TOSSUPS – SOUTH FLORIDACenter of the Known Universe Open 2006 -- UT-Chattanooga
Questions by Rob, Nap, Brian, and Jeremy with spares by Ray Anderson and your genial quizmaster
1.New York City Transit Cop and Jeopardy! legend Frank Spangenberg earned a dinner invitation from this person after she was his winning answer in the 10th Anniversary Tournament of Champions. When Dinah Shore Ruled the Earth and Uncommon Women and Others were among her student productions at the Yale School of Drama and she graduated to works such as An American Daughter, Isn't It Romantic, and The Sisters Rosensweig. FTP, name this American dramatist who passed away in 2006 at age 55 from cancer; winner of the 1989 Tony and Pulitzer prizes for The Heidi Chronicles.
Answer:Wendy Wasserstein
2.(RA) Organisms can maintain it via negative or positive feedbacks, and it comes in strong, weak, and structural varieties. Examples of it in mammals include shivering or sweating to maintain stable body temperature, production of insulin or glucagon to regulate blood sugar levels, and removal of water or urea by the kidneys to maintain an isotonic state. FTP, what is this concept whose name derives from the Greek words for “same” and “posture”; a concept first put forth in 1932 by Walter Cannon that states that an organism will actively regulate its environment to maintain a suitable physiological state.
Answer:Homeostasis
3.It was signaled by two songs played over the radio. The first was “E depois do Adeus,” Portugal’s entry in the Eurovision song contest, as an alert to begin the coup and “Grandol, Vila Morena” as a signal for the MFA or Movimento das Forças Armadas to take control of strategic points from the forces of the Estado Novo. FTP name this April 1974 Portuguese democratic revolution, named for the flowers carried by the civilians.
Answer:Carnation Revolution [prompt on “revolution in Portugal”, etc.]
4.Built in the International Style by Philip Goodwin and Edward Stone, it opened on May 10, 1939 and reopened on November 20, 2004 after expansions and renovations by Yoshio Taniguchi. It’s better known for the contents, such as Broadway Boogie Woogie, The Persistence of Memory, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, and Starry Night. Name this museum on 53rd street in New York City, perhaps better known by its four letter acronym, which was the first American museum dedicated to 20th century art.
Answer:The Museum of Modern Art (Accept MoMA)
5.This book took its author four years to complete and meticulously described how a particular substance entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissues of animals and humans, causing cancer and genetic damage. The book’s most famous chapter, “A Fable for Tomorrow,” depicts a nameless American town where all life—from fish to birds to apple blossoms to human children—had been “silenced” by the insidious effects of the toxic substance. FTP, name this book detailing the dangers of the pesticide DDT by environmentalist Rachel Carson.
Answer:Silent Spring
6.He was largely self-educated and walked with a limp; so he was passed over for a commission early in his military career, but he took up a rifle and became a private in the Rhode Island militia. He moved up through the ranks quickly and was appointed Brigadier general in the Continental Army and put in charge of Boston, which had recently been evacuated by General Howe of the British Army. He was also the presiding officer in the trial and execution of Major Andre. This describes FTP which revolutionary war general famous for his work as Commander of the southern Army and his victory at Guilford Courthouse.
Answer:Nathanael Greene
7.It may have been responsible for the 2005 disappearance of George Allen Smith from his honeymoon cruise, as he was reported to have been drinking it before going missing. The toxicity of one component, the chemical thujone, is a topic of lively scientific debate. It originated in Switzerland as a medicinal elixir but is better known for its popularity in late 19th- and early 20th-century France, particularly among Parisian artists and writers. Sometimes referred to as the Green Fairy because of its coloring, in its heyday, the most popular brand was Pernod Fils. FTP, what is this potent potable derived from herbs of the medicinal plant sometimes called wormwood?
Answer:Absinthe (prompt on “wormwood” before mention)
8.The poet Ka is the protagonist of his most recent novel, Snow, and the murder of a miniaturist painter during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III is the subject of his novel My Name Is Red. His immense popularity in his native country was affected by his statement to a Swiss newspaper that "thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands”, causing him to be brought up on charges of “insulting Turkishness”. FTP, name this Turkish novelist and the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Answer:Ferit Orhan Pamuk
9.Her name appears on a Moscow plaque commemorating fallen cosmonauts. In 2005, a patch of soil on Mars was unofficially named for her by mission controllers. She features prominently in several sci-fi novels that depict her surviving and coming into contact with alien races. However, in reality, she died a few hours after launch on November 3, 1957 from stress and overheating, due to a malfunction in her capsule. FTP, who was this Russian space dog that became the first living Earth creature to enter orbit?
Answer:Laika
10.In modern times, bloodmobiles follow members of this sect as they undergo the matam to encourage followers to donate blood in place of the traditional rituals of public self-flagellation during funeral processions to commemorate the events of the Battle of Karbala, which saw the martyrdom of Husayn, the fourth Imam and son of Fatima and Ali. Consisting of 15% of their faith, they are the majority in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran, and Iraq. FTP, name this Islamic sect, second in numbers only to the Sunni.
Answer:Shi'a, Shi'ite, Shiite, Shî‘ah or Shi'ism.
11.It was intended to be 24 books, each representing a different virtue, though only six were completed. Cambel and Telamond represent friendship. Sir Guyon was the Knight of Temperance and Sir Calidore of Courtesy. Artegal is the knight of Justice who falls in love with the representation of chastity, Britomart, and the representation of holiness is The Red Cross Knight, or St. George, the patron saint of England. The first work to use the author’s namesake stanza form of ab-ab-bc-bcc, FTP, name this 16th century allegorical epic poem by Edmund Spencer.
Answer:The Faerie Queene
12.He ran away from the orphanage to join the circus, where he was trained by Trickshot and The Swordsman. He fell in love with the Soviet spy The Black Widow but became a good guy after breaking into Avengers Mansion and joining “Cap’s Kooky Quartet”. He’s gone on to lead the West Coast Avengers and the Thunderbolts and the demon Mephisto killed his wife Mockingbird. Feared dead after destroying a Kree starship in Avengers Disassembled, FTP, name this hero with an arsenal of trick arrows who didn’t appear in the Leatherstocking Tales or M*A*S*H.
Answer:Hawkeye (Clint Barton)
13.Located on the south side of Chicago, it was appropriated by the federal government in 1861 and originally used as an Army training camp. It was converted into a prisoner of war camp after 8,000 Confederate prisoners arrived in 1862 after the fall of Fort Donelson, TN, and held more than 18,000 men throughout the war. FTP, what is this infamous Union prison camp where more than 6,000 Confederate prisoners died, a place named after the property’s original owner, a Senator who debated Lincoln?
Answer:Camp Stephen A. Douglas
14.(RA) First described in 1835, its namesake parameter is equal to twice the angular rate of rotation times the sine of latitude. The acceleration due to this force is the cross product of velocity with the namesake parameter. The balance of it with the pressure gradient force results in geostrophic flow while the low amount of it less than 5 degrees north and south of the equator means that large scale cyclones cannot organize. FTP, name this force due to a rotating reference frame that is named after a French scientist and which is not responsible for the direction of circulating water in a toilet.
Answer:Coriolis Force (Coriolis Effect)
15.It includes Mindelo, an important coaling station for ships, and a servicing airport on Sal Island. During the 20th century, severe droughts caused the deaths of 200,000 people in this country and prompted heavy emigration. Today, more people with origins in this country live outside the country than inside it. A 2005 census estimated its local population to be around 500,000, while some 500,000 live in the U.S., 80,000 in Portugal, and 45,000 in Angola. FTP, name this former Portuguese colony comprising 10 islands and five islets, just off the coast of Senegal.
Answer:Cape Verde
16.A 14-year-old autistic boy named Christopher Knowles was a major influence on this work and his poetry appears throughout. Though he is only mentioned twice, all the performers are dressed like the title character while a wandering violinist also sports a wig and moustache. Three and a half hours long, it consists of nine 20 minute scenes with songs like “Mr. Bojangles”, “I Feel the Earth Move”, and “Prematurely Air-Conditioned Supermarket” separated by “knee” plays. Recurring images include trains, which the title character used as a metaphor to illustrate his theory of relativity. FTP, name this minimalist 1976 opera by Phillip Glass about some obscure German scientist.
Answer:Einstein on the Beach
17.His novel The Monikins is about a journey to a land of talking monkeys in Antarctica and his only play, Upside Down: or Philosophy in Petticoats, is a satire of socialism. More representative works include naval and war novels like Jack Tier: or the Florida Reefs and The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas. He is most famous for a series which included The Prairie, The Pathfinder, and The Deerslayer. FTP, name this American author of the Leatherstocking Tales, most famous for The Last of the Mohicans.
Answer:James Fenimore Cooper
18.He ascended to the throne when his feeble-minded and epileptic brother, Ferdinand, abdicated near the end of the Revolution of 1848. Ferdinand had only been placed there by Metternich in order to preserve the throne's legitimacy against all challenges. During his lifetime, he saw his infant daughter, Sophie, die; his son, Crown Prince Rudolf and his young mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera commit suicide; and his beloved wife Sissi stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist in 1898. FTP, who is this Habsburg Emperor of Austria-Hungary, whose 68-year reign was the third-longest in the recorded history of Europe after Louis XIV of France and Johannes II of Liechtenstein?
Answer:Franz Joseph I
19.Based on a deductive method derived from Euclidean geometry, this work maintains that the validity of ideas can be demonstrated by mathematical argument or proof. Its author asserts that the titular concept can be based on a geometric model in which axioms and propositions follow each other with logical necessity. This reflects the view that truth concerning this has the same logical necessity as mathematical truth. FTP, name this magnum opus of Benedict Spinoza that sees the titular concept as a rational system corresponding to the rational nature of the universe.
Answer:Ethics Demonstrated in Geometrical Order (accept “Ethica ordine geometrico demonstrate”)
20.Ordinarily, it manufactures red blood cells only toward the end of fetal development, and then after birth, that function is taken over by the bone marrow. However, in cases of bone marrow breakdown, this organ reverts to its fetal function. It also acts as a filter against foreign organisms that infect the bloodstream and filters out old red blood cells from the bloodstream and decomposes them. FTP, what is this soft, purplish-red organ that Buccaneers quarterback Chris Simms had to have removed after a vicious hit from Carolina's Al Wallace?
Answer:spleen
21.In 2002, its caretakers moved the minute hand from nine to seven minutes to midnight, the same setting at which it had debuted 55 years earlier. Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, this is the third time the hand had been moved forward. They haven’t decided yet whether North Korea's recent nuclear tests will cause another move closer to midnight. FTP, what is this clock maintained by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that symbolizes the threat of nuclear annihilation?
Answer:Doomsday clock
22.After encountering skepticism of her research and its implications, she stopped publishing her data during the 1950s, and it wasn’t until the 1960s and 70s that her research became well understood, as scientists began to demonstrate the mechanisms of genetic change and genetic regulation that she had shown decades earlier in her research on maize. In this work, she discovered transposition and used it to show how genes are responsible for turning physical characteristics on or off. FTP, who is this winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first and only woman to receive an unshared Nobel Prize in that category?
Answer:BarbaraMcClintock
23.According to “Book of Invasions” tradition they were the fifth group of inhabitants of Ireland. They arrived in Ireland riding storm clouds on Beltaine and warred with the Fir Bolg and the Fomorians for control of the island. They were eventually defeated and driven underground by the Milesians, but their legends lived on as fey people or faeries of Ireland. FTP who were these gods of Celtic Myth who’s name meant “People of goddess Danu.”
Answer:Tuatha Dé Danann (Accept “People of Danu” or close equivalents before mention)
BONI – SOUTH FLORIDACenter of the Known Universe Open 2006 -- UT-Chattanooga
Questions by Rob, Nap, Brian, and Jeremy with spares by Ray Anderson and your genial quizmaster
1.Identify those wacky British dramatists from plays FTPE.
A. The Alchemist, Volpone, Every Man In His Humour
Answer:Ben Johnson
B. Doctor Faustus and The Jew of Malta
Answer:Christopher “Kit” Marlowe
C. ‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore
Answer:John Ford
2.Name the conflicts ended by peace treaties signed in Paris FTPE.
A. A.D. 1209-1229, a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the religion practiced by the Cathars of Languedoc.
Answer:The Albigensian Crusade (accept Cathar Crusade)
B. A.D. 1756–1763, this conflict resulted in the British acquiring Canada, while Spain gained Louisiana in compensation for its loss of Florida to the British.
Answer:The French and Indian War (accept the Seven Years' War)
C. A.D. 1854-1856. Fought between Imperial Russia on one side and an alliance of the United Kingdom, France, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire on the other.
Answer:Crimean War
3.2005’s big animal stories in National Geographic, FTPE:
A. In September, Japanese scientists got the first-ever live photos of what elusive creature, also known as Architeuthis?
Answer:Giant squid [prompt on squid]
B. Fishermen in northern Thailand netted one of these creatures in the Mekong River on May 1. At nearly nine feet long and as big as a grizzly bear, it tipped the scales at 646 pounds.
Answer:Giant catfish
C. In Florida's Everglades National Park, park officials came upon a 13-foot one of these that appears to have died while trying to eat a feisty, six-foot-long alligator. The pictures have widely circulated around the Internet.
Answer:Burmese python [prompt on python]
4.Identify the Puccini opera from a description of the title character FTPE.
A. Cio-Cio-San, a teenage geisha jilted by the American sailor Lt. Pinkerton.
Answer:Madama Butterfly
b. The princess of an eastern kingdom whose suitors must solve an impossible riddle upon pain of death, but the hero Calaf is up to the challenge.
Answer:Turnadot
C. Minnie, owner of the Polka Saloon, who runs off with the bandit Dick Johnson.
Answer:La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West)
5.Name these 2006 NFL rookies FTPE:
A. This 6-feet-4 wide receiver out of Hofstra is a big target for Saints QB Drew Brees and ranks in the top 10 in the NFC in receptions and yards.
Answer:Marques Colston
B. This running back from Minnesota helped New England crush the Bengals in Week 4 with 125 yards and two touchdowns and could be poised to replace Corey Dillon in the Patriots’ backfield.
Answer:Laurence Maroney
C. Fans perplexed at how the Texans had passed on Reggie Bush and local favorite Vince Young in the NFL draft breathed a sigh of relief when this top pick out of N.C. State finally recorded a sack against the lowly Dolphins in week 4.