Definitive Quizbowl from the Last 103 Years
Definitive Quizbowl from the Last 103 Years
TTGT11 v.4.11: None More Black
Packet by Dan Sinykin et al. of Saint Olaf College
Subject: Answers in this packet involve things that have happened or have been discovered since 1900.
Tossups:
1. It was hailed as “Reinventing Broadway” by Rolling Stone. “It sends youhome believing you’ve experienced something like a catharsis” according to the New York Times. Set in the Lower East Side of New York City, it tells the story of friends through a time of love, death, forgiveness, and one exciting Christmas Bash. In this show, JoAnne is dating Maureen, who is the ex-girlfriend of Mark who is the roommate of Roger who later falls in love with a girl named Mimi. For ten points, name this 1996 musical, recipient of the Tony for Best Musical set to the music by Jonathan Larson.
Answer: Rent
2. Zoologists estimate that the population of these types of creatures reaches about a billion to the billionth power of individuals. Some characteristics include an open circulatory system, a process of molting to grow larger, and an exoskeleton completely covered by the cuticle. For ten points, name this phylum which includes crustaceans, spiders, and insects.
Answer: Arthropoda (accept arthropods)
5. They held the fate of Christian world in their hands, according to their Prime Minister. The blitzkrieg had invaded Poland. The French were battling hard but theirs was a losing fight. On June 18th, 1940, Winston Churchill gave a speech at the Houseof Commons. For 10 points, complete the last five words of this famous quote: "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that ifthe British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men willstill say, ______."
Answer: "This was their finest hour."(Prompt on Great Britain)
4.Captain Carl Knox; George Parker; Walt Price; Tick Tock McGlaughlin; The Shoveller; Major Caldwell; Bill Porter; Vice President Gene Wolters; Dr. David Morgenstern; and Jerry Lundegaard. All of these are characters played by, for 10 points, what famous actor, a favorite of P.T. Anderson as he played Little Bill in Boogie Nights and Quiz Kid Donnie Smith in Magnolia?
Answer: William H. Macy
5.The search for extraterrestrial life utilizes radio waves listen for signs of intelligent life. This particular range of relatively noise-free frequencies, approximately 10^3 to 10^4 MHz, is ideal for detecting these signals. For 10 points, what range of radio waves is near the microwave emission lines of hydrogen and hydroxide, from which it derives its name?
Answer: Water hole
6. She was born near Lodi, Italy in 1850. Pope Leo XII sent her to the US in 1889 to help poor Italian immigrant populations there. Her feast is held annually, on December 22nd. She became a US citizenin 1909. For 10 points, name this woman who was canonized as the first US saint in 1938.
Answer: Saint Frances Cabrini
7.More than 2,000 people were killed, 3,000 injured, and 2,000,000 made homeless on May 22nd 1960. The Richter scale clocked in at 9.5. For 10 points, name this country, neighbor of Bolivia and Argentina, that suffered the largest earthquake of the 20th century.
Answer: Chile
8."They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures andthen retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whateverit was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess theyhad made." This quote comes from, for 10 points, what 1920’s novel about American dreams and decadence and centers around this “great,” wealthy man of the same nickname?
Answer: "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. When the Europeans arrived in North America, this animal's population was estimated to be 5 billion. In Wayne County, New York, a local resident wrote in 1854 that, "There would be days and days when the air was alive with them, hardly a break occurring in the flocks for half a day at a time. Flocks stretched as far as a person could see, one tier above another." Name this species, which became extinct when its last member, Martha, diedat the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.
Answer: Passenger Pigeon
10.The main character watches her mother burn to death, throws a little boy into the lake where he drowns, cuts off her fingertip, forces her grandmother into a nursing home, steals her best friend’s husband, and dies alone and ostracized. For 10 points, all of this happens in what classic novel published in 1973 by Toni Morrison?
Answer: Sula
11.He has been called “the most enduring Republican leader of the 20th century.” He received two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star Medal for his efforts in WWII. In 1976, this man from Russell, Kansas ran for vice president on the same ticket along side Gerald R. Ford. For 10 points, who is this politician who would later sell Viagra on television and run for president against Bill Clinton in 1996?
Answer: Robert “Bob” Dole
12.One mile in every five miles must be straight. This was one of his stipulations. As a Lt. Colonel leading the first transcontinental army convoy he realized the Germans had a distinct advantage. Later with the possible threat of nuclear war he envisioned cities that needed to have mass evacuations and so he created the freeway. For 10 points, name this President who when he came into power created The National Defense Highway System.
Answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower
13.A dog is shown a red circle every time it is fed. It is also shown an orange circle when not fed. When the red circle is shown the dog begins to salivate but when the orange circle is shown there is no response. For 10 points, what psychological term describes this phenomenon made famous by experiments from Pavlov?
Answer: Classical Conditioning
14.After graduating from Williams College this man worked as a United Press reporter in Germany and had the rare opportunity to interview Hitler. His autobiography A Look Over My Shoulder was published posthumously after this man died of multiple melanoma in October 2002. He was known in his lifetime for the role he played in the Johnson and Nixon Administration and was implicated later in his lifetime in plots to kill Castro and overthrow Chile’s leftist government. However, the man, for 10 points, is best known as the former head of the CIA who was fired by Nixon for defying the President’s orders to stop the Watergate investigation.
Answer: Richard Helms
15.This author was a Southern Gothic Novelist whose early works include Other Voices, Other Rooms, the Gothic short stories in A Tree of Night, and the lighter novel The Grass Harp. This man is also said to have inspired the character Dill in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. However, the author is best known, for ten points, for a book about the 6 year study of the murder of a Kansas family entitled In Cold Blood.
Answer: Truman Capote
16. Until 1908, he worked in a naturalistic style, but after becoming a theosophist in 1909, he started drifting towards modernism. Influenced by Braqueand Picasso, he created the non-representational "Neo-Plastic" style, dominated byvertical and horizontal lines, and later helped found De Stijl. For ten points,name this artist, whose name can be appropriately rearranged to spell "I paintmodern."
Answer: Piet Mondrian
17. A statue to its inventor, who died penniless and largely forgotten in 1971, wasunveiled in 1990 in the National Statuary, a little over fifty years after theinvention was introduced at the World's Fair. While a rival inventor had previouslyfiled a theoretical patent for the device, Philo Farnsworth and not Vladmir Zworykinis, for ten points, considered to be the father of what modern appliance?
Answer: Television
18.His high school yearbook mentions him as a lover of pizza and a disliker of hypocrites. He went on to Cornell University in the late 50’s where he studied physics and English under Vladimir Nabokov and befriended rising folk artist Richard Farina, to whom his masterpiece is dedicated. In the postmodern tradition, his themes often include paranoia and the terror of modern technology. For 10 points, name this great 20th century writer who obsessed over the V-2 rocket bombs and the untimely erections of one Tyrone Slothrop in the epic historical novel and winner of the 1975 National Book Award, Gravity’s Rainbow.
Answer: Thomas Pynchon
19.Mathematicians seem to have an easier time with this elusive concept than do metaphysicians. Jose A. Benardete (BANE-ARE-DAY-TAY) suggestedthat we as humans cannot even grasp it. Sets of this size can have proper sub-sets of the same cardinality. For 10 points, name this mathematical and
philosophical concept on which prominent fiction writer David Foster Wallace will publish a book in October, 2003 and that can be roughly defined as endlessness.
Answer: Infinity
20.He was born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1921, and came to the United Statesin 1939 to study at Williams College and Harvard University. In 1947 he joined the faculty of Princeton University where he taught philosophy. Hisbooks include Critique of Religion and Philosophy, FromShakespeare to Existentialism, and Hegel, Tragedy, and Philosophy, but he is probably mostfamous for his translations of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. For 10 points, name this “mann” who may have used lots of Vicks’ candy-like drops.
Answer: Walter Kaufmann
21. He applied and almost made it onto the cast of the Real World. He madesignificant changes to his first novel, You Shall Know Our Velocity! when itout in paperback versions in 2003, altering many themes and understandings of the hardcover edition. The hardcover edition has the story beginning on the front cover, as is in the gimmicky vein of, for ten points, what contemporary member of the literati, editor of McSweeney’s magazine and Pulitzer Prize finalist for his memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius?
Answer: Dave Eggers
Bonuses
1. Two Baltic states which were formerly members of the Soviet Union celebrated their countries’ endorsement of European Union membership during September 2003. For 15 points each, name these two countries.
Answer: Latvia and Estonia
2. 30-20-10. Name the planet.
A. This planet revolves around its axis once every sol.
B. The two moons Phobos and Deimos are named after the dogs of this Roman god.
C. This red planet made will not be this close to Earth again until the year 2287.
Answer: Mars
3. For ten points each, name the famous historical Supreme Court decision of the 1960s as described.
A. In this 1963 decision the court ruled that the Sixth amendment guaranteed access to qualified counsel and as a result states had to provide attorneys for indigent defendants in felony cases. The plaintiff, a Florida man who wrote his appeal to the Supreme Court from his jail cell, was given a retrial
Answer: Gideon v. Wainwright
B. Based on the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments the court ruled that a “right to privacy” was implied in the Constitution. The Connecticut law banning the use of contraceptives was struck down, and the case set the precedent for may future cases including Roe v. Wade
Answer: Griswold v. Connecticut
C. The court struck down Tennessee’s districting lines for its state legislature because it overrepresented rural districts which effectively disenfranchised millions of voters. The decision was based on the equal protection clause in the fourteenth amendment.
Answer: Baker v. Carr
4. Given the narrator of a 20th century novel name both the novel and the author. For 5 points per answer –
A. Nick Carraway
Answer:The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
B. Jim Burden
Answer: My Antonia by Willa Cather
C. Jurgis Rudkus
Answer: The Jungle Author by Upton Sinclair
5. A. Starting on a low trill on the clarinet and then rushing up a scale, it then picks up the
brass section. Soon afterwards, the string section is introduced. Finally, the piano part,
what this piece is most noted for, is added. For ten points, name this jazzy and colorfully
titled orchestral composition.
Answer: Rhapsody in Blue
B. For ten points each, name the composer of Rhapsody in Blue and also the original pianist who debuted the piece in 1942 at New York City’s Aeolian Hall.
Answer: George Gershwin (For both answers)
6. For five points each, name each stage of Mitosis by its description:
A. This stage of mitosis is where the chromosomes become arranged in the equatorial plane of the spindle.
Bottom of Form
Answer: Metaphase
B. This stage of mitosis is characterized by the condensation of chromosomes consisting of two chromatids, disappearance of the nucleolus and nuclear membrane, and formation of mitotic spindle.
Answer: Prophase
C. This stage of mitosis where the chromosomes move toward the poles of the spindle.
Answer: Anaphase
D. This stage of mitosis is where the spindle disappears and the nuclear envelope reforms around each set of chromosomes.
Answer: Telophase
E. Finally, for ten points, name the process immediately following mitosis characterized by the cleavage of the cytoplasm into daughter cells.
Answer: Cytokinesis
7. For 15 points per answer –
A. What woman, a symbol of love and compassion for the poor, was born on August 26, 1920 in Albania?
Answer: Mother Teresa
B. Malcolm Mudderidge wrote a book and film about the life and work of Mother Teresa; what were they called?
Answer: Something Beautiful for God
8. For 10 points per answer –
A. In 1935, Mussolini led an attack on a republic in NE Africa and conquered it for Italy. Name this nation that is bordered by Sudan on the west and Kenya on the east.
Answer: Ethiopia
B. What country conquered Ethiopia for the Allies in 1941?
Answer: Great Britain
C. What is the capital city of Ethiopia?
Answer: Addis Ababa
9. Fun with epics: Given the following information, identify these 20th century epics and their authors for 10 points per answer –
A. Beginning with the geologic formation of this Pacific island and recording its history and the history of its people up until the nineteen fifties, this book tells the stories of Polynesians, missionaries, Chinese laborers, and many others.
Answer: Hawaiiby James Michener
2. Written in 1936, this Civil War epic catalogues one woman's struggle as she sees her comfortable plantation life destroyed before her eyes and must rise from the ashes to rebuild the life she has lost.
Answer: Gone With the Windby Margaret Mitchell
3. This epic tells the story of an English seaman who is shipwrecked on the coast of Japan and must use his intelligence to rise through the ranks to become one of the key retainers of Lord Toranaga, a man engaged in a brutal struggle for control over Japan.
Answer: Shogunby James Clavell
10. On the British Monarchy, for 10 points per answer –
A. Name the king of who abdicated in 1936 to marry the woman he loved.
Answer: Edward VIII
B. Name the divorcée he married.
Answer: Wallis Simpson
C. Name his younger brother who succeeded him as king.
Answer: George VI
11. Give the name of these characters from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, for 10 points per answer –
A. After the disappearance of Miss Quentin, this character said: “Did you find it? . . . The note. At least she would have enough consideration to leave a note. Even Quentin did that.” Give her first and last name.
Answer: Mrs. Caroline Compson
B. This 13-year-old character spends much of his time taking care of Benjy Compson.
Answer: Luster
C. Mr. Quentin Compson obsesses over this probable lover of his sister Caddy shortly before his suicide at Harvard in 1910.
Answer: Dalton Ames
12. Given the clue, name this politician from the Progressive Era (approximately 1901-1920) for 10 points per answer –
A. This US president ordered his attorney general to prosecute the Northern Securities Company, a monopoly brokered by J.P. Morgan, in 1902. He would later become known as a “trust-buster.”
Answer: Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt
B. This Democratic politician from Nebraska ran for president three times (in 1896, 1900, and 1908) before he accepted a post as secretary of state under President Woodrow Wilson. He would later go on to prosecute John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in 1925.
Answer: William Jennings Bryan
C. This Republican governor instituted reforms that greatly curbed corruption in Wisconsin state government, and would later support Progressive reforms in the Senate. He ran for president as a Progressive in 1924.
Answer: Robert La Follette
13. A France divided. Name these things related to France in WWII for ten points each.
A. He was the leader that negotiated with Hitler to split France in two.
Answer: Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain
B. This was the other name for the unoccupied southern half of France.
Answer: Vichy
C. This was the name given to the early resistance groups that combined in Occupied France.