TOSSUPS – ROUND N



TOSSUPS – VANDERBILT SWORD BOWL 2007 (UTC/Oklahoma/Drake)

Questions by Tony McCall and Paul Gauthier

1. One unintended benefit of it was the creation of the OECD, the group that studies international economic issues, because it needed a body to oversee its funds. James Byrnes proposed an early version of it, and British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin and French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault worked to secure Soviet exclusion from it. Proposed by its namesake in his 1947 Harvard commencement address, FTP, name this bulwark against Soviet expansion that sought to strengthen Europe by allocating $13 billion for reconstruction.

Answer: Marshall Plan or European Recovery Program

2. His 1972 Duck Variations, a work about two Jewish men discussing topics about which they lack knowledge, helped cement his reputation as an exponent of new realism, a style with natural language and a limited number of characters. His more recent plays, such as The Cryptogram and The Old Neighborhood, touch on semiautobiographical themes. His play American Buffalo served as a critique of American capitalism by portraying the action around a Chicago junk store and its unethical business. The 1984 Pulitzer Prize winner for a drama about real estate agents, FTP, name the author of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Answer: David Mamet

3. On its eastern edge lies the Ustyurt Plateau, while its southern shore forms the northern boundary of the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan. Once having more than 1000 islands, this “Sea of Islands” consists of three separate bodies of water, with the northern connected to the two southern bodies by a channel, which is currently bridged by the Kokaral Dike. Once the fourth largest inland lake, the diversion of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya into Soviet irrigation and hydroelectric power projects have caused its waters to recede, leaving a large desert in its wake. FTP, name this Eurasian saltwater lake shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Answer: Aral Sea

4. Nuclear fusion of this remains unworkable because the Lawson criterion remains unfilled, meaning that the confinement time multiplied by its density is less than 1014 since ordinary materials are unable to hold it. Magnetic confinement of it has proved fruitless, although Sakharov’s tokamak offered initially positive results. Although it appears artificially in neon lamps, it only occurs naturally on Earth via lightning. FTP, name this collection of neutral particles, including positively charged ions and negative electrons, the fourth state of matter.

Answer: Plasma

5. He painted the Chapel of the Angels in Saint Sulpice. His Jewish Bride, Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable, Moroccan Saddling his Horse, and The Lion Hunt were all inspired by his time as a diplomat in Morocco, while Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missalonghi showed his sympathies with Greek revolution. The 1822 Barque of Dante was his first major success. FTP identify this French painter of The Death of Sardanopolus, Massacre at Chios, Women of Algiers, and Liberty Leading the People.

Answer: Eugene Delacroix

6. Before the hero of this work can perform his delivery, Ilia and Colin of the Ordon Village are captured by monsters; upon attempting a rescue, the hero is defeated and imprisoned beneath a castle. Here, as a wolf, the hero encounters Midna, a mysterious Twili that seeks his aid in retrieving a weapon called the Fused Shadow to defeat Zant, who has clouded the world in darkness. After a sacrifice by the captive princess to save Midna's life, the hero is forced to find the Master Sword and defeat Zant and Ganondorf, saving the kingdom of Hyrule yet again. FTP, name this latest installment of the Legend of Zelda series.

Answer: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess [prompt on Legend of Zelda; can’t accept Link]

7. Known as the thousand eyed one, he received the eye-like symbols that cover his body as a result of a curse placed on him by a sage. Despite his earlier popularity for feats like defeating the dragon Vritra, he soon became a less popular figure compared to the Trimurti and was often criticized for his overindulgent ways like drinking too much soma, a divine drink of sacrifice. FTP, name this Vedic god of battle and storms who fathered Arjuna and carried the thunderbolt.

Answer: Indra

8. One story claims that this man was unable to afford a funeral because of excessive charitable giving. He lost nine-tenths of his army at the battle of Montgisard, and was on his way to fight his nominal overlord Nur ad-Din, when the latter died. He unsuccessfully besieged Tyre twice and was defeated at Arsuf by Richard I, but personally executed Raynald de Chatillon after his most famous victory. Founder of the Ayyubid Caliphate, FTP identify this victor of the battle of Hattin, who reconquered Jerusalem and became famous in the west for his chivalry.

Answer: Saladin

9. He demonstrated that sickle-cell anemia was the result of changes in the hemoglobin molecule, which were genetically inherited. As a chemist, his research concerned the importance of quantum mechanics in molecular attraction by determining the lengths and angular momentums of atomic and molecular structures. More importantly, his work on electronegativity developed the scale by which we determine ease of electron attraction and how electrons interact via covalent bonding. FTP, name this Nobel Laureate with the unique distinction of winning prizes in Chemistry and Peace.

Answer: Linus Pauling

10. Traditionally, they make use of two important features, a kigo, which establishes the temporal setting, and the kireji, which punctuates this work’s thought development. Developed under Zen Buddhism, it is considered a means by which one can achieve satori or enlightenment because of the evocative effect that writers like Buson and Issa mastered. Its roots come from the renga, a linked verse, as well as the initial part of the tanka. Elevated by the great master Basho and characterized by an unrhymed 5-7-5 syllabic line scheme, FTP, name this poetic form of Japan.

Answer: Haiku [MODERATOR: Feel free to respond with “Gesundheit.”]

11. Today we can no longer see evidence of it because consumers have changed the way in which they develop expectations about increases in the rate of inflation, leading to the rational expectations revolution and the increasing ineffectiveness of the inflation surprise as a policy. In the 1970s, stagflation disproved this concept because high unemployment was accompanied by high inflation, supporting the idea of a natural rate of unemployment. FTP, name this economic device used throughout the 1950s and 60s because economists believed that there were tradeoffs between inflation and unemployment.

Answer: Phillips Curve

12. Among the members of this phylum, Oligochaetes rely on burrowing, because they lack the numerous setae and parapodia possessed by polychaetes. Most in the phylum, however, require these structures for locomotion in addition to the fluid-filled coelum that provides the flexibility necessary for movement. Its smallest class Hirudinea creates an anticoagulant via its saliva that medicinally is being used to create drugs that can reduce heart attacks, although traditionally they have been used to remove “bad blood”. FTP, name this invertebrate phylum of segmented worms, exemplified by leeches and earthworms.

Answer: Annelida or annelids

13. Ruffina Onissimovna has an intense dislike for one of the principal characters, who comes to board with her in The Advent of the Inevitable. She arrives there with a fever, and leaves after receiving 10,000 rubles as a bonus for the graduation of Lipa, a young girl for whom she had served as governess. She arrived after seeing the man she was destined to love for only the second time and after making an attempt on the life of Komarovsky, a lawyer with whom she had had an affair. That girl, Lara Antipova, eventually falls in love with the titular doctor of, FTP, what novel by Boris Pasternak?

Answer: Doctor Zhivago

14. Dositheus and Menander were leading pagan exponents of it, and it is debated whether Apelles and Marcion should be grouped with its adherents. Cerinthus, Epiphanes and Carpocrates were noted Christian exponents along with Isidore and his father Basilides. Tatian founded the Encratite variety, and the oriental school of Theodotus, Harmonius, and Bardesanes and the Italian school of Ptolemy, Heracleon, and Florinus both stemmed from the school of Valentinus. While elements appear in such pseudepigraphic works as the Odes of Solomon and the Acts of Thomas and have been incorporated into some New Age schools of thought, the Mandaeans of Iraq are considered the only extant practitioners. FTP give the collective name of this group of pagan sects and early Christian heresies, whose name derives from the Greek for “knowledge.”

Answer: Gnosticism

15. The mythos surrounding his midnight capture of the capital city from the Rashidi amirs has elevated him to legendary status. With the aid of a pantribal military-religious group called the Ihkwan, he quickly expanded his dominion after his victory at Turabah in 1919 by incorporating the remainder of the Najd and Ha’il. After several years spent courting wider diplomatic recognition, he consolidated his realm in its current national form in 1932. Installing the militant Wahhabism as the state religion FTP, name this first king of Saudi Arabia.

Answer: Ibn Saud or ‘Abd al-Aziz al Sa’ud

16. Two quarter notes followed by a quarter note triplet is known as this composer’s rhythm. A devout Catholic, his frequent ill-fated infatuations with teenage girls provided much of the impetus for his 9 symphonies, which exist in multiple conflicting versions thanks to his chronic insecurity. Encouraged by Wagner and Mahler, he would on occasion hire orchestras to perform his music until the success of his seventh symphony. Famous for creating “cathedrals of sound,” his works include the curiously numbered symphonies 0 and 00. FTP name this Austrian composer, whose symphonies include no. 8 “Apocalyptic” and no. 4 “Romantic.”

Answer: Anton Bruckner

17. It was the first film to be released with a PG-13 rating, and it appeared in the Guinness Book of World records at the time as the most violent film ever, averaging 2.23 acts of violence per minute. Peter Griffin sang in a musical version of it, and the inscription in its closing shot reveals it took place at the outbreak of World War III. Featuring combat between resistance fighters called wolverines and soldiers commanded by a South American officer, FTP name this 1984 film starring C. Thomas Howell and Patrick Swayze, in which high school kids fight off a Soviet invasion of the United States.

Answer: Red Dawn

18. It opens with a famine and the creation of the office of tribune. When the protagonist distinguishes himself by fighting his archrival Tullus Aufidius in single combat and taking a town from Tullus’ army he is awarded a title by the Senate and runs for consul, only to have the tribunes Sicinius and Brutus turn the plebeians against him, prompting him to give a lengthy speech on his dislike of democracy and leaves Rome. Returning with a Volscian army, he lays siege to Rome until he is swayed by the entreaties of his mother Volumnia and his family. FTP identify the this Shakespeare play, whose title the Reduced Shakespeare company noted had the same comic potential as Uranus.

Answer: Coriolanus

19. A fourth, more northerly route opened in 1984, almost 100 years after finance minister Sergei Witte [VIT-tuh] supervised the bulk of its creation. One key junction is at Ulan Ude, center of the Buddhist Buryat culture which is experiencing a post-Soviet resurgence. While the city Novosibirsk developed at its bridge over the Ob, it was generally designed to avoid going through major cities. A difference of gauge still causes long delays on both the Mongolian and Manchurian branches into China. A white obelisk marks where it crosses from Europe to Asia. Spanning 6,000 miles from Vladivostok to Moscow, FTP name the world’s longest continuous railway.

Answer: Trans-Siberian Railroad or Railway

20. Herbig-Haro Objects are small, bright types of these and are found along the rotational axes of newly formed stars. Bok Gobules are another variety, associated with stellar formation. Immanuel Kant adapted a hypothesis stating that our solar system was created by dense variety, while diffuse ones can be light years wide. However, the most famous type is actually the discarded interstellar material from a red giant transforming into a white dwarf. FTP, name these astronomical objects that are a mixture of gaseous and dust particles that include the planetary variety, exemplified by the Ring.

Answer: Nebulas

21. It was officially adopted in the U.S. by the Congress of the Confederation on July 6, 1785, and further codified by a 1792 Congressional act specifying its use in government record-keeping. Competing theories claim the word comes from Dutch, Spanish, or even Bohemian roots; passing mention in MacBeth and The Tempest confirms that the term was known in Shakespeare’s time. Chapter 10 of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged tries to identify its common symbol as the truest emblem of all things American. Prized examples include 1804 Draped Bust and the 1895 Morgan. The words “Will pay to the bear on demand” were removed from them in 1963 and no longer enforced after 1968. With a new issue beginning this month that will successively honor each U.S. President, FTP identify this unit of American currency.

Answer: the U.S. Dollar [grudgingly accept dollar sign before “the word” only]

22. The first lesson in his treatise, The Fog of War, is to “[e]mpathize with your enemy”. After becoming the first non-family member to become president of Ford Motor Company, he was soon called into government service. While working at the Pentagon, he conducted American involvement in the Bay of Pigs and later escalated American involvement in Vietnam, leading to the self-immolation of Norman Morrison outside of his office. FTP, name this Secretary of Defense who served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Answer: Robert Strange McNamara

23. To Waken an Old Lady, Blizzard, The Desolate Field, Transitional, Queen-Anne’s-Lace, The Widow’s Lament in Springtime, The Great Figure, Spring and All, To Elsie, Young Sycamore, The Descent of Winter, the Yachts, Asphodel that Greeny Flower Book I, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, Portrait of a Lady, Proletarian Portrait, and This is Just to Say. FTP, identify the poet who penned all these works as well as The Red Wheel Barrow.

Answer: William Carlos Williams

BONI – VANDERBILT SWORD BOWL 2007 (UTC/Oklahoma/Drake)

Questions by Tony McCall and Paul Gauthier

1. FTPE answer the following questions about African history.

This country saw the election of its -- and Africa’s -- first female president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in 2005, following the removal of Charles Taylor.

Answer: Liberia

This president of South Africa pushed through the reforms that led to the end of apartheid, for which he shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela.

Answer: F.W. de Klerk

Two prominent leaders of the Nonaligned Movement that sought neutrality during the Cold War were Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and this second Egyptian president, who led the 1952 coup ousting King Farouk.

Answer: Gamal Abdel Nasser

2. Identify the following about a British poem FTPE:

10) This Alfred Lord Tennyson poem describes the grim result of a communication error during the Crimean War.

Answer: the Charge of the Light Brigade

10) The events that inspired the poem took place at this battle

Answer: Balaclava

10) The poem notes that this many men were in the unit when it began the charge into the valley of death.

Answer: 600

3. The Raiders are on the clock for 2007’s NFL draft; will they generate as much intrigue as the Texans did last year? FTPE answer the following questions about the 2006 NFL Draft.

This defensive end out of NC State was the first overall draft pick selected by the Houston Texans -- over Reggie Bush and Vince Young.

Answer: Mario Williams

This 2004 Heisman Trophy winner was taken 10th overall by the Arizona Cardinals, where he subsequently took over as starting quarterback for ailing veteran Kurt Warner.

Answer: Matt Leinart

This former Maryland tight end signed with the 49ers for $23 million over 5 years to make him the highest paid tight end.

Answer: Vernon Davis

4. Answer the following questions about gas laws FTPE:

At constant pressure, the volume of a gas is directly proportional to its temperature.

Answer: Charles’ Law

The total pressure of a gaseous mixture in a specific volume equals the individual pressure of each gas if it occupied that space.

Answer: Law of Partial Pressure

Assuming identical temperature and pressure, equal volumes of gases contain an equal number of molecules.

Answer: Avogadro’s Law

5. Answer the following about Greek mythology FTPE.

Abandoned by her father, she was nursed by a she-bear and later raised by hunters. Participating in the Calydonian boar hunt she wounded the creature but failed to kill it. However, she was later turned into a lion for offending the gods.

Answer: Atalanta

Hippomenes used these to distract Atalanta in order to win a foot race against her, and to win her hand in marriage.

Answer: Golden Apples of the Hesperides

After killing the Calydonian boar, he awarded the head and skin to Atalanta for first wounding the beast, which aroused the jealously of his uncles. After slaying them, his mother burned the log that would coincide with his death.

Answer: Meleager

6. FTPE answer the following questions about particle physics.

Deriving its name from Finnegan’s Wake, charm and strange are examples of this type of fundamental particle that occurs in pairs and composes protons and neutrons.

Answer: Quark

Unaffected by the strong force, these particles follow the Pauli exclusion principle and have zero radius with half spin. Varieties include electrons and muons.

Answer: Leptons

This theoretical fundamental particle is believed to carry mass between particles and has zero spin and electrical charge. It was developed by its namesake to account for large gauge bosons within the laws of symmetry.

Answer: Higgs Boson

7. Answer the following questions concerning a novel by Ernest Hemingway, FTPE.

10) This novel’s protagonist is Frederick Henry, an American ambulance driver in the Italian Army in World War I.

Answer: A Farewell to Arms

10) Henry becomes romantically involved with this nurse, who eventually dies.

Answer: Catherine and/or Barkley [accept either]

10) The love affair with a German nurse that inspired Hemingway to create Catherine also appears in a passing reference about the life of Jake Barnes in this Hemingway novel.

Answer: The Sun Also Rises

8. Answer the following questions about African geography FTPE.

Extending from Syria to Mozambique, this depression formed as a result of a zone of geologic weakness some 50 million years ago. It is divided into Eastern and Western portions and contains the Dead Sea and Lake Tanganyika.

Answer: Great Rift Valley

Despite being fed by the Chari and Logone Rivers, this lake is rapidly disappearing, but its size fluctuates based on the rainy season. It is flanked by Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and its namesake nation.

Answer: Lake Chad

At Lake Kimba, it provides an important source of hydroelectric power for the dam there. It was explored by David Livingstone, who christened one of its cataracts Victoria Falls. FTP, name this fourth longest African river.

Answer: Zambezi River

9. FTPE answer the following about American involvement in World War I.

This attempt to forestall American intervention in World War I involved the German foreign minister offering Mexican president Carranza an alliance that would offer Mexico a chance to gain its lost territories.

Answer: Zimmerman note or telegram

This American army general led the American Expeditionary Force to aid the Allied Forces.

Answer: John Pershing

This last major offensive of World War I in 1918 led to the November armistice and involved American troops in France pushing past the Hindenberg Line into fortified German territory.

Answer: Battle of the Argonne

10. Identify the following about things that make life difficult in math FTPE.

A. Niels Henrick Abel proved that this is the highest degree polynomial for which a generalized formula can be created.

Answer: quartic, or degree four

B. This man, who collaborated with Alfred North Whitehead on Principia Mathematica, effectively disproved naïve set theory with his namesake paradox: whether the set of all sets that are not elements of themselves was an element of itself.

Answer: Bertrand Russell

C. This man, with his incompleteness theorem, proved that for any set mathematical system complicated enough to fulfill the Peano axioms of arithmetic, the consistency of the system could not be proved.

Answer: Kurt Godel [pronounced “girdle” but accept reasonable attempts]

11. Identify the architects based on their works FTPE:

10: Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum in New York

Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright

10: The Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain and the experience music project

Answer: Frank Gehry

10: Templo Expiatorio de la sangrada familia and Casa Mila

Answer: Antonino Gaudi y Cornet

12. Answer the following concerning noted poetry collections FTPE:

Meaning “Ten Days’ Work”, this Giovanni Boccaccio opus uses as its framework the escape of 10 friends from Florence during an outbreak of the plague to take a vacation in the country.

Answer: The Decameron

This work by Charles Baudelaire tackles topics like the struggles of facing a world of ennui and finding the beautiful in life’s darkness by comparing the ideal with the spleen as means to deconstruct the world.

Answer: Les Fleurs du Mal or The Flowers of Evil

This man’s 1786 collection Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect elevates Scottish idioms and traditions with a revolutionary flavor and features such poems as “To a Mouse” and “The Cotter’s Saturday Night.”

Answer: Robert Burns

13. Identify the following about ancient kings who died in battle FTPE.

10 This founder of the Persian Empire fell in battle against the Massagetae.

Answer: Cyrus the Great or Cyrus II or Cyrus the Persian

10 This Assyrian king and father of Sennacherib, who shares his name with the founder of the Akkadian Empire, was the first Assyrian ruler to die in battle.

Answer: Sargon II

10 This Spartan king was killed along with his entire contingent after making a heroic stand at the battle of Thermopylae.

Answer: Leonidas

14. Answer the following questions about chloroplasts FTPE.

These disc-like membranous sacs, stacked within the chloroplasts and surrounded by stroma, contain the chlorophyll molecules necessary for photosynthesis.

Answer: Thylakoid membrane

Known as the dark reactions, this process which relies on rubisco is responsible for using carbon dioxide to create the sugars for photosynthesis by creating G3P from a three carbon compound 3-PGA.

Answer: Calvin or Calvin-Benson Cycle.

These yellow-orange pigments absorb blue-green light, weaken excess light to protect chlorophyll, and cause the fall hues in dead leaves.

Answer: carotenoids

15. Identify the following about a famous work of anthropology FTPE.

A. This seminal work of comparative religion takes its title from an incident in the Aeneid where Aeneus is given this object in order to enter the underworld.

Answer: The Golden Bough

B. This man wrote The Golden Bough.

Answer: Sir James George Frazer

C. Frazier was heavily criticized for suggesting that this New Testament motif, depicting Christ as a sacrificial animal, was a holdover from pagan religion.

Answer: Lamb of God (or Agnus Dei)

16. Your genial quizmaster called it “The Big Afterglow.” FTPE answer these questions about the time immediately after the Big Bang:

10 The period until 10^-43 seconds is known as this era.

Answer: Planck Era

10 The period of faster-than-light inflation following the GUT era was caused by the separating of this fundamental force from the electroweak force.

Answer: Strong Nuclear Force

10 This astronomical phenomenon, considered proof of the Big Bang, consists of severely red-shifted light emitted by the universe when it was 380,000 years old.

Answer: Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

17. FTPE identify the following about the compositions of Arnold Schoenberg.

This early string sextet is based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, where a woman reveals to her lover that she is bearing another man’s child.

Answer: Verklärte Nacht, or Transfigured Night

Schoenberg composed a symphonic poem based on the Maurice Maeterlinck play Peleas and Melisande, at the same time that this French composer of La Mer used it as the subject for an opera.

Answer: Claude Debussy

Schoenberg orchestrated a piano quintet by this composer noted for his Academic Festival Overture and a certain lullaby.

Answer: Johannes Brahms

18. FTPE answer the following about Tripoli – the one in Libya, not to be confused with the Greek or Lebanese ones:

10 This Spanish king sent a fleet to re-conquer Tripoli that was defeated by the Ottomans at the Battle of Djerba – an outcome similar to another fleet he sent against England.

Answer: Philip II

10 This U.S. President sent a Marine expeditionary force to attack the Barbary pirates at “the shores of Tripoli” in 1801

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

10 This European nation took control of Tripoli from the Ottoman Empire in 1911.

Answer: Italy

19. Given characters, name the 20th century novel FTPE:

Okonkwo, Ikemefuna, Nwoye

Answer: Things Fall Apart

Jose Buendia, Ursula Iguaran, Aureliano

Answer: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Saleem Sinai, Shiva, Padma

Answer: Midnight’s Children

20. Identify the following about the religious writings of St. Thomas More. FTPE

10 More attacked the tendentious English translation of the Bible of this English reformer in his Dialogue Concerning Heresies, and later wrote a Confutation of the former’s response to it.

Answer: William Tyndale

10 In his Letter against Frith, More attacked this view, advocated by Zwingli, that the Eucharist is only a remembrance of the last supper, in which Christ is neither physically nor spiritually present.

Answer: memorialism

10 Along with John Fisher, More has often been thought to have ghostwritten sections of this man’s A Defense of the Seven Sacraments.

Answer: Henry VIII

21. Answer the following questions about an American playwright FTPE:

This playwright of works like The Family Reunion is perhaps better known as the poet whose works include “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”

Answer: T.S. Eliot

This Eliot verse play about the martyrdom of Thomas a Becket concerns the sin of pride and acts as a modern miracle play.

Answer: Murder in the Cathedral

In this comedy of manners, Eliot recalls Euripides’s Alcestis and features a psychiatrist, who saves the heroine, in the role of Hercules.

Answer: The Cocktail Party

22. FTPE, answer the following questions about inheritance.

An AB blood type is an example of this pattern of inheritance where both alleles are expressed in heterozygous individuals.

Answer: codominance

Linked genes violate this Mendelian law, which states that inheritance of one allele does not coincide with inheritance of another.

Answer: Mendel’s law of independent assortment

This chromosomal disorder affects about 1 in 850 males and results when he carries an extra X chromosome.

Answer: Klinefelter’s syndrome

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