined oral contraceptive pills along with estrogen.
ANSWER: progesterone [or progestins]
10.A work named for this ideology identifies it with the “species-consciousness” possessed by humanity and argues that it arises from the uniquely human ability to recognize oneself as both an I and a Thou. That work about this ideology is split into sections “in agreement with” and “in contradiction with” the human essence. Another work uses Benjamin Franklin’s writings on (*) thrift and the value of money to show the influence of this religion on moral attitudes toward industry and work. That work argues that this religion causes people to view their jobs as a “calling” and promotes economic growth. Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach wrote about the “essence” of this belief. For 10 points, name this religion whose ethic is said to have promoted the “spirit of capitalism” in a work by Max Weber (VAY-bur).
ANSWER: Christianity [prompt on “religion”; accept more specific answers like “Protestantism”]
11. The mercenary pirate Eustace the Monk was executed in a battle while supporting this group in a conflict named for them. These people were damaged by their loss in the Battle of Sandwich after their two sieges of Dover were repulsed by Hubert de Burgh. That conflict named for this group was ended by the Treaty of Lambeth, also known as the Treaty of Kingston. This group crowned the future King Louis VIII at St. Paul’s Cathedral. These people were led by Robert (*) Fitzwalter in a conflict where they were defeated by William Marshal. Stephen Langton supported negotiations between this group and their monarch after he lost at the Battle of Bouvines, resulting in a document signed by these people at Runnymede in 1215. For 10 points, name this class of English landholders who signed the Magna Carta with King John.
ANSWER: Barons [prompt on “Lords”]
12. In Japanese folklore, a girl from Matsuyama communes with her dead mother via one of these objects, which causes her stepmother to suspect her of witchcraft. It’s not an eye, but in one legend, Tsukuyomi was born from one of these things. In Greek myth, the Furies constantly show one of these objects to Orestes as they follow him. One of these objects is hung from a tree along with jewels and white clothes after roosters crow and a goddess makes the other gods (*) laugh with a lewd dance. After his foot was eaten by Cipactli, one god replaced his foot with an obsidian one of these items. Amaterasuwas lured out of her cave by one of these objects placed by its entrance, and Tezcatlipoca was named after a “smoking” variety of this object. To avoid looking at the head of Medusa, Perseus used Athena’s shield as, for 10 points, what kind of reflective object?
ANSWER: mirror [or looking-glass; prompt on “glass”]
13. An integral-differential equation in the time domain can be used to analyze the behavior of a system undergoing the hysteretic type of this phenomenon. Another method for determining the extent of this phenomenon involves calculating the logarithmic decrement. For a series RLC circuit, the coefficient describing this process equals one over the resistance times the (*) square root of the inductance over the capacitance. One quantity that describes the effect of this phenomenon equals two pi times the ratio of energy stored to energy dissipated per cycle and is known as the Q factor. When the coefficient describing this phenomenon is equal to the resonant frequency, it occurs in a critical fashion. For 10 points, name this phenomenon which reduces the amplitude of a harmonic oscillator over time.
ANSWER: damping
14. One founder of this movement was inspired by Theosophy to create near-mirrored figures in Dancers, and he expressed the ideas that led to his break from this movement in Rhythm of a Russian Dance. Another artist in this movement designed Miss Blanche Virginia cigarette advertisements and used spiraling composition in Mechano-Dancer. One artist in this movement wrote that “the life of modern cultured man is gradually turning away from the natural” and produced diamond-shaped paintings called (*) lozenges with white backgrounds and black section borders. This movement produced a painting consisting of grid patterns in red, yellow, blue, and grey; that painting is Broadway Boogie Woogie. For 10 points, name this Dutch geometric art movement also known as neoplasticism, whose members included Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian.
ANSWER: De Stijl [or The Style, accept Neoplasticism until read]
15. The narrator of this work reminisces about watching sand flow through an hourglass before remembering a white building with inscriptions and pitting his moral sense against the benefits of chaos. A two-part work inspired by this novella features a journalist who parties with Laura before another narrator, possibly the same man, visits Varanasi; that work is by Geoff Dyer. This novella’s protagonist is an author who observes a “lady in pearls” and dreams about an orgy worshipping “the stranger god.” This work’s protagonist smells (*) disinfectant and is warned about sirocco, which is a cover-up for a cholera epidemic. He gets sick from eating bad strawberries and watches the Polish boy Tadzio on the beach before collapsing in his chair. For 10 points, name this novella about Gustav von Aschenbach’s demise in the title city by Thomas Mann.
ANSWER: Death in Venice [or Der Tod in Venedig]
16. Richard Wagner (VOG-ner) composed a piece for wind ensemble called Trauermusik for the burial of this composer in Dresden. One work by this composer begins with the soloist entering on a high concert E-flat and immediately dropping three octaves to low concert E-flat; that woodwind concertante work was dedicated to Heinrich Baermann. This man turned his planned third piano concerto into a program work depicting (*) a maiden waiting for her lover to return from the crusades. Hector Berlioz orchestrated the second-act ballet of this composer’s most famous opera that was based on his Invitation to the Dance. For 10 points, name this composer who is best known for his operatic works such as Euryanthe and Der Freischutz.
ANSWER: Carl Maria Von Weber(VAY-bur)
17. A forged history of this ruler was likely written to increase the popularity of the Carmine de Santiago; that work about this ruler was written by Archbishop Turpin. Belgian historian Henri Pirenne stated that this leader “would be inconceivable” without Muhammad. A biographer of this ruler supposedly eloped to Seligenstadt with this ruler’s daughter, Emma, and took inspiration from Suetonius’ The Twelve Caesars. Under the sponsorship of this ruler, the Historia Langobardorum was written by (*) Paul the Deacon. This ruler commissioned four books refuting the 2nd Council of Nicaea by Theodulf. Walafrid Strabo modified a biography of this ruler. Alcuin of York joined this ruler’s court, and a biography of him was written by Einhard. For 10 points, name this Frankish ruler whose ambush in Roncevaux Pass provided the basis for the Song of Roland.
ANSWER: Charlemagne [or Charles I; Charles the Great; prompt on partial answers]
18. One theorem in this field states that under certain hypotheses, if a function g is strictly smaller than a function f on the boundary of a region, then f and f plus g have the same number of zeroes in that region. The fundamental theorem of algebra can be proven as a corollary of a theorem from this field by arguing that the reciprocal of a polynomial with no zeroes would have to be bounded, and thus (*) constant. The main objects of study in this field satisfy the relations u sub x equals v sub y and u sub y equals negative v sub x. Those are the Cauchy-Riemann equations, which determine when a function is analytic, or equivalently holomorphic. For 10 points, name this branch of mathematics that extends the results of real analysis to functions over C.
ANSWER: complex analysis [prompt on just “analysis”]
19. ARCH and GARCH conditions indicate that error terms for data points are correlated with other error terms that differ in this variable. In the weak efficient markets hypothesis, the rate of return of an asset is independent of this variable. A stationary process’ statistical properties do not change with changes in this variable. The two components of an option’s value are the intrinsic value and the [this] value. The (*) auto-regressive integrated moving average, or ARIMA, is a common model applied to plots with this variable as the x-axis. Stock and flow variables measure quantities in relation to this variable. Effects in longitudinal studies and longitudinal data are observed over changes in this variable. For 10 points, name this variable used in forecasting models in a namesake “series” from econometrics.