Yale University
Bulldogs over Broadway—Oct 29, 2005
Edited by Mike Wehrman
Packet by Rutgers-Newark
Tossups
1. There remains a namesake society headed by a priest at St. Mary’s College in California dedicated to finding examples of them today. One method to calculate pi involves the application of Euler’s formula to them. Eduardo Lucas gave them their current moniker and also devised some named after himself, which share the formula but start with 2 and 1. Originating from a problem mentioned in the namesake’s Liber Abaci, Binet’s formula is an attempt to identify a particular one among them without relying on previous ones. They might appear in sunflowers, but they definitely appear in lilies, buttercups, and daisies. FTP identify this noted series of numbers from which the golden ratio is derived.
Answer: Fibonacci numbers (or sequence, series, etc.)
2. It was initiated in part by the unfair Treaty of London and the Hampton Court Conference, and it was averted because of William Parker, Lord Monteagle. It resulted in new penal laws requiring a certain group from living near the capital, practicing law, or holding office. Yet these laws were enforced only intermittently. One of the conspirators was caught red-handed with barrels of ammunition below government buildings on November 5, 1605. FTP name this failed attempt by Catholics to blow up James I and both houses of Parliament associated mostly with Guy Fawkes.
Answer: Gunpowder Plot
3. Mrs. Acton is declared “too charming an invalid,” even though she is partly responsible for the failed attempt at marriage of the Baroness to Robert Acton. The Baroness, a title she acquired through a morganatic marriage, is used to the luxury of Silberstadt. But her husband’s brother, the ruling Prince, wants her to divorce his brother, which is the principal reason for her exit from Germany. Her artist brother Felix Young accompanies Baroness Munster on their trans-Atlantic trip to visit their American relatives the Wentworths, FTP, in what Henry James novel?
Answer: The Europeans
4. Recently attempts have been made to advance this process to allow the use of low-cost, noncarcinogenic, weak alkylating agents, and avoid salt production, essentially to develop a “green” version of this reaction. It is necessary to conduct this reaction in a flame-free source, as hydrogen gas is formed in the first step. The alkoxide character is not important, but the identity of the alkyl halide is. The alkyl halide must be methyl or primary, as elimination becomes an important competing reaction for secondary and tertiary alkyl halides. This is because the reaction proceeds through an SN2 mechanism. FTP name this most versatile method for preparing ethers.
Answer: Williamson ether synthesis (reaction, etc.)
5. Born in Australia, he was a commercial actor in London until director Peter Hunt picked him to play a role in his new film after a particularly good screen test fight scene. Currently the husband of former tennis star Pam Shriver, his strained conflicts on set with the director and fellow actress Diana Rigg caused him to void his three-film contract after the completion of the first film. Ironically, the next two films that he would have appeared in were Diamonds Are Forever and Live and Let Die. FTP name this one time James Bond actor who succeeded Sean Connery in the film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Answer: George Lazenby
6. His father Andrea was a shoemaker and his mother, Tita Bonci, served as a model of the Madonna to painters. When Adrian VI was elected, he composed a pasquinade accusing the College of Cardinals of betraying Christ by choosing a “Teutonic barbarian.” He became the unofficial artistic agent to his painter-friend Titian. His Ragionamenti was a parody of Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier, in which the courtier is replaced with a whore. To accompany the erotic drawings of Giulio Romano (a collection known as the Renaissance mini-Kamasutra), he wrote the Lewd Sonnets. FTP identify this Renaissance celebrity, the most famous pornographer of the period.
Answer: Aretino(accept Aretine or Pietro of Arezzo)
7. The first was an ink sketch in 1948 made to accompany a poem by Harold Rosenberg, but was also inspired by the poem “For the Bullfighter” by Frederico Garcia Lorca. They were conceived as majestic commemorations of human suffering and as abstract, poetic symbols for the cycle of life and death. The common motif is an alternating pattern of bulbous shapes compressed between columnar forms as well as a stark juxtaposition of black against white. In some of them the black forms in the foreground blot out the colors of the flag of the titular nation. It is no Guernica, but FTP this series of about 200 canvases by Robert Motherwell was also made in response to the Civil War in Spain.
Answer: Elegy (or Elegies) to the Spanish Republic series
8. This author has written a libretto for an operatic version of David Lynch’s Lost Highway. Her husband worked on several films with renowned director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She shares a streak with both Lynch and Fassbinder, for her novels have been described as “porno for pessimists.” Her novel Wonderful, Wonderful Times, about the pointless lives of young criminals, is sort of A Clockwork Orange meets The Stranger. The theme of authoritarianism, however, as well of sex and sadism, is fully realized in a later work, which was greatly influenced by her own training at the famous Music Conservatory in Germany. FTP name this author of The Piano Teacher, the recipient of the 2004 Literature Nobel Prize.
Answer: Elfriede Jelinek
9. The issues of comparative advantage resulting from trade, and its maximization of utility are addressed in this work and perhaps its most radical element is the idea that women could also play a role in society. Silent characters include Lysias and Euthydemus. It is narrated to Timaeus, Hermocrates, and Critias, among others. Ayn Rand’s Anthem and Lois Lowry’s The Giver depict governments resembling the ideal one mentioned in it. The elderly mentor discusses the ideal society where people all specialize in their fields, where people can be producers, auxiliaries, or guardians within it. FTP name this philosophical tract that contains “The Allegory of the Cave,” by Plato.
Answer: The Republic
10. An equation developed by Henry Eyring is applied to gas, condensed, and mixed-phase reactions. This one is ideally applied to gas reactions only, where a simple collisional model might be appropriate. The frequency factor is a product of the steric factor and the collisional rate. This factor, a pre-exponential term, is a constant specific to each reaction that takes into account the orientation of the reactants. It can be used to establish a temperature dependence of a specific reaction. FTP name this fundamentally empirical equation, according to which the reaction rate increases with temperature.
Answer: Arrhenius equation
11. Born in Berlin in 1873, during WWII he began work under Gerd von Rundstedt. At his height he held the posts of General Officer commanding the 11th Army, Eastern Front and Commander in Chief Army Group Don, Eastern Front. His greatest accomplishments were stabilizing the Eastern Front after the disaster of Stalingrad, telling Hitler that his plan was militarily “nonsense,” and living to talk about it. His only major disaster as a general came at Kursk where Vatutin out-maneuvered him. FTP name this German commander who attained the rank of Field Marshal without being a member of the Nazi party.
Answer: Erich von Manstein
12. In 2002 Robert Jensen and Nolan Miller claimed they had found real examples of it in China. Quinine water is an example of it for rodents, according to a 1991 paper. It was first mentioned in Alfred Marshall’s 1895 text Principle of Economics. This theory can be applied to partly explain why a labor supply curve is backward bending and, conversely, why the demand curve can be positive. Analysis of them assumes that only the consumer’s income or the relative price level changes. This theory on the nature of certain products was developed in the Irish Potato Famine. FTP identify this type of product that makes the poor buy more of it as its price increases.
Answer: Giffen goods
13. It was spurred at the “log hut city” of the New Windsor camp by the appearance of the anonymous “address to the officers.” Washington put an end to it and uttered his famous words, “Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country." Led by Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton and other disgruntled Continental army officer they sought to force Congress to institute a tax to pay their salaries. FTP name this 1783 plot that might have resulted in a military cout d’etat.
Answer: Newburgh Conspiracy(accept Newburgh Crisis)
14. It declares in the sixth stanza, “So set, before its echoes fade/The fleet foot on the sill of shade.” The words “chaired” and “cheered” are used in the first stanza for phonetic reasons. The phrase “shoulder-high” is used twice in this poem, which reminds us that “the laurel…withers quicker than the rose.” Ears and eyes are singled out in the fourth stanza because they respectively cannot hear the silence and “cannot see the record cut.” It further reminds us that he will not be a runner “whom renown outran.” For the titular “townsmen of a stiller town,” his name did not die before the man. FTP name this A.E. Housman poem about a youth who is brought home for burial.
Answer: “To an Athlete Dying Young”
15. This phenomenon can be explained mathematically by the fact that an individual particle’s conditional probability distribution at any time t + dt is a normal distribution with mean p + μ[mu]dt and variance σ[sigma]^2 dt. Although Jan Ingenhousz observed similar motions of carbon dust on alcohol in 1765, this discovery was credited to a botanist studying pollen particles in water in 1827. This theory has also been applied to the stock market as it can be used to describe random fluctuations in stock options. FTP name this physical phenomenon named for its botanist discoverer that is characterized by the random movement of particles in fluids.
Answer: Brownianmotion
16. The 1869 castle Schloss Neuschwanstein, built atop a mountain peak in Bavaria by Ludwig II, was a tribute to this opera. The first movement is set in Antwerp in the C.E. 900s. The principal character is accused of being an impostor only after he is declared the guardian of Brabant in Act II. In the end he returns to Monsalvat, leaving his wife behind, in whose dreams he first appeared. Their marriage features the famous “Bridal Chorus,” which accompanies many a bride in the walk down the aisle today. FTP identify this 1850 Wagner opera whose title character is the son of Percival and inhabitant of the temple of the Holy Grail.
Answer: Lohengrin
17. It ends with mimes pretending to play tennis on a tennis court. They throw the ball out, and ask the main character to throw it to them, which he does. His participation in an event that is not real mirrors also the seemingly central plot element – namely the putative murder that is captured on film. The protagonist is implicated by his voyeurism of his neighbors’ sexual activities as well his photographing of vapid and skinny models. FTP identify this 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film about a London photographer who may or may not have evidence of murder on his camera.
Answer: Blow-up
18. He learned essential skills such as mathematics from Gemma Frisius, and the two collaborated with goldsmith and engraver Gaspar Myrica. Born Gerard Kremer, he completed early maps of Palestine, Flanders, and a six-panel piece of Europe in 1554. He encouraged Abraham Ortelius to make the world’s first atlas. However, he is best known for a cylindrical map representation whose features are straight-line parallel and medians. FTP, name this early cartographer whose namesake projection is still used in navigation today.
Answer: Gerhardus (or Gerhard) Mercator
19. In the Puranas he is looked down upon as he enabled the demon king Bali to obtain almost universal dominion over the powers of the gods. His name is not present in the Vedas, however. Animals attributed to him include the boar and the tortoise. He is also known to have a son, Daksha, who had sprung from his thumb. When he creates the world, it remains unaltered for a period of 2,160,000,000 years. FTP, name this creator god in Hindu scriptures.
Answer: Brahma
20. He and his wife moved to Paris when he was appointed as a correspondent to the Neue Freie Presse, and had an epiphany during the Dreyfus Affair. He later founded the newspaper Die Welt which advanced such statements as: “We are a people – one people... Are we to ‘get out’ now and where to?”. He negotiated with the German emperor, the British government, and sultan of the Ottoman Empire to this end. In 1897, he presided over the first Congress of Zionist Organizations, which called for a homeland in the state of Israel. FTP, name this author of The Jewish State and founder of the modern Zionist movement.
Answer: Theodor Herzl
Extras
Reported buried at Gao, he expanded his empire from Taghaza in the north to Yatenga in the south. He instituted a bureaucratic government novel to Western Africa, and he encouraged learning and literacy. He also made Islam an integral part of the empire, and established new trade routes. FTP, name this 15th century king of the Songhai empire.
Answer: Askia Muhammed or Muhammed Ture
Its molecular mass is 111.1 g/mol, its chemical name is 4-aminopyrimidin-2(1H)-one, and its chemical formula is C4H5N3O. Consisting of a heterocyclic aromatic ring with an amino group at position 4 and a keto group at position 5, it can undergo spontaneous deamination to form uracil. FTP, name this pyrimidine that forms linkages with guanine.
Answer: Cytosine
Yale University
Bulldogs over Broadway—Oct 29, 2005
Edited by Mike Wehrman
Packet by Rutgers-Newark
Bonuses
1. A noted classical scholar once said, “European literature and art would be poorer for the loss of the Metamorphoses than for the loss of Homer.” Answer the following about Ovid’s influences on literature, FTPE.
10) One critic, who calls Ovid “the first psychoanalyst of sex,” claims that his “encyclopedic attentiveness to erotic perversity will not recur until” this late 16th century allegorical poem featuring the Redcross Knight in praise of Christian virtue.
Answer: The Faerie Queen
10) This English writer singled out the Metamorphoses as his favorite book in his own book House of Fame. The Metamorphoses provided him with several tragic love stories for his The Legend of Good Women.
Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer
10) Ovid’s dubious morals resulted in Augustus exiling him from Rome to Tomis (in present-day Romania). This early 19th century Russian poet, whose “To Ovid” is a verse tribute to the Roman, also found himself exiled temporarily near Tomis for issuing poems criticizing the rule of Tsar Alexander I.
Answer: Alexander Pushkin
2. Organic chemistry reactions proceed through various intermediate steps. Given a brief description name the intermediate FTPE.
10) It is formed in the electrophilic addition of hydrogen halides to alkenes. It has a trigonal planar geometry and an empty p-orbital. It is associated with Markovnikov’s Rule.
Answer: Carbocation
10) It is formed when water attacks a carbocation. Generally, it is in which oxygen is bonded to three other atoms or groups and bears a positive charge.
Answer: Oxonium ion
10) During the Wittig reaction, it is the four-membered ring that forms when phosphonium ylides react with carbonyl groups by cycloaddition. Yes, this is the hardest one to name.
Answer: Oxaphosphetane
3. Answer the following question about a director FTPE.
10) He is known for making such films as My Own Private Idaho, the awful, 1998 color remake of Psyhco, and Good Will Hunting.
Answer: Gus Van Sant
10) This 2003 Van Sant film, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is loosely based on the events that unfolded at Columbine High School and similar school shootings.
Answer: Elephant
10) In 2005 Van Sant released Last Days, an art-house favorite that is also loosely based on another event – I think I detect a pattern. In this film, the main character’s a Kurt Cobain-like rock star, and his last days are presented in all their boredom. Give the name of the rock star, played by Michael Pitt.
Answer: Blake
4. The history of Myanmar/Burma is grossly underrepresented and underappreciated in quiz bowl circles. Answer these questions concerning that nation in the 20th century, FTPE.
(10) He was the country’s first democratically-elected prime minister, ruling from 1947 until 1962, when he was ousted in a coup led by General Ne Win.