University Challenge.
Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.
Hello. By the end of tonight's match, we will know the first
of the four teams who will be competing in the semifinal
stage of this competition.
Both teams playing for that place tonight already have one
quarterfinal victory behind them,
so whoever wins tonight will go through while the losers will
get one final chance to stay in the contest.
Now, the team from Liverpool University have managed to
increase their score with every appearance.
They came out of Round One with 155 points, only 25 ahead of their
opponents - the University of Sheffield.
But they had a happier time of it in Round Two
when they beat Glasgow University by 170 points to 105.
Their first quarterfinal win was by a 60-point margin at
the expense of the University of Bristol.
With an accumulated total of 500,
let's let them reintroduce themselves.
Hi, I'm Ben Mawdsley. I'm from Southport
and I'm studying astrophysics.
Hi, my name is Jem Davis. I'm from Gullane near Edinburgh and
I'm studying for a master's in tropical disease biology.
- And this is their captain. - Hi, I'm Deaglan Crew. I'm originally from
Liverpool and I'm studying for a BSc in biochemistry.
Hi, I'm Hugh Hiscock.
I'm from Southampton and I'm studying for an MA in French.
APPLAUSE
Now the team from St Peter's College, Oxford have also improved
their score each time we've seen them.
In Round One, they beat Sussex University by 205 points to 150.
They met Selwyn College, Cambridge in Round Two and were 135 points
ahead of them at the gong
and their first quarterfinal total of 240
was exactly three times that of
their opponents from Oxford Brookes University with an accumulated
total of 680 points.
Let's meet St Peter's again.
Hello, I'm John Armitage and I'm from Lancaster
and I'm reading mathematics.
Hi, I'm Ed Roberts. I'm from London and I'm studying history.
- And this is their captain. - Hello, I'm Gabriel Trueblood.
I'm from London and I'm studying medicine.
Hello, I'm Spike Smith.
I'm from Maidenhead and I'm reading for a Masters in mathematics.
APPLAUSE
Right, you all know the rules better than I do, I imagine.
So fingers on the buzzers, here's your first starter for 10.
Designed by the architect Luigi Moretti
and partially funded by the Vatican, which five building apartment
and business complex in Washington DC was the scene of a burglary...?
BELL RINGS
Watergate Hotel.
Erm... No.
And the scene of a burglary and the arrest of its five
perpetrators in June 1972?
BUZZER
Watergate...building.
That's correct. It's the Watergate complex.
It specifically wasn't the hotel.
Right, let's take a set of bonuses for you, then, St Peter's.
They are on Greek islands.
Which island group in the Eastern Mediterranean includes Kos
and Patmos and has a name meaning 12 islands?
- Dodecanese. - Correct.
Sharing their collective name with the area of the Mediterranean
in which they're situated, which group of seven principal islands
includes Ithaca and Zakynthos?
Could be the Ionian Islands.
- The Ionian Islands. - Correct.
Which group in the Aegean consists of numerous islands located
in a roughly circular configuration around the island of Delos?
No idea.
- Pass. - The Cyclades.
So a starter question. What ordinal number links a 17th-century Puritan
sect that believed in the eminent rule of the saints,
an alleged clandestine group of nationalist supporters in the
Spanish Civil War, the constitution introduced in France in 19...?
BELL RINGS
Fifth.
Fifth is correct, yes.
Right, bonuses, Liverpool, on chemical elements.
Which element with atomic number 31 has one of the lowest melting
points of all the metallic elements at just under 30 degrees Celsius
at standard pressure?
- Is it gallium or... Gallium? - Yeah.
- Gallium. - Correct.
With a similar melting point to gallium, which elements
lies between rubidium and francium in group 1 of the periodic table?
- Cesium. - Yeah, cesium. - Cesium.
Correct.
And finally, which transition metal has the highest melting point
of all the metallic elements making it suitable for alloys
used in heating and electronics?
- Tungsten. - Correct.
Time for another starter.
10 points for this. Also known as Sydenham's chorea, which
disorder of the nervous system is characterized by involuntary
tics in the limbs and face and takes its common name from an early
Christian martyr whose feast day is June 15th?
BELL RINGS
- St Vitus Dance. - Correct.
Liverpool, these bonuses are on 19th-century art.
Which group of artists and critics was formed in a meeting at the
house of John Millais in London's Gower Street in the late 1840s?
- Pre-Raphaelites? - Pre-Raphaelites.
- Pre-Raphaelites. - Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, correct.
"One of the very noblest works of sacred art ever
produced in this or any age," that was John Ruskin's description of
which painting by the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt begun
when he was 21 years old? I need the precise five-word title.
- Oh, dear. Any ideas? - No. - I...
I'm not a big fan.
- No idea. - It's The Light Of The World.
It's the one with Christ holding the lantern.
And finally, Beata Beatrix and Fazio's Mistress
are later 19th-century paintings by which other member of
the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?
- Rossetti. - Rossetti.
Correct. 10 points for this.
According to its creator, which painting originated in a panic
attack he suffered during an evening walk near Christ...?
BELL RINGS
Oh, sorry. I was... Picasso, but... Never mind.
I'm sorry, you're going to lose five points.
..an evening walk near...
BUZZER
- The Scream. - The Scream by Edvard Munch, of course.
Right, these bonuses are on words containing the vowel combination
A-E-A, St Peter's. In each case, give the word from the definition.
Firstly, a five-letter term for a hymn of thanksgiving
for a victory in battle. It's used more generally for a tribute
or other expression of praise?
- Paean. - Paean.
Paean, yeah, sure.
Secondly, the adjective that describes
the system for assigning names to plants and animals drawn up by and
named after an 18th-century Swedish naturalist and explorer.
- Linnaean. - Correct.
And finally, the vast area comprising
all of the continental crust of the Earth's thought to have existed in
the Permian and Triassic periods before breaking up into Gondwana
and Laurasia.
- Pangaea. - Correct.
Right, we're going to take our first picture round.
For your picture starter, you're going to see an irrational number
expressed as a continued fraction.
For 10 points, I want you to identify the irrational number.
BUZZER
Square root of two.
It is the square root of two, yes.
So your picture bonuses are three more irrational mathematical
constants, this time expressed as convergent infinite series.
Again, in each case, I want you to identify the number to which
each of the following series converges.
Firstly, for five...
- E. - E is correct, yes. Secondly...
- How many irrational numbers can we name? - I don't know.
- The golden ratio, I don't...? - I leave you guys to it.
- Yeah... - Fine. - I have no idea.
- Try phi. - Phi.
Phi is correct, yes, the golden ratio. And finally...
Yeah, that's... That's pi.
Pi?
- Pi. - Pi is correct, yes.
Everyone at home will have been working those out
with great pleasure. Right, 10 points for this.
Established in 1916,
which office was initially occupied by Maurice Hankey, who had
previously served as secretary to the Committee Of Imperial Defence?
Later holders of the position include John Hunt, Robert Armstrong
and Jeremy Heywood, who succeeded Gus O'Donnell in 2012?
BUZZER
Head of the Civil Service.
That's correct, yes. It's the Cabinet Secretary, specifically,
but it's the same post.
Right, these bonuses are on heroes, St Peter's.
"No man is a hero to his own valet,"
dating back to 1694, this remark of the 17th-century French society
wit Madame Cornuel echoes which French essayist who observed that
few men are admired by their servants?
- Voltaire. - Voltaire, right?
Just Voltaire, who are you thinking of?
It's that one that begins with M.
- Yeah, but it's a playwright. - Mo...something, but OK.
Erm, Voltaire.
No, it's Michel de Montaigne.
"In short, he was a perfect cavaliero and to his very valet
"seemed a hero." Who wrote these lines in the 1818 work
Beppo: A Venetian Story?
I'd guess Byron, but...
- Byron. - Correct.
"Go to Spain and get killed. The movement needs a Byron."
These words were allegedly spoken by the Communist leader
Harry Pollitt to which poet who was a contemporary of Auden
and MacNeice?
(Oh, I remember this.)
(I saw this somewhere recently.)
(I don't remember.)
I mean, who else was in Spain? Hemingway's in Spain.
- Who else was in Spain? - Poets...
That wasn't really a poet.
- Come on. - Hemingway.
No, it was Stephen Spender. 10 points for this. Listen carefully,
a tennis ball of mass 50 grams
travelling at 20 meters per second is hit by a racket
and travels back in the same direction it originated from
at 30 meters per second. What in Newton seconds
is the impulse imparted on the ball by the racket?
BELL RINGS
- 2.5. - Correct.
Right, these bonuses are on an award, Liverpool.
First awarded to William Smith in 1831, the Wollaston medal is
a mark of distinction in which field of scientific study?
This is familiar. Do you...?
Chemistry, maybe.
It was in 1861?
This is really going to bother me. I can't...
- Erm... - Just guess something. - Chemistry.
No, it's geology.
The fossilized remains of a dinosaur named Hylaeosaurus were
discovered in Tilgate Forest by which geologist,
the second recipient of the Wollaston medal.
He is now often regarded as having initiated the scientific
study of dinosaurs?
Was he like the Prince of...?
No idea.
No idea, sorry.
Gideon Mantell.
And finally, a fierce opponent and rival of Mantell, which
Lancastrian geologist was awarded the Wollaston medal in 1838
and is credited with coining the term 'dinosaur'?
Anyone know anything about it...?
- We don't know anything. - Sorry, nothing.
That was Richard Owen. 10 points for this.
In the late 1890s, the intelligence officer
Colonel Picquart established that Major Ferdinand Esterhazy was
the true culprit in the events that saw
which French officer being...?
BELL RINGS
- Alfred Dreyfus. - Correct.
Your bonuses are on time now, Liverpool.
Together with Tokelau, which country in the Pacific Ocean skipped
the date of December 30, 2011 in order to move
from the eastern to the western side of the international date line?
Is it Samoa?
- Samoa. - Correct.
In Rome, the year 46BC was more than two months longer than usual
because of the introduction of which calendar created
by Sosigenes of Alexandria?
- Julian. - Yeah, Julian.
Julian.
The Julian calendar is correct.
60 years after the Battle of Culloden and four years before
the birth of Mozart, in which year did Britain adopt the new style
Gregorian calendar with a loss of 11 days from the calendar that year?
- It's going to be a guess, isn't it? - Yeah.
1716.
No, it's 1752.
Another starter question now.
Which country is divided into 19 maakunnat or regions
including Northern Ostrobothnia, Southern Savonia
and the autonomous region of Aland.
It is the most densely forested country in Europe?
BUZZER
- Finland. - Correct.
These bonuses, St Peter's, are on the Nobel Peace Prize.
In each case, give the country of origin
of the following Latin American recipients.
Firstly, the 1980 recipient Adolfo Perez Esquivel,
a founder of non-violent human rights organisations who
opposed the military junta of his country during the period
known as the Dirty War.
- Dirty War? - THEY WHISPER
Nicaragua?
- Nicaragua. - No, it's Argentina.
Secondly, Oscar Arias Sanchez, a head of state awarded
the Prize in 1987 for his work for peace in Central America.
THEY WHISPER
Any ideas? I was going to say Mexico cos he might be a peace maker.
- OK. - Mexico?
No, he was from Costa Rica.
And finally, Rigoberta Menchu,
who received the prize in 1992 for her work for social justice
and ethno-cultural reconciliation
based on respect for the rights of indigenous people.
Brazil?
Indigenous...
Brazil?
No, it's Guatemala.
Right, we are going to take a music round.
In a moment, you will hear a piece of popular music.
To get ten points, you just have to give me
the name of the artist performing.
# Caesar's had your troubles
# Widows had to cry
# While mercenaries in cloisters sing
# And the king must die... #
BELL RINGS
- Elton John. - Yes!
APPLAUSE
It was released in 1970, that's social pre-history for you, really.
Anyway, it refers to the
killing of rulers in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Hamlet.
For your bonuses, you're going to hear three more pieces
of popular music which all take their inspiration from the works
of Shakespeare. In each case, give me the title of the play
that inspired the song. Firstly...
# Serve God love me and mend. #
What is it?
# This is not the end
HE WHISPERS
# Live unbruised, we are friends. #
- Any one... - King Lear?
King Lear?
No. You got the band, I guess.
I'm amazed!
No, that is Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More.
It is based upon Much Ado About Nothing.
So secondly, the play I'm looking for here.
# ..saw her reflection As confetti bled its colours
# Down the drain
# And every day
# She lives out another love song
# It's a tearful lament Of somebody done wrong
# Well, how can you miss what you've never possessed? #
Maybe... Romeo and Juliet?
No, that is Miss Macbeth, by Elvis Costello. And finally...
# Take me somewhere we can be alone
# I'll be waiting All that's left to do is done
# You'll be the Prince And I'll be the Princess
# It's a love story... #
Yeah, Romeo and Juliet?
Well done, yes.
- APPLAUSE - Right, ten points for this.
What term came into use during the Peninsular War of 1808-1814
and refers to a small-scale campaign
of attrition conducted by irregulars...
BUZZER
- Guerrilla. - Guerrilla is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Right, your bonuses, St Peter's, are on the cranial nerves.
Arising directly from the brain,
the cranial nerves consist of how many pairs?
Pairs? That is a weird way of putting it.
- Are there 12? - Correct.
What is the name of the fifth and largest cranial nerve? It has
three divisions - ophthalmic, the maxillary and the mandibular nerves.
- Trigeminal. - Correct.
The fourth cranial nerve,
the trochlear nerve supplies the superior oblique muscle,
which is partly responsible for the movement of what part of the body?
- The eye. - Correct.
Ten points for this.
The discovery of the accepted molecular structure of which
aromatic hydrocarbon with alternating single and double
bonds is usually attributed to the 19th century German...?
- BUZZER - Benzene.
Benzene is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Right, your bonuses this time,
St Peter's, are on a historian born in Bolton in 1939.
Which historian's works include general histories of Europe
and Great Britain and Ireland, the latter entitled The Isles?
Historians...
Historian - Carlyle.
I don't know.
Carlyle?
- What, Thomas Carlyle? - He suggested it.
No, it's Norman Davies, who'd be mortified
if you thought he was that old.
Now, Davies's 1981 work, God's Playground,
covers the history of which country?
It joined the European Union in 2004.
- God's Playground? - Poland?
Good guess.
- Poland? - Yes, you're right.
Co-authored for Davies and published in 2002,
Microcosm: Portrait Of A Central European City is a history
of which city on the River Oder, the largest city of Western Poland?
Western Poland... Poznan? I don't know, that's...
Is it in the west? I don't know.
- I don't know. - That or Krakow, guys?
- I'd say - Krakow. Come on. - Poznan.
No, it's Wroclaw.
Ten points for this.
Known more formally as the BWV 211,
Be Silent Don't Chatter,
a cantata by JS Bach, has a nickname reflecting
a growing fondness
for what beverage in Leipzig at the time of its composition?
BELL RINGS
Absinthe.
Nope. Anyone like to buzz from St Peter's?
- BUZZER - Beer?
No, it's coffee. The Coffee Cantata. Ten points for this.
The Lansdowne and the Athenaeum are among Gilbert Stuart's
portraits of which US president?
The latter work has since 1869 been used on the one dollar bill.
BELL RINGS
Lincoln.
Anyone like to buzz...?
- Washington. - Correct.
APPLAUSE
Right, these bonuses, St Peter's,
are on shorter words that can be made using
any of the nine letters of the word challenge.
In each case, give the word from the definition. Firstly,
a form of clarified butter used in South Asian cooking and ritual.
- Ghee. - Correct.
Secondly, to cause minerals to drain from the soil by the action
of percolating water.
- Leach. - Correct.
And finally, a shafted weapon used by cavalry.
According to legend, that of King Arthur was given the name Rone.
- Lance? - Lance. - Lance is right.
So we're going to take our second picture round.
For your picture starter,
you will see a portrait of a British political figure.
Ten points if you can name him.
BUZZER
- Wellington? - It is the Duke of Wellington, yes.
APPLAUSE
The Duke of Wellington served as Chief Secretary of Ireland
from 1807 to 1809,
nearly 20 years before he became prime minister. For your bonuses,
three more prime ministers who previously served as Chief Secretary
of Ireland. Firstly, who is this
who served as Chief Secretary in Ireland from 1812 to '18?
Is that Peel?
- No. - Don't think so.
Any other suggestions?
18... Oh, I should know this, this would be... It's a Whig.
- Yeah. Salisbury? - Later, he's way later.
Earl Grey?
- Yeah. - Earl Grey.
No, that is Sir Robert Peel. Secondly, who is this?
He served in the same post from 1884 to '85.
- Um... That's... - What is his name? - Campbell-Bannerman. - Is it? - Isn't it?
- Campbell-Bannerman. - Correct.
Finally, who is this? He served as chief secretary from 1887 to 1891.
What's his name?
- Um... - Is that Balfour?
- Is it Balfour? - I think it is.
- Balfour? - It is Balfour, yes, well done. Arthur Balfour.
Right, ten points for this.
Which geometrical figure can be defined as the locus of points
whose distance to a fixed point is a constant multiple
of their distance to a fixed line where the constant
of proportionality is strictly less than one but greater than zero.
- BELL RINGS - Hyperbola?
Anyone like to buzz from St Peter's?
BUZZER An ellipse?
Correct.
APPLAUSE
Right, you get a set of bonuses on 11th and 12th-century history,
St Peter's.
What is the two-word name of the King of Norway killed with his ally
Tostig at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066?
- Harald Hardrada. - Correct.
Harald Smooth-Tongue and his half-brother Paul The Silent were
earls of which Scottish island group in the 12th century?
Groups...
- Orkneys? - Correct.
Born around 1017, Cnut's son
Harold I of England is commonly known by what nickname?
- Harefoot. - Correct. Ten points for this.
Born in Algiers in 1918,
which French social philosopher rose to
prominence in the 1960s with his attempt to fuse Marxism
and structuralism in such works as For Marx and...?
BELL RINGS
- Louis Althusser. - Correct.
APPLAUSE
Right, these bonuses are on thinkers associated with
the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, Liverpool.
The Fear Of Freedom and The Art Of Loving are works by which
German-born psychoanalyst and social philosopher?
HE WHISPERS
- Eh... Nominate Hitchcock. - Marcuse?
No, it is Erich Fromm.
Which German-born philosopher and cultural critic wrote
The Authoritarian Personality and The Philosophy Of Modern Music?
HE WHISPERS
- Nominate Hitchcock. - Adorno. - Correct.
And finally, One-dimensional Man is an influential work by which
political philosopher born in Berlin in 1898?
- Marcuse. - That is Herbert Marcuse.
Right, four minutes ago, ten points for this.
The adjective cytherean was formerly used to denote which
planet of the solar system also known as Hesperus or the Evening...?
- BUZZER - Venus.
Correct. You get a set of bonuses this time on biology, St Peter's.
An organism described as being heterokont possesses what
particular structure in different lengths?
It's name derives from the Latin for whip.
Tails? It's got multiple...
Tentacles?
Tails.
No, it is flagella or flagellum.
Believed to be associated with nitrogen fixation, what relatively
thick cells are carried at intervals on the filaments of cyanobacteria?
Cells...
Let's have an answer, please.
- Rhizomes. - No, they're heterocysts.
And finally, what is the general term for organisms that use
organic compounds as a carbon and energy source?
THEY WHISPER
Chemotrophic?
Chemotrophic.
No, they are heterotrophs.
About three minutes ago and ten points for this.
Born in Tournai, who landed in southwest England in 1497 in the
guise of Richard Duke of York in an attempt to overthrow King Henry VII?
He was captured in Hampshire and executed two years later.
BELL RINGS
Richard III.
- No, anyone like to buzz from St Peter's...? - Simnel?
No, it was Perkin Warbeck.
Ten points for this.
Part of the South Atlantic subtropical gyre, the Benguela
Current takes its name from a seaport in which African country?
BUZZER
- Angola? - Correct.
APPLAUSE
You get bonuses on public holidays in Japan.
Firstly, for five.
Showa Day on April 29 marks the birthday of which royal figure
who died in 1989?
- Was it Hiro...Hirohito? - Was it Hirohito who died?
- Emperor Hirohito. - Correct.
May 3 is a public holiday that marks what political reform of 1947?
Opponents often describe it as having been
coerced by the United States.
Relinquishment of Godhood, is it?
- Um... - I don't know what it's actually called.
- I nominate Armitage. - The Relinquishment of Godhood.
No, it is Constitutional Memorial Day.
And finally, known as Shunbun and Shubun, public holidays
in March and September mark what astronomical phenomenon?
Equinoxes? September 21 and...
- The spring and autumn equinoxes. - Correct. Ten points for this.
Who in 1936 became the first US dramatist to win
the Nobel Prize for literature?
His works include Desire Under The Elms
and Long Day's Journey Into Night.
BUZZER
- Eugene O'Neill? - Correct!
Yes.
APPLAUSE
Right, you get bonuses on regions of Spain this time, St Peter's.
The port of Santander on the Bay of Biscay
is the capital of which region of Spain?
- Galicia, is that south? - It's north, isn't it? - Is it?
- Yeah. - Let's have it, please.
- Basque Country. - No, it's Cantabria.
De facto capital of the Castile-Leon region, which city was
the principle residence of the kings of Castile in the 15th century?
That's north, isn't it?
- It's south, isn't it? - Is it?
De facto capital...
- I don't know. - Madrid? - Come on.
- Seville. - No, it's Valladolid.
And finally, situated on the Guadalquivir River,
which city is the capital of Andalucia?
- GONG - And at the gong...
It's Seville, by the way.
At the gong, Liverpool had 100, St Peter's-Oxford had 245.
Well, you're going to have to work again to get to the semifinals,
I'm afraid, Liverpool.
You come back and have another go.
Two victories are necessary to get through to the semifinals.
So I'm afraid you're not going to make the semis on tonight's
performance, but you could do it next time, Who knows? St Peter's,
many congratulations,
you have become the first team to go through to the semifinals.
Well done.
APPLAUSE
I hope you can join us next time for another quarterfinal match.
But until then, it is goodbye from Liverpool University.
ALL: Goodbye.
It is goodbye from St Peter's College Oxford.
- ALL: - Bye. - And it is goodbye from me. Goodbye.