Virginia High School League Scholastic Bowl page 10
2007 State Tournament Match #1
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. Giovanni Sammartini gave this man early lessons in composition, resulting in his first opera seria, Artaserse (ar-tuh-SUR-say). He taught Marie Antoinette, who rewarded him by commissioning several operas, including Iphigenia in Aulis (if-uh-jen-EYE-uh in OW-liss). Who was this German-born composer and opera reformer, best known for his Orpheus and Eurydice (yur-IH-duh-see)?
ANSWER: Christoph Willibald Gluck (GLOOK)
2. The Plug and Play standard involves automatic installation of these programs. They are used because computers and operating systems cannot be expected to know how to control every single possible peripheral. Name this specific type of computer software, typically developed to allow interaction with hardware devices, which must be installed before using those devices.
ANSWER: Software Drivers or Device Drivers
3. Scenes cut out from the 1937 film version of this story include an ending, where the villain is forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes, and two attempts to kill the heroine: tightening a corset too tightly and selling her a poisoned comb. The kind huntsman, the magic mirror, the poisoned apple and the Evil Stepmother remain in the Disney film version. In what Grimm fairy tale is the heroine protected by seven diminutive men?
ANSWER: “Snow White” (and the Seven Dwarves)
4. Mount Kazbek is in this range which includes Mount Elbrus, the highest point in Europe, and Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark is said to have landed. The nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are in what mountain chain that extends between the Black and Caspian Seas and is the origin of a synonym for “white”?
ANSWER: Caucasus Mountains
5. FIRST AND LAST NAME REQUIRED. His former high school coach is the father of his teammate, Ted Ginn Jr. He took over for Justin Zwick midway through 2004, and in 2005 lost only one game that he started, to co-Big Ten champion Penn State. Who is this quarterback who led Ohio State to the BCS National Championship Game, and in December 2006 won the Heisman Trophy?
ANSWER: Troy Smith
6. The namesake of this unit also developed the torsion balance, along with research into Joseph Priestly’s law of electrical repulsions. Some physicists propose defining it as 6.241 times 10 to the 18th elementary charges, where an elementary charge is the charge of an electron. Equivalent to amperes times seconds, what is the SI unit for electric charge?
ANSWER: coulomb(s)
7. Although most paintings of it have thirteen figures, there is no reliable guest list. It was held, according to Mark 14:15, in the “upper room,” either on a Tuesday or Thursday. The guest of honor shared bread and wine with the other guests and announced his imminent betrayal. The Eucharist commemorates what final meal of Jesus Christ?
ANSWER: The Last Supper
8. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Simplify this expression: the quantity x squared plus 4x minus 32 divided by the quantity x minus 4.
ANSWER: x plus 8
9. In America, we saw one illustration of this economic law when silver coins were replaced with cupro-nickel coinage in 1965 – silver coins were taken out of circulation and are rarely found today. We also saw it occur under bimetallism – silver or gold would disappear, depending on which was worth more. What economic law states that, “Bad money drives good money out of circulation?”
ANSWER: Gresham’s law
10. At the Three Pigeons, Tony Lumpkin directs two young men to where they were intending to go – but tells them the place is an inn. Eighteenth century-style frivolity follows: Constance Neville tries to elope with George Hastings and Kate Hardcastle pretends to be a barmaid in order to better know her fiancé, Charles Marlow. The arrival of Charles’ father clears things up in what play by Oliver Goldsmith?
ANSWER: She Stoops to Conquer
11. This man received both his BA and MA in economics from Dhaka University. His first loan was to a group of women who made bamboo furniture, all for the total of $27. What man founded the Grameen Bank to offer 'microloans' to the poor and earned the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize?
ANSWER: Mohammed Yunus
12. The campaign to capture this fortress started when General Martin Perfecto de Cos surrendered. A seaborne counterattack was rejected, and 6,000 soldiers marched northward to retake it. After a two-week siege, an hour-long assault was sufficient to overwhelm around 200 defenders. William Travis and Jim Bowie commanded the defenders of what fortress taken during the Texas War of Independence?
ANSWER: the Alamo
13. The occurrence of incomplete dominance and co-dominance are exceptions to this law. This biological law assumes that alleles (uh-LEELZ) exist, each organism inherits one allele from a parent, one allele is dominant, and the two alleles separate when gametes are formed. Mendel’s first law of genetics is also known by what name, which has nothing to do with Jim Crow?
ANSWER: law of segregation (accept Mendel’s first law before it is said)
14. His real name is Arthur, and he won a spelling medal while in school, but fell in with the wrong crowd. His father and older brother Nathan started to abuse him, making him a recluse. But he got revenge of sorts by stabbing his father in the leg with a pair of scissors. At the end of the novel, he kills Bob Ewell, saving the lives of Scout and Jem. Who is this reclusive character in To Kill a Mockingbird?
ANSWER: Boo Radley
15. Voyager 2 visited here in 1989, more than 300 years after Galileo mistook it as a star. Observations by the Hubble Telescope in 1994 noticed that the body's characteristic atmospheric feature was missing. The first stellar body to be discovered based on mathematical observations rather than visual ones, what bluish planet contains The Great Dark Spot and is now the furthest from the sun?
ANSWER: Neptune
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. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Solve for x. 20x plus 70 equals 5x minus 20.
ANSWER: x equals -6
1B. A young man is walking in a forest with the devil and finds out his wife, Faith, is about to join him in an unholy ceremony in what short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne?
ANSWER: “Young Goodman Brown”
2A. Volume stress divided by volume strain is what type of modulus that is the inverse of compressibility?
ANSWER: bulk modulus
2B. What Liberal Prime Minister served four terms between 1868 and 1894 and was the great rival of Benjamin Disraeli?
ANSWER: William Gladstone
3A. What ten-letter word, meaning a giant brawl, gets its origin from a fair in Ireland that was famous for its fights?
ANSWER: donnybrook
3B. What group of 800 documents, written by a Jewish Essene (eh-SEEN) community at Qumran (KOOM-rahn), were discovered in caves in the Jordan Valley between 1947 and 1956?
ANSWER: Dead Sea Scrolls (do not accept “Red Sea Scrolls”)
4A. Fought between 264 and 146 BC, what three wars were fought by the Roman Republic against Carthage?
ANSWER: Punic Wars
4B. What disease that was usually associated with sailors is caused by lack of vitamin C?
ANSWER: scurvy
5A. What school, located in Norfolk and nicknamed the Monarchs, won three women’s basketball national championships in 1979, 1980 and 1985?
ANSWER: Old Dominion University
5B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. What is the volume of a cube with a surface area of 150 square feet?
ANSWER: 125 cubic feet
6A. Name EITHER of the two former Warsaw Pact countries that joined the European Union on January 1st.
ANSWER: Romania or Bulgaria
6B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. Assign the numbers 1 through 26 to the letters A through Z, respectively. What is the numerical value of G times L?
ANSWER: 84
7A. If articles and determiners are not counted separately, most grammar books and teachers will tell you that there are how many parts of speech?
ANSWER: eight (noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, interjection and conjunction)
7B. Which 20th-century American painted realist scenes such as Office in a Small City, Early Sunday Morning, and Nighthawks?
ANSWER: Edward Hopper
8A. What former White House Counsel was the “master manipulator of the cover-up” but then turned into the star witness for the prosecution of Watergate?
ANSWER: John Dean
8B. THIS IS A COMPUTATION QUESTION. On a map with a scale of 1:24,000 (read: one to twenty-four thousand), one inch on the map equals how many feet?
ANSWER: 2,000
9A. To the nearest whole number, what is the average atomic mass of carbon in Daltons, remembering that one Dalton is about the mass of a proton or neutron?
ANSWER: 12
9B. What psychological concept, created by Carl Jung (YOONG), is defined as the part of someone’s inner mind common to all humanity?
ANSWER: collective unconscious(ness)
10A. What term is used for a number that has more than two factors?
ANSWER: composite
10B. Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris and Dr. John Seward all propose to Lucy Westenra early on in what novel by Bram Stoker?
ANSWER: Dracula
Third period, 15 toss-ups, 10 points each
1. He became negusa (nay-GOO-suh) nagast (NAH-gahst) after the death of his mother, Zewditu (zyoo-DEE-too). He soon approved a new constitution that reduced the power of his Solomonic dynasty. A few years later, his throne became a chair for the dog of Italian general Pietro (pee-AY-troh) Badoglio (bah-doh-LEE-oh). In 1974, the Derg overthrew him and Mengistu came to power. Rastafarians regard as a god what man who, between 1930 and 1974, was Emperor of Ethiopia?
ANSWER: Haile Selassie I (accept Ras Tafari Makonnen until “Rastafarians” is said)
2. He became famous early in his life for discovering the effects of laughing gas and later in life invented a type of mining lamp that didn’t cause methane to explode. What British chemist is perhaps best known for discovering iodine, chlorine, sodium, potassium and other elements?
ANSWER: (Sir) Humphry Davy
3. In Greek, it is known as the kerykeion (keh-ree-KEE-awn). The Rod of Asclepius (ah-SKLEH-pee-us) is similar to it, but has only one snake and no wings at the top. What symbol, a representation of the Roman god Mercury’s staff, consists of two snakes entwined around a staff topped with two wings?
ANSWER: caduceus (kah-DOO-see-us)
4. About 75% of this state’s population lives in a series of valleys called the Wasatch Front. Towns such as Moab, Cedar City and St. George are among the major areas outside this “Front” that stretches from Nephi (nee-FIGH) to Logan. What state also includes Orem, Ogden, Provo and the capital, Salt Lake City?
ANSWER: Utah
5. She was the voice of Heather in the movie Over the Hedge and also had a small role as an activist in Fast Food Nation. Her third album, The Best Damn Thing, will be co-produced by her husband, Deryck Whibley of Sum 41. Score a “happy ending” for your team by naming this “complicated” Canadian singer whose newest single, “Keep Holding On”, appears on the “Eragon” soundtrack.
ANSWER: Avril Lavigne (lah-VEEN)
6. This type of cancer is second in frequency to prostate cancer in men and second to breast cancer in women. Name this cancer that killed Dana Reeve and Peter Jennings that is usually associated with smoking.
ANSWER: lung cancer
7. This city once shared an NBA franchise with Kansas City from 1972 until 1978. Since 1969, it is home to the only Triple-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, as home games are played in Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. Which city, the home to the NCAA Division I College Baseball World Series since 1950, is the largest in Nebraska?
ANSWER: Omaha, Nebraska
8. This novel’s first sign that something is wrong occurs when Charmaine Wimperis decides she doesn’t want a tennis court after all. Bobbie Markowe proves strangely resistant to stabbing. Walter Eberhart appears to ignore his wife Joanna’s concerns about this. Joanna is eventually … replaced … after visiting the Men’s Association. Ira Levin wrote what novel about a Connecticut town where the married women are too perfect?
ANSWER: The Stepford Wives
9. Eugene Debs got 3.4% of the votes in this Presidential election despite being in jail at the time. Election returns were broadcast on Pittsburgh’s KDKA-AM. The Prohibition Party did poorly; the passage of the 18th Amendment a year earlier had made the party less relevant. Ohio governor James Cox was the victim of a desire to “return to normalcy” and lost what Presidential election to fellow Ohioan Warren G. Harding?