Technophobia 3

Questions by Stanford "A Team"

Compiled and Edited by Alan Taber

Name the poems from T.S. Eliot's first collection, based on lines that appear in them: 5-10-15
5: "I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas"
Answer: The _Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock_
10: "Midnight shakes the memory / As a madman shakes a dead geranium // Half-past one, / The street-lamp sputtered"
Answer: _Rhapsody on a Windy Night_
15: "Now that lilacs are in bloom / She has a bowl of lilacs in her room / And twists one in her fingers while she talks."
Answer: _Portrait of a Lady_
For 5 points each, name the Norse god and the planet associated with it after whom each of the following days of the week are named:
A. Tuesday
Answer: _Tyr_, _Mars_
B. Wednesday
Answer: _Odin_, _Mercury_
C. Friday
Answer: _Freya_ or _Frigga_, _Venus_
It's time to mix and match astronomy with computer science. Answer the following questions after an astronomy clue for 10 points or after a second clue - a computer science clue - for 5 points.
A) (10) It's the brightest star in the constellation Aquila.
(5) It's the name of a kit-based PC from 1974, for which Microsoft released its first product: BASIC.
Answer: _Altair_ (prompt on "Alpha Aquilae" after the 10-point clue)
B) (10) Arabic for "the demon," it is the second brightest star in Perseus.
(5) A scientific programming language designed in 1958 - after FORTRAN.
Answer: _Algol_ (prompt on "Beta Persei" after the 10-point clue)
C) (10) The name given to a constellation by Hevelius in 1687, it also happens to be the name of a short-tailed cat similar to the bobcat.
(5) It's the name given to the most popular text-based web browser.
Answer: _Lynx_
Name the artist from his works, 30-20-10.
(30) 1914's Pharmacy, a commercial print of a winter landscape with the addition of two small pill-bottle-like figures
(20) 1913's Bicycle Wheel, which was - as one might guess - simply a bicycle wheel.
(10) The 1912 painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2
Answer: Marcel _Duchamp_
Sex, sex, sex, where would we be without sex? For the stated number of points, give the current significant others of the following celebrities.
A) (5) Will Smith
Answer: Jada _Pinkett-Smith_
B) (10) Sarah Jessica Parker
Answer: Mathew _Broderick_
C) (15) David Bowie
Answer: _Iman_ (Abdulmajid)
A planet where apes evolved from men? Get your stinking paws off me you damned dirty ape! That's right, it's time for a Planet of the Apes bonus. For 5 points and a bonus 10 points for all in the correct order - list the four movie sequels.
Answer: _Beneath the Planet of the Apes_, _Escape from the Planet of the Apes_, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes_, _Battle for the Planet of the Apes_.
Uffizi, Uffizi, Uffizi! That's all I hear these days! Answer these questions about everybody's favorite art gallery for the stated number of points.
A) For 5 points, in what city is the Uffizi located?
Answer: _Florence_, Italy (Firenze, for you Italians)
B) For 10 points, who commissioned the construction of the Uffizi?
Answer: Duke _Cosimo_ I dei _Medici_
C) For 15 points, name the Florentine Mannerist painter and architect who began the construction of the Uffizi.
Answer: Giorgio _Vasari_
Time to get a bronze medal in geography. For the stated number of points, identify the following third-largest islands.
A) For 5 points, this is the third largest island in the world.
Answer: _Borneo_
B) For 10 points, this is the third largest island in the Carribean.
Answer: _Jamaica_ (after Cuba and Hispañola)
C) For 15 points, name the third-largest of the Galápagos islands. It is separated from Isabela Island by the Bolívar Strait.
Answer: _Fernandina_ Island (accept "Narborough Island" (a former name) or "Isla Fernandina" (Spanish))
How well do you know your Mexican Revolutionaries?
For 5 points, name the Durango born leader who's raid into New Mexico caused the US to send Gen. Pershing across the border in reprisal.
Answer: Pancho _Villa_
For 10 points, name the man who started the 1910 revolution with his call for Tierra y Libertad!
Answer: Emiliano _Zapata_
For 15 points, name the man who the US was supporting, the proximate cause of Villa's raid into US territory.
Answer: Venustianzo _Carranza_
In honor of Maribeth's sometimes gruesome questions, for 10 points each, given the early apostle, give the mode of rumored death.
A: John the Beloved
Answer: _boiled in oil_
B: Simon Peter
Answer: _crucified head down_
C: Matthew
Answer: _stoned_
For 5 points each, name the three running backs in the history of the NFL to run for 1,000 yards or more 7 games into the season.

Answer: Jim _Brown_, O.J. _Simpson_, Terrell _Davis_
For an additional 5 points each, give the year Jim Brown did it, and the two years that OJ pulled it off.
Answer: _1958_ for Brown, _1973_ and _1975_ for OJ.
Name the author from works 30-20-10-5.
(30) The Ides of March, The Eighth Day
(20) The Skin of Our Teeth, The Matchmaker
(10) The Bridge of San Luis Rey
(5) Our Town
Answer: Thornton Louis _Wilder_
Name the gas law from a description for the stated number of points:
For 5 points: The total pressure of a gas mixture is equal to the pressure of each component of the mixture.
Answer: _Dalton's_ Law of Partial Pressures
For 10 points: For a dilute gas at constant temperature, the product of the pressure and volume divided by the moles of gas is a constant.
Answer: _Boyle's Law_
For 15 points: The total volume of a gas mixture is equal to the volume of each component of the mixture at the temperature and pressure of the mixture.
Answer: _Amagat's Law_
How much do you know about the planes of World War II? Given a description, name the plane.

For 5 points: This plane, along with the Hawker Hurricane, was the main British fighter plane early in the war.
Answer: _Spitfire_
For 5 points: This American heavy bomber dropped the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Answer: _B-29_ or _Superfortress_
For 10 points: This flight of long range American fighters was successful in shooting down the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto of Japan.
Answer: _P-38_ or _Lightning_
For 10 points: This divebomber carried the day for the Americans at Midway, sinking all four Japanese carriers.
Answer: _SBD-2_or _Douglass_
Give the first line of these poems based on the last line for ten points, or based on the poem title for five.
(10) The lone and level sands stretch far away.
(5) "Ozymandias" by Shelley
Answer: _I met a traveller from an antique land_
(10) To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
(5) "Ulysses" by Tennyson
Answer: _It little profits that an idle king_
(10) And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
(5) "If" by Kipling
Answer: _If you can keep your head when all about you_
Geography Bonus. Given a major river, name the country it starts in and the country it ends (or empties into a sea) in for 5 points apiece.
A. Nile (considered to start with the Kagera River)
Answer: _Burundi_ and _Egypt_
B. Danube
Answer: _Germany_ and _Romania_
C. Congo
Answer: _Zambia_ to _Democratic Republic of the Congo_ (accept _Zaire_)
30/20/10, name the Greek letter:
30: It had two different forms in both lower case and capital, one for the middle of a word, and one at the end of a word.
20: The capital version of the second of these forms, called "lunate" eventually became the Roman letter C.
10: The primary form of the capital is used in mathematics to denote summation.
Answer: _Sigma_
Note to moderator: do not read the answer after each part. Please give the Taylor Expansion of the following quantities to the first order in x (x goes to 0) for 10 points each:
A. 1/(1-x) (The inverse of the quantity one minus x)
Answer: _1+x_ (ONE PLUS X)
B. ln (e+e*x) (The natural logarithm of the sum e plus e times x)
Answer: _1+x_ (ONE PLUS X)
C. sqrt(1+2x) (The square root of the sum 1 plus two x)
Answer: _1+x_ (ONE PLUS X)
It is once again time for Elliot's signature question. Please identify these people, all of whom were born today, on November 7, for 10 points.
(10) This Indian physicist, born in 1888, became one of the founders of the Indian scientific establishment. In 1930, he was awarded the Nobel prize in physics for his discovery of an effect named after him, in which light passing through a material causes infrared radiation with frequencies characteristic of the material to emerge at right angles to the original light direction.
Answer: Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata _Raman_
(10) Dubbed "the funniest man in New York" by Alexander Woolcott, this journalist and screenwriter, who was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, may be best known to you as the coauthor of the screenplay for Citizen Kane.
Answer: Herman _Mankiewicz_
(10) Born in 1817, this white female South African politician was, for many years, one of the most outspoken advocates for the non-white majority as the sole anti-apartheid member of Parliament.
Answer: Helen _Suzman_
Just when you thought you were done with college entrance exams:
For 5 points, what company administers standardized tests including the TOEFL, SAT and AP exams?
Answer: _ETS_ (The College Board is a client of ETS which sponsors the tests, but does not administer them)
For 5 points, what do the letters ETS stand for?
Answer: _Educational Testing Services_
For 10 points, what primary competitor of ETS has its headquarters in Iowa City, Iowa?
Answer: _ACT_
For 10 points, what does ACT stand for?
Answer: _American College Testing_
Please identify the following twentieth century author 30-20-10.
(30) He was a serious entomologist, and one of the threatened American species of the genus Lycaeides is named after him.
(20) He was educated at Cambridge and taught Russian and European literature at Cornell between 1948 and 1958
(10) His books include "Pale Fire", "Pnin", and "Luzhin's defense".
Answer: Vladimir _Nabokov_
Please answer the following questions about the recent political turmoil in Russia for 10 points each.
A. The government headed by this longest-surviving post-Soviet prime-minister was dissolved about six months ago. In the meantime, he has been preparing to run for presidency in 2000 as the candidate of Our Home is Russia party.
Answer: Victor _Chernomyrdin_
B. This young technocrat, who replaced Chernomyrdin, was removed after only four months in the prime-minister's office.
Answer: Sergey _Kiriyenko_
C. The current Russian prime-minister, this compromise candidate has been a foreign minister for many years. He admits to having no economic knowledge . . . but then, he is a former member of the KGB, which may be more important in modern Russia.
Answer: Evgeniy _Primakov_
Time for your current events question, Technophobia style. Answer these questions about John Glenn's shuttle flight.
A) (15) For 15 points, name the shuttle commander on the October 29th launch.
Answer: Curt _Brown_
B) (10) Although we're not sure how many they'll actually achieve, how many orbits are Brown, et al. planning to take? Ten points for the correct number, 5 points for guessing within five.
Answer: _144_ (of course, 5 points for 139-149)
C) (5) For your last 5 points, on which space shuttle are Glenn and pals flying?
Answer: _Discovery_
For 10 points each, answer the following questions about events that occurred on November 8:
A. On November 8, 1793, this building opened in Paris with a new purpose, having been replaced in its old capacity under Louis XIV.
Answer: The _Louvre_
B. Founded on November 8, 1837, this was the first women's college in the United States.
Answer: _Mount Holyoke_ Seminary
C. On November 8, 1980, this space probe discovered the 15th moon of Saturn.
Answer: _Voyager I_
Answer the following questions about a significant object in French history for 10 points each.
(10) What holiday, celebrated in France on July 14^th, commemorates a 1789 event surrounding this object?
Answer: _Bastille Day_
(10) The first stone of the Bastille was laid on April 22, 1370, by this French king, nicknamed the Wise. For the next 10 points, name this king, who lead France to a recovery from the devastation of the first part of the Hundred Years' War.
Answer: _Charles V_
(10) The Bastille was first used as a prison during the tenure of this chief minister to Louis XIII. For your final 10 points, name His Red Eminence.
Answer: Cardinal _Richelieu_, Armand-Jean du Plessis
For 10 points each, name the following Princeton mathematicians:
One of the earliest proponents of game theory, this Hungarian-born mathematician also built one of the world's first computers at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Answer: John _von Neumann_ (NOI-man)
This mathematician lived with schizophrenia for almost thirty years, but recovered enough to receive the 1994 Nobel Prize in economics for his 1956 Ph.D. thesis on game theory.
Answer: John _Nash_
He is most famous for having invented the Game of Life, which is included in his massive 1982 work on game theory with Richard Guy and Elwyn Berlekamp, "Winning Ways: for your mathematical plays".
Answer: John _Conway_
Test your knowledge of 20th century opera composers other than Puccini and Britten. Identify them from works (15/10/5):

15: The opera "War and Peace"
10: The opera "The Love for Three Oranges"
5: The movie "Alexander Nevsky"
Answer: Sergei _Prokofiev_

15: The opera "Satyagraha"
10: The opera "Einstein on the Beach"
5: The movie "Kundun"
Answer: Philip _Glass_