The Mark Discordia Singles Tournament
Playoff
Round 7
Question
Set 10: 20 tossups plus tiebreaker
Editing and non-science questions by Matt Weiner
Science by Anthony de Jesus, the Washington University Academic Team,
and Matt Weiner
1. Chronicled by Thomas May, it issued the Nineteen
Propositions and abolished the High Commission and the Court of the Star
Chamber. Convened to approve taxes to finance a war in Scotland, attempts to
arrest its members sparked the English Civil War. FTP, name this parliament in
place from 1640 to 1648, when Pride�s Purge caused it to be dubbed the Rump
Parliament.
ANSWER: Long Parliament
2. Robert K. Merton extended this concept to criminology, presenting a table in which goals, means, both, or neither were socially acceptable. Coined in The Division of Labour in Society, it reappeared as a cause in the theory of suicide. FTP, identify this term for a breakdown of social norms, invented by Emile Durkheim.
ANSWER: anomie
3. The lyric poet Stesichorus probably originated the legend that this character was replaced by a phantom double for the duration of the Trojan War, a story later picked up by Euripides in a namesake play, which has her reunite with her husband in Egypt. She drugs the wine in Book IV of the Odyssey and is almost killed by Aeneas in Book II of the Aeneid. FTP, identify this queen of Sparta and wife of Menelaus, the �face that launched a thousand ships.�
ANSWER: Helen of Troy [or Helen
of Sparta]
4. Its genome is nineteen kilobases in length and contains seven genes. Its length varies�� but averages 805 nanometers, while its diameter remains constant at around eighty nanometers. It first appeared in 1976, with two unrelated outbreaks occurring almost simultaneously. FTP, identify this filovirus that causes a severe hemorrhagic fever, named after a tributary of the Congo River.
ANSWER: ebola
5. It is possible because crystalline binding energies are
large compared with the kinetic energies of individual atoms, making the recoil
kinetic energy small. Resonant energy is demonstrated when gamma ray energies
are Doppler-shifted near the resonance peak as the radiation source is moved
relative to the absorber. FTP, name this effect, allowing the precise
measurement of small changes in photon energy.
ANSWER: M�ssbauer effect
6. Nick bribes Billy Jackrabbit, companion of Wowkle, to
take time in preparing a noose for Ramerrez, aka Dick Johnson, who enters
immediately after the singing of �Laggiu nel Soledad, ero piccina.� We also
hear �Oh, se sapeste� in defense of the solitary life. Rance and Sonora join
Johnson as the suitors of the title character, Minnie. FTP, name this opera set
during the California gold rush, with a libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo
Zangarini based on a Belasco play, with score by Puccini.
ANSWER: The Girl of the Golden West
[or La Fanciulla del West]
7. None exist for systems which undergo processes involving
hysteresis. Examples include the Curie one for describing paramagnetic solids,
the Berthelot, and the Clausius varieties. They relate a finite number of
independent variables. FTP, name these empirical or derived items, such as the
Van der Waals, which relate the thermodynamic properties of a system in an
equation.
ANSWER: equations of state [or characteristic
equations]
8. His first novel, Weep Not, Child, was followed by The
River Between. He was briefly imprisoned after the publication of Petals
of Blood, while another dissenting work is the play �I Will Marry When I
Want.� His foremost novel is told through a frame story set just before a
country is to gain independence. That work tells of the mysterious Mugo; a love
triangle between Mumbi, Gikonyo and Karanja; and the betrayal and death of
Kihika. FTP, name this Kenyan author of A Grain of Wheat.
ANSWER: James Ngugi wa Thiong�o
9. In the intro to the Dead Milkmen�s �Bitchin� Camaro,�
this song is parodied by the injection of new lyrics about AIDS and a hope that
the band won�t sue in the People�s Court. The third track on Strange Days,
it mentions an inability to speak and weak knees. The singer attempts to
acquire a reserve lasting the week in advance of �goin� away.� FTP, identify
this Doors song which commands repeated affection.
ANSWER: �Love Me Two Times�
10. At the Battle of Samgarb, he defeated his rivals for the
throne. His armies forced the institution of tribute from Tanjore and
Trichinopoly and conquered Bijapur and Golconda; the only major king to resist
him was the Maratha ruler Sivaji. His reign was marked by the re-institution of
the poll tax against non-Muslims and various persecutions of Sikhs and Hindus.
FTP, name this last of the Great Moguls, who succeeded Shah Jahan.
ANSWER: Aurangzeb Alamgir [or Muhiyuddin]
11. His earliest professional artwork was lighthearted
drawings in the art noveau style for magazines such as L�Assiette au Beurre
and Le Charivari. Under the patronage of L�once Rosenberg and D.H.
Kahnweiler, he produced paper collages such as The Sunblind and
traditional works including Violin and Fruit Dish, but his legacy is in
modern works such as Woman with a Basket and The Red Book. FTP,
name this chief developer of synthetic cubism, painter of Homage to Picasso
and The Man at the Caf�.
ANSWER: Juan Gris [or Jos� Victoriano Carmelo
Carlos Gonz�lez-P�rez]
12. Fell�s Cave, located in this region, is an important
site for anthropological dating. Home to Torres del Paine and Cave of the Hands
national parks, its indigenous inhabitants are the large-stature Tehuelche
people. Its namesake hot desert is the third largest in the world. Its
boundaries are usualy marked as the R�o Colorado to the Strait of Magellan.
FTP, identify this region of South America, comprising the southern parts of
Chile and Argentina.
ANSWER: Patagonia
13. After winning appointment as a soloist at the Imperial
Ballet in 1898, he rejected the traditional segregation of dance, music, and
costume in favor of a unified theory of ballet. He choreographed Le Pavillon
d'Armide, Les Sylphides, Le Spectre de la Rose, The Story
of Joseph, and Daphnis and Chloe, and he created The Dying Swan
for Anna Pavlova. FTP, name this man, hired by Sergei Diaghilev in 1909 as
choreographer for the Ballets Russes, the choreographer of Petrushka and
The Firebird.
ANSWER: Michel Fokine
14. Gondwanaland still existed throughout this period, but Laurasia was completely broken apart. Placoderm and psilophyte fossils date from this period, which saw the first appearance of jawed fish, air breathing animals such as scorpions, and vascular plants. FTP, identify this third period of the Paleozoic Era, occuring between 438 million and 408 million years ago, between the Ordovician and Devonian.
ANSWER: Silurian Period
15. In his side career as an education theorist, he wrote Education
and Freedom. He found another line of advancement after being denied the
captaincy of the USS S-48, parlaying an assistant directorship of Oak
Ridge into the chieftancies of Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy
Commission and the Nuclear Power Division of the Navy. FTP, identify this
admiral who oversaw construction of the Nautilus, beginning the age of
atomic submarines.
ANSWER: Admiral Hyman George Rickover
16. For a well-behaved function f with three
variables, the curl of this applied to f is always zero. It is important
in conjunction with Lagrange multipliers in finding critical points in
multivariate functions, and a useful side property of this function is that at
any point on the graph, it is orthogonal to the level surface. FTP, name this
vector function which finds the direction of the maximum rate of change.
ANSWER: gradient
17. It debuted in 1930 with Gertrude Lawrence and the author playing the leads. Its first act ends with the abandonment of second spouses Victor and Sibyl, as the formerly married Mr. Chase and Ms. Prynne run off to Paris, only to discover that the original divorce was probably for the best. It features several exchanges of barbs, such as when Elyot claims that �It doesn�t suit women to be promiscuous,� and Amanda fires back with �It doesn�t suit men for women to be promiscuous.� FTP, name this Noel Coward play.
ANSWER: �Private Lives�
18. There were five of them, but the most important one was
named Fintan. It acquired its defining characteristic from eating Buan,
enchanted hazelnuts. Finegas failed to find it for a time, and when it was
finally captured, its benefit went to the wrong person when the cook sucked a
burnt thumb during grilling. FTP, identify this resident of the River Boyne, an
enchanted fish eaten by Finn Mac Cumhail.
ANSWER: the salmon of wisdom [accept Fintan
before it is mentioned; accept salmon of knowledge]
19. In his later career, he wrote romantic comedies such as �Dream Girl, � a far cry from his politically charged early works such as �We, the People� and �A New Life.� He introduced the dramatic flashback to American literature with 1914�s �On Trial� and he became one of the first American expressonists with the publication of �The Adding Machine.� FTP, name this author who won the 1929 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for �Street Scene. �
ANSWER: Elmer Leopold Rice [or Elmer Reizenstein]
20. Long before Strom Thurmond, this man was known for his all-night filibusters. He negotiated the �Kilmainham Treaty� from prison, led the opposition to Charles Boycott, and issued the �No Rent Manifesto.� Justin McCarthy succeeded him after a scandal involving Kitty O�Shea. FTP, name this founder of the Irish National Land League, a vocal advocate for home rule in Parliament.
ANSWER: Charles Stewart Parnell
Tiebreaker:
At one
entrance to the scene of these events, a sign reading �Turn left or get shot�
was erected. Reporting on them won Robert Richardson a Pulitzer Prize. Sparked
by a drunk driving arrest, they lasted for five days, and thirty-four were
killed. FTP, identify the Los Angeles neighborhood which lent its name to riots
in 1965.
ANSWER: Watts
riots [prompt on Los Angeles riots]