ACF Nationals 1998
Questions by BYU
Tossups
1. A cairn at its summit salutes Polish explorer Paul de Strzelecki
(schell-ECK-y), who became the first to climb it in 1840. Offering
a panoramic view of the Victorian high plains, vehicular traffic to
this highest point in the Snowy Mountains was blocked in 1994, and
the only access is now a five-mile walk through Charlotte Pass.
FTP, name this peak thirty miles south of Canberra, Australia's
tallest mountain.
answer: Mount _Kosciusko_ (ka-CHOOS-ko)
2. Initially, they attributed their major
discovery to a malfunction caused by pigeons roosting inside their
special horn-shaped antenna. But after moving the birds and
cleaning out the droppings, they continued to observe static, whose
wavelength corresponded to the radiation that a black body would
produce at 3 Kelvin. FTP, name either one of these two men whose detection of
cosmic
background radiation gave convincing evidence for the Big Bang.
answer: Arno _Penzias_ and Robert _Wilson_
3. It is full of unanswered questions: is the youth holding a
scroll at the far right an architect, or the prophet Isaiah? Are
the young men at left wingless cherubs? Why is one of them
offering the title figure a metal vase? What's with the white
pillars in the middle distance? Scholars today see it as a
comparison of the elongated female body to the beauty of Classical
architecture. FTP name this 1535 Mannerist work, the masterpiece of
Parmigianino. (par-ma-ja-NEE-no)
answer: _Madonna with the Long Neck_
4. This class of organic compounds can be prepared by the
acid-catalyzed hydration of alkenes or by the hydrolysis of alkyl
halides. When heated in the presence of an acid they become
ethers, and they react with organic acids to produce esters. They
are often produced in organic systems, when low oxygen levels cause
carbohydrates to ferment, releasing carbon dioxide. FTP name these
compounds with a charactaristic OH group.
answer: _alcohols_
5. The best known of his serious works was book titled _Journal of
a Landscape Painter in Albania_. An artist who sketched birds for
the British Museum and who briefly worked as Queen Victoria's
drawing teacher, he is better remembered today for popularizing the
limerick. FTP, name this author of _Laughable Lyrics_, the creator
of nonsense poems including "Calico Pie," "The Nutcracker and the
Sugar-Tongs," and "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat."
answer: Edward _Lear_
6. Its name literally means, "Ourselves Alone," and it was founded
by Arthur Griffith in 1905. In 1921, its pro-peace faction broke
off to form Fine Gael, while its militant wing broke away in 1926
to form Fianna Fail. FTP, name this Irish political party which
split again in 1970 into Official and Provisional wings, which is
currently headed by Gerry Adams.
answer: _Sinn Fein_
7. On the mortuary temple she built for herself at Deir el Bahri,
the inscriptions show her dressed in male attire, even including an
artificial beard. Holding power for two decades, from 1489 to 1469
BC, her major accomplishment was the opening of a trade route to
present-day Somalia and Eritrea. FTP, name this woman who, between
the reigns of Thutmose II and Thutmose III, ruled as ancient
Egypt's only female pharaoh.
answer: _Hatshepsut_ or _Maatkare_
8. We learn of her death in the book's prologue, which reports that
Mrs. Richard Schiller died in childbirth on Christmas Day, 1952, in
Gray Star, Northwest Territories. Her first sexual experience was
with her classmate Elizabeth Talbot, followed by camp counselor
Charlie Holmes, followed by her stepfather, who was in turn
replaced by playwright Clare Quilty. FTP, name this object of
Humbert Humbert's obsession and Nabokov title character.
answer: _Lolita_ (Dolores _Haze_)
9. An electron that does not move in space would be represented by
a solid arrow pointing straight up. Photons are usually
represented by dotted arrows, while particles that move backwards
in time would be represented by downward-pointing arrows. FTP, name
this mathematical tool useful for analyzing elementary reactions in
quantum electrodynamics, named for a Nobel Prize-winning American
physicist.
answer: _Feynman_ diagram
10. Under the treaty of Osnabruck, Sweden was given three votes in
the German Diet and was allowed to annex the Duchy of Pomerania.
Under the Treaty of Munster, France received the province of
Alsace-Lorraine. In addition, an eighth electorate was added to
the Holy Roman Empire, while Switzerland and the Netherlands became
independent countries. FTP, by what collective name do we know
these agreements signed in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War?
answer: Peace of _Westphalia_
11. This paradox was first noted in 1860 by Charles Dodgson, better
known as Lewis Carroll, but it is named for the American economist
who gave it its rigorous definition in 1951. It states that given
any method of aggregating individual preference orderings, there
will always be at least one individual preference ordering that
will make the social choice intransitive. FTP, name this economic
theorem, which states that rational voting systems do not exist.
answer: _Arrow's Impossibility_ Theorem (accept Paradox of Voting,
Problem of Social Choice if answered before those terms appear in
the question; otherwise prompt)
12. Based on Alarcon's novel _The Corregidor and the Miller's
Wife_, it tells of a quick-witted southerner whose wife attracts
the attention of a lecherous magistrate from the north. Quoting
freely from traditional folk tunes like "El pano moruno," its
highlights include a seguidilla (say-ga-DEE-ya), a farruca, and the work's most
famous number, the fandango. FTP, name this 1917 ballet, the most
popular work by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla. (mon-WELL day FY-a).
answer: The _Three-Cornered Hat_ or _El sombrero de tres picos_
13. Along with Bertrand Russell, he was one of just two
philosophers in the twentieth century to be made a fellow of the
Royal Society. His first book, _Logik der Forschung_, focuses on
"the problem of induction" and "the problem of demarcation," while
his _The Open Society and its Enemies_ was a popular critique of
totalitarianism. FTP, name this Vienna-born philosopher of
science, the father of the principle of falsification.
answer: Karl _Popper_
14. Galileo may have seen it in December 1512, but he didn't follow
up on his observation and it remained undiscovered for another 234
years. After it was finally sighted again by Johann Galle, an ugly
international dispute broke out over the credit for its discovery,
since its position had been predicted independently by British
mathematician John Adams and French astronomer Urbain Leverrier.
FTP, name this currently-outermost planet of the solar system.
answer: _Neptune_
15. The songwriter in the studio apartment is having trouble
finishing a new pop song. A dancer on the third floor toys with
three men at a time while waiting for her true love to get out of
the army. In the basement, a lonely young woman attempts suicide.
Above her lives Lars Thorwald, a henpecked salesman whom L.B.
Jeffries suspects of murder. FTP, these are the neighbors of
amateur detective Jimmy Stewart in what 1954 Hitchcock classic?
answer: _Rear Window_
16. The five largest ones were once named Albemarle, Indefatigable,
Narborough, Chatham and James. The Humboldt Current usually keeps
the local temperature below 80 degrees F., in spite of the fact
that the largest island straddles the equator. Their official name
is Archipelago de Colon, but Columbus never sighted them or the
ocean they lie in. FTP, name this island group off the coast of
Ecuador, visited in 1835 by the HMS Beagle.
answer: _Galapagos_ Islands or Archipelago de _Colon_ on an early
buzz
17. Oscar-nominated composer Mark Isham, CNN legal analyst Greta
Van Susteren, jazz great Chick Corea, Jenna Elfman of _Dharma &
Greg_, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley, and Kirstie Alley are all
members. Anne Archer has been spoken out against restrictive
German laws against it, as has John Travolta, who joined the year
before he joined the cast of _Welcome Back Kotter_. FTP, name this
celebrity-friendly "religion," the brainchild of L. Ron Hubbard.
answer: Church of _Scientology_
18. Born into a wealthy Geneva family, he developed an early
fascination with the scientists Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus. He
was also obsessed with his adoptive sister Elizabeth Lavenza, but
she was killed on their wedding night. The killer also murdered
this man's brother William, his childhood friend Henry Clerval, and
finally this man himself, while he tells his story to Captain
Walton on the Arctic tundra. FTP, name this fictional scientist.
answer: Dr. Victor _Frankenstein_
19. His latest novel is the Kafka-esque tale of Mr. Ryder, a
concert pianist lost in a strange, unidentified European city. He
first gained notice in 1981 when he won the Winifred Holtby Prize
for _A Pale View on Hills_, the story of a Japanese woman mourning
her daughter's suicide. FTP, name this naturalized British author
of _The Unconsoled_, best known for his 1989 Booker Prize-winner
_The Remains of the Day_.
answer: Kazuo _Ishiguro_
20. Along with Frank Borman and Bill Anders, he became the first
man ever to see the far side of the moon as a crewmember on Apollo
8 in 1968. Two years later, he was scheduled to command the third
group of astronauts ever to set foot on the moon, but disaster
struck when an oxygen tank in the fuel module exploded, forcing the
mission to be aborted. FTP, name this man whose memoirs of that
incident were adapted into the movie "Apollo 13."
answer: Jim _Lovell_
21. He accidentally cut his leg on one of Hercules' magic arrows,
which were so powerful that the wound could never heal. However,
since he was immortal, they couldn't kill him either, and so he
broke the impasse by giving Prometheus his immortality, allowing
him to die. So ended the life of this son of Cronos, who taught
Apollo about music, and who worked as tutor for Jason and Achilles.
FTP, name this creature, the only good centaur in Greek myth.
answer: _Chiron_
22. It is the most refractive natural mineral on earth, while a
synthetic version of it is used to make a pigment called vermilion.
A comparatively rare substance, it occurs in veins in sedimentary
rock, and is principally found in Spain, Italy, Mexico, and the
American Southwest. FTP name the soft, bright red mineral with
chemical formula HgS, the principal commercial source of mercury.
answer: _cinnabar_
23. Encom was founded in the garage of Dr. Walter Gibbs, and,
thanks to Ed Dillinger, quickly found a market for its first
product, an operating system. Dillinger had made his reputation as
a video game designer, but his best game, "Space Cowboys," was
stolen from Kevin Flynn. FTP, name the 1982 Jeff Bridges film
whose title character is really Alan Bradley, a young programmer
trying to free cyberspace from the ruthless Master Control Program?
answer: _Tron_
24. As a young man, he supported the puritans, and his first major
work, _Heroique Stanzas_, is a eulogy for Oliver Cromwell. But he
reversed his political sympathies after the Stuart restoration and
even converted to Catholicism, which caused him to lose his titles
of Historiographer Royal and Poet Laureate after the Glorious
Revolution. FTP, name this English poet, who satirized
seventeenth-century politics in his _Absalom and Achitophel_.
answer: John _Dryden_
ACF Nationals 1998
Questions by BYU
Bonus Questions
1. Identify the novel, 30-20-10.
1. It wasn't written by Bulwer-Lytton or by Snoopy, but this 1962
work did begin with the words "It was a dark and stormy night."
2. It spawned three sequels: _A Wind in the Door_, _A Swiftly
Tilting Planet_, and _Many Waters_, the last of which was published
in 1986.
3. This 1963 Newbery Medal winner by Madeleine L'Engle introduced
the characters of Meg Murray, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe.
answer: A _Wrinkle in Time_
2. There was a time when the White Man's Burden was more than just
a politically incorrect poem. For ten points each, identify these
British colonial administrators.
1. In 1784, Edmund Burke brought articles of impeachment against
this Governor General of Bengal. His trial became a parliamentary
referendum over British conduct in India, and ended in acquittal
after seven years.
answer: Warren _Hastings_
2. He served as Colonial Secretary from 1846 to 1852, and was the
first to openly proclaim that the colonies should be governed for
their own benefit. He is best remembered, however, for the flavor of
tea which he helped popularize.
answer: (Henry,) Earl _Grey_
3. This great-grandson of Queen Victoria was the last Viceroy of
India.
answer: Louis, Earl _Mountbatten_ (accept Lord Mountbatten)
3. Four two-time Oscar winners have contributed guest voices to
TV's The Simpsons. Identify these three, from their Simpsons role
for 10 points, or from their Oscar-winning films for 5.
1. 10 pts: Maggie Simpson
5 pts: Butterfield 8, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
answer: Elizabeth _Taylor_
10 pts: Dreamy substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom.
5 pts: Kramer vs. Kramer, Rain Man
answer: Dustin _Hoffman_
10 pts: Reverend Lovejoy's evil daughter Jessica
5 pts: Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice
answer: Meryl _Streep_ (the fourth is Jack Lemmon, if anyone cares)
4. Some important organic complexes consist of protein bound to an
inorganic atom. For ten points each:
1. Give the general term for an inorganic molecule coordinated to
a central molecule in a complex.
answer: _ligand_
2. This metal serves as the ligand for the hemoglobin complex.
answer: _iron_
3. This metal serves as the ligand for chlorophyll.
answer: _magnesium_
5. Answer these questions about a Russian composer:
1. 15 pts: This composer's works include eight symphonies, the
symphonic poem "Stenka Razin," and the ballet _Raymonda_.
answer: Alexander _Glazunov_
2. 5 pts: Like many other turn-of-the-century Russian composers,
Glazunov studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under this man,
the author of a treatise on orchestration and the composer of _The
Invisible City of Kitezh_.
answer: Nikolai _Rimsky-Korsakov_
3. 10 pts: As a conductor, Glazunov is most famous for showing up to
work drunk one night and thus ruining the premiere of, for ten
points, what composer's First Symphony?
answer: Sergei _Rachmaninoff_
6. Identify these people who drew
inspiration from Cervantes' _Don Quixote_.
1. 5 pts: Though better known for his engravings and caricatures,
this Frenchman considered his finest work to be a series of oil
paintings based on Cervantes' novel.
answer: Honore _Daumier_
2. 10 pts: In his _Meditations on Quixote_, this Spanish
philosopher considered the problem of a middle way between idealism
and realism.
answer: Jose _Ortega y Gasset_
3. 15 pts: This Broadway composer gave the world the hit song "The
Impossible Dream" in his Tony-winning _Man of La Mancha_.
answer: Mitch _Leigh_
7. Most star systems are binary, with multiple objects rotating
around a common center of mass.
1. This terms describes binaries that have short periods and cannot
be resolved visually with a telescope. We can identify them by
seeing two sets of adsorption lines, one corresponding to each
star.
answer: _spectroscopic_
2. This type of binary appears to dim and brighten as its stars
circle one another.
answer: _eclipsing_
3. The most famous eclipsing binary is this object in the
constellation Perseus, which the ancients believed to be the
blinking eye on the severed head of Medusa.
answer: _Algol_
8. For ten points each, given a pair of authors, name the
identically or nearly-identically titled works which they both
wrote. For example, if we gave you Ralph Ellison and H.G. Wells,
you would respond, "(The) Invisible Man."
1. William Shakespeare and William Faulkner
answer: (The) _Hamlet_
2. T.S. Eliot and Henry James
answer: (The) _Portrait of a Lady_
3. Pierre Corneille and Euripides
answer: _Andromeda_ (Andromede)
9. Answer the following questions about events surrounding the
battle of Gettysburg:
1. The three-day struggle centered around two similar-sounding
ridge lines, one held by the Union and one by the Confederacy. For
five points each, name them.
answer: _Cemetery_ Ridge, _Seminary_ Ridge
2. For ten, name the highest-ranking casualty of the battle, a
corps commander of the Union army who was killed in the first hours
of fighting.
answer: John _Reynolds_
3. For 10 points, This fictionalized account of the battle won a Pulitzer Prize
for Michael Shaara and served as the basis for the movie
"Gettysburg."
answer: _The Killer Angels_
10. All those hours you spent watching Court TV are about to pay
off. For the stated number of points, identify these legal terms.
1. 5 pts: it is defined as any out-of-court statement used to prove
the truth of the matter asserted.
answer: _hearsay_
2. 5 pts: In contract law, a promise will not generally be enforced
unless it is accompanied by this, which might be defined as the quo
in a quid pro quo.
answer: _consideration_
3. 10 pts: Though it sounds like what you might pay your lawyer, it
is actually the term for a piece of property which one owns
outright, as opposed to holding it under a lease or a life
interest.
answer: _fee simple_
4. 10 pts: This medieval French term describes a series of
questions that are asked to potential jurors before a trial in
order to weed out those who may be biased.
answer: _voir dire_
11. For ten points each, identify the books of the Bible in which
one would find the following stories.
1. Susannah and the Elders (in the Latin Bible)
answer: _Daniel_
2. David and Goliath
answer: _First Samuel_
3. The Wedding at Cana
answer: Gospel of _John_
12. Name the statesman, 30-20-10.
1. He taught economics at Harvard, Northwestern, and Berkeley, and
became a U.S. citizen in 1944. He returned to his homeland in 1963
and the next year won election to parliament as a member of the
Union of Center Party.
2. Imprisoned along with his father after the Colonels' Coup of
1967, he founded a new left-wing party after the restoration of
democracy and was leader of the opposition by 1977.
3. In 1981, this founder of PASOK became Greece's first socialist
prime minister.
answer: Andreas _Papandreou_
13. Identify these great British novelists from their unfinished
final works, for ten points each.
1. In Samoa in 1894, he began _Weir of Hermiston_, a tale of a
Scottish judge that many scholars call his best work.
answer: Robert Louis _Stevenson_
2. She was unable to finish _Sanditon_ before dying of Addison's
disease in 1817.
answer: Jane _Austen_
3. His last novel was a half-complete 1870 mystery story, which
was later turned into a Broadway musical in which the audience
votes on what the ending will be.
answer: Charles _Dickens_
14. Identify these special types of matrix. For all parts, j is the row number and k is the
column
number.
1. 5 pts: Element (j,k) = 1 when j equals k, and it is 0 everywhere
else.
answer: _Identity_ matrix or _I_
2. 10 pts: Element (j,k) = 0 when j is greater than k.
answer: _Upper triangular_ matrix (prompt on triangular)
3. 15 pts: Element (j,k) = 0 when j is greater than (k + 1).
answer: _Hessenberg_ matrix
15. Are you sick of all those questions about one-hit wonders in
music? Try these one-hit wonders in art: ten points if you can get
them from a biographical description, five if you need the name of
their one hit.
1. 10 pts: In 1860, this prominent Dusseldorf artist was
commissioned to paint the Course of Empire mural for the U.S.
Congress.
5 pts: "Washington Crossing the Delaware."
answer: Emmanuel _Leutze_(LOYT-sa)
2. 10 pts: The heir of a wealthy French merchant family, his vast
private collection formed the original holdings of the Musee
d'Impressionnisme in Paris.
5 pts: "Paris: Rainy Day"
answer: Gustave _Caillebotte_
3. 10 pts: Although his younger brother called him "the greatest
painter in creation," some scholars doubt whether he actually
existed. Works attributed to him include "Three Marys at the Tomb"
and the Turin-Milan Book of Hours.
5 pts: He began work on the Ghent Altarpiece, which was completed
after his death by his younger brother Jan.
answer: _Hubert van Eyck_
16. Identify these locales made famous by the Korean War:
1. 5 pts. This western seaport was the site of General MacArthur's famous
September 1950 landing, which effectively cut the North Korean
lines of communication in two.
answer: _Inch'on_
2. 10 pts: Reputedly Korea's oldest city, it was captured by UN forces on
October 19, 1950, only to be overrun by a Chinese onslaught in
November.
answer: _P'yongyang_
3. 15 pts: This tiny 38th parallel town was the site of the 1953 armistice
and is still the site of all negotiations between north and south.
answer: _P'anmunjom_
17. Given the last line of a poem, give the poem's first line for
fifteen points each, or for five if you need the author.
1. 15 pts: "Since then -- 'tis Centuries-- and yet/Feels shorter
than the Day/I first surmised the Horses' Heads/ Were toward
Eternity--"
5 pts: Emily Dickinson
answer: _"Because I could not stop for death_ (it kindly stopped
for me)"
15 pts: "...Notice Neptune, though/ Taming a sea horse, thought a
rarity./ Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!"
5 pts: Robert Browning
answer: _"That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,"_
18. Identify these writers of the Roman Empire, for ten points
each.
1. This Spaniard wrote Liber Speculatorum in honor of the opening
of the Colosseum, but is better known for his twelve books of
epigrams.
answer: _Martial_
2. This rebel-turned-collaborator wrote Bellum Judaiicum about the
Roman reconquest of his native land.
answer: _Josephus_
3. The Six Enneads of this third-century Neoplatonist are the most
complete surviving body of ancient philosophy after Aristotle.
answer: _Plotinus_
19. For ten points each, identify these mythological rulers of
early Britain.
1. Britain was originally named after this king, a giant who was
killed by Hercules.
answer: _Albion_
2. The first human king of Britain was said to be this great-
grandson of Aeneas, who was banished from Rome after accidentally
killing his father.
answer: _Brutus_
3. This king was the legendary founder of the city of Leicester.
answer: _Lear_
20. Identify the American cities in which you
find the following major streets.
1. 5 pts: Beale Street; Elvis Presley Boulevard
answer: _Memphis_, TN
2. 10 pts: Clark Street, Upper and Lower Wacker Drive
answer: _Chicago_, IL
3. 15 pts: Van Ness Avenue, the James Lick Freeway
answer: _San Francisco_, CA
21. Give the names of the following specialized cell types.
1. 10 pts: In sponges, these flagellated cells pull water into the
sponge and out the osculum.
answer: _collar_ cells
2. 5 pts: These cells surround stomates in leaves and regulate
transpiration and fluid loss.
answer: _guard_ cells
3. 15 pts: These cells make up the excretory systems of
invertebrates like flukes, worms, and rotifers.
answer: _flame_ cells