Packet by LSU, MIT, and UNC
ACF Fall 2005
Packet by LSU, MIT, and UNC
1. On Ascension Day, he boarded the Bucentaur and led a fleet of a thousand ships to preside over the “Wedding of the Sea” ceremony. The original holders of this title replaced the tribunes as the local representatives of the Byzantine emperor. The first was Paolo Lucio Anafesto, and the last one, Ludovico Manin, was deposed by Napoleon. The Porta della Carta is the gateway to their palace, designed by Buon and Giovanni, which was built after such figures as Freancesco Foscario and Enrico Dandolo held this title. FTP, name this office, the elected leader of Venice.
ANSWER:doge
2. Near the beginning of this work, its central figure speaks of a dream in which a beautiful woman dressed in white expressed her wish that he would “arrive at fertile Phthia on the third day.” Later, the title character speaks of his friends Simmias the Theban and Cebes, both of whom have money, and notes that he has friends in Thessaly. The second half of this work is devoted to an imaginary speech delivered by the laws of a certain city, which argue that since a citizen enjoys the benefits of life in a state, he must subject itself to the decisions of that state. Thus, the central figure refuses to go anywhere, even though a ship from Delos is scheduled to arrive later that day. FTP, name this dialogue in which Socrates explains to the title figure why he won’t escape from jail, a work which comes between the Apology and the Pheado.
ANSWER: Crito
3. In one of his works, Lenny and Joey hit on Ruth soon after she visits the home of her husband Teddy, who in the end decides to leave Ruth to his family so that they can turn her into a prostitute. In another of his works, Aston offers the title position to a tramp named Davies, but later Aston and his brother Mick turn against Davies and throw him out. In addition to The Homecoming and The Caretaker, he wrote about the plight of an unemployed pianist named Stanley in a 1958 work that appeared shortly after his first play, The Room. FTP, name this British dramatist of The Birthday Party, who recently won the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature.
ANSWER: Harold Pinter
4. Matsumoto and Nishimura developed a method of generating random numbers using these numbers in their namesake twister. These numbers were first studied due to their one-to-one correspondence with even perfect numbers. As of August of this year, there are only 42 known ones, and they are currently being searched for by the GIMPS project, which makes use of the Lucas-Lehmer algorithm. FTP, identify these special primes given by 2 to the power p minus one, where p itself is prime, and which take their name from the French mathematician Marin.
ANSWER: Mersenne primes (do not accept “Mersenne numbers”)
5. The Japanese spirit known as the baku was thought to have the head of an elephant or this creature. In Arthurian legend, the Questing Beast was thought to have the haunches of this animal. In Hindu myth, the demon Hiranyasipu was killed by Vishnu’s fourth avatar Narasinha, which had half of this creature’s body. In Egyptian myth, Ptah’s wife, who was frequently depicted with the head of this creature, was the fierce goddess Sekhmet. This animal was also thought to supply the body type for the manticore and the griffin. Heracles was frequently depicted wearing the pelt of, FTP, what sort of creature, which he had killed in Nemea?
ANSWER: lion
6. In 1967, he was defeated in the special election that returned Adam Clayton Powell to congress. Disobedience of an earlier ruling in his favor led to the case which determined that there is no right to a jury trial for the charge of refusing a federal court order. William Faulkner’s nephew pulled him away from a group of rioters led by disgraced former Major General Edwin Walker, who was supported Governor Ross Barnett’s defiance of troops sent by John F. Kennedy to escort him into he Lyceum Building. FTP, name this first African-American to enroll at the University of Mississippi.
ANSWER: James Meredith
7. After the death of his aunt Drusilla, the title character of this novel moves with his lover to Aldbrickham, where they are later joined by the title character’s son. Earlier, the title character had persuaded his cousin, who was working in an ecclesiastical warehouse, to take a job as a teaching assistant. The title character comes from the village of Marygreen, but always wanted to follow his teacher, Richard Phillotson, to Christminster, where he could get an education. That title character is unhappily married to Arabella Donn, but really loves Sue Bridehead. FTP, name this 1894 novel set in Wessex, a work about a stonemason written by Thomas Hardy.
ANSWER:Jude the Obscure
8. Defects in these objects can cause Kearn-Sayre Syndrome or Luft Disease. They contain porins to allow for passive diffusion of selected molecules through their outer membranes. They provide evidence for Margulis’ endosymbiotic theory and are important to evolutionary and genetic studies due to their derivation solely from the mother. They allow some ribosomes in their matrix to allow for processes such as chemiosmosis and the citric acid cycle. FTP, name these organelles whose primary function is to convert organic materials into ATP, the so-called “powerhouses” of the cell.
ANSWER: mitochondria
9. A type of glacier formed wholly from drift snow is endemic to and named for this range. Their southern branch has its highest point at Yamantau and extends to the Mughalzar Hills. Their namesake river originates at Kruglaya and flows into the sea at Atyrau. A major source of topaz and beryl, they have a branch called Pay-Khoy Ridge, they can be passed at Perm and Yekaterinburg, and their highest peak is Mount Narodnaya FTP, name this mountain range that is considered to be the border between Europe and Asia.
ANSWER: Ural Mountains [or Uralsky Khrebet]
10. The composer of this work created it after abandoning a work about Cinderella, and later commented that he should not have composed it as it paled in comparison to Debussy’s Sylvia. The title locale is formed from the tears of the central female character’s parents after she is kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, whose enchantment can only be broken by a pledge of fidelity from a prince. That sorcerer tricks the prince into pledging his fidelity to Odile, who is Rothbart’s daughter. In most versions, Odette then dies or is condemned to remain away from Siegfried in the form of the titular creature. FTP, name this first ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
ANSWER: Swan Lake or Lebedinoje osero
11. This isotope is relatively enriched in the Martian atmosphere, probably as a result of thermal Jeans escape of its lighter counterpart. The primordial abundance of this isotope produced in Big Bang nucleosynthesis provides an important constraint on the density of ordinary baryonic matter. Stellar neutrinos are generated in a reaction which produces nuclei of this isotope through a weak interaction as the second step in the proton-proton chain. That weak interaction involves changing one of two fused protons into a neutron. Found in heavy water, FTP, name this isotope of hydrogen that contains one neutron.
ANSWER: deuterium
12. As all its subjects were male, it was followed by studies which found that females behaved the same, although more nervously, and several other variations including one using a telephone and one using a contact plate. One of the participants, unbeknownst to the rest, was in fact an actor who would bang on the wall separating him from the participant and cite his heart condition, after which he would cease both responding and complaining. Approximately 65% of subjects, who believed they were testing learning methods, continued on, and all administered a 300-volt shock in, FTP, what experiment which was actually testing the subjects’ willingness to follow authority?
ANSWER: Stanley Milgram obedience experiment [prompt on obedience experiment]
13. He wrote about some photographs taken by Roy DeCarava in the book The Sweet Flypaper of Life, while he wrote about his decision to take a job as a messboy on a freighter in his autobiographical The Big Sea. His first book featured seven sections, the last of which, “Our Land,” includes the poem “Mother to Son.” That book was followed by 1927’s Fine Clothes to the Jew, while later volumes of poetry included Fields of Wonder and Shakespeare in Harlem. FTP, name this author of Montage of a Dream Deferred and The Ways of White Folks who wrote “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”
ANSWER: Langston Hughes
14. A rural phase of this movement ended with John Litster’s defeat by troops under Henry le Despenser, the bishop of Norwich. Archbishop Simon of Sudbury and treasurer Robert Hales were beheaded during this event, which also destroyed the palace of John of Gaunt. Artists and villeins joined it in protest of a maximum wage set by the Statute of Laborers, and negotiations at Mile End led to promises for free trade and an end to serfdom, but in a subsequent confrontation at Smithfield, William Walworth, the mayor of London, killed its leader. FTP, the end to increases in the poll tax was the only lasting accomplishment of what 1381 uprising led by Wat Tyler?
ANSWER: the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 or the Peasants’ Rebellion of 1381 [accept English Peasants’ War {prompt on Peasants’ War}; accept Wat Tyler’s Revolt or Rebellion before Wat Tyler’s name is read]
15. In 2001, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley Labs discovered it in an aluminum matrix doped with molten lead. A mathematical description of this Wiener process typically begins with the Langevin equation and the Stokes flow for a sphere. Jean Perrin provided evidence for the most famous formulation of this process, for which, in the limit of small times, the rms displacement is proportional to the time squared. In the large time limit, it is a diffusive process which can be described by the Fokker-Planck equation and it has a diffusive constant proportional to the temperature. Observed by its namesake in pollen grains suspended in water, and explained by Einstein using the kinetic theory of gases, FTP name this random motion of small particles in a fluid.
ANSWER: Brownian motion
16. The latest novel by Gioia Diliberto is a fictional memoir of this painting’s subject. A flash of gold above the central character’s head represents a tiara, the only jewelry the central character wears as she leans against a table. Two ornate silver stars mark the spots on her dress where the silver straps that come up her shoulders attach. Her only visible ear is bright pink, which contrasts with the stark paleness of her body and the redness of her hair. FTP name this monumental portrait of Virginie Gautreau by John Singer Sargent.
ANSWER: Madame X
17. In one of this man’s works, the title character is charged with deleting the word God from 2 hours worth of radio programs, only to reinsert them into a later broadcast of an atheist. His stories include one about a professional laugher and another in which Grabowski recalls life before World War II, “Across the Bridge.” His better known novels include The Safety Net and Group Portrait with Lady along with a novel about Hans Schneier, who after injuring his knee can no longer work as the title performer. FTP, name this German Nobel Laureate, the author of The Clown who also wrote a novel about the Faehmel family, Billiards at Half-Past Nine.
ANSWER: Heinrich Böll
18. According to Zoroastrian legend, a garland of five of them surrounds the fire temple near the Caspian sea, while the one associated with Ishtar represents the movements of the planet Venus. The Jewish Revolutionary Simon ben Cosiba was called son of one of these by Rabbi Akiva, while along with a crescent one of these makes up the symbol of the Ottoman Empire. In Christianity the “Morning” one can refer to Jesus or more often Lucifer, while the six-pointed one of David is the most prominent symbol of Judaism. FTP name these celestial objects common in religious symbology, of which the sun is one.
ANSWER: Stars
19. Works during this man’s Serialist period include the choral work The Dove Descending Breaks the Air and Threni along with a piece commemorating the poet Dylan Thomas. Early in his career he wrote songs such as “The Fairy’s Kiss” and The Faun and the Shepherdess along with a popular concerto for orchestra known as Fireworks. His operatic works include the one-act work Rossignol and an opera about Nick Shadow with a libretto by W.H. Auden, The Rake’s Progress, but he is better known for his Psalm Symphony and ballets like Petruschka.FTP, name this Russian composer of The Rite of Spring and The Firebird.
ANSWER: Igor Stravinsky
20. Xenophon mentions it in his Anabasis, stating that its government was run by village herdsmen who paid tribute in horses. Following the Battle of Magnesia, Zariades established himself as king of Sophene, thus helping to found this kingdom together with Artaxias. Tacitus referred to the people of this place as “ambiguous,” and it caused strife between Rome and Parthia until the treaty of Rhandeia. Tiridates III converted this kingdom to Christianity, and following Manzikert Alp Arslan conquered most of this land. Most famously ruled in ancient times by Tigranes the Great, FTP, name this kingdom, of which only a small portion is now contained by the Transcaucasian nation with its capital at Yerevan.
ANSWER: Armenia or Armenian Hayastan or Hayastani Hanrapetut’yun
21.He claims to keep pretzels in his shotgun and has twice worked as a babysitter, once failing so badly that he was replaced by a robot, and later overseeing Vanessa, Dewey, and Boxy Brown. He has variously attributed his income to “working his ass off twenty hours a week” and “working out of the home.” His car, which was once crushed by the Rabbot, has “2 Wycked” painted on it, and he later acquires a belt that gives the wearer all the powers of Foreigner. A devotee of gold chains, green flip-flops, and blue sweatpants, he often has to evict his neighbors from his above-ground pool. FTP, name this Dave Willis-voiced neighbor of Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad on Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
ANSWER: Carl Brutananadilewski
22. This material has the lowest coefficient of friction of any known solid material, and is thus used industrially in gears and bearings to increase efficiency. Also an excellent electrical insulator, it was known as K146 during its use on the Manhattan Project. Accidentally discovered by Roy Plunkett in 1938, this material actually emits fumes upon heating, which probably makes it bad for its best-known use. FTP, name this polymer alternatively known as PTFE, known for containing relatively unreactive carbon-fluorine bonds, which make it effective as a non-stick coating for cookware.
ANSWER: Teflon (Prompt on early buzzes of “PTFE” or “Polytetrafluoroethylene”)
23. Andrew Jackson dispatched him to South Carolina during the nullification crisis in case open hostilities broke out. He was captured during the Battle of Queenston Heights and later led the Americna forces at Lundy’s Lane, but he became embroiled in a discipline controversy after winning at Molino del Rey, Churubusco, Cerro Gordo, and Chapultepec. He later became the first lieutenant general since Washington and joined Henry Clay as the only major-party nominees born in Virginia to lose a Presidential race. FTP, name this officer called “Old Fuss and Feathers” who was defeated by Franklin Pierce in the 1852 election.
ANSWER: Winfield Scott
1. Name these Olympian deities, FTPE.
[10] This goddess of youth served as cupbearer to the gods before the arrival of Ganymede. She married Heracles after he ascended to Olympus.
ANSWER: Hebe
[10] This virgin goddess of the hearth was the oldest daughter of Rhea and Cronus.
ANSWER: Hestia
[10] Hestia willingly gave up her throne on Olympus to this god of wine and agriculture after he grew to adulthood.
ANSWER: Dionysus
2. He strongly opposed paying ransom and tribute to the Barbary pirates while he was ambassador to France, but it wasn’t until he became president that he was able to do anything about it. FTPE:
[10] Name this man who sent Stephen Decatur to conduct the First Barbary War.
ANSWER: Thomas Jefferson
[10] Jefferson refused to pay the $225,000 demanded upon his inauguration as president by the pasha of this city, sparking a battle commemorated in the Marine Hymn’s reference to this city’s “shores.”
ANSWER: Tripoli
[10] American marines combined with mercenaries under William Eaton and Presley O’Bannon in the battle in question, actually fought at this city on the opposite side of Libya from Tripoli.