2009 ACF Fall: Quizbowl is my Hot Hot Sex
Edited by Evan Adams, Auroni Gupta, Will Nediger, Mehdi Razvi, and George Stevens with help by the honorable Seth Teitler
Packet by Maryland A (Jeff Amoros, Jeremy Eaton, Phil Durkos, and SteveJon Guth) and CWRU
Tossups
- In one of this author’s novels, Father Paez convinces Catalina that she has corrupted her soul by marrying the title character. King Philip II appears in this author’s novel in which the eve of the new millennium sees an act of love between Celstina and Pollo Phoibe. This author of Terra Nostra included a frame story about a group of diggers discussing an exhumed corpse in a novel that ends with the revelation that the narrator is Ambrose Bierce. His most famous novel follows the titular corrupt politician on his deathbed as he reflects upon his life. For 10 points, name this Mexican author of The Old Gringo and The Death of Artemio Cruz.
ANSWER: Carlos Fuentes - Rett syndrome has been associated with hypermodification of certain classes of these proteins. During spermatogenesis, they are replaced by the arginine-rich protamines, which are necessary for sperm head condensation. The largest of these, class 1, links octameric units of the other four classes. These proteins are rich in positively charged amino acids such as lysine, which is often modified in them by acetyl groups. Four types of these form part of a unit spanning 146 base pairs called a nucleosome, which is key for the supercoiling of DNA. For 10 points, name these proteins around which DNA wraps to form chromatin.
ANSWER: histones - The hexagon-impressed tiles on the arches in this painting are modeled on the ceiling of the Vatican Palace. A putto over the top of this painting bears the injunction “causarum cognitio,” or “become knowledgeable of the causes.” The upper left and upper right of this painting include statues of Apollo and Athena, holding a lyre and a shield, respectively. Hypatia is depicted in a white robe in the lower left, while in the lower right a group of students gathers around Archimedes. The Timaeus and the Nicomachean Ethics are held by the two central figures, Plato and Aristotle. For 10 points, name this fresco by Raphael.
ANSWER: The School of Athens [or La Scuola di Atene] - This man’s support for William H. Crawford’s candidacy drew him his first electoral vote, from Georgia for the vice presidency. Charles Ogle accused this man of an overly-opulent lifestyle in the “Gold Spoon Oration,” and he refused to override Lilburn Boggs’ “Extermination Order” against the Mormons in Missouri. This man’s vice president caused a scandal in Washington by entering into a common law marriage with a mulatto slave, and this man twice sent Winfield Scott to New England to resolve border disputes in the Caroline Affair and the Aroostook War. Nominated as a presidential candidate later in life by the Free Soilers, for 10 points, name this president who got saddled with the Panic of 1837 shortly after arriving in office.
ANSWER: Martin van Buren - Niklas, Sune, and Allan are moves in the Petrus System used for doing this, and that system was designed to be a replacement for the more layer based Fridrich Method employed by the likes of Tyson Mao. In Hellboy, Abe Sapien laments only accomplishing one third of this action, and a blind man in UHF repeatedly fails to do this. In the Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith does this in a taxi to impress his future employer. Erik Akkersdijk holds the world record for doing this in the 2x2x2, 3x3x3, and 4x4x4 categories. For 10 points, name this action that involves isolating blue, green, yellow, red, orange, and white tiles on separate sides of a six sided solid.
ANSWER: Solving a Rubik’s Cube
- One of these figures is a diviner of bird flights, and another one gets impaled on top of an ash-tree. In addition to Amycus and Asbolus, one of these figures named Eurytion coerces Dexamenus into setting him up with Dexamenus's daughter, and several of them cause a ruckus at the wedding of Pirithous. One member of this group that fought the Lapiths offers a jug of wine to a visiting hero, and another gives Deianira a shirt with which to poison her husband. The most famous one is allowed to die after being struck by a poison arrow during a ruckus caused by Pholus’s opening of a jug of wine. Nessus and Chiron are, for 10 points, what half-horse and half-man creatures in Greek myth?
ANSWER: centaurs [or kéntauroi] - Hydrodynamic interactions due to this phenomenon create Parker spirals, which are a consequence of rotations of the source of this phenomenon. A strong “radiation driven” phenomenon analogous to this is observed in Wolf-Rayet stars and more generally beyond the Eddington limit in other systems. In conjuction with Earth’s magnetic field, this is responsible for ‘fueling’ the Van Allen Belts. The termination shock is the point where this reaches subsonic speeds, and the heliopause is where it merges with interstellar medium. This plasma flow is what causes comet tails to face away from the Sun. For 10 points, identify this stream of charged particles released from the outer atmosphere of the Sun.
ANSWER: solar wind [or stellar wind] - According to the Heckscher-Ohlin model, this concept derives from differences in relative factor endowments. Paul Samuelson argued that this concept might not apply today because capital and labor can easily cross national borders. First illustrated by Robert Torrens in an essay on the Corn Laws, this concept was more famously illustrated by David Ricardo with the example of Portuguese wine and English cloth. For 10 points, name this concept that states that even absolutely advantaged countries can benefit from specialization and trade.
ANSWER: comparative advantage
- A group of drunken farmers sings “There came two ladies out of the woods” during an incidental ballet in this play. One character in this play claims that he attempted to commit suicide by sleeping in a bed of oats and elderberry blossoms, and that he learned French while serving at the largest hotel in Lucerne. That man appalls the title character by beheading Serena, the title character's pet canary, and in the end that man, the butler Jean, hands the title character a razor. For 10 points, name this play in which the titular countess seduces and then is persuaded to commit suicide by Jean, a work of August Strindberg.
ANSWER: Miss Julie
- This story mentions an object that spent a year in the post office, some time on the shelf of Mr. Martin's grocery, and a year in Mr. Graves's barn. One character in this story is criticized for his decision to modernize by ending the use of wooden chips in favor of paper. The owner of a local coal company, Mr. Summers, organizes this story’s title event. Eva is spared the consequences of her father Bill's misfortune by virtue of her marriage to Don. Instead, Bill, Nancy, Bill Jr., Dave and Tessie Hutchinson are picked at random, causing Mr. Delacroix to lift a giant stone to hurl at Tessie. For 10 points, name this short story that caused cancellations of New Yorker subscriptions, a work of Shirley Jackson.
ANSWER: “The Lottery” - The Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri was formed by damming a river with this name, and another river of this name flows through Indianapolis and is the main tributary of the Wabash River. Its also the name of a mountain range whose namesake member is the third highest peak in California, and another mountain range by this name features Cannon Mountain and the Presidential Range. The cities of Courmayeur and Chamonix are found near the base of a European peak with this name, and the sea by this name is bordered by the Kanin and Kola Peninsulas and includes the port town of Arkhangelsk. For 10 points, identify this color denoting the highest Alpine peak and an arctic Russian sea.
ANSWER: White [accept Blanc or Bianco after mentioning Courmayeur]
12. This ruler’s paternal grandfather married Melisende and become King of Jerusalem upon the death of Baldwin II, while his mother had previously been married to Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. Upon the death of his father, this man obtained the title Count of Maine, and he secured his right to the throne by the Treaty of Wallingford, which was agreed upon by his predecessor, Stephen of Blois. During his reign, his Assizes of Clarendon and Northampton reformed English law, making trial by jury more common, and his Constitutions of Clarendon set out to reduce the pope’s power in England, which angered Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket. For 10 points, identify this last husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the first Plantagenet king of England.
ANSWER: Henry II of England
- One portion of the first part of this work opens with the direction “With sudden rapture” and concludes with a 36-measure B-flat pedal-point reprise of the opening section. The finale of the first part features a boys’ choir joined by the full ensemble singing “Gloria Patri,” a motif featured again in the second part, which ends with a pianissimo build-up called “The Sacred Feminine draws us up” and another reprise of the main theme, “Veni, Creator Spiritus.” Following its composer’s Song of the Night, for 10 points, identify this 1906 E-flat major symphony of Gustav Mahler which is given its nickname due to its extremely large number of chorus and orchestra members.
ANSWER: Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major [or “Symphony of a Thousand;” prompt on Symphony No. 8 before Mahler is read] - The MSW effect accounts for this particle’s oscillations in matter as opposed to a vacuum, and its “sterile” variety is a strong candidate for dark matter composition. The Homestake experiment attempted to count these particles emitted due to fusion in the Sun, while Cowan and Reines reacted its antiparticles with protons to yield neutrons and beta plus particles to verify this particle’s existence. Studied at the Super-Kamiokande facility, this particle was postulated to allow conservation of energy and momentum in beta decay, which involves its electron type. Also coming in muon and tauon varieties, for 10 points name this chargeless lepton whose name means “small neutral one.”
ANSWER: neutrino - This man received his first official post in government as Superintendent of Buildings some time after he incited a rivalry with Nicolas Fouquet over unpaid taxes. This man placed increased emphasis on the equality of tariffs laid on goods traded internally in his country, and he attempted to increase transportation options, commissioning Pierre Riquet to build the Canal du Midi. However, he ascended to his most well-known role due to the patronage of Cardinal Mazarin, and he successfully curried favor with Louis XIV after Mazarin's death. Known for pushing mercantilist policies and for placing a heavier tax burden on the nobility, for 10 points, name this French Controller-General of Finances for whom an economic commerce system is named.
ANSWER: Jean-Baptiste Colbert - This thinker is the namesake of a paradox that is a logical formation of the problem of evil. His few extant works include a letter explaining his physical theory and addressed to Herodotus. Like Democritus, he was an atomist, though his version included the possibility of swerves in atomic motion to allow for free will. His major ethical teachings included that the soul is not immortal and that the person should strive to attain ataraxia. For 10 points, name this Greek philosopher who taught that the only goal in life should be to maximize one’s pleasure.
ANSWER: Epicurus - A 2001 J.C. Alvarez study investigated properties of aromatic polyamides containing this class of elements, and they are reacted with carboxylic acids in the Hunsdiecker reaction. The Finkelstein reaction involves the exchange of two atoms of these elements, and the enrichment of uranium via gaseous diffusion is accomplished using a molecule containing the simplest of these elements, whose synthesis won Henri Moissan the 1906 Nobel in Chemistry. Another member of this group is used as a mordant in Gram staining and has an important role in the thyroid gland. For 10 points, identify these highly reactive Group 17 elements that include iodine and fluorine.
ANSWER: halogens [accept Group 17 elements before mentioned]
- In Melville’s Billy Budd, Captain Vere takes his nickname “Starry” from this author’s poem “Upon Appleton House.” He wrote that “the Irish are ashamed / to see themselves in one year tamed” in a “Horatian Ode.” This poet also wrote a series of poems about a figure “against Gardens” and “to the Glowworms.” This author of “The Mower” is most famous for a narrator who discusses his “vegetable love” growing until “the conversion of the Jews,” but regrets “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.” For 10 points, name this British poet who penned the lines “Had we but world enough and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime” in “To His Coy Mistress.”
ANSWER: Andrew Marvell - The Al ha-Nissim addition is made to the hoda’ah benediction in the prayer service for this holiday, which includes the reading of Zechariah 2:14-4:7. The final moments of this holiday include the reading of the verse “This was the dedication of the altar” on its final day, which is known as Zot. The medieval German hymn Ma’oz Tzur is sung during this holiday, which sees the wide consumption of latkes. This holiday was borne from a struggle against Antiochus and included an incident in which a container of oil kept a menorah burning for eight days. Gelt is distributed and dreidel is played on, for 10 points, what winter Jewish holiday?
ANSWER: Hanukkah [or Chanukah; prompt on Festival of Lights]
- This nation’s May Revolution of 1810 came about after the 1806 and 1807 invasions of its capital, and its independence was declared at the Congress of Tucuman. Bartolome Mitre led this nation during the War of the Triple Alliance, although it was ruled for four decades by the caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas. Jorge Videla’s government began the Dirty War in this nation, which served as the heart of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata before being liberated from Spain by Jose de San Martin. For 10 points, name this South American country which has been ruled by Eva and Juan Peron.
ANSWER: Argentina
Tiebreaker
A character named Hamlet in this work hallucinates that Tennyson comes to him wearing the face of Euripides to explain the meaning of the phrase “divine despair.” Mrs. Merrett spends thirty years in jail after her nineteen year old lover shoots her husband. While most of the characters in this work are miserable, the story teller and fiddler Blind Jack now spends his afterlife listening to Homer recount the fall of Troy. This collection includes a recitation by Anne Rutledge, the “Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln.” For 10 points, identify this poetry collection in which the dead of the title town make one final statement, the masterpiece of Edgar Lee Masters.
ANSWER: Spoon River Anthology
2009 ACF Fall: Quizbowl is my Hot Hot Sex