Question Specific Discussion (Maryland Spring 2014)

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Question Specific Discussion (Maryland Spring 2014)

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

Post here with any question specific comments/questions!
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Reesefulgenzi »

Hello,

May I see the 'Borjes' and 'Tolstoy' questions? The early clues seemed harder than the other lit questions, while the tossup on Howl caused a buzzer race with "Holy!" in the first line.


Thank you,
Reese
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Off To See The Lizard »

Could I please see the following tossups:

Predation
Solvents
Hydrogen
Ravel (this may have been a bonus?)
Donizetti
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

Reesefulgenzi wrote:Hello,

May I see the 'Borjes' and 'Tolstoy' questions? The early clues seemed harder than the other lit questions, while the tossup on Howl caused a buzzer race with "Holy!" in the first line.
19. One story by this author ends “Glory to him who does die” and describes an Arabian king who leaves a Babylonian king in the middle of the desert. In another of his stories, a detective finds a dead rabbi in a hotel room and is lured Triste-le-Roi by Red Scharlach. The protagonist of one of this author’s stories is told of his ancestor’s work in the Pavilion of the Limpid Solitude by a man whom he (*) murders to send the name of a city to The Chief. In that story, Yu Tsun, a spy for Germany, learns of the title book from Doctor Albert. For 10 points, name this author of the short stories “Death and the Compass” and “The Garden of Forking Paths,” a blind Argentinian.
ANSWER: Jorge Luis Borges

16. In one story by this author, a poor shoemaker takes in a fallen angel who he finds lying naked next to a shrine. The protagonist of another of his stories drops dead after running all day to claim land from the Bashkir tribe. A novella by this author of “What Men Live By” ends with a judge touching the face of his son as he dies from an (*) injury he sustained while hanging curtains. Another of his novels begins with the assertion that “all happy families are alike” and features a woman who has an affair with Count Vronsky and eventually throws herself under a train. For 10 points, name this author of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Anna Karenina, and War and Peace.
ANSWER: Leo Tolstoy
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

Off To See The Lizard wrote:Could I please see the following tossups:

Predation
Solvents
Hydrogen
Ravel (this may have been a bonus?)
Donizetti
The DRM model suggests this behavior is partially governed by the accumulation of materials like chitin or cellulose in certain organisms. Handling and search times govern this behavior according to an “Optimal” theory about it. Arditi and Ginzburg challenged the classical equation modeling this behavior, which sometimes triggers trophic (*) cascades. Responses to this behavior include mobbing, aposematic coloring, and both Mullerian and Batesian mimicry. Nonlinear differential equations named for Lotka and Volterra model this behavior. For 10 points, name this central behavior of population ecology in which one organism hunts and consumes another.
ANSWER: predation (accept word forms; accept reasonable synonyms; accept “being preyed upon” or equivalents, which necessarily implies the same behavior; prompt on “foraging,” “eating,” or similar answers)

A popular nonpolar, easily evaporated kind of this substance is a mixture of isomers of hexane. SN1 reactions are sometimes referred to as [this substance]-lysis because the nucleophile is often one of these substances, and polar aprotic ones like THF are used to conduct SN2 reactions. The partition coefficient is the relative (*) affinity for a species for two different examples of these substances. The polarizability and dipole moment of these substances determines their strength, and molecules of these substances form a shell around ions found within them. Water is considered the universal one. For 10 points, name these substances which dissolve a solute in order to form a solution.
ANSWER: solvent
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Reesefulgenzi »

Thank you.
Gonzagapuma1 wrote:
19. One story by this author ends “Glory to him who does die” and describes an Arabian king who leaves a Babylonian king in the middle of the desert. In another of his stories, a detective finds a dead rabbi in a hotel room and is lured Triste-le-Roi by Red Scharlach. The protagonist of one of this author’s stories is told of his ancestor’s work in the Pavilion of the Limpid Solitude by a man whom he (*) murders to send the name of a city to The Chief. In that story, Yu Tsun, a spy for Germany, learns of the title book from Doctor Albert. For 10 points, name this author of the short stories “Death and the Compass” and “The Garden of Forking Paths,” a blind Argentinian.
ANSWER: Jorge Luis Borges
After searching, it looks like the opening clue should be "Glory to him who does not die."

Overall, the literature was fantastic!
Reese
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Panayot Hitov »

Reesefulgenzi wrote:Hello,

May I see the 'Borjes' and 'Tolstoy' questions? The early clues seemed harder than the other lit questions, while the tossup on Howl caused a buzzer race with "Holy!" in the first line.


Thank you,
Reese
I feel like it would have been better to write a tossup on Ginsburg's other stuff (Kaddish, Wichita Vortex Sutra, the billion other poems he did)
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Jem Casey »

Reesefulgenzi wrote:Thank you.
Gonzagapuma1 wrote:
19. One story by this author ends “Glory to him who does die” and describes an Arabian king who leaves a Babylonian king in the middle of the desert. In another of his stories, a detective finds a dead rabbi in a hotel room and is lured Triste-le-Roi by Red Scharlach. The protagonist of one of this author’s stories is told of his ancestor’s work in the Pavilion of the Limpid Solitude by a man whom he (*) murders to send the name of a city to The Chief. In that story, Yu Tsun, a spy for Germany, learns of the title book from Doctor Albert. For 10 points, name this author of the short stories “Death and the Compass” and “The Garden of Forking Paths,” a blind Argentinian.
ANSWER: Jorge Luis Borges
After searching, it looks like the opening clue should be "Glory to him who does not die."

Overall, the literature was fantastic!
Reese
Indeed it should be, I'm surprised that I typed that and didn't catch it later. Glad you liked the lit!
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

Off To See The Lizard wrote:Could I please see the following tossups:

Predation
Solvents
Hydrogen
Ravel (this may have been a bonus?)
Donizetti
The high polarity of the monomers of nylon allow this interaction to occur frequently within itself. This interaction occurs between every four residues of a standard alpha helix, as well as the link between matching base pairs in DNA. On phase diagrams of water, a negative slope between the solid and liquid phases can be attributed to this phenomenon. This phenomenon, which is stronger than (*) van der Waals forces but weaker than intramolecular forces, causes water to expand upon freezing. For 10 points, name this weak type of bonding that occurs between atoms of oxygen, nitrogen, or fluorine and its namesake element.
ANSWER: hydrogen bonding
I assume you mean this tu? If not, let me know.

5. This composer included a section drawing on a dance called a zortziko and a movement titled for the Malaysian pantoum in his only piano trio. Marguerite Long was the dedicatee of a Piano Concerto in G by this man that opens with a whip crack. Ricardo Viñes premiered a solo piano piece by this composer, which was inspired by a section of Liszt’s Years of Pilgrimage that depicts the Fountains of the Villa d’Este. A section of one of this man’s piano compositions was created to surpass Mily (*) Balakirev’s Islamey in difficulty, and he wrote a piece featuring a repetitive snare drum ostinato. For 10 points, name this French composer who composed Gaspard de la nuit and Boléro.
ANSWER: Maurice Ravel

This composer’s first opera is based on a Jean-Jacques Rousseau drama about a sculptor from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In a comic opera by this composer, Ernesto declares his love for Norina, despite the protestations of his uncle Don Pasquale. A character in one of this man’s operas sings the aria “Una furtiva lagrima” after learning that the potion given to him by Doctor (*) Dulcamara has “worked” on Adina. The title character of one of this man’s operas sings “Il dolce suono” during her “Mad Scene,” where she imagines marrying Edgardo after killing her fiance Arturo. For 10 points, name this Italian operatic composer of The Elixir of Love and Lucia di Lammermoor.
ANSWER: Gaetano Donizetti
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Blue, Red, Blue, Yellow »

Sorry for being greedy-

van Gogh
Durer
NMR spec
England (art)
The Devil and Daniel Webster
elephant (lit)
Henry IV of France

I enjoyed the set. It seemed like a lot of school-assigned literature was in it, too!
Thanks
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

40th Day after death wrote:I feel like it would have been better to write a tossup on Ginsburg's other stuff (Kaddish, Wichita Vortex Sutra, the billion other poems he did)
Yeah, although it was a good tossup it doesn't seem to have played very well.
Last edited by Gonzagapuma1 on Sun May 18, 2014 6:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

Blue, Red, Blue, Yellow wrote:Sorry for being greedy-

van Gogh
Durer
NMR spec
England (art)
The Devil and Daniel Webster
elephant (lit)
Henry IV of France

I enjoyed the set. It seemed like a lot of school-assigned literature was in it, too!
Thanks
This artist wrote “I don’t know if I’ll be able to paint the postman as I feel him” in reference to his portrait of a man with a forked beard in a blue uniform. While at an art academy, he painted a skull smoking a cigarette. One of his paintings depicts a man in a white (*) coat whose legs disappear behind a green pool table standing in the middle of a room populated by drunks. A large yellow bed appears in his Bedroom at Arles, and he painted himself with a bandaged ear in one of his last self-portraits. Known for his paintings of sunflowers, for 10 points, name this Dutch artist of Starry Night.
ANSWER: Vincent van Gogh

This artist depicted his patron being pulled by six pairs of horses in a “Large Triumphal Carriage.” A bat flies in front of a rainbow
in another of his works. This artist’s works often include his initials, with one letter inset inside the other. The name of this artist
of Four Apostles is sometimes given to a type of polyhedron which he included in a work that also depicts a magic (*) square and
a sad-looking winged man. Snakes curl around the crown of a skeletal man in an engraving of his in which an armored figure rides in
profile through a tangled forest. For 10 points, name this artist of Melencolia I and Knight, Death, and the Devil.
answer: Albrecht Durer

A Fourier transform can be used to analyze the free induction decay signal obtained from this technique. The six- to eight-ppm area of the spectrum of this technique is referred to as the aromatic region. A common solvent for this procedure is deuterated chloroform with trace amounts of tetramethylsilane. This technique can detect carbon particles in its (*) carbon-13 variant. Hydrogen peaks in the spectra for this technique can be split depending on the number of neighboring hydrogens. For 10 points, identify this technique which exposes samples to a magnetic field, similar to the medical technique of MRIs.
ANSWER: NMR spectroscopy (or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy)

One painting from this country shows a cat eating a bird and some sheet music on a piano. An emotionless man and wife stare over a ship’s railing in a painting entitled “The Last of” this country. An artist from this country depicted a woman leaping from a bearded man’s lap in The Awakening Conscience, while another artist from here was criticized for showing a “red-headed Jew boy” displaying the (*) stigmata in Christ in the House of His Parents. Several artists from this country used Elizabeth Siddal as a model for such paintings as Beata Beatrix and Ophelia. For 10 points, name this country where the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood worked in the 19th century and where J. M. W. Turner painted the Houses of Parliament.
ANSWER: England (accept Great Britain or whatever)

In this story, a moth-like figure with a human voice flutters out of a black pocket book. One character in this story is first seen wrestling with a ram named Goliath and later gives another character “a kick that would stun a horse” after being told that his sons will die during a war. The central character of this story speaks in a voice “like a big bell” to a group including (*) Simon Girty and Blackbeard. This story is set in the town of Cross Corners, where a farmer is visited by Mr. Scratch after wishing to sell his soul for two cents. For 10 points, name this story in which Jabez Stone is saved from damnation by the titular statesman, a work of Stephen Vincent Benet.
ANSWER: “The Devil and Daniel Webster”

A D. H. Lawrence poem describes how these animals are the “oldest… and the wisest of beasts” and are “slow to mate.” A novel by Jose Saramago tells of one of these animals named Solomon that is given as a gift to Archduke Maximilian. Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book includes a story about a boy named Toomai who learns to work with these animals, which are referred to as Tantor in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ (*) Tarzan novels. One of these animals destroys a hut, raids a fruit stall, and kills a man before being shot in a George Orwell essay inspired by time spent in Burma. For 10 points, name these animals, exemplified by Horton in Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.
ANSWER: elephants

18. This man defeated Anne de Joyeuse at Coutras, after which he promptly abandoned his army and rode all night either to plot with Montaigne or visit his mistress Gabrielle d’Estrees, the most consistent of his many liaisons. He helped end the Julich Succession in Germany, and was fatally stabbed while waiting in traffic by Francois Ravaillac. This victor at Arques and (*) Ivry rose to power after his predecessor ordered the 45 to kill their mutual rival in the wake of the Day of the Barricades. The Catholic League of Henry of Guise opposed this man, who succeeded his cousin, Henry of Valois, and noted “Paris is well worth a mass.” For 10 points, name this successor to Henry III who ended the Wars of Religion with the Edict of Nantes.
ANSWER: Henry IV (or Henry of Navarre; accept Henry III of Navarre, but obviously not just “Henry III”)
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Chef Curry »

May I please see the 1984 tossup? Thanks.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Apostolic Prefecture of Kompong Cham »

Can I please see the tossups on Cormac McCarthy, the Blackshirts, and American invasions of Mexico?
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

ahan108 wrote:May I please see the 1984 tossup? Thanks.

The final chapter of this novel is set at the Chestnut Tree Cafe, where a song featuring the lyrics “I sold you and you sold me” often plays. While living at Mr. Charrington’s, the protagonist reads a book on Oligarchical Collectivism to his lover, a member of the (*) Anti-Sex League. That main character gives into his fear of rats by screaming “do it to Julia!” while being interrogated by O’Brien in Room 101. For 10 points, name this dystopian novel which ends with Winston Smith saying “I love Big Brother,” a work of George Orwell.
ANSWER: Nineteen Eighty-Four
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

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Apostolic Prefecture of Kompong Cham wrote:Can I please see the tossups on Cormac McCarthy, the Blackshirts, and American invasions of Mexico?

A character created by this author saves men from being butchered by fashioning gunpowder out of nearby volcanic rocks. The title character of one of this author’s novels meets a man in a work camp arrested for having sex with watermelons named Harrogate and lives alone on a houseboat on the Tennessee River. One of this author’s novels ends with the judge confronting the (*) kid in an outhouse and follows the scalp-hunting gang of Glanton. A character created by this author discovers a bag full of money under a tree after a busted drug deal and is pursued by a hitman who kills people with a bolt pistol named Anton Chigurh. For 10 points, name this author of Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men.
ANSWER: Cormac McCarthy


This group aided an ally in the Battle of Santander that led to the fall of the region of Cantabria. This group that was also known as the MVSN, and the lower ranking members of this group frequently wore a fez. Many members of this group made up the (*) M battalions. Members of this group were formerly members of the Arditi army group, and one action involving members of this group led to the overthrow of Luigi Facta and the appointment of a new prime minister by Victor Emmanuel III. For 10 points, name this group that led the March on Rome, a bunch of goons commanded by Benito Mussolini who wore clothing of a distinctive color.
ANSWER: Blackshirts (or MVSN)


One of these events took place after the capture of sailors from the Dolphin and was led by Henry Mayo. The St. Patrick’s Battalion was formed after one of these events. This action was taken during the Tampico Affair after a country refused to fly another country’s flag on its soil. One of these events was the subject of Abraham Lincoln’s (*) Spot Resolutions. Another of these events occurred after a raid on Columbus, New Mexico and was led by John “Black Jack” Pershing. For 10 points, name these actions, one of which occurred after a raid by Pancho Villa, and another of which was ended by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
ANSWER: invasions of Mexico by the US (accept wars with Mexico; accept equivalents for invasion)
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by TSIAJ »

May I see the following:

Dvorak Symhony No. 9
Cage
Schubert
Flute
United States
Britten
Swan Lake
Four Seasons/Vivaldi/Corelli bonus
?/?/Glazunov bonus
Sibelius/Karelia Suite/? bonus

Thanks!
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Eddie »

I noticed a small factual error in the "sixth symphonies" tossup (Round 1, TU 8) in the clue that reads:
Round 1, TU 8 wrote: Though not by Beethoven, another symphony of this number opens with a trumpet call and ends with two or three hammer strikes, which the composer’s wife called the “hammer blows of fate.”
If I recall correctly, it is Mahler's fifth symphony, not the sixth, that opens with a trumpet call.

Also, on the "flute" tossup (Round 8, TU 17), in the clue that reads:
Round 8, TU 17 wrote: Bach wrote a Partita in A Minor for this instrument, which appears alongside the violin and harpsichord in his fifth Brandenburg Concerto.
I think it would be helpful to specify that the flute, violin, and harpsichord comprise the concertino of the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, because the current wording makes it sound like those are the only three instruments in the piece.

Overall, this set was an enjoyable experience.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by TSIAJ »

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote:I noticed a small factual error in the "sixth symphonies" tossup (Round 1, TU 8) in the clue that reads:
Round 1, TU 8 wrote: Though not by Beethoven, another symphony of this number opens with a trumpet call and ends with two or three hammer strikes, which the composer’s wife called the “hammer blows of fate.”
If I recall correctly, it is Mahler's fifth symphony, not the sixth, that opens with a trumpet call.

Also, on the "flute" tossup (Round 8, TU 17), in the clue that reads:
Round 8, TU 17 wrote: Bach wrote a Partita in A Minor for this instrument, which appears alongside the violin and harpsichord in his fifth Brandenburg Concerto.
I think it would be helpful to specify that the flute, violin, and harpsichord comprise the concertino of the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, because the current wording makes it sound like those are the only three instruments in the piece.

Overall, this set was an enjoyable experience.
I agree.
If I did not wait a bit for the sixth symphony tossup, I would've negged on "Fifth symphony."

And for the flute tossup, I negged after "Bach wrote a partita" saying "violin," even though I would've powered it after "A minor." This problem could've been easily avoided by starting with "It's not a violin, but Bach wrote a partita for this instrument in A minor..." or something like that.

One other major mistake that comes to mind is for the Dvorak 9 tossup, a clue was included that told of a so-called Frenchhorn solo in the second movement, when in fact the only notable solo in that movement is the English horn solo.
Last edited by TSIAJ on Sun Oct 19, 2014 4:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

TSIAJ wrote:May I see the following:

Dvorak Symhony No. 9
Cage
Schubert
Flute
United States
Britten
Swan Lake
Four Seasons/Vivaldi/Corelli bonus
?/?/Glazunov bonus
Sibelius/Karelia Suite/? bonus

Thanks!

Many of the themes in this symphony were inspired by Harry T. Burleigh, who arranged it. This symphony’s second movement, its longest, is in 4/4 time in D-flat major and opens with a French horn solo. William Arms Fisher adapted a theme from that Largo movement into the song “Goin’ Home.” This symphony was composed shortly before its composer’s String Quartet No. 12, which was inspired by a vacation in (*) Spillville, Iowa. This symphony includes a first movement flute passage reminiscent of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” and scenes from Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha were a strong influence on its composition. For 10 points, name this symphony inspired by a trip to the United States, a work of Antonin Dvořák.
ANSWER: From the New World (or Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor)

Irvine Arditti mastered a set of virtuosic violin etudes by this composer originally written for Paul Zukofsky. This composer referred to the hexagrams of the I Ching to determine the compositional elements of his Music of Changes. This composer required placing screws, bolts, and an eraser between the (*) strings of an instrument in preparation for performing his collection of Sonatas and Interludes. Kyle Gann’s No Such Thing As Silence is about one of this man’s pieces, which consists of three movements of ambient noise for the title length of time. For 10 points, name this experimental American composer of the completely silent 4'33".
ANSWER: John Cage

Anton Diabelli published this composer’s Three Marches Militaires for piano four-hands. This composer’s associate Johann Vogl inspired one of his song cycles, which evokes images of the “Will o’ the Wisp” and “The Hurdy-Gurdy Man.” This composer wrote some incidental music for the Helmina von Chézy play Rosamunde. A Matthias Claudius poem inspired the name of a string quartet this man wrote while suffering from syphilis in (*) 1824. Another of this man’s chamber works omits the second violin in favor of a double bass and includes a fourth movement containing variations on his lied “Die Forelle.” For 10 points, name this Austrian composer of the string quartet Death and the Maiden and the Trout Quintet.
ANSWER: Franz Schubert

Bach wrote a Partita in A Minor for this instrument, which appears alongside the violin and harpsichord in his fifth Brandenburg Concerto. A solid gold one of these instruments was owned by Jean-Pierre Rampal, a 20th century master of it. Georges Barrère premiered a work for this instrument that takes its title from a physical property of platinum, Edgard (*) Varèse’s Density 21.5. This instrument represents the little bird in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. This instrument, which plays the opening bars of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, is closely related to the fife and piccolo. For 10 points, name this reedless woodwind instrument, which appears in the title of a Mozart opera featuring the Queen of the Night.
ANSWER: flute

A work written in honor of this composer opens with a series of pianissimo strikes on the tubular bells and was written by Arvo Part. William Plomer wrote the libretto of this man’s Curlew River, which was part of a set of church parables he wrote for the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew in Orford. This man’s included a first movement choral solo entitled “What passing bells” as part of a six movement mass created for the dedication of the Coventry (*) Cathedral. Another of this man’s works was inspired by a theme from Henry Purcell’s incidental music to Abdelazer and was intended to introduce children to classical music. For 10 points, name this British composer of the Wilfred Owen-inspired War Requiem and The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
ANSWER: Benjamin Britten

A female composer from this country composed the Mass in E-flat, the first mass in this country produced by a woman, as well as the Gaelic Symphony. A composer from this country set “The Heavenly Banquet” and “Sea Snatch” to music in the cycle Hermit Songs. Ferde Grofé wrote a suite inspired by a natural landmark in this country, while Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky moved to this country at the outbreak of (*) WWII. A composer from this country created one work in response to an essay contest for a newspaper and wrote several works for military band, earning him the nickname “The March King.” For 10 points, name this country home to the composer of “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” John Philip Sousa.
ANSWER: United States of America

A series of dances in Act II of this ballet borrows music from its composer’s opera Undina, while Act I ends with the Dance of the Goblets. Julius Reisinger choreographed this ballet, whose most performed version was arranged by Riccardo Drigo. In this ballet, the protagonist encounters his love interest while on a hunting trip with his tutor Wolfgang and his friend (*) Benno von Sommerstern. In this ballet, the evil Rothbart casts a spell on Odette and switches her with his daughter Odile at a ball in order to trick Prince Siegfried into marrying her. For 10 points, name this ballet in which Odette turns into the title bird at night, a work of Tchaikovsky.
ANSWER: Swan Lake (or Lebedinoye ozero)

Nigel Kennedy’s 1989 recording of this work is one of the best-selling classical recordings in history. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this set of four violin concerti originally included in The Contest Between Harmony and Invention that depicts the different divisions of the year.
ANSWER: The Four Seasons (or Le quattro stagioni)
[10] This Italian composer, known as “The Red Priest” for his fiery red hair, composed The Four Seasons.
ANSWER: Antonio Vivaldi
[10] This other Italian composer of several Sonata da chiesa and Concerti grossi greatly influenced the work of Vivaldi and is perhaps best known for his Christmas Concerto.
ANSWER: Arcangelo Corelli

This piece contains a leitmotif associated with Prince Gvidon, who is a character in the opera in which it appears. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this orchestral interlude about the journey of a certain insect. It is included in Act III of its composer’s opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan.
ANSWER: “Flight of the Bumblebee”
[10] “Flight of the Bumblebee” was composed by this man, who included chants from the Obikhod in his Russian Easter Festival Overture.
ANSWER: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
[10] Rimsky-Korsakov taught this other Russian composer, who wrote a Violin Concerto in A minor for Leopold Auer and the music for the ballet Raymonda.
ANSWER: Alexander Glazunov

This composer’s seventh symphony is his last and is notable for having only one movement. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this Finnish composer of the tone poem Tapiola and the symphonic poem Finlandia.
ANSWER: Jean Sibelius
[10] This set of pieces by Sibelius imagines such events as “The Siege of Viipuri Castle” and “Karl Knutsson.” It was commissioned for the students at Helsinki University in Vyborg and named for a region of Finland.
ANSWER: Karelia Suite, Op. 11
[10] Sibelius also wrote some incidental music to this play. The text of this play inspired the first of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Three Shakespeare Songs, which was entitled “Full Fathom Five.”
ANSWER: The Tempest
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by TSIAJ »

Gonzagapuma1 wrote:
TSIAJ wrote:May I see the following:

Dvorak Symhony No. 9
Cage
Schubert
Flute
United States
Britten
Swan Lake
Four Seasons/Vivaldi/Corelli bonus
?/?/Glazunov bonus
Sibelius/Karelia Suite/? bonus

Thanks!
I can't find the U.S. tossup. Do you remember what round it was in? Was it a music tossup?

Many of the themes in this symphony were inspired by Harry T. Burleigh, who arranged it. This symphony’s second movement, its longest, is in 4/4 time in D-flat major and opens with a French horn solo. William Arms Fisher adapted a theme from that Largo movement into the song “Goin’ Home.” This symphony was composed shortly before its composer’s String Quartet No. 12, which was inspired by a vacation in (*) Spillville, Iowa. This symphony includes a first movement flute passage reminiscent of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” and scenes from Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha were a strong influence on its composition. For 10 points, name this symphony inspired by a trip to the United States, a work of Antonin Dvořák.
ANSWER: From the New World (or Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor)

Irvine Arditti mastered a set of virtuosic violin etudes by this composer originally written for Paul Zukofsky. This composer referred to the hexagrams of the I Ching to determine the compositional elements of his Music of Changes. This composer required placing screws, bolts, and an eraser between the (*) strings of an instrument in preparation for performing his collection of Sonatas and Interludes. Kyle Gann’s No Such Thing As Silence is about one of this man’s pieces, which consists of three movements of ambient noise for the title length of time. For 10 points, name this experimental American composer of the completely silent 4'33".
ANSWER: John Cage

Anton Diabelli published this composer’s Three Marches Militaires for piano four-hands. This composer’s associate Johann Vogl inspired one of his song cycles, which evokes images of the “Will o’ the Wisp” and “The Hurdy-Gurdy Man.” This composer wrote some incidental music for the Helmina von Chézy play Rosamunde. A Matthias Claudius poem inspired the name of a string quartet this man wrote while suffering from syphilis in (*) 1824. Another of this man’s chamber works omits the second violin in favor of a double bass and includes a fourth movement containing variations on his lied “Die Forelle.” For 10 points, name this Austrian composer of the string quartet Death and the Maiden and the Trout Quintet.
ANSWER: Franz Schubert

Bach wrote a Partita in A Minor for this instrument, which appears alongside the violin and harpsichord in his fifth Brandenburg Concerto. A solid gold one of these instruments was owned by Jean-Pierre Rampal, a 20th century master of it. Georges Barrère premiered a work for this instrument that takes its title from a physical property of platinum, Edgard (*) Varèse’s Density 21.5. This instrument represents the little bird in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. This instrument, which plays the opening bars of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, is closely related to the fife and piccolo. For 10 points, name this reedless woodwind instrument, which appears in the title of a Mozart opera featuring the Queen of the Night.
ANSWER: flute

A work written in honor of this composer opens with a series of pianissimo strikes on the tubular bells and was written by Arvo Part. William Plomer wrote the libretto of this man’s Curlew River, which was part of a set of church parables he wrote for the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew in Orford. This man’s included a first movement choral solo entitled “What passing bells” as part of a six movement mass created for the dedication of the Coventry (*) Cathedral. Another of this man’s works was inspired by a theme from Henry Purcell’s incidental music to Abdelazer and was intended to introduce children to classical music. For 10 points, name this British composer of the Wilfred Owen-inspired War Requiem and The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
ANSWER: Benjamin Britten

A series of dances in Act II of this ballet borrows music from its composer’s opera Undina, while Act I ends with the Dance of the Goblets. Julius Reisinger choreographed this ballet, whose most performed version was arranged by Riccardo Drigo. In this ballet, the protagonist encounters his love interest while on a hunting trip with his tutor Wolfgang and his friend (*) Benno von Sommerstern. In this ballet, the evil Rothbart casts a spell on Odette and switches her with his daughter Odile at a ball in order to trick Prince Siegfried into marrying her. For 10 points, name this ballet in which Odette turns into the title bird at night, a work of Tchaikovsky.
ANSWER: Swan Lake (or Lebedinoye ozero)

Nigel Kennedy’s 1989 recording of this work is one of the best-selling classical recordings in history. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this set of four violin concerti originally included in The Contest Between Harmony and Invention that depicts the different divisions of the year.
ANSWER: The Four Seasons (or Le quattro stagioni)
[10] This Italian composer, known as “The Red Priest” for his fiery red hair, composed The Four Seasons.
ANSWER: Antonio Vivaldi
[10] This other Italian composer of several Sonata da chiesa and Concerti grossi greatly influenced the work of Vivaldi and is perhaps best known for his Christmas Concerto.
ANSWER: Arcangelo Corelli

This piece contains a leitmotif associated with Prince Gvidon, who is a character in the opera in which it appears. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this orchestral interlude about the journey of a certain insect. It is included in Act III of its composer’s opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan.
ANSWER: “Flight of the Bumblebee”
[10] “Flight of the Bumblebee” was composed by this man, who included chants from the Obikhod in his Russian Easter Festival Overture.
ANSWER: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
[10] Rimsky-Korsakov taught this other Russian composer, who wrote a Violin Concerto in A minor for Leopold Auer and the music for the ballet Raymonda.
ANSWER: Alexander Glazunov

This composer’s seventh symphony is his last and is notable for having only one movement. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this Finnish composer of the tone poem Tapiola and the symphonic poem Finlandia.
ANSWER: Jean Sibelius
[10] This set of pieces by Sibelius imagines such events as “The Siege of Viipuri Castle” and “Karl Knutsson.” It was commissioned for the students at Helsinki University in Vyborg and named for a region of Finland.
ANSWER: Karelia Suite, Op. 11
[10] Sibelius also wrote some incidental music to this play. The text of this play inspired the first of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Three Shakespeare Songs, which was entitled “Full Fathom Five.”
ANSWER: The Tempest

Thanks!
Yes, the United States tossup was music-related (a bunch of clues on composers from here, etc.)
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

TSIAJ wrote:
Thanks!
Yes, the United States tossup was music-related (a bunch of clues on composers from here, etc.)
I found it and edited it in.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Bloodwych »

I think it would be helpful to specify that the flute, violin, and harpsichord comprise the concertino of the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, because the current wording makes it sound like those are the only three instruments in the piece.
Yeah, that's absolutely right and it should have been specified. There are other instruments in the ripieno and that could have confused people.

As for the Dvorak thing, I think I just wasn't paying attention and wrote the wrong descriptor down. I had listened to it beforehand as well. Oops.

And for the flute tossup, I negged after "Bach wrote a partita" saying "violin," even though I would've powered it after "A minor."
Sure, it could have been specified, but I don't know why you would ever buzz there after 4 words.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by TSIAJ »

Giovanni I Participazio wrote:
I think it would be helpful to specify that the flute, violin, and harpsichord comprise the concertino of the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, because the current wording makes it sound like those are the only three instruments in the piece.
Yeah, that's absolutely right and it should have been specified. There are other instruments in the ripieno and that could have confused people.

As for the Dvorak thing, I think I just wasn't paying attention and wrote the wrong descriptor down. I had listened to it beforehand as well. Oops.

And for the flute tossup, I negged after "Bach wrote a partita" saying "violin," even though I would've powered it after "A minor."
Sure, it could have been specified, but I don't know why you would ever buzz there after 4 words.
Yes, it was a fault on my part, but still, writing the Partita in A Minor as a first clue is pretty odd.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Jason Cheng »

Auroni had more to say about the bonuses than I did, so I'll leave those up to him if he ever decides to comment on the set himself. All of the comments on history/geo and almost all of the current events comments were from Corry.

I will note that there were tons of good tossups in the set which I found remarkably enjoyable to read, but these are the ones I felt negatively impacted the experience of the teams playing at UCSD's mirror.

Packet 1
8. The first clue of this tossup might be uniquely identifying as written; when spoken, however, it is not. To name one example, Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (“New World”) begins with an Adagio into an Allegro (Wikipedia, that study reference of all players, lists the first movement as Adagio--Allegro).

9. Many of these clues also apply for Poland. Poland is better known for winning at Grunwald than Lithuania. Jadwiga of Anjou is the queen of Poland, and her spouse Jogaila is both grand duke of Lithuania and king of Poland. Obviously there are differences between the two countries, but you shouldn’t expect high schoolers to have to differentiate the nuances here. That’s just asking for negs. I’d recommend writing a question on Poland instead-- a question on Lithuania isn’t going to have great conversion rates, either way.

12. Nate Silver is a rather hard answer line for high schoolers, making the conservative power marking unnecessary. Will that many high schoolers really know much about minor points in an internet blogger’s personal biography? Probably not. You should move this power mark to “predicted”.

20. The story of Susano’o killing the Yamata-no-Orochi is much, much easier than some of the other 1st/2nd clues in this set. It is decent as a regular-to-minus level tossup.

Packet 2
3. A tossup on peroxisomes seems like a bad idea for high schoolers.

5. A tossup on Glasgow also seems like a bad idea for high schoolers. Will more high schoolers really buzz on a clue describing the Clyde Auditorium than a clue describing the Kelvingrove Art Gallery? In all likeliness, almost nobody will buzz on either. Consider writing a question on “Scotland” in general, instead.

8. This was powered quite a bit at the UCSD site, and almost everyone said “wavedashing” is far too easy--either you power it or you get it late. I don’t think it’s that bad, but wavedashing is pretty well-known.

12. All of the clues in power for “book burning” are very, very difficult for high schoolers. Some more middle clues would be nice (if they exist-- book burning seems like a difficult subject to write about at easier levels).

14. This tossup (answer line: “An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge”) is about nationals difficulty in terms of unforgiving early clues. I would consider moving “blinding white light” before power and adding a more middling clue after it.

B2. This bonus is nationals level at best, randomly difficult for any high schooler at worst (Gerhart Hauptmann may be in vogue in quiz bowl, but that’s at college reg-minus or higher). Laura is a perfectly fine hard part for regular high school.

Packet 3
1. The power clues for Detroit are very very hard.

16. Just write a tossup on Spain instead. This will greatly improve your conversion rates. Also, all of the power clues are very hard; frankly, high schoolers just don’t know very much about prime ministers of Spain!

18. Phagocytosis tossup might be the most ridiculous tossup in the set. I have a feeling this was originally written for ACF Regionals or something and then somehow wormed its way into the set. Two of your clues were in the top portion of a tossup on the same answer line in Cane Ridge Revival, for heaven’s sake! I don’t think there are very many high schoolers who will buzz before the word “nibbling,” and since most AP Bio curriculums don’t cover phagocytosis beyond “quack quack cells eating cells,” most clues before power ends are just words.

20. Kiss Gate seems harder than an actual description of the Endless Column

Packet 4
3. I really don’t think a lot of high schoolers are going to know about Business Cycles.

8. Very hard power clues. At very least, move the power down to Kevin Rudd. The Sorry Speech/National Sorry Day is not that well-known of a clue; it was even in power for Australia at MUT 2014.

13. Very hard in general. High schoolers don’t know that much about the personal biography of John Glenn. Plus, the difficulty of this question is exacerbated by the fact that there’s basically only one clue in power-- if you don’t know that he was one of the Keating Five, you’re completely out of luck.

20. The first two clues are pretty much unbuzzable for high schoolers, making Wernicke-Korsakoff possibly the first buzzable phrase. There’s also a rather large cliff at the end of the question. It’s probably okay to just say “beriberi.”

Packet 5
I consider “Pitty Sing” harder than Red Sammy

4. Very tough power marking. Why is M battalions the end of power? Would high schoolers really know that? The power mark in this question can probably be pushed down to Luigi Facta (and only because his name sounds so Italian-- otherwise he’s not actually that well known either).

6. Also quite hard to power. Where is a high schooler supposed to buzz on this? Do that many high schoolers really know anything about the Library of Pergamum, or the Alexandrian Serapeum? (Also, isn’t Serapeum just a general name for temples of Serapis?)

13. There should be at least one clue about Don Quixote in power in my opinion

15. Hard. Hammer v. Dagenhart was the end of power for “child labor” at the 2014 HSNCT, which is not a standard that a regular difficulty high school set should follow. This question needs more middle clues!

Packet 6
4. Hard answer line and hard early clues. The first two sentences are basically unbuzzable for high schoolers. Consider writing a tossup on Martin Luther instead.

15. At the high school level, you should really just say outright in 1978 the Mormon church reversed its policies on black priests. There’s no need to be coy about it!

18. Federico Fellini is a very hard answer line for a regular high school set.

19. This could use more middle clues. Either you know about Panama’s Martyrs' Day, or you don’t get a power. That’s a bit unforgiving.

Packet 7
1. Very hard early clues, with a large difficulty drop at “black ships”. This could use some more middle clues. For starters, there’s nothing wrong with explicitly namedropping the Gentlemen’s Agreement; after all, this is just high school quiz bowl.

4. While I loved it and it was executed pretty decently, I wouldn't be surprised to find this "Thanatopsis" tossup at HSNCT or DII ICT.

Packet 8
6. Very hard early clues. The first buzzable clue here is Bessie Head, who is very, very obscure at the high school level.

19. The power marking could easily be more generous. The Grenelle Agreement, which is essentially the last full clue in power, has never shown up in a regular difficulty high school set, ever (according to a search through quizbowlpackets.com + hsapq.com)

Packet 9
3. Hard answer line. I doubt more than half of rooms at any high school tournament could convert this. Even if you don’t rewrite/get rid of this question entirely, you should probably move the power mark to Concordat of Worms.

4. It’s good practice to have the answer line include (or Brad Pitt), to avoid confusion for moderators.

6. There is a huge difficulty cliff between Three Principles of the People, and everything before it. I’d be amazed if any high schoolers could power this.

10. A better clue instead of Schuette v. BAMN (which I think merits at least right-on-power-ends placement for regular HS current events) would be Fisher v. Texas if you’re going to put it right before the FTP. They accomplish the same purpose--a well-publicized and rather key case from the last two years that revisits affirmative action. One’s just been a part of the national dialogue longer and more prominently than the other (also, been in quiz bowl longer, so it would provide a better gradation of difficulty).

Packet 10
1. Here are two Donizetti tossups from 2012-2013 in NAQT sets with conversion stats:
IS-126 wrote: “He composed the {tenor} {aria} "Ah! Mes amis" [ah may-zah-mee] for an opera about a girl named Marie, and included "Il dulce suono" [eel DOOL-chay SWOH-noh] in an opera about {feud}ing Scottish families. In one of his operas, Nemorino describes his love in "Quanto \`e bella" [KWAHN-toh eh BEL-lah] and sings "Una furtiva (*) lagrima" [OO-nah FOOR-tee-vah LAH-gree-mah] after buying a {potion} from Dulcamara [DOOL-kah-MAY-rah]. ~The Daughter of the Regiment~ is by--for 10 points--what composer of the ~bel canto~ operas ~The Elixir of Love~ and ~Lucia di Lammermoor~ [loo-CHEE-uh dee LAM-ur-moor]?
answer:(Domenico) Gaetano (Maria) _Donizetti_ [doh-neet-ZAY-tee]
CONVERSION: 24 rooms, (0/8/4), 33.33%
HSNCT 2013 wrote: This composer wrote the aria "{Il dolce suono}" [eel DOHL-chay soo-OH-noh] for a character who marries Arturo. Another of his characters, Nemorino [nay-moh-REE-noh], sings "{Una furtiva lagrima}" [OO-nah FOOR-tee-vah LAH-gree-mah] when he sees Adina weeping, and believes she has fallen in love with him after he used a (*) {potion} on her. ~The Elixir of Love~ was written by--for 10 points--what Italian composer of an opera about a woman who has a "Mad Scene," ~Lucia di Lammermoor~ [loo-CHEE-ah dee LAH-mur-moor]?
answer: (Domenico) Gaetano (Maria) _Donizetti_ [doh-neet-SAY-tee]
CONVERSION: 80 rooms, (12/32/8), 55.0%

Given that your tossup is actually harder than the HSNCT version, which only had a 55% conversion and a 15% power rate across 80 rooms, it’s safe to say that this Donizetti tossup, and maybe all Donizetti tossups in regular high school sets, are way too hard. Maybe Donizett is like fetch, in that people need to stop trying to make it happen.

5. Super hard early clues on Bolivar. You should move the power mark at least one clue down if you want any actual high schoolers to power this.

7. Consider adding a prompt on “heart tissue” or something similar--confusion over this led to a protest between the 2nd and 3rd place teams at Triton Fall.

10. You could easily make this into just a tossup on Mexico. It would be less confusing to a lot of high school players. This also led to a protest by the same aforementioned teams.

12. I know that the Five Ks are different from the Five Thieves, but “Five ___, k-word and another k-word” will still play about the same way for a lot of high schoolers (compare to “bongo bongo” vs “bunga bunga” for the Italian government tossup at 2014 HSNCT--one was more well-known than the other but still led to more than a few undeserved first-line powers)

15. I highly doubt that many high school players know about the 1526 Treaty of Madrid. Consider moving the power marking as far down as ETA.

B8. “Lucky Jim” is fine as a hard part for regular high school, which leaves “Ian MacEwan” the odd man out.

Packet 11
11. The power mark can probably go later than Three Days Before the Shooting…, the alternate title for Juneteenth is still plenty hard.

20. Duvalier is a very tough answer line. This would be much better for high schoolers if the answer line was just “Haiti”.

B5. “...Sese Seko...” should be listed as within the answer line for “Mobutu” to avoid moderator confusion.

Packet 12
5. Consider dropping the “etudes” requirement from the answer line. It accomplishes the same goal (a tossup requiring knowledge of etudes by Chopin) with less confusing specificity, and this isn’t a college tournament.

13. Very hard early clues. The Swynnerton plan and Operation Anvil (which are out of power in this regular high school tossup!) would easily be the end of power for a regular college difficulty tossup on Kenya/the Mau Mau Uprising. You could easily cut out the first 2 sentences and just add more middle clues.

18. Very hard early clues. You could move the power down as far of Henry of Guise.

Packet 13
6. More hard early clues. The power in this question ends at Abe Ribicoff, which is actually stingier than the Richard Daley tossup in the 2013 ICT Div II (which was only powered in 1 out of 7 rooms, by the way). In a regular high school set, power shouldn’t end until 1968.

17. The power in this question should be moved farther down (probably to Nasser).
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

Thanks for taking the time and effort to post that, Jason. I agree with many of your criticisms of the set and we have worked on fixing the errors and toning down the hard parts. I will say that, in general, I find criticism of the placement of power markings a bit inane and not super helpful. That said, thanks for making the set better; your suggestions were incredibly helpful!
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Corry »

Gonzagapuma1 wrote:Thanks for taking the time and effort to post that, Jason. I agree with many of your criticisms of the set and we have worked on fixing the errors and toning down the hard parts. I will say that, in general, I find criticism of the placement of power markings a bit inane and not super helpful. That said, thanks for making the set better; your suggestions were incredibly helpful!
I apologize for the weirdly large number of the suggestions that seem to solely address power marking. Allow me to elaborate: There were many difficulty-appropriate tossups in this set, but there were also many tossups that seemed far too hard for a regular high school audience. This is not necessarily a big problem, since you can usually just adjust for this by being more generous on power marking the "hard" questions (NAQT does this a lot, for instance). In the case of this set, however, both the "normal" tossups and "hard" tossups seemed to consistently have the power mark placed in the same place (around the middle). I think this caused a lot of consistency issues in question-by-question difficulty. I gave a lot of suggestions for power marking because I felt like it would be the easiest way for you guys to address these consistency problems, without having to rewrite much of the tournament.
Last edited by Corry on Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Corry »

To illustrate what I'm saying:

Here's a tossup in Packet 11 on Napoleon's invasion of Russia, which I felt was very difficulty appropriate. I actually like this question quite a bit: although the first line was really really hard (like most of the first lines in this set), there are quite a few buzzable clues for high schoolers before the end of power (i.e. Bagration, raft on the Neman River, Tilsit, etc.).
Packet 11 wrote: 15. This campaign is represented as a brown line in a pioneering infographic by Charles Joseph Minard. This campaign occurred after the Congress of Erfurt, and Peter Bagration died during one of its battles. It violated a treaty signed in a raft on the Neman river, the Treaty of Tilsit. This campaign ended after its leader rushed home to stop a coup, leaving (*) Joachim Murat in command. Retreating forces burned their own capital during this campaign, which saw the Battle of Borodino and numerous deaths by freezing. For 10 points, name this disastrous invasion conducted by a French emperor against a country led by czar Alexander I.
ANSWER: Napoleon’s invasion of Russia (prompt on partial answers)
Meanwhile, here's a tossup from Packet 13 on Chicago. I actually felt this question was more appropriate for ACF Regionals, or at least ACF Fall, than a regular high school tournament (see my explanation above in Jason's post).
Packet 13 wrote:6. The practice of redlining in this city was the subject of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s article “The Case For Reparations.” One longtime mayor of this city had an unauthorized biography titled Boss written about him by Mike Royko, a columnist based in this city. That mayor said that “the police are here to preserve disorder” during one event hosted in this city in which Abraham (*) Ribicoff was insulted, and Pigasus, a large pig, was nominated for president by the Youth International Party. The host of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, in the 20th century this city was also led by two mayors named Richard Daley. For 10 points, name this city currently led by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
ANSWER: Chicago
Despite the clear difference in difficulty levels, however, both questions have the power end at almost exactly the same point (a little way down the third line). This results in two drastically disparate questions.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Nine-Tenths Ideas »

I didn't write either question, and may have a weird knowledge base, but I really don't see why the second question is so self-evidently harder than the first.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Corry »

40 characters in search of a username wrote:I didn't write either question, and may have a weird knowledge base, but I really don't see why the second question is so self-evidently harder than the first.
Well I guess judging difficulty is a pretty subjective process, but I'll give it a shot, through reverse clue lookup. For this, I'll be using Berkeley DB, which has all of the packets on quizbowlpackets.com and hsapq.com combined. I'll only count packets written after 2003, since I think that's when Andrew Yaphe once mentioned that quiz bowl clue content changed drastically.

Everything before Ribicoff on the Chicago question is really really hard. Ending power at Ribicoff is already hard enough-- as I mentioned in my previous post, that's actually less generous than the 2013 NAQT ICT Div II tossup on Richard Daley, which still barely got powered in the entire tournament.

Ta-Nehisi Coates and "The Case for Reparations" gets 0 results on the Berkeley DB. Mike Royko gets 4 results about Daley specifically: PACE 2013, 2014 Chicago Open, 2014 Chicago Open History, and 2012 QUARK. The "preserve disorder" quote gets another 4 results: 2014 Chicago Open History, 2013 WIT, 2012 QUARK, and 2013 JAMES. Anddddd... that's where power ends. Aside from JAMES, where the "preserve disorder" quote gets used as a throwaway clue at the end of a bonus, all of the clues are from regular-difficulty college or open sets. And none of them are particularly well known.

In contrast, Congress of Erfurt gets 7 results, all of which are high school packets. Bagration gets 20+ results. Treaty of Tilsit gets like... 70+ results or something. So while all of the power clues in the Chicago question have shown up a total of 8 times in all of quiz bowl history, the power clues in the French invasion of Russia tossup have shown up over 100 times.

Admittedly, the whole concept of quantifying difficulty is pretty sketch. But honestly, when it comes to a regular high school tournament, you can only expect people to know so much. While I'm not saying that quiz bowl should only be about stuff that's been asked before, I think it's more reasonable to expect high school players to know about the Treaty of Tilsit than about Mike Royko, at very least.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Cody »

Corry wrote:Well I guess judging difficulty is a pretty subjective process, but I'll give it a shot, through reverse clue lookup. For this, I'll be using Berkeley DB, which has all of the packets on quizbowlpackets.com and hsapq.com combined. I'll only count packets written after 2003, since I think that's when Andrew Yaphe once mentioned that quiz bowl clue content changed drastically.

Everything before Ribicoff on the Chicago question is really really hard. Ending power at Ribicoff is already hard enough-- as I mentioned in my previous post, that's actually less generous than the 2013 NAQT ICT Div II tossup on Richard Daley, which still barely got powered in the entire tournament.

Ta-Nehisi Coates and "The Case for Reparations" gets 0 results on the Berkeley DB. Mike Royko gets 4 results about Daley specifically: PACE 2013, 2014 Chicago Open, 2014 Chicago Open History, and 2012 QUARK. The "preserve disorder" quote gets another 4 results: 2014 Chicago Open History, 2013 WIT, 2012 QUARK, and 2013 JAMES. Anddddd... that's where power ends. Aside from JAMES, where the "preserve disorder" quote gets used as a throwaway clue at the end of a bonus, all of the clues are from regular-difficulty college or open sets. And none of them are particularly well known.
It's not that subjective and this is dumb. Yes, the Chicago question is much harder; the fact that a very widely read piece published in MAY TWENTY-FOURTEEN doesn't show up means literally nothing. Reverse clue lookup is a poor way to judge clue difficulty (especially with any current events clue!) and this approach should be abandoned.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Corry »

Cody wrote:It's not that subjective and this is dumb. Yes, the Chicago question is much harder; the fact that a very widely read piece published in MAY TWENTY-FOURTEEN doesn't show up means literally nothing. Reverse clue lookup is a poor way to judge clue difficulty (especially with any current events clue!) and this approach should be abandoned.
Yeah, I don't generally do reverse clue-lookup for current events clues, but I threw all of this together in 10 minutes so I wasn't really paying attention there. My bad. Anyways, the point stands that the rest of the clues in power for Chicago are way hard.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Can I see the tossups on Mahayana Buddhism, lay investiture, Umberto Eco, Dover Beach, Thanatopsis, Nigeria, and Robert Frost? Sorry for the semi-long list.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Jem Casey »

Crazyflight wrote:Can I see the tossups on Mahayana Buddhism, lay investiture, Umberto Eco, Dover Beach, Thanatopsis, Nigeria, and Robert Frost? Sorry for the semi-long list.
Maryland Spring wrote: One text of this religious sect is addressed to Sariputra and famously states “Form is empty; emptiness is form.” One school of this sect is headed by the Ganden Tripa and is the Gelug-pa. A school of this sect reveres Amitabha and is known as the Pure Land School. Another school of this religious sect was brought to (*) China by Bodhidharma and emphasizes attaining enlightenment using paradoxical riddles called koans. This sect includes the Yellow Hat sect and Zen, and it is often contrasted with the Theravada branch. For 10 points, name this largest sect of Buddhism, whose name means the “Greater Vehicle.”
ANSWER: Mahayana Buddhism (prompt on “Buddhism” or specific answers like “Zen,” “Yellow Hat,” or “Pure Land” before mentioned)
Maryland Spring wrote:This conflict triggered a rebellion led by Otto of Nordheim and Rudolf of Rheinfelden, who was elected anti-king but died at the Battle of Elster. The Great Saxon Revolt was prompted by the resolution of this conflict, which led to the Norman sack of Rome. The Battle of Langensalza inspired the most famous episode in this conflict, which was resumed decades later by (*) Paschal II and Henry I of England. Leading to the appointment of Antipope Clement III and ultimately resolved by the Concordat of Worms, this conflict saw the famous groveling in the snow at Canossa. For 10 points, name this conflict between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII over who would appoint church officials.
ANSWER: Lay Investiture Controversy
Maryland Spring wrote:In one novel by this author, the city of Alessandria is saved from a siege by a trick involving an overfed cow; in that novel, the protagonist and his friends visit the kingdom of Prester John. The narrator of another of this author’s novels watches a ritual involving Count Aglee at a Parisian museum and recounts how he and two other employees of Garamond Publishing created The (*) Plan using the computer Abulafia. This author of Baudolino also wrote a novel in which Venantius is found in a vat of pig’s blood and William of Baskerville solves a series of murders at a monastery. For 10 points, name this author of Foucault’s Pendulum and Name of the Rose.
ANSWER: Umberto Eco
Maryland Spring wrote:A parody of this poem describes a woman who is told “things are bad all over, etc., etc.” and is upset to be treated as a “cosmic last resort.” The narrator of this poem claims that a “land of dreams” actually has “neither joy, nor love, nor light.” The narrator entreats “come to the window… sweet is the night air” and later says “Ah, (*) love, let us be true to one another!” This poem’s second stanza notes that “Sophocles long ago heard it on the Aegean,” and it begins “The sea is calm to-night.” For 10 points, name this poem that describes a “darkling plain… where ignorant armies clash by night,” a work of Matthew Arnold.
ANSWER: “Dover Beach” (accept “Dover Bitch” on the first clue)
Maryland Spring wrote:The opening of this poem describes a figure with “a voice of gladness, and a smile / And eloquence of beauty.” This poem lists “vales stretching in pensive quietness” and the “ocean’s gray and melancholy waste” as “solemn decorations.” A “still voice” from “nature’s teachings” speaks most of this poem which also urges (*) “take the wings / of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness.” Its final stanza contrasts “the quarry-slave at night” with “one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams.” For 10 points, name this poem about death by William Cullen Bryant.
ANSWER: “Thanatopsis”
Maryland Spring wrote:In one novel from this country, the narrator returns from Dead’s Town with his deceased servant, a tapster. One author from this country wrote a play in which Simon Pilkings fails to prevent Elesin from (*) strangling himself with his chains. Another novel from this country features a character who once wrestled a man called “the cat;” that protagonist goes into exile after his gun explodes and kills a child and later hangs himself after decapitating a messenger of the district commissioner. For 10 points, identify this country home to Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.
ANSWER: Nigeria
Maryland Spring wrote:In one poem, this author wrote of a desire that comes to him when he’s “weary of considerations and life is too much like a pathless wood.” That poem by him ends “one could do worse than be a swinger of” the title objects. The speaker of one poem by this author claims “he is all pine and I am all apple orchard” in reference to a man who he sees carrying (*) rocks like “an old-stone savage armed.” That poem also states “here there are no cows” and begins “something there is that doesn’t love” the titular structure. For 10 points, name this poet of “Birches” who criticized the notion that “good fences make good neighbors” in his “Mending Wall.”
ANSWER: Robert Frost
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Re: Question Specific Discussion (Maryland Spring 2014)

Post by ndikkala »

Can I please see the opera tossup? I'd also like to see the prime number bonus.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion (Maryland Spring 2014)

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

ndikkala wrote:Can I please see the opera tossup? I'd also like to see the prime number bonus.
In an episode of Arthur, Muffy doesn’t want to attend one of these events, and Rodney Gilfry helps the kids stage one of them. In an episode of The Simpsons, Bart is forced to attend one of these events after being mistaken for a genius. In one movie, Herman Gottlieb performs at this kind of event, and that film also features the character (*) Otis B. Driftwood. A Marx Brothers movie is about “A Night at” this kind of event, and a Merrie Melodies cartoon about one of these events sees Elmer Fudd sing “Kill Da Wabbit.” For 10 points, name this kind of musical performance, examples of which include Carmen.
ANSWER: an opera (prompt on less specific stuff like “concert”)

2. This mathematician laid down five postulates for the foundation of geometry, and he names an algorithm for finding GCD. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this Greek mathematician who wrote Elements.
ANSWER: Euclid
[10] Euclid was among the first to prove this fact by multiplying a certain set of numbers and adding one, and showing that it must be in that set. Euler’s proof relies on the fundamental theorem of arithmetic.
ANSWER: there are infinity prime numbers (accept any equivalents)
[10] This postulate of number theory states that for any integer n, there is always a prime between n and two n.
ANSWER: Bertrand’s postulate
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