Virginia High School League Scholastic Bowl page 8
2007 State Tournament Match #8
These questions are for use in the Virginia High School League’s Scholastic Bowl State Tournament. Shawn Pickrell, Jason Mueller, Adam Fine and Dan Goff are the authors of these questions, which were then edited by Adam Fine, Raj Dhuwalia, Marian Suter, Dan Goff, Fred Morlan, Tom Chuck and Tom Egan.
Competitors must observe the following conditions, which must be known by all coaches, competitors and spectators of the competition:
(a) Public discussion of these questions is permitted.
(b) Releasing these questions to entities who are not associated with the tournament is prohibited.
First period: 15 tossups, 10 points each
1. The Greeks and Romans feared this type of fish, as they thought it could keep a ship from sailing. Around the Indian Ocean, a cord is tied to this fish’s tail to enable the catching of turtles and larger fish. It has no swim bladder, and one of its dorsal fins has been replaced by an organ that generates powerful suction. What type of fish gets its food by attaching itself to turtles, sharks and whales?
ANSWER: remora(s)
2. He has switched parties twice while in the House of Representatives, first elected in 1997 as a Democrat, then becoming an independent in 2000 and a Republican in 2002. What man, L.F. Payne’s successor as representative from Virginia’s 5th District, recently became embroiled in controversy after his comments on Keith Ellison's swearing-in on the Qur’an?
ANSWER: Virgil Goode
3. The port city of Callao (KAH-yow) lies to the west of this city. Its University of San Marcos is the oldest continuously-open university in the Western Hemisphere. What city, founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro, is the capital of Peru?
ANSWER: Lima, Peru
4. In 1498, his attempt at impersonating a Muslim was unsuccessful, and the people of Mozambique literally ran him out of town. In 1502, he had a much bigger fleet, and raided the East African coast before conquering Calcutta. However, when he returned to India in 1524, he died of malaria. Who was the first European to sail directly from Europe to India?
ANSWER: Vasco da Gama
5. This writer was born in 1876, in Camden, Ohio. At age eight, his family settled near Clyde, Ohio. In the 1890s, he moved to Chicago, but returned to attend Ohio’s Wittenberg Academy. His four marriages included Ohio native Cornelia Lane. He wised up and moved to Grayson County, Virginia, before dying. Many Marriages and Poor White are novels by what Ohio author whose most famous work was Winesburg, Ohio?
ANSWER: Sherwood Anderson
6. Glaucoma is usually caused by excessive resistance to its outflow. This clear, watery fluid is found right behind the cornea. What fluid must not be confused with a similar “vitreous” fluid and has a name resembling “watery funny?”
ANSWER: aqueous humor
7. The Athanasian (ay-thuh-NAY-see-un), the Apostles’, and the Nicene (NIGH-seen) are among the most famous of what statements of Christian faith?
ANSWER: Creeds
8. This first law establishing one nationwide was part of the National Industrial Relations Act and was declared unconstitutional in the 1935 Supreme Court case Schechter Poultry v. United States. It was re-established in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. President Clinton allowed states to set their own, higher ones. What quantity was set at a quarter an hour in 1938 and is $5.15 an hour today?
ANSWER: minimum wage
9. Write down the sentence, (quizmaster: speak slowly) “I am going to the store.” (quizmaster: speak normally) Rephrase this sentence in the past perfect tense.
ANSWER: I had gone to the store
10. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is 101 times 53?
ANSWER: 5353
11. The number’s the same. What is the number of oxygen atoms in a molecule of dichromate, the number of valence electrons in a halogen, and the atomic number of nitrogen?
ANSWER: seven
12. Before killing his arch-enemy, he announces, “Despair thy charm,” for he “was from his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d.” He does that after getting Birnam Wood to move onto Dunsinane Hill. He then reclaims his title of Thane of Fife and restores Malcolm to the Scottish throne. What Shakepearean character, being born by caesarian section, was able to kill Macbeth?
ANSWER: Macduff
13. Enemies to this trio have included the Amoeba Boys, the Gangreen Gang, and the hillbilly Fuzzy Lumpkins. Professor Utonium created both the three of them and their top adversary, a chimp named Mojo Jojo. What group of kindergartners-turned- superheroes on the Cartoon Network consists of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup?
ANSWER: Powerpuff Girls
14. They were once treated by a procedure known as “clipping,” and are today treated using platinum Guglielmi (goo-glee-EL-mee) Detachable Coils. They seem to occur most often in an area below the brain called the circle of Willis as well as around the heart. What disorder, whose name is from the Greek for “dilation,” has popping as its main risk and occurs when a blood vessel has a “bulge” in it?
ANSWER: aneurysm(s) (do not accept embolism)
15. This rebellion’s second-in-command held the heretical views that dragons were not sacrilegious and that Christianity was compatible with Confucianism; as such, he was killed. Its leader, Hong Xiuquan (SHOO-kwan), considered himself the younger brother of Jesus Christ. What rebellion that lasted between 1851 and 1864 exposed the weakness of the Manchu dynasty that ruled China?
ANSWER: Taiping rebellion
Second period, 10 directed questions per team, 10 points each
Set A questions have an “A” after their number; set B questions have a “B.”
1A. What name is given to the thin, often wooden board used by painters to mix their color pigments, that usually contains a hole for the thumb?
ANSWER: palette
1B. Its captain, Catesby ap Roger Jones, was ordered to destroy it after Norfolk was captured. On May 11, 1862, what Confederate ironclad was then destroyed by its crew?
ANSWER: USS Merrimac or CSS Virginia (it started as the “USS Merrimac” and was renamed the “CSS Virginia” after being remodeled.)
2A. The Cumberland Plateau and Cumberland River were named by what explorer for whom the westernmost VHSL high school is named?
ANSWER: Thomas Walker
2B. The Tagalog (tah-GAH-lohg) language is a native language of what nation?
ANSWER: Philippines
3A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the value of 5 factorial minus 3 factorial?
ANSWER: 114
3B. The modulo function is equivalent to finding what number that is left over in division?
ANSWER: remainder
4A. Name EITHER of the two moons orbiting Mars.
ANSWER: Phobos or Deimos (day-mos)
4B. What collaboration between U2 and Green Day is a both a cover of a 1978 song by the Skids, and also a commentary of the handling of Iraq and Katrina?
ANSWER: “The Saints Are Coming”
5A. What eight-letter word starting with “p” meaning a defensive fortification comes to us from the Latin word for “stake”?
ANSWER: palisade
5B. The next noble gas after radon is a not-yet discovered artificial element that will have what atomic number?
ANSWER: 118
6A. Ziusudra (zee-oo-SOO-druh), Bergelmir (ber-GHEL-meer), and Deucalion (doo-KAY-lee-awn) were all survivors of what similar catastrophic event found in various mythologies?
ANSWER: Great Flood
6B. The positron is the antiparticle of what particle?
ANSWER: electron
7A. Name any of the three fused bones that make up the pelvic girdle.
ANSWER: ilium, ischium, or pubis (accept pubic bone in place of pubis)
7B. The play The Amen Corner, the essay collection The Fire Next Time and the novel Go Tell It on the Mountain are well-known works by what author?
ANSWER: James Baldwin
8A. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. In total, how much under par would Tiger Woods be if he shot a ten round average of 67.8 on a par 72 course?
ANSWER: 42 under par
8B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Give either of the 2 coordinate points where the parabola y equals x squared plus one and the line y equals x plus 7 intersect.
ANSWER: (-2, 5) or (3, 10) (either order is acceptable)
9A. Goldstein’s book says of him, “We may be reasonably sure that he will never die.” Who is on numerous telescreens, watching people in 1984?
ANSWER: Big Brother
9B. A military coup came to a head in December 2006 in what Pacific archipelago and former British colony with capital at Suva?
ANSWER: Fiji
10A. On April 9, 1940, what founder of Norway’s fascist Nasjonal (nah-SHOH-nal) Samling party announced on a news broadcast that he had taken over the government?
ANSWER: Vidkun Quisling
10B. What hotel in Richmond has a Mobil Five Star and AAA (triple A) Five Diamond rating, and has a staircase similar to that featured in the movie Gone with the Wind?
ANSWER: Jefferson Hotel
Third period, 15 toss-ups, 10 points each
1. His nickname came from The Last of the Mohicans, as it may have been “the only book that [his] old man ever read.” He served his medical residency in Boston, but was then drafted to serve in the Korean War in the 4077th Unit. Who was this captain, played on TV by Alan Alda during the 11-year run of M*A*S*H?
ANSWER: Captain Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce
2. She was an influential designer; her books Italian Villas and The Decoration of Houses contain the ideas she used to decorate her own Lenox, Massachusetts, house, “The Mount.” She is better-known for her fiction, though, beginning with The House of Mirth and ending with The Buccaneers. Who is perhaps best-known for her novels Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence?
ANSWER: Edith Wharton
3. It has wavelengths ranging from 0.8 to 300 micrometers. What form of electromagnetic radiation, used in thermography and by the pits of pit vipers, gets its name from having wavelengths just barely longer than visible light?
ANSWER: infrared radiation
4. In 1858, a German mathematician, Johann Listing, discovered it along with the German mathematician for whom it is named. They are used industrially to make conveyor belts that wear evenly along the entire surface, as well as recording tapes with double the playing time. Twisting a strip of paper halfway and taping it together can form what strip with only one side?
ANSWER: Mobius strip (or loop)
5. This group’s San Antonio chapter disbanded in 1976, bringing its 16-year history to a close. Its increased radicalism under later leaders Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown was displayed by firing all its white staffers and breaking away entirely from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1969, what group had its second word become National instead of Nonviolent?
ANSWER: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC (said as “snick,” and accept Student National Coordinating Committee before “National” is said.)
6. Cleopatra’s Needles are misnamed as they were actually built during his reign. He was a warrior king, going on seventeen campaigns. His son Amenhotep II was able to secure peace with the Mitanni. His mother Hatshepsut (hat-SHEP-soot) prevented him from exercising full power for two decades. What pharaoh that ruled from 1479 to 1425 BC won the battle of Megiddo?
ANSWER: Thutmose(s) III
7. Euripides’ (YOO-rih-puh-deez) play Cyclops is the only one of these plays that survives in its entirety. Playwrights competing in the Dionysia submitted one of these in addition to three tragedies. What third variety of Greek drama often included their namesakes, goat-like creatures with gigantic appetites for food and women?
ANSWER: satyr plays
8. He won an Emmy award for Best Guest Star for the series “X-Files,” where he played an insurance salesman. For seven straight years, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but was the only one of the five major actors from his series to go winless. Name this recently-deceased actor who portrayed Ray’s father Frank on “Everybody Loves Raymond”.
ANSWER: Peter Boyle
9. Between 1971 and 1996, he taught at Cornell University, suggesting to NASA that we include universal messages on Pioneer 10 and the Voyager probes. What astronomer wrote the book Contact, but never said “billions and billions” as the host of the PBS series Cosmos?
ANSWER: Carl Sagan
10. This word comes to us from Greek words meaning “beyond dowry,” and referred to something that a married woman considered hers and hers alone – often a large variety of things. What thirteen-letter word starting with “p” is today used to describe someone’s belongings or to equipment used for a particular activity?
ANSWER: paraphernalia
11. This computer part usually contains a relatively small quantity of a coolant with its remainder filled with the coolant’s vapor phase. They are hollow tubes made of aluminum, or more often copper, that transfer large amounts of hot air from the CPU to a heat sink, where the heat can dissipate into the outside world. Name these cooling devices, common in computers and other high technology devices.
ANSWER: heat pipes
12. It is was published by Megadodo Productions, a company located on Ursa Minor Beta. It gained its popularity because it is relatively cheap, and it has the words “Don’t Panic” emblazoned on its cover. Ford Prefect is a field correspondent for what handbook for the Milky Way, the title of a 1979 novel by Douglas Adams?