Asking the questions - Jeremy Paxman.
Hello. Around 130 teams applied to take part in this contest.
28 have done so and now, as we begin the quarterfinal round,
only the best eight remain.
They are Imperial College London, Newcastle University,
Nuffield College - Oxford, Liverpool University,
St Catherine's College - Cambridge, St John's College - Oxford
and the two competing tonight, the University of York
and Peterhouse - Cambridge.
To progress to the semifinal stage,
our Byzantine rules demand a team must win two quarterfinal matches.
A team that loses two matches, therefore, leaves the contest
and a team that wins one match but loses another
must play and win again to go through.
To add even further to the teams' happiness,
from now on, the questions get harder.
Now, the team from the University of York
got here by beating Manchester University in round one
and Christ College - Cambridge in round two.
Their accumulated score is 490
earned with an impressively broad range of knowledge
and, of course, whatever intellectual comfort
comes from their plastic duck.
With an average age of 22, let's meet the York team again.
Hello, my name is Barto Joly de Lotbiniere.
I'm from London and I'm studying history.
Hello, I'm Sam Smith.
I'm from Guernsey and I study chemistry.
And this is their captain.
Hello, my name's David Langdon Cole.
I'm from Yeovil in Somerset and I'm studying politics.
Hi, I'm Joseph McLoughlin.
I'm from Oldham in Lancashire and I'm studying chemistry.
APPLAUSE
Now, the team from Peterhouse - Cambridge
beat the University of Glasgow in round one
and the medics of St George's, London in round two
with an accumulated score of 380.
They've probably learned by now not the base their answers
on snippets of information from High School Musical
but, that aside, they too have impressed in both their matches
with the breadth of their knowledge.
With an average age of 20, let's meet the Peterhouse team again.
Hello. I'm Thomas Langley.
I'm from Newcastle upon Tyne and I'm reading history.
Hello. I'm Oscar Powell.
I'm from York and I'm reading geological sciences.
And this is their captain.
Hi, I'm Hannah Woods.
I'm from Manchester and I'm studying for a PhD in history.
Hello. I'm Julian Sutcliffe.
I'm from Reading in Berkshire and I'm also reading history.
APPLAUSE
Well, I'm sure you know I'm supposed to recite the rules at this point
but let's not bother. Let's just get on with it.
Ten points at stake for this. Fingers on the buzzers, please.
What term was used in the title of a book of 2014 by Owen Jones,
subtitled...
The Establishment.
The Establishment is correct. Yes.
Right, you get the first set of bonuses, York. They're on a museum.
Firstly, for five points,
opened to the public in 1759,
which museum was located in Montagu House in Bloomsbury
until it was demolished in the 1840s
to make way for the present-day building?
- The British Museum? 
- I presume so.
The British Museum.
Correct. The British Museum was established in 1753
as a result of which physician and naturalist
having bequeathed his collection to the nation
in return for a payment of £20,000 to his heirs?
- Sir Hans Sloane. 
- OK.
Sir Hans Sloane.
Correct. In 1972, an exhibition that proved to be the most popular
in the museum's history, with over 1.5 million visitors,
displayed artefacts from which country?
- I'm guessing Egypt. 
- Yeah, it's Tutankhamen, isn't it? 
- Yeah?
Egypt.
Egypt is correct. It was the Tutankhamen exhibition.
Ten points at stake for this. Fingers on the buzzers
"Its five square miles have defined
"what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West."
These words of a film critic refer to which national park
on the borders of Arizona and Utah?
Monument Valley.
Monument Valley is correct. Yes.
These bonuses are on excess in classical literature, York.
A plate bearing 12 dishes, each based on a sign of the zodiac,
and a wild boar stuffed with live blackbirds
are among the dishes served during the feast given
by which character in the Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter?
Is that the Roman emperor who...? Nero or...
- Famously over-ate but... 
- Nominate Smith.
Elagabalus.
No, it's Trimalchio.
And, secondly, the Emperor Vitellius enjoyed a dish of pike liver
with the brains of pheasants and peacocks and the tongues of flamingos
according to which Roman historian in The Twelve Caesars?
Is that Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars?
Maybe. No, no, it's...
Suetonius.
Suetonius is correct.
And, finally, having indulged to excess,
Aristophanes suffers an attack of hiccups
which causes him to miss his first turn to speak
in which work of the 4th Century BC?
So...Dialogues or something?
Dialogues.
No, it's The Symposium of Plato. Ten points for this.
In topology, what five-letter term denotes the Cartesian product
of two circles, while, in three-dimensional geometry,
it describes the shape of the tokamak confinement vessel
used in some experimental...
Torus.
Torus is right.
Your bonuses, York, this time are on planned astronomical instruments.
In each case, I would like to have
either the full name or the abbreviation.
Firstly, on completion in around 2020,
what will be the world's largest radio telescope by collecting area?
Its headquarters are at Manchester University's Jodrell Bank Observatory
with locations in both Australia and South Africa.
The Square Kilometre Array.
Square Kilometre Array.
Correct. To be sited on Cerro Pachon in Chile,
which optical telescope, with a wide field of view
and a large primary mirror, is designed to provide
a detailed 3-D map of the universe?
That could be the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope.
We think this may be the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope.
It may well be overwhelmingly large
but it's called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.
And, finally, a successor to Hubble and named after a NASA official,
which instrument is due for launch in 2018
and will be largest infrared telescope in space?
Is that Goddard?
- OK. 
- Anyone? I don't know.
Goddard.
No, it's the James Webb Space Telescope. Ten points for this.
Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Leven were two of the commanders
who were victorious over Prince Rupert at which battle...
Marston Moor.
Marston Moor is correct.
Right, first set of bonuses, Peterhouse, are on a French thinker.
Who wrote Les Provinciales in 1656-57 in defence of Antoine Arnaud,
a Jansenist put on trial before the Faculty of Theology in Paris
for his controversial religious works?
Pascal.
Correct. Including humorous attacks on casuistry,
the Provinciales are a series of 18 letters that deal with divine grace
and the ethical code of which religious order?
Jesuits.
Jesuits.
Correct.
The necessity of the wager on whether to accept the Christian faith
is perhaps the best known chapter
of which collection of writings by Pascal?
- Is it Pensees? 
- Yeah, it's Pensees.
Er, can I nominate you?
- Nominate Langley. 
- Pensees.
Pensees is correct, or Thoughts. Yes.
We're going to take a picture round.
For your picture starter, you're going to see a musical stave
with two notes representing a harmonic interval.
For ten points, I want the two-word name
by which the interval between those notes is known.
Dominant fifth.
No. Anyone like to buzz from Peterhouse?
Augmented fifth?
No, it's a perfect fifth.
We'll take the picture bonuses in a moment or two
and we get another starter question in the meantime.
Nominated in 2011 for the Grammy record and song of the year,
which song by the group Bon Iver is named after the epoch
that's the latest interval of geological...
Holocene.
Holocene is correct, yes.
Right, so you get the picture bonuses, then, York.
There are three more musical staves with harmonic intervals represented.
Five points in each case if you can give me the name of the intervals.
Firstly...
That is a minor third.
Minor third.
Correct. Secondly, by what name are these two equivalent intervals known?
They are augmented fourth or diminished fifth.
Augmented fourth or diminished fifth.
Or a tritone, yes.
And, finally, how is this interval commonly known?
- That is an octave. 
- An octave.
Correct.
Ten points for this starter question.
Fear no more the heat o' the sun
Nor the furious winter's rages
Thou thy worldly task hast done
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.
These words appear in which play by Shakespeare,
variously classified as both a tragedy and a romance?
Romeo And Juliet.
No.
Antony And Cleopatra.
No, it's Cymbeline. Ten points for this.
Introduced by the US physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon,
what phrase denotes a physical response that is mobilised
by the secretion of adrenaline after an organism is confronted
with a situation...
Fight and flight.
Fight or flight is correct, yes.
You get this set the bonuses on the plays of Richard Bean.
Firstly, One Man, Two Guvnors was Richard Bean's 2011 adaptation
of the Servant of Two Masters,
a comedy of 1746 by which Italian playwright?
I knew the play but not the author.
Do we know any Italian playwrights?
I don't think we can...
Pass.
That was by Carlo Goldoni.
Secondly, first performed at the Royal National Theatre in June 2014,
which work concerns the press, the police
and the political establishment and centres on the activities
of a tabloid newspaper known as The Free Press?
- Shall I just guess something? 
- Yeah.
Hacked.
No, it's Great Britain.
Also first performed in 2014, which play is Bean's retelling
of the colonisation of an eponymous island
by Fletcher Christian and the Bounty mutineers?
- Pitcairn. 
- Pitcairn?
Pitcairn.
Correct. Ten points for this.
John F Kennedy is one of only two US presidents
to be buried in Arlington Cemetery. Who's the other?
He served as Secretary for War under Theodore Roosevelt
and, following his presidency, became Chief Justice of the Supreme...
Taft.
Taft is right. William Howard Taft.
These bonuses are on graph theory, Peterhouse.
Firstly, a simple graph is defined as a set of vertices
interconnected by edges.
What term is used for the number of edges incident to a given vertex?
Something like degree or order.
- Order! 
- Order.
Order.
No, it was degree.
What name is given to a simple graph
in which every vertex has the same degree?
Maybe it's homogeneous. I don't know. I don't know but go for it.
Homogeneous.
No, it's regular.
Often denoted by a capital letter K with a numerical subscript,
what name is given to a graph in which every vertex
shares an edge with every other vertex?
So, is that...
I really don't know.
I mean, graphs couldn't count as polygons...
Just try polygon. It's completely wrong but...
Polygon.
No, you're quite right. It is completely wrong.
It's complete. Ten points for this.
Created as an alternative to the Prix Goncourt,
which literary prize has been awarded to a French novel
every year since 1933?
It takes its name from the Paris cafe noted for the patronage of...
Le Deux Magots.
Prix des Deux Magots. That's correct.
You get a set of bonuses this time on a novel, Peterhouse.
Published in 1818, which novel opens with a letter
written in St Petersburg addressed to a Mrs Saville in England?
Do we know? 1818?
I can't even think.
It's not going to be something like Crime and Punishment.
It's English.
Oh. I don't know. St Petersburg.
1818.
- When's Vanity Fair? 
- Yeah, go for it. I don't know.
Vanity Fair.
No, it's Frankenstein.
Frankenstein was conceived during the much-cited sojourn in 1816
of Mary Shelley and four others at the Villa Diodati
on the shores of which lake?
Was it Como?
Yeah.
Or was it Garda?
- Como or Garda? 
- I don't know. 
- Shall we try Como? 
- Yeah.
Lake Como.
No, it's Lake Geneva.
Quote - Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mould me, man?
Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me? - Unquote.
These words appear on the original title page of Frankenstein
and are taken from which epic poem?
- Paradise Lost? 
- Shall I try that? 
- Yeah.
Paradise Lost.
Correct. Ten points for this. Listen carefully.
The name of the university based at New Haven, Connecticut,
the name of the unit of pressure of around one atmosphere
and a word meaning sooner than expected...
Bar. B-A-R.
No, I'm afraid you lose five points.
May all be made using letters of the name of which food grain?
Wheat. No, it's not.
No, it's barley, as in Yale, bar and early.
- Oh, of course it is! 
- Ten points for this starter question.
According to ancient tradition,
Pyrrho of Elis was the first philosopher to take on the view
that nothing can be known with certainty.
From the Greek for enquiring, what term describes this?
Solipsism.
No. Peterhouse.
One of you buzz, come on.
Scepticism.
Scepticism. Sceptics is correct. Yes.
Just a slip of the tongue, I think, York,
but it's cost you the points and the opportunity of these bonuses
which are on Greek mythology and British opera, Peterhouse.
Based largely on Homer's Iliad, King Priam premiered in 1962
and was the second major opera by which British composer,
also known for The Midsummer Marriage and The Knot Garden?
I really don't know.
- Is that too late for Britten? 
- Yes.
I don't know any more composers.
Can we make a guess?
We don't know.
That was by Sir Michael Tippett.
First performed in 1988, Greek is an opera
based on Steven Burkoff's reworkings
of Sophocles's tragedy Oedipus The King
and is set by which British composer?
- Do we have any idea? 
- I can't think of anyone.
- We don't... 
- We could guess one.
- It could be Vaughn Williams or Elgar... 
- It's too late.
- It's too late for those. 
- Oh, I don't know then.
We don't know, sorry.
Oh, dear! It's Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Which British composer's works include the operas
The Mask Of Orpheus in 1986 and The Minotaur in 2008?
I mean, some things... We just don't know.
We don't know.
It's getting a bit familiar, this lament. LAUGHTER
It's Harrison Birtwistle. Ten points for this, answer promptly here.
In the 200 years before the accession of Henry VII,
six kings of England were deposed or killed in battle.
Name three of them.
Richard, James IV...
- Richard who? 
- Richard III. 
- Yes.
- James IV... 
- Nope. 
- Ah.
Anyone like to buzz from Peterhouse?
Richard III, Henry VI and Edward II.
That's correct, yes, well done. APPLAUSE
Right, you get a set of bonuses on biochemistry, Peterhouse.
LAUGHTER
Members of which major group of biological molecules contain
an amine group - a hydrogen atom and a carboxylic acid group
attached to a tetravalent carbon atom?
They're amino acids.
- Amino acids. 
- Correct.
Which amino acid contains two aromatic rings
and is a precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin?
- Is a tryptophan? 
- Shall I try that?
Oh, no, it is! It is tryptophan.
- Tryptophan. 
- It is.
What is the seven-letter name
of the only cyclic proteinogenic imino acid - that is I-M-I-N-O -
specified in the genetic code?
- Only cyclic? 
- I don't know. 
- No, I do, I do.
Proline, I think it's proline. I don't know, but... Try it.
- Proline. 
- Proline is right.
We're going to take a music round.
For your music starter, you're going to hear a piece of classical music.
Ten points if you can give me the name of the British composer.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
- Vaughan Williams. 
- It is Vaughn Williams, yes.
APPLAUSE Part of his Symphony Number Six.
So that was from the first recording of Vaughan Williams'
sixth symphony, conducted by Leopold Stokowski, renowned for his concert
and recording premiers of many 20th-century works.
For your bonuses, three more pieces of work conducted by Stokowski,
each being the first recording made of that piece.
For five points each, I want the name of the composer, please.
Firstly, this Russian composer.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
- Prokofiev. 
- No, that's Shostakovich's sixth.
And, secondly, this French composer.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Nominate McLoughlin.
- Messiaen. 
- Correct.
And finally, this Nordic composer:
CLASSICAL MUSIC
- Sibelius. 
- Correct, well done.
OK, a starter question now.
In degrees, at what angle off the axis of sunlight
is a rainbow formed?
- 42. 
- Correct.
APPLAUSE
You get three bonuses on language families, Peterhouse.
Firstly, Turkic and Mongolian are two branches of which
broad language family, named after a range of mountains on the borders
of China, Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan?
No, no, they're in...
Uralic? Would it? China, Russia...
- I liked Altaic. 
- What...? Yes. 
- I'll try that.
- Altaic. 
- Correct.
Extending north/south through Russia,
which mountain range gives its name to a family whose languages
include Hill Mari, Meadow Mari, Finnish and Hungarian?
- Urals. 
- Correct.
Georgian, Abkhaz and Chechen are languages belonging to
families with names referring to which mountain range?
Caucasus?
- Caucasus. 
- Correct.
Ten points for this.
In the title of a work first published in 1905,
the German sociologist Max Weber related
the Protestant ethic to the spirit of which...?
- Capitalism. 
- Correct
APPLAUSE
So you get a set of bonuses now on World War II, Peterhouse.
In August 1942, which country became the first in South America
to declare war on the Axis?
It later sent an expeditionary force to fight in Italy.
- I really don't know. Can we make an educated guess? 
- Argentina?
No, it won't be Argentina. Because they were a refuge for the Nazis.
- Yeah, they were.. 
- Erm... 
- Brazil?
We've just offended a lot of Argentinians.
I'll make a random guess, unless anyone can make an educated one.
- Chile, Brazil? 
- Brazil.
Brazil.
Very educated guess, it's right.
The Firestone plantation in which African country
was a major supplier of rubber to the Allies?
The country in question declared war on Germany and Japan in January 1944.
- I'd assume the Congo if it's rubber. 
- Yeah.
Congo?
- The Congo. 
- No, it was Liberia.
As a precondition for participation in the United Nations conference,
which Mediterranean country declared war on Germany in February 1945?
There was no military involvement.
I don't know things about history, so...
- Italy? 
- Italy?
February 1945? No, that'd be too early.
There was no military involvement with this country.
Not Spain, not Greece...
Possibly... Oh! Maybe Turkey?
Turkey.
Turkey's correct.
Right, another picture round.
For your picture starter, you're going to see a portrait.
Ten points if you can name the subject depicted.
- Cardinal Richelieu. 
- It is Cardinal Richelieu, yes.
APPLAUSE
Now, for your picture bonuses, York,
you're going to see portraits of three more cardinals
of the Roman Catholic Church, this time, all Englishmen.
Five points for each you can name. Firstly...
That's John Henry Newman.
- Newman. 
- That is Newman, yes.
Secondly, who's this?
That's De la Pole.
I don't know his first name. Pole.
Just say Pole?
- Pole? Cardinal Pole? 
- Cardinal Pole is right.
And finally, who's this?
Wolsey.
- That's Wolsey. 
- It is Cardinal Wolsey, yes. Right.
Ten points for this.
What common unit corresponds most closely to two microyears?
- A minute. 
- Correct.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses are on
Areas Of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Peterhouse.
In each case, name the AONB from the list of locations.
All three answers have two-word names that include the name of a county.
Firstly - Farway, Otterton, Budleigh Salterton and Newton Poppleford?
- Do we have any...? 
- I think that's one of the moors.
Do we know the county that they're near?
- The Yorkshire Moors... 
- Otterton rings a bell.
- The North Yorkshire Moors are three-word names... 
- Yorkshire Dales?
- Yorkshire Dales? I don't think those places sound... 
- I don't know.
Go for the Yorkshire Dales, but I should know it, really.
- Go for it. 
- We're going to try Yorkshire Dales.
Nowhere near, it's East Devon.
Secondly - Wormshill, Chevening, Blue Bell Hill and Sevenoaks Weald?
- Kent? 
- That's Kent.
- Downs? 
- Is there a Kent Downs?
I don't know, marshes?
Try it. No, it won't be marshes, I don't think.
Say Kent Downs.
The Kent Downs...
Correct. RELIEVED LAUGHTER
And finally, Craster, Beal, Seahouses, Alnmouth and Bamburgh?
The Norfolk Broads hasn't come up yet.
- They're there in the North, they're North East. 
- Yeah.
- Northumberland what? Moors? 
- Norfolk Broads. Broads.
- They're in Northumberland. 
- Oh. 
- Just say Northumberland.
- It's a two-word thing. 
- Northumberland Dales. 
- Come on.
- The Whitby Dales. 
- Hills.
- Northumberland Moors. 
- No, it's Northumberland Coast.
Ten points for this. Listen carefully -
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address of 1863
could have opened with the words, "87 years ago."
Instead, he chose specifically...?
- Fourscore and seven. 
- Fourscore and seven, correct.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses this time, Peterhouse, are on South Korea.
What is the second-largest city of South Korea?
It's situated on the south-eastern tip of the Korean peninsula,
around 300km from Seoul.
- Do you know any other cities apart from Incheon? 
- No.
Nominate Sutcliffe.
- Incheon? 
- No, it's Busan, or Pusan.
80km north of Busan,
which city was the capital of the Silla Kingdom
for almost 1,000 years until 935?
Its historic areas are inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site.
That might be Incheon.
I don't know, I don't know many cities in South Korea.
Incheon.
No, that's Gyeongju.
And finally, which city at the mouth of the Han River
is the main seaport of Seoul?
In 1950, UN forces landed there
in an attempt to turn back the Communist invasion.
- We think that IS Incheon. 
- That was Incheon, yes.
With three minutes to go, ten points for this.
What two-word English name is often given to Plattduetsch,
a vernacular language spoken...?
- Low German. 
- Low German is right. APPLAUSE
Your bonuses this time are on botany, York.
Specifically the floral formula which records
the structure of a plant by means of symbols, letters and numbers.
Firstly, in a floral formula, what is represented by the letter A?
Type of flower?
Colour of flower?
- Colour of flower. 
- No, it's the androecium, the stamens.
What is represented by the letter K?
So it begins with a K?
Carpel?
No, it's the calyx, or sepals.
And what is represented by the letter C?
- Carpel? 
- No, that's the corolla, or petals.
Ten points for this.
In astronomy and calendar studies, what five-letter word commonly
follows Metonic, Callippic, Sothic and Saros?
- Scale. 
- No, anyone want to buzz from Peterhouse?
Quickly.
- Orbit? 
- No, it's cycle. And I have to fine you five points, York,
because that was an incorrect interruption.
So, another starter question.
How many years separate the start of the Seven Years' War
from the beginning of the Suez Crisis?
Six.
Oh, gosh, no!
- 200. 
- 200 is correct!
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
Right, you get a set of bonuses, York, on invertebrate physiology.
Firstly, found in the plasma of many molluscs and crustacea,
hemocyanins are metalloproteins transporting what substance?
- Oxygen? 
- Oxygen, yeah.
- Oxygen. 
- Correct.
What metal atom in hemocyanin binds to oxygen?
- Copper. 
- Correct.
What colour is hemocyanin when oxygenated?
- Er, blue. 
- Blue. 
- Correct. Ten points for this.
Which US state is bordered by Washington and Oregon to the West,
and Montana and Wyoming...?
- Idaho. 
- Idaho is correct, you get a set of bonuses,
this time on novels with narratives confined to a single day.
Firstly, taking place on a single day in June 1923, which novel opens with
its title character announcing that she would buy the flowers herself?
- Mrs Dalloway. 
- Correct.
Taking place on a single day in January 1951, which novel opens
with reveille being sounded at 5am by a hammer hitting a length of rail?
- No, just pass it. 
- Don't know.
That was One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich.
And finally, taking place on February the 15, 2003,
which novel opens with a neurosurgeon rising from bed at 3:40am?
- Don't know. 
- That was Ian McEwan's Saturday. Ten points for this.
In physics, what character in upper case can represent
a constant energy density in empty space,
while in lower case it can represent wavelength?
F.
Anyone like to buzz from York?
- Nu. 
- No, it's lambda.
Ten points for this:
What anglicised form of the name of the city of his birth
appeared in the title of John, Duke of Lancaster, the father of Henry IV?
- Gaunt. 
- Gaunt is correct.
APPLAUSE
GONG
And at the gong, York have 165, Peterhouse have 185.
APPLAUSE
I thought you were going to pull off a sensational recovery there, York.
But 165, you'll be coming back anyway.
But next time you come back, you will have to win.
Peterhouse, congratulations to you, you've got to win one more to stay
in the contest and go through to the semifinals, that's all.
I hope you can join us next time for another quarterfinal match,
- but until then, it is goodbye from York University. 
- Goodbye.
- It's goodbye from Peterhouse - Cambridge. 
- Goodbye.
And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.
APPLAUSE
