University Challenge. Asking
the questions - Jeremy Paxman.
Hello. There are eight places
in the quarterfinal stage of
this competition, and five of them
have already been taken.
The sixth place will go to
tonight's winners, while the losers
will be able only to dream
of what might have been.
Robinson College, Cambridge,
dispatched Wadham College, Oxford,
in round one, with a score
of 155 points to a mere 95,
despite it being a close-run match
until the halfway point.
After that, though, Wadham
declined to dampen Robinson's
enthusiasm for telling us about
oil of vitriol, Blanche DuBois,
and famous people buried in Venice.
They were also surprisingly
well-informed about the
1918 general election, for a team
with an average age of only 20.
Let's meet the Robinson team again.
Hello, I'm David Verghese.
I'm from Hertfordshire,
and I'm reading English.
Hi, I'm Catherine Hodge. I'm from
Birmingham, and I'm studying
Theology and Religious Studies.
And here's their captain.
Hi, I'm James Pinder.
I'm from Emsworth in Hampshire,
and I'm reading Natural Sciences.
Hey, I'm George Barton,
I'm from Buckinghamshire,
and I'm studying Physics.
APPLAUSE
Now, after a diffident
start, the team from
Balliol College, Oxford, managed
a virtual walkover in their
first round match, winning by
220 points, to Imperial College,
London's uncharacteristically
low score of 55. Their strengths
included lonely 19th-century
artists, historical relations
between Britain and Japan,
and much else,
from Friedrich Engels to Taylor
Swift. With an average age of 23,
let's meet the Balliol team again.
Hi, I'm Freddy Potts, I'm from
Newcastle, and I'm reading History.
Hello, I'm Jacob Lloyd.
I'm from London,
and I'm reading
for a D Phil in English.
And this is their captain.
Hi, I'm Joey Goldman, and I'm
from London, and I'm reading
Philosophy and Theology.
Hi, I'm Ben Pope. I'm from Sydney,
and I'm doing a D Phil
in Astrophysics.
APPLAUSE
Now, you all know the rules,
so let's just get on with it.
Fingers on the buzzers.
Here's your first starter for ten.
Islands In The Stream is
a posthumously-published novel
by which writer?
First appearing in 1970,
it consists of
three related stories.
Hemingway? Hemingway is correct.
APPLAUSE
The first set of bonuses
go to you, Balliol,
and they are on political insults.
"He can't see a belt
without hitting below it."
To which politician do those words
of Margot Asquith refer?
He succeeded her husband
as Prime Minister in 1916.
David Lloyd George.
Lloyd George. Correct.
"An empty taxi arrived
at 10 Downing Street,
"and, when the door was opened,
he got out."
To which Prime Minister
was Churchill referring
with those words?
Could be Chamberlain,
could be Baldwin.
Could it be Attlee, a later one?
Let's go with Attlee. OK.
Clement Attlee?
Correct. In reference to
Michael Foot's description of him,
which Conservative politician
included a polecat
on his coat of arms when
he entered the House of Lords?
Tebbit? Was it Tebbit?
Tebbit? Tebbit?
It was, the famous semi-housetrained
polecat, Norman Tebbit.
APPLAUSE
Right, ten points for this -
which greenhouse gas is often cited
as an example of
tetrahedral molecular...?
Methane. Correct.
APPLAUSE
You get a set of bonuses
on Nobel Prizes.
In 1903, Robinson, Marie Curie
became the first woman to
receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.
In which decade did Maria Mayer
become the second,
for discoveries concerning
nuclear shell structure?
Nuclear shell was, like...
Roughly in the '10s, wasn't it?
No, I'd have gone with... With
the war, it would be after 1914.
So would it be 1920s, then? I'd have
gone '20s. OK, '20s, then, sure.
1920s? No, it was the 1960s.
It was 1963, to be precise.
Marie Curie was also the first
female recipient of the
Nobel Prize in chemistry, in 1911.
What was the name
of the second in 1935?
She shared the prize
with her husband, Frederic.
Name of the second?
The second, in '53.
I'm... I can't...
I can't think of it.
No. No, sorry.
Unless it's Rosalind Franklin. No.
It's not Lise Meitner either.
I don't know. Erm, Dorothy Hodgkin.
No, it was Irene Joliot-Curie.
And, finally, in which decade did
Gerty Theresa Cori become
the first woman to win the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine?
I've literally no idea.
'70s?
'70s? '70s?
No, it was the 1940s.
Right, a starter question now.
What four-letter prefix links
an artwork by Robert Rauschenberg,
featuring a goat wearing
a rubber tyre...
Mono. Well done.
APPLAUSE
For your bonuses,
Balliol, I want you to name
the following authors cited by
Mahatma Gandhi as major influences
on his writing and thinking.
Firstly, described by Gandhi as
"one of the three moderns
who left a deep impress on me",
who was the author
of Unto This Last?
He was a leading art critic
during the Victorian era.
Ruskin? Yeah, that was my thought.
John Ruskin? Correct.
Secondly, a Russian novelist
with whom Gandhi corresponded
and who advocated non-violent
resistance in his book
The Kingdom Of God Is Within You.
Gandhi named an idealistic community
in South Africa after him.
Tolstoy. Correct.
And finally, the 19th-century
American author and philosopher
whose works include On The Duty
Of Civil Disobedience and Walden.
Thoreau. Thoreau is correct.
APPLAUSE
Ten points for this.
In astronomy, what six-letter term
denotes a roughly
straight-line configuration
of three celestial bodies...?
Syzygy. Yes.
APPLAUSE
These bonuses are on
religious iconography, Balliol.
In the image known as Nataraja,
or Lord Of The Dance, the uplifted
foot of which Hindu deity is said
to represent freedom from illusion?
Shiva. Correct.
Focus on,
or the sole depiction of, the feet
is a characteristic of images of
which event of the life of Jesus,
according to traditional
Christian teaching?
As, for example,
in a 1958 painting by Salvador Dali.
Washing of the feet? Yeah?
Washing of the feet,
by Mary Magdalene?
No, it's the ascension.
And, finally, the earliest phase
of which religion is sometimes
said to have been aniconic,
with footprints, an empty throne,
and a riderless horse
symbolising its founder?
Oh, it's Buddhism.
Yeah. Buddhism?
Buddhism is correct. We're going
to take a picture round now.
APPLAUSE
Answer as soon as
your name is called. For your
picture starter, you're going to see
a hypothetical concert programme,
made up of three well-known works,
all roughly contemporary of
each other. For the ten points,
I'll need the names of the three
composers whose works are listed.
Schumann, Schubert, and Donizetti.
Nope.
One of you want to buzz
from Robinson?
If you don't have an idea, we might
as well just get on with it.
Verdi, Strauss and Schubert. No.
It's Mendelssohn,
Schubert and Rossini,
so picture bonuses
in a moment or two.
We'll get another
starter question in first.
"People obviously recognise him,
"but they assume he is
a comedian playing a role."
These words refer to which figure,
indicated in the title of
a 2012 novel,
written in German by Timur Vermes?
Adolf Hitler?
Adolf Hitler is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
So, picture bonuses - three more
hypothetical concert programmes,
each made up of well-known works
from three composers.
In each case, the three works listed
were composed with ten years
of each other.
Again, for the five points,
I'll need the names
of all three composers.
Firstly, for five.
Liebestraum is Liszt.
Yeah.
La Donna E Mobile.
Is THAT Verdi?
Well, Verdi had a long career.
OK, so Les Troyens - any guess?
What's your suggestion? Faure.
OK - Liszt, Verdi and Faure.
No, it's Liszt, Verdi and Berlioz.
Oh, sorry.
Les Troyens. And, secondly...
Pass. That's Richard Strauss,
Olivier Messiaen, and
Heitor Villa-Lobos. And finally...
OK. So, Gymnopedie is Satie,
Suite Bergamasque is, erm...
Did we have Berlioz already?
That's Berlioz, isn't it? Yeah.
And Che Gelida Manina -
someone Italian, 20th century.
Verdi, Puccini, erm...
OK, OK. Puccini, Berlioz, Satie.
No, it's Puccini, Debussy,
and Satie.
Right, ten points for this.
What five-letter surname
links a protest singer
and campaigner for electoral reform,
born in 1957,
the author and broadcaster whose
works include The Adventure...
Bragg. Bragg is correct.
APPLAUSE
You get a set of bonuses
on railways in Africa, Balliol.
More than 1,800km in length,
the TAZARA Railway was built
with Chinese aid in the 1970s.
It links Zambia
with which East African port?
Dar es Salaam, maybe?
Dar es Salaam. Correct.
A Chinese-backed project
to restore the Benguela railway
was completed in 2015.
It runs from more than 13,000km
through which country,
from Lobito on the Atlantic coast?
Angola?
Angola. Correct.
In 2011, Chinese companies began
building a new 756km standard gauge
railway connecting the Port of
Djibouti and which inland capital?
Addis Ababa?
Yeah, that would make sense.
Addis Ababa. Correct.
APPLAUSE
Ten points for this.
Answer promptly.
An ultra-high energy cosmic ray
has a momentum
of ten to the minus eight
kg metres per second.
To the nearest whole number,
what is its energy in joules?
Seven.
No. Anyone like to buzz...?
Three.
Three is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Right, you get three bonuses
on a solvent.
The cumene process is used
in the commercial production
of phenol and which solvent,
an aromatic, flammable liquid that
is the simplest saturated ketone?
Aromatic...
Ketone. Aromatic, unsaturated...
Benzene?
Benzaldehyde?
No, it's acetone.
Now, acetone is found in the
blood and urine of patients
suffering from starvation, and from
which chronic metabolic disorder?
Ketosis? Ketosis is when you stop
digesting stuff, isn't it? So...
Could well be. I think so.
Ketosis?
Yes, or diabetes mellitus,
but I'll accept that.
Finally, for five points,
acetone was named in 1833
by the French chemist Antoine Bussy.
Five years earlier, he'd isolated
which rare alkaline earth metal,
found in the gemstones
aquamarine and emerald?
So, it's barium or beryllium,
I think.
Barium's the green...
Barium's sort of green, yeah.
Barium?
No, it's beryllium, bad luck.
Right, ten points for this.
One of the longest of Central Asia,
which river flows northwest
to join the remnants
of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan?
In ancient times...?
The Lena.
No, you lose five points.
In ancient times, it was known by
a Greek name meaning sharp or acid.
Oxus? Oxus is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Right, your bonuses, Balliol,
are on an actor.
Which British actor
was appointed manager of
London's Haymarket Theatre in 1887?
He also helped fund the nearby
Her Majesty's Theatre
and founded Rada in 1904.
No idea.
I can't think of any 19th-century
ones. Um... It's not David Garrick?
No, Garrick's 18th-century,
you're way out.
Laurence Olivier.
Laurence Olivier?!
LAUGHTER
Well, I might as well say something.
He was old, but he wasn't that old.
It was
Sir Herbert Draper Beerbohm Tree.
Terrific name.
The first London production of
which play by George Bernard Shaw
opened at His Majesty's Theatre
in 1914,
with Beerbohm Tree playing opposite
Mrs Patrick Campbell?
It opens with a group of people
sheltering from the rain
in Covent Garden.
Could it be Pygmalion?
Yeah, that would make sense.
Pygmalion. Correct.
His works including Oliver
and The Third Man,
which film director was the
illegitimate son of Beerbohm Tree
and his mistress, May Pinney?
It wasn't Welles,
cos Welles was in it. Yeah.
Um...
It's not Welles.
This is embarrassing.
Oh, no, no, no... It's...
David Lean? Lean?
No, it's Carol Reed.
Oh! OK, whatever.
Time for a music round.
For your music starter,
you're going to hear
a piece of popular music
from a notable musical duo.
Ten points if you
can identify the band.
ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Daft Punk. Daft Punk is correct.
APPLAUSE
So, Balliol, your bonuses are
three more pieces by musical duos.
Five points for each
you can identify. Firstly...
# I can make you mine
# Taste your lips of wine
# Any time of night or day. #
The Everly Brothers?
It is The Everly Brothers, yes.
1958.
Secondly, this band, please.
GUITAR MUSIC
# Flying, domestic flying
# And when the stewardess is near
# Do not show any fear... #
Oh, this is...
The Dresden Dolls.
# Heartbeat,
increasing heartbeat... #
Nominate Pope.
Dresden Dolls?
No, it was Sparks. Oh!
And finally...
# Red hair with a curl
# Mellow roll for the flavour
and the eyes were peeping. #
Oh, The White Stripes.
The White Stripes.
It is The White Stripes, yes.
Right, ten points for
this starter question.
What four-word phrase is
the usual English translation
of the surname of the Byzantine
Emperor Constantine VII...?
"Born in the purple." Correct.
APPLAUSE
Porphyrogenitus.
Your bonuses are on British ducks,
Balliol.
In each case, give the common name
of the species from the description.
Firstly, Anas platyrhynchos,
sometimes known as the wild duck,
a dabbling duck
resident throughout the UK.
The male has a green head
and a yellow bill.
Mallard? Yeah.
Mallard. Correct.
Secondly, Bucephala clangula,
also known as the whistler.
It is a diving duck,
named after a particularly
distinctive sensory organ.
Hornbill?
Is that sensory? Yeah. Yeah.
Hornbill?
No, it's the goldeneye.
Lastly, Somateria mollissima,
a large sea duck resident
in northern parts of Britain.
Its soft breast feathers are used
to fill quilts and sleeping bags.
Eiderdown. Yeah.
So eider is the duck.
Eider?
Correct.
APPLAUSE
Ten points for this.
The names of the capitals
of the Dominican republic
and Tajikistan contain,
in the local languages,
the names of which
two successive days of the week?
Sunday and Monday? Correct.
APPLAUSE
Do you know Tajik?
LAUGHTER
Right, your bonuses are on
the first millennium of
the Christian or Common Era.
In each case, identify the century
during which the named people
lived and died.
Firstly, the Sassanid Persian
ruler Khosrow the Just,
the Chinese Buddhist reformer
Tiantai,
and the Frankish historian
Gregory of Tours.
Third.
Decade or century?
Tiantai...
Sassanids have to be before 600.
I think it's...
I think it's probably...
Maybe the 500s? Because...
The 500s?
It is the 500s, or the
sixth century, that's correct.
Secondly, St Ambrose,
Bishop of Milan,
the Greek theologian
Gregory of Nazianzus,
and the Roman Emperor
Theodosius the great?
He is...
Is that the same as Theodosius?
So definitely after the split.
Yeah. Quite late.
So he was Byzantine.
Fifth century?
I... Oh, I think it's...
So fourth or fifth.
I think Gregory was after...
So, yeah, fourth or fifth.
Fifth, I think. OK.
Fifth century?
No, it was fourth century,
or the 300s.
And finally, Emperor Taizu,
founder of the Song Dynasty,
the historian Liutprand of Cremona,
and the Holy Roman Emperor
Otto The Great?
Song Dynasty?
I think it's quite late. Otto...
THEY CONFER
Tenth century?
Correct. The 900s. Well done.
APPLAUSE
Another starter question.
From 1981 to 2010,
the average annual rainfall
at Greenwich Park in London
was 557 millimetres.
What was the comparable figure
for Manchester? You can have...
1,000.
Nope.
That was an interruption, too.
You can have 50mm either way,
I was going to say.
One of you buzz?
800?
You're just outside.
It's 867.
I'd have accepted anything
from 817 to 917.
So, fingers on the buzzers,
here's another starter question.
In chemistry,
what term describes a compound
that contains only single bonds?
It may...?
Saturated. Yes.
APPLAUSE
Right, your bonuses are on
the standard abbreviations of
the titles of Shakespeare's plays,
according to the handbook of
the Modern Languages Association.
Firstly, the standard abbreviation
of which play
is also a letter ISO code
for the Welsh language?
Cymbeline. Yes.
CYM? Cymbeline. Oh, Cymbeline.
Cymbeline is correct, yes.
One of Shakespeare's less
frequently performed works,
which play shares its standard
abbreviation with that of a type
of French high-speed
passenger train?
Two Gentlemen Of Verona? Yeah.
Two Gentlemen Of Verona?
Correct.
And finally, which history play,
attributed in part to Shakespeare,
has an alphanumerical abbreviation
used in text messaging
for the word "hate"?
Henry VIII? Correct.
APPLAUSE
We're going to take
a second picture round.
For your picture starter,
you're going to see a photograph
of a historical figure.
Ten points if you can identify her.
Wallis Simpson?
It is Wallis Simpson, yes.
APPLAUSE
She was wearing a notable design
by Elsa Schiaparelli,
a leading designer
in the '20s and '30s
known for her collaborations
with Dali, Cocteau and Giacometti.
Your picture bonuses are three more
of her famous clients
wearing her designs.
Five points
for each client you can identify.
Firstly, for five...
Marlene Dietrich?
I don't know who that is.
It could be...
Marlene Dietrich.
Yeah, I think it could be.
Marlene Dietrich?
No, that's Joan Crawford.
Secondly...
Is that Marilyn Monroe?
No! No! It's...
It could be... Is it Greta Garbo?
Greta Garbo?
- No, that was Marlene Dietrich.
- AUDIENCE: Oh!
And finally...
Could that be, like, Maureen O'Hara?
Who?
Maureen O'Hara. She was in
this film I watched the other day.
LAUGHTER
Yeah, seems reasonable.
No, clearly...
Maureen O'Hara?
No, that's Mae West. Oh.
Ten points for this.
What film was based
on Clare Boothe Luce's
play of the same name, and was
directed in 1939 by George Cukor?
It was remade by Diane English
in 2008,
with both film versions
having an all-female cast.
It was The Women.
Ten points for this.
After the sun and the three stars
that form Alpha Centauri,
what is the next nearest
known star to Earth?
A class M red dwarf about...
Barnard's Star.
Barnard's Star is correct.
APPLAUSE
You get a set of bonuses
on protein degradation.
Firstly, the primary function of
what multi-catalytic enzyme complex
is to degrade proteins?
It's present in the nucleus and
cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells.
Protease.
Protease.
No, it's proteasome.
Secondly, which small polypeptide
needs to be attached to a protein
for recognition by the proteasome?
Pass. It's ubiquitin.
And finally, inhibition
of the proteasome pathway
can interfere with the ordered
degradation of cell cycle proteins
and lead to programmed cell death.
By what term...?
Apoptosis.
Apoptosis is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Four and a half minutes to go,
ten points for this.
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were cities
of an ancient civilisation...?
Indus Valley.
Indus is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses are on places
that delimit areas
of the BBC coastal weather forecast,
for example, Whitby and Selsey Bill.
In each case, I'd
like you to identify the place
from the description. Firstly,
the most north-westerly point
of the island of Great Britain.
It takes its name from
the Norse for "turning point".
John O'Groats?
It's not that, though, is it?
Stornoway?
Stornoway?
No, it's Cape Wrath.
Secondly, an inlet of the Atlantic
to the east of the
Inishowen Peninsula.
The city of Derry stands just to the
south on a river of the same name.
THEY CONFER
Pass.
Lough Foyle.
And finally, a railway and ferry
terminus on Anglesey divides
the area between St David's Head
and Morecambe Bay.
Pass.
It's Holyhead. Three minutes to go,
ten points for this.
What short word links the second
oldest university in Sweden,
founded in 1666, with the surname
of the leading female detective
in the Danish police...?
Lund?
Lund is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses, Robinson College,
are on novels that won
the Pulitzer Prize For Fiction.
Which novel by Philip Roth
won the Pulitzer Prize For Fiction
in 1998?
I think it might be The Human Stain.
The Human Stain?
No, it was American Pastoral.
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao
won the prize in 2003.
Who was the author?
Oh, I know...
I've got nothing.
Say something.
Jacob Hardman.
No, it was Junot Diaz.
And finally, which novel by Cormac
McCarthy won the prize in 2007?
The Road. The Road.
The Road. Correct.
APPLAUSE
Two minutes to go,
ten points for this.
Inserting the letters I and A
into the French word for "lover"
gives the name of which genus
of sometimes toxic fungi
that includes fly, agaric
and death cap?
Amiata?
No.
Amanita?
Yes, Amanita is correct.
APPLAUSE
So you get a set of bonuses, now,
on Anglo-Saxon coinage.
Firstly, for five points, an early
major minting of the silver penny
appeared during the reign of which
King of Mercia, who died in 796?
Offa. Correct.
From 927, which grandson of
Alfred The Great was styled
Rex totius Britanniae, or
King of All Britain, on his coins?
Athelstan, isn't it?
Athelstan, yes.
927? Yes.
Athelstan. Correct.
In 973, which King of the English
established royal control
over minting and regular recoinages
that ensured consistent quality?
973, was it?
Ethelred...?
Could be. Just say Ethelred.
Ethelred The Unready?
No, it's Edgar. Ten points for this.
Which Austrian born
Holocaust survivor,
psychiatrist and founder of...?
Viktor Frankl.
Correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
These bonuses are on ecology,
Balliol.
The term edaphic factor refers
to what precise habitat?
THEY CONFER
Er, studio.
LAUGHTER
No, it's the soil.
What are the three mineral
components of soil,
based on particle size?
I need all three.
Clay...
Clay, sand...? Stone?
What's the last one?
Gravel? I don't know.
Clay, stone and gravel.
No, it's clay, silt and sand.
Finally, what short term
denotes a soil
in which neither clay, silt,
nor sand predominates?
Aggregate? I don't know.
Aggregate.
No, it's loam.
Ten points for this...
GONG
And at the gong,
Robinson College Cambridge have 90,
Balliol College Oxford have 210.
APPLAUSE
Well, you didn't really get a chance
to get going, did you, Robinson?
But thank you for joining us. We
shall have to say goodbye to you.
Balliol, we shall look forward
to seeing you in the quarterfinals,
a very impressive performance,
we shall look forward
to seeing more of you.
I hope you can join us next time
for another second-round match,
but until then, it's goodbye from
Robinson College, Cambridge...
Goodbye! ..it's goodbye
from Balliol College, Oxford...
Goodbye! ..and it's goodbye
from me, goodbye.
APPLAUSE
