Tossups by Northwestern University and Sudheer Potru
1. Mrs. Deborah Wilkins journeys to the slums to locate Jenny, assumed to be the mother of the title character. As he grows up, he is taught by Square and Thwackum, and the son of Captain Blifil harasses him constantly. He eventually falls in love with Sophia Western, and marries her when Jenny returns and reveals that his real mother is Bridget, the sister of Squire Allworthy, his adoptive father. For 10 points—this is what picaresque ‘foundling’, whose ‘history’ is described by Henry Fielding?
Answer: Tom Jones
2. Soon after her first marriage, her husband disappeared, causing her to shed tears of gold. She owned a cloak of bird feathers, enabling her to turn into a falcon, and she rode in a chariot pulled by two cats. Her human lover Ottar stays with her in the form of the boar Hildesvini, and she slept with four dwarves to obtain her necklace Brisingamen. The namesake of the sixth day of the week—for 10 points—name this first wife of Odin, the Norse goddess of love and fecundity.
Answer: Freya
3. It consists principally of the crystalline mineral named for it, as well as varying amounts of muscovite, quartz, feldspar, and anatase. It is frequently stained yellow by iron hydroxide pigments, in which case it must be bleached chemically to remove the iron pigment and prepare it for one of its commercial uses, which include paper, rubber, paint, and porcelain, in which it is the main ingredient. FTP, identify this soft, white clay, also called “China clay.”
Answer: kaolin (accept China clay early and do not accept “kaolinite”)
4. Established in 1236 by Duke Mindaugas, it was absorbed by czarist Russia in 1795. One of its major cities, Kaunas, sits on the Nemunas River, which runs through its southern half. Slightly larger than West Virginia, its currency is the litas, which is now pegged to the Euro. FTP, identify this northern European nation with capital at Vilnius.
Answer: Lithuania
5. Warning: two answers required. “First Biggie’s your man, then you got the nerve to say that you’re better than Big, dick-suckin’ lips,” “Gotta hurt I’m your baby momma’s favorite rapper,” “Rockefeller died of AIDS, that was the end of his chapter, and that’s the guy you chose to name your company after?” were just some of the insults traded between these two notable New York rappers, whose feud is now arguably the most prolific in rap. FTP, identify these artists who released Blueprint and Stillmatic in 2001.
Answer: Jay-Z and Nas
6. A recent play by Nora Ephron describes this author’s rivalry with contemporary Mary McCarthy. Her autobiography An Unfinished Woman won a National Book Award, and details her life growing up in New Orleans. Her novel Scoundrel Time tells of the anticommunist hunts of the 1950s, but this writer is more famous for her plays. For 10 points—name this lover of Dashiell Hammett, author of such plays as Watch on the Rhine and The Children’s Hour.
Answer: Lillian Hellman
7. First traversed by Marquette and Joliet in 1673, Father Francois Pinet founded the Mission of the Guardian Angel, which eventually failed. Not incorporated as a town until 1833, some say its name may be Algonquin for “great”, which is apparently what Jean-Baptiste Pont du Sable thought when he founded it. In 1885, the Home Insurance Building was constructed at the northeast corner of LaSalle and Adams. For 10 points—name this city, host of the 1893 World’s Fair, seat of Cook County, and home to the tallest building in the U.S.
Answer: Chicago
8. It’s followers included Edward Herbert of Cherbury and Henry St. John. It reached the height of its popularity during the Enlightenment, after which it was adopted by many of America’s founding fathers. It is reflected in Pope’s “Essay on Man”, and also held by Voltaire. It accepts no holy scripture, and thus is often called “natural religion.” For ten points, name this religion whose tenets are based solely on reason and which believes in a God that created the universe but does not participate in it.
Answer: Deism
9. Their name comes from a Dharuk word invoking the animal’s inability to urinate. Recently there was an effort to curb their gross overpopulation of some parts of their habitat by literally putting the animals on birth control pills to avoid having to thin the population by huntin. Their diet is strictly folivorous (foe-LIV-or-us), made possible by the 50% water content of their leafy food source. For ten points, identify this eastern Australian marsupial, best known for eating off eucalyptus trees.
Answer: koalas (accept “koala bears”. Do not prompt on “bear.”)
10. His family moved to Elgin, Minnesota soon after the Civil War, and he passed the state bar examination in 1877, going on to work twenty years for a leading St. Paul law firm. Achieving the reputation of a trustbuster, this Republican was elected to the Senate in 1916, losing out in a bid for a second term and succeeding Charles Evans Hughes as Secretary of State in 1925. FTP, name the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize winner who secured a dubious Pact with Briand.
Answer: Frank Billings Kellogg
11. A consensus All-American and runner-up for the Butkus Award, he made 388 tackles while in college, making him fifth on Miami’s career list. Drafted #26 in 1996, Jarrett Bell selected him for the All-Rookie team, and one year later he won the John Mackey Award. Selected to five Pro Bowls and 2000’s Defensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl MVP—for 10 points—name this middle linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens, perhaps best known for his Atlanta murder trial.
Answer: Ray Lewis
12. Anshar and Kishar were the offspring of Lahmu and Lahamu, her two children. Kingu, her second consort, helped her fight the son of Ea and Damkina, but this was only after Ea drugged and slew both the dwarf Mummu and her lover Apsu. For 10 points—name this Babylonian personification of salt water and mother of all gods, whose body became both the heaven and the earth when she was slain by Marduk.
Answer: Tiamat
13. Its first emperor had been a farmer and guerilla fighter, but defeated his rival Xiangyu in a four-year civil war to gain control. Divided into the “Western” and “Eastern” sections with capitals at Chang’an and Luoyang respectively, it made Confucianism the basis of the state. Attaining its greatest territorial expanse under the emperor Wu Ti and one of China’s greatest historians, Ssu-ma Chi’ien flourished during—for 10 points—what Chinese dynasty that reigned from 202 B.C. to A.D. 220?
Answer: Han Dynasty
14. In Act 1 of this work, the philosopher Colline and the newly employed musician Schaunard celebrate Christmas Eve, but their party is interrupted by the landlord Benoit, who is asked to talk about his flirtations. Act 2 sees the entrance of Alcindoro and Musetta, who sings a waltz about how popular she is and complains that her shoe pinches. By the next act, she is back with her old love Marcello. The male lead, a poet, wants to separate from his lover because his poverty will hasten her inevitable death. FTP, identify this Puccini opera that ends when Mimi dies and her name is cried out by Rodolfo.
Answer: _La Boheme _
15. Just vaporize some silver in an oven. Use a slit to collimate some of that vapor which has escaped into an evacuated tube. After you use an electromagnet to displace parts of the silver deposit, look at the glass detector plate and be incredibly surprised that the silver deposit has resulted in two spots, thus proving the quantization of magnetic moments and thus that of spin. Now do all that at the University of Hamburg, and you’ve just performed—for 10 points—what 1922 experiment named for two German scientists?
Answer: Stern-Gerlach experiment
16.The origins of this text were famously described in a 1991 work by Yosef Yerushalmi. Completed in England after its author's escape from the Nazis, it dismisses Jung's concept of the “collective unconscious” and offers instead the idea of the “archaic inheritance.” This work also declares that modern religion stems from the rule of Amenhotep IV and that the title figure was really an Egyptian prince who was later killed by his followers in the wilderness. FTP, identify this work by Sigmund Freud that discusses the origins of the Jewish religion’s single deity.
Answer: Moses and Monotheism or Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion
17. The German term for them was Kurfürst. They first acted in 1273 and had their number confirmed by the Golden Bull of 1356, although later additions included Hesse-Kassel in 1803, Hanover in 1708, and Bavaria from 1623 to 1778. The archbishops of Trier, Mainz, and Cologne; the duke of Saxony; the count palatine of the Rhine; the margrave of Brandenburg; and the king of Bohemia were, for 10 points, the original seven holding what role in the Holy Roman Empire?
Answer: Elector
18. She first appears "dressed in white muslin, with a hundred frills and flounces, and knots of pale-coloured ribbon," and is, according to the narrator, "strikingly, admirably pretty." She tours the castle of Chillon with the narrator, Winterbourne, and then travels with her family to Rome. Mr. Giovanelli convinces.this girl to take a stroll with him in the Colosseum, where she catches a fatal case of malaria. FTP, name this Henry James title character.
Answer: Daisy Miller
19. Not a fan of Copernicus, he devised his own “geoheliocentric” cosmological system, published in his ” On Recent Phenomena of the Aetherial World”. In Casseiopeia in 1572 he discovered the first supernova ever recorded in the west, destroying Aristotle’s theory of “fixed stars”. Finding the Prutenic tables to be unsatisfactory, he set out to update them, first at Hven, and later at Benatek, near Prague. The result was the Rudolphine tables, named for his second patron Rudolph II, which weren’t published until after his death. Known to QB’ers for the silver nose he wore to replace his original, FTP, who is this Danish astronomer who’s observations formed the basis for Kepler’s laws?
Answer: Tycho Brahe
20. His horse was Babieca, and he rose to prominence in a war of two Sanchos. Chief Marshall for Sancho II of Castille, he smacked down Sancho of Navarre. He was banished by Sancho II’s successor, Alphonso IV, but got back at him by marrying his neice Dona Jimena Diaz. The author of his epic is unknown, but it was adapted by Guillen de Castro y Bellvis, and later by Corneille. Famous for his 1094 conquest of Valencia, and his endless campaigning against the moors, who is, FTP, this Spanish hero, who’s real name is Roderigo Diaz de Vivar.
Answer: El Cid
Bonuses by Northwestern University
1. For 10 points each, name these amino acids.
1. The simplest amino acid, its R-group consists of a single hydrogen.
Answer: Glycine
2. Abbreviated Y, phenylketonuria results from phenylalanine’s inability to create this amino acid, whose name comes from the Greek for “cheese.”
Answer: Tyrosine
3. One of the sulfur-containing amino acids, the start codon AUG codes for this particular amino acid.
Answer: Methionine
2. Identify the following Mel Brooks movies from quotes for the stated number of points.
1. (5 points) Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!
Answer: Blazing Saddles
2. (10 points) So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard! That's the kind of combination an idiot would put on his luggage!
Answer: Spaceballs
3. (15 points) And of course, with the birth of the artist came the inevitable afterbirth - the critic.
Answer: History of the World: Part 1
3. 30-20-10, name the author.
(30) He published a periodical entitled The Watchman, which only lasted ten issues. Luckily, Josiah and Thomas Wedgwood saved him from financial ruin by granting him an annuity of 150 pounds.
(20) While attending Christ’s Hospital College in Cambridge, he planned, along with a colleague, a utopian society to be established on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
(10) He is known for the badass poems “Christabel” and "Kubla Khan."
Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
4. Answer these questions about the history of the lens for ten points each.
1. The first to take a telescope to the skies, he made several improvements and became world famous for his discoveries.
Answer: Galileo Galilei
2. The first to turn a lens to the microscopic, he is credited as the inventor of the microscope.
Answer: Robert Hooke
3. More famous for his religious and philosophical ideas, he was known as the lens-grinder of Amsterdam.
Answer: Baruch Spinoza
5. 30-20-10, name the man.
(30) Born in 4 BC in Spain, he wrote the only Roman physics textbook, Investigations in Natural Science.
(20) Eight tragedies are ascribed to this Stoic, considered second in philosophy only to Cicero. These include Hercules, Phaedra, Agamemnon, Oedipus, and Thyestes.
(10) The personal tutor of Nero, he was implicated in Piso’s Conspiracy and ordered to commit suicide, which he did by slitting his wrists.
Answer:Lucius Annaeus Seneca
6. Name the following lakes from facts for 10 points a piece.
1. It is the world’s second largest freshwater lake, and the largest in North America
Answer: Lake Superior
2. It is the third largest lake in the world, and the second largest in Russia
Answer: Aral Sea
3. This is the second largest lake in Africa, located in Burundi, Zaire, Zambia, and Tanzania.
Answer: Lake Tanganyika
7. 30-20-10 Identify the author from works.
1. A Nest of Gentlefolk, A Sportsman’s Sketches
2. A Month in the Country, Torrents of Spring
3. Fathers and Sons
Answer: Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev
8. Answer the following about a scientist and his work, for 10 points each.
1. This law states that the entropy of a perfect crystal is zero at absolute zero.
Answer: Third Law of Thermodynamics
2. This man won the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for formulating the Third Law of Thermodynamics.
Answer: Walther Hermann Nernst
3. Nernst is best known for his namesake equation in what field of chemistry?
Answer: electrochemistry
9. Name the naval battles and strategic points of the Hundred Years' War, FTPE.
1. In 1340, the English achieved control of the English channel after defeating the French navy off the coast of this Dutch city.
Answer: Sluys
2. What 1346 battle saw the decimation of the French by 10,000 Englishmen under Edward III in Normandy?
Answer: Crécy
3. His victory at this 1356 battle in southern France enabled the Black Prince to retreat into the safety of Burgundy with a big pile of French loot.
Answer: Poitiers
10. Identify the following about pre-Columbian cultures, FTPE.
a. (10) The first important Mesoamerican culture of which we have knowledge, they flourished from 1200 to 400 BCE, and were centered at La Venta an San Lorenzo on the gulf coast
Answer: Olmec
b. (10) Artificats from this civilization of the Yucatan have been recovered at sites like Tikal and Chicen Itza.
Answer: Maya
c. (10) This site about 30 miles north of Mexico City features a temple of Quetzlcoatl, and appears to contain artifacts from the Maya and Olmex, as well as Mixtec, Toltec and Zapotec peoples.
Answer: Teotihuacan
11. Answer the following about the most Greek of all gods, FTPE.
a. (10) Called the far-shooter, he slew Achilles by guiding Paris’ arrow towards his one spot.
Answer: Apollo
b. (10) This other epithet of Apollo means “bright”, and refers to his aspect as god of the sun.
Answer: Phoebus or Phoibos
c. (10) Apollo was forced by Zeus to serve this mortal king after he slew the Cylopes.
Answer: Admetus
12. Answer the following about quantum physics, for 10 points each.
a. (10) First advanced by Niels Bohr, it states that at large enough quantum numbers, the predictions of quantum physics must equal those of classical physics.
Answer:correspondence principle
b. (10) Confined systems cannot exist in states with no energy. As a result, they must always have a certain minimum energy known by this term.
Answer:zero-point energy
c. (10) Because the electron is a matter wave, there is a finite probability that it will leak through a potential barrier. This is known by what term, also used by many electron microscopes?
Answer:tunneling
13. Because he’s hoping to do Mr. Jejjala proud, Sudheer wrote a bonus on his favorite avatars of the ‘Shnu. Identify them, for 10 points each.
1.This seventh avatar of Vishnu totally used the Brahma-astra to beat the shit out of Raavana, rescuing his wife Sita from the Raakshasas.
Answer: Rama
2.Sudheer can’t wait for this tenth and final avatar to get here. Riding a white horse with wings and wielding a giant scimitar, he’s totally going to decapitate those who propagate a-dharma within the world.