ACF Fall 2006
Tossups by Rutgers-New Brunswick A
1. In 1986, he was featured in a role associated with his current job, alongside Jerry Orbach in The Imagemaker. In 1999, he enjoyed a brief foray into archaeology when the network commissioned him to host the live, two-hour television special Opening the Lost Tombs: Live in Egypt. This former host of FOX’s A Current Affair returned to a fixed primetime slot on NBC as host of the new Twenty One, and in 2006 MSNBC brought him on to host a weekend show with his wife. FTP, name this husband of Connie Chung, best known as a daytime mogul who might inform a given male guest that he is NOT the father.
ANSWER: MauryPovich
2. A Fisher-Yates shuffle can be considered the reverse of this algorithm. Bingo sort combines it with counting sort, as it finds all instances of the key to be moved. Use of a binary tree or a heap rather than an array improves the algorithm’s performance to order n log n for n elements. Like bubble sort, a bidirectional version exists that is sometimes called shaker sort, and though it is generally outperformed by insertion sort, it is sometimes preferred, as it requires fewer data movements. FTP, name this intuitive sorting algorithm, in which successive minimums of an unsorted list are moved to the front in order.
ANSWER: selection sort
3. His first opera was about a 13th century German knight who loves the wife of the antagonist Duke Robert, the lady Freihild. His last opera or “conversation piece” on the contrary, is a debate among musicians, poets, and artists about whether words or music is more important in opera, set in a 18th century Countess’s house in a single act entitled Capriccio. His final work uses Joseph Eichendorff’s poem Im Abendrot and three Herman Hesse settings related to death for Vier letzte lieder. FTP, name this composer of Tod und Verkalung, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, and Ein Heldenleben, which were among his tone poems, the most famous being Don Juan.
ANSWER: RichardStrauss
4. The Athlit ram, recovered near Haifa, is considered to be a relic of the losing side’s fleet at this battle, whose victory was commemorated by the founding of Nicopolis. One side had hoped to gain a defensive position by blocading the Gulf of Ambracia with quinqueremes, but was forced to action after attacks by the other side on the Peloponnesian coastline. While attempting to stop a flanking maneuver by the opposing Liburnian vessels, Lucius Policola’s wing became separated from the rest of his army in this battle. By the end, Agrippa burned over 300 ships while the losers fled to Egypt. FTP, what is this 31 BCE battle in which Octavian defeated Antony?
ANSWER: Battle of Actium
5. One work by this man is a monologue in which Mrs. Rowland yells at her husband repeatedly to get up and out of bed. One of his one-act plays discusses an indiscretion between Evelyn Sands and Jack Townsend, while another features a gentleman, a dancer, and a West Indian mulatto sailor stranded on a life raft. His only comedy concerns the coming-of-age of Richard Miller. More serious works include a play in which a man resurrected by Jesus “laughed” and one about the stoker Yank’s identification with the title animal. Some of his best-known characters include an American black man who rules a West Indian Island, an old sailor named Chris Christopherson, and the Mannon and Tyrone families. FTP name this playwright, the author of Mourning Becomes Electra and Long Day’s Journey into Night.
ANSWER: Eugene Gladstone O’Neill
6. The first precursor to this amendment was passed in 1861, but rescinded in 1872, though the Supreme Court found that anticipatory law valid in Springer v. U.S. A committee under Louisiana Congressman Arsene Pujo supported its creation, and its provisions were broadly interpreted in Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, reasoning that Article I of the constitution had already empowered Congress to take the action in question. It was introduced by Sereno Payne in order to fulfill a debate promise, and when it unexpectedly passed the Senate, Payne began lobbying against its ratification. This amendment was required because of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust.FTP, name this constitutional amendment, which authorized Congress to levy income taxes without regard to apportionment.
ANSWER: Sixteenth Amendment
7. This man invented a ceramic-filament light bulb, as well as a namesake "glower" used in IR spectroscopy. His namesake effect describes the production of a mutually perpendicular electromotive force when heat flows across a magnetic field. He won the Nobel Prize for his heat theorem, which says that a crystalline substance at absolute zero has zero entropy, now known as the third law of thermodynamics. Perhaps his most famous work was modified by Goldman to govern electrical properties of cell membranes, and it came from his theory of a "pressure of dissolution" that forced ions into a solution and off of electrodes. FTP name this man whose eponymous equation provides the potential of an electrolytic cell.
ANSWER: Walther Nernst
8. At one point in this work the protagonist meets Rosa Dartle, who bears the scar given her by a man who, along with Tommy Traddles, was the protagonist’s best friend at Salem House. He goes to work for his stepfather and his partner, Grinby, after which he runs away to his only relative, who takes him in on the advice of Mr. Dick. He is eventually apprenticed to Mr. Spenlow, whose daughter he marries and calls his “chld-wife.” He frequently visits Yarmouth, where his old nurse lives with her family in an old ship. On one of these visits Little Em’ly falls in love with Steerforth, and on another Ham drowns. Eventually he goes back to Canterbury, where Mr. Micawber outs Uriah Heep for stealing from Mr. Wickfield. As a result he is able to marry Agnes. FTP name this novel about a man who wonders “whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life” by Charles Dickens.
ANSWER: David Copperfield
9. He uses the example of Cato the Younger in illustrating the concept of a man fighting on his knees in the face of adversity in his De Providentia. Asthma and the treatment of one’s own slaves are among the subjects of his letters dealing with morality that were written to Lucilius, while he argues that any length of life is sufficient to be lived, and whatever its length that life ought to be spent studying philosophy in De Brevitae Vitae. Also known for a satire detailing the shortcomings of the emperor Claudius, the Apocolocyntosis, FTP, name this Roman philosopher, who was also noted for being instructed by Nero to commit suicide.
ANSWER: Lucius Aennaeus Seneca
10. On the bottom left of this painting a black-haired man holds his hands up in fright while turned away from the scene in the center. Two shadowy figures watch the title character from a large threshold on the right, while a man on the left looks down at a piece of paper on which he is writing. A man with large sideburns works to the right of the painting’s central focus while on the left the grey-haired title character stands in a black waistcoat holding a scalpel. FTP name this painting in which medical students view a surgical demonstration by the titular Philadelphia doctor, a work of Thomas Eakins.
ANSWER: “The Gross Clinic”
11. This event occurred once townspeople assembled at Joseph Sabin’s tavern, after Captain Lindsey of the Hannah arrived at Namquid Point. Ephraim Bowen, the last survivor of it, wrote of the ordeal in 1839, naming a Mr. John Brown among those responsible. Restaurant owner Joseph Bucklin shot Captain William Dudingston and Abraham Whipple led a party of arsonists after being warned to stay away from a grounded schooner. FTP, name this incident in which Rhode Islanders burned a vessel sent to enforce the Stamp Act.
ANSWER: Gaspee Affair [or Gaspee incident, burning of the Gaspee, etc]
12. In a novel by Pia Pera the title character of this work is given a notebook so that she can communicate with her dead father Gerald. Two characters are referenced respectively as “Schlegel” and “Hegel” in comparison to a woman in whose “natty little coupe” the protagonist travels for two years. A problem is solved for the protagonist when one character gets hit by Frederick Beale’s car, after which he travels with the title character to the Enchanted Hunters. After finding out the title character had sex with the son of the director of CampQ, the protagonist begins an affair with her. Eventually he finds her married to Richard Schiller, having earlier been abducted by Clare Quilty. Told in the form of a confession edited by John Ray, Jr., this is, FTP, what novel about Humbert Humbert’s obsession with Dolores Haze by Vladimir Nabokov?
ANSWER: Lolita (or Dolores Haze)(The update refers to Pia Pera’s Lo’s Diary.)
13. Section 8 states that the best of men is like water, and it opens by noting that only when one is free from desire can one understand the mystery. Its author mentions that when a country’s relationship to the titular concept is good, the city economy will be focused on producing agriculture and transportation but not on weapons in the 46th part. A more famous comparison is that its subject is the center of a wheel that connects 30 spokes for it to function. Written during the 6th century BC, it focuses on mastering action through inaction, a concept known as wu wei. FTP, name this collection of 81 adages, which expresses the idea of the Taoist way, written by Lao Tzu.
ANSWER: Tao Te Ching (accept equivalents such as The Way of Life, The Book of the Way, etc.)
14. One of this man's theories was supported by the discovery that Hittite contained forms in which distinct reflexes of the laryngeals are recorded, and he explained how the vowel alternations of a came about in his first work, Memoir on the Original System of Vowels in the Indo-European Languages. He is noted for his terms langue, or regularities and patterns in speech, and parole, or actual acts of speech. The work he is most famous for is often considered the foundation for structural linguistics, though Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye actually published it. FTP name this Swiss linguist whose lecture notes and other materials were posthumously turned into the seminal Course in General Linguistics.
ANSWER: Ferdinand de Saussure
15. In his letter to this work’s addressee the author advises her to consult the book Le Comte de Gabalis. The main plot in this work is partially precipitated by the discovery of a letter sitting next to “puffs, powders,” and “bibles.” One of the protagonist’s friends asks for help from her brother, Sir Plume, who goes to the villain. In section three the protagonist engages in an activity in which participants “raise/The silver lamp” on “Altars of Japan,” ombre. She ultimately undoes her enemy with a bit of snuff, which causes him to sneeze violently, while Thalestris attacks Clarissa, who had earlier provided Lord Petre with the tools to commit the titular crime. FTP name this poem in which the Lord cuts off a piece of Belinda’s hair, a work by Alexander Pope.
ANSWER: The Rape of the Lock
16. Although not the most economical synthesis, this molecule can be produced by introducing dichromate crystals and sulfuric acid into a bottle of rubbing alcohol. Its enol form is exceedingly rare under typical conditions, but its six alpha hydrogen atoms are some 30 orders of magnitude more acidic than those of typical alkanes, permitting intermolecular aldol condensation reactions to proceed in the presence of a moderate base. Often used as a cleanser of nonpolar compounds in organic chemistry labs, it is typically formed by the oxidation of 2-propanol. FTP name this simplest ketone, the major component of nail polish remover.
ANSWER: acetone[accept dimethyl ketone or 2-propanone]
17. Though he completed etchings including Abduction of Proserpina on a Unicorn and Agony in the Garden during his period of maturity, he was better known for a form he learned while servingas an apprentice under Michael Wolgemut. Among his work in that form is a 1515 work derived from written description and brief sketch of a rhinoceros, and a depiction of an angel in sad thought with a magic square in the background, Melancholia I. For ten points, name this artist, famous for woodcuts like Knight, Death, and the Devil, and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
ANSWER: Albrecht Dürer
18. A 2005 article in Nature suggests an amended version of this, noting that if it were to hold as originally stated, molecules present would need to fall into a small range of interaction energies in order to be randomly distributed. It contrasts with the earlier Davson-Danielli model, and it is supported by freeze-fracture electron microscopy. Since flip-flopping is rare, it allows for distinctly different inner and outer halves, though embedded molecules are able to diffuse laterally, partially dependent on the amount of cholesterol present. FTP name this currently accepted model of the cell membrane, in which proteins and other molecules are embedded in a freely moving phospholipid bilayer.
ANSWER: fluid mosaic model
19. The Sloop Clearwater runs trips along this river with the aim of preserving its waters and tributaries such as Esopus Creek. While the river proper begins at HendersonLake, LakeTear of the Clouds, which feeds Feldspar Brook, is consider its official source. After receiving the OpalescentRiver near the town of Tahawus, it receives the Mohawk before passing by West Point and the Palisades. Ending near the Battery and proceeding into the Narrows. FTP, name this major river of New York, which separates ManhattanIsland from New Jersey.
ANSWER: Hudson River
20. He overruled his military advisors in deciding to trek through the ArunahPass before one of his most noted victories. His accession may have been accelerated by the disappearance of the architect Senemut. Among projects undertaken during his reign was the reconstruction of a canal built by Sensuret III to ease movement of returning armies. He was perhaps better known for his acts of destruction, such as those directed at monuments to his predecessor at Dier-al-Bahri, though he may only have erased his predecessor’s name from records. FTP, name this pharaoh, nicknamed the “Napoleon of Egypt,” who fought at Megiddo and reigned following his stepmother, Hatshsepsut.
ANSWER: Menkheperre Thutmose III [accept Tuthmosis III or Thothmes III; prompt on partial answer]
TB. This equation applies approximately for small perturbations of any system in stable equilibrium, as can be seen by a second order Taylor expansion of the energies involved. Cauchy expanded its anisotropic form to three dimensional bodies, making use of a compliance matrix and its inverse. It asserts that locally, stress and strain have the same linear relationship as they would have in a perfect simple harmonic oscillator, but it breaks down beyond the elastic limit. With a minus sign showing how the system tends to return to equilibrium, FTP what is this law commonly applied to springs that relates force to displacement?
ANSWER: Hooke's Law
ACF Fall 2006
Bonuses by Rutgers-New Brunswick A
1. Name these works of French philosophy FTPE:
[10] In this 1637 work, Descartes tried to prove the existence of God with the fallible ontological argument and introduced the Cartesian plane.
ANSWER: Discourse on Method or Discours de la méthode
[10] This Rousseau book talks about the titular, fictional boy’s education as he grows. In between birth and his marriage to Sophie, he is taught to make inferences and gets a hands-on experience as an apprentice.
ANSWER: Emile: Or on Education (or Émile, ou De l’éducation)
[10] This 1907 work by Henri Bergson distinguishes between the orderly progression of matter and that of the unpredictable élan vital’s effect on the material world.
ANSWER: Creative Evolution or Évolution créatrice
2. Name these works of Jane Austen from plot details FTPE.
[10] Elinor Dashwood has feelings for Edward Ferrars, who is revealed to have a secret engagement with Lucy Steele. Marianne is deceived by John Willoughby and eventually marries Colonel Brandon.
ANSWER: Sense and Sensibility
[10] Catherine develops a relationship with Henry Tilney, while her brother James breaks off his engagement with Isabella Thorpe.
ANSWER: Northanger Abbey
[10] Fanny Price loves her cousin Edmund, who loves Miss Crawford. Mr. Crawford plays with the affections of Maria and Julia Bertram.
ANSWER: MansfieldPark
3. Just like Mark Foley and his priest, it proceeds by backside attack. FTPE:
[10] Name this reaction mechanism in which an incoming molecule displaces a leaving group with an accompanying inversion of chirality. It proceeds in a single step with a planar transition state.