Round 1
Foreign Language
1. Translate the following into English:
Le musée est près d’ici.
Das Museum ist in der Nähe.
El museo está cerca de aqui.
The museum is near here.
Social Science
2. Danish explorer Vitus Bering reached present-day Alaska in 1741. For what country was he sailing?
Russia
3. Named for their resemblance to a hand, the Finger Lakes are located in what U.S. state?
New York
4. Great Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States are the five permanent members of what fifteen-member body of the United Nations?
Security Council
Language Arts
5. Who wrote the novels Jane Eyre, Shirley, and Vilette?
Charlotte Bronte
6. What form of the pronoun “who” is used as a direct object?
whom
7. From what book of the Bible did John Steinbeck take the title for his novel East of Eden?
Genesis
Math
8. (Allow 30 seconds) The second term in an arithmetic sequence is -2 and the eighth term is 40. What is the first term?
-9
9. (Allow 30 seconds) Correctly factor the following: 25a² + 20ab + 4b².
(5a + 2b)² (also accept (5a + 2b)(5a + 2b))
10. (Allow 30 seconds) Point S is the midpoint of segment RT and has the coordinates (0,2). If the coordinates of point T are (3,5), what are the coordinates of point R?
(-3,-1)
Science
11. Give the common name for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, the disease which killed a famous baseball player whose name was taken for the disease.
Lou Gehrig’s Disease
12. What element on the periodic table is named for the country where Marie Curie was born?
polonium
13. What is the term for a mollusk that has two shells held together by hinges and strong muscles?
bivalve
Fine Arts
14. Starting in 1923, what was the name for endurance dances that were held in the U.S. and gained in popularity during the Depression when people tried to win prize money by dancing until they dropped from exhaustion?
dance marathons
15. What artist depicted his interest in the West in bronze sculptures such as his 1901 piece titled “The Cheyenne”?
Frederic Remington
Year in Review
16. After 15 years, whose last day on the NBC “Today” show was May 31, 2006?
Katie Couric
Round 2
Foreign Language
1. Translate the following into English:
L’oreiller est très dur.
Das Kopfkissen ist sehr hart.
La almohada está muy dura.
The pillow is very hard.
Social Science
2. What are the three main colors on the Italian flag?
green white red
3. Name the Virginia-born inventor of the first successful grain reaper.
Cyrus McCormick
4. How many members make up the Kansas Senate?
40
Language Arts
5. What Ernest Hemingway novel tells the story of American teacher Robert Jordan who has joined the anti-fascist Loyalist army?
For Whom the Bell Tolls
6. Emily Dickinson’s fame as an author was mostly posthumous. Correctly spell posthumous.
p o s t h u m o u s
7. An album is a recording of different musical pieces. What word, which also begins with the letter “a,” designates a collection of writings?
anthology
Math
8. (Allow 30 seconds) If the area of one face of a regular tetrahedron is 12 square units, what is the total surface area?
48 square units
9. (Allow 30 seconds) Give both the product and the sum of √-4 and √-25.
product = -10 sum = 7i
10. (Allow 45 seconds) The sum of 10 consecutive integers in 35. What is the largest number in the sequence?
8
Science
11. In chemistry, a mixture is a combination of two or more kinds of matter each of which retains its own composition and properties. Mixtures are classified into what two types?
heterogeneous homogeneous
12. What is the muscular wall that divides the heart vertically?
septum
13. What term refers to the point in a planet’s orbit when it is farthest from the sun?
aphelion
Fine Arts
14. What color comes in shades called azure, cerulean, and lapis?
blue
15. How many strings does a banjo have?
5
Year in Review
16. In September 2006, Patrick Crowe of Kansas City received letters from lawyers instructing him to cease promoting what television talk show host for President of the U.S.?
Oprah Winfrey
Round 3
Foreign Language
1. Translate the following into English:
En été, j’aime nager.
Im sommer, schwimme ich gem.
En el verano, me gusta nadar.
In the summer, I like to swim.
Social Science
2. New York City’s highest natural point, 409-foot Todt Hill lies in what westernmost borough?
Staten Island
3. Name the 28th President of the United States who was a former president of Princeton University and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.
Woodrow Wilson
4. What Asian country was once called “the jewel of the British empire”?
India
Language Arts
5. What 20th century American novelist wrote Look Homeward Angel and You Can’t Go Home Again?
Thomas Wolfe
6. What tense of a verb is always formed with the word “had”?
past perfect
7. What Edgar Allan Poe short story deals with the violent deaths of an old woman and her daughter in their apartment and the subsequent search for the killer?
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
Math
8. (Allow 30 seconds) At what point do the lines with the equations 3x – 2y + 2 = 0 and x + 3y = 14 intersect?
(2, 4) (also accept x = 2, y = 4)
9. (Allow 30 seconds) In a right triangle, the measure of one acute angle is four times the measure of the other. What are the measures of the two acute angles?
18º and 72º
10. (Allow 30 seconds) What number in base ten is equal to the binary number 1 0 0 0 1 0 ?
34
Science
11. What is the charge for the polyatomic ion sulfate?
-2 (also accept 2-)
12. Give the medical term for the leg bone commonly called the shin bone.
tibia
13. What law states that a volume of a fixed mass of gas at a constant temperature varies inversely with the pressure?
Boyle’s law
Fine Arts
14. What musical contains the characters Tevye, Golde, Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, and Yente?
Fiddler on the Roof
15. What is the technique used in drawing, watercolor, and oil painting in which little color is put onto a brush and then skimmed over a surface so that color is left only on the raised points of that surface?
drybrush
Year in Review
16. What director of the movie “Brokeback Mountain” won the “Best Director” award at the Academy Awards held in March 2006?
Ang Lee
Round 4
Foreign Language
1. Translate the following into English:
Les fourchettes at les cuillers sont sales.
Die Gabein und Löffel sind schmutzig.
Los tenedores y las cucharas están sucios.
The forks and spoons are dirty.
Social Science
2. What is the eight-letter term for the deliberate murder, or attempted murder, of a group of people?
genocide
3. What country’s King Henry IV once promised “a chicken in every pot”?
France
4. In 1898, what U.S. President declared war on Spain, resulting in the U.S. gaining new territories, from Puerto Rico to the Philippines?
William McKinley
Language Arts
5. Name the god of classical mythology who could change his shape at will.
Proteus
6. What literary technique is used in the sentence, “This hangnail is killing me.”?
hyperbole
7. In what F. Scott Fitzgerald novel is Jordan Baker introduced to Nick Carraway by Daisy Buchanan?
The Great Gatsby
Math
8. (Allow 30 seconds) How many degrees does it take to complete one full cycle of the function y equals four cosine two-x?
180º
9. (Allow 30 seconds) In simplest form, what is the geometric mean between 3 and 18?
3√6
10. What is the maximum number of imaginary solutions that can exist in a 5th degree polynomial?
4
Science
11. Dazzling lights occur in the night sky near the Earth’s poles. What are these lights called at the North Pole?
Aurora Borealis
12. What is the name for the three layers of membranes that protect the brain and spinal cord?
meninges
13. What structure found in acellular slime mold contains many nuclei?
plasmodium
Fine Arts
14. What visual art form’s name comes from the Greek for “to draw with light”?
photography
15. In what key is the alto saxophone?
E flat
Year in Review
16. What country became the eighth country to admit to having nuclear weapons after an underground test in October 2006?
North Korea
Round 5
Foreign Language
1. Translate the following into English:
Nous avons deux crayons rouges.
Wir haben zwei rote Bleistifte.
Tenemos dos lápices rojos.
We have two red pencils.
Social Science
2. What mountains for the boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina?
Great Smoky Mountains
3. What does the government agency OSHA stand for?
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
4. What island country lies just off the southern tip of the Malay peninsula?
Singapore
Language Arts
5. In poetry, what is the name for a metrical foot with two unaccented syllables, followed by a stressed syllable?
anapest
6. What five-letter word can be used as a verb to make a trail or as a noun for a white mark on a horse’s forehead?
blaze
7. In which Shakespearean play would you find three sisters named Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia?
King Lear
Math
8. (Allow 30 seconds) In trigonometry, the sine of 125 degrees has the same value as the sine of what angle between 0 and 90 degrees?
55º
9. (Allow 45 seconds) Give an equation, in standard form, for the line that passes through the point (5, 2) and is parallel to the line 3x + 4y = 1.
3x + 4y = 23
10. (Allow 30 seconds) What are the measures of two complementary angles if the difference in the measures of the two angles is 12 degrees?
51º and 39º
Science
11. When a glacier reaches the sea, large chunks break off and float away. What is the name for the breaking off of these pieces of ice?
calving
12. What metal must be present in an amalgam?
mercury
13. While studying fluorescence in uranium salts in 1896, what Frenchman discovered radioactivity?
Antoine Becquerel
Fine Arts
14. What mid-19th century school of American landscape painting shares its name with a river in New York?
Hudson River School
15. What brotherly duo wrote Of Thee I Sing, which was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama?
George and Ira Gershwin
Year in Review
16. January and February 2006 saw the national Intelligence Director face tough questions about its surveillance program. Name this man.
John Negroponte
Semifinals
Foreign Language
1. Translate the following into English:
La banque est fermée aujoud’ hui.
Die Bank ist heute geschlossen.
El banco esta’ cerrado hoy.
The bank is closed today.
Social Science
2. In 1873, Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the ancient city of Troy in what country?
Turkey
3. In 1842, what Kansas fort was built on the banks of the Marmaton River?
Ft. Scott
4. What is the last name of the two people who were convicted of treason in 1951 for exposing the secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union?
Rosenberg
Language Arts
5. What literary movement is associated with the authors Henry James, William Dean Howells, and Mark Twain?
Realism
6. In literature, what term refers to the final unraveling of the plot following the climax?
denouement
7. What title character in a 1927 Sinclair Lewis satire hailed from the fictional town of Paris, Kansas, and attended Terwillinger College in Gritzmacher Springs?
Elmer Gantry
Math
8. (Allow 30 seconds) In base six, what is the logarithm of thirty-six?
2
9. (Allow 30 seconds) Find the number of permutations of the letters in the word “London.”
180
10. (Allow 30 seconds) The measure of an inscribed angle is (3z – 10) degrees and its intercepted arc has a measure of (2z + 40) degrees. What is the value of z?
z = 15
Science
11. What part of the human skeleton consists of the bones in the arms, legs, pelvis, and shoulder area?
appendicular skeleton
12. What term refers to the way in which an electrical current opposes the flow of electric current through it?
resistance
13. What isotope of hydrogen has twice the mass of ordinary hydrogen?
deuterium (also accept H-2)
Fine Arts
14. What deep-blue diamond, which weighs 44.5 carats, is believed to bring misfortune to its owners, and is part of the gem collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.?
Hope diamond
15. What are the three main types of minor scales?
natural harmonic melodic
Year in Review
16. Name the politician who came under fire in the fall of 2006 when he said, “You study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
John Kerry
Consolation
Foreign Language
1. Translate the following into English: