Moc Masters '02 - Stanford University



TOSSUPS – EMORY (LKW) MOC MASTERS 2002 -- UT-CHATTANOOGA

Questions (mostly) by Laura White, KC Frodyma, and Clay Hambrick

1. It's not your typical Arthurian legend: Guinevere, Merlin, and Lancelot are nowhere in sight, as the pursuit of a mysterious woman has drawn Arthur to Faerie Land, where he meets the virtues of holiness and chastity--or at least their respective human representations, the knights Redcrosse and Britomart. FTP, name this allegory for the religious climate of Elizabethan England, the greatest work of Edmund Spenser.

Answer: The FAERIE QUEENE

2. Richard Dawkins coined the word in The Selfish Gene to describe a means by which cultural evolution can occur. From the Greek for "something imitated" it refers to a unit of information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that replicates within a culture. Picked up by hackers and web surfers, FTP name this word that you might now use to describe an idea, file or website that bounces around the Internet community, ie: "Bert is Evil."

Answer: a MEME

3. Although he'd had just 24 hours of in-flight training before his first solo flight, this man took to the air--and the machines and weapons used in it--very quickly, becoming so feared in the air that British forces named a single month "Bloody April" after he attained 21 air victories against British pilots in that month. By the time he was shot down by Canadian pilot Roy Brown, he had 80 victories his name. FTP, give the real name of this greatest German WWI flying ace and famous enemy of Snoopy.

Answer: Manfred von RICHTHOFEN (prompt on "Red Baron")

4. First and last name's the same, so to earn points, you'll have to give both. Both of these men are biologists: the first a Stanford professor who shared the 1990 Crafoord Prize with E.O. Wilson, and the second the German winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1908. The American has authored Human Natures and The Population Bomb. The German discovered Salvarsan, the first effective treatment for syphilis. FTP, give the common name.

Answer: Paul EHRLICH

5. Born in New Jersey in 1753, this man's military career included a brief stint on the staff of Benedict Arnold, which would not be the first time he came too close to treachery for some people's comfort. He was the first source of power for the New York political machine of Tammany Hall, using it to win a seat in the New York legislature before running for President. FTP, name this first vice-president under Thomas Jefferson and rival of Alexander Hamilton.

Answer: Aaron BURR [yes, it’s fine if they mumble it]

6. "The story you are about to hear is a fib, but it's short. The names are made up, but the problems are real." Such problems included "The Case of the Strategic Weather Initiative," "The Case of the Parking Meter Massacre," "The Case of the Masked Avenger," and "The Case of the Willing Parrot." FTP, name this 15 minute short from PBS where the good guys wore calculator holsters and sported the motto "to cogitate and solve."

Answer: MATHNET

7. "On the Great Alkali Plain," "The Flower of Utah," "John Ferrier Talks With the Prophet," "A Flight for Life," and "The Avenging Angels" all deal with a murder among the founding Mormons of Utah. They're accompanied by chapter 7, the Conclusion, and Chapter 6, "A Continuation of the Reminiscences of John Watson, M.D," which all together make up "The Country of the Saints," part two (and the considerably less interesting half) of, FTP, what Arthur Conan Doyle novel?

Answer: A STUDY IN SCARLET

8. Possibly the most famous formula in electrochemistry, this equation relates the actual potential of a galvanic cell with the difference between its theoretical potential and the concentrations of species in solution in the cell.

Answer: The NERNST equation

9. They were organized into three unequal division: the cemaat, bolukhalki, and segban. Commanded by an aga, originally celibacy was a requirement, but that was abandoned by the late 16th century. By the late 18th century the original method of recruiting was abandoned. Described in Ivo Andric’s novel The Bridge on the Drina, it consisted of kidnapping Christian youths from the Balkans, who were then converted to Islam. They were finally put down in the Auspicious Incident in 1826, when Sultan Mahmud II declared war on them and exterminated them. FTP, name this elite Ottoman military force.

Answer: Janissary

10. Michael Chabon writes that these "have a hundred variants, from the clay calf that was summoned to life and promptly eaten by two hungry rabbis… to such refinements as von Frankenstein's [man] of quilted corpses, and Gepetto's wooden son." And in writing The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Chabon did considerable research on these creatures in order to describe the most famous of them. FTP, name this mythical creations, the best known of which was shaped from the clay of the River Moldau by the Rabbi Loew of Prague.

Answer: GOLEMs

11. A number of version of completed forms of this work exist, but the best-known is by the composer's student Franz Sussmeyer. The result is one of the most famous masses today, commissioned by Count Walsegg-Stuppach for his dead wife--and, possibly, for the ability to claim the music as his own. FTP, name this work which is now rightly attributed to the composer who died while writing it, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Answer: the REQUIEM

12. When unpolarized light passes through an ordinary polarizer, its electric field becomes constant in direction, but varies in magnitude. This is called linear polarization. However, when unpolarized light passes through a quarter-wave plate, its electric field becomes constant in magnitude, but its orientation rotates. FTP what is the term given to this type of polarization?

Answer: CIRCULAR polarization

13. You can hear his voice in the background on track three of REM's album "Document," saying: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" The song is "Exhuming McCarthy," and the comment is in response to the senator from Wisconsin's claim that one of this lawyer's associates was a member of a communist organization. FTP, name this frail-looking head of the army council who finally skewered Joseph McCarthy on national television.

Answer: Joseph N. WELCH

14. The Vatican may not have known about this thinker's childhood habit of referring to his collection of natural artifacts as "idols," but it was quite upset enough at his assertion that holiness resided within the material world rather than outside of it. He fared better in the scientific community, playing an important part in the discovery of the famous Piltdown Man, but this was revealed to be a hoax, and suspicions even exist of his conspiring to forge the skull in the first place. FTP, name this paleontologist who is remembered today for his efforts to combine science and religion to explain the theory of evolution.

Answer: Pierre TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

15. If the king of Thebes had only listened to his grandfather or his seer, he probably wouldn't have met such a violent and untimely end. Both Cadmus and Tiresias warned Pentheus about opposing the will of a god. In an attempt to spy on the rites of a group of Maenads, Pentheus dresses in drag, joins the ceremony, and gets ripped limb from limb by a group of women, one of whom is his own mother. FTP, name this bloody tragedy by Euripides that centers around the cult of Dionysus.

Answer: The BACCHAE

16. It was the trial of the century—the 19th century, that is. It began in 1894 when a man was convicted of treason and sent to the penal colony Devil’s Island. Over the next few years, however, evidence of his innocence began to pile up. The scandal ended in 1899 when the accused was finally pardoned by the French president. FTP, identify the affair of this French army captain which prompted Emile Zola to write his famous 1898 letter, “J’accuse”.

Answer: The DREYFUS Affair

17. Easily visible to the unaided eye, this asterism is called "the rainy stars;" either because their rise introduces the rainy autumn season, or because they are nymphs who wept over their brother Hyas after he was killed by a boar. FTP, name this cluster in Taurus which composes the bull's V-shaped head.

Answer: the HYADES

18. Based on data compiled between 1861 and 1957, it demonstrates that when aggregate demand is expanded, unemployment is lowered at the cost of higher inflation. If aggregate demand is contracted, inflation is lowered at the cost of temporarily higher unemployment. FTP, name this curvethat illustrates the short-run tradeoff between unemployment and inflation.

Answer: the PHILLIPS curve

19. Astute moviegoers might have noticed that several scenes in 1999's "Chicken Run,"—most notably Ginger's time spent in solitary confinement—were lifted almost directly from this John Sturges film. Based on the true story of a group of British and American prisoners of war interred together during the second world war, this 1963 film dramatized the story of 75 POWs who managed to tunnel out of their high-security prison camp. FTP, name this film staring Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, and Steve McQueen.

Answer: THE GREAT ESCAPE

20. His novels include The Temple of Gold, Your Turn to Curtsy, My Turn to Bow, Soldier in the Rain, and his recently re-released his first novel, Boys and Girls Together. He also has 2 Oscars for screenwriting, and has said the Cliffs of Insanity were his model for a certain cliff from which Paul Newman and Robert Redford jumped. Perhaps he’s best known for his "retelling" of a fairy tale which answered the question "what happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince in the world— and he turns out to be a son of a bitch?" FTP, name this contemporary American novelist.

Answer: William GOLDMAN

21. The lyrics come from a 13th-century manuscript which was found in 1803 in the Benedictine abbey of Benediktbeuern in Germany. It is said that when the composer first saw a printed edition of the manuscript, in 1888, “the poems changed his entire career”. FTP, name this secular cantata by Carl Orff, whose most famous song is the opening “O Fortuna”.

Answer: CARMINA BURANA

22. The name's the same. It refers either to reservists recruited in 1916 as part of an auxillary force of the Royal Irish Constabulary, known for their brutality and distinctive uniforms. Or it's an alcoholic density experiment involving Bass and Guiness. FTP, give the nickname of this Ireland-based British force found complicit in Bloody Sunday, or the drink named after them.

Answer: BLACK AND TANs

23. The son of the king of Aegina, this Argonaut lived a homocide-filled life, killing first his half-brother Phocus, and then, while on the Calydonian boar hunt, his father-in-law Eurytion. However, his most dangerous encounter was with Astydameia, wife of King Acastus, whose unrequited love for him caused the suicide of his first wife and the pillaging of his adopted country, Iolcus. Astydameia's treachery had one good effect, however: the beginning of his friendship with the centaur Chiron, who later raised his son. FTP, name this husband of Thetis and father of Achilles.

Answer: PELEUS

24. An attack against Darwinian theories of gradualism in paleontology, this 1972 proposal points out that the fossil record shows evidence for long intervals of stasis followed by short, revolutionary transitions in which species become extinct and replaced by wholly new forms. FTP, name this evolutionary theory proposed by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, sometimes referred to as "Punk Eek."

Answer: PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIA (or PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM)

25. We never find out his name. We only know from his story that he was thrown out of school for letting a white benefactor witness some black men start a riot. In his new job in New York, he works at a paint factory until a boiler explodes and he gets lobotomized. Eventually he joins "the brotherhood," for which he writes and ends up speaking out against to incite a full scale riot, then exiles himself underground to a room full of lights. FTP, identify this character, and you'll give the title of the Ellison novel I've just described.

Answer: INVISIBLE MAN [note: do not accept "THE Invisible Man."]

BONI – EMORY (LKW) MOC MASTERS 2002 -- UT-CHATTANOOGA

Questions (mostly) by Laura White, KC Frodyma, and Clay Hambrick

1. FTSNOP, given a description of a limiting value in astrophysics, name it.

5: The minimum distance from a singularity from which light can escape, based on the mass of the singularity.

Answer: SCHWARTZSCHILD RADIUS

10: The maximum mass that a white dwarf can have without collapsing into a neutron star or black hole, equal to about 1.44 solar masses.

Answer: CHANDRASEKHAR LIMIT

15: The minimum mass a dust or gas cloud with a given temperature and density must have in order to collapse into stars.

Answer: JEANS mass

2. Name the Hemingway work from clues (10-5):

10: "Characters" in this book include the real personalities Ezra Pound, Ford Maddox Ford, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

5: Posthumously published, this is an autobiographical account of Hemingway's pre-novelist days in Paris.

Answer: A MOVEABLE FEAST

10: This novel is infused with sport--characters are boxers, bullfighters, fishermen--possibly as a way of showing how its legions of insecure male characters compensate.

5: All those "insecure males" have reasons: one is impotent, one is the victim of anti-Semitism--and all are scarred by the shadow of WWI.

Answer: THE SUN ALSO RISES

10: The three parts of this novel are called "Bimini," "Cuba," and "At Sea."

5: The main character is Thomas Hudson, an artist loosely based on Hemingway himself.

Answer: ISLANDS IN THE STREAM

3. Identify the following ancient peoples of Central America FTPE.

10) Their domain included Guatemala and the Yucatan peninsula. Famous for their Long Count calendar, their cities included Copan, Tikal, and Palenque.

Answer: Maya

10) The Maya were preceded by this culture, centered in San Lorenzo. They built clay pyramids, and introduced the bar and dot counting system and the calendar.

Answer: Olmec

10) This culture rose to prominence between the time of the Maya and the Aztecs. Their artistic style can be seen in some of the buildings of Chichen Itza, and at their capital, Tula.

Answer: Toltec

4. There may indeed be a penguin on the telly, depending on what animated works are on. FTPE name these penguins:

a) Don Adams was the voice of this illogically-named TV penguin whose sidekick was the walrus Chumley.

Answer: Tennessee Tuxedo

b) In Nick Park’s Oscar-winning short The Wrong Trousers, Wallace takes this nefarious crook in as a lodger.

Answer: Feathers McGraw (accept either name)

c) In Toy Story 2, two different performers supply the voice of this toy penguin that Woody tries to rescue from the yard sale – Joe Ranft before the throat problem is fixed, and Robert Goulet as his singing voice at the end.

Answer: Wheezy

5. Identify the following folks associated with intelligence testing, FTPE.

(A) This British mathematician argued that conversation was the key to determining system intelligence. His test of artificial intelligence is still considered the holy grail of the subject today.

Answer: Alan TURING

(B) This French psychologist developed the formula for calculating intelligence quotient by dividing mental age by biological age while studying mentally retarded schoolchildren. The 1908 version of his test has remained the basis of IQ testing to the present day.

Answer: Alfred BINET (Bih-nay)

(C) As president of the American Psychological Association during World War I, this man assisted military efforts by developing a group test of intelligence called the Army Alpha. He is also known for his work with primates.

Answer: Robert YERKES

6. Identify the architects based on a description FTPE.

(10) A hallmark of his designs is a systemized ground plan, with a central hall surrounded by rooms grouped in absolute symmetry. He designed the Teatro Olimpico, complete with permanent scenery with architectural perspective. The Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery is designed in a style reminiscent of his.

Answer: Andrea PALLADIO

(10) Prince Eugene of Savoy commissioned him to build his Winter Palace in Vienna and to collaborate with Johann von Hildebrandt on Eugene’s Summer Palace. His most famous work is the Kalskirche or Church of San Carlo Borromeo, built in an opulent Italian style.

Answer: Johann Bernhard Fischer von ERLACH

(10) He, along with Amedee Ozenfant, founded the architectural journal L’Esprit Nouveau. Essentially a functionalist, he focused on modern materials like ferroconcrete, sheet glass, and synthetics. His most famous works include Palace for The League of Nations, Unite d’Habitation, and Notre Dame-du-Haut.

Answer: LE CORBUISIER or Charles-Edouard JEANNERET

7. Give the name of the following common chromosomal disorders from a description, for fifteen points each.

(A) In this chromosomal abnormality, an embryo receives only a single X chromosome and no Y chromosome. Such a person will develop into an anatomical female, but lack secondary sex characteristics.

TURNER'S syndrome

(B) Infants born with this syndrome, a trisomy of chromosome 18 die within the first few weeks of birth, and show a generalized phenotype that includes small, pointed ears, an undersized jaw, a narrow pelvis, and malformed feet.

EDWARDS syndrome

8. FTPE name these characters from Joseph Heller's Catch-22.

(A) Both his name and his most-repeated statement evoke the cold; his death haunts Yossarian throughout the novel.

Answer: SNOWDEN

(B) This woman who has an affair with Yossarian has very strong feelings about the characteristics of a God who she doesn't believe exists.

Answer: MRS. SCHEISSKOPF (or LT. SCHEISSKOPF'S WIFE)

(C) This character, who, despite what he keeps telling everyone, is officially dead, is the first person to explain the dreaded Catch-22 to Yossarian.

Answer: Doc DANEEKA

9. Given the subtitle of a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, name it FTP; if you need characters names, you get 5 points.

10: “The Town of Titipu”

5: Nanki-Poo, Yum-Yum, Pooh-Bah, Ko-Ko, and the title character

Answer: The MIKADO

10: “Bunthorne’s Bride”

5: Reginald Bunthorne, Archibald Grovesnor, the Lady Jane, Lieutenant the Duke of Dunstable, and the title character

Answer: PATIENCE

10: “The Gods Grown Old”

5: Jupiter, Apollo, Sillimon, Preposteros, and the title character

Answer: THESPIS

10. "Star Trek" humanoid species, invertebrates, both, or neither? Given the name of a real or fictional group of organisms, tell which category it falls under, five points each:

(5) Betazoids

Answer: STAR TREK ALIENS

(5) Tunicates

Answer: INVERTEBRATES

(5) Maalons

Answer: STAR TREK ALIENS

(5) Talaxians

Answer: STAR TREK ALIENS

(5) Cylons

Answer: NEITHER (they’re robots from Battlestar: Galactica)

(5) Trematodes

Answer: INVERTEBRATES

11. FTP, name the poet given the full text of an incredibly short poem, If you need the title, you’ll receive 5 points.

10: “I have eaten /the plums /that were in /the icebox /and which /you were probably /saving /for breakfast /Forgive me /they were delicious / so sweet /and so cold”

5: “This is Just to Say”

Answer: William Carlos WILLIAMS

10: “The apparition of these faces in a crowd: petals on a wet, black bough”

5: “In a Station of the Metro”

Answer: Ezra POUND

10: The youth walks up to the white horse, to put its halter on

and the horse looks at him in silence.

They are so silent, they are in another world.

5: “The White Horse”

Answer: D.H. LAWRENCE

12. How well do you know your elements with atomic numbers over 100? FTPE, given the number of an element, name it; if you need its symbol and the origin of its name, , you’ll get only 5 pts..

(A) 10: Element 106

5: Sg; named for a Nobel-winning American nuclear chemist who discovered 10 elements, including this one.

Answer: SEABORGIUM

(B) 10: Element 109

5: Mt, named for the Austrian nuclear physicist, who is widely credited, along with Otto Frisch, with discovering the theoretical basis for nuclear fission.

Answer: MEITNERIUM

(C) 10: Element 111

5: It is still called by the IUPAC (I-U-pac) notation based on the Latin word for its atomic number. This element’s name is rather repetitive, which is reflected in its symbol: Uuu.

Answer: UNUNUNIUM

13. For ten points each, identify the Third Edition Dungeons and Dragons character class from a description.

[10] This class rolls a d12 for its hit points. The only class unable to read without expending skill points, at any time in battle a member of this class can fly into a blood frenzy.

Answer: Barbarian

[10] This class rolls a d8 for its hit points. While members of this class cannot use most weapons without penalty, as they gain levels they gain such special abilities as Ki strike, evasion and the quivering palm.

Answer: Monk

[10] This class rolls a d4 for its hit points, like Wizards. Unlike Wizards, members of this class have no spellbooks and no mentors; rather, their magic is raw power directed at will.

Answer: Sorcerer

14. Answer the following about bodies of water in WWI, FTPE.

a) The campaign began with a naval bombardment, and ended nearly a year later with a complete evacuation of Entente forces. British casualties exceeded 200,000. This was the battle for what strait, fought most prominently on the peninsula of Gallipoli?

Answer: The DARDANELLES

b) This river in the Middle East was the site of major British-Ottoman fighting, including the British capture, and subsequent humiliating loss, of Kut-al-Amara. British fortunes in the area were reversed, however, with the appointment of Sir Frederick Stanley Maude as regional Commander-in-Chief, and repeated successes finally led to complete British victory in the region in late 1918.

Answer: The TIGRIS

c) This river in modern-day Slovenia formed the border between Italy and Austria-Hungary during the War, and was the site of no fewer than twelve battles as the Italians, under the command of Luigi Cadorna, tried unsuccessfully to break the Austro-Hungarian entrenchments.

Answer: The ISONZO

15. 5-10-15, given a lover of Zeus, and her child by him, give the form in which he appeared to her.

5: Europa, mother of Minos

Answer: BULL

10: Danaë, mother of Perseus

Answer: SHOWER of GOLD (accept equivalents)

15: Alcmene, mother of Heracles

Answer: AMPHITRITON (accept HER HUSBAND)

16. 5-10-15, given a description of the differential form of one of Maxwell’s equations, name it.

5: The divergence of the electric field is equal to the electric charge density (rho) divided by the permittivity of free space (epsilon-nought).

Answer: GAUSS’S LAW

10: The divergence of the magnetic field is zero (since there are no magnetic monopoles).

Answer: GAUSS’S LAW for MAGNETISM

15: The curl of the electric field is equal to the negative time-derivative of the magnetic field.

Answer: FARADAY’S LAW

17. 5-10-15, Identify the fictional horses.

(5) Don Quixote's trusty steed.

Answer: ROCINANTE

(10) In The Lord of the Rings, this horse of Rohan was tamed by Gandalf and reluctantly gifted to him by King Théoden of Rohan.

Answer: SHADOWFAX

(15) A broken down nag, he was Ichabod Crane's horse in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

Answer: GUNPOWDER

18. Given an island, give the highest point on that island, FTSNOP:

5: Honshu

Answer: Mt. FUJI or FUJIYAMA

5: Hawaii

Answer: MAUNA KEA

10: Britain

Answer: BEN NEVIS

10: Australia

Answer: Mt. KOSCIUSZKO

19. Identify the historical figure from clues (30-20-10):

30: One of this monarch's religious influences was to have Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer instituted as the official handbook of the Anglican Church.

20: One of the most influential figures in his reign was John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who began England's siege of confiscating property from the Catholic Church.

10: Since he was never of majority age during his reign, his first regent was his uncle, Edward Seymour.

Answer: EDWARD VI

20. Given a description of a heresy condemned by the Catholic Church, name it, FTPE.

(A) It was introduced on a large scale by Julius Cassianus. It is a product of Gnostic belief that matter is evil, and teaches that Jesus' physical body was only an illusion, since a physical body could not be good. Indeed, they believed that Jesus' main objective was to deliver us from the dominion of matter

Answer: DOCETISM

(B) Noetus of Smyrna first proposed this doctrine around the turn of the third century, and it was accepted and popularized by Sabellius at the beginning of the third century; for this reason it is sometimes called the Sabellian heresy. It holds that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three distinct entities, but merely aspects or faces of the same entity. Thus it is also called patripassianism, since it implies that the Father also suffered the crucifixion.

Answer: MONARCHIANISM (also accept MODALISM or UNITARIANISM)

(C) This heresy strays to the opposite extreme of Monarchianism. Its creator was excommunicated for his teachings that Jesus was a created being. He denied the Trinity because he believed that if Jesus is begotten, he must be a created being and capable of falling from grace, and that if Jesus was a created being, he could not be God.

Answer: ARIANISM

21. Given an airplane control, identify the type of motion it controls, for ten points each.

(A) Ailerons

Answer: ROLL

(B) Rudder

Answer: YAW

(C) Elevator

Answer: PITCH

22. For ten points each, name the following important cases in which the ACLU played a role.

(10) In this 1969 case, the ACLU successfully sued on behalf of several high school students, who had been suspended for wearing black armbands to school in protest against the Vietnam War.

Answer: TINKER v. DES MOINES School District

(10) In this 1968 case, the ACLU successfully advocated for the striking down of a state policy forbidding the teaching of evolution in public schools.

Answer: EPPERSON v. ARKANSAS

(10) In this 1957 case, the ACLU successfully advocated for the overturning of the conviction of a labor leader for failing to answer questions about membership in the Communist Party.

Answer: WATKINS v. UNITED STATES

23. For ten points each, identify the Florida county by its role in the 2000

presidential election:

(A) In this county, dozens of voters were unable to vote because of staff shortages that resulted in an election staff not large enough to verfy voters' changes of address.

Answer: BROWARD

(B) In this county, Hispanic voters complained that they were required to produce two forms of ID, while other races needed only one.

Answer: OSCEOLA

(C) In this county, the infamous "butterfly ballot" caused a surprisingly high number of votes for Independent Pat Buchanan.

Answer: PALM BEACH

24. 30-20-10, name the man.

30: His father may have invented Lifesavers candies, but this man could have used a real lifesaver when he committed suicide by jumping overboard into the Gulf of Mexico.

20: His first work, White Buildings, was inspired by his life in New York.

10: FTP name this poet of The Bridge, a 15-part poem about the industrial age in the United States in which the Brooklyn Bridge serves as a unifying symbol.

Answer: [Harold] HART CRANE

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