2002 Illinois Open
Chicago
Questions by Subash Maddipoti
Literature
1. Its 53rd chapter, “The Tomb of Adam,” includes a satirical proof of Adam’s burial under the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Chapter 19, “The Old Masters,” consists of the author’s musings on Renaissance art after viewing Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The author also compares Lake Como to Lake Tahoe, providing some interesting fodder for newspaper readers back in San Francisco and New York. FTP, name this work, subtitled “The New Pilgrim’s Progress,” and which was a travel compilation written by Mark Twain.
Answer: Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim’s Progress (prompt on early buzz of “The New Pilgrim’s Progress)
2. He appears as a scholarly soldier who authors verses of love to Sacharissa and who is in the employ of William of Orange in Thackeray’s Henry Esmond. His third play, The Tender Husband, was unlike the later comedy The Conscious Lovers, which he debuted as governor of Drury Lane. His most famous achievement began when he borrowed, from Jonathan Swift, the penname of Isaac Bickerstaff. FTP, name this writer who, in 1709, launched The Tatler, soon after employing his friend Joseph Addison.
Answer: Sir Richard Steele
3. Her grandfather, BoyBoy, abandoned their family before she was born and her father, Rekus, died when she was three years old. She actually dies in 1940, 25 years before her best friend is confronted about their part in the accidental death of the young boy Chicken Little. Her death causes a union in the resistance to the Medallion just as her return forged a union in the citizens of the Bottom. FTP, name this best friend of Nel, the title character of a novel by Toni Morrison.
Answer: Sula Peace
4. This work opens with a conversation in which the title character reveals his involvement in a lawsuit and then gets into an argument over his criticism of another man’s poetry. His bumbling servant, Du Bois, is a source of much comedy, as are the various proposals offered by such men as Acaste and Clitandre. In the end, Celimene rejects all of her suitors and Philinte and Eliante are happily united. FTP, name this play about the disgruntled Alceste, a work by Moliere.
Answer: The Misanthrope
5. After consolidating his power by marrying the heiress of the Franche-Comte and Arles, he appeased many of his subordinates by calling the Diets of Roncaglia and Besancon. His master stroke was to get the heiress of Sicily, Constanza di Apulia, to marry his son Henry to weaken the Papacy. This happened after he deposed Henry the Lion, begged Alexander III for absolution, and led six expeditions into Italy. FTP, name this man who died on the Third Crusade, a German king and Holy Roman Emperor with a red beard.
Answer: Frederick IBarbarossa (accept either name)
6. Historian Anthony Bimba’s namesake book about them indicates that a total of 19 of them were executed. Their organization was infiltrated by James McParlan, a detective whose testimony led to their downfall. Initially they were thought to be one and the same as the Ancient Order of Hibernians, who they actually used as a cover. FTP, identify this group of coal miners and terrorists in 1870s Pennsylvanina that took its name from that of a famous Irish widow.
Answer: Molly Maguires (prompt on early buzz of “Ancient Order of Hibernians”)
7. With the help of the Scottish lord Thomas Cochrane he founded his nation’s navy two years before he was forced to resign as president. He first rose to prominence as a delegate from Los Angeles and then became a vocal voice in the criollo groups and a clear lead in the Reconquista. After a decisive victory at Racangua and a successful co-leadership role at Chacabuco, his fame was widespread. FTP, name this illegitimate son of an Irish engineer and first leader of an independent Chile.
Answer: Bernardo O’Higgins or Bernardo Riquelme
8. Two weeks after its introduction, Executive Order 9835 was issued to distract Senate opposition. To support it the President talked of a juvenile population that was 85 percent tubercular and the specter of more than a 1,000 destroyed villages. It was spurred on by British refusal to continue assistance, and Congress immediately appropriated 400 million dollars as a result. FTP, name this American policy announced in March 1947, which sought to thwart Communist insurrection in Turkey and Greece by offering financial aid.
Answer: Truman Doctrine
9. Numerically it is no different than Newton’s law for a driven oscillator. It was given credence when its eigenvalues were shown to be equal to the energy levels of the quantum mechanical system. Its time-dependent variety is not consistent with relativity but can be solved analytically for a number of simple systems. FTP, identify this equation that shows all of the wave like properties of matter and which was named for its Austrian formulator.
Answer: Schrodinger wave equation
10. Its formulator’s search for a good solvent ended when he found that melting cryolite would be adequate. The key step was the decision to use electrolysis, which provided more powerful reduction conditions and therefore a larger yield. It initially resulted in a silicon end product but a second attempt gave the desired product in February 1886. FTP, identify this process of producing aluminum independently discovered by an American and a Frenchman.
Answer: Hall-Heroult process (accept both names or reversal of names; prompt on just “Heroult”)
11. This procedure can be carried successfully for about 60 iterations, and as the number of iterations is increased, the proportion of strands with extensions beyond the target sequence rapidly becomes negligible. Taq Pol I ("tack pole one") is used because it is not rendered inactive by the temperature cycling steps. This technique is started by the addition of oligodeoxynucleotides to the ends of the target sequence, and after n rounds, 2^(n+1) strands have been generated. Developed by Kary Mullis in 1983, FTP name this technique for cloning DNA.
Answer: polymerase chain reaction or PCR
12. One form of this functional group is the intermediate product in the Strecker synthesis of alpha-amino acids. They can only be protonated by extremely strong acids, and their low reactivity makes them good solvents as in their aceto- form. Commonly produced by the dehydration of primary amines, they possess many of the double bond features of imines and the triple bond features of alkynes. FTP, name this functional group whose simplest member is cyanide and which consists of a carbon triple bonded to a nitrogen.
Answer: nitriles (accept early buzz of “cyanides”)
13. Matthew Arnold criticized this work for its “lack of joy.” Its author uses the image of life as a play several times and frequently refers to the need to act “unselfishly” in Book I, which also includes a notable catalog of “debts and lessons.” It includes two separate “mirrors for princes,” in the form of a couple of sketches of Antoninus Pius and was partly inspired by the authors reading of the Discourses of Epictetus. FTP, name this collections of thoughts on Stoic philosophy written by emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Answer: Meditations
14. In Thai tradition he wears a crown, possesses a white face, and has the symbol of the moon surrounded by stars. One legend claims that he was the son of Anjani and Kesari, while in another he was the son of Surya, the sun god. He famously brings the herb of life to save Lakshmana [luxsh-muh-na] and crosses the Palk to Lanka, where he finds a captive Sita. FTP, name this figure who faithfully served Rama, the monkey warrior-hero of the Ramayana.
Answer: Hanuman
15. William Blake produced an 1825 version illustrated by 21 watercolors. Its author who lived between 500 and 250 BC likely used an Edomite folktale as its framework, and a later writer or editor added the character Elihu. In his most famous work Rabbi Harold Kushner offers an analysis of its title character’s predicament. That title character survives the condemnation of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar as well as boils and poverty. FTP, name this book of the Old Testament, about a faithful man of God.
Answer: Book of Job
16. It is notable for the composer’s use of many instruments at their extreme ranges as in the opening bassoon solo, which stays entirely above middle C. It was based on approximately nine folk songs, particularly the first part, “Adoration of the Earth.” The two-part scenario for which it was composed was drawn up by the dedicatee, Nicolas Roerich, who helped with the final part, the explosive “Sacrificial Dance.” FTP, name this work subtitled “Pictures from Pagan Russia,” a ballet composed by Igor Stravinsky that sparked a riot at its 1913 premiere.
Answer: The Rite of Spring
17. The figure on the left, possesses a curved and sheathed black sword clasped by a band over his red cloak. Originally painted for the Castello, the subject of this massive ten by six foot painting is still debated. On the far right, we witness a transformation of Chloris into Flora, which is set off by the three dancing Graces on the left. Cupid flies above aiming arrows, and a blue Zephyr blows his warm wind from the right. FTP, name this purported “Allegory of Spring,” a painting by Botticelli.
Answer: La Primavera (accept early buzz of “Allegory of Spring”)
18. He briefly takes a job as a car salesman, proclaiming that he is “no longer a grease monkey.” We also learn that his car contains a Jesus fish and he is an avid listener of religious radio. Joe Mayo owns the same man fur as this character, which is a source of much consternation to his intermittent girlfriend. He originally debuted as a face painter and is known for his monotone speech affectation. FTP, name this burly boyfriend of Elaine, a character on Seinfeld played by Patrick Warburton.
Answer: David Putty
19. After his cremation this thinker had his ashes returned to his summer home of Chocorua and scattered in a mountain stream. His later works included A Pluralistic Universe and the now famous essay “The Moral Equivalent of War,” and early ones included The Will to Believe, partly inspired by his reading of Nietschze. His best work, collected from his Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh, first appeared in 1902. FTP, name this author of The Varieties of Religious Experience, Pragmatism, and The Principles of Psychology.
Answer: William James (prompt on just last name)
20.Before it swings northwest through Palisades Reservoir, it is joined by the Greys River. It becomes known as the upper one after the town of King Hill, while its middle portion runs to Weiser, and the lower is joined by the Salmon River after it flows through Hells Canyon. FTP, name this tributary of the Columbia River that forms part of the Oregon-Idaho boundary.
Answer: Snake River
Bonuses by Subash
1. Name these literary figures mentioned in Elizabeth Bishop poems, FTP each:
A. Bishop’s poem imagining this character’s return to England ends, “—And Friday, my dear Friday, died of measles / seventeen years ago come March.”
Answer: Robinson Crusoe
B. Bishop’s poem “The Armadillo” is dedicated to this poet of “For the Union Dead” and Lord Weary’s Castle.
Answer: Robert Lowell (prompt on just last name)
C. Bishop wrote an “Invitation to” this poet of the poems “The Monkeys,” “The Steeple-Jack,” “The Pangolin,” and “The Mind is an Enchanting Thing.”
Answer: Marianne Moore
2. Name these recent novels featuring musicians, FTP each:
A. This 1999 Oscar Hijuelos novel tells of two Cuban musicians who emigrate the U.S. in 1949.
Answer: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
B. This mediocre Salman Rushdie novel includes the characters of rock-n-roller Ormus Cana, whose band includes a beautiful lead singer, Vina Apsara.
Answer: The Ground Beneath Her Feet
C. Ian McEwan inexplicably won the Booker Prize for this novel, in which lifelong friends, newspaperman Vernon Halliday and respected composer Clive Linley, engineer each other’s deaths in the titular city.
Answer: Amsterdam
3. Name these South African writers, FTP each:
A. His Too Late the Phalarope is not as well known as the excellent Cry, the Beloved Country.
Answer: Alan Paton
B. This novelist seems to be always expanding the work of others in books like “The Life and Times of Michael K”, and “Foe”
Answer: John Michael Coetzee
C. She was born in a mental hospital and frequently sets her novels in Botswana as in When Rain Clouds Gather and A Question of Power.
Answer: Bessie Head
4. Answer these questions about a certain writer, FTP each:
A. In the English Men of Letters series G.K. Chesterton wrote a biography of what 19th-century writer, whose plays include Strafford and A Blot in the ‘Scutcheon?
Answer: Robert Browning
B. Robert Browning wrote what masterful book length poem set in 17th-century Italy, which reveals the perceptions of a murder through different people?
Answer: The Ring and the Book
C. What Browning poem tells the tale of a woman painted by Fra Pandolf whose heart was “too soon made glad,” and who was probably murdered by her jealous husband?
Answer: “My Last Duchess”
5. Name these new fields of study in the social sciences in the 20th-century, FTP each:
A. Hayden White wrote a major 1975 namesake text on this discipline particularly arguing how it could be used to study the methodology of writing in the 19th-century. His frequent examples include Ranke, Tocqueville, and Michelet.
Answer: metahistory
B. This field which took a new approach to an old science took its name from a 1975 work by Edmund O. Wilson.
Answer: sociobiology
C. Norbert Wiener established this science, which is concerned with control and communication in complex systems.
Answer: cybernetics
6. Name these South American Rivers, FTP each:
A. This river rises in southern Venezuela and follows a course like a “U” flowing northwest then northeast past Ciudad Bolivar and Ciudad Guyana, before entering the Atlantic Ocean.
Answer: Orinoco River
B. This Major tributary of the Amazon rises in Venezuela, flows southeast, and widens greatly, gathering the water of streams such as the Branco and Mucucuau. It then flows past Manaus in Brazil before entering the Amazon
Answer: Rio Negro
C. This stream is fed by the Paraguay as it flows south through Argentina past cities such as Santa Fe and Rosario, before flowing just by Buenos Aires.
Answer: Parana River
7. Name these Roman historians or their works, FTP each:
A. His history of Rome in 142 books, 35 of which are extant, begins “I shall find satisfaction, not I trust ignobly, by labouring to record the story of the greatest nation in the world.” Machiavelli wrote a famous discourse on the first of his ten books.
Answer: Livy or Titus Livius
B. This sometime secretary of Hadrian, wrote the enormously enjoyable Lives of the Twelve Caesars, certain sections of which were Robert Graves’ primary source for I Claudius.
Answer: C. Suetonius Tranquillus
C. Suetonius’ Twelve Caesars might only surpassed in entertainment by this Tacitus biography of Tacitus’ father-in-law, a former governor of Britain.
Answer: Agricola
8. Name these post World War I European politicians, FTP each:
A. He served as French Foreign Minister from 1925 to 1932, during which time he was the chief architect of the Locarno Pact and also forged a namesake pact with an American secretary of state to renounce war.
Answer: Aristide Briand
B. As foreign minister of Germany from 1923 till his death in 1929, he accepted the Dawes and Young Plans and sought to regain Germany a favorable place on the European Concert.
Answer: Gustav Stresemann
C. For his role in the Locarno Pact this British foreign minister shared the 1925 Nobel in peace with Charles Dawes. He also happened to be the half-brother of a future inept prime minister.
Answer: Austen Chamberlain
9. Name these things relating to Frankish-Muslim conflict, FTP each:
A. A famous encounter at this pass is memorialized in the Chanson de Roland as the sight of Roland’s betrayal and eventual death.
Answer: Roncevaux or Roncevalles
B. At this site in 732 AD the hammer, Charles Martel, famously laid the anvil to the Muslim advance which had at that time reached more than 1,000 miles from Gibraltar.
Answer: Tours or Poitiers
C. This Muslim governor of Cordoba had invaded Aquitaine, provoking Charles to respond to a call for help that culminated in their clash at Tours.
Answer: Abd-ar-Rahman
10. It fizzled when its leader died as a result of the “swarmes of Vermyn that bred in his body.” FTP each, name—
A. This 17th-century rebellion that began in Virginia as a result of disagreement over Indian policy.
Answer: Bacon’s Rebellion
B. The year in which Bacon’s Rebellion occurred.