These questions are for use in the Virginia High School ...



These questions are for use in the Virginia High School League’s Scholastic Bowl competition at the Region level. Shawn Pickrell, Marian Suter, Adam Fine, Chris Moretti, Susan Gallaher and Ross Irwin are the authors of these questions.

Regions must observe the following conditions, which must be known by all coaches, competitors and spectators of the competition:

(a) Release of these questions to any entity not affiliated with the Region competition or the schools that are members of the given Region, without prior approval of Shawn Pickrell, is prohibited. This is meant to keep question security.

(b) The discussion or other reference to these questions with other entities in the Commonwealth of Virginia that are associated in any way with the Scholastic Bowl competition before all Region champions have been determined is prohibited. This is also meant to keep question security.

(c) These questions may not be released AT ANY TIME to entities outside the Commonwealth of Virginia, except with prior approval of Shawn Pickrell. Discussion of these questions, however, is permitted between entities within and without the Commonwealth of Virginia This will apply to ANY entity in the Commonwealth of Virginia that receives these questions, be it directly from Shawn Pickrell or indirectly through various means.

First period: 15 tossups, worth 10 points

1. In what John Steinbeck novel does he attempt to tell the history of the Salinas Valley, provide a chronicle of two families in the valley, and recreate the Cain and Abel story? The story concerns the Trask family.

ANSWER: _ East of Eden _

2. He is unspeakably ugly, with tusk-like teeth and a wen over one eye, has bristling red hair and eyebrows and a snoutlike nose. Because of his appearance, the Paris crowd selects him King of Fools for the Epiphany celebrations of 1482. Who is this misshapen bell ringer in The Hunchback of Notre Dame?

ANSWER: _ Quasimodo _

3. He represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate until his expulsion in late 1861, becoming a Confederate general. In 1857, he became the youngest-ever Vice President of the United States, assuming that office at age 36. Who is this man that was the Southern Democrats' candidate for President in 1860?

answer: John C. _Breckenridge_

4. Chief Financial Officer Tim Howard and Chief Executive Officer Franklin Raines were forced to resign from this company in mid-December after a dispute over accounting. What is this company that buys mortgages, perhaps best known as the rival to Freddie Mac?

answer: _Fannie Mae_ or _Federal National Mortgage Association_

5. When looking at colloidal particles in the presence of light, a random movement of particles is apparent. What is this random movement called?

ANSWER: _Brownian_ movement

6. Among this company's more unusual lawsuit targets have been DaimlerChrysler and AutoZone. They have also sued Novell and IBM, and been sued by Red Hat. What is this firm that claims that Linux contains its intellectual property?

answer: _SCO_ Group (prompt on Caldera Systems or Caldera International)

7. On December 21, 2004, the Northern Bank in this city was the victim of the fourth-largest bank robbery in history. Thirty million pounds were stolen from the bank in -- what city, the capital of Northern Ireland?

answer: _Belfast_

8. At noon, Belinda was still asleep and dreamed that Ariel appeared to whisper praises of her beauty in her ear. He said that he had been sent to protect her because something dreadful -- what, he did not know -- was about to befall her. He also warned her to beware of jealousy, pride, and above all, men. These happenings occur in what well-known Alexander Pope mock-heroic epic poem?

ANSWER: The _ Rape of the Lock _

9. We see one when light passes through air layers of different density, causing refraction of the light and displacement of an image from where it is actually located. What is this optical illusion most familiar to thirsty people in the desert?

ANSWER: _mirage_

10. It was founded in 1867 by Oliver Kelley and was intended to be a social club. During the 1870s and 1880s, it became active in politics. The Supreme Court cases of Munn v. Illinois and the Wabash Case were landmarks for -- what American farming organization, also called the Patrons of Husbandry?

answer: National _Grange_, _Granger_ movement or _Grangers_

11. Today, this ship is known as the SeaRiver Mediterranean. It made a cameo appearance in the film _Waterworld_ under its original name. Captain Joseph Hazelwood led -- what ship into infamy on March 24, 1989, when it ran into Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, spilling 25 million gallons of crude oil?

answer: _Exxon Valdez_ (prompt on Valdez)

12. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the apparent oxidation number of nitrogen in this compound: (sodium nitrate) NaNO3.

ANSWER: plus _5_

13. Members of this group included Thomas Doughty, who also painted pictures of Mount Desert Island in Maine; Albert Bierstadt, who concentrated on the American West but later joined the group; and Frederic Church, a student of its founder, Thomas Cole. Identify this school of landscape artists who focused on the Catskill Mountains and a river in New York as principal subjects.

ANSWER: _Hudson River_ School

14. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the sum of 7/11 and 11/9, expressed as a reduced improper fraction?

ANSWER: _184/99_

15. Most readers are familiar with the carved wooden Pinocchio, but what is the name of the elderly man who carved Pinocchio to be his son?

ANSWER: _ Gepetto _

Second period, 10 directed questions per team, worth 10 points

Questions with an “A” after their number will be read to the team that selects set A of questions; questions with a “B” after their number will be read to the team that selects set B of questions.

1A. What month of the Jewish calendar is fairly important, as Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur all fall within it?

answer: _Tishri_ [TEE-shray]

1B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is 17.075, expressed as a reduced improper fraction?

ANSWER: _683/40_

2A. What city in South Carolina do both Furman University and Bob Jones University call home?

answer: _Greenville_, South Carolina

2B. Father Antonio and sons Francesco and Omobono were members of which most famous Italian violin-making family of the seventeenth and eighteenth century?

ANSWER: _Stradivari_ (accept _Stradivarius_)

3A. Mary Mapes Dodge wrote the children's classic Hans Brinker. What is the subtitle of this novel?

ANSWER: The _ Silver Skates _

3B. What name is given to a compound with both acid and base components in a single molecule?

answer: _zwitterion_s

4A. Which spacecraft carried David Scott and James Irwin to the Apennine Mountains, along with the first of three lunar rovers?

ANSWER: _Apollo 15_ (do not prompt on just "Apollo")

4B. Nouns that are used as subjects of verbs are said to be what case nouns?

ANSWER: _ Nominative _ case or accept subjective case

5A. x = r cos(phi) cos(theta) [r times the cosine of phi (fee) times the cosine of theta]. y = r cos(phi) sin(theta) [r times the cosine of phi times the sine of theta]. z = r sin(phi) [r times the sine of phi]. What coordinate system is based around these three Cartesian identities?

ANSWER: _Spherical_ Coordinates

5B. After the dismissal of Douglas MacArthur on April 11, 1951, who was made commander of U.S. forces in Korea?

answer: General Matthew _Ridgway_

6A. What element of car insurance covers damage caused by things such as vandalism, theft and natural disasters -- that is, anything other than a collision?

answer: _comprehensive_ insurance coverage

6B. What first President of South Vietnam was overthrown in a coup on November 2, 1963?

answer: Ngo [hwo] Dinh [din] _Diem_ [DEE-em]

7A. The German language has a unique letter that looks like the Greek letter beta. What two English letters is this letter usually represented as in English translation?

answer: _ss_ (accept two s's, double s or even s-z)

7B. Name the English novelist and satirist who wrote Pendennis, Henry Esmond and The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon.

ANSWER: William Makepeace _ Thackeray _

8A. Invert the digits of a binary number and then add one to the result. This is -- what method of generating negative binary numbers?

ANSWER: _two's complement_

8B. Name the Illinois-born astronomer who, as an assistant at Lowell Observatory, detected the planet Pluto on photographic plates on February 18, 1930.

ANSWER: Clyde William _ Tombaugh _

9A. What is the simplest phylum to have a coelom, a phylum that contains earthworms, leeches and marine worms?

ANSWER: _Annelida_ or _segmented worms_

9B. closed operations on December 18. It had been the largest community for -- what peer-to-peer sharing utility?

answer: _BitTorrent_

10A. How many "Wild Draw Four" cards are in a pack of UNO cards?

ANSWER: _four_

10B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Angle B of triangle ABC equals 75 degrees. Angle A equals 65 degrees. The side across from angle A is 5; what is the length of the side across from angle B, if the ratio of sin 75 to sin 65 is 213/200 and remembering to use the Law of Sines?

ANSWER: _213/40_ (sin 65 / 5 = sin 75 / B, cross-multiply, B sin 65 = 5 sin 75, divide by sin 65, B = 5 * (sin 75/sin 65), or 213/40.)

Third period, 15 toss-ups, worth 10 points

1. Her son from a previous marriage, Ull, was the god of skiing and archery. Other children included Modi, the god of battle-rage, and Thrud, a Valkyrie. One day Loki cut off her natural long, golden hair, and her despair caused death of crops and the winter season. Who was this harvest goddess, the wife of Thor, whose hair was replaced with a golden wig made from the sons of the dwarf Ivaldi?

ANSWER: _Sif_

2. These membranes form channels that connect the nuclear membrane and the cell membrane; also, they carry materials throughout the cell. What are they?

ANSWER: _Endoplasmic Reticulum_ (prompt on ER)

3. Born in 1812, this man put down the Nian Rebellion, executing its leaders through the "death of 10,000 cuts," and with 5000 volunteer troops crushed the Taiping Rebellion by 1864. He had been dead for over eighty years when New York restaurant owners used his name in Hunan cooking. Name this military man, namesake of a dark-meat deep-fried chicken dish.

ANSWER: _General Tso_ Tsungtang (or _General Zuo_ Zongtang, or even _General Cho_ Zongtang)

4. After Chancellor Kurt von Schusnigg [SHOOSH-nigg] was faced with a war threat, it became imminent. It formally occurred on March 12, 1938, and was subject to a popular referendum, which passed easily. What is this German word used to describe the union of Austria with Nazi Germany?

answer: _Anschluss_ (prompt on unification of "Germany and Austria")

5. You leave your hotel and hail a cab to take you to the airport. "Cab" is a shortened form of what word that refers to a two-wheeled one-horse carriage that has two seats and a folding top?

ANSWER: _ Cabriolet _ (kab-re-uh-lay)

6. Canadian general Romeo Dallaire is credited with saving the lives of over 20,000 people in this nation. The massacre started when its president and the president of neighboring Burundi were killed after their plane was shot down. In what country did Hutu extremists kill nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994?

answer: _Rwanda_

7. Earthworms mate by exchanging what cells?

ANSWER: _sperms_

8. Name the American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for her collection of verse _Live or Die_. Other collections include _To Bedlam and Part Way Back_ and _The Death Notebooks._ She was a contemporary of Sylvia Plath and, like Plath, took her own life.

ANSWER: Anne _ Sexton _

9. The following quotes are from this book of the Bible. "For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!" "The wages of sin is death." In what Epistle of Paul are they found?

answer: _Romans_ (accept Romans 10:10 after the first sentence)

10. Its borders are as follows: To the east, 110 degrees west longitude. To the west, 120 degrees west longitude and the Continental Divide. To the south, the 49th parallel. To the north, the 60th parallel. These are the borders of -- what Canadian province whose capital is Edmonton?

answer: _Alberta_

11. In Section Four, the United States is obligated to ensure a "Republican Form of Government" in each state. In Section Three, the process of admitting new states is outlined. In Section Two, the process of extradition between states is outlined. What Article of the US Constitution contains a Section One that includes the "full faith and credit" clause?

answer: Article _Four_

12. What conic section is defined as the set of all points in a plane such that the sum of the distance from two fixed points, or foci, is a constant?

ANSWER: _Ellipse_

13. This word from the French language refers to a method of training a horse to carry out a predetermined routine of specified movements, and points are awarded for discipline and style. What is this term, which comes from the French word for "preparation"?

ANSWER: _ Dressage _ (druh-SAZH)

14. Human beings share our biological order with only two other types of animals, monkeys and apes. What is our order name?

ANSWER: _Primates_ or _Primata_

15. She released her debut album, _Touch_, in 1988. Since then, this Canadian has sold over 22 million albums and won the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Visionary Award in 1998 for advancing the careers of women in music. Three-time Grammy winner for "Last Dance," "I Will Remember You," and "Building the Mystery," who is this founder of the Lilith Fair whose current album is entitled _Afterglow_?

ANSWER: Sarah _McLachlan_

Spare questions

Try to replace the question discarded with the spare question in a subject area – i.e. science for science, social studies for social studies, etc.) Be sure to mark off the questions as they are used.

1. A wolf dog is rescued from its brutal owner and gradually becomes domesticated through the patience and kindness of its new owner, Weedon Scott. The dog eventually defends Scott’s father from attack by an escaped convict in what novella, written by Jack London?

ANSWER: _ White Fang _

2. On Christmas Day 1989 he conducted a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, complete with a rewording of the "Ode to Joy." The ballet _Dybbuk_, the opera _A Quiet Place_, and the Jeremiah Symphony were among the works of which American composer, also responsible for the music to "West Side Story"?

ANSWER: Leonard _Bernstein_

3. The leading architectural sites for this civilization are at La Venta and Tres Zapotes [trays zah-POH-tays]. Their artwork consists of small jade figures, especially of jaguars, and their characteristic giant stone heads. What is this early civilization in Mesoamerica, that flourished between 1200 and 800 BC?

answer: _Olmec_

4. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. A number, when divided by two, has a result that is six more than the quotient of this number divided by five. What is the number?

ANSWER: _20_

5. Leptons, including electrons, have a spin of 1/2, and so do these objects, which never exist by themselves. Objects made up of them are called hadrons. What are these subatomic particles, which come in six "flavors?"

answer: _quark_s

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