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 District level. Shawn Pickrell, Jason Mueller, Marian Suter, Adam Fine and Dan Goff are the authors of these questions.

Districts 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 District competition or the schools that are members of the given District, 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 District 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, 10 points each

1. Manco Capac established the kingdom in the 11th century, and Pachacuti [pah-chah-COO-tee] established the empire in the early 15th century. Aymara [EYE-mah-rah] and Quechua were the main languages of what empire, whose capital was Cuzco, that was overthrown by Francisco Pizarro?

ANSWER: Inca Empire

2. Using your knowledge of Greek roots, by what name do we call various thick-skinned hoofed mammals such as the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and elephant?

ANSWER: pachyderm (pack-e-derm)

3. In this closing of a business letter, "very truly yours," what words should be capitalized?

ANSWER: only Very

4. The adults in this order feed on nectar using specialized maxillae and the larvae are herbivorous caterpillars. Name this endopterygote (en-DAWP-ter-uh-goat) insect order that includes moths and butterflies.

ANSWER: Lepidoptera

5. In August 2005 an Australian professor uncovered an 11-movement choral work by this composer, entitled Dixit Dominus. Despite his occupation, he had an affair with opera singer Anna Giraud, and several Venetian rivals wrote essays accusing him of stealing musical ideas from them. Who was this Italian, nicknamed "The Red Priest", best known for The Four Seasons?

ANSWER: Antonio Vivaldi

6. Born 72 years before the Battle of Yavin on the planet Haruun Kal, his parents died when he was six months old. Taken in by the Jedi, at 28 he was the youngest appointee to the Council prior to Anakin Skywalker. Name this Jedi Master who turned Palpatine into a toad by deflecting his force lightning back at him, but was betrayed by Anakin and defenestrated by Palpatine in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

ANSWER: Mace Windu

7. Despite not being very smooth or shiny, it is considered a volcanic glass like obsidian, due to having no crystal structure. It is used to make concrete and is often used as an abrasive, especially in cosmetics. What igneous rock forms when gas gets in the liquid lava and stays there, forming holes in the solidified rock?

ANSWER: pumice

8. It was adopted instead of the Morgenthau Plan, which would have turned Germany into an agricultural country and used the proceeds to restore the rest of Europe. The European Recovery Plan was the official name for what $13 billion transfer of foreign aid from the US to Europe?

ANSWER: Marshall Plan

9. Exit 161 of this road is Breezewood, the infamous town of motels, which also contains one of only two stoplights in the Interstate Highway System. In the early 1960s, a 110-mile long Northeast Extension was built to connect Scranton and Wilkes-Barre [wilkes-bah-roh] to Philadelphia. The first-ever superhighway built in the United States was what toll road in the Keystone State?

ANSWER: Pennsylvania Turnpike

10. Subtitled A Record of Childhood and Youth, it tells of a young African American growing up in the Jim Crow South. Name this autobiography, in the form of a novel, written by Richard Wright.

ANSWER: Black Boy

11. He studied law but focused on art, serving as student to both Felix Barrias and Louis Lamothe. Greatly influenced by both Japanese woodblock printing and Realist writer Edmond Duranty, he gave up classical training in order to focus on Impressionism. The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans was one painting by which French artist that liked to depict ballet dancers?

ANSWER: Edgar Degas (day-GAH)

12. In what novel of American literature will you find the characters of the Prince of Wales, Miles Hendon, and Tom Canty?

ANSWER: The Prince and the Pauper

13. He served as U.S. Attorney General between 1961 and 1964, and then was elected to represent New York in the U.S. Senate. What man then appeared headed to the 1968 Democratic Presidential nomination before he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan?

ANSWER: Robert F. Kennedy

14. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Solve for x. x squared plus 4x minus 77 equals zero.

ANSWER: x equals 7 and -11

15. What Greek letter is used for both the photoelectric work function and flux?

ANSWER: phi

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

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. A henry measures what physical quantity?

ANSWER: inductance

1B. What element's most well known ore is cinnabar?

ANSWER: mercury

2A. What female master of the scat singing style made her debut at the Apollo Theater's Amateur Night at age 16 in 1934, four years before she recorded "A Tisket, A Tasket"?

ANSWER: Ella Fitzgerald

2B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is 5 factorial plus 3 factorial?

ANSWER: 126

3A. The Stanford-Binet [bih-NAY] scale is used in what kind of test?

ANSWER: intelligence or IQ test

3B. What Virginia county on the Eastern Shore lies between the State of Maryland and Northampton County?

ANSWER: Accomack County

4A. Name the Frenchman who wrote Madame Bovary.

ANSWER: Gustave (goos-tov) Flaubert (flo-bare)

4B. Steven's Untitled Rock Show, Hip Hop Confidential, and The Daily Download can all be found on which television network, featuring VJs Dillon, Juliya, and Marianela?

ANSWER: Fuse (prompt on “Muchmusic”)

5A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the perimeter of a square with an area of 49 square feet?

ANSWER: 28 feet

5B. What New England Transcendentalist wrote, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation"?

ANSWER: Henry David Thoreau

6A. Name the French physicist and Nobel laureate who discovered radioactivity in uranium.

ANSWER: Antoine Henri (an-twon ahn-re) Becquerel (beck-uh-rel)

6B. This man, nicknamed 'Whizzer', led the NFL in rushing in 1938 and 1940. What man later served on the US the Supreme Court between 1962 and 1993?

ANSWER: Byron White

7A. To what Jewish leader was Jesus Christ speaking when he recited the famous words of John 3:16?

ANSWER: Nicodemus

7B. How many bones are in the human body?

ANSWER: 206

8A. Give both the title and subtitle of the prelude to the Lords of the Rings trilogy.

ANSWER: The Hobbit and There and Back Again

8B. If one has broken, breached, or violated a law, they have committed what word starting with "I"?

ANSWER: infraction

9A. What family ruled as dictators in Nicaragua between 1937 and 1979?

ANSWER: Somoza

9B. What term describes an angle that is greater than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees?

ANSWER: reflex angle

10A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the probability of drawing a king or a spade out of a deck of cards?

ANSWER: 4/13

10B. What rap group’s nine members were reduced to eight with the death of ODB in 2004, and whose other members include Method Man, The RZA and Raekwon?

ANSWER: The Wu-Tang Clan

Third period, 15 toss-ups, 10 points each

1. It was discovered in 1908 by researchers in Tokyo and was first marketed under a Japanese name meaning "essence of taste." It works on the taste buds related to umami [oo-MAH-mee], or savoriness. What flavor enhancer is frequently used in Chinese restaurants?

ANSWER: monosodium glutamate or MSG

2. Many Asian moviegoers despise this company, as it often re-releases foreign films in dubbed versions, such as Fist of Legend and Shaolin Soccer, with watered-down thematic content. Named after the parents of its founders, it was bought by Disney in 1993; twelve years later, the founders were forced out. What is this studio formed by Bob and Harvey Weinstein that used to be known for distributing independent films?

ANSWER: Miramax Films

3. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is 36 percent of 700?

ANSWER: 252

4. He was the son of Bindusara and had to defeat his older brother Susima to win the throne. He converted to Buddhism and renounced war after an extremely bloody conflict against the coastal kingdom of Kalinga, but had earlier conquered an area that is larger than the modern Republic of India. Who was this greatest of Mauryan kings that ruled between 273 and 232 BC?

ANSWER: Asoka the Great (accept Asok, Ashok and Ashoka)

5. The first novel in his projected trilogy pictures the struggle of California wheat growers against the monopoly of a railway corporation; the second deals with wheat speculation on the Chicago Board of Trade; the third was unwritten at his death. Who is this man, the first important American author to embrace naturalism, who wrote The Octopus and The Pit?

ANSWER: Frank Norris

6. This title was given in the 9th and 10th centuries to generals who had won victories over the Ainu [EYE-noo] barbarians to the north. However, Minamoto Yoritomo forced the Emperor to award him this title in 1185. It was not abolished until the Meiji [MAY-jee] Restoration. This started a tradition that lasted over seven hundred years in which the holder of what title was the de facto ruler of Japan?

ANSWER: shogun

7. According to T.S. Eliot in The Wasteland, what month is the cruelest month of the year?

ANSWER: April

8. David Eddy is credited with coining this term in a 1995 e-mail. It quickly replaced the earlier terms CDC, which stood for Century Date Change, and Faddle, which stood for Faulty Date Logic. What computer programming flaw forced legacy systems, which only had two numbers in the year field of dates, to be retrofitted in 1998 and 1999 to handle the date change to 2000?

ANSWER: Y2K bug (accept millennium bug, Y2k problem or rough equivalents)

9. In December 2004, this company sold their personal computer division to Lenovo, the largest PC manufacturer in China. In June 2005, Apple announced that they were no longer going to use this company's PowerPC line of chips in the new Macintoshes, opting instead to use rival Intel's chips. What is this computer manufacturer, also known as Big Blue?

ANSWER: IBM (International Business Machines)

10. What is the scientific term for pinkeye?

ANSWER: conjunctivitis

11. The Kabbalah view is that it is one long name of God; it is only broken up into words so that humans can understand it. The famous rabbi, Hillel, once summarized it by saying 'What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor.' Orthodox Jews regard any suggestion that Moses was not the author as heretical. What is this name used by Jews for the first five books of the Bible?

ANSWER: Torah

12. False cognates in the French language are given what two-word name that means 'false friends' in French?

ANSWER: faux amis [FOH-zah-mee]

13. In a civil case, when this happens, the judge will schedule a new trial with a new jury. In a criminal case, they can result in a retrial, a plea bargain or dismissal of the charges. What is this legal situation that results from a hung jury or legal mistakes so severe that a fair trial is no longer possible?

ANSWER: mistrial

14. Until 1959, chemists used oxygen-16 as the 'baseline' to determine molar masses. The new isotope used is also stable but if it had two more neutrons it would be used in radioactive dating. What is this isotope that has six neutrons and six protons?

ANSWER: carbon-12 or C-12

15. Between 1982 and 1986, he was an Associate Counsel to the President. He then served as Deputy Solicitor General from 1989 to 1993. He was then nominated to the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia in 2001, but did not get confirmed until 2003. A September 2005 vote of 78 to 22 confirmed what man as the 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?

ANSWER: John Roberts

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. In the early 20th century, excessive draining of this swamp led Harry S. Truman to push for the creation of a national park. The parts of the swamp not in the park are crossed by a toll portion of Interstate 75 nicknamed 'Alligator Alley.' What is this swamp that dominates southern Florida?

ANSWER: the Everglades

2. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. If LeBron James shot 200 three-pointers and made 40 percent of them, how many points would he have scored?

ANSWER: 240

3. Gorse, vetches, clovers, beans, peas, and peanuts are all what type of plant?

ANSWER: legume

4. According to the most common legend, it started because King Oenomaus (ee-noh-MAY-us) did not want his daughter Hippodamia to marry. He challenged any of her suitors to a chariot race, with the losers facing execution, but Pelops bribed the king's charioteer to loosen the king's wheels, and the king was killed. Thus began what event in Greece, now held every four years?

ANSWER: Olympic Games

5. The Testament, Messenger of God, and A Beggar in Jerusalem are all works by what Jewish/French/American Nobel Prize-winning author who survived the Holocaust and also wrote Night.

ANSWER: Elie Wiesel (vee-zel)

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download