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APPLAUSE
Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.
Hello. 28 teams appeared in the first round of this contest.
16 made it through to round two,
eight of them enjoyed the gruelling quarterfinal stage,
and now, only the best four remain
as we played the first of the two semifinal matches.
Tonight's teams will be facing the usual tough questions.
Few tougher, perhaps, than,
why on earth are there no women left
in this stage of the competition?
Whichever team wins tonight will be appearing in the series final.
Now, the team from St Peter's College, Oxford
have an unblemished record in this contest
having won all their matches so far.
They've beaten the University of Sussex,
Selwyn College, Cambridge, Oxford Brookes University
and, on their last appearance, the University of Liverpool.
Let's meet them for the fifth time.
Hello, I'm John Armitage, I'm from Lancaster,
and I'm reading mathematics.
Hi, I'm Ed Roberts, I'm from London, and I'm studying history.
And their captain.
Hello, I'm Gabriel Trueblood, I'm from London,
and I'm studying medicine.
Hello, I'm Spike Smith, I'm from Maidenhead,
and I'm reading mathematics.
APPLAUSE
The team from Magdalen College, Oxford
have also had an impressive run so far.
They've defeated Pembroke College, Cambridge,
the Open University and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Their only stumble was to lose their second quarterfinal match
against Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,
which meant they had to play again
and beat Bristol University to make it here tonight.
Let's meet them for the sixth time.
Hello, I'm Harry Gillow, I'm from Stone in Staffordshire,
and I'm reading classics.
Hi, I'm Chris Savory from Burgess Hill in West Sussex,
and I'm reading chemistry.
- And this is their captain. - Hello, my name's Hugh Binnie,
I live near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire,
and I'm also reading chemistry.
Hello, I'm Cameron J Quinn,
originally from Los Angeles, California,
and I read philosophy and French.
APPLAUSE
Well, you all know the rules by now, so let's just get on with it.
Fingers on the buzzers, here's a starter for ten.
The industrious Henry Clay Frick was delayed by his wife's accident,
the financier JP Morgan chose to extend his stay
- at a French resort... - BUZZ
Er, people who didn't go on the Titanic.
Yes, they all missed the maiden voyage of the Titanic.
So you get a set of bonuses on
Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle.
Firstly, for five points,
which astronomer did Darwin meet at the Cape of Good Hope?
He's best known for his observation of double stars
that continued the work of his father William,
the discoverer of Uranus.
Herschel... What's his, do we need his first name?
- Just go with Herschel. - Herschel.
Correct.
In Chile, Darwin found evidence
for the theory endorsed by Charles Lyell,
that geological formations are the result of steady cumulative forces.
What name was given to this theory?
- Well... - ..plate tectonics? - No, I don't know.
Is it catastrophe...?
- I think we go for plate tectonics. - I mean, it's a later term.
Like from the '60s, but...
Plate tectonics.
No, it's uniformitarianism.
And finally, who was the captain of HMS Beagle?
He later devised a prototype of the daily weather forecast,
and in 2002, had a shipping forecast area named after him.
Oh...
- Fitzroy, maybe? - Yeah, that sounds good.
Fitzroy.
Correct, Robert Fitzroy.
10 points for this starter question.
In mathematics, meanings of what six-letter word
include a set in a metric space containing all of its limit points,
a subset of a group
that contains all of its products...
BUZZ
Closed?
Closed is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses, St Peter's, are on fluid mechanics.
After an engineer born in Belfast in 1842,
which dimensionless quantity in fluid mechanics
measures the ratio of inertial to viscous forces
and is used to determine different flow regimes?
Um, I think it's the Rayleigh number.
Rayleigh?
Rayleigh number?
No, they're Reynolds number.
What specific flow regime is characterised by
a large Reynolds number
and is often accompanied by swirling or eddies in the flow?
- Inviscid? - I don't know. - Yeah.
- Nominate Smith. - Inviscid?
No, it's turbulent flow.
And finally, after physicists born in France and Ireland respectively,
which set of non-linear differential equations
describes the motions of fluids?
Showing the existence and smoothness of their solutions
is one of the Clay Millennium prizes.
- Nominate Smith. - Navier-Stokes.
Correct. 10 points for this.
Which historical English county links peerage titles
held by Charles I's nephew, Prince Rupert,
Prince George, the consort of Queen Anne,
and a younger son of George II nicknamed Butcher
for his suppression of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion?
BUZZ Northumberland?
- No... - BELL
Monmouth?
No, it's Cumberland. 10 points for this.
"Written on the eve of the First World War,
"the piece is the emblem of an era of great ferment.
"No composer since can avoid its shadow,
"and score after score by modern masters
"would be unthinkable without its model."
Those words of the composer George Benjamin
described which work by Stravinsky?
BUZZ
- The Rite Of Spring. - Correct.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses are on literature and comfort food, Magdalen College.
In each case, listen to the descriptions
and name the comfort food produced by the combination of the two words.
Firstly, the second name of the author of Tarzan Of The Apes,
and the first part of the title of a 1894 novel by Mark Twain
whose title character is David Wilson.
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
- Was it pudding? - Rice. - Something Rice. - Rice pudding.
- Rice pudding. - Correct.
The final word, secondly,
of the title of a 1989 novel by Laura Esquivel
and the first word of the title of a work by Somerset Maugham,
often felt to portray Thomas Hardy.
Um, cake.
So what kind of cake would be?
- Chocolate cake? - Er...yeah?
Oh, yeah, because that could be like...say that.
- Chocolate cake. - Correct.
And thirdly, the nationality of the patient
in the title of Michael Ondaatje's 1992 novel
and the first word of the title of a 1958 novella by Truman Capote.
Oh... Um...
Tea?
English...
Breakfast? English breakfast, Breakfast At Tiffany's, yeah.
English breakfast.
English breakfast is right, yes.
APPLAUSE
A picture round now.
For your picture starter, you're going to see the periodic table
with some elements highlighted.
10 points if you can give me
the decade in which the highlighted elements were all discovered.
- BUZZ - 1780s.
Anyone like to buzz from St Peter's?
BELL
1760s?
- No, it's the 1770s, bad luck. - AUDIENCE LAUGHS
So picture bonuses in a moment or two,
10 points for this.
Which author wrote these words?
"And now, once again,
"I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.
"I have an affection for it,
- "for it was the offspring..." - BUZZ
Shelley?
- Mary Shelley, yes, correct. - APPLAUSE
Right, you get the picture bonuses.
Three more sets of elements,
and again, in each case,
all you have to do is to give me the decade
in which all the highlighted elements were discovered.
Firstly, for five.
Er, so this is going to be the 1930s? '40s?
- Do you think it might be '40s? - Plutonium, so... - Yeah, '40s.
- 1940s? - Correct, yes.
The Manhattan Project had much to do with that, of course.
Secondly.
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
Don't know. Any ideas?
- It's going to be fairly early. - 20th century.
20th? No, it must be 19th century...
THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER
1830s?
No, it's the 1800s.
And finally.
This is...1910s, 1900s?
We've got polonium, so...
So 1900s then?
1900s.
No, it's the 1890s.
10 points for this.
The French political writer Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
is thought to have been the first person
- willingly to describe... - BUZZ
- Anarchist. - Anarchist is correct.
APPLAUSE
Right, your bonuses are on Europeans in Asia, Magdalen.
In 1511, Portugal took control of which port on the Malay Peninsula?
It's situated on a strategic waterway of the same name.
- Oh... - The...
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
- Malacca? - Yeah.
- Malacca. - Correct.
Colonised by Portugal in 1557,
which peninsula of China
was the first European settlement in East Asia?
In 1999, it became a special administrative region of China.
- Macau. - Correct.
Fort Zeelandia was built by the Dutch in 1624
during their 38-year-long rule of which island
later under Chinese and Japanese rule?
- Sumatra? - Oh.
- Japanese? - Japanese rule?
HE SPEAKS IN HUSHED VOICE
Maybe it's Guyana?
- No, that's not... - It wouldn't be that. All right, don't know.
Sumatra.
No, it's Taiwan.
10 points for this.
The HPT is a society for the preservation
of which mammals of the family Leporidae
- whose species include brown and...? - BELL
Hare.
Hare is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
You get a set of bonuses, St Peter's, on centenarians.
"The purpose of myth is to provide a logical model
"capable of overcoming a contradiction."
Which French academic, who died in 2009 at the age of 100,
wrote those words in his book Structural Anthropology?
Do you have any ideas?
I've no idea at all.
Pass.
You've never heard of Claude Levi-Strauss?
No? Amazing. Sic transit gloria, ey?
His collections including
The Wellfleet Whale and The Testing Tree,
who was appointed US Poet Laureate in 2000 when in his 90s?
He died six years later aged 100.
Frost would be the logical guess.
But I don't know...
Might be the right age.
- Go for it. - Robert Frost?
No, it was Stanley J Kunitz.
Frost was long dead by then.
Noted for a long-running double act with his wife Gracie Allen,
which US comedian died in 1996 at the age of 100?
- Gracie Allen? - Buster Keaton?
Yeah, yeah.
Buster Keaton.
He would be pretty much older than that!
No, it was George Burns.
Right, in 1932,
the British physicist James Chadwick discovered the neutron
by repeating earlier experiments
involving the exposure of what element
- to alpha particles? - BUZZ
Gold.
No, St Peter's, one of you buzz.
- BELL - Lead?
No, it's beryllium.
I'm going to have to fine you five points, Magdalen,
for the incorrect interruption.
So fingers on the buzzers, another starter question.
Piano compositions including Carnaval and Papillons
were among the works of which composer born in Saxony in 1810?
Also noted for the Spring and Rhenish symphonies...
BELL
- Schumann. - Schumann is right, yes.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses are on lines about a constellation, St Peter's.
Of which constellation did the Roman poet Marcus Manilius write,
"On each broad shoulder a bright star displayed
"and three obliquely grace his hanging blade"?
- Orion. - Correct.
"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades,
"or loose the bands of Orion?"
These words appear in which book of the old Testament,
the title figure of which remains confident in divine justice
despite his earthly misfortunes.
- Job. - Job.
Correct.
In which science fiction film of 1982
does the dying antagonist claim to have seen
"attack-ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion"?
- Blade Runner. - Correct.
- APPLAUSE - 10 points for this.
Warkworth Castle, the Archbishop's Palace in York,
the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap and the rebel camp near Shrewsbury
are among the locations of which of Shakespeare's histories?
BELL
Richard III?
No. Magdalen?
BUZZ
- Henry IV? - Which one?
- Part two. - No, it's part one, bad luck.
AUDIENCE: Aw...
Right, another starter question.
With respect to the standard basis,
what are the entries of the matrix of the linear transformation
that takes a vector in the plane
and swaps its X and Y coordinates?
BELL
Nought, one, one, nought?
Yes, zero, one, one, zero, yes.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses, St Peter's, are on logical fallacies.
In each case, listen to the example and give the two-word Latin term
most commonly used to describe the fallacy illustrated.
Don't go on at me about sugar and tooth decay,
you get through five bags of jelly babies a day.
Ad hominem.
Ad hominem.
No, that's tu quoque.
After we acquired our green warthog mascot,
our quiz team started to win.
The warthog helped us to answer correctly.
Um... Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
Correct.
And finally, how can we take your argument seriously,
you have red hair, red trousers and went to a redbrick university?
Ad hominem.
That is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Time for a music round.
For your music starter, you'll hear a piece of classical music.
10 points if you can give me the name of the French composer.
# Gloire immortelle... # BUZZ
Gounod.
It is, from his Faust, The Soldier's Chorus.
So you get the music bonuses.
Three more pieces of music with military connotations.
Firstly for five,
I want the name of this song
thought to originate from the 15th century.
# For the battle were not ready
# Welshmen never yield
# From the hills rebounding
# Let this war cry sounding... #
The Soldier's Hymn.
No, you need a Welshman on that team,
that's Men Of Harlech.
Secondly, the British military figure
after whom this piece is named.
CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
Wellington.
It is the Duke of Wellington, yes.
And finally, the name of this piece, please.
CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
The Radetzky March.
It is the Radetzky March by Strauss the Elder.
10 points for this.
In some plants adapted to hot and arid conditions,
crassulacean acid metabolism
- is an alternative pathway from...? - BUZZ
Photosynthesis.
Correct.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses this time, Magdalen College, are on whales.
Which suborder of whale
takes its name from the whalebone plates in its upper jaw
which are used to filter food from water?
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
Baleen.
Baleen is right.
Thought to be named after a Norwegian whaler,
what is the smallest of the baleen whales
to be found in UK waters?
It's distinguished by a white band
on the upper side of each pectoral fin.
Norwegian...
- Mink? - Mink whale? - Minke, minke.
Minke.
The minke whale is correct.
And the biggest of the toothed whales,
what has the largest brain of any mammal?
*** whale.
- Correct. 10 points for this. - APPLAUSE
In Greek mythology, Pegasus, Arion and Triton
- were all fathered... - BELL
Neptune.
No, you lose five points.
..were all fathered by which god?
The brother of Zeus and Hades,
he's described by Homer
- as the earth shaker. - BUZZ
- Poseidon. - Poseidon is correct, yes.
Right, you get a set of bonuses this time, Magdalen,
on complexity theory in computer science.
The complexity class P contains all problems
that can be solved in an amount of time
which is what type of function of the size of the input?
Polynomialism.
- Polynomial. - Correct.
Having a million-dollar reward,
one of the Millennium Prize problems
is to determine whether or not P is equal to
which other complexity class?
- NP. - Correct.
Now a professor of applied mathematics at MIT,
Peter Shor discovered an algorithm in 1994
that confactorised integers in polynomial time
provided the algorithm is running on what type of computer?
A quantum computer.
- Correct. 10 points for this. - APPLAUSE
In 1821, Sequoyeh completed a syllabary
- of 86...? - BELL
- Cherokee. - Correct.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses are on servants in opera, St Peter's.
First performed in Rome in 1817,
in which opera do Ramiro, the Prince of Salerno, and Dandini, his valet
masquerade as one another
and compete for the love of the title character?
Title character...?
- Pass. - It's Cinderella.
Secondly, Monsieur Guillot, the valet of the title character,
acts as his second in a duel with Lenski
in which opera by Tchaikovsky?
- Eugene Onegin. - Eugene Onegin.
Correct.
"Hey, Mr Count, if it's dancing you want, you can skip to my tune."
These words give the sense of a cavatina sung by a valet
in which opera of 1786?
- The marriage of Figaro, I think. - Um...yes.
Marriage of Figaro.
Correct. 10 points for this.
Crossed by the Equator and bordering the international dateline,
which Pacific Republic was formerly part of
- the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony...? - BUZZ
Kiribati.
Kiribati is right, yes.
APPLAUSE
These bonuses are on prime numbers, Magdalen College.
Subtract the year of the Great Fire of London
from the year of the Boston Tea Party.
What prime number is the result?
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
107.
Correct.
What prime number results when one subtracts
the year of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne
from the year in which the United States entered the Korean War?
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
Whichever one is prime.
So, what do you think, was thinking of going to be 12...7.
- Is that right? - No.
- Is that a prime number? - Yeah, that makes sense.
127.
No, it's 113.
1950 take away 1837.
Subtract the year of the armistice that ended World War I
from the year in which Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister.
What prime number then results?
61.
- Correct. - APPLAUSE
Time for a second picture round.
For your picture starter, you'll see a work of art
depicting a national patron saint.
10 points if you can name the sculptor and the saint.
BUZZ
Donatello and St George.
It is indeed, yes.
APPLAUSE
So your picture bonuses are three depictions of saints
from Italian Renaissance painters.
In each case I want the artist and the saints depicted.
Firstly, for five.
- OK, so this is John the Baptist. - Yeah.
- And the artist? - Giotto?
- Is it John the Baptist? - THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
No, no, no, no. He's not like...
He's got that whole... Is it Aquinas?
No, he's not a patron saint.
Come on, let's have it, please.
Is it Thomas Aquinas by Giotto?
No, it's not. It's St Francis by Raphael.
Secondly.
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
- Botticelli. - Is that Thomas there?
- It's John the Baptist. - By?
- Is it Leonardo? - Yeah, say that.
John the Baptist by Leonardo.
Correct. And finally.
- That's Andrew. - That's St Peter.
- Peter? - Upside down. - By? - By...
- I don't think it's Giotto... Oh, Michelangelo. - OK.
Is that Michelangelo doing St Peter?
It is indeed, yes!
Did you get the theme that runs through the artists?
Yes, they're all Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
THEY LAUGH
Right, 10 points for this.
Which decade saw the Treaty of Nanking
that ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain,
the publication of the Communist Manifesto, the California...
BELL
1850s.
- '40s... - I'm afraid you lose five points.
..the California gold rush and the start of the Irish potato famine?
BUZZ
1848.
- '40s. - The decade.
No, I'm afraid I asked for the decade. It's the 1840s.
1848 was the year of the publication of the Communist Party
- Manifesto, wasn't it? - Yes, it was.
LAUGHTER
Right, 10 points for this. Launched in 1977,
the space probe Voyager 2 in 1989 became the first man-made craft...
BUZZ
To leave the solar system.
No.
You lose five points. ..to pass which planet?
BELL
- Neptune. - Correct.
Your bonuses, St Peter's, are on languages of South Africa.
Which official language of South Africa is also the national
language of a diamond-rich neighbour of South Africa mostly covered
by the Kalahari Desert.
(Namibia...)
THEY WHISPER
It's another language in Africa that's also...
Are they asking for the language or the country?
The language.
- Could be Afrikaans, but... - THEY WHISPER
English.
No, bad luck, it's the national language I wanted,
it's Tswana, or Setswana.
Secondly, which language is an official language
both of South Africa and of the small, landlocked country that
borders only South Africa and Mozambique?
(Swazi.)
Swazi.
Correct.
And finally, spoken by around 20% of the population
of South Africa, what was the native language of Nelson Mandela?
Xhosa.
Xhosa is correct. Four and a half minutes to go, 10 points for this.
The Apterygota is the primitive subclass of insects
that includes silverfish and is named to indicate its members...
BELL
Wings.
- Correct. - APPLAUSE
These bonuses are on physics.
Phase, colour, particle replacement, parity, charge and time
are all examples of what phenomenon in physics?
In everyday language,
the same term denotes a type of geometric property.
- Symmetry. - Correct.
Which of the four fundamental forces is the only one known to violate
time symmetry?
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
Gravity.
No, it's the weak, nuclear force.
Lorentz invariance,
another symmetry of nature, states that the laws of physics
look the same for any observer moving at constant velocity.
It's integral to which physical theory published in 1905?
Special Relativity.
Special Theory of Relativity is correct. Yes.
- APPLAUSE - 10 points for this.
The "sessile" and the "English", or "common",
both of the genus Quercus, are the two species...
BUZZ
Oak.
- Oak is right. - APPLAUSE
These bonuses are on histology, Magdalen College.
The H&E stain
is commonly used in the biopsy of suspected cancer tissue.
The letter 'H' refers to haematoxylin.
For what does the letter 'E' stand?
THEY CONFER IN WHISPERS
We don't know.
It's eosin.
In the H&E procedure, eosin is a counter stain.
What colour counter stain is used in gram stain of bacteria?
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
Purple.
No. It's red or pink.
And finally, Sudan red is used to stain which particular broad
class of biomolecules for which it has a high affinity?
White blood cells?
- White? - You think so?
White blood cells.
No, it lipids or fats.
Two and a half minute to go, 10 points for this.
"Studies serve for delight for ornament and for ability."
These are the words of which philosopher and...
BUZZ Bacon.
Francis Bacon is right, yes.
Your bonuses are on an Asian country.
Iskander Mirza, Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan were, from 1956,
the first three presidents of which country?
Pakistan?
- THEY CONFER - ..at the start of Pakistan.
- Maybe. - Pakistan.
Correct. Which military figure came to power in a coup d'etat
in 1977 and died in an unexplained air crash 11 years later?
General...someone.
Is this all in Asia?
I thought it would be Pakistan.
Yes, it's all in Pakistan.
- Come on. - We don't know.
It's General Zia.
And finally, which former general resigned as president
of Pakistan in 2008 having seized power in a coup in 1999?
Musharraf.
Correct. 10 points for this.
In chemistry, what six-letter term describes a pair of opposite
electrical charges separated by...
- BUZZ - Dipole.
Dipole is correct.
APPLAUSE
These bonuses are on bones in the human body.
Occurring most commonly in young boys,
Perthes' disease is caused by the inflammation of the head of which
bone of the lower body?
- The femur. - Yeah.
- The femur. - Correct.
What is the medical name for the bone that articulates with
the tibia, fibula and calcaneus?
THEY CONFER IN HUSHED VOICES
- No, isn't that... - It's the ankle. What's the ankle?
We don't know.
It is the ankle bone, the talus.
And finally, formed by the fusion of the ilium, ischium and ***,
the innominate bone is more commonly known as what?
- (Pelvis.) - The pelvis.
No, it's the hip bone.
10 points for this. Listen carefully,
the name of the capital of which country may be formed
by rearranging the Roman numerals for the number 552?
BUZZ
East Timor.
East Timor, D-I-L-I or D-L-I-I in the Roman numerals.
GONG SOUNDS
And at the gong, St Peter's College, Oxford, have 120.
Magdalen College, Oxford, have 235.
APPLAUSE
Well, it's not a bad way to go out.
You had a clear run up to here defeating everybody
and only lost in the semifinals, St Peter's.
We shall have to say goodbye to you,
but congratulations on getting this far anyway.
Magdalen, terrific performance again from you.
We shall look forward to seeing you in the final.
I hope you can join us next time for the second semifinal.
But until then, it's goodbye from St Peter's College, Oxford.
- ALL: - Bye.
It's goodbye from Magdalen College, Oxford.
- ALL: - Goodbye. - And it's goodbye from me.
APPLAUSE