<![CDATA[Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 15:48:20 -0800 (PST)
From: "Matthew H. Baker" <baker@math.berkeley.edu>
To: psb@lbl.gov
Content-Description:
1995 Guy Fawkes Eve Buzzer Explosion
Questions by MIT
Tossups:
1. The name of this language means "of the coast" in Arabic.
Today it is the mother tongue of about six million people, most of
them living near the Indian Ocean, but it is also spoken by about
forty million others as a common language in east Africa. FTP,
identify this Bantu language with the largest number of speakers,
that is an official language of Kenya and Tanzania.
Answer: _Swahili_ (or _Kiswahili_)
2. George Kaufman, Harpo Marx, Alexander Woolcott, Herman
Mankiewicz and Dorothy Parker were all regular attendees at this
daily lunch meeting of intellectuals known for their witty
conversation. FTP, what was this group which met during the 1920s
and '30s in a New York hotel?
Answer: _Algonquin_ Round _Table_
3. A flower, a woman holding a lamp, a mother with a dead child,
a dying horse, a severed arm clutching a broken sword, a modern
crucifixion and a human- headed bull are all depicted in, FTP, what
stark painting expressing the horrors of the Spanish Civil War,
painted by Pablo Picasso?
Answer: _Guernica_
4. He commanded Hitler's headquarters guard during the Austrian,
Sudetenland, and Czech occupations and throughout the Polish
campaign. Returning home wounded in 1944, his condoning of the
plot against Hitler brought him the choice between the firing squad
and suicide. He is best known for his series of campaigns which
led to his capturing of Tobruk and his defeat at El Alamein. FTP,
name this commander of the Afrika Corps, nicknamed "Desert Fox".
Answer: Erwin _Rommel_
5. A ward of Pericles and a pupil of Socrates, he aided Agis I of
Sparta before fleeing to Persia in 413. Recalled to Athens, he won
a brilliant naval victory in 410 and recovered Byzantium in 408,
but he was blamed unjustly for the Athenian defeat of Notium in 406
and Lysander had him killed. FTP, name this Athenian general who
led the Sicilian campaign before being falsely accused of
sacrilege.
Answer: _Alcibiades_
6. When his tomb was opened in 1941, five hundred and thirty-six
years after his death, Soviet archeologists found the skeleton of
a man who was of powerful physique but was disabled in his two
right limbs. Despite his physical handicap, he established an
empire that stretched from the Mediterranean to Mongolia and was
ruled from his capital of Samarkand. FTP, name this great Uzbek
conqueror, known for his cruelty.
Answer: _Tamerlane_ or _Timur_ the lame, or _Timur_lenk
7. Thousands have died in a recent outbreak of this highly
contagious disease in war-torn Tadjikistan. It is caused by the
Klebs-Loeffler bacillus, which secretes a toxin that destroys
tissue and forms a leathery membrane that can clog the air passages
and cause asphyxiation. FTP, name this respiratory disease that
you should have been vaccinated against via the "d" in your "dpt"
shot.
Answer: _diphtheria_
8. Its most stable isotope has an atomic weight of 97 and a half-
life of 2.6 billion years. It was discovered at the
University of California in 1937, in a sample of molybdenum that
had been bombarded with deuterons. FTP, name this element with
atomic number 43, that was the first element to be artificially
produced.
Answer: _technetium_
9. In Latin, this word means a female animal used for breeding.
It was first used in English in the 16th century to refer to the
uterus or womb. In biology, it is the intercellular substance of
a tissue, and in geology it is the natural material surrounding a
metal or gem or fossil embedded in the earth. FTP give this term
that in mathematics refers to a rectangular array of numbers.
Answer: _matrix_
10. After its Vienna premiere, this opera was banned in Paris and
Vienna for its ridicule of the upper class and its slapstick
comedy. Its two main themes are duty and love, reflected in the
characters of Antonio, the garderer; Cherubino, the page; Count
Almaviva; and the middle-class valet whose name the opera bears.
FTP, name this famous work by Mozart.
Answer: the _Marriage of Figaro_, or le _Nozze di Figaro_
11. It is said that Immanuel Kant deviated from his rigid daily
schedule only once, when he stayed in for a few days to read this
book that was published in 1762. The work describes an attempt to
educate the title character for life in a world from which social
man is estranged. FTP, name this influential work of naturalist
educational philosophy by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Answer: _Emile_ : or, On Education (_Emile_, ou de l'education)
12. A Russian economist who co-founded the revolutionary Northern
Society which staged the 1825 Decembrist uprising in St. Petersburg
and the Russian author of such works as "A Sportsman's Sketches"
and _A Month in the Country_ share a name. FTP, what is the common
surname, most commonly associated with _Fathers and Sons_?
Answer: _Turgenev_ (Nikolay Ivanovich and Ivan Sergeyevich)
13. Though not an organized group, its recognized members included
George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and Henry Vaughan. Their style
revolved around the literary device known as the conceit, and the
word used to describe them was coined in _The Lives of the Poets_
by Samuel Johnson. FTP, what was this group of poets whose most
famous members were Andrew Marvell and John Donne?
Answer: _Metaphysical_ school
14. When the Nazi occupying forces announced that all Jews would
have to wear a yellow star, this country's king announced that he,
too, would wear a yellow star, and he displayed it proudly on his
daily horseback rides around the capital. As the Final Solution
gained momentum elsewhere in Europe, thousands of citizens
mobilized on a single night in 1943 to ferry the country's entire
Jewish population across the Sound to safety in Sweden. FTP name
this nation that has the longest continuous monarchy in Europe.
Answer: _Denmark_
15. The son of Bor by the giantess Bestla, he gave one of his eyes
to Mimir as payment for a drink from Odherir, the potion of wisdom.
His ring is called Draupnir, his sword is called Gungnir, his
ravens are Hugin and Munin, and his horse is Sleipnir. FTP, who is
this god, the greatest of the Aesir?
Answer: _Odin_ or Woden, etc.
16. It contains outstanding national parks such as Jasper,
Waterton Lakes, and Wood Buffalo. It is believed to have some of
the richest oil deposits in the world--notably in the tar beds of
the Athabasca River--and its coal beds contain about half of
Canada's known reserves. FTP, what is this Canadian province,
lying between Saskatchewan and British Columbia?
Answer: _Alberta_
17. He first contributed to periodicals in San Francisco in the
1860s before going to London for three years. After moving back to
San Francisco to work at William Randolph Hearst's Examiner, where
he wrote his column "The Prattler", he moved to Washington, D.C.,
where his most famous works were published. In 1914 he disappeared
mysteriously in Mexico. FTP, who was this author of _In the Midst
of Life_, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", and _The Devil's
Dictionary_?
Answer: Ambrose Gwinett _Bierce_
18. This rapidly approaching red dwarf has the largest proper
motion of any known star, and is thought to have planets because of
periodic deviation in that motion. It is second only to the Alpha
Centauri system in proximity to the sun. FTP, identify this star
named after its 20th-century American discoverer.
Answer: _Barnard's Star_
19. Founded in Jackson, Michigan, by disillusioned Whigs,
Democrats, and Free-soilers who shared an opposition to the Kansas-
Nebraska Act, its first platform insisted on the abolition of
slavery in United States territories. In 1856, its first
presidential candidate captured 11 states, but it wasn't until 1860
that it finally won the presidency. FTP, what was this party of
Lincoln?
Answer: _Republican_ Party
20. He rides through the sky on a wooden horse called Clavileno
and is named governor of the island of Barataria. Originally named
Alonso Quijano, he changes his name, takes Aldonza Lorenzo as his
lady love, and roams the countryside on his horse Rocinante. FTP,
who is this title character, a native of La Mancha?
Answer: Don _Quixote_
21. After wandering around naked for twelve years, he sat under a
sala tree on the bank of the Rijupalika and, in deep meditation,
reached supreme knowledge and intuition. He spent the rest of his
life preaching the three doctrines that there are no absolutes,
that every deliberate action has its own consequence, and that all
life is sacred and inviolable -- including that of insects. FTP,
name this founder of Jainism.
Answer: Vardhama _Mahavira_
22. Because the speed of light must remain constant in all frames
of reference, the only way that the observations of two people
moving at different velocities can be reconciled is if time is
slower for one than for the other. FTP, name this basic principle
of the Special Theory of Relativity.
Answer: _TIME DILATION_ or _TIME DILATATION_
23. The formal idioms in the author's English textbook inspired
the senseless platitudes that fill this theatre of the absurd play.
In its most famous scene, two strangers exchanging banalities
discover that they are husband and wife. FTP, what is this 1950
play by Eugene Ionesco?
Answer: the _BALD SOPRANO_ (or, La _CANTATRICE CHAUVE_)
24. This government department assumed tremendous powers to
regulate the British economy, including the power to limit profits,
settle trade disputes, and tie workers to jobs considered
essential. Created in July, 1915, and led by David Lloyd George,
it was intended to oversee the war effort on Britain's home front.
FTP name this ministry named after the wartime industry it
regulated.
Answer: Ministry of _MUNITIONS_
25. In philosophy, this Latin phrase is used to mean that some
cause is brought in to provide an explanation, while in ancient
theater it was a device for bringing a god to the stage to resolve
a plot. FTP, what is this three-word phrase?
Answer: _DEUX EX MACHINA_
There were originally nine of them. They were offered for sale by
Amalthaea of Cumae, but when the offer was rejected, she burned six
of them and was able to sell the remaining three at the same price
she had asked for the original nine. Tarquinius Superbus kept them
in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, and until they
were destroyed by fire in the first century A.D., they were often
consulted by the Romans in times of crisis. FTP name these
prophetic books.
Answer: the _SIBYLLINE_ books
At 16 she represented Washington, D.C., in the 1921 Atlantic City
Bathing Beauty Contest, which she won. FTP, name this first Miss
America.
Answer: Margaret _Gorman_ Cahill
Some of its most prominent members were tried as part of the
Chicago Seven, and it promoted Pigasus for president in 1968. FTP,
name this '60s movement led by Abbie Hoffman, with its members
known as "Yippies".
Answer: _Youth International Party_ (prompt on early buzz with
"Yippies")
It literally means "a session", and in its present form it dates
from the twelfth century. The national one is held in August, and
local ones are held throughout the year. It includes contests in
arts and crafts with special emphasis on music and poetry. FTP,
name this annual festival of bards and minstrels in Wales.
Answer: _EISTEDDFOD_ ["ay-STETH-vohd"]
Boni:
1. For ten points each, name the architect who designed...
1. the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo
Answer: Frank Lloyd _Wright_
2. Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore
Answer: Benjamin Henry _Latrobe_
3. The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Answer: Maya Ying _Lin_
2. For 10 points apiece, expand the following computer
abbreviations that refer to codes for digital representation of
text.
1. BCD, an early 6-bit binary code
Answer: _Binary Coded Decimal_
2. EBCDIC, a later 8-bit binary code built upon Binary Coded
Decimal by IBM
Answer: _Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code_
3. ASCII, a 7-bit code in most widespread use
Answer: _American Standard Code for Information Interchange_
3. For ten points apiece, name each mammalian order from some of
its members.
1. Bats
Answer: _Chiroptera_
2. Rhinoceri
Answer: _Perissodactyla_
3. Hedgehog
Answer: _Insectivora_
4. Identify these offices in the Roman Republic for the stated
number of points.
1. For 5 points: there were two of these joint chief magistrates.
Answer: _consul_
2. For 10 points: there were eight of these officials who were
next to the consuls in rank and adjudicated legal disputes.
Answer: _praetor_
3. For 15 points: there were four of these magistrates who
supervised police, markets, festivals, and the care of temples and
public buildings.
Answer: Curulian _Aedile_
5. Identify each character from Beowulf from a description, 5-10-
15.
1. 5 pts: The monster who attacks the mead-hall of the Danes.
Answer: _Grendel_
2. 10 pts: The king of the Danes whose mead-hall Grendel attacks.
Answer: _Hrothgar_
3. 15 pts: The king of the Geats ["YEA-ats"] at the beginning of
the poem, of whom Beowulf is a thane.
Answer: _Hygelac_
6. 30-20-10, name the year in which all of the following events
occurred.
1. The Mexican Empire collapses and Emperor Maximilian is killed.
2. A constitutional agreement among three British North American
colonies establishes the Dominion of Canada as a confederation.
3. The United States purchases Alaska from Russia.
Answer: _1867_
7. The first U.S. census in 1790 counted a total population of 3.9
million, including both whites and blacks. Six states had
populations of more than three hundred thousand. For five points
for each correct position, list these 6 states in order from
largest to smallest populations in 1790.
Answers: _Virginia_ (692,000), _Pennsylvania_ (434,000), _North
Carolina_ (394,000), _Massachusetts_ (379,000) _New York_
(340,000), _Maryland_ (320,000)
8. Identify these classes of particles, 10 points each.
1. What is the term used for a subatomic particle composed of an
even number of quarks and antiquarks?
Answer: _meson_
2. Name the lightest of the mesons, that are responsible for the
longest-range portion of the strong nuclear force.
Answer: _pion_s or _pi_ mesons
3. What other important class of mesons can decay into two or
three pions or a muon and neutrino?
Answer: _kaon_ or _k_ meson
9. In religious art, the four Evangelists are often depicted with
their winged symbols. First for 5 points each, name the Evangelist
from his symbol.
1. an eagle
Answer: _John_
2. a lion
Answer: _Mark_
3. a man
Answer: _Matthew_
4. an ox
Answer: _Luke_
These symbols are believed to derive from the four beasts in a
vision described by an Old Testament prophet, and another vision
related in a book of the New Testament. For five points each, name
these two books of the Bible.
Answers: _Ezekiel_ and _Revelation_
10. For five points each, name the king who was the first English
monarch in each of the following royal houses.
1. Plantagenet
Answer: _Henry II_
2. Lancaster
Answer: _Henry IV_
3. York
Answer: _Edward IV_
4. Tudor
Answer: _Henry VII_
5. Stuart
Answer: _James I_
6. Saxe-Coburg
Answer: _Edward VII_
11. 30-20-10, identify the composer.
1. Some of his concerti have nicknames such as "Alla Rustica", "La
Tempesta di Mare", and "La Caccia".
2. Known as "il prete rosso" because of his bright red hair, he
was the music teacher at a Venetian girls' orphanage in the early
18th century.
3. The first four concerti of his "Tests of Harmony" are
collectively known as "The Four Seasons".
Answer: Antonio _Vivaldi_
12. For ten points apiece, identify the American author who
created each fictional town.
1. Spoon River
Answer: Edgar Lee _Masters_
2. Altamont
Answer: _Thomas Wolfe_
3. Jefferson
Answer: William _Faulkner_
13. For ten points each, identify the poem from an excerpt.
1. "But at my back I always hear
Time's wing-ed chariot hurrying near"
Answer: _To His Coy Mistress_, by Andrew Marvell
2. "O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,"
Answer: _Ode on a Grecian Urn_, by Keats
3. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying."
Answer: _To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time_, by Robert Herrick
14. Answer the following about Delaware for the stated number of
points.
1. For five points each, name Delaware's three counties.
Answers: _Kent_, _Sussex_, _New Castle_
2. For 5 points, what is the state bird?
Answer: _Blue hen_ chicken
3. For 10 points, in 1631, the first settlers arrived in what is
now Delaware. What was their country of origin?
Answer: The _Netherlands_ or _Holland_
15. For 10 points each, name the president who appointed each
justice to the Supreme Court.
1. Earl Warren
Answer: Dwight David _Eisenhower_
2. Oliver Wendell Holmes
Answer: _Theodore _Roosevelt_
3. Roger Taney
Answer: Andrew _Jackson_
16. Feeling bright? For 5 points each, name the next six
brightest stars in the earth's sky after the sun, in any order.
Count systems with multiple stars as a single entry in the list.
Answers: _Sirius_, _Canopus_, _Arcturus_, _Alpha Centauri_,
_Vega_, _Capella_
17. What tournament would be complete without an existentialist
writers bonus? I'm feeling a bit existential myself today, so for
ten points each, identify the existentialist writer given the
circumstances of his death or funeral, or given a work for 5.
1. 10 pts: Died in an automobile wreck in southern France in
1960.
5 pts: _The Plague_
Answer: Albert _Camus_
2. 10 pts: After a brief final stay in Prague with his mistress
Dora Dymant, he died of tuberculosis in a Vienna clinic in 1924.
5 pts: _Amerika_
Answer: Franz _Kafka_
3. 10 pts: At his Jerusalem funeral in 1965, a delegation of the
Arab Students Organization placed a wreath on the grave of this
Jewish theologian.
5 pts: _I and Thou_
Answer: Martin _Buber_
18. For ten points each, given a work by an author and a relation
to another famous person, name the author.
1. Ex-father-in-law of Geraldo Rivera, wrote "Galapagos"
Answer: Kurt _Vonnegut_, Jr.
2. Daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen, wrote "A Room of One's Own"
Answer: Virginia _Woolf_
3. Great-nephew of Robert Louis Stevenson, wrote "The Power and
the Glory"
Answer: Graham _Greene_
19. Answer the following random college basketball trivia
questions, 10 points each.
1. Who holds the record for most points in an NCAA tournament
game, with 61?
Answer: Austin _Carr_
2. Until he is passed by Dean Smith, what longtime Kentucky coach
holds the record for Division I victories?
Answer: Adolph _Rupp_
3. In 1988 he tied his own record with 13 steals in a game. Who
is this Oklahoma star?
Answer: Mookie _Blaylock_
20. For 10 points apiece, name the major city served by each of
the following world airports. If you need another clue about the
city, you'll only get 5.
1. 10 pts: Kingsford Smith
5 pts: This city will host the 2000 Olympics.
Answer: _Sydney_
2. 10 pts: Ben Gurion International
5 pts: It is the second largest city in Israel, and is the heart
of Israel's business economy.
Answer: _Tel Aviv_
3. 10 pts: Presidente Stroessner
5 pts: It is the capital of Paraguay.
Answer: _Asuncion_
21. In the early 1970s, a sociolinguist conducted a famous
experiment on the effect of "social prestige" on different
pronunciations of English in New York City. The experiment
involved going to three different department stores and in each
one, asking for directions to a department on a particular floor.
1. For 5 points, what floor did he ask directions to?
Answer: the _FOUR_th floor (also pronounced "FOH-ath floh-a")
2. For 10 points, who was the sociolinguist who conducted this
experiment?
Answer: William _LABOV_
3. In the high-prestige store, Labov was usually directed to the
"fourth floor", in the low-prestige store, he was usually sent to
the "foh-ath floh-a", and in the middle-ranked store, answers were
mixed. For 5 points each, name the three stores.
Answers: _SAKS_ Fifth Avenue, _MACY'S_, S. _KLEIN_'s
22. For ten points each, given a description, name the American
utopian community.
1. Founded by Robert Owen in 1825 in Indiana, this cooperative
community sponsored the first kindergarten, the first trade school,
the first free library and the first community-supported public
school in the U.S.
Answer: _NEW HARMONY_
2. This experiment in socialist communal living was led by George
Ripley in Massachusetts. The main building burned to the ground
just as its completion was being celebrated. As a result of this
and other disasters, the community lasted only 6 years.
Answer: the _BROOK FARM_ institute of agriculture and education
3. John Humphrey Noyes founded this commune in Vermont in 1841.
Its most distinctive feature was the practice of "complex marriage"
in which all husbands and wives were shared.
Answer: _ONEIDA_ Community, or _PERFECTIONISTS_, or _BIBLE
COMMUNISTS_
23. For ten points each, identify these World War I generals.
1. He was supreme commander of the allied forces during the final
months of the war.
Answer: Ferdinand _FOCH_
2. He was the general in charge of the 1916 British offensive at
the Somme.
Answer: Sir Douglas _HAIG_
3. He was the Russian general responsible for the 1916 eastern
front breakthrough that forced Germany to divert forces from
Verdun, Austria to give up its campaign in northern Italy, and
prompted Romania to enter the war on the side of the allies.
Answer: Alexei Alekseyevich _BRUSILOV_
24. Answer the following questions about group theory. For ten
points apiece, what is the size of the smallest group that is...
1. ... not cyclic?
Answer: _4_
2. ... not abelian?
Answer: _6_
3. ... not simple?
Answer: _4_ [The groups in question are (1) the Klein 4-group,
(2) the symmetric group on 3 letters, and (3) the Klein 4-group
again.]
25. In Buddhism there are five moral precepts that must be
observed by monks and lay people alike. For five points each, plus
a bonus five for getting all of them, name the five things that the
Buddhist undertakes to REFRAIN from doing.
ANSWERS: 1. _INJURING LIVING_ things (accept synonyms)
2. _TAKING WHAT IS NOT GIVEN_, or _STEAL_ing, or _THEFT_
3. _SEX_ual immorality 4. _FALSEHOOD_, or _LY_ing
5. use of _ALCOHOL_ or mind-clouding _DRUGS_
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