TOSSUPS – THE ULTIMATE PARADOXMOC MASTERS 2002 -- UT-CHATTANOOGA
Questions (mostly) by Kelly McKenzie
1.This deity's great festival is Imbolc, commemorating the time when the ewes begin to lactate after the Cailleach Winter, during which the shadow of her snake determines how much longer winter will last. The wife of Bres and one of three identically named daughters of the Dagda, she is goddess of the Sacred Flame of Kildare. With a name meaning "one who exalts herself", FTP, who is this Celtic goddess of poetry and inspiration, some of whose lore became associated with the 5th century Irish saint of the same name?
Answer: Brigid or Brigit
2.The penultimate section of this work suggests that the life of the tree is superior in felicity to human destiny, while earlier the poet holds that the best lives are led by heroes and women in love, citing Samson and Gaspara Stampa as examples. The final poem contains a satirical portrait of the City of Pain, while the fifth uses Picasso's painting "Les Saltimbanques" to symbolize the human condition. Its most famous section is the first, which first invokes the angels that dominate the work’s imagery. FTP, what is this ten-part poem, the masterpiece of Ranier Maria Rilke?
Answer: Duino Elegies
3.The "temperate" variety often end up in a state known as lysogeny in which their nucleic acid remains unexpressed. Discovered independently by F. W. Twort and Felix d'Herelle, they consist of a hollow protein tail, a head composed of protein, and an inner core of nucleic acid. They work by first attaching to the target using the tail, which then contracts like a syringe, forcing the nucleic acid into the target, sometimes resulting in lysis, or dissolution of the cell. FTP, what are these viruses that attack and often kill bacteria?
Answer: bacteriophages
4.Late in his life this explorer was made governor of the Rio de la Plata, but conflict with the popular Domingo Martinez de Irala resulted in his arrest and return to Spain. Coming to the New World as treasurer in the expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez, he was soon stranded on a Texas island and enslaved by Native Americans. Escaping with three compatriots, they traveled through much of what would become the southwest United States, detailing his adventures in the famous account "Los naufragios", or "The Shipwrecked Men", one of whose tales gave rise to the myth of the Seven Cities of Cibola. FTP, who was this 16th century Spanish adventurer whose inherited family title means "cow's head"?
Answer: Alvar Nunez or Cabeza de Vaca
5.This musical work unfolds without interruption, with sections like the alto solo “Grief and Pain” and the arias “O Grief, There Throbs the Racked and Bleeding Heart” and “My Savior Now is Dying from Love Unbounded” reaching a climax with the closing chorus “In Deepest Grief We Sit Here Weeping”. More reverent than a related work by the composer, it takes its story from the Gospels with supplementary material by the postal clerk Christian Henrici and poetic insertions by Picander. Famously revived in an 1829 Berlin performance produced by Mendelssohn, FTP, what is this passion by J.S. Bach?
Answer: the St. Matthew Passion or the Passion According to St. Matthew
6.Earlier in his life this man was known as William the Bloody, not for his temperament but rather for his bloody awful poetry. An ardent Manchester United fan, at one point he was confined to a wheelchair, but more important is a computer chip that was placed in his head by the Initiative which prevents him from harming humans. FTP, who is this moody vampire who recently fell in love with Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Answer: Spike
7.This sociologist detailed how ethnographers could reconstruct cultural history in the absence of historical records in his work “Time Perspective in Aboriginal Culture”. Founder of the anthropology department at Yale, he introduced the concept of linguistic drift in his seminal 1921 work “Language”. A student of Franz Boas, FTP, who was this thinker whose name is now associated with a theory of linguistic determinism developed by Benjamin Whorf?
Answer: Edward Sapir
8.This compound produces the primary alcohol CH3 CH2 OH when reacted with Grignard reagents, which differentiates them from other aldehydes, which react with Grignard reagents to give secondary alcohols. Its reaction with proteins leads to its use in the tanning industry, while with phenol polymer it is used to make Bakelite. With formula HCHO, FTP, what is this simplest aldehyde, whose acidic form takes its name from its presence in ants?
Answer: formaldehyde (or methanal)
9.A former Undersecretary of the Interior, this man entered private law practice, expanding the legal definition of insanity with his arguments in the Durham case and defeating a legal challenge to Lyndon Johnson’s 1948 Senate victory. Gaining fame for his success with Gideon v. Wainwright, he was picked by LBJ to replace Arthur Goldberg on the Supreme Court in 1965, but in 1968 a filibuster prevented his elevation to Chief Justice. FTP, who was this justice who, due to acceptance of funds linked to individuals under indictment for securities fraud, became the first to resign his post?
Answer: Abe Fortas
10.Born in France to parents of Spanish-Cuban descent, this woman left school at age 15 to become a fashion and artist’s model, but soon returned to Europe, where she studied Spanish dance and underwent psychoanalysis with Otto Rank. Short story collections like “The Hunger” and “Cities of the Interior” revealed her intense interest in unraveling women’s inner lives. Author of the novel “House of Incest”, she gained notoriety for two volumes of erotica, “The Delta of Venus” and “Little Birds”. FTP, who is this U.S. author best known for her introspective “Diaries”?
Answer: Anais Nin
11.One of its more hazardous regions in the so-called southern Atlantic Anomaly, where it dips to a lower level than usual. First discovered using data collected for the Explorer 1 satellite during the International Geophysical Year, it is believed to originate from solar flares, whose charged particles become trapped by the earth's magnetic field. Responsible for the aurora borealis, FTP, what are these two belts of radiation extending from 400 to 40,000 miles above the Earth's surface and named for their discoverer?
Answer: Van Allen belts
12.Legend holds that this thinker’s only meeting with Karl Popper led to a fight between the two involving red-hot pokers. Turning to philosophy after reading Bertrand Russell’s “Principles of Mathematics”, he studied under Russell at Cambridge. After a 15 year period in which he abandoned the formal study of philosophy he gained a cult following at Cambridge, where his collected lecture notes, often called the “Blue and Brown Books”, served as an introduction to his “Philosophical Investigations”. FTP, who is this thinker whose idea that “a proposition is a picture of reality” is found in “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”?
Answer: Ludwig Wittgenstein
13.Interesting commentary on the action of this novel is provided by the Whitmanesque "shepherd prophet" Vanamee, while its climax is said to have been inspired by the so-called Mussel Slough massacre. The plight of ranchers like Annixter and Harran Derrick is narrated by Pressley, an outsider who has come to California to write a great poetic epic. Opposing the ranchers are characters like Behrman, an agent of the railroad which dominates every aspect of the lives of the wheat farmers dependent on it. FTP, what is this naturalistic novel, perhaps the finest by Frank Norris?
Answer: The Octopus
14.When open, the right panel of this artwork depicts the resurrected Christ with nail and lance wounds on his hands and feet, but with his other wounds healed, which was intended to bring comfort to the plague victims who often inhabited the building in which it was executed. A carved shrine with two sets of movable wings, when closed it shows Golgotha transported to an desolate mountaintop, and is noteworthy for the pitiful body and twisted limbs of Christ on the cross, executed with the same expressive color and sense of movement for which the whole work is famous. FTP, what is this altarpiece of the Anthonite Abbey in Alsace, the best-known work of Mathais Grunewald?
Answer: Isenheim Altarpiece
15.The original center of power for this revolt was the Thistle Mountain region. Early in the conflict imperial resistance was dependent on the forces of Zeng Guofan, having lost much of the central and lower Yangtze Valley. With the aid of the Ever-Victorious Army, the Qing empire was able to retake Nanking, thus preventing its leader, Hong Xiuquan, from ushering in the “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace” from which the revolt gets its name. FTP, what was this major 19th century Chinese revolt?
Answer: Taipeng rebellion
16.In the final act of this play, the moon, personified by a young woodcutter with a white face, expressed his hope to be warmed by the blood about to be spilled. Opening with the revelation that the Felix clan have killed the husband and all but one child of the mother, it goes on to describe the bride's acceptance of the remaining son's proposal, only to run away with her first love Leonardo, prompting a knife fight between Leonardo and the bridegroom which leaves them both dead. Supposedly modeled on the Cantata #140 of Bach, FTP, what is this play preceding Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca?
Answer: Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre)
17.This body of water is separated from the Syvash marsh system by the Arabat Spit sandbar. At the Taganrog Gulf it is fed by the Kuban and Don rivers, while the Kerch Strait connects it to the Black Sea. An inland sea between Ukraine and Russia, FTP, what is this sea whose maximum depth of 46 feet makes it the shallowest sea in the world?
Answer: Sea of Azov
18.At one point the hosts of this show were replaced by Anfernee and Deswaun, who promised to make it 50 percent less gay. Recently they have begun the search for a new sponsor to replace their original sponsor Sobe’s, so that they can continue to produce this show, in which they repeatedly express their hatred for Tony Hawk and maintain that anyone who likes Final Fantasy X is stupid. FTP, what is this Burly Bear TV show about the world of video games?
Answer: Dave and Steve’s Video Game Explosion
19.In 1828 he was elected to the Commons from County Clare, despite the fact that, as a Catholic, he could not take his seat. The implications from his victory led the Duke of Wellington, then Prime Minister, into forcing the Catholic Emancipation Act through Parliament. A leading supporter of Lord Melbourne, he overthrew Robert Peel’s ministry in 1835 after supporting the “Lichfield House Compact” which promised peace in Ireland. One of the founders of the Catholic Association in 1823, he supported emancipation, and, after 1839, the repeal of the Anglo-Irish legislative Union. After his arrest for sedition in 1844 he faded from power. FTP, name this Irish statesman.
Answer: Daniel O’Connell
20.A longtime scientist at the Carnegie Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, she received a doctorate in botany from Cornell in 1927. In her research, she observed and experimented with variations in the coloration in kernels of maize. After isolating two control elements, she discovered that not only did they move, but that that change in position affected the behaviour of the neighboring genes. For this discovery she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1983. FTP, name this discoverer of mobile genetic elements.
Answer: Barbara McClintock
21.Prosecuted by Samuel W. Buell and Andrew Weissmann, its defense team was led by Rusty Hardin. Federal judge Melina F. Harman oversaw the proceedings, while David B. Duncan, who admitted to obstructing justice, is the star witness. FTP, name this guilty party, the accounting firm implicated in the Enron collapse.
Answer: Arthur Andersen
22.Works by this thinker include “Man and Technology” and “Year of Decision”. Believing that Western civilization was characterized by the triumph of the “Faustian will to power”, he argued that it was about to enter into a period of “Caesarism” which would mark its final stage. Holding that each culture behaves like an organism which will eventually decay, FTP, who was this German best known for his work “The Decline of the West”?
Answer: Oswald Spengler
23.The first of these conflicts was a bloodless fiasco for the king, who failed to call a Parliament to secure funds, forcing him to quickly make peace at Berwick. In the second of these wars, the Irish Parliament provided money for a royal army after the “Short Parliament” refused, but the Scottish Coventanters nevertheless routed Charles I’s forces at Newburn, forcing Charles to make peace at Ripon in September 1641. FTP, what were these wars sparked by attempts to impose Anglicanism on the Scots, named for certain members of the church?
Answer: Bishops’ Wars
24.The parts of it considered authoritative consist of six collections, including ones attributed to ibn Maja, al-Hajjaj, al-Sijistani, and al-Bukhari. Each complete formulation found in it begins with the isnad, or chain of transmitters, an elaborate list detailing the passage of the original statement from its conception to the time of its recording, and is followed by the text proper, a statement concerning Islamic religious law or morality. Taking its name from the Arabic for “news” or “story”, FTP, what is this collection of the spoken traditions attributed to Mohammad?
Answer: Hadith
25.This man’s contributions to welfare economics include the seminal “compensation test” developed with Kaldor, the test’s fellow namesake. In the general theory of distribution he introduced his “elasticity of substitution” in his first book, “The Theory of Wages”, while he introduced a new indifference theory in a classic paper written with R.G.D. Allen entitled “A Reconsideration of the Theory of Value”. He expounded the true meaning of Keynes with his “IS-LM diagram” in the famous paper “Mr. Keynes and the Classics” and held that economic forces do not simply reflect cyclic trends but rather balance each other in his classic 1939 work “Value and Capital”. FTP, who was this British economist who shared with Kenneth Arrow the Nobel Prize in 1972?
Answer: John R. Hicks
26.Many critics claim that this work holds true to its Book I observation that “good aims not always make good books.” Containing a notable subplot concerning forced prostitution, it tells of the titular figure’s childhood in Italy and England and her self-education in her father’s hidden library. Determined to become a successful author, she eventually abandons that goal and accepts the marriage proposal of the failed social reformed Romney. FTP, what is this 9-book blank verse novel, the most ambitious work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning?
Answer: Aurora Leigh
27.After opening a law practice in Newburyport, Massachusetts, this man sat in Congress, where he introduced the clause to bar slavery by the Northwest Ordinance, while late in his career he proposed a scheme to end slavery by compensating masters with sales of the public domain. A director of the First Bank of the United States, he became a leader of the Federalist party after relocating to New York, running for vice-president in 1804 and 1808. FTP, who was this politician who carried only three New England states as the Federalist presidential nominee in 1816?
Answer: Rufus King
28.This chemist conducted important research into the nature of color, collecting his results in "Colour Science". Author of the highly influential "Textbook of General Chemistry", he co-founded with van't Hoff the seminal journal "Zeitschrift fur physikalische Chemie"and reprinted many groundbreaking scientific results in his series "Papers in Exact Science". In 1888 he discovered his law of dilution for electrolytes, and six years later gave the first modern definition of a catalyst, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the subject. FTP, who was this German physical chemist known for his process converting ammonia to nitric acid?
Answer: Wilhelm Ostwald
BONI – THE ULTIMATE PARADOXMOC MASTERS 2002 -- UT-CHATTANOOGA
Questions (mostly) by Kelly McKenzie
1.FTPE, name the following about some politicians who were really hot.
1. (10 points) This was the name for Southern politicians like Edmund Ruffin, Robert Rhett, and William Yancey who used fanaticism and rabid demagoguery to panic the South into secession.
Answer: fire-eaters
2. (10 points) This group of New York Democrats led by Martin Van Buren endorsed abolitionism and opposed the Albany Regency. Opposed by the Hunkers, they went on to help found the free soil party.